Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 6

Page Editorials i awwai Khwhfci ipi ion fcjt ROCHESTER, N. FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 25, 1972 Lesf We Be Driven from Libraries Thoughts Carpenter JOYCE HIFLER By He referred with some humor to having his day begin with a "beige morning" and when I inquired as to what a beige morning might be he commented concisely and with knowledge that it means a day without a handle a day begun with no obvious highs or lows no clear cut picture of where to begin or what is expected no plan of operation or particular pressure from any direction a "beige morning." We begin so many days in neutral until someone shifts us into reverse hands us a handle that is not what we would have chosen this is the only day that counts and yet how many of us know what we really want how many of us plan and work and practice taking the upswing to where the colors are vibrant and alive rather than drifting into the murky darkness simply because the day began with beige and we did not take In the way that crime is measured, discouraging someone from visiting a library to read or borrow a book probablv doesn't rate as a very serious offense. Yet denying people access to books is just about as bad as banning or burning them, and that's pretty bad. That's the effect rowdyism is having on the Portland Avenue branch of the Rochester Public Library.

According to library director Harold S. Hacker, "continuing discipline and harassment problems caused by a group of youths in that area have driven adult patrons away and forced a number of emergency closings We don't mean to magnify the problem. Only this branch has been significantly and not at all times. And there are other reasons why book borrowing is down in the libraries generally. But even if one person is stopped from using a library for fear of harassment, thafs a serious matter in our judgment, and in the judgment of the library director.

Books are the source of wisdom, counsel, spiritual guidance, information and entertainment, and we cut people off from them at our peril. The library is well aware of the importance of finding a solution, and has already had to resort to the police, arrests, parent warnings, rap sessions and so on. Part of the difficulty, it feels, is a lack of recreation facilities in the area. There may be a prime opportunity here for a lively neighborhood group to work with the library staff and with the youngsters and with the parents in an effort to put an end to the trouble once and for all. Books are too precious to be denied to a single borrower.

Copyright 1972 Loi Angelts I torn Syndicol Checkmafe Russia? Egg on the vest 'No All -Year School, Please That Aeration Of Welfare CHANNEL 21 (WXXI) TELEVISED a lengthy town meeting the other evening on the lengthy title "Welfare: Who Pays the Bills the Question of Federal Reform." It had all the virtues and evils of that sort of television. This is to say that "town meeting" TV is an uncritical and unedited medium, not yet sophisticated enough to figure out how to screen out the professional nuts and demagogs of all races and colors. Thus the result was a strange potpouri of sense and nonsense which must have put a terrible strain on viewers to decide what to accept and what to discard. On balance the virtues surely outweighed the evils. But it was hard to adjust the scales when a speaker made such a preposterous statement as that "people no longer control this country; big business and politicians do." Such an inversion of the truth should provide wry intellectual diversion for businesses shut down by strikes or protests, and for politicians who no longer can even hold their home precincts against grass-roots upheavals.

THE EXTREMES of sense and nonsense were revealing. In the first category must come the tough, unemotional statement by Gabe Russo, county welfare chief, a professional non-conformist in his field who makes no effort to defend the indefensible. The trouble with' the welfare system is that it has no agreed-upon goals, he said the fact is that the "variety of programs we have today emerged during the great depression as temporary concerns" in general terms we are witnessing the failure of a program conceived on an emergency basis social welfare has failed because its mission has not been determined welfare administrators run their programs with only tenuous authority. Mr. Russo's unflinching sense on the jerry-built welfare structure in America placed him in the curious position of being a friend of almost everybody in an otherwise polarized audience.

AN EXAMPLE OF NONSENSE must be the testimony of John Paust, a social welfare field worker for Family Services, and a good man at his job. He announced he had decided to devote his time before the audience and the TV cameras to how the press reports welfare matters. He said the press has failed to enlighten the people about welfare; that it calls many welfare recipients criminals; it says nothing about the smallness of welfare allotments; it implies the system is good but "people are bad; that people's requests for services go almost unnoticed; that it supports the system; that its reporting is grossly inadequate; that no enlightenment is cast on welfare recipients' problems. I TAKE ISSUE with Mr. Paust only because he asked for It by making public his attack before a live and TV audience.

He knows this and understands it. It turns out that probably he did not even read the exhaustive 12-article series on welfare and a later follow-up series which ran in The Times-Union one year ago, the work of Read Kingsbury and Dolores Orman. In candor he says he doesn't recall whether or not he read the series. This series examined in depth the poignant problems of welfare recipients. ALMOST LITERALLY every welfare area which Paust says the newspapers do not cover, was covered by the writing team.

