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Show 4 The Magna TimnAMt Valley Nws, July 25, 2002 Editorial Where no one locks the door By POUO PATTON Guest Columnist Imagine you are a child of 10 growing up in a small town. You have always felt safe there. The crimes of big cities seem distant from your serene world, where no one ever locks the door. Then one night, your next-doneighbors are murdered in their home, which is burned to the ground. Drawings of the suspects are printed in the newspaper. They look like dark, scowling men who haven't bathed in a long time. No one in your town looks like that. So why are the police planning to search everyone's car as they enter or leave the city limits? The sheriff says that the leader of the gang that murdered your neighbors lives in a town made up of people very different from the people who live in your town. "That's why they hate us," says one of your friends. "I heard that everybody in their town hates us." Your parents gather the family together for a reassuring pep talk. "The men who did this will be brought to justice," your father says. "And until they are caught, I will protect you." Your parents announce that the front and back doors of your home will not only remain unlocked; they will be left standing wide open. You are astonished. Murderers who hate your family are out there, looking different. Why don't we just bolt the doors? Why doesn't the sheriff just stop people who look like them? Your mother says that would be 'profiling.' You don't understand, but the way she says the word, it must be worse than what the murderers or Outside looking A letter to a You stole my son's bicycle. It's a common tale that many parents understand who have had to comfort the tears of a child. In many areas these parents are now standing up for themselves. Were watching and waiting for you to return and when you do, you'll have to pick on someone your own size. You know who you are. In broad daylight, you came boldly into our yard, when no one was looking and took something that did not belong to you. Your mother should slap your hand, like she did when she caught you sneaking a cookie from the cookie jar. But you didn't get caught this time. My son had just turned The bike was his birthday present the year . ' before. And he was so proud. It was silver with pegs on the back wheels, training wheels and a hand brake. He was finally one of the "big boys" to have a two wheeler. But now it's yours because you took it. And he is broken hearted. months ago he begged to have the training wheels taken off declaring he was big enough to ride without them. And he could. He was ail over the neighborhood on that bike, going faster than he ever could before and gaining more independence than he had before. And you took that away from him because you have the bike and A few he doesn't. um in... perpetrator Then, to increase the illusion d of his speed, he and his friends threaded their baseball cards in the spokes of their bikes. They were now "so cool" to ride down the sidewalk with a "clickety click" that told everyone that they were coming. Now the sounds are silenced. new-foun- You stole my son's bike. You took the summer fun out of a little life because you couldn't resist the shiny silver bike that sat perched on the front lawn when he ran into the house to tell his mom about the new bug he had just seen. I hope you needed that bike more than my son did. I hope you used the money you sold it for to take care of a sick child whose medical needs would go untreated without the money. But my hunch is that you stole from someone younger than you; picked on someone smaller than you, because you had a drug problem, or another substance abuse problem and taking candy from a baby was a chicken way out to get the candy you can't afford but desperately want. And in another day you will steal again, and break another little boy's heart and kill yourself a little more in the process. I hope it's worth it. But then, you don't have to face the little sad brown eyes moist with tears who only wants his shiny silver bike back so that he can once again enjoy the carefree summer months of his youth. If you did, you wouldn't have taken my son's bike away from him. " - mini wijiiiiitiii jl.jij, . n. 1.1 i. By MARIAN WRIGHTEDELMAM uiw Letters Welcome Readers are encouraged to share opinions by sending letters to the Editor, Magna TimesWest Valley News, 8980 W. 2700 S. Magna, Ut. 84044, letters can also be sent via fax to 5 or at magwestxmission.com 250-568- men in your living strange-lookin- g room lights the match. The men are arrested, taken to the county jail and never heard from again. When you ask about them, you are told that it is a secret you have no right to know. The next evening, your father gathers the family together again. '1 have made a decision," he says, looking straight at you. "We are going to have to institute a new policy. From now on, I want each member of this family to watch the others and give me a full report each night on what you have observed that day." "You mean like spy on each other?" 