Salt Lake Tribune | 1999-05-27 | Page 18

Page A18 Ghe Salt Lake Tribune PINION THURSDAY,MAY27, 1999 OUR VIEW The Salt Lake Tribune’s Editorial Position Bombing Should Continue Sen. Bob Bennett is half right NATO's two monthsof bombing Yugoslavia have failed to stop ethnic cleans: ing in Kosovo. But the senator's asser- a land invasion of Yugoslavia; it can admit failure and step back. Bennett is arguingfor thethird oh So far, bombing alone has not been tion that the bombing campaign should sufficient to force the Serbsto retreat from Kosovo, but continued pressure of workingis pot premature and not entirely Thereis tion to Slobodan may lead eventually to success. against sending their sons to fight in have not shownthepolitical will to undertakethis expensive andbloodyjob. Asfor the UnitedStates,it does not have a sufficient national interest at stake in the Balkanstojustify that kind ofsacrifice. Most of the NATOallies apparently showsno signs a: be suspended because Milosevic in Yugoslavia, where families in some cities are demonstrating Kosovo.In addition, the Yugoslavmili- tary and the civilian population cannot be happy about the sustained pounding and mountinglosses theyaresuffering. Unfortunately, the NATO attacks on the electric power degrade system, while they Yugoslavia’s war-making ca- pability, also cause widespread hard A landinvasion could push the Serbian thugs out of Kosovo, but it would require a force estimated at 150,000 troops, andso far the members of NATO have reached the same conclusion. Even if the NATO allies could somehow be persuaded to support such an ship for innocent civilians. That strategy may do moreto drivethe peopleinto adventure, the alliance would infuriate the Russians, providing vindication to him The greatest shortcoming of Ben. Slavic nationalists who say that NATO is a malevolent force bent on isolating and destroying them. Bennett's is the third path. He would suspend the bombing and evaluate op- the armsof Milosevic than away from nett's observationsis hisfailuretooffer an alternative policy other than a bombing pause while NATO evaluates its options. Milosevic undoubtedly wouldinterpret an endto the bombing, even temporarily, as a victory, sincehis strategy hasbeen toride out the bombing campaign, to outlast NATO's politi- cal resolve to continue. His No. 1 de- mand, which he says must precede a settlement, is an end to the bombing Bennett's conclusionthat noneof the available alternatives is good is obvi ous. NATOfaces three choices: It can continuetheair campaign; it can mount tions. The problem withthis strategy is that it.eliminates any pressure on Milosevic to allownearlya million Al- banianKosovars whohavebeen driven from their homesto return. Ifthe Koso- TheU.S. Supreme Court's recent de- failure to keep students from sex! harassing one anotherhappily contains high standards for plaintiffs who bring such actions, but it nevertheless will force school people to focus on some: thingother than schooling. Thecourt's 5-4 decision revived a lawsuit ono behalfof a fifth-grade Georgia girl whosaid a classmate harassed her for months despite her complaints to school officials. The majority deci sion was based on a broadinterpreta tionofthe1972 Title IX lawthat bans sex discrimination by educational institu tions that receive federal money an interpretationthe court's minority ina dissent by Justice Anthony Kennedy vehemently arguedis foreignto the law and to the Congress that passed it This decision is troubling in that it harassment seminars for youngsters takes time and effort awayfrom teach: ing reading, writing and mathematics. It also reinforces the custodial role rather than the educational role of schools. However, the petty hate, envy and maliciousness some students have for one another is a growing problem in schools. The tragedy in Littleton, Colo., is evidenceofthis. Schools need to do their part to discourage and curb puerile meanness and bullying, although no schoolpolicy or program can compen: sate forfailurein the home, where these behaviors tend to be first learned or encouraged Fortunately, the court's decision im posed highstandards forthe lawsuits its decision authorizes. Schools have toact with “deliberate indifference” to known acts of harassment. Furthermore, the other than the academiclearning harassment must be “so severe, perva sive and objectively offensive that it ef fectively bars the victim's a to an educational opportunity or benefit schools werecreated in the first place to provide. Closely supervising student school districts will not be doomedto an will oblige school districts to focus at tention and resources on something to-student interactions, setting up pro cedures to deal with sexual harassment complaints and conducting sexual Letters from The Tribune’s readers bility in the Balkans. In addition, the Kosovars wouldfeel betrayed. Thebest of bad choices is to continue the bombing. Stop Harassmentin Schools cisionallowingcivil suits for monetary damages against school distri THE PUBLIC FORUM vars are not repatriated, the refugee campsin Albania and Macedonia risk becoming a humanitarian nightmare anda constant source