The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • Page 6

THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN E. K. GAYLORD (1873-1974) Published Every Morning by The Oklahoma Publishing 500 N. Broadway P.O. Box 25125, Oklahoma City 73125 Phone (405) 232-3311 Edward L.

Gaylord, President and Publisher Howard Nicks Vice-President and General Manager Jim Standard Managing Editor Gates Oliver Advertising Director Circulation Director 'Can't Recall When We've Had Such a Cool Helge Holm Edith Gaylord Harper Secretary All unsolicited items are sent to The Daily Oklahoman at the risk and the company accepts no responsibility for their return. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use of all news credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news we publish. Entire contents copyrighted. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Tuesday, August 28, 1979 Schools Pass the Test NE day down and never mind how many more to go, Oklahoma public schools will meet and pass the test of the first teacher strike in the history.

Ignoring pressure from the American Federation of Teachers union, more than half of the teachers reported to handle the first scheduled day of classes. With help from 841 qualified substitutes, the classroom staff appeared adequate to offset the absence of an estimated 1,000 striking teachers. Equally if not more impressive was the first-day response of students and parents to the illegal work stoppage by the union. Despite attempts to organize a student boycott of classes in support of the strike, it appears that upwards of 75 percent of the students showed up for the first day of the fall term. Those are encouraging signs that the patrons of this public schools will not be intimidated by this unlawful attempt to disrupt the education of their children.

For many it was probably their first experience in crossing a picket line, with all the taunts, signs and epithets that accompany a strike. Those teachers, parents and students who defied the picket lines deserve the tude, for their action is the most effective answer to the union militants who would destroy our schools. In any teacher strike, the objective is to play on the fears and concerns of parents in the hope of bringing public pressure to bear on school officials to meet union contract demands. Parents obviously want their children to receive the best possible instruction, and the absence of some regular classroom teachers raises the question of whether students will suffer at the hands of a short staff supplemented by substitutes. The answer to that, in this instance, is the fact that any learning experience is better than none.

The students will be better off in the classroom than staying at home or roaming the streets. As for the substitutes, most if not all are highly qualified, and the majority are certified teachers. In many cases, their qualifications equal or exceed those of the illegal strikers they are replacing. Our locally elected school board deserves the continued support of parents and teachers in their determination to resist unreasonable union demands that exceed the financial resources and a strike that clearly violates the laws of Oklahoma. Threot to the Sixth NLY two months have passed since the U.S.

Supreme Court issued a ruling which, in effect, said there is no guarantee of a public trial in this country. Already the results of that landmark decision are being seen in local courts throughout the country. Fortunately, defense motions to close pre-trial hearings in two murder cases here in Oklahoma City have been rejected. But some judges in other cities have taken the high court's ruling as an invitation to exclude the public from preliminary court proceedings. The real problem with star chamber proceedings in any trial or pre-trial session is that there is ample opportunity for miscarriages of justice to occur beyond the public view.

The danger lies in a precedent or rule being established which could be abused at any time by any ambitious defense counsel, prosecutor or jurist. There is an apparently clear prohibition in the Constitution against any kind of non-public trial. The operative words cannot be reread too often: all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime Ferdie J. Deering shall have been committed. That language in the Sixth Amendment was written, designed and adopted for one reason only: the people of the infant republic had had enough of secret trials to understand their dangers to a free people.

Without this guarantee, no citizen could feel certain that if ever accused and brought to trial, he would be supported by all the facts in his favor. Unless all the facts are to be made public, our judicial system can never assure the citizenry that trials are indeed fair, complete and in the word chosen in the Sixth Amendment impartial. Efforts by local courts across the land to bring their processes and procedures into line with the Supreme Court ruling are sure to be a mixed lot, as conscientious judges attempt to justify a step which many of them feel is wrong. Compromises between the clear language of the amendment and the court ruling will no doubt be tried, but in any such case where the traditions of freedom are set on the scales of justice they eventually outweigh all other factors. Closing of pre-trial hearings is a step in the wrong direction that should be deplored and resisted by all of us.

