| Show " fiirrnpini'njnitjg rjir £t nMr4 rriifTHMjgILiM j n OPINION r Standard-Examine- Oii’i Sunday August 13 1995 19A Remembering the end of World War II still important today “Hilarious shouting dancing hen blasting and general uproarious fun by elated city onJ county residents who gathered on K ’ashmgton marked the victorious end of the hot with BEHIND THE HEADLINES Japan “Fire crackers were popping rockets were slut off and every one seemed to be grabbing for everyone ebe and go- ing into an impromptu dance step Hundreds of cars formed a line around the block crowded with celebrants and added to the noise and confusion by blasting horns and toning garbage pails gas tanks and other devious or- acles — “Service men had their heyday Enthusiastic and girls grabbed die one nearest to them and planted congratulatory kisses on their Ups cheeks and foreheads Serv ice men soon caught the spirit of the affair and began returning the favors ktmr “For more dun two hours the victorious peoples celebrated and then mother nature stepped in and sent them to their homes Wet with rainfall but with undampened spirits they retired to await a new day So wrote an anonymous reporter in the Aug 15 of The Ogden Standard-Examin‘ Fifty years later it’s hard for a Baby Boomer like me to imagine the elation which swept through Northern Utah when the news was received that World War II was finally over But on Wednesday 1 invite you to join me for a unique opportunity to step back in time “Peace At Last" an eight-pag- e special section commemorating the end of World War II will give some of you an opportunity to refresh your recollections 1945 issue er time in the world’s history that a lot of people don’t know anything about" Wakley said “Maybe if they learn how horrible a world war was we ’ll never have another" The second reason we should write about it is to commemorate the sacrifice of the veterans who served in World War II “I think those 19-- 20- - and Ron Thornburg Managing Editor who fought in World War II saved our about the greatest military triumph in U S history Many others will learn for the first tune how your parents or grandparents might have felt the day the Japanese surrendered Reporter Ralph Wakley interviewed many remarkable Northern Utahns who fought in the Pacific or who served their country on the home front for the “Peace At Last" section Reporters Pat Bean Monte Whaley Charles Trentleman and Becky Oleson also contributed stories Wakley who has done stories on the Battle of the Bulge Midway the Women’s Air Service Pilots Corps and the 8th Air Force said his interest in WW II anniversaries began in 1990 when he was assigned to cover a reunion of a Pearl Harbor survivors group Wakley said he “ran into a huge group of veterans most of them from Northern Utah" He met many of the people he would later write about as a result of contacts he made that morning There are two important reasons why it was importo write about events tant for the Standard-Examinthat happened a half century ago according to Waker ley lint reason The is educational "It was a terrible butts" Wakley said “This would be a temble world if Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were running things" In addition to Waldey’s articles “Peace At Last" includes a reprint of the Aug Standard-Examiner- ’s 15 1945 from page The page which heralds a "New Era of Peace" is an extraordinary piece of journalism The first thing that you’ll notice of course is what we call story count The 1945 front page contains 13 stories and a column Today’s front page usually contains five or six stories The next thing you’ll probably notice are the headlines In 1945 it was politically correct to write a headline that said “Mac Orders Japs To Send Envoy For Allied Terms" Other words have acquired new meanings 50 years later too The cutline under a photograph of a soldier hugging a young Ogden woman as his Navy and Army buddies await their turn describes the men as “typical of the hilariously gay crowds which gathered in the downtown section of Ogden" But a closer reading derful summary - not show’s the front page is a but of the nation’s hopes for the future Thus you will read of the immediate end of the rationing of gasoline canned fruits and vegetables fuel oil and oil stoves but learn that meats fats and oils butter sugar shoes and tires will stay on the list “until military cutbacks and increased production brings civilian supplies more nearly in balance with civilian demand" Another story which calls radar “the magic eye that knows no light" says postwar travel by sea or air will become “virtually fool proof despite darkness or weather" And perhaps most importantly a news story announces that Washington has cut its draft requirements sharply and begun plans to demobilize up to 55 million men in the next 12 to 18 months didn’t allow The editors of the Standard-Examinthemselves to be completely caught up in the euphoria of war’s end either They noted that Utah had suffered “8163 casualties - 1593 of them dead --in the three and one-ha- lf years since Pearl Harbor” Does our coverage of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II have a message for us today? Reporter Wakley thinks it does: “We are now friends with Germany and Japan our hated World War II enemies It gives hope for mankind that we can mend our fences - that we can have peace Maybe people like the Christians and Muslims who are fighting in Yugoslavia can see hope for peace in our example" Ron Thornburg is managing editor You can call him at 625-42PO Box 951 Ogden UT 84402 won- only of the news of the day er - of the Standard-Examin- er or write to