Show : - -' F N t 4 :'::' ':-!- i:t 4 '14yi044-- - r - - Q4Lirtitio12oLi40:4t'04004a--- ' 'f- - - '' '':- - 't-- - rA-- 7' t s'! :42:--1tr::- : i --- 44e-p- :- - 4 7 - -- i 0 The Salt Lake Tribune Monday June 11 1990 A13 Need for Affirmative Action Doesn't Extend to All Minorities By Frank H Wu Special to The Baltimore Sun I am neither black nor white I have to admit that I occasionally looked at recruiting brochures put out by colleges and corporations saw their advertisement for an affirmative-action program and felt a twinge of resentment over not being included And when the programs purported to help all minorities the resentment rose Ironically I also occasionally arrived someplace only to have others look at me with similar resentment thinking I was an affirmative-actiobeneficiary n I'm convinced also that should not be included n Reconciling the affirmative-actioand experience policies is important for its own sake but also as a test and reinforcement of principles of equality and fairness for an increasingly diverse society This is just one of what will be many dilemmas resulting from the country's changing composition Experts numestiniate that ber approximately 65 million They predict that all minority groups are growing so quickly that within my whites too will lifetime be a minority are Currently not helped by affirmative action for college admissions But we are included in some federal state and local programs The need for affirmative action has been explained eloquently The historical oppression of blacks under slavery and under Jim Crow continues still in housing segregation and through stereotyping like that of the Charles Stuart hoax It is in this country's interest if we are to remain true to our ideals and competitive in the world to remedy an egre Asian-America- Asian-America- n Asian-America- non-Latin- o Asiali-America- Wu is a student at the University of Michigan Law School I realized though that the resentment was due more to the fact that were not recognized as a minority (if we are not a minority then we aren't anything at all) and less to the programs themselves Indeed it is not minorities in general but disadvantaged minorities who are and should remain the beneficiaries I am convinced now that affirmative action is desirable Asian-America- gious wrong Asian-America- The need for affirmative action does not however extend to all minority groups Blacks and Latinos already contend with one another over their respective benefits For the discussion is complicated by the fact that many of our fellow citizens angry about Japanese-United States trade difficulties associate us with the actions of foreign governments and corporations Even when foreign-policissues are not confused with domestic ones own image of success also has led to animosity True some have made great gains in education and business Although they should be credited for their hard work and talent such praise should not come at the expense of the many who languish in ethnic ghettos or who have immigrated from extraordinary situations to start over with nothing We can acknowledge that we are on the whole doing well enough to get along without affirmative action yet not let that shade into the impression that we are doing too Asian-America- y Asian-American- s' Asian-America- Asian-America- well The Public Forum Tribune Readers' Opinions Fight Unfair Tax Forum Rules Now that California is exercising its legal right to tax the personal income of some full-yeUtah residents something has to be dome We live in a state with a marginal economy (a state that can barely support schools social programs penal programs and public works) so where are some of our citizens being forced to pay a portion or all of their income tax? You guessed it the Golden State This is taxation without representation is its purest form and there are no laws in place to stop it Two bills in Washington that would do this House Judiciary Committee Bill HR1227 and Senate Finance Committee Bill S434 will die in committee unless they get more public support Only two of our elected representatives in Washington have cosponsored these bills They are Congressmen James Hansen and Howard Nielson This lost revenue to the state of Utah should be of interest to those who don't enjoy paying tax on their food Some Utah citizens are trying to form a Utah Chapter of RESIST in order to fight back but they are pitifully few What is needed is a generally aroused citizenry CULLIMORE Dark Ages Betty McCarty's letter (Forum May I) on the proposed Kern River pipeline stinks I have worked on pipelines and power transmission lines and given the choice of which one to have I would take pipelines Ms McCarty doesn't seem to worry about huge visible transmission lines going through the valley that could come down due to earthquakes Not to mention their unsightly appearance As far as congestion along east and west roads machines would bore under roads as to not tie up traffic Kern River has gone to great pains to ensure that safety valves and control centers are installed It seems that some people are against progress They cry about new power plants being built and now it's pipelines Then they turn around and cry some