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Show f u | To Boomer Parents’ Delight, Teens | Prove the Times Aren’t a Changin’ f — She'sdoing it to drive them crazy, RICK HOROWITZ — She's a teen-ager — of course, she’s doing it to drive them crazy. Hour after is precisely thiselose to losing it, her motherleans into the haliway and shouts at the bedroom door, hoping against hope that her daughter will hear, will heed. And now here she comes a few nights “Get your own music!” what she’s playing. Also Creedence, Van Morrison. The Doors. The Dead. They're lined up on her shelves, one CD after another, a regular Golden Aged, digitized Hali of Fame. Then there are the tapes, mixed by friends and passed aroundthecircuit, with favorite cuts by Otis and Aretha, by Janis and Floyd. (Pink.) Not to mention Paul Simon and Joni Mitchel! and Stevie Won- _ der and Marvin Gaye and — * What's going on?! (. It’s a Million Dollar Weekend, that's (what’s going on — weekends and week‘pays, too. Here at the rumpend of the we do —butif they try, that’s even more of a complimentto our exquisite taste. He leans toward the second way. Actually, he’s been relatively — relatively — restrained about the whole thing. She comes back from a friend’s house enthusing about some newly rediscovered star; he manages not to leap to his feet, race to the living room and drop the original vinyl onto the turntable. He figures she'll like the music even more if shefinds it on her own. hour, day after day, the noise comes booming from the boomboxin her room -- those ragged voices, those yawping guitars. Finally, when her mother just can't take it anymore, when her mother As opposed, say, to their music. , The Allman Brothers. Jefferson Airplane. Bob Marley. Jimi Hendrix, That's sic, Nobody can possibly appreciate our music the way we do. That's one way of locking atit. He leans toward the second way: We were the special ones. Our years were the best years — the clothes, the language, especially the music. Nobody can possibly appreciate our music the way later, bounding up thestairs with excite- Nineties, the Sixties are alive! The Seventies thrive! She’s net compietely im- ment, with announcement. “You've got the best records! I've nev- muneto the charms of her own decade. er looked at them before. You've got Dy- Erykah Badu and Ani DiFranco make oc- lan, everything!” He just smiles. casional appearances. Ditto Dave Matthews. Fugees. Phish. But mostly they’ve got a throwback living among them. She’s doing the Time Warp, and she’s lovingit. The man of the house is secretly pleased. There are, after all, at least two ways of looking at this. Luckily, both ways allow major wallowsin self-indulgent boo- merism. (What could be better?) One way: We were the special ones. Our years were the best years — the clothes, the language, especially the mu- And now she’s back downstairs mak- ing her owntapes, and someof the songs she wants are on theselarge, flat things. She has the turntable spinning and the tonearm in her hand. She thinks she's cracked the code. “The spaces are where the song ends?” she asks. “So you know?” He nods. She grins. Slowly she lowers the needle into a groove, andit’s the Great Back Thenall over again. “T've never done this before,’ she says. “This is fun!” Her motherwill adjust. terous. FORTWORTHSTARTELEGRAM Maybe you couldn't blame James Earl Ray for concocting somegoofy conspiracy theory to buttress his insistence that he didn’t kili Martin Luther King Jr. in the spring of 1968. Ray must have figured he needed to offer a spectacular alternative to his own ‘culpability in the King murder,seeing as “how he pleaded guilty in a court of law "way back in 1969. So he spentthe better ™part of 29 years trying to convince the “world that his guilty plea was 2 lie and °that he was really an innocent man who it’s difficult to understand why King’s widow and son would befriend Ray, whichthey did, and subscribetohisselfserving conspiracy tale, which they do. Maybethe Kings arestill angry with the government for bugging King’s hotel rooms and tapping his phones. Or maybe they