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Show SlAAllAnD1lG Citizen Wednesday, September 23, 1992 Page 2 Editorial Gambling, is issue or In six weeks, Utah voters will have a chance to vote for or againsTpari-mutuel againsTpari-mutuel betting. That is what Initiative Initia-tive A is all about. But the people who support this initiative are trying to cloud the issue is-sue that will come before Utah voters by saying Initiative A is not about gambling, but about choice. They are wrong. Theirargumentgoeslikethis.ini-tiative Theirargumentgoeslikethis.ini-tiative A simply gives each county in Utah the right to vote for or against pari-mutuel wagering in that particular par-ticular county. No one voting for Initiative A, they claim, will approve horse race gambling per se. Instead, we will be giving voters in each Utah County a right to make that decision. But this feeble reasoning begs the issue -- Initiative A on November's ballot is the only time voters throughout through-out the state of Utah will have a say on pari-mutuel betting. If the initiative initia-tive passes, then the state's voter have given tacit approval to the concept con-cept of state-approved betting. The issue is that simple, regardless of how individual counties vote on the issue following November's election. The strategy of changing the question ques-tion from one of gambling to one of choice clouds the issue. Of course, Human brain stores myriad of memories It's strange how the human brain can store away memories. Memories so minute they seem hardly worth remembering. I think back to when my memory first began to function. Before that time there was a void in my memory. My family lived in a village with the strange name of Old Furnace. Once upon a time there was a smelting furnace there, the first one in all of England. It turned out to be a poor investment and died, but the name remained. Our family lived in a cottage with a slate roof. When the whitewash was fresh and new on the outside walls it was as clean as drifted snow, but the smoke from the colliery stacks turned them a dingy gray. There was no electricity and the only water tap was on the outside and shared with a neighbor. The toilet was down the garden path a piece with a door that latched on the inside. Our neighbors were the Burtons. Mr. Burton was a skinny little man who was quiet and friendly. His wife was a big, buxom woman with 11 children and voice that could wake the dead. I often asked my self what this couple saw in each other to end in matrimony. It was an amusing sight in the morning to see the children waiting their turn outside out-side the little building. Little boys standing with their legs crossed and little girls jumping jump-ing up and down. I can still hear the raucous voice of Blodwhen Burton calling down the garden path, "Not too long in there. There are others waiting, you know." My father was not a coal miner. He took care of the railroad tracks on the surface. My favorite game was to sit on the floor and my father would build a miniature railroad out of kindling wood. He explained to me about the roundhouse, how a locomotive locomo-tive could be turned around to face the opposite direction. I didn't realize at that time that were it U.S. gets bum rap in recession blame The United States has been getting a bum rap! Politicians and economists, with the ever-willingcomplicityofahyper-critical media, have been talking about the recession reces-sion in the United States as though it were ours alone. The recession is worldwide. It is less acute in the United States than elsewhere. Japan's economy is shrinking while ours is growing. Britain's economy is shrinking while ours is growing. Italy's national debt is proportionately twice what ours is. The 10 nations of Europe all have jobless rates higher than our 7.7 percent. Each of them has at least 10 percent jobless. I am not making this comparison to strengthen anybody's political position but because, political considerations being be-ing what they are in an election year, our nation's leadership could adopt some short-term stimuli to our long-term disadvantage. dis-advantage. Recent economic sluggishness has been global. Uncle Sam has been wanning himself and much of the rest of the world for decades with a bonfire of American dollars. not choice, Initiative A that is the point. It is part of the "divide and conquer" tactics that have won wars and nations. Here, those using the tactic hope to win approval for pari-mutuel gambling in a state where popular sentiment is clearly against any kind of gambling. Local voters should not be fooled by such tactics. A vote for Initiative A is a vote for pari-mutuel wagering- and any benefits ben-efits from that to the state are dubious. dubi-ous. A Utah Foundation report shows that Utah's education fund would benefit by about $600,000 from the vote, That's a meager .05 percent of the state's annual education budget. Individual counties would also benefit ben-efit -- also in limited fashion. The big winners, of course, would be Utah's horse race owners. Everybody else, we believe, would lose. Utah voters should not be fooled by this latest attempt to turn away the Initiative A controversy from the matter of gambling to the matter of choice. This is the last chance many Utah voters will have any say in the matter. mat-ter. We should weigh the matter carefully before casting our ballot on Initiative A. Browsing By TOM GRIFFITHS not for switches, an engine could only go in one direction. Across the narrow valley in front of our home was the tips, small mountains of waste that remained forever barren. Even weeds would not grow on them. Then there was the river with the Welsh nameof Ebbw. There was a timebeforeman discovered coal that the river was crystal clear. Salmon came up from the ocean to spawn. That was when the valley was clean and belonged to the birds and fish. Then came man and coal mines and the river became the color of coal and the salmon came no more. There was the Monmouth Canal that ran through the valley. Barges towed by horses came up from the seaport. It was a miracle to me to see the water raised from one level to another by a series of locks. Now the canal