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Show 'If they're old enough to vote, they're old enough to fight' DESERET NEWS ART BUCH17ALD SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Can I Take It Back?' We Stand For The Constitution Of The United States As Having Been Divinely Inspired 16 A EDITORIAL PAGE , MONDAY, JANUARY advance copy of the report to Spiro WASHINGTON A lot of things were said in 1970 that people wish they could take back. 4, 1971 Agnew? How would you LEGISLATIVE feel if you were the person who said: To Walter Hick-e- l, ISSUES-- 7 feel that strongly about it. why dont you write the President I ycri We are To the American people, going in to wipe out the command headquarters of COSVN in Cambodia. To Sen. Charles Goodell, To the president of the Penn Central Why don't we hire Mr. Railroad, Nixons old law firm to handle our deiicit problems? The Presi- To Bernie Cornfeld of IOS, cant fire ycu. Bernie. Its your ny, isnt it? To Howard Hughes, my way, Mr. Hughes, To a publisher who turned down Dr. David Reubens book. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, Boss, I cant see any market for a book of this kind. They compa- You either do it or Ill have to To John Mack Carter, editor of the Ladies Home Journal, Sir, there is a delegation from Women's Lib outside, and I thought youd like to talk to them. resign. To Secretary of the 'Heasury David off Kennedy, "All we have to do is lay inflation. people and well stop To the president of General Motors, The union will never strike. They need the jobs. To the president of the United Auto Workers, The company will never close down. They need the business. points: is better educated First, that the average s counter-partof yesteryear. his were mature than and more Second, that lowering the voting age may help channel To Henry Kissinger, Henry, you to meet Jill St. John. Id like To former Polish party chief Wladys-laGomulka, Why dont we raise the price before Christmas ,M of food To the president of Shell Oil Co., har e a small leak in one of our wells the coast of Louisiana. We off To a gene" 1 in the Pentagon, There no is possible way of anyone finding out that we keep files on American civil-ian- To Sen. Joseph Tydings, Someone is on the phone, asking if you want to renew your subscription to Life magazine. Gov. William Scranton, chairman of the commission on student unrest, "Hey, why dont we send an you're sorry? s. To Spiro Agnew, To former dont you say To Atty. Gen. John Mitchell, speak to your wife, piease? May I Why d How Stands The Nixon Record? two-thir- ds . Improve Driver Tests e rec- ord while the national trend is down 2 per cent compared to 1969, its time to start asking some questions. is patrol activity adequate? Do highway laws need tightening? Are adult drivers being kept aware of road dangers and good driving habits through an adequate education , program? One study currently under way in Utah to revamp the state driver's license written examination could be a step in the right direction. It focuses on the problem of reminding old drivers as well as young how to drive defensively. It proposes developing different tests for different age gr oups. One suggestion is to test older drivers on proper methods of freeway driving such as proper entry and exit, lane changing and other matters. Young drivers would be questioned on the effects of moods, attitudes, alcohol and drugs on driving. That makes sense. A similar study being made in Coloradrivers given defensivedo indicates that accident-pron- e driving tests and reminded through the testing program of penalties for infractions of the law tend to increase the time before they get another traffic citation. Then, too, such tests may well serve to 'remind drivers of local driving regulations when they move right-hanturns on a red into the state. Laws on to state. state from matters and other Being relight, vary minded of these laws helps to cut down traffic violations and the chance of a fatal mistake. By ROSCOE and GEOFFREY DRUMMOND WASHINGTON Many Americans think the record of the Nixon Administration on the home front is very slim. This is understandable because the domestic accomplishments of the President during his first two years have made little impression on the country and have failed to come through with any vividness in the mass media. Just bits and pieces; no range of full-sca- achievement The record is more wide ranging, more "constructive, more positive than most people realize and far more substantial than the critics have ever been willing to admit. There are several reasons why the administration has come off so badly in the public mind and why its image is so much poorer than its acts: 1. The running controversy with the Democratic Congress over both foreign and domestic issues has blacked out much of the constructive news from Washington. 2. Nixon has proved not to be a very effective advocate of his own programs and in the November election campaign he failed to focus on the positive record. 3. Theres more instinctive hostility toward Nixon among Washington correspondents than there is cordiality; and this bears somewhat on how the Presidents motives and acts come over to the people. 