Show The Herald Journal Logan ltah Tuesday February 11 19 1985 Our View Dutributed by King FmIutm Syndicate We’re progressing in fight to stop abuse of children Progress is being made in the war against child abuse because the media in recent years have brought the topic into the light of day and because parents educators and professionals are becoming increasingly willing to get involved in stopping this societal blemish A survey released Monday indicated that the number of e cases reported nationally increased by 35 percent in 1984 The survey sponsored by the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse was based upon a canvass of agencies in about 30 states which collect child abuse statistics Anne Cohn the committee’s executive director said the average increase of 35 percent “translates into more than 123000 reports of sexual molestation of children And we are probably still only seeing the tip of the iceberg" Committee President Linda Wheeler gave the media credit for increasing public awareness of the problems associated with abuse of children and the public credit for d a willingness to get involved: “The findings reflect the unprecedented public exposure through the media to the problem of sexaul abuse in 1984 and response the public’s w illingm ess finally to do something about the program" shesaid Utah was not mentioned in the news report but two local detectives who investigate the majority of child abuse cases in Cache County recently told The Herald Journal that there has been a remarkable increase in recent years in the number of cases of child sexual abuse reported to local authorities The local officials also have said that public awareness of the problem has increased here in child-abus- new-foun- u recent years All this is in our view good news Problems cannot be resolved if they are hidden behind closed doors and for that reason we hope to see public awareness of and concern about child abuse continue to grow Budget plan may hurt unwed mothers BOSTON — Buried deep in what you might call the womb of the new budget is anltem that comes with a small price tag and a'large message It's a proposal to cut off aid to any unmarried teenage mother who doesn't live with her parents The money that could be saved by this budget snippet is small an estimated 319 n million out of a spending spree But it’s one of the more artistic efforts to reshape social policy with fiscal scissors According to the administration the current system which adds unwed mothers to the welfare roles is just “an incentive for minor parents to leave home and use AFDC (Aid to Families With Dependent Children) to establish financial independence" Their plan on the other hand whould create an economic tie that binds Underlying this ideology is at least one murky myth which should be dismissed It's the subtle and pervasive belief that welfare is an incentive for teenage motherhood The notion that girls have babies in order to live on their own in welfare splendor has been proved wrong by every study Teenagers who get pregnant haven’t planned their parenthood at all They certainly haven’t planned it as a venture But once they are on AFDC the payments can make a difference in where ' they live A study of welfare mothers under 24 by Harvard’s David Ellwood and Mary Jo Bane showed that the higher the AFDC benefits the more likely a mother is to leave her parents’ household In real life the actual number of teens 3959-billio- Letters to the Editor HJ criticized To the editor: What a creative use of newspaper space has been exhibited lately on the pages of The Herald Journal! The formula: Take a UPI news item or even a major article written locally write two captions for it change a paragraph here or there a bit and voila! You get two news items out of one — in the same edition of the paper no less I'm curious Is this approach to news stories intended to benefit those who in their haste might have skipped a news item which you feel must be examined? Or is news so scarce that it must be stretched to fill available space On smaller news items Feb 4 pages 4 and 11) where the same story with a few changes appeared twice it is amusing But when a front page of one of the major sections carries the feature article duplicated side by side as was recently done it is really too much! James P Mitchell Hyde Park Editor's note: No one regrets errors such ss those mentioned in this letter more than the editorial staff of The Herald Journal We are continually making efforts to prevent such unfortunate mistakes At present we are discussing the problem of duplicated stories moving on the wire with United Press International In the hope that a foolproof procedure to avoid such duplications can be developed Beyond that we continue to stress accuracy and caution In the hope that as much human error as possible can be avoided Thanks To the editor: We would personally like to thank Jack Anderson and his snow removal crew for the fine job that they do in keeping Logan Canyon open We are avid skiers and the road has always been sanded and clear We know that these men work seven days a week around the dock so that we can enjoy winter recreation Thank you for your efforts We appreciate it Frankie Clark Hyde Park Ruth Ann Haberstick Logan Randy Chadwell Logan small-busine- Ci a 9 S r To the editor: In reply to the ladies wanting to purchase an American flag: (You may obtain flags) through the American Legion Auxiliary Logan Unit No 7 We have been selling these flags for many many years as a community service project We do not make one penney on these flags: We just want to see as many as possible flying from the homes They come in a kit Everything is in this kit: flag pole screws and holder They are three feet by five feet This is the size most people want for their home They make excellent gifts — birthdays Fathers Day Mothers Day Christmas Fourth of July Many Scout troops have purchased them I have a supply at my home at all times We are proud to do this as a service Bernice Olsen Haskins Logan Joan Kramer Logan Idaho legislators District 29: Resource and Conservation Mark Duffin Committee Transportation Committee Agriculture Committee Resource Myron Jone and Conservation Committee Revenue and Taxation Committee Ag Affairs Committee Dwaight Horsch Resource and Environment Committee District 28: Agriculture Affairs Committee Eugene Stuck! chairman Resource and Conservation Committee Revenue and Taxation Committee Reed Budge R- - Soda Springs Transportation Committee chairman Resource and Environment Committee assistant majority leader Robert Geddes Appropriations Committee Ways and Means Committee All Idaho’s legislators can be contacted by calling legislative information in Boise at ad 334-200- 0 ss that is very small Only one out of six mothers under 20 lives alone Almost 90 live with percent of the 15- - to who do their families But we know that the unmarried teenagers who stay with their parents do better than the others They are more likely to finish school more likely to be employed less likely to have a second child and their' babies