Editorial & Opinion
Von 8raschl«r, Publithf
Carolin« Duff, OHlc» Manofl«
Dan Dillon, tdiior
Scot» Nowton, Sport«
tdlfor
SANDY, OREGON. THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1983
Closed SUHS campus wise
New Sandy High School student discipline.
A closed campus should help
Superintendent Roberta Hutton
deserves a lot of credit and sup make Sandy one of the better
port for her get-tough plan for a schools in this regard, however,
closed campus this fall.
The students surely will be
It probably won't prove
missed in the downtown area, but
popular, but the plan could reduce
their presence at school—during
absenteeism, tardiness and
lunch period and especially after
general discipline problems at the
the bell—is more important.
school.
Sandy High in recent years has
New Superintendent Hutton is
suffered from a public perception proving brave and logical in her
of such problems, rightly or attempts to improve our already
wrongly.
revered high school. She deserves
The school is probably no better a lot of community support along
nor worse than most in regard to the way. (VB)
Welcome-to-Sandy signs needed
Sandy needs a welcome-to-town
sign at either end of town to show
the world the obvious truth that
Sandy is a friendly place to visit
and wonderful place to live.
Sandy Chamber of Commerce
vice president and city planner
Don Wilson is spearheading a new
drive to secure such signs.
His community identification
project is just off the ground in
idea only, but already he’s
enlisted the aid of local artist
Richard Luczkow of Sign of the
Times gallery.
The twosome figure it might
cost the community some
$1,700-11,800 to do the job right.
What they have in mind calls for
two fine 5 foot by 10 foot redwood
signs that are sandblasted and
laminated.
They hope to secure support
from local businesses to offset the
cost and hence bring more
business into Sandy.
They harbor dreams of getting
Portland General Electric or
General Teiphone to donate time
and help.
Truly such an endeavor is a
worthy one and deserves support
and push by all who take pride in
this fine community.
Perhaps a fund-raiser could be
undertaken by a civic group or
body of activists in cooperation
with the Chamber.
The more who take the task by
the bit and pull, the faster the pro
ject will be accomplished. (VB)
Local Action Center serves well
Sandy Community Action
Center is one of those rare groups
that quietly sit in the background
and selflessly serve hundreds and
hundreds of needy citizens by
their own raw dedication.
Take last month, for instance.
The volunteers served some
1,433 persons who wandered in off
the street for some help or other.
Most came for clothing, but some
needed furniture, household ef
fects, food, gas and referrals for
help.
That’s quite a lot of community
service for a group that claims lit
tle if any government funding out
side a recent block grant to buy
their new home at site of the old
post office on Proctor Boulevard.
What’s more, 126 boxes of food
were given to 126 local families at
total retail value of $1,832.80.
Also, 65 gallons of gas were
given to 14 people to reach
hospitals, job applications and
food stamp offices.
Some 353 hours of labor were
donated at the Center by 27
volunteers. That equates to
$1,182.55, based only on minimum
wage for all.
Of course, the Center does all
this with a lot of help and dona
tions from local friends and
neighbors.
Countless residents drop off
good reusable clothes, furniture
and more.
Recently, the Hoodland
Women’s Club donated two pickup
loads of good clothing.
Church, organizations and kind
individual patrons continually
pitch in to help.
To them all, a warm thank you
from the community they serve.
(VB)
The innocent bystander:
“Nuke-free zone” needed
I was in the back yard, burning dinner
over a slow fire, when my dear wife, Glyn-
da, came out to read me an item in the
paper.
It said the tiny farming community of
Stetson, Maine, had voted to declare itself
a nuclear-free zone And would the Soviet
Union therefore kindly scratch it from the
list of possible targets?
"Somehow,” said Glynda, frowning
prettily, "it doesn’t sound fair.”
"If the Africans, Latin Americans,
Australians. Antarcticans and now the
Europeans want to declare themselves
nuclear-free zones,” I said, “why can't the
Stetsonians?”
Because if our leaders get us all blown
up, shouldn't they go along? After all, our
leaders are their leaders Besides, what's
to stop anyone who wants to from becom
ing a nuclear-free zone? What's to stop
us?”
"Oh. the reason we couldn’t do
that . . " I paused. "By golly. Glynda,” I
cried, embracing her, "that’s a keen idea!
We’ll save our little family yet ”
She didn’t look enthusiastic. "We
couldn't even get the Town Council to put a
stop sign at the corner ”
"Who needs them? We’ll do it ourselves
How’s this sound? ‘We, the residents of
3245 Coreopsis Ave. do hereby declare our
premises free from the production, handl-
ing or emplacement of nuclear weapons
and .. ' Hold it What's our son. Mordred,
mucking around with in the basement
these days?”
“I think it’s a raccoon repeilant bomb,”
said Glynda. "But I'm sure it’s not
nuclear.”
