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Show Free Press Wednesday, October 30, 1991 - Page 2 Editorial It's important to vote in municipal election Next Tuesday is an important day for the future of the community, because on that day the men and women who will make crucial decisions about tomorrow will be elected. While municipal elections don't generate as much interest as, say, a presidential election or even a congressional race, the individuals elected next Tuesday will have a great impact in the lives of local residents. In fact, local elections probably have more to do with what happens y lives than any nain our tional election. will pay for water and sewer service, which company will collect our garbage and how much it will cost, where sidewalks be built, how city recreation programs will be run, and much, much more. City council members can help or hinder development and industrial growth. They can be great boosters of our community, or they can be little more than chair warmers. In fact, there are few elected offices which make decisions that affect our lives as directly as our local city councils. That is why each individual vote The man and women we choose to will be so important next Tuesday. elect next Tuesday will decide how Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 our communities will grow. They will p.m. plenty of time for everyone vote on proposed annexations and who is interested to get out and developments. They will determine express their opinion in the ballot which roads will be built, and where box. Vote! Our city elections are cruthey will be built. They will decide how much we cial to our community's future. day-to-da- - Coming to grips with Halloween's dark symbols Value figured out why I have such a hard time warming up to Halloween. And guess what? It doesn't have a thing to do I think Tve with groveling for cavities or the fact that I like to be frightened about as much as Elizabeth Taylor likes to be single. It's the symbolism. Think about it for a second. The contemdoor-to-do- porary symbols of Christmas holly wreaths, deep red lights and ornaments, evergreen trees, stockings, even Santa Claus himself-- - evoke warm, comforting, inviting feelings and memories. Ditto the symbolic Thanksgiving feast (unless, of course, you happen to be a turkey). When you think about Easter you think about cheerfully colored eggs and acute, cuddly Easter Bunny. The Fourth of July brings to mind patriotic parades and dazzling fireworks displays. Valentine's Day features romantic hearts and flowers and a cherubic Dan Cupid. And Arbor Day has its...well, OK forget Arbor Day. The symbols of Halloween, however, are dark, oppressive, troubling. Slinky black cats with their hair standing on end. Heavy cauldrons boiling and gurgling, spewing toxic fumes and into the air. Evil witches flying around on broomsticks. Ghosts, from to Goblins. Ghouls. Elvis impersonators. It isn't pretty. And it certainly isn't heartwarming. I've always felt that holidays should be packaged in warmfuzzies. I mean, if there isn't an appropriate Nat King Cole recording to go along with it, I don' t want - cast-iro- n Casper-The-Friend- Beetlejuice-The-Disgustin- ly g. to celebrate it. None of which makes me very popular around my house this time of year. I look at Halloween like Clarence Thomas looked at Senate confirmation something to be endured, not enjoyed. And I guess it shows. When my kids ask what I think they should I usually say somebe for thing like, "Just be a good person. That's all." I'm Halloween's Grinch and Scrooge rolled into one. At least, I used to be. But this year it's going to be different. And not because I'm or suddenly going to become a haunt-aholi- c a certified Halloweenie. I've just decided to take some of those Halloween symbols and imbue them with new meaning that makes the day...well, cheerier. At least, it will make the day a little more pleasant for me. for Take the traditional be will a it No simply example. longer - g, jack-o-lanter- n, SipeaCx By JOSEPH WALKER Series fever gives way to playoff quandry As the election rhetoric heats up and the snow comes down, this time of the year gets more and more exciting. Of course, all ofyou who know me realize that I become another person at World Series time. I change from a rather compla- -- acid. When the manufacture of paper became mechanized and wood pulp replaced rags, the chlorine and aluminum sulfate used by the machines to bleach the pulp and enhance water resistance left destructive acids in the paper. Books of that generation are being eaten away by a "cancer that cannot be cured. Gradually, they turn brown and crumble. This includes biomedical journals and books published in the 1850s, resources we cannot afford to lose. Presently, whenever your doctor needs urgently to identify a procedure