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Show f IHkDw Albapiinit lit? o ncBwnDdDniin The "National Enquirer" recently was sued by Carol Burnett, and Johnny Carson Car-son publicly has accused it of lying. Do you read the magazine, and what is your opinion of it? Page A2 Thursday, March 26, 1981 J Linda Myers I do not read the magazine, and from what I've seen of it, I EdlSitaDHall think it s junk, f yTT TO it ? s.? 4 Z If you don't attend public hearing, don't complain about outcome A government for the people and by the people is a doctrine that many Americans have lost faith in over the years. It's hard for the average Joe to believe that elected officials are responding to his needs and wants when it continues to cost him more to merely maintain his standard of living. He can't yell loud enough, he tells himself, to get the bigwigs to hear how he'd like his taxpayer dollars spent, so he gives up in disgust and complains to his neighbor. But a single voice doesn't have to travel to Washington to have an impact. One of the benefits of living in a small community like Park City is that the elected officials are close and approachable, and they invite the input of the citizens. Disbelievers can test that tonight at a public hearing before the City Council at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Building. At issue is whether the city should hold a bond election to finance the construction of a field house recreation facility to adjoin the proposed middle school, the restoration of the Miners Hospital to house an expanded public library, and the improvement of City Park. The bond issue for those three projects has been estimated to be between $2 million and $5 million. The important thing to remember is that those three projects are just suggestions. The point to holding a public hearing is for the City Council to hear from the citizens whether they support all or any of those projects; whether they are willing to argue in favor of a bond election that will mean an increase in property taxes. There is no doubt that special interest groups will appear at the hearing to push for their favorite projects: sports enthusiasts or parents of athletes will attempt to convince the council that the estimated $1.5 million field house is a necessity, as are the improvements .to City Park; bookworms and historic preservationists will say the same of the $500,000-or-so renovation of the Miners Hospital. But other citizens may feel that in a time of runaway inflation and budget cuts that belt-tightening is required, and that a bond issue in any amount is ludicrous, no matter how worthy the project. There are others who may feel they have no use for a library, a prettier park, or an athletic facility, and who, in fact, can't afford to pay a penny more for anything. If money is no object, residents may want to ask themselves how they would like their money spent if their property taxes were to rise, say $100 a year. That same bond issue might allow a different combination of projects like a swimming pool, street lights and road repairs, city-wide landscaping, or an ice skating rink. The City Council intends to be prepared to answer questions relating to the three suggested projects and to tell the public just how much the city mill levy could be raised, and subsequently, how much their property taxes could increase. But bear in mind that other taxing entities such as the fire and school districts also may raise their mill levies to finance improvements they feel are equally necessary. The skeptics may find it hard to believe, but the City Council will make its decision based on the wishes of the majority of their constituents. The variety and number of citizens who come to the public hearing will help determine what their elected officials will do. You can go to that meeting and offer your opinion, or you can take the easy way out and complain about it to your neighbor after it's all over. BBM F0R60D55AKE.P1N0CCHI0,,, QUITTHW JOB WlTHTHE NATIONAL ENQUIRER,,, by Stanley Karnow U.S. has responsibility for future of Amerasian children Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam A lovely teen-age girl with brown hair and blue eyes peddles cigarettes on a street corner. Other children, some with Caucasian features and some partly black, hang around outside hotels frequented by foreigners, begging for money. These kids are known here as "Amerasians," and they are one of the most tragic legacies of the U.S. presence in Vietnam. Born during the war of GIs and Vietnamese women, they are misfits. Except for a few put into showcase institutions, most are neglected by Vietnam's Communist authorities, who would be delighted to get rid of them. Until now, however, the United States has ignored their plight. Thus the time has come, it seems to me, to explore ways to provide them with asylum in America or at least furnish them with some kind of assistance here in Vietnam. Certainly, I think, Americans have a greater responsibility toward them than it does to many of the Vietnamese refugees currently being admitted into the United States. Nobody knows how many of these children exist. Western refugee officials offi-cials here estimate that they may number as many as 30,000 but that statistic is just a guess. Whatever the figure, they are visible in this city, formerly called Saigon, and in places like Danang and Vung Tau, so-called "rest and recreation" centers where American soldiers consorted with Vietnamese