Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 16

Minneapolis Star and Tribune Established 1867 Charles W. Bailey Editor Frank Wright Managing Editor News Tim J. McGuire Managing Editor Features Robert J. White Editorial Editor Donald R. Dwight Publisher 16A Thursday, May 20, 1982 The video-game menace Will Pac-Man destroy Western civilization? Does the lure of the high-tech arcade threaten Minneapolis future? Once video-mania takes hold, can gambling, drug-dealing and juvenile delinquency be far behind? The worst fears may be groundless, but opponents of the video cult are worried.

They flinch at the thought that, in 1981, Americans spent a total of 75,000 mesmerized man-years and as many as 28 billion quarters in electronic heaven. They point to the findings of a Stanford University psychologist who likens the video-fix to cocaine addiction and contends that video games "may not only be socially isolating but may actually encourage violence between people." They decry the debut of neighborhood video-havens, which turn somnolent street corners into gang hang-outs. And they seem to think that cracking down on these beeping, flashing monsters will save throngs of glassy-eyed kids from ruin. The Minneapolis City Council, alert to public concern, has called a video-licensing ban and now contemplates what video addicts call "burdensome government controlling the use of the city's more than 2,200 licensed electronic video games. It's a national movement: Just this week, residents in Vermillion, S.D., squashed a plan to install, the games at the city's swimming pool.

Inquiry magazine reports that the city of Mesquite, Texas, is fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for the right to prohibit minors from playing video games without parental permission. Oakland, forbids minors from video-tripping during school hours and after 10 p.m. And Brookhaven, New York, has imposed a moratorium of videogame parlor permits. Here in River City, Alderman Tony Scallon pushes an ordinance that would require video-amusement parlors to enforce curfew laws and pull the plugs on their machines at midnight.

It would prohibit people under 19 from playing electronic games in beer and wine establishments unless a separate game room and entrance is provided. Arcades and other proprietors would pay new video licensing fees. An adult manager would be required on the premises at all times, cigarette sales would be banned and proprietors would be responsible for video patrons' littering or loitering. All that sounds innocent. But critics of the ordinance ask some interesting questions: Is there something extraordinary about the video-game craze that merits special regulation? Is it fair to extract extra revenue from video operations if the new fees exceed the cost of licensing and inspecting? Most important, should video-game rules be used to enforce curfew, drinking and smoking laws? Should the city assume the role of telling children what games they can play and when? And should city government even try to become a fixture in the battle against Pac-Man fever? If it tries, can it succeed? The city is certainly right to discourage juvenile drinking, smoking and loitering.

But perhaps there is no concomitant need to regulate video-gaming in bars or to pull the plug on video-game shops at a particular time. It may be true that parents, not the city, should decide whether their children can play the games long into the night. At any rate, trying to pry the television-set generation from Its chosen obsession, as anyone who has broken 10,000 at Pac-Man knows, is bound to be a losing battle. To Reagan no gain is ill-gotten By David S. Brdder The Washington Post from the Office of Government Ethics because private sources are not allowed to supplement officials' salaries.

Smith, who drew $500 per meeting during the six years he served on Jorgenson's board, is apparently the only retiring director ever to walk away with such a handsome sum and the governnent wants to know why he was singled out for reward. A few days after Bob Woodward of The Washington Post laid out the Smith financial saga, Jorgenson's name turned up again as one of those who showered more "than $30,000 worth of personal gifts on President and Mrs. Reagan during their first year in the White House. In Jorgenson's case, it was a $150 sweater for his old friend the president That was a mere inasmuch as Jorgenson had also contributed $50,000 to Nancy Reagan's White House redecoration project. There is a pattern to this, a pattern that appeared much earlier in Reagan's career.

Jorgenson, Smith and the other kitchen cabineteers are all members of the wealthy circle that staked Reagan to his start in California politics 17 years ago. When he was elected governor, they bought and furnished an "official residence" for the Reagans to use in their Sacramento years. And now they continue to make life comfortable for their friends. There is no doubt of their friendship. When the Reagans go home to California, as they are doing again this week, these are the people they see.

And every time Reagan is with them, he comes back fortified in his belief that cutting taxes and government spending is the noblest work of man. Letters ing of private gain and public service that conveniently obliterates the distinctions that statute and custom have tried, over many years, to build into a concept of official ethics. It is not peculiar to this administration or the Republican Party, but it represents a distortion of values and an abuse of privilege to which conservatives of a certain kind are particularly prone. Theirs is a conservatism, not of conscience, but of convenience. It accepts the morality of the market, place as the measure of public recti-' tude.

