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Editorial and Opinion
What other editors say
Roses to Society of St. Paul
government reimburses the home
at a top rate of only $22.43 per bed
per day.
We commend the Society of St.
Paul and St. Jude’s Home on the
occasion of their 20th anniversary,
and also for the home’s per
severance and faithful adherence
to high quality despite lack of
public financial support.
Truth is, private gifts to the
Home come only around Christmas
time, which seems odd for a place
that brings Christmas to the
masses daily. (VB)
Sandy’s nationally-honored St.
Jude’s Home for long-term nursing
and residential care is a public-
service facility which deserves
public praise and support.
For 20 years, the Society of St.
Paul has served the health care
needs of people from this area
without regard to ability to pay.
The Episcopal order continues to
operate one of the finest facilities in
the country, too, despite recent
short funds in Medicaid reim
bursement. While actual per
patient daily costs run $24.31, the
Tax revolt has ramifications
Oregon’s so-called property tax
revolt - apparently destined for the
November ballot, seeks to balance
the tax burden of government and
social services evenly on the
shoulders of all. While emphasis on
other forms of taxation such as
state income tax would appear
more equitable, one has to worry
about the long-range effects of
peeling one layer of civic
responsibility (leadership, if you
will) from the property owner. The
landed gentry traditionally set the
pace for this country’s develop
ment. Their community pride and
authorship built schools, roads,
libraries and parks.
True, their number is dwindling,
as a large percentage of 20th
century countrymen turn to
maintenance-free apartm ents
where young people simply turn
the key on their way out the neigh
borhood. As land dwindles and
property values rise here, a new
age steeped in public apathy
toward government and limited
civic involvement greets a growing
landless class.
When society creates the sort of
chasm where lower middle class
Americans and young people can
no longer feel the pride of home
ownership, will they respond to
society with gestures of civic pride
and responsibility?
When denied children, pets and
parties by the special set of rules
governing tenants, will this new
class of landless citizens respond
with pioneer spirit to the special
problems facing their new age?
Perhaps.
Actually,
we’re
gambling that they will with
passage of the tax-limitation
initiative, because social tax in
creases of any sort under the
proposal will require a two-thirds
majority of all registered voters.
Some day down the road, of
course, most Americans will
probably live in apartments. Our
concern now is that lack of
ownership doesn’t convert into lack
of civic concern. We hope, too, that
property owners who face some
escape from taxes don’t see this
relief as an escape from civic
leadership. Even after the house is
built and paid off, there remains
serious quality of life con
siderations such as street lighting,
water and sewers, schools,
libraries, parks and social ser
vices. Someone must pay the price.
(VB)
Buffoonery at Labor Department
Berry pickers have fought in
berry wars in the fields — pelting
friends with the juicy projectiles —
as long as there have been pickers
and berries.
In recent years, however, the
berry war has stretched across the
continent, involving Northwest
growers and Washington, D.C.,
bureaucrats.
Department of Labor officials
denied waivers to Washington and
Oregon growers that would have
allowed 10- and 11-year-old pickers
into the fields.
A series of protests followed and
after several days of “ it’s-OK,-it’s
not-OK” to pick, a federal judge
granted a temporary injunction
that allows the young pickers to
work.
Labor officials, in denying the
waivers, said farmers did not
provide adequate documentation
that the pesticides used in the fields
where the 10-and ll-year-olds work
would cause them no harm.
Generations of pickers have
worked in those fields. No proof has
ever been established that pickers
were harmed by pesticides. And
how much difference is there
between ll-year-olds and 12-year-
olds? Pesticides will injure the
younger one and not the older?
Greater harm is probably being
done by not allowing the children
who want to work the opportunity
for experience. The younger a
person starts picking, the better he
gets — and the more money he
earns — as he gets older.
Labor officials seem to disregard
the economic harm done to the
growers who can’t get their crop
picked before it perishes on the
vine. Berries are a delicate crop
that must be harvested fast before
a change in the weather, such as
this year, causes the berries to rot
faster than they can be picked.
Regulations regarding pickers
should be developed at the local
level, not in Washington, D.C., by
bureaucrats who’ve probably
never stooped over a row of berries
in their life.
Von Broschlor. G«n«rol Monogor
Carolin« Duff. Offic« Monag«r
John Klin«. Editor
Mark Floyd, Staff R«port«r
Fubb»hed w eekly Thursdays by Th« Outlook Publishing Co Bow 68
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Sondy Pott Sandy Oregon 97055
No 27
July 6. 1978
Congress gets message, but-
After years of runaway
growth in the federal budget,
Congress clipped a measly
$800 million off the magic
beanstalk this month.
