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Show tt'u nqf ' fl il'l T TT itiry' Boli Grmi1 The Salt Lake Tribune. Sunday, April TV Combat Footage Makes War Ugly, Unacceptable and I understand why H;s unstated fear thnk it is a justified tear is that no televisied war would lie acceptable to the American people That's right No war, regardless of its justice or nobility of purpose, could gam fhe support of a nation tnat had to watch it on telev ismn every night Some people believe that there is, in fact, no war that einlxxiics justice or nobility of pui(Mise. But for the sake o argument, let's take the war that most Americans turn to when they're looking for an example of a war that unified the nation: World War II Would World War II have enjoyed the same level of suppori had it been televised nightly'1 Perhaps not Consider the journalism that was reputed to have had the most human impact during World War II It was the reporting of Krnie Pyle, the Scripps-Howarcolumnist who specialised in writing stories about hometown Inns in foreign battle zones Py le would interview the young men and then often put together his lucres about them utilizing such devices as mentioning the boys' exact street addresses back in America. Readers loved it more than anything else, it real to them. made the war they thought Here were the kids next door, fighting for a ause It is interesting to note that some newspaper chains and syndicates tried the Pyle approach during Vietnam. They sen correspondents to Southeast Asia to write the hometown stories and humanize the war. It didnt work, Nothing was more human than the color TV pictures of people being blown apart. Suddenly it was impossible to sugarroat the war, you couldn't read a story in the morning paper about a The fhiengo Tribune William C W estmoroland said it in a recent speech, but almost all top modern military (ommanders have probably thought Gen it Vietnam was the first war fought without any censorship," Westmoreland was quoted by ' Time magazine "Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in t he- public nund. Television is an instrument which can paralyse this country." What Westmoreland was proposing was V S government control over news in any coming w ar His statement was made recently enough that reaction to it is still coming in; hut it can he assumed that i cities will land on Westmoreland with both feet. Virtually everyone believes in the Hirst Amendment, of course: and with the First Amendment as your defense, it's easy to dismiss Westmoreland's idea as a superhawk's dleam Hut just lur Ihe sake of argument, its worth thinking about the factors that drove West moreland to his position As commander of US forces in Vietnam. Westmoreland saw public support for his war effort evaporate as press coverage became increasingly c ritical. Westmoreland probably could have lived with the reams of negative editorials and front-pagreport age: it was damaging stuff, but he knew that it probably could net, on its own. undermine his battle plans. What destroyed Westmoreland and the U S war plan were the television pictures. Forget the television reporting itself; forge) the wcu'ds the network correspondents spoke. It was that video, night after night, that turned Americans against the Vietnam adventure. It was one thing for a newspaperman to describe, oven in the most graphic terms, carnage he had seen; it was quite another for a Midwestern television view'er to see the same carnage at dinnertime. Rv now it has become accepted by most Americans that the Fnitod Stales should never have been in Vietnam in the first plare; thus, television, by showing the things it did, only helped viewers back home see the truth about Vietnam. Would that not he the case in any future war? Westmoreland thinks not, and it is possible to are his own : I mmm u fellow from down the block w'ho was stationed in Vietnam, and then not he sickened when the evening news showed you what somebody rise's neighbor looked like dead The argument can be made that any war shown in the gory1, even World War II closeup way that television showed Vietnam is Ry Dean E. VnnWagenen few days Americans are exposed to Every conflicting opinions on the subject of crime and gun control There is no chance to solve these twin problems, as I see it, until we are better informed about some basic facts. Fact No. The Fantastic U S. Civilian Gun Inventory. The idea that thp pro-gulobbies are representatives of a small, minority of "gun huffs" is pure fiction. Most informed guesses say lhat our civilian guns exceed 100 million. Guns are seldom destroyed as useless and more than 5 million n w guns of all fvpes are added to this inventory each year. In terms we can understand, this means that we have more than 20 guns in civilian hands for each soldier in the Russian army. Or, this may also mean we have twice as many guns as there are soldiers in all the armies of the world put together There are likely more guns than cars in the United States The explanation is simple enough Per capita. Americans lead the world in almost all luxuries But guns are a story by themselves. Historically, America has never experienced any effective control over the possession of private