Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 4

4-Ukiah Daily Journal, Ukiah. Calif. Friday, Stptembar 23, Editorial A decreased in some forms of serious crime indeed should be good news. For too many years Americans have experienced increases in the crime rate. There were 12.9 million serious crimes in the U.S.

in 1982, the lowest number since 1979. This was the first significant decline since 1977 and the lowest volume since the 12.2 million serious crimes recorded inl979. Those of us who live ih a relatively crime- free area cannot easily realize the fear that some people live We are fortunate compared to most parts of the U.S. People in high crime areas wUl be particularly pleased at the reduction. Yet, for people victimized last year, these statistics probably mean very little.

To others, though, they may offer encouragement and hope that oiie day this country will beat the crime Like so many of our problems, people tend to just accept bad crime news When they should be.actively working within the system to find solutions. An bfficialis of the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics offered a couple of. reasons for the improving news. Steven R. Schlesinger said one of the explanations is that the is getting older.

In 1982, more than half of those arrested were under 25. Four out of every five people arrested were males and seven out of every 10 were white. While it would be better if the reason for the improving statistics was improving morals, it may be more related to a nation growing up. Whatever the reason, the movement is in the rightdirection. Another reason offered is the longer prison sentences being handed down by courts.

Apart from having for more prisons, this probably meets with by the public, which for years has given strong signals that it is fed up with crime and wants something doneaboutit. The longer sentences may be a deterrent and they may prevent the repeat offenders from committing new crimes. Among the categories of violent crime, murder was down seven percent, robbery down six jpiercent and forcible rape down five percent. The only crime on the index which was up over 1982 was aggravated assault, up onepercent. Crimes' against property also were down, with off nine percent, motor vehicle theft down two percent, and larceny down one percent.

Overall crime declined three percent in the state. With 39.8 miUion victims of crime in 1982, compared to 41.5 million in 1981, there still is room for substantial improvement. Every reasonable solution should be investigated. It often has been said that if everyone in this country took the time to meet their neighbors, this one act repeated millions of times would go a long way toward curbing crime. So those of you seeldng to help in the battle against crimecain help by the simple act bf getting acquainted hi your While this isn't as big a problem in Ukiah as it is in the suburbs Of big cities, it still wouldn't hurt of you to be sure you know who your neighbors are.

DICK WEST Runaway adults WASHINGTON The government is setthig up a Task Force on Family Violence to study the question of why kinsmen are so beastly to one another. I hope that during the course of the inquiry the panel will take a look at the companion problem of runaway adults, which is deeply rooted in American life. A national magazine this summer estimated that more a million grown-ups take a powder each year, pulling up stakes without leaving a forwarding address. Never mind that dropping out of society may not be illegal, even if reported to the Misshig, Persons Bureau. "Since no one has yet outlawed voluntary absenteeism, much of this flight is perfectly legal," the articlie tiells us.

"As long as no law has been broken and no court order violated, the grown-up runaway has little to fear from the police." Also never mind that inuch of the absenteeism may be temporary. "They want to run away, but they don't want to do such a good job of it that nobody will find them," the magazine explained. These mitigating factors aside, the basic problem for too long has been swept under the rug, and otherwise covered up. You probably have seen evidence of adult decampment in your own neighborhood, if not under your own roof. Yet, most cases go unreported; written off as family matters that should be settled in private.

Publicizing the fact that so many adults run away from home cannot help but open up new avenues of exploration into the whys and wherefores, if not the whereofs, behind this problem. Quite frequently, success is involved. The article of which I speak tells of doctors and business tycoons fleeing lucrative careers to become bodyguards or to open doughnut shops. 1 can appreciate and understand that motivation. All too bften, the only way to avoid advancement is to run away from it.

1 just wish family members would show a little more sympathy. Typically, an adult comes home and announces be has been threatened with promotion, or some such advancement. There is a scene. Congratulatory words are exchanged. These are the situations that adult abuse the mistreatment of grown-ups by children.

A task force investigation almost surely would show that a high percentage of adult runaways have been mistreated by children either theh- own or, as frequently happens, young strangers who chance to be toddling by, looking for adults to abuse. When abused adults seek emergency treatment, they rarely admit to havtag been manhandled by children. Instead, they make up some cock-and-bull story about tripping over a hassock or getting their feet entangled in an antimacassar. For- that reason, statistics on the extent of the problem tend to be rather unreliable. If you find yourself being viottaiized by children, my advise is to call the cops and turn the tots in immediately.

At the least, squealing on a child will help provide the statistical material that Congress needs tolegislate inteUigently. UDltedPMu Intenutloibal C'MOM- vJUST ANOTHER I Copley New. Service GEORGE WILL Reagan squandered the moment WASHINGTON The public mind, like wax, is easiest to shape when heated. President Reagan has not just missed aij opportunity to shape it, he has labored to minimize opportunity. The Korean airliner atrocity raised the public's temperature to a healthy degree.

