| Show w c I Editorial D1c 237-201- 9 OD 1 1 I 111-rro- t-- I Public Opinion Is Conclusive: Sex Education Is Preferable A Salt Lake Tribune poll shows that percent of Utahns agree sex educa- n should be taught in public schools That should give the Utah State Board of Educator backbone to resist those who would delete explicit content from a new high school sex education course Such a strong public endorsement of sex education in the schools carries with it the implicit message that the human sexuality curriculum should be de-taUed thorough and comprehensive at least for teen-ag- e students 7' That conclusion is buttressed by an' other finding of the Pribitrie poll show- ing 67 percent of those questioned ::' agree that teachers should be allowed to - ' discuss the use of condoms as a means of birth control and to reduce contagion ' ' of sexually transmitted disease This finding suggests that legislators should consider revising current Utah law which presently allows teachers to discuss condoms — or any other form of contraception — only after obtsisting 86 - - ' - ” - r parental consent Since the entire issue of contracep on long has been taboo in Utah schools it is hard to imagine that the majority of people who endorse teaching about condoms y'ould disapprove of educators discussing less controversial elements of sexuality In this context it is clear that those who object to innocuous elements of the pro posed high school curriculum such as erplicit anatomical diagrams contained in a teacher's rosrual are seriously out of step with prevailing public opinion It's a safe bet that poll respondents endorse sex education because they are aware of some disturbing facts They two-thir- 1 ds probably know that studies show about half of adolescents who are 17 or older engage in sexual activity and smaller percentages of even younger people do too They also know that unplAnned pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases both are riving at And alarming rates among teen-agethey know that because of AIDS indiscriminate unprotected sex can be ies bodied them He arrived in the United States shortly after the turn of the centm7 the son of illiterate SicIan peasants When be died at 94 last week be was one of directhe best known and most tors in American cinema history Many of Frank Capra's film' championed the virtues of the common man as they prevailed against migfortunes generated by both strengths and weaknesses peculiar to America's economic political and cultural dynamics His movies were sometimes criticized as but overly sentimental "Capra-corn- " more often they were praised for their se-mi- red - outspoken honesty and technical craftsmanship Some — It Happened One Night- "Mr Deeds Goes to Town" -- You Can't Take It With You" "Mr Smith Goes to ' - The debate promises to be lively as confirmation hearings for US Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas get under way Tuesday A television commercial preceding the formalites is more than lively Its reprehensively vicious politically arid largely irrele- vent but worse dangerous by implication That the reactionary ConserTative Victory Committee would support the Thomas nomination is understandable That it does so in such a manner is not as tolerable mean-spirite- d Rather than trumpet the candidate's abilities and achievements the CVC in a paid TV spot rabidly attacked three US Senate Democrats two of whom sit On the committee responsible for moving the Thomas nomination to the Senate for a full membership vote If this is supposed to marshal public opinion it's rank demagoguery Selecting certain personal transgressions either alleged against or acknowledged by Sen Alan Cranston and the two Judiciary Committee memand bers Sens Joe Eiden Sen Edward Kennedy DMass the commercial contends they arent entitled to pass on the Supreme Court qualifications of Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Thomas In explaining this sordid tactic CVC spokesman L Brent Bozell III quixotically argued the commercial sends the "radical left a lif message" 7 A message saying what? Thal the character assas CVC is a nasty gaggle of Millt ri 711 IbiE lir q RE S (41:77: ) IS It WW Washington" and "It's A Wonderful Life" — are acknowledged classics A proud individualist be fought and won battles for artistic control of his films and be managed to satisfy his yen to make movies featuring socially relevant themes This led him to found his own production company Liberty Films It was a short-liveventure but d one of his finest creations "It's a Wonderful Life" was released under its banner He was a genuine patriot and his "Why We Fight" series made during World War II graphically attests to his love of country and democracy Most revealing are comments from friends fellow workers and acquaintances accounts describing a genial guy easy and pleasant to be with Sort of reminds you of heroes memorialized in his films sins more enamored of intimidation than persuasion? It is obvious that Mr Boren and the CVC are strl wincing from the defeat of Robert Bork z Supreme Cowl nominee they particularly adored Sens Eiden Kennedy and Cranston joined several others to scuttle the Bork nomination But even in that using TV spots the prevailing opposition disputed legal positions previously