Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 33

The Arizona Re public Saturday, July 20. W6 EDITOR ALS Editor Paul J. Si halt 271-847S i V. The Arizona Republic 200 E. Van Buren, Phoenix AZ 85004 Founded in 1890 LOUIS A.

WEIL III Chairman JOHN F. OPPEDAHL Publisher CEO EUGENE S. PULLIAM President PAUL J. SCHATT Editor of the Editorial Pages Benson's View Steve Benson 271-8035 PAM JOHNSON Managing Editor DON HENNINGER Deputy Managing Editor RICHARD A. COX Vice President Circulation CATHY G.

DAVIS Vice President Advertising BILL SHOVER Director of Public Affairs Where The Spirit Of The Lord Is, There is Liberty Corinthians 3:17 Phoenix Newspapers Inc. EUGENE C. PULLIAM 1889-1975 Publisher, 1946-1975 TWA FLIGHT 800 Looking for answers Letters Reporting on Hopi ceremony shows insensitivity scrutinize baggage and other cargo, runs counter to current trends in the airline industry that are wildly popular with the public, including the convenience of such things as curbside check-in and ticketless boarding and rock-bottom prices. The TWA explosion came during a week of frenzied airline ticket buying spurred by prices for cross-country travel as low as $25 one-way. Just how much inconvenience and extra costs are air travelers willing to put up with for a increase in security, especially if measures at their best offer no iron-clad guarantees of safety? The best detection systems still rely on human interpretation, which can be far from reliable.

If a terrorist wants to blow up a plane, and is willing to sacrifice all to do it, most experts agree that there is no way to assure that it can't be done. Terrorists have gone so far as to assemble bomb components in flight. None of this is to suggest that concerns about the safety of airline travel are not legitimate or that there are no prudent steps that could be taken to significantly enhance security. Indeed, we've come a long way in technology and vigilance since the first metal detectors and X-rays were installed widespread in airports in the late 1960s after a rash of hijackings of airliners to Cuba. But the question is how much the traveling public is willing to sacrifice to reasonably address the threat of terrorism, which by definition is aimed at changing behavior by way of coercive intimidation.

Sharply curtailing freedom of movement in the skies for a false sense of security is not a reasonable answer. It's no secret that there has always been a trade-off between security and passenger convenience in airline travel. The compromise is one reason jetliners and their passengers have been frequent targets of terrorists the world over. Although no one is sure yet what happened to TWA Flight 800 the other night when it apparently exploded in midair and plunged as a fireball into the Atlantic off New York's Long Island, killing all 230 people aboard, federal authorities say the evidence points to "a criminal act." Forensic tests and other evidence will determine if the tragedy was no accident. Whatever the cause of the destruction of the Paris-bound jetliner, the tragedy is sure to raise new questions about the adequacy of airport security measures.

While no system is foolproof enough to guarantee that a plane never can be bombed, hijacked or brought down by some other means, certain security measures can be imposed that reduce those threats. But such measures, as anyone who has flown out of some tighter-secured foreign airports can attest, are not without considerable costs, in terms of both passenger inconvenience and higher ticket prices. In some airports, passengers are frisked by security personnel and marched onto the tarmac to point out their luggage before it is loaded into cargo holds. Such controls necessitate considerably more security personnel than normally found at most U.S. airports and sometimes require passengers to arrive hours in advance of flights.

All of this, along with expensive technological devices designed to more efficiently LETTERS POLICY Letters are welcome and should include your name, address and a daytime phone number. Letters should be 200 words or fewer and are subject to editing. Write to: Letters to the Editor, The Arizona Republic, RO. Box 2244, Phoenix, AZ 85002 E-mail: Opinionsaol.com i.e., a less technical and more family-oriented experience is to give birth at home. This ignores the two decades of improvements in hospital and hospital-affiliated birthing centers, which now offer a more personalized setting and less medically invasive option for women.

Unlike a home birth, birth at a modern birthing facility provides a more natural experience (often with the choice of either a doctor or a certified nurse-midwife). It also has the advantage of prompt emergency care. While most labor and deliveries are uncomplicated, if something does go awry, both mother and baby need access to immediate help. Even if one's home is only a few miles from a hospital, the transport could take at least a half-hour. That's why the guidelines of The American Academy of Pediatrics and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists state that hospitals are the safest setting for births.

