| Show The Salt Lake Tribune COMMENTARY A9 Saturday April 3 1993 It's Time for Congress to Transform the Refrain of 'Relsomf Into Action By Karen Shepherd tatives In the campaigns and in the halls of Congress the role of money has undermined representative government special inter ests use their considerable financial clout to drown out the voices of the people These special interests spend millions to influence legislation yet they often evade requirements to register as lobbyists or to report how they use their money to get their way Pouring endless dollars into an apparently insatiable campaign finance system special interests taint the lawmaking process and force candidates to compete for funds not for good ideas to benefit their constituents Campaign finance reform and lobbying reform go hand in hand By stemming the flow of soft money limiting PAC contributions strengthening the lobbying registration requirements and adding comprehensive disclosure standards the public can be assured that special-inte- r est money is finally being controlled This comprehensive approach will control the explosive growth of money and insure that the money re FOR THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE special-intere- WASHINGTON — Reform Hundreds of candidates spoke the word thousands of times during the campaigns of last fall A record 110 new members were swept into office last November and many credited their dedication to reform as a key to their victories But now the time has come for Congress to convert the simple campaign slocommercial into gans and substantive policy Recognizing that the task would be difficult the freshman Democrats began organizing a reform agenda even before we were sworn in as members of the 103rd Congress Initial meetings were held in December and in early January I was selected as of the Task Force on Reform This week less than 90 days into office we presented one of the most comprehensive packages of reforms ever introduced in Congress The essence of our reform proposal ' centers around the relationship between the American people and their represen Well-finance- co-cha- ir st d special-intere- st maining in the System will for the first time be fully reportable Campaign and lobbying reform efforts are major initiatives that will fundamentally change the way Congress does its business But taken alone they are insufficient to fully regain the public's trust Congress has begun the process of making sure that it is subject to the laws it passes for the rest of America but the job remains incomplete We believe that Congress should be subject to the laws of the land and that an independent office of compliance must be established to assure adherence with the letter of the law Although not often viewed as important by the public and the press several institutional reforms are needed if Congress is to do a more effective and efficient job of legislating Simply put Congress does not work as well as it should and part of the problem is the way it operates We advocate a series of internal changes ranging from realigning committee jurisdictions to rationalizing the House schedule that will make Congress both a better deliberative body and a more efficient organization in passing laws Spurred on by President Clinton's program of deficit reduction Congress has begun to take concrete action to cut government spending In this age of unprecedented budget deficits Congress must take extraordinary action aimed at reducing its own spending both as a contribution toward the total deficit reduction program and also as a method of winning the confidence of the American people in this ambitious program of reinvigorating our economy Several of us have voluntarily reduced our own budgets For example I cut my office budget by 25 percent this year by reducing staff cutting back on mailings limiting congressional travel and consolidating offices Following our lead the class supported efforts at reducing legislative-branch spending by 25 percent over five years This dramatic reduction of over $25 billion can be accomplished by streamlining the structure of Con gress eliminating certain functions and in every legis significant lative activity Our reform agenda is both ambitious and It includes 27 specific reforms ranging from changes in House rules to changes in the law of the land We invite full scrutiny of our efforts But we ask our supporters and critics alike to use the same standards we applied in designing this package of reforms: Do the proposals strengthen the faith of the people in their government do they make the institution more responsive to average Americans and less so to special interests and do they make Congress a more effective body and a more efficient tool to implement the public's will? The simple "reform" refrain from the campaign has been replaced by a comprehensive package Our job now is to convert the energy of the campaign trail into the disciplined action needed to make these proposals a reality g policy-makin- g Karen Shepherd represents Utah's 2nd District in the US