| Show Standanj-Examn- er Opinion Letters & Columns To our Readers director of research of the Library of Congress to a senator from Georgia which said in part that all references to the beginning of the century indicated 1901 was the beginning year of the century As my fellow students and I learned in junior high school back in the '50s the century is named after the last year in that century ie the 19th century is named after the year 1900 and the 20th century is named after the year 2000 Now there will be many who ment US Naval Observatory is the official timekeeper of the United States of America I invite all to log on to its Web site wwwusnona-vym- il to read for themselves the “non-believer- s” statement that the millennium begins Jan 1 2001 There are additional readings at that site supporting the official position Holbert R Hale Plain City I contemplate moving from Kaysville soon our time here should end just like it began About 15 years ago after transplanting from California to Kaysville my son dedicated long service to an Eagle Scout project erecting “Welcome to Kaysville” signs (at a cost of around $300 each) About three days after the signs appeared at various locales one was immediately vandalized and had to be replaced at considerable expense Now some 15 years later as I try desperately to sell my house to leave Kaysville I have erected rather expensive “House for Sale by Owner” signs I too find that my “For Sale” signs are not devoid of the antics of vandals and thieves! I purchased three signs (S30-S4- 0 each) spent considerable time putting them together and then placed one in my front lawn and two at local interseck tions Within a period one of the signs was vandalized three times and the other three-wee- was stolen! The experience simply leaves me disappointed in humanity and asking: Whatever happened to the concept of honesty among people? I sincerely hope some other unsuspecting and innocent souls will learn from this experience that nothing is sacred in our society anymore Innocents always seem to become the victims of unscrupulous people who are devoid of conscience or guilt! To whoever stole my sign I hope you enjoy my stolen sign -you obviously need it a lot more than we do! Standard-Examiner- ’s May 26 editorial against the nomination of Ted Stewart for a federal judgeship Anyone who knows Stewart personally (and very few of those attacking him do) knows he’s ex- bright principled experienced and most of aU a man of high pertremely fair-mind- ed sonal integrity Given recent episodes of lapses in personal integrity at the highest levels of our government this should be one of the uppermost qualifications for a lifetime appointment Your editorial failed to note that Stewart was the equivalent of an administrative law judge for six years as head of the Utah Bruce Murray Kaysville Public Service Commission Your editorial was flat wrong to list this as a “political” job In that important position Stewart successfully handled legal proceedings involving issues and evidence as complex as anything encountered by a federal judge today Some vocal opponents to Stewart’s nomination have hidden agendas - they are either misguided environmentalists or want the position for themselves or someone they know Ted Stewart has all of the essential qualifications and then some to serve with distinction as a federal judge Steve Petersen Kaysville Everyone needs conflict resolution skills I agree with the May 13 letter “Children need to resolve conflicts” Are the parents to blame for the tragedy and outrage that occurred? Some would ask “Where were the parents when these kids needed guidance? Were the parents aware their children had a problem? And if so why didn’t they get them counseling and evaluation?” It wasn’t vety long ago that I was a rebellious teenager I would rebel just because of hurt guilt feelings being scared of the future discipline and spite I didn’t realize that my decisions could have been tragic to someone else Now I have three beautiful children to raise who are struggling with everyday anger in our society The pressures of this world are very hard to understand let alone cope with Children struggle in their everyday lives with all kinds of situations I ask myself if I’m doing all that I possibly can for them to help them through their struggles in and out of school Doonesbury 951 Ogden UT 84402-095- 1 FAX (801) 625-45- Opinion pages 08 SATURDAY: Our editorial addresses the plan to place barriers in WensviUe Canyon Lettersstandardnet IL This is a question to the author of the May 26 letter “NRA dealers manufacturers are responsible” I know there are individuals out many like-mind- there because Clinton was elected twice Why is it that our immoral lying president does not trust citizens of America with guns but seems completely law-abidi- satisfied with our sworn enemy China having our nuclear weapons technology? Talk about gun control What we need in this country is presidential control! Richard Porter Ogden Student voices concern over school