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Show Page 6 THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, Sunday, September 11, 1988 The Herald, its readers, syndicated columnists and cartoonists discuss the issues. Opinions Herald comment How good is plan lor canyon highway? Wednesday, Gov. Norman H. Bangerter called a press conference to announce that the Utah department of Transportation has approved the concept of a compromise highway design for Provo director of the Department of Transportation, say they really intend to incorporate many of the modifications recommended by the Provo Canyon Parkway Committee. That committee worked for a year with UDOT officials to come up with the most acceptable highway design. Those same committee members were understandably angered when UDOT's supplemental : Canyon. :We commend the governor and the state's highway officials for their change of heart. ; While the final design has not been drawn, Bangerter said "It will provide for the design and construction of a safe highway through Provo Canyon while at the same time protect and in many cases enhance the scenic attractions and recreational potential of the canyon." - It's about time the state and the Department of Transportation really listened to citizens and elected officials who don't want the canyon's beauty and recreational values destroyed in the effort to cut a wider traffic artery through the canyon. Two governors and a host of transport department officials have refused to act, so Gov. Bangerter and Sam Taylor, chairman of the Utah Transportation Commission, deserve credit for the leadership they have shown to turn things around. environmental impact statement, issued last month, failed to reflect any of those recommendations. Most are now skeptical that the latest commitment to change is anything but more of the same all talk but no real change. This time, however, the committment for change appears to have been more broadly embraced than some of the other promises made. For one, this is the first time the governor of the state has gotten involved and ordered UDOT to compromise. The Parkway Committee feels like the folk who heard the boy cry "wolf" one too many times and failed to act when the wolf finally arrived. We don't blame anyone for being skeptical. In the past the UDOT has vaguely promised modifications but when construction began, those promises were not kept. We trust that the people in charge really have had a change of heart and really intend to do what they say. But in the final analysis we intend to be watchful so that like the boy in the fable, Provo Canyon doesn't end up being gobbled up by the wolf. Everyone, without exception, agrees that the canyon road must be made safer. The controversy has been over what type of "safe" road would be built. Would it be a limited access freeway or would it be an improved road that still preserved the canyon? Bangerter, along with Commissioner Taylor and Gene Findlay, Feedback In support of school's citizenship policy Editor, Herald: This letter is written in response to the article printed about the Nebo School District's citizenship policy. Due to the fact that I was a student at Payson High School during the 1987-8-8 school year, I would like to express my views on the subject. I feel that this policy is the best one that the Nebo School District has come up with so far. The policy separates tjbose students who don't feel that it is necessary to be to school on time, or even be to school at all, from those students who take responsibility, like to learn and want to make something of ; their lives. The citizenship policy teaches the qualities that are needed to survive in the job world. It teaches the students to take the responsibility to be to school and to be there on time. It is a fair policy and the teachers at Payson High School do not give U's without just reasons. If they did, then the student who received the U should have appealed it at the time it was given. The students are always notified ahead of time what their citizenship grade will be for that term, and are given ample time to correct it. Those who care, take care of it and those who think they can slip by, ignore it. Payson High School's faculty does all it can to help those students who receive U's, to clear them. A teacher is at the school practically every evening and sometimes Saturday's holding citizenship classes for the students. I would like to know where were all of these parents, who are so concerned now when their students didn't get back into school, when their students received their report cards with the U's on them. Kari McCausland Payson Trailer park is an unneeded expense Editor, Herald: "A was absolutely amazed to learn that Pjovo City is planning to build a trailer and thus park in South Fork Canyon spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to pollute its own watershed and drive private citizens out of business. It is doing this in a year when we in Utah can't seem to afford to pay even for our children's education and are proposing tax initiatives to cut back on government spending. It is doing