The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 4

Opinion The Salina Journal Sunday, December 30,1984 Page 4 npi i 1 he Journal Founded in 1871 FRED VANDEGRIFT, President and Publisher HARRIS RAYL, Editor KAY BERENSON, Executive Editor SCOTT SEIRER, News Editor LARRY MATHEWS, Assistant News Editor LORI BRACK, Sunday Editor BARBARA MORROW, Associate Editor Teen crackdown The Salina Police Department plans a crackdown on young drivers who violate the terms of their re- driver's licenses. Good for them. Kansas' history as a farm state has allowed youngsters to begin driving legally earlier than they can in most other states. But the license granted to those 14 to 16 years old allows them to drive only in restricted circumstances to and from work or jobs or when accompanied by an adult licensed driver in the front seat. The law acknowledges that some young teens, especially those who live on farms, may need to drive to school or to help out on the farm.

But the law also clearly indicates that 14-year-olds are not considered mature enough to enjoy unlimited access to the privilege of driving a car. Few 14- and 15-year-olds have developed good judgment about dangerous situations, particularly when they are with a group of friends. The restrictions are supposed to keep youngsters from hot rodding, dragging the 'Fe or driving to a football game with buddies. The limits are sensible, but widely ignored. The police crackdown is a good move.

An even better move would be for the Legislature to take a new look at Kansas licensing laws. Most parents who move to Kansas from other states are shocked to discover children are allowed to drive at 14. The state is no longer so rural as it once was. Even the most rural teens are likely to use their restricted licenses to drive on "essential errands" in fairly populated, high-traffic areas. The 14-year-old limit is too low for Kansas today.

Special delivery Someone in the federal bureaucracy does have a heart and some common sense. That someone reinstated Frank DePlanche, the rural Michigan mail carrier who was fired for delivering his own Christmas cards to the people on his route along with their regular mail and not putting stamps on the cards. DePlanche's offense sounded particularly inoffensive. Some might even call it "nice." Such attention to the details that generate customer good will would be applauded and rewarded by most businesses. DePlanche is being required to pay for stamps he would have used in mailing the cards, but he will get to keep his job.

That's a step in the right direction. An even better move would be for the post office to find a way of getting all employees to imitate his concern for customers. With postage rates set to go up again in February, the service had better grab good will where it can get it. Struggle for racial equality lags NEW YORK Just before President Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall told Dr. Kenneth Clark: "Kenneth, there is only but so much lawyers can do.

After we get the law clear, the hard job begins." Clark, the distinguished black psychologist, recently celebrated his 70th birthday; in an imerview with Walter Goodman of The New York Times, he recalled those words of Justice Marshall that have been proven not just true, but an understatement. Thirty years after Brown vs. Board of Education, not only is the hard job of bringing the black minority into the mainstream of American life still mostly ahead of the whole national community; but even what had generally been considered the law apparently isn't clear anymore. For example: The Reagan administration's Justice Department has told an appeals court that a local school board may eliminate a federal court-ordered busing plan and return to a neighborhood school pattern even if "less racial balance" results. Federal agencies are reviewing guidelines used to detect patterns of employment discrimination against minorities, and civil rights organizations say the contemplated changes will make it harder to prove discrimination.

Clark described in the interview as "bewildered" by such developments and by other evidence that the general public seems to have tired of efforts to improve the economic and social circumstances of the black tenth of the American population. In fact, the process is fairly easy, though sad, to trace. Elimination of outrageous Southern segregation laws not only hit the easiest discrimi- nation targets but erased a situation that generated genuine national sympathy for blacks. But attacks on de facto school and housing segregation outside the South threatened deep-seated national living pat" terns, and encountered determined resistance. Affirmative action programs then produced direct white-black competition and white resentment at preferential treat.

ment for blacks, as well as more thoughtful arguments that such treatment validates i the notion of black inferiority an idea, in any case, never far beneath the surface of American life. Clark decried the "contemporary passivity of black leadership" and called for "new perspectives" although he confessed he could not himself provide them. But no black leader has been less passive than the Rev. Jesse Jackson in his 1984 presidential campaign. Tom Wicker NEW YORK TIMES He unquestionably caused more blacks to register to vote, particularly in the South but this very black activism appears to have inspired even more whites to register and vote the other way, not only for Reagan but for such conservatives as Jesse Helms in North Carolina and Phil Gramm in Texas.

