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Show Fnday, September THE HERALD. Provo, L'Uh. IS, 1985 - Pge The Herald, its readers, syndicated columnists and cartoonists discuss vital issues "a ( The Herald Commens 1 1 1 1 n lenstitution Day ra rote A Good Idea The Presidential Commission on the Bicentennial of the U. S. Constitution is exploring ideas for the national commemoration beginning in 1987. We have a suggestion to toss into the hopper that the commission use its influence to have Constitution Day returned to its one-tim-e status as a special Sept. 17 observance. It was on that date in 1787, of course, that delegates to the constitutional convention signed d document the in the old Philadelphia State House. Constitution Day was not a legal holiday, but it was a patriotic observance in which Americans were urged to fly the flag, participate in any public service, and reflect on the blessings of freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. We don't know when the observance started, but at least two encyclopedias say that in 1952 its status was changed. At that time Citizenship Day was established Sept. 17 to combine newly-complete- the functions of Constitution Day and I Am an American Day which had been the third Sunday in May. So now we have Citizenship Day but usually it receives little or no fanfare and the meaning insofar as the Constitution is concerned is quite vague. We should do better than that for our Constitution and the farsighted founders who wrote it. The oldest charter among important nations of the world, it is the supreme law of the land ... the blueprint for the strong central government we know today. Most Americans consider it sacred if not in- spired. In a two-da- y meeting in Salt Lake City awhile back, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, chairman of the presidential commission, said: "No people in history has been able to do in 200 years what this country has accomplished. Much of the reason has been the Constitution which provides freedom for every person to develop according n to his talents." Burger said the panel will develop a bicentennial program to promote the Constitution and give ourselves a lesson in civics and history. The commission includes dignitaries appointed by President Reagan from the judiciary, Congress, education and the private sector. It was set up through legislation sponsored by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch said the Hatch, God-give- h. commemoration is planned to 1989, but could be from extended to four years since it wasn't until 1791 that the Bill of 1987 Rights was adopted. Back to our suggestion to the commission: A restored and Constitution Day could add significantly to the 200th Anniversary as the occasion for special ceremonies and the starting point for some of the activities and exhibits. And thinking of future years, if the Constitution is worthy of a major bicentennial celebration, surely it merits being honored at an annual observance of well-publiciz- ed its own. Washington Window Where Do All the Governors Go? By ARNOLD SAWISLAK UPI Senior Editor WASHINGTON (UPI) Where do governors go when the political string runs out for them in their states? The answer seems to be the United States Senate, and that august body may be getting another infusion of former governors in 1987. Five incumbent governors, either inelior retiring from gible to seek office voluntarily, are either announced or potential 1986 candidates for the Senate. Two others who left office in 1984 also are said to be in the 1986 picture. There already are 13 former governors in the Senate, one of whom, Paul Laxalt of Nevada, is retiring. So if all of the sitting governors who now figure in speculation for 1986 run and win, a full 20 percent of the Senate would be made up of former governors. - Is there any political significance to this? Maybe. In the three decades between the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the election of Jimmy Carter, no governor became president of the United States. Every president during that period save one had been a member of Congress and the term "Cradle of Presidents" was applied by some to the Senate. But a longer view of presidential politics shows that of the 16 presidents who have served in the 20th century, six have been state governors, including the last two occupants of the White House. What may be even more interesting, three of those six former governors generally are considered to have been good or even great presidents both Roosevelts, Franklin and Theodore, and Woodrow Wilson. The jury properly still is out on the fourth former governor-presideof the century, Ronald Reagan, but it certainly can be said without waiting for him to leave office that he has been one of the most successful, both in partisan politics and in taking charge of the national policy agenda. It is true that no recent former governor has gone to the Senate and then to the White House, but two of the current crop of senators in that category Democrat Ernest Hollings and Republican Strom Thurmond of South Carolina have run for the presidency. In addition, there were presidential stirrings before the last election on behalf of Sen. Dale Bumpers, and Laxalt is said to be open to a run for the Republican nomination in 1988. The other former governors now in the Senate include Democrats James Exon of Nebraska, Wendell Ford of Kentucky, David Boren of Oklahoma, David Pryor of Arkansas and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Republicans John Chafee of Rhode Island, Daniel Evans of Washington, Mark Hatfield of Oregon and Robert Stafford of Vermont. As of now, none of them figure in 1988 presidential speculation, but there are many observers who advise keeping an eye on Rockefeller down the line. The governors who may seek Senate seats next year include Democrats Harry Hughes of Maryland, Robert Graham of Florida and John Evans of Idaho and Republicans Dick Thornburgh of Pennsylvania and William Janklow of South Dakota. The two immediate past governors who may get back into the fray next year are Democrat James Hunt of North Carolina and Republican Richard Snelling of Lebanon's Jews Are Latest Shiite I (idnap Victims By JACK ANDERSON - behind-the-scen- fit vfi A of Lebanon, only about Jews, mostly old men, remained in the country. They clung resolutely to their traditional political neutrality, confident this would exempt them from the violence that had reduced Beirut to rubble and its citizens to victims. But the Jews' careful was of little consequence to the Shiite extremists, who swear fealty to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. These fanatic fundamentalists lumped the Jews in the same category as the Israelis and Americans. They began snatching the elderly men off the street. The kidnap victims are a mixed lot: Dr. Eli Hallak, 60, a prominent physician who ministered to the needs of Palestinian children. Last March, armed gunmen burst into his home and dragged him away; he has not been heard from since. Isaac Sasson, 68, who was president of the Lebanese Jewish community