Cloak it in whatever pieties they may, these conservatives really believe that it is the bottom line that counts. But, oh, how they love the pieties. The president set the stage for the past week's disclosures by endorsing a school-prayer amendment, another little action that shows how far his conservatism of convenience departs from principled conservatism. Such conservative justices as Tom Clark and Robert H. Jackson wrote the opinions a generation ago, laying out in conservative rhetoric why the government may not constitutionally endorse, sponsor or recommend any form of official prayer.

But their lesson is lost on Ronald Reagan. As is his custom, the president said he would have his pal, William French Smith, provide the language of the proposed constitutional amendment that would restore prayer to school classrooms. The prayer that seems appropriate, under the circumstances, would go like this: "Dear Lord, take good care of Your people, just as we take care of each other." Washington Sometimes, small happenings shed a clearer light on basic questions than do events of much greater magnitude. In the last couple of weeks, some small happenings have helped illuminate the character of the Reagan administration. One was the disclosure that Attorney General William French Smith had signed himself up for a pair of tax-shelter investments that gave him first-year deductions of more than $117,000 on an out-of-pocket expenditure of less than $30,000.

The investments were made personally by Smith, who has put most of his assets in blind trust, and were disclosed in one case, belatedly in his required disclosure statement. The deals involving the nation's chief law-enforcement officer are as-sertedly legal, but they are of the type of high-multiple, precariously leveraged, late-in-the-year, smart-operator transactions that almost automatically draw the Internal Revenue Service's skeptical audit. According to his spokesman, Smith saw nothing wrong with looking for the financial edge he might gain if his shelter got past the IRS scrutiny. Nor did he blink when his pal and fellow-member of Ronald Reagan's kitchen cabinet, Earle M. Jorgenson, had the board of directors of his company vote Smith a $50,000 "severance payment," when Smith stepped down from the company's board of directors eight days before Reagan's inaugural.

from readers Draft registration After1 reading the May 12 letter regarding the draft, I begin to see why there are so many problems in our country. A large number of young people in high school and college are nothing but immature, self-centered people who want to enjoy the good life in the United States and enjoy the freedom we have, but are not willing to sacrifice anything for it. It's time these people realize freedom does not come easy. The way the world is today, and with the attitude of so many of our young people, I wonder if freedom will still be here 20 years from now. I am a Vietnam veteran who does appreciate what we have here and understands that a peaceful solution to a problem is best, but not always possible.

Douglas Ortloff, Cambridge, Minn. amount to 25 million poor people, each could have received an annual grant of $10,000. While this view has merit, it is too simplistic. The ordinary way we grow is through Involvement with others. The teaching profession is an example; we pay taxes to support teachers to help our children learn.

Giving actual dollars to some may assist them quite well, but usually it takes someone to assist persons to have options and to make a living. One of the best helping programs for poor and disadvantaged is the Campaign for Human Development of the National Conference of Bishops of the United States Catholic Conference. Money is given in self-help projects; the administration and other overhead is comparatively low. It takes more than income to help meet human needs. Vern Dahl-heimer, St.

Cloud, Minn. Gifted students With regard to budget cuts and closings of Minneapolis public schools, I am concerned as to what will happen to the already deficient programs for the gifted and talented students. Their potential must be nurtured. Because of diminishing funds, Minnesota cannot depend on sufficient help from government agencies in supporting our gifted and talented programs. President Reagan suggested that industry and business support programs that are suffering from budget cuts.

Our local industry and business must step forth to support the special education the gifted and talented students so desperately need. Kathleen E. Julin, Minneapolis. That one is under official scrutiny The pattern in this is an artful blend The genius who devised the naked-wanderer program U.S. Navy By Russell Baker The New York Times Twins and company Our condolences to Castino, Ward, Hrbek, Davis, Redfern and company.

But please forgive us if we fail to attend any further "games" of the cellar-bound Twins this year. We have better things to do with our money. Congratulations to Wilfong and Corbett: You've shown how hard work can earn the right for Twins players to be promoted to the majors. David Frey, Minneapolis, and Glenn Silloway, Minneapolis. of only $760 the cost of hiring two kidnappers and renting a squalid one-room hideout.

In the next campaign 37 candidates had themselves kidnapped, with mixed results. Because editors became bored with kidnappings, news coverage declined and only 18 kidna-pees were elected. Kidnapping might have ceased except for Emilio van Greditzer's claustrophobia. Van Greditzer, a candidate for Hoof and Mouth Inspector in the Pampas, balked when told it was time to be kidnapped. "If I were tied up for two weeks in a squalid one-room hideout," he said, "my nerves would be so shattered I wouldn't be fit to inspect a hoof or a mouth for the next Washington One of the most unusual aspects of the Argentine political process is kidnapping.

