Show Let’s Minimize Road Hazards It’s true that spotting a drunk driver is a little difficult these days Weaving back and forth across the road is a common characteristic of the average driver-so- ber as he may be-- for chuckhole-dodgin- g has become a popular sport It’s a dangerous practice according to police officials for numerous have noted local on been streets and highalready ways If you're worried about blowing a tire or throwing your car out of alignment slow down instead If your speed is reduced enough you can go right through a sizeable chuckhole without getting vehicle damage g an auto is another way Avoiding the motorist may safeguard his car until the chuckholes are repaired Speaking of repair work those who criticize city and county crews for ignoring the winter-worke- d roads haven’t seen the heavy pieces of equipment operating in various parts of the valley There is a constant effort being made to do roid repair work when weather permits Most of the work is only temporary as street officials feel there is moisture yet to come and it is hard to do permanent patching at this time Only when it is dry can this work be done and this year seems to be worse than some as the rain in January took so much frost out of the ground Street department workers feel that filling the holes with crushed gravel now will help to a certain extent but the permanent solution is to square the holes tack them with oil then run a hot plant mix through the chuckholes There seem to be no particularly bad spots for the condition is general However the situation is not as bad where there is good drainage on the roads and where there are curbs and gutters where the water can get off The Logan City Street Department will be patching happy to receive an already-ordere- d machine which will have a bigger capacity than any existing equipment It should be here within the next two weeks and this yill enable road crews to accomplish more work each day It appears that the torn-u- p roads will be with us for a while Instead of criticizing those who supervise their maintenance let’s watch our own driving habits and in this way make the hazard as minor as possible until spring late-wint- er near-acciden- TELEVISION IS “ONE of the most important influences on all attitudes and behavior" according to Federal Communications ts Commissioner Nicholas Johnson Then he adds “But the nature and scope of this vast force are little understood" Appearing before the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence he discussed TV's impact Here are some excerpts: There are 60 million homes in the United States and over 95 percent of them are equipped with a television set More than 25 percent have two or more sets In the average home the set is turned on some five hours and 45 minutes a day The average male viewer between his second and 65th year will watch television for over 3000 entire days— roughly nine foil years of his life over-loadin- The Herald Journal Logan I'lah Tuesday March II im Saigon's Village Victories Mire Viet Foes' Drives By RAY CROMLEY NEA Washington Correspondent offensive the Hidden by Ho Chi Minh's winter-sprin- g Paris talks and the credibility gap a fragile breakthrough of quite tremendous significance seems to be taking place in South Vietnam The changes that make up this breakthrough are scattered and mixed with many failures The improvements in move ahead by fits and starts They're touch-and-g- o many cases and could disappear into dust But the balance of power in the countryside is beginning to tilt slightly in our favor The changes don't yet add up to a counterrevolution against the Viet Cong But guerrilla wars depend on momentum And these trends might just be enough to halt Hanoi’s momentum and break the back of Ho’s war The Buddhists Catholics Cao Dai and Hoa Hao have intensified magnificently their recruiting and organizing over considerable areas in the countryside While these efforts are mostly aimed at gaining religious andor political strength for themselves (rather than at strengthening the government or winning the war) these evangelist groups compete strongly with Communist organizers student groups from Saigon and other and conmajor cities now push out into Viet Cong-hel- d tested areas on weekends for swinging discussion groups or talk-in- s Students are excited by the adventure pleased with the results They do It on their own Their parents sometimes are shocked first by their disappearance and afterward learning where Uicir sons and daughters have been In some districts and provinces Saigon has succeeded in separating military and civilian government For years the local army field commander was in fact the local "war lord" Civilian officials obeyed him on political and economic matters North Vietnamese have been replaced by South Vietnamese in several score key positions in the central governsnail-pace- d ment g Several dozens of officials have been removed for arrogant corruption Though many of the replacements have also been corrupt (because of a shortage of qualified officials! the removals have set a warning That is corruption has been reduced— somewhat Over-al- l a number of extremely incompetent army officers province chtofs and officials and Saigon aides have been replaced by men a notch or two better Rural hamlet and village officials elected in th past two years are proving to be an improvement ove their predecessors most of whom had been appointed C'ificials are finding that with a little training some of these men are turning out extremely welL Some of course are incompetent regardless of training Gradually more power is being taken from the central government placed in the village councils giving rural people a greater stake Mere farmers and townspeople are informing on Viet Cong arms food and equipment caches Psychological warfare specialists measure success ia guerrilla war hy the willing ness or unwillingness of local citizens to Inform oa the enemy South Vietnamese regional militia or national guard-typ- e forces