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Show 4 The Magna Times A'est Valley News.Thursday, March 22, 2001 Editorial r Outside Looking In: Pageants: mind over beauty? By DEBBI OLSON Editor Its that time of year again. The valley is in a flurry of activity of pageants for young girls. Every city and town has one. With the prize being a crown, a title and scholarship money. Initially they were referred to as Beauty Pageants. Now, in the age of being Politically Correct, they are now called Scholarship Pageants The winners, once called "Beauty Queens are now referred to as Title Holders" and they will be called Miss What has not changed is the process of attaining that title. The contestants will still participate in a variety of parades exhibiting sportswear, evening gowns and swimsuits. They will exhibit some cohesive understanding of social issues and will display a talent in the performing arts. What has changed is the rationalization of what the pageants stand for. Proponents of pageantry will argue that the process is an exercise in poise, charm, intelligence and the ability to show the contestants can communicate and be articulate in any situation as the title holder is expected to go forth into the community and be an ambassador of the city she now represents. Opponents of Pageants will say that people do not want an overweight, graceless ambassador to represent the ideals of the community at business ribbon cuttings and city events. They are looking only for someone with outward beauty; someone who little girls can look up to and dream about being just like them when th'y grow up. Others will say its still demeaning exploitation of women. era Thus begins the Barbie-esqu- e seminars includes that of pageantry hair and and training in make-uwardrobe as contestants labor in gyms to trim down any bulge that might show through a bathing suit on stage. On every level, winners of past titles will attest that the validity of the bathing suit contest is a way of showing off physical fitness as opposed to just showing off a trim figure. In order to win such a contest the title holder needs to be prepared to endure a certain amount of physical stamina in order to meet the frequent, rigorous demands that will be required meeting community members and dignitaries, traveling and participating in p, speaking engagements. Is it a scholarship pageant or a beauty pageant? Participants will receive scholarship money for their efforts. They will learn what it takes to be well rounded both in physical appearance and social issues. They will tackle a service project that is of concern to them and she will spend countless hours woiking tow ard improving the community in that area. And in order to be effective in their ambassadorship, they must be charming, they must be poised, they must be able to express themselves to an audience. Hopefully the judges will choose a winner based not only on looks, but based on all the qualities that make a young woman someone that can proudly represent her community and be looked up to. But, in the end, young and old, will remember them because they were pretty. Shortage of nice housing changing neighborhoods Our family lives in a nice house. It looks out on a pond. Our friends live in nice houses too, as do most folk around here. Even many unpleasant people live in nice houses. All these nice houses make for some very nice neighborhoods, and some very nice towns. Naturally we all want to keep them nice, so we alertly raise a ruckus when a developer wants to squeeze in still more nice houses, which would destroy a lovely pasture or woodland. We ruckus still louder if he proposes nice condos rather than nice houses. And if, under state law, he suggests including nice affordable units in with the nice condos, we ruckus really loud. This watchfulness is what keeps our neighborhoods so nice. At the same time, we worry about our downtowns. Along with their nice houses, many cities harbor both public housing and private tenements. Theyre not so nice. But the tenements often cure themselves. Theyre given to fires and to urban renewal. Thus their numbers dwindle and their tenants are often set free to look for better quarters elsewhere. Good luck. Its getting that way with public houscitizens who ing too. Conscience-stricke- n live in nice houses feel terrible that so many hapless folk live in crowded, dirty, dangerous government apartments. As a result, in some cities whole projects have been tom down, replaced by nice new units amounting to about a third of the number removed. In the last seven years, 27,000 HUD units have been demolished, while only 5,500 have been rebuilt. Another 33,000 are waiting to be tom down. WILLIAM A. COLLINS The results of all this gentrification (some call it ethnic cleansing) are plain. Many families now spend half their income on rent. Homeless shelters are overflowing. There arent enough foster homes to care for all the kids ftom these disrupted families. Some families double up. Some leave their kids home alone. Schools teaching these rental refugees watch their performance sag, for want of a home. Most suburbs have become equally adept at keeping new housing out altogether. If too many people in my town live in inferior housing, its bad for me too. Theyll erode my property values, raise my taxes, weaken my schools, and increase my crime rate. So while I may join with them in muscling the mayor and governor for better schools, Id just as soon theyd move away. Least of all, do we want any more moving in. This behavior is known as The American Way. Its as American as, say, the West Nile virus. And its about as healthy. In truth its Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut. Letters to the Editor Nail Technicians Cosmetology Association of Utah, express our undying appreciation and gratitude for a job exceptionally well