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Show FRIDAY. August inions The Herald, its readers, syndicated columnists and cartoonists discuss vital issues V V I f p . 1 THE HERALD Provo. Utah. 10. 19S4 - Page 13 till I The Herald Comments ; 1 iviuSi LPiSV&fS r Too many fatal accidents result from careless driving that fails to MOSCOW Uri 13 give trucks and trains the room they deserve. Drivers who have only ever been used to small, nippy, light- weight family autos have no idea what it is like to suddenly try to stop a fully loaded truck or a train. Mr IK. If they did, they Getaldine Ferraro Under the X-R- ay Prominent among lapel buttons around the Democrats' political convention was the one which boasted simply: A It was a calculated risk, that Gerladine Ferraro would upstage candidate Mondale. She upstaged everybody. But before the tumult and the shouting died, the lady from Queens was under the media Before she was even nomi- gardless of whether you provoke Paul Harvey- - Congressman George Hansen was convicted by federal jury last April for failure to report his wife's assets; further was recommended by the House Ethics Committee for a formal reprimand. Compounding the Ferraro "oversight" is the fact that she owns stock in her husband's company and is an officer of that corporation. She will not be able to claim "no knowledge" of her spouse's holdings. And that's not all: Husband John Zaccaro owns 352 low-reapartments in New York and is charged by the New York Housing Authority with 106 building violations in those apartments. Why didn't she anticipate these embarrassments? Only time will tell if it matters. l Workers Cooperate to Hilt Editor, Herald: In July under "Herald Comments" in The Daily Herald, an editorial appeared T,his one-side- d entitled, Steel Must Make It." viewpoint cries to have more said on this subject, and if permitted, I would like to do so. i 'First I would recognize that Geneva is indeed locked in a fight for survival and, yes, possibly its last. We are in competition with new and modern sleelmaking facilities around the world. Already steelworkers at Geneva have bent their backs to the task with equipment designed in the 30s and built in the early 40s. They are breaking Open Hearth and Rolling Mill records. (Incidentally these records are being set with apof the proximately one-ha- lf work force in layoff). Now a new threat is on the horizon. Kaiser Steel is scheduled to reopen in the middle of our market, possibly with a predatory labor agreement, modernized rolling equipment and slabs imported from Brazil, produced in an ultra-moder- n mill with cheap labor. And, in the face of this, whose back does the Herald jump on? I would like to remind the Herald that the United Steelworkers of America voluntarily gave unprecedented concessions a year and a half ago involving hol- idays, vacations and pay amounting to approximately $2 per man hour. lA savings of almost $1,000,000 pjer month at Geneva alone. Savings from these concessions tfere to have been reinvested in aging steel facilities. .But where did it go? Seven bHion for Marathon Oil and a ba.idaid for Geneva, one-habillion for Husky Oil and a promise for Geneva. 'They tell us we have to earn lf them." It's a terrible, dreadful movie for children, and to hawk it as anything else is like admiring the emperor for his new clothes as he parades naked in the street. Most parents wouldn't think of buying a coloring book for their children showing the monster from "Friday the 13th" chopping, maiming, impaling and otherwise leading his victims to a horrible death. Yet this season, killer gremlins are grinning from lunch nt eedback any modernization we may receive. I say if we have not earned the right to modernization by running in the black while the rest of the corporation runs red, if we have not earned the right to modernize by breaking production records with bas- ically antiquated equipment with a fraction of the work force, we never will. David Roderick, chairman of the U.S. Steel Corporation, in his statement before the Congressional Steel Caucus on April 19, 1983 said, "A steel company that doesn't install casters is signaling its intent to leave the steel business. Casters conserve energy and they result in a better grade of steel at a savings of about $50,000 per ton." A caster would cost in excess of $200 million and a melt shop BOF or electric could cost another 200 million. If there is any plan to install a caster at Geneva it's a well kept secret. The Herald article also said, "Geneva is at the point that nothing should be considered sacred." This viewpoint is not new to a management which closed Geneva's foundry and now ships ingot molds from points east at a cost of twice what they were produced for at Geneva. Nor is it new to managers who daily contract out work with apparent disregard for quality or cost, who