Show ditorialopinion f “TonpreKH mIiuII make no law rnipertinp an eMtnlliliment of tjprlipion or prohibiting llie free exemM thrivof or uliriilMiw olie freedom of ninwIi or of t lie — Ini iniiinliiniil f ’S' CiniKtilulinii — tutoring administrators professional Although the program is viewed as successful and growing it is never expected to involve masses of students Scholastic requirements are high and the individuality and required are not for everyone self-discipli- ne It will remain an elite program but a valuable one if in the long run it stimulates the special student to remain in school ne Letters to the editor 0- Focus otter title lb the Editor : Perhaps the Utah State Aggies shoald change their name to the Utah State Lemmings After all a Lemming is a mouselike creature which makes an annul mferntfoii weekly drown -- With Pacific coming to the friendly confines of the Spectrum Thursday and the pressure off uw that the league title is out of reach the Ags will most likely win But in the PCAA tourney Pm our mouselike sure friends will pull their disappearing act in the clutch and bow out after one game James Berry Lagan Letters policy This column li Intended a a "market place of Ideal" on public issues Al point of view are welcome but tome restriction are necessary Letters should be concise and to the point They should be no Ion per than ISO words All letters are subject to condensation Letters must be signed and should Include the writer's address and phone number for verification purposes (The city of residence is the only portion of the address which will be printed) The Herald Journal encourages writers to submit their letters typewritten doublespaced to minimlte risk of transcription errors Letters will not be printed which The current focus topic for this column is the 1979 session of the Utah Legislature Do you have an opinion on legislative proposals? If so address it to Letters to the Editor P0 Box 417 Logan Utah MW i It r are considered - libelous or in bad taste commercial or evangelical Winter sport in Smitlifield basketball and volleyball The council responsive suggestions seemed to our and had various ideas them- selves and ideas on to finance such ways without making projects this I also thank all members of the Smith-fiel- d City Council He spoke to the Lutheran Brotherhood Colloquium ou the Church ia Future Society Alvin Toffler — Sea Lawton Chiles noting D-F- la "I don't think you could have sold the government mousetrap a better if you had one' an old lSLMtword list of US specifications for acceptable mousetraps has been boiled down to one PUt Could it be called the Igloogate case? By Jack Anderson WASHINGTON — Koniag Inc is a native Alaskan development corporation that federal investigators believe has attempted one of the biggest public-land- s ripoffs of this century Evidence gathered by the Justice and Interior Departments indicates that Koniag claimed more than 600000 acres of valuable government land for "phantom" native villages that exist only on paper A federal grand jury indictment of some of the parties involved was quashed by a former Bureau of Indian Affairs official Se we sent our associate Hal Bernton on an investigative foray into Alaska where he dug up the facts Koniag claimed the land under provisions of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act The law was deisgned to give the state's Eskimo Aleut and Indian population an economic base with which to ease their transition from the isolated village of their ancestors to the realities of the 20th century But the driving force behind Knoiag Inc is no Eskimo fisherman or Indian simple semi-literaHe an acerbic is articulate trapper editor with a tlent for lobbying and a weakness for alliterative invective toward anyone who crosses him His name is Karl Armstrong and he is Koniag’s executive vice president When residents of Kodiak banded together to fight Koniag's attempted land grab Armstrong described the Citizens Action Group in a local newspaper he helped to found as a “mysterious mob of malcontents lhak:tef wiaUcieiti mischief misleading in-- " formJthn” He added darkly: "It is not easy to find out what this weird secret society is — or who it is Like the Ku te KluxKlanit hides'’ Washington Armstrong was stretching poetic license to the point of arrant nonsense Our associate Hal Bernton had no trouble locating members of the Citizens Action Group and he found them neither weird nor mysterious They are local businessmen ranchers hunters and fishermen who are concerned and angry about what they see as Koniag's illegal move to gain ownership of valuable timberland worth millions of dollars The land that Koniag seeks is located on the federally owned island of Afognak Seven of the 16 villages for which Koniag Inc claims federal land under the 1971 act have been challenged as paper phantoms imaginary entities that are not entitled to grants of federal land After intitially certifying all seven as eligible the Bureau of Indian Affairs was reversed by higher-up- s in the Interior Department on six of the alleged villages The one village that was given final certification is now being contested in court by Kodiak Island’s citizens group Whether a court suit can overcome Koniag’s clout in Washington remains to be seen There seems little doubt that Armstrong has been an effective lobbyist