more about their taxes The proposed Kern River line will generate some $20 million annually to the state in property taxes and royalties not to mention over $200 million to be spent in Utah for wages and materials Pipelines are quiet and you can't see them I for one am all for safety but you can't live in a world of progress without taking some risks Maybe we should all go back to the dark ages MAX HANSEN state-of-the-a- rt Public Forum letters must be submitted exclusively to The Tribune and bear writer's full name signature address and telephone number Names must be printed on political letters but may be withheld for good reason on others Writers are limited to one letter of 300 words or less every 14 days Preference will be given to typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of the writer's true name All letters are subject to condensation Mail to the Public Forum The Salt Lake Tribune PO Box 867 Salt Lake City Utah 84110 Prison Advice Having participated with LDS Employment and Rehabilitative Service volunteers in a recent tour at the Utah State Prison I submit the following observations: The objective attitude of prisoners and administrative employees conveyed a timely endeavor to promote and maintain constructive prison standards and educational opportunities The restricted but quality educational and trade skill programs at the prison (which provide departing inmates the opportunity for gainful employment) warrant increased funding Critical organizations notably the American Civil Liberties Union would better serve prison objectives designed for the betterment of society if they would support rather than continually contest and disrupt prison policies Prison programs are receptive to constructive suggestions serving as a state legislator While I investi- gated several complaints received at my office from prisoners I later submitted recommendations to the Department of Corrections some of which were subsequently implemented Ongoing alternatives to prison incarceration have resulted in an increasing percentage of habitual and violent criminals remaining incarcerated who are increasingly difficult to manage d Utah is fortunate that Gary (nationally recognized prison administrator) continues to serve amid undue criticism and contentions inherent in mandated imprisonment systems JOHN E "JACK" SMITH Grantsville De-Lan- I'm worried that when we are not included in affirmative action will be tempted to oppose it We come from different backgrounds and face different prejudices than those who are included We cannot presume to ask the rhetorical and spiteful question "We succeed why can't you?" Moreover we should guard against others pointing at us to ask the same question The Department of Education recently announced it will investigate Harvard and the University of California Berkeley for evidence that Buck Stops Just as I was preparing to write to Ballet West to suggest that Commissioner Bart Barker be added to that dance company (on the basis of his obvious talent in leaping twirling I read of his reand writing Harry Truman's desk plaque: "The Buck Stops Here" Commissioner Barker's courageous stand is: "The Buck Stops Everywhere" — apparently taken since his buck hit the fan RAY R CANNING IRS Makes Sense It's appalling that our Sens Orrin Hatch and Jake Garn supported by tax revenues would attempt to legislate against an IRS ruling which makes sense and to specifically benefit their church Our laws provide that to be tax deductible a contribution must be for the "general good" Support of churches where we may freely go to worship seems for the general good of society but support of a system the sole purpose of which is to convince people to discard their beliefs and join the LDS Church for its benefit hardly seems to contribute to the general good of society Such an immense reduction in taxes paid by missionary families would shift an undue tax burden onto the rest of us FRAN HAYCOCK truth "For the last 40 years there has been a vicious slander by the Roma- I 4 4 nian communists against the monarbut to a great extent it back- chy fired The people loathed the government so if it said it was one way they would think the other way And so they come now to see me" Going to visit King Michael who ruled Romania as a "child-king- " from 1927 to 1930 and then again from 1940 to 1947 in the crucial war years I expected to find an interesting historical relic History had after all performed many evil tricks since 1947 particularly in the unfortunate Romania of communist rule At the door of his villa a pleasant tall slightly stooped man answered the bell It took me a few minutes to realize this was the former king As we sat to talk reminisce and predict I found an intelligent moderate quietly enraged man whom I felt could serve as a bridge of continuity for his still suffering and un7solved nation c : Georgie Anne c Geyer King Michael's history unlike that of many of the East European former monarchs once again hovering in the wings was a highly respected one Originally from the German Hohenzollerns his family benevolently ruled a liberalizing Romania from World War I onward He himself is remembered with honor as the king who overnight