just can’t bring themselves te accept the idea that a smail-time crock such as Ray could silence oneof the most important public figures of his time. Whatever.Itis sad to see King’s survivors giving credence to this outrageous fantasy concocted by Ray in a futile at- tempt to avoid going down in history as the man who murdered Martin Luther King. “had beenset upto takethe fall by King’s But what about the rest of America? ‘realkillers. “Ray's death at the age of 70 last mr ach “should have put an end to this conspiracy “nonsense, but it didn’t. Ray somehow Can anyone truly believe this malarkey? The King conspiracy theory is as ridiculous as all those conspiracy theories ‘Snanaged to convince members of King’s “own family that the civil-rights leader’s ‘death was the result of a vast plot © hatched byevildoers within the U.S. gov, ernment. Ray mayhaveacted alone, or he might , nave operated in concert with a small ‘band of King-haters, as suggested in a »new book about the assassination. But ythe idea that he was a patsy in some (widespreadconspiracy is simply prepos- we've heard in connection with the 1963 murder of President John F. Kennedy. To believe any of this stuff, it is necessary to accept the possibility that vast numbers of people in and around the government were competent enough to plan and carry out an assassination — andthatall those involved were discreet enough to keep thesecret for 30 years or more. Whendid a politician or bureaucrat in this country ever keep a secret for 30 With Heavy Anti-Clinton Bombast WASHINGTON — Whathappenedto breath, relax” about Clinton scandals? The Newt sweet-tempered as a mother's milk? That imposter vanished in a flash. Snarling with righteous anger — head for the fallout shelter! — Nuclear Newt is back. For three days House Speaker Newt Gingrich heaved warheads at Bill Clinton that cracked White House china and sent Buddy whimpering intoa closet. The question — not a dark mystery with mid-term elections looming — is whatred-lined Newt's boiler? Gone was cautious Newt who counseled Republicans about White House scandals: Lay low, stay mum. Gone, benign Newt wearing a “Have-a-Nice-Day” image for a 2000 presidentialtrip. Nope, this is deja vu Gingrich — the backbench attacker, a white-haired Doberman who chased predecessor Jim Wright out of town. Gingrich blames his Jekyll-and-Hyde switch on “an agonizing weekend.” He was appalled that Democrats, furious because House Oversight panel Chairman Dan Burtoncalled the prez a “scumbag,” voted 19-0 against immunizing Burton's witnesses. He seethed at White House KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS isn’t about gossip. This isn't about a soap opera.” Anybody watching cahle TV's coverage of Monica Madness might dispute whetherit’s sex-and-gossip soap opera. As for lawbreaking, only Starr's report and potential indictment of Lewinsky, Hillary Clinton or otherswill determine. Why is Gingrich unwilling to wait for the scandalto unravel? What detonated Nuclear Newt? One guess: Newt’s orchestrating a Republican drumbeat to grab moral high ground, and keep hisslim 11-seat House edge in November. GOP pollster Frank Luntz outlined Newt's points. Gingrich lieutenants Tom DeLay and Dick Armey minutes, muchless 30 years? If Richard Nixon couldn’t cover up a third-rate bur- before a meeting of GOPAC,his political wing partly funded by Richard Mellon Scaife. Because most members share Scaife’s anti-Clinton suspicion,if not his bank account, Gingrich’s juices flowed. giary and Bill Clinton couldn’t cover up “If he [Clinton] doesn’t want to fire the world can anyone imagine that gov- Ken Starr, tell his staff to shut up,” fumed Gingrich. He was sickened by the way White House “paid hacks’ were an Oval Office dalliance or two, how in ernmentofficials could commit murder and get away with it? And here’s another question. If conspirators were clever enoughto assassinate a president ora civil-rights icon, could they be stupid enough to enlist the likes of Lee Harvey Oswald or James Earl Rayas fall guys? Could they be stupid enough to have the murders committed