so even though it already has two campgrounds in the canyon that are perfectly suited to the kind of use appropriate to a wilderness watershed area. After seeing your article on August 30 about the proposed trail up South Fork (great idea!) and improved campsite at Big Springs (also good!), I noticed the d announcement that there it will also be a trailer park built in the canyon, right over the Provo City water line. I was stunned to learn that it will not only cost $100,000 but will require constant maintenance and a e attendant (perhaps another $50,000 a year), and I have learned, at least another $100,000 will be needed to half-burie- 47-un- full-tim- ABOUT LETTERS: Feedback" is intended to provide Daily Herald readers with an open forum in which they can discuss issues of broad community interest and importance. Letters should be typewritten, double-space- d and not exceed 400 about a page and a half of words typewritten, double-space- d copy. Every letter must be signed in ink with the writer's full name, home upgrade and widen the road to accommodate trailers. And all this is only the "first phase"! At the same time three trailer parks in Provo Canyon, which cost the public nothing, are barely surviving (over 150 units; average occupancy about 50) and will likely go under with this competition of extra spaces and the slightly lower fee of $7. As for the impact on the watershed, Mayor Jenkins must be a city boy who never camped out if he thinks hundreds of boy scouts and group parties will all dutifully use his "stainless steel units for restrooms" and not the bushes right over the culinary line. Considering all this, I cannot for the life of me think of one sensible reason Provo is planning such a waste of money with unneeded facilities right on with the destructive its watershed consequences for culinary water and private enterprise. I can only hope they will come up with even one good reason for such destructive waste or have the sense to stop it! Eugene England Provo address and phone number and number where they may be reached during the day. Phone numbers will not be published. Names are rarely withheld, but may be after personal consultation with the editor. The editor reserves the right to edit any letter to remove potentially libelous material, material in poor taste, and to make letters conform to length limitations. New Iran-Cont- ra documents revealed Reagan motives are admirable By JACK ANDERSON VAN ATTA We have examined WASHINGTON suppressed documents that cast new scandal. These light on the Iran-Cont- and DALE - arms-for-hostag- ra memos, transcripts revealing papers and tapes withheld from the public under court seal prove that President Reagan's secret overtures to Iran were on the right track. He understood that a power struggle was seething inside Iran between the radicals and pragmatists. So Reagan sought to strengthen the pragmatists, who are led by Speaker of the Parliament Hashemi Rafsanjani. The hope was that Rafsanjani would gain control of the government, wind down the Persian Gulf war, end Iran's diplomatic isolation and restore relations with the United States. In September 1986, Rafsanjani sent his favorite nephew, Ali Hashemi, to Washington to negotiate with the White House. Here are excerpts from the secret discussions. Lt. Col. Oliver North summarized the U.S. position tersely: "We are prepared to proceed with an improvement in relations between our two countries or to continue differences between our two countries," he said. "Basically, it is up to your government." A translator gave the nephew's response: "Well, as I mentioned before, we are ready to improve relations ... You've got to understand that people who have taken this momentous step ... this is not the agreement of everyone back there. There are a lot of differences and a lot of problems ... You know for four years after the revolution ... you were conceived to be as the enemy ... Now it's only in these last through this strategic waterway. The negotiation came up as a secondary issue. North spoke of the hostages as an "obstacle',' n to improving relations. But at the time he stressed that the White House didn't want the hostages to be bartered. "We're committed to a long-terprogram to help moderate the government of Iran," North said during an earlier discussion. "Okay, we're committed to that, and I don't want to start establishing ... They can say, 'Fine, we're going to go kidnap 12 more Americans,' or something. I don't want to get into that." During later negotiations over Iran's need for Hawk and TOW missiles, North told Rafsanjani's nephew to his face, "I do not like dealing with a man who is willing to put a price of so many TOWs on human life." In future columns, we will describe how the Israelis helped the White House establish its first contact with Teheran through an Iranian arms merchant, Manucher Ghorbanifar, who lied to both sides in his effort to promote an arms sale that would bring himself profit. The records show that he then d the White House and sabotaged the negotiations. Meanwhile, Rafsanjani has consolidated his control of the Iranian government. He