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Show - - .ad.. - - . . n" - . . " p, O ' 'God rude f Jj Thursday, March 17, 1984 The Daily Herald Q4.HO For the last 65 years the political climate in Mexico has been fairly mild. Occasionally, clouds rolled in and storms brewed, but it never lasted. The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has maintained most of its power since 1929. On Jan. 1 , a rip in Mexico's political fabric appeared in Chiapas just as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect. Indigenous rebels, known as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, fired the shots heard around the country . The civil insurrection came as a result of government neglect and abuse. The Chiapas situation sparked a new interest in politics for many Mexicans. For the first time in awhile, the ruling administration had the entire world watching its every move. This being an election year did nothing but intensify the political debate. Historically, the strongest opponent to the PRI has been the National Action Partv. However, in the 19SS nrpsiden- - 'cki46 ul I don't know how many people saw the show on TV the other night about the Don-ne- r Party and the pioneers, and what they had to go through. It seems to me that we would want to keep these buildings as a reminder to us w hat our ancestors had to go through to gain their independence. If this building were up in Salt Lake City, it probably would have been restored by now. I know about the low income people here in Utah Valley because I am in that category also. It seems to me that we as a community could pull together to see that they are restored and not town dow n. If I could say one thing to the mayor, it would be, '"Shame on you for wanting to destroy part of our heritage." I have volunteered my time to help restore Academy Square. Whatever has happened to the time when the whole community worked together to accomplish a goal in life. Terry D. Larsen Provo Don't blame Luther Editor: On Feb. 27, The Daily Herald reported in the religion section, that Hitler used Martin Luther's writings as an excuse to murder the Jews. This is blatandy false. I have contacted The Christian Research Institute International. Tnis is their response. "It is not true that Hider used Luther's writing as an excuse to murder the Jews. Also, we have not heard that Luther wrote a "tract." The Herald might contact George Mather, P.O. Box 301, Sagamore Beach, MA 02562. He is now the pastor of Pilgrim Evangical Lutheran Church. He is very knowledgeable about Martin Luther. As usual in Utah, the attacks on The Christian Church are prevalent without justification. Example they claim the Bible is in there is more docufact When incorrect. mentation for The Bible than any book on the face of the earth. There are 25,000 existing manuscripts of portions of The New Testament. The most sensational for The Old Testament is the Dead Sea Scrolls. See: "A General Introduction to The Bible", by Geisler and Nix; "The Text of The New Testament" by Bruce Metzger; "New Testament Documents, are They Reliable" by F.F. Bruce. My point for w riting is not to put someone down or win an argument but to set the record straight. The big question is where are you going to spend eternity. We all have our "subjective feelings" but we should check out the facts like the Acts 7:11. Louis V. Wilkins Provo Go conservative Editor: Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president, expressed the philosophy that continues to inspire Republicans to this day: "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they cannot so well do for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to inter Toil? Mrv CUhfbti, f SMPYou wf To Be J rial elections the leftist Revolutionary Democratic Party's (PRD) candidate Cuahtemoc Cardenas gathered a surprisingly high percentage of the votes. The situation in Chiapas, along with the failing economy, has created more popular support for Cardenas heading into the August elections. But more fabric ripping occurred recently when Chiapas peace talks negotiator and former Mexico City Mayor Manuel Camacho Solis announced he may run for president as an independent. Camacho's decision has to do with his handling of the Chiapas situation and his being shunned by the PRI 's as President Carlos Salinas de successor. WARNED I WE I HirAYouR fASSHNW HO THt-- VWOE VWITEMTCK TWHG: ' -- Cc- :""3r NOw,Th 6cKnmt GssmDs lb W H&VE. fcyHMX A6AN.NHt WHAINOT. ND IT'S A HEM9?S i fTi . : , A . rf vltttf T )Sl Cfer r Gor-tari- Camacho's and Cardenas' popularity stands to debilitate the PRI's chances for w inning a fair election. fere." Editor: I am writing this letter about Academy Square. It is a terrible shame that BYU and the community has let this wonderful building go to waste. It is also a shame that the mayor of Provo wants to destroy these w buildings. I can see destroying them if were not structurally sound, but from they what I have read, they are. I lei aid Gommen Danger in being a F rien d of WASHINGTON Save these buildings WV?? ego-driv- The Democrats, the political party controlling Congress for more than four decades, rationalize the existence of, and the continued growth of, a big government, high and increasing taxes, and moral relativit's our future. ism. The stakes are high However, as we approach another federal election in November, we must not let this pattern continue. Now is the time for sendchange. Things must change! Only by to Washington ing conservative Republicans can we guarantee the preservation of our freedoms. We need a leader willing to innovate, experiment, and learn. Our current representative has failed to learn that more money does not guarantee a better outcome, and that continual bureaucratic intervention