and the head of a major Lebanese trading company's pharmaceutical branch. Sasson was returning from a business trip to the United Arab Emirates when he was warned that he was in danger and should not go home to Moslem-controlle- d West Beirut. He had no time to heed the he was grabbed at or near the warning 100 The seizure of AmeriWASHINGTON can hostages by Shiite Moslems in Lebanon stole the headlines in 1985, but there's in that another story of hostage-takin- g untold. has that gone country unhappy While Christian and Moslem militias continue to slaughter each other and "enemy" civilians, the remnant of Beirut's centuries-olJewish community has become the latest target of Shiite kidnappers. Seven elderly Lebanese Jews have been abducted on the street, and are believed to be held by the Hezbollah, the same fanatical Shiite group that is holding seven Americans. The State Department has been making appeals in supposedly influential quarters for the release of the seven Lebanese, along with its continuing efforts to free the seven Americans. The Jews of Lebanon once numbered in the thousands. Avoiding the impassioned political battles of their far more numerous Moslem and Christian countrymen, they played a large part in making Beirut the commercial capital of the Middle East. But as the fratricidal warfare of recent years intensified, most of the Jews fled. By 1982, when Israel launched its ill- d nado they believe it highly likely that the seven are being held by the Hezbollah d either in Beirut or in the Bekaa Valley, not far from where the seven Americans are thought to be held. Reginald Bartholomew, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, has held discussions on the missing Jews with both Lebanese and Syrian officials, according to our sources. Syrian President Hafez Assad was instrumental in obtaining the release of the American "TWA hostages" in July, and is believed by the State Department to have enough influence with the Shiite terrorists in the Bekaa Valley to intercede for the starred invasion and JOSEPH SPEAR airport. WaSTep? MiLLioM why, i'm 100 Yeafte oR So, THiS gnuFF'LL TURrJ iTo Oil I Syrian-controlle- Jews and the remaining - Jack Anderson Americans. Whether he chooses to do so is another matter. THE FUDDLE FACTORY: We told you how the State Department has responded to the dangers our diplomats face from terrorists; it set up a new bureau to address the problem. Well, the new bureau is already hard at work building itself up. It has quietly advertised for 14 "security management professionals" to advise on measures to make U.S. embassies more secure. The bureau is also looking for an experienced contract officer to handle purchases of security equipment. Now if the terrorists will just hold off till the experts' advice is studied and the procurement procedure is duly recently Yehuda Benisti. 68, former manager of Bank Safra. who Isaac Tarrab. 75, a retired professor. Eli Srour, 68. an impoverished Jew prepared the dead for burial. Haim Cohen, age unknown, also poor, who delivered kosher meat to the Jewish community. Salim Jammous, age unknown, secretary-of the Jewish community. general Sources told our associate Lucette Lag- - followed .... TINKERING: When President first unveiled his plan to "reform" the tax laws last spring, he presented it to Congress as essentially a TAX Reagan -it proposition. No changes would be tolerated. Now the White House, under prodding by Treasury Secretary James Baker, is singing a more conciliatory tune. The three major and realistic changes most likely to emerge from Congress and be accepted by Reagan are elimination of some of the breaks granted to Big Oil; retention of deductions for at least 'part of state and local taxes, and more relief on the tax rate for middle-incom- e families. Some means have to be devised for the quick dispatch of seemingly frivolous lawsuits before we drown in a sea of litigation. Take a suit filed in federal court here last week by seven former students of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the courtly guru of the Transcendental Meditation movement. The maharishi, who has been pondering the mysteries of levitation, promised to teach them how to fly, the plaintiffs said, but they only learned how to hop "with the legs folded in the lotus position." We think the judge ought to refer them to the "Airline Companies" section of the Yellow Pages and show them the door. Bon7! Overlook Special Anniversary In this year of momentous anniversaries War II world, one of for the special significance should not be overlooked. It is not one of the dramatic 40ths, such and J days and the dropping of as the atomic bombs. Rather, it was 30 years ago that Austria emerged from a decade of Four-Powoccupation as a reunited, independent nation. The mechanism was a treaty between Austria and the four victorious wartime powers, the formal signing of which was observed at a gathering of foreign ministers in Vienna back in May. But the country's rebirth did not become accomplished fact until several months later, when on Sept. 19, 1955, the last Soviet troops withdrew from Austrian terpost-Worl- V-- E V-- ritory. It is to this day the only such instance of voluntary Soviet surrender of conquered territory. (Soviet forces were pulled out of northern Iran under U.S. pressure in 1946, but under very different circumstances.) Why the Soviets chose suddenly to pack up and leave is still not completely clear. It certainly had some connection with the death of Josef Stalin, It is possible, according to one school of thought, that the new leadership, preoccupied with getting its own affairs in order, then-rece- Whichever, it can be said with absolute certainty that it would never have come to pass had the Kremlin had the slightest d I ff Sr- - 2L J ( Donald Graff was hoping to buy a respite in tensions with the West. According to another view, an independent Austria was being offered as the Soviet quid for which it was hoped the Western quo would be a halt on the rearmament of West Germany within NATO. inkling of what was to come in neighboring Hungary just one year later. And whatever their reasons, the Soviets deserve some thanks for a favor. Austria is one of the postwar world's unqualified success stories, but it had to come from very far behind to become such. A between-war- s political and economic basket case, it was an early and not entirely unwilling victim of Nazi Germa-nAs long as things were going well for the Third Reich, most Austrians went along. At the end of the war, Austria shared Germany's partitioned fate. Between 1947 and 1954, the occupying powers held nearly 400 meetings, by State Department count, to discuss their charge's future. They could not agree on terms of withdrawal, primarily because of stiff Soviet demands for reparations, forced repatriad tion of refugees from areas and continued stationing of Soviet troops in Austria following a peace treaty. , In early 1955, however, Moscow abruptly: abandoned the most extreme demands. A treaty was negotiated and signed within months. The rest Is recent history. y. Soviet-conquere- |
