Show Sunday September The Herald Journal Logan Utah so hard? we are working fhy Americans Americans love to celebrate the moral and material benefits of work we have never idealized the “gentleman of leisure" But on this Labor Day weekend we should ponder a troubling new reality: Millions of us are working too hard The Harris poll has been asking people for years how much time they have available for leisure Since 1973 the average answer has from 282 hours shrunk by more than per week to only 188 hours Even if all we care about is maximizing our material wealth that is bad news A high-tec- h economy ought to be growing mainly through not through increased output per man-hoOur gross national adding more one-thir- d: ur man-hou- rs Page 28 4 1988 “decreased physical and emotional as measured by depression life satisfaction health and energy levels” — not just for the women but for their nusbaads did just that from the end of World War Americans are suffering an unprecedented Eroduct the 1960s expanding dramatically conflict between two of our core ideals work and even while the average employee’s work week family Work is winning: Our tax system for kept shrinking over example favors But that shrinkage has long since ended families More and more of us treat our careers According to the Department of Labor the as the central focus of meaning in our lives average worker now spends slightly more time commanding loyalties traditionally given to on tiie job every week than he did a decade ago institutions families to More important millions of If work can meet our enlarged expectations families as wives have Last year a Boston University study of have become entered the paid labor force Since the early employed mothers found that they were spend- today’s careerism will make us better and happier But it probably cannot 1970s we have grown richer mostly from working ing more than 80 hours a week on work The combined care child Scripps Howard News Service and harder not from working smarter housekeeping Commentary - The working mother in fact is the heroine — or martyr — of our current prosperity In 1977 a disturbing 31 percent of women with infants less than one year old were working outside the home By 1987 that figure (which does not include unwed or divorced mothers) had reached an appalling 52 percent These are mothers not of teenagers or even toddlers but of infants at the earliest most crucial stages of development Many of them must be out working at this point in their lives only because they have to not because they want result: well-bein- g two-inco- one-inco- ic one-work- er two-work- er Religious institutions should have freedom to enforce teachings WASHINGTON -- James Where does the right to re- Kilpatrick ligious liberty end and where do the powers of the state begin? The qu tion is as old as the American republic and as controversy now District of Columi Georgetown Univesity is an institution affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church Among the tenets of the Catholic religion is the doctrine that homosexual relationships are in violation of Goa’s commandments Evidently that doctrine is obeyed at Georgetown not only in the observance but also in the breach: A student organization sprung up called the Gay Rights Coalition Tn 1977 the District of Columbia City Council passed a human rights ordinance ' The measure made it unlawful for any educational institution in Washington to discriminate by reason of "sexual orientation' Citing the ordinance the homosexual group asked for the same recognition facilities and support the university accords to other groups University officials citing Catholic traditions and values refused the request The homosexual coalition sued the university Last November the DC Court of Appeals upheld the ordinance ana ruled that Georgetown must provide the plaintiffs with equal access and facilities but need not accord the coalition official recognition It is a distinction without a difr foresee To bring the story up to date: Last month the Senate took up the DC Appropriations Act Sen Bill Armstrong of Colorado offered an amendment that would effectively repeal the provision in the ordinance dealing with “sexual orienta- tion” His amendment was adopted over the strenous opposition of Connecticut's Sen Lowell Weicker who termed it “straightforward bigotry” and 58-3- 3 urged that it be returned “to the sewer from which it came” When Congress returns to work after Labor Day House and Senate conferees will vote on whether the Armstrong amendment stays or goes District of Columbia spokesmen are complaining bitterly that the amendment represents one more effort by Congress to violate the Home Rule Act The complaint is Under the Congroundless stitution Congress has power "to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever” affecting the district The more serious tional question goes to the First Amendment The district’s city council may make no law “respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" Thus the issue boils down to a single print: May the city compel a Catholic institution to support a student organisation whose reason for existence plainly conencourages duct? The controversy has some with the case of Bob Sarallels five years ago Bob Jones is a fundamentalist institution in Greenville SC It teaches that interracial marriage is in violation of God'a commandments non-Cathol- ic The Internal Revenue Service revoked its status as a institution tax-deducti- because such a religious doctrine violates “public policy" The Supreme Court upheld the ruling I thought the high court was wrong then ana I believe Armstrong is right now Homosexuals and blacks have the same civil rights that others have — the right to vote the right to free speech and free press the right to counsel See RELIGION on page 29 Berry's World ! - The Reagan adWASHINGTON ministration has shamelessly ignored the needs of handicapped students in America despite a law protecting their right to equal education The Department of Education knows that handicapped students are slipping through the cracks of the nation’s classrooms But complaints from parents are not answered regulations are not enforced and violators are not punished In 1975 Congress passed the Education of the Handicapped Act It was landmark legislation and envisioned a public school system in which handicapped students could sit side by side with their peers not isolated bused or ignored With the Act came more than $1 billion a year to be distributed to state