4. Most critics of the administration center on condemning it for not doing enough but rarely admit that in many Negro family income was $5,360 in 1969, It was $6,000 in 1970- -a 12 pet. increase. Until recently, unemployment among black male adults ran twice as high as among whites. Last month white unemployment was 4.5 pet., black unemployment not 9 pet. but 7.2 pet. More school desegregation has taken place since Richard Nixon became President than in the entire period between 1954 and 1970. Since January, 1970, the number of Negro children in school districts in the South which are legally desegregated rose from 6 pet. to 90 pet. this year. G. Drummond R. Drummond Social Security benefits have more than kept pace with inflation. For the first time in 10 years the pervital areas it is doing much more than centage of the federal budget devoted to its predecessors. human ' resources is greater than that We are not suggesting that the Nixon, devoted to national defense; defense administration couldnt be doing more-- , spending has dropped from 48 pet. in than it is. Its programs certainly do not 1961 to 37 pet. in 1971;. human resource reach to ending poverand couldnt spending is up from 30 pet. to 41 pet. ty, meeting all the educational needs, Thats priorities. building enough low-cohousing quickly . , Dr. Patrick Moynihan, liberal Demoand wiping the whole stain of racial dis- - , crat who has served Kennedy, Johnson crimination from the face of the nation. and Nixon, remarked recently in his But it is already doing a lot and It is farewell to the Nixon Cabinet: Be of good cheer and good cononly fair to recognize it. It is spending $4 billion more on edu- science. Depressing, even frightening cation than was being spent when it took things are being said about the adminisoffice. It has nearly doubled the number tration. They are not true. This has been of needy people getting food assistance a company of honorable and able men, since 1969 and tripled the number getting led by a President of singular courage food stamps. In the spring of 1968 school and compassion. lunches were reaching 3 million, now Each will judge for himself how able they reach 5.3 million. and how compassionate. But those who Total federal civilian employment is judge should not look only at the distance down by 28,000 while the number from still to go, but also at the distance aland the will to keep minority groups holding goverment jobs ready covered THE DRUMMONDS st is up 4,000. going. Giving A Voice The Art Of Listening To The Minority LOUIS CASSELS By SYDNEY J. HARRIS d Dig That Tunnel When Britain and France finally get around to building a tunnel beneath the English Channel connecting the two countries, as surely they must, it will stand as a monument to the high price of human folly. The channel tunnel, often called the Chunnei, was first contemplated in 1802, but the project was stubbornly resisted in the fear that it would make Britain needlessly vulnerable to invasion. That objection has looked pretty foolish ever since the invention of the airplane, but it wasnt until 1961 that the psychological barriers were overcome and the Chunnei project was seriously taken up again. But now some economic barriers have arisen to replace the psychological ones. As recently as 1965 the tunnel tuuid have been built for $180 million. But it wasn't, and now the price tag has risen to $720 million. As a result, reports out of London this week say a fresh review has been ordered to make sure the tunnel would still even though digging was once be commercially attractive started only to have the excavation filled in after World War'll broke out. Whether or not the Chunnei is a commercial success immediately, its hard to see how it can miss in the long run. Every study so far indicates the tunnel would increase travel between Paris and London. With increased travel would come increased trade, and with increased trade should come increased unity between the two countries. . Moreover, the tunnel would knock into a cocked hat the a claim that has claim that Britain isnt part of Europe barred Britain from admission to the Common Market and the greater prosperity that ordinarily goes with such membership. The longer Britain and France wait to tunnel under the English Channel the more it will cost them. No more time should be lost in getting the project under way. 4 . LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Median , out-of-sta- te UIIII!lllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!l!ll!lllllIMIIi!il,mll) iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniimiiiiiiiiiiiMHmiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 5 all-tim- of COSVN in Cambodia. dent and vice president have to support you. After ail you are a Republican. , Utahs traffic death toll soars to a new W,ss5 -- Car-swel- When the Legislature convenes a week from today it will the fourth time in five years to lower the voting age in state and local elections to 18. This time the drive to lower Utahs voting age will have much more power behind it because of the recent U.S. Suvote in napreme Court ruling that upholds the tional elections. can vote in national but not As long as state and local elections, this state and others in the same situation will have to go to the extra trouble and expense of keeping separate registration records and printing separate