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Show um3iAhj(Bini Free Press - Wednesday, January 4, 1995 - Page 2 UMMJMlllm County pay proposal is bad public policy Different people react to the same event in different ways; even the same person may react to areoccurringevent in different ways each year. This was obviously myyear to be a victim of what I now believe to be one of our crueler one-tim- - quired to justify before the voters each and every pay raise. It's that simple. These men knew beforehand exactly how much their respective jobs paid when they filed for election. Ifthe compensation was inadequate, they should not have run. And if the pay scale for the elected officials falls behind market prices, then the pay raises can be made but for the next individual to fill that office. Then at the subsequent election the increased salary may attract a more qualified candidate, and the voters can decide who they want to hold the higher paying job. It's a fact that the pay for elected - semi-form- low-stres- al s. Even the usual gala New Year's parades held no interest for me, possibly because it just isn't right to celebrate January 1 on January 2. (I have the same feelings about the unethical manipulation of the Fourth of July onto a day of convenience. If the Founding Fathers had meant for us to move the holiday, they wouldn't have gone to so much trouble to set it up on the Fourth in the first Although it is one of our more mundane trials of life, learning to change both the month and the year on checks and other official documents can seem like a great place.) plague. A sini By TOM GRIFFITHS jf praised them of the situation. They said they would leave immediately. I made arrangements to stay with him until his folks arrived. That evening they came, a fine, elderly couple. As they loaded Alex into the car I couldn't help but breathe a prayer. "Dear God, why must the sins of the children fall upon the parents?" I thought that was the end of the Alex saga, but a couple of weeks later I received a letter from Alex's mother. She said that Alex was now in a sanitarium, helping the gardener with the flowers. Her closing remark was, "I pray to God he will make my shoulders strong enough to bear this burden." Ifthat was the end, but it wasn't. Another letter came from that mother. "Alex took his own life a few days ago." There was a man who had everything that a man could desire but threw it away because of a weakness of the flesh. But it's been a wild ride. We started the holiday season early with Star Trek: Generations. That adventure has been detailed in a previous column. On Christmas day we compounded the holiday trek when we unwrapped three videos of Star Trek movies. These were the odd movies numbers one, three and five. We already owned the even movies. After all, it is common knowledge that the odd movies are not as good as the even movies. I mean. Star Trek: The Motion Picture just about killed the market until the wonderfully exciting Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn was released, keeping the movie run alive, spawning the other four sequels, and proving the Ricardo Montalban could still really act if he was given a meaty enough role. Then it seemed like every other Star Trek movie was pretty good. Number Four had the whales and was a lot of fun. Number Six was witty and timely, discussing the end of hostilities between the Federation and the Klingon Empire about the same time as the Berlin Wall was coming down. Numbers Three andFive(especially Five) fell short of excellence. Rumor is they didn't name the new Star Trek: Generations movie Number Sevenbecause they wanted toavoid the curse. (I enjoyed the film, but critics pretty much savaged the effort.) Anyway, with the complete collection, gujg 1995 Paul Harvey Products Inc. Editor: The Huntingtons Disease Awareness Group of Utah are trying to locate family, friends and individuals who are or could be reservation in South Dakota. Indeed, a boy patient named Pedro, age eight, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was taken to the reservation hospital. His local doctor, using a new diagnostic tool called a dermascope, gave physicians at Mayo a close-u- p televised picture of Pedro's rash. It was a more detailed picture than could be seen with the naked eye. The two doctors discussed Pedro's unusual rash while Pedro participated, volunteering symptoms and askingques-tions- . The Mayo specialist was thus able to prescribe appropriate treatment. Pedro's rash has since cleared complete- - less-traffick- major-- well-equipp- league city-itia- -- there. It will be. Already, the specialists of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., are available for consultation with doctors in two sister in Jacksonville, Fla., and facilities Scottsdale, Ariz. Up the road ahead, the doctor or nurse in Timbuktu will have the same advantage of communicating by satellite with Mayo, where vital signs and symptoms of an ailing patient will be diagnosed by - Edifice's Column computer. Telemedicine consultation will one day be available to the most isolated doctor or nurse in the most remote village. The fictional Joel Fleischman - with his computer in Sicily, Alaska will be able to communicate puzzling symptoms to Mayo for the present best judgement of experts in specific diseases. Ninety-plu- s percentofhuman ailments can now be categorized so specifically that diagnosis can be made by consultation. Only for the more complex ailments would you have to travel to be examined at a major medical center. Does this suggest that one day, you might be able to type your symptoms into your own home computer for evaluation by Mayo's specialists? Conceivably, you would have to be a subscriber to the - -- long-distan- ly. v 4 . By MARC HADDOCK .. we started through the odd movies, hoping for the best. Amazingly, despite the disparaging remarks, the odd film versions have turned out to be delightfulhbwingchang-e- s and development in characters that we had forgotten about in all the bad publicity. It all put us in a Star Trek state of mind when, as a family party, we returned to the Space Center in Pleasant Grove's Central mission in the Elementary for a two-hoUSS Voyager. The space simulator provides a setting for role playing exercises that teach cooperation, creative thinking, ur - leadership and integrity among other things. Our mission gave Jeffrey a stint in the captain's