or an antitoxin, his computer can interface with the National Library of medicine in Bethesda, Md. This immediate access to 6 million articles in 3,600 medical journal worldwide updates the physician within seconds. This instant access to the world's largest medical library saves live every day. But J. that library was about to self-- d BeDauG gray-haire- didn't mind the chopping and the chanting. I was even humming right along with Ted Turner and Jane Fonda. Yet, I could laugh at the posters hanging from the bleachers. One of them said, "See Ted. See Jane. See Ted and Jane lose." HI have to admit that it was kind of ironic to see Jane (the fighter for the "Save the Whales" campaign,) who was formerly known as "Hanoi Jane" sitting there with one arm around Ted Turner and the other arm chopping away with her little foam hatchet. Anyway, I loved the series. A whole new "You've been a Scoutmaster before, haven't you?" Grumble asked as he forked over thefunds for the day's Dr. Peppers and lead the way the booth. Yeah, but it was quite a few years ago. "Still, I bet you weren't surprised to find out that Boy Scouts are the greatest single cause of damage to the national forest, were you?" I had to admit I wasn't. I had read the news reports quoting a forest supervisor National Forwho said the Wasatch-Cach- e est suffered most at the hands of groups of several 12- - to boys. Of course Scouting officials will refute the figures, and who can blame them. For the boys, Scouting is a great program that introduces many of them to the joys of the Dtt By BETTY FOWLER bunch ofbaseball heroes were born includ- ing Jack Morris, John Smoltz and Steve Avery. I was impressed with every player on both sides. Both teams were fantastic. Did you know that Jack Morris is IDS? Speaking of teams who in the world should I root for next Friday when Lehi plays Dixie in a football playoff? Two of my very favorites, Cole Cooper and Kip Fowler will be squaring off against each other. Yup, Lehi's great young quarterback, Cooper, will be going head to head against my handsome, talented, smart, coordinated grandson, Kip. Ill be sitting in the stands by Bill and the rest of the family so I have to behave myself. But, 111 never forget when Bill was play- - Scouts practice high-impa- camping campers, right?" Yeah. "And in Utah, being accused of practicing environmentalism is like being accused of practicing communism. Or heresy." Okay, but where do the Scouts come in. "Right here. Who leads the Scouts? A lot and women, to be of very sure, but a lot of them aren't about to accept doctrines of environmentalism when it comes to camping." Now thaf s unfair. "Is it What kind of Scout leader were The Editor's Column By MARC HADDOCK Not necessarily, I said. I've known plenty of hunters, guys who go out and become part of the land on a mystic ritual low-impa- ct two-fiste- jack-o-lante- - year-roun- year-roun- year-roun- one-ha- lf nine-wee- IP caul KKnpuey Hews 0 1991 Los Angeles limes Syndicate destruct. On Oct 25, the National Library of Medicine is celebrating initial progress in rescuing these irreplaceable documents. Dr. Lois Debakey reports that 40 all medical journals are now printed e on paper. After five years of diligent effort, that's an accomplishment worthy of celebration. In Chicago, the Library of International Relations is watching its irreplaceable documents consume themselves and is presently computer imaging its documents for storage on discs. Ironically, there are writing of 35,000 years ago on cave walls and clay tablets that remain in good condition, while a 1912 work by Henrik Ibsen is already discolored and brittle. per-cent- of acid-fre- high-impa- ct .,, 1 naturally-destructiv- high-impa- ct Baden-Powe- swimming pool 8, The National Library of Medicine was originally established in 1836, as the Library of the Army Surgeon General. When Dr. John Billings became director in 1865, he expanded the library to make it available as a source of biomedical information for all physicians. Today's director, Dr. Donald Lindberg, notes that modern computer and communications technologies are extending this service worldwide and in the years to come newer technology promises even further to disseminate information from this source. But, it had to begin with preservation of the basic library. If all written copies of all the music of Brahms, Beethoven and Bach were destroyed, this generation and all succeeding generations would be poorer. If all the written records of medical research to date were to be destroyed, the loss in human suffering and human life would be incalculable. Convinced that one good example is worth a thousand admonitions, let us hope that the work of the Debakey committee in preserving medical journals might next insure whatever funding is necessary to preserve the rest of what's left in our written