in both the state and federal capitals Backed'by the increasing political strength of the native American corporations that have become Alaska’s biggest private landowners Armstrong is not above playing on the guilt of the white majority over the historically merry-go-roun- d shabby treatment of native Americans who question the validity of Koniag’s are “trash human trash people who are villages here whom I would rather not have here” in Armstrong’s words “As far as I am concerned" he told our reporter "the villagers are there because they (the natives) said they are there If that is where they have a sense of place who am I to argue with them?” Armstrong was once the editor of the Kodiak Daily Mirror His successor in the editorship Nell Waage won a national award for her editorial writing But when the Mirror published some articles critical of some of Armstrong's friends he denounced Waage as a "racist bigot” The odd thing about Armstrong's fierce championing of native Alaskan rights is that his credentials as a native — and thus his credibility as the executive officer of the native development corporation — are almost as ephemeral as the villages that Knoiag Inc has claimed land for Armstrong's initial application to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for certification as a native was rejected because he could show only that he was only Alaskan Eligibility for "nauve" status requires at least native aneestry But Armstrong protested and the BIA gave him legal status as a native Those one-four- th © United Linda Smith Smithfield Feature Syndicate Weapons to was among the citiieni who presented their ideas to the Smith-fiel- d plowsliures City Council Feb 14 on the need to organize To the Editor: I recreation for the people I would like to see a of the city In response to the article in The Herald Journal Feb 15 we did not primarily suggest a recreation center for Smithfield but put forth the idea for one as a cartoon: an American standing on one side a Russian on the other future project con- sideration and thought! The main purpose of our visit was to see if the ice rink could not be made available nest winter a matinee at the local theater Reagan winter supervised Saturday and possibility of the the Smith-fiel- d Library being opened on Saturdays Also mentioned was a designated "tubing" and sledding hill and the council affirmed they were already checking into that matter At the end of the meeting we suggested a public opinion poll to get niw Inc "You don't suppose Taiwan would bo interested in becoming the 51st state do you?" T modern woes To the Editor: Berry's world lH by NIA Smithfield citizens’ ideas on these matters of winter recreation and further use of existing facilities for games like fp fhat an Aggie migration to the sea to remedies are needed to a and major graduate schools routine of lemming a' more political well-accept- ed lasswork and take the dropout ixit from boredom It offers hem according to director )r Margaret Cohn “a challenge pushing them to the Bmits of their abilities giving 0iem intense con- with faculty members” than following a tct class schedule the one-to-o- and complaining deal with diverae secretary its total enrollment this year is 135 out of the university total of some 13000 Graduates to date number 35 and despite their odd transcripts are reported by the school to be by old now the lonors Tutorial College is leisgned to meet the needs of he especially bright student irho might be turned off by the structured that specific one-on-on- 'Five years a Toffler Alvin Shock” e tutorial students meet with faculty members of the various disciplines Operating on a modest budget with two part-tim- e about college students who are so bright that they tend to get bored and drop out of school? Ohio University is approaching this relatively new problem with a solution that borrows from the old — the tutorial system long in use at Britain’s prestigious Oxford and Cambridge ' 20 author of "Future rr What makes - “Governments in industrialized nations are trying to solve problems with bludgeons instead of scalpels" Herald Journal's opinion t)ld-styl- e I The Herald Journal Timely quotes prr" £5 22 1979 Logan Utah Thursday February Think again on Ayatollah both looking puzzled the Iranian in the middle busy pounding on the war weapons working dedicated bent on accomplishing his task Lo and Behold: the next frame shows a bright shiny sparkling new plowshare! By Ronald Reagan Eileen Murphy Tucson Ariz Just try for that medical record By Martha Angle and Robert Walters In Thanks to (NEA) federal laws enacted in the 1970s you can now get a copy of your FBI report You can see and correct your credit bureau files And you can obtain your child's school WASHINGTON -- records But did you ever ask your doctor to show you what he's been scribbling on your medical record? Or request access to your hospital charts? If so the reaction probably ranged from polite evasion to outright rebuff The medical profession remains one of the last bastions of secrecy in our society cloaking its customary refusal to allow patients access to their own records under the lofty rubric of "confidentiality" At first blush such reticence seems perfectly reasonable After all since the days of the Greek physician Hippocrates the oath taken by doctors has included a I pledge of secrecy