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Show patron Sun Advocate mi Wednesday, October B, IDA 1986 economy No-co- st Most industry costs the local economy through some trade-off- s. Mining, higher education and manufacturing, although boosting the local economy, also cost the local citizens. It costs in the need of more police and fire protection, more schools, etc. because there is an influx of additional permanent residents. d teachers and Schools mean more students living in the local area. Additional mining means more permanent miners and company personnel moving to the area. Manufacturing means management and workers will add burdens to the local economy. alternative. Tourism is a But there is a virtual free boost to the local economy. Tourists come to the area for only short periods of time and their dollars introduced into the local economy through local businesses, mean long-terdividends to tax paying residents. Increased sales tax revenues from those tourist dollar mean local citizens dont have to take up the slack and that translates to savings for permanent residents. Carbon County needs to encourage tourism to the area perhaps above searching for other industries to move into the county and help us provide even more services than we already do. There need not be additional costs associated with boosting the local economy. Encourage tourism. year-roun- no-co- st m Senseless war As the Persian Gulf war enters its seventh year, the world again is waiting for Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinis promised final offensive to crush Iraq and extend the domination of Islamic fanaticism throughout the Arab world. To most Westerners, the conflict is nothing more Middle than another regional battle in the strife-rive- n East. But in both human and geopolitical terms, much more is at stake. The human carnage already is on a horrific scale. More than half a million troops have been killed, many of them Iranian boys in their early teens. Tens of thousands of these youthful Revolutionary Guards have been sacrificed in futile human wave attacks against Iraqi machine guns. For more than three years, the fighting has amounted to a tactical stalemate reminiscent of the trench warfare of World War I, in which tens of thousands of troops were slaughtered to seize a few yards of territory. 5 - With 650,000 soldiers, Iran has an army more than twice as large as Iraqs and thus controls the ground. But the vastly superior Iraqi air force has complete mastery of the skies, making an Iranian ground advance difficult if not impossible with its troops exposed to merciless air attack. Nonetheless, Iraqs Arab neighbors are increasingly anxious about the wars outcome. Should the ayatollah succeed in gaining control of Iraq, his next target almost certainly would be h Kuwait, which shares the northern end of the Persian Gulf. To the immediate south lie Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Together, these nations constitute the worlds leading petroleum-producin- g region; they hold the key to West. in the economic stability reason For this alone, an Iranian victory would force the United States to intervene probably militarily. Washington has scant influence with either Iran or Iraq and therefore can do little more than await a resolution of the fighting. Meantime, Iraq has stepped up its attacks on Persian Gulf shipping in the hope of destroying Irans economy and forcing the ayatollah to consider peace terms. And Iran is again massing hundreds of front in thousands of troops along an offensive. for another preparation The world can only pray that the next final offensive exhausts both countries ardor for this oil-ric- chucks waggin9 Stymied and looking for your help By CHUCK ZEHNDER Managing editor This is sure a dry week. I asked around here at the office for something to address in my column. The letters to the editor column has been quite slow lately. No one could come up with something good that was sure to irritate someone. Apathy is rampant. Someone suggested the riduculous and probably unconstitutional rescheduling of the University of Utah football game so as not to interfere with a church conference. I played with that one for a few minutes, but the conference is always to predictable every spring and fall, few watch anyway and this way the football teams get a Saturday off to go play. I cant take on the local political races yet no one has said anything, let alone anything dumb. Thatll have to come later, I guess, when those running for office really get after each other and begin making brilliant statements. I thought about the gambling bit again, especially Monday when I picked up an old punch board at Marchetta Pieruccis new Price Antique Shop on Main Street. The old board still has over half the punches on it and I thought about letting people buy punches and giving away books to winners. Id have to change the name from Texa Charley to Utah Education Fund, though. But no one has gotten upset about the I guess everyone thinks gambling ideas be good. would gambling legalized I cant attack local coaching because I really think it is good. The kiddy beauty pageants are all over and, besides, Ive done that before. I havent taken any unusual trips into the deserts, canyons or mountains lately. So you can see the trouble Im having. Perhaps some readers have ideas. Certainly theres something out there that is irritating to you. Write me a letter and let me know what it is and see if others feel the same way. I wont reveal who it is, but someone on the street downtown Monday said they were going to start raising a little Cain around here. This person has done it before so maybe they will do it again. Sure would be nice. I do have one little tidbit of information I got from A1 Fossat in Helper. Seems like he and Bill found an old newspaper and made a copy of some advertising in it. They sent me a copy of part of a page