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Show The Public Forum The Salt Lake Tribune, e g civil-serva- Did those gentlemen who introduced this bill cut their pay? Or did any member of the Congress? Who else out there is going to cut their allowance for the good of the economy? You can bet the answer will be no g one. So why did these rascals pick on only one segment of society? Because we are easy. They control us. There are an awful lot of civil servant and military retirees and I am sure we have clout. Lets use this clout and let these Congressmen know that when they start picking on someone, they had better pick on themselves first! HERBERT H. WOMBLE Woods Cross 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 reason 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, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. Questionable Base On Dec. 5, Gov. Bangerter was the guest on a locally broadcast questionanswer show. When questioned about the states unemployment insurance policies he mentioned his knowledge was limited on this complex issue. But he did not let the viewers escape the fact that the state had to borrow money from the federal government to meet its commitment to the unemployed. The loan he spoke of was needed to pay benefits between February and April of 1983. The necessity of that loan is easily understood. In 1982 there were more eligible claimants than had been recorded for any year in Utah to date (74,488). The total loan amount was $28.8 million. The reserve fund now swells to approximately $140 million, which is over twice the amount paid in benefits for the entire year of 1984. The insolvency of the program in early 1983 caused the legislation that changed the formula for eligibility for benefits and taxed the employer more, unless he could prove a rate. This legislation history of low lay-of- f also mandated that effective January 1986 the claimant's base period will consist of the first four of the last five completed quarters of covered earnings. I feel the eligibility formula change was a good move for the unemployed, but the tax increase has dipped into employees wages. Especially hit were wages in areas of employment such as construction, where layoffs are inevitable and therefore makes it impossible to maintain a low lay-of- f history. It is understandable that the new base period is necessary in order to have information compiled prior to a claim, but there is an administrative rule that prohibits a new claim for benefits for one year from any pre- - New York Times Service NEW YORK I hailed a cab in Manhattan the other day It was across the street and the driver nodded and blinked his lights in acknow ledgment Then another cab came along on my side of the street and stopped in front of me. I waved him on, having made my deal with the other cabbie. Then a woman in a mink coat opened the door of the cab across the street. I could see the taxi driver pointing to me, explaining that I had already hailed him, but the lady was adamant and the rule is the first one in ANTHONY S. NOE If Not King, Who? If Martin Luther King doesn't deserve a holiday who or what does? Is a new year any more deserving of a holiday? After all, every day is a new year for someone, somewhere. Do veterans deserve a holiday anymore than Martin Luther King? He fought a war as important as any other. We honor our labor forces and the dead, are they any more deserving? The U.S. government set aside a day to honor Martin Luther King. Utah needs to recognize this holiday along with the rest of the nation. MARK GARFIELD U.S. Must Leave Philippines Harper Not Dillon Now Before Terry Orme, in his fine article on Sterling VanWagenen, the Utah producer responsible for "The Trip to Bountiful, mistakenly ascribed that film's scenarist, Horton Foote, with having adapted To Kill a Mockingbird" to the screen from Lee Dillons novel. Hes only half right. Foote did indeed do g the screenplay, but the Pulitzer novel was written by Harper Lee, not Lee Dillon. KEVIN AVERY Prize-winnin- Poisonous Ads If it were legal to sell sugar-coate- d arsenic, would it be advertised? Advertised not only in The Tribune, but across the country, so that young children and adults could be persuaded over a lifetime about how neat it is and how good it tastes? The only real difference between usage of tobacco products and sugar-coate- d arsenic is a few years delay in the effects of the tobacco. The general illness and death, the suffering families and grieving loved ones who follow in tobaccos wake are all too real. There is a precedent for restricting advertising of deadly, but legal products. Tobacco and hard liquor are not advertised on television and even beer is not allowed to be actually consumed on television. FRED M. CIVISH III West Valley reported here last month that the researchers at Little, Brown, the publisher of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," have nothing in their files indicating who originated the phrase, "if it aint broke don't fix it. I said I associated it with Bert Lance, but it might be older. Wells Mears, who keeps a sharp eye and ear out for trivia of this sort, writes to direct my and Little, Brown's attention to page 575 of Safires Political Dictionary. There, under the heading "Proverbs and Axioms, Political is this: agree completely with Sen. Metzen-bauthat Khadafy, having overtly and effectively declared and pursued war against the United States and the