OCR Text |
Show DAILY A4 EDITORIALS 1 2007 Monday. April HERALD EDITORIAL BOARD 5Dmly$Hcrot& President 4 Publisher Randy Wright. Executive Editor Donald W. Meyers, Editorial page editor Qaig Dennis, IN OUR VIEW Take pride in recycling 1 most garbage. ecycling is gradually Michael Smart, BYU spokestaking root in Utah, but it 'snot easy goman, said there is no cash prize, ing. American Fork just the sense of pride that the some bragrecently weighed the school is doing well idea of mandatory ging rights. Smart said the competition also makes students at the recycling to get enough people to sign up for the service., A few schools more .aware of recycling. years ago, Orem almost lost its Why not adapt that model to recycling program because it had cities? Get a competition going to, so few participants. see which city can do the most While our own informal, unscirecycling. The city that wins gets entific survey found that people ' to proclaim itself the greenest in would recycle if they didn't have the valley. It could use that title in to pay, that does not seem like promotional literature the same an option Utah County way Provo and Orem cities will embrace right used their first place away. ranking on Money not Why The benefits of Magazine's most livable list in the 1990s. cities that recycling have been adapt We know there's a lot established: It reduces model to of community pride out the amount of garbage Just look at how there. thrown out, resulting . cities? Get a in reduced disposal people practically go expense and extended competition crazy over high school landfill life. It is also a sports around here, viewgoing to means of coping with ing their school's wins and losses as a reflection growth. This page has see which on the community as a even invoked Brigham Young's rag missions city can do whole. Even though we in which missionaries a county fair, each the most have city insists on having its gathered scraps of cloth to make paper to print own unique summer fesrecycling. tival where it can strut church publications. The city that its stuff. But there are still too many places where We think that such enwins gets recycling isn't even ofergy could be harnessed fered. And where it is, to proclaim to get people engaged most do not participate. in recycling, especially itself the if they view their city as Obviously, high-roaappeals just don't work competing with rivals , greenest in for a right to brag, and effectively. So, let's lower the bar a bit and the valley. possibly attract businesses that look for eh- appeal to civic pride and vironmentally-consciou- s competition. Brigham communities. Young University, already a leader in recyAny reasonable stancling, is demonstrating how to do dard could be agreed upon bethis. The university is engaged in tween the cities proporf ion of a recycling competition with other households participating, volume schools to see which one can reor weight of materials diverted cycle the most material. Last year, from the waste stream, lowest BYU placed 10th in the nation. waste per capita, etc. On campus, BYlFs residence If it's fun, such a program halls compete with each other might get results. Games are al to see which one can recycle the ways better than preaching. 1 -- V.TOedrtitmcartixric LETTERS Tabernacle's 'pin-dro- p test' isn't proof of its perfection well as "bad seats." This isn't to berate the Tabernacle it has served its purpose well. It's only Your March 27 editorial, "A salute to point out that we do a disservice by to the Tabernacle," reinforced a popuclaiming that the Tabernacle has the best acoustics possible. lar misunderstanding regarding the The Tabernacle was home to the Tabernacle's acoustics. To say that "the ceiling's unique Utah Symphony for years. If the Tabernacle was "as acoustically perfect . shape, combined with the addition of an upper seating gallery in 1870, has as possible," why was Abravanel Hall made the hall as acoustically perfect as built? I Scott Sommerfeldt, possible" is inaccurate. p The physics professor, experiment" is used as evidence that the Tabernacle's acousMapleton tics are the best; Actually, the experiment demonstrates some of the Police should be permitted acoustic defects of the Tabernacle. fire upon fleeing suspects That experiment works because of the elliptically shaped ceiling. The It's evident that police officers ensound created at one focal point is focounter dangerous situations during cused at the other focal point, which is their pursuits. Once a fleeing suspect's vehicle why the sound can easily be heard. However, because this "focusing stops, he or she continues to elude police on foot. Despite several commands phenomenon" occurs, it also means that there will be "dead spots" to stop, all suspects seem to run, anywhere the acoustics aren't good, so way. the Tabernacle has "good seats," as Consequently, an officer has to d "pin-dro- pin-dro- p to MEDIA VOICES United front needed to confront Iran From the Miami Herald, March 30, 2007 dangerous, of 15 is an outrageous provocation that can only serve to further discredit its leadership, beginning with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A peaceful and successful resolution will require patient diplomacy and a united front by all countries that believe in the principle of freedom of the seas. So far, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is on the right track. Insisting that the Iranians acted illegally, he has secured the support of the European Union in demanding that Iran immediately release the 15 hostages. Now he must coax the U.N. Security Council to do as much and to condemn Iran's indefensible action. Iran may be one of the world's great oil suppliers, but it cannot withstand for long the diplomatic and political isolation that the civilized world can impose on a rogue government. For Ahmadinejad, the seizure of the British sailors is primarily a political power play. His failed policies have disappointed Iranians who simply want a better life and an end to ceaseless confrontation with Western powers. Creating an international crisis is both a diversion and an attempt to radicalize Iraqi politics in the same way that the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in 1979 succeeded in strengthening the hand of the hard-lin- e Revolutionary' Guards at the expense of moder Irresponsible, !TtJfVi (FAIL, I m ' wSISy iwvn- - I UAST WW no-M- Mm . i iKnTtaFMrnACHnemw "Our bill calls for the redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq so that we can focus more fully on the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan." Speaker Nancy Pelosi, March 8 v - The vis-a-vi- cen-tralit- y. MALLARD FILLMORE TTZIJ I i 7 I VSUTIw--- iSJrAii' I mSSiZ - T itafr i . Bruce Tinsley wttyfa? f xyr - a Martian pletely neutral observer