Show SUNDAYMarch 15 1998 - Page AA-- 1 PUBLIC FORUM RUSSIAN VIEW AA-- 2 Page Page AA-- 3 OUR VIEW I The Salt Lake Tribune's Editorial Position I i Slapping Back i i The opponents of a proposed development along the banks of the Jordan River werent scared off last week after being threatened with a lawsuit by the developer That kind of resiliency and not the coerced silence intended is the apby the suer in such cases propriate reaction by citizens faced with intimidation tactics Janalee Tobias and Judy Feld and their organization Save Open have been vigorously Spaces (SOS) fighting the South Jordan development Janned by Gerald Anderson They ave pressed their case to the local government and according to Anderson have contacted landowners in an effort to keep them from selling to him Earlier this month the protesters were served with a summons and a copy of a lawsuit from Anderson in which they were accused of intentionally interfering with a contractual relationship between the developer and landowners The requested damages: at least $12 million The SOS citizens who did their own legal legwork in their failed attempt to launch a petition against the development obviously lack the resources to fight a lawsuit much less pay damages And thats the point of intimidation lawsuits characterized as SLAPP suits (strategic lawsuits against public par scaring citizen ticipation): into silence activists Andersons side maintains that theirs was not a SLAPP suit True it does not fit the SLAPP-sui- t model in which citizens are sued just for taking their grievances to a government body This suit doesnt object to SOSs interactions with the South Jordan government but rather with its intervention with landowners But thats a difference without a distinction Presumably the landowners can decide for themselves what to do with their land Besides the lawsuit presented to SOS would seek an injunction prohibiting SOS from interfering with Anderson Developments prospective economic relations over the development until this matter is resolved in this court In other words curb free speech until the deal is done The SOS folks have refused to back off But the courage to continue speaking up is not so easy to summon when threatened by a lawsuit Thats why Utah should consider joining the 15 states that have passed legislation discouraging SLAPP suits and thus identifying them for what they are: an in- on a citizens First Amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances Gates also turns the argument on its head claiming that government intervention will stifle rather than promote technological innovation What is certain is that Microsofts dominance of operating systems has benefited consumers by setting a technical standard Microsofts defenders point out that one sign of a monopoly is that it is able to raise prices yet software prices keep falling Microsofts accusers might reply that by monopolizing volume Microsoft need not raise prices Its profit margin for the fiscal year ended last June was 30 percent on revenues of $114 billion Gates loves to play business hardball But to avoid the risk of getting thrown out of the game he should back off A row with the umpire wont be good for him or the game Rock of Ages sea-giil- the granite One homeowner says Little Cottonwood is the most pristine canyon in the state and it should stay that way It would seem that her area of the canyon would have ceased being pristine when her family and four others moved into homes 1000 feet below the area where granite boulders have split off from great sheets of the gray rock The homeowners also claim the project would destabilize the canyon wall leave scarring on the ground from a temporary road cause noise and dust and scare away wildlife LDS Church spokespersons counter that the canyon wall wall not be destabilized by breaking up boulders that have split off from the main rock already and that they will replant and rehabilitate the road area mitigate the noise factor and respect wildlife The LDS Church should be allowed to continue with the project As recently as 1991 some of the granite boulders were split and removed to make repairs on the temple Finally and to Js desert There is tremendous symbolism involved in the 40 years it took to build the Salt Lake Temple including the courage and patience to rip out a faulty foundation and rebuild making the project two decades longer than originally planned Now weigh those values against what five homeowners in Little Cotton the point the quarry was there before those homes were built bej5altalfritmne UTAHS INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1871 PAST PUBLISHERS PUBLISHER John F Fitzpatrick John W Gall! van Jerry OBrien (1024-196- Dominic Welch (1980-198- EDITOR James E SMledy (1983-199- Secretary of State Dean Acheson was everything Harry S Truman was not With his mustache and his penchant for British suits Acheson was a graduate of Groton Yale and Harm d Law Conversely Truman was the only American president of this century who did not graduate from college If Acheson embodied the consummate State Department striped-pant- s boy Truman represented the quintessential Missouri farm