House of Representa Dyes belt-tighteni- The Drawn and Palle Form Tribune Readers' Opinions Unfair to Muslims In the wake of the bombing at the World Trade Center I wish to object to the term "fundamentalist" which is used to describe terrorists who happen to be Muslim Webster's New World Dictionary has defined fundamentalism as "religious beliefs based on a literal interpretation of everything in the Bible and regarded as fundamental to Christian faith and Using the term "fundamentalist" for terrorists is bad for Muslims as it can be interpreted that Muslims support the killing of innocent people even though that is contrary to Muslim beliefs The terrorists' actions have caused embarrassment to Muslims around the world It should be known that most Muslims are peaceful and they are sometimes perceived in an unjust manner ZAKI KUDIYA Sandy Gays in Textbooks In response to an article appearing in The Salt Lake Tribune March 17 "Utah Panel Reverses Gay Stand" I am pleased that the Utah Textbook Commission wants to drop the policy of rejecting books that consider homosexuality acceptable The commission would require that the books not advocate homosexuality but advocacy is irrelevant Students or anyone for that matter do not need to be told "gay is good" People should however understand that there are many people living as homosexuals and perfectly content doing so The purpose of any social study is to show without bias how people are living not how people should live Moral assessments are not needed Quoting commission member Alexis Fernandez "We should be encouraging toler- - t4F-ETo 14otteINTE D A NI4oUgG FEMALE WiffER To REPLACE $5117oN I VAitTE ance among students" I am more pleased that Frances Hatch Merrill is no longer a member of the school board She seems to believe that acknowledging the existence of homosexuality is somehow promoting it and consequently people will "become" homosexual DOLS ANsfot4E CoNse (NNW) To ? -- 1W3I- - GREGORY TROY WARR Salt Lake City - z7 Orton No Yes Man In response to Brad Daw's Kids Who Know All About Sex Also Don't Know Enough By Susan Trausch BOSTON GLOBE BOSTON — Do kids know too much about sex today or not enough? The question runs through my mind a lot as I read the papers: In Glen Ridge NJ three high school athletes were recently convicted of sexually abusing a mentally handicapped girl with a broom handle a bat and a stick At Lakewood High School in Los Angeles members of a gang are being questioned about earning "points" for sexually molesting girls including a A Seventeen magazine survey answered by 4200 readers found that sexual harassment is all part of the daily school routine Girls reported having to endure everything from suggestive comments to being grabbed cornered and forced into sexual acts At Hemet High School in Riverside Calif the football coach has been charged with arranging sexual liaisons between some of his star athletes and his wife In York County Pa the Teen Pregnancy Coalition Just sponsored its first "Great Sex-O- Day" This is similar to a "Great Smoke-Ou- t Day" only the idea is to give up sexual intercourse for 24 hours instead of cigarettes One young woman interviewed by The Associated Press supported the event because "it's comto mon for 12- - and who have kids" A was four months pregnant said "God put women on Earth to breed" Reading these stories a person of a certain age can feel even older not to mention disconnected from reality "OK" I say thinking back way back "We went into the school gym for the dance The boys were on one side of the room and the girls were on the other After an hour or so somebody worked up enough nerve to ask somebody else to dance" A "Great Sex-ODay" would have been redundant or so it seems 33 years later although I'm sure many of us just didn't see the problems that were there Pushing through the cobwebs in the attic of youth I look at 1960 with 1993 eyes and remember the junior high girl who left town one summer and didn't come back in ut the fall I remember the friend of who talked only her older brother's insistent pal coming into her bedroom Another friend was so aggressively chased and kissed by boys on the playground that she was often in tears There were rumors of a secret club with rituals involving sex It sounded too weird to be true but today we would not think so Today we find out what is going on and form coalitions and prosecute criminal acts and all of that is good But there seems to be a lot more to find out about and so I chew on the question: Do kids know too much or not enough? By "not enough" I mean an inadequate education of the heart Too many young people know biology certainly and chemistry and can practice pretty sophisticated psychological warfare in some cases but what happened to the human dimension? Where is half-joking- the identification with other people? My generation was factually crippled but it had enough compassion or maybe it was just fear to hold back This generation of ten appears to be emotionally bankrupt and afraid of nothing Of course whose fault is that? My generation