OCR Text |
Show DAILY HERALD Sunday, September 7, 2003 A7 EWTCaAl BOARD AJbert J. Manzi, President & Publisher Randy Wright, Executive Editor Donald W. Meyers, Editorial page editor Linda Hambiin, Public member iNoi'nviEiy Doctor's murder hurt killer' s cause he case of Paul H3I il lustrates the strong emotions the abortion .debate can elicit. Hill, a former minister, was put to. death m Florida on Wednesday for killing Dr. John Bayard Britton and his escort, James Herman Barrett, outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic in 1994. Hill, who saf himself as a martyr for the movement, said he killed the doctor to keep him from performing abortions. And he showed no remorse from the time he was arrested until he was killed by lethal injection "If you believe abortion is a lethal force, you should oppose the force and do what you have to do to stop it," Hill said in his last words before being executed. "May God help you to protect the unborn as you would want to be. protected.": Several Web sites have celebrated Hill as a hero for taking militant action in protesting abortion.' Florida officials connected to the case have received threatening letters before the five bullets enclosed as a grim warning. Hill is not the first activist who has killed to protest what they saw as clinical murder. And, with Hill's execution, the fear is that he may not be the last. Others may be inspired by Hill and carry on his work. The Supreme Court's 1972 Roe v. Wade decision has been emotionally debated for more than ... three decades. Proponents of abortion see it as a matter of allowing a woman to choose for herself what she wants to do with her body. Opponents see it as the killing of an unborn human being by means that would be denounced as human rights violations if they were to be done on conderrined crimi-- People Kke Hill help the A mL.TwoouTor TWEE 4 I 1 t em" AINT BAD. KllUN&M ' J M' msar 1 i i V 1 A SLkjjm... pro-aborti- ; HERALD POLL How to comment letters to dhlettersheraldextra.com Fax to Mail to P.O. Box 717, 344-298- Editor's note: The Daily Herald asked readers how communities should handle prayers at public meetings. Here are the responses we received: sire to listen can simply cover their ears. We need the guidance. . . I Ruth Durrans, Orem Provo,UT 84603. ' I Letters must include the author's fuU name, address and daytime phone number. I We prefer shorter letters, 100 and 200 words. Letters may be edited for length. I Writers are encouraged to include their occupation and other personal information. I Because of the volume of letters, we cannot acknowledge unpublished letters. I Letters become the property of the Dafly Herald. Showcase major religions Prayer a part of meeting think definitely they should have prayer before the meeting of the governing body. Of course, in all that is good and right, that should be done. I Debra Clark, Highland I Nobody forcing you to listen I think prayer should be welcomed at public meetings. Those who do not de 5 I like the idea that you could rotate traditional religions. You don't have to do every religion that someone has. I think there should be some coverage of the types of religious groups. There would have to be common sense on what a religion is. I think atheism's not considered a religioa Government certainly should not prohibit the opportunity for people to express their religious feelings, and prayers are essential. t Wayne Brown, Provo WALTER CRONKITE gov-emine- nt God. ' ' .. The abortion controversy wfll only be resolved through the legislative or judicial processes and civilized discourse between reasonable people, not by wild-eye- d zealots gunning down those who disagree with them. . Iraai 00(vernmerit should be in UN. hands From the Los Angeles Times, Sept 4, 2003 . ican troops to help stabilize Iraq. Especially important is getting Indian and Pakistani troops, many of them Muslims; this would diminish the overwhelming US. presence, which only feeds religious and nationalistic tensions, says Gen. John Abizaid, the U.S. commander in Iraq. Reps. Frank R. and Henry J. Hyde, Wolf, want the president to include as many troops as possible from the already overtaxed and reluctant NATO countries. The Iraq reconstruction, of course, wiU cost the world dearly, U.S. taxpayers especially so. Which is why the administration, whfle shifting its stance on the UN. and Iraq, is past due in providing Americans with a full, clear accounting of the price of and plan for the Iraq campaign, which has an estimated cost of $1 billion a week. Congress no longer can sit n by and accept whatever the deigns totefl it, especially with this nation facing a deficit in 2004. With more than 300 U.S. deaths and many thousands of Iraqi and international casualties, the gravi-- , ty of the US. incursion in one of me globe's most unstable regions only deepens. Bush officials the nation that this invohre-e- r wat vital to U.S. interests 'ttztHwt America's best intention ? was to bring peace to Iraq, and perhaps then to the whole Mideast. That US. commitment wfll be excruciating to fulfill, would be hugely damaging to back track oa t And lie it or not, quelling the ;. chaos in Iraq has become a mission in which the international community suddeory lias a huge stake, . d nations The US. ami cant leave Baghdad in blazes for fear of greater calamities spreading. . fter months of arrogant deV ance. the Bush admuiistia-- " tion finally is turning to the Unrtea Nations tor help wnn trie Iraqi '6coir)ati6n. Bush officials must seize this fleeting moment to revise their dismissive, haphazard approach to postwar Iraq and instead press a UN. resolution to bring in international forces and flie global community to turn Iround a situation that drifts, by tie day, toward disaster. The longer the occupation goes on, the clearer it has become that Bush officials, who took down Saddam Hussein with alacrity, assumed that rebuilding Iraq would be easy. A new, classified study by the Joint Chkfs of Staff finds, hasty inadequate Iraq planning. With the Congressional Budj Office stating that the United States can maintain its current teh M of 140,000 or so troops only uCJ March the administration's turn to the UN. indicates that it is coming to grips with the decaying realities in Iraq. Water, power and espethe basics of any cially security still are badly icking, and an increasingly letha esistance grows. The four areas osed resolution lduding caning for efforts By fcj Med Nations, the UA-te- d coaH-tio- n and the Iraqi Governing to create a democ- ' ratically elected Iraqi government and ttf accelerate reconstnictkn. But