But Heagan has squandered the moment, using it to solve what he evidently thinks is one of his politicalproblems-a perception that he is not as peaceloving as the editors of the New York Times. In the process he has dissipated a national asset: the Kremlin's anxiety that he just might mean what he says. It would be one thing-unconvincing and unbecoming but at least him to cite reasons why he should not do any of the many things he could do to strengthen U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union. It is something else for him to deny the existence of options other than rhetoric or war.

Sen. William Armstrong (R-Coio.) and others have made him a list. It includes declaring Poland in default on debts owed to the Commodity Credit Corporation. Last summer, saying there must be "deeds not just words" in Poland, Reagan said: "The Soviets should not be afforded the additional security of a new long-term (grain) agreement as long as repression continues in Poland." Evidently he thinks repression no longer continues in Poland-perhaps because the regime, using words to disguise deeds, took features of martial law and put them in to normal law. Anyway, Reagan also said the Soviet Union would not be guaranteed minimum grain sales if it engaged in "heinous" acts.

Reagan obviously did not mean what he said. He bas made a serious case against the usefulness of grahi embargoes. But why are we susldizlng Poland? Armstrong and others want Reagan to report on Soviet violations of existing arms-control LEHER TO THE EDITOR ecruitment signs I've noticed that the armed forces riecruitment signs that were out front of the courthouse, at the northwest comer of Perklqs and State streets, are gone. I am happy to seiie their absence. Not only is this owner of the courthouse.

square more aestbetically pleasing, ig more visible; and the people have access to the once tiid- den drinking fouhtain; but; more the military's presence and their promotion of no longerclutter up thesidewalks of It is here in the smill towns pf America, like Ukiali, that (be military grabs up the young people ot Qur society ond makes and cannon fodder out of them. With the present unhealthy economic and fhe mUitary's catchy phrases and promises, uie juuiess young arc seduced into uie drmed forces, they kip and are killed in some distant foreigu land. Is it (or most of the money to be fed into the war macMne while the rest of the people of this country go hungry and jobless? It is here hi the small towns of America where that war machine can be dismantled. We mustn't be silent. We must empower ourselves to direct the course of our own lives, and not, subject ourselves to the forces that are out of our control.

If; we peace, we are going to have to demohstrate it, and protest against the build up of the war machbie, even hereTh Ukiah. ShaunMcCloskey Ukiah agreements. Reagan has talked not at all to the American people and only flaccidly to the Soviet Union about violations. The Wall Street Journal predicts that when Pershing missiles are deployed in Europe, Moscow will antiball stic missiles (some necessary radars are already deployed, in violation of SALT I) and will say it is not violating the ABM ban because ABMs are for use against theater, not strategic, weapons. The Journal asks: "What will we do then?" Well, what are we doing about violations of other agreements? Consider.

The Soviet Union has in excess of four million persons (including half-a-million Vietnamese) in 2,000 forced labor camps. In at least 40 extermination camps, the work inevitably causes leukemia or other fatal effects as a result of such things as exposure to radioactivity in uranium mining, or cleaning exhaust tubes of nuclear submarines, or polishing glass without ventilation. According to Mikhail Makarenko, who spent eight years in Soviet camps, the diet for "heavy labor" prisoners is 2,000 calories a day. For "strict regime" prisoners, it is 1,300. In Auschwitz it was 2,050.

The Soviet Union has subscribed to and is violating the U.N. Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Anti-Slavery Convention of 1926, and the Forced Labor Convention of. 1930. Furthermore, U.S. law forbids the importing of goods "manufactured wholly or in part by convict labor forced labor." The law has never been enforced.

The Customs Service has no enforcement mechanism. Armstrong has a list of the good that would be barred. Reagan should read it. Armstrong has a corrective bill. Reagan should demand it.

Here is an option Armstrong has overlooked: revishig U.S. relations with the United Nations. After wasthig her valuable energies wheedling and cajolhig, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, U.S. Representative to the U.N.^ rounded up just enough votes to get the Security Council to "deplore" (it refused to condemn) the alrlhie massacre.

There are 157 "nations" (counthig, of course, the Ukraine and Byelorussia) in the United Nations. We pay approximately one- quarter of the U.N.'s bUls. If we paid one-eighth, we would pay more than the Soviet Union which, unlike the United States, benefits from the U.N.'s existence. We should' radically reduce our pajmients. The savings' should be tovested in substantially more-and more technologically sophisticated-broadcasting into the "eveil empire" (a.k.a "world's niost most lucrative grain The airline atrocity Is not the reason for such measures.

