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Show rzzz "SHI 0 0 "I saw old Autumn in the misty morn Stand shadowless like silence, listening To silence. " Thomas Hood, English author pinions (1799-184- 5) Emperor Mikhail? the Soviet economy lurches toward the abyss, Mikhail Gorbachev has won another battle to expand his executive powers. But his victory may turn out to be an empty one, because the Kremlin's capacity to rule the restive union of Soviet republics appears to be disintegrating. For the first time since the Communist Party consolidated its grip on power in the early 1920s, Moscow's authority over the country is in doubt. The im- far-fetch- Gorbachev's attempts during the last five years to reform the command economy have only accelerated the slide in living standards. The Kremlin's are chiefly to blame for the alarming shortages of basic products such as bread and potatoes. Although the command structure is crumbling swiftly, Gorbachev has stopped far short of the fundamental changes needed to free individual initiative and implement a true market system. half-measur- The Soviet leader's disastrous vacillation is plainly evident in his call to simply meld the rival economic plans of Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov and Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin's proposal, actually authored by Kremlin economist Stanis-laShatalin, is a radical formula for economy. abolishing the state-ru- n plan, on the other hand, would retain much centra) planning, with the state continuing to set most prices. Gorbachev's preposterous notion of combining these two incompatible strategies was aptly derided by Yeltsin as like trying to mate "a hedgehog with a "500-da- y" v Ryzh-kov- 's I never really appreciated how our government protected us from greedy banks, savings and loans, oil companies, etc., with regulations. Passage of the Deregulation Act of 1980 n Act of 1982, with the and the of fine our honest President Reagan, help Senator Garn and our Congress, opened the door to a bunch of greedyswindlers. First, the oil companies: Not only did they raise the price of oil from $11 to $35 dollars, they put thousands of fine service stations out of business, which put about a million people out of work, which were giving us fine service. They also shut down dozens of independent refineries which had been buying crude oil for years, from the seven sisters, "which now is the three sisters," who control almost all the crude oil in the world. Some congressmen told them that they must sell crude to the independents, but the oil companies told them to go to hell. With no competition and no regulations, they have us over that well known barrel, and our Congress, as a whole doesn't care. The Federal Reserve and the oil companies run this country. I have heard they are planning to devalue the dollar by 90 out a dollar coin, put in gas pumps that take those coins, and do away with all private owned companies handling gas. I hope, with all my heart, that this never happens. About, two ears, ago our congress signed a bill to deregulate natural gas, which oil companies control, so maybe we will be paying $300 to heat our house. Pray to the Iord to save us, because we won't get together to save ourselves. We can't depend on the Congress saving us. President Ezra Taft Benson warned us. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Bob Bonnann Provo Garn-Germai- Save the canyon Editor: I am sitting at my kitchen table right now looking up at the top of Rock Canyon. I marvel at the terraces that were cut into the mountains in the 1930 s to keep the lower areas of the canyon from flooding. In 1983 I saw first hand how the flood control worked as I saw the flood waters streaming harmlessly down North Temple Drive and 2G20 North where my parents live, while family members in Salt Lake City were sandbagging day and night to save homes. I am also amazed at the variety of rock formations and vegetation. There are places in the canyon where the folds in the rocks rise in graceful curves out of the ground. My soul hurts to think that this canyon would be used to run sewer pipes through, that heavy equipment would be traveling over the delicate trails, and that trees and vegetation, crucial to the watershed would be removed to make way for a ski resort. This would be a tragedy and even more of one because of the saturation of ski resorts in Utah. Many of those resorts are not even breaking even. I wish to support the Utah economy by supporting the existing ski resorts and by supporting the preservation of Rock Canyon as a critical watershed area and a place of beauty that helps to restore human souls. Camille DeLong Provo A j, Herald comment snake." As the economic chaos multiplies, the Kremlin leader's answer is to gather for himself emergency powers to rule by decree. The added executive measures extended to Gorbachev by the Supreme Soviet permit him to overrule local institutions, such as the parliaments of the 15 republics, on everything from the economy to property rights and social fA 4 lent policy. Gorbachev's czarist approach to the crisis is the exact opposite of what is needed to rescue the Soviet Union from communism. What the country needs is more political competition and decentralization, not less. Protesters outside the Kremlin's Spassky Gate drove home this imperative last week with signs declaring: "A president, not an emperor" and "All decrees of the president are battles against democracy." Yet it is far from certain that Gorbachev's executive decrees will be heeded. Yeltsin, backed by the enormous resources of the Russian republic, has vowed to ignore any Kremlin edict that It