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Show - i r r hm i fwbPv friaJ fcJ J Lag fcarei Vifcrf ill Tha Dairy Herald .6.5!? fc "TberrarGo warlike peoples fist warlike leaders. " (1904-197apft Bunchet Nobel Peace laureate a. I?. B 4 jsaJ LaJ Sunday, December 8, 1991 J 1 11 HSL. 1) S Some folks think Provo, Orem and vicinity received the America's most livable designation, w hich has been the source of so much national attention, local because of the workforce. Others point to recreation opportunities, a healthy economy, low crime rate, or other somewhat quantifiable well-educat- ed characteristics. But there is a factor not often mentioned in the magazine articles and the the neighborhood factor. brochures Let's examine a few recent events in just one local neighborhood and perhaps come to a better understanding of the '"factor." After a recent snowfall, a neighbor- hood resident cruised the sidewalks and saved with his many hours of shoveling by his neighbors. It wasn't the first time, nor w ill it be the last, for the welcome serv ice. Just prior to Thanksgiving a box arrived at the home of the "neighborhood" LDS Relief Society president. It contained a turkey and all the trimmings and instructions to deliver the package anonv mously to a needv fami- mini-snowplo- w Several neighborhood residents were visited by a tali man Wednesday afternoon. He didn't say much, just dropped off boxes of apples gleaned from his prolific backyard apple tree. In the days before Halloween, ""phantoms" left gifts of candy, cookies and other treats on neighborhood doorsteps and disappeared into the night. Along with the treats a note was left urging the recipient to make a similar phantom visit to another home. One neighbor, w ho is blessed w ith a great singing voice, recently realized a dream of recording some favorite songs of the season. The professionally rendered and very beautiful tape mat resulted is being distributed to long-tim- e some friends and neighbors as a Christmas gift which w ill be treasured for years. A neighbor w ith a knack for repairing electrical appliances takes time to resurrect dead washing machines and refrigerators for those whose limited budgets would be stretched to the breaking point if they had to buy new ones. A lady runs errands and does chores for "the old folks who can't get around too well." And a young mother with several small children always cheerfully show s up to ply her skills as a pianist at funerals, parties, and programs. While on a brief vacation, she took a moment to send postcards to young w omen with whom she works tirelessly in a church program and tells them "how anxious she is to see them again. Another young mother gathered some girls and visited a nursing heme resident on the occasion of her 93rd birthday. And so it goes. Is this neighborhood one in a million? Its residents like to think so, but in reality there are many in Utah Valley w hich regularly w itness similar expressions of caring and concern. And that, above all, is what makes this area America's most livable. The Grinch? They're back Editor: Too bad some person had to spoil our Christmas season by pulling our little clump of weeds we light up every year. Not only for us but many who hav e phoned us, sent us cards, and even put a piece in the paper about our little clump of weeds. This really meant a lot to us and our grandchildren. We had it turned on Saturday night and I guess someone thought they needed it more than us or just took it as a prank. This really hurts and makes us sad to think there are such people around us. I only hope and pray that w homever took it will make amends. Remember Christmas is a time of giving not taking. The Ted Johnson Family Orem Editor: Kudos for crew Editor: . Because of an auto accident on Nov. near Valtek. I became abruptly aware of a few special citizens. I would personally like to thank the passersby who were the first on the scene. The personnel of Murdock Health deserve a tremendous amount of thanks because they quickly arrived on the scene with their know ledge and comfort. Perhaps most importantly. I need to thank the Springv ille SAVERS ambulance crew . I hav e a new respect for the work that they do. I was impressed with the care that they give individual involved in the accident. each to Thanks again to everyone for everything that was done. Springv ille City just dix:sn't know how lucky it is to' have such great men and women involved in the SAVERS ambulance crews. Shelli Hansen Springville 1 It's winter again. The inversions are back. We are on notice to watch our wood burning. We have to get our car emissions checked. The price keeps going up. We still violate limits many times every winter. I am as w illing as the next person to do my part. I would like to see the cities in this county do the same. I have heard for y ears how much C02. etc. would be eliminated with smooth traffic flows and how synchronizing traffic lights and posting the speed at w hich the lights are svnehronized would create this smooth flow. The technology we have now is amazing. It makes synchronizing traffic lights look like