education agencies to meet the needs of the nation’s 8 million handicapped children — ramps special curriculums and teaching aids For the last three years the federal Office of Special Education has monitored programs for handicapped students in 24 states Every state was deficient but the federal government took no corrective action And no state ever lost federal funds for failure to comply with the Act When those findings were unveiled at a congressional hearing Rep Major Owens chairman of the Select Subcommittee on Education said federal officials should “face fines or imprisonment for the lackadaisical criminal way in which they just don’t enforce the law” While the federal government is sitting on the facts parents across the country are raising their voices Their litany says that the treatment of their children reflects the Reagan administration's attitude toward civil rights in general In 1982 the administration’s task force on deregulation tried to weaken the regulations of the Education of the Handicapped Act A massive protest from worried parents forced the task force to elevators D-N- Y 'U A Virginia mother claimed her daughter was pushed out of high school a year early because there was no program to teach Jock her A Mississippi mother said the local high school would only give her son a “certificate” not a diploma because he had taken a special education English class A Louisiana father complained that on the one as the But staffer issue drop House Select Education Subcommittee put teachers berated his learning disabled son it the administration “failed to weaken the and made him write the same sentence 400 regulations so instead they have just times because he talked out of turn failed to enforce them” REVISITED George When Reagan took office he gutted the Bush the candidate could one of the reap federal staff that monitors special educa- only positive fruits of the tion programs In 1980 there were 45 scandal staffers Today there are 20 positions but In 1985 the United States was looking for many of those are not filled a friendly face in Iran and settled on the David Rostetter worked on the monitorspeaker of the parliament Hashemi ing staff until he resigned in 1986 He told Rafsanjani At the time he was reported to Rep Owens’ subcommittee that the pro- be the leader of a moderate faction that gram was plagued by incompetence and was struggling to succeed the ailing apathy Ayatollah Khomeini Staff members were “reprimanded” The White House decided to bolster when they raised concerns about the Rafsanjani’s case but the move was affair efficiency of monitoring programs bungled and led to the Rostetter said In five years there have Now Rafsanjani appears to have gained been six directors and seven deputy the upper hand in Iran just as US directors of the Office of Special Education officials gambled he would in 1985 posts Our sources say he has cautiously Programs Some of the high-levhave been vacant for as long as 18 months reopened a dialogue with the White House But Michael Herrel executive ad- for release of the American hostages But ministrator of the Office of Special Educa- the dialogue is tentative because there is tion Programs told us his office has made still too much distrust on both sides great strides in creating job programs for National Geoi handicapped students He also defended that Robert reports graphic magazine office's the efforts to monitor state compliPeary may not have reached the North ance The parents tell a differenty story One Pole as he claimed in 1909 Peary’s diary is fishy and scientists told us that filing a complaint with a state or federal agency is like dropping a letter have never been comfortable with the speed he had to be going to make the round in a black hole Our associate Jim Lynch visited that trip in the time he said he did No black hole in the Department of Education snowmobile has ever been able to duplicate and read the recent complaints Most of the pace Peary said he set in a dog sled Somewhere Christopher Columbus and those filed between October 1967 and Robert Peary are sharing a chuckle — two 1988 were from parents pleading March with the federal government to investigate guys who were better at promoting than a complaint that a state agency had navigating O IMS United Feature Syndicate Inc ignored Anderson IRAN-CONTR- - A Iran-Cont- Iran-Cont- ra ra el MINI-EDITORIA- L - letters bo the edtor Taxes To Thursday evening Aug 25 the Logan High School auditorium I observed one of the most exaggerated predictions of gloom and doom that I have witnessed in a long time Dr Gerald Sherratt under the sponsorship of the Logan and Cache County parent teacher associations was speaking against the proposed tax initiatives to be voted on at the next general election One statement that was made in his slide presentation in KM fey NCA kw "How come It's OK for Republicans to aay the V word but not Democrats?" the editor: that I totally agree with but I am sure he will describe as a "misprint” was “passage of these initiatives will cut the muscle and bone not the fat” I say our public officials will cut the muscle and bone not the fat I am no longer surprised when those who work m the public sector always point out reasons why they should be permitted to spend more of our money while we in the private sector are expected to get along on less They always predict the cuts will have to be made in the most essential areas where they will be more than obvious than in areas where cuts can be made without affecting the overall effort and just may improve the end result rather than have a negative effect I have heard that “rnyone can prove anything with statistics” and when only one side is presented the public has no way to sort out the fear and distortion I know that many who belong to the PTA favor the tax initiatives and feel they are being manipulated by those who will be financially favored by their defeat Mr Sherratt was very careful not to mention the statistics that show Utah as the state lowest and the highest in state and local taxes collected Another point to be made is that the presentation was prepared by the Utah State Tax Commission which after their horrendous miscalculation of the budget shortfall an projections of amounts the tax in- crease of 1987 would bring hardly gives them high marks incredibility What we need in government is people who will manage the funds more responsibly Public who will cut spending where the fat is fill the public’s basic needs and not waste See LETTERS on page 29 |