turned the Romanian army away from fighting with the Nazis to fighting with the Russians against the Nazis The Russians repaid him on Dec 31 1947 by overthrowing him in a coup d'etat with the minuscule Romanian Communist Party (300 to 1000 members) Since then the king his wife and their daughters have lived quietly in this Swiss aerie Ile has worked for big companies and has even run a chicken farm bclying totally the communist lies that he had escaped with "trainloads of gold" Then came last December The minute that the hated dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown interest in the king heated up Romania had befome overnight a trau ttoolovAgimToovwI1mwmtglhe!itq-- Asian-America- Asians I have heard myself that dubious compliment of success on the as an impart of plied insult to other groups by staying out of affirmative action can underscore that it is meant to be temporary Additionally we can support other government assistance for all who need it In all of this I hope that affirmative action remains a matter of principle not one of politics Whatever the Department of Education concludes I neither can condemn affirmative action nor take advantage of it Asian-America- Asian-America- US Helps Bankroll Rain Forest's Demise By Bruce Babbitt The New Republic Last October the Development Bank voted to lend WO million to Brazil for the clearing and burning of the Amazon rain forest The weapon of destruction is a road called BR 364 which will slice open yet another vast undisturbed region for land speculators and ranchers who will drive out the Indians set fire to the forest and bring in cattle to graze ruined pasture lands A third of the loan financing this project comes from American taxpayers To justify the loan and quiet the critics the bank issued a lengthy press release explaining that Brazil has pledged in writing to establish and maintain parks forest reserves and Indian reservations within the areas to be opened by the road History however argues against the bank's optimism in the past 20 years 15 percent of the Amazon forest has been cleared and burned Indian tribes have been driven to the edge of extinction and thousands of species have been lost forever The lock-steprogression of Amazon and forest destruction goes back to 1970 when Brazil decided to develop the Amazon as an agricultural frontier modeled on the experience of Iowa and Nebraska Enact a homestead law provide free land to settlers open the territory with reads and the blessings of civilization would soon follow What actually followed was one disaster after another Settlers learned the hard way what scientists had predicted but politicians refused to acknowledge: Most Amazon soils cannot support sustained agriculture Inter-America- n p 364 dream alive it found a sympa- thetic lender By then the World Bank awakening to environmental objections had redlined most of the Amazon road projects But it made an exception for BR 364 because it wanted to demonstrate that at least one development road could be built without bringing on environmental devastation catasThe result was a world-clas- s trophe The Brazilian Indian agency FUNAI entrusted with protection of the Indians proved just as incompetent as our own Bureau of Indian Affairs and a lot more crooked As the road progressed through the Guapore Valley the Nambiquara tribe was driven from the land often with the connivance of corrupt officials Some tribes were decimated by measles and other newly introduced diseases Reservations were established only to be rescinded as squatters crowded in Bruce Babbitt former governor of Arizona travels occasionally in Brazil to write about Amazon development issues road-buildin- g Disillusioned settlers abandoned their lands Ranchers moved in to graze cattle until the laws of Amazon soil chemistry forced them to abandon exhausted lands and move on repeating the process by clearing and burning still more forest on the remnants When Brazil approached the World Bank for help to keep the BR In 1986 at a meeting in Brasilia a field representative of the Environmental Defense Fund met an unknown rubber tapper from Acre named Chico Mendes It was a serendipitous encounter that united root and branch of a gathering international protest movement Several months later American environmentalists brought Mendes n to Miami to show Bank directors the blood on their g hands accumulated as their loans destroyed both the forests and the lives and livelihood of the rubber tappers Mendes was soon joined by the leaders of an emerging Indian movement and within weeks the bank ran up the white flag announcing that funding for BR 364 would be suspended until meaningful controls could be implemented For the next two years bank officials made direct contact and worked Inter-America- road-buildin- with the Indian leaders and rubber tappers of Acre The result was a detailed plan to designate nearly 30 percent of the state as reserves to protect the Indians rubber tappers and forests Satisfied with this plan the bank reinstated the loans at its October 1909 meeting Construction is once again underway and the road will reach Rio Branco before the end of 1990 Then will come the decision whether to build BR 