violence I am writing concerning I am a at Farmington Junior ninth-grad- er High SchooL Recently school violence has exploded We hear about schools like Columbine and Heritage and it just makes me sick! I don’t know why and I don’t understand it but I wish I did know why so I could help people with violence problems Sometimes life just gets hard! Other times violence occurs after anger loss of a family member or just because someone thinks it’s funny I think we need to watch each other and help each other so things like this won’t happen so often or ever again Erin Poorte Centerville Armed forces provide beneficial training I commend the Standard-Examinfor both writing the May 31 story about the veteran’s Upward Bound program at Weber State University and its placement on the front page However I believe program director Jim Kopecky in his enthusiastic promotion of the program unneceser Ted Stewart is worthy of nomination I was upset at the Coming up in the: er POBox - not gun presidential - control school violence Theft leaves homeowner disillusioned I guess it is only fitting that as Standard-Examin- 7A We need will continue to argue this point and may have already stocked up on their celebration beverages for the end of the year (which I understand has created a shortage of champagne worldwide) The US Postal Service has been issuing postage stamps commemorating the rad of the 20th century this year disregarding the accuracy of the standard set by another agency of the federal governThe MAIL Please keep letters to 300 words or less and indude your name address and daytime phone for verification Letters must be signed and may be edited and condensed Observatory is official millennial timekeeper I have been humored by the letters recently arguing both sides of the millennium starting date La 1992 I submitted a letter discussing the controversy that took place at the turn of the last century Two New York City newspapers were in dispute over which year was the first year of the century 1 quoted a letter sent by the Friday June 4 1999 sarily demeaned the education and training available to many young women and men in today’s armed forces There are career fields and skills in the military not readily transferrable to the civilian work place but there are many more that are very applicable I write as an officer in the Air Force Reserve but I have also served as an enlisted person both in the US Navy and the Air Force The skills I learned as an aircraft electrical specialist in the Navy would have certainly served me well in the commercial sector aerospace field Later I served as technician with a medical y the Air Force Reserve I learned work skills in a civilian my X-rcommunity college program but I can attest that those technicians I worked with who were Air Force-trainwere just as skillful and competent as myself After earning a college degree I returned to the Air Force once again in part because I enjoyed working with a group of highly professional people who took a lot of pride in what they did Mr Kopecky is to be commended for his work in helping and motivating veterans who for whatever reason did not take full advantage of the education and training opportunities in today’s military However his coloring of the military as so regimented as to stunt personal and professional growth is inaccurate and unfair In my opinion it is narrow-minded employers with archaic hiring policies not the military who are responsible for many veterans not finding immediate employment after serving their country Dick Benoit Lt Col USAFR Las Vegas Nev temporarily assigned to Hill Air Force Base X-ra- I’ve sought counseling from psychiatrists and therapists to help guide me along the way of parenthood I’ve also sought the help of teachers principals students juvenile judges caseworkers doctors policemen friends and family members The two boys in Littleton had their own minds made their own decisions had their own personalities and their own built-u- p anger All of these things may not have been preventable even with all of the help available to us What we must do now is start the healing process and try to learn from this horrific tragedy My deepest sorrow goes out to the people in Littleton and the community May the world learn from this tragedy and may God bless us with wisdom and strength to become united in peace and harmony I agree that education on conflict resolution should be in a child’s life and even in an adult’s life for that matter Children are the leaders of the future who can make this a peaceful nation Maryann Richard Ogden ay ed by garry trudeau Sir do we have permission to deconflict our errant prose? Our NATO spokesmen seem to be experiencing a high fray rate ‘We regret Mr Force Gen John ' Jumper's use of die term force provider By GENE WE1NGARTEN The Washington in describing himself Any implication that delivering bombs is the moral Post Good morning In addition to today’s regrets for yesterday’s errant bombs we would like to apologize for some of the collateral