him at LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Accomplishments of Mr Moors died Do Christians only pray for Christians? Good things do happen in South Ogden! Some of her citizens hereby I’m so proud to be a Christian We Christians have fought for the right to pray in schools and at public functions through the most difficult circumstances The fact that a young Jewish girl is made to feel uncomfortable unwanted unloved and unappreciated isn’t important we will fight the Supreme Court for the right of our children to pray in school If we are really good Christians we could go to Bosnia where the Christian world as represented by the UN would disarm the Muslim Bosnians so our Christian brethren can target the Muslim women and children in downtown Sarajevo Why do the esteemed Christians note with gratitude the years of faithful service by our Public Works Director Glen Moore Upon his retirement we cite some of the accomplishments of Mr Moore and his able staff which he built up over the years: 1) Efficient and conservative use d resources entrusted of the to his use 2) Dedicated attentiveness in keeping the utilities and roads open and operating through adverse conditions of all kinds (weather unusual technical problems shortages of materials equipment and funds) We were allowed us to sleep while the elements raged 3) We note the unusual ingenuity in devising solutions to unique problems often the practical resolution being in the form of an design and fabrication of a special tool or fixture his career The public has benefited g from these and timely actions 4) We admire many of his personal attributes that have made him pleasant to work with: a patient uncost-savin- 26-pl- stress his quiet unpretentious unasmansuming and straight-forwar- d ner 5) The new neatly installed street signs are a nice finishing touch to his career tax-pai- Common sense and practical even under flappable attitude 6) We also note Glen that you have used unusual and unselfish foresight even anticipating the day that you’d leave to another steward a job you obviously loved Best wishes to you and Jane for a happy and healthy retirement May you be blessed in your basket and your store and your creels Thanks from all the citizens of South Ogden Everett and Mary Ellen Carter And 62 other signatures cn file well-tutor- v ' judgment has been a ‘hallmark’ of South Ogden Fun to reminisce about ‘good oF days How many of you remember the A lot of us grew up on a combination row crop-dair- y farm Cows to milk each evening at ’20s and ’30s? 5:30 pm sugar beets potatoes com and whatever to cultivate hoe and irrigate Alfalfa hay to mow rake and haul to the barn Pigs to “slop" with “sevilT morning noon and night Not much time left to “goof off” and play around The farm always had a vegetable garden with lots of “veggies” and lots of fruit trees and bushes so our mother could keep busy "putting up” fruit And we raised butchered and stored our own beef and pork There were trips to the “chopping block” when chicken was on the menu We had very little need for a grocery store Yes we went to school in the little old brick school house and the teacher not the kids - was in charge - Parent’s supported the teacher in whatever needed to be done to' teach us cur 3R’s - reading ’riting and ’rithmetic In 1929 the great depression came along Living on a farm raising our own food we had plenty to eat When it came to clothing cars movies etc we had to watch our pennies We didn’t have many of them Upon graduation from high school some of us had college in mind We really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for tuition fees In 1941 along came World War II and Uncle Sam said “I want you” Serving in the “service” was really an experience we wouldn’t care to repeat Yes it’s fun to reminisce but I don’t think many of us would care to go through the “good ol’ days” again Wilmer 'Butt Perry Ogden Atomic bomb was 100 percent justified Referring to the article “Atomic bomb memories not shattered” I quote: “The Japanese government has spent much of the year arguing whether Japan was the aggressor in World War II or fought in If you have any doubt take a boat ride around Pearl Harbor In my opinion the attack on Pearl Harbor was the most cowardly dastardly act in the history of mankind Mayor Hiracka of Hiroshima apologized to the Asian countries that Japan overran during the war The mayor contends that the United States use of the atomic bomb was unjustified and that 70 percent of the Japanese surveyed believe the U S should apologize I was a rifleman with the 43rd Infantry Division fighting on the island of Luzon In July 1945 we were brought to a rear area to train for the invasion of Honshu namely Tokyo Three divisions were to attack there It was calculated by the military that there might be enough men alive to make one division The dropping of the atomic bomb was 100 percent justified I feel I am alive today because of the bomb If one American life was saved because of the bomb it was well worth it ' MJ) Perry DeweyviUe of Utah Catholic Presbyterian Methodist Mormon Lutheran and all the rest of us who proclaim our Christianity so staunchly for the right to pray seem to look the other way while our Christian brothers practice their ethnic cleansing in Bosnia? I've seen no letters disclaiming the actions of Christians in the former Yugoslavia Are we really that in shallow? While our own teachings say that we can pray to our God in a closet and he will be there can we really neglect the love thy neighbor part of the Bible? Are we so callous that the words rape murder ethnic cleansing carry no meaning if the ones