and point out to him that the United States is involved in two hot wars against radical Islamic insurgents. One is in Afghanistan, a geographically marginal backwater with no resources, no industrial and no technological infrastructure. The other is in Iraq, one of the three principal Arab states, with untold oil wealth, an educated population, an advanced military and technological infrastructure which, though suffering decay in the later Saddam years, could easily be revived if it falls into the right (i.e. wrong) hands. Add to that the fact that its strategic location would give its rulers inordinate influence over the entire Persian Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf states. Then ask your Martian: Which is the more important battle? He would not even understand why you are asking strategic sense. Instead, it reflects a sensibility. They would rather support the Afghan War because its origins are cleaner, the casus belli clearer, the moral texture of the enterprise more comfortable. Afghanistan is a war of Senate and the House have righteous revenge and restitution, law enforcement on the grandest of scales. passed bills for ending the As senator and presidential candidate War, or at least liquidating' the American involvement in it. Joe Biden put it, "If there was a totally The resolutions, approved by the just war since World War II, it is the war in Afghanistan." barest majorities, were underpinned If our resources are so stretched by one unmistakable theme: wrong that we have to choose one front, the war, wrong place, distracting us from the real war that isjelsewhere. Martian would choose Iraq. But that is because, unlike a majority of DemoWhere? In Afghanistan. The emcratic senators, he did not vote four phasis on Afghanistan echoed across the Democratic aisle in Congress from years earlier to authorize the war in Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to former adIraq, a vote for which many have a miral and now Rep. Joe Sestak. It is a guilty conscience to be now soothed staple of the three leading Democratic retroactively by pulling out and fightcandidates for the presidency, Hilling the "totally just war." But you do not decide where to ary Clinton, Barack Obama and John thequestioa Edwards. It is the constant refrain has provided the answer fight on the basis of history; you deof their last presidential candidate, cide on the basis of strategic realities many times. Osama bin Laden, the of the ground. You can argue about John Kerry, and of their current party one whose presence in Afghanistan leader, Howard Dean, who complains presumably makes it the central front our role in creating this new front and in the war on terror, has been explicit "we dont have enough troops in Afquestion whether it was worth taking that risk in order to topple Saddam that "the most serious issue today for ghanistan. That's where the real war on terror is." the whole world is this Third World Hussein. But' you cannot reasonably Of all the arguments for pulling out War that is raging in Iraq." argue that in 2007 Iraq is not the most of Iraq, its comparative unimportance No. 2, Ayman has de- critical strategic front in the war on s clared that Iraq "is now the place for terror. There's no escaping its Afghanistan is the least serious. the greatest battle of Islam in this era." Nostalgia for the "good war" And not just because this argument And it's not just what says, in Afghanistan is perhaps useful in assumes that the world's one superdoes. Where are it's what Democrats to encouraging anti-wa- r power, which spends more on defense they funneling the worldwide recruits increase funding that is really needed there. But it is not an argument for every year than the rest of the world for jihad? Where do all the deranged suicidists who want to die for Allah combined, does not have the capacity abandoning Iraq. to fight an insurgency in Iraq as well gravitate? It's no longer Afghanistan, as in Afghanistan. But because it asbut Iraq. That's because they recog- I Charles Krauthammer is a sumes that Afghanistan is strategically nize the greater prize. columnist with The Washington more important than Iraq. The Democratic insistence on the Post. He can be contacted at lettencharleskrauthammer.com Thought experiment: Bring in a com primacy of Afghanistan makes no Garry Trudeau TO r w k mi .1 1 a a I m mm m mm i i " - ntsrof all. ccmcs. w TVVnieVTf? fZlii.'X!iL J 2 uZTxMi. .v 1 Once arrested and convicted, of , fenders should be put in areas where there are tents and rocks or concrete. There are those who might consider this to be inhumane treatment, but it would deter repeat offenses. All of the current procedures are in favor of the offender t(not the public or the police). Police officers go beyond the call of duty and deserve to have support from the public and the law. I Bruce Honey, Spanish Fork Afghanistan no excuse for ditching Iraq ing proposition all around. U.S. maneuvers in the waters near Iran are a reminder to Ahmadinejad that reckless actions can have painful consequences. But for now the show of force must remain secondary to the exercise of diplomacy. Don't take the bait. 1 viduals. CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER ate politicians. That's why it would be a mistake for Britain and its allies, primarily the United States, to take the bait by escalating the conflict into a military showdown. It would tend to unify Iranians of all political stripes behind an unpopular politician out of loyalty to the nation. That is what Ahmadinejad is counting on and what he must not get. The timing of the seizure is no coincidence. It occurred just before the Security Council's approval of sanctions against Iran for ignoring resolutions that Iran cease trying to become a nuclear power. The mullahs in Tehran want to portray Iran as a victim of Western hostility, hence justifying the drive to become a nuclear force. They're not fooling anyone, but a confrontation with Britain and the United States could rally other Islamic nations to their cause ... or so they hope. All industrial nations of the world have a vital interest in maintaining the stability of the region. This is another reason to keep the guns holstered. A wider conflict with Iran would send oil prices soaring and could easily suck in nearby countries a los- DOONESBURY chase the suspect on foot. Chase sequences such as these endanger police officers and the public. There should be a universal understanding that if someone flees a scene, then he or she is fair game to be shot at. How many of these suspects would run if this were the case? A dead suspect saves court and jail expenses. Also, it cuts down on repeat offenders, so the officers don't have to continually deal with the same indi- ' ' 1.1- - any hmk-iliiny sU T rifj rni h 40. |