is infringes on local sovereignty. worth remembering that the planned price increases announced by Ryzhkov last spring were aborted because leaders of the Russian Federation and other republics bluntly refused to carry them out. Because of the greater degree of open- ness in Soviet society, the impetus for change has shifted from the Kremlin to more ambitious reformers such as Yeltsin, Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov and Leningrad Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. All three of these leaders have resigned from the Communist Party. Gorbachev, by contrast, is proving himself to be a dedicated communist after all. Letters Greedy swindlers B FORE" As pending economic collapse, which Soviet citizens perceive more vividly with each passing week, has stoked a mass revolt against seven decades of centralized to control. It is no longer Kremlin the ultimately may speculate Vatican be reduced to a Russian-styl- e Kremthe influence without beyond City lin walls. Tuesday Oct. 2, 1990 What response? Your editorial in Sunday's paper (Sept. 23) is titled: Mormons & 'gentiles' ... I resent this. The dictionary' identifies a 'gentile' as follows: "anyone belonging to the nations; any person not a Jew or a Christian; a heathen; applied by Mormons to those outside their sect." I am not a Jew. I am But I am a Christian. What is your response to this? non-Jewi- Joyce Harris Provo Editor's note: Quotation marks were placed around gentile in the headline to indicate it was not a reference to but instead referred to all in the area as per the last usage mentioned in the dictionary: It was not intended to imply that are not Christians. non-jew- s, Canyon's a wonder Editor: Provo's Rock Canyon is a wonder. Without money and without driving for hours, I can walk in beauty. Maples blaze, birds sing, and magnificent rock makes me glad I'm alive. Even the ground smells good after rain. Persons drive thousands of miles to national parks no more beautiful or awesome. Rock Canyon makes this person repeatedly new, at no expense. Utah Valley has a treasure without price. Francine R. Bennion Provo Send postcards Editor: I an: a fourth grade student. I am trying to learn more about your state. Would you please publish my letter so that your readers might send picture post cards to my class? Then we can see how nice your state really is. Thank you for your cooperation. Leslie Dobbs Austin Elementary 1776 Texas Dr. Weatherford, Texas .tEEEEERES eJ JA a j Incumbents faring well again this fall - WASHINGTON (AP) There is no open elecseason on incumbentsin the tions five weeks away despite evidence of political cynicism, signs of voter anger and talk of a backlash against officeholders. When the votes are counted, most of the establishment is likely to be right where it is, with new leases on office. The dissatisfaction that shows in public opinion surveys and in the popularity of limiting elective tenure has been translated into voter uprisings only against a handful of clearly identifiable targets. That showed most clearly in Massachusetts, where the real target wasn't even running. Democratic primary election voters took out their anger at. retiring Gov. Michael S. Dukakis by turning to outsiders over candidates with anv linked to his off-ye- ar economic slump and was forced to push through z sharp increase in state taxes. Tax increases and budget woes, not incumbency alone, are the common denominator for governors in trouble. That's one of the problems plaguing campaigning Republican governors in places like Rhode Island, Kansas, Maine and Florida. And it was one of the factors in the voluntary-retirementof 10 governors who didn't run again. Underscoring a primary election record that shows voters are selective in punishing incumbents, Minnesota Democrats rewarded one, renominating Gov. Rudy Per-picwho once had looked like a loser. He's already served 10 years, longer than any other governor in state history. And in all of Congress, with 435 House s h, Walter Mears opposition. Ironically, at the same time, there seems to be growing sentiment in favor of limiting the tenure of officeholders. Oklahoma voters decided by a margin to put a 12 year limit on service in their state legislature. Term limits will be on the general election ballot in California and Colorado, the latter measure applying to members of Congress as well as state officeholders. Leaders of an effort to do that nationally with a constitutional amendment claim they are gaining support. That's one way out of a situation in which incumbents usually win even though them say they don't the voters who like the product. A survey conducted for the Times Mirror two-to-o- ASSOCIATED PRESS COLUMNIST seats and 34 in the Senate at stake next month, only one incumbent seeking a new term was turned down for renomination. That sole loser was Rep. Donald Lukens of Ohio, a Republican renounced by his own party after a sex scandal. At this point, the Democrats think they can inaKesrgTiiiiudiiL aina m mi umipcti- tion for governors, with 36 states at stake. There are no signs of major change in the political lineup in Congress, although Republicans still hope to beat the odds and gain a seat or two in the Senate, looking to better position themselves for a bid at control in 1992. In Congress, most of what will happen on Nov. 6 already is ordained. Both parties say there are only a handful of real contests for House seats; Democratic National Chairman Ronald H. Brown guesses the count of competitive districts at 20 of the 435, others put it lower. two Four senators seeking Republicans and two Democrats, have no major party opponents. There haven't been that many