responsible claim to be Christian? Did we really leam nothing from Hitler? Was the Holocaust really okay since most of the victims were not Christian? Sen Hatch will you really fight harder for a fetus in the womb than for a living Muslim in Bosnia? Does the Christian really believe that it is more important to force their views into a woman's body than it is to try to save an entire ethnic group of people simply because they are not Christian? Where is the indignation wfcere is the outrage where is the Christianity that we so loudly espouse for the right to pray - or do we only pray for Christians? anti-aborti- Lew Smith Ogden California depot will miss DDO soma day ' I read where Defense Depot Ogden will now be closed before the ead of 1998 I recently retired from DDO after nearly a third of a century of service I am proud of DDO and always have been I came to work at the depot just as Vietnam was warming up Through wars skirmishes natural disasters and various emergencies I saw the work force come together and provide necessary material effectively and quickly DDO’s superior management ability developed processes from the pen and ink stage in the early 1960’s to the amazing sophisticated computer-driven procedures of today DDO because of our greater ability to manage was given assignrt ments to develop ever greater material handling processes and we were always successful DDO earned consistent awards and accolades and is today the only DLA depot to have ever been awarded the prestigious Commander-In-Chiefs Award from the president of the United States state-of-the-a- Those people in California could only stand by wringing their hands in envy and jealousy at our accomplishments They have never been able to match our accomplishments and I do not believe they ever will Our unit cost has been consistently lower than California’s on-ti- effectiveness has been consistently higher than California’s and our geographical location is better for logistics than is California’s But that is water under the bridge now Their superior representation in Congress has given them the driver’s seat but they will see the day when they wish they had DDO to help them accomplish the missions that come their way Working at DDO was rewarding because it gave me a feeling of ful- VULGAR tw EEkLW gmvwLLNor 7 Return of lost fishing poie made for great trip My daughter Lisha who lives in California informed me she needed a “Utah fix" So we made a four-da- y horse trip into the high Uintas last week- The area had its usual effect on us making us realize how insignificant all the wars and troubles of the world are and a million years from now those beautiful mountains and lakes will still be there just as magnificent and peaceful as they are today It has been 10 years since my last trip into the Uintas and one item that made me particularly proud was the way people are starting to take care of the back country There wasn’t a gum wrapper pop can or trash of any kind anywhere to be seen People who travel the back country are finally taking pride in our beautiful earth While riding close to Dollar Lake the bottom end of my fishing case came out and my Browning pole was lost While doubling back to find it we asked a man and his son if they had seen it on the trail They hadn’t and we rode with them awhile to! the next group of lakes They were in for the day and were riding out 1 that evening Two days later when we arrived' at the truck there was a note on wrapped around my Browning pole It read “My name is Dustin Bradbury I found this pole I hope it’s yours” Thank you Dustin wherever you live You made a good trip a' great trip' and renewed my faith in my fellow man Do trucktraliers even belong in Sunset? note that those trailers that are Connie L Ott South Ogden parked on the highway may contain “mixed loads” Kaye Browning Sunset1 Demis D Wakefield South Ogden My son is a certified machinist He has worked hard to develop his skills and he has taken classes at WSU to improve those skills Next time someone walks in and they have a gold resume and you are impressed hire that person They will probably be the best son for the job per- A little past history might be helpful to both Mr Bahl and Mr Kinslow of Syracuse Several years ago a member of the trucking profession and his partner chose to violate the terms of "permitted loads” and parked two tractortrailer units immediately next to the Texaco Service Station on 1300 South and 250 West in Sunset with the stated intention of leaving them overnight The driver lived in Clinton and is personally known to me so I asked him why he was leaving the trucks overnight I was told it was none of my business but when I pressed the issue the truckstrailers were moved f or 7 Does assisted suicide cure the victim’s pain or our own? WASHINGTON - Oregon’s electorate last year leaped into ethical terrain previously reserved for prelates and priests It agreed to let doctors prescribe lethal quantities of drugs for people who bad a death wish and a medical prognosis of less than six months to live The law which US District Judge Michael Hogan overturned this month exposes the limits of empathy It appeals to the common yearning to ease suffering with scraped knees whether the victims are mothers with wasting cancers But it alor so promotes an unusual cure Normally we treat pain by healing not killing Which raises the question: Whose pain do we cure with assisted suicide - the victim’s or our own? Heibert Hendin nailed the central issue when he wrote in this May’s Hastings Center Report "The appeal of assisted suicide and euthanasia is a symptom of our failure to develop a better