heritage. of duty rather than desire. "And I know what kind of camper you are. You hate sleeping out, you hate getting cold and wet, you hate smelling a smokey fire and you hate eating food you have to cook over that smokey fire." I plead guilty on all counts, I said. And I was starting to feel guilty, too. I was a poor outdoorsman. My assistant scout leaders were all, well, campers. As a net result, our Scout outings tended to be rather, er, aggressive towards , our campsite., ,, .., , , wre there are lots of good Scout in'P1' 'leaders but' there, helping kids learn, to ' the Great Outdoors despite their ' appreciate e tendencies. Butthere are also lots of scouters passing on the philosophy of hunting to the troops. These are the kids who visit our national forests and leave them the worse for the wear." What should we do? "Well, we could do what Scout leaders ll have dreamed of doing since first penned the Scout Oath." Yeah, I've heard this. Scouting would be great, if you could just leave the kids home,' right? "Right. But then it would just be more deer hunting, wouldn't it?" GGDdGOC Area needs re you?" An unwilling one, Fll admit. I served out ,n four-wheeler- s, LGfifiGPS ttO GlftG environme- ntally-sound -- - - - the high impact campers and the jack-o-lanter- door-to-do- - ct that pits the primitive man against his Great Outdoors. The problem, I told Grumble, is that boys dinner. of that age just have a tendency to want to "True, but you don't find him on the down. When they come up regular deer hunt, do you? He's deep in the tear things grotesque caricature carved on the side of a against the Great Outdoors, I guess they backwoods, far from the path beaten by pumpkin. No, sir. I choose to think of the figure they've finally fcund something that most of Utah's hunters." pumpkin as symbolic of life, and the carving can stand up to about anything they can I guess so, I admitted. represents each person's right to make of dish out. in Utah, deer hunting is a high "Nope, life whatever he or she wishes. The point Who would have thought they would be impact sport. You hunt with high impact can be made even more powerfully by placwrong. Apparently, in the battle between weapons - the higher the better - and with illusing a candle inside the Boys Scouts and Mother Nature, the boys Jugh impact equipment., Te,trucksthe trating how the light within us can illumithe frajjters.anct campers are winning. ' J" """ ' nate whatever we have made of ourselves. But it's only naturalffpr them to try, I if s all high impact. ' ... Yeah, J know,- -; it may be stretching "F.VAn h a fond W htrh fin iftactl'' Just Visit '(5? argued.;-things a bit to reach such a profound inter"Nothing "natural' about it," Grumble the grocery store the day before the hunt pretation of an object that often ends up smirked. "It's this state's deerhuntmental-ity.- " and youH see what I mean. Those d being crushed in the street by playful teeneaters in orange pack out more pork agers. But it gives me something positive to Wait a minute, I said. You can't drag the rinds, pickled peppers, bacon, eggs, steak talk about while we're dipping all of that deer hunters into this, just because the boys and beer than their family normally congunk out of our pumpkins when in orangehappen to be in the hills right now sumes in three months. And by the time carving time arrives at our house. and you happen to feel strongly about they get home, the food is gone." "trick or treatSimilarly, the So they like to have fun, I said. So what. them. ing," something that bothered me even when "But it goes beyond that High impact no. You misunderstand. Not the "No, I was doing it with my friends, is easier to hunters themselves the hunter mentalhunting teaches the elements of high imtake if I think of it as a symbolic way of pact camping. In fact, it makes high impact ity." teaching children that everyone has someI said, tired of fighting this philocamping an imperative." Okay, thing to offer, and that we can gain a lot by sophical battle. You explain. I'll listen. What do you mean. just opening ourselves up to the people Deer hunting in Haddock. "It's "Well, basically the philosophy divides simple, around us. The idea of dressing up in differis a high impact sport, right?" Utah campers into two camps, so the speak Utah ent costumes could be seen as a way of exploring the different facets of our personalities. And the bats, black cats and other scary symbols could be viewed as a way of giving us an annual opportunity to confront our deepest fears. Of course, I recognize there are some flaws with my Pollyanna perspective on year-roun- d Halloween. These days, it is unfortunately twice daily to work out. That immediately true that too much "openness" even with Editor: 1000 eliminates dozens of students who would summer kids, child risk. can a at