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Show Free Press Wednesday, November 9, 1994 Page 2 Editorial Denial, delay won't clean up air pollution Utah County has bad air. It has air in the winter. and unless the local powers-that-b- e can present a plan to make our air better particularly in the winter - someone else will make a plan for us, worse Until and force that plan on us. These simple facts are behind much of the controversy around Utah County's forced compliance with the Clean Air Act. Utah County has been at odds with the Environmental Protection Agency for years over how we will clean up our air, and to a large extent, the county's response to the federal agency's demands have been a combination of denial, delay and defiance. And that's why the federal government will take steps to clean up our air for us because we simply have been unable to take the necessary steps to clean it up ourselves. The issue resurfaces this time of of year because of the - oxygenated fuels in area gasoline pumps. The oxygenated fuel is designed to reduce the carbon monoxide pollu- tion in our valley. We don't like the fuel because it costs more and burns less efficiently than standard gasoline - but it bums cleaner, and use of oxygenated fuels will reduce the amount of carbon monoxide in our air. This will be particularly important later in the winter when, duringinversion periods, we are forced to breathe our own pollutants. It also comes to mind as colder weather appears because days for wood-burnin- non-bur- n stoves are just g around the corner. We also don't like being told whether we can burn wood or not to keep our homes warm. But the stoves are a major cause of PM10 and other air pollution. By obeying the burning restrictions, we help make our air safer to breathe, especially for young children, senior citizens and individuals with respiratory problems. Finally, it won't be long before the EPA instigates its enhanced emission testing program a program that will force automobile owners to have their automobile emissions tested at a government-run facility. Despite the existing emissions testing program, our cars continue to be a maj or cause ofour valley's air pollution problems. Utah County has failed to deal with this problem, so the federal government will do it for us. Because of local government delay, the federal government has been given a green light to take over. We can deny there is a problem, but refusing to face the fact that we have a problem will neither solve the problem, nor sway the EPA, Defiance will result in the loss of federal highway funds and other monies necessary to maintaining our county's infrastructure. It will also result in the continuing loss of local control over these important matters. Denial, delay and defiance. It is an approach which has created our current air pollution problems. Only a change of attitude on the part of our county government and residents will provide us with a real solution to improving air quality in Utah County. - - - Death penalty is a must to preserve our liberty I have been asked on several occasions what is my stand on capital punishment. I could answer that by remindingthe readers of the awful condition of the law in this country. Let us look at the actions of the Civil Liberties Union. I feel they are mistaken in their ideals. For example, a short time ago Shirley Peddler of this organization said that Utah's justice is barbaric. Barbaric? Let us look back through the murders in Utah during the past years. In our town there was the Poulson case. A nice little girl was babysitting when she was cruelly murdered. Killpack and Lance killed six people and because of the weakness in our law they escaped the death penalty and have since boasted how they did it. The i murders in Ogden made decent people sick to their stomachs. Barbaric, indeed. What could be more cruel and despicable than these things? No one likes to see a person die but justice must be done. If a dog becomes a killer he is hunted down and destroyed. But there are those among us who would make heroes out of those who defy the law. The Civil Liberties Union claims it stands for civil liberty, yet it violates the very principles for which it stands. Civil liberty is not for a preferred group, but for everyone. If a man takes a life, then, to preserve liberty, die he must. In the face of an overwhelming majority who favor capital punishment, this organization is determined to fight against it. This organization is small but its voice is loud and is being heard. I think of the son "Stout Hearted men" and it should be sung by all of us. "Give me some men who are stout hearted men, who will fight for the right they adore. Give me some men who are stout Hi-F- hearted men and 111 soon give you ten What ever happened to the old bag? The scariest, spookiest, most mysterious place known to man has undoubtedly got to be the woman's purse. 