Logansport Pharos-Tribune from Logansport, Indiana • Page 4

Page A4 Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Indiana, Wednesday, March 18,1998 Opinion Page Editor Dave Kitchell (219) 722-5000, Ext. 5150 OPINION EDITORIALS Ail Asteroid Alert? Whew, the orld can return to normal In our dizzyingly neurotic world of conflicting news and constant fretting about health and exercise, the future of Social Security and whether Kenneth Starr is ever going to wrap it report that a 1-mile-wide asteroid was likely to hit the Earth in 30 years did nothing if not put the daily worry mill into proper perspective. The asteroid warning came from Brian G. Marsden, director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams in Cambridge, and a man with a clear streak of passive-aggressiveness. He reassured us his calculations were approximate, and there was no cause for alarm.

But then he gave us the date of 26,2028, that's a Thursday as if to give everyone a chance to calculate their age on The Day It May Be Ah 1 Over. Marsden also mentioned that the latest asteroid is but one of 108 PHOs (potentially hazardous objects) from space that could wham the Earth. Science writers prompted pelted us with all manner of apocalyptic data. The last big asteroid's impact near the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula was comparable to 5 billion atomic bombs, and it probably led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. And wait: Even a much smaller asteroid or comet could trigger devastating forest fires and tidal waves.

By Thursday, the future looked considerably brighter. Two astronomers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, reviewed the calculations and declared the chances of a hit to be zero. Marsden, posing by his ancient-looking telescope, agreed. So you may now go back to worrying about your LDL levels and whether enrolling your daughter at a costly all-girls school was such a wise move after all. CHICAGO TRIBUNE THOUGHTS IMAGES PUBLIC FORUM Preventing The Irish Potato Famine I think it is very important that while people celebrate this unofficial holiday of Irish heritage that they not forget the Irish Holocaust of the 1840s.

During the so-called potato famine, roughly one-third of the Irish population starved to death. That translates into over 1 million people. Another one-third immigrated to various parts of the globe, leaving the remaining third to carry on. The loss of 1 million is tragic, but the real tragedy is that it could have been prevented. Scholars of today report that in the first year of the potato famine, British relief was sent to Ireland to help ease the suffering and then abruptly cut off.

In the second year of the famine, food was exported from Ireland, denying food to the very people who grew it. In this same time period, the British sent 75 regiments of soldiers with orders to facilitate the removal of food from Ireland. A word had been created for these kind of actions and the word is genocide. Some researchers have concluded that these actions were calculated, well thought-out plans created in Whitehall and the British Parliament to solve the "Irish problem." Others say this was all the Irish people's fault. I'm not sure if there was a conspiracy or not, but I'm sure that the Irish people did not order the troops to their towns and villages and I know that factual information shows that grains were exported from Ireland in the second and subsequent years of the so-called famine.

I challenge every person to find out more information about the Irish Holocaust and when they raise their Guinness or Irish whiskey to their lips, they think for a moment about those who went before. MikeStaublin Walton Keeping Our Property Taxes Low Aren't your taxes high enough as it is? Well, ours are already too high and thanks to our county commissioners and whoever else wanted our new jail, ours are going to get a lot higher. Our understanding was that our new jail in Pulaski County was going to pay for itself by housing prisoners for other counties as well as our own. Well, our understanding is that our commissioners need more money to keep it running. Tney went to' our state representatives who went to the legislature to raise our county tax above what the state law allows to cover these expenses.

The legislature didn't have enough time to cut anyone's taxes in this session, but it sure had enough time to raise some. Please be aware of the names of the commissioners representatives who do not represent the things you'want as a taxpayer and vote them out. I would like to recognize th'e Pharos-Tribune for the articles you had in your paper that cover what went on with our county jail. You have kept us and hopefully other Pulaski County taxpayers well-informed. Keep up the good work.