is raising them Maybe those of us who grew up in the foggy 1950s tried to compensate for our ignorance by allowing and even pushing our children to grow up faster than we did Not that we had to push very hard because the world has gone berserk on this subject Today there is nothing concerning intimacy that hasn't been tried written filmed sung or explained on "Oprah" All of which has served to depersonalize this most personal of acts Sex has become "no big deal" entertainment as accessible as a video game a way to gain power points — in short more of a solo activity rather than a partnership There are responsible teenagers of course and I salute them because they walk a tough road I also worry about them because while they have learned the lessons of kindness they must go to school with so many experts who haven't cracked the book numbers Information other than your name will be kept confidential Preference Is given to original letters of 300 words or less that are typewritten and permit publication of the writer's true name (Names may be withheld for good reason) All letters are subject to editing Mail to Public Forum The Salt Lake Tribune double-- spaced morals" asgEs Where to Write When submitting letters to the Public Forum please include your full name signature ad dress and daytime telephone PO Box 867 Salt Lake City Utah 84110 Women's Day In these days when there is concern about discrimination of all kinds a few of my and myself took notice that there is not a federal holiday honoring women The majority of the federal holidays are all in honor of men There are many women who have contributed to the greatness of our country We would like to see a day honoring women If that is not possible we should set aside a day to honor a single woman who has had a great influence on our country One of the women who stands out in our minds is Susan B An thony She was one of the first fighters for women's rights If it had not been for her women would not be where they are to day Another woman who deserves some recognition is Betsy Ross She is credited with making the first flag the symbol of our United States ANN E NELSON Sunset GERI A CORONA Ogden Juristic State For at least two decades me-fir- letsac- ter (Forum March 7) shared rifice is exactly that but there will surely be those who will not want to share or sacrifice in doing their part to reduce the deficit and eventually eliminate the national debt both of which are cancers Mr Orton has not wholeheartedly supported President Clinton's plan He has said repeatedly that we need to lead out with spending cuts and he has proposed an extensive budget reform package that deals with the overall system Mr Orton has voted his conscience He has not voted "the party line" A review of his voting record bears that out and also bears out the fact that he is also not a "yes" man to conservative or liberal interests The idea which Mr Daw presents that shared sacrifice equates to higher taxes is simply not a correct deduction Federal employee pay freezes higher user fees and many other items in the proposal are not tax increases but will clearly be sacrifices Mr Orton has not ignored the wishes of his constituency He has sought their input and he has responded over and over to those inputs He has authored bills for budget reform a balanced budget amendment foreign aid reform and has contributad to many others which direcit) support views of the 3rd Congressional District GAYANNE RAMSDEN Provo tax- payers have been gouged by civil liberties organizations who create litigation in order to support their own existence While carrying the banner of individual rights their litigation is often no more than thinly disguised attacks on the prevalent social or cultural structure banWith the rampant ner these organizations have carried it is only inevitable that excesses result from individuals who now feel free of all social restraints But not to fear Our liberal friends now offer a solution Carefully wrapped in the most sensitive issue of the day sexual harassment The New Republic citing the Harvard Law Review has expressed the solution to excessive individualism to be — surprise! — more litigation (The Salt Lake Mbune March 9) While supposedly lamenting the need for more judicial action the column concludes that such will stimulate the needed "cultural st change" But what cultural change do they advocate? Much of the louts uneducated behavish ior spoken of in the column used to be contrary to acceptable social cultural and yes religious community values But any deterrence brought about by these former foundations of our society even if only by education or exemplified better behavior is now of course improper if for no other reason than there are no fees for attorneys resulting from it The obvious cultural change sought by our liberal friends must be our acceptance of the juristic state We should not teach exemplify or do good things in the moralistic sense Good is only what we do for fear of legal retribution civil or criminal MICHAEL D THORPE Salt Lake City low-clas- k |