is He the enemy of initiative and claims to be conservative, yet votes to maintain a liberal leadership in Congress. Only under strong conservative Republican leadership, and with a commitment to individual freedom and market forces, the 3rd district, and the country as a whole, will truly prosper. The opportunity to return a Republican back to Congress, to represent our collective needs better, is within our grasp. e. In the coming weeks and months, I hope we citizens can work together and rally around the Republican platform of limited government and individual freedoms. As Americans, we have rights and we have responsibilities. Each person has the right to participate or not. However, an informed, involved citizenry is the best insurance for a continued free and respresen-tativ- e the Congovernment. Be involved stitution is the foundation of the American way of life. Leam more about it. Taylor Mark Oldroyd Provo Middle-age- d -- en "We'll work something out." What Clinton worked out was a job marked for disaster No. 3 at the Justice Department. Everyone knew Hubbell's a2iuy w Whitewater wheeler-dealeDoesn't stop Whitewater bloodhounds on the Hill from howling. "This is why we need hearings," said Sen. Al D'Amato, the ethical purist. "He (Hubbell) brought in the stench of Arkansas that permeates the White House." For Clinton, Hubbell's bombshell hit just as he hoped to shake Whitewater with a classic strategy: Put the show on the road, talk about the big agenda. Didn't quite work. ' Hillary Clinton, pumping health-car- e reform, drew TV cameras when she broke her Whitewater silence: "We made mis-- ! takes. But when this is all over, it's the same story we've been telling for two; years. We made a bad investment, we lost ' money, and there's not much to add to it. Clinton, despite a thunderous ovation at a job conference, later let his Whitewater ' resentment burst through: "If we could go back to Washington and wipe out the forces that seek to demean, divide ... we could solve this country's problems." But Whitewater's like a case of influenza that will nag Clinton until oh, 1996. Hubbell, surely relieved to be out of the snake pit, once laughed about an Arkansas football banquet where former stars were r. KRT News Service true .role: Clinton's eyes and ears, the president's man at Justice. Often, Attorney General Janet Reno was shut out of the president's inner circle. But First Pal Hubbell always had an open line to Bill. When the Waco tragedy struck, Hubbell, not Reno, gave Clinton the news. That's a cynical tradition. The attorney general is supposed to be the "people's lawyer." But from John Mitchell to Ed Meese, the A.G. has become the president's mouthpiece. If Reno sought independence, she always had Hubbell looking over her shoulder. Sure, Reno seemed genuinely pained by Hubbell's leaving. "I can't believe he did anything wrong," she said, looking distraught. But Hubbell returns w reathed in trouble a town w here he was Mr. to Little Rock Clean, the popular mayor, a state Supreme Court chief judge. The Rose Law Firm claims Hubbell overbilled clients and jacked up expenses. At worst, he might be disbarred. "These private issues have nothing to do with Whitewater ... the president or. first lady," Hubbell said. But Hubbell's departure couldn't come at a worse time for Clinton not because he loses a buddy of 20 years, but because it turns up the Whitewater rumor flood. In my contrarian view, Whitewater is still an overblown affair, a pudding with ; , ; ; ; extolled. "All they remembered about me was a missed block in the Sugar Bowl that sacked, the quarterback," he said. "Offensive! linemen are only remembered for mis-- I i; takes." It's a parable of the Imperial City's mangling of the Clinton mob. They c?jne to do good but found they never left Little Rock. fogies getting angry over loutish behavior At first, I thought it was a homeless man sitting on a curb in this affluent residential neighborhood. Then, as my car approached, the teen-ag- e boy got up, shuffled to the center of the street, set dow n his skateboard and began pushing it about with his foot. I couldn't get around him, and was unwilling to run him over, so I stopped my car. Hair straggled out from under a hideously ugly knit cap; more hairs straggled from his chin. He wore a ragged shirt and baggy shorts. Of course, the grunge was artfully constructed. The neighborhood made it a near certainty that his parents earn more than $100,000 a year. He looked vacantly at my idling car. I wondered how long it would take for him to realize that there was some relationship between his presence in the middle of the street and my car. Finally, a dim light seemed to dawn. With a look of resentment not quite a glare, because he didn't he flipped up his board have the energy and shuffled out of the way. I was angry . I was angry on behalf of his parents, who'd studied hard, worked hard, bought the house in the good neighborhood with the good schools, paid for the swim classes, computer camp, trumpet lessons, bike, orthodontia, CD player, the good used car when he turned 16. And what did they have? A lout. I could see them telling each other he just needed to find himself, telling their friends how he was really bright and creative. I could hear them asking him to wear his nice, new shirt for dinner at Grandma's. I was angry at his parents for raising him to be a lout. I was angry on behalf of Western (and ed out a theme. Polls show most Americans, while doubting the Clintons did anything criminal, can't make sense of the mishmash. It's an incestuous jigsaw of Dog-patc- h players and petty cash scams. Hubbell, although he was a managing brother-in-lapartner in the Rose firm and his loan defaulted on a to Madison S&L, seems to have been no In