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Show - "We are dedicated to the public interest, and accuracy, to innovation and growth, and to the restless pursuit of excellence." Pulitzer mission statement EDITOR: DONALD W. MEYERS OPINIOT A6 FRIDAY, MAY 5 2000 THE DAILY HERALD (www.HarkTheHendd.eom) 344-254- 4 MY TUHN 1 S h9 Andy Rooney Who really The Supreme Court has been asked to decide who can be a Boy Scout. James Dale, a New Jersey assistant scoutmaster and Eagle Scout, is suing the Boy Scouts of America after he was thrown out because he is a homosexual. Scout officials found out about Dale's sexual orientation when a newspaper article listed him as head of a student group--atRutgers University. gay-lesbi- Lwantsito-siton.- -; Supreme Court? . " '" . Years ago, idling away some time in a doctor's waiting room, I made a list of jobs I'd hate to have. I was reminded of the list over the weekend when I got talking to a young man who was making some extra money working on a garbage truck two days a week. His regular job, he told me, as he dumped a load of garbage into his truck, was as a prison guard. He's the first person I've met who has two jobs I wouldn't want. As much as I'd dislike those jobs, I'd rather do either one than be a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Except for the honor, there'd be nothing good about it. We all make our own personal decisions about the guilt or innocence of people in cases we read about, and we agree or disagree with court decisions. We may even argue over them with friends and family, but our opinions don't matter. We argue and decide what we think as a hobby. What we decide doesn't make s damn bit of difference to anyone. When the Justices of the Supreme Court come to a decision, it makes a huge difference in the lives of millions of people. I don't know how the justices sleep at night knowing that. Looking at the list of cases they have to decide during the current session would make you want to just run away and hide until it was oyer. Half the issues are so complicated a normal person wouldn't even understand what they were. The other half are so philosophically complex it would be difficult to know where you stand or what ' you think about them. In a case from the small town of Santa Fe, Texas, they have to decide whether organized prayer at high school football games is a violation of the separation of church and state. The toughest issue of all is the one involving The Boy Scouts of America and a former assistant scoutmaster and Eagle Scout who was thrown out of a scout troop in New Jersey because he's gay. The issue is not as simple as that. Can the Scouts deny mem- bership to a gay boy? The Scouts claim that if they are forced to take anyone who applies, they would also have to take girls in the Boy Scouts. The Scout lawyer asks whether an organization like The Gay Alliance would be forced to accept heterosexual men as members. Would a Jewish group have to accept Christians or Muslims? It seems to me that a gay man is no more apt to make aggressive sexual advances against members of a Boy Scout troop than a heterosexual man is going to make sexual advances toward every woman he meets. On the . other hand, it does seem as though an organization ought to be able to establish standards for membership. One Boy Scout standard calls for its members to be "moral." The judges are going to have to consider whether homosexual acts are moral or immoral. The fact is, I have strong opinions on most of these issues. I just wouldn't want to make all of you mad by having to say what they are the way Justices of the Supreme Court have to. Andy Rooney is a commentator with CBS"'60'Minutes." Sact- - T an -- parent organization. While any group can than ! tion? Or will this just open the door for other groups that IaMMMA 1 W site, www.HarkTheHerald.com, or on our call-iline, 344-294We'll take comments until May 10 and publish them in the May 14 edition. If you call, please limit your comments to 30 seconds or less. If you send them via the Internet, please keep it to 75 words or less. When you do respond, please include your name, hometown and phone number. Anonymous responses will be discarded. n about all the good that has been done by young men striving to earn scouting's highest honor, the Eagle Scout award. Somehow, despite the church's support of community service, we don't see teens getting as fired up as they do when it comes to 2. Members of The Daily Herald editorial board are Publisher Kirk Parkinson, Opinions Page Editor getting something tangible in return. Should the LDS Church pull out of scouting if the Donald W. Meyers, City Editor Sharon Gholdston, Columnist Steve Cameron,'' Payson resident Amie Leavitt and Provo resident Scott Ellis Ferrin. ma MME? - You can register your views either on our Web HILTON 1 - the tax increase on Social Security benefits. Thank you, Rep. Throckmorton for your call expressing your concern and intentions to try and do something for us. What I didn't mention was we also pay $2,400 per year to our HMO, $1,200 per year for Medicare and in our latter years, all the cost of prescriptions. We are buying a new home and the government doesn't care one bit about seniors or World War II veterans. We have taken positions at our senior citizens center to help pay for all of the above and keep our heads above water. Receiving a small increase each year in our Social Security checks and paying $2,000 in taxes on our checks is way out of line to say the least. Samuel Bam Springville Thanks for your help Don't take my gun away Open letter to Congressman Chris Cannon and Representative Matt Throckmorton: Thank you, Congressman Cannon, for your letter and concern about the tax on senior citizens' Social Security checks. It's great to know you are HR 693, The Senior Citizens' Tax Fairness Act that repeals WHAT W IIAJ TMJ not sups. H6CORS YOU