Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 10

Published since 1946 by: Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. 120 E. Van Buren Phoenix, Ariz. 65004 The Arizona Republic Founded in 1890 PAT MURPHY Publisher PHIL SUNKEL Editor of the Editorial Pages WM. R.

HOGAN Vice PresidentGeneral Manager EUGENE C. PULLIAM fflS.9-1975 Publisher, 1946- 1975 CONRAD KLOH Director ol Sales EUGENE S. PULLIAM President ALAN MOYER Managing Editor BILL SHOVER Director ol Community Services Where The Spirit Of The Lord Is, There Is Liberty II Corinthians 3: 17 EDITORIALS PEACE EDUCATION Political Indoctrination? 0ICIMI, ClMtmN Catakw "That's what I said, Mr. Chairman bank is being threatened by IRA terrorists in the U.S. LETTERS IN the aftermath of the nuclear freeze movement of the early 1980s, a new public school "peace education" curriculum emerged.

The most commonly used materials are Choices: A Unit on Conflict and Nuclear War, written for the National Education Association by the Union of Concerned Scientists; Educators for Social Responsibility's Dialog: A Teaching Guide to Nuclear Issues; Decision Making in a Nuclear Age; and Perspectives: A Teaching Guide to Concepts of Peace. These materials are used in Oregon, New York City, Angeles, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, but have not been adopted by the Arizona Depart-; ment of Education. What these materials have in common is that one political segment of the population is using the public schools and funds to promote its views and to convert the children of another. Andre Ryerson, writing in the June issue of Commentary magazine, examines the no-nuke curriculum and finds it espouses a basically left-wing, disarmament political position. For example, the accounts of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima give no background to World War II.

The U.S conflict with the Soviet Union is accounted for in the materials as a parochial American need to imagine different peoples and political systems as "enemies," and that the superpower conflict is the by-product of U.S. greed and obsession with private property. This willingness to look benevolently on the Soviets is not extended to the United States. Although the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is ignored, Vietnam is fully treated with the lesson that opposing communism leads to war. Choices includes outright misinformation.

For example, it tells students the United States 6pends 45 percent of its "national budget" on defense, a patent lie. Only 26 percent of the federal budget goes for that purpose. Nor does this indicate that over the last 20 years defense spending in constant dollars has risen by only 1.2 percent whereas social welfare spending has increased 214 percent. Public schools exist to inculcate basic skills, knowledge and uncontested democratic values needed for citizenship. On matters of political controversy and public debate, the public school should maintain strict neutrality.

Tax Reform that you have made a profit of $10,000, and taxes you accordingly. Actually, if you go by the Consumer Price Index, you have generated a loss of over $1,600 on this particular transaction. The fair solution would be to index capital gains by the Consumer Price Index and then tax the true gains as ordinary income. This method would increase revenues because a multitude of long-term assets are being held solely to avoid the big tax bite that would be incurred by their sale. HYROSENFELD Phoenix Keeping Inequity In Editor: I welcome the arrival of tax reform, but one feature of the Senate bill is most disturbing because it worsens an existing inequity.

I am referring to that provision which would tax capital gains as ordinary income. What makes this unfair is the fact that the tax code assumes that all dollars, whether they are 1956 or 1986, are the same. As an example, suppose you purchased an asset 20 years ago for $5,000 and you now sell it for $15,000. The government assumes What's The Truth? Editor The verdict is guilty, and the "Pollardgate" case is on the way to nonexistence! Why should we allow Jonathan Pollard's guilty plea to deny us the right to know the full story of the who's and whys? We were brave enough to force a president out of office as a result of his attempt to cover up, why are we not brave enough to stop the cover-up of the facts in the Pollard case? Americans deserve to know "the rest of the story," which is in the hands of the State Department and the Department of Justice. JOSEPH B.

NAJJAR Phoenix CLASH OF VALUES Try Shopping-Cart Courtesy Editor: these carts in back of the car next Wild Battle Over Wilderness to them, and frequently carts are placed between cars and even up against them. Perhaps it may relieve this inconsiderate practice some if the supermarkets and other stores would place a sign on the carts, "Please place cart in storage rack," or, "Thank you for placing cart in storage rack." W.BROWNLEE Scottsdale Why are some people so lazy and inconsiderate by placing their shopping cart in a parking space instead of wheeling it to where the stores have provided storage? I recently saw a woman place a cart in a parking place for the handicapped which makes one convinced that our society is going to the dogs. Men are as equally inconsiderate as women in this respect. Some people even place The View Is Bullish Editor In the May 29 issue of The Arizona Republic, the headline for columnist Donald Lambro was totally misleading. It stated, "Republican Leader Beginning to Take a Bearish View of November Elections." However, the article indicated that the term "bullish" should have been used.

