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Show n mow Page 2 Orcm-Gcneva Times Wednesday, May 4, 1994 Editorial 5 n it Cimm(B Have you ever taken a spoonful of medicine that is so distasteful it causes an involuntary shudder when you swallow it? The distasteful issue here may be the necessity of raising property taxes to fund bonding for the Alpine School District, $98 million worth of bonding that would mean an $88 annual increase in property taxes on a $100,000 home. The Alpine School District Board of Education Educa-tion voted unanimously on April 19 to provide for a bond election on May 24, 1994. Voters may vote that day between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the following Orem polling places, all elementary schools: Northridge, Windsor, Orchard, Or-chard, Cascade, Scera Park, Hillcrest, Cherry Hill, Westmore, Geneva, Orem, Suncrest, Bonneville, Vineyard, and Sharon. The choice to go with the bond election was not made with relish. Gary Seastrand, prin- cipal at Hillcrest Elementary, wrote in a recent message for the PTA newsletter, "The decision to approve a bond election was not an easy one for the Board of Education. They studied the facts and listened to patron concern con-cern for several months. It took courage for them to pursue this course." On the other hand, it is not difficult to appreciate taxpayers' distaste for raising property taxes, in light of the fact that they are heavily taxed on local, state, and national levels. Increases, even small ones here and there, add up. Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby recently recent-ly quoted statistics from the Tax Foundation which said the typical American family must allocate 40.4 percent of its annual expenses to taxes, including income taxes, sales taxes, excise ex-cise taxes, meals taxes, capital gains taxes, payroll taxes, estate taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, etc. The well-publicized "Tax Freedom Day", defined as the date on which the average American's total year-to-date earnings finally reach the amount he or she will have to pay in taxes now comes in the middle of May. Jacoby wrote that families spend more on taxes each year than they do on clothing, transportation, recreation, food, and medical care combined. "That is an economic burden of staggering weight and destructiveness," Jacoby wrote. On the other hand, the current Alpine School District condition .of overcrowding is also a bitter pill to swallow, for the students, their teachers and administrators, and for parents, who want to see their children have the best education possible. Seastrand wrote that the Alpine School District has grown by almost 11,000 students in the last ten years. He quoted statistics which indicate that 20 percent of the district's students are now housed in portable classroom class-room or trailer facilities. It may be that the time has come to take our medicine, distasteful though it may be. The Orem-Geneva Times supports the bonding bond-ing for $98 million to build schools, for property proper-ty acquisition, and for renovation of existing schools. However, the Board of Education and the Alpine School District can add "a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down", by being forthright with specifics on how. the money will be spent and where money from the last State Legislature's closing of tax loopholes will go. The tax increase would also be more palatable if each tax dollar, old or new, is carefully guarded and respected as the sacrifice it is. Children from Orchard Elementary write letters about Mother's Day The Orchard Elementary School Second Grade students wrote stories and letters about Mother's Day. The Orem-Geneva Times is publishing . some of them for the community to read and enjoy them and will get the students more excited about writing in school. IB 4S(Sr There is a day that comes but once a year: A Sunday, set aside for love and praise To those who mother children of their own, As well as loving surrogates who hear The call to nurture cliildrcn all their days. For growing children and the children, grown, Depend on such a mother for her love On earth, as well as heaven up above. O Mother, take this day unto thy heart! O Mother, may we never draw apart! O Mother dear, we know how great thou art! How many accolades does she receive For all the sacrifices she employs? How many blessings may a mother claim In teacliing children what they should believe? The hungry minds of little girls and boys Are always eager for the learning game! The mother who endows her tender crops, Will find that children's learning never stops! O Mother, hold the future in thy hands! O Mother, now, the planet understands! O Mother, how thy children bless the lands! The birthing mother sends out threads of silk, That spin her child a gossamer cocoon To form a shield against the raging world. The sweet empowerment of Mother's milk, Becomes a very real and useful boon: More valuable than any dew, impearled. The birthing