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Show Opinions “Mentire themselves in pursuit of vest English author (1713-1768) The Daily Herald Congress must learn to live within limits kers By TREVOR ARMBRISTER Last September, Rep. Norman Y. M ta, D.-Calif., resigned his seat to work the Washington office of the Lockhee Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense contractor. Of his two decades on Capito! Hili, the 63-year-old Mineta said “Frankly. | have nothing to showfor i Well, not exactly. He has already begun collecting a congressional pension about $65,000 a year, its lifetime value estimated at nearly $2 million Mineta is hardly an exception. Other Senior incumbents retiring in 1996 wil draw an average $74.078 per year. with an averagelifetime benefit of $1.990,102 as. calculated by the National Taxpayer Union (NTU), assuming a cost-of-! increase of four percent per year Last December. as the government shut down and federal workers wert out paychecks,some veteran congressmen and.their wives choseto get away f all. They joined congressional dele: and pursued urgent business overseas How urgent? Senate Select Commitice on Intelligence chairman Arlen Specte R.-Pa., committee member Sen, Rich Shelby, R.-Ala., their wives andstaff on an eight-day junket to South A Egypt and Israel. Nothing outrages ordinary Amer morethan the perceptionthat their ae representativesare living highoff the Sea. John McCain, R-Ariz., ‘It’s disgraceful for members of Congre to think they should have special priv leges. It’s an attitude aroundhereof supe dority, that they can’t live like other pe ple.” Truly, the 535 members of Con, are a breedapart. This helps explain wh the budget that funds Congress $3 bj lion in 1996, according to Office of Mar agement and Budget estimates grown more than three times faster the cost of living over the past three decades. What are members’ perks’ Her are four ofthe biggest Inflated pensions At a time when most workir cans are dealing with downsizi insecurity, lawmakers canrely on ment package that far exc by much as 300 percent — what most pe get from a private-sector fir Tans offered other federal employees. And ( voted it for themselves. Automatic pay raises In 1989, senators and represent received a salary of $89,500 pei which somefattened by accepting honc rariums from special-interest groups t speeches or public appearances. Because this practice reeked of potential ¢ Y tion, reformers proposed a ban on hon. rfitiums. To ensurethe me Proponents had to raise salaries, Withinthree years they so: percent, to $125,100 per year 2A little-noticed provision g ' an automatic cost-of-living adjustCOLA) every year. In 1992 and members of both houses received utomatic hikes, bringing their salaries to $133,600. For thepast three years, how public pressure forced members to » their COLAs, but the autosay hike proviso remains law Taxpayer-funded mailings On Aug. 18, 1995, while Congress b plans to balance the budget, Rep. f 1s, D.-La., sent letters to district ers cost to taxpayers.of more than $46,000. Fields was engagedin a gubernace that he sul bsequently lost, but he he mailing had nothing to do with elds was just one recent abuser of the old franking privilege. In 1994, nber was given an average of $163,006 ) frank mail, an amountgreater House challengers’ campaign if ts i of the year, Hilliard hadtakte trips andlogged38 days of overseas. Amonghis desJohannesburg. Tokyo, Bonn and I November, Sen. Bill Frist, R.1 Reps e Allard, R.-Colo. ind Me k Santord, R.-S.C., introduced the ess Act (H.R. 2610 and S. 405 r eliminate the most egrewould restructure congresB by stripping away mostof ves and terminate the COLA ‘pay hikes. For House memtighten flanking rules, and s of both bodies it would the use of military airtravel tion’s prospects are uncerest. Senior members of both parclant to surrender their perks. sors Santord, Allard and Frist are Jent that grass-roots pressure will asure over the top. “The perks are something the American people ferstand and do not have.” says So why should a member of Reader's Digest Senior Trevor Armbrister is excerptiticle that appears in 6 Reader's Digest r M. amd the Cold War ended. lors, airmen and Marines A BSSation of hostilities be MMMet superpowers razed “bepcle to world peace ut the tedious chore of en for peace in the troubled proving, thanks to the Amereping effort. The bluent. oudined in the Dayvas drafted while some of S s Pheric stability was aot comy Soviet Union collapsed $l the 1990s alone. Americ live beensent to Kuwait. Som afd Bosnia to maintain al and political he hile many of -us will Armed Forces Day activities M American service members tHe former Yugoslavia and ther f optposts around the tr Veterans who belon Legion are very proud of Americ ahd womenservingin Bosnia W their safe return as we look out interests PL hopeto lead a delegation of Le nites to Bosnia on May 19. W visit our troops to learn of their effort firsthand and to offer themtree memb ship in The