Standard £xammer Opinion Letters & Columns To Fndav Aprf20 2001 7A our Readers MAIL Standard-Examine- Coming up r PO Box12790 ' Ogden UT 84412-279- Please keep letters to 300 words or less end include your name address and daytime phone for verification Letters must tie signed and may be edited and condensed FAX (801) By PAUL CAMPOS Scnpps Howard News Service The news that Michael Jordan may lie on the verge of returning to the NBA brings up a question that is more difficult to answer than one might expect at first glance: Would you like to trade places with Michael Jordan? The advantages of such a position are obvious - great wealth enormous fame and the satisfaction of knowing that you have been the very best in the world at some endeavor The disadvantages are less obvious since they happen to be exactly the same things Jordan it seems possesses everything our culture tells us we ought to acquire in the pursuit of happiness: money fame and a wholly warranted sense of personal accomplishment Who wouldn't want to be in those Nikes? closer look reveals something else Jordan's apparent eagerness to return to the NBA as he approaches the age of 40 hints at the profound boredom and discontent that is likely to haunt a man in his position After all never having to worry' about what vou have to do this morning to get A the bills paid the house cleaned and the children fed eliminates much of the structure that helps give meaning and purpose to peoples' lives (this point applies just as surely to unpaid labor as to the paid kind it's safe to e mothers have say most no difficulty finding meaning and purpose in their work) A great deal of modern economic theory is built on the implicit assumption that we work in ordp r to be able to enjoy as much leisure as we can But unlimited leisure is ultimately a contradiction in terms If all days are holidays then this soon becomes the equivalent of having no holidays at all As for fame unless one is a fairly extreme narcissistic personality fame soon becomes more of a burden than anything else Jordan for example cannot eat in a restaurant or go to a movie or play a round of golf anywhere in this country (and indeed in much of the rest of the world) without running a high risk of being harassed by admirers seeking autographs or merely wanting to be in the great man’s presence And as for having reached the very pinnacle of one’s profession -this in some ways must be the great is a nice little town think I've been to Brigham City many times and this little Top of Utah gem reeks of charm The main street lined with the majestic sycamore trees and the wonderful arched sign over Main Street that reads “Welcome to Brigham City" are just a few of the amenities Brigham City has to offer With all the natural charm of Brigham City I’m curious why the talented Richard Dutcher whose new movie “Brigham City" is now appearing in local theaters selected Mapleton over Brigham City in which to shoot the movie Certainly towns and cities north of Salt Lake City offer just ns much charm as towns and cities south of our capital city it Pat Fox Ogden Freedom requires smoking rooms at airport clean smoke-fre- e air I oppose people puffing tobacco in public buildings just as I power plants oppose coal-firefilling our air with toxic haze So why would I defend smoking rooms at the airport? For the sake of freedom People are free only if allowed to muke either smart or dumb choices then reup what they have sown Freedom to succeed includes the freedom to fail In LDS theology Satan chose to control others having no respect for freedom For this he was banished from heaven Freedom is clearly a more important principle than any particular choice therefore as parents or friends we have to depend on methods of persuasion reason and love rather than force Wise parents will offer children muny choices with consequences as they grow up so they cun learn to handle freedom As kids develop their own ideas a gentle approach becomes our only hope Adult visitors to our international airport may have gone without nicotine during a long flight obeying the rule not to impose on others Provide a place for them to puff where it won’t bother anyone else Although I believe smoking is a foolish choice we should not force travelers to take a long wulk to stund outside so they cun smoke Rather we should respect their freedom Steve Barrowes Salt Lake City I love d I am a junior at Davis High and feel that yes it was good that the teachers did strike -so hopefully the students would benefit But one reason the strike was worthless was that the Legislature was not in session on Dec 5 If the teachers wanted to attempt to make a difference they should have had the strike while the Legislature was in session They needed to stay on strike until the Legislature agreed to work out a deal I I've been to Mapleton and I Opinion pages SATURDAY: Our weekly round-u- p of editorial cartoons from around the nation net Letters-Sstandar- Nikes? custom-mad- e lete and especially of the greatest t Michael Jordan the last three years facing the harsh truth that in comparison to what he was as a basketball player he really isn't much good at anything else has-spen- stay-at-hom- Why Mapleton and not Teachers shouldn’t get strike Brigjiam City? the: 625-450- 8 Would you really want to be in Michael Jordan’s -- in with the teachers