And that is one series only. Our attacker also says he is a most honest man that he never visited this newspaper's library to ask to see clippings on welfare problems. Clippings pack the files. There are 28 envelopes on the local Social Services department alone; another 20 envelopes on public welfare generally; and an untold number of file envelopes on the various special services attached to welfare. I do not doubt that the newspapers have slipped occasionally; and then too, the amateur and the professional may differ sharply on what makes news.

But the record is here in the Kingsbury-Ormon series, in other special articles and clippings which are packed into those stacks of file envelopes. It is a record which does not justify a buckshot attack which is admittedly not based on research. Nothing in this rebuttal which Mr. Paust made mandatory should be taken as skepticism over the Channel 21 venture I hope they try again, and again. Letters HERE WE GO AGAIN.

School all year around! I may be old fashioned, but I like it the way it is-summer vacations, recess periods throughout the normal school year to relieve the doldrums that come with having your brain pounded into maturity. This concept of educating can only cost more money in teachers' salaries, preparing the buildings (air conditioning), etc. Add the cost of custodians, administrators, clerks, maintenance men and all the other people necessary to operate the system for 12 months, and you get an idea of what is involved. If people think the cost of education is high now, wait till they add those costs to their property tax bills. KENNETH G.

ZOLLWEG, 916 Ridge Road West Readers' opinions on the issues of the day are part of th lijeblood of this page, and original letters are welcomed accordingly. The rules aren't rigid, but preference will normally go to clearly-written letters of one page or less. The editors reserve the right to edit conscientiously for reasons of space, clarity, and fair play. Names and addresses must be given for publication. Letters not accepted will be returned only if accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelopes.

Around newspapers there is a bit of a problem in how to classify chess. When the University of Rochester announced the UR chess team's victory over Princeton, its public relations department addressed the release to sports editors. The win gave the UR the Eastern Intercollegiate Team championship. The city chess championship at Central YMCA last weekend, won by Dr. Erich Marchand, four times state champion and a former national amateur champion, was treated as a news feature.

The eccentric Robert Fischer, 28, who won his first U.S. title at 14, seldom makes the sports pages but he's a constant subject of general news and magazine features. Whether it's a sport, a form of recreation, or an exercise in concentration, the "game of kings," dating back to ancient Hindustan, is thought of as a diversion of intellectuals because of its complexity. The total possible combination of moves en route to a checkmate or a draw, according to Dr. Marchand, are infinite.

Hence, chess is an endless challenge to the flayer's resourcefulness. One would assume there's ittle muscle required in moving the chessmen, thus imiting interest in chess as a sport. But studies have shown that the physical strain of tournament chess can equal five sets of tennis. Nor should anyone belittle chess as a game of international interest. American prestige will be on the line next June when the inimitable Bobby Fischer matches moves with Russia's Boris Spassky in the world title contest.

Soviet boosters have been saying the U.S. could not produce a world champion because of "defects in the capitalist system." Viewed thus, more than a chess title is at stake. Protecting the Honest If business is about to get tougher about the crime that is costing it an increasing amount of money, the only objection will come from the criminals themselves. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, crime is costing the nation's businesses an estimated $16 billion a year.

And it's the public that foots the Wo Stigma of Race I WOULD LIKE TO CORRECT a commonly-held misassumption, perpetuated in the (Feb. 17) that sickle-cell disease is restricted to blacks. Sickle-cell anemia is an inherited disease which, if inherited from both parents, can produce a fatal anemia. If inherited from one parent only however, it is expressed as a mild or undetectable anemia, causing little or no discomfort. Persons who have inherited the sickle-cell trait, in either the mild or severe form, are immune to malaria, and the relative advantages or disadvantages of the disease have to be weighed against the relative dangers of malaria.

While sickle-cell disease has its highest frequency among blacks, especially those whose ancestry originated in the malarial regions of West and Central Africa, it is also found among non-blacks in areas of the in the Near East, and in parts of India, where its victims have a relative advantage over their malaria-prone neighbors. These points are significant because it should not be thought that the disease is a stigma of race. They also illustrate that intensive research into an effective cure or treatment would have benefits for all populations afflicted with the disease, not just those of African ancestry. CHARLES R. EDWARDS, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, State University College at Brockport.

'Cruelty Is Man-Made MAY I SUGGEST THAT President Nixon's executive order banning the shooting, trapping and poisoning of predators is a beam of clear, reasoned intelligence that is far more than most of us interested in these matters had dared hope for? For Columnist Floyd King to refer to "cute little ducklings" suffering "a cruel death, too literally being eaten alive" reveals either a man ignorant of the predator-food relationship, or one capable of writing a bit of sentimentality the face of contrary evidence. Cruelty is not a manifestation of nature, but of man. Or, is he not aware of the wanton saturation of the lands of the West and Midwest with 1080 poison, a poison that indiscriminately gives eagles, bears, coyotes, wolves and dogs days of unspeakable agony before the unfortunate animal expires? Perhaps Mr. King has not heard that bald eagles are shot from planes by sportsmen; or that cougars are shot in the foot so that they cannot flee before a sportsman hunter may later dispatch it at his leisure and thus secure a trophy and a tribute to his manhood? If Mr. King thinks that the President is guilty of "emotional over-reacting," he should take a look at the official figures of the Division of Wildlife Services.

