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Show The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH Sunday, August 3, 1997 Porches, a Most Beautiful Sight detail, including stereo-enhanced heartbeats and respiration moni- toring. (What we don't get, of course, are good scripts.) Bedroom coverage has achieved overkill. Let's give it a rest. Let's move back out on the porch, It’s such civilized place. Folks can come join us on the porchfor a relaxed, friendly chat. Feet up, Franklin Planners for- Something hopeful is springing up along the Wasatch Front. WhenI look beyond the road- way chaos that is making the chi- ropractors, the shrinks and the nerve tonic peddlers rich, I see more and more ofat least one good thing. gotien, lemonade cold and abundant. Talk can range far and wide: stories and jokes and inquiries about the neighbors’ plans for end-of-summerfestivities. Forget the shouting and the steaming of the bedroom. Porches are natural habitats for laughter andsinging. We can enjoy human nature Porches. New homes are sprouting throughout Utah. And many of them sport functional front porches, crisp and white, like the big lace collars many womenattach to their Sunday-best dresses. Who knowswhythis architectural feature is suddenly back in style? But it's a healthy trend. I’m hoping the newly fashionable porches are more than just decorative appendages. We need whatthey can offer. Writer-philosopher Celeste Billhartz says porches are “halfwayplaces, yet sensible and ful- and Mother Nature at the same time, swapping the latest Inter- state 15 war stories as we watch the shadows stipple the mountains. I wouldn't invite Geraldo into my housefor anything you could offer. But the late Charles Kuralt of “On the Road” fame (may he rest in peace, whatever byway he is exploring now) could have ambled up to my porchany time, and T'd have been better off for his sitting a spell. Here, try the swing. filling.” Tn recent decades, Americans have gone to nonsensical ex- tremes in our levels of connec- tion. Many of us have created lives containing virtually no contact with our neighbors. If the Joneses are growing marijuana in the back yard, or manufacturing bombs in the basement or struggling with a “madwoman in the Elouise Bell is professor emeritus at Brigham Young Universi- ty, TOM BARBERI them to shout outdetails of their sexual battles for our entertainment, Proudly “unauthorized” biographies dish up acres of dirt on the boudoir behavior of dead presidents, rock stars, movie queens, et al, (“Lassie Had a Yen for Wolves!"’) Movies shoot miles of betweenthe-sheets footage. We get every boom. I also would offer that the loss of front porches was the beginning of the isolation of people from one another which,in turn, Porches are wonderful things They are a great weapon against couch potatodom and family dis- connection. Neighborhoods with porchesare friendlier and safer. Peoplesit andtalk on them, relax and read on them, wave to neigh- bors and kids from them. They are great for keeping an eye on the kids as they play and are greatplacesfor kids to play. Porchesstir the imaginations of children. Porches can be forts, warding off hordes of marauding desperados. Orpirate ships, plundering the seven seas. And all within the steps of Mom’s kitchen where the smell of fresh-baked cookies always can lure one back to reality. Howstupid of us not to realize the value of porches in today’s homes.I have built several homes and not one of them has had a front porch. I don't know why, but I do know that wheneverI drive by a house with one, it prompts nostalgic thoughts. If 1 ever build or buy another home,a porch will be a priority. There is hope for the future because there seems to be a porch trend under way. | find that en- couraging. Porches truly are links to the neighbors, a connection that fosters a greater sense of community. The developments that have blossomed during our housing boom consist of bigger and bigger neighbors. Today mostof us know only the people wholive on eachside of us and that is only because of running into them while going to the RESPONSE mailboxes at the same time, the only reason adults go outside once My earliest memories as a small boy were growing up on our ranch in Gilroy, Calif., in an old Victorian housewith a porchin front and a huge screened porchin back. That was myfirst playground It was safe and within sight of my motherso she could besure thatI wasn't off wandering. I don’t know exactly when porches stopped being part of housedesigns, but I suspectit was Buddhist Monks Fight, Hope, Pray For Religious Freedom in Vietnam BYSHAWNFOSTER prompted theloss ofcivility that we decry today fortresses which separate us from ic,” the Smiths next door are unlikely to knowabout it until it hits the 10 p.m. news. On the other hand, the news media rush rudelyand without invitation through our front doors and barge right into the bedrooms. Daytime taik shows plop couples before us and encourage post-World War II with the tracthousing boom to match the baby they get home. Let’s hope this front-porch trend in new neighborhoods continues so we can regain the joyof serenity in the shade, a cool breeze and sharetime with family and neighbors without having to sendout annualinvitations. Ciao. Tom Barberi is a talk show host on KALL-AM. B3 lence,” Lysaid. “ Buddhist principles are based on love and compassionforall sentient beings, includ. ing our enemies whoareout to destroy the order. Vietnamese Buddhists