American | them to know that Legionnair back hpme™stand behind them ‘Hometown posts of The A Legion are ready to cover the dues { year. Many Legionnaires and their fami liesewill send greeting cards, letters. news papers and even baked goods to America’s néwWest wartime veterans. hope many post§ will ask students in are write letters of encouragement to service members. The 3 million men and women of The American Legion understand =nat it is like to be cut off from the comforts of home and advantages of Americancitizen ship which too many of us take for grant ed. We understand how moral support from home makes one feel better while performing inherently dangerous jobs in far-away places. Legionnaires are backi Nal Wes wx year “Club Fed” \ freshman Congressman, Earl F. Hilliard, D.-Ala.. lacked the seniority to \ t lobe. And his committee — Agriculture and Small couldnot justify his presence d. Then, in 1993, Speaker TomFoley ppe i Hilliard a delegate to the North Atlantic Assembly. the parliamentary arm and he had a chancetosatisfy By DANIEL A. LUDWIG HiBathed acollective sigh ITS ONLY FoR Does ‘Observations American Legion supports Soldiers serving in Bosnia MyAfter the Soviet Union was IM SORRY... WE CANT GIVE You THIS AWARD — » und relatives helped keep the Bosnia. Elections would not have Bosnia without some which military interoviding deserve nothing less than noral support of the American gionnaires are “Still Serving \ by supporting our troops in f hey did those who served in the Gulf War nembers of troops deployed to B. vy call The American Legion +4098 for help in meeting a wide varifor assistance alreadyinclude: \ t California who is anxious ee he hears nothing from her son t Jeployment; a wife in Wisconsin ‘ho seeks advice on how to deal with the 1 ge: company; a sister in New Jersey vants to get wordto her brother of a n the family; an Oklahoma father vho needs money from his son for food rent. In every case, The American Legion Family Support Network was able help As long as America sendsits men and womenin uniform into harm’s way, count on members of The American Legion to tend to their needs and interests. Count on sionnaires to remember our service working abroad on Armed s Day und, indeed, every day. Daniel A. Ludwig is national commander of The American Legion, the nation’s largest vererans organization. Designate drivers Even though American teen-agers cannot legally buy alcohol before age 21, many of them still drink it. Afterward, they often go driving while they are still drunk — without even thinking. This has become a problem and is the cause of many deaths. There hasnt been enough emphasis put on teen-agers having designated drivers. I believe that if teen-agers are going to drink alcohol, they need to have designateddrivers. According to surveys taken by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, nine oui of 10 high school seniors have tried alcohol. Close to 60 percentare current users. Whata lot ofthese teens don’t realize is that car accidents are the leading cause of teen-age deaths. Half of those car accidents (about 3,500 a year) are alcoholrelated. There are also other deaths due to alcohol — falls, fires, drownings and poi- sonings, to name a few Someteen-agers say that they drink — but they never drive after they do — and on the rare occasion when they do drive while they are drunk, they think that nothing can ever happen to them. What they don’t know is that it even happensto the best of students — like Mark Hier. Mark was a valedictorian in his high school in Ohio. When he wenttocollege, he got into the wrong crowd and his grades begantoslip whenhe started going to keg parties. One nightafter one ofthese parties, Mark and twoofhis friends drove home. The driver was drunk and crashed into a utility pole. The crash killed Mark and the other passengerinstantly. Michael Von Rueker has a similar story, except his story doesn’t end in death, He started drinking when he was 15 and went to many weekend beer parties. He always dreamed of actually going to a bar to get drunk. When he was 19, he found a bar that didn’t ask for LD. “It was great. | thought about how I'd brag to my friends about getting drunk in a bar,” he says. The rest ofthat night is a blur to him. He was driving home and went too fast at an off-ramp. He was unable to slow down and the next thing that he remembers is waking up in the hospital unable to move. Mike is now a quadriplegic with only limited movement in one arm. He has goneback to college, but he hastoget other students to help him dress and doother things that seem common to us. For victims like Mark Hier and Michael Von Ruecker, it is too late — but there is still time for thousands of other teen-agers to change. When teens get drunk, they don’t think clearly and often times forget to have designated drivers. The result of these forgetful moments are most often fatal, like in the examples of Mark and Michael Some teen-agers think that driving while they are drunk doesn’t matter; that