3I No matter what the shape or size of the old bag, it is designed primarily for intake; its output is limited to the owner's approval. I can't understand why a purse snatcher ByRUSSDALY would want to stay in the profession after stealing just one handbag. Surely he Or how about your paper money? Is it wouldn't be able to get anything out of it of organized neatly in one part of the wallet, or any value to him. do the bills get wadded up and placed in the As far as I can tell, the purse is a repository for various and sundry items ranging first available area, even if it was designed from lipstick and safety pins to tissues and to hold something else? Remember those little folded paper suckable candies and gum. Most women probably also carry their gizmos that kids would make during school, d devices that could be car keys and the family checkbook in there, the to opened up first one way then the other? too, but those items become The wallet that my wife uses now is like their husbands just by the fact that they that. When I've unlatched one side to approhave been inserted into the purse, not because man aren't allowed in the purse, but priate a dollar, I find her credit cards. As I close it back up and try another opening, I because they couldn't find anything anysee the coin pouch. way. Yet another direction leads me to a third And even though men don't really look of miscellaneous items, so by the time I set lies with fault the very thoroughly, usually the purse. actually do find the money, Fve forgotten In fact, one time my wife's purse ate her what I was going to buy. A friend told me that she fears her huskeys, similar to Jonah's experience with the whale. Can you imagine how frustrating band's large wallet might be, at the very that was to be able to hear them calling to least, the cause of worn spots on his pants, us from the belly of the purse and not be able and possible even lead to spinal problems or to rescue them from the monster? damage. But ifhe's anything like me, his wallet is One amazingresident of the typical purse is the wallet, a extension of the in impeccable order - each item in its purse because it, too, is capable of holding proper location. At one place I worked when I was a a plethora of items in its clutches. The typical wallet is designed to orgateenager, I was taught that the paper monnize its contents by type, such as credit ey was to be placed in the cash register in a cards in little slots, paper money in one certain order, with the presidential porcompartment, and coins in a zippered pouch, traits all facing the same way. So it really bothered me a few years ago etc. Do the credit cards stay in their little when I was working weekends at a conveslots, or are they placed in the coin area nience store to start my shift with a till full after they are used? Do you worry that of mismatched bills. I may be a little obsessive, but I do the you've lost them when you go to use them same thing with my wallet as I place the the next time? Daly PlaneC flower-shape- off-limi- ts stand-alon- e A few more FOfMsincg We are running out of Fantasy Islands You can run, but you can't hide. Men and women, especially men, perhaps for as long as time, have yearned for a place where they could "get away from it all." We have sought a "fantasy island" where one could live happily ever after amid beauty and plenty and let the rest of the world go by. Two years ago, I journeyed to the "for- bidden island" of Nihau, downwind from the sheltering Hawaiian island of Kauai. There, I'd been told Polynesians lived as they had lived for 1,000 years undisturbed - fishing, farming and making -- love. I returned disillusioned, having dis- covered that the islanders are kept comfortable only because they are regularly by the Robinson family on Kauai. So the youngsters have discovered Twinkies and soda pop and diabetes and heart disease, and life expectancy is less each year. That Eden was a disappointment. More recently, visiting Ireland, I heard about the island of Inis Meain just outside storied Gal way Bay. Playwright J.M. Synge had described life there as "perhaps the most primitive that is left in all Can the sea and a small, inhospitable pier. - Peaul Then came electricity in 1978 and television. With appetites whetted by what islanders saw on TV, running water came next - then telephones in 1987. Then came a new pier for tourist boats and an airstrip for tourist planes and -past a Stone Age tomb - a tavern for tourists. The language and the traditions are changing so fast that the uniqueness tourists came to see is scarcely there anymore. The native population is shrinking -- eras Paul Harvey Product Inc. 1994 Europe." National Geographic, in 1971, called Inis Meain "a timeless isle that even today enjoys few modern conveniences." I ran out of time before I could visit, and now it's too late. Dara Millbank went for the Wall Street Journal - and returned disillusioned. Inis Meain, for centuries, was about fishing, farming, basket weaving and story telling around peat fires. The mostly barren island of limestone lacked even indigenous soil. To plant crops, inhabitants had to mix seaweed with sand. But there were no police, there was no divorce, and islanders were protected by -- wind-swe- pt 360 in 1961 to 225 now. Traditionalists say they would rather abandon the place "than see it overrun by strangers." The formerly tarred canvas boats are now made of fiberglass. Satellite dishes beam the world onto the island. The new Land Rovers require paved roads. With the island's headlong leap into the 