The reason for that
overdue act of thrift is the
recent passage of a tax
limitation by California
voters
The final results are not in
on the im pact of the
California measure, where $7
billion were slashed from the
budgets of local schools,
cities and counties dependent
on property tax. The result
may be chaos,, as officials
have been predicting, or it
"Cheer Up, Chuck...
may have no serious con
Some Day One O f Those Malpractice Attorneys
sequences.
It now seems certain the
Is Going To Need Surgery.”
most fearsome tax-dragon of
all, the federal government,
has heard the song of the
taxpayers’ sword. Now the
Congress is taking action to
avoid feeling the pain of
living with in our means.
For a moment last week, it
even
looked as though
be auctioneer and his en
To the Editor:
Congress would deny itself
thusiasm
urged
participants
The One Way Theatre held
a picnic-auction on July 2. on to some very good
We had high hopes for this “buys” .
We feel a renewing sense of
first fund raising project as
we needed to raise money for purpose knowing that Sandy
our next production, “The merchants are supporting
Impossible Y ears” (in our endeavors. The very real
If you are one of those
labor of love involved in
November).
persons
who is puzzled by the
beginning
a
theatre
such
as
We were grateful for the
wonderul reception we this is made easier by the meaning of criminal justice,
received from Sandy Area knowlege that civic pride try this one on for size
Merchants when they were extends tous.
A sheriff in Tennessee is
We will do all we can to being sued by* two inmates
approached for donations for
our auction. The assistance make Sandy as proud of us as because he wouldn't let them
along with the many we are of Sandy.
have television in their cells.
Marlene Tebo
donations from friends of our
One of the prisoners was
Secretary-Treasurer
One Way Theatre helped us
sentenced
to death two
One
Way
Theatre
raise over $400.
Sandy months ago for murder. The
Jim Wilhite volunteered to
Letters-to-the-editor
some vital benefits such as waste and spending. But
Congress
has
never
free haircuts, plants for responded. Bloated federal
office and other such in
agencies have grown an
dispensable perks.
nually. Inflatioinary budget
But the message has yet to deficits have been accepted
penetrate that deeply. by Congress as a part of the
Congress is not convinced the national
scene,
not
tax limitation is anything something to be concerned
more than another result of
C a lifo rn ia ’s excessiv e about.
Now perhaps the message
sunshine and free spirits.
is getting through. But the
So now, as Oregon and
messenger will be the local
other states face a tax
taxing districts fighting to
limitation m easure
in provide essential service»
November, there is no doubt
with badly eroded funding
Congress will be watching
sources. The messenger will
Getting the message through no doubt survive, but in
may be the most worthwhile
many cases may be a
point of the tax limitation hopeless cripple, unable to
movement.
meet the real needs of
It is sad that taxpayers
people.
must cut the services from
The tax limitation in
which they derive most Oregon
would
reduce
direct benefit in order to be budgets here by 42 percent.
heard at the source of
If Congress cut the federal
greatest waste.
budget 42 percent, few people
For years, poll-takers and would have problems with
individual voters have been property taxes. That is not a
telling Congress to reduce message the feds want to
spending. Most members
have been elected, at least in hear.
— Lebanon Express
part, on promises to reduce
**
Cruel and unusual
other has been in jail 14
months for armed robbery.
They prepared their own,
handwritten brief. according
to a news service story, that
was file in circuit court
alleging severe mental strain
and violation of rights under
the Eighth Amendment. It is
the latter that prohibits . .
cruel and unusual punish
ment.”
The two prisoners are
asking the court to order the
sheriff to pay each of them
$120,000 in damages.
Which leads us to wonder
what kind of price they would
put on the matter if they
decide their mattresses are
too hard.
The News Guard
Lincoln City
Time to think about digital watches
and the ‘sad children of the ‘60s’
by Arlie J. Hoover
This morning I read the newspaper faster than
usual. I think my new watch caused it. I just got
rid of my old digital watch and got a new,
traditional, watch for my birthday. Traditional,
you remember, means the kind of watch that
shows the whole day, from 12 to 12.
For several years now I’ve been struggling to
survive with a digital watch. I remember when I
first got it (as a gift), I liked the shiny gold
bracelet and the attractive red crystal and it was
fun to punch and watch the numerals flash in the
little window. For a few days. But soon the new
wore off and for some vague reason I began to
dislike digital watches. I can list all kinds of
practical things wrong with them.
For instance, it’s impossible to tell time at high
noon on a bright sunny day. The light of your
little old wrist computer just can’t overcome the
candle power of the sun.
Furthermore, there’s no way you can “ sneak a
glance” at the time with a digital watch. In the
middle of a boring interview, you have to make a
conspicuous motion with your right hand and
punch the little beggar to get the time, all of
which may embarrass your guest.