articulated by Mr Bork They may have exaggerated or misconstrued in some instances but they didn't personally attack senators endorsing the nominee That's where the excess in this matter oozes The CVC commercial doesn't champion Judge Thomas's opportunity In become a US Supreme Court jus-tice It scurrilously challenges the rad- right to dispute the nomination Mr Bozell admits be offered to pull the TV spot if those opposing Judge Thomas agreed to end all their public objection Incredibly he's unfazed at how much that confession makes himself and the CVC look like political hostag- e-takers The Thomas nomination must succeed or fail depending on bow good a Supreme Court justice be would be What those senators obliged to make that decision may or may not have done themselves has absolutely no bearing on the procedure Condorimg that sort of distortion would accommodate threats to the US government and the countrys polilks by the worst sort of influences "The phrase 'Congress stall make DO law' is composed of plain words easily understood" —Justice Hugo Blatt iS6-197- 1 t!' j (N1 1) i 1i N RV) yatp mt? - L -H ' c N 1Q 7 - 2 : -- - - - '4 c Irc I LI l'64::: 111111K 1 jr--1 P 1 1 A4 ftit f - ik N ' ' lik t tir7 :447:it:141i i444 ' si Z)11Eick? 1 will ter 131z -- 1: ø191k ' Olt ?kW( 1"1 1c‘fcr t 11 - : : ::' Nt 7--- It's more difficult to explain why only 44 percent of poll respondents statewide agreed that sex edutaton should be mandatory for all public school students A good guess is that the word -- mandatory" immediately offends a reverence for choice in a free society especially as it applies to a subject as sensitive as classroom sex education However education in many other school subjects from English to mathematics is mandatory People don't object to that they demand it None of those studies is more critical to a person's lifelong happiness than sexuality In fact a majority of people questioned in Salt Lake Davis and Weber counties said that sex education should be required of all students A majority of Utahns in other counties disagreed No public opinion poll should be considered definitive nor should it dictate public polity Utahns will continue to disagree about some aspects of sex education What the state School Board must not lose Sight of however is that most Utahns' support for a meaningful human sexuahty curriculum is solid and extremists must riot be allowed to derail it ical left's" NA711-- - 7 1 deadly No Help for Thomas - It'll? I 1 - rs Frank Capra Frank Capra didn't just make movcelebrating American ideals be em- rILrrl SUINDAY September 8 1991 "TR Zfitattrakttfribant — v - --- - Time to Get Smart — Pun Plug on CIA By Vincent Cannistraro FOR THE WASHINGTON -taking are in decline but the gray areas" problem is growing — those areas of the world outside international access or even national authority The Sudan the Andes Ethiopia the Sahara the Himalayas ard Central Asia are evArrples There is increacirg control by gruerrillas involved in the production of the illegal drngs flooding into the United States and Western Europe Intelligence colledion and the preen? bon of narcotics trafficking have been des ficient to the point where some in the United States base given arm of the CIA is stiM in search of a vital mission after the collapse of The omit evidently lacks- a vision of bow to adapt to a rapidly changing world and is ill eqttipped to deal with the problems of the 21st century It is time to confront the core question: Is the CIA relevant in the contemporary world? Conflict wM be as much a bar 771Ark of tbe 21st century as it has been of this one but the nature of the threats continues to metamorphose with nuclear proliferaca tion biological- - and chemical-v-a:flarpability narcotics production technology transfer and economics issues as national-securit- y coricerna Requirements on the capabilites of stategic and tactical nuclear weapons yin remain matters of vital concern whether the focus is the Sosiet Union China or the Third World Monitoring arms control continue to be a necessary intelligence function But all of these activities can be managed outside the POST Marizism-Lerinis- WASHINGTON — Recent international events have rendered the CIA an obsolete tool of national security policy The CIA should be disbanded and its necessary functions spun off to the rest of the national security bureaucracy The intelligence community at the center of which is the CIA is a result of the 1947 National Security Act devised in response to threats from an international enviromnent that no longer exists Its initial justification was to draw intelligenee under one centralized authoilty to avoid the catastrophe represented by the Japanese stack at Pearl Harbor avben critcal intelligente vas not disseminated to key ers policy-ma- k But the community grew from its 1947 roots without a grand design and intelligence responsibilities were increavirgly defined by parochial interests with the result that duplication is a major problem Articulated threats to natiorial security in the years since 1947 included the attempts of Soviet communism to extend hegemony over Europe and later large parts of the Third World As the nature of the threats changed and the challenges to democracy shifted the basic stri icture of the