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Show Monday. January 15. 1987 THE HERALD. Prove, Utah. - Page 5 Tho HopgiH itc ran A arc Opinions svndimtpd rnlnmnists nnH j cartoonists discuss the issues. -- -I 9rg,j Yj lit! I The Herald comments 5?ee agreement pardon hut not reprieve locally The good news that USX and the labor union have agreed on a new five-yecontract is a not but a pardon reprieve for the 1,800 idled steelwork ers and hundreds of management people at Orem's Geneva Works. Still looming over the horizon is the cold, hard reality that Utah Valley's industrial leader for decades will likely shut down in 1989. There are noble efforts afoot by citizen groups and coalitions to save the steel plant, studying the possibility of a buyout. These plans have made great headway, but no concrete evidence has surfaced to show Geneva will be operating past ar 1990. The reality of a permanant closure of the Utah Valley USX plant should mean more to our community now workers, politicians, economists and merchants have experienced the effect of a temporary shutdown for nearly six months. It is the longest steel shutdown in U.S. history, but it should serve as an experience builder to those who are used to the luxury of those jobs and what life could be like around Utah County in 1990. Because Geneva faces uncertainty, it underscores the importance of starting operations as soon as possible. Both management and union apparently like the concessions they received from each other in the proposed contract now being voted on by rank and file labor. The company, for the second contract in a row, needed deep wage and benefit cuts in order to become more competit, tive in a steel market. It wanted a four-yeagreement and the right to eliminate 1,500 of the 22,000 blue-colljobs that remained one in its shrunken empire low-pric- cut-throa- ed ar ar that 30 years earlier had includ- ed 165,000 blue and white-colla- r jobs, more than the entire dustry employs today. in- The union, resigned early to sacrificing some cash and benefits, drew the battle line over the company's practice of subn outside constituting non-unio- USW members. tractors for About 5,000 of the 15,000 USW members dismissed from 1983 through 1985 were victims of the practice, the union said. We believe speedy ratification of the contract by union members to ensure a quick firing up of Geneva and we wish Godspeed to the efforts by volunteer committees to soften or prevent the inevitable economic blow if and when the plant is shut down. Does Utah really possess climate? top manufacturing - Do the relatively CHICAGO (NEA) undeveloped states of North Dakota, South Dakota. Nebraska and Utah enjoy "the best overall manufacturing climate in the nation?" Are heavily industrialized New York, Pennsylvania. Michigan and Ohio among the least appealing locations for manufacturing? If the highly publicized annual study manage conducted by the Chicago-base- d ment consulting and accounting firm ot Grant Thornton is correct, the answer to both questions is yes. For seven years, Grant Thornton's "Annual Study of General Manufacturing Climates of the 48 Contiguous States of America" has commanded respect from business and political leaders throughout the country. oi People are intrigued by any type Thornton's Grant and rankings ratings receive special attention because they basis purport to provide a for determining the best sites for manufacturing plants. Now. however, the reports are being criticized by academic researchers and convincindependent consultants who offer contentions ing evidence to support their that the rankings are fundamentally flawed. After studying the Grant Thornton rateconoings, two University of Michigan mists concluded that they are "not a reliable predictor of... manufacturing performance, general business performance or general economic welfare." Two University of Wisconsin researchers found some relationship between the Grant Thornton ranking and actual job of manufacturgrowth in traditional forms with ing but "no correlation at all" that industries in growth are increasingly important. has By far the most devastating critique come from the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a Washington, D.C., organi- zation that provides advice to state gov- - quasi-scientif- Patients must not try to outsmart their doctors A friendly human battleship He is Santa's helper during the holidays. He's also a former Utah County Republican Party chairman, which in some circles puts him right up there with the flag, motherhood, baseball and pizza. It also gives him something in common with a U.S. congressman, a local real estate magnate, an administrative assistant to a mayor and a Harvard man who owns a local company. v It should also be known up front that Keith, his wife and family have had to deal with a major tragedy. His son Ken was hit by a car and it is a miracle