customs and safety of virtually all civilized nations, should be completely destroyed. There is good precedent for the good senator to end each and every speech he makes in the Senate with "Et Khadafy puto delenda est," until such time as that just objective is achieved. EUGENE A. STRATTON m "If it aint broke, dont fix it. Bert Lance, President Carter's Director of the Office of Management and Budget, on government reorganization." I bow to no one in my respect for William Safires book. I steal from it all the time. But Reagans C. New York Times Service Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of affairs, has been state for proclaiming the Reagan administration's success in promoting human rights and democracy in Central America." His talk is in evidently a prelude to a new hard sell administration for policy. Congress Abrams can rightly take satisfaction in activities some developments. Death-squaare down in El Salvador. An elected civilian afpresident has taken office in Guatemala ter years of military rule. But Abrams is not satisfied to note improvements. He refuses to see any flaws. He denies, for example, that Salvadoran refugees in the United States have any reason to fear for their lives if they are shipped home. He insists that anyone who expresses concern about human rights in the region must be motivated by cynical politics. A statement made in El Salvador last week, The New York Times reported, "condemned the indiscriminate bombing of civilians by the government air force." Did the statement come from some unregenerate n d in this case, I'll go along with Hubert L. Nolan, a retired Army colonel, of Lawrence-vill- absence of a government in Manila that is seriously committed to reforms, the On Feb. 7, Filipinos will vote in an -- ex- traordinary national presidential election. Few observers think that the election will be fair. ine The Philippines also faces a surgency led by a sophisticated guerrilla force known as the New Peoples Army. The NPA may control as much as 25 percent of the countrys villages, and is active in 59 of the 73 provinces. Its size and appeal continue to grow. If these trends continue, U.S. government intelligence reports suggest, the New People's Army will attain military parity with the Philippine armed forces within three years. The Philippines is important to the United States. U.S. private investment in the country totals more than $3 billion. The largest air and naval bases outside the continental United States are located on its territory. We pay nearly $1 billion in what is essentially rent for these bases, and we are planning to spend $1.5 billion more to upgrade them over the next three years. At the moment the New Peoples Army is only calling for an end to the U.S. presence, and is concentrating its efforts on fighting the Philippine army. But many observers think that the bases will shortly be targets of NPA attacks. to a All of this is known in Washington degree. In November, for example, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a frank and pessimistic report, the findings of which have been echoed by both the State Department and the Defense Department. The Senate report concluded that "in the full-scal- e, Ga. The phrase he writes was probably coined by a GI with a philosophical wit. During WW II the Army had developed for its vehicles a preventive-maintenanc- e program. At specified intervals the vehicles were taken into the shop for prescribed inspection which required a certain amount of tear down. These inspections were carried out regardless of the condition or performance of the vehicles. Ofttimes a vehicle running before the inspection started giving trouble after the inspection. After WW II when troops returned to garrison it became obvious to the man in the shop that preventive-maintenanc- e program was unduly costly and unnecessarily destructive. strength of the insurgency will continue to grow. . . Even with the most vigorous reform measures, it would take several years to reverse the tide of insurgency. The Philippines minister of Defense has said publicly that it will take 10 years to defeat the insurgency. U.S. officials appear fully aware of Philippine political, economic and military problems. But they are likely to be surprised by how quickly the situation worsens and hostility to the U.S. presence grows. Before the end of his term, it is not inconceivable that President Reagan could either lose the Philippine bases or lose American lives defending them. In the Philippines today the armed forces are not winning the war against the New Peoples Army. For the moment, the miliaccommodatary is making tions with local NPA commanders. But the U.S. bases are not part of those deals. So it is just a matter of time before they come under attack. When they do, Reagan will be faced with having to send in U.S. troops in an election year. The risk is that the administration will delay doing so, making the Marines jo, all the more difficult and dangerous wh i they are called on to intervene. The United States probably cannot avert a political or military crisis in the Philippines. Nor should we expect to have access to the bases indefinitely. The U.S. lease on these facilities, which are Philippine property, will expire in 1991. The opposition presidential candidate has already called for closing the bases in 1991 (as has the NPA), provided no other foreign power establishes a similar presence. Thus we should be taking steps