Salt Lake Tribune | 1998-04-04 | Page 12

)pinion She Salt LakeTribune Page A12 OUR VIEW The Salt Lake Tribune's Editoria! Position DRMING ANDPROMISE NERC DDO TAGAN. First School Test Oneofthefirst things greeting new kindergarten students next fall will be a test. If used properly,it can be a boon to the youngstersthat will affect their futures. Mandated by the 1996 Legislature, Utah's 800 public-school kindergarten teachers will spend the first week or two of school meeting with the students and their parents. Teachers will probe their new students about their grasp of books, letters, numbers and story comprehension. Children cannot be booted out or told to come back a yearlater if they flunk the informal fest. Nor are the tests tracking instruments, designed to shove some youngsters into college tracks and others into technicaltracks. Most American educators andpolitical leaders are too optimistic, too imbued with respect for the Horatio Alger stories of upward mobility to go along with this. Rather, results are to aid teachers in preparing lessons to augment pre-reading and mathematics skills. If used this way, the tests should be salutary. Problem areas identified in thetests can be discussed with the child and parents, and the teacher can make provisions to enhancelearning in weak areas. Kindergarten teachers tend to be a conscientious lot — onehasto be, to teach 5-year-olds every day — and they likely will use the information gained from thetests as best they can. Unfortunately, kindergarten teachers have received a mixed message about the new program. TheState Office of Education asked lawmakers for $100,000 to help train teachers in giving the test and usingits results, but legislators demurred. Thus, the program represents the sort of unfunded mandate state political leaders decry when Congress or federal regulatory agencies impose oneonthestates. It’s hard to get excited about a new program,to even see its worth, when it is not funded. Becauseof this, it may notbe takenall that seriously. This would be unfortunate. The idea behind the testing program is a good one. How child subsequently relates to school and formallearning, or even completes high school,oftenis set in herorhis initial years of schooling. If early testing helps teachers correct potential academic deficiencies, it is worthwhile. Welcome [nformality Last Wednesday’ssightof the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a sign of the times. President Gordon B. Hinckley, plus counselors ThomasS. Monsonand JamesE.Faust,left their offices to wave pompons and cheer on the University of Utah's basketball team asit paraded up South Temple. They, along with most of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, were part of a throng feting the Utes for makingit to the NCAA championship game, where they were defeated by the University of Kentucky. It was a remarkable departure from the public images of Hinckley’s predecessors. For a century at least, Mormon church jeaders maintained an aura of no-nonsense dignity. Even whenit came to recreation and visits to exotic locales, church leaders never lost that gravitas. Photographsof mostofthis century’s church presidents in Hawaii show them with leis around their necks but in formal poses with serious expressions on their countenances. Nolevity there. Thisall changed when Hinckley becamechurch president in March 1995. The energetic church leaderis media savvy, seemingly endowed with an in- stinctive knowledge about how best to come across to others. His performance wasmasterfulin his 1996 interview with Mike Wallace of CBS’s “60 Minutes.” THE PUBLIC FORUM Letters from The Tribune's readers But the image Hinckley and his counselors projected last Wednesday is hardly original these days. While cheerleading andpublic expressions of avuncular bonhomie once were the antithesis of leadership and responsibility, today they are demanded. President Clinton, when hewas first running for president, appeared on television, playing the saxophone and declaiming on the weighty subject of underwear — hepreferred boxers to briefs. Hardly the public image of Presidents Taft, Wilson, FDR, Eisen- howerorothers. Utah's popular Gov. Mike Leavitt, looking like 1950s television’s Howdy Doody in a cowboyhat,led a childishly rousing, gesticulating Utah delegation of officials and boosters in Budapest, where in June 1995 the International Olympic Committee awardedSalt Lake City the bid to host the 2002 Winter Games. Hardly the gubernatorial image projected by William Spry, Simon Bamberger, or Calvin Rampton. Traditionalists who like their leaders always to look and act the part may find this disconcerting, but theirs clearly is a rearguardrole. Most people in today’s visual, media-driven age prefer physical emotion and vivaciousness in their leaders whenthe occasion suggests it. At these times, rectitude and formality are out. Thank goodness. ANOTHER VIEW From The Chicago Tribune The Jones Case: Going, Going, Gone Growth and Exploitation Discrimination Explored Whereto Write Several opinions expressed in the Pub- lic Forum in recent months have documented the one-track mind concept of our legislators’ approach to “‘progress”” versus preservation. Via some skewed collective conscience, there is a pervasive attitude on Capitol Hill that is significantly less than visionary. In a particularly insightful editorial, one