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Show " amazing how complete is the delusion that Leo Tolstoy, Russian author gaixlness.'" is beauty- is (1828-1910- ). 6 u Wednesday, October 11, 1995 The Daily Herald Sam Nunn goes way of Confederate dollar WASHINGTON They liked their bourbon and late-nigpoker but most of all, they liked power. They came to Washington from the South of kudzu, cotton and Bibles. And stayed to rule, seemingly forever. ht - , They were Southern Democrats, men who ran the drawling, tough-fiste- d Senate war and peace like through (y.S. their own plantation. W hen Sam Nunn came up from Georgia as a whippersnapper, the .Senate was run by Confederate bulls who took no sass from anyone, including said. "I don't want to be recalled by the Grim Voter or the Grim Reaper." Sure, Nunn's style was more cerebral than the old, segregationist mules. But Democratic powerhe's last of a breed houses who kept the Dixie money flowing for military bases, defense factories, cotton and peanuts and tobacco. In truth, the Solid South that sent onorCode rVeVDIOC "s Im t. Jj(terceptioriJ Violations fife dyy Sack- - ld s. pres-ident- There was Sam Ervin, William John Sparkman. John Stennis, Herman Talmadge. Russeii Long and a others who in 1973 made the Ful-brig- half-doze- Sandy Grady n Senate a Dixie club. The Southern strategy: "Elect 'em young, keep 'em until they're old, mean and powerful." Yep, Dixie politicians were like whiskey, best when aged mellow. Carl Vinson Hadn't Nunn's great-uncl- e served 50 years? ' And Nunn's Georgia icon. Sen. Richard Russell, been around for 40 ; ; years? ' Now that Sam Nunn, a mere tadpole of 57, says he's quitting, the dominance of the Southern bulls is history. ' ''I know in my heart it's time," Nunn - Syndicated Columnist to control Washington for a is dead as moonshine liquor, cotton gins and Confederate parades. By 1996, there may be a lone Senate Democrat from three states of the Old Confederacy: Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida. Slick and aggressive, Republicans have conquered the South like Sherman and Grant. Instead of Sam Nunn, you have Georgia's Rep. Newt Gingrich with his futuristic prattle. Democrats half-centu- NAFTA's benefits make it worthwhile - ' Orange County Register Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo's visit to Washington has rekindled debate little reason for alarm. The Labor Department says that 121.000 jobs were created in September, although 32.000 were lost in manufacturing, the fifth cutback in six months. Overall, the economy seems to be and few of showing some momentum the negative or positive signs can be traced directly to NAFTA. But while jobs are certainly important, over NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement ratified by Congress two years ago. Has the agreement increased or decreased the number of jobs in the United States or is that the right question to ask? Can any long-tertrends yet be identified? On Monday, The New York Times published a graphic showing that 45,000 jobs had been lost in the United States because of NAFTA. By Monday afternoon, senior especially to those displaced, the most administration officials were disputing important promise of NAFTA was never but improved economic efficiency that figure, claiming the job-lofigures jobs, due increased flexibility. A computer to reflect all job losses related to Mexico and in plant Spokane, for example, has moved Canada, not just those specifically brought about by the changes imposed by NAFfA. 277 jobs to Mexico, but executives believe it is better able to compete internationally They also said that 340.000 new jobs had been created in the United States due to as a result, and that overall employment in the Spokane area has increased because of exports to Mexico and Canada, for a net the Mexican plant. of 295.000 gain jobs. It is important to remember that ecoIt is almost impossible to sort out all nomic protectionism does not benefit all these contending claims because decisions citizens of a given country, but specific to eliminate jobs, to move them to another com or are so new to usually those with a concentratcreate groups jobs country, ed while raisof prefer-'enceinvolve consumer often political power piece plex. They domestic competition, and compeing prices for consumers and restricting economic innovation. tition from countries other than the NAFTA countries, so it is difficult to pinpoint NAFTA required governments in Mexjust-homuch NAFTA contributed to the ico, the United States, and Canada to give decisions. up some of their power to impede trade. In addition, most of the predictions that That has increased competition and NAFTA would lead to the creation of removed some of the privileges enjoyed -- additional jobs in the United States were by protected producers. I predicated on the expectation that Mexie NAFTA was not a "clean" co's economy would continue to grow, in it that contained hundreds of agreement building an export market for U.S. firms. a of of to free, regime exceptions pages But Mexico has been in a deep recession trade. On unregulated, uniformly-taxe- d since the drastic devaluation of the peso it has increased trade however, balance, last December, and the country's economy among the three signatories and made it has just begun to move again. So it should for Mexico to recover from the peso easier be expected that job increases in the Unit- crisis. Those benefits make it worth keepStates would be slower than had been at least until political