childs play. Other cities have managed to do it long ego. I have just one question for our city fathers and I DOT. What's the problem? Brent Mortensen Orem 1 The Daily Herald welcomes letters to the editor. Address letters to Letters to the Editor. PO Box 717. Provo. UT 84603. Letters must be signed and include the writer's full name, address and a day time phone number for verification. Addresses and phone numbers are not published. Letters should be typed, double spaced, and less than 400 words in length. Letters are published on a first come first served basis. The most common reasons for not publishing letters are: too long, unsigned, illegible, obscene or libelous. Sometimes numerous letters will each say basically the same things about the same topic. In such cases, a representative sampling of the letters w ill be published. 7 XTTN V 4 '"fifjrf" the end of a great tradition? For many years the mentally handicapped kids at the American Fork Training School have been dressing up in colorful costumes and putting on a lovely Christmas program, helped by sixth graders from the Alpine School District. Some say the program began more than a half century ago. But there won't be one this Christmas season and a lot of people, including parents of die handicapped children, w ill be shocked and saddened when they learn this. Moreover, the several dozen children at the nearby Barrett Elementary School who have been working with the handicapped kids to stage the event the past couple of y ears w ill miss a profound learning experience. Carol Bittner, principal of the special school which serves the handicapped children at the American Fork Training School (now officially known as the Utah State Developmental Center), explains that her school now has only about 50 kids and most, if not all. are severely mentally handicapped. That compares with 260 four or five years ago. Formal education of the handicapped children is now handled by the Alpine School District instead of the training school. Thus only school-age- d handicapped children have been involved in the Christmas program in recent years. What many people may not realize is that the training school has been reducing its population in recent years. It's part of a national trend to try to mainstream mentally handicapped children, to get them out of institutions and into the community. Thus the American Fork facility cared for 800 children about 10 years ago. but now has only 413 residents. Under a law passed by and friends of the children involved came from as far away as Idaho and southern Utah. At first, the sixth graders who partici- Ed Hsroldsen HERALD COLUMNIST the last Utah Legislature, the training school population is supposed to be reduced by 25 a year over die next few years and get down to 285 by the year Referring to the decision not to stage the Christmas program at the training school this year, Principal Bitner says, "I'm just 19. heartsick about it. But with as few kids as we have that are at high enough mental level to really help, we just feel we couldn't do it." She adds that w ith only 50 handicapped children to draw from, some would have had to appear on stage more than once and that would be difficult to arrange. My family saw the Christmas program last year, and like others who viewed it. we were inspired and amazed, especially when we considered the blood, sweat and tears that went into the production. The past half dozen y ears Allen Pulley and Sandra Wamock, teachers at the training school, directed the event. Another teacher, Alan Tilley , gave a big assist, too. They began work in September, and during the fall months wrote the script, arranged for costumes and scenery, did the casting, and then began a heavy rehearsal schedule a couple of weeks before the six or seven performances. Parents, families - The Christmas WASHINGTON shopping season is show ing early signs of anemia this year. Economists fear this w ill be the darkest season for retailers in recent years. Blame it on a recession that won't quit and a pending presidential election that has Washington roiling with half-bake- d notions of how to fix the economy . Retail sales make up half of all consumer spending, and consumer spending is of America's responsible for two-thireconomic growth. That means it is no small problem when the biggest shopping season of the year threatens to be a bust. appropriately, recalls Sandra. "On one occasion a handicapped girl got a sixth grader by the hair and was really starting to go bad D3ck stage. I was ready to kick her out. I said we could skip her part and fill in with other kids. The sixth grader said, 'Oh no! Give me a few more minutes. I know I can get her on stage.' That's how these little sixth graders felt." Some of the sixth graders become so emotionally touched by these handicapped children they bring Christmas gifts, and talk about their experience w ith them long after the event. Roma Henrie, American Fork, a mother of a handicapped child herself, feels the decision to cancel the Christmas program this y ear was made rather abruplty, giving no other organization the opportunity