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Show The Salt Lake Tribune, Wednesday, November 21, I I 1!H2 The Public Forum Tribune Readers Opinions Winner For Sure fuel. If the Pulitzer Prize Committee ever creates a category for Insipid Reporting, the Tribunes society page will win hands down. Having read this section for the first time (I tend to skip the society page like I skip ads for Christmas items in October), I am confident I will never allow my eyes to stray that way again. Surely I did not read that Dr. and Mrs. Social Club dined leisurely while Monsieur Maitre D made sure everything was in order, and Tiddly Wink brought a guest to a wine tasting gala. What kind of palaver is this? Sorry, but I have to agree with the Valley Girls on this one gag me with a spoon! SHERYL D. GILLILAN know that I get impatient and so long, and because of this I may make a rash decision when I shouldnt) causing an accident STEPHEN GRADY OGREN Sandy (go for he says they have accomplished their objectn e completely by forcing our allies to their granting of merely agree to credit to Russia without having accomplished any change in the Polish oppression "God (and Mr Reagan) move in mysterious ways Their wonders to perform." DANIEL P ATWOOD k Mysterious Ways Here Mr. Reagan has had us believing all along that his sanctions were Liked the Show e Forum Rules Public Forum letters must be submitted exclusively to The Tribune and bear writers full name, signature and address. Names must be printed on political letters but may be withheld for good reasons on others. Writers are limited to one letter every 10 days. Preference will be given to short, typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of the writers true name. All letters are subject to condensation. Mail to the Public Forum, The Salt Lake Tribune, Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah, Needs a Light A I frustrated when I have to wait left turn signal light at the intersection of 13th East and Fort Union Boulevard would be very beneficial. In two days (Nov. 5 and 6 I have seen accidents here that might have been prevented if there was either a sensor or a full time left turn signal. As it is now it may take four changes of the light just to make a left turn. Because of this drivers may have to idle their engines for as much as four minutes which wastes 84110. targeted at the Soviet oppression in Poland. Now he tells us that in reality they have been targeted against our allies in NATO, Terry Ormes Nov 10 review of the Werner Herzog film Fitzcarraldo was flawed He criticizes the spectacular abstractions of (the) film and equates it to an "endurance test with little payoff." Orme seems to ignore the fact that this is precisely where Herzogs genius lies Werner Herzog is one of the few directors around who can create "spectacular abstractions that are profound and complete in and of themselves. Fitzcarraldo" is no exception, no aberration, in this directors body of brilliant work. Aristotles "Ethics contains the following passage that is applicable to Fitzcarraldo; every virtue or excellence both brings into good condition the thing of which it is the excellence and makes the work of that thing be done well. Fitzcarraldo successfully draws one into a vast expansiveness that, for me, has no hint of an "endurance test " The review also was critical of the films illogical, comical ending " I hold quite the opposite is true Though not perfect, the ending of this film is, for once, one without an ending neatly resolved and packaged for the viewer The fact that it is comical and unexpected (but in accordance with the nature of the Fitzcarraldo character played by Klaus Kinski) is a tribute to both Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski I highly recommend this film MARK REX Bountiful Insurance Move I feel I must comment on President Reagan's uncanny timing in announcing that Utah would not be receiving Federal Disaster Assistance for the damage done in last months floods. Could it be just a coincidence that this announcement came the day after election day? Could it have had something to do with the fact that a Republican senator (Hatch) and a Republican congressman (Marriott) were up for reelection Maybe so. Im not saying that these men wouldnt have been reelected, but maybe a few of the flood victims would have thought twice about reelecting the men who are a part of the administration that denied them aid in an emergency I feel that w aiting until after the election to announce the denial of assistance was a terrible injustice done to the voting public HEIDI FAIRBANKS Still Care the midst of an economic situation that is publicized daily in our newspapers, right in the middle of record high unemployment, during a time when people arc afraid to buy products at their drug stores for fear of being poisoned, through all of this despair, a light has broken through to touch and warm our hearts This light is the liver transplant that was just performed on Jamie fiske The liver which was donated upon the death of a child belonging to a couple living in Alpine, Utah This light is, as a whole, people working together to save the life of someone who might otherwise not have had a chance for In life All in all, this episode with Jamie Fiske tells us that all is not hopeless People still do care about others in a humanitarian sense, and that there is still hope and happiness for mankind GREG DODGE Joseph Kraft Reagans Slow Recovery Plan Carries a High Price Tag Los Angeles Times - WASHINGTON long and deep recession continues to get worse. There follows a tightly linked chain of adverse consequences high unemployment, overcapacity, low investA ment, protectionist pressure and a global financial squeeze. The Reagan ad- ministration has elected to manage all these problems through a policy of gradual recovery. The serious question r- - Kraft is whether the cluster of difficulties does not require a far more ambitious economic stimulus. Slow economic growth is the basic difficulty. Cross national product has been virtually flat since 1979. A big dip at the beginning of this year was followed by a tiny uptick. The third quarter was flat, October was down, and November looks worse. Most economists do not see recovery boginning until next year. High unemployment goes