it would never happen to them,andifit did happento them, it would onlyaffect them. What they don’t realize is that it affects many more people than just them. It affects their families and the innocent accident victims. Having designated drivers would keep others fromgetting hurt by drunkteen-age drivers. However, there is still hope for teenagers everywhere, like in the case of Jenelle Henry. At the age of 16, she realized that she had a problem with drinking She talked to her school psychologist, who advised her to inform her parents. She did and she just quit cold turkey. She has stayed sober for over nine months and says, “Every day | have to make a decision.” When she is tempted she also reminds herself, “I'm the designated driver now.” In conclusion, I believe that we need to teach teenagers to have designated drivers. Having designated drivers would prevent many accidents, which harm more than just the drunk driver. I urge you to take action in promoting designated dri- vers and if you know someone whois drinking or you are drinking yourself, please have someonebe a designated driver. Jasmine Crandall OremHigh School Orem Victims of abuse The numbers keeponrising. In 1993, 1,300 kids died from abuse. Shockingly, the authorities knew that 42 percent ofthese children were in danger. They had received reports about many abuse cases. but had either just left the kids in the situation or had not continued with the prosecution ofthe offender. This country needs to answer the cries of the children by removing them from danger and by punishing the people whoare causing those cries. The following story is not an isolated case, but it does happen across the United States almoston a daily basis. “Qn the last night of Joseph Wallace's life, no one could calm his mother’s demons. Police say that Amanda Wallace wasvisiting rel atives on April 18, 1993, with a three-year old Joseph and his one-year old brother, Joshua, when she began raving that Joseph was nothing but trouble. ‘i'm going tokill this (expletive) with a knife tonight,’ Bonnie Wallace later told police her daughter threatened. Bonnie offered to keep the boy overnight, but Amanda refused, so Bonnie drove them to their apartment on Chicago's impoverished West Side It's unclear what forced Amanda's hand, but authoritiesteil a harrowing tale At about 1:30 a.m., she stuffed a sock into Joseph's mouth and secured it with medical tape. Then she went to the kitchen, retrieved a brown extension cord and wrapped it around Joseph's neck several times. She carried her son to the living room, stood him on a chair, then looped the cord around the metal crank arm over the door. In the last act ofhislife, Joseph waved goodbye.” When Joseph Wallace was born to Amanda. psychiatrists warned child services that Amanda “should never have custody of this or any other baby,” Throughouttherest ofhis life, he was taken away from Amanda three times, the third time following her attempted suicide. After her attempted suicide, a caseworker claimed that since she had found an apartment, entered counseling and was doing volunteer work, she and Joseph should be reunited. Joseph Wallace was sent homeforthe last time 62 days before his murder. Joseph Wallace wouldstill be alive if he had been removed from the dangerof his own mother. Amanda pleaded not guilty to the charge of the firs degree murder. The judge simply asked to have the case summarized for him before he decided whether or notit should gototrial. Amanda’s lawyer did the summarizing and successfully painted the “perfect mother”picture. Amanda went free with the words of the judge, “It sounds like you're doing okay. Good luck Many state governments have bills which are being proposedtohelpfight the war of child abuse, but the numbers are still very startling and victory seems impossible. If the government had done whatit had promised to do, Joseph would still be alive and his mother would be behind bars where she belongs. In the unsafe portions of our country, the cries of the children continue, landing on the deaf ears of society. It is time that we help these defenseless victims and make them feel safe by punishing the offenders. Everybody needs to write to their congressmanand urge hinvhertoget stricter laws through Congress. Until we do something, the death of these children will continue. Kira A. Young OremHigh School Orem Pen pal sought Hello. I'm14 years old. My birthday is Sept. 11, 1981. Please write me!! I'm looking forward toyourletter. Keiko Inoue 3-5-40 Utashikiyama Tarumi-Ku obe, Japan Letters policy Letiers to the editor are weicome. Please address them to: Editor, The Daily Herald, P-O. Box 717, Provo, UT 84603-0717. FAX 801-373-5489, Letters must be signed and include the writer's full name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Preference is given to letters that are typed, double spaced andless than 400 words in length. Letters that are too long, unsigned, illegible, obsceneorlibelous will not be published. BY GARRY TRUDEAU |