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Show The Paper Thai Dares To Take A Stand March 10, 1977 The Utah Independent Page 5 THE TH DROUGHT A VERY SERIOUS MATTER James A. McClure U.S. Senate. The drought we are experienR-Ida- ho HELSINKI TEST CASE Paul Scott Washington: The long agony circumstances of this case, it of Anatol Michelson and the wife appears that extraordinary action and daughter he left behind when is necessary. he fled Russia 20 years ago is The lawmaker then turning into a major test case for recommended that the President the Carter administration's new personally intervene in the case to policy of stressing human rights" persuade Soviet authorities at the in foreign policy. highest level to allow his family to The experience of the highly be reunited. PUTTING ON THE PRESrespected Soviet expatriate, now To let the Carter adliving in Columbus, Ohio, is uni- SURE and the Russians que in that no other immediate ministration relatives of a U .S. citizen have been know that his Commission means unsuccessful for so long in their ef- business. Rep. Fascell arranged for the distinguished appearing Soviet forts to be united. Since the night of June 11, expatriate to publicly appear 1956 when he sought sanctuary in before his panel early in March to Vienna, Austria, Michelson, then outline his long fight to bring to the U.S. the director of the Central The Michelson case is also Engineering Bureau for Foundry Machinery in Moscow, has tried to being pressed by Ohio Senators get his near blind wife, Galina, and Howard Metzenbaum and John their daughter, Olga, out of Russia. Glenn. In letters to the President, Over the years, the interven- both senators have linked the case tion of top State Department of- directly to Soviet compliance of the For instance, ficials under the Eisenhower, Helsinki Accord. Kennedy. Johnson, Nixon and Metzenbaum wrote: I believe the time is long past Ford administrations have not been able to get the two women exit due for our government to put visas from the Soviet Union. forth additional effort to help this Presumably. Soviet authorities are U.S. citizen reunite with his family. It is time for our government to still punishing Mr. Michelson for leaving the USSR on a tourist visa demand in stronger terms that the in 1956 and seeking freedom in the Soviet Union live up to the terms of the Helsinki Accords with regard west. With some strong prodding to emigration. It should be pointed out to from key Democratic members of congress. Secretary of State Cyrus them that they have agreed to 'deal Vance has raised the Michelson in a positive and humanitarian family case with Soviet Am- spirit with the applications of bassador Anatolc F. Dobrynin, persons who wish to be reunited of with members of their family, with Reunification citing the Families provision of the Helsinki special attention being given to of an urgent Accords signed by the U.S., the USSR and 33 other nations during character such as requests subthe 1975 Conference on European mitted by persons who are ill or old. Security and Cooperation. The agreement further says From the standpoint of the Soviet's compliance with the that participating states will deal human rights provisions of the with applications in this field as Helsinki agreement, the Michelson expeditiously as possible. case could become as significant as Certainly this has not been the case the more highly publicized cases in- with the Michelsons; they have waited twenty years. volving Soviet dissidents. Mr. Michelson is in The reasoning behind this is that Michelson is a naturalized extremely poor health and his docAmerican citizen and his case goes tors say that open heart surgery is to the heart of the reunification of necessary. He may not survive. He families as provided for under the may not be alive much longer and As one able to see his loved ones again, Helsinki Accords. lawmaker, stressing the Michelson Mr. President, and I ask that you or Secretary' of State Cyrus Vance case, puts it: The Michelson case meets all personally request Mr. Brezhnev the humanitarian provisions of the or Mr. Podgorny to intervene on Helsinki Accords. It can test the this familys behalf. Letters like this and hundreds true intentions of the Soviets and friends of whether they plan to live up to the of others from Michelson in Ohio are credited agreement." The with getting Secretary Vance to A UNIQUE CASE significance of the Michelson case raise this human rights issue in testing the Soviet intentions is directly with Soviet leaders. Soviet reaction could go a indicated bv the decision of Rep. Dante Fasccll. chairman of the long way toward determining Commission on Security and whether congress will need to put in President Carters Cooperation in Europe, to some teeth have personally raise it with the human rights campaign to effect Soviet Union. on the any President. Note. Michelson has been The Commission was set up successful since defecby Congress to monitor Soviet eminently to the west. He is process and compliance with the Helsinki Ac- ting cords, and aides say Chairman equipment development manager Fascclls action on behalf of for the Ashland Chemical ComBy his-fam- ily sts - Michelson isa sign it will be pushed On to test Soviet intentions. February 10 Rep. Fasccll wrote the President stating: In light of the extraordinary I will do more than belong I will participate panys Foundry Products Division. He holds more than 40 patents and is the author of a number of technical publications. He is 58. I will do more than give I will serve cing right now is deadly serious. Water is the life blood of Idaho. It grows our crops, and agriculture is our number one industry, and it produces our power. The lack of water this year means problems no matter how we look at it. In general, there should be water for irrigation enough purposes for our farmers this year. But there wont be one extra drop, and as one water manager put it to