done. To all the many professionals, instructors, students and consumers in the state that assisted this effort in any way, questionnaires, telephone polls, and phone calls to survey letter, our State Legislators, thank you for your help and support. Teamwork make a difference! To the member of the House of Representatives and State Senators,' Editor, For the past several years a group of very motivated and dedicated professional Cosmetologists, Nail Technicians, Aestheticians, and School owners have been working with Representative Cheryl Allen, of the House of Representatives, and with the able guidance and direction of Lobbyist Candace Daly to accomplish a long awaited and necessary task of getting legislation (House Bill 1050 passed that requires licensure to perform the services of Aesthetics and Nail Technical work (manicures, pedicures and nail enhancements). The public will be well served and more protected because of the legislation and our people in these areas of the cosmetology profession who have received some of the best training available in this country, will now be able to have their hours of schooling recognized and accepted toward other States Board of Cosmetology requirements. To all who have worked so long and diligently to reach this end, we as a professional organization The National thank you for listening to our concerns, and becoming educated enough in a profession that is completely foreign to many of you, to recognize the need for this legislation to become law. We the 1 8,000 licensed Cosmetologists and an estimated 12,000 Nail Technicians and Aestheticians in the State of Utah, thank you. Marti Frasier Ogden College Books Editor, My name is Mike Sheehan and I am a freshman at Creighton University, if you have college age kids or know a family who does, I could use your help. Before entering Creighton, I was the Student Body President of Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. Since the unfortunate incident brought upon my classmates, I have dedicated my lifes work to helping my fellow students wherever I can. As an incoming Creighton freshman, I was unaware of the high costs of books for my classes. I spent over 500 dollars in books in just my first semes- School project Editor, I am an eighth grade student at Washington Manor Middle School in San Leandro, California. I am currently doing a school project that entails planning a vacation to your fine state. I would greatly appreciate any information or memorabilia that your generous readers can send me. I am interested in family activities, interesting historical sights and unique artifacts that make your state special. Thank you for your time and consideration. ter. It seemed like a lot, but I figured that of the money back I could make most when I sold the books back to the bookstore. Well as you probably have figured out, I was wrong. Out of the 500 dollars I spent, I made less than 100 dollars back. I lost over 4(0 dollars. Not'only did I lose most of my money, I had to wait in long lines at the bookstore return the books and wasted valuable time. If I had to do this each semester until Hector Marquina Aiza Mariano I graduated, I figure I could have lose over 3,200 dollars. I talked with several friends over Christmas break and we came up with a web site that can save all of us money when buying books, and help us make more money back when selling books. With this concept in mind, we created the College Students Network (http:www.CollegeStudentsNetwork.co m). CSN is an online Internet database of items for sale, for college students all across America. Users can sign up for free and post books and other items online for sale at no cost Finally, students can now buysell at better prices than at the college bookstore, which means we can save tons of money immediately. I need your help in getting the word out to students to enter their books for sale, etc., on the CSN website (http:www.CoIlegeStudentsNetwork.co m); as we will be returning to school soon. Let them know as soon as you can because well be buying and selling our books for the new semester. Mike Sheehan Health Insuranc- ebe granted. Its clear that one goal of the committee was to find a way to tap into federal money to pay for the benefits, subscrib, ing jio, the myth that spending, federal. money has no impact on local citizens, even though they pay federal taxes. The second recommendation is to conduct further research and explore innovative options to provide coverage adults. to Theres no federal money involved here so, although its a laudable goal, we dont yet know how to pay for it so we had better spend some more time, talent, and treasure looking for a way. No guarantees well find one, but we must keep looking. The third recommendation is to authorize the committee to continue its work and report annually to the Governor and Legislature. Theyre not predicting how many years theyll need before its possible to make a final annual report. The fourth recommendation is to authorize the state department of health and the committees parent organization to seek funding and implement a demonstration project under a newly announced Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative to expand coverage to the uninsured. Its hard to fault the committee trying to get someone Editor, Roughly two years ago, in a state near me, a committee was formed to study the issue of uninsured adults. The cpmmittee started with a strike against it because it r:i started with the common that the problem is lack of insurance coverage. The problem is lack of access to care. Even those with insurance have rationed access and lack of choice about where to get that care. There are undoubtedly similar committees in the states near you. I wouldnt be surprised if, nation-wid- e, there were more than fifty groups undertaking a nearly identical task. Thats a