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Show CTlic Page A8 1 imfs-3lnbrprn- Thursday, October 4, 2001 mt OUR, TOWN Community Comments by Sam Taylor shed a few tears of gratitude at the birth of of our six grandchildren. be the third week in a row that have commented on the terrorist tragedies in New York and Washington that claimed so many thousand This will I I That evening was really closure. So, now on witn must say am greatly impressed by our national leadership which is showing so much restraint in punishing only the actual perpetrators, not innocent civilians. am confident that they will be successful, and will have the total support of all but a few fanatics in this country I'm not ashamed of the tears. needed them sjt am saddened over last week's story about the old adobe Shafer House just off 400 East near still call it Grand County High School Actually, the Holyoak House, since the Roy Holyoak family lived there when was growing up. went to school with a whole flock of Roys kids, almost all of them girls, including beautiful Letha who was in my class. The statement that the beat up structure may not survive another winter was piercing. can understand that the school board has questions about the legality of transferring land for historic preservation. But there has to be some equitable solution. Dale Irish and his Historic Preservation Committee shouldnt be underestimated. They pulled off a miracle in preserving the historic Dewey Bridge. They have already raised almost enough money to do the same for the Shafer House. It is about the only structure in the community built with historic adobe. It needs to be saved. Please, School Board, come up with an answer, even if it is a little unorthodox. I would be even more disturbed if my family homestead, which is the Old Ranch House Restaurant, gave way to progress and was destroyed. am grateful to McKay Edwards, who is building a time share resort there, for spending so much time and money restoring and saving the building that my grandfather and his family built, and where my own father was born. Dont let the Shafer House melt this winter. Save it! You already own enough real estate in this valto last the Grand County school system ley life. lives This be will At least tor now This tor me is it closure had my closure Sunday evening For over a year, Adrien and have hosted a h once-a-mont- I classical music program on Moab public radio, KZMU It is something we have both enjoyed doing since we love classical (along with a lot of otfier) music Sunday night, however, asked tier to do the show solo, which we often do just didn t feel up to it She selected tier program, and she has marvelous taste m classical music, so didn't interfere with her pre programming said that would finish off dinner tor tier. Jed and me Actually, there wasn t much to finish off, since she had put the home-growleg of lamb and gar t before she left clay-pocooker in the den potatoes from the tomatoes sliced garden and sat in the to her program off to listen the kitchen nook She started in a conventional manner with some of here favorites from the Old Masters. Then, about r show, she switched through the She played patriotic music, much of it gathgears. numerous military bands we have from the ered sponsored here over the years, including the U. S. Air F orce Band enjoyed it very much. It wasn't until she played The Lincoln Portrait," complete with stirring narration including some of the greatest words President Lincoln spoke duruning his leadership of this nation, that came glued Tears began streaming down my face, and it was then that had realized how depressed become over the happenings on Sept. 1 1 Now am a big guy, and I'm sure a lot of people think I'm mean and tough. But let it out of my system. can only remember a handful of times have cried as an adult. did so when lost my parents and three of my four sisters. cried when our good friend, Dick Smith, was killed in a plane crash in Canyonlands. cried w'hen the best man at our wedding died at the age of 38 from cancer. two-hou- r I , I I I I I I I I n half-wa- I I I I I . I I I I I I I I two-hou- y I I I I Actually, each I I Many Trails by Adrien F. Taylor Idle Thoughts from Mt. Waas K by Ollie Harris Sneakin treats ster But, my church is too staid and sober. There are no hallelujahs or mass recitations. We occasionally stand to Long ago, when I was just a kid, I read some mobnuvpl or other. One of the really bad guys was de- sing. All in all, though, its a tough environment for sneaking treats On has to be vigilant and ready in case a nearby baby begins to cry or any other opportunity presents itself. I am a believer, mind you, and 1 go to church to worship. Sneaking treats is strictly a secondary or maybe a tertiary activity. There is, after all, the w hole issue of reverence. Its not like some other meetings where shouting Fire! or creating a similarly clever diversion is an option. However, you can always stand up and leave, faking a trip to the bathroom. But, that creates a disturbance. Besides, wheres the challenge in that? And, us old guys dont like to draw attention to ourselves by making too frequent trips to the restroom. No, faking a trip to the restroom is out. It doesnt show any class. It requires no skill. Theres no sense of satisfaction in pulling it off. There is no such thing as a secret stash of treats at home, either. Kids have an unerring ability