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Show (DQJB BEfflEEBS TODtfE It is nearly impossible to make a left hand turn on 500 South at any of the stop lights. Consequently, most drivers have to wait until the light is red before executing a left turn, thus slowing traffic and creating a very dangerous situation. This is especially true at the intersection in-tersection of 500 West and 500 South. The traffic in that area is further tied up with the freeway off-ramp and the entrance into the Gateway center. This is a real mess. What is going to happen when ShopKo opens? That will add one more bottleneck bot-tleneck in a space of less than one block. I use the freeway off-ramp at 400 North often and frequently make a left turn onto 500 West. The left-turn left-turn lanes on 400 North are painted too far to the right. In order to see whether there is oncoming traffic, it is necessary to partly proceed into the left turn pattern. pat-tern. I have had two very close calls in this intersection, and considering the amount of glass that is so often strewn in the street at this intersection, intersec-tion, many drivers aren't just having close calls. Turn signals would avoid the possibility of a fatal accident acci-dent at this very poorly designed intersection. in-tersection. I think I can understand the reason for changing the on -ramp onto the freeway at 500 South going South, but again the highway department has created a real hazard. It is nearly impossible to exist ex-ist the freeway from the North and proceed East on 500 South. Traffic is heavy on 500 South and the barricades that are blocking the old on-ramp impede vision. If that on-ramp is not going to be reopened, re-opened, why can't it be torn up and landscaped? The problems I have listed would be relatively inexpensive to fix, and the accidents and possible fatalities that would be avoided are certainly worth the expenditures. Is it necessary to have fatalities and possible lawsuits before we get our highway planners attention? Trillis Fleming Woods Cross statistics show that the schools are not curtailing social problems so let's give the responsibility back to the parents where it belongs. Administrators should not be bullied by parents who try to place the blame on the school for their child's social misconduct Some of the current programs in our schools, such as drug week, are the schools response to this type of parental responsibility dodging. If higher SATs are the community's goal, then discipline will have to be taken care of at home. The school's focus would have to center on SAT courses. On the other hand parents should not have to teach scholastic lessons every night I don't think it is realistic real-istic for the schools to load more scholastic responsibility on the tired parents and then blame them for low SATs. r It has gotten to the point where parents expect the teachers to give lessons that will improve their homelife and teachers expect parents to become algebra experts, etc. because they arc so bogged down with raising our children. Serious educational problems have always existed for a small percentage of students but we are talking about lower scores generally. gen-erally. You have a bright generation of children to teach. Even so, higher SAT scores will only come as the result of a focused effort in the SAT areas. Our children fall behind scholastically very early in their school careers due to a curriculum heavily involved in values. Our children learn a lot about feelings, sharing, anger, etc. We have safety week, drug week and others where the kids spend the day making posters, etc. The list goes on and on. If this is our goal, fine, but then we shouldn't complain about low SATs and just accept the fact that our schools also have the job of raising our children. If higher SATs are the goal, then a complete curriculum cur-riculum overhaul is necessary. It is just not possible to focus in one area and score high in another. Success in any endeavor is generally achieved through focus and discipline. Devilish cover Regarding the feature article by Bryan Gray Jan. 26, I'd like to give my feelings on the subject Concerning the Bountiful mother who complained that her daughter was offended by the subject matter in the book GrendeX, I've not read the book, nor would I want to, but proudly stand behind the girl and her parents, in the fact that they were offended and had the courage to speak out on it. I'm glad the Clipper printed a picture of the book's cover, as that all by itself, offended me and I'd have no interest in reading the contents con-tents of a book with such a devilish looking cover. I don't blame the girl's parents for wanting to remain anonymous since it seems that if anyone speaks out for moral values in this generation, genera-tion, all hell comes down on their beads. Who cares how talented or sophisticated a writer is or how much praise the world has given him? Some modem writers fill their pages with trash and very subtly try , to get away with it by saying that in the end, good prevails over evil. In President Benson's talk "Not Commanded in All Things" given on April 6, 1965 in General Conference, Con-ference, and referring to one of the devil's excuses, he said: " 'You want to be loved by everyone' says the devil and this freedom battle is so controversial you might be accused of engaging in politics. "Of course the government has penetrated so much of our lives that one can hardly speak for freedom without being accused of being political. pol-itical. Some might even call the war in heaven a political struggle-certainly struggle-certainly it was controversial, yet the v ah ant entered it with Michael. Those who support only the popular principles of the gospel have their reward, and those who want to lead the quiet, retiring life but still expect ex-pect to do their full duty can't have it both ways." And Elder John A. Widtsoe said, 'The troubles of the world may largely be laid at the doors of those who are neither hot nor cold; who always follow the line of least resistance; whose timid hearts flutter at taking sides for truth. As in the great council in the heaven, so in the church on earth, there can be no neutrality." So to those who faint at the word censorship, let the controversial books be optional and not mandatory man-datory in order for a student to receive credit This leaves free agency. These "small" things might even help the Lord separate the sheep from the goats. Norma Sorensen Bountiful Too much traffic Editor I am writing this letter to address some of the traffic problems in Bountiful. We are a rapidly growing grow-ing area, and the street and highway planners seem to be stuck in the decade of the '60s. SAT thoughts Editor: As a parent I have been hearing a lot about the low SAT scores in Davis County. I have a few suggestions sugges-tions concerning improvement, if improvement is indeed a goal. First, a goal needs to be determined. deter-mined. I wasn't aware that higher SATs was a goal. Our schools have been diversifying their curriculum and focus for years. Second, a division of responsibilities respon-sibilities between parents and the school system needs to be addressed. address-ed. Schools have been taking on more and more responsibilities for raising our children and therefore less time spent on SAT courses. If higher SAT scores are the goal then the schools should identify their responsibility as teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, science etc. (SAT courses). Parents would have to be responsible for value lessons, morality etc. (Ex. drug education, ed-ucation, sex education). Obviously many parents do not take this responsibility but why try when the schools have decided it is their responsibility? Actually Linda Anderson Fly the flag Editor: Last summer we took a vacation trip to the Eastern states. We noticed notic-ed that in many neighborhoods people flew the flag daily. We love it! We asked one of the local residents why there were so many flags. Her reply was, "This is where the nation was founded. We are steeped in history and patriotism here, and this is the way we show love for our country. We returned to Utah and have thought about that incident many times, but still flew the flag mostly on holidays. Now we see flags flying fly-ing in many neighborhoods. But it has taken a war for us to show our patriotism. We can't help but wonder if more of us had flown our flags throughout this whole country as some of the Easterners do on a regular basis, if there would be fewer war protesters. F. Burton and Joyce Winters Kaysville |