a more cheerful time on his inaugural day, Bill Clinton preened as the outsider riding in to clean up Dodge. He railed at Washington's cesspool: "A place where powerful people worry endlessly about who's up. who's down, who's in, who's out." That line has the bitter edge of prophecy. Clinton couldn't have guessed that those who would be counted down and out losing reputations or a life would be his closest pals. They called themselves Friends of Bill. You'd see them on campaign buses, plain folks or Arkansas heavyweights, wearing their FOB pins. Turns out that being an FOB was as dangerous as being a buddy of the Shah of Iran. It's an old story the Imperial City, a place without pity for provincials, pinpoints their weaknesses, chews them up and spits them out. Four of them, Little Rock's best and brightest, came from the Rose Law Firm. Now, 14 months later, Hillary Clinton's in Whitewater, Vince Foster is dead, William Kennedy is reportedly unhappy at the White House, and Webster Hubbell has resigned under a cloud. They left Little Rock for glory, but Little Rock's shadows trailed them here. Of all the FOB'S in plum jobs, Webb Hubbell seemed miscast in Washington. A big, shy man former tackle on Arkansas' 1969 Sugar Bowl team he disliked publicity and the city's insider games. Basically, Hubbell was First Pal. Clinton liked having the big guy around for jokes on the golf links or to help shop for Chelsea's gifts. On Christmas 1992, he told Hubbell, "I want you to go to Washington with me. " "OK," Hubbell said. "What job?" BUS Jacobs JtsSL "Three strikes" is supposed to punish the most dangerous criminals, but days after the bill became law, Californians learned what sort of "career criminals" are going to be residing at our expense for 25 years to life: Career losers. Chronic, small-tim- e louts. Because the third strike can be almost defendanything, the early three-strikants are charged with: stealing a pick-u- p and two bicycles; sitting in a stolen truck; stealing 50 cents from a transient; possession of a very small amount of narcotics and robbing a convenience store. They are 33 to 37 years old. The 1 8- - to the ones who commit most violent crimes haven't wracked up the first two strikes yet. The third-strikehad served time (but not much) mostly for burglary and robbery; there were no murderers, rapists or kidnappers. Maybe taxpayers will rebel at locking up car thieves and drug addicts for life, and demand a more sensible law targeted at violent felons. But I'm not sure whether the public mood will swing that way at least, not until the bills for jury trials and prison guards start to roll in. The crime that destroys neighborhoods, that disrupts people's sense of security and keeps everyone on edge is the small-tim- e stuff: Drugs sold on a corner, a home burglarized down the street, children's bicycles stolen. Serious crime is down. But there are a lot of louts out there. es KRT News Service Eastern) civilization. From Babylonian ' times, it has been the rule that children who want to play in the middle of the street must get out of the way of cars, promptly and cheerfully. (In Babylonian times, those who didn't ended up with chariot tracks on their backs.) A lot of us middle-age- d fogies are getting angry. The story about the American in Singapore sentenced to flogging for vandalism has evoked reader outrage. Our readers, judging from letters and phone calls, are outraged that American think they can destroy other people's property for fun. The general consensus appears to be: Six strokes aren't enough. 2. Let's flog graffiti vandals here. Singapore's laws are many, petty and rigidly enforced. There are heavy fines for not flushing a toilet in a public lavatory, or for chewing gum in public (where it could end up on the pavement). Caning, which leaves permanent scars, is mandatory for graffiti that leaves permanent marks. Singapore is not very free. But it is very clean and safe and increasingly prosperous. As Americans are overwhelmed by the disorder of our society, authoritarianism starts to look good. teen-ag- er teen-age- 1 . rs rs Criminologist James Q. Wilson observes that we talk about "law and order," but put all our resources into "law," while doing little to maintain the sort of order that encourages people to be In "Thinking About Crime," Wilson observes that a Boston survey snowed that when people complained of crime, they g. cited "little that was criminal in any serious sense for examrowdy ple, or various indecencies, such as lurid advertisements in front of neighborhood movies and racy paperbacks in the local teen-ager- s, drugstore." They felt threatened by the absence of "standards of right and seemly conduct in public places." A little loutishness can be tolerated, too much, and it destroys communities. Civilization requires civility . Letters & guest opinion poilcy : ; : : The Daily Herald welcomes letters to the editor. Address letters to Letters to die Edi-tor, POBox 717, Provo, UT 84603. Letters; must be signed and include the writer's fultt name, address and a daytimephone num-- t her for verification. Letters should be typed, double spaced and less than 400 words in length. Letter? are usually published on a first come first served basis. ', The most common reasons for not puih lishing letters are: too long, unsigned, illegjl ble, obscene or libelous. ,- J Sometimes numerous letters will each say basically the same things about the samel topic. In such cases, a representative sam j pling of the letters will be published. Sometimes letters which are too long fo the letters to the editor column are chosen to ' appear as guest opmion pieces. Those long submissions not chosen for guest opinion pieces will not be published ai letters without being shortened substantial |