If the preacher in church is prolonging a
boring sermon your daughter has to reach over
in an obvious gesture, push up your cuff and
punch to see what time it is.
Reach, push, punh, and stare— it’s all so much
wasted motion.
Digital watches are expensive, at least if you,
like me, are accustomed to buying a $15 Timex
every five years. My digital batteries wore out in
six months, even though they were supposed to
over the digital watch. You remember the Now
Generation, those sad children of the 60’s? Many
are still with us, though a bit older now. They
were the ones who coined the phrase, “ Never
trust anyone over 30!” They were the ones who
demanded everything now, Paradise Now,
Peace Now, Out of Vietnam Now, Equality Now,
Sex Now,
They didn’t seem capable of waiting for
anything They scoffed at the good old puritan
idea of “deferred gratification.” They made ah
idol of the Naked Instant and burned a lot of old
values on its altar.
The naked instant! . . . that sounds almoat
immodest, doesn’t it? What’s wrong with an
instant being naked?
What’s wrong is that the naked instant is a
giant abstraction. Stricktly speaking, it doesn’t
exist. As St. Augustine noted, try to catch the
present moment and it slips immediately into the
past. The present moment is an indefinable point
that is continually pressing into the future and
receeding into the past Deify it and you deify a
nonentity.
Could it be that digital watches testify? to
people’s desire to make time stand still, to arrest
the relentless onward march of time? E tern ity -
achieved with the punch of a button! The
ultimate in technology!
The Now Generation seems to have an aver
sion to both sides of the naked instant. They hate
history and they fear the future.
They hate history. They complain when it's
required to graduate from college They seldom
take it as an elective. They declare It
“ irrelevant.”
They fear the future. They advise against
having children. They won’t use a marriage
ceremony that says “ till death do us port.”
Sometimes they won’t even get married. They
fear long-range promises and commitments
They preface all covenants with the proviso, “A b
long as . .
Should we coin a new word for this mental
disease of the Now Generation? Let’s call it
"chronophobia," which means, “ fear of time.”
Yes. it certainly feels good to be able once
again to see the entire day on my watch. The only
trouble is. I keep punching the stem of this n^B-
fangles timepiece and nothing happens'
*
watches I don’t like, something deeper than
dollars and batteries and wasted motion.
But, the more I muse, the more I begin to see
that there’s something more about digital
last a full year. At six dollars a battery, that’s
pretty expensive chronometry!
There’s something philosophically misleading
about a timepiece that shows only the present
minute of time. If you can’t look at the entire
Should we coin a new word
for this mental disease of the
Now Generation? Let’s call it
‘chronophobia,’ which means,
iear of time’.
face of a watch and consider a full 12-hour day,
it’s difficult to think of the day as a whole,
synoptically.
Man transcends time. This is one of the many
ways in which he differs from the animals.
Reviewing the past and planning the future are
uniquely human. With a digital watch, you have
to think hard to review the time you’ve already
spent or to plan the time you’re going to spend.
It’s extra labor to “ think back” or to “ think
ahead” when all you've got is that bare, naked
instant blinking red at you.
What if all our calendars showed just one day
at a time? Would we be able to plan effectively?
It struck me as interesting that the "Now
Generation” was the very group that went ape
Another view:
Keep watch on Michigan
By our count, some 26
states permit the sale of
alcoholic beverages to people
under 21 Most use 18 as the
minimum age, but some use
19 and at least one
i Delaware) uses 20
The rest of the states, in
cluding Oregon, retain the
tra d itio n a lly
s ta n d a rd
minimum age.of 21. ’
Proposals to lower the
drinking age have come
before
the
Oregon
Legislature any number of
times, and one undoubtedly
will come around in 1979 In
that connection, we note that
an initiative petition is being
circulated in Michigan which
would raise the drinking age
there, now 18. back up to 21.
In past debates on this
sut .ct here, Michigan often
has been cited by both sides
TJv»se who want to keep the
age at 21 claim Michigan has
experienced a drastic in
crease in alcohol-related
traffic accidents among
younger people since lowing
its age to 18 Those who want
the age lowered claim there
has been no noticeable in
crease in Michigan accident
rates.
We have no idea how
Michiganders will vote on the
initiative measure, if it gets
on the ballot. But it will be
nice if their debate at least
pins down the answer to the
question of what effect the
lower drinking age has had
on the highways.
Eugene Register -Guard
Arlie Hoover is dean of Columbia Chriatfta
College in Portland.
BOYD
the SOVEREIGN STATE of AFFAIRS
I DON’T UNDERSTAND
THE BAKKE DECISION
DON’T LET IT
BOTHER YOU
. NEITHER DOES
THE SUPREME COURT
WHY NOT7
!
A WOOD
BECAUSE
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