Some of my most vivid memories include deliveries of low-risk women who had significant complications. Had they attempted a home birth, the baby may not have fared as well. I am angered that your newspaper would send a representative to desecrate a Native American religious ceremony. In your June 23 Republic, you printed "Kachina dancers thrill Hopis, 2 lucky Anglos." Richard Nilsen narrates that he and his family were the benefactors of Hopi hospitality and were invited to attend a ceremony at the village of Shongopavi. I am sure this did not include permission to publish the viewing of a ceremony.

Mr. Nilsen, you and your family were invited to partake of something good. This invitation was not intended as an opportunity to further your career. You have shown why signs at village entrances state ceremonies are closed to non-Hopis. Your indiscretion, lack of sensitivity and rudeness to your Hopi hosts have initiated renewed discussion on stricter enforcement of these closures.

Hopi ceremonies are real and private and are not held for the benefit of the media, tourists, researchers or any other groups whose interests lie in personal gain. I also hope that non-Native American people will remember that when they attend their own religious ceremonies on their holy days, they will never find a Hopi person in attendance for entertainment purposes. You will also never see a Hopi position promoting ARIZONA LIBERTARIAN PARTY Success leads to strife man nor beast, and certainly are not made for people to go running up and down mountains during the heat of the day. But people keep doing it and taking their dogs with them. Our pets just ask for a home, their food and our affection.

In return, they give us companionship, unconditional love and obedience. Please, fellow desert dwellers, think about how it might feel to be out in 1 1 1 degree heat in a fur coat. Dogs can't recover from too much heat as quickly as we do. They can't sweat like we do to cool ourselves off, or plunge into a pool. All they can do is pant.

Just put yourself in their place for a few minutes. Let's all be more responsible about our pets during our hot Phoenix summers. Janice Crane Scottsdale Even rich deserve privacy Your article about the entourage from Saudi Arabia on June 7 was interesting. It was obvious that Dr. Sanntag (the neurosurgeon who operated on the princess) was proud of himself for being precinct committeemen have been banned from state party functions for 1 0 years.

The feud seems to stem from the party's 1994 successes. When the party attained official ballot status that year, it became subject to a state state law that requires such parties to elect precinct committee men. Pima County Libertarian officials carried out the party elections. But party officials in Phoenix refused, presumably in protest of a law they felt was an unreasonable intrusion into party affairs. Whatever the merits of this particular debate, the risks to the party are tremendous.

Rather than building on its successes, another's religion for commercial or media exploitation. No Hopi that ever invites a non-Hopi to a ceremony ever expects for that person to do more than to help pray for the good things in life by their presence. When non-Hopis chose to visit, please remember that we are Hopi people, and that while we do share similar customs to other people based on our existence as human beings, we have differences rooted in our belief system. On behalf of Hopi people I ask that visitors respect the wishes of the village leadership as written on those signs posted at village entrances. Jon Joshevama, Cultural Preservation Office Kykotsmovi Editor's Note: Richard Nilsen said, attended the ceremony and wrote that piece not for my entertainment, but out of my great respect for the Hopi.

I am sorry if that respect didn show for all readers." When modern maternity care offers the best of both worlds more personalized treatment, with expert backup the rewards of home birth may not be worth the risks. Robert Marotz, D.O., F.A.C.O.G. Chandler Illegals need right message Ninety percent of Americans favor stopping illegal immigration. Instead of condemning the Border Patrol for responding, the efforts of the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos should inform Mexicans on the perils and encourage them to stay home and clean up the corruption that underlies the problems they are fleeing. And that should include the narcotics trafficking that is so destructive to Americans.

To do less is unconscionable. Untold numbers of Mexican lives have been saved by the "feel good" campaigns of the Border Patrol designed to warn potential entrants. Forbes magazine on Jan. 1 reported: "Mexican authorities are quietly encouraging immigration to the U.S.," according to Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Angel Guria. That push factor, coupled with the cheap-labor advocates in the U.S., the lack of American political will (see cover story, Harper's, July) and so called human rights activists, is responsible for any deaths of illegals after crossing our border.

Robert D. Park Prescott Arizona Libertarians have done what no other independent third-party has been able to do in recent memory qualify for official ballot status in three consecutive elections. Their candidates will be listed on the ballot this fall, along with Republicans and Democrats, for the third time since 1992. But, because of internal dissension, incompetence andor stubbornness, their presidential electors won't likely be on the ballot. In 1994, the Libertarians fielded candidates for six statewide offices, some of them among the best and brightest to grace an Arizona ballot in years.