Tho Dailv Oklahnman Inside Report New Wardrobe, New Image Urged By Rowland Evans, Robert Novak ASHINGTON Alonzo McDonald, Hamilton Jordan's highly regarded new deputy chief of staff in the White House, showed from the start he is an important new voice there by suggesting privately that President voyage down the Mississippi was not an unqualified public relations triumph. The politicking aboard the Delta Queen has received rave reviews from the senior staffers who conceived the journey. But filling in for the absent Jordan at a staff meeting, McDonald offered a dissent. Instead of Carter in jogging togs and sports shirts day after day on television, McDonald proposed a different image for the chief executive: appearing on TV dressed in coat and tie, thoughtfully considering problems. That McDonald, a corporate management expert who at 51 is 17 years senior, will be speaking up on his own is the best sign for hope at the reorganized White House.

Another sign of John B. Connally's summer doldrums was a meeting of Chicago area Republican county chairmen who resolved to stay off his presidential bandwagon after having seemed firmly seated there a few weeks ago. That is bad news for the Connally camp, which has been counting Illinois at the top of its northern list. But some county chairmen captivated by Connally a few months ago have been soured on him by recent visits. Since such Illinois Republican leaders were looking at Connally originally as an alternative to front- running Ronald Reagan, they are now seeking a new choice.

Some are interested in the slowly ting campaign of George Bush, but many others are eyeing an old, familiar figure: Gerald R. Ford. Carter has plans to invite 1,000 labor leaders and their chief aides to an unprecedented Labor Day party on the South Lawn of the White House. The effort to ingratiate himself with the grandees of union labor, starting with ailing AFL- CIO President George Meany, has a long way to go. In particular, he faces an uphill fight to reproduce his 1976 backing from the politically active United Auto Workers.

On his swing down the Mississippi, Carter was greeted by many labor leaders, including the UAW Iowa chief, Chuck Gifford. But Gifford and other union leaders made clear that their willingness to take part in the reception of Carter in Iowa (which begins delegate selection for the Democratic National Convention only five months from now) was no endorsement. In fact, Gifford and other labor leaders strongly lean toward Sen. Edward James J. Kilpatrick M.

Kennedy. Jack Watson, link to governors and mayors, is getting increased clout in the slowly-unfolding reorganization of the White House staff promised by Carter at the Camp David domestic summit. A buttoned-down Atlanta lawyer who never made it into down-home inner circle, Watson has gotten high marks lately even from his old enemy: Hamilton Jordan. Jordan steamrollered effort to take control of personnel in the fledgling administration shortly after the 1976 election. Now Jordan tells intimates that despite prone position in the polls, Democratic mayors and governors continue to give him strong support because of Watson.

Other White House staffers say if Carter's congressional liaison staff had spent as much time and effort courting Congress as Watson has spent on governors and mayors, the president would not be in his present dismal condition on Capitol Hill. Field Enterprises. Inc Women's Movement Wins Big War by Small Battles Prayer for Today AY this week, God, be one of joy and fulfillment. Help me to walk the path of peace and accomplishment to freedom and acceptance. May I do nothing today that will leave a sense of guilt in me for the rest of my life.

Amen. Taxpayers' Revolt Losing Ground A YEAR AGO, the Proposition 13 tax revolt was big news. California had voted to cut property taxes in spite of opposition by the legislature, public officials and labor unions. The rest of the country applauded and tax cutting measures appeared on the ballots in at least 16 states, including Oklahoma. News analysts pointed out that revolting against excessive taxation is an old American custom and predicted lawmakers would get the message that citizens wanted their taxes rolled back.

Today opinions differ as to whether Proposition 13 and tax cut proposals it spawned have had any real effect. Americans are paying more taxes than they did last year and will pay even more next year. A national magazine reports that the California experiment in tax cutting at the ballot box seems to be succeeding, while a public opinion polls reports decline if not the demise of what has been called the Proposition 13 News stories report some California municipalities face difficult problems as unions press demands for exhorbitant wage boosts and cities have the money to grant them. In some cases taxes have been relocated. Fees have been increased on services formerly partly supported by property taxes.

