Editorial and Opinion
From other editors:
Welcome Signs Needed at Outskirts of Sandy
Dealing with big government at
times can be frustrating. The
Jaycees here who spent 100 man
hours to put up “Welcome to
Sandy’’ signs three years ago
would testify to that.
On prior approval from the
Oregon Highway Division, the
Jaycees built two rustic signs for
both ends of town and worked with
city and state officials for proper
placem en t.
M aterials
w ere
donated by area merchants, and
Portland General Electric installed
the poles to hold the signs.
The sign that welcomed visitors
from the west stayed up two
m onths before the Highway
Division rescinded its approval and
ordered it down. The sign on the
east end of town never got up. The
large poles that held the sign near
the Ford garage east of town stand
as rem inder of the Jaycees’ in
tention.
With 10,000-18,000 cars passing
through Sandy daily, we think that
another effort should be made to
work within the state’s narrow
guidelines for installation of
community identification signs on
state highways — in this case,
Highway 26. Signs that identify
Sandy and the city’s population
would be permissible at either end
of town within city limits, ac
cording to one Highway Division,
Perm its Department spokesman.
The signs might even note
something like “ Home of the Sandy
Mountain Festival,’’ he said. Also,
directional signs that note location
of things like the library, city hall,
city park and community pool
might be allowed at some in
tersections, he suggested. And if
the City of Sandy allows room in
the new community center for the
Chamber of Commerce, a sign
might be approved for guiding
visitors to the Chamber office for
more information.
The key to such efforts, said Dick
would be a willingness of a civic
building inspector, local highway
engineer and Highway Division
Perm its Departm ent, for prior
approval and tfien turn over sign
ownership to the City of Sandy.
This would be a worthwhile
project again for the Jaycees or
Chamber of Commerce.
(VB)
A Field of Six for the Mayor’s Job
Recent entry of theater owner
John W. Kent into the six-candidate
m a y o ra l
ra c e
causes
Mel
Haneberg to chuckle over new
interest in his job. Incumbent
Mayor Haneberg, who retires from
office this year, said that his big
problem as a candidate was in
finding someone to run against
him. Perhaps he’s brought new
status to the position.
F irst Councilman Bruce Cook, an
in su ra n ce a g en t, announced
candidacy. Then Councilman Jim
Duff, grade school teacher, filed
for the job. Next cam e high school
counselor Dick Harrison, Sandy
police sergeant Dennis Wolf and
retired city recorder Ruth Loun-
dree. Only three of the candidates
have turned in their petitions,
however.
In any event, a six-candidate
race increases the prospects that
no one will win a clear plurality
Nov. 7. A simple plurality will win
the election, but what of a tie?
Should two or more candidates
draw an equal number of votes,
city charter directs that they would
draw lots publicly in a manner
prescribed by the Council.
With Sandy’s small number of
registered voters and recent low
voter turnout in levy elections, it
appears that the first candidate to
make 50 good friends could become
mayor. (VB)
Enforcement Needed with Striking Teachers
It should be no surprise that
respect for law and order seems to
be plummeting in this country.
Certainly not after listening to a
judge in Snohomish County, Wash.,
explain why he had decided not to
send striking teachers back to
work.
The judge affirmed their strike
was illegal but said he wouldn’t
order them back since it “ doesn’t
do any good. They just ignore the
orders.”
In other words, this particular
ju d g e feels the courts a re
powerless if teachers decide not to
obey the law. At least he wouldn’t
do anything about it.
Wonder if he applies the same
rules to a burglar, an arsonist,
someone guilty of car theft? Their
actions might break the law, but if
they decide not to obey his edicts,
he’d have to let them go home free.
What kind of nonsensical justice
this? If a law is broken, penalties
should be paid Laws should apply
equally to everyone.
High Schoolers Improving Scholastically
We were delighted to read last
weekend that 1978 Oregon high
school graduates improved their
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
scores over the previous year.
This was the first such im
p ro v em en t since 1972 when
statew ide comparisons first were
m ade. V erne D uncan, s ta te
su p erin ten d e n t of public in
struction, said Oregon students did
better in both the verbal and math
portions of the tests.
Schools have taken a lot of heat
lately because of falling SAT
scores. Hopefully, the trend has
been reversed.
Von Braschler General Manager
John Kline, Editor
Caroline DuH, Office Manager
Mark Floyd, Staff Reporter
Kaye Barton, »toff reporter
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No 38
Sept. 31. 1878
School busing no answer
Welcome Back, Carter...
group that they, too, embark
on forced busing to redress
the imbalance among white
and black children in a few
Commentary
FTC: Whose
side is it on?