damage that previous briefers have done to the English language equivalent ofproviding health care services was unintended and We also are reviewing the transcripts to see if NATO spokesman Jamie Shea’s answers in French to questions from French-speakin- g journalists have degraded that language as well unfortunate StiE it was better than if the general had said he was the First we regret Air Force Gen John Jumper’s use of the term “force provider” in describing himself on May 14 Any implication that delivering bombs is the moral equivalent of providing health care services was unintended and unfortunate Still it was better than if the general had said he was the “supreme annihilator of ground-base- d life 4 We would like to clarify a statement by a senior State Department official reported on May 21 suggesting that we were monitoring the “fray rate" of the Milosevic regime The official meant that we wanted to see how much distress and political instability our bombing was causing in Yugoslavia We are however monitoring the “fray rate” of the seats of the pants of senior State Department officials We are not as yet alarmed but we are concerned rt Bona fide “expert talk” authorized by NATO likens the operation to the Berlin Airlift the Israelites slaying the Philistines and the Yankees’ glorious and decisive sweep of the San Diego Padres in the 1998 World Scries We also would like to clarify a recent statement by President Clinton that described the hostilities as an “air war” There is no “war” as the term is commonly defined The president was using the second variant of the first definition of the word B as reflected by Webster’s Third New International Dictionary namely: “conflict among opposing parties” Though he was not “wrong” the president would have been more accurate if he had said NATO is engaged in an air “conflict” in which it is “implementing" a “campaign” involving the devices against “deployment” of “homo” “sapiens” “anti-personn- In addition we regret any misunderstandings created by the May 15 statement by Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon that “Yesterday was a high ops tempo” Ken was merely indicating that NATO had increased the rate of its bombing missions He was not making an insensitive association between bombing and music as in the movie “Apocalypse Now” when US helicopters fly off to drop napalm on villages blaring “The Ride of the Valkyries” We would like to deactivate the April 21 statement by Jamie Shea that we had “deconflicted the flights of military equipment” so as to avoid any airborne mishaps by more effectively spacing our support missions Unfortunately this sounded like bureaucratic doublespeak It is really quite straightforward when NATO “deconflicts” flights it is merely eliminating conflicts via rescheduling the way one might prudently reschedule a luncheon with one’s girlfriend if one had inadvertently scheduled it at die same time and place as one’s luncheon with one’s wife resulting in embarrassment anger Apache helicopters launched etc We are also reassessing Air Force Gen Charles Wald’s May 12 explanation as he narrated a videotape of a building being bombed: “The explosion egresses from various parts of the building” The general was not suggesting that an explosion exits a building in a polite and orderly manner with a tip of the hat like a pastor after Sunday tea An explosion egresses a building the way green goo egresses a caterpillar when you step on it We are trying to find a polite way to say that When we do we will get back to you And last we regret our overuse of the term “permissive environment” to describe a condition under which NATO would occupy Kosovo only with a guarantee that Yugoslav forces will not be hostile to them We realize in retrospect that this sounds a little effete as though Churchill had said “We shall fight them on the beaches we shall fight them on the landing grounds we shall fight them in the fields and in the streets we shall never surrender unless they are mean to us and make us cry” From now on we will replace the term “permissive environment” with “cowering acquiescence by a broken and defeated enemy” Assuming that term is approved by President Milosevic Thank you We will now take your questions Gene Weingarten is Style section oui? rtexr sv o&TSAys s im& 'Cotrmw-cAPV " IU a stqff writer for The Post’s By Bruce Tinsley Mallard Fillmore r d If forms' " forms” We apologize to our friends in the media for State Department spokesman James Rubin’s use talk” to criticize punditry of the term “non-expeabout ongoing military events Rubin meant no offense He was understandably upset with commentators who have insisted that the NATO operation is comparable to Pickett’s Charge Waterloo Gallipoli or that episode when Larry and Curly try to enlist in the Army and wind up hiding in burlap sacks used for bayonet practice supreme annihilator of ground-base- H£$ StAfe HifAAFftUp 'toWAlKlD Ve&OSEtt 6 55 "Atfy&xy'Z Af&r AftWS WHfH WtfCSMS v&U Hsar ftexA&l yfef -- fan Of fevz GW Ccpmxl |
