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Show Congress needs good men I have heard that he was laughed at for thinking that the senate could work that way. They play the game of "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours," or what is more commonly known as blackmail, "If you want a defense contract for Thiokol then you better support me in my five billion dollar boondoggle in my state." Sometimes I get so aggravated with the entire mess that I think, "Boy, I'd like to go back there and get these folks straightened out. I'd get rid of the graft, the payoffs, the overspending, the bureaucracy, the humongous waste." Sure I would! Just like Jake Garn or any other senator who thinks they can buck the system. It is too ingrained and some have become too powerful. I used to think President Kennedy Ken-nedy was a pretty neat guy. Then lately I heard about all the womanizing woman-izing and stuff. What a way to burst a bubble. No one is perfect. Yet we have the most wonderful government plan in the world, and those in seats of power abuse that power and fall far from perfect, it would appear. All this rambling leads to one idea: When will the officials in office of-fice forget about getting themselves re-elected and get around to helping help-ing America? We could use a few good men, just like the Marines. By MARCELLA WALKER Wouldn't you like to see just one thing happen in Washington D.C. that was done for the benefit of the American people as a whole without with-out the entire congress and senate breaking up on party lines? I keep wondering if this will ever happen. Of course, it is very unlikely, but wouldn't it be nice? If the president gives a talk or a news conference or a State of the Union address, then the "other" party must be heard from. They must contradict everything that was said, no matter what. I would like to see the parties come out in support of each other once in a while. I'd like to see them do the American people a favor and consider the best interests of the country and not what will get them re-elected next time around. What really set me off this time was the flap about the unsuccessful unsuccess-ful coup in Panama. The government govern-ment has been eager to get rid of Noriega and I can understand that. The government tries to do things diplomatically, I am sure. The Secretary of Defense seemed to be very sincere when he explained what had happened and why theU. S. did not kidnap Noriega and solve the entire matter right there. It seemed like a good explanation explana-tion and I felt that we should just learn from the experience. Well, right off the bat we had some contrary opinions in Washington Wash-ington and they dive right in with all kinds of accusations that the explanation is untrue and that the U.S. muffed it. Some of them sound like they have a red flag that goes up in their brains as soon as one party takes a stand which means that they have to be loud in their opposing view. It is almost like they are programmed pro-grammed to automatically disapprove. disap-prove. And it doesn't matter which party p.g. blab is in office. It always happens and it happens to whoever is in office. The other day there was a vote on something or other, I have forgotten for-gotten right now what issue it was, and 60 Democrats actually thought for themselves and voted with the Republicans. What a wonderful happening. Here in Utah we have two representatives rep-resentatives who are Republicans and one who is a Democrat. Frequently Fre-quently these reps are at odds with the Republicans on one side aTid the Democrat on the other. What is at question here is the state of Utah. It does not matter what a man's philosophy is, his desire should be to do what is best for the people in the state. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our representatives and senators could forget they belonged to any party at all and just vote the way their constituents want them to? But I am told that is naive thinking. think-ing. Senator Jake Garn went back to Washington when he was first elected andhadbigdreamsof doing just that. |