Show n s ' m ’ Ogdon Standard-Examine- r s Thursday May 24 1984 i i OOOl (iDgben iit attft arfc -- 1 IA iExamttter A Saktiarov and wife to be free During his 41 months of internal exile Andrei Sakharov has remained a conspicuous symbol of courage But Soviet physicist’s days may be numbered the as lie nears the fourth week of a hunger strike to protest the government’s persecution of his ailing wife On May 2 Dr Sakharov promised to stop eating unv to til Soviet authorities permit Yelena leave the country for several weeks to seek special medical treatment that is unavailable in the Soviet Union Ten days later she joined his “fast” until the very end woman has already suffered three The 61 year-old heart attacks and lost the sight of one eye The Kremlin v an however has not only denied Mrs activities” exit visa it has charged her with Her crime is that she has served as the sole link between her husband and his many friends and colleagues in the scientific community who revere him as the conscience of humanity His credentials are impeccable During the early 960s Dr Sakharov was one of the few Soviet scientists d to protest testing of nuclear weapons-Thnext decade saw him help launch the human-right- s movement in the Soviet Union In 1975 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts in behalf of fellow dis- sidents Soon thereafter the Kremlin stripped Dr Sakharov of his scientific awards imprisoned and exiled many of his friends and then forced his grandchildren and stepchildren to emigrate to the United States When this harassment failed to silence his calls for social justice he was banished in January 1980 to the closed city of Gorky some 260 miles east of Moscow where he remains under house arrest To date no charges have been brought against him and the government has refused his repeated demands for a public trial Instead the Kremlin has staged a psychological war of attrition against him hoping to break 62-ycar-- Bonner-Sakharo- -- Bonner-Sakharo- “anti-Sovi- et so-call- ed 1 above-groun- e his spirit Vv' et The communists are bound to fail because they underestimate the strength of the Sakharovs’ spirit and the extent to which they are walling to pursue their principles r- - ti-- j K vfn A‘ v Ml' 9' Freedom and compassion are strangers behind the Iron Curtain The once national hero and wife are deserving cf medical treatment in their own country — if it is available — or they should be allowed to seek help in another nation where compassion and freedom prevail This courageous couple may starve to death rather than submit to Soviet repression Their ideals will never die &-N L - f V S v W Used prudent judgment to succumb Granted it would have been easy to po- litical pressures of the many who tried to exert ence Instead Weber County’s two sitting Democratic commissioner played it to its logical conclusion and made the prudent choice to replace outgoing LDS Mission-bound commissioner Boyd Storey They could have appointed any one of the six who arc not on the ballot in this year’s general election That would have given political advantage to the Democrat commission term this fali seeking the four-yeOr they could have dillydallied procrastinated beyond decision time and allowed the governor to make the appointment Two days after Mr Storey cleaned out his desk Commissioners Robert Hunter and Roger Rawson invited former North Ogden Mayor William Bailey to move into the vacated office and complete the remainder of the influ- ar Storey term Mr Bailey is a GOP candidate for the post he is assuming He showed the greatest delegate strength at last weekend’s county convention Mr Bailey is no stranger to the political process with terms as mayor and councilman in North Ogden among his previous public ser-icwith the ccfunty and He j's presumably will not need any large measure of orientation before getting right to work carrying his share of the burdens in the triumvirate Weber County governcs well-acquaint- ed ment Commissioners Hunter and Rawson did the noteworthy thing They weighed the interests of the county and then acted They should not be criticized nor labeled “disloyal” to the party colleagues They didn’t upend the logical progression They demonstrated a commitment to good government in is order by example Leadership NEW YORK — There seems to be a new breed of television commercial It’s night in a city A handsome man alone is staring windows of his ofout of the fice His hand is rubbing his chin his tie is loosened Suddenly he seems inspired and rushes to his video display terminal He punches up a couple of numbers He looks at the numbers He nods He picks up the phone and says something like “Tom I’ve got it Buy!” Or “Tom I’ve got it Sell!” o verThe same basic ad — and sions in magazines and newspapers — is being used to sell many things: computers telephones banks cigarettes The theme is “the romance of business” — and I notice more and more of it It is heroic to buy challenging to sell inspiring to make money And more money No one in these ads and commercials seems to do anything except that: make more money They are not to be confused with the wonderful Miller’s beer commercials where the sun goes down at “Miller time” In the beer ads people are not only working they “do” things — they catch fish they fly planes they build buildings “The romance of business” commercials though don’t celebrate work They glorify the value of money — not the icash value but the spiritual value The little movies and posters are the art form of what seems to be a growing nation of young traders: the people who live often lavishly on percentages of deals They trade pork bellies stocks and stock futures dollars and marks and yen floor-to-ceili- Richard Reeves ng still-phot- self-rewardi- and sometimes even entire companies The currency speculators the people the arbitragers the — they are the citizens of a world gamblers where nothing is made (except money) and where a deal qr a “killing” is talked of with the kind of passion and admiration boys use to describe the moves of a Julius Erving or Bernard King “Hitting the bids” has replaced “hitting the boards” The consequences of the speculation and gambling have no part in romantic views of merger-and-acquisiti- on such businesses Money is enough Money is the only consequence Money is its own reward There is nothing new about that kind of money ethic Some of it shows in the unashamed lack of connection between performance and reward at the top levels of American corporations Chairmen and presidents reward themselves with million-dolla- r salaries hundreds of thousands of