regarding "whatever see or hear in the life of men which ought not be spoken of abroad " There's only one flaw in that argument: Medical records msy be treated as confidential and sacrosanct when a patient asks to see them but they are by no means safe from the prying eyes of other parties In fact medical record secrecy is a big fat myth as author Robert Ellis Smith documents in his new book "Privacy: How to Protect What's Left Of It" "Medicine since Hippocrates bad been a y affair between doctor and notes "But a 'third parly’ Smith patient" now pays the bills dirertly whether it's a two-part- Washington health insurance company or a government program like Medicare or Medicaid And whoever pays the bills wants to know what they're paying for "The nature of third-part- y payments of comthe and proliferation nowadays puter data banks in the insurance and health industries make confidentiality beyond the control of the practicing physician” Smith writes So if your insurance company can find out what's in your medical record why can't you? The answer is that most doctors and hospital officials simply don't want you lo would be too Explanations lime-consumi- they argue Numerous for hospital records might increase administrative costs Patients might not understand technical medical jargon Some upon seeing their records might decide to treat themselves requests All these excuses — and more — were offered by the medical profession in hearings a couple of years back before the Federal Privacy Protection Study Commission Yet as that commission ultimately reported "Nut one witness was able to identify an instance where access to records had had an untoward effect on a patient's medical condition" Indeed quite the contrary has been true number of states where patients already enjoy a legal right to see their own medical records and in other areas where such sccess has been granted on an experimental basis Studies have shown patients have greater confidence in their health care when they know what is in their own records that they are more careful to follow specific recommendations from their doctors and have a better overall relationship with their physicians which Is The Carter administration whole a package legislative developing related to the privacy Issue is expected to recommend a federal law assuring patients access to their own medical records And 14 states now have laws permitting patients to Inspect or copy either doctors' records hospital records or both Those laws and techniques for winning access to your records elsewhere are outlined In a study published last year by Ralph Nader's Health Research Group That booklet entitled "Getting Yours: A Consumer's Guide to Obtaining Your Medical Record" is available for $2 from the the Health Research Group Dept 220 2000 P Street NW Suite 70S Washington in the limited D 1 20036 (Newspaper Enterpr'ue Assn) It is said that the Ayatollah Khomeini had quite a few fans in the State Department rooting for him as he prepared for his recent triumphal return to Iran He would bring order out of chaos or so they presumably thought At this point they must be having second thoughts for it seems quite possible that he may not be able to put the revolutionary genie back in the bottle Iran in turmoil presents a far different picture from the one I saw when I visited just nine months ago Although there was outward calm at the time I was in Iran just after the communist coup had toppled the government in neighboring Afghanistan The Shah and others I met with were plainly concerned though one got the impression that they expected to keep matters under control in their own country It was their concern of course that came true For some time now persistent reports have come from sources I have found to be sound in the past to the effect that the western border of Afghanistan was serving as an embarkation point for smuggling Russian-mad- e weapons to Marxist insurgents inlran At the same time these sources were reporting that Marxist csdres were training urban guerrillas in Tehran itself Watching the television coverage of the bands of armed men roaming the Tehran streets in recent days makes those early reports take on an aura of prophecy The attack on the United States Embassy in Iran was certainly not the work of crazed fanatics on a binge Rather it was executed by well trained troops working in close coordination Was this attack designed lo show that the Ayatollah’s "Soldiers of God" really have very little control? If so will the Marxists who are already controlling much of Iran's television and radio broadcasting try to foment more chaos and disorder with the intention of emerging as the ultimate victors? It may not happen that way but it is a strategy the communists have used to exploit turbulent situations in the past and you probably wouldn't lose much money betting that they will attempt It this time Meanwhile Just over Iran's northern border the Soviets have what has been described as a pair of divisions of Persian-speakin- g Azerbaijani troops If Iran appears to be falling into total anarchy or prolonged civil way will these troops move In to occupy the northen part of the country? The Soviets did It once before right after World War II In those days they had a resolute United States to deal with and they soon backed off © King Features Syndicate i |