uncontested Senate elections in 34 years. And nine more have only token off-ye- ar ct reflects the mood. "Cynicism toward the political system in general is growing as the public in unprecedented numbers associates Republicans with wealth and greed, Democrats with fecklessness and incompetence," that survey reported, saying the result is political gridlock. It is gridlock that could be broken by a congressional shakeup in 1992, even if the voters don't force the issue. Congressional redistricting guarantees changes in the House, and campaign finance rules will make retirement a lucrative option tor dozens of veteran congressmen. Under the law, they can keep leftover campaign funds for themselves only if they retire by the end of the next Congress, an option worth $100,000 or more for 62 House members. Walesa keeps the faith in many ways tsar ....rg The man who began GDANSK. Poland the destruction of the Iron Curtain a decade ago, Lech Walesa, remains virtually unchanged. He was an unemployed electrician in 1980 when he scrambled over the wall of the Lenin Shipyards here to lead striking workers in a movement that eventually brought the communist government to its knees. In the intervening years, Walesa has spent time in prison, won the Nobel Peace Prize and ended up wielding enough power to negotiate a peaceful transfer of power to a government. Walesa wore an uncharacteristic tie to our interview, but under the table he was wearing bedroom slippers. With a straight face he told us that the long years of martial law were good for his marriage because he and his wife Danuta assumed their apartment was bugged. "Many people didn't like their flat being bugged, but I liked it because my wife knew it was bugged and she didn't quarrel with me." Switching quickly to serious introspection, Walesa allowed that the bugging may SADDAM... . " "i t WA J Jack A sun jrS; miiuci & Dale Van Atta mm Ff -"' m mtm mm mm 1 UNITED mhJ jq mm FEATURE SYNDICATE have been the genesis of his leadership style. He makes up his mind without much discussion with others and often surprises his followers with what looks like a sudden decision, simply because he hasn't talked it out. Walesa was surprisingly generous to his former captors and tormentors. They watched him round the clock. They threw him in jail when his wife was delivering their seventh child. They made his life miserable, but Walesa said he will leave the punishment to Polish judges and courts. He confirmed reports that the Solidarity movement nearly cost him his life more than once. Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca who shot Pope John Paul II confessed in court that Bulgarian secret police wanted him to kill Walesa too. For two years the Polish security police plotted to kill him using an patient to pull the trigger. The trigger man foiled the plot himself by showing up on Walesa's doorstep to confess. He said he was supposed to blame the killing on the Central Intelligence Agency. Walesa has a bumper-sticke- r mentality about the life threats. "Such things happen," he told us. "I'm more afraid my wife might get angry and get a rolling pin or something." Walesa wasn't cowed by the threats. "The only thing in the world" I am afraid of is God and his judgments. That doesn't mean I am going to put my head on the rails and wait for the train to cut it off. I don't expect that angels will lift the train so my head will not be cut off." Walesa wears his faith on his lapel a button of the Black Madonna of Czesto-chowHe is deeply religious in a country that is more than 90 percent Catholic, but he said the church has never dictated his a. politics. Even the Polish-bor- n pope never told Walesa what to do, but the church, as a focal point for sentiment was indispensable during the Poles' struggle for freedom. Even atheists went to church in those years of struggle because the church coalesced the opposition. Walesa carried a wood and silver crucifix with him and hung it on the wall whenever he spoke. He doesn't like to talk about the private Walesa. "It was the situation which created Gorbachev, Walesa and Solidarity, and not the other way around," he said. "Living in your country, I probably would have just stayed an electrician until the present day." Instead, when Walesa came to the United States last November, he came as "the spiritual godfather of a new generation of democracy," in the words of President d Bush. He was the first of state to address a joint session of Congress since 1824 when the Marquis de Lafayette spoke. e Walesa, the unemployed electrician, was interrupted 25 times by applause and standing ovations. You can expect the SONG Democrats to sing a one-nosong between now and Election Day the tune that has worked for them in the past. They will accuse the Republicans of being the partv of the rich. They will charge that the economic boom of the 1980s never trickled down to the poor. President Bush has given them fodder by pushing for a cut in the capital gains tax, promising that it will stimulate the economy. But as far as the Democrats are concerned, the only people who will be stimulated are those making more than $200,000 a year. Soon after Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan came to Washington, we predicted that he would be a secretary. We were wrong. Sullivan has found one issue. His White House handlers let him pound one drum stop smoking. What about AIDS, medical research, cholesterol, contraception and health care for the poor? Sullivan should be steering the White House toward those issues instead of waiting for the White House to steer him awav trom anything controversial. non-hea- one-tim- ONE-NOT- - E te - L no-iss- |