Doug and Catherine Sparks Winamac Public Forum, P.O. Box LogarapotM 48947. Ltttm be All fetters, IbttttMl to 400 wenfc.w Mst te (fpiwi srad Must' dicliidB tlw tvfltof's oridiBoi find 8 iteytUM MhfnNHWmniwr. 'I' Contributors tohue Fans BWMtattm tetter00rjMRfli. The licatSon and llmtt ins number of tetters cm a particular tow.

Form W- wrKers address and dajtfcw mmfew. Only a mm antf torn- JBJ lit 5' 1 i (' A town win no i LEGISUTOR ADDRESSES DAM COATS: 1C A' phone (317) 2D510; phone 0 BJCHAHDLUGARMOW (202)'224- I5-TEMK? Beity'S World by Jim Berry COMMENTARY Indiana Taxes: Blending Cuts, Increases Thoroughly Indiana's forefathers crafted the state Constitution, they had a good idea. They decided to make positions in the state legislature part-time to allow people from various occupations to participate in the process of formulating laws. By bringing people together from farms, industries, schools and small businesses, the forefathers ensured an invisible check and balance system in a process. They created a system that was designed to rise above partisan politics and the notion that the only people who would eventually serve in the legislature would be professional politicians.

They couldn't have envisioned a legislature that would one day have a disproportionate share of some occupations such as lawyers and teachers. If we could magically go back to 1850 and tell our forefathers about political action committees and the influence of political parties in the 1990s, they would probably appreciate the fact that Gov. Frank O'Bannon did the same thing they tried to do. O'Bannon appointed 32 Hoosiers from throughout the state to take an in- depth look at the state's tax code and determine what could be done to reduce property taxes and provide more fairness. O'Bannon's commission includes representatives of both political parties, public officials, four state legislators and a host of people who have spent much of their professional lives studying what they have been asked to study on the state's behalf, One of those people is Bill Sheldrake, a former state government employee who is now the president of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute.

Sheldrake can be counted among the commission members who think an interesting part of the debate is a study by Ball State University Prof. Cecil Bohannon. That study found that reducing property taxes stimulates economic growth and creates jobs. And that study is in his thoughts now because if a tax cut can expand Indiana's economy, it DAVE KITCHELL Pharos-Tribune Opinion Page Editor means that other taxes will not have to be increased proportionately to compensate for a reduction. "There are some economic benefits that come from lowering taxes," Sheldrake said Tuesday.

"I wouldn't say that any change is good, but I think we do have some evidence that some changes could have a strengthening effect on the economy over the long-term. I would clearly favor reducing (property taxes). There are some questions that have to do with how you would reconstruct a school distribution formula if you eliminate property taxes and how you would provide mechanisms for stability of the revenue to schools." "I'm pleased that we're looking at this direction, but I don't think all the problems have been solved and the questions have been answered yet." Among the issues that have to be addressed after the economy is expanded is fairness. O'Bannon has pledged to support a more equitable tax structure, but coming up with a system that stops the ever-widening gap between the nation's rich and poor is a task that still lies ahead. "There are some ways to make adjustments to the individual income tax in Indiana that can reduce the burden on low-income taxpayers," Sheldrake said.

"My judgment would be that the commission would certainly want to look at that as part of the overall restructuring." How much would property tax cuts cost, and how much can be raised from other sources? To date, the commission has determined these findings for reduced property taxes: Removing school operating costs $1.234 billion Removing school transportation costs $258 million Removing county welfare $269 million Removing township poor $41 million Total Property Tax Reduction $1.802 billion What could increases in other taxes raise? The answer is plenty, but the commission is not out to recommend raises in every possible tax. Increasing the sales tax from 5 to 6.25 percent would raise $896 million. Expanding the sales tax to cover untaxed services would generate $264 million. Increasing the income tax from 3.4 to 4.2 percent would generate $867 million, and raising corporate income taxes would bring in another $106 million in corporate taxes. Tacking on, an 8.25 cent increase to the 15.5- cent cigarette tax would raise another $59 million; tho'se'increases could completely replace all property taxes other than the state fair, library, county and city and town taxes.

