OCR Text |
Show The Summer Chronicle - Page Four Wednesday, August 21. 1991 Editorial The Summer Chronicle M Opinions ' AN I 1980 V wM B UQUlRY iHTGTlfc egCTI0N CAMPAIGN JigS&V FUL WHO WAS RUNNING? J Soviet coverage lacks substance The Soviet hardliners' coup against Mikhail Gorbachev has been the dominant story in newspapers and the subject of constant television news coverage. Obviously, the disappearance of the Soviet Union's most open and democratic leader alarms nations across the globe. Despite the worldwide implications, the national press has focused exhaustively on how the coup affects America and its corporations while the local press has dwelt primarily on specific Utahns who will be greatly affected by an end to Soviet openness. The press coverage has followed the current trend in news where news agencies have attempted to attract a bigger audience by including more human interest stories. In the process, the press ignores the bigger, and more important, picture. Local news agencies particularly relish this growing trend and their coverage of the coup doesn't deviate from the new style. The night the story broke, KTVX, Channel 4, carried an interview with Jon Huntsman. Apparently, how the coup influences developments at Huntsman Chemical's Soviet investment should have been of interest to the entire state of Utah. KUTV, Channel 2, broadcast the state of the Mormon Church missionaries residing in Moscow, including a Liberals will never be satisfied with a conservative court appointment don't think the liberals in this country realize what they are I doing. The downpour of opposition that has fallen on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas Utah elected leaders wasted tax monies A recent trip to Orlando, Fla., by Utah state senators and representatives has cost Utah taxpayers about $25,000. The convention, intended to teach local leaders throughout the country how to better govern, has been under fire for not requiring those attending to be present at the meetings. Rather, some senators and representatives use the free trip as a vacation. Utah Democrats Mike Dmitrich and Rex Black were two local leaders who opted to spend the trip on the DisneyWorld golf course rather than at any meetings. Both were videotaped leaving their hotel while meetings were taking place. Taxpayers should not be expected to pay for the leisure time of individual senators and representatives. That Dmitrich and Black ignored the concerns of their constituency should outrage all Utahns. This, however, has not been the case. While taxpayers in other states protested the convention months ago, Utahns ignored other states' warnings that local legislators were taking advantage of tax money. Utahns should take a more active role in watching where their tax dollars go. around the country don't realize what they are doing. The left-winge- in America seem rs is absolutely important no chance that President Bush will fact-th- ere ever, under any circumstance, WiIson $K well-bein- for local interest. The Utah audience deserves to know about the facts and global effects of the Soviet coup without having to subscribe to CNN. More interviews with experts and analysts who can inform the public would be more appropriate than stories about how an individual has been affected by events in the Soviet Union. 1 has led me to believe that of the Democrats in Congress many and many liberal political groups to have forgotten this one very phone interview with the mission president in Finland. The Salt Lake Tribune also reported on the g of a welfare of the missionaries. Again, the Saints was presented as small number of Latter-da- y being of equal or greater importance than the worldwide effects of Gorbachev's ousting. The Tribune also produced an article containing Sen. Orrin Hatch's evaluation of who he thought was responsible for the Soviet coup. Hatch, however, is not an expert on Soviet affairs, and was quoted primarily on July Chronicle Columnist demonstrates that most liberals have stopped thinking before they act and, instead, wildly rush to appoint a liberal to the court. If you keep that one fact in mind, none of the opposition to Thomas makes any sense. Various groups oppose Thomas' nomination because they fear how he will vote on abortion or some other controversial issue. They fail to realize that no mater who President Bush appoints to the oppose anything that President Bush supports. There was a time many years ago when nominees to our nation's high court were judged on the basis of their ability to make fair decisions y?u "S u - liomw' Ho "u who has the qualifications and background of Clarence Thomas. Perhaps the most ironic twist of all is the position that the NAACP (which one nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist has called the National Association for the Attack on Conservative People) has taken opposing Thomas. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People claims that its purpose is to support the advancement of colored people. Its present stance, however, dispels that myth. The truth is the NAACP only supports African Americans who agree with its own political views. It assumes all black people are inherently liberal, and that any black person who is slightly when the civil rights movement was in full swing, the NAACP truly tried to advance the condition of minorities in America. Now, it seeks to force all black people to believe the same ideology. before them. Today, however, the rules of the game have changed. Every person who is appointed to the court is subjected to an in-dep- th examination of every political view he or she has ever held. It goes both ways. Republicans do On Sept 10, the Senate Judiciary Committee opens hearings on the the scrutinizing when a Democrat is in the White House and the Democrats do the scrutinizing a basically the same ideologically, it makes no sense to oppose someone conservative is a traitor to the race. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, regarding the cases that came when court, they are going to be politically conservative on such issues. Since all of Bush's appointments are going to be Republican lives there. Although this is not the way the founding fathers intended the system to work, American politics have just evolved that way. The debate that has erupted since Thomas was nominated to the court CHRONICLE ARTMidml Smtlk nomination of Clarence Thomas. Let's hope that the committee members will be able to push aside all of the shortsighted opposition that has been thrown at Thomas and see him as he really is, a uniquely qualified federal judge who understands the situation of average Americans. i Making optimal use of resources, not a sin Editor: Stuart McDonald seems more interested in making spurious assumptions about my argument concerning property claims than in answering my argument outright ("Letter writers need to before reasoning justify Mr. .14). Aug. responding," McDonald, just answer my questions. When claiming , "stolen property," is it true or not and 2) therefore, claims based on are entitlements" "group counterfactual and arbitrary? If you presume to not understand what I mean by these questions, just say so, and I'll try to show you how they're meaningful. As far as saying that I have an in faith" "unquestioned capitalism, I have already indicated that capitalism is part of a logically based, nonethical coercive system. couldn't be resolved by pure capitalism. As far as talking about Mr. "unbridled greed," McDonald acts as if making optimal use of one's resources is a sin. If what he really means by that phrase is that he objects to the personal goalsvalues of other people, then McDonald must be setting himself up to dictate to the rest of us how we should run our lives even if true that: 1) it must be shown what person the property has been taken from and that that McDonald or anyone else to pose we're minding our own business and acknowledging the right of others to do the same. explicit derivative provisions; government coercion and that Tym Parsons person's claim to the property is based on homesteading or Furthermore, even I challenge Mr. socioeconomic caused by wasn't that problem one |