girls during the war. Not only are the kids pathetic, but so are their Vietnamese mothers. Having given birth to "impure" children out of wedlock, they are ostracized in their own society, which brands them as whores. For that reason, organizations like the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which maintains an office here, are inundated with letters from these women, appealing for help. Sadly, the women cannot identify the fathers of their offspring with any precision. Typically, a Vietnamese woman writes that the father of her child is an American by the name of Joe or Bill or Jack. Can he be located, she pleads, offering to send the kid to him in the United States. Frequently, too, the mothers of these children expect that, if the kid is permitted to emigrate, so will she along with her other offspring as well as her mother, sister, brother and cousins. Under the U.S. immigration system, Vietnamese refugees cannot be accepted ac-cepted unless they have sponsors in America. Finding the fathers of these kids would be like searching for needles in a haystack. The French, who fought here before the United States became involved, have made a commitment which, while imperfect, may serve as a model. They have agreed to take all Eurasian children born between 1946 and 1955, the period of their military presence in Vietnam on condition that the kids are received by someone in France. - French diplomatic sources here estimate that some 10,000 of these Eurasian children and their mothers eventually will go to France. The number of Eurasians is smaller than that of the Amerasians because some two million U.S. troops came to Vietnam, while the French force was considerably smaller. In instances where the Eurasian kids are not claimed by fathers, French organizations have Undertaken to accept responsibility for the children. These organizations include French veterans' groups and associations of French who lived here when it was a possession of France. The United States never colonized Vietnam. But the result, in terms of the children themselves, is the same. They would not exist unless American soldiers had been sent here. They are, therefore, a burden that America ought to bear. It probably would be futile to attempt to match up former GIs with their Amerasian kids. Many of these GIs, I suspect, now have their own families and want to forget their experience here. It might not be farfetched to suggest, however, that the U.S. government declare in principle that it is willing to assume the responsibility for these children, as France has in the case of the Eurasians. Once that principle is established, American and Vietnamese officials may be able to negotiate some sort of approach to the problem. I am inclined to believe that the Vietnamese, though tough negotiators, would be flexible on this issue. For example, even though the United States and Vietnam do not have diplomatic relations, the Vietnamese quietly permit two American consular officials from Bangkok to come to this city every week to give visas to refugees going to the United States. Even though the fathers of the Amerasian kids prefer to forget, there must be orphanages and other bodies in the United States that would care for these children. Alternatively, I would submit that charitable groups in America, appraised ap-praised of the situation, would show generosity in giving these children the aid that they need so that, at the very least, they are not reduced to begging and peddling on the street corners of this city. Released by The Register and Tribune Syndicate 1981 .in n.nf i m mi MaryVarner I don't read it, but my opinion is that it is pure sensationalism. l rK , 1-4 Eileen Marshall The headlines are better than the articles. I personally don't like the magazine because it is misleading. Joy Rasmussen I read it while standing in long grocery store lines. Being a faithful, devoted fan of Johnny Carson, I always believe everything he says is true, so naturally my opinion of the magazine is that it's for people who spend hours and days watching soaps. Gary Allen I don't read the magazine, and my personal opinion of it is that it's not worth reading. . A . . m l Randy Buffington f$ f-' I didn't read the articles, but from what I've seen of the magazine, I would say they are justified in their allegations. y a y Anderson eeMy pgeiiaill jNeed is for competent people to imaintain awesome weapons : ' Washington There is a new mood in Washington about the national defense. The president and congressional leaders have spoken boldly about ", spending billions for such awesome . weapons as missiles and aircraft carriers. Yet the greater need is for people who can competently maintain and operate . the weapons the United States already has. For the past decade, we have been warning about the deterioration of our armed forces. But the decline has been . even worse than we thought. Classified Defense Department documents docu-ments reveal, for example, that 90 percent of the men and women who maintain and operate the U.S. Army's nuclear weapons in Europe flunked basic tests of their skills last year. Here's a partial breakdown: The tests were failed by 86 percent of the Army's artillery crewmen, 77 percent of the computer programmers, 89 percent of the track-vehicles mechanics mechan-ics and 82 percent of the Hawk surface-to-air missile crews. In NATO competitions, even our hand-picked units have usually finished dead last. West Germany's foreign