The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 14

1 Ill luacu Post-Times I'alm rr l'uthht-d My I'alm Heai NrwpaiR-rs, In -lr Chairman Ctvil Kellfv, Sr Publisher Kolwrt W. Sherman, President (reiEorv Kavre, Kditnr Huherl Nannie, Associate Kditur Raymond .1 Mariotti, Managing Kditur SATURDAY MORNING, Jl LY 1, 1972 Bad Precedent A bad precedent was set when the County Commission agreed to kick in more than three quarters of a million dollars over the next decade for maintenance of the beach at Delrav Beach. used to enlarge private beach holdings at public expense. Rather than dredge and patch projects, coastal and estuarine land use planning and building setbacks are a sounder approach to long-term beach erosion control. County commissioners have wisely indicated an interest in those 'setback lines.

County dollars would be more wisely spent for planning and engineering studies along the full length of the county coastline in order to draft broad-base land plans and restrictions. While it is certainly easy to sympathize with Delray's beach problems, it is nonetheless difficult to cheer the expenditure of countywide tax dollars for a piecemeal, local solution to what should be approached as a countywide problem. Too, the decade-long replenishment project involves a certain amount of wishful thinking: It may cost more, it may take longer. "How Do You Say Git-Along-Little-Dogie in Seven Different Milton Viorst, 'Something Better Than Congress' Tom Wicker Rewarding Mountain Struggle PINKHAM NOTCH. -Some writers say there are really only three stories man against man.

man against nature, man against himself After three days of backpacking on the Mount Washington range, at least the last two can begin to seem like one As in so many other things, just when the hiker and camper begins to learn something about what he's doing, the experience is over Of course, some things stay with him or her the feel of icy mountain water on a sleepy face in the morning, the taste of steaks broiled in the open, the sense of accomplishment when a hard trail has been traveled, the luxury of the sleeping bag when not another step can be taken. But perhaps the most extraordinary experience, for those shaped by contemporary urban life, is the sense of sheer physical exhaustion that can be reached on the rocks and trails of the mountain. As fewer and fewer people, in a technological civilization, spend their lives in unrelenting physical labor, more and more of them forget what it is to be really tired. Almost as impressive is the strange sense of the real menace of weather. Mount Washington is well known for its swift changes of climate.

In the span of a few minutes, clouds swept in and wrapped the peaks in a chill fog so thick another person could not be seen a dozen yards away. It conveyed a feeling of awe and not a little fear at the power of weather; picking their way in that near-freezing mist, those accustomed to central heat and air-conditioning, thermostats, gas, electricity, and fashionable umbrellas, could hardly help reflecting how far, in city life, they are really removed from the weather its changes and its threat. So on the mountain, willing oneself beyond fatigue because there is nothing else to do, risking the fatefulness of weather and the impervious stones of the trail, because neither can be changed by humans, man against himself and man against nature really do tend to be one story and far more rewarding than the episodes of man against man that wait in the city. Greatest advantages of the Delray Beach restoration will accrue to local residents and oceanfront tourist facilities, although persons from any part of the county may use the city's beach. However, the contention that county funds for city beach maintenance are an appropriate expenditure because non-city residents use the area is equally valid as an argument for county lawn maintenance in Dreher Park.

Sen. Robert Byrd, the acting majority leader, already had refused to accept the Redress petition, so Robert Lifton, the Yale psychiatrist, read it before the Senate door. Then Joseph Papp, the New York theater director, made a statement on public responsibility under the Nuremberg war-crimes laws. Gay Deceivers As a result of a suit brought by the National Coalition of Gay Organizations, a federal judge has ruled invalid two Miami Beach city ordinances forbidding males to dress in female clothing. Gay groups had feared getting busted if they demonstrated in "uniform" during the national political conventions.

The judge said the laws were too vague and, besides that, they discriminated against men. Tis a funny time we live in. Women demand to be liberated, men demand the right to look like women, and half the young people are wearing unisex clothes. Finally George Plimpton, the writer and editor, announced that, to symbolize the pervasiveness of death in Indochina, the Redress people would lie down on the Capitol floor. A moment later, 200 prone bodies were blocking the corridor.

Still missing, of course, is an environmental impact statement on the Del-ray restoration project and the effect all the pumping, dredging and re-pumping may have on the littoral and off-shore marine environment. Increased turbidity and siltation could prove major problems. Also still in the pending category is establishment of a control line to assure that those public dollars are not WASHINGTON Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska who holds the unusual view that the substance of national issues is more important than the niceties of senatorial courtesy singlehandedly saved the day for the Redress peace demonstration last Tuesday. Two hundred distinguished Americans artists, professors, writers, doctors, lawyers had assembled in Washington to petition the Senate to act to end the Vietnam war.

To be sure, they were a bit impatient. They'd watched the killing for more than seven years. They'd seen a President, who had promised to stop it, suddenly intensify it. They seemed to think that the Senate's normal leisurely pace was inappropriate to the immediacy of the crisis. On the whole, these were cautious people, not given to flamboyance, but they had concluded after a generation of mass marches, empty talk and broken promises that ending the war demanded something dramatic of them, even a little shocking.