is now bringing more rational rule to Iran and ending the war with Iraq. As the reporters who first broke the story and scathed President Reagan for doing business with Khomeini, we are obligated to report now that he made overtures to the right people at the right time for the right reasons. es Iranian-America- m LAttU Jack Anderson United Feature Syndicate, Inc. two years that our responsibilities have begun to see the chance for improvement in relations with America ..." Later, he added, "I want to emphasize that what is really important is the political relationship ... is that we do it in such a manner that no danger occurs to the people in power in Teheran, because we don't want the reactionary wing to take advantage of us." North replied, "We understand that during this period of very secret contact, we cannot have the president go out and announce opening an embassy in Teheran. You have a domestic political problem. So do we." The suppressed papers show that the White House's primary objective was to regain a foothold in Iran and repair the damage caused by the loss of Iran to the America-hatin- g Ayatollah Khomeini. Iran dominates the Persian Gulf, which is the jugular vein of the Western world. Half of the West's oil travels double-crosse- arms-for-hostag- es The starving remain hungry American foreign aid plan fails - SAN FRANCISCO Billions of dol- lars worth of foreign aid disseminated throughout the world "are neither erad- icating poverty abroad nor buying security for the United States," asserts a liberal research group here. On the other side of the country, a conservative research organization distributes a policy paper accompanied by a press release whose headline proclaims: "U.S. Foreign Aid Policy Has Failed." Although left and right rarely agree on contemporary public policy issues, they long have shared thoroughly justifiable contempt for this country's foreign aid program. InstiNotes the San Francisco-base- d tute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First: "The results thus far fail to satisfy either side in the debate that has long the dominated foreign aid policy liberal desire to meet humanitarian needs and the conservative position that aid should serve our national security by protecting our strategic interests." Because foreign aid is channeled through the political and military elites of recipient countries, it reinforces an existing social and political order that invariably subjugates the poorest members of society most in need of the assistance, explains Food First Frances Moore Lappe. "It often hurts the very people it's meant to help. Over two out of five er foreign aid dollars are military. They're often used to put down dissent. Robert Walters "While sometimes alleviating hunger in the short run, the program usually lowers the price at which Third World farmers can sell their crops. This depresses local food production, making it harder for poor countries to feed themselves in the long run," says a analysis. "Food for Peace, in fact, is mainly an aid program for U.S. farmers, allowing them to dump their crops in Third World countries while the U.S. taxpayer foots the bill," adds that critique. In some countries, the Food for Peace program has fed the same people for years, encouraging the formation of a welfare class. In other nations, the food has been traded for armaments, supplied to hotels to feed tourists and otherwise abused by its recipients. Heritage-co- or That doesn't feed hungry people build democracy," she adds. "Contrary to popular belief, most U.S. aid goes to governments which chronically abuse human rights." Of the approximately $15 billion in foreign aid distributed by this country annually, slightly more than consists of Economic Support Funds and Military Assistance, collectively known as Security Assistance. The federal government says those funds are earmarked "to stem the spread of economic and political disruption and to help allies in dealing with threats to their security and independence." In other words, the money is used to perpetuate the status quo rather than to aid the needy. Moreover, of the just under $77 billion distributed in all types of foreign aid between 1981 and 1986, almost 37 percent went to only two countries in the form of Israel and Egypt Assistance. Security Food assistance constitutes only slightly more than 12 percent of all foreign aid, with most of it provided through the Food for Peace program an operation harshly criticized by the Heritage Foundation based in Washington, D.C. two-thir- ds mmissioned semi-permane- nt Distorting the program's priorities in this country is federal legislation that requires at least half of all Food for Peace donations to pass through Great Lakes ports and at least be shipped on vessels flying the U.S. three-fourt- hs flag. Some direct food aid is urgently needed, especially to alleviate suffering in cases of famine and natural disasters. But this country ought to be encouraging the land reform necessary to provide the world's most impoverished people with the resources to feed themselves rather than rely on perpetu- al handouts. |