is gone. Its bed is filled in an d youngsters ride over it on their bicycles. The coal mines are closing also, the veins of rich anthracite that was once in great demand are no longer profitable. Perhaps soon the river will be clean again and the salmon will return. Paul Harvey nevjs 1991 Lm Angeles Time Syndicate Again, our economy, in a steady slow-grow slow-grow mode, is performing better than any other in the world. Even our neighbor, Canada, is stagnating. stag-nating. It sounds rude and inhospitable in a land that has always prided itself on its "open door," but our nation's employment is essentially the same now as a year ago. Unemployment has increased because our population has increased, and much of the increase reflects immigration, legal and other. Yet, instead of praising our nation for its selfless generosity - taking in hundreds hun-dreds of thousands from other worse-off countries - our own country has been mean-mouthed by partisan politicians and myriad social-service organizations seek The generation I am 41 years old. I'm not ashamed of that. It doesn't bother me that I was born in a time that seems prehistoric to my kids. I'm not troubled by the fact that I can listen to the Rock and Roll oldies station and sing along with every single song - even the dumb ones. I'm not bothered by the fact that I had to deal with the same draft dilemma as one of the men runningfor Presidentof the United States or that I've been voting for 24 years. I don't care that my hair is greying, and I can live with the fact that 111 never be able to run a quarter mile in under a minute again, or that my knees can no longer manage the moguls on the ski slope. I'm proud of the fact that I actually remember Howdy Doody, that Soupy Sales was once my favorite television show, and that I saw most of the original Star Trek shows in prime time, when they were first shown. There are a lot of other things that date me. I remember when we really did The Twist. I watched color television on a round screen for a Ion g time -- when only a h andful of the shows were actually in color. I even remember watching Ed Sullivan on Sunday night. This is all fine with me. I'm comfortable being middle aged - as long as I don't feel old. I'm up with the times. Fm computer literate, i read the latest novels, I even like some modern music -- especially the remakes re-makes of those oldies I know all the words to. The night they When I was about six, I had my year's experience with dance. As you do in those classes, we worked most of the year for the big recital in the summer, to be held the week after school let out. I had my outfit, a green satiny thing with silver sequins and a green tulle tutu. I was so excited for that recital. Then, due to one of those parental decisions deci-sions made without consulting six year olds, the family left on vacation to see grandparents in Utah a week earlier than planned, thereby making me miss the recital. re-cital. This was a crushingexperience for me at that age. Now I know that those kinds of decisions are made, weighing the needs of a six year old's recital with the needs of the adults. Now I also know that the home my parents were building at the time was over a month behind in construction, and we were living with nine children and two adults in a tiny, old, two bedroom apartment apart-ment over a garage which flooded and bred salamanders when it rained (which it does frequently in North Carolina). I knew all that at the time, but I didn't appreciate the stress it put on my mom, nor why she needed to get out of there the minute kids were out of school, even if it meant my missing my recital. I just knew that I had worked and practiced for months, and now I didn't get to dance. It's the kind of decision that can't really letters Co gflie ecfli&OG1 Harrington running another negative campaign Editor: As a longtime Republican, I am very disappointed to see Richard Harrington and the 3rd District Republicans running another negative race against Congressman Congress-man Bill Orton. You would think the 1990 election would have taught them that most Where is cross walk for Shelley school? Editor: School has been in session for over four weeks now, and there is still no crosswalk on 100 West in back of Shelley School. This situation is an accident waiting to happen. Each afternoon several cars park where ing to justify their own existence. There is growing hostility to immigrants immi-grants in Europe, with uninvited outsid-: outsid-: ers systematically evicted from England and France. Immigrants from Muslim nations are considered a threat on Europe's southern south-ern flank. They take scarce jobs from home-folks. Or they seek and get unemployment pay from governments that already impose much higher tax rates than ours. The whole southern rim of the old Soviet empire could soon backslide into Islamic fundamentalism, which has a history ofkeeping backward nations backward. back-ward. Nothing in this accumulation of facts will force American politicians to fight fair. Outs wanting in will continue to emphasize em-phasize homelessness and joblessness and recession. And how can ins wanting to stay in possibly ignore or dismiss such charges - knowing we do have homeless an d we do have jobless and our economy is less vigorous than it was. But somebody outside the political arena should keep reminding us that, all things considered, ournationinits present condition is the envy of the rest of the world. gap from other The Editor's Column Lw By MARC HADDOCK Most of the time I just ignore the chronology chronol-ogy of my life, and act like I feel. I feel like a kid, and that's good enough for me. But lately, circumstances have conspired to make me feel, well, old. A few weeks ago, for example, we were gathered with other Primary teachers from our LDS Ward for a social, and we were playing a game where we had to tell something some-thing about ourselves that no one would know. As the game progressed, it became abundantly clear to me that I had a lot more material to go on than the rest of the people there, f I looked around at all these kids, and I really felt out of it. They didn't share my history or my interests. "You realize