chair for his birthday and he did pretty well. At least we survived the mission, which is more than I can say for our mission under the direction of some adult office types a few month's earlier. Although Star Trek is never mentioned in these simulated voyages, the terminology of Star Trek is used for the simulations, and footage from the various films (we could now identify them all) is used on the - screen to display different outcomes in the simulation. It's a lot like being there, and a lot of fun. Then, as a cap to two weeks ofTrekkiness, we spent New Year's Eve in Salt Lake's Theatre watching Star Twek: The Search for Spoof, an incredibly funny take-of- f on the old television show, where we follow the adventures of the Starship Boobyprize, its hammy captain, James T. Smirk.and its crew of Mr. Schlock, Dr. "Groans" McPoi, engineer Scotchy and communications officer Lt. Oyoohoo. The production is proof that sometimes parody is the best revenge. The play takes on the Star Trek series and movies, Star Trek: The Next Generation, not to mention Casablanca, The Princess Bride and other movies. Actor Eric Jensen does a dead-osend up of William Shatner as James T. Smirk that must be seen to be believed. Jensen nails the mannerisms, affectations and overacting of the Captain Kirk that still makes the old Star Trek television shows so campy to a for Tiberius. All of the actors do a good job but Jensen steals the show from first to last. It was appropriate, I guess, to end the year making fun of our favorite avocation. After all, if you take this all too seriously, you can get trekked out, and nobody wants that to happen. As for the coming year, we are looking forward to the premiere of Star Trek: Voyager at some point in the television season. After all, as someone once told me, "Reality is for people who can't deal with scin T- ence fiction." As for the new year, 1995: "Engage." Group seeks Huntington's Disease sufferers service, so the more immediate access will be from the office of a country doctor in the Colorado mountains, in the fishing village in Nova Scotia or on the Indian m too. Let toes &o tins oQitiou New technology may set us free EPouE One year, I planned ahead and wrote "January" and the correct ending to 19 filling in somewhere between 10 and20 checks ahead of time to save myself having to think fast. I've got to admit that, for those checks, it worked great! Too bad I reverted back'to December of the previous year on the very first one I had to do at the store, even though we were almost to February. Maybe the problem is deciding which calendar to use. We got one at the dentist's office, one from our insurance agent, one at the department store. Which one should we use, given that none of the pictures so far have really jumped out at us and said, "Hang me." So we have to resort to some sort of utility quotient. Which one will serve our needs better? Which one will we still be using in June? That problem is even worse when choosing a day planner. I just switched to refill pages made by a different manufacturer. Will these new pages not only adapt to my old system, but also make me even more efficient at the same time? Horror! Will I decide in March or July that neither one is really any good and suddenly have to transfer all of my information to another book? No! January, if not the November or December prior, is the time to make that decision and stick with it and make it work. Even if it kills you. Another grim reminder ofwhat lies ahead will trickle in through the mail as we each receive our W-- 2 statements, reminding us that, although we think we have a great amount of time until April 15, tax time is just around the corner. It may not be a worry for some, but at the very least, it is a pain. However you get through it, I do wish you the best. And for added good luck, I wish you the best with your checkwriting this month, holiday in the land of the final frontier The pletely. He started to work and things went well until pay day, then he was gone for over a - month. It's been a Star Trek holiday. Who would have thought that one simple television show from the Sixties could have expanded to fill the two weeks of Christmas so com- ment. one another. In the beginning, we congregated for security: Now, the cities are our least-saf- e environments. Historically, cities flowered where transportation was convenient. Transportation is now convenient everywhere and communication is instantaneous. Then why our population not redistribute itself out there in the clean air, sunshine and countryside? It's "security" again. This time, it is the availability of hosdoctors and and lures reassure that pitals more. New technology may set us free! "Mayberry USA" would be a happy environment in which to live, work and rear a family - if only the Mayo Clinic were w changed. Califor-nia.Than- American cities are suffocating. Why do we persist in piling ourselves on top of key In the end, all of this ultra-loholiday inactivity set me for the big one, the realization that it is all over tonight. The magic hour is once again midnight, but it means something completely different than it did two nights ago. We tried to get the kids to bed early Monday night, admonishing them that it would be hard to get up for school after 11 days of lollygagging about. They didn't listen, and were still up at 10:30 that night when I left to finish some projects for the paper. I'm not worried, though, because it will hit them when we wake them for school. I don't think that even Crunch Berries will convince them that they should be awake at such an hour. And if the fatigue of Tuesday didn't get them, the paper route this morning surely will have convinced them of the error of their ways and the wisdom of their parents. For adults, the nightmare just begins. This particular year, it might start with the weather. We've enjoyed some mild weather for this time of year. Coupled with the fact that winter didn't officially start until Dec. 21. That means we aren't really in the middle of winter until the end ofthis Then we settled back into a routine of work during the week, nothing too burdensome, but enough to keep us in touch with the real world. New Year's Eve was even I think we actually went to sleep in 1994 and missed the whole event. Party animals we weren't this year. For the drinking crowd, Sunday must have been a blur, but for us, it was just another ordinary Sunday. No, I