New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung from New Braunfels, Texas • Page 4

Opinions New Braunfels, Texas DAVID F. kRAMEft, Editor and Publisher WAN DA LAS ATE Managing Editor Wednesday, February 10,1988 Judith Zaffirini Group seeking solutions to help runaway children By SEN. JUDITH ZAFFIRINI Senate District 21 Nearly 100,000 Texas children will run away from home this year, according to a 1986 study conducted by the University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs. The study indicates that fewer than 5,000 of these children will receive any type of counseling or assistance from a social worker and that approximately 10,000 of them never will be heard from again. For some people, the problem never has been one of a personal nature.

But, for many others parents, siblings, and other relatives included a runaway child has been the cause of much anguish, sorrow and terror. The problem of runaways, however, ultimately affects us all. The cost in earned income lost and tax revenue never collected pales beside the cost of ruined and shortened lives. Because my priorities include family issues, I regularly work directly with runaways and their families. My goals include uniting families, sometimes by helping them resolve their problems and sometimes by facilitating the runaway's return.

During the 1987 legislative sessions, I addressed the issue not only by sponsoring bills affecting runaways, but also by amending a bill which would have "decriminalized" running away by removing it from the Family Code. Realizing that the likelihood of locating runaways is decreased as time passes, for example, Rep. Frank Collazo (D-Port Arthur) and I sponsored SB 223. It expands the definition of "missing child" to Include runaways and requires law enforcement officials to begin an investigation Immediately when a child is reported missing and considered in danger. We also sponsored a related bill, SB 225, which excludes from the definition of "child" and, in effect, from the definition of "runaways," minors who are married, widowed, or divorced.

To increase the effectiveness of law enforcement officers in locating runaways, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D- Laredo) and I sponsored HB 593. This bill allows the fingerprinting and photographing of a juvenile taken into custody for delinquent behavior when an officer has made a reasonable effort to identify the child and cannot. Equally important, if the child has been reported missing from home or from juvenile facility, HB 593 also authorizes the release of the child's information and records to the National and Texas Crime Information Centers and the release of the child's fingerprints and photographs to the Texas Department of Public Safety and to the FBI. These bills are important because studies conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children indicate that runaways who stay away two weeks or more are 100 percent likely to commit a crime.

What's more, the FBI reports that 90 percent of all nonviolent crimes are committed by those under 18. The reason Is obvious: Minors with no source of Income are forced to turn to illegal activities to feed, clothe and house themselves. To target adult exploiters of runaways, Rep. Lean Guerrero (D- Austin) and I sponsored a bill proposed by Lee Reed, an Abilene police officer who also helped write the Missing Children's Act HB 1904 prohibits employing minors in sexually oriented commercial activities or in establishments which permit, request or require a child to work nude or topless. Officer Reed alerted us to a little- known problem in Texas: "Snuff films" involving minors are selling for upwards of $50,000 per copy.

He shared his experience that 100 percent of the children he detained for dancing nude or topless were runaways. The tragedy, he said, is that some runaways unwittingly become involved in "snuff films," which are pornographic films whose climax is mutilation murder. For this reason, whenever I visit schools in our senatorial district, I inform students of the dangers which await runaways. Specifically, I urge them to help their friends who have family problems which might result in their running away. Unfortunately, sometimes minors run away because of home problems related to alcohol, substance, physical sexual abuse.

These children require immediate assistance so that they will not compound their problems by running from one dangerous situation to another. Minors who run away because of problems related to disagreements over dating, curfews, and choice of friends, however innocent it may seem to the police, too often find themselves with no place to go or no way to support themselves. They then must turn to crime as their only resort for survival. The issue of how law enforcement officers should be required to deal with runaway children has come under intense debate in the legislature and in the state's juvenile justice system. During this interim proceeding the next legislative session I am serving on a Special Senate Interim Committee on Juvenile Justice.

We are exploring not only the problems surrounding runaway children, but also are examining legislation which can lead to solutions in this area. We look forward to hearing from parents, law enforcement officials and youth about their suggestions for curbing runaway episodes. Herald-Zeitung Published Sunday morning, Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday and Friday afternoons by ew Braunfels Herald-Zeitung.

707 Landa or P.O. Drawer 3imS. New Braunfels. Texas 78131-1328. Second Class postage paid by New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung at New Braunfek, Texas Editor and Publisher WANDALASATER Managing Editor DEBORAH LA WRENCE Office Manager SANDIHUTTER Retail Advertising Manager CHERYL DuVALL Classified Manager CAROL AVERY Circulation Manager MAGGIE LOMBARDO Composition Foreman GUSELBEL Pressroom Foreman 1l 4 Hays.

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and 11 respectively. Send address changes to P.O. Drawer 311328. New Sraunfels, representatives 4p Mike Royko That's not the way Bobby Jones did it During a recent trip to California, I saw a luxury vehicle that was unlike any I've seen before. It had a flawless paint job, comparable to any Mercedez or BMW, except that the dark blue finish had tiny gold flecks, giving It the look of a star-filled sky on a clear night.

I looked inside and saw that the upholstery was of the finest soft calf skin. The same leather covered the steering wheel, The dashboard and other interior trim appeared to be teak wood. There was an air conditioner, built-in color TV and stereo, refrigerator, bar, telephone, cigarette lighter, side and rearview mirrors, and turn signals. Although it wasn't a Rolls Royce, the front sported a version of the famous Rolls grill. You're probably saying that there's nothing all that unusual about any of these things in a car air conditioning, cigarette lighters, stereo are standard features, side and rearview mirrors and turn signals.