face another struggle: re- THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Thich Vien Ly, a Buddhist monklivingin California, would like to see religious andpolitical freedom . cruiting young monks. Like the Roman Catholic Churches, which have found it difficult to attract in his native Vietnam. But he believes that it will comeonly through prayer. Andinternational political pressure. “We arecalling on all parties interested in reli- young mento the priesthood, Vietnamese Buddhists “Through our efforts, we hope to raise the consciousness of the American government and humanitarian organizations, so that they can pressure the Vietnamese governmentto change.” Ly, general secretaryof the Vietnamese American youngsters who wanttotrain to become monks. But are struggling to find those whowill make a vow of celibacy and commit their lives to enlightenment. Ironically, in Vietnam there is no shortage of gious freedom and humanrightsto help us,” Ly said. the government, Lysaid, has shut down many of the monasteries. Meantime, Vietnamese Buddhists in Salt Lake City are proud that the Buddhist congress chose Unified Buddhist Congress of the United States of Utahasthesite for its annual conference. America, was in Salt Lake City on Saturday for the “The Vietnamese community has beenherefor 22 years,” said ThuanTran, president of the Vietnam- order's annual convention. For years, Ly and the 200 monksof his order have ese Unified Buddhist Church of Utah, years,we believethis is one of the mostsignificant events for the Vietnamese people. It is a milestone mentreportedly threatened the leaders of the 2,000year-old Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam: “Some of our leaders are in prison; others are underhouse arrest,” Ly said. ‘Andit’s not just Buddhist monks but clergy from other religions, as vegetarian Vietnamese dishes for lunch. Later, oth- well.” The monksare not calling for an armeduprising to overthrow the government. Instead, they hope for a changeof heart. “The foundation of our struggle against the Communist regime is based on principles of non-vio- Membersof the Salt Lake congregation prepared ers sat at computers and typed in the minutesof the proceedingsto be posted to a web site on the Inter- But amongthe talk of yearly plans, fundraising andlegislative strategies was the theme of the searc! for spirituality. “The main goal is to become enlightened,” Ly said. “The second objective is to ease the pain andsuffering of all human beings. The two goals are interrelat- ed.” Mayor, Residents Seek to Stop Provo Club From Allowing Strippers as Entertainment THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PROVO — Residents and city officials are fighting the appear- ance of exotic dancers at a local club. Residents havefiled a nuisance complaint against LeMar’s in downtown Proyo, and Mayor George Stewart is considering amendments to city ordinances that would outlaw suchacts. Club ownerssay they have done nothing wrong and don’t under- stand whatall the fuss is about. “We did everything by law,” said LeMar’s manager Les Skates. “I just didn’t think it would get this muchattention. “I went throughall the legal aspects of getting this license,” Skates said. “We had to go through four different departments in the city, and the city ap- proved us LeMar’s paid $550 for a busi- ness license in June. The namesof public swimming poolclosed on Sundays Provo police for background The mayor wants to beef upordinances regulating sexuailyori- the dancers were submitted to checks. Skates said the club jumped through every hoop the city required Thatis not enough for some res- idents who never thoughtstrippers would make an appearance in the valley. LeMar’s is the first club to boast exotic dancers in Utah County. “We want to send a message that we don't want this in our community,” said Lisa Baldwin, who began organizing opposition to the club after seeing ads for dancersin the newspaper. The clothes started coming off in LeMar's on Thursday. The club’s eight female dancers strip down to pasties and thongs in a room adjoining the bar. The entertainmentis scheduled for seven days a week in a town where Stewart ordered the local ented businesses to ban suchacts, but he concedes any new law may be too late to stop what is happening at LeMar’s. Meantime, a group of conservative, anti-pornography crusaders — Help Our Moral Environment (HOME)— has been consulted about setting up pickets at the club. Two years ago, HOMEsuc cessfully targeted an adult bookstore shop in Mesquite, Nev. forcingit to close its doors. Baldwin, wholives two blocks south of the downtown club, said residents will do what it takes to make the patrons and owners of LeMar’s uncomfortable “We arevery, veryconscious of what is legal and what is not le- gal,” she said. “Weare also aware of what we tolerate morally.’ The #1 Bank has the # ] Team Oven. cash management services or retirement planning, we can assist you Zions Women's Financial Group offers the ultimate in easy, efficient Zions Bank is pleased to announce the grand opening of the Women’s Financial Group. Withover 150 years of combined experience, our teamunderstands the challenges womenfaceevery day. That is why we give youspecialized financial services and banking flexibility, Whether you need a checking account, a lineof credit, accounts receivable financing “Inall those been fighting for the freedom of Buddhist monksin Vietnam. 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