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Show a he Salt LakeGribune Section AA OPINION I PUBLIC FORUM/AA-2 Ml READER ADVOCATE/AA-2 ROLLY REPORT Will 1999 be Democrats’ year as they target Salt Lake City mayor's race?/AA-3 SUNDAY, DECEMBER27, 1998 OUR VIEW The Salt Lake Tribune’s Editorial Position Just Whistling Dixie It may begratifying that Dixie College enjoys the support of St. George area residents, some of whom are agi- tating for four-yearstatus for the two- year community college. However, that is no reason for legislators to oblige them. Neither is the fact that some of Utah’s other colleges, to some extent, owetheir current status to a form of academic drift based on the popular premise that biggeris better. Rep. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, has drafted a bill that would phase in four-year status for Dixie so it could offer bachelor’s degrees underits own nameandauthority. Hickman’sefforts are not singular. He is just one of a numberof Dixie backers and boosters who want fouryearstatus for Dixie College. Boosters have even begun $1 million fund-raising driveto help payfor the conversion and, presumably,showthatthis is a serious, long-term andsincereeffort. Thisis well, butlittle different from the community support all of Utah’s nine public colleges and universities enjoy. St. George and Washington County are no moreloyal to Dixie College than Price and Carbon Countyare to the College of Eastera Utah, or Ephraim and Sanpete County are to Snow College. These two communities presumably would like to see their schools get four-yearstatus, too. Lawmakers should be leery about the Dixie proposal — at least until after the State Board of Regents has studied it and rendered its decision. That is, unless they wantto turn the clock back 30 years. The Legislature created Utah's higher education system in 1969 along with the regents. The statute gave this board broad powers. It would set the higher education budget, effectively allocating the finite pot of money lawmakers putinto higher education, and would choose the institutional presidents. The board also would oversee the schools and coordinatethe institutional elements of the system to ensure a smooth-running and efficient higher education system that would give Utahns, to use an oft-repeated phrase, morebang for the buck. All this was done to get away from the bickering and school-to-school cat fights during legislative sessions, whereit was every school for itself. Sy ans ae — I om c+ Unless are dis with the higher education system and either want to replace it or return to the uncheckedinstitutional boosterism and narrow vision that dominated the state’s publicly supported colleges and universities before 1969, they should forgo legislation on Dixie and let the regents first make a determination on thefeasibility of granting Dixie College four-year status. Impeachment Alternatives May Imperil Powers WASHINGTON — On April 11, 1951, Congress was up in armsabout President DAVID BRODER Harry Truman’sdismissal of Gen. Doug- las MacArthur as commanderof United Nations forces in Korea. Republicans guilt — you’re going to carry.” If there’s any justification for this sentence, it may be that it will oblige the father, Dwight Childs, to aid in public-service campaignsto alert other parents to the importanceof switching off an air bag whena child is riding ina vehicle that doesn’t have a back seat. Childs pleaded no contest last month to charges of vehicular homicide and runninga redlightin the acci- dentthat killed his two-month-old son, Jacob. The boy was strapped into a rear-facinginfantcarrier on the seat of he could have given Childs up to seven monthsin jail and a fine of $1,250. Instead, he sentenced the father to 180 daysin jail, then suspendedall but two days on the condition that Childs help produce public-service announcements aboutair-bag safety. Thetwo daysthat Childs must serve in jail are his son’s birthday and the first anniversary of the accident which killed him. That’s downright macabre. Those public-service announce- ments Childs must help producelikely will say this: Children in rear-facing child seats shouldnotbeplacedin the frontseat of cars equipped with passenger-side air bags, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Children 12 and under should be placed in the rearseat, in appropriate restraining devices. If the vehicle does not have a rear seat, and a child is a passenger, the pas- dents Ford and Carter unveiled their version ofthe idea‘in an eloquent New > York Times op-ed article. “The time has little basis forjudgingthe effeet of such sorship and motivation. Former Presi- differences and plant seeds of justice and reconciliation.” Former Sen. Bob Dole is lobbying for such a solution, generously seeking to rescue the Democrat who defeated him for the presidency in 1996 from the threat of being forced out ofoffice. That Ford and Dole both worry about the truck in an intersection. The air bag possible, away from theair bag. After the searing partisanship of the House impeachment process, a bipartisan censure resolution that would bring an end to this sad chapter of White House history has enormous appeal. Still, it may be better to consider the implications now, rather than stumble over them after the fact Little Herriman Wins Fight There mustbe sometruth to the adage that you can't fight city hall. But Herriman residents in southwestern Salt Lake Countyare not swallowingit. They fought city hall — and