are healthier In short they have a support system Given these facts it makes humane and common sense to encourage young mothers through public policy to stay at home But there is a critical difference between encouraging families and coercing them The government’s attempt to merge a and policy has turned up a package of contradictions The policy makers in favor of togetherness this year are the same ones who warked against it last year They cut payments to households if the parents’ (or should I say grandparents') income was too high They gave teenage mothers an incentive to leave and now they are forcing them back I suppose the only way to squeeze a budget cut out of the poor is to press them at both ends If young mothers live at home cut their AFDC If they leave pro-fami- ly pro-savin- gs three-generation- al 319-milli- home cut it out altogether It’s no secret that the Reagan people want to shift the financial burden from public life to private from the state to the family They legislate as if they could make all families behave the way the strongest ones do This time it’s a kind of national curfew: All children and grandchildren at home or else The only exemptions would go to a 1 whose parents were dead or whose ealth and safely would be endangered or who had already lived on her own These don't begin to cover the myriad life situations of families in stress The government estimates that about 9000 families will be affected by this proposal Just a handful But they are likely to include the least stable and the most troubled The University of Pennsylvania’s Frank Furstenberg who has studied teenage mothers for 17 years says: “There are a small proportion of adolescents who really cannot get along with their parents The notion that somehow you should regulate that relationship and insist that the adolescent has to stay with that family to get economic support strikes me as illogical and unwise "Proposals that try to treat all circumstances alike that bureaucratically try to manage people's lives end up creating havoc” Instead of restoring incentives for family success stories the planners want to punish the failures In this budget any family that doesn’t fit the Reagan profile can end up on the cutting-roofloor m C 1915 Waihlngton Poet Writers Group Liberals find issue to be 6pure’ about NEW YORK — warned It doesn’t require any very advanced degree in political prophecy to foresee that for American liberals 1985 is going to be one long open season on South Africa The white regime at the southern tip of the African continent provides liberals with very nearly their last remaining chance to claim moral superiority over their adversaries Having maneuvered themselves into Impossible positions on everyMr Reagan’s SDI (“What’s from thing wrong with Mutual Assured Destruction?") to abortion (“The fetus does not scream") liberals in search of a quick moral fix can always arrange to be arrested in front of some South African consulate Beyond that there is sure to be a big h African legislaeffort to push tion through Congress — the more punitive the better For starters there will be an attempt to ban the sale of gold Krugerrands in this country That won't hurt South Africa in the slightest since it can easily sell the coins elsewhere but the g play well in any congressional district wlhere black voters outnumber the citizens of white South African ancestry (and that’s just about all of them) But the liberals will almost certainly call for madder music and stronger wine What they really want is US withdrawal from all economic relations with South Africa — not only a pullout of all American businesses there but economic sanctions well-nig- h anti-Sout- against trade as well The Conservative Advocate Americans who think about the matter at all is that effective US economic sanctions against South Africa would harm first and foremost the very people it is allegedly designed to help: South Africa’s blacks Large numbers of blacks are employed by US businesses operating in South Africa and many others by South African firms doing business with the United States They will be the first to lose their jobs if sanctions are imposed and will be the hardest hit by any constriction of the economy that results Not surprisingly therefore the spokesmen for South Africa’s blacks — and for that matter white opponents of apartheid as well — are vehemently opposed to sanctions — The sole important exception is Desmond Tutu the new black Anglican He recently bishop of Johannesburg by most significant steps toward ending its apartheid policies within 18 to 24 months he will defy South Africa’s laws against the open advocacy of sanctions and call for their imposition He was promptly challenged by Gatsha Buthelezl the political leader of South Africa’s 6 million Zulus (the largest of its nine black tribes) who came to Washington saw President Reagan and spoke out against sanctions The response of Washington’s liberals was to smear Buthelezl as a mere hireling of South Africa's white government To anyone who understands the South African scene and Buthelezi’s true role in it that reaction was a masterpiece of arrogance ignorance and cynicism But the liberals will not be deterred — partly because their hidden agenda for South Africa calls precisely for increasing unrest among its blacks leading to acts of violence and (ultimately) open rebellion Even more compelling however is their own desperate need for a new moral issue on which to confront and combat the Reagan administration Compared to that g how important is the interim of South Africa’s blacks? well-bein- Newspaper Enterprise Association DtherViewsi Houston Chronicle The sky isn’t going to fall just because some government in New Zealand has refused to let US Navy ships into port unless they disclose first whether there are nuclear weapons aboard Neither necessarily is ANZUS the longstanding mutual defense agreement between this country New Zealand and Australia Even without its middle initials ANZUS is alive and well where it counts — between Australia and the United States That much was made abundantly dear during last week’s meetings between left-leani- ng That would indeed hurt South Africa though by no means fatally It would also hurt a great many important businesses in the United States and imperil our supply of some strategically vital minerals so you can safely bet that Congress will find some way to avoid going that far But the liberals will demand it anyway and their reason for doing so deserves closer examination The point not understood Wlam A Rusher that unless the government takes Reagan and Aussie Prime Minister Bob Hawke But things are hardly likely to remain status quo between this country and New Zealand They can’t Not as long as the Wellington government of Prime Minister David Lange insists on making those unreasonable demands For the moment at least New Zealand is no longer a reliable ally As much as the President Reagan administration insists there must be no retaliations per se against New Zealand there are bound to be certain changes in relations |