then accept gifts and trips from those same contractors. (I would add not all management is involved in this.) How dare the h -- aid sit in judgment and matter-of-factl- y tell the community the steelworkers must give additional concessions? By what divine right do you tell us nothing is sacred? Neal L. Adams recording secretary United Steelworkers of America Local Union 2701 up to two miles to stop. heavily loaded truck can't even be A stopped with brakes alone. Drivers have to gear-dow- or change n, into lower gears, to go from full speed to full and that takes stop time and road space. Track crossing accidents have become biggest killer. According to the govrail-roadin- 542 of ernment, 1,045 railroad fatalities in occurred at crossings, where there were 6,562 accidents, a rate of 18 a day. 1983 fi riiySfS Rail crossings are driver and passengers. Other times dangerous. Yet there are people killed every year who misjudge the speed of a train, who try to cut in front and end up dead. Others heed warning , the trucker is killed as he tries to swerve or when brakes lock up and his rig overturns. In every case, a need- less tragedy could be lights and bells and stop, but then they averted if people would understand the kinds of cross anyway if they can't immediately see a train coming. Truck accidents are. too frequently caused by motorists who cut in front of trucks. Sometimes the truck rolls right over the er- physics involved with heavy vehicles that make them impossible to stop in short distances. We should all give heavy traffic the room, and the respect, it rant car, killing the His G remlins Anything but Cute "intelligent." A more accurate description of them would be "wiry bizarre monsters that may kill you re- J nated, she was being subjected -- the way they do. A fully loaded train, for example, can take Gremlins have been described as "cute" and "clever" don't you believe it. A current radio and television advertisement has them softly cooing in the background as part of a pitch for food products. I read a movie review that called them "mischievous" and WOMAN ON THE TICKET! to a kind of exposure she has never known before. Congresswoman Ferraro has campaigned and won three times before. She has faced criticism before. Some of the criticism became vitriolic, personal, even vicious. But that was nothing compared to what comes now. It is federal law J For example: it is part of the federal government's "ethics law" that members of Congress must reveal all financial data about themselves and their spouses. J She never has, "During three terms in Congress she has filed five disclosure statements and never did disclose anything about her husband. Husband, John Zaccaro, inherited much money, is a successful developer of real estate in few York and derives considerable income from that; probably form other sources. One remembers that Idaho wouldn't cut in front of trucks and try to beat trains to level crossings LtC?uf WASHINGTON - and has a chaste relationship with a chaste girl. The boy gets a furry creature as an early Christnas present, and as he plays with it, he fails to follow some of the mystical rules for its care. As a result, hoards of gremlins are born, and proceed to go on a murderous spree that lasts all night. Interspersed during the action is an unnecessary and vulgar explanation of someone's view on why there is no Santa Claus. "Gremlins" is one of the summer's top grossing movies. It's gross all right. It's gross exploitation of audiences and consumers. Even the soft, furry creature, the mogwai, misleads its viewers. According to Robert H. Hughes of Kearns who wrote to a Salt Lake City paper, his R n 1 ",- - "H '' n I "entertainment." Unfortunately I didn't do the right kind of homework when I took my daughter to Steven Spielberg's movie "Gremlins." What I had observed from the trailers promoting the film led me to think I was taking her to a different kind of "E.T.," a lovely story for most children. From the dozens of toddlers I saw, I conand clude other parents had the same impression. I'm glad my child fell asleep before the gremlins emerged. Spielberg opens his movie with obvious references to the :W 1 .. Charlene Winters family classic, "It's a Chinese dictionary defines "mogwai" as "devil; satan." For all children, as well as most adults, Spielberg has taken his fans on a deceitful trip through cinematic irresponsibil- Wonder- Life." A small, town is decorated for Christmas. A ful cranky pillar of the community makes the holiday difficult. A nice underdog works in a bank ity. ases Again in Leoanon The State Department stunned Congress recently by claiming that Syria, was now playing a "helpful role in Lebanon. This abrupt reversal of the official attitude toward Syria was unveiled by Richard Murphy, the assistant secretary for Middle Eastern affairs. "Times change," he explained. This