take that back, it was even more laid back than usual, because we were able to once again enjoy the traditional Sunday afternoon nap since our worship time had - j By RUSS DALY well. He couldn't overcome weakness of the flesh week. He was drunk. When he returned to work he was quite repentant and swore it wouldn't happen again. But another pay day came and he was gone again. This time when he returned his pink slip was waiting for him. I was called from the front office. They didn't want to let this man go. His personality had won them over. He swore it would never happen again. Would I give him one more chance? I interviewed him and I must confess he won me over and I gave him a job. Two weeks later he was gone for a week. He was told not to return. The night of his dismissal he called on the telephone. He was sobbing. Between sobs he was threatening to end it all. Could I help him? Three o'clock in the morning I dashed down to the hotel where he was and a more pitiful sight I never did see. He had been on booze all day and was about ready to end it all. I poured a few cups of coffee down him and finally got him to sleep. I then called his parents in Redwood City, Calif, and ap- - D(Sll7 Pi(iBl post-Christm- as County Assessor, County Attorney, County ClerkAuditor, County Recorder, County Sheriff and County Treasurer starting with the county officials who take office in 1995. Once enacted, pay raises for elected officials would no longer be subject to public inspection or public debate, but would take place as a matter ofcourse. It's a poor way to set public policy -and how much we pay our elected officials is public policy. Pay raises for the officials should be a matter of public debate and open commission votes. And no elected official should be able to raise his or her pay during the current term of office. The proposal before the county commission violates both of these principles. As the old year bids us farewell, my thoughts turn to men I once knew and who influenced my life. The first one to come to my mind was h k Alex. He came to Geneva Steel from goodness we knew nothing ofhis background. He came lookingfor work. He had everything to offer, a good body and looks to match. His personality could win anyone over. Of course, he was given a job. There was an opening in the Open Hearth depart- TllS months. Christmas was abreeze, especially since we didn't really even do anything about it until the day of Christmas Eve. It's not that great to be caught running around trying to get everything done on that last day, but it sure beats the letdown of putting so much time into it that one day hardly seems enough. So we hustled and be bustled, as it were, and we ended up having a very nice Christmas Day. In fact, we even handled the escape of the hamsters quite Utah County's new commissioners officials falls behind pay raises in the will open the year with a tough task - general market. Elected officials must - deciding if they deserve a pay raise or have their salaries increased by gove not. And not just a pay raise ernment action, while the pay for regbut one that keeps rising. ular county employees is driven by How the commission votes on a promarket forces. As a result of this, county employee posed pay increase for county elected officials will give county residents a salaries have risen 20 percent over the pretty clear picture of where the two past eight years and in some offices new commissioners stand, especially the employees are making more monin view of the campaign rhetoric that ey than their elected bosses. was passed around in the last election. It is this disparity which has resultAs a matter of public policy, the ed in the proposal which was being commissioners should make certain considered by last year's commission, that any increase in compensation for and which now passes on to our new their elected positions doesn't take ef- commission. The proposal establishes fect until after another election for an automatic annual increase in the their respective offices. salary of our County Commissioners, And no automatic increase in elected officials salaries ought to be implemented. Government officials should be re- lTTTlITIllliMinT1lTin-Tmir- January (noun): 'month of stark reality' Editorial - MiUMM That was a test. There have been similar tests involving patients in smalltown Kenyon, Minn., and Amman, Jordan. Telemedicine's potential applications involve teaching, updating textbooks and seminar participation. As rural electricity turned off the dark, telemedicine will distribute better care at greater convenience and lower cost everywhere. Not all'that we call progress is progress. This is PROGRESS! involved with Huntingtons Disease. Huntingtons Disease causes deterioration of the brain neurons and since the 1993 breakthrough where the Huntingtons Disease gene was discovered, it is one of the few genetically linked diseases receptive to a predictive test. Huntingtons Disease has a renegade gene which derails the mental and physical functions of its victims. With the aid of our Utah Support Group, testing can ow be done at the University of Utah genetics v department. Our support group meets every three months. For more information about the group, contact Clara Goudy, Jim Stringfellow, or Merla Gor756-4375- 2, 292-127- don, 225-310- 6, 4. The next meeting of the support group will be Saturday, Jan. 21, at 1 p.m. in the Provo Library, 425 W. Center Street. The speaker will be Randy Marchant from the Social Security Office about those benefits. -- Merla Gordon Hadfield family fund established Editor: At the passing of our good friend Scott Hadfield we are concerned for the welfare of his family. Becasue of Scott's health and work situation, he was not able to obtain life insur' ance. Cindy has been attending college and has a couple ofyears to complete her degree. It will be difficult for cindy to provide for the needs of her home and four children during this time without our assistance. Therefore, we have established an account in Scott's name at the Lehi Branch of Zions Bank. Donations will be accepted at any Zions Bank branch. Any contribution would be greatly appreciated by the family. - Mark Wilson and the Lehi High School Class of 1972 Policy on letters to the editor We welcome letters to the edin tor. All letters should be 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. type-writte- il 4 mil it J" i a ii i. ... - . |