ballots. If Utah doesnt lower the voting age on its own initiative, it may have little choice in the matter. A new amendment to the U.S. Constitution is in the works that would lower the voting age in all elections across the country, state and federal. Aside from considerations of efficiency and expediency, states are finding it harder to turn a deaf ear to the arguments that persuaded the Supreme Court to go along with the lower voting age. Those arguments center on two major When Mr. President, To Richard Nixon, our people are absolutely certain they have found the command headquarters Mr. Buchwald l, To Judge if they wont have Even you on the Supreme Court, you're a cinch to be elected senator. bo "asked for much-maligne- a letter? ' young peoples concern over national policies and problems into the constructive channels provided by the establishment. vote a If these arguments really make the sound proposition for national elections, it would be just as sound for state and local elections, too. But if lowering the voting age is bad policy, its defects will show up more quickly if that policy is applied to the fullest extent. In any event, the change will take an amendment to Utahs Constitution, requiring not only approval by a vote in both houses of the Legislature but also ratification by the voters. vote has been such a big and vital issue The allowed to express their views on the should be that Utahns counts in the voting booth. That cant be where it subject 1972. least at until Meanwhile, young people can Mccpmplished show they deserve the vote in state and local elections by exercising it responsibly in federal elections. jrlT Well, if you Should Utah Lower The Vote Age To 18? . I , To Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, We think we've found the underground command headquarters of COSVN in Cambodia." My dinner partner a few weeks ago asked me what I thought of the unprecedented election of a third party senator in New York State, where James Buckley, the Conservative Party candidate, beat both regulars. I replied that it was a healthy thing, even though I disagree with about 90 per cent of what Sen. Euckley stands for; and that it was high time the conservatives in New York began to get some representation. This considerable group had been frustrated for more than 20 years, as the state continually voted liberals into national offices. And 40 per cent of the voters which is what Buckley got even though not a majority is still an awful lot of people. They needed a voice. Politics becomes toe polarized, to use the fashionable word, when a majority controls an area over a long period, and the minority has no legitimate outlet for its frustrations. This situation brings out of politics of extremism. What is needed, it seems to me, is a system of "proportional representation, so that a senator who may get in with only 51 per cent of the vote doesnt have the power wholly to obliterate the wishes of 49 per cent. Under such a system, a senators vote in Congress might be weighted in accordance with the percentage of his victory. For instance, Henry Jackson of the state of Washington, who won last month with per cent of the vote, certainly represents all the people of Washington more adequately than Buckley, who represents only a minority in his state. The voting power of a representative ought to be directly proportional to the percentage ofpeople voted for or against him. A candidate who squeaks in by a few hundred votes obviously should not have the sane voting influence as one who is a massive victor in his district. When he does, the attitudes and interests of a large number of his constituents are bein ignored or flouted. 8-- There are many ways in which one human being can minuter to the needs of another. Feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, healing the sick are mintraditional istries of mercy well known to everyone. But you seldom hear anyone mention the ministry of listening. Because listening seems to be purely passive, we dont realize it can be an act of kindness. Yet there are many occasions when its the most helpful thing you can. do for a person in trouble. When you really listen to someone, more than your ears are involved. Your heart has to be engaged too. To listen, in a tiue sense, is to open yourself up to another person, and take his pains or troubles or bewilderments into yourself. Many genuinely compassionate people make poor listeners. They are so anxious to correct the problem thats causing pain they begin to break in with advice and solutions before they've heard the whole story. ; Veteran listeners say this is bad form. Its their experience that when a person confides in you, he usually doesnt want advice: he wants somebody to understand and care about his troubles. Sometimes as in the case of a person who is grieving over the death of a loved one -- - theres really nothing you can do to solve the problem. Any effort to distract a friend from his grief will only make him feel more lonely because it will convince him that you really dont comprehend how he feels. In such situations, listening requires a to suffer silently with the grieving friend, accepting not only the reality but also the insolubility of his willingness problem. Another essential aspect of the art of