now to prepare for that change. U.S. preparations should include substantial increases in security for the bases and the creation of a special reaction force close to the Philippines that could carry out an evacuation in an emergency. We also should begin a search for alternative base sites, and save the money planned for upgrading the present facilities. Relocation would be difficult and expensive, but it would be even more difficult and far more costly to wait until we are forced out by a revolution. . Allan E. Goodman, an associate dean at Georgetown Universitys School of Foreign Service, recently returned from a visit to Japan and Southeast Asia. The Late Khadafy? I Its Kicked Out By Allan E. Goodman Special to the Los Angeles Times Twice in the last 10 years American strategic interests have been hurt by rapid and radical political changes in countries with which we had a close relationship. In 1975 the government of South Vietnam collapsed in the face of a North Vietnamese military attack that unexpectedly ended the Vietnam War and led to the communization of Indochina. In early 1979 the Shah of Iran was forced to flee the country, and shortly thereafter Iran became engulfed in a wave of religious fundamentalism. In both cases the United States lost an ally and access to a geographically strategic country. In 1986 the United States faces a disaster of equal magnitude in the Philippines. President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife, Imelda, (estimated to be one of the wealthiest women in the world), and the nations Supreme Court frequently are accused of corruption; recently the court acquitted the armed forces chief of staff and 25 others accused of assassinating Marcos chief political rival after dismissing virtually all of the evidence that pointed to the generals guilt. If It Ain t Broke, Ask a GI The Baltimore Sun the cab gets it. The cabbie looked at me, shrugged, leaving me shivering in the wind and thinking about the sanctity of contracts. hasThat is what this multibillion-dolla- r sle among Texaco and Getty and Pennzoil is about. In all the hoo-h- a about insider trading, bankrupting appeal bonds and federal versus state court jurisdictions, a fascinating, everyday ethical issue is coming to the fore. To review the bids: Pennzoil made an offer to buy Getty. Gettys board voted to accept the offer, put out a release that the offer had been accepted in principle, and champagne was broken out all around. Then Texaco came along with a higher offer and Getty grabbed that. Pennzoil sued, saying it had a firm deal even if the contracts were not signed, and a Texas jury agreed; Texaco was then ordered to pay Pennzoil so many billions in damages that the company would be ruined. A federal judge has intervened, and appeals may take this company-bustin- g penalty to the Supreme Court. I think the local judge and jury blew their caps in deciding, in effect, to execute the corporate defendant for a first offense on a misdemeanor; the amount of damages is way out of whack (Draco lives). But the jury delivered corporate America a message that no wheeler-deale- r should forget: terms like honor and integrity and sayings like a mans word is his bond can rise up and clobber technical legal defenses. The issue: Do you have a contract when you do not yet have signatures on the dotted line? Can an agreement be said to be sealed with a handshake, before it has been signed and delivered? Apparently so, which is as it should be. If you say to someone, Ill pay you $5,000 for your car" and he assures you Its a deal, he i should not then be able to go off and sell it to , somebody else for $6,000. The business of drawing up the papers -- - ; lawyering, making it all legal" usefully codifies the agreement, reminds you that the car comes without a rumble seat, and puts in the what-if- s that avert or resolve problems later. But that refinement of the agreement "in principle should not be a device to allow the seller time to see if he can get a better deal elsewhere, or the buyer to look around to find the same car for less. It gets down to a question of trust. If we descend to a society that accepts sharp prae-- ' ' tice as the norm, then every contract will have to be in writing. When every verbal agreement is suspect, not only does honor become laughable and ethics erode, but capitalism becomes far less efficient. (I can sell this either way.) In a Texas courtroom, 12 simplistic, vin-- p j dictive, normal souls said That aint right,!, i thatll set an example to slick hang him lawyers everywhere. Let us hope the ap- ! peals process rectifies the excessive awanJ; at the same time, let all the junk-bonjunk-- . ; ies and managers,.! beware of selling ethical standards short. This episode might also strike a frisson of useful terror in the hard heartland of petti-foggery. I have done this computation my- - : self, and long division was never my strong,.! suit, but not counting the graduating class. of 1985 there exists one American lawyer for every 362 Americans, while there prac-tice- s one Japanese lawyer for every 10,150 Japanese. That is one reason Japan, Inc. is clobbering us; protectionism should start at the gates of our feckless factories of foren- - ., ; , , ( . ( d "' Senator Soaper Remember back when someone running through the neighborhood would have set off every dog? Youre getting old if you look forward to the last snowfall before the first. sics. Having a good vocabulary