The custom evolved several years ago in response to the soaring cost of 30-second political spots on television. Its originator was Ricardo Uster-mann, an impoverished candidate for Buenos Aires water commissioner. Unable to afford television commercials to keep his name before the public, Ustermann had himself kidnapped and held captive for two weeks. The resulting publicity produced a landslide victory at a price Ron Davis Minnesota Twins pitcher Ron Davis should be given two medals: The first for having the guts to speak his mind, and the second for being an honest man. The Twins are an embarrassment to major league baseball.

Paul Kurplewskl, Roseville. Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo. (Star and Tribune, May 14), talks a good game. However, to speak strictly of quality is one fallacy that is unforgivable.

The U.S. Navy has always followed a policy of building the most capable carrier for its money. Its studies have proven that one nuclear-powered class carrier is more capable than two smaller conventionally powered carriers. The size of our three operational Nimitz-class carriers is necessary because of their operational flexibility. They all have complex anti-air, anti-surface and anti-submarine defenses, not to mention powerful offensive capabilities.

If we start building smaller aircraft carriers, which defenses would be removed at the expense of our sailors? Lyle M. Wong, Frldley. Resource recovery The city of Mound had a clean-up day so it could have a lovely, clean city. Wayzata is having a Green Bag Day, so it too can have a lovely, clean city. Dayton, Hassan, Greenfield and Independence are all proposed landfill sites.

They, too, would like to have a lovely, clean city. Three of those sites are also prime agricultural land. Has anyone given any thought to where all that trash goes from the clean cities? We must go to resource recovery and recycling. Each city should be responsible for its own trash. People should be concerned about their buying habits and buy returnable and recyclable items.

Kathleen Linn, Greenfield, Minn. gouging landlord $1,000 a day for a squalid one-room hideout. We increase our volume while simultaneously reducing costs." Esterhazy was driving me up to the Adirondacks during our interview. I had phoned him after hearing from relatives in Newark that he was in the United States to scout locations in New Jersey. He had agreed to pick me up.

"As you can imagine," he said, "the effectiveness of the naked-wanderer program diminishes significantly as people close to Buenos Aires become accustomed to -finding kidnapped citizens roaming -naked on their property." The residents of one Argentine town have become so hardened to the sight of naked kidnapees that they appropriated a large public budget for towels and send victims back to town with towels around them 24 hours after the kidnapping. "Twenty-four hours is hardly enough time to impress a kidnapee with the fact that our clients don't like their looks," Esterhazy explained. I pointed out that New Jersey was hardly the ideal place to secure prolonged naked wandering, because of its very dense population. "Yes," he agreed. "Cost-effectively, it makes no sense to transport people from Buenos Aires to Passaic, for what would be at most 45 minutes of naked wandering," I asked Esterhazy if he had any other United States sites in mind.

"Yes," he said. "The Adirondacks." I understood then why his employees had insisted on handcuffing me before our Interview began and why they had stopped just outside Ar-monk to remove every last stitch of my clothing. "But why me, Mr. Esterhazy?" I asked. "I don't like your looks," he said.

If anyone cares, it takes 54 hours to get a free towel In the Adirondacks. The nights are chilly. tmxnou FOR. THRE WES, W) PXX) TUIHK VOO rTUA? Arrowy of Tft uHirc sm? RSI two years." The solution to van Greditzer's problem revolutionized Argentine politics. On election day his campaign aides kidnapped the election officials and counted the ballots themselves.

Van Greditzer won 93 percent of the vote. An idea had been born. It came to full flower -when Gen. Ellsworth Juan had 35,000 voters kidnapped one election eve because he suspected they might vote for his opponent Thereafter the need to kidnap entire voting blocs as election day rolled around began to create housing problems. Rental prices on squalid one-room hideouts soared as high as $1,000 a day.

Politicians enacted an emergency program of government-subsidized squalid-one-room-hideout construction, but the program floundered when champions of free enterprise, opposed to government handouts to the kidnap industry, kidnapped thousands of construction workers. Unpleasant solutions began to develop. People were kidnapped and never seen again. It was embarrassing to the government, which said they had probably taken up residence on the Riviera, but they were never seen there either. Those who worried about Argentina's image sought gentler solutions.

One of these came to world attention recently when a number of foreign journalists were found wandering naked outside Buenos Aires. All had been kidnapped in the city, driven out of town, robbed and stripped of their clothing. Ernani Es-terhazy, chief executive officer of one of Argentina's most prestigious political-services companies, in a recent visit to New York told this correspondent that "the naked-wanderer program" was now the preferred solution to an acute political problem. "That way," he said, "they get the message that we don't like their, looks without any awkward disappearances to explain or paying some sir5! rui is 1 1L i Money for research The May 9 editorial page contained a quote from William E. Simon's book "A Time for Action," in which he states the monies spent for "social welfare" functions by government during the period from 1965 to 1976 amounted to an increase of $250 billion, a large share of which went for people in research and administration of such programs.

He states if we had simply given this 4 4,.