In fact, adverse white reaction to rising black political participation, if anything, may produce an all-black Democratic party in the South a sure loser to white Republican majorities. Blacks' post-New Deal identification with the Democratic Party actually may have reached a point of diminishing return for both blacks and Democrats; yet, the party of Abraham Lincoln and emancipation holds out no real welcome to the descendents of slaves. Reagan tried to grant tax exemption to segregated private schools and had to be dragooned into supporting extension of the Voting Rights Act. And even if he did hold out a convincing hand to black voters, he probably would face a revolt in his right-wing and fundamentalist Christian base of political support. Socially and economically, much evidence suggests that the white majority believes it has done more than enough to provide the "equal opportunity" to which everyone pays lip service.

The majority appears to blame the minority, primarily, for the minority's problems, and "I made it why can't they?" is a recurrent theme. Never mind that even Ronald Reagan has conceded that no immigrant group ever had the discouraging history of, or faced the same barriers as, American blacks; or that not all immigrants, in fact, "made or that many of those who did had ample help from government programs, while encountering economic circumstances that offered more opportunity. The public nevertheless appears to prefer the "I made it" theme to complex explanations of continuing black difficulties. Clark, having believed in a more generous response, told Goodman he doubted it was "possible to maintain a high standard of life for whites at the same time that minorities are kept at oppressed levels." Probably not; but what Clark sees as "oppressed levels" obviously seems to many whites as has been so often the case in American history blacks' largely deserved place in the order of things. Year brings birth, death and pastrami on rye NEW YORK Death came in January and again in November, but in October there was a birth toward helping balance the ledger, and July brought an accident that might have been very bad, but wasn't, though it necessitated buying another car.

There was a blizzard in March. April brought five consecutive days of rain, which followed a five-day cold and led immediately to a four-day bout of miseries attributed to "a virus." April, phooey. Afterward, President Reagan arrived in Peking for photo opportunities. May: Took some hard-to-please friends to a new restaurant in our neighborhood; they were not pleased. Attended a wedding, saw two plays on Broadway, went to Washington for an evening where a hospitable Englishman picked up the dinner tab in Georgetown.

Delightful sensation of living elegantly, like people in People and Vanity Fair. Those fruit trees planted on the hillside back in April immediately after the five days of rain, the day before the four-day "onset of hateful virus" as it is described in the calendar those fruit trees all dead by end of May? Right. Dead, too, by early June the Baltimore Orioles, blowing three big ones to the Detroit Tigers while we bake in a concrete oven in Baltimore, making June hateful. What is so unbearable as five consecutive days of insufferable heat in June coinciding with the total collapse of the Orioles? But the gods commit their little kindnesses, and the insufferable heat was not followed by a five-day cold. Summer: Thousands of miles away Dem- Russell Baker NEW YORK TIMES ocrats and Republicans took turns bawling and howling at TV cameras, bits and pieces of which we heard now and then while canvassing the tube for baseball.

Unreality was intense. Reality was the four consecutive days, recorded right here in the calendar, of "dreadful downpours," culminating on the fourth day with a five-inch rainfall. Again, though, it was not followed by either a five- day cold or viral miseries. Instead, it cleared in time for an outdoor birthday party for a 3-year-old female. In September, we discovered Barbara Pym and read straight through five of her novels in five weeks.

In October, a friend reached his 75th birthday reasonably intact and a large group of us gathered to celebrate. Shortly afterward, a year that had been notably devoid of surprises failed again to surprise us. Thus Geraldine Ferraro failed to be elected the first woman vice president and the public-opinion polls failed to be ridiculously wrong in their political forecasts. These failures followed the pattern of failure established a month earlier when the Chicago Cubs had failed to win the National League pennant. It was now clear that 1984 was to end as a year in which life's inevita- bilities would prevail over the delightful possibility of surprise.

And so it proved. By December, Mitgang and I were still lunching regularly on pastrami at the Bird-in-Bush Delicatessen. "Why don't we, just once, order the salami and eggs?" asked Mitgang after five consecutive days of pastrami on rye. The question was purely rhetorical, for he knew the answer: 1984 was not a year for surprises. If it had been, would I have had the five- day cold in mid-November after 15 consecutive days of incredibly beautiful autumnal weather? Still, there were great moments of a minor sort: An anniversary remembered, a birthday remembered, that glorious day when it turned out that all the credit cards hadn't been stolen, after all, but were merely hiding under the dining-room rug.