constituencies anticipated at '.he time the agreement was ing be can developed for agreements to open put into effect. ! .Even so. the most recent figures offer trade ev en more. m Commentary ss s. free-trad- U.S. nation of potential Chicago Tribune !! L J Charles Schulz. a great philosopher of the comics pages, once put into the mouth of tine of his ""Peanuts" characters the pro- mere is no greater tound ohscrvation: i. i .i man in nie great poienuai. tfQtn . Pope John Paul II has long considered the L'nited States a nation of great potenblessed w ith wealth and freedom tial mil' splendid ideals of courage and fair-- , ness and generosity. But the pope also has worried that '" America was not living up to its potential worried that its wealth fosters a corro-,'fl- v materialism, that its freedom degenerates loo readily into license, that its noble ideals are too often undermined by tetnp- tations to isolation and discrimination and ' ' selfishness. : Both sides of the pope's complex tude toward the U.S. were on display am- dur- ing his visit to the Eastern seaboard last week. He seemed intent on nothing so ,rmuch as impressing upon Americans the awesome responsibility that goes along with their immense blessings. Thai's a reminder that all Americans, whatever they think of the pope and his political positions, should appreciate and lake to "heart. ."Your power of example carries with it heavy responsibilities," he said during his arrival speech in Newark. N.J. "Use it .wcJl, America! Be an example of justice and civic virtues, freedom fulfilled in goodness, at home and abroad." . " As a bishop in Poland, this pope jousted with the Communist rulers of his nation and ultimately saw their regime collapse. So it should have surprised no one that he waded right in on many issues that are currently roiling the waters of American Commentary Into the debates over welfare policy and the social safety net. he injected a call for generosity toward the pcor. Amid effons to tighten immigration, he called for openness. Amid discussions about family values, he issued a call to shore up the family. And amid continudebates over abortion, euthanasia and ing other such '"life issues." the pope declared that the "right to life" is the first of all human rights. V 995 THE DAILY HERALD iSIIBIS Trial by journalism In the wake of public opinion after the jury verdict on O.J. Simpson, many are saying that the jury system does not work anymore. I would like to make the point that O.J. did not receive a trial by jury. He received a trial by journalism. He was acquitted by the jury, but not by journalism. In fact, he was tried by not one but rather by many juries, most of them mock panels on television. There is concern for the cost of the publicly televised trial and the loss of income for the jurors. I have a solution. Since this trial was such a media bonanza and since so many people were addicted to watching it and since so many talk shows picked their own juries, let's change the system. We could divide up the amount of jurors needed among the talk show hosts and allot an amount for each of them to choose for the jury. Let them and their audiences make the jury selection. The broadcast networks who received air coverage would pay the cost of the trial. Since so many are offering big money to the jurors to find out what went on in the jury room, let them pay big money to those picked for the jury and give them the rights to the story up front. This way people would be clamoring to do jury duty instead of making excuses why they can't. Perhaps the decision as to guilt or innocence should be split between the jury decision and the results of a call-i- n poll to the TV stations. This way we would be assured that the public would be happy with the results of the trial. We must also make sure that the media interprets the evidence for us as we may not have the intelligence to make a decision for ourselves. Juries were established so vigilante groups were not dealing out "justice." Many a vigilante committee meted out swift justice but sometimes hanged the wrong man. In the past, public outrage made it almost impossible for prisoners to even be held in safety because the public knew they were guilty, but time proved them innocent. This trial has been compared to the Menendez brothers and the Rodney King trials, but there is a difference. Both the Menendez brothers and the police in the Rodney King beating were indeed guilty as charged. The difference w as there was a hung jury in the Menendez trial because they claimed they had been sufficiently traumatized by their parents to warrant murdering them. The police justified their beating of Rodney King by claiming they feared him and therefore had to subdue him by force. O.J. Simpson had a motive, had previously beaten his wife, and there was sufficient evidence to try him. however, he never admitted guilt nor did anyone see him do it. Many have said, "Be a man O.J. and admit you just got out of control and went too far. Then maybe we can forgive you." What we can't accept is his denial. Could it just possibly be that he didn't do it? Is it easier to forgive a guilty man than to accept one's innocence? Just what if O.J. is really innocent and yet the public keeps him in a prison for the rest of his life. Is this the American way or is that busted too? Wee Hull Spanish Fork Support came late There has been a lot of campaigning lately by Jim Daley on how he spearheaded the effort to defeat the proposed relocation of Laurelwood to his district. Let's