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Show S H,!!top Times April! 2. COMMENTS 1991 m ens Some were touching enough to bring tears to my eyes. "But," he said, "we're against the war in the Gulf and w e think you all are cowards for bombing civilian targets and..." At that moment a thousand and one faces flooded my mind. They were the faces of uniformed men and women with sweat and sand on their brows who spend 12- - and days performing the duties been called upon to have they complete. For a split second 1 saw a huge American flag unfurling in the breeze and one more face. The face of the American prisoner of war that had been etched in my memory since I had seen him on the news. Could these be the people he was calling cowards? I was beyond a loss for words, so I hung up on him. Perhaps the man hadn't considered the possibility he was speaking to by SSgt. Mona Long Luke AFB. Ariz. blew it a few weeks ago. A man called my office; he didn't give his name and I pre sume it was because of w hat he had to say. "We want to say something," he said. thought. Either he has multiple personalities or there's a ranting mob surrounding him and the telephone. "Who's we?" I asked. "Who is this?" Anxiety formed a steel rod from my heart to my throat. "We, my family," he insisted. "We want to tell you that we say God bless the troops in the Gulf and we hope they all return home soon." For an instant I thought he might not be all bad.' Since the Gulf crisis had begun, I'd been on the receiving end of several calls of this nature from people voicing their support. Scary, I 14-ho- ur anti-aircra- ft Libraries offer many opportunities by Lily Eskelsen Utah Education Association 've seen parents who will spend hundreds of dollars on the current gadgets for increasing U their child's achievement in school. ThevH buy computers, talking calculators, maps that light up when you touch the right spot. So often we overlook the obvious tools. The ones right around the corner. The ones that don't cost a penny. When is the last time you visited a public library with your child? I always thought library o '90 te vmmim '90 GEO V.W. FOX Air cond. GL Stock U017631 LSI. aM wnimii ft '50 PRIZM Stock U055816 of 14-2- 0 8B '89 Coupe, auto, trans., air. stereo Stock 'U551738 Sergeant Long is with the 832nd Air Division Public Affairs Office at Luke. Editor's note: UEA. April '90 SUNBIRD TOPAZ XR5 Neat Car! Special Price Stock 'U619552 Loaded, sunroof, air cond. REM Editor's note: library. They need someone to take them by the hand and show them a window of opportunity. A door to a wider world. Of course, a trip to the public library would mean a loss of television viewing time. It would mean a child would have to make some decisions, choices beyond which channel to watch or which Nintendo cartridge to plug in. It would mean a parent may have to set an example by checking out a good book, by reading with a child. These things, however, are not drawbacks, they're bonuses. cards were as essential to school children as their immunizations. Today's libraries are so much more than most of us realize. Librarians are professionals who pride themselves in their ability to guide, suggest, inform and locate. Like the yellow pages, it's their job to "get used." Library programs in so many schools have suffered because of tight budgets. Some larger elementary schools can only accommodate students for half an hour every two weeks. Kids need more time than this to learn to love a miss began to wonder who else the caller considered cowards. The Kuwaiti students who left their schools and armed themselves to train and serve next to allies in hopes of freeing their country? Maybe the Kuwaiti woman who pleaded with Iraqi soldiers to take her rather than her daughter, or the pregnant woman who attempted to flee rather than face the bayonets of et more Iraqi soldiers. He probably adn't heard of them, and he wasn t alone. But I had heard and read of them. Their images are still clear in my mind. Twenty-eigh- t nations were also appalled by the atrocities committed under the regime of one man, and they united against him. What about the Israelis who had done everything in their power to remain neutral? They lived in constant fear of chemical Scud missile attacks and carried gas masks at their sides at all times. Were they a less brave nation of people? I'll never know what the' person who called thought, because I hung up on him. I can honestly say now I'm sorry I did. someone with a loved one in the Gulf. He probably didn't know roughly 10 percent of the military members at Luke AFB had deployed in support of Operation Desert Storm and the chances of him finding a sympathetic ear was slim. Could it be that regardless of the media coverage this war has received, he missed the many press briefings explaining that at great risk to allied air crews, the military was avoiding civilian areas to the best of their ability? Hadn't he seen feature stories about U.S. families who have been torn apart? Maybe he had missed the scenes of spouses, moms, dads, fiancees and children mourning the deaths of their loved ones at gravesides. Perhaps the caller didn't believe Saddam Hussein, who used chemical weapons on his own people and dumped thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf waters, needed to be stopped. Maybe using hostages as human shields and basing weapons and command and control centers in schools and hospitals wasn't as cowardly as most people thought. After my adrenaline subsided, I BERETTA Auto, trans., air, very clean Stock 'U129473 $: '89 FORD '89 F-1- 50 LXI auto., loaded auto., air, nice Stock U198462 4x4 Shortbed, Hot Stuff Stock 'UA33132 LX, SS. sharp. 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