And, not to be overlooked, there were two deaths, a birth and an accident possibly designed to stop our grousing about life's predictability with evidence that we may also be whimsically blessed by fortune. The women who died have left gaps in the fabric of life, which the one who was born is probably expected to help fill. It is a heavy assignment to lay upon such a little girl, (or both were considerable women, not eastly replaced. Still, we all live by the belief tljat the assets we lose each year to death ale being constantly replaced by the newborn; Here in the twilight of the year I doft't feel too sure of that, or of much else, except a pending year of blizzard, insufferable heat, dreadful downpours, five-day colfls, periodic viral miseries and pastrami 2m rye. At year's end, good calls balance against bad WASHINGTON It's pass the hemlock time again, the annual occasion when the proprietor of this column is sentenced, for his sins, to re-read the damning evidence of the previous 12 months' folly and make public acknowledgement of his failings.

This having been an election year, there is enough raw material for a Masterpiece Theater epic, so let's get right into the mess I made of 1984. First, to repair a few factual errors which did not really tarnish the beauty of my analyses, but understandably puzzled the people involved. Apologies to Gov. Richard F. Celeste of Ohio for moving him from the Methodist to the Roman Catholic church without his permission; to Speaker Tip O'Neill, for overlooking his 1976 endorsement of Rep.

Mo Udall in recounting his history as a presidential power broker; and to retired Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. for saying he had previously served in the House, when I should have known it was his father and stepmother who were House members. In a year relatively devoid of my usual literary malapropisms, I did manage to mangle the simple line, "I should of stood in bed," by making the third word a prissy "have." Gregory M.

Fisher was the first to give me the correct Joe Jacobs version. Now, as to the oracular malfunctions and malignant misjudgments. I want to nail the canard that I was consistently wrong In my political pronouncements. In the very first column of the year, I said, "I like (Ronald) Reagan's He's got a lot of things going for him." Among the reasons cited were: "Yuri Andropov. Critics say Reagan is the first President since Herbert Hoover not to meet the head of the Soviet Union, but no President can be blamed for not holding a summit with a man who is not there.

"Congress. Next to running against An- dropov, running against Congress is Reagan's surest winning ploy. Congress also doesn't come to work much. When it does, people wish it didn't. "The deficit.

The deficit is terrible. Conservatives abhor deficits. Reagan is a conservative. Ergo and ipso facto, Reagan's the one. "Jesse Jackson.

Since Jackson entered the race, no other Democrat running for David Broder WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP President has been able to get two minutes of television time. By the time the primaries are over, most voters will believe Jackson is the Democratic candidate, because he is the only one they will have seen. If the Democrats don't nominate Jackson, there will be a voter rebellion. Likewise, if they do. "Walter Mondale.

Mondale is ready, he says. He is ready to defend the Carter administration, the AFL-CIO, the teachers' unions, the Great Society and even welfare spending. With a defense like that, who needs an offense?" Now, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit that, absent a footnote or two for Geraldine Ferraro and Bert Lance, the whole story of 1984 was there, laid out in advance, in that column. Regrettably, I had to fill this space about 97 more times in 1984, and in my zeal not to bore you by repeating the truths of that first column, I may have strayed a bit. For example: Feb.

5 (three weeks before the New Hampshire primary upset by Gary Hart): After gaining the endorsement of such mighty men as O'Neill and Bob Strauss, "it is going to take a big jolt to wipe that smile off Mondale's face or deprive him of the nomination." Feb. 28 (two days before New Hamp- The small society shire): In a serenade to Chuck Campion, Mondale's New Hampshire manager, it was said that "if Campion has done his job is well as rival managers think he has, tHen he will stand next to Walter Mondale Tuesday night at a moment when Mondale takes another large step toward the nomination. It has been a long time coming, But Campion's time has come." I March 18: In the first of an embarrassing number of peek-a-boo hints that MaHo Cuomo might ride in from the wings to save the Democrats from themselves, "Ittis cruel even to suggest the thought, when the surviving candidates in the Democratic presidential race are working themselvfis into exhaustion trying to keep up with the demands of the caucus and primary calendar. But the notion keeps intruding that tjje winner of the nomination may be someojje not now in the contest." Oh, my goodness. We're down at the bottom of the column, and we're only up 30 mid-March on the goofs.

What a shame. Let me end on an upbeat note. On after watching the Chicago Cubs move into first place by beating the Philadelphia Phillies, I grasped the essential link between the Cubs' bright prospects and Ronald Reagan's: "The Cubs are Reagan's kind of team. They prefer not to work nights. They believe that three hours of labor in the afternoon are enough for any Job.

They know the old ways are best." So what if Reagan won 49 states and the Cubs got bounced out of the playoffs by the San Diego Padres, of all people? Hell, nobody's perfect. Wait 'til next year. OD' ar DDD nan O. JA (Ml King fMtutM Ine WwW.