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Show The Salt Lake Tribune OPINION Sunday,April27,1997 AA3 Terrorism’s Meaning Tends to Be in Mind of the Beholder Last week, soccer — the ball game Europeans, by mistake of course, keep calling “football” — apparently won itself another ardent South American admirer: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. The Tupac Amaru hostage-takers, including their leader Nestor Cerpa, were too preoccupied with kicking a soccer ball on Tuesday to considerthe possibili- ty of an attack from Fujimori's comman- dos. They probably never had a chance when the troops stormed the Japanese ambassador's residence. At least they were wiped as the hostages werefreed. Thanks to the bold operation's success, Fujimori emerges a heroic anti-terrorist warrior, winning praise worldwide, minus the weak objections from anti-vio- lence crusaders. The whole deal would have looked entirely different had the surprise assault gone wrong, which, of course, it could have.If, for some reason,failure left the hostages still captive or, worse,killed, not only Fujimori's career but the hard-line approach to terrorists would have suf- fered a major biow. That has happened before — after President Jimmy Carter's novsk, Russia, hospital during the Che- chen war. ill-fated 1980 attempt to free American Obviously, there always have been siderably to Carter losing re-election. Just as surely, advocates of peaceful ceptable, if last, best option for reaching their political goals. The get-tough approach advocates — like Peru's Fujimori — argue that those hostages in Iran, which contributed con- people who considered terrorism an ac- dialogue andnegotiations with terrorists would have been heard loud and clear had Fujimori lost his gamble. whoagree to negotiate, like the Japanese The events in Lima offer the most re- authorities who in '77 paid the Japanese Red Army $6 million to end a Japan Air cent example of how easily the outeome of a single crisis can tip world opinion concerning anti-terrorism. Opinions vary, despite the fact that terrorism hardly could be called a new phenomenon. John Wilkes Booth, who killed Presi- The young Serbian student who assassi- nated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdi- nandin Sarajevo in June 1914, triggering World WarI, certainly was, and maybe dent Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theater 132 years ago, didn’t consider himself 2 terrorist. And neither, probably, did the still is, a hero for some. So are the people who killed Egypt’s President Anwar al- Sadatin 1981, and '83 dynamiters of 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut, and the ‘85 hi- plotters who assassinated Roman emper- or Gaius Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Whetherin the past or present,at least jackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, and whoever parked a truck full of explo- two viewpoints contend over whatis politically-motivated terrorism — the victims’ version andthe perpetrators’. Tax System Defies Reason sives at the federal building in Oklahoma City, and hostage-takers in the Budyon- these comfortable fat cats to cough up? Do these figures prove the IRS feeling that a lot of other taxpay- ers were whistling past the system without paying, prayed that the IRS mail room would be choked with returns so they wouldn't be able to cash your check until you had covered it with sufficient funds, and shuddered at the thought you might be audited, yourinstincts were correct. percent of their incomein taxes, hardly the backbreaking, econo- my-stultifying rate the wealthy are always complaining about. In 1995, only 3 percent of «people earning more than $100,000 got audited. In 1988, 12 percentof these people got audited. But the audit rate for poor taxpayers earning under $25,000 rose in 1995, to 1.04 percent. If this trend continues, the IRS will Yes,a lot of rich people aren't paying any taxes. The IRS is understaffed and underfunded. And whiletherich are being au- soon be more likely to audit a poortaxpayerthan a rich one. dited less, the rest of us might mean? Whatcould be the possible remedy? In 1977, only 85 people enjoyed rate of only 5 percent, shouldn't wego to a flat tax, a system with zero loopholes, less incentive for evasion, which would finally force = = > about lowering estate and capital gains taxes, which give us the best erack at the pocketbooks of the wealthy? Or if so many wealthy people are paying no taxes anyway, and 18,000 are paying at a — e e= this fortunate tax status. We can assumethat this trend has accel- some Democrats to be talking These are the questions that ought to frame the great tax debate now taking place in Con- gress. These are the issues that genuine representatives of the tax-paying public should be concentrating their attention on. Unfortunately, the multitude of them can be dissuaded from similarselfdelusion, they'll need to be convinced that not only are their acts cruel, but totally senseless as well, moreaptto be con- sidered foolish than heroic. Not long ago, I learned there were peoplelike that in my own family. Apparently, my great-grandfather, in the early 1900s, participated in train robberies to get money for Russian social democrats (future Boisheviks) led by Vladimir Lenin. And in 1918, my quiet, intellectual grandmother, who died seven years ago in Moscow, once helped plan terrorist acts against the Bolsheviks. Michael Nakoryakovis an editor at The Tribune’s National/World News Desk. Until 1991, he was a journalist in Russia. SAS have retained the heat from the cemetery, nonetheless, with ritual fire. As a child growingup in the gained from their ancestors. Bernadette’s forebears were taken from the Taos Pueblo to Taos Pueblo, Bernadette learned to bake from her grandmother, from whomshealso inherited the two-room Pueblo house. The