kid Notwithstanding such disparity in backgrounds Acheson respected Truman for his ability to inspire affection and devotion in those with whom he worked and even dedicated his Pulitzer g memoir Present at the Creation: To Harry S Truman The Captain with the Mighty Heart In describing Truman and his unique leadership style Acheson would often quote the following lines from Henry V: And every wretch pining and pale before Beholding him plucks comfort from his looks Hts liberal eye doth give to every one A little touch of Hairy night Such accolades are seldom heard ema- nating from Foggy Bottom Capitol Hill" or even from the West Wing when Americas chief executive is mentioned today Even Professor William Leuehtenbuxg Prize-winnin- S MAIN ST SALT LAX! CSTY Michael Benson teaches political science at the University of Utah and is the author of "Harry S Truman and the Founding ofIsrael Dont Abandon Tobacco Addicts in Favor of Kids BY C EVERETT KOOP FOR THE WASHINGTON POST To date most of the tobacco control efforts of this administration have focused on preventing young people from taking up smoking Everyone can agi ee that teen-ageand younger children should not smoke Even the tobacco industry can safely join in that refrain and frequently does with characteristic and clamorous hypocrisy as it turns its marketing machines loose on the young But at exactly what age does the plight of American smokers lose its poignancy? s of who experiment casually with cigarettes will become regular smokers with one-haof these trying to quit but failing by age 18 The vast majority of current smokers were hooked in their teens or earlier During the 80s the tobacco industry mounted a public relations campaign maintaining that smoking was an adult decision It was a model of reverse psychology tempting teens at the same time it offered false assurance to their elders The vast majority of smokers are captive to their addiction so that most who decide to quit cannot not without help or years of repeated hies If we pretend that adult smoking is a consumer choice like any ether we fall prey to the trap laid by Big Tobacco Addiction makes the very notion of choice moot Who would freely choose sickness and suffering lost productivity or 50 percent chance of premature death? Yet cigarette smokers cf all ages continue to die prematuiely at the rate of more than 400000 per year Imagine 1000 jumbo jets emblazoned with Marlboro and Winston and Camel insignia crashing each year for the next three decades Should we accept such dramatic losses as par for the course? We must not focus our efforts so narrowly on preventing tobacco use by youth that we send smokers the message that we have abandoned them that their addiction is their own fault and that we dont care about them This is exactly what the tobacco industry wants them to hear Forget quitting hedge the health bets instead Responding to founded fears tobacco low-tcompanies unleashed brands in an effort to hold on to their smokers and reduce the concerns One-thir- d teen-ager- lf ar KEAimTOBUNE CORPORATION 143 vate birthday party held in Trumans honor: The full stature of this man will only be proven by history but I want to say here and now that there has never been a decision made under this mans administration that has not been in the best interest of this country It is not the courage of these decisions that will live but the integrity of the man In trying to explain President Clintons favorable job rating in the face of continuing controversy that daily envelops the White House Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution maintains that right from the beginning Americans knew who he was and what they were getting Indeed we did know what we were getting and the sark distinctions between Bill Clinton and Harry Truman are readily apparent Truman who held principle over expediency and valued integrity above popularity once told an aide: Dont worry about criticism If you do the right thing history will take care of it While Bill Clinton concerns himself with his place in history a snift in cultural mores as revealed in toe latest poll does not discount the fact that character always has and always will count heavily in assessing American presidents rs wood Canyon claim will be environmental damage caused by quarrying With a bow to history and tradition The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints wants to split and haul granite boulders from the same quarry used on the Salt Lake Temple so it can use the same source to face the walls of its new assembly ball Church leaders know they could buy granite from other locations that would be similar to the temple stones in color and quality But tradition is an important value for a church especially one with a history of less than 170 years And a large portion of tradition is symbolism Think about the statue of the at Temple Square It reminds the faithful Mormons "and demonstrates to visitors of all faiths the endurance it took to travel to the Salt Lake Valley as a pioneer and to survive here in the a prominent historian and e Clinton voter recently confessed to Albert Hunt I think the president has behaved abominably