Last year this bureaucracy slaughtered, at the taxpayers' expense, of course, a total of 190,763 of the larger mammals. This figure includes 89,653 coyotes; 24,273 foxes; 20,780 lynxes and bobcats; 294 cougars; 842 beavers and 10,078 raccoons. Rather than "emotionally over-reacting," it would seem that the President tired of all this slaughter and took it upon himself to get something done. We can only hope that the federal government will not now about-face as a result of the not inconsiderable pressure that will be applied by those organizations which make money from the killing of animals, i.e., the National Rifle Association, the manufacturers of poisons and traps, and the Division of Wikk life Services. I wired the President my thanks for his executive order banning the slaughter of predators.

The telegram cost $1.25. I urge readers who believe that the preservation of wildlife may be worth $1.25 to send a similar message. Is Mr. King concerned that tftere will be fewer "cute little ducklings swimming around" this spring, or is he really concerned that there will be fewer fat ducks for him to shoot next fall? GERALD W. MARSH, Editor, ZOOWORLD Magazine, 30 Marr Dlve, Pittsford uui uiumaieiy, wnicn is aeepiy uniair to tne nonest consumer.

i i Businessmen said the Commerce people, need to 'Excellent Reporting we mule aggicooivc in auupung preventive measures. "Cutting crime losses should receive the same sort of constant aggressive attention devoted to cutting labor costs or any other costs that sap profits YOUR SANDY FLICKNER has raised the level of education reporting in this city by several notches. Her series on the private schools represents the first informed writing on the subject for some time. Letters She came to look and listen, and she reported what she saw and heard, not some preconceptions. She put her finger on the most significant fact for contemporary education, i.e.

no single system can meet the needs of all children. Different kids need different schools. Thus she sees (as all of us should) that public and private schools do not threaten each other; they complement each other. My congratulations and my thanks. STEPHEN HINRICHS, Headmaster, Harley School, 1981 Clover St.

And at least in terms of the crime of shoplifting, stores today are much quicker than they used to be in hauling offenders into court. One Irondequoit store manager was quoted the other day as saying that he no longer listens to the pleas of attorneys for reduction of charges. "I don't buy that anymore. We don't consent to reduction of the charge to disorderly conduct except in very minor cases." Increasingly, this has to be the attitude toward the shoplifters and others who, in effect, make the honest customer pay the bill. 'A Play for Sympathy1 REFERRING TO Barbara Wahl's letter Feb.

18) on lead poisoning, I quite agree with her remark about a "putty knife, sandpaper and a little work." Years ago a painter used nothing else but lead paint. Whatever happened to all those children who must have eaten lead-paint chips over the last 50 years? All this hue and cry is just another play for sympathy. DOROTHY R. CAD 25 Broezel St. the small society Political Prudence 'No Desire io I THOROUGHLY ENJOY Des Stone's columns, and espe living on A quote we endorse: "Sometimes no politics is the best politics." Sen.

Henry M. Jackson i i a rrnr r7VA ivk cially enjoyed last Sunday's (Feb. 6) concerning the lack of tenderness portrayed in movies and plays. Movies of the past showed life at its best movies of today show life at its worst. I shudder to think of the long-range effect this may have on the impressionable young.

Perhaps we see it already in the current style to look as "bummy" as possible, girls who use four letter words with ease, lack of heroes, lack of dedication to work hard enough to perfect anything, etc. In other words, there is little desire to strive for a greater good. Perhaps if life were portrayed more often at its loveliest, people would be motivated to work to find a bit of it in their own lives. CAROL H. WAHL, 40 Viennawood Dr.

PAUL MILLER, Publish EUGENE C. DORSEY, General Menew STUART A. DUNHAM, Executive Editor RICHARD TUTTLE, Manaqins Editor DESMOND STONE, Editor, Editorial Peg Published dally by Gannett Int. J5 Exchange Rochester, N.Y. 14414, Paul Miller, chairman and chief executive! Allen H.

Neuharth, president; John R. Pureed, vice president finance and administration, treasurer; Douglas H. MeCorkindale, secretary. First published January 1, 1633, as the Morning Advertiser. Name Changed to The Dally Democrat, February 17, 1834; combined with The Chronicle, December 1, 1870; with the Rochester Herald, 1924.

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