to ferret them out. For awhile I resorted to treats that I figured would be too strong tasting for the kids, stuff like horehound It candy, or the hottest possible fireballs, or Near-Beewas all to no avail. Can you imagine my shock at discovering my little girls opiening the fridge and chugging my And, today, my grandkids greet me nasty old Near-Beer- ? with, Granddad, ya got any fireballs? As for Gammys secret" stashes, the kids know them all. They are more g efficient and relentless than airpxirt dogs. There is a delicate balance to sneaking treats. Sometimes the chase is more important than the kill. But, when you can pull it off, when all is quiet in church and there is a little kid on each side of you and you silently extricate a mint from its wrappier and slip it unobserved into your mouth, and the only evidence is the smell wafting along the bench to let the kids know too late that theyve been snookered again, thats satisfaction. scribed as the sort of person that could hear the snick of a switch blade in a boiler factory. As you can tell. I was duly impressed. It spoke volumes, not only about his hearing but about his awareness. You couldn't sneak anything past this guy. I have grown older. I have raised children. The mobster's hearing and awareness pale beside those of a child. Have you ever tried to sneak a treat past a child in church? Theres no way. I have gone to the trouble of unwrapping the candy before hand so as to avoid the crinkle of wrapping papier. And, I have even put the candy into my mouth, papier and all, and unwrapped it with my tongue. They heard that! Nothing works. A few weeks ago I was in a church meeting with my cousin. The grandkids had gone to their various classes. The grandmas had feigned tiredness and ditched the meeting. I carefully and, I thought, masterfully worked a fireball out of my pxicket. My cousin, who is even older than I, heard that one tiny crinkle of papier. He leaned toward me and in a childs voice I want one." I pulled the big red fireball out and offered it to him saying, Breath mint? It is tough to sneak a treat in church. If you went to a church where the people clappied their hands and jumped up and shouted, Hallelujah!" which mine doesnt, but Im just saying, if you did, that would be the time to make your move. Or, how about a church where the congregation frequently stands and repieats recitations. That would be good. Standing to sing hymns is good, too. Anything involving standing, speaking or singing, makes sneaking a treat easier. r. sim-piere- d, seems to have come in too low, too early to affect a large portion of the building. On top of that, the section that was hit was the first of five sections to undergo renovations that would help protect the Pentagon from terrorist attacks. It had recently completed straightening and blast proofing, saving untold lives. This attack was sad, but a statistical failure. ' We are a nation of people beginning to heal from the events of Sept. 1 Not to forget them, but to heal. And so am sharing the following piece, which came to me through my spinners chat group. cant vouch entirely for the statistics, but agree with my friend who sent it, that it is a ray of hope, which we all need badly. When you read this, please remember that no one has forgotten the beautiful people who were lost by this murder. 1 . I I By now, The Planes American Airlines Flight 77, American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and United Airlines Flight 93 were all loaded to less than half their capacity of passengers. United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757, was one of the most uplifting stories yet. It was the smallest flight to be hijacked with only 45 people aboard. Yet, these people stood up to the attackers and thwarted a fourth attempted destruction of a national landmark, saving untold numbers of lives in the process. everyone has been hearing the death rise and reports of the deplorable acts that we will never forget. But, now is a time to look at the other side of the numbers coming out of New York, Washington and Pennsylvania: the sad but somewhat uplifting side that the mam stream media has not reported yet - the SURVIVAL rates and some positive news about the attacks. The Buildings The World Trade Center The twin towers of the World Trade Center were places of employment for some 50,000 people. With the missing list of just over 5,000 people, that means 90 of the people targeted survived the attack. A 90 on a test is an A. toll In - The Pentagon Some 23,000 people were the target of a third plane aimed at the Pentagon. The latest count shows that only 23 lost their lives. That is an amazsurvival rate. In addition, the plane ing 99.5 illnesses. Pass this information on to those in fear. Dont fear these terrorists. The odds are against them. 1 (Elje Summary Out of a potentially 70,000 Americans directly targeted by these cowards, over 90 survived or avoided the attacks. Thats a higher survival rate than heart attacks, breast cancer, kidney transplants and liver transplants all common surviv-abl- e Qluncs-htbcpmbc- nt UPS J ) Entered as Second class Matter at the Post Office at Moab, Utah under the Act of March Second class postage paid at Moab, Utah 84532. Official City and County Newspaper. Published each Thursday at: 35 East Center Street, Moab, Grand County, Utah 84532 6309-2000- ( address: editormoabtimes.com Postmaster: Send changes