approximately Every put friendly neighbors d from eight communities from facility participate if a local Nor am I sure I want my son Joe to "explore" ages were available. the Freddy Krueger facet ofhis personality. Payson to Lehi, participate in a valley-wid- e There is currently a great deal of interest swim league. Of these 1000 swimmers, over And many of us "confront our deepest fears" d from American 400 in the are Fork, Lehi, to swimming in northern Utah we have whenever every day Pleasant Grove area. County and that interest is growing. But our checking account balance. But due to the lack of facilities, the there is no place to swim. Sometimes there Still, it's worth a try. I'm not going to turn Halloween into Christmas or anything program in northern Utah County dies in is no place to swim even in the summer. This past summer AFs team had to like that. But maybe I can make it a little the winter. If children want to participate d program (which a swimmer share Lehi's pool with the early morning lap less dreary. The way I see it, some holidays in a are just naturally festive, while others must must do ifhe or she wants to be competitive) swimmers for the first three and k season because the they must travel to Orem on a daily basis. weeks of the have festivity thrust upon them. High school swimmers must travel to Orem Symbolically and otherwise. Book are burning from inside out There's a "book burning" going on in the United States. It's not a single book or a dozen - it is tens of thousands of volumes that are being "burned up" from the inside out by VOQD'G cent citizen, a philosophical sports fan, a d crazy doting grandma, to a loony. I don't dare visit anyone, though. Nobody would appreciate my cheering. This world series had me enthralled. Almost as much as when I used to watch Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Dizzy Dean. Those were the golden days of baseball, at least I thought so until this year. I was rooting for the Braves and no, I ingfortheU, and Ron, (Jan's husbandX was playing for BYU, and they squared off against each other up in the Ute stadium. Bui (after When Rick Dixon blind-sidethe whistle had blown) and wrecked his knee, Ron and Jan were still yelling for BYU and I had to be restrained from reaching out and touching (touching?) someone. But my feelings have changed over the years, and now I'm back to cheering for Ty and the Cougars. Except, of course, when they are playing the University of Utah. But help me. If you see me at the game acting kind of crazy when Dixie does something good, dont get upset. Please remember, Fm a grandma now, and grandmothers can get away with a lot of nonsense. Oh, how I wish I'd been a grandma Vay back when the U played the Y that warm sunny day in the Ute Stadium. I'd probably not have even had to serve time for whopping my own daughter that day. Blood is thicker than water and my blood bleeds straight purple, but gosh folks..... Anyway, come Friday, I'm going to remember that its just a game, and even though it may get tense, HI remember to keep my little hatchet in my pocket just like a good Pioneer should. After all, Fm a grandma now huh? Go Flyers! Go Pioneers! A.F. pool was not working. A year-roun- d pool facility in American Fork would not only benefit the citizens of American Fork, but theentire northern end of Utah County. The demand is there, the support is there. The financial burden would greatly be offset by the use of the facility by swimmers from neighboring communities. -- Martha Robinson Utah Co. Recreational Swim League President -- Diane Worthington UCRSL Secretary Fourth graders respond: Never seen drugs at school Editor: I have never seen drugs at lehi Elementary School. I am glad I haven't. Because maybe some of my friends will do drugs, they would probably ask me to do drugs. If they ask me I will say no. -- Cody Black Fourth grade, Lehi Elementary who use drugs are dumb People Editor: people who are not week. I think This week is drug-fre- e drugs are stupid. There are very few people in Lehi that use drugs and I like that. The people that u se drugs are dumb. The using drugs are cooler than the people who take drugs. . --Jamie Carlton Fourth Grade Lehi Elementary I hope I never take drugs Editor I am glad that I haven't seen any drugs in the school and if I do I will tell my teacher and tell my mom. I would not go to school until they got rid of them. If they asked me, I would say, "no way, never in my lifetime." I hope I never take drugs when I am older. -- Amanda White Fourth Grade Lehi Elementary Policy on letters to the editor welcome letters to the editor. All letter should bo typewritten and Letters moat also be signed, and must include the writer's name and telephone number. Please send letter to Editor, Newtah News Group, P.O. Box 7, American Fork, Utah, 84003. We double apaeed. |