Libraries and other optional services have been cut back drastically. In Oklahoma, public demand for tax relief prompted the legislature to work out so-called tax cuts that involved schemes to bring in as much money, or more, by new rate schedules and new taxes. When Oklahoma Cityans voted down a bond issue for capital improvements, observers called it a slap at federal spending. It had no effect on Congressional appropriations and didn't help Oklahoma City. Some have argued the tax revolt was aimed at the wrong target.

By forcing cuts of local taxes, state and city governments were made more susceptible to federal subsidies and regulations. How this works was shown when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently withheld $13 million for Oklahoma City sewer facilities until the city council adjusts sewer rates to EPA demands. Sporadic efforts are being made to keep the tax revolt alive. Drives continue for a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget. Organizations continue to pass resolutions and campaign against wasteful or excessive spending by the federal government, with small results.

Federal income tax collections rose from $169 billion in 1968 to $415 billion in 1978. During the same period state and local tax collections rose from $73 billion to more than $200 billion. This year, it is estimated Americans will pay $57 billion more in individual income taxes and social security taxes than last year. Furthei increases lie ahead for 1980 ana 1981. 'ASHINGTON The Equal Rights Amendment may be dying on the constitutional vine, but its aims are thriving handsomely in the Supreme Court and in Congress.

Little by little the movement is winning so many battles it is about to win its war. That conclusion emerges from a study of Supreme Court cases recently undertaken by Matt Ver- schelden, a student at the University of Virginia School of Law. Some of the trends are mixed. The Court plainly is having problems in fixing standards by which sexual discrimination should be judged. In some areas of the law, prospects can be described only as confusing.

But on the whole, women are doing pretty well. Verschelden reviewed 30 cases decided over the past nine terms of the court. In seven cases the movement flatly lost, but two of those losses subsequently were nullified by congressional action. In four other cases, women lost and won at the same time; that is, the Court upheld laws, that give women certain advantages not given men. The other 19 cases constituted clear victories for equality under the law.

In these cases the Court held that gender classifications violated the concept of equal protection of the law and could not be sustained by some overriding interest of the state. The lost causes: A unanimous court held summarily in 1972 that Alabama could require a married woman to use her surname in obtaining a license. In 1976, another unanimous court upheld a distinction in the Social Security Act between married women and divorced women. This past term the Court found nothing unconstitutional in a Massachusetts law on preference. It approved a Georgia status dealing with illegitimate children.

By a 5-4 vote it upheld a provision of the Social Security Act denying certain benefits to mothers of illegitimate children. In 1974 and again in 1976, women plaintiffs lost cases having to do with pregnancy benefits under Palestinian Talks Have Precedents ASHINGTON In all the time Andy Young has been U.N. ambassador, nearly everything I wrote about him was critical. But now I must say Young deserve what he got. He was trying to maintain a form of relationship with the Palestinian health and accident insurance.

The decisions proved so unpopular that Congress last year overturned the ruling by passing an act flatly forbidding employers to treat pregnancy differently from other lost-time disabilities. As a cause for gender classification, pregnancy is now an absolute no-no. In the four cases the Court upheld unequal treatment by reason of sex, but the unequal treatment has redounded to advantage. In Florida, for example, widows retain a special tax exemption not available to widowers. The Navy may treat women officers more favorably than men in certain promotions.

In the calculation of average wages for Social Security benefits, the Court in 1977 approved a distinction in favor. The 19 victories for women's equality cover a wide range. In cases from Oklahoma and Utah, the Court has knocked out the notion that a different "age of may be gender-based. If a woman of 18 may buy beer, a male of 18 must be permitted to buy it too. Cases from Missouri and Arkansas have put an end to the special immunity from jury service women once enjoyed.