review what really occurred. A preliminary meeting was held where the three neighborhood chairs in southeast Provo were told by the city about their relocation plan so that the mall project could proceed. Jim Daley and Shari Hol-we- g represented the City Council and agreed that this was a reasonable proposal. Jim said that if the neighborhoods turned down the relocation, it would be the end of the mall. The three neighborhood chairs weren't happy, but were willing to examine the proposal. Rather than say "not in our backyard," the neighborhoods decided to argue that a mobile home park could be built if done to 1995 standards. With this goal in mind, the neighborhood chairs decided to call a neighborhood meeting to let residents of southeast Provo have maximum input into the decision. to get the After going door-to-dopublic out, we more than filled the Provost Elementary gymnasium with what people say was the largest neighborhood meeting in recent memory. However, the city council came and took control of the meeting not allowing one of the neighborhood chairman to address the audience. The public was allowed to voice their concerns and by the end of the public input portion it became evident to Jim Daley, Shari Hol-we- g and other city officials that their best political option was to turn down the proposed park and require the old ordinance to be rewritten to 1995 standards. City staff then went to work rewriting the old ordinance. They looked at surveys from mobile home parks across the country. They looked at other cities' ordinances. They toured and inspected other mobile home parks in Utah. Then they consulted with industry experts. At the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting where the new ordinance was presented, the three neighborhood chairs from Southeast Provo were there defending their neighborhoods again and asking that their concerns be addressed. Jim Daley and Shari Holweg weren't there, but because the neighborhood chairmen were, the commission asked that a subcommittee the proposed ordinance to include the neighborhood suggestions. Jim didn't attend subcommittee meetings to look at the proposed ordinance. He didn't attend any of the Planning Commission meetings on the subject. So after a lot of hard work by many people. Jim Daley has grabbed new spaper headlines by finally voicing his concerns about the new or ordinance. I'm sure the rest of us who participated in this effort would have appreciated Jim's and other council member's involvement earlier in the whole process. Better late than never ... I guess. David Knech Provo South Neighborhood Chairman See childrens' good Many times in the news media we hear about children committing deplorable acts. We often wonder what is happening with our children as these tasteless acts increase. I would like to share a situation with you that my daughter, Elizabeth, did. Her simple act has reestablished my faith in the youth. I work for the Alpine School District's Transportation Department. With the huge number of people employed there, quite often we hear about another employee's misfortune. He or she has lost a loved one, has fallen desperately ill or has been involved in an accident. When we do hear of these unfortunate situations, each of us rally together to raise funds for the affect- ed worker. The most recent situation was the total destruction of an employee's home. A secretary in our department was called off the job to go home as soon as possible. When she arrived she found her entire home in ashes. There was nothing left. Luckily, no loss of life took place. When I shared this information with my family at the dinner table, everyone was saddened by the loss. I asked my wife if we could donate to this cause. She was pleased to. My surprise came when my 1 daughter came up to me the next morning and gave me her last $2. I found this sacrifice very moving. What an example she set for our family. In this day of "give me this or that," it is very refreshing to see firsthand the love an 11 year-old can have for her fellow man. Because of her exceptional behavior, I wanted to share this experience with you and your readers. There should be more focus on the precious acts that children do, not just the horrible ones. If our children see that we value exceptional behavior, maybe they will try harder to maintain a higher social standard. A standard all of us would benefit from. -- L Richard Heward Orem Letters policy Letters to the editor are welcome. Please address them to: Editor, The Daily Herald, P.O. Box 717, Provo, UT X4603-071FAX HOi 373-548- Letters must he signed and include the writer's full name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Preference is given to letters that are typed, double spaced and less than 4(X) words in length. Letters that are loo long, unsigned, illegible, obscene or libelous will not be published. two-pare- BY GARRY TRUDEAU Doonesbury 7Ja I frVnHnnr...,. I io moiK. 1 1 I f I'M PR. R1FKIN . r 77 eiMiauFn II kt ( 'Uly TheH5APlACRAV0N5ANP W5TS. PUT! RAN SOM5. John Paul's directness on these pressing "political" issues caused some commentators to cock an eyebrow. But as the pope himself observed in his final homily, delivered Sunday at a mass in Baltimore, "Can the biblical wisdom which played such a formative part in the very founding of your country be excluded from ... j debate?" li cannot be and should not be. Neither can Americans afford to forget the pope's larger message: that our great blessings carry great moral responsibilities. M POOR COPY I |