with slow growth. Since the labor force is expanding, it takes growth of about 2.5 percent annually just to keep the jobless rate level. With negative growth, the October unemployment figure hit a postwar record of 10.4 percent. A good guess is that the number will go higher when the November figures are announced on Dec. 3. Low use of capacity is kissing cousin to high unemployment. For workers are laid off only after machines become idle. The latest figures for September show the industrial plant running at 68.4 percent of capacity. That is the lowest level since the figures began to be collected in 1942. Investments inevitably decline when there is large overcapacity. When spare stuff is lying around, businessmen do not build new plant and equipment. Indeed, one of the true lessons of Reaganomics is that the supply-sid- e tax cut, with its lucrative incentives for business investment, did not outweigh the negative drag of overcapacity. It takes a climate of growth, in other words, for tax incentives to work. Protectionist pressures derive directly from low investment in such industries as The Way It Was Here are the briefs of The Salt Lake Tribune from 100, 50 and 25 years ago. Nov. 24, 1882 The question is unsettled in the mind of the reporter who visited the Holy Cross Hospital yesterday, as to the act of administering charity being by far nobler and worthier of praise than the act of bestowing it? This forcibly strikes one who has the least feeling and who thinks back to the happy days when a loving mother or a kind sister watched his sick-be- d caressed the brow of an ailing brother. To see the affectionate care in which all are treated at the hospital; the motherly patience exercized, and the sweet and gentle way exerted on suffering patients, is enough to recommend the Sisters and their institution to more liberal endowments from the rich. Nov. 24, 1932 A drum-stic- k scepter and a wishbone crown will demand obeisance tomorrow while the nation commemorates the simple thansgiving of the Pilgrims on bleak New England shores three centuries ago. In the quiet of the home dinner talbe and the peace of family firesides, the great, the near-greand the rest of America will gather to express gratitude for the years rewards and forget its rigors in the hope of brighter days ahead. draws to a close . . . This Thanksgiving the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the first presidents birth. Nov. 24, 1957 administrations program to develop atomic power plants has reached acritical The cross-road- s. the doors were opened to private development of atomic power in 1954 has such pessimism prevailed over attaining economic power from nuclear energy. The first flush of enthusiasm which followed the passage of the 1954 atomic energy law has worn off. Economic nuclear power looks far more distant and more costly than commonly supposed. Not since i , steel and machine tools. For when investment is low, innovation slows and relative costs go higher. Foreign companies undersell American competitors, and labor and business both begin screaming as they for protection against the have recently foreigners. Indeed, the pressure is now so great that the big meeting of trade ministers in Geneva this week can at best hope to stave off a heavy dose of new protectionism. Global financial crisis threatens because of all the above conditions. With demand low, and protectionist barriers gowing up, total foreign trade has been sinking. Developing countries which borrowed big to like Brazil and Mexico and grow cannot earn enough to pay off Argentina their debts. And there is a danger of massive default, with incalculable consequences. The way to ease all these problems is to stimulate economic growth, and two well beaten paths to that end exist. First, there is fiscal stimulus through a tax cut or an increase in government spending. But the huge budget deficits looming ahead deficits of over $150 billion annually crimp that possibility. For the heavy deficits, by increasing demand for money, hold interest rates high. The high rates reduce capital spending, and thus abort recovery. The other way to stimulate growth is through action by the Federal Reserve Board. The Fed could increase money supply while holding down interest rates. Easy money on good terms would bring consumers back into the market with a rush. As buying picked up, business and employment would also take off, creating the conditions for new investment and a relatively rapid recovery. Smce interest rates would be held down, there would even be room for a little fiscal stimulus. No doubt there would be a cost in inflation. But with capacity running at 68 percent, and unemployment at over 10 percent, there is plenty of slack to be absorbed before demand for labor and goods begins to drive up wages and prices. So with inflation now running at about 5 percent annually, the worst would be an increase in the rate of about a point or two in the next couple of years. The administration has deliberately set its face against big monetary stimulus for a quick recovery. It is assuming that the economy will start to rebound on its own. It is concentrating on keeping the recovery moderate by cutting down deficits, the better to keep inflation and interest rates tending downward. While growth picks up efforts slowly, there will be small, one-shto deal with unemployment, investment, protectionism and global financial squeeze. Raymond Coffey Reagan Needs to See Cards Before Betting Chicago Tribune WASHINGTON Its going to be exciting, I think, to see the look on President Reagans face when they tell him we had an election on Nov. 2 and his party took a beating. I wish I could be there. Everyone else here, and across the country, seems to have caught up with the news. Certainly Sen. Howard Baker has, and Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Trent Lott and South Dakota Gov. William Janklow and House Minority Leader Bob Michel, especially, in fact, Michel who barely survived politically. Like the president, they are Republicans all. But they also have clearly heard and read the message of Nov. 2. Reagan seems to have tuned out. He seems also to think he can proceed with his economic program now just as if there had been no election. He is wrong. But neither he nor you has to take my word