To explain themselves, they had asked senators to meet for a dialogue in the Senate caucus room. At first, Senate authorities tried, rather unprecedentedly, to deny them use of the room. But Gravel interceded and at mid-morning the 200 assembled and waited for the senators to appear. It was embarrassing, it was humiliating. A few senatorial aides arrived, de- cent and concerned fellows, and explained how much they hated the war.

But, until Gravel, not a single senator showed up. Of course, U.S. senators don't have to appear just because some concerned people summon them. But, as often as not, they'd show by the dozens just to get a smile from Candy Bergen, the beautiful actress, and to shake hands with a Nobel prize-winner, a couple of Pulitzers and a roomful of lesser notables. Redress, however, was different.

It smelted a bit of coercion not violent coercion, but a kind of acute moral coercion that senators don't like. They prefer to call one another "my distinguished colleague," j.id take their own sweet time about doing what they ought to. The exception is Gravel, the Senate maverick, who seems to think that ending the war comes before everything. On this subject, hawks and doves unite. They are outraged by Gravel's indifference to the protocol of the Senate.

They find his manners abominable. "You," he told the Redress people, dwelling on the war record of Congress, "represent something better in the United States than the Senate and the House." After Gravel, Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Democrat, and Sen. Jacob Javits, a Republican, visited the caucus room to deliver brief, partisan anti-war pep talks. But it was Gravel who held the group, as petitioners, on its course.

uperbbwl of Chess For the next hour, until the arrests began, senators pro-war and anti-war walked by, barely glancing at the horizontal multitude. A few had to pick their way into the chamber. Most navigated along a path cleared by police. Sen. Strom Thurmond, a hawk, stopped long enough to scowl.

Sen. Harold Hughes, a dove, hovered about, as if he wanted to show his sympathy. But only one had the kindness to say a word none other than Barry Goldwater, another maverick. Spotting a friend among the demonstrators, Goldwater came over for a few minutes of quiet conversation. Then, as he departed, he was heard to say, "The war will be over soon anyway." He added, however, with a twinkle in his eye, "But then they'll start another." Nearby, people raised their heads to laugh and, shortly, headed off to jail.

Letters to the Editor For the past several months 29-year-old Bobby Fischer has been spending about eight hours a day in rigorous physical exercise and another eight hours in deep mental concentration. Yet, unfortunately, few Americans are aware of the two-man superbowl he has been training for. There won't be any pretty cheerleaders or live TV coverage when Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky face off over a chess board Sunday. In the United States chess ranks just a cut above Scrabble as a quiet pastime. But the young American challenger certainly deserves a good measure of support from this country.

He is beginning a 24-game series for the world championship against a Russian grandmaster who counts chess as his national sport. The Russians have dominated the ancient game throughout this century, while the United States has never had a player who could even reach the finals. Bobby Fischer has not only earned the right to play the Soviet Union's champ but has done it all alone with little financial or moral backing. This title match has been his goal since he became the U.S. champion at age 14.

Ridiculous To Close Parks first organized, laws have been passed giving them not the other 83 per cent of us the right to demand and the power to get almost anything they want. RALPH E. DAVIS Riviera Beach Bobby Fischer It will take 12 and a half grueling wins to beat Boris Spassky. The pressure of tournament play requires physical stamina and mental alertness that exceeds the performance many Americans admire so much in champion athletes. Bobby Fischer may be playing on "neutral" territory in Iceland, but the Russian spectators undoubtedly will outnumber the Americans.

That is an advantage U.S. citizens ought to make up in well-wishes for the challenger. City Problems bor union contributions and an additional 139 legislators had a finger in that pie. The politicions we elect make and sometimes break the laws that we are all supposed to obey. In 1925 a law was passed banning contributions from corporations and labor unions toward election campaigns.

Lack of enforcement made it useless Both of these groups have contributed tens of millions to every election held since then and politicians have used to to swing those elections. In return, the loopholes left in the tax laws have saved corporations billions in taxes. Union members comprise 9 per cent of the people or 17 per cent of the so-called labor force. Since labor unions were JJmkuMj i MM How can 300 mayors the flower of the nation's future leadership meet and moan in New Orleans, yet be so stupid as not to mention that all of their city problems of slums, crime, suburban sprawl, traffic congestion, pollution and fool schools are aggravated by economic and population growth? MICHAEL GROG AN Lake Park S3 1972 NA, Int 'It's Nothing! I Just Interdicted His Railroad' I must question the sincerity of the County Commission when it comes to their concern over the views of the taxpayers. I have met only one person who agrees with the decision to close the parks.

And I haven't met anyone who agrees with one of the main reasons for closing the parks to stop drug traffic. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. Trying to stop people from taking drugs by closing down public places is like trying to stop a war with bombs. It can't be done. The majority of the people who use drugs do so because they like them, not because they are addicted to them.