This is particularly misleading for those who are just "headline readers." ANNA W. COCKLIN Chairman Maricopa County Republican Committee Scottsdale Grand Canyon this summer. Wyoming's Old Faithful will be a veritable sea of people. Meantime, federal spending on conservation has fallen from 3 cents of every federal budget dollar a decade ago to a penny today. Because of these new pressures, sharp battles are under way in Congress and state legislatures over designations of new wilderness areas.

Values should be measured individually from enlarging a national park to creating additional wilderness. In the process, there is a strong argument for giving the localities involved a strong voice in determining their own destiny. Though there are no sweeping answers, neither the Washington bureaucracy nor any lobbyists should be allowed to usurp the will of those most affected. A war is being waged over the future of the vast American wilderness. The clash of values over what to do with more than 200 million acres of wild lands most of it in the West is as fierce as any public fight in the nation.

A record 14 million wilderness visitors expected in 1986 add a growing dimension to the debate which rages not only in Congress, but also in state legislatures. The fight pits one special interest against another backpackers against energy developers, toxic wastes harming birds in wildlife refuges, loggers opposing birdwatchers and grizzly bears against waves of visitors. Wilderness is witnessing not only noise, but people pollution. So are national parks. Waits of up to four hours will be common at the LIBERTARIANS Negative Attitude Toward Doctors Editor: reneging on moral and ethical responsibilities by refusing to treat patients.

Had the headline read, "Some obstetricians fear to treat attorneys who are aggressive in the medical malpractice field," truth would have been served. But then, the opportunity for a sensational anti-doctor headline would have been lost. MAX MINUCK, M.D. Phoenix Your headline on page one of the June 2 issueftypifies the negative attitude your paper in particular, and the media in general, have adopted toward the medical profession. The headline read, "Doctors turn away attorneys handling malpractice suits." The immediate reaction to this important bit of news is that physicians in general, as implied by the generic term "doctors," are Ballot Bid Falls Short Medicine Misused Editor: In response to the Rev.

Imman-uel Trujillo, Peyote Way Church, and his recent encounter with authorities concerning peyote: The old Indians, those who use peyote and understand it, would say of this man, "This person is not using the medicine right." As an individual raised with this particular religion, I agree with the old folks. I also believe Trujillo needs better orientation and insight into this sacred religion. Another saying from the old believers and users of peyote is, "If one misuses the medicine, then proper punishment will result." ELTON C. YELLOWFISH Phoenix No 'Good News' On Front Page Editor: photographs of a violent anti-nuclear protest; a report on faulty booster rockets and a color photo and interview of exiled Ferdinand Marcos. Will we ever have a "good news" front page, or is it really true that only sensationalism sells newspa How refreshing it would have been to open the edition of June 8 and see those beautiful young award winners on the front page.

Instead, they were relegated to the end of the classified section and we were treated to accounts of BIA mismanagement; illegal drugs financing international terrorism; a "seriously flawed FBI investiga SAM VANCE Scottsdale WHEN Arizona's Libertarian Party failed to submit enough signatures for inclusion on this fall's primary and general election ballots, the entire state came up short. Libertarian candidates have brought a new dimension to political races in their party's 10-year history. The party reached its high point in 1982 when colorful Sam Steiger, the party's standard-bearer for governor, received more than 5 percent of the vote. Steiger's feat guaranteed automatic ballot status for the party in 1984. In this election cycle, the Libertarians once again were forced to collect signatures as they have done successfully every two years.

But this time they came up woefully short of the required 20,000 valid signers. The party's monthly newsletter, The Activist, attributes the failure to confusion over the June 26 deadline to submit validated signatures to the secretary of state's office, and the May 17 deadline to submit unvalidated signatures to county recorders, the first submission date which was missed. The newsletter also noted that state party committee members blamed "a lack of dedicated manpower." Normally, supporters of the leading candidate are the signature-gathering workhorses, but gubernatorial hopeful Jim Walters' backers failed to do the job. This failure to be on the ballot for the first time since 1974 seems symptomatic of squabbles within the party which led to the resignation of State Chairman Ken Sturzen-acker. In trouble with other party regulars for toying with the idea of a run for governor and an unprecedented primary battle with Walters and for casting the deciding vote to pay for signatures, Sturzenacker gained disfavor by spending $50 more than authorized for office supplies.