breadis delicious. Some 70 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, not far from Taos Ski Resort, the Taos Pueblo be strengthened to do a fairer job of collecting taxes? CaaS endures as a living monument, celebrating the preservation of EDWARDMcDONOUGH Native American civilization against immense odds. It perseveresin spite of federal laws and BureauofIndian Affairs government Indian schools, where they were force-fed white America’s language and ways. Yet Bernadette speaks her Native American tongue as well as educated American English. After studying drama and dance in New York, Bernadette returned again tothe Taos Pueblo ~ to live and preservethe life of her people, and the very walls of the Taos Pueblo itself. If someone cuts that are antitheticalto deficit Bernadette lives in two adobewalled rooms in the Taos Pueblo with her husband and 11-year-old son, without indoor plumbing, reduction and pursuant of every electricity or central heat. Their press Native Americans, then to “civilize” them into imitation Eu- Pueblo, the part you see on post ropean Americans and, lately, to support and ignore them. The be houses, some reached by lad- Taos Pueblo people exemplify the ambiguous social and legal status tribe donotlive in the Pueblo and of Native Americans in their na- moniesand celebrations. the Taos tax proposals being floated is topheavy with ad hoe, pandering tax social aim from college education to teen-age smoking to corporate subsidies to capital investment. Theflat taxers, if they had been moreconcerned with simplifying the system and makingit moreintelligible and less obsessed with loweringrates on the rich, might havecarried the day by now. As it is, the final result is likely to be a sticky gumbo of cross-purposes with little improvement in those deficiencies in the system which are mostglaring and most likely to make people distrust and re- sent it and imagine that it is rigged for those with the greatest ability to pay. . ZF =, were known to the government. tion; each situation will probably have to be analyzed independently. There is something that could help, however. Comparedto the ‘80s, skyjackings have dwindled to the few crank cases. For a simple reason: Since no country, not even Iraq or Libya, provides skyjackers political asylum, there’s little threats from Congress, needs to | = fled cometaxesatall. And these were just the legal ones whose incomes away with murder, is this really the time for Republicans and a=) which figures are available, 2,400 Americans with incomes in excess of $200,000 paid no federal in- If this many rich are getting —— that in 1993, the latest year for These seem to be appalling figures. But what do they actually s have a greater chance of getting hauled in to explain ourselves and the conclusions we reached on our tax returns. Newfigures from the IRS show In fact, there may be no universal solu- POINT OF LAW merely mean the IRS, starved of resources and intimidated by | NEW YORK —If youpaid your pulled upby its roots? Or do they homeis in the main section of the cards,a pile of multi-leveled adoders. Each morning she goes to the clear stream that winds down from the mountains to get her water for the day. When she regulations designed to first op- tive land: neither full participants in the social, legal or economic life of the nation that has sub- bakes bread, she uses an iglooshaped, outdoor adobe oven of ancient design, first building a sumed them nor allowed to fully fire inside, then sweeping out the ashesafter the fire has died, putting in the bread doughand cover- tery are the foundation stones of ing the door hole with a board held in place by rocks. Thethick mudwalls of the oven their priests in an attempt to replace the native religion. Taos Co = 18,000 Americans in the over$200,000 bracket paid less than 5 taxes April 15 with the sinking people it was supposed to free. The deadrevolutionaries were certain- ly criminals, but in their minds they were doing the right thing. Before others like New Mexico’s Indians Prevail live their traditional wayoflife. The walls of the Pueblo ceme- the ruined mission church erected by Spanish conquistadors and Pueblodead arelaid to rest in the does notlive in her grandmother's house and sweep snow from the tops of the adobe walls. she explains, the walls will melt. Andif someof the remaining members of the dwindling Taos Pueblo practice the ancient rituals, cerePueblo culture wiil melt away. Bernadette models for Navajo artist R.C. Gormanathis studio- /gallery in the town of Taos. She is the picture of a peopleof grace and beauty who live on in spite of the laws of Congress andits idiot stepchild, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Edward J. McDonough practices lawin Salt Lake City. Have equity in your home andstill have credit problems? i The same report shows that NEWSDAY hostages went sour and caused death for is an evil empire that must be erated since 1993. ROBERT RENO Lines passenger-plane hijacking, are encouragingterrorists. Yet, there are plenty of examples when anattempt to rescue profit in seizing a jetliner. And the truth is, if Fidel Castro’s regime didn’t openly sympathize with pro-socialist Tupac Amaru rebels, they might never haveinvaded Japan's Lima, Peru, embassy compound. | | sceCeLedeUMALe crmme LOce eg Naness eLaD lsAnotherToBeAbleToTelPeople ThatYouve Been Blindsided. Maybe you're just notcalling the right people = The factis,if you have equity in your home, * Full Spectrum Lending™ can help you get the money you need fast. If you have poor credit, been turned down elsewhere,or are selfemployed and can’t veniy your income, now may be the time to call Full Spectrum Lending to There’ no way to control the carelessness of drivers who casually roll past stop signs or misinterpretyellow Tefinance your home. 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