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Show 'pimiom Sun Advocate 4b Tuesday, October 9, 1990 Stop junk fax Almost 200,000 advertisers place calls to almost seven million Americans each day with recorded messages sent by automatic dialers. Some two million businesses send up to 30 billion pages of information a year by facsimile machine. This is both a sign of the times and the bane of the age. Prerecorded messages are tying up phone lines all over the country, while junk fax is doing the same thing to receivers of information and costing them reams of their own paper to boot. Its time something is done about this. ; The House has just done it. It authorized the Federal Communications Commission to collect lists of people and businesses who dont want unauthorized communications in great volume, as well as institutions that cant afford to. have their lines tied up, such as hospitals, fire departments and the police. It would be illegal to use automatic dialers to send prerecorded, unsolicited material by phone or fax to those who say they dont want it. Naturally, the Bush administration is opposed. It cites the cost to private industry, the cost to government of increased bureaucracy and red tape. It argues that less drastic administrative remedies havent yet been shown. to be a failure and adds that there arent many complaints about telemarketing and junk fax anyway. But the number of complaints doesnt necessary ly describe the size of the problem, and what administrative remedies has the government been so zealously pursuing? None. A bill with similar provisions is moving in the Senate. It should be reconciled with the House bill and sent to the president who should sign it. Anything under the sun Theyre pumping up the SAT Whatever flaws the standardized college aptitude tests might have, the tests play a.major role in deciding which students get into which colleges. They also provide a basis by which students can judge themselves and the public can judge the schools. The fact that the tests are important doesnt mean they cant be improved. Plans by the College Board to revise the Scholastic Aptitude Test raise the possibility that the test will become an even more useful standard of measurement. One of the goals is to make it harder for schools to teach to the test," which happens when teachers concentrate on test preparation rather than general knowledge. The board also is trying to reduce the perception in some groups that the tests are culturally biased against women and minorities a perception that has seldom been substantiated with examples of questions that are demonstrably unfair to anyone but white males. Written essays would be added. The test would contain more vocabulary testing' based on paswould read. Math probsages that the test-taktest-takwould lems require the to.perform calculations and write in the answer. Fewer multiple-choic- e questions would be offered. Written essays and questions based on texts are a better gauge of a students ability than his skill on multiple-choic- e questions. Adding more of those elements to the tests should help encourage stueducation. And if it dents to pursue a fcaused more high schools to teach to the test by requiring more reading, writing and math computation, so much the better. er er i It heard about to reform movement the. health care in the. United States. It is a movement that is long past due. I am a cheerleader for anyone who has a workable solution to the high cost of health . care. I cheer (curse) loudest when I get my bills each month. If it were not for health with the care bills, I would be debt-fre- exception of house mortgage. my Americans are becoming increasingly oppressed by the costs of health care and the decreasing coverage insurance companies provide. American businesses are finding the costs of providing health care benefits to employees an exorbitant By now, you have probably AFL-CIO- s e; expense. Can you remember the last time you felt lousy and delayed a trip to the doctor, hoping you would get better without having to rob Fort Knox? A while ago, I interviewed leaders of the herbal manufacturing companies of Utah County, Asked why herbal medicines and Supplements are gaining popularity, they consistently replied, With the high cost of office calls, families are doing everything they can to prevent illness. One exec told me, If I can pop a garlic pill in the kids mouths every morning and avoid an illness that will cost me , is time for reform $40 to $50, Ill have the kids take garlic. Congress is now considering revamping its standards fpr deciding who is living in poverty. Apparently, the formula the government uses was devised in the early 1950s. If in fact more people are struggling to provide adequate housing, cloand food for their families than we ' thing have JbeHeved, then, more people cannot afford decent medical care for their families. Those who do not qualify for medicare and do not have adequate insurance or income can be in bondage to doctors accountants for years. If indeed Americas new poverty class are women and children, it is to their advantage to stay on welfare and medicare than to earn borderline wages with minimum benefits. A mother with several children would be broke before she got through the strep throat and flu season. Chronic illness Qr catastrophic illness can wipe out a familys life savings. Mental illness, which always requires longterm care (more than one visit to the doctor), is usually covered on a very limited basis. Only those with excellent coverage or excellent income can afford the care they might need. Of course, Americans receive excellent health