guns. In colonial America, personal guns were a necessity. After the Revolutionary War. the states refused to ratify the Constitution without first incorporating the Bill of Rights which protected the slates and citizens from a domineering federal government The Second Amendment guaranteed the states the militia" and right to have a "the people to keep and bear arms ." The statement is easy to read. For 150 years it was not interpreted any other w'ay than the way it was written. Wilh this auspicious start it is now understandable that the pro-gupeople view with suspicion those who would deny them the right to guns, as they would those who would deny them the freedom of speech, the press, or see wildlife as a large assembly. pail of most state budgets, and view gun collecting, marksmanship, game hunting, and gun safety as a major part of their lives. Most people at times feel weak and insecure, or feel lhat they have something to protect, and therefore claim guns as part of their legal right to Ultimately, most people refuse to sacrifice their personal safety on the altar to "public safety." It appears that the public votes its preference when it purchases so many guns. Much money is being spent to prove the public attitude is against personal guns, hut the true attitude of the public has shown repeatedly. In 1976 a simple gun registration law met 15 percent compliance in Cleveland. The city of Morion Grove. Ill recently outlawed the possession and sale of hand guns If is estimated that the population of 24 .(XXI would have around 5.000 guns in their possession The first week after the law went into effect their police department reported five guns were fumed in An unresisted hank robbery occurred there the week after the ban. The robber ignored the lesser law and carried an illegal gun Any of the hank personnel with a gun would have been in v delation of the law. Such "bans" thus aid the criminal by disarming everyone else The National Rifle Association claims that 14 anti-gupoliticians lost their jobs nationally at the polls last fall President Reagan even after the assassination attempt, refers to "fellow N R A members" and repeats that he docs not wish to deprive the public of its guns Admittedly, nobody wants criminals to have guns hut pullin' disarmament finds little success at the polls Fact No. 2: Gun Control m America is a C ost y F allure. The Bureau ot Meohol Tobacco, and Fit e.u nis i .one into existence in 1968 after the assassinations of .tohn and Roller Kennedy and Martin Luther King. RATF was built on the idea of preventing dangerous people from obtaining guns. This was to he accomplished hy licensing all gun dealers and prohibiting them mm releasing guns to any person unless he first claimed he was not an accused or convicted criminal, insane, a drug or alcohol addict, an alien, a loreign sympathizer, a dishonorably disc harged soldier, etc. The law naively ignores the likelihood that one might deny being a criminal to obtain a gun. BATF is helpless to control the ino million guns already in circulation and that one might buy one of these Loin the classified section of any new spaper nr elsewhere - wilhout affidavits I'edeial licensees now share the disgust and frustration over the mass ot eosllv. elaborate meaningless documents that they have had to accumulate and keep jwrmanently on file Tbev complain that pari at gun control is realiv . I i destined to lose the puhhc's support We il never know if that World War II example holds water, of course, because the modem gadgetry of television news had not been invented then. But what Westmoreland appears to he afraid of is that, with television cameras present, the U S. will never again he elr-troni- no control at all. In the years since 1968, the author has acted on over 40.000 BATF gun releases and recalls only one man who failed to qualify to possess the gun he desired, according to his affidavit. The following day his wife, who qualified, picked up the gun. Is this control'1 It is not surprising that the Reagan administration is withdrawing financial suppori from BATF. Most of its personnel have now been fired and many of the survivors of the cuts are being transferred to othpr government agencies. It is likely the survivors will attempt to prolong the old law that has proven to he without merit. The state of Utah did not take so long to realize that its hand gun registration law provided only unorganizable records. When the custodians of the records admitted the records had served no useful purpose, the Utah law was repealed and fhe records disposed of. two years ago. Observations and Recommendations: 1. Since it is obviously impossible to prevent a criminal from obtaining a gun. when 100 million are outstanding, we must make the possession of a gun by a criminal so costly that he disarms himself. This can he done by enforcing the present federal law which provides that using a gun in the commission of a crime is punishable by al least one year in prison and repeat offenses at least five years, with no judge having the power to alter or reduce the penalty. 