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Show "Comfort, opportunity; number and size are not synonymous with civilization. " Abraham Flexner, American educator (1866-195- o mmm 9) The Daily Herald B 6 Wednesday, November 4, 1992 mm y days return? Amid the euphoria and the gloom depending on whether your favorite candidates won or lost we should not lose sight of an important fact: Things are rarely as bad or as good as they seem. The office of President of the United States may be the most visible and powerful position in the world, but no president is responsible for as much good as they claim, nor to blame for as much bad as is they are charged with. Economic forces, over which a sitting president has much less control than is generally believed, play a great role in every national election. And timing of world events, often beyond the control of the president, also weigh heavily. What chance would Bill Clinton have had of even being close had the election been held a year ago when Desert Storm Fever was still running high? How about a year from now if the economy continues to improve as it has albeit in spurts over the past several months? Would either Clinton or Ross Perot have been factors had the national media done a better job of reporting such e economic truths as the fact that a American worker produced $49,-60- 0 of goods and services a year in 1990. In dollars of equivalent purchas- full-tim- Iladd Comment ing power, a German worker produced $44,200, a Japanese worker $38,200, and a British worker only $37, 100. On the local scene, would Democrat Bill Orton have stayed so popular in heavily Republican Utah County had the valley's economy not hummed along at a much healthier rate than the nation's during the past two years? Would Utah have a woman heading for Congress had Wayne Owens not decided to run for the Senate? When the last absentee ballots are counted and the official makeup of the new Congress is known, some unvarying truths will remain: Congress authorizes spending, not the president; the United States is buffeted by world politics and economics regardless of Editor: We need more jogging trails in this area. As a cross country and track athlete, I do a lot of running on the streets in the Provo-Oreh area. experiences are common during every workout. I cannot count how many times I have nearly been hit m Near-deat- by a car. This always happens when cars are mak-in- g a right turn or when they are backing and pulling out of driveways. Usually, I see what the driver is doing, and I can get out of ' the way. Many times I don't see the car until it brakes quickly with a near miss. If I did not love running, this would be enough to make me quit. Although I have never actually been hit by a car while jogging, my friend was. My friend was running down the street when a car pulling out of an underground parking garage, struck the side of his leg. Luckily Die car wasn't moving at full speed and this time my friend escaped with only a few bruises. Many of my other running friends have nearly been hit by cars. One friend told me of how a car swerved as if it were trying to hit him. The driver then swerved away from him at the last moment as beer bottles were thrown through the open windows, i: area there is only one In the Provo-Oreis the trail that runs . true jogging trail. This beside the Provo River. This trail is very safe to run on. It is a good trail, but it is often crowded with bikers and runners. It is also very boring to run it more than a few times a week. I can either run on the same, crowded trail every day or take my chances with the cars. This area needs more safe jogging trails! If we do not get them more runners will be hit by cars. I pray it won't be me Larry Stanley Provo m Hats off to Hatch Editor: Hats off to Sen. Orrin Hatch and his continuing fight for consumers' health freedom. Nutritional supplement manufacturers (a $700 millionyear industry in Utah) have rcently been endangered. Federal attempts to apply the cumbersome and costly labeling 1990 requirements found in the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) threaten to put many of these manufacturers out of business. Under the NLEA, vitamins, minerals and herbs would be subject to some of the same FDA regulations as drugs. Manufacturers wouldn't be the only losers if this dangerous were enacted The piece of legislation to make their own consumers freedom of choices as to what nutritional supplements to use would also be subject to FDA meddling. Sen. Hatch states, "In our free society, consumers should be able to purchase dieshould be tary supplements, and companies to consumers, such sell supplements free to with truthful and non misleading labeling and advertising information that is supported by a reasonable scientific basis, without undue governmental interference with the free flow of such products and informaas-i- s. tion." I wholeheartedly agree. The 1990 Nutrjtioan Labeling and Education Act was scheduled to go into effect in vitamin May 1993. Thanks to Sen. Hatch, manufacturers and nutritional supplement moratonow enjoy at least a FDA i'ie imposed on by rium regulations This will give the NLEA. the to pursuant advocate from industry and to 1993, regroup, and now until Dec. 31, seven-mom.