that we're the oldest people here," my wife said. And it hit me. It was true! I was even older than the Primary president. And I had very little in common with m any of these young people, people who had didn't let the little girls dance Discoveries By RACHEL C. MURDOCH be blamed on anyone, it just kind of had to be. So I can really relate to the girls who had trained with the Cavettes drill team all week and the parents who paid to have the girls participate in the Cavettes camp. They had rehearsed many hours, with the crowning event to be dancing at half-time half-time of the Friday night football game between be-tween American Fork and Orem. Only they never got to dance. The band was performing as well, and with the estimated times given the administration admin-istration by the band and the Cavettes, both should have been able to do their programs, according to Mr. Spencer, the vice principal over activities at the high school. Only the estimated times weren't quite right. The band was first, finishing their program, but only the youngest group of girls with the Cavettes got to dance. Time ran out, and the game had to go on. Spencer said the administration was receiving pressure from the officials to get on with the game, since the halftime show had already gone on too long. They had asked the officials to extend half time longer, with negative results, and the Orem team was already on the field. Spencer said at the least, American Fork's team would have voters want a substantive, issue-oriented campai.-m. For 1 .chard Harrington to distort Con-gressm Con-gressm Orton's record just to try to get himself elected just isn't going to work. I'm certain that most voters are not going to be fooled by him. If you want to know Orton's the crosswalk should be. It's difficult for oncoming vehicles to see these small children chil-dren runningfrom between cars to cross the street. Two weeks ago, when I called the city offices about this, I was told that they are waiting for bids to come in and a crosswalk should be painted soon. Cavettes apologize Editor: To the girls and the families involved with the Cavette Clinic. We would like to express our sincere apology to you for the abrupt cancellation of your performance. The circumstances were beyond our control. We wish you to know that this event was scheduled well in advance and carefully planned with your daughters' interest fore Policy on letters to the editor We welcome letters to the editor. All letters should be typewritten and double spaced. Letters must also be signed, and must include the writer's name and telephone number. Please send letters to Editor, Newtah News Group, P.O. Box 7, American Fork, Utah, 84003. side of bridge barely been born when I graduated from high school. I went home with a new vision of my mortality. A few weeks later our LDS Ward held a social - and as part of the ice-breaker asked point blank' who was the oldest person at the party. And I won hands down. (Actually my wife, who is one month older than I, won. But I am too much a gentleman to mention that fact, so ignore it.) I always knew this day would come, I just didn't know it would come so soon. You I have my own ideas about what an old person is. Old people don't know all the lyrics to the "Sargeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. Old people never wore bell bottom jeans or shirts with Nehru collars. Old people don't like Dylan. Old people supported the war in Vietnam. In other words, old people are like my parents were. In view of recent events, however, I am revising my list of what young people are. Young people think Sargeant Pepper really had a band, and that the Beatles played classical music. Young people cant find Vietnam on a map. Young people think Dylan's greatest musical contribution is as a member of the Traveling Wilburys. And they don't know who Nehru was, let alone what a Nehru collar is. And where I live, I am surrounded by them - which makes me, in their eyes, one of the old men of the neighborhood. had a penalty, or the Orem team perhaps could have played the game under protest. Since American Fork went on the win the game, which was tied at zero at half time, that would have been a sorry proposition. proposi-tion. And, after all, the football game is what everyone got together for. So the decision was made, and the girls had to leave the field. To the credit of the administration, they have done all they can to make it right. They sent letters of apology to the Cavettes, who worked so hard with the girls, and the parents of all the girls in the camp. They are offering the girls a chance to dance at halftime of the Provo game, or if they are unable to make that game, a refund re-fund of the money they paid for the camp. While an error was made in trying to fit too much into a short half-time, it's really one of those things that happens sometimes. some-times. An unpopular decision, but one of those decisions that has to be made. Its still hard to explain that to the parents par-ents who attended the game, and grandparents grandpar-ents who drove for hours to see the special performance. It's harder still to explain those kinds of things to little girls who don't know about officials or time schedules. In time, hopefully they'll remember the performance they do get to do. But they'll probably also remember that they got all primped and prepared, encouraged and rushed to a football field, and then they didn't get to dance. voting record, contact Orton's office. His opponent may not be a reliable source for information. After seeing Mr. Harrington's approach to the campaign, Bill Orton has the vote of this Republican again. -Adrienne DeJager, Provo Why were the crosswalks not painted before school started? Are we willing to gamble with the lives of our children just to save a few bucks? I encourage the city to act now before a tragedy occurs. -Susan Miller American Fork for half-time mix up most. We are working on restitution at this time. We appreciate all of your time and energy en-ergy in behalf of this performance. We enjoyed working with your daughters and appreciate your great support. We hope you will continue to support us in the future. -The AF Cavettes |