maybe they’ll actually do this in the future The strike messes up the school schedule and students shouldn’t be punished for it Educated people need to get together and work out a viable plan to ensure the future of our education system and the safety of its human product Making up for a strike basically deems it useless as Now for we mere mortals being a fairly talented teacher or a solid computer programmer or a pretty good police officer is just fine thank you But for that tiny elite who have been universally acclaimed to be the best at what they do all of life away from their moments of greatness must seem like a severe and unremitting anticlimax est burden of all Consider that there are approximately 350 players in the NBA Try to imagine you are one of the best 350 people in the entire world at something It’s difficult to do Now imagine that you were unanimously considered the best of those 350 at doing that something and in make-u- p never happened By BILL RICHARDSON cajise of the makeup day the teachers will be paid but if someone went on strike in another field they would not be Standard-Examine- r printed a story with the subhead “Mayor says incident had ‘no serious nature to it' police chief calls it a private matter" I am outraged that the Standard-Examiner would print this slander about West Bountiful Mayor Jim Child and Police Chief Quinn Lewi3 Such shoddy journalism should not be tolerated It is reprehensible that this archaic and barbaric thinking would be attributed to men of their positions Colluding with teachers shouldn’t be either The strike was pointless and the students’ spring break shouldn't have been taken away I propose that if a school day is canceled then we should leave it alone and not mess up schedules sulfur-- dioxide Cory Hamblin Layton a batterer may be the norm in bars and among the Klan but such behavior is unimaginable in mainstream American society Or is it? In the event that Chief Lewis and Mayor Child actually did betray the victim the community and their office by red-nec- k y minimizing these criminal acts certainly the good people of West Bountiful will demand their immediate resignation Brett Wilcox Sitka Alaska Official language will prevent divisiveness I just read the April 12 headline "ACLU appeals English-only ruling" and I continue to be bewildered I'm one of the vast majority of Utahns who voted for English as our officiul language One goal of my vote was to prevent my money (taxes) from being spent on endless lawsuits di1 cherish and celebrate versity However without an official language we could become a very divisive society with everyone wanting "their" language included in our government publications and initiating a lawsuit when it wasn't My small dictionary lists over 400 different languages The area now known as the United States has always been populated by diverse cultures We immediately think of Ute Shoshone Nez Perce Kiowa Sioux German Mexican French Spanish Italian Japanese Swahili and on and on don’t think Part of our being the United States is our common language and common laws The founding philosophy of a "melting pot” was not perfect but it worked Now it’s time to embrace English as our official language and continue to celebrate and profit from cultural diversity I encourage More oil and gas drilling and exploration in this country but they should be done with tax credits for small producers and measures to encourage production in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico The Bush administration also should get a natural gas pipeline built one that follows the most economical route from Alaska's North Slope to the lower 48 states are needed every- one to learn and use more than one language I encourage our educational systems to develop ' effective learning programs or trilingual systems Let’s take the tax money going into lawsuits and put it into education Let’s stop using the divisive termi“English-only- " nology and concentrate on the true meaning of one official language Let diversity be a uniting term not a divisive even bi- - term t Keith Evans Ogden By Garry Doonesbury America’s fuel and power companies are making record profits The price of oil has dropped from $37 to $26 per barrel Natural gas drilling in the United States has doubled in the past eight one-quart- Was West Bountiful report slander or fact? On April 11 the I There are serious problems and challenges to address in the energy field but exaggerating the situation for political gain - as the Bush administration is doing - only hurts consumers and the economy While the United States consumes of the world’s energy we still pay among the lowest prices for it In recent years this country has experienced a 32 percent increase in real economic growth significantly reduced its major air pollutants and handled a 14 percent increase in energy demand America’s fuel and power companies are making record profits The price of oil has dropped from $37 to $26 per barrel Natural gas drilling in the United States has doubled in the past eight years and while the price is high the trend is downward Meanwhile emissions have declined by more than 15 percent No question America faces unprecedented challenges to meet its future energy needs While there’s no easy solution a bipartisan approach to energy policy is needed Democrats should understand that