- health-freedo- m 1! lEol TmMi 1 until the votersthceWj me out. toy br someone I my qualifications? T "T vgy frtvwt wpiattdlaboit ' which party is in power in Washington; government and taxes will continue to grow exponentially as long as the majority of the citizens are willing to allow it to happen. It is not now time for the citizenry to take a nap for two to four years. Our newly elected and "public servants" will do as good a job as we are willing to demand. ed Columnist gives campaign 'awards' Eflf Trails needed MlmSM .;. perhaps work themselves free from burdensome and business-threatenin- g government regulation. The battle is not over yet, but thanks to Sen. Hatch, of his constitunutritional Utah's ents, supplements indusa has of ray hope. try ever-mindf- ul AlanD. Kennedy President & CEO Nature's Sunshine Products Springville River tale Editor: The river ran through it. What? Robert Redford's horse corral. What river? The north fork of the Provo River. A few years ago, I was prowling around up the north fork of the Provo River. I came down the road from the summit of the Alpine Loop. I stopped on the road directly across the stream from what was part of the early development of Redford's spread. I noticed two horses (plugs) near a sloped shed with a fenced in enclosure from the shed down into and across the creek, down stream some distance and back to include the shed. I set there for a few minutes and viewed the ponies. After some time, they walked down into the creek, lowered their heads and drank. They raised their heads as usual after drinking and the water dribbled from their lips back into the stream. One horse turned and walked back to the shed, the other turned around, raised its tail and dropped its biscuits right into the water. The animal then joined his friend at the shed. I have viewed the many huge scars on the mountain side above the Sundance developments. I note there have been many trees removed to make way for ski trails and other facilities. These scars can be seen for miles around. It is interesting to note the many news releases of Redford's river triumphs in Montana and the fame he is gaining from that activity. It is interesting to read of his encouragement of and defending of the Native Americans for the abuses of the past. I give him high marks for these encouraging words and deeds. These folks deserve it and need it. I am appalled that someone who has abused the environment the way the back side of Mt. Timpanogos has been abused then goes around shouting to the world, "Save, protect the environment." These actions set in a sort of tilted fashion in my mind. I am not going to mention the housing development and related facilities and the possible pollution from them in the run-o- ff of the surrounding parking lots that drain into the Provo River. I am further apalled that our county zoning officials would allow such a development on such a fragile and pristine watercourse. What it all boils down to is this? I have mine. I make the rules. You live by them. I do as I dammed well please. Russel Liston Springville As this is written, the election has yet to be held. Nonetheless, it is a certainty that many of the results will vindicate democracy's critics and discourage those of us who pine for a restoration of the American Republic. Irrespective of specific results, some individuals must be recognized for outstanding achievements in campaign fatuity. Whether victor or vanquished in the Senate race, Wayne Owens is by any measure a loser. If he has prevailed over Bob Bennett, he should be evicted from his new office at the earliest opportunity; if he has lost, someone should administer kerosene to his wounds. In his advertising and public remarks during the waning days of the campaign, Owens accused his opponent of importing "Watergate-styl- e dirty tricks" into the Utah Senate race. Owens admitted that he could not connect Bennett to recent break-in- s, nor could he demonstrate Bennett's involvement in the defection of a disaffected Owens campaign employee. Owens simply nattered about "patterns." Innuendo was adequate to his needs. When offered the opportunity to corroborate his accusations in a television debate, Owens mutated into a creature that was equal parts crab and polecat: he edged sideways away from specific accusations and left the air polluted with a dense musk of insinuations. His tactics were those of a Democrat who has learned defamatory tactics at the feet of those who campaigned against Robert Bork and Clarence is FQr rJJJ WHIGrigg At Home pro-aborti- political campaigns. high-viscosi- ty Democratic party flack Randy Horiuchi prefigured Owens' strategy against Bennett. Following the primaries, Horiuchi conducted a press conference while wearing a protective suit that lent him an eerie resemblance to the Michelin Man. This was an effort to link Bennett to an environmentally unsound building in Salt Lake City. The truth was a matter of indifference to Horiuchi; what mattered was the visual. Speaking on KTVX just prior to the election, Horiuchi referred to congressional candidate Enid Greene as "A pitbull in lipstick." Horiuchi's jaw, which is B1A - 30-pa- ge D-S.- nessed first-han- d. "It's not uncommon to see three or four home or people living in a even 15 to 20 people living in a one or two bedroom home," Daschle told us. "I've stayed on a reservation in South Dakota with a couple that had 20 foster kids. There were rugs on the floor for the kids to two-bedroo- m sleep on at night." In one case, according to the audit, BIA spent roughly $10,000 to help complete a new house on the Penchanga Indian Reservation, in California, but did not even connect the plumbing to a septic system. The family couldn't afford the system, so it was forced to use a portable toilet in the and Abroad At one point, Owens was a man of sufficient character to serve as an LDS mission president. But he "grew" as a congressman, compiling a flawless voting record and homosexual "rights" legislation. It is a sorry thing to see character curdled by ambition and political expediency. This was the most wretched of Owens' many Report charges WASHINGTON Though Congress proclaimed 1992 "The Year of the American Indian," a draft audit report prepared by the Interior Department portrays the Bureau of Indian Affairs in terms that not the typically describe slumlords federal agency that's the government's guardian of Indian reservations. The Inspector General report four California offices, BIA's the that says which administer and manage housing assistance for 100 Indian tribes, have failed to provide "decent, safe and sanitary housing to eligible Indian families" because the housing program has been "severely mismanaged and abused." It reinforces what Sen. Tom Daschle, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, has wit- for the task of consumption, to the task of creating compelling sentences. Nor was the feminist sensitivity gestapo concerned about insults to Greene. Speaking on KUTV on October 18, feminist agitator (and Karen Sheperd supwell-equipp- ed xlsJ yj i m porter) Brenda Hancock declared that Greene was not a "bona fide woman" because of the candidate's positions. Supporters of parimutuel wagering spent the campaign in full gallop away from the word "gambling." Every syllable uttered in support of the gambling initiative had the pungent aroma of equine First the measure was promoted in the name of rural development; then it was described as a boon to education; finally it was described as an indispensable element of " free agency . " Career curmudgeon Wilford Brimley's televised remarks in support of the parimutuel measure were an oatmeal-lik- e porridge of platitudes and profanity. Unquestionably, the most fatuous utterance in the entire election year came from Bill Clinton at the end of the third presidential debate. In his closing soliloquy, Clinton asked voters: "Do you have the courage to change? ' ' To borrow a phrase, the word "court age" in the mouth of Bill Clinton is like the word "honor" in the mouth of a whore; No doubt many millions of Americans have been hard-pto contain their gorge as they imagined "President" Clinton at World War II anniversary obr ! servances. ut pre-sidi- ng with housing abuses lack Anicrson Syndicated Columnist ciate Ed Henry. While this teen-ag- e girl slept outdoors, however, the BIA found $63,000 for non- program is a disaster. "It's a program for the neediest of the needy and we ought to be getting the services to them," one senior BIA official told us. "We're looking at the program and we're concerned. We're doing what we can to get it cleaned up, but it's not just (in California). We've" g6t problems in other areas, too. " Even in this. "Year of the American d Indian" improvement of the living conditions plaguing reservations has been scant. More than 40 percent of tHe residents still live below the poverty levell Third-Worl- Just as the country LOOSE LIPS was warned that loose lips sink ships during World War II, so too can they sink banks, according to the organ of J the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. emergency additions to nine homes on four reservations not to mention a raft of frill items ranging from carports to garage door openers. The warning by the bank regulatory The audit charges that many of these e items are not authorized" agency was prompted by two reported seunder BIA funding guidelines. About curity breaches. In the first, an agency $45,000 was spent for air conditioners, a official was spotted on the subway editing dishwasher, a carport, ceiling fans, win- a memo stamped "Confidential" while in dow awnings, and garage door openers for full view of other passengers. houses on 10 different reservations. BIA is In the second, FDIC staffers were finalso accused of "funding improvements on an agency elevathat did not address substandard conditions gered for discussing, failure of a bank whose imminent "the tor, but that instead were routine maintenance size and location presaged problems With or remodeling. These projects included customers and the media. Worse, certain painting interior and exterior walls,' reone staff member named the head of tne placing vinyl flooring that was in good saying he would need to 'brief him condition, and modernizing kitchens and agency, on the political implications' of the imbathrooms." pending failure.' " se "nice-to-hav- backyard. Another person on the reservation was Daschle told us: "The way that the BIA living with his wife and teen-ag- e daughter house that has run the Indian housing program in the in an unfinished The Daily Herald welcomes letters to the was missing some exterior walls and slabs last 20 years has been a genuine scandal. editor. Address letters to Letters to the Edi- of the roof. The daughter was forced to "They've frittered away the little retor, POBox 717, Provo, UT 84603. Letters sleep in a small camping trailer parked in sources that we have. Contractors have must be signed and include tht writer's full the backyard. Yet Bureau officials deripped the BIA off time and again. Not and a daytime phone num- clined to heed the family's plea for for help enough housing units are being built, and name, address ber for verification. Letters should be typed, "despite clearly legitimate needs which the ones that are built are built in a shoddy double spaced, and less than 400 words in should have made it a high priority," acway." Even the BIA concedes that the housing Icr.gth. cording to the report reviewed by our asso- - Letters policy ed Employees are served notice that "discussing business matters in public places has the potential for embarrassment, and perhaps dismissal, if not disaster." Staffers are also advised to admonish their indiscreet colleagues by spying, "Excuse me, but I think there may be people on this elevator who should not be privy to the : information you are discussing." |