the administration shcild consider more. It should formally ask the UN. to take over politically to Iraq; should maintain its mffitaqr forces and financial iunmilmwnt tnder this plan, which also wouM king in at least 100,000 non-Am, nation-rebuildi- V&p?i' ewl3j et . admin-istratio- $500-bil-h- , ed peace-minde- Integrating delusion with policy: A trend that goes well beyond NASA ' There MEDIA VOICES er is " side cast its opponents as terrorists who will stop at nothing to promote their agenda. And that does not help the more moderate elements in the movement get their message out ' There's no denying that our system of government and laws is not perfect. We've seen cases where the obviously guilty go free either on legal technicalities or a misled jury. We've also seen innocent executed in people imprisoned extreme cases for crimes they didn't commit And people who are against abortion believe the Supreme Court made the wrong decision. It wouldn't be the first time the nation's highest court has erred; it has previously made decisions declaring segregation legal and justifying slavery. But, for all its mistakes, flaws and shortcomings, the US. legal and political system is still better than outright anarchy. The rule of law allows us to maintain a civilized society where people can live in relative safety. One only needs to look at Liberia, Haiti and Afghanistan to see what happens when people take justice into their own hands. Even the Bible, which proscribes death for murder in most cases, also admonishes believers to render Caesar his due, obey the and to leave vengeance to v.? t V U XV f anti-aborti- anti-aborti- It has become a litmus test on both ends of the political spectrum. Even the religious community is divided, as some denominations ban abortion completely, others allow it as a personal choice while some object to abortion as an ex post facto contraceptive but will perm it in cases of rape, incest or when the health of the mother is in danger. .;. n movement's The tactics to overturn the court decision have ranged from lobbying f sit-in- anti-aborti- als.; i flCPAULUlLL Congress and state legislatures to enact laws restricting abortion, pushing for constitutional amendments countermanding the court's decision and performing acts of passive resistance, such as Operation Rescue's s in front of abortion clinics. But there are militants like tbll who think that killing a doctor who performs abortions is cornpat-- . stance on ible with their "pro-life- " the abortion question. In their minds, killing one doctor means several unborn children's lives are spared. But all they are doing is undercamp's mining the the rule of Potion and ignoring anti-aborti- . m were two news issued recently . white quite differ : ent in their subjects, make up a critical lesson for our times. One report was from the Congressional Budget Office, which estimates that, contrary to President Bush's assurances, the present budget deficit wfll not level off at some $475 billion next year and then decline rapidly. On the contrary, it might soar to a high of $5.8 trillion by 2013 if aU of Bush's tax cuts and other programs are enacted. And this doesn't count the tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars we're now told the reconstruction of ' Iraq wifl cost. On the same day, we saw the report of.the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board that described NASA as a "deluded agency" with a safety culture "broken" by complacency and the need to stay on schedule and on budget (a task president Bush had given to his appointee, NASA Administrator Sean 0"KeefeX The report found that NASA had become complacent, and schedule- - and and had not learned the lessons of the Challenger disaster 17 years ago. The budget pressures can be laid at the doors of various presidents who, through the years, persuaded Congress to pinch NASA's budget from a high (in 2002 dollars) of $25 billion in 1965 to $15 billion today. These two reports teH a story that I can only call a flaw in our national character Our unspoken belief that we can have our cake and eat it, too. Yes, we want a space program, but no, we dont want to go on paying aU that money for it. The NASA that won the space race with the Russians, that put men on the moon, landers on Mars and launched flybys of the outer planets, was, in character and attitude, a military cul-- v, ture Not only did its astrc-nau- ts come from the Navy Iraq. The White House and the Pentagon both qualify. The estimated $475 billion at which the deficit is supposed to peak next year does not include that terribly un derestimated cost of pacifying and rebuild- - and Air Force, but the priorities of its managers were those of generals on the ba- ttlefieldof good generals, anyway. Mission success and limiting losses were everything. Since then, with NASA the imperative of mission suc- . cess has been diluted by cost effectiveness and schedule deadlines. inglraq. we want a space program, but ho, wSSg dont Want tO go ingitsunder- - Yes, on paying all that money for it Spaceflight and military campaigns are unavoidably risky affairs mwMch it is imperative that those responsible elimiriate avoidable risks due to haste, poor planning or inadequate funding. NASA is not the only "delusional agency" in Washing ton, as we've been learning from the appalling mess in hastemmeet-W- e Pentagonwas preparing its "blitzkrieg-lite- " for Iraq. We cheered the plan's success in achieving an astonishingly quick military victory. But , the plan has proved inadequate in victory's aftermath and is bleeding our troops and our treasury. Yes, in deed, there has been a lot of delusion on display in Wash- - ington. So what lessons do we draw from an this? No doubt there are many, but the bottom line is to be found in the bottom line of our nation's financial situation. President Bush has dumped the Republicans' long-hel- d claim that they are the party of fiscal responsibility. With his tax cuts and Iraq policy (lest we forget, both of which were agreed to by a goodly number of Democrat sin Congress), he is pushing the country deep into the hole. We must face the fact that some of our proudest achievements and most seri-such as ' ous commitments our leadership in space and our international responsibilities on Earth might have to be severely curtailed just to pay our government's daily bills. We are choking on the cake we have eaten. : I Walter Cronldta was anchor of "CBS Evening News' for 19 years. He can be reached at maiIcronfeitecoIumn.com. budget-o- bsessed, ft tyCVSDECIDGD . I I I t fV I l Zt ' 1 t US. I : 5 5? Z |