'It's not spying," your mother snaps, "just tips on suspicious activity... tips your father needs to keep us all safe from the murderers. Show a little more gratitude, young man!" 'If we're going to be safe in our home," your father says, "we all have to make sacrifices." "Besides," they announce in unison, "if you're not guilty of anything, you have nothing to worry about!" You stare at them and realize that they are serious. Are they losing their minds? Are you? And suddenly you know that life in your town will never be the same again. Author's Note: Although inspired by policies about to be implemented by the United States Government in pursuit of "The War on Terrorism" (see the www.citizencorps.govtips.html), is fictitious and preceding story any similarity to actual people or events is entirely coincidental. . Copyright 2002 by Doug Patton Death by Poverty Guest Columnist Seventeen years ago, Maurice Anthony and died in Dade County, Florida. Their mother worked to support her family but her income was too low to pay for childcare. Since she' qualified forgovemment help she was put on Florida's long waiting list for Childcare assistance, a list with 22,000 names. While waiting, she relied on friends and relatives to care for the children. Some days those arrangements fell through and the boys were left alone when she went to work. On one such day, Maurice and Anthony climbed into the clothes dryer to look at a magazine in a seemingly cozy place, closed the door, and tumbled and burned to death. The Miami Herald wrote: 'There are hundreds, maybe thousands more tragedies waiting to happen in Dade County alone, in every home where young children are left to fend (or themselves. They're not latchkey kids, they're lockup kids, lockel inside for the day by parents who can't afford day care, can't affor not to work and can't get government assistance. Anthony and Maurice might be alive today if affordable care had been available." Today there are over 46,000 children on Florida's waiting list; over 36,000 in Texas; over 10,000 in Mississippi; 18,000 in Massachusetts; and over 200,000 in California. nil Personally, I'd rebuild the Tvin Towers. Same place, same height, same blueprint. That way we win. We decide what our skyline looks like, not somebody else. But that's not apt to happen. In fact, its not even being considered. Six "design alternatives" have been announced and none of them features anything like the the way it used to be. So Manhattan will forever be a little shorter, a little less grand, like a smile with a couple of teeth missing. So what should go there? Well, the guidelines call for a certain number of square feet of office space and a certain nlimber of square feet of retail space and some hotel rooms and restaurants and a memorial. Some kind of memorial. That's what there has to be. , And alieady the fighting has did. Miraculously, nothing happens for five nights. On the sixth night, you hear a noise downstairs. You wake your parents and follow your father down to the kitchen, where you discover a dark, suspicious-lookin- g man rummaging through trash. You can smell him from your across the room. Your father opens the refrigerator and tells the man to take what he wants and turn the lights out when he is finished. Amazed, you ask why he doesn't throw this man out and lock the doors. He tells you that locked doors are not the way in your town; to do so tyould be to admit . that the murderers have won. "Besides," he says, "do you want him to hate us?" Angry, confused, you go back to bed and listen to the sounds of the filthy man in your familys kitchen. Over the next fourteen nights, six men wander into the house and take what they want. One night, you open your eyes to find one of them standing over your bed. In answer to your screams, your father puts his arm around the man and escorts him downstairs to the refrigerator. The next morning your family discovers their home theater system is missing. Your mother sighs and shakes her head, while your father simply shrugs. On the second night of the third week, just before sleep comes, you smell something that sends chills over every inch of your body. Gasoline! This time, you don't wake your father. You reach for the phone and call the sheriff, who arrives just before one of the three dark. Anthony and Maurice died from poverty and the refusal of our nation to protect and invest in a ' safe, affordable, quality childcare system for working parents. Should parents have to choose between making a living and the lives and safety of their children? The Bush administration claims there is no need for childcare and that the federal government is already spending enough money. Their budget proposes to freeze childcare funding for the next five years. Last year, the New York Times chronicled the story of Ms. Arlene