astute writer attributed this group mind set to the fact that the people of Utah would vote for the village idiot if he were a Republican. Enter nine-term incumbent James Hansen andhis disciples of de- struction. This “Cowboy Caucus” (Redneck Raucous?) seeks to undermine a quality of life that generations of Utahns, including the present one, have long cherished. In its place, we could have freeways instead of wetlands, urban blight instead of open space, denud- E When submittingletters to the Public Forum,pleaseinclude your full name,signature, address and daytime telephone numbers. Information other than your nameand the city in which youlive are kept confidential WKeepit short. Conciseletters develop- ing a single theme are more likely to be published. Please type and double space. W Letters are condensed andedited. BH Because of the volume of mail received, not all submissions are published. 1 Mail to Public Forum, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110, 1 Our fax numberis [phone] ed foothills instead of transitional zones for people and wildlife, reservoirs instead ofrivers, private property instead of public land, smog instead of mountain vistas, and of course, coal mines andoil wells in place of national monuments. Behind the “if we build it they will come” mantralies a hard-line philosophy that nothing is of any value unless there is money to be madebyit. Selling native Utahns down the river seems a small price to pay for the luring of new victims to broadenthetax base. It would be naive, however, to assume that wel- comingthe world to Utahwill relieve the present population of the overburden of taxes that keeps us ever humble. Andin the meantime,we wouldforfeit the natu- ral heritage that makes Utah scenically unique It's time for the people of Utah to oust from office the profiteers who can’t look at a sunset without thinking of ways to exploit it. This good ol’ boys mentality may be how the West was won, but if Duality of Laws Weheard our governor describe his gambling bet with the governor of Kentucky as “‘an expression of confidence.” Myson asked me, ‘Dad, is that the same ascalling a park a ‘square?’ ” It's too bad we little people can’t rewrite the dictio- nary as we go. This is the same governor who had prayers at his inauguration in the Capitol while the littie people are forbidden to bless the food in the government senior centers. This is the same governor who had a choir sing “Glory, Glory Hallelujah” at his inauguration while the kids at West High are forbidden to sing their song. Am being pedantic or do we have a serious case of hypocrisy in which laws are for the little people while the beautiful people rise above? KEN LARSEN Candidate for U.S. allowed to continue, it will result in Over the last four years, Paula Jones and her guerrilla army of lawyers, sycophants and political operatives dug up abundant evidence to suggest that Bill Clinton is a cad, but none to prove he was guilty of sexual harassment Indeed, the legal vacuousness of her case becameever more apparent in re- cent weeksas the Jones team pulled out all the stopsto sully Clinton. Wednesday, U.S, District Judge Susan Webber Wright put an end to the mud slinging — at least for now — by summarily dismissing Jones’ harassment ease, holding that it had nobasis either in law or in fact. It was a courageous decision, and a proper one. Jones had charged that Clinton made a crude pass at her in a Little Rock hotel room in 1991, while he was governor of Arkansas and she was a low-level state employee. Yet she was unable to demonstrate that she had suffered any harm as a result either of the alleged pass or her spurning of Clinton. It's an understatement to saythis case has been messy, a four-year distraction and an embarrassment to Clinton. Equally distressing, it has been a scandal to the nation, tion Q tected by an appropriate legal standard The foot stomping, fist pounding tantrumsof our elected officials uponlearning of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument designation was amusing considering the hypocrisy that precededit ona local level. Land swaps and closed-door dealings have long been a part of Utah politics. The difference between back room conspiracies and a presidential decree is the difference between usurping the democratic process and responding to the will of an overwhelming majority (70 percent) of the people — people who prefer natural wondersto superficial political agendas. DAVIDE. JENSEN of proof, a standard that protects every citizen. oO Nevertheless, two important lessons emerged from the muck of the Jones case. One is that the president is not above the law. The Supreme Court made the proper decision last year in ruling that the Jonescase could goto trial while Clinton wasin office. That madelife uneasy for Clinton, butit also affirmed that even the president is not above the law. At the sametime, the president is not beneath the law. Some critics will say that an Arkansas judge protected Arkansas’ favorite son. Not so. Clinton was pro- Legally, Wright's decision has no bear- ing on theinvestigation of independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who may yet present Congress with a case for impeaching the president. It should, nevertheless, give Starr some pause: If he is to make such a case, it must be overwhelming. The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1871 