20th century, Irish Gaelic is giving way to mongrelized English for the convenience of the visitors. "Progress" has come to Inis Meain. Dara Faherty, watching the sun go down in Galway Bay, says, "People were happier in my time." .jiff By MARC HADDOCK Another election idea. It probably didnt happen, but wouldn't it have been great if Merrill Cook won a plurality of the votes in his congressional race, and then had to go to a run off election because voters approved his Initiative A. It would only be great if a victim of his own Merrill lost the run-ofsilly initiative. That would be the definition of irony, if you ask me. Serve him right, too. -- -- By TOM GRIFFITHS thousand more. It's time that we, the silent majority, stood shoulder to shoulder for the things we believe in. To be forgiving is human but to be weak is tragic. In recent years our politicians wanted to give a blanket reprieve to draft dodgers and deserters. They said it was time for our country to be united. Am I being too severe when I say that those draft dodgers and those who deserted the armed forces want to renew their citizenship they should be made to prove their intentions to be loyal citizens by completing their service with the military? I have been privileged to stand in two military cemeteries and look down ont he rows of white crosses, the resting place of men who gave their lives for their country. Each time I have felt a great wave of gratitude flood my being for those brave men who gave all for their country. Whether it be in upholding and sustaining the law, or fighting for what our country advocates, we cannot afford to be weak. To forgive those who failed their country will not make her strong. catch-and-carry-- ever-increasi- non-essenti- growing by leaps and bounds with everybody wanting to build everywhere, and you work for the most fickle employer in the world the people of Utah County. I mean, we haven't elected a commissioner to a third term in a years. And there are just too many problems for any normal human to deal with effectively. Why are all these people fighting over this job? The same can be said for most of the political posts we voted on yesterday. Why? - is - I n, n. notes on the campaign past Now that the campaign is over, and the election is history, I just want to know one thing? Does Enid Green Waldholtz or Enid Waldholtz Green or know where her district really is? For the last several months, we have been getting faxes by the fistfuls from different candidates. Dixie Thompson has been telling us how bad Bill Orton is. Bill has been telling us how good Bill Orton really is, and how Dixie just can't get her facts straight. PatSheatelhngushowlongOrrin Hatch has been our senator and that it's too long, and Orrin Hatch telling us nothing, because he doesn't have to. And Enid attacking Karen Shepherd, attacking Merrill Cook, attacking Bill Clinton - apparently unaware that no matter how strongly we feel about Enid, or against her, it doesn't make any difference because American Fork is in the Third Congressional District and we don't vote for Enid anyway. I wonder how many other newspapers outside of the Second Congressional District have been throwing away Enid faxes because they were meaningless? I didn't get a single Merrill Cook fax, nor did Karen Shepherd's campaign send me any information over the information highway. But Enid's campaign just kept 'em coming - even after we had passed our last day to print election information. I kept thinking the faxes would stop. After all, Utah's Second Congressional District has extended area service calling privileges. Some astute campaign person ought to have figured out at some point that spending money to send faxes long distance was a fool's errand. But apparently Enid had enough money that she didn't care. By the time you read this, the election will be over. I don't know the results as I write it, but I really am concerned about Enid winning. I don't want any more faxes from the Second Congressional District. And I don't care if Enid spends her own hard earned millions making long distance phone calls to newspapers outside her district, but I am seriously opposed to our tax dollars being used to send out that kind of information. whatever-her-name-- money in increasingnumerical value, while keeping the bills all facing the same direction.. That compulsion even drives me to aggressively keep others out of my wallet, in case they attempt to place a bill in backor worse, backwards wards or upside-dowand upside-dowAnd for all the reasons listed above, I maintain a fairly strict policy of staying out of my wife's wallet or purse. I think purses have gone through two major metamorphoses over the years. First, at one time, a man wouldn't be caught dead carrying his wife's purse. If she left it in the theater or on the pew at church, she was the one who had to retrieve it. As bags became en vogue for men to carry, husbands were left with little excuse for getting the old bag. (But I think we still try to conceal it as much as possible when we're faced with that ordeal.) Second, sizes and styles have come and gone according to fad and fashion. What I perceive as the modest, black patent leather purse of the 50s and 60s, gave way to the