In the name of consumer
protection, the Federal
Trade Commission properly
pursues deceptive trade
practices, including ad
vertising. However, the
agency is now on a campaign
of trying to police the way
pictures
are
used
in
television commercials. The
problem here is how to find
agreement on the meaning or
message communicated by a
visual image. When word
The
Federal
Trade
Commission is another of our
g o v e rn m e n t re g u la to ry
agencies whose work of
tentimes causes us to wonder
whose side it is on.
copy is short, how many of
these picture themes are
legally deceptive? In whose
eyes? The public’s or the
Federal
Trade
Com
mission's?
A more basic concern
regarding this regulatory
overkill must include con
siderations of the F irs t
Amendment to the United
S ta te s C o n s t i t u t i o n .
Advertising, no less than
other forms of written, oral
and visual expression, is a
freedom guaranteed by the
First Amendment.
Will the Federal Trade
Commission next be con
cerned with the pretty girls
in billboard advertising? The
handsome men in newspaper
layouts? Or perhaps the
sweeping scenery used in
magazine ads to create
mood, no matter what the
product?
In this campaign the
Federal Trade Commission
seems less concerned with
freedom of expression than
in
jou sting
im aginary
“ visual w in d m ills .’ ’ The
Federal Trade Commission
needs more legal foundation
than suspicions to deprive
Am erican consumers of
honest service and a con
stitutional right.
- KATU, Channel 2
Portland
Letters to
The Editor
Thanks
To the Editor:
I wish to take this op
p o rtu n ity to thank the
citizens of Sandy for the
affirm ative vote for the 1978-
79 budget which allows the
city to operate through the
next year.
I wish to especially thank
those members of the
Kiw anis,
Chamber
of
Commerce, and the fire
department who worked so
diligently in urging the
people to cast their votes.
However I am far from
happy at the meager per
centage of the registered
voters who took the time to
go to the polls
I cannot recall ever having
talked to a citizen of Sandy
who didn't express an in
terest it. how city govern
ment operates, yet those
supposedly re sp o n sib le
persons do not take the
trouble to spend a few
minutes of their time on
election day to make their
wishes known
Until such time as it
becomes a matter of pride or
shame whether a person
exercises his responsibility
in using his voting privilege,
your representatives in city
government w ill never know
if the w ill of all the people is
being expressed
Very truly yours,
Melvin Haneberg
Government
To the Editor:
In
form er years, a
representative of the Oregon
The insanity of mandatory schools.
There is no conclusive
school busing for reasons of
that yanking
race is making headway on evidence
the West Coast. It is insane children from their neigh
because it doesn’t help borhood schools in the name
children learn better but of racial balance improves
imposes on them the in the quality of education.
convenience of sometimes There is not even any
long bus trips in the morning compelling evidence that
doing so contributes to
and afternoon.
greater harmony and un
In Los Angeles, the derstanding between dif
Supreme Court has refused ferent races.
to get involved in that city’s
But there is a clear in
mandatory busing program,
dication that at least one
apparently with the result
aspect of busing — the long
that the wholesale shifting of
bus trips — is harmful to
children w ill get under way
children and their families.
as scheduled.
In the Los Angeles scheme,
some
children w ill be forced
The Seattle schools have
adopted a mandatory two- to make 45-minute, one-way
way busing scheme without a bus trips. That means they’ll
court order. The Portland spend an hour and a half
schools now face a recom each day traveling on the
mendation from a citizens’ city streets.
Liquor Control Commission
has come to our door to ask
our opinion on the granting of
a liquor license. Now they
just paste up a notice on the
window of a vacant eatery
and hope no one w ill see it.
That constitutes less
service but still we pay more
taxes. Measure 6, here I
come!
Greed, not consideration
for people, the quality of a
neighborhood or families
seems to be the name of the
game.
In the last depression,
people refused to pay taxes
in Chicago and yet education
still went on — in quonset
huts People hit them in their
pocketbooks, where it hurts
Despite the same threat of no
schools or police protection
(and that was in the gangster
era) we still had them
Time seems to have gone
full circle.
Mrs. P.J. Bernard
42055 SE Lauzon Lane
Sandy
That’s an hour and a half
they can’t spend studying in
school. Or it’s an hour and a
half they can’t spend at home
with their families That
can’t possibly be useful to
children, especially those in
prim ary and elementary
grades. ( I t also can’ t
possibly be useful to those
children to be in the middle
of automobile exhaust fumes
for 90 minutes each day.
' There would be no drastic
racial imbalance in big-city
schools if there were no
racial imbalance in housing
patterns. So the only sen
sible, long-range approach to
o b lite ra tin g
ra c ia l im
balance is to make sure that
there's
no
ille g a l
discrimination in housing
and that people, regardless
of race, have the economic
opportunity to live wherever
they want. That’s a tall or
der, to be sure, but busing
children to and fro doesn’t
get society any closer to the
goal.
—Albany Democrat-Herald
From other editors^
NW recycling saving fuel
Anyone
who
thinks
recycling is a waste of time
should know that an
estim ated 8.3 m illio n
pounds
of
alum inum
collected by a metals firm
in the Northwest during the
first six months of 1978 has
resulted in the saving of 66
m illion kilowatt hours of
electricity.
