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Show OUR VIEW The Salt Lake Tribune’s Editorial Position Te ENEite Fifor BRUE HALTING STEPS WITHOUT THE AIDOF A CELL PHONE. Closing for the Games The Salt Lake City Board of Education oughtnot to close its schools for thefortly. Closing the schools for the Olympics is a popular idea among a numberof the school district’s patrons, but an equal numberfeel that schooling is of such importance that the Olympics ought not to derail education. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and some advocates of low-income residents argue that open schools are critical for many low-income parents, who cannotafford day care orsitters for * the nine schooldays that the 2002 Winter Games would entail. Arranging shortterm day care for children would be a hardship on manyparents, regardless of their economic status. Moreover, some 12,000 Salt Lake City students receive free school lunch and breakfast — meals they would go without if schools were closed during the Olympics. These are valid arguments that the school board should fully consider before rendering a decision about school closure for the Games. There are other reasons militating against an Olympic school closure as well, reasons that are even more important. Closing the schools during the Olympics sends the message that education is subordinate to whatbasically is an international sporting competition. For years education reformers and much of the public have bewailed the state of public education and the manydistractions that compromise the learning process. Education-minded parents long have been careful about glibly pulling their children out of school for impromptu vacations and other common activities lest their children start thinking that school is unimportant, that most anything else that comes up deserves more time and attention. There are purely practical reasons that argue for closing the schools. The hundreds of thousands of visitors who will crowd Salt Lake City to attend the Games will create heavy traffic on city streets and complicate school busing. But while the capital city will host the Games’opening and closing ceremonies and the athletes’ village at the University of Utah,figure skating at the Delta Center and the media headquarters at the fare of the country. ues will be located in thecity itself. The schools should be able to cope. Thesituationis differentin Park City, a small resort community thatwill host numerous competitions. The traffic situation there alone justifies the decision of the Park City SchoolDistrict to close for the Games. However, the Salt Lake City. school board should heed the example ofits counterparts in the neighboring Granite occupying squatters, political supporters and opponents of the Mugabe gov- ernment — these political crises and other are not being but only exacerbated by their government. Already the farm occupations have thrown a monkey wrench into Zimbabwe’s tobacco crop andthecritical foreign currency its sale brings into the by armed black war veterans and squat- goose that lays golden eggs,it is tobacco. argue that Mugabe, who has headed Zimbabwe'sfirst black-majority governmentsince the one-time British colony gained independence,is using the farmoccupation issue to distract attention from his flagging leadership andto his newpolitical opposition in the form of the Movement for Democratic Change. Mugabe’s flakiness seemingly has quickened as opposition hassolidified. Unfortunately for Zimbabwe and the bulk of its people — landless black peasants, the minority whites, the mobs of Lettersfrom The Tribune’s readers country. If Zimbabwe has an economic Zimbabweis the world’s second-largest tobacco exporter, after Brazil, and the crop is the country’s biggest source of hard cash. Violence and uncertainty notonly put tobacco atrisk, but exacerbate the country’s other, already considerable, problems. Inflation is hovering around 70 percent, half the work force is unemployed, fuel is scarce and a fourth of the population is infected with the AIDS virus. These are difficult problems, the kind that tax the talents of even the ablest of leaders,but they surelywill not be solved by further destabilization. President Mugabe should quit deconstructing and start leading, or resign andgetout ofthe way before there is nothing left to govern. Each day immigration officials conduct raids into private residences and businesses, searching and apprehending illegal immigrants as mandated by federal law — the samelaws the Republican Congress mandated. In the last 18 months our hypocritical senators, Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, along