listening, according to expert practitioners, is the ability to suspend moral judgment or at least, to suppress the urge to voice moral judgments. Some morally upright people find this quite difficult. They feel that if they keep quiet when another person confesses a misdeed or unworthy motive, their silence may be construed as tacit approval. But no less a moral authority than Jesus of Nazareth refuted the notion that we are required to condemn any course of action which we cannot in good conscience condone. The basic role laid Do not judge down by Jesus was: others. When you listen to a persons troubles in silent sympathy, restraining the impulse to offer good advice or moral counsel, you show him that you care for him, and that you accept him for what he is. To care and to accept are to love, so listening is an act of love. Indeed, it may in the b8 a more intimate act of love sense of establishing true human contact than a purely physical at a deep level sexual encounter. In contemporary urban society, where relationships between people seem to be growing ever more impersonal and dehumanized, there is great need for the ministry of listening. The beauty of it is that this is one form of service that no one is too oid or sick or poor or weak to undertake. The feeblest and frailest person can listen and in doing so, can give to others the beneficence of knowing that somebody cares. A How To Cut Fatalities This letter is in response to your editorial in the Dec. 29 issue, How Utahns can cut traffic deaths. You gave some good suggestions and they would help but they do not get at the problem. What can we do to make driving safer? We can do plenty if we only would get to the bottom of the problem and face the truth. Every accident is the result of human error. E.ery accident on our highways is caused by the failure of someone to observe the rules of safe driving. In a country where it seems to be the inherent right of every citizen to drive a car, there is sure to be a high percentage of people behind the wheel who should never be there. Some of them would have a hard time manipulating a baby buggy, while others make an exciting game of driving. Doesnt it give a clue to the problem when the age group who should be the best drivers are the worst? Governor Rampton campaigned for safer driving and premised to do something about it. He did. He hired a whole fIock of new highway patrolmen. And the statistics kept right on going up. Were saddled with more taxes and higher insurance , rates. Yes, we must have law enforcement, but it will never be done by uniformed men riding up and down our highways. It must come from us, the drivers and responsible citizens of this country. It must be embedded deeply within the consciousness of every driver. Not only ourselves, but others also. We must look out for the other fellow. We must be our brothers keeper. When we see someone breaking the rules, we should have some quick and efficient way to report him. And he should be made to know what he is doing. This calls for a special kind of education. And those who will not learn should be taken off the now. highways. We must do something about it Those three hundred odd caskets we are lowering into untimely graves each year are our responsibility. And everybody is highly vulnerable to be one of them this next year. What can Utahns do to cut traffic deaths? We can hold mass meetings, town meetings, if you will, in each community, led by the Highway Patrol. We can have trained men to help us discuss what is wrong. We can face the facts. We can have the courage and the concern to do what we have to do to right the wrongs on our highways. J. ARBEN CHRISTENSEN Logan More Suggestions Regarding your editorial on How Utahns Can Cut Traftic Deaths, may I offer a few suggestions? L Adopt uniform traffic control devices. 2. Get rid of those obsolete d center traffic signals which dont comply with federal standards. Corner poles, mast arms, and pesingle-suspende- destrian signals are better. 3. Get rid of those silly stop signs located at selected RR crossings which fail to bring uniformity. Put in crossing gates or an underpass like other cities do. They serve no useful purpose and can cause more harm than good. 4. Require the state to install The next 3 exit type signs on freeways like California cities have so a motorist always knows hew far it is to the next three exits after he goes by one. 5. Require all new business firms to install curls and gutter with parking lane provided so we have a piace to pull over to brush snow off rear windows and a place to read a map or change a tire, etc. 6. Float a bond issue for traffic signal moderni- zation throughout Utah. Modernization is 15 years behind time. 7. Fire the city and stati traffic engineers if they dont get on the ball and adopt uniform signs and signals. R. R. MILLER Burlingame, Calif. Clean Up Saltair v dont the members of Saltair Inc. prove their interest in beautifying the Saltair area and the Great Salt Lake by donatin'; their time and abilities to cleaning up the debris at the Saltair site and thus saving the state $36,300, tiie amount estimated for the clean-up- ? If they would get the ball rolling, perhaps Boy Scouts and other cn.de minded organizations would join. JUNE GILES Why 465-12t- h East . |