Phoenix lawyer John Buttrick, who ran for governor, was particularly impressive with his knowledge of the issues and his well-reasoned and innovative proposals for change. Another attorney, John Karow, who ran for attorney general, also was striking. So striking that he attracted nearly 20 percent of the statewide vote. With candidates like these, it's no wonder the party has tripled in size in the last two years. Nearly half the members, about 9,000, reside in Pima County.

Such success, however, makes only more tragic the party's current-day internal feuding. So strained are relations that the Pima County party has been "disaffiliated" from the state party, meaning that its leaders and the party seems preoccupied with the sort of internal strife that could result in eventual party fratricide. Such troubles could hardly come at a worse time. More and more Americans chosen to do the surgery. However, as a health care professional, I found his blow-by-blow cjescription of the surgery, the home visits and reactions of the family to be totally unprofessional.

It is no more than gossip and a breach of patient confidentiality. Of course it is exciting to provide care to the rich and famous, but they deserve the same degree of confidentiality as any other patient. Maureen McLellan Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Phoenix Home births too risky Dr. Peter H. Gott's July 8 column on home births gives Phoenix families erroneous impressions about the safety of home births.

He appears to suggest that the only alternative for seeking natural childbirth seem ready to embrace the idea of a third, maybe even fourth, major political party. It is a shame that at the very time voters are casting about for intelligent, provocative alternatives to the status quo, the Arizona Libertarian Party seems more inclined to commit hara-kiri than make good on its political potential. Here's hoping Libertarians find away to make peace among themselves so they can continue to grow as a rising and respectable political force in Arizona and beyond. Imagine being dog in summer When I read that three dogs had recently died up on the hiking trails in the mountains surrounding Phoenix, I was saddened. Many people forget that these are living, breathing beings who can suffer just as we can.

Our Phoenix summers are not fit for Symington and Barkley: Tales of a loon and a tenderloin Have you ever seen a loon on a lake? That was the question that a chipper and confident Fife Symington implied this week to a group of people each with a vested interest in one of the shining achievements of the past legislative session passage of the governor's Arizona Preserve Initiative. The governor described the tortuous path of the legislation as a loon on a lake. Loons are water birds with webbed feet, about three feet from head to tail, and they look like Jarge ducks. They have black backs and wings with white spots. Their necks are black and green, and they dive underwater for fish.

This information comes from the World Book Encyclopedia, which a decent player and sure bet for the Hall of Fame, but: Has he brought the Suns a championship? No. Has he filled the seats? No, the arena was sold out before Barkley, and it'll be sold out after Barkley. Has he worn out his welcome? Yes. The truth is that great players are shopped all the time. Despite what he says, Barkley knows it's part of the business of NBA basketball.

Looking at the bucks being showered on the free agents, clearly Barkley wishes he were one. Trade him or let him sit out the season and pout. Maybe then the rest of the Suns will get active on the court instead of standing around watching Barkley do his thing. the governor said, he thought the bill had exceeded its lung capacity and drowned. Like the loon, the bill made its way back.

While listening to the governor's analogy, I couldn't help but think the loon, at least through Symington's eye, was a metaphor for himself, and those people who see him drowning in a sea of financial and legal troubles, in the end, will be proven wrong. for one, am sick of Charles Barkley 's incessant whining about the lack of respect the Phoenix Suns have shown in shopping him, he believes, like a piece of meat It tiresome. It's misplaced. But it's inevitable in this free agency era night." Symington talked about boaters who chase loons, as if he had done so himself growing up in Maryland, or on vacations in Canada. They never really know where or when the loons will resurface, so great is their lung capacity, the governor told preservationists and representatives of cities and counties at a workshop to explain the new law that has, as its goal, the preservation of about 60,000 acres of state trust lands in and adjacent to urban areas.

The legislation that originally sought to set aside 600,000 acres of environmentally sensitive lands kept disappearing during the legislative session, only to reappear as the target lands were whittled to a shadow of their former self. At one point, of exorbitant salaries that are hard for working stiffs like you and me to comprehend, let alone feel good about. Owners are just as guilty as they try to buy championships. Once upon a time loyalty meant something. It was a two-way street.

No more. Now, you'll really need a score card to identify the players a sad sign of the times. And salary cap or no, the fans will bear the burden of keeping the pampered players happy and NBA teams in the black. Barkley was right when he said he wasn't a role model. Not many role models would go on national TV and knife in the back an organization that has put up with Barkley being Barkley.

An apology? Surely you jest. He's JOELNILSSON Editorial Writer The Arizona Republic also stated, "They are the most handsome of diving birds. Their loud screams can sometimes be heard echoing over the lakes at 5.