of political insta Nettlesome Boon While contemplating human evolution prior to the new millennium, one has to consider democracyas one of the biggest accomplishments of humanity. name,signature, address and daytime telephone numbers. Information other With democracy cometherights of peo- than your nameand thecityin which ple, free speech andfreedom ofthe press. As humanity createdthosetenetsit also you live created human beings bent on abusing them. One exampleare those who use “the right of people to bear arms” toflood this United States of America with all man. ner ofarms. Thentheyhave the audacity to try and convincethe rest of us that arming all citizens with concealed weap. onrywill eliminate gun deaths! Another exampleis those who advocate “freedom of the press.” Exercising that freedom means to them that journalists in Yugoslavia report every event constituting mistakes by the NATO allies. They even let themselves be bused to theprime sites chosenby Milosevic! Onthe other hand, noneofthose journalists bothered to ask to be bused to Kosovo and report the events there. So, while demos ‘ac is a boon to soci ety in general, it gives societya full-time jobtotry andcontroltheabusers! FRANS These standards should ensure that 4 endless round of frivolous litigation, but thedecision will taketimeandeffort J. KOHLSCHEIN Sandy Question Land Trade awayfrom academics. are kept confidential. @ Keep it short. Concise letters developing a single theme are more likely to be published Pleasetype anddouble space. @ Letters are condensedand edited. ™ Because of the volumeofmail received, not published all submissions are @ Mail to Public Forum, TheSalt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110 @ Ourfax numberis [phone]. Corporate Medicine In response to John T. Nielsen's letter (Forum, May17) where he heaps praise upon Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, for writ ing such a fair and impartial bill as the Medical Information Protection Act of 1999: Mr. Nielsen says that today’s health-care professionals use a teamap Land Management has a proposed land trade in the works. They want to give up cates who are sent to a patient’s doctor appointment for the sole purpose of hing doctor-patient confidentiality and attempting to influence doctors to the insurance company's benefit? I, for From The Philadelphia Daily News 30,000 acres and acquire 8,000 acres in return. Theland they want to give upis one, do notfeel comfortablereleasing my A Moratorium on Executions adjacent to the Stansbury and Onaqui medical records to every member of these so-called medical teams that are Just because a defendant confesses doesn’t mean he actually did it. Ronald Jones confessed after allegedly being beaten. A recent study of wrongful con victions found that one in seven in volveda confession. An enormous number of “jailhouse snitches” are lying. About a third of wrongful convictions involved perjured testimony, much of it conveniently overheardin jail Eyewitnesses can be dead wrong. In wrongful convictions, one in seven de fendants were identified as the culprits it must be concluded, lots of peo- ple on death row are notguilty Barry Scheck (yes, of O.J. Simpson inmates whoseclaims could be proven or unproven by DNA but they can’t the tests ordered. He favors fede opinions on this issue. fame) runs the Innocence Project whichhasused DNAtesting to get more than 30 convicts exonerated. He says that there are thousands of = It’s happenedagain Another man was freed from death row last week on the basis of DNA evidenc Ronald Jones was on death row for eight years in Illinois, but the disturb ing truths that DNAtesting is telling us applyto the entire nation. Mountains on theSkull Valley side near Deseret Peak Wilderness area. This trade to a ranch and land devel opment companywould affect access to other BLMground and National Forest ground for miles and miles through this area. | would urge anyone concerned to find out the facts and let the BLM and the PAST PUBLISHERS JohnF. Fitzpatrick (1924-1960) John W. Gallivan (1960-1983) Jerry O' Brien (1983-1994) BARRY HOLM legislation that would grant such in Stockton mates the right to get those tests done This would be a stepin the right di rection, but only a small one Only a fraction of cases involve bodily Muids that can be tested for DNA matches. A murder committed with a gun probably won't have conclusive DNAevidence, for example. But that shouldn't prevent the use of DNA test ingto prove someone's innocence. What's needed immediately is a moratorium on executions. The Ameri can Bar Association has called for one. andleaders in many states faced with stark evidence of wrongful convictions arestartingto listen The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH'’S INDEPE: ‘DE Tooele County commissioners hear your 'T VOICE SINCE1871 PUBLISHER Thousands and thousands of Ameri ca’s children have already been killed in the struggle to obtain and maintain our freedoms. Will we now spit upon their sacrifice, their blood and theireffort by litigating our freedoms away? I say never! Thanks to “gun-free” school zones every disturbed teen-ager now knows that