“Good. And to be on the safe side, we
should get a little sign for the front door,
such as. ‘No Tradesmen, Peddlers or
Nuclear Devices.’ ”
“How will the Russians know?”
“We'll draft a letter to Chairman An
dropov: 'Dear Chairman: Upon mature
reflection, we regret we will be unable to
participate in any forthcoming nuclear
holocaust. Will you be so good as to remove
our names from your hit list?* ”
“It’s polite to say you hope this won't
cause him any inconvenience."
"Okay. And then we add: ‘Enclosed,
please find a map of our little community.
The X marks our house. If there’s any con
fusion, it’s the first right aftei the Chevron
station. To make sure, I’ll paint "NUKE-
FREE ZONE” on the roof in large
letters.' ”
“I know the Soviets have smart bombs,
dear,” said Glynda, "but do you think, they
can read English?"
"So we’ll write it in Russian ”
"I think you ought to get a bumper
sticker that says the same tning for the
roof of the car,” suggested Glynda. “It
isn’t even paid for yet.”
“Good thinking I” I said.
Wall Street report:
Economic fairness political suicide
By allowing himself to be put
on the defensive on the so-called
fairness issue, President Reagan
is making a mistake whose im
portance extends far beyond the
political arena
For an attempt to make
‘■fairness" a centra) factor in na
tional economic policy is not just
futile, it is itself hopelessly unfair
— to the American economic
system
In an era when group paranoia
has become the universal
neurosis, no system or policy is
likely to be perceived as fair by
all citizens But the achievement
of such equity has always been
beyond the reach of any govern
ment. Smart Presidents, like
John Kennedy were quick to
realize this ("Life is unfair");
less gifted leaders, like Jimmy
Carter, dissipated national
economic opportnities in a super
ficial preoccupation with
“fairness.”
Governments cannot make us
equal either in potential or in
achievements Some are born
smarter. Others have more
energy We come short and tall,
talented and plodding, coor
dinated and awkward, stunning
and grotesque The one thing we
are not is equal.
When the nation's founders
agreed in Philadelphia that we .
were "created equal," they
thought in terms of political
rights. In practical application,
this means, "one person, one
vote.” Realisticaly, it also should
mean that it is in society's in
terest to seek to maximize oppor
tunity, a task in which the
greatest potential maximizer —
the public school system — has
been failing abysmally
We make a mockery of the
word "fairness," though, when
we attempt to equate it with the
redistribution of wealth That is
not the American tradition— it is
the tradition of Karl Marx
Generations of immigrants came
here in hope of personal advance
ment through their own self-
reliant efforts, not under the
misapprehension that their sue
cess would be achieved by being
awarded a portion of the estates
of the Rockefellers and
Carnegies.
The
genuine
American tradition is not to have
government hobble one’s more
affluent neighbor, but to hope tha
one's own efforts — or one's
children's — will surpass him.
Every country in the world has
schemes for wealth redistribu
tion- what few understand is
wealth creation There, govern
ments have no demonstrated
ability whatsoever And ironical
ly, economic policies tilted
toward "fairness" invariably
result in lower national living
standards Such policies rarely
harm the truly rich, those with
vast reserves of inherited
wealth, but they heavily tax and
hamper those trying to get rich,
or even those just trying to get by
with incomes in the middle
range
The inevitable result, as we
have seen in the U.S. in recent
years, is a slowdown in produc
tivity growth, a nationwide em
phasis on tax planning rather
than venturesome investment —
and a growing feeling of
hopelessness among those trying
to rise from society’s lowest
economic rungs A chained giant
may seem "fair” to those who
would arrogantly "plan" our
economy, but it demonstrably
flunks any reasonable test of
wealth creation
The preachers of class war.
whose doctrines underlie the pre
sent chatter about "fairness,”
are either ignorant of history, or
have chosen to disregard it In
truth, the years of strongest
economic improvement for our
least favored citizens, and for the
broad middle class, have been
the years in which business
boomed and many got rich In
contrast, the antibusiness at
mosphere (and legislation* of the
last IS years scarcely eradicated
the nation's poverty roils
Reagan, when challenged,
meandered
about
how
"frustrating" it was to be accus
ed of lack of fairness, but did not
confront the issue To the extent
his economic program en
courages savings and investment
on the part of the nation's more
successful citizens, it will be
more than "fair" to those without
such earnings
It will be a
positive benefit in terms of jobs
and economic growth To the ex
tent we continue to keep inflation
in check, by restraining the ex
pansion of "compassionate"
government giveaways, we will
see the average family's pur
chasing power and living stan
dards increase
Government's job is not so
much to play Big Brother,
deciding how much of your earn
ings you should "fairly " be allow
ed to keep, but to get its own ex
cesses under control
If it
restores a sound basis for
economic freedom, it may be sur
prised to discover that we can do
the rest ourselves - fairly well