oversized of the 70s and 80s, when women started supply of this requiring an and that. Whole changes ofclothes could be accommodated for the working woman who intended to work out at the gym after finishing her employment duties. Mothers with babies could use the space to hold diapers and infant entertainment items easily without the use of an additional diaper bag. But then came a downsizing, perhaps a nostalgic return to the 20s, when the bigger and purses were purged of small clutches carried only keys and the minimum daily requirements of cosmetics. Meanwhile, men's wallet styles may have changed slightly, but one thing remained the same we still put our money in one bill at a time. f, In the county commission race, which is over, too, you just have to wonder why Malcolm Beck and Richard Anderson, the incumbents who lost in the June primary election, waited until the last week to announce their intention to run write-i- n cam- paigns. And then it seems like they went on vacation. They really didn't want to win very badly, did they? Or else wouldn't they have tried harder? Frankly, I think Utah County Commissioner would be a pretty crummy job right now. You've got the feds all over you for clean air stuff, the county population is And what about the people running for posts like county surveyor and county recorder and county sheriff and other jobs like that these folks are running for their y regular, jobs. Most of them are running unopposed because other people don't want their jobs either. The people who do want the job usually work in the same office and feel that getting elected is the only way to climb the pseudo-corporaladder. Mostofthem figure they'll wait to run until their boss retires, since running in an election against your current boss is a dubious career move. Most of these positions should probably be appointed, anyway. But that is beside the point. Aren't you glad that you don't have to run for for your regular, job every four years? Would you win? Who would run against you? I've got a great job because I would run unopposed. Very few people would want to do this crazy kind of work, where you end up making people unhappy on a weekly basis. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't either. get - day-to-da- te day-to-d- National Hospice Month celebrated Editor: . I would like to draw your attention to a very important celebration - National Hospice Month. During the month of November, Creekside Home Health Care, as well as agencies statewide, join together in comevent in the memorating this month-lon- g many communities from Logan to St. George. National Hospice Month provides the opportunity for agencies to pay tribute to the thousands of physicians, nurses, therapists, home care aides, social workers and volunteers who dedicate their lives by providing hospice services to the terminally ill and their families. In addition, it provides the opportunity to promote public awareness and to educate elected officials by focusing attention on the issues of hospice sionals and volunteers who serve thousands of terminally ill patients and their families. The medical, psychological and spiritual support, primarily based in the home, enables families to remain together...sharing the final days in peace, comfort and dignity. As we celebrateNational Hospice Month, we urge you to take this time to inquire about: what services are available to you; how to get those services; how to pay for those services; and what benefits you are entitled to under Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance. We encourage you to learn all you can about hospice before you, a relative, or a friend who depends on you is faced with a terminal illness. care. Hospice care involves the combined knowledge and skills of a team of profes -- Maryann Pales Hospice Area Administrator Say 'No' to chattel abortions Editor: The Utah Citizens for Alternatives to Abortion call upon Governor Michael Leavitt to keep his promise to defend Utah's abortion laws. Abortion is violence. At the National Prayer Breakfast in February 1994, Mother Theresa said that abortion is wrong because it teaches people to solve their problems through violence. How can the State of Utah achieve excellence in education if we teach young people to solve their problems through abortion? Every year in Utah there are approximately 6,000 abortions. Most of those abortions are not emergency medical abortions - most of them are birth control abortions. How long can the State of Utah do nothing to stop the slaughter of the innocents? -- Last week, we gave a presentation on abortion at a local high school. A young woman with cerebral palsy contributed to our discussion, expressing her opinion that abortion kills. As wo watched a video showing the broken bodies of aborted babies, the young woman cried out "No!" in uninhibited grief. The State of Utah and the Governor of Utah need to do the same thing just say NO to chattel abortion. - -- Cynthia Hallen W welcome letter loth editor. Alt letter should Ik written and double spaced. Lttttrt muet alto be tlgned, and mutt Include the writer name and telephone number. Please tend letters to Ed or, Newtah Newt Group, P.O. Box 7, American Fork, Utah, MOOS. yso:) ?iGUv- - |