response to death and the fear of intolerable pain or artificial prolongation of life" As medical science has advanced Americans have become more squeamish about facing mortality Once upon a time people died at home and families knew how to accept death But today many folks shuffle off I 6 4 1 Rory Youngberg Ogdem Where did you get your start? Were you turned down because you did not have enough experience? But even bettef than that before we were subjected to the pseudo managers from California it was fun ence if there is not someone out there who will take a chance? How can someone gain experience if you don’t hire them? Where are we suppose to get that experi effoctto curb The cargo was placarded as a corrosive The shipper was the plant in Henderson Nev that was destroyed by an explosion of this same corrosive When combined with any type of petroleum such as gasoline these two truckloads of “corrosive” were powerful enough to remove the southern end of Sunset from the map From this incident began the activity that caused the trailers to be banned from Sunset I suggest to the readers of this fillment This is an open letter to the business men in the community and has been told that they were impressed with his resume but he did not have enough experience CONTAIN This kind of load is legal but it may contain all kinds of things and under certain conditions can be cat-- ? as trophic Do even the trailers belong in Sunset or any bedroom community? Several months ago I inspected' a home in Sunset to determine if would be able to continue insurance on the home I observed more oil on the driveway than seemed reasonable and then as I walked to ward the back yard I saw two operv top 50 gallon drums filled to the top with waste oil Some was on the ground and there were children's toys arounc and in the oiL I mentioned the situation to the homeowner who advised me that her son who drove a semi-tractchanged the oil for his tractor in the driveway and was storing the oil ta dispose of it later t She didn’t know when later was' but the oil had been accumulating for about two years I suggest this is a health and lia bility hazard and may be a fire hazard I’ll bet the neighbors and Sunset City would approve if this driver moved and took his truck and oil changing to another location Would he be welcome in Syracuse? Work experience must begin somewhere He has applied for many jobs An television shpws Under this view Americans should stop treating life as an inalienable right and view it instead as a commodity that people could discard as casually as a battered sofa Such thinking makes survival contingent upon broader social goals - convenience aesthetics the need to free up a hospital bed As a result the quest for dignity leads ineluctably to eugenics The Hemlock Society which pioneered the right-to-dmovement in the United States recently debated the idea of promoting suicide as a “choice” not just for the dying but for everybody (What next? A fund raiser on the Golden Gate Bridge?) Meanwhile physicians in the Netherlands have mapped out the bade alleys of euthanasia The project got under way in the “70s when doctors began answering patients calls for deliverance In time healers also considered requests from family members who could no longer endure their loved ones pain Columnist Michael Fumcnto reports that by 1990 doctors caused one in every 11 deaths in the Netherlands Authorities classified half the procedures as "active involuntary euthanasia” In other words patients like characters in a Monty Python movie were sent packing whether they wanted to go or not Not surprisresiingly nearly 50 percent of all Dutch nursing-hom- e dents fear being snuffed out without prior consent i A Dutch television crew discovered this dark side of compassion when it decided to look at a “typical" case of assisted suicide The fellow’s wife was so eager tcj send him packing that she wouldn’t even let him answer the doctor’s question: Do you want to die? He merely shook and cried while she pronounced sentence ie this mortal coil while hooked up to a macabre battery of bottles and machines Euthanasia advocates argue that we can avoid such techno-indigniby letting sick people choose the time and manner of their demise Lawyers for the state of Oregon promoted this view when they tokl Hogan that the “Death with Dignity” statute could prevent “unnecessary" pain and suffering avoid botched suicide attempts and spare families undue financial hardship Note one thing: None of these justifications adopts the patient's point of view Peter Singer described the philosophical consequences of this new thanatology in a recent USA Today column: "We are going through a period of transition in our attitude toward the sanctity of human life" he noted He then urged accepting "the concept of quality of life rather than sanctity cf life as the basis for decision-makin- g (in cases of assisted ty Her manner was reminiscent of an old Hemlock Society card intended for terminally ill suicide candidates It declared “I hear you're going to be leaving us soon" The movement inevitably produced and degradation One can envision dc mands for “death care” so families could ease the bur-den of saying goodbye Give Dad a peck and a assisted-suicid- e squeeze as the family heads for Disney World and the Dignity Facilitator ushers the codger onto the Kevorkian Express There are no easy ways to deal with death But if we want to show we care we can do better than to burst through the door with a fistful of pills and a fifth oC gin Better to share our tune love and tears - and leave power in the hands of the only Authority who won’t abuse it j |