intelligence community has survived m policy-maker- e v-i- What can be done? Sea Dariel Patrick -ornihan introduced the Cold War Ad of 1991- - which would subsume the CIA's intelligence collection responsibilities under the Department of State It is a start The removal of the KGB as a serous threat is removing many of the imperatres behind the CIA's intelligence open-tonThird World political and economic collection can be more coherently managed from the State Department Military intelligence is far better collected by the Pentagon and its service organizations The political and diplomatic can continue to aspects of be professionally handled by the State Department's Counter Terrorism Office The CIA's paramilitary capabilities hare belonged in the Pentagon for several years and now that Special Operations has found delayed recognition from the Joint chiefs the time to move that mission ll fu- ture conflicts in the Third World might be and it is apparent that CIA intelligence support to the US military is wanting Part of the recent reorganization of anti-terroris- m the Pentagon's intelligence infrastructure has been in recognition that the military have to support its own intelligence requirements Beyond the reduction in intelligence requirements conditioned by the striwtaral changes in the Soviet Union the emerinternational-securit- y gence of a mult-pola- r environment will require expansion of political and military intelligence collection in areas where CIA has focused insufficient resources International terrorism and hostage intact Large resources have been devoted to the analysis of the Soviet politcal and railitary dynamic to uncertain result Acadernia and think tanks specializ–ing in Soviet studies have at least an equal record in forecasting significant trends and dnvelopments in the Soviet Union Some have done better despite the lack of access to sensitive intelligence data The clandestine services the operating SU: te pr en to tel be be er s CU The Gulf War demonstrated what Ar is now Vincent Ounnistraro Is former chief of for the CU and former director of Intelligente at the National counter-terroris-m Secwrity ye al ca ti te wi ar tb Sc or le at le Sr Jc to te IE fe lii A Sobering Coup for Those Drunk With Power tt c IC s 11 t 73: '41k t A iiiii s 15--- - j'N---- - k '''7- 2 1 - fc' - f- iat kk 1 f 11 ' 7"::'' ' alillik - i ' 1- - Li By Theo Lippman 1r THE EALTIMOKE SUN BALTIMORE — At the Tehran conference in 1943 President Franklin D Roosevelt intioduced Soviet Premier Josef Stalin to the gin martini -How do you Lke it!" FDR asked "WeIL all right- - said Uncle Joe "but it is cold on the stomach" IDR bears some responsibility for this lack of enthusiasm He always used too much vermouth Stalin went borne and told everybody to keep on drinking straight li'odka In 1956 President Eisenhower served good strong martinis at the Gene a summit Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin loved them At a dinner be stood ip and said "I propose a toast to the martini vItich President Eisenhower introduced and of which I have become so fond President Eisenhower opened the martini road at Geneva" Unfortunately Bulganin didn't stay in office long enough to lead his country down that road That is why last month itilli Ci: IIII 1 II 117:: r ti 1 t - r 1 olA x ' ea 11 1 - slit"' 4Ce e 114 —- c s ) - Ar: - 45 the putsch in Moscow failed Many of the guys attempting it were drinking vodka straight warm and in large quantities Vice President Gennady Yanayev and Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov were drunk at a party when they were called to the Kremlin for the emergency meeting at which the fateful decision was made It failed because thahks— to man Lowell Edmunds author of "The Silver Bullet" martini drinkers know the name of their favorite drink and the concept of unsweetened gin mixed with dry d vermouth 1910 by at least a decade and perhaps three and Rockefeller had nothing to do with it s leader Vernon E Jordan Jr writes in the Wall Street Journal that he was seated next to a man on an airplane who "after his first martini advised me that black people had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps After bis third I asked a few questions- The questioning revealed to the man that be had been lifted up by the GI Bill SBA and FHA loans in just the way "affirmative-action" advocates want to assist blacks He seems to have been convinced but polls show most white Americans are not which is why we keep having Republican presidents Hmmmm Maybe if the Democrats get everybody to drink three martinis on Election Day pre-date- Civil-right- They and several of their stayed boozed up through most of the week drinking bottle after bottle of vodka When Yanayev was arrested he was passed out on Lis office floor which was Lttcred with several "large" empty vodka bottles Margaret Bowler sent me an article from Bon Appetit in which the claim is made that the martini was first mixed for and named by John D Rockefeller room-temperatur- e That is absolutely not true The story was probably planted by the Rockefeller interests in the hopes of getting the best and brightest behind the presidential campaign of John D Rockefeller IV When it failed to do that be decided not to run I t 1 — ii 4 1 Ito 1 S 1 |