are depended on to protect hamlets from small-scal- e VC attacks and from larger attacks until help arrives 'In years past regular officers who fouled up were assigned to command these units Report after told of militia which patrolled in daytime withdrewreport at night In fire fights some hid ethers quickly retreated Today there are increasing numbers of regional militia which repulse attacks by equal or larger VC units These aren't the "victories" one normally writes of in war But they're the stuff and substance of victory in guerrilla insurgencies high-rankin- “There is a common ingredient in a great many of the social ills troubling Americans so deeply today— the impact of television upon our attitudes and behavior as a people— and we 'ought to know much more about it than we do" Mr Johnson stated “One cannot understand violence in America without understanding the impact of television programming upon that violence But one cannot understand the impact of television programming upon violence without coming to grips with the ways in which television influences virtually all of our attitudes and behavior” that are WHENEVER THE QUESTION arises of the impact of television programming upon the attitudes and behavior of the audience industry spokesmen are likely to respond with variants of three Mg myths the FCC commissioner points out 1— “We just give the people what they want The public interest is what interests the public The viewer must be selective Just he would be in selecting magazines He gets to choose from the great variely of television programming we offer He can always turn off the set" “2— Entertainment programming doesn’t have any impact upon people It’s Just entertainment We can’t be educational all the u Our Headers Write Why So Many Chuckholes? Dear Editor: Since coming to Logan this past September I have found your city and county very tidy neat clean and beautiful There is one part of the physical makeup of this area and of Logan City in particular that I find most deploring and I'm wondering if anyone else shares my feeling As I drive along the streets I notice cars weaving back and forth and I sometimes think they are deliberately aiming for my own It takes a few seconds before I remember that I too have done the same thing and that it is being done to avoid those chuckholes in the road that have been carved out by the winter Sometimes especially at night I never see those holes but I always feel them and my car always depreciates a little more each time it bounds and retaunds across one The city county and state road departments deserve much Letters to Editor groundrules: The Herald Journal welcomes letters to the editor They will be published as space permits 1— Content of letters must be and In good taste a— Letfers must be signed by the writer 5— Suggested length: not to exceed 400 words 4— Freedom of the press does not include abuse of that freedom credit for the efficiency in their snow removal efforts At the same time it seems to me that these same departments have been most negligent and have shown great nonfeasance in their efforts to keep our streets and highways safe and free from the hazards of these pockmarks Driving on some streets is tantamount to driving an obstacle course You have the chuckholes the depressions for water drainage the manhole covers which seem rarely to approximate the level of the street the barely visible road stripes and finally those other weaving cars I sometimes think that the street and road commissioners are in cahoots with the front end alignment specialists and the new tire dealers I'm well aware of the difficulties involved in repairing streets during the cold winter but I've seen the problem handled more efficiently to other winter areas and so I know it is not an impassible situation If ever anyone brings a suit against the city or county for negligence in regard to these road hazards I can well imagine that road repair will receive more attention I can also imagine that this could be a good genuine topic of discussion in the next city and county elections Sincerely Mike Curry 38-New U Apts Logan K Another Hardliner At Israel’s Helm Reports out of the churning Middle East make it clear that a feminine hand at the helm in Israel is not going to mean a softening of that country's stance in the unfinished and seemingly endless war with the Arab nations Golda Meir the onetime Milwaukee schoolteacher who is succeeding the late Levi Eshkol as premier is known to be every bit the hardliner that her predecessor was She discounts in advance any likelihood of the great power interposition initiated by France and the Soviet Union producing an acceptable solution unless the Soviets are willing to pressure the Arabs primarily the Egyptians into sitting down and talking directly with the Israelis Like Eshkol Mrs Meir is convinced that negotiations are the only realistic road to peace What does this mean? Not necessarily the imminence of a new chapter in the serial war But not any lessening of tension and the ever-presepossibility that any one of the almost daily incidents could be the spark that once more sets the Middle East aflame In other words status quo Mrs Meir's selection does porteud one change (d considerable significance however She is almost certainly the end of an era In its brief existence as a modern nation Israel has had three premiers— face-to-fa- David Ben Gurion Levi Eshkol and now Golda Meir All have been immigrants of the generation that more than half a century ago began arriving from Russia Europe and elsewhere to begin the construction of a new home in an ancient land Mrs Meir 70 is seen as an Interim premier serving at least until national elections in October and possibly somewhat beyond but certain to step down at date for a younger some successor And that successor seems certain to be the first native-bor- n premier Both of the likeliest candidates Yigal Alton acting premier following Eshkol's death and war hero Moshe Dayan are sabras the generation bom in Israel