mother gives her child a start That's blessed with every beating of her heart. O Mother, bless the moment of thy birth! O Mother, choose the pearls of greatest worth! O Mother, thou art treasure of the earth! The foster mother plays her crucial roles In nurturing and loving special ones Who, somehow, are deprived, along the way. With arms and hearts that open to the souls Of many foster daughters andor sons, They seek to serve the smallest castaway. The foster mother often is beguiled To make her own, another woman's child. O Mother, what a challenge thou hast known! O Mother, only thee, and thee, alonel O Mother, thou art still our cornerstone! Ti ie priceless surrogates who love the art Of mothering, are known by tnany names: As nurses, teachers, givers of cliild care, They, sometimes, substitute for Mother's heart And when they lend their sacrificial aims To bless a child, they offer service, rare; For mothering reflects the holy Other: The One in heaven we know as our Mother. O Mother, teach us, once again, to pray! O Mother, please enjoy our sweet bouquet! O Mother, on this Orem Mothers Day! it :1 ; ' .. .. ijLpfy . . Ao1he doy . jU .... j i Creative IVwlfofl Mono. . yew... cOok..o. gaxj- ilt.... . mate ... rvoy . .toe .:htipge. tYcX. One so -TrcAry . j&i'vUc&cs . ... viQl i roy. frends .AAom...vpju..-felL ,..mC. . ' I scurtzfe, .. - h&uausc youA..o. rne.,. .VI . marry . .. "feJk ..rr. iJhcd.Jappec i. j at her. chco . . . fird. Somzdimcz .. ; .u-it I i 0o.. ay.. .11 ',3a .. 6 lac . afv Sces... . AOC ga rto school.,.. j cr?y . . .ionerr3 ...X. v&ju Uxdh hctto I ' .. siefy. bafpy. 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Farewell to the Etruscans 'You're going to do what?" my mother asked, incredulously, when my husband, Lon, shared our Saturday night plans with her. From her reaction, you might have thought we were going to go midnight ballooning in Park City or rafting down the Provo River or target shooting with blindfolds. We had tickets for 9:00 p.m. April 30 for the Etruscan exhibit at Brigham Young University. "The last night, the lasl tour...," Mom said, still amazed. "No," said Lon. "There's a 9:30 slot, too." Maybe we were almost a day late and a dollar short, but not this time. We made it. And you might be surprised to know, there were a lot of other procrastinators there with us. A sign at the front of the new art museum let it be known that the exhibit was sold out Saturday did mark the end of the six-month show. Estimates are that 200,000 people viewed the display in Provo of .178 artifacts loaned from the Vatican Museum. News reports said the exhibit had attracted 75,000 people to its previous site in Mor-ristown, Mor-ristown, New Jersey. By comparison, the Ramses exhibit, displayed for six months at BYU in 1985 and 1986, garnered over 500,000 visitors, but already had name recognition, recogni-tion, according to George Bowie, assistant vice president for advancement ad-vancement at BYU. Relatively few people had heard of Etruria and the Etruscans before the exhibit. ex-hibit. I know I hadn't. Saturday's tour was my first trip to the new facility, but Ym sure it won't be my last. The exhibit ex-hibit was organized very beautifully beauti-fully and professionally. An innovation in-novation that I found particularly helpful was the self-guided tour tape and player issued to each guest who wanted one. The narration nar-ration could be stopped and started at will so visitors could go through the exhibit at their own pace, and could take the time to read the signs along the way. One thing that amazes me about archaeology is that the experts ex-perts are able to draw a picture of what life was like in ancient times from what seem to be mere fragments frag-ments of existence. To me it's kind . of similar to how modern technol ogy makes it possible, through computers, to literally "flesh out" what a person may have looked l j l. i. : i i 3 iiK.e, jusi going oy oones ana skeletal evidences. I expected to see urns and potj lery. i am not expect to see tnem as detailed, elaborate, and artis-1 a ri fVri urif turn VirtvnaAa fnmin( theDour SDOuts and a driver form ing the handle. I expected to see artifacts from tombs. I did not expect them, to be, as a stunning silver ban-auet ban-auet service was. engraved with the name of the deceased owner. Even the clav statuarv waa a surprise, with amazing details to hair and faces that made them' almost come alive such as the ' bust of the balding man which even showed life-like wrinkles on the forehead. I expected to see tools and weapons, but I was amazed to see metal cooking 'grills and pierced, armor. And the most astounding thing of all, to me, is that items so old that they date to centuries before Christcould still survive in such good condition Well, I'm definitely not an expert ex-pert myself, but I was glad the experts helped us get to know the Etruscans. And next time a fabulous exhibit comes to BYU or to another imminent location, maybe I won't be one of the last ones there. ' |