364 westward across Acre linking it to Peruvian roads across the Andes to the Pacific In an attempt to reach a compromise between politicians supporting the road and the environmental opFlaviano position the governor Melo has begun to work out a forest policy called Projeto Acre designed to control the forest destruction that accompanies Projeto Acre calls for controlling forest destruction by zoning the entire state Rather than establishing postage stamp reserves here and there on the map and allowing the rest of the forest to fall an effective land use plan would direct settlement limiting agriculture to appropriate areas and stopping the destruction of forests for pasture land Zoning an entire state primarily for forest uses thereby restricting the right of ranchers to destroy the forest is not presently a popular idea in the Amazon The prevailing view is voiced by another governor named Amazonino Mendes: His land use program coisists of handing out thousands of free chain saws to peasants urging them to get on with cutting down the forests before anyone can stop them Yet political attitudes are shifting In the end Brazilians will decide for themselves how to develop the Amazon However when other countries including the United States lend money to help finance development they too are entitled to speak and be heard about how development is pursued And from now on the message ought to be clear: no more usting roads road-buildin- g jungle-b- Surprising Choice I was somewhat amused (although not particularly surprised) to observe a gun control recommendation on the May 19 editorial page facing a cartoon on the op-e- d page making a comparison between this country's initial fight for freedom and our current cynical and shameful attitude toward the similar struggles of Lithuania and the other Baltic states It is probably futile to call your attention to the fact that before initiating the present brutal economic pressures on Lithuania the Russians confiscated the Lithuanians' guns I might also observe that there was no effort to exempt "legitimate sporting weapons!" The Second Amendment does not guarantée the "right to hunt" — it guarantees the right of every American to possess weapons to defend himself and his home from tyranny whether foreign or home grown! I will however be surprised to find this letter printed as it appears that printable comments (in the view of your selection process) are either — perhaps anti-guor preferably both! BEVERLY J STEES n anti-Morm- Return to Royalty in Romania's Future? Universal Press Syndicate GENEVA — The flocks of largely young Romanians who have come to see King Michael of Romania since last fall had one quest in common: "We want to know the truth" The until-nomostly forgotten Romanian king shook his head as he voiced these words sitting in his pleasant but simple villa above Lake Geneva: "That is the theme of most of them" he told me "It is very important that people finally know the affirmative action at those schools comes at the direct expense of If the charge were true it would be unfair But if the evidence turns out to be ambiguous we should not let our interest be set against affirmative action or other minority groups History lends a lesson After the Civil War during the ongoing emancipation of black slaves Chinese laborers were imported so that the two groups could compete against one another More recently when Senator Daniel Inouye first took office one of his Southern colleagues asked him why blacks couldn't be more like matized vacuum: a country without past and without future Who to go to but the last person alive who "knew"? King Michael began to receive hundreds of letters Two questions predominated: What had happened to the royal family and when was he coming back to "put things right"? "I announced I would go to Romania for Easter" he related "The new Romanian government (of 'reform' communists) gave us visas They offered us a car a villa things I refused At the last moment they revoked the visas They must have thought it over found there was still some feeling for me "In a way it was not a defeat at all It made such a stir particularly in Romania that people wondered what was going on" He paused "For 40 years there has been such fear in people Some young people told me they were so frightened in the voting booth even when they had elections this winter that they couldn't write "We're headed for difficult times The main point is to give the people to get rid of back their this fright and these anxieties" King Michael still wants to go back He was on Romanian TV once and made an excellent impression a conand he dreams of stitutional monarchy probably on the model of Belgium's After talking with this sensible thoughtful man I felt he had much to give his people in heir search for truth IMMMINIMEIMI IEErnEg'LP ‘Wft EC 907 SINCE 165 Regent Street 363-581- 1 YOUR DOWNTOWN HEADQUARTERS FOR: Lighting Fixtures Electrical Supplies Construction Repairs Lamps and much much more! We will I I be open during the construction on Regent Street Park on the East Side of our Regent Street Store and enter the store from Plum Alley 7t self-respe- 4aOPt 0 Let Us o 1 1 rik DE Your Interest A: A44W4"4!i-o- At |