PAST PUBLISHERS John F. Fitepatrick (1924-1960) losses greater than any instant gratifica- PUBLISHER Dominic Weleh John W. Gallivan (1960-1983) EDITOR Jerry O'Brien(1983-1994) James E. Shelledy KEARNS-TRIBUNE CORPORATION,143 §. MAIN ST. SALT LAKE CITY, 84011 Holladay Fan From Afar As a dyed-in-the-wool Lobo fan who bleeds a healthybit of cherry andsilver, I wish to congratulate the Utah Utes on their tremendous showing in the NCAA basketball tournament. I, along with many other Lobo fans, was pulling for our WACrival during the championship game. Though Kentucky proved again to be an unlucky nemesis, the University of Utah, the state of Utah, and the Western Athletic Conference can be proud of the inspired play and coaching that was displayed by the Utes. I look forward to watching yet another exciting UNMUtah series next year. Go Utes! Go Lo- bos! Go WAC! DAVE DALLAS Codifying Doctrine? Albuquerque, N.M Oo Sen. Orrin Hatch has taken time out from his busy agenda of protecting society from liberal judicial activists and flag burners to dabble in federal tax pol- icy, He supports providing a further tax for the chosen ones in Utah He wouldallow a $900 child care credit for spouses (read: mothers) who choose to stay at homeand carefortheir children (incurring no child care expenses). As a single parent, I incurredin excess of $4,800 of child care expenses in 1997, and was ableto claim a $900 child care credit ou my federal income return, Sen Hatch should acknowledgethat his sup. port is based on the LDS admonishment against working mothers and cease his activities to codify LDS doctrineinto the Like the Real Thing I don't know whoseidea it was to put the imageof the mountains onthe sound. /sight barriers on I-15 south of 7200 South, but it will never even comeclose to the view of the “real” mountains, I have lived in Salt Lake City almost 30 years, and | am still amazed by the sight of the mountains when I amdriving back into the valley from the south. There- fore, I thinkit is sadthat the first view of Salt Lake City visitors fromother states ROY MEADOR crimination won’t work. There would haveto be too many exceptions. Simply stated, discrimination is legal in the U.S.A.It is easier to allow discrimination generally and then specifically preclude it in thosesituations which are immoral, thanit is to disallow all discrimination and then specify the multitude of exceptions in which we must permitit. As a university professor, I discriminate among mystudents on a variety of issues. I give better grades to smarter students. I may be prejudicedin favor of more outgoing and friendly students. You canbe discriminated against legally for beinglazy, or fat, or impolite. An employer may not like the clothes you wear or the way you cut or color your hair. He or she maynotlike the grammar you use, or the way you smack your gum, or chew your nails, or your oily skin or your wimpy timid voice. Thelist, of course, goes on and on. Discrimination is a good thing — it’s how we separate the good from the mediocre from the bad. A month or so ago, a woman in Davis County was fired when her employer learned she lived in a homeless shelter. Hesaid that his customers didn’t want to be served by a homeless person. Cruel and unfair, yes. Immoral, probably. But certainly legal. What is now illegal in the United States (although thelist varies slightly from state to state, or city to county) is discriminating against people because of certain immutable attrioutes that put them in a class that has historically suffered unfair and pervasive discrimination. Gays and lesbians are trying to be put onthatlist. What Bryce Jolly of the Salt Lake City Council wants to do is throw much ofthe legal code out the window and start over. Sorry, but that would put the entire fight for civil rights in this country back about 130 years, TOM MATHEWS Ogden a Premature Celebration Whata pity! Last-minute energy gone? Notatall. The fatal mistake was made last Saturday night in part by Rick Majerus letting the team celebrate until late, when they knew what was coming on Monday. Just basic tips like “going to bed early” so their body cells’ energy could get ready to perform. They could be celebrating now after obtaining the nationaltitle, Never celebrate before the last game. Onecan recuperate energybyjust eat ing a tablespoon of pure natural honey because it goes in the bloodstream in a matter of seconds. I hope next year they don't make the same mistake. A team needs to eat healthy food (Jatest technology in nutrition), lift weights, and prepare mentally for a game of this magnitude. If they do these basic tips they will have a good chanceto get that prize giv- en to the best coileye team. I congratulate them for the wonderful season they had. They can do better next time. JORGE RIVEROS Salt Lake City Oo Tale of Two Navels and countries will haveis of the “con- T have been amused by the recent fray crete" mountain range! The decision over “Whois more Christian— Baptists or Mormons.” But the question I really want answered is “If you're born again, makers should have considered what they were hiding and the long term ef. fects, Internal Revenue Code. Ogden. \ Representative, District 2 Salt Lake City Theproposal recently madein the Salt Lake City Council to eliminate all dis- A. MARIE DICKERSON Taylorsville do you have two belly buttons? JOAN T. CAMERON Sandy