he did not die. He's on the long road to what we are all praying is a complete recovery. These things are mentioned up front to ensure understanding that sensitivity and respect are due the man. Now to continue. Haines is also a Navy man. a graduate of the academy in Annapolis. He is also a very big man. We're talking big. Shake his hand and your hand disappears, clear past your watch. He played football for Navy. He was defensive lineman. Some say he was the line. This is the point of this column, but before it is continued, some more background is required. Keith Haines was recently thrust into the limelight about as hard as anybody can be thrust. After an interview with Haines in The I)ailv Herald, the article was picked up by the wire services. Then the phone began to ring at the Haines house. Since then. Keith has appeared on all of Robert U alters ernments on business location and relocation . Grant Thornton is obsessed with direct and indirect labor costs, CED notes, to the extent that they account tor more than 63 percent of the components of the state and skews the rankings in rankings favor of states with regressive policies. Thus, states that provide the most generous unemployment and disability compensation payments are penalized, while states that offer more limited payments are rewarded for their stinginess. "Not all factors contributing to a state's manufacturing climate are quantifiable," says Grant Thornton. "Additionally, quality of life components such as educational and health facilities, recreational and cultural opportunities, infrastructure systems and average personal income contribute to an area's overall attractiveness." But none of those elements are among the "22 factors selected by manufacturers as important to business success" that Grant Thornton relies upon to produce ratings that are at best irrelevant and at worst misleading. By PAI L HARVKY Americans' are learning more about medical science - for better or worse. Internists can always tell when some doctor-dram- a on television has detailed a heroic struggle with sporotrichosis because the next day his waiting room will be filled with patients convinced they have the symptoms of sporotrichosis. They almost never do. Compounding the doctor's dilemma is the fact that papers on new therapies and new remedies in professional medical journals are often reported on radio and TV and in newspapers before the doctor has had time to read them. -- for weeks they'll probably end up in a in the Smithsonian." jar Keith began to see the light) s). 1 asked him to drop his weight on me. He finally consented to release the information, since he had thrust himself into the public eye. But he warned me. if he got into a tight spot because of the release of his weight , Right up front, let it be known that Keith Haines is a friend, a good guy to have on your side if you have a cause, or are in search of a cause. the national television networks, the ma100 jor cable news stations, more than radio talk shows, and he's been quoted in countless newspaper and magazine articles including the Wall Street Journal. New York Times and Christian Science Monitor. He's been interviewed 225 times and is now shooting for the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Why? Haines was a classmate of fired military aide Lt. Col. Oliver North, who has become the chief whipping boy of the media and favorite scapegoat of the Reagan administration in the Iran arms deal controversy. Haines is spearheading a campaign to establish a legal defense fund for North among supporters and classmates. So far Haines has commitments for more than $35,000. He has even printed bumper stickers that sav: "Thank You Oliver North." and God Bless America and Oliver North." Thus, in somes circles. Haines is a hero. And heroes, especially those singled out of network television by the cyclops eye cameras, and tlie subsequent storm of publicitv. shed the cloak of private citizenship and thereby become public figures. Keith Haines, by traveling the path of soft chairs on morning news shows, complimentary hotel rooms, dinners, plane Thus Americans are better informed than any heretofore. can become An astute listener-observe- r medicine. about educated quite One result of this is negative. Doctors are seen less as "authority figures" than when their nostrums were more of a mystery. Much of a patient's recovery from most ailments relates to his own mental attitude. A physician's confident bedside manner has traditionally been highly constructive in enhancing a patient's confidence and subsequent If the patient thinks he knows more than the doctor, this "magic" is sacri well-bein- I would be too. "Well, let's say when I took Gar'h Fisher's volunteer' research study a year I came home and told my wife I had the Refrigerator by 80 pounds and 4.5 inches." Haines said. Really? "Yeah. My wife said that I should either 