But the real question that has to be answered is one the commission cannot answer accurately, and that's how much change Hoosiers really want. It's that kind of change the people of Indiana have to speak up about now, whether they want change or not, whether they vote or not, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, whether they think they understand the consequences or not. Indiana's state tax structure is not changed very often, and if it is about to change radically or minimally now, that invisible check and balance system has to get involved in the process and let state legislators and O'Bannon know what they think is best for all Hoosiers. When it comes to this decision, Hoosiers are a committee of the whole. Forget Prurience; Let's Focus On Clinton's Policies even hundred pages of Paula Jones' lawsuit and "60 Minutes" later, I am convinced that Bill Clinton may have an overheated sex drive.

But I am even more convinced that the details of his sex life real or imagined are not my business. Nor are they yours. On "60 Minutes" on Sunday night, a former FOB (Friend of Bill, as the glitterati, groupies and deep pockets in his camp are called) went before millions of television viewers to tell her story about life with Bill. Even as she said that she had refused this public airing until now because "I did not think it was my place to make it public knowledge," this is what Kathleen Willey disclosed: 4 During the 1992 presidential campaign, when she joked with a hoarse candidate Clinton that the best thing for him was chicken soup, he supposedly said in a suggestive manner: "Well, would you bring me some?" She did not, she told "60 Minutes," "because my instincts told me he wasn't interested in chicken soup." 4 In 1993, she said, she went to Clinton to seek a paying job rather than continue in the volunteer position she held at the White House. President Clinton, she said, groped her, kissed her in more than a casual way and placed her hand on his genitals.

"I thought, 'Well, maybe I ought to just give him 5 a good slap across the she said on "60 Minutes." Kathleen, sister-girl, next time go with your instincts: Slap him rather than tell the world about what every woman I know has encountered and figured out how to deal with. Trust me, a slap, a push, a condemnatory word or phrase is usually enough to put the guy in his place and make the world safer for other women. For his part, Clinton says he was, in essence, just feeling her pain. One day, Willey met with him after requesting to see him several times. She was, he said, "quite upset" and "obviously agitated" about her family's financial difficulties.

Indeed, on that very day unknown to either Willey. or the president at the time of their meeting her husband killed himself. "I did to her what I have done to scores and scores of men and women who have worked for me or been my friends over the years," Clinton said in a deposition in the Paula Jones case. "I embraced her. I put my arms around her.

I may have even kissed her on the forehead." Kathleen Willey is of interest to the world today only because of Jones' lawsuit against the president for supposed sexual harassment. Jones' lawyers on Friday filed 700 pages of accusations and rumors designed to prove the following: In 1991, Jones says, she met ten-Gov. Clinton, and, soon after the introductions, he dropped his pants and asked her to perform a sex act. By exposing himself in this manner, she said, he traumatized her to the point that her life was forever ruined. While Clinton may be eligible for the Men Behaving Badly Club, are his qualifying features worthy of this national obsession? Should he be impeached for behavior that is, if true, tame compared to some things I could tell you about others in public life? Is groping, kissing, dropping his pants or even asking for, shall we say, "favors," either a high crime or a misdemeanor as envisioned by Founding Fathers who themselves knew a thing or two about philandering? Who among us is able to say that we are without sin lust real or imagined, acted upon or dreamed about and can thus throw the first stone at Clinton? My fellow citizens, get a life and get a grip.

Clinton's governance, not his gonads, is what matters. Forget prurience; let's focus on policies. E.R. Shipp is a columnist for the New York Daily News. She won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1996.

Readers may write to her at the New York Daily News, 450 West 33rd New York, N.Y. 10001. "The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to hep that right: and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer tlie latter," THOMAS JEFFERSON PHAROS-TRIBUNE Founded 1344 517 E. Broadway, P.O. Box 210, Logansport, IN 46947 (219) 722-5000 PHAROS-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BOARD DollieTurpin Patti Smith Heather Nava Dave Kitchell.