care, with access to the latest med- ical advances. Medical providers point to the costs of education, technology, office costs and malpractice insurance as prime contributors to expensive health care. But a3 the medical costs skyrocket, insurance costs are flying, right beside them, while coverage. slips and slides back. The phenomenon' creates a whirlpool that sucks the American family down recominto debt. Whatever the ALF-CImends will have to interrupt the never-endin- g nightmare before it will be true reform. Years ago, I covered a speech by Rev. Ralph Abernathy when he talked about a health crisis he experienced while traveling in Europe. He was transported to an emergency room and hospitalized for some days. Worried about his bill and making arrangements for his insurance to make payment, he stopped at the administration office to face the bad news. He found there was. no bill. The country where he was traveling had socialized medicine. Is that the answer? I dont know. But I know if we are to provide reasonable access to health care for all citizens, there must be drastic change. O well-round- ed TURN IN A PUSHER The Information gathered as a result of the foltlowlng Is confidential and wHI not be divulged to anyone outside the CarbonEmery Drug Task Force. Action will be taken on every submission. Thank you for your cooperation. Name of suspected drug dealer: . Nickname: DescrlptlonTRt DOB Wt Sex Hair Age "Eves SSd Home Address: Business . : Motor Vehicle: Make Year Associates of Dealer Method of dealing: Location of dealing Drug(s) being dealt: Price: Main purchasers: List any other (Lf-- Color License . ; ; . Amount: school kids, truckers, etc J suspected Illegal activities: Code name you wish to be known by: ' NO May we contact you? YES If yes, then how: by mall When by ohonef If we may contact you by mall, what Is vour address? . If not, then will you contact us again usina the same code name, NO should you have further Information? YES 7 If Yes Call Please take a few minutes and Invest 25 cents In a stamp. You can help 637-847- the fight against drugs. Taka a stand and get Involved! The life you M your TD$ ;un flrtv'" Pv R70 $ Price, Utan 84501. In v'. , : , Mike royko Nipping athletes disorder in the bud Its obvious that Zeke Mow-- att is no gentleman. But you would think that at some point in his life he would have been taught that its not polite to stand naked over a female and make obscene remarks. On the other hand, Mowatt is a professional athlete. He plays football for the New England Patriots. So its possible that when he flaunted his male adornment at a female sports reporter in the locker room and allegedly made obscene suggestions to her, he wasnt really being a mean, nasty, male chauvinist pig'. He might have been suffering from a psychological disorder. If you follow sports, you probably have noticed that disorders of one sort or another have become more common among professional athletes than foot fungus. Those who cram white powder up their noses are no longer known as hopheads or dope addicts, as Trggips they were called in less enlightened times. They suffer from a substance-abus- e disorder. The same label is applied to athletes who used to be known as lushes, drunks, alkies or boozers. While these are the most common forms of disorders," the term has been broadened to include other afflictions. . For example, when William Perry of the Chicago Bears began looking like a blimp about to rise, some insensitive fans said his problem was that he stuffed too much food in his mouth; But the teams management said that he was suf-feri- ng from an eating disorder. That seemed to mean that yes, he was stuffing too much food in his mouth, but it really . wasnt his fault. He just couldnt Btop chomping, oh anything that couldnt escape. There have been athletes who forced their physical attentions on unwilling females. Fiends and creeps, were they? No, some were described (usually by their . agents) as suffering from sex- ual disorders. And of course, Pete Roses admirers said that the poor fellow was addicted to gambling, which is still another disorder. It was Roses misfor-tun- e that the Internal Revenue Service doesnt view the failure to pay taxes as a psychological malfunction. So it may be that when Zeke Mowatt appeared to be sadistically humiliating a female sports reporter by calling her attention to his male appendage, he was simply displaying alarming symptoms of his disorder. Im not sure what this disorder would be called. But for want of a better term, we might refer to it as a Jumping Around The Locker Room Naked and Talking Dirty to Women Disorder. If that is his problem, he shouldnt be condemned. To the contrary, the man might need help. Sports franchises send athletes to clinics that try to cure - the uncontrollable impulse to snort, drink and even eat. They have the athletes consult shrinks. Unfortunately, the recovery rate isnt impressive because some of the athletes already pre-shrun- brains are k. But in Mowatts case, it would be worth a try. Indeed, if he has a Jumping Around The Locker Room Naked and Talking Dirty to Women Disorder, his coach, general manager, franchise owner and the locker room attendant owe him the opportunity to be cured of so awful an affliction. Because I had not heard of this kind of behavior before, I interviewed a psychological expert about it Dr. I.M. Rookie, a noted authority on lots of stuff. I asked him if there is a clinical word to describe someone who carries on as Mowatt is alleged to have done. Yes, said Dr. Kookie. We refer to someone who engages in that sort ofbehavior as a big . (Continued on Page 6) , f h I |