lot of time, talent, and treasure devoted to the wrong question. At the end of two years, the committee sent a report to the Governor and the legislature, detailing the committees work and including recommendations to expand insurance coverage and lay the groundwork for future action. This committee made five starting-poirecommendations, all of which require more time, talent, and treasure. The first recommendation is to expand coverage to parents with children eligible for Title XXI coverage with incomes up to 185 of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). It requires greater expenditures by the State which would automatically qualify the State for more federal money. It's not at all clear that the state has the money, nor is it clear that the State has the ability to locate and enroll all the eligible individuals. Part of this effort involves the expansion of Medicaid to parents with income levels less than 100 FPL. The report notes that such expansidn is provided for by Section 1931 of the Social Security Act. Isnt it amazing that this act requires 1931 sections or more? How much does that complexity increase the including the cost of health care? . Part of the effort requires a demonstration waiver from the Health Care , Financing Administration (HCFA). It is not at all certain that such a waiver will low-inco- nt non-pare- nt else to pay for the project but it will take some time, treasure, and talent to prepare the demonstration project and apply for the grant Theres no guarantee it will be f approved. r The fifth' recommendation is tcTadvo-- r cate for federal action to further support efforts to expand coverage including charges to maximize the use of Title XXI funds (the State Childrens Health ' Insurance Program). Again, lets spend : some of our time, treasure, and talent try ing to get someone else to pay for a par-tial solution. Theres no guarantee they!lr; be successful. ; Heres my recommendation. Stop .; using flat-woassumptions to address; a round-worl- d problem. The Simple human empowerment system ; Societys can assure EVERYONE access to the ; health care providers of their choice, will; almost totally eliminate administrative ; cost from the system (reducing the cost of services), and will let providers spend ; their time on care rather than paperwork. , And it should be possible to institute such, a system before your state can get that ; HCFA waiver approved. And, of course, well save all the time, talent, and trea-- . ", sure we would have spent answering the I ' wrong question. John Watkins Executive Director The Simple Society Nashua, NH , , rd Law enforcement Editor, I wish to take this opportunity to pub-- .. licly say thank you to die men and women of law enforcement for the ' thankless and tireless job they do every-da- y by enforcing their city, county andor state traffic laws. I particular, the city, county, campus and state enforcement agencies in Utah who joined forces with over 10,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide who participated in a recent Operation ABC i (Always Buckle up Children) cost-of-livi- Mobilization which called attention to the need for parents, caregivers and adults to set the example by buckling up. The Mobilization effort also focuses on the need for standard enforcement of occu- - -pant protection laws. The next national effort of this.type will be during Buckle Up America! Week, May I hope that you as a community will join me in saying thanks to your enforce- -. ment personnel for helping us make rid- - J. ing unbuckled unacceptable. -- 21-2- 8. Louis R. De Carolis, PH.D.. Poverty wages still being paid in times of prosperity Heres a novel concept: If you work full time and do a good job, you shouldnt be paid so poorly that you live in poverty. Try to tell that to the federal government, though. An independent study released by ACORN, the grassroots advocate for the working poor, finds that corporations enjoying fat, d contracts from the feds are paying poverty wages to the people actually doing the contract work. The same federal government that sets precise standards for, say the tensile strength of screws that it buys, sets no standards for the fair pay of people working under its contracts. The study, conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, revealed that 1 percent of federal contract employees receive less than a living wage, tax-pai- 1 which is to say their paychecks are too low to lift them and their families above the poverty level. In this period of economic prosperity and federal surpluses, in this period when Congress annually raises its own pay, in this period when federal contracts routinely cover the million-dollpaychecks of the corporate CEOs absurd that our tax dolgetting the contracts-it- s lars would be used to subsidize pay. ar sub-pover- ty Ironically, while the companies profit on the backs of these workers, many of the workers themselves have to turn to ttouslng assistance, and other, federal poverty programs just to make , ends meet. This means that we taxpayers are hit with a double whammy: first, were subsidizing companies, then we have to provide services to assuage the poverty of s their workers. N JIM HIGHTOWER food-Itiwy- s, Better that the contractors themselves be required to pay fair wages from the start, which is why the Living Wage Responsibility Act has been introduced in Congress, sponsored by ... t. Representative Luis Guitierrez of Illinois. It federal businesses that contracts requires big get to pay their employees a wage no less than the V federal poverty level. For more information, contact ACORN: 202547-250- 0. . low-wa- , ge host and author, Jim Radio Hightower is a firmer Agricultural Commissioner of Texas. His latest book is If The Gods Had Mearu Us To Vote, They Would Have Given Us Candidates (Harper-Collinstalk-sho- w , ). JiUMm POOR |