Rather, it an occasion that, properly handled by a leader, would make clear why such measures are reasonable, and overdo. If Reagan contmues to say that he has done all that he can do, short of going to war, he will vindicate tliose who say that American conservatives care more about cont.aining the Occupational Safety and HealUi administration than containing the Soviet Union. JACK ANDERSON Witnesses who hide WASHINGTON When Waiter Mungovan telephones, his wife never ipiows wh6re he is and she never asks: Mungovan is in hiding, ndt because criminal, but because the Justice Department believes his life is in danger Unlike others hi the federal witness protection program, Mungovan must be soiaratM from his wife and thehr 12-year-old son. She has filed suit against the people the Mungovans hold responsbUe for the family's plight. So she has to be available for court appearances and fimd- rafsing efforts to fhiance thehr lonely Mungovan has not been permitted to talk with reporters shice he entered the witness protection program, but he relayed a message to my associates Dale Van Atta and Indy BacDiwar.

My associates have been investigathig the case for months. "I am in the position of being cut off from my family, whom I dearly love, through no fault of my own," Mungovan "I can't justify what has happened to me when all I did was work hard and try to make How did this, happen to Mungovan? A memorandum filed 4n federal court last July by U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Bent lays the blame squarely on officials of the Carpenters union in Hawaii. -a "(They) were the driving forces behhid the destruction of a man, a family, a business iand an ideal," the prosecutor wrote.

"They transformed Walter Mungovan, a combat veteran, a carpenter and a successful contractor, into a man whose busmess and family life were virtually destroyed, and into a man who feared for the safety of himiself and his bushiesS: They bullied him, they him, they shut him down and they willfully and maliciously perjured themselves. They deserve to be severely punished." In fact, two imion officals have been convicted of perjury and two others are facing trial. But It is the Mungovans who have been punished most severely. After 13 years as a carpenter and union member, Mungovan went into business for himself in 1979. Withm a yer, his construction company had 20 employees and was still growing.

Then the Carpenters union decided to organize Mungovan's employees. Picket lines went up at the company's work sites, charging that Mungovan was paying substandard wages. But the employees, who were actually paid at or above union scale, voted unanimously not to join the union. That should have ended the picketing. In federal court last year, Mungovan testified that union officials indicated the pickets would remain until he signed up.

At one point, Mungovan testified, a union official told him that another contractor's work site would be "torched" if he didn't unionize a remark Mungovan interpreted as a threat against his own company as well. The months of picketing were slowly wrecking Mungovan's fledgling firm. But the decorated First Air Cavalry veteran decided to fight back. He gave the FBI affidavits and secretly-taped conversations with union officials. That's when the Justice Department decided Mungovan must go into hiding.

His business is now runied, and he is more than $30,000 hi debt. His British-born wife, Cher, came to Washington to speak to members of Congress, and hopes to be able to make a personal appeal to the president for the wife of an hmo- cent man who cannot ask, but needs your help. 1 am the mother of a son who said to me on the phone, 'Mom, why don't you ask President Reagan? Maybe he Footnote: The Drew Pearson Foundation, P.O. Box 2300, Washington, D.C., 20013, will accept contributions to help people like the WATCH ON THE KREMLIN: Although the Soviets insist everything is hunky-dory with the Vietnamese laborers pressed hito service on the Siberian pipeline, letters smuggled out tell a different story. The workers, who thought they wee signing up for a few weeks' instruction hi Russian and maybe some simple mechancial training, are now stuck for five or six years in a bitterly cold climate, rejected by their Soviet and East European neighbors and working for starvation wages.

(One-third of their pay is kept by the Soviets to repay Vietnam's military debts, and another third is grabbed by the Hanoi government.) times change. In 1973, when the Israelis shot down a Libyan passenger plane, the soviet delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights asserted piously that his delegation was "convhiced that the destruction of hmo- cent people, hicludhig women an children, had no legal or moral justification." HEADLINES AND FOOTNOTES: Federal tade Commissioner Michael Perschuk, often hi minority on FTC votes, put this cigarette- style disclaimer on the printed version of a speech he made recently on the dangers of smok- tag: "The views expressed ta these comments' are mtae and most likely do not reflect the views I of the Federal Trade Commission." is trytag to decide whether the: government or. private hidustry should take: responsibility for victhns of asbestos-related'! diseases. Used as a fireproofing agent for-: decades ta the construction todusfiy, has been Itaked to many ailments, includtag ap debilitMtag lung disease and two forms cancer. A report to be published soon by House subcommittee on labor standards warns tht only 34 percent of worlters exposed to asbestos materials for more than 20 years'can expect to live a normal life span.

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