all they haveto do is get a gun intoa school, and they are a “god for a day There will be no one to stop them from doing whatever they want to do. This gun-free attitude is setting people up to be victims, Just look at what happened to the violent crime rate in England since the tightening of gun laws there. To those who refuse logic, and emocontrol is the only way to keepchildren safe, I say, if the cost of saving a hundred childrenis one of our freedoms, theprice EDITOR is too high. Thousands have already died giving them to us. Shelledy KEARNS-TRIBUNE CORPORATION, 145.8. MAIN ST. SALT LAKE CITY, 4111 JAMES KIRKHAM earns High School who are involved in the movement to keep someof their teachers from being laid off. If only the parents and taxpayers of this state would wake up and help we wouldall benefit. Most people don’t realize this, but when aschoolloses students,either be- cause of a new school being built or changing demographics, the schoolalso loses teachers. I used to be among theignorant majority who assumed that because new schools were being built, or because the school-age population was shrinking in certain locations, that my children would benefit from smaller classsizes and more attention from their teachers. The Utah Boardof Education, however, has attached a dollar amountto.each student, so that when a schoolloses students it also loses funding. In other words, fewer students does not mean lowerclasssizes, it means fewerclasses, fewer teachers, and just as crowded classrooms. New schools just allow your children to be crammed into classrooms closerto home. Hillcrest High School is only one of several schools that will lose teachers Bingham High Schoolwill lose students, and thus lose several teachers. I doubt, though, if any administrative positions will be lost at either the local or state levels, or that the bureaucrats will be in- convenienced in any way. It is this type of irrational thinking and behavior that perpetuates Utah's standingas thestate that spendstheleast amount per pupil in the entire nation. It is time for Utah parentsand taxpayersto demandthattheir tax dollars be spentin ways that benefit their children, not the State Boardof Educationfatcats. ganizations such as Intermountain MITCH LAMBDIN Health Carefor the sole purposeof in creasing shareholder profits and guar West Jordan 4 anteeingfat paychecks to executivespin doctors such as John T. Nielsen. I wouldlike to know how muchof this bill was authored by Sen. Bennett and how much ofit by IHC. When did it be. come not good enough to simply buy a politician? Nowyouhaveto publicly sing his praises forlegislationthat's going to Too muchfor us I guess Downward Spiral? As the NBA season approached, many of the general viewing public agonized over the possibility of there not being a season this year. Now, as the season winds down, westill wonder if what we witnessed was actually basketball, as we know it Player and team statistics were down, fans’attitudes were indifferent, and offi. ciating obviously proved suspect in RON SCHANCHE Bountiful J many of the games. When players donned their baggy shorts and mouth pieces, some must have believed they were entering the ring rather than the court. The caliber of play made observ Lewinsky Overdose ers wonder why theplayers hadn't been 1amsotiredof hearing about Monica Lewinsky. I was broughtup to believe no doubt in anyone's mind that basket ball is a contact sport And what about the officiating? Is that someonelike her wouldnot be wel come in politesociety. Is there any doubt what she is? I think not! Theonly dif. ference is that insteadof getting paid up front, the accountants are still busy cal culating what her price was. ELLEN M. BRANCH tionally persist in screaming that gun Dominic Welch James E. put together by health maintenanceor: benefit your company. Why is it not good enoughfor an individual to release his medical records with an authorizing sig: nature to those parties deemedsuitable? Freedom’s Price Dead Last Funding I commend the students at Hillcrest next year. With the scheduled opening of the new high schoolin Riverton nextfall, cians, researchers and other providers. What other providers is he talking about? Could hebetalking about nurses or adjusters employed by insurance com: panies under theguiseof patient advo- Forusersof public lands, it might in. terest you to know that the Bureau of ANOTHER VIEW Where to Write @ When submittingletters to the Public Forum,please includeyour full Salt Lake City 4 Vegan Suggestion How about a T-shirt reading: True Vegans are Non-Violent? AMELIAM. ENGLISH Salt Lake City issued pads and helmets. However, it left there a “noblood, nofoul” ruling ineffect? Forearm “shivers,” errant elbows, and tripping are overlooked, but hand. check a guy on the perimeter, and you are a “dead pigeon.” Isn't it time for the officials to step up and do their job before someonegets critically injured? Cer. tainly, one of the three should be able to makea call. If something isn't done be fore too long, the players mayjust start demanding “combat pay.” And you know what that meansto the price of gametickets! STEPH ULRICH Salt LakeCity .