me in east Idaho this week, It will be a squeaker. Hydroelectric power production is a different question. While the Bonneville Power Ad- ministration electrical supply grid reaches far, and receives electricity forom a number of sources, its basic power source is hydroelectric generators located along the Snake and Columbia Rivers. As I flew over the mountains of central Idaho last week, the illustration became very clear. Where there should have been snowpack 10 to 15 feet deep, there was bare soil and rock. And where grazing land at lower elevations should be green and moist, it was brown and dusty. Snow cover varies from a low of for this time of year on the Raft River watershed, to a high of only on the Kootenai drainage. Already we are beginning to see cutbacks in the aluminum inIf Idaho dustry in Spokane. remains dry', we could see similar curtailment of industries in our state. The question is, what can we do right now? And the immediate answer is conserve. The water we save the we electricity save right now will give us that much more later this year. With hydroelectric production, we can store electricity up to a point. The water which doesn't flow through the turbines now will remain behind the dams to be used later this summer and into the fall. The prudent use of irrigation water during the summer helps guarantee enough for the entire growing season. It also helps store the precious liquid for hydroelectric Even those farmers production. who pump their water from wells should be aware that unless we all conserve there might not be the power available to run the pump. In short, it will take an individual commitment from all of us to make it work. Heavy amounts of precipitation is the only single solution to the entire problem, and if long range forecasts are correct, rain doesnt appear likely in the near future. Beyond that our options rapidly diminish. An indignant lady asked me last week just what I was doing about the drought, and I replied jokingly that 1 had introduced a bill to make it rain. Congress could pass a hundred such bills, but that doesn't guarantee the weather forecast would change. However, there are some things congress really can do. For one, we can ask that water payments to the Bureau of Reclamation by farmers, who will undoubtedly feel the hard effects of this drought, be deferred. We can assure that all of the various federal agencies involved in this situation coordinate their efforts for the maximum benefit of every one. We MARILYN MANION SALT AND HUMAN RIGHTS Each of us is the center of a universe, and that universe is shattered when they hiss at you: You are under arrest !...and both the most sophisticated and the veriest simpleton among us, all on lifes drawing experience, can gasp out only: Me? What for? Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote that, and anybody who has read even one of his books can readily evision the terror, the awful sinking of the heart that comes with the dreaded knock on the door. They are still knocking on doors in the Soviet Union. One of the recent victims is Pyotr Ruban, who was sentenced to eight years in a labor camp, plus five years additional in internal exile. His crime? Making a wooden Statue of Liberty in honor of the American Bicentennial. Andrei Sakharov is not in prison at this writing but he may well be soon. Sakharov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for his work to protect human rights in the USSR, was recently summoned to the prosecutors office. There he was told that, if he continued his slanderous he risked His activities prosecution. involve speaking out against Soviet violations of human rights. In a January 21 letter to Sakharov Jimmy Carter, urged the President to raise your voice on behalf of persecuted dissidents in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He said that Soviet authorities persecute those individuals who belong to organizations which check activities, on fulfillment of human rights provisions of the Helsinki agreements. A U.S. State Department spokesman announced that an attempt to Sakharov intimidate would violate international accepted standards. President Carter has said that we will not back down on the human issue. These are which many Americans heartily agree. But if we are not going to back down, how shall we back up our to commitment human rights? rights statements with Concluding another SALT agreement does not seem the best way of defending this commitment. For one thing, if the Soviets not only violate their Helsinki but pledges, who check persecute people to see if the pledges are being kept, why should they bother to honor an arms limitation agreement? A we which honor but treaty they dont amounts to unilateral disarmament. SALT or no SALT, the Soviets are arming for war. If we do not have the and military wherewithal the will to use it to deter or defend then the game is over. Then, dear reader, several - - hundreds of thousands of little universes will shatter. There might be a knock on YOUR door. -- American Way Features Readers' comments and questions are welcome. The Please write us at American Way Features", P.O. Box 990, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 37863. O can also assist in specific cases, where the drought is already having dramatic effects, such as the problems in Sandpoint with their domestic water supply. The time for action is now. T oday we can and should begin our conservation of water and electricity. Today we should begin alternate generating moving facilities into the northwest, and today each of us should make an individual commitment to help conserve. I have no doubt we can make it through this drought. The fortitude of Idahoans is strong. Lets begin working together now. PROFITABLE ADVERTISING is our business. You ought to make it yours. ' JOHN T. WILLIAMS Advertising Manager THE UTAH INDEPENDENT O 57 East Oakland Avenue Salt Lake City, Utah 84115 3 Phone (801) 466-191- |