enables you to insult people and retain their friendship. The height of folly is taking on a kid at a video game. In the struggle to make ends meet, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between luxuries and necessities. I hope to continue to trust my car to The Man Who Wears the Star. I will trust him if his bosses learn to be trustworthy, if their word becomes their bond, if their spoken deals are rock-solideals, and if they relegate their lawyering to the back seat. If not critic of the Reagan administration? No, it was made by the archbishop of El Salvador, Arturo Rivera y Damas, and was read out in the national cathedral. During the same week a Reuters dispatch from San Salvador reported that two army officers, linked by Washington to right-win- g death squads and later sent into exile under United States pressure, have received promotions." And a United Press International disd patch began: "Members of an elite army battalion gunned down the former mayor of a village in eastern El Salvador for no apparent reason, several residents and human-right- s workers charged." Those are just a few events, In one week, illuminating what anyone the least familiar with El Salvador knows. Much brutality continues. Not one death-squamurderer of Salvadorans has been successfully prosecuted. Duarte does not really control the military. Yet Abrams scoffs at the idea that refugees may have genuine reasons for fear. In Guatemala, it is not clear to what ex d tent the Reagan administration assisted in the transition to civilian rule. Its ambassador, Alberto M. Piedra, was a prominent defender of the generals there, denouncing Amnesty International's authenticated ac Nicaragua is of course the main, the obsessive focus of Reagan policy in Central America. Everything else is secondary to the goal of driving the Sandinista government out or, at a minimum, keeping Nicaragua in a state of economic misery and human terror. The economic screw is being turned to the point of devastating 50,000 private farmers in Nicaragua. They would be the beneficiaries of a proposed $58 million loan from the Development Bank for such things as fertilizer and tractors. By applying pressure inside the supposedly nonpolitical bank, the United States has blocked the loan. Inter-America- n counts of mass murder by government forces as part of a "new left propaganda campaign." Now the Reagan administration is pressuring the new Guatemalan gresident, Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, to join in its campaign against Nicaragua. He is strongly resisting and his own military wants to hold to its traditional posture of avoiding external involvements. But Guatemala urgently needs U.S. aid. As for terrorism, reports by private groups last year showed a pattern of savage attacks on civilians by the Nicaraguan contras. The Reagan administrations answer has been to smear the authors of the reports. The latest example is a New Republic article that uses selective State Department but does not leaks to discredit the reports tell us whether a department examination ; d Taxi! America Aide Tells the Good, Skips Bad and Ugly I ) Al! Teach Us a Lesson ment insurance taxes every quarter This is unnecessary, and a burden to the unemployed. Unemployment insurance, just as any other insurance, should allow a new claim at any time of a new loan. This rule has been studied by the Administrative Rules Committee of the Legislature and referred to the Business and Labor Committee for review. Also this rule is the center of a Supreme Court appeal. Although there is nothing to be done in swaying the Supreme Court, I'm sure state legislators will be glad to hear thoughts about this rule, as they have the power to change it. After all, the whole program was set up to ease the burden of unemployment. If we base benefits on the past and taxes on the present and restrict claims to the future, are we really easing the burden or becoming an intricate part of it? Theo Lippman Jr. 1 19116 Taxis, Texaco Tribune Readers Opinions vious claim for benefits, even though emPay Cuts for All ployers are required to pay the unemployThe administration has finally done it. As a effort they have chopped the government and military allowance in a people of their brilliant bit of manuvering as a step to balBravo! ance the budget Those people got paid too much in the first place. As a retiree, I will be the first one to applaud this move, but let's take a step back. Wednesday, January 22, authenticated the main thrust of their charges. Unfortunately for the effort by Abrams and others to whitewash the contras, a highly respected Nicaraguan who was once a contra leader has made their true nature clear. Edgar Chamorro, in a letter to The New York Times, said the contra military force was directed by former Somoza officers and acted as "a proxy army controlled by the U.S. He continued: "During my four years as a contra director, it was premeditated policy to terrorize . Hundreds of civilian . civilian murders, mutilations, tortures and rapes were committed in pursuit of this poli- cy, of which the contra leaders and their CIA superiors were well aware." The administration is now preparing to ask Congress for direct military aid to the contras. To deal wisely with that proposal, Congress will have to look past the defensiveness of the assistant secretary of state. Reality in Central America is more complicated than the zero-suworld of Elliott Abrams. . t . |