to pick up and continue the tradition . However, she says there is a possibility that the Mentally Retarded Association of Utah (MRAU) might take over the program next year and extend it to all ages at the American Fork Training School. I have a severely mentally handicapped young relative at American Fork, and I think I appreciate what the Christmas program means to him, others like him, and to the sixth grade children involved. I hope the program will be revived next year. ds It has not helped the season to have the Bush administration reel into the winter like an absent-minde- d professor being buffeted by every cross-win- d the Democrats blow. President Bush says without much thought, as it turns out that lowerinterest rates would be a ing credit-car- d idea. Then, when Congress tries bang-u- p to do just that, the stock market takes a dive and Bush recants. In Pennsylvania, a Democratic Senate candidate wins by using a pitch heavily reform, weighted w ith talk of health-car- e bush says, no problem. He can do healthcare reform too if that's what people want. But the effect is to leave Americans wondering what he has been doing between those foreign trips. In Washington, the White House appears to be in turmoil. Chief of Staff John Sununu. sick of the stories about his crotchety personality, screams at a reporter in the Rose Garden, calling her a liar. Barbara Bush denies stories that she is peeved at the peevish Sununu. But ever since Nancy Reagan was in the White House, the phenomenon of a first lady declaring her undying devotion to a White House staffer is a sure sign that someone is about to be fired. sumer confidence dropped nine points to Jack 7f ti E i-- 'f a Dale Van Atta UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE It all leads a lot of people to think that we're headed for another October Surprise. Only this time it won't be some shadowy scheme where hostages are used as bargaining chips for presidential candidates. Instead, the economy may be what's rescued. Historically, presidents have been inat least genious in finding cosmetics to give the economy a healthy complexion going into a presidential election. Bush is getting a late start, and he should know better. He learned at the feet of the master. In 198 , the new Reagan administration made a politicaleconomic decision to induce a recession early to get it over w ith before the next election. Reagan knew there was no way to correct the economy without first wringing out the inflation, by giving a wink and a nod to the Federal Reserve Board to keep ratcheting up interest rates until the economy came to a dead stop. It worked. The consequences and costs included the obliteration of the U.S. manufacturing base, record unemployment and soaring national debt. But the Reagan administration decided, although you won't find it in the party platform of 1980, that it was worth a recession to restore low inflation and low interest rates. Which brings us to 1992 with time a wastin. According to a Conference Board report issued recently, the index of con 1 1 'tlus pated appeared awkward, embarrassed and uncertain as they began working with the handicapped children. But then as they warmed up to the challenge, the sixth graders really worked hard to get those kids on stage and to keep them acting Things aren't as rosy as the president thinks Letters policy TORAI TORA1 TORN!- - Is this 50.6, more than three points below the all- time low reading registered during the 1982 recession. As of right now, Americans consider these times worse than the early Reagan years. Bush says the best economic policy is no economic policy, but he'll cave in and compromise with Congress and pull the strings he can with the Fed to give the appearance of recovery to stimulate consumer confidence. That's all that matters in the short term, and no one in the White " r House looks beyond that. - SLUGFEST 1992 Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin is so far the only Democratic presidential candidate with the spunk to motivate people. If he makes it to the ticket, expect a slugfest. Soon after Harkin an- nounced his candidacy, he declared, "George Bush was bom on third base and thinks he hit a triple." Then he followed with another jab: "Bush has turned the party of Abraham Lincoln into the party of David Duke." That kind of talk is a far cry from Bush's last opponent, Michael Dukakis, who thought it was improper to hit below the belt. Dukakis figured he coutd beat Bush by stressing his ow n finer quail-tieHarkin knows the best defense is a s. good offense. - L Whether or not one believes that American POWs are still ."live in Vietnam, there can be no argument that the families of the missing deserve better answers than they have gotten from their own government and from Hanoi. There are some promising moves in that direction. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has authorized a new deputy assistant secaffair. retary of defense for POW-MIAnd he is expanding the staff devoted to those affairs because more information is coming in every day from Southeast Asia. MINI-EDITORIA- A . |