with the rest of our i delegation, have asked for and demanded more INSagents to be assigned to Utah to deal with the alleged illegal immigrant problem. Now, because they think it can buy them votes, they decide to change their hypocritical minds. IfElian Gonzalez was From The New York Times Justice Acted Rashly | first applying the full leverage of the law againstthe Miamirelatives. The Justice Departmenthas yet to offer a good reason whyit did not seek a court order instructing Lazaro Gonzalez to produce Elian. That would have carried greater authority with the public than acting under an I.N.S. administrative order, and would also subject Mr. Gonzalez to arrest and criminal penalties ifhe defied the court. In a society governed by the rule of law, the governmenthas a duty not ot ay to follow the law faithfully but also applyit judiciously agatecitizens ote are not behaving violently. The authority of the law and the power of the governmentare not diminished when the Justice moves deliberately, as it often did in Southern civil rights enforcementin the 1960s, SheSaltLakeTribune UTAH’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1871 Where to Write @ Whensubmitting letters to the Public Forum, please include your full name, signature, address and daytime telephone numbers. Information other than your nameandthecity in which youlive are kept confidential. @ Keep it short. Concise letters developing a single theme are more likely to be published. @ Please type and double space. @ Letters are condensed andedited. @ Because of the volume of mail received, not all submissions are @ Mail to Public Forum, The Salt he would have been sentback months ago. Where was Sen. Hatch 18 months ago Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake when armed law enforcementofficers, @ Our fax numberis (801) 257-8950. City, Utah 84110 with guns pointed, terrorized more than 75 innocent Latinos in their illegal raid of a Mexican-owned grocery store in Salt Lake City? To this day, you have heard no outrage coming from the Lak senator. These same hypocrites espouse family values, but will deny a fatherh his child. If the same thing were to happen to an American child and say, for example, the Swedish government refused to return the American child, the American governmentand people would be up in arms. To Janet Renoandthe Clinton administration, I say a job well done! You upheld the law,listened to the majority of the American public, and putthe needs of the child first. To Utah’s congressional delegation, quit being such hypocrites. RICHARD N. ARAGON Provo Elian Rescued I simply do not understand the Elian Gonzalez case. Who gave the family in America the right to hold him captive for all these months? Had one ofmyrelatives held my child against my wishes, they'd be thrown injail, prosecuted and mychild would be back home quicker than anyone could say “there's noplace like home.” Wake up,Sen. Orrin Hatch and see the light! The INS was completely forced to remove Elian andreturn him to his Godgiven parent. These Miamirelatives are criminals whodeserve to be punished for breaking the law, refusing to obey orders from the government and kidnapping. The Miami relatives had the power to wish Elian the best ofluck in his future. VICK LILLY Taylorsville Justified Raid l applaud Janet Reno's decision to reunite Elian Gonzalez with his father. lam grateful that this was accomplished withcub eapane boingesiouely Bias oe the many Miami Cubancate ante Tdis- PAST PUBLISHERS ee John F.Fitzpatrick (1924-1960) Dominic PUBLISHER Se eee John W.Gallivan (1960-1983) EDITOR Jerry O'Brien (1983-1994) James E, Shelledy from his Tanet Renodid the right thing. Elian belongs in the arms of his father, not in thearmsofa celebrity: -seekingfisherman. ~ PHILIP RODGERS Trout Solution Reed Harris of the U.S. Fish and Wildj. , life Service incorrectly implies that |ths Center for Biological Diversity suppdrty poisoning whole watersheds to restor4 native ColoradoRiver cutthroattrout i the Unita Mountains (Forum, April 12) Rather, we requested that the Utah Div sion of Wildlife Resources and Fores, Service take a holistic approach to re : storing native Colorado River cutthroaj, trout by addressing the factors caused the species demise in the q place, me stocking ofexotic trout an sores due to li published. a black Haitian or a Mexican 6-year-old, ANOTHERVIEW f LD Hypocritical Senators Q With Elian Gonzalez reunited with his father, the nation has begun an important debate about the government's handling of the case, especially the foreible seizure of the Cuban boy by heavily armed federal agents before dawn on Saturday. Few actions in recent times have so powerfully drawn the attention ofAmericans to the exercise ofauthority by the federal government, a fundamental issue in the governance of a democracy. The Justice Department acted rashly and unwiselyin orderingtheraid, and its decisions now require the most careful evaluation by Congress and the American people. The central issue is not whether the government had the legal ead to take custody of Elian.It clearly did. government's mistake was turning ae maturely to the use of force rather than 5 THE PUBLIC FORUM . and Jordan schooldistricts, and keep the schools open during the Olympics. The latest episode reflecting Zimbabwe's crisis has been the illegal occupation of white-owned farms and ranches ters since February. This has been accompanied by killings and beatings of farmers,farm workers and supporters of Zimbabwe's main opposition party. Mugabe has blown hotand cold on the matter. He has both condemned andjustified the occupations and violence. Political foes likely have a point when they \\ Salt Palace, few other major Games ven- No Leadership in Zimbabwe Zimbabwe today is suffering from several crises, most exacerbated by the self-imposed deconstruction of President Robert Mugabe, who has shown the constancyofa weathercock coupled with a selfishness suggesting that political poweris more important.than the wel- iy Restraintof Trade? I read with amazement the article (Tribune, April 12) about the Salt Lake 0 ‘ing Committee enlisting the “services” ofColdwell Banker Premier Realty as the official licensed manager of its “residential accommodations program.” Granted, those who wish to rent their homes to Olympic visitors would benefit a single point of contact for listing their property and matching upwith prospective visitors. And an Internet Web site makes the process even easier. What amazes me is the fact that Coldwell Banker will set the nightly rate and thentakea cut offthe rent. This bypasses the whole economicprocess of.supply and demand. If I find someone whois wi to pay $600 a night for my home, whois Coldwell Banker to say that I can only charge $400? I guess I shouldn’t complain. Coldwell Bankeris nice enough to let me have “substantially” more than 50 percent of that rent. How nice ofthem! This means that Coldwell Banker will make more money off of a night home than they would off of a tess appealing $500-a-night home, even thought they provide the exact same service and amountofeffort for each. Note to self: In future real estate dealings, find someone besides Coldwell Banker. And if that wasn’t bad enough, SLOC will receive up to 15 percent of the Coldwell Banker cut. What? It isn’t bad the Olympics in any What his letter failed to note is thaj these agencies plan to spend money to restore Colorado River ¢ui throattrout to a small numberofisolat headwater streams in the Uinta Mourj., tains, while at the same time to stock exotic trout within the same wag tersheds. Such streams in isolation arg unlikely to support native trout in th long term and studies show that despit barriers, also constructed at taxpayer'e: pense, exotic trout will find their wa, back anihe restored streams. to the recently’ signed TrState Agreement to prot Colorado River cutthroat trout to whic! Utah is a party,all of the targeted stream: are currently being degraded by federal i lands livestock grazing — the bane of'na| tive trout for over a century. The combi nation ofongoing stream degradation ang risk of re-invasion by exotic trout is recipe for failure. The surestroute to Pa tive trout recovery is to halt stocking exotic trout within whole watersheds anq to restore stream habitat by removing, . livestock and other causes of streang. . degradation. Other approaches, including Utah’: current plans, are simply short-term; Band-Aidsolutions and a waste of tax payerdollars. DAVID NOAH GREENW. Center for Biological Diversit Tucson, Q Back School Bond | I strongly encourage all Murray resid dents to cast their vote on May2 in favo ofthe bond to build a new high school, Our currenthigh school is inadequateg H| outdated and unsafe. Major work i: needed on the roof and mechanical sys; tems, andit is necessary to retrofit thd building for seismic codes, These renava, tions would costat least 70 percentofthi cost of a brand-new building. Yet, spending $20 million we wouldstill be with anold, eeeeae ae committee has wisely reco feaniiiow facility as the best use or put tax dollars, and the best option for ouy students. A mere $65 (or less) per year pey $100,000 home is a small price to pay td give our children a safe, beautiful, effi cient atmosphere conduciveto learning. x E it |