for it. Just listen to some of the political heavy hitters in his own party. And keep in mind there is going to be an even bigger election t&o years down the road, in 1984. Take last week, for instance. Reagan and his Treasury secretary floated the idea of speeding up next years income tax cut, from July 1 to Jan. 1, despite the fact the administration is already heading for a federal deficit next year in the $180 billion to $200 billion range. Reagan summoned his partys congressional leadership to the White House to talk about it. I just said we dont have the to push the presidents notion votes Michel said, adding that Congress, thn.'gh even many Republicans would not buy the idea. Reagan seems not to be entirely aware that his party now has 26 fewer seats in the House than it did before Nov. 2. The president last week also stiffened his stand on his proposed defense budgets, totaling $1.6 trillm" over five years, and he said further cuts in government spending should be made in domestic programs. Domenici, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, however, thinks and says the presidents defense spending plans have to be cut. Baker and other leading Republicans on Capitol Hill think the same thing So do powerful business groups, which do not tend to be Democratic. Its a new ballgame since the election. At a meeting among themselves last week, House Republican leaders let it be known they are going to insist on a stronger voice for themselves from here on out. And the White House is going to have to listen. Lott, for instance, a Mississippi conservative, No. 2 Republican in the House, and a staunch hawk on defense, said: Its a matter of whats economically possible. We cant afford everything wed like to (on defense) and I say that as a heavily laden hawk. The president and his people are big on and principle "staying the course consistency and and the mandate they feel they were given m 1980. Curtailing future tax cuts, Reagan said last week, would amount to showing the white flag of surrender to big spenders," and compromise must not mean incremental retreat on principle. Okay. Fine. Sounds great. But you can only play the hand youre dealt. And the voters on Nov. 2 pretty deliberately dealt Reagan a weaker hand. He doesnt seem, though, to have looked at his cards yet. Mike Royko One Persons Man Is Perhaps Another Mans Person Chicago As a reformed male chauvinist pig, Im always working at being a modem, sensitive, caring male. Sun-Tim- Through self-disciplin- e, Ive purged my vocabulary of offensive words, such as broad, broadie, fluff, dame, babe, doll, chick, bird and bimbo, and no longer use them to refer to females. to work. On the elevator, I overheard a conversation in which one of the people was saying: "Man alive, I told him . . . Ive taught myself remain modern women and said. "Sexist. You Person alive. Then I stopped in at the entertainment section and told an editor: I think we should start printing the proper names of some of the movies and plays we list in the paper. I unflinch- ingly calm when ottoperson, I could feel my consciousness rising faster and faster. Sure, we now take certain phrases, such as chairperson and spokesperson, for granted. But there are so many others lie Old Man Winter that have not yet been corrected. I was still thinking about Old Person Winter the next morning when I arrived at Mr. Kmko swear a blue streak in my presence. I no longer leer at attractive women, or refer to parts of their anatomy as gams or bumpers. Its a constant learning process. Why, just the other evening I learned something new. While watching Linda Yu broadcasting the news on TV, I heard her say they would be back in a moment with the weather and a report on "Old Person Winter. Immediately my consciousness was raised. Old Person Winter," she had said All these years, I've been saying "Old Man Winter without realizing that it apparently was a sexist phrase Sitting there, with my feet on my interrupted should have said: Such as? Such as Person from La Mancha. Person from La Mancha? Right. And Superperson, Batperson and the Person for all Seasons. As well as The Marathon Person and The Quiet Person And Person with the Golden Arm. And, of course, The Person in the Iron Mask. The Person in the Iron Mask? Right Just raising your consciousness. I see." Later I bumped into another editor and I said: n talk? Could we have a Sure, he said. I think we should be more careful about some of the sexist phrases we use in the paper. For example? "Well, we could say that a suspect has been arrested on a charge of personslaugh-ter- . Or that the police have organized a personhunt. A personhunt? Sure. And I recently read a story about g the hunt for a tiger. It is, of tiger. course, a person-eatin- g "Oh. As I walked away, I said: By the way, thats a nice suit you have on. Is it wool or personmade fibers? person-to-perso- man-eatin- Wool. Very spiffy. You look like a real person-about-tow- Later, at lunch, I overheard two sports fans at the next table arguing the merits of football defensive tactics. I had to lean over and say: Excuse me, but I think that what you meant to say was that the zone defense is defense." superior to the He said: "Huh? When I returned to my office, I turned on the radio and enjoyed listening to two of my person-to-perso- favorite songs: Old Person River and "Cant Help Loving that Person of Mine. The announcer broke in with a report on the latest space shuttle and I thought of the immortal words that had been spoken on the moon: One small step for a person; one giant leap for personkind. As I left the building that evening, somebody said: Getting colder. Might snow. I said, pretty soon the there making a snowperson. Yes, be out kids will While I was having a beer later, an acquaintance came in and joined me Hes a city sewer inspector and he was rubbing the small of his back. Back bothering you? I asked "Yeah. From lifting all those manhole covers. I shook my head. You mean personhole covers. What? Personhole covers Those are what you lift He picked up his beer and headed for another part of the bar. As he w alked away, he said: That thing out m the street, thats a manhole. Then he pointed at me and said And you youre some kind of personhole You just cant raise some peoples consciousness. (Copyright) . |