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Show J I r A6 Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Vernal Express B MBimijmmwiiBiBMta VERNAL J.tJl www M OPINION REAL CRISIS IS LOSS OF AMERICAN PRINCIPLES ByStarParkek ; Guest Writer My sense is that the attention that most Americans are paying as the power brokers of our government re-mold our future is not too deep. Sure, we're watching to see which Wall Street firm emerges as the basket case du jour. And the 50 percent or so of us who own stocks in some form are paying attention to the impact that each major announcement has on the market and on our nest eggs. But beyond this, it's like watching the mechanic play around under the hood of your car. You stand by with your fingers crossed hoping that he knows what he's doing and that the price tag for the work won't ruin you. What's bothering me, and what I think should bother you, is not only don't we understand exactly what these guys are doing as they play with our economic engine, but few are asking what authority they have to be playing around in there in the first place. Talking about Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, the Wall Street Journal reports "Today he finds himself in a position of power unmatched by his predecessors. He decides whether Wall Street firms live or die, picking winners win-ners and losers with the power of the federal purse." Somehow the idea of our Treasury Secretary sitting like a Roman emperor, giving a thumbs up or down whether firm A or firm B will live or die, just doesn't wash with the basic principles of how I believe this country is supposed to work. The "power of the federal purse" is a nice abstract way of saying there is open season on citizens and taxpayers. We are the federal purse. Somehow we have gotten to the point where we citizens have been written out of the equation of our own country and Constitution. Paulson can decide to commit billions of our money - you know, what we work for every day, save, and assume we own - to play lifeguard and we don't even get a courtesy call asking if it's OK So I ask, is this the disease pretending to be the cure? There is, of course, a lot of discussion about the causes of today's financial turmoil. It may be politically expedient to blame greedy Wall Street executives. And I have no doubt there's plenty of greed on Wall Street (or in Hollywood or elsewhere else-where for that matter). But as unattractive as greedy behavior may be, greed is not illegal. I have not heard a single announcement about any Wall Street executive being indicted or about any law being broken. But somehow it is legal and constitutional in America today, our dear country coun-try that supposedly has a Constitution that protects citizens and private property, prop-erty, for our private wealth and incomes to be used by politicians as collateral for their social engineering. As we taxpayers get dragged up to the plate to bail out one firm or another, let's recall that major culprits in all of this were the two massive government govern-ment sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Dressed in drag as private firms, they wheeled and dealed, getting involved in some way in one of every two mortgages, with taxpayers behind the scenes guaranteeing their excesses. Did we learn anything from the failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Did we learn that taxpayer guarantees for business is a formula for failure? How can. we say we learned anything if this is exactly what we are doing now to deal with the problems that this very behavior caused to begin with? In a nice column in the New York Times the other day, David Leonhardt, recalls the bailout of Chrysler in 1979. This was supposedly a success. And where is Chrysler today? And the whole American auto industry? Eclipsed by the Japanese and looking for another bailout. Today's financial crisis is not the worst problem we have. America has survived many crises, some far, far worse than this. Our most serious problem is a loss of focus on American principles of freedom and limited constitutional government. It's a sign of our troubled times that there appears to be no leader - political or business - who even pays lip service to this. First appeared on Townhall.com. wen, wen, mil, UXWWHAT I FOUNP,,. A A A 3Rf v yMmPm Km I.' ,l'i 't'l'MliVl It. i Ill I it tr u jit AVnJ I W j 1 Web opinion poll Each week the Vernal Express offers an online poll to its readers. To participate in the poll, visit www.vernal.com and click on the opinion link. Polls are not scientific and represent the opinions of voluntary Internet users. New polls are posted weekly and printed results represent voting as of Tuesday morning. If you have an idea for an opinion poll, e-mail it to editorvernal.com. Results for this week Would you go online to pay your property taxes? a) Yes (73) b) No. (27) lio I BERTHA BUTTERBEAN Think before you ground ' 4 t I DAM COIDVICH Guest Writer Whoever invented "grounding" as a form of behavior modification for children was probably not the mother, the nanny or the primary caregiver, whichever the case may be. In the case of my family, it was me, the mother. The errant inventor was probably a behaviorist who had no kids and who sat in a soundproof, air-conditioned, child-free, dust-free environment environ-ment and postulated that if a kid were cooped up in the house with his mother for a week, it would certainly change someone's behavior. He was right. I began to change into a really irrational person. After only a day or two I started wondering just who was