is certainly true but not in the sense Murphy implied. The biggest change in Lebanon is that the Palestine Liberation Organization driven out of Beirut by the Israelis two years ago is quietly moving back into Lebanon in strength. "In fact," a confidential intelligence report warns, "the reconstruction of a Palestinian state within Lebanon today is only a question of time." The report, obtained by my associate Donald Goldberg, minces no words, declaring: "Beirut is once again witnessing the systematic return of the armed Palestinian organizations ... supported boxes, stickers, pencil cases, coloring books and photo albums. What is so awful about the movie? Well, if entertainment can be defined by seeing gremlins pulverized in food processors into a sickly green-browliquid, being blown apart in a microwave and of gremlins going on a murderous rampage Christmas Eve then spare me from both by Syria and Lebanese organizations. Lebanese security sources expect this PLO influx to develop very quickly into a massive return of the entire PLO infrastructure to the capital of Lebanon with renewed PLO activity to the political, financial, military and propaganda fields." This means that the Israeli invasion and the subsequent sacrifice of 241 Marines at the Beirut airport were all for nought. Lebanon will soon be in the same chaotic condition it was in before the last two years of bloodshed: a state powerless to control a quarrelsome, heav- ily armed alien population within its borders. In fact, the significant difference is that now the warring Palestinian factions will almost certainly be the surrogates of Syrian President Hafez Assad. In that respect, times have infor the worse. deed changed "The return of the PLO to Beirut will be a major success for Syria, given the fact that most of the PLO organizations are today to some extent under Syrian control," the intelligence report explains, adding: "With this new situation, Assad can prove again and again that lie is the needed leader in the Middle East who can bring events under control, and that foreign powers should address him and discuss with him the situation in Lebanon, the future of the Palestinians and an over-a- ll peace in the Middle East." The report adds this grim warning: "Given the ties between the PLO and international terrorism, one could expect that the areas under PLO control in Lebanon would once again be used as bases for international terrorist activity." Here is some of the detailed evidence of the PLO's resurgence cited in the report: Fatah, the group loyal to PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat, resumed its activities in Tripoli and Beirut early this year, sending arms and money to the secret cadres left behind last summer. Known members of Fatah and its covert action arm, The 17th Brigade, have been spotted arriving in Beirut in recent months. On June 13, a high-lev- T rf-- ' 4: J 1 a I Jack Anderson the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group with close Soviet and Syrian ties, recently began recruiting ef- forts in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. On June 9, representatives of the General Command, .other PLO groups and Druse factions met to plan a major military action in Beirut. On May 8, a company of 200 Saiqa soldiers Palestinians trained, equipped and commanded by Syrian Army officers entered West Beirut and deployed along the coast. Military cells were set up, and an official of the Women's League of Saiqa went into the refugee "command" meeting among leading dissident PLO mem- bers, including Abou Moussa, agreed on the return of armed Palestinians to West Beirut. Two platoons were promptly dispatched. The General Command of camps to recruit Palestinian DGuti X J"W3& metal Ittasad detector WiSm strip search day ootien uuld terrorism can f piess up a tradition ot tot and sponsmansnip. Tell I me about it. ) women. UNDER THE DOME: Sens. Orrin Steve Symms, and John Glenn, Hatch, were exchanging pleasantries on the Senate subway the other day. If only, Symms said, he had been Glenn's cam- paign manager, Glenn could have become president. "Of course, you would have had to run as a Republican," Symms added. SRI LANKA REVISITED: The United States is "in" again in Sri Lanka. Gen. Vernon Walters, a former CIA official who is now a roving diplomat for the White House, had cordial talks visit to Colduring a four-da- y ombo late last year. Now the Peace Corps is being allowed back for the first time since 1963 (when Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon). Furthermore, Sri Lanka has agreed to install a Voice of America transmitter. Meanwhile, India is "out," thanks to the Sri Lanka govern- ment's suspicion that Indian agents provoked the terrorist ambush last year that led to a bloody racial backlash ' against the ethnic Tamil minority in which dozens of persons died. |