won. Several hundred of them descended upon the Salt Lake County Commission to protest the creation of a special im- provementdistrictto finance road construction and upgrades in and about their community. Unpaveddirt or gravel roads currently are the only access to some Herriman area homes,recently constructed as partof an overall building boom in most every areaof the county thatis derstandably upset. This was no nickeland-dime tax, the kind government usually prefers becausethey tend to escape muchcritical notice, but rather one that loomed large. Residents correctly pointed out that property owners for years have been assessed for road repair throughout the county, not just in their neighborhoods and communities. Should it not work the same whenit comes time for road repair in Herriman? Citizens’ reasoning, and the number of protesting area residents, was enough. Commissioners first pared down the $17 million proposal to $3 area residents would pay for the repairs via their property taxes. The cost — about $17 million — could reach as million and then unanimously agreed to junk the proposed taxingdistrict altogether. Instead, they told county employees to address highway needs on a case-by-casebasis after taking counsel with affected property owners. Governmentusually wins in cases like these. That is whatcreated the adage about fighting city hall in thefirst place. However, citizens sometimes much as $1,000 per annum on some homes. Herriman residents were un- can prevail as provesit not already suburbanized. County officials grumbled that these roads worked a hardship on county emergency services vehicles and that they needed to be paved. Underthe county’s plan, Herriman well. This CheSaltLakeTribune UTAH’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1871 PAST PUBLISHERS incident THE WASHINGTONPOST WRITERS GROUP Censureis not mentioned in the Constitution, but neither are many other accepted features of our governmental life, ranging from the Federal Reserve Board to the presidential nominating conventions. The only previous presidential censure, aimed at Andrew Jackson bya hostile Senate, was expunged by a subsequent Congress. But that is not a fatalflaw. dent occurred. Childs’ truck collided with another Dwight Childs ignored these warnings. Here’s hoping that other parents won't. who was commander in chief. Nixon's saying the president‘has notactedin the best interests of the American people.’ ” This nugget ofhistory, retrieved from the microfilm files of The Washington Post by indefatigable researcher Ben White, shedslight on the current drive to wind up the controversy over President Clinton by a similar censure resolution. Theproposal to censureClinton, rather than subject him to an impeachment trial in the Senate, has impeccable spon- damagetheir Republican Party maysuffer if it continues to push for Clinton's ouster does not diminish the public-spir- deployed, inflicting massive head injuries to the boy. The judge showed someleniency; did in forcibly reminding MacArthur Bill Jenner of Indiana threatened impeachment, but Sen. Richard Nixon of California had a better idea. Nixon “pro- senger-side air bag should be switched off. If the vehicle is not equipped with an air-bag cutoff switch, the vehicle seat should be placed as far back as his father’s pickup truck whenthe acci- government. Presidents often take actions that offend Congress, as Truman posed a Senate resolution of censure, come,” they said, “‘to put asidepolitical itedness of their action. .Jtis a reminder, however, that we have a resolution, or even how seriously it would be taken by the target of the verbal spanking. Clinton is famous for his ability to compartmentalize, and even if he were required to sign a censure reso- lation, he might consign it to the most remote corner of his consciousness. Manyof the same Democratic House members who last Saturday morning (Dec. 19) professed their willingness to censure Clinton for having “egregiously failed” in his responsibilities and “di: honoredthe office” of president were by afternoon backslapping and cheering him as “oneof ourgreatest presidents,” to quote Vice President Gore Ata minimum, that White House spectacle must raise questions whether censure by Congress would be greeted with more than a shrug by this president on his way to a fund-raiser or a round of AUSTIN, Texas — Peace on Earth. use Christmasas anironic premiseto ex- and compliance with its rulings? No one cansay. Separation of powers is central to the structure of our government. When one branchstarts handing out formal report cards on another, it certainly departs from the Constitution and it mayproduce dangerous consequences. The Constitution's remedyfor serious chargesof abuse of executiveor judicial office is impeachment. The inconvenienceof a Senatetrial must be weighed against the potentialcosts of “the Nixon solution,” Wehaveyet to sign a number of im- to manis at this particular yuletide — an in- needed — and she had the courage and persistence to work for it Supporting the United Nations is an- other minimally decent move, starting Cold War. The long-running Angolan FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM Rwanda recentiy provided a spectacular example of genocide in our time; the Taliban in Afghanistan is going for a new record in human rights abuse; and we ourselves have just thoughtfully stopped find a recipient only 19 timesin 97 years — suspended during World WarI and II and some years when the committee