out of an old Denver newspaper about the turn of the century. One of the ads was for Mormon Bishops Pills. It said all the leaders of the Mormon Church and their followers had been using them for over 50 years and they were a cure excigarette-smokinfor cesses, lost potency, unfittness to marry, evil desires, headache and even the nervous twitching of eyelids. I wonder if Mormon Bishops Pills are still available? There were some other ads there for cures of all kinds of sexual problems which in self-abus- g, e, todays newspapers we wouldnt dare print they were just too explicit. As Ive said before, the old days of reporting and newspapering sure must have been lots more fun. 800-mi- le senseless war. Leif well enough alone When Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to America, the world was forever changed. Fortunately for us, nobody asked the world beforehand whether it thought the trip was a good idea. Spain is currently preparing a worlds fair to commemorate the 500th anniversary of its sponsorship of Columbus explorations, and in that connection asked the United Nations for a resolution memorializing the event. That was four years ago and the debate has been raging on ever since Iceland complained that any recognition of Columbus would be a slap in Leif Ericsoris face. Ireland claimed that a few of its native saints got here first. African delegations denounced the whole idea as a glorification of colonialism. With the start of a new session, the incoming president of the General Assembly, Humayun Rasheed Choudhoury of Bangladesh, has finally gaveled the controversy to a close. With a fine sense of the language of diplomacy and the sweet ambiguity of the passive voice, he declared, America has been discovered. Thank goodness it wasnt put to a vote. (Reprinted by permission of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee) They finally got me. After 12 years of blatantly exceeding the limit national on highways between Chicago and New York, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and dozens of other destinations, I was slapped with a speeding ticket by a trooper in Kentucky. Although it cost me a few dollars, I accepted it cheerfully. Thats because my heavy right foot has saved me countless hours of traveling time, thus letting me avoid dozens of nights in drab motels and potentially fatal meals in roadside diners. When the trooper pulled me over, I was doing 68. Upon reading that, some biddy is going to cluck: You terrible man, menacing the life and limb of the innocent. You should have been thrown in jail. Nonsense. It was a clear day and the wide, straight interstate pavement was dry and almost devoid of traffic. My tires are almost new, my car had just been tuned and I was wide awake. When those are the conditions, I always do 60 to 70. So do the majority of drivers on the rural interstates. And in all the thousands of miles Ive driven, this was the first time I was ever stopped. It wasnt luck. Nor do I own a or even a CB can alert which of both radio, you to a lurking cop. I get away with it because 1 ) I make sure that somebody else is going a little faster, so that if anybody is nailed it will be him, and 2) in most of the United States, the cops arent enforcing the 55 limit. Depending on the state, you can do a steady 65 and not worry about a ticket. Ive driven driving RVs. Or an occasional cop who wants to see how big a traffic jam he can cause. But most people on interstates are doing 60 to 65 because they know that its a reasonable and safe speed. Im not talking about driving that fast in cities. In any metropolitan area, 55 is probably too much. On rural interstates, though, holding to the limit is comparable to taking a slow walk on a jogging track. Please, dont send me any across Georgia at a steady 70, on how many lives the statistics with cars passing me, and 55 limit has saved. I dont havent seen anybody pulled believe them. over. For every study showing that So what has happened in this have been saved by lower lives country since the 55 limit was there are studies that speeds, imposed is that the vast increased use of seat the say have majority of drivers be the biggest belts might is limit the decided that stupid lower highway for the reason and they ignore. So have the Or rate. the national death local authorities. on drivers. Or crackdown boozy who dont The only people tires modern dont blow that bureaucrats the it are ignore out. and congressmen in Washington Most people forget that the 55 who still insist that it remain the was born in 1974, during limit law. d oil shortage, Most of them, Im sure, travel the of fuel. with the If air. goal saving by they didnt, theyd Since then, even the big gas know that just about the only people who creep along at 55 are guzzlers like mine have become economical. The car I drive guys from Indiana wearing farm implement caps and today gives me 22 miles a gallon radar-detect- OPEC-inspire- on the highway. In 1974, it would have been half that. So fuel economy is no longer a valid excuse. The U.S. Senate recently approved a proposed law that would let states decide if they want to raise the limit on rural interstates to 65. The law makes sense, especially in the Western states, where you can drive all day without seeing more than a few dozen other cars. One of the loudest opponents of this proposal was Sen. William Proxmire of Wisconsin, who wailed about all the lives that would be lost. This from a guy who represents a state that only recently, and very grudgingly, stopped allowing the sale of booze to Now the new limit is being kicked around the U.S. House, where there is considerable opposition. I dont know why, considering the number of congressmen who are pinched each year for drunk driving. Instead of insisting that we keep the 55 speed limit, they should pass a law prohibiting congressmen from ever sitting in the front seat and wed all be safer. |