While a recent Wall Street Jour-na- l NBC Poll found Americans split in attitudes on presidential private lives and their public roles a jaded electorate certainly contrasts Bill Clinton with the Give em Hell Harry" Truman of the 1948 campaign who once confessed: I have never deliberately given anybody hell I just tell the truth on the opposition and they think its hell The 50th anniversary of Trumans assumption of office three years ago gave millions of Americans the chance to question whether he was right on such watershed decisions as the atomic bomb or Korea or the Middle East Eric Sevar-ei- d an eyewitness to the momentous events of the late 1940s and the presidents role in helping to shape them recalled that Truman reminds people what a man in the Oval Office ought to be like: Its character just character He stands like a rock in memory now r General George Marshall the greatest of the great as Truman called him gave one of the most moving tributes to Truman just two days before the two men nearly had a falling out over the presidents Palestine policy in May 1948 Their biiter disagreements over this issue notwithstanding Gen Marshall offered the following testimonial at a pri two-tim- hand-tailore- For example Microsoft will offer its own version of a new product such as its Internet browser free as part of its Windows operating system Or it will cut deals with business partners that forbid them from advertising or listing applications that compete with Microsofts In its defense Microsoft claims that its Internet browser is an integral part of the Windows software which cannot be separated from the larger system Trouble is only a fool or Bill Gates worst enemies would wish to turn one of the nations most productive businesses over to the tender mercies of the Justice Department In the best of all possible worlds Microsoft would wake up to the message that it should abandon its business tactics thereby avoiding the costly and wasteful legal mayhem of an antitrust prosecution that could dismember the company : If Gates is getting that message though there was scant evidence of it at the hearing Outlining the Microsoft debate is fairly simple The company has a virtual monopoly most accounts say about 90 percent on the business of supplying the basic software that runs the worlds personal computers Microsofts competitors complain that the company uses that dominant position to prevent other suppliers of new applications from offering their products to the consumer on an equal footing BY MICHAEL T BENSON fringement Back Off Gates Congress and the antitrust police at the Justice Department are trying to decide whether and how to rein in Microsofts anticompetitive business practices After Bill Gates appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee theres no doubt that Microsoft deserves a trip to the woodshed Thiman and Clinton: A Difference in Character Mill ! of the uninitiated But in their attempt to avoid becoming yet another statistic smokers have only changed the form of their resultant lung cancers from the squamous cell cancers of the upper lung to the adenocarcinomas of the lower lung as they inhaled more deeply to extract the nicotm their bodies craved from shl i rigamtes Th t i3 an alternative We can combine tobacco prei eutioa initiatives with efforts to ensure that those who are hooked can obtain effective treatments The facts are that quitting smoking at any age reduces the nk of premature death current treatments can substantially increase the odds of quitting It therefore seems logical that each decision to smoke should present an equal opportunity not to smoke and an equal opportunity to get help The Food and Drug Administration's actions in 1996 to restrict tobacco marketing to minors and to approve marketing of nicotine gum and patches for adults were pioneering steps in the right direction So are several pieces of congressional legislation currently under discussion that include provisions for tobacco addiction treatments Nevertheless much remains to be done if our nation is to make tobacco er y- dependence treatment as acceptable and as readily available as tobacco itself We must evaluate and approve potentially treatments for tobacco dependence at the level of priority we assign to treatments for diseases such as AIDS and cancer Signaling such a course could help empower the private sector to meet these challenges in a way that will contribute to the health of out nation in the short and long run I strongly encourage any forthcoming congressional legislation or executive actions to strengthen if not leave alone the FDAs authority over tobacco and to support the FDAs ability to evaluate new treatments and treatment approaches in a manner that is consistent with the devastation wrought by unremitting tobacco use life-savi- Moreover in our battle with Big Tobacco we should not hide behind our children Instead as we take every action to save our children from the ravages of tobacco we should demonstrate that our commitment to those who are already addicted and to those who will yet become addicted will never expire C Everett Koop was surgeon general to 1939 from IS81 - MW 4 |