Green Bay Press-Gazette from Green Bay, Wisconsin • Page 5

Green Bay Press-Gazette Tuesday. January 5, 1993 p3im2im William T. NusbaumPresident and Publisher John D. GibsonEditor Diane M. BachaManaglng Editor Robert WoessnerOplnion Page Editor (414) 431-8327 We believe: "The Press-Gazette will be conducted as an Independent newspaper.

It will have no interests to serve other than those of the people. Its columns will at all times be open to a free expression ot opinion, and to a discussion ot matters of public policy." In our view Hard time Appointees may haunt Thompson The Marvin Roshell taught her a lesson In some ways Harris' strength is a rebuttal to those who see her as victim BOSTON To give you an idea of how long ago Jean Harris became Prisoner 81-G-0098, try a few cultural markers. It was before Charles married Di, and before Thelma met Louise. It was before Smart Women, Foolish Choices. It was before Fatal Attraction played in the theater and sexual harassment played in the Senate.

When Jean Harris was convicted of appointment is inspired 'partisan mischief Democrats in the Wisconsin Legislature are in an odd position. They are criticizing Gov. Tommy Thomr son for appointing his pals to state jobs. But killing "Dietdoc" Herman Tarnower in the winter of 1981, we hadn't even figured out that crash diets were crashing failures. Tens of thousands of Americans were following the dictates of the Scarsdale Diet book which Tarnower had dedicated to Jean.

And also to "Suzanne, Phyllis, Terry, Elizabeth, Janet, Barbara, Elaine, Frances, June, Sharon, Ruth some of the other women in his life. Jean Harris, the headmistress of Madeira and scorned mistress of Scarsdale, was the star of the i me appumimenis may give uemocrats a weapon to use against the Republican incumbent if, as expected, he runs for a third term in 1994. As Democrats note, Thompson has appointed 17 former legislators 14 of them Republicans to various posts. Democrats are particularly upset about the latest appointment, that of Democrat Sen. Marvin Roshell to a Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations post.

When conservative Democrat Roshell leaves the Senate, each party will hold 15 seats. Republicans can take control of the body for the first time since 1975 if they win two of three special elections April 6. Democrats call the Roshell appointment People's forum Churches will survive In regards to Betsy Muller's letter Dec. 7. 1 assume she is using these priests who go astray as to not have to "partisan mischief." It is more than that.

It is pay support to the church. Catholic churches will survive without her. tabloid firmament. She was a 57-year-old uppercrust blues heroine whose man done her wrong. She was Everywoman who was ever dumped for another.

There were otherwise reasonable women who didn't care whether Harris dunnit or not: She was the victim and they wanted her ac I wonder if she ever recited The Lord's Prayer and knows the definition of "for game again with the DOT's Henry Ellison expecting "the city to approve a plan for state Highway 57" widening. Mayor Nancy Nusbaum had "said the City Council likely will continue to support the widening, but the decision will depend on the public comments." The residents have said in the last two polls, on a five-to-one response, we don't want the widening to a four-lane highway. And at the Dec. 14 DOT meeting in De Pere the residents have clearly said by 90 percent of the almost 200 people present We don't want the widening. In the 'ole con game the man hides the pea under one of three little cups.

He moves the cups around rapidly so that it view Roth for his stance. So in the end, when you're wondering why, as a taxpayer, you are footing the bill, the leading players in Washington will be let off the hook with no criminal or civil penalty. All courtesy of Roth and your local media who, for whatever reason, remain silent. If anyone, especially Gulf War veterans and reservists, is interested in finding out why the silence to a $5.5 billion rip-off which adds to our national deficit, call Roth's office or one of the editors of three TV stations or two newspapers. Only with interest might they be motivated to act.

Richard S. Denis 702 N. Voelker De Pere, Wis. Don't poison water give." I believe not. These priests were created by God.

They will not be condemned for their wrong doing. I just hope when her day of judgment comes Ellen Goodman is a syndicated columnist there will be a priest there to comfort and console her. They will be there, they always are. They are not all bad. inspired partisan mischief.