This past term the Court broadened the right of women to sue on grounds of discrimination. In Orr vs. Orr the Court ruled 6-3 that Alabama could not impose alimony obligations only on husbands and not on wives. Several cases, notably a case involving Corning Glass in 1974, have ringingly upheld the federal act requiring equal pay for equal work. In other opinions the Court has nullified state laws giving special advantage to males in the probate of estates.

The trend, if I interpret Verschel- den's findings correctly, is toward nullifying state and federal laws that discriminate by sex, unless some compelling public interest can be shown. If this trend continues, most of the purposes of the pending Equal Rights Amendment, other than symbolic purposes, will be accomplished by court decisions backed up by legislative activity. Universal Press Syndicate Anne Geyer Liberation Organization, the celebrated and sometimes notorious PLO, which has the loyalty of 3.2 million dispersed Palestinians. Whether we like it or not, nearly every nation in the world, except Israel, believes there must be justice for the Palestinians. President Carter and the State Department share this belief but have an awful time doing much about it.

Israel, its lobby here and the terrorist units in the PLO, have sufficiently defamed the Palestinian movement so that the American people have difficulty understanding it. The facts are that Yasser Arafat is more a spiritual and media force than he is leader of the Palestinians. Despite his chest-beating and gusto, Arafat has limited control, at best, over what the modest but potent collection of Palestinian terrorists do. What they do is often horrible, but it is not representative of all 3.2 million Palestinians. Those against Palestinian justice have created the false notion that PLO equals terrorism, therefore, Palestinian equals terrorism.

For the United States to pash Egypt and Israel toward fulfilling their peace treaty, it is necessary for the United States to have some contact with the Palestinians. Young was trying to do that when he met with the PLO observer at the United Nations, Zehdi Labib Terzi, a mild-mannered, good-natured Palestinian-Christian. Young was doing essentially what U.S. Ambassador to Austria Milton A. Wolf (who is Jewish) was doing when he met with PLO officials three times recently in Vienna.

That's what U.S. diplomats were doing in one of the Lebanese crises when they met with PLO representatives. That's what Sens. George McGovern Howard Baker Charles Percy James Abourezk Adlai Stevenson (D-Ill.) and Charles Mathias (R-Md.) did when they met at various times with Arafat. Palestinians are not lepers.

I was at a party given by a U.S. senator this year, where among the guests were three other senators and a PLO official. The host made it clear I was not to mention these senators by name in anything I might write one day, because they feared reprisal by Jewish groups. Now, what kind of atmosphere is it in this town, where a U.S. senator cannot look over a Palestinian? So why did Young get into the mess which led to his resignation? Because right-wing government is scared to death the United States might tilt toward the Palestinians in an effort to force Israel to make concessions on Palestinian autonomy on the occupied West Bank.

Since Young is controversial anyway, he was regarded as vulnerable by Israel to being exposed if he met with the PLO. One published account claimed meeting with Terzi was bugged by Israeli intelligence agents. Young said he assumes the Israelis monitored this meeting. Israel is unsurpassed in its intelligence activities, though it insists the FBI and the CIA are enough to keep it informed about what the PLO is doing in the United States. I doubt whether Israel had to meeting.

i The substance of that meeting, however, was thrown to the Israelis, who leaked it to Newsweek maga- i zine. When Newsweek queried the State Department, the chain of disastrous events including lying was set off, and as fast as you can say "Jimmy Carter," Andy was out. The State Department could have covered tracks but There is still great fear of Israel in this administration, especially since poll-ratings hover around the number where one freezes. The reality today is that an aging corps of European Zionists who run Israel tend toward militarism, rather than understanding, to resolve serious problem with the Palestinians. They know that the two great political parties in the United States can be coerced during an election year into avoiding statements on the Middle East.

There are still jingoists like Ronald Reagan who argue that Israel is the bulwark of security for the United States in the Middle East. This is rubbish. Our real security, and as well, is the kind which Albert Einstein spoke of many years ago when he said: "Peace in Palestine cannot be achieved by force, but only through Los Angeles Times Syndicate.