dollars in “perks” and millions more in stock options — even when the company itself and ordi- nary stockholders are losing money and market position And if they happen to lose the Vhole company to raiders so what? They and other directors vote themselves “golden parachutes” — huge cash settlements for failing and being thrown out What seems new though is the glorification of and the reluctance to relate individual behavior to societal con merger-and-acquisi-ti- cerns There are larger consequences of course All the rest of us pay them The nation’s credit and a lot of its human energy is being wasted on yelling “Buy!” or “Sell!” The corporate executives are a growing problem in relation to US competitiveness in international markets (Japanese managers on the average pay h the amount taken themselves about American their counterparts) by on self-indulgen- ce ng one-fift- And inevitably-ia free society pay raises at the top will be demanded in proportion in the middle and at the bottom Why shouldn’t assembly line workers get the same kind of raises as the big boys at headquarters? The public analogy for what is going on in corporate America would go something like this: President Reagan would go on television to announce that Social Security recipients were going to have their monthly checks cut by 10 percent and half the employees of the federal Social Security Administration were going to be laid off — all to reduce the federal deficit Then he would announce: “By the way I’m doing such a terrific job cutting costs that I’ve decided to double my salary” There is after all such a thing as leadership by example That kind of leadership would make me feel romantic about business and cheer a dramatic commercial or two Instead though we are to be going through a phase where we are doing nothing n more than just romanticizing good old American greed Universal Press Syndicate Food has nothing to do with medicine have a friend who is a hospital administrator When I saw him the other day he was very depressed “I’ve just been to my hospital’s board meeting” he said “They okayed a $5 million nu- clear scanner but refused to let me pay $45000 for a new chef” “Why is that?” “They said food has nothing to do with medicine and the hospital was losing too much money on the kitchen as it was” “You would think that decent meals would have as much effect on people getting well as any- thing in a hospital” “I tried to make that case and all looked at me as if I was crazy They said sick people I Art Buchwald don’t really care what theylre served Since there was so much pressure on the board to hold costs down the only place they could cut them was in the food” “Can’t you get the medical staff of your hospital to help you get some decent meals for your patients?” “The doctors are afraid to speak up when it comes to the food because they believe that if we spend more money feeding our patients it will stop the hos-pital from buying new equip-the- y ment They’ve told me off the record that they try never to I he Setter box is a powerful weapon make their rounds while the pa- tients are eating off their plastic trays because it makes sick to their stomachs” “Why do you believe hospital food has traditionally been so bad?” “Very little research has been done on the subject If a patient doesn’t eat the doctor usually prescribes more tests to find out what is wrong Instead of send- ing more blood down to the lab they would probably find the answer if they sent the meal down and had it analyzed I’m sure they wouldbe shocked when the results came back” “But there must be some learned men in the medical pro-- fession who are aware that the food going into their patients be retarding their recov- - “They’re reluctant to speak up because all their colleagues would laugh at them I know You don’t have to wait for the next election You can vote now like one physician who did a study times as as and you 'many — the decisive most world’s with sick white rats He fed half weapons In your hands is one of the of them a typical hospital meal megaballot -a 20 crack like for cents as You can vote as many times you And not just in legislative decisions I have seen great television consisting of a piece of gray d por- All you need do is keep those cards and letters coming networks hinge major program policy decisions on a handful of boiled fish a which unaware of the significance tion of noodles and jello in a Most Americans are utterly letters elected officials attach to even one letter And you don’t needlan organized campaign to deluge yourlaw- - pahreCUPher half were fed You don’t know your own strength P0'1 makers ava!anlhe°iTnH broiled shrimp chicken and It wa YOU who extricated us from Vietnam and Beirut c u protests sing withover-ruled Jrate on the dividend matzo balls and a French creme who wras YOU It president ' you El Salvador “caramel on china plates The holding on troops for Your “vote” to election megawait forlhe next have t0 donT You rats who had the boiled fish re- It was YOU who outvoted the Congress on the Chrysler loan the the this and White House the year influence can ' Congress fused to eat their meals and got ballot death penalty and on its own pay hike this ever 7ear! than more ' sicker and the ones who ate the AnJ scores of lesser decisions are regularly influenced if not deter- Times Syndicate chicken and matzo balls became Los Angeles mined b you half-cooke- tc!s‘l'an LnJLiU well in no time With scientific evidence to prove his case the doctor delivered a paper before the American Medical Associa- tion proposing medical institutions put as much money in their food as they do in their equipment” “What happened?” “Blue Cross brought him up on charges of malpractice for trying to bankrupt the American hospital system “I can see where that would discourage all future research in nutrition” “One of the biggest problems in trying to improve the quality of hospital food is that students when going to medical school have no choice but to eat hospi-coul- d tal food when they are in train-ery- ” ing and they lose their taste buds before they complete their resi- dency Therefore many of them are oblivious to how bad it real- ly is I’ve seen patients in my hospital who have taken their plastic trays and thrown them on the floor in rage Instead of a doctor trying to find out why he did it he prescribes tranquilizers '° Wnk ff Tospitals served better food the patients would get well faster and be out of the hospital much quicker? “It’s hard to say because no hospital ySu has ever been rich enough to afford it“ Los Angeles Times Syndicate il e |