Walters now talks about running as an independent, a near-impossible task since he would have to collect 10,000 signatures in 10 days after the September primary from people who did not vote. The Libertarian Party has learned a valuable lesson from the unfortunate consequences of this year's infighting. Speaking For Us Editor Richard Lessner's column about "soft Utopians" spoke for many of us. We refuse to be sucked in by the catchy slogans and will not close our eyes to the deeds of the socialists and Marxists no matter how attractive their naive sympathizers try to make them look. ANNE DORRE Kingman Secret keep many of the taxpayers away from the polls to assure the school district of passage of the bond issue.

too, think that if the parents of school children were the only voters notified, the authorities should look to them for payment. J. II. BROWN Phoenix Election A Weil-Kept Editor: Regarding the letter to the editor by Fred Schmidt of Glendale with reference to the Glendale School District bond election: The election was a well-kept secret; the usual material was not sent out to voters. It appears that the reason for the secrecy was to Having Passed Gramm-Rudman, Congress Ignores It Ben Cole Washington Bureau LiJ The Arizona Republic acted on time some are never enacted at all and the government runs on continuation of old spending authority.

Whenever reform is attempted, the Congress merely heaps another layer of legislative bureaucracy atop the mess it has already created. As rhetoric, Gramm-Rudman-Hollings was a great political exercise in the warm October weather and through the winter of the government's fiscal malaise. What's needed what's been needed for decades is total reform and simplification of the appropriating process. It's unrealistic, of course, wistfully to hope for such a miracle in a Congress where "tax simplification" is proposed in a bill 2,847 pages long. money in the future "I hope the American people will take a very, very close look at what is happening in this Congress because I think they will be shocked to find out that the very people who come home and tell them they are all for balancing the buget are the same people who too often in this Congress forget they are here and, instead, go ahead and ignore the process toward that balanced budget." The congressman's passionate oratory ended on a note of possibly unintentional irony: "It is high time we become responsible here." Throughout the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings debates long before, in fact it was manifest that Congress had made its fiscal processes unmanageably complicated.

Appropriations bills are never en circumvent their own constraints. The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act is half a year old, yet more is heard nowadays about its defects than its virtues. The vision projected by the statute was that Congress would roll up its sleeves and tailor spending programs to fit the demands of a scheduled deficit reduction. The law even contains an ostensible means of snatching the authority right out of the hands of a delinquent Congress. Under Gramm-Rudman if Congress failed to abide by its own constraints, the reductions would be imposed automatically across the board.

The law was a response to public clamor for a way to cope with the federal deficit a manifestation of fear among the voters that the government was out of control. Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, then, was enacted to the accompaniment of resounding oratory, with dire warnings from a few critics and sanguine promises from its advocates. The magic law was suddenly in place. Nothing changed, except perhaps the Library of Congress had to close its doors to scholars after dark, and there were faint outcries against some of the rigors of anticipated belt-tightening. Walker's speech continued, "We are setting aside all of the technicalities, all of the provisions of the law aimed at managing deficits through a process aimed at a balanced budget by 1991.

We are instead moving toward processes that would assure that we can spend more money this year and Rep. Robert S. Walker, reminded his colleagues on the deadline day. Few heard him and virtually nobody paid any attention to what he said: "The budget has not yet been passed. This Congress is totally ignoring the law that we ourselves put in place just a few months ago.

An overwhelming majority of this House voted for the Gramm-Rudman Act. An overwhelming majority of this House said at that point that we were committing ourselves to a process aimed at producing a balanced budget by 1991. We have decided now to torpedo that entire process." Walker perceptively observed that instead of toiling toward the objective of a balanced budget by 1991, the lawmakers are looking for technicalities by which they can Washington Remember the Gramm-Rud-man-Hollings act? It was supposed to cure as if by magic all the ills occasioned by the towering federal deficit? That miraculous statute was expected to produce by April 15 a congressional budget with which to measure the long series of appropriations bills which Congress would trim to size by June 10. "None of that is happening,".