of address to: The P.O. Box 129, Moab, 3, 1897. ail Times-lndepende- or 435-259-75- Member FAX NATIONAL NEWSPAPER UTAH UT 84532 435-259-77- ASSOCIATION PRESS ASSOCIATION Samuel J. and Adrien F. Taylor, Publishers Sena T. Flanders, Editor Tom Taylor Zane Taylor Circulation Manager, Maps Press, Production Manager Systems Manager Ron Flanders Franklin Seal Lisa Church News Writer News Writer News Writer Michael Gostlin Sadie Warner Dorothy Anderson Office ManagerSalesDesign Mail Room Jose Churampi I, T--l Supervisor Distribution Kelly Ericson, Bobbie Domenick, Jed Taylor Backshop Darin Hawk SalesProduction Layne Miller. Regional Correspondent Green River Correspondent Betty Bailey Ron Drake Castle Valley columnist Ron George Columnist Oliver Harris Columnist McDowell Ryan Sports drug-sniffin- High Country News Writers on the Range Remember Pearl Harbor and forced relocation camps by Ben Long As horrified Americans recover from Sept. 11, 2001, many continue to compare the attack on New York and the Pentagon to the 1941 strike against our military base at Pearl Harbor. But lets also remember another historically relevant place from the World War 11 era: A lonely scrap of high desert called Minidoka, Idaho. There, 9,500 Americans of Japanese descent were forced to live under armed guards in crowded barracks for almost three years. The harsh rooms at Minidoka should remind Americans of a sad but true fact: While times of distress can bring out the best in the American pieople, they can also elicit our uglier tendencies. As Americans fight terrorism and terrorists, we must also stand guard against our own ability to lash out against strangers. We must not indulge our anger, allowing fear to become hatred, and hatred to destroy the very values we praise as Americas heritage. Thats what happened at Minidoka. Minidoka was a 68,000-acr- e patch of sagebrush and jack rabbits in the Snake River Plain. In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. That order demanded the relocation of all pieople of Japanese ancestry living on the Pacific Coast. Canada followed with a similar order. In a matter of only weeks, 110,000 Japanese about were rounded up 75,000 of them American citizens like cattle and locked in prison-lik- e camps around the American West. Many lost their homes and belongings in the government's scramble to execute the order. Thousands of Portland and Seattle residents were bused to the inland desert. Almost overnight, Minidoka became one of the largest cities in Idaho. At the time, officials justified the internment because America was at work with Tojos Japan. Yet the judge of history has determined that the internment was racism, pure and simple. During World War II, America was also at war with Italys Mussolini and Germanys Hitler. But America or blonde didnt lock up thousands of Italian-America- German-American- s. Just Japanese-Ameriean- s. One can only imagine the uproar from white America, had Joe DiMaggio been incarcerated. Yet the second generatens of thousands of imprisoned Nisei were every bit as American tion Japanese-Ameriean- s as Joltin Joe. And there was little outcry, only encouragement, from most Americans. Aside from being a gross violation of the rights of 110,000 pieople, the internment of Japanese-Ameriean- s cannot be justified militarily. What our government spient impounding and feeding these pieople could have been spient fighting Americas real enemies. Thousands of were left idle, when they faithful Japanese-Ameriean- s could have been helping the war effort. In World War II, America waged a traditional battle d enemies. Today, we face a new style against of war, against enemies who shroud themselves behind deceit and mystery. These pieople are difficult to understand they hate us enough to die killing us. But we must not respxmd with similar hate. Already, there are examples of hatred by Americans against Americans of the Islamic faith and of Middle Eastern descent. In Dallas, a mosque was shot up within 36 hours of the World Trade Tbwer attack. (No matter that the pieople who worship there were praying for the victims of the terrorism, not the pierpetrators of it.) Racist slurs have also been reported in New York City and and elsewhere, and people have been thrown off planes for looking like followers of Islam. This war against terrorism promises to be a long and confusing battle. We can expiect more backlashes against innocent people in our society, as this war drags on. This could come both as individual actions or official ones. The Spanish philosopher Jose Ortegay Gassett wrote that, Hatred is a feeling which leads to the extinction of values. The hatred of Japan in World War II led to the tempiorary suspension if not the extinction of traditional American values. We lashed out in anger; we incarcerated pieople who had never been found guilty of well-define- fist-figh- ts anything. Here in the North American West, we have examples of how freedom-lovin- g pieople have given in to fear and hatred. They are the internment camps at Minidoka Idaho, Manzanar, Calif., and New Denver, British Columbia, and elsewhere. The attacks against the World Trade towers and the Pentagon were bom of hatred and prejudice. To allow them to breed more of this pioisonous brew among us is to allow the hijackers to win. Ben Long is a contributor to Writers on the Range a service oHigh Country News in Paonia Colo. He u rin s in Kalispel, Mont. |