Many limos have bars, refrigerators, TV sets. Fine leather and sleek paint jobs are found in most luxury cars. Sure, but this wasn't an automobile. It was a golf cart. I happened to see it while snooping around a glitzy golf club that is rumored to be a favorite winter retreat for Chicago gangsters.

Feeling homesick, I had gone there hoping to spot some familiar menacing scowls. While I was admiring the golf cart for what it was the single most disgusting display of materialistic ostentation I had ever seen the owner strolled up. Lamar Smith I was surprised. I would have guessed that someone who owned such a golf cart would be wearing loud plaid trousers, a pink shirt, a heavy gold wrist watch, three gold chains, and a diamond pinky ring. As Robin Williams has said: Golf is the only game in which middle-aged, middle-class white men can dress like black pimps.

But instead, he was wearing flaming red trousers, a blue and orange shirt, a wafer-thin silver watch, a diamond pinky ring and only two gold chains. Which just shows that it's a mistake to think in stereotypes. As he stepped around to me to enter his chariot, I said: "That is some buggy you have there. Very tasteful." Glancing at my K-Mart khaki pants, and golf shirt with my personal logo a cigarette burn above the naval he said: "Yeah, it gets me around OK." "Tell me, what does something like that cost?" He gave me a blank look and said: "I dunno. When it was delivered, my wife wrote the check And he sped toward the first tee, about 20 yards from where he had been parked.

There he was joined by two other men in a cart that was, by comparison, quite modest. While it was air conditioned and had a bar, it lacked the other accessories. Maybe they had suffered in the stock market plunge. While they waited to tee off, I struck up a conversation with a young man whose job was to strap golf bags on carts. I mentioned how im- pressive the yonder cart was.

"Oh, yeah, that's Mr. Brifffss." Or maybe he said Mrfus, or Frfus. Whatever. "But it's not the best one here," he said. Really? Does someone have one that flies? "No, but there's a member who has one with all that stuff on it, and it's got a convertible top.

Push a button and it goes up and down." What do they pay for those things? "The plain ones, without much special stuff on them, they cost about $8,000. But something like that one there, it's probably over $15,000." Looking at that cart, I thought about Scotland, the ancestral home of golf, with dour men in rumpled tweeds hoofing through the think gorse and thistles, canvas bags slung over their shoulders. It made me proud to be an American. Finally, it was time for the owner of the super- cart to tee off and begin his game. He gripped his club, made of space-age materials, glared at the yellow ball, then took the club back.

His right leg buckled, his elbows flapped, and he swung ferociously with a loud grunt. The ball skittered forward about 50 yards, frightening several worms, then dribbled into the calm waters of a pond. He shouted several four-letter words, then stomped toward his super-cart. That's a tough way to start a round. But for some reason it made me feel good.

Maybe it was those red pants. 1988 by the Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Media Services, Inc. Washington and a patriotic parallel By UAMAR SMITH District 21 Congressman The President's Day federal holiday is more than a joint celebration of the birthdays of two of our greatest presidents. Because George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are without a doubt two of our greatest American patriots, this month's holiday also is an opportunity to think about patriotism in the light of their words and accomplishments.

By looking at the surprising similarities in their lives, we are able to learn something about ithe common bonds that bind not only them, but jail true patriots. Both lacked formal education. Unlike most others in his social class, Washington lacked training in foreign languages, literature or even basic arithmetic; he was a man of action who preferred working with his body more than his mind- Uncoto had even less schooling. Both early on developed reputations for honesty and integrity. Washington may or may aoi have actually chopped down a cherry tree, but was unquestionably regarded for his depjeadabili- ty and Lincoln was known during his youth, as he is today, as "honest Abe." Both responded silently to criticism that was sometimes fierce.

Both suffered many early setbacks and ultimately succeeded in part because of their resilience and abilities to turn a short-term defeat into a long-term victory. By distinguishing himself as a hero in one of the major defeats of the French and Indian War, Washington was catapulted into command of all British foreces in Virginia at age 22. By distinguishing himself as a debater before his defeat by Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Illinois Senate race, Uneojn was catapulted to the Republican nomination for president two years later. The most familiar definition of a patriot is someone wttb love of country, and certainly the first and 16th presidents of the United States fit thatbiM.

saw fledgling country they beaded as a noble experiment in democracy, and both tenaciously defended a cause that was part of toeir vision for America. Both were radicals in their concern for rights. While as the first president Washington bore the awesome responsibility for clearing the way for liberty in its general applications, 70 years later Lincoln bore the awesome responsibility for extending liberty to an entire race and preserving liberty for the nation in its time of gravest crisis. Washington, as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and Lincoln, as commander in- chief of the Union Array, both displayed coolness and uncommon courage under both the fire of battle and the fury of political discontent. Ultimately, both have been elevated to a sort of national sainthood, Washington because he was "the father of his country," Lincoln because he was "the savior of the Union." Their accomplishments may be difficult for any American to exceed, but their patriotism is something to which all Americans can aspire.

Their love of country must now be carried on by all citizens willing to live lives full of quiet courage, honesty, patience, cheerf uj perslsteaee nod conviction. auj Clements 9 Office State Sen. Djstrict21 Capitol smiofl P.O. Box 12068 Austin. was 78711 state Sen.

waiiam Sims Wstrict25 State Rep. Edmund Kuempei P.O. Austin, Texas 78711 The United States The White House 1600 PeoasyJvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20500 aepre8jwtiy.es DJ5WCU6 90V 819 Austin, Texas 787S9.