'sign an NFL contract or defrost.' " That means you have been hovering around 380 pounds? ago. Dick Harmon City Editor rides and blazing studio lights is now a public figure. This means Keith Haines is fair game for comment. d This also means someone can legitimately ask him how much he weighs. Before, nobody dared, even though they may have cared. He was a private figure, and you don't ask such things of a private person. And it takes on added importance when one hears Haines won a pair of Globetrotter tickets, a visit to a health spa and "aerobic" tights on a radio station the other day. Keith Haines in aerobic tights? Now that's news. As a newsman. I like the mental picture of seeing Keith bouncing about on some groaning floor in aerobic tights. Talk about picture possibilities. That would be an event to capture on film for posterity. So public since Haines got thrust into the eye. I called my for official interview number long-tim- e friend 226. Purpose? To learn his weight. as 1 expected. Initially he refused But 1 finally prevailed upon his sense of public duty, the same sensitivity that led him to defend "Ollie" North in the first place. The same sense of duty that led him to Annapolis and the chairmanship of the county GOP and too many good causes to list. said via telephone, you are now figure, just like the president. Johnny Carson or William "The Refrigerator" Perry. You have abandoned your right to privacy. Now tell me how much Keith, I a public you weigh. "Nope. I won't." he said firmly. "But Keith, you are now a public figure and you have no privacy. "Look at how open your GOP standard bearer has been with the growth in his colon. "President Reagan hasn't held back a thing, even about his ailing prostate gland. I can't say he posed for all of those diagrams of his private parts, but he certainly understood his duty as a public figure to be candid about such things. "His glands have been front page news ficed. Beyond this, an increasing number of patients are willing to argue with their physician, challenge his medical opinion with their own. A patient may insist on treatment which his physician knows to be unnecessary. This next is painful for a newsman to concede, but our efforts to reduce technical papers to lay language often result in enhancing expectations beyond what is realistic. Hard as we try to qualify research findings, all the listener or reader is likely to retain is the headline that got his "Yes. I lost 20 or 30 pounds as a result of the class. 1 also can run a 5:45 mile. But only one mile." Hummm. That is' news. Keith. Haines then proceeded to tell me some of the challenges his battleship size presents. And he asked that they be kept off the record. But I reminded him again he was a public figure and these things often come out anyway. He agreed. lt seems in Fisher's research, Haines was asked to take a physical which included a hydrostatic test in a tub of water and a blood pressure measurement. It didn't work because they couldn't find any swim trunks to lit. there wasn't enough water in the tub. and the blood pressure cuff wouldn't go around his muscular forearm. Some other interesting Haines facts he finally agreed to make public: He played football at Tooele High School at 255 pounds, his same playing weight at the Naval Academy. He broke the Tooele High record for the mile at 4:52. an incredible time for anybody in the thin air of the Rockies. Most pencil jocks don't do as well, let alone mountain men. He still plays a wicked game of basketball. In a zone, playing center, he owns the entire key. He toured on a service globetrotter-typ- e team that once played before crowds of 20.000 in the Phillipines. Once, in Naples. Italy, when former NBA star Bill Bradley was playing in Milan, he was mobbed by youngsters who mistakenly identified him as Bradley. Now. I can imagine Haines in aerobic tights, but mistaking Haines for Bradley is kite the Good Year like calling a 255-pou- Blimp Now. it is a good thing Haines has a great sense of humor. At least the last talked to him and reminded his time duties as a public figure, he his about seemed in good cheer. If he's changed, I would advise fellow office workers: if you see Keith Haines sitting at my desk on my chair anytime in the near future, call the paramedics. between him and the I am probably chair. 1 attention in the first place. Have you heard." he confronts his doctor, "about the new therapy or the new device or the new drug which cures " just what I've got! So untenable is the physician's position Allen in this situation that two doctors Brett and Lawrence MeCullough - have prepared for the New England Journal of Medicine "guidelines" for this new atient relationship. The bottom line is that "doctors must resist providing treatment simply because a patient is insistent." A guideline for the rest of us might be, "Don't outsmart yourself." -- doctor-p- |