minister, Hans Mathoefer, is quoted as saying, in disgust, that German soldiers at least "do not use drugs and can read and write." . Many technical manuals have been , converted to comic book formats because U.S. technicians couldn't understand the standard instructions. One Army unit discovered that a third of its technical supervisers were' "functionally illiterate." In sum, those fancy new weapons won't be of much use unless the Defense Department can find qualified people to ' operate them. , Wasteful Regulators The Federal Reserve Board has issued some urgent , calls for austerity. Its governors have tried to force frugality upon us by i raising the interest rates. The move has been effective; but what is austerity to them has become hardship for others. Most small businesses, for example, must borrow money for operating capital, and the high interest rates have put many of them out of business. Mortgage rates are also so exorbitant that most young couples can't afford to buy homes. The public might be interested, therefore, in learning how the Fed practices the austerity it preaches. Top Fed officials got together on a recent weekend to talk about the economy. But first, the Fed sent several aides to scout the hotel, which was located in the Virginia countryside. They inspected in-spected the premises, sampled the food and gave the rooms a white-glove test. The Fed also contracted with the hotel to provide a $50-a-night pianist to entertain the dour-faced money men. The tab for their weekend in the country came to about $25,000. We asked a Fed official why it was necessary to hold the meeting in Fredericksburg, Va. 50 miles outside of Washington. He explained that it was in fact a cost-saving measure because facilities in the nation's capital are more expensive. By the Fed's high-living standards, this may be true. When the regulators meet in Washington, they usually gather at the luxurious Watergate Hotel. Arms to Iraq? The Reagan administration adminis-tration is contemplating possible military mili-tary aid to Iraq. Such a move would undoubtedly be opposed by Israel and would also wreck any chance of a reconciliation with Iran. But intelligence analysts expect Iran to be unstable for a long time to come. In that case, Iraq might be the best candidate to establish and maintain stability in the Persian Gulf area. As an opener, the State Department may allow the Boeing Corporation to sell commercial airplanes to Iraq. The multimillion-dollar deal would involve five planes both 747s and 727s. The aircraft could be used, of course, as military transports. Then military purchases might follow. Costly Cut President Reagan's budget bud-get boss, David Stockman, claims that by slashing Amtrak's budget, the government will save $400 million. It appears he is having trouble with his math. The train workers are entitled to cushy union benefits which would cost the taxpayers $200 million in 1982 and as much as a billion dollars over the next six years. So, in reality, one-third of Amtrak's new budget will be spent paying people sacked by the cuts. Headlines and Footnotes The Kremlin Krem-lin spends millions of dollars each year training Latin-American students in Marxist philosophy and the United States does virtually nothing to counteract the propaganda. Says a secret National Security Council report: re-port: "We may be conceding to the Russians a significant degree of influence in the region"... The United States is, of course, sending military advisers to El Salvador. One of the GIs recently shot himself in the foot with his own weapon at the San Salvador airport... Mob-operated companies have been moving into the business of chemical waste disposal and federal investigators suspect some of them are mixing the toxic chemicals with home and industrial heating oU. Such mixtures, of course, release poisonous by-products into the air when burned... Soviet spies in the United States have been ordered by the Kremlin to step up their efforts to infiltrate the Reagan administration and to recruit new spies. A CIA report says the Russian spooks have been ordered to concentrate concen-trate on "U.S. plans regarding nuclear war, the reinforcement of NATO and other military activities throughout the world." 1981 United Feature Syndicate, Inc. Til A Newspaper Subscription Kates, $6 a year in Summit County, $12 a year outside Summit County Published by Ink, Inc. USPS 378-730 Publisher Jan Wilking Kdilor Bettiiia Moench Advertising Sales Jan Wilking. Bill Dickson General Manager , Terry Hogan Business Manager Rick Lanman Graphics Becky Widenhouse, Liz Heinios Reporters David Hampshire, Rick Brough Photo Editor Phyllis Rubenstein Typesetting Kathy Deakin. Dixie Bishop Subscription & Classifieds Anne Bennett Distribution Bob Grieve Entered as second-class matter May 25, 1!77, at the post office in Park City, Utah H40(i0, under the Act of .March !, IS!7. Published every Thursday at Park City, Utah. Second-class postage paid at Park City, Utah. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs are welcome and will be considered for publication, however. The Newspaper will assume no responsibility for the return of such material. All news, advertising and photos must be received prior to the Tuesday noon deadline at our office 4 111 Main Street in Park City, by mail P.O. Box 73S, Park City, L't. XlWiO, or by calling our office (SIM ) (i4!HMll4. Publication material must be received by Tuesday loon for Thursday publication. |