2. All criminals should he required to pay restitution for all losses of their victims, before paying fines. Wanton destruction often accompanies crime. Jail sentences should guarantee restitution to the victim of the crime. The needs of the courts and society are secondary. 3 Laws of resistance to criminals should lie to more vigorously favor ihe defender instead of the criminal A prison survey showed criminals fear possible rests tance more than all the laws Keeping this fear high is important. 4. Every person and business should realize the initial responsibility is his to reduce the crime potential to the minimum Die Miami ' police chief said it correctly. Protect yourself the police usually arrive in time to make out the reports." 5. Strengthen the laws against harboring a known criminal. There is too much false loyalty to criminals and too many reluctant witnesses. Concealing a criminal is criminal itself. full-scal- Ax. Ak 6. C riminals (and aggressor nations) prefer to the- weak or undefended. Tyrannical attack governments first disarm their own citizens, of the people" ceases and government Presently in Poland, a few guns dominate the unarmed 36 million people and make life intolerable. Our unpubhrized citizen-powe- r is a deterient to the criminal and could make America a show place for Ime democracy. 7, The home should be Ihe first bastion o( support for ihe young, the needy and the unemployed Relatives should not tie forced to to live. Parents should he held more ( nine accountable for damages crp.a'ed hy fheim inv enile children 8 Aery household should jienndicallv examine ; .elf and disarm itself or guns or dangerous articles if that household contains children or unstable adults who might bo a danger to themselves or otl.c rs. In solving the twin problems of crime and gun control, any action should he geared to prevent crime All perpetiators of crime must realize that the first element of justice is full followed hv the u:ua' other restitution riminal penalties. Siecondly. all possessors of guns must know hat there are unalterable severe penalties involved when guns are used in the commission of crime. c Max Raffertv Teachers Bargaining Lays an Egg Los Angeles Times Syndicate My. my! It seems like whole geologic eons that weve heen Niagaraed with statistics, data, pleas and propaganda from the great teachers' unions, chanting and intoning the vir- tues nay. the absolute for collecnecessity tive bargaining and strikes if their members were to avoid starvation, penury and downright degradation And now, lo! ft seems lhat collective bargaining for teachers has laid the biggest egg since the extinetion of the dinosaurs. A recent scholarly study by University of Pittsburgh Professor Richard Wynn, as reported by the education journal Phi Doha Kappan," winds up with this veritable bombshell of a conclusion: "The effect of collective bargaining on teacher salaries has heen thoroughly rescue ched With few exceptions, this body of research indicates that bargaining does NOT have a substantial impact on the compensation level of teachers." Yes. Virginia, that means that it doesn't get teachers more pay. As said at the beginning: "Mv. my!" Recause that's exactly the opposite of what the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers and the ineffable Albert Shanker and all the serried ranks of educational bureaucrats have heen hollowing into our ears for the past 20 years. In fact, trom 1960 to 1980 there occurred the vast mushrooming of teacher union bargaining, while during those same two decades teachers got what Wynn refers to as a smaller and smaller cut of the national economic pie." In other words, w hile teacher pay grew ever more slowly than per capita income, bargaining grew ev er more ubiquitous and intense. I can hear the unions now. screaming like wounded Panthers that there is not necessarily a cause relationship between the two phenomena They're right, of course Rut as the national the hard fact remains that Government Union Critique" wryly remarks "teacher bat gaming couldn't stop the relative decline in teacher pay compared to other people's pay " Wynn, however, went one step further He divided the states where teacher bargaining is intensive bargain legal into two categories: " To his ing" and "unintensive bargaining probable amaCMiient. he found that both pay growth and pay averages were much greater in the "unintensive" stales than in Ihe intensive ones Wynn's bloc ktiuster fmdiogs are bulwarked and supported hy a similar study made tn the Public Service Research Council, and fils rone lusion is repeated There seems to he no reasonable doubt that - Ivml collective v pf all 'Is g :ud" pi""'' in ticcs ot 1 is a real strikes, picketing and had language turkey. Where, now. does this leave the NEA and the AFT? Up the well known creek without a paddle, that's where. For the past two decades and more, bargaining has become the he al! their of the teacher unions and the end-al- l "raison d'etre. if I may show off my limited French. But if all their highly expensive huffing and puffing down through the years has failed to put any little pigs in the pot. then what the devil good are these bastions of bureaucracy, these these fortresses of donjons of futiiity? In nervous deference to any possible teacher union hit squads that might he looking malignly due-raisin- s