Now that’s not a king’s
ransom as far as electricity
goes, but 66 m illio n
kilowatt hours of elec
tric ity would have taken
care of the needs of all the
customers of Springfield
U tility Board for a little
over 37 days during the
1977-78 fiscal year. In other
words, it ’s not exactly a
piddling amount.
A record 70 m illio n
pounds of aluminum were
collected nation wide
during the first half of the
year
by
Reynolds
Aluminum Recycling Co., a
subsidiary of Reynolds
Metals Co. That represents
1.5 billion aluminum cans,
which up until a few years
ago would have found their
way
to
a
la n d fill
somewhere or would have
cluttered up a roadside
d itch
u n til
someone
bothered to conduct a
roadside cleanup.
On a nationwide basis,
the amount of electricity
saved by remelting the
cans for use instead of
making new aluminum
from raw materials would
have kept the customers of
SUB energized for almost
45 weeks during the past
fiscal year.
Assuming the percentage
of people recycling cans
nationwide is the same as
the level of participation in
the Lane County SORT
home recycling effort (and
that's a wild assumption
since SORT provided the
easiest possible way to
carry out recycling), that
means the number of cans
turned in represents only
about 16 or 17 percent of the
number sold. In reality,
since few other states are
as recycle-conscious as
Oregon, the percentage is
undoubtedly much lower.
Also.
the
figqres
represent only aluminum,
which is only a small part
of the total recycling effort.
Glass, tin cans and paper
can
also
be
re
manufactured with less
energy than it takes to
make them from raw
m a te ria ls,
and other
wastes can be turned into
fuel pellets that can be
burned to produce elec
tricity, thus saving fossil
fuels.
The possible savings of a
good nationwide recycling
program are endless. We
hope that people w ill start
waking up that fact.
—Springfield News
From other editors:
$66 million in GSA
fraud no small matter
As the General Services Administration scandal
slowly unfolds, we are reminded of someone’s com
ment that even what falls through the cracks from a
$500 billion budget can’t be called chicken feed.
GSA spends $5 billion, or i percent of the federal
budget, and investigator Vincent Alto thinks some $66
million a year has been falling through the cracks as a
result of fraud and corruption. That piddling amount is
enough to make it the “ Biggest money scandal in the
history of the U S government,’ ’ according to Mr. Alto
We wonder how big it would look if someone could
guess how much the federal government loses through
the cracks altogether. We can’t guess, of course. It can
be hoped that other government departments have
better control over cash boxes than the managers of
the GSA have had.
But that hope is not much reinforced by any casual
tour of the Greater Washington area. Seldom in all
history has there been such a boom town, with so many
evidences of new-found wealth. Apartment buildings
and town-house developments sprawl over the once-
pastoral Virginia countryside. The most expensive
hotels and restaurants are always heavily booked.
Expensive shops proliferate. The sleepy town of two
decades ago throbs with life. And why not? When a
government building manager can make an extra
$300,000 a year through kickbacks (we assume tax
free) that’s enough to fuel any economy.
GSA Adm inistrator Jay Solomon has promised 50
indictments within weeks, and perhaps as many as 500
over time. But no one yet knows how big the GSA
scandal may become. President Carter has urged
investigators to go after the “ bigger fish,’’ without
detailing just how big the fish might become.
Washington is tittering with speculation over whether
some Congressmen might eventually fall into the net.
There is a sense of high stakes maneuvering behind the
scenes
Whatever the outcome, it w ill not enhance the
respect of hard-working, taxDavina citizens for the
quality of their federal government and the steward
ship of Congress. Word of all the high living in
Washington has filtered into the remotest regions of
the country with tales of $200 million senatorial palaces
and the like.
Of course, there are the usual apologists. One of the
most surprising is Deputy Attorney General Benjamin
Civiletti, who is running the GSA investigation for the
Justice Department. Mr. Civilette seems to think that
the sort of thing that’s been going on at GSA is not
much different from what happens in private business.
Maybe not in kind, but all our instincts tell us that it
w ill prove to be a great deal different in degree and
scope We would urge Mr. Civiletti to forget about the
private sector for a while and get on with the in
vestigation. The flow through the cracks has become a
bit too obvious.
—Wall Street Journal
the SOVEREIGN STATE of AFFAIRS
W H O ’S SIDE DID THE
ARBITRATOR REPRESENT IN
THE POSTAL WORKERS
DISPUTE?
BOYD & WOOD
YEAH LABOR A N D
GOVER NM EN T
\ W H O REPRESENTED THE
BOTH SIDES
I
BOTH SIDES?
’
THEY D ID N ’T HAVE ONE
/
I COULD TELL...
TAXPAYERS SIDE?
\