old grandmother Cruz, a trying to care for her four grandchildren whom she had rescued from foster care, saying, "she struggled to deliver them clean, fed, and in uniforms to their Manhattan public schools, starting each day from a different homeless shelter." Ms. e Cruz, who had worked at a supermarket job, had been unable to get a voucher for childcare because she was not on welfare. She tried to make ends meet by adding a shift as a hospital aide. When her health failed, the family began to fall deeper and deeper into a bottomless pit without a home. Should this grandmother, like 2.4 million grandparents today in our nation struggling to raise grandchildren, not have the support she needs to keep her family together-especia- lly when foster care and shelters cost so much more than decent childcare and housing assis 55-ye- ar low-wag- tance? The Bush administration says it is important for families to work, a value I share. But if you work you ought to be able to lift yourself and your children out of poverty and not have to worry about their safety when you are working."' . The Bush welfare proposals 'j require more hours of work from parents, but its 2003 budget provides not one dime more for childcare. In fact, over the next five years, 1 14,000 fewer children in working families will get federal childcare assistance if the Bush budget proposals aren't rejected. Only one in seven eligible children is currently served through the Childcare and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). Children cannot eat promises, be sheltered from the cold by photoops, escape poverty through elo-- . quent speeches about compassion, or get the childcare assistance they need right now to be safe and ready for school when parents work for crumbs from America's table of plenty. It's time to hold President Bush and our leaders in Congress accountable for what they do, not just for what they say. If the President persists in wrapping himself in The Children's Defense Fund's mission to Leave No Child Behind, then he has to honor it.' low-inco- Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children's Defense Fund. WTC site begun. Part of it has to do with the "footprints." Those arc the actual locations of the Twin Towers. The spots on the ground where these behemoths stood. Some say new buildings should be erected directly upon them. But the victims' families disagree. So does Rudy Giuliani. They say that it would be a desecration to do so, that the exact locations of the towers should be preserved and memorialized. Their feelings are very strong. But I am not sure they are right. In fact, I think the symbolism of building upon the foundations of the Twin Towers may replace some of the symbolism lost by failing to the towers themselves. It would be a literal representation of the metaphorical assertion that we stand upon the shoulders of those who were killed. They died in an assault ct Bob Lonsberry against the freedom we are still privileged to enjoy. They are patriots and heroes by virtue of what being Americans cost them. And standing where they stood, carrying on where they carried on, sends a message of sorts - to the world and to us. A message that we are going on. Reverently and painfully, but assuredly and confidently. The Republic prevails, the spirit of America prevails. Because that's what we've done already in Manhattan. We've built upon the sacrifice of others. Battles of the Revolutionary War were fought in New York City, patriot blood was shed and fallen heroes lay where today giant buildings stand and crowded tenements reign. Forgotten graveyards are paved over foundations of today's greatness. The New York City of today is built upon the New York City of yesterday. The bustle and vigor of now are breathing monuments to the greatness of then. Building in the footprint of the TWin Towers continues that tradition. As much as possible, the lingering visual impact on New York City of the September attacks must be minimized. Memorials are different from scars, and we must make sure that what we do is a memorial to those who died, not a scar on the city they loved. If we can't have the Twin Towers back, let the space be used for something dynamic and large and American. Something as distinctive and strong as the buildings which were lost. Memorials must be respectful but bold, the effigy of a people triumphant, not cowed. Something that makes us look up, not down. And the large empty space where two buildings stood will not accomplish that. It will be a testament to loss, not respect. It will send the wrong message. We should build on the site of the World Trade Center. We should build something those who died that day would be proud of. We should build something worthy of the city and nation they died for. - by Bob Lonsberry 2002 Bob Lonsberry is the morning tali show host of 570 AM KNRS Radio from 5:30 -- 10 a.m. He writes a daily column that can be found at www.lonsberry.com POOR |