in public displays of violence that were guaranteed to turn the victims into martyrs? If you wantto kill a charismatic leader, why not have him dispatched quietly, privately, by means that would lead the public to believe he died by accident or by natural causes? King’s family and followers want the governmentto launch anotherinvestigation into the much-investigated death of their fallen hero. Terrible idea. For one thing, why would anyone think that a governmentinvestigation of a government conspiracy would uncover the truth? For another, we already know the truth: James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King Jr. The End. SANDY GRADY gentler, kinder Newt? The smiling Uncle Newt who advised us to “take a deep unkindness toward scandal cop Ken Starr. So he uncorked Newtonesque fury ‘Ray’s Conspiracy Theory in MLK Death Is Ludicrous BILL THOMPSON The Old Nuclear Newt Storms Back “unpatriotically undermining the Constitution on behaif of their client.” Ex-professor Gingrich warmed uphis hyperbole machine: ‘We've never seen this kind of complex, interlocking lawbreaking. ... No administration in American history has lacked the moral authority of Clinton-Gore.” Prof Newt overhyped history, matching Democrats’ 1998 rebellion against Republicans’ civility during Watergate. Heinvoked the legacy of ex-Sen. Howard Baker. “Howard Baker understood Richard Nixon couldn’t be allowed to take the echo the themes. Newt told a GOP caucus to hammer“law and order.” Maybe Republicans, as independent polltaker Andrew Kohut suggests, were desperate to shake their passivity. The anti-Clinton bombast, though, could backfire with a public nauseated by bick- ering pols. After all, Newt draws a speaker's salary. His tirades make it trickier to deal on the tobacco bill, campaign finance or 1999 budget. Sighed Clinton spokesflack Mike McCurry; “We'll do business when he comesto his senses.” I haye a more Machiavellian slant on Gingrich’s motives. I suspect Newt's making sure that he, no oneelse, controls the drama whenStarr's report hits the House. One clue is Gingrich’s ploy of shifting key votes from Burton's wild-and-wooly panel to the Oversight Committee of Rep.Bill Thomas,R-Calif., dominated by Republicans. Burton’s “scumbag” hysteria shows he’sin over his head. Newt fears more rowdy melodrama if the Judiciary panel, loaded with Dem Hotspurs, takes on impeachment. Pres- entire Republican Party and the Constitution down in flames,” lectured Gingrich. “Again and again, Howard Baker to, Newt will invent his owa committee Retorted Rep. Henry Waxman, of Cal- ofloyalists. In his hubris Gingrich may commit the cooperated with Chairman Sam Ervin.” ifornia, one of the rambunctious Dems: worst blunder since then Secretary of “Sam Ervin nevercalled the president a scumbag.” State Al Haig, mounting a White House podium after Ronald Reagan was shot, announced, “I am in charge here!” Newt snapped that Waxman was “de- Add Neutron Newtto unctuousStarr, fense lawyer for the White House.” By Day Three, questioned abouthisfiery mood, Newt exploded:“This is about I'd say Clintonis rivaled only by Reagan for good fortune. lawbreaking. This isn't about sex. This You need luck to have such enemies. Fagt, MARIE ENGH hes q 90 YEAI May 3, 1908 WU be homered an open on Sond, Mey 3, 1990 from 37 pm et 3525 So, 1300 Eby her ama, Sex Francis) De Jobn E StrSr. (Sal Lake), Oneof my favorite expressions is Keep /t simple. Whichis exactly what the people at Utah Power must have hadin mind whenthey created Simple Choice™ SIMPLE DOESIT. 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Utah Power. Onecall. Onebill. yout loan wth Teves pte ycir® system foe gorgocs resus One check. Call 1-800-233-9272. Visit our website cheye ery’ hes wert. ting, ng wee nord Fo 5 yO. When you want it done rigirt. www.pacificorp.com @ UTAH POWER eS ia "ac kt on Raat 18 0 Ae gs et er ot8 rte Te bo Cory (6B cage a ae og mt Cw ¥ a Pehrson’s Power Equipment 7235 South 900 East Midvale , COPY 1-800-233-9272 {hit ; Ori Ccm lis Mame O) it Magi -lolet i The Salt Lake Tribune OPINION Saturday, May 2, 1998 |