Do you think we young people condone addicts? You've got to be kidding. They're further away from us than they are from you because they're hurting us more. I wish people would face reality. The drug commission's estimate of 24 million marijuana smokers in America is truly the biggest understatement. There are a whole lot more people than that in this country who turn on, and they're not about to stop just because they get knocked down.

The County Commission really can't say they've ever given them anything better than drugs, because they haven'. And their recent decision to keep the parks closed at night from the people who are paying their salaries proves the point. JAMES WHATMORE Lake Worth fi' AMBULANCE Fault McG overn "Oh. I Expect I'll Be Driving Here and There What Are You Doing July Hurricanes Rough, but The compromise language asserted that "busing is not the issue. Quality education is." It was acceptable to the McGovern coordinators and was dropped only when Gov.

Wallace himself personally rejected the compromise. At least as impressive as the areas of agreement or near-agreement blocked out by the McGovern people was the underlying harmony reached with members of different delegations through tiie process of sitting together hour after hour while following the procedural rules to the letter. Particularly striking was the rapport established between the Wallace and McGovern followers. The Wallaceites had a number of issues they wanted to bring from the platform hearings to the convention floor To do that they needed at least a tenth of those voting in the hearing. The McGovernites assured them that if they ever lacked a quorum.

McGovern people would vote with the Wallaceites to assure they could carry the challenge to the convention floor For their part, the Wallace delegates couldn't have been more gracious "It's Southern gentility." Annie Laurie Gun-ter. a member of the Wallace cabinet in Alabama, said "They discovered we're not ogres, and we discovered they're not so bad either." Joseph Kraft Disunity Wont Be WASHINGTON The McGovern forces are making it easy for other Democrats to join them in the fight against Richard Nixon. Now the real question is whether the Democratic regulars and old pros will accept their overtures and work to hold the party together. A good indication of the McGovern approach as he heads toward the convention in Miami Beach is the stance on abortion taken at the Democratic platform hearing here the other day The original platform text prepared by a drafting group from the Democratic National Committee had no reference to abortion. A caucus of women on the platform hearing commission, led by Kep.

Bella Abzug and including many other McGovern delegates, prepared an amendment that would have proclaimed abortion to be a basic right. The McGovern coordinator on the platform hearings, fed Van Dyk. wanted no part of the Abzug amendment if only because it would offend Catholics. An elegant counter-amendment stipulating that abortion should not be "mixed up in partisan politics" was prepared. It served to confuse the issue to perfection.

The amendment was voted down. So was Mrs. Abzug's amendment. Now the platform draft has no mention of abortion at all. Virtually every other far-out feature previously associated with Sen.

McGovern's positions was also leached out of the platform, or softened in tone. On defense, there is a commitment to reduce expenditures, but no numbers on such controversial items as troops in Europe or aircraft carriers or attack submarines And the whole plank is softened by the inclusion of a couple of words, suggested by representatives of Sen. Henry Jackson, emphasizing the need to maintain forces at a "prudent" level On school busing, the platform hearing commission came within a whisker of a compromise with Gov. George Wallace. Florida Highway Patrol Commander El-dridge Beach predicts 32 persons will be logged in the state's fatality book during the Independence Day celebration.

Union Power Americans will long remember Hurricane Agnes which unleashed some of the worst floods in the country's history. Yet Hurricane Agnes, for all of nature's destructive fury in it, can not compare in deaths and injuries to one long weekend of man-made traffic accidents. The caution flags already are flying for the 102-hour Fourth of July weekend and the dire predictions are enough to make motorists want to throw away their car keys. The National Safety Council, which periodically raises fear goosebumps from its crystal-ball forecasts, sees 800 to 900 persons dying on the nation's highways. The council also sees another 35,000 to 39,000 persons injured.

Bringing that scae closer to home, One way to beat the predictors, of course, is to stay home and out of the car. Another is to drive defensively, use those seat belts, stay sober or get sober before taking the wheel, drive at reasonable and legal speeds, don't tailgate and take other unnecessary risks with your life and the lives of others. This is a tired old message repeated across the country. But somehow, some way it has to be needed to head off a national disaster that is rougher on life than a killer hurricane. This tragedy just doesn't have to be.

The claim that ITT contributed $400,000 to the present political campaign is another warning to all voters to be very careful for whom and for what they vote. Before that claim was made. The Post told its readers that labor unions contributed $6 million 15 times as much as ITT contributed. After the 1968 election, we were informed that a dozen congressmen had spent over a million dollars each from la To be sure, the hand is a long way from being played out: important areas of disagreement remain among leaders as distinct from followers Gov. Wallace is going to carry his total stand against busing to the convention floor.

Big fights on credentials are shaping up. But one thing is clear. The McGovern people are not the soreheads, the intransigent ideologues. If agreement is not reached, if there is disunity at Miami, the fault will lie with the party regulars and old pros who have so long and so loudly prided themselves on the ability to compose differences and reason together. 4.