Thompson saw an opportunity to gain political advantage and took it. Democrats who can't exercise enough party discipline to keep a member from going to work for the political enemy have no reason to complain about the gover nor's coup with Roshell. However, his use of appointments can hurt Thompson if the Democrats handle the issue adroitly. They can take advantage in at least three ways: Tell voters Thompson is guilty of cronyism by naming old pals to cushy state posts. Note that most appointees now have management jobs, and that the Legislature is a lousy school of management.

Point out that some Thompson picks quitted. There were others who saw Harris as nothing more than another jealous murdering wom Mrs. Rosemary Ashley 954 Cardinal Lane, Green Bay, Wis. Concert good example I attended the Christmas concert at West High. I was impressed with our young people and the beautiful concert.

They are a great model for our young. We need our media to put more recog nition on the good our young people do rather than so many negative things. have been disasters. Cite scandals that drove Richard Matty and Robert D. Haase from ap Also the instructors need our praise for their great work.

Eleanore Vandermoss 1059 Shadow Lane, Green Bay, Wis. seems like the pea is still under the same cup, but in reality probably isn't under any cup but in the con man's hand. I think the residents of the city and area are being conned by the mayor and the DOT. Isn't it time we call them and tell them again that we simply don't want a four-lane highway. Call Mayor Nancy Nusbaum, 339-4040; Henry Ellison, DOT, 492-5643.

Donald L. Pieters 602 N. Broadway, De Pere, Wis. Says U.S. losing God "Why are we so unhappy when we have it so good?" asks author Peggy Noonan, Readers Digest, January 1993.

She answers her own question, "It is a terrible thing when people lose God." While victims of 70 years under atheistic socialism, communism, in Eastern Europe and Russia, struggle to recover from that world wide disaster, they plead for Bibles for their schools, banned by Communists. Meanwhile all an: They wanted her convicted. In court, Harris testified that she was trying to kill herself, not her scornful lover. Later, her advocates claimed that she was not herself that day, but an addict in withdrawal from the amphetamines Tarnower had prescribed. But in the end, the only opinion that mattered was the jury's.

They found her guilty of second degree murder. I thought then and think now that Jean Harris was a woman who had learned too well how to swallow mouth-fuls of humiliation in return for tidbits of attention. She was every woman who hung onto a relationship by her fingernails while her self-esteem eroded. Now, after nearly 12 years in prison, 81-G-0098 has been granted clemency. As she was heading into coronary bypass surgery, Mario Cuomo attributed his act to her health and her "above average behavioral record during her incarceration." The irony is that Jean Harris became Will support seminary Despite the scandal at St.

Lawrence Seminary (SLS) regarding improper sexual behavior, I will remain a contributor. I attended SLS in the mid 1970's during the time of the alleged offenders but pointed jobs. Show how Thompson's pals benefit financially. Note that Roshell's pay jumps from $34,893 in the Legislature to about $70,000 in the bureaucracy. Remind voters that appointees retire with enhanced benefits thanks to Thompson.

Right now, it is difficult to imagine any Democrat toppling Thompson if he runs next year. The governor is popular. The state economy is relatively strong. But Thompson could not hold Wisconsin for George Bush in 1992. He will be an eight-year incumbent in 1994.

A clever time-for-a-change Democrat could turn the appointments issue against Thompson. know nothing of these incidents. The events and the people involved are not representative of the staff and school. Many of the morals and values that I hold today were cemented during my adolescence while there. Taken as a whole, the hundreds of Our waters are dying.

Recently I watched a Geraldo Rivera talk show where people, kids included, were and are exposed to the poisons used in the fruit and vegetable fields. Now they have a variety of health problems including cancer. About the next day on the national news a reporter showed the effects of heavy industry on the Rio Grande River between the U.S.A. and Mexico. Where once people swam and ate the fish from their beautiful river, now it's very polluted and contaminated with poisons.

Water from their wells is no longer safe. Having lived along the East River for 38 years I've noticed a tremendous change in the quality of the water. Remember when crossing the East River the awful odor like Kaukauna? Eventually the mills made some adjustments and the odor was eliminated. Kids used to swim in the river. At Bay Beach when I