There, fellows. Does that make amends'1 You mustn't mind me. Ju-- t keep laving that old hype mi all my colleagues, and maybe thev won't even notice how funrtinniess you've suddenly tcome. Anything is possible with educators Cnpvright i Changing Careers Is Not Only for The Y oung Universal Press Syndicate The lot ol the tvpical American is a happier one than it was a century ago. or even 50 years ago. Most of us are living longer and enjoying lile more than past generations did. Me also have more choices as to how we will spend our lives. Many retired persons are choosing to return to wot k today. Undoubtedly today's high cost ot living is a factor, but there is more to it than that. Most are happy just to be hack on a job. Some even try a new vocation, while others arc going hack to their old jobs. Information from Ihe U S Bureau of the Census shows lhat there arc approximalelv 46 million Ameru ons above the age of 65; most of that number enjoy good health and are eager to n turn to work and-effeet I m my direction, I'll let my readers supply the answer to that last question. I'll even temper Professor Wynn's negative verdict hy one 'nconf rovertibly positive effort which said unions invariable have. They are mighty, mighty good for the pencil pushing, paper slud Teg. convention-attendinbureaucrats who draw those fat union salaries. Boh Walton I was several months ago that Ben 1. Spurloi k of Indianapolis wrote that he wa-- . taking early retirement as (4 March after 33 years with the National Cash Register Co Dm mg Ins career with the company he had winked up tn heroine district manager ol retail sides m central Indiana Spurlock was not leaving to take another He was job or to lead a life of retirement turning to a new profession, and had already enrolled in the I 'diana University Sch a! of Law in Indianapolis! "The Ird willing, I will complete my studies and take the Indiana Rar examinations in P tx j " he wrote in a loiter sent to friends to xplain his derision Going to law school now gives me the opixirtunitv ot attempting what wa then my sec ond ( hoicr am excited iilvuit this new opportundv lor " a e to being 'd c'C'ir, t ais cr i wed 1 -- c f k c war effort able to c arry out a If you allow television to visit a war at will, you can expect the people at home to reject that war. That's what West more land - afraid of and well he shone'1 he Increase Penalties for Gun- - Related Crimes Pro-gunne-rs Dean E. Van Wagenen. 445 W. Center St.. Provo, owner of Van Wagenen Finance Co. and also a bail bondsman. The author's views 1 im- Common Carrier n Opinions expressed in Common Carrier do not necessarily reflect those of The Salt Lake Tribune or the Common Carrier board of lay editors. Articles in this department are determined by the lay board, which works independently of Tribune reportorial or editorial policies. The Common Carrier hoard, representing a cross section of the community, is composed of .lames E Dooley. Salt Lake County coordinator of employment opportunity; Paul A Mogren. University of Utah Marriott Library reference librarian: Tim Lice, public relations director. Utah AFL-CIOJohn Gloried, a retired Army colonel, and Mrs. Gwen Ifovey, a ( i ( worker and League of Women Voters member. The board socks articles from all segments of the community. Articles need not he professionally prepared, hut must he less than four pages ot double-sparetype copy. They should pertain to the economic, political or social wellbeing of the Intermouniain Area. Articles should he timely, have unity of purpose, a central theme, promote dialogue and he challenging. Material should h Common Carrier. Tin Tribune. P.O. Sfii Salt Lake City. Utah 41 W. jKH 4r c . Editor's note: Today's Common Carrier article was written by tJf fi ; n Dean E. Van Wagenen Businessman and Bondsman 18, 1982 d 1 N V- - individuals and special organizations that have ureeut need for legal assistance. I am also anticipating lhat my 33 years of business experience should he of able in providing legal assistance to tjie local business community. "My son Brian plans to applv for law school :n January 1983. and bcpefuliy we shall prat tu e logethcr." In my reply I told him I had heen a newspaperman ail ol mv adult Ido, with the exception of several years when I held the public relations job tor the Stadrhaker Cnrp in South Rend. Ind After that joined a New Yoik newspaper syndicate, from which retired in 1968 ami moved to California. 1 1 Many readers of this column have svvitc hrri use. ills in ihe eai lier years of their ovations lives VV'r.at tin, writer needs now - more inlormaL.on on how housing new careers has chang'd thod whc.le i. testy ie and future outloc k. I wot, hi guess lb ,t most have found new greater challenges in their ippiness second lend ef endeavor. If you are one of them, or u you Know someone who Ids the r itegorv. jilc use tc li me the stoiw in a letter. Send it I" Boh Walton, in e ire of Universal Press Send. rate, it to Johnson Dr.. Fnirwnv. h Kan. 66206 ask ore thing ory rirase do not tell me ,.Vi,t p,a i,r :;.ns wK wcv - he kv enough " he L ,s nm thev t it e a ildhTrri m It. ' ire e I c aiei". mime h::t tha1 v ! r.itl it t. not male hr tiie voters I'hi tv. the re's a - |