oo&AGssAee? II....' .. Supreme Court rules gays can be scouts? Tell us what you think. meetings may be more likely to go on a scout trip. Also, scouting has provided local youth with opportunities to serve in the community. Stop and think DeMV RUNNING When Bill Clinton waved his scepter of imperial power and unilaterally declared millions of acres of the people's land to be set apart from the people and that it be put to use, he alone declared he exercised a power that has not been seen on this "land of the free" since King George was evicted in 1783. His words, in performing this grand gesture of imperialism, were telling up the condition of the liberty of the people. He said, "we are not locking the land up, we are freeing it up." Only a haughty king could consider removal of the land and its resources from the industries of the people to be a liberating act. Wasn't this country founded on the principle that people, not land, were to be free? But this is no longer the land of liberty conceived of by our founders. In the view of liberals, this is progress. They are quick to remind us that we cannot by guided by the "dead hand of the past" meaning our sacred Constitution. Given that few take notice or protest, perhaps this is how we now define progress. We are the generation that will owe future generations an apology for losing the freedom that our predecessors died to win. No park, ho monument, no landscape anywhere is worth this price but it is well known that we have lost our sense of value. This nation has seriously gone astray and, collectively, we hardly take notice. Claudia Kenney Orangeville j KNOW, CAMPAIGN, SHARPEN UP UNCtB j ranks? Another thing to consider is what effect will this have on the LDS Church. Granted, the church's been around longer than America no longer free land A&EPTO&KXUSTte -- have heretofore been LETTERS TO THE EDITOu '- a recreation associa- excluded from scouting's tent to fill the vacant the scouts and is not defined by its connection to scouting, but it's become an integral part of LDS life. Scouting acts as a mis- sionary and reactivation tool for the churchT A young man who may not be comfortable going to church , sponsor a scout troop, will the departure of churches, especially the LDS Church, send a message that the scouts have lost their moral edge and are nothing more Supreme Court rules in Dale's favor, it will pull out of the scout program. Other churches that support scouts, including the By w&s Methodists, have made similar threats as well. This raises a few ques-TItions. First, what effect will this have on the Boy Scouts? All told, the church boycott, including the Methodists, will mean almost 900,000 members knocked off scout- ing's rolls, including what ever dues they pay to the Scout officials say homosexuals violate the Scout Law's provision to be "morally straight," although homosexuality is not specifically mentioned in there. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints, which has 400,000 members participating in the scouting program, has filed a friend of the court brief in support of the BSA. But the church isn't just adding its voice to a legal argument. The church said, through its lawyers, that if the Doonesbury UNaezlAMPEA EDITCr.L'L Scouting acts as a missionary and reactivation tool for the church. A young man who may not be comfortable going to church meetings may be more likely to go on a scout trip. ' JU wren Bll M i -i hpp.M 1,1 One of the most insidious and outrageous attacks on my Second Amendment right as an individual to keep and bear arms would be the act of certain government agencies to "prior attempt to exercise restraints" without reason or other Garry Jrudeau Mimll T unlawful excuses and deny me my Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Thus, my right would be severely infringed should the mere passive possession of a firearm be misconstrued by "authority who may attempt to criminalize me by either state or federal unlawful statute, or the issuance of a warrant which could not be based upon evidence of a threat to any perGod-give- son. The Second Amendment says what it means and means exactly what it says: "... the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.' In order to maintain that right in I accordance with law and custom may become a belligerent claimant of that right in order to maintain that right, should a court declare me a n lawful felon for claiming a right. My argument is very clear: The Second Amendment very simply codifies a fundamental the right of an individual to keep and bear arms, independent of and unrelated to any power of the states to create and maintain a military force, and independent of and unrelated to any power of the government My right to bear arms is a sacred God-give- fight which I intend to protect, if necessary, and cherish at any cost. Paul Hull Spanish Fork The Daily Herald welcomes your letters to the editor. Please remember to include your full name, address and phone number where you can be reached. Only your name and the city in which you live will be published. All other information will be kept confidential. Anonymous letters will be discarded. Letters must contain 250 or fewer . words, approximately one page, typed and double spaced. Your letter will be better read if it concerns one central theme or idea. All letters will be edited for length, accuracy and clarity. The Herald encourages community discussion of issues in a responsible manner. Please send your letters to: Editor, The Dally Herald P.O. Box Provo, UT. 84603 Letters may also be faxed or The The fax number is 373-548address is: ldeanheraldextra.com. If you have questions, call Opinions Page Editor Donald W. Meyers at 344-254- By 7 II HAY&I Bern. &ACKHI9 mm BROCHURE- &&XTXAA&OUT 717 1555 N. freedom Blvd. Mallard Fillmore UtlUifl mmnsio fAHce.r n AT rtAr Wn. Bruce Tinsley "C 7 ..if WHEN .mil YVV J KyA a QtJtMtBuNllll Milium ill : |