and named for the country's tough desert cactus This coming event is certain to have a profound influence on Israel's future although exactly how onto the future can tell But the attitudes of those bora to a land will vary in many and often subtle ways from those of the immigrants who came from afar to make it their own It will be in a way Israel's own Bar Mitzvah its coming of age as a nation But it will not answer the question as to whether Israel is to survive as a nation That will still depend upon somehow translating status quo into modus vivendi between Arab and Jew An Apt Use Of Biblical Acceding to "many requests" the Post Office will include the words "in the be" on the forthcoming ginning God ArcUo S stamp which shows a view of the faith as seen from moon orbit The reading from the Genesis account of creation by the crew of Apollo 8 has become closely associated with the flight in Postmaster the public mind General Blount and it seemed appropriate that this phrase should appear on the stamp that commemorates one of theof most our significant and dramatic events explains time There should be no argument there a! though there undoubtedly will be protests from the same people who are upset by religious themes on Christmas stamps Rather than argue over whether the Apollo stamp represents one more crack in the wall of separation of church and state however perhaps we ought to ask ourselves whether the practice of public demeanpiety does not carry the danger of mere into feeling ing genuine religious religiosity The official proclamation engraving or imprinting of pious words and quotations does not make a nation great Indeed time" “3— We report the news If it’s news we put it on if it’s not we don’t It’s as simple as that We can’t be deciding what to put on the news or not based upon its impact upon public opinion or national values We can’t be held responsible if someone sees something on television and goes out and does the same thing” They are the general arguments of TV industry spokesmen WHEN DEAN GEORGE GERBNER of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania testified before the committee he said: “In only two decades of massive national existence television has transformed the political life of the nation has changed the daily habits of our people has molded the style of the generation made overnight global phenomena out of local happenings ledirected the flow of information and values from traditional channels into centralized networks reaching into every home “In other words it has profoundly affected what we call the process of socialization the process by which members of our species become human” NICHOLAS JOHNSON OF the “The argument that television no impact upon the audience is broadcasting industry to advance FCC continues: entertainment programming has one of the moat difficult for the In the first place it is internally "Television is sustained by advertising It is able to attract something like $25 Milton snnually from advertisers on the assertion that it is the advertising medium with the greatest impact And it has in large measure delivered on this assertion “My point for now is that television’s salesmen cannot have it both ways They cannot point with pride to the power of their medium to affect the attitudes and behavior associated with product selection and consumption and then take the poaitton that everything else on television has no impact whatsoever upon attitudes and behavior 0 “NOW IS OUR EVIDENCE of commerical television's influence limited to the sdvertising Whatever one may understand Marshall McLuhan to be saying by the expression ‘the medium is the message' it is dear that television has affected our lives in ways unrelated to its program content" William Benton stated: “I can only ask if this alleged 'wasteland' is indeed what the American people want is it all they want of television? Is it all they are entitled to Are not these dwellers of the wasteland the same Americans who have taxed themselves to create a vast educational system? Are they not the same who have established an admirable system of Justice created a network of churches When they turn their TV knobs do they not by the millions have interests broader than the entertainment which is so com- placently theirs? “I think the American people should expect that the greatest single instrument of human communications ever developed must make its due contribution to human security and human advancement A high common demoninator distinguishes our people— as well as a low one— and both denominators apply to the same men women and youngsters “Television has crystallized into the tow road” Commissioner Johnson concludes: “The popular outrage and cries for reform are warranted They must be heeded" Phrase there are historical examples to support the contention that the farther a people advance along the road to decay the more obpunctilious they are about the hollow servance of religious ritualism There is no invocation of deity in the Constitution America got along very well for half a century with the original Pledge of Allegiance before Con grew ordered the words "under God" inserted Interestingly enough it is the first generation to grow up repeating the phrase every day in school that is causing its elders so much concern in the matters of morals and patriotism Instead of printing “Pray for Peace" across our envelopes in the belief that we have actually accomplished something we might better remember that "God helps those who help themselves"— in the attainment of peace or anything else " belongs on "In the beginning God the Apollo stamp because the dramatic reading across 240000 miles of space was part of the actual historical event But having put the words there let us not thereby delude ourselves that we have rendered anything more than lip service in the discharge of our duties to God and country ana our fellow men "Nat onto ia we Bore tha crisis of 'crime in tig if reefs' —these ’ckuckkaltt ia the streets' ere peftY worse fooT |