civil war has just broken out again; But rather than cruising the human treaties, Princess Diana, who before her death wasnot considered a great brain, had the sense to see that that was desperately exercise that one can sum up by concluding that it’s an insult to beasts to call it bestial True, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute now counts 25 official wars going on around the globe, but that’s downfrom 35 at the end of the bombingIraqyet again weapons-control cluding the ban on land mines. Even with the painful matterof our long-over due dues. It's easy to make fun of the United Nations, but it does do effective could not reach a decision. were always candidates. But there Let me begin with a modest proposal Whynotput someresourcesinto peace? peacekeeping when the folks whorun it get their acts together. In addition, the organization supplies an invaluable commodity: accurate information. The U.N. figures on econom- ics, population, health, education, etc., Amazingly enough, it paysoff. Given the stop wars and curb abuses. The first thing to remember is that it amount of money we spend on the War Department, it’s criminally stupid not to are the best and are used byscholars everywhere. If the United Nations didn’t exist, we'd have to invent it for the information alone. frequently. But it’s amazing how many people still believe that “war will always be with us” and that “you can’t change put at least half that much into peace We have a War College: why not a Peace Crllege? We have military service academies; why not academies turning feud with Iraq's Saddam Hussein recently proved, wealso needto start thinking outside the envelope. In other words, in- change human nature, but you can change human behavior. After 800 years of killing in Northern Ireland over who represents the correct out diplomats and peacemakers? There are defense think tanksall over the land; the few groups funded to think about peace, like the late Winston Foundation, are outmanned and outgunned, asit useless charade of a minuet with Saddam, which always ends the same way, why nottry a completely different approach? What does he want? He wants the sanctions lifted. All right, let's start offering him some newdeals. He does something we want — welift a sanction: something else — welift another one. How hardis it to figure out that what we're doing doesn't work and that we need to try something else? Why not try making our few enemies less hostile toward us? It's cheaper misery front,let's take a serious look at how we might usefullyresolve conflicts, can be done and in fact is done quite human nature.” You probably can't PUBLISHER flavor of Christianity (the religion of were. EDITOR One of the single most useful things we could do to encourage peace on Earth is Jerry O'Brien (1983-1994) JamesE. Shelledy peace andlove). there is peace today on the Emerald Isle. And of all the places on Earth with long, tangled histories of hatred and recurring violence — the Balkans, the Middle East — Ireland has | to censure severalofhis decisions. Whatwould the impact of such a cen- sure have been on respect for the court portant aminejust how bestial man’s inhumanity Dominie Welch COPY as well as the executive. Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court regularly outraged Congresswith its decisions on civil rights, reapportionment, criminal rights and banning school prayer. After one 1956decision, striking downpart of a measureto allow summary firing of suspected Communists in government, Warren was excoriated by Sens. James Eastland and Joseph McCarthy for “following the Communist Partyline.” Despite the constant urgings of the John Birch Society, Congress never attempted seriously to impeach Earl Warren. But majorities were certainly ready sidized. MOLLYIVINS Goodwill toward men.It’s always easyto John W. Gallivan (1960-1983) “ threat to censure Truman went nowhere in a Republican Senate, in part because such an action lacked any modern precedent. But now one maybe created. Onceestablished, it could be used often — to reprimand thejudicial branch We Can Have Peace on Earth, But It Takes Will John F. Fitzpatrick (1924-1960) KEARNS-TRIBUNE CORPORATION, 143 S. MAIN ST. SALT LAKE CITY, s4111 golf. ‘The more serious question is what precedent would be established by the legislative branch in opening a new ave- nue to admonisha collateral branch of were furious that Truman had sacked the national hero for insubordination. House GOP Leader Joe Martin and Sen. Harsh Justice It is harsh justice to sentence a man to jail for failing to turn off the switch for an air bag that subsequently deployed in an accident and killed the man’s infant son. But that’s just the sentence a municipal court judge in Ohio imposed earlier this month. Surely the loss of the man’s son was penalty enough. Perhaps inadvertently, the judge admitted as much when he told the manat the sentencing, ““Anything I do won't matter. Yourpersonal 2 “QKEVERYBODY, HERES MY IDEA—LETESAY THECNLYPEEPLE RUGNED® SAY ANYTHING CUNT HAE. JO SGA SOMETHING ( MADE UP SAYING THEY NEVER FaoLeD AROUND, aK ranked right up there for 800 years. It can be done. The Nobel Peace Prize has failed to i to stop encouraging our own weaponsexport industry. We Americans are the merchants of death onthis globe; wesell more arms around the world than any- one else by a long, long margin. And much of that arms trade is taxpayer-sub- 4 As Chapter 72 in our long-running stead of going through this same sorry. ‘ |