beingpunished and tried thinking of ways to get out of the grounding. After all, I was not the one who messed up. In one instance, short of grounding, I threatened to change the kid's last name and let him move in with the neighbors. When that didn't work, I threatened to change mine. It would be easier than changing chang-ing the kid's behavior. When I ran out of threats, I grounded him. A little alarm went off somewhere in the back of my mind. But it didn't ring soon enough or loud enough. This kid should have grown up to be an arbitrator. arbitra-tor. When it came to dealing and compromising, he made Benjamin Franklin look like a rookie. This is how it goes on Day One: He shows up after school with a couple of friends in tow and says, "Mom, we are going outside and ride bikes, okay? I made my bed this morning." His reference to his voluntary vol-untary act of pulling up the covers by yanking on one corner and then foul-shooting the pillow towards the head of the bed was all it took for me to temporarily forget that it is Day One. So I say something useful like, "Okay, be careful." An hour later I remember what day it is, but by then the kid is riding in the next county. If I want to maintain a sense of control and an absence ab-sence of guilt, I have to go find him which takes a while. Then the arbitration procedures pro-cedures begin. "I don't have anything.to do. Ican'tplaygames because it is boring to play by myself, and I can't watch TVbecause no good shows are on." "Go read your book." "I can't. I left it at school" "Go play with your trucks." "That's no fun." "You go find something to do. Being grounded is not supposed to be fun." (Time passes two whole minutes.) "I'll just go sit on the back porch and play with the dog." "Okay, but you can't play with any friends." He won that point, so he assumes a new stance: "Mom this isn't any fun. I'm going to play in the back yard." (The back yard is full of kids.) "Do you know what it means to be grounded?" "It means I can't play with my friends." "Right." "I'm not going to play with my friends; I'm going to play with someone else's friends." "What? No." "Well, if I can be ungrounded un-grounded today, I will be grounded for two more days next week." "No." "Three more days?" "Absolutely not." Now I can't fit the rest of Day One's dialogue into a single column, but you get the point. I do remember saying that grounding wasn't supposed sup-posed to be any fun. Believe me, it was not. But I never learned. Public Forum - Letters to the Editor What is your opinion? The Vernal Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions on contents, if in good taste and not libelous or vindictive. Letters may be edited for grammar and style, length and content. All letters must be submitted exclusively to the Vernal Express and bear the full name, signature, phone number and address of the writer or writers. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in this forum. Submissions may be mailed to 54 N. Vernal Ave., Vernal, UT 84078; faxed to 435-789-8690 or sent by e-mail to editorvernal.com The name or names of the persons submitting letters must appear on all published letters. Letters express the opinion of the writer or writers and are not necessarily the opinion of the Vernal Express. ' Un-American Dear Editor,- i Regarding the letter signed by Dixie Allen, State Board of Education (Vernal Express, Sept. 17, 1 have to ask: Is that letter an official action of the Board? If official, I have to say shame on the State Board of Education trying try-ing to tell me to vote for the most un-American candidate I have witnessed in my many years. I will definitely vote for the ail-American candidate John McCainSarah Palin. I further would suggest the State Board of Education review re-view the early films of Obama refusing to wear the flag on his lapel and sitting down when the National Anthem played. I saw that, and he will never get my vote. The McCainPalin team is intelligent, intelli-gent, qualified and American to lead America. God Bless America! Stanley A. Anderson Vernal Clearing up Bruton's win Dear Editor, I wish to correct a factual error I made in the article on Elks Most Valuable Student scholarships concerning Jared Bruton. Jared Bruton received a third place national Elks MVS award for $5,000 a year for 4 years. My apologies to him and his family for my error. Again, congratulations to him for this honor. Marfy Kay Vernal Elks Publicity Chmn. Old customers still need help Dear Editor, I wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but it seems that over the past couple of years many local people have become "too-busy-because-of-the-oil" to offer their services for any kind of job smaller than a McMansion. Even a local handyman, whom I used to call on regularly, regu-larly, has priced himself out of my income bracket. I'm left with few choices, when it comes to minor maintenance or repair tasks: I can learn to do it myself; I can prevail upon an out-of-state friend or relative with the requisite skills to travel here to help me out; or I can get someone from Rangely, Salt Lake City or Grand Junction and pay dearly for them to travel so far. My thinkingis that, somewhere some-where down the road, this oil boom will ease up, and those people who are now too busy will wonder what happened to all their old customers. Barbara A. Smith Roosevelt J) Got A Beef? Tell it to the Vernal iXPREH. w a letter to the Editor! "jt..,. AJvo" n: 4lLr v V hinting ;j. jr -TV- -issSs mm vRmRi f Question for next w eek Do you support law makers decision to drill on the Tavaputs? a) Yes b) No |