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Show DAILY HERALD Sunday, April 6, 2008 A5 MTOIIAK EDITORIAL BOARD Craig Dennis, President & Publisher Randy Wright, Executive Editor Jim Tynen, Editorial Page Editor IN OUR VIEW County should cut some slack t mul:::30t ! I t's like a mystery story: stretched credit and budget to "The Case of the Missing build a house. Sometimes, there's House." And Utah County not much left over, but that government turns out to be doesn't mean people shouldn't the culprit. It's up to com- stretch Euneice Brenchley told the .'missioners to make things right because othersaft following Herald that she has deposited the policies that are wrong. money to pay the tax bill into her Clark and Euneice Brenchley checking account. Where did she built a house in Salem in 2000. get it? By dipping into her home They worked with the city to get equity resources. And that will all the paperwork done properly. mean a higher monthly payment on that side. She said they would And so far as they knew, it was. have paid right along if they had Everything seemed fine. Each known the taxes were being unmonth they sent a mortgage derpaid. payment, including taxes, to the What makes this situation bank. worse is the unconscio- They did ask at one nable hike in county point why the taxes taxes experienced by seemed low, but the "What so many property ownbank reassured them that they were paying makes this ers in Utah County this what the county wanted year. Some people's assituation sessments doubled year them to pay. over year. We wouldn't Having no informa-- . is the worse be surprised to see a tion to the contrary no statements from ... hike in great many voters reg-at ister their displeasure the government, no county taxes the polls. letters, no phone calls County commisthey just did what any experienced sioners could save a normal people would do and continued on by so many little face by making the ahead Brenchley's problem go happily, looking property to their golden yearsin away. It's mainly the their dream home. county's fault, after all, owners and the long delay has ; Then one day, with no robbed the couple of in Utah warning, a letter arrived from the Utah County many opportunities to County this solve the problem. If the Assessor's Office saying Brenchleys had known they owed $4,484.81 in year." the real tax bill, they back taxes. They were could have taken action staggered. six or seven years ago For seven years after to cut expenses, change the house was built Utah County had failed to do its job and living arrangements, sell a car or assess the improved property. whatever. They couldhaye looked And now the county thinks it's en- at the estimated $200 a month titled to five years worth of taxes. that would be added to their house It would want more, but state law payments every month and then decided they had to sell prohibits going further back. . Selling it almost any time in County Assessor Kris Poulson said that in rare cases new houses that interval would have been a better option than selling it in just fall through the cracks. "Where we miss things is today's unsettled market, But nothing was decided behe said. "Sometimes we don't get a permit from cause they didn't know there was the city, and sometimes we lose a a problem. And Utah County was absolutely negligent in failingto permit from the city." notice the matter. Oops. That's not very reassur- Five years of back taxes is siming news about so crucial a pro--' cess. The county apparently didn't ply too much to ask people to pay even have the Brenchleys' current when it's the government's fault. State legislators should use this address, so it couldn't inform case to amend state law: When it's them about anything. It all adds up to one big, stupid government's fault that a prop erty is not assessed, the maximum government blunder. And when that happens, government should back tax that can be collected should be one year. eat the loss, not stick it to some Now, we don't want to hear ordinary people who were acting in good faith any bureaucrats holler that it's the individual taxpayer's responThe Brenchleys are not sibility, and that it's therefore jus. wealthy. They're retired now, tifiable to demand the whole nut. on fixed incomes, worried about Sometimes the law and common medical costs. A $4,500 bill really sense simply do not coincide. situatioa in their wallops people This is one of those times. It would wallop anybody who MEDIA VOICES Common sense needed .i high school students, some school districts seemingly have been scared into treating every alleged incident like a crime. As a result, d Randy Castro Six-year-olhundreds of young children in the smacks little DeLeon on'the bottom Washington metropolitan area have been suspended on twice (copying another the had done who charges of sexual harass tyke ment or inappropriate same and elicited gig"Next sexual contact. thing next the and thing gles), Perhaps Randy's prinyou know, he's treated know, you cipal was acting out of like one of those potenhe's treated excessive caution. As tial sex offenders on Post writer Brigid Schul-t- e MSNBCs creepy show like one Predator." a reported Thursday, To Catch just days before Randy's Katherine complained of those transgression, district to a teacher. Randy officials were reminded was marched to the potential to Poat office report threats and asprincipal's sex to police. What's saults tomac View Elementary is whether they unclear School in Prince William offenders were also instructed County, Va. He was 'To tojise common sense. on told that what he did According to a district A was inappropriate. Catch a November spokesperson, the code of the of report " behavior stipulates that written was Predator.' up. episode police may be called for The "Incident codecs) "offenses involving weap for this perpetrator" ons, alcoholdrugs, inten was "SX2" or "Sexual, tional Stuinjury, and other Touching Against dent, Offensive." What's offensive serious violations." Urn, call us crazy, but what Randy did doesn't is that the police were called and meet that test. Katherine s mother that this blot will be a permanent record. student says her daughter has forgotten of Randy's part At least the police had the sense to about the whole thing. Randy's mom says he's now calling himdrop the matter. self a "bad boy." Maybe Potomac Court two since Ever Supreme View and other local schools need rulings in the 1990S allowing to offer a course called Common lawsuits against schools that Sense 101 for their leaders. don't stop sexual harassment and giving green light to policies for middle and From the Washington Post, Friday, April 4, 2008: i 'j' 1 1 ; ';- - " j r ' ., AUA4 MMtiMk jWte.3 &S0$a feV 'jj MICHAEL GERSON Law an urgent need for women, girls in poor nations or the poor in a place such as Zambia and perhaps for the poor in every place there is an eggshell fragility to life. A single crack and all is broken. For Zilose, a gentle woman in her early 40s, it began with the death of her husband, probably from AIDS. Then she became sick, with typical trouble with her AIDS symptoms a persistent cough After spendlegs, ing some time in her home village, she returned to Lusaka to find that her had taken all her property and had ordered her out of her home. This is a common practice called "property grabbing," in which relatives of a dead husband steal everything from the widow and her childrea Zilose refused to leave her home, but she was forced child away . to send her because she could no longer afford to care for him. Zilose urgently needed a lawyer, and she found one through.a remarkable organization called International Justice Mission. The staff at IJM pressed the court case for the recovery of her property and helped her get AIDS treatment and job training. ' cinderblock Sitting in her two-roohome, with neat embroidery and lace covering battered furniture, Zilose reports that her health is now good and asks eagerly about the progress of her case, which should be decided by the end of the year. When experts in development talk about the "rule of law," they often mean protections for business contracts and commerce. But Zilose's case is also a failure of the rule of law one far more common and destructive, especially for women and girls. Across the developing world, poor women receive little justice when it comes to property issues, sexual . slavery, domestic abuse or sexual violence. Hard figures are difficult to come by, but a World Bank report has estimated that in some parts of the developing world, more than s of women are beaten or co F. in-la- two-third- erced into sex during their lifetimes. And almost all of these crimes take place with impunity. Police are often indifferent, hostile or corrupt; judges and prosecutors view rape and abuse as lesser offenses; lawyers who take such cases are either unaffordable or unavailable. The lawyers working at IJM in Zambia point to the defilement of young women as a particularly disturbing case study. There is a persistent myth in Africa that sexual relations with a virgin will cure AIDS. So IJM has seen a rape victim with permanent physical injuries and a mentally disabled rape victim. The physical evidence of these crimes is clear. But children are often not allowed to give sworn testimony in court. And there is no DNA testing to provide evidence. So, according to one IJM employee, getting a conviction often comes down to: "Can anyone hear you scream?" Zambian law has strict penalties for ' defilement and rape. And the Zambian government has created a victims support unit to deal with such crimes. But the cultural obstacles to enforcement are massive. Says one IJM employee: "When women bring a charge against their husband, the police often tell her, 'This is a domestic matter.' Even her own family will sometimes tell her, 'Go back to your husband.' " These problems call for a range of responses, including girls' education and the economic empowerment of women. It is difficult to know and . claim your rights if you cannot read, and difficult to leave an abusive environment if you cannot earn a living on your own. IJM has opened another promising front in the cause of development and human rights. In addition to providing the poor with lawyers, it rape and defilement cases with the police in Zambia. And it gives community workshops on property rights. The one I attended was alternately conducted in two Zambian languages I did not understand, but I occasionally caught the English phrases "fixed assets," "title deeds" and "executors." The founder of IJM, Gary Haugen, argues that the legal empowerment of the poor is an essential precondition for development. He believes the United States could make a dramatic difference in the developing world by helping to strengthen and professionalize responsible police and prosecutors training them to use rape kits and and fs supother tools of the trade of the Blto the legal provision porting poor. And Haugen believes thiiven the small victories of simply enforcing existing laws can encourage broader social change, as the possibility of justice gradually becomes an expectation of justice. For millions of women such as Zilose, nothing is more important. , I Michael Gerson is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group. How to comment letters to dhlettersheraldextra.com Fax to 344-298- 5 Mail to P.O. Box 717, Provo.UT 84603. Letters must include the author's full name, address and daytime phone number. I We prefer shorter letters, 100 to 200 words. 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