more domestic production of energy is vital as a supplement to their approach of promoting energy efficiency and conservation Republicans ought to retreat from their indiscriminate support of oil coal and nuclear-energproduction and embrace some of the conservation incentives the Clinton administration put in place Bush administration energy solutions have focused only on the production side of the equation Opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration would do little to increase the nation's capacity for electricity'generation because oil isn’t a major fuel for power plants The Coastal Ham would contribute only a small percentage of the oil we’re projected to consume during the next 50 years If oil companies started exploration in ANWR today it would take at least 10 years for the first oil to arrive at refineries and drilling in ANWR would disrupt its fragile ecosystems the teachers (aren't they insured against strikes?) Be- - the Is there truly an energy' crisis? so If teachers are worried and But the Bush administration seems determined to erase many Clinton administration initiatives aimed at improving energy efficiency and environmental protections Most disturbing are reports that the Bush team may inbow to pressure from the dustry to pull back the energy efficiency standard which calls for residential central air conditioners to run on 30 percent less electricity by 2006 Appliunce standards including those for washing machines and refrigerators issued since 1997 will save enough energy by 2010 to light every home in the country for two years and produce a net energy savings to the nation of $27 billion through the year 2030 Unfortunately this administration’s approach to necessary and vital conservation includes a 30 percent reduction in the Energy Department’s budget for energy efficiency and renewable energy at a time when we should be making additional public investment in research and development For example increasing the average efficiency of our vehicles by just three miles per gallon would save a million barrels of imported oil a day Tax incentives and funding for alternative sources of energy such as solar and wind also should be expanded On the environmental front rescinding a campaign pledge to regulate carbon-dioxidemissions despite the fact that the United States with 4 percent of the world's population contributes 25 percent of its greenhouse gases is not only bad energy and environmental policy but bad foreign policy Republicans mocked the Clinton administration's “tin cup diplomacy” toward OI’EC and c indidate Bush said he would press that body to open the spigots Now OPEC has decreased production rather than adding to it as it did four times last year A more relevant dialogue with OPEC is needed As a first step the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should establish a limited price cap as called for by several Republican and Democratic governors to calm chaotic markets and allow new generating capacity to be added to make the marketplace more competitive Additionally the administration should match last year's mandate to cut electricity use in California's 25000 federal buildings by 10 percent Comprehensive electricity legislation like the bill President Clinton sent twice to Congress is needed to help spur the addition of new generation and transmission facilities The Clinton administration's energy policy wasn't perfect We didn't fully appreciate the effect a strong economy would have on the nation's energy infrastructure But we acted selectively and decisively to meet our energy needs The debate on Capitol Hill isolates and separates supply and demand policies I hope the Bush administration will be able to persuade the Republican Congress to pass common-sens- e energy legislation With a bit of give and take from both sides of the aisle a comprehensive and responsive energy policy can be developed Bill Richardson a former New Mexico representative and UN ambassador was energy secretary from 1998 to 2001 e By Bruce Tinsley Trudeau Mallard Fillmore SO UNTIL MJS'VB KAU-- smjpep Pouirm?pnjNK- - IHe OtircPMiA mwTEXi tawr a montart ’ APPROACH (f Col- (( Speotal to The Washington Post about missing one day’s pay it is their fault for striking The unions are supposed to be supporting the strike and paying paid Paul Campos is a professor at orado State University Bush must apply energy to ‘crisis’ day It seems that making up for the strike is the same thing as having" a strike on a Saturday or not having the strike though it deed were widely considered the best who ever lived Except there's a catch: You aren't the best anymore and you never will be again Maybe you're still among that elite 350 (although given whom you once were this hardly seems elite to you) but even that status will soon be gone Such is the fate of every great ath There's a story about Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe that goes like this: Soon after DiMaggio retired front baseball the world's most glamorous couple traveled to Japan on their honeymoon While there General Macarthur asked Marilyn if she would go to Korea to entertain the troops When she returned she said "Joe you’ve never heard such cheering" To which DiMaggio replied “Yes I have" UNlVERSitV Come y ioWIVnXx)V6 PWR - w 5TEM ? 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