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Show The Salt Lake Tribune OPINION Sunday, October 28, 2001 Photos, Comics, Speeders Add Up to Busy Week are especially critical Way to the Pakistani border was published on the front page of Wednesday’s Tribune, several readers called and sent e-mail expressing their Forthese folks, the news media are * playing into the hands of the enemy by showing these kinds of ‘photos. even took issue with the headline “Fleeing the Furor” above the photo. They deemed the photo and caption “propaganda” and said the news media are being duped into unAmerican unity in the fight against terrorism. They want the news media to cease and desist pons Pictures and television sie any sympathetic images from Afghanistan. “If the ‘American people are as united as they appear to be behind the current campaign to rid the world of terrorism, maybe the media should get in line, too, and quit serving as free publicity for madmen,” said a Provo reader. Iflam hearing correctly, anumber of Tribune readers want the news media to censorthemselves.I believe, however,thata free, thinking people can be exposed to a variety of news events, ideas and opinions andstill maketheir own sensible judgment as to whatis right, wrong andjust. Qa UnderFire: Several readers have urged The Tribune to cancel the “Boondocks” comic: strip because they say the cartoonist's take onissues surrounding the events of Sept. li are “snide and anti-American.” One reader was none too pleased whenthe strip suggested that President Bush’s overall agenda in the Middle Eastis, in essence, to support his “big-oil compadres.” In a newsreport on Oct. 22, The New York Times said that although manycomic strips are avoiding even theslightest allusionto the attacks or the war in Afghanistan, Aaron McGruder, the 27-year-old creator of “Boondocks,” has not backed away from tackling issues that make some people and newspapers that carry his strip uncomfortable. In‘an interview with The Times, McGrudersaid: “There was plenty to talk about without making lightofthe {Sept. 11] situation, and there was real opportunity to make legitimate criticismsof the governmentand the media, I struggled with it, ahd I really thought I was going to get canceled from The Daily News. Butthis is one of those critical moments in history, and I did not wantto look back and regret not having said something.” if there is one thing that is constant about this business, it is that SHINIKA SYKES everything in the newspaper has supporters and critics. Just as some readers were urging the paper to cancelthestrip, there were a few calls andletters like the following: “Just wantto put in a word of sup- port for Aaron McGruder’s “Boondocks.” This little strip is one of the few things (aside from the occasional op-ed piece) keeping somesort of balance in the views being put forth in the papers these days,” wrote Aimee Trujillo. “I've heard that some papers have dropped the strip, cies it un patriotic. But it seems tha‘ racy is not always served ine by 8 triotism but by honestly examining the different sides to the issues that challenge our wayin the world.” Q ganizers of the Beyond the West Ex- otic Car Rally expected commiseration from Utahns by backing out ona pledge to makea sizable donation toa Utah children’s fund — because they were given speeding tickets by Millard County deputies — they may be mistaken. A dozen or so Tribune readers have sentletters affirmi their support for the ticket-writing deputies. THE PUBLIC FORUM Local Terrorists We WelcomeLetters My19-year-old daughter wasa victim of a senseless act’ of terrorism here in Salt Lake City. That’s right, I said terrorism. My daughter was shot andkilled by terrorists. These people may call themselves gang members but in my book, anybody who takes out a gun andstarts shooting at inno- @ When submitting letters to the Public Forum, please include your full name, signature, address and daytimetelephone numbers. Information other than your name and the city in which you live are kept confidential. @ Keep it short. Concise letters developing a single theme are more likely to be published. @ Please type and double space. The story, in last Sunday’s Tribune, told that a group — owners of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Panteras and other fancy wheels — had arranged a four-day tour ofUtah under the protective escort of three Utah Highway Patrol troopers. In exchanged for the good will, if you please, the group would raise and donate as much as $30 million to the Utah Hope Project — a trust fund established by UHP troopers to provide wishes to children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses. That was before Millard County sheriff's depu- cent unarmed womenthey don’t even ties wrote out a couple of $300 speed- did I know I wassoonto face my own ing tickets. Tribune readers weighed in with a loss from an act of violence here at home. Public Works Solution few questions: Do you get to break the law because you are rich? Can you ‘The men who cowardly shot my daughter are in jail. I'm sincerely grateful to the detectives in charge of Let’s negotiate, not fight! After we “catch some bad guys and teach them a lesson,” maybe it would be a good idea to set up a Palestinian state buy off the Utah HighwayPatrol for $30 million? Whatcourt in Utah gives aplea in abeyance to someone driving 50 mphoverthe speed limit? And, yes, there was the tongue-in-cheek inquiry from a Millard County court clerk: “The next time I get pulled over, can I offer the UHP officer a donationto the local children’s fund?” The Reader Advocate’s phone numberis (801) 257-8999. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. reader.advocate@sltrib.com. E-mail: BecauseIt’s So Precise Years ago, a wise old lawyertold me thathe did not yet have an opinion about a documentI had sent him because he had only read through it once.It is good for me to remember this remark when I am about to jump feet-first into a hasty decision. Best to read it over again and chew onit awhile to savorall the meaning, But the old lawyer’s remarkalso attests to the fact that it’s often necessary to read a legal document more than once to decipher its meaning. The arcane language and syntax of legal documents often makeit difficult to tell just what they mean onfirst reading. I think there are two reasons forthis. First, the need for certainty and precision of meaning often promotes the use of terms of art, “legalese” if you will, which derive their precision precisely from their strangeness, ‘There are some words in the lexicon of all trades which bring whole paragraphs of precise meaning and application with them. To substitute more familiar “T THINK WE'REBEGINNINGTOLOSEOUR Focus.” No Sympathy for Speeding Millionaires: If the well-heeled or- Legalese Is Often Used POINT OF LAW EDWARD McDONOUGH knowtruly defines a terrorist. I think back to the day my daughter waskilled and say to myself, why didn’t [keep herfrom beingin harm’s way? Whatcould I have donedifferently that would make my daughter still alive today? There is no answer to random violence; it can happen to anyoneatany time at anyplace. I was at Lake Powell when I received the news about the World Trade Center towers and was overwhelmed with emotion. My heart cried for all the victims andall their families. Little this senseless crime; they acted swiftly and workedtirelessly to jail these men. These guys whogo out and randomly shoot and kill innocent people are looking at a whopping 5 to 15 years in prison. Tell me there is something wrong here. What if they were from an Arab country and wore turbans and came up to a crowd of people and started shooting? Would they get more than 5 to 15 years? , WhatI'm trying to get across is that we are not newto terrorism. I think that we are maybe little callous to killings and shootings andmaybe deathitself, but believe me,it hit home — my home, my family — andit hurts. Do these gang members consider themselves Americans? Do we consider them Americans? Are they anybetter than the cowards who attacked and killed so many innocent people in New York? Please, someoneexplain tome how these guys are only facing a mere 5 to 15 years for killing my daughter and leaving my granddaughter motherless. I think anyone who needs to have a gun to make themselves feel tough and aim at unarmed American citizens should be considered an enemy to our country and disgrace to our values as an American people. They should be labeled terrorists, not - tomention cowards,anddealt with in the same manneras any enemyofour civilized, free country. There is no degree of terrorism; killing innocent people is murder, precedent, judges in the future are quite png also to interpret per stirpes to mean “by right of representation,” so that the four children of a deceased heir will each inherit one-fourth ofwhattheir parent would have inherited. Thatmasterof simple,clear prose, Ernest Hemingway, once opened a story with the words: “The funicular car. . ..” Itdidn’t matter that many of his readers would have to look up the word “funicular,” because no other word would so precisely mean the type of alpine conveyance that figured in the story. There are times ity no other word can be the right The second reason whylegal documents are often constructed of arcane language and convoluted syntax “ KEN ISAKSON WestJordan @ Letters are condensed and edited. @ Because of the volume of mail received, not all submissions are published. @ Mail to Public Forum, The Salt Lake Tribune,P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110 @ Our fax numberis (801) 257-8950. @ Our e-mail addressis letters@ sltrib.com. (somewhere), and “dig a ditch” from the Red Sea or- Mediterranean. It could probably be donefor the $50 to $100 billion we are spendingfor a war. Wateris the real problemin Palestine —lackof it! I was talking with a hydraulics engineerseveral years ago; this was onmentis the usual penalty. A person convicted of treason is usually called .i:i i i: i ef iiLH tan is quite a journey,to say theleast. How, mayI ask, did you becomefa- miliar with the chosen communication media of said Mr. Jeremy? Just a thought. Whenwill conservative advocacy groups realize that their rhetoric of personal agenda accomplisheslittle morethan to reinforce their apparent ignorance ofthe issue they hold such blind allegiance to? A photographis a recognized form of communication; it has been for being worth a thousand words and all that. You'll find the courts have agreed. This makes it a First Amendmentissue,like it or not. Butbyall means, don’t waver on myaccount. I look forward to just the opposite. Soon you may cometo realize that the First Amendmentis not easily bent to any organization’s definition of “appropriate.” It’s why the framers ofthe Constitution madeit so difficult to enact a law,bless their bureaucratic hearts. It’s mainly so groups like Women For Decency could not. Do you have any idea what can happento a society over the course of ing of a trade tower.” If young Palestinian boys were “farming or doing a few generations when narrowminded political groups impose their religious leanings to create laws that something else rather than throwing rocks,” maybe they wouldn't get so violent. Teach them the struggle and truth ofcapitalism. Let them abandon the “class struggle theory” of Karl Marx;let them take outtheir hostility on “an often hostile environment” and the natural scarcity of “finished goods.” Thatis the lesson of the Cold War. Wehad 12 years tolearn it; but we didn't! Let’s negotiate before we hear of any more cases of anthrax or something else. Surrender, no! Engage in dialogue, yes! Let’s turn the young, the next generation of Palestinians, into “traders,” not destroyers of “trade” towers. We did have “something to do with the cause of the problem” when weset up the state of Israel and turned the Palestinians out on the desert with no water and nothing to do but throw rocks. As I recall, there's a 1,200-foot drop in elevation from the seas to Palestine, Use gravity water to turn a turbine and make a dynamoto “de-salt” the water.It is worth a try — not an original idea, but maybe a timely one! CLOYD BIRD Provo Legitimate Restrictions Charles Essmeier seemsto find it hypocritical that The Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no formal position on such “weighty moral issues”as the death penalty or stem-cell research, but has taken positions with regard to what he chooses to drink with his evening meal (Forum,Oct. 18). Iam unable to speak for the LDS Church, I do not believe they have taken any position against Mr. Essmeier’s free will to drink but a traitor, In redeargent rap den roristic acts against the people of United States are treason, cana as I'm concerned should be punishable by death, even if the terrorism turns out to be just a hoax. Let's 7 aphceniestahe naaiintehicn Womenfor Decency (Tribune, Oct. 14) doesn’t like pornography, whatever that maybe, therefore it is not a First Amendmentissue. Correct? Likewise it seems pornography is whatever you deem it to be. Spanning thedistance from Ron Jeremyto Cosmopoli- his answerto ““preventing the bomb- Treasonable Conduct With all of the unrest in our country today and with the terrorism and threats of biological warfare, I have never heard the word “treason” mentioned by our media. ‘Treason is defined in the encyclopedia as: “Treason againstthe United States shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” : Congress determines by law what the penalties shall be for treason Imposing Values Let me see if I have this right. quite some time, what with a picture Q against the U.S. Death or life impris- i z dp Ree READER ADVOCATE reports of “alleged” damage done by 2. Se e & ee. quences of noth private ea Advertising SaAeales ater te: afforded less protective speech Sarg reat ney for good sean. BRAMBLE ‘Taylorsville decide whatthat society can and:can- not know about? The next course these groups often take is to either ban entire segments of the society from ever learning how to read and write or eliminate the means to doso. Do you really want to accomplish something for your community? You may wantto look into what a women's advocacy groupis doingto help the children in their community. The children whoare still alive, thatis. It's somewhere in the Middle East. It never ceases to amaze whatselfcentered individuals define as important. TOM MEEHAN Salt Lake City Help Drug Addicts Thefirst step to recovery from a drug habit is to admit you have a problem.But in Utah you have to be a convicted criminal before anyone will help yougetto the nextstep.Is it really a mystery why there is such an epidemicof drug use in Utah? There is not any way out, unless you become acriminal. A family memberof minecan fihelp before it gets any worse,butthat it is not available unless it is court: ordered. Ofcourse ifyou have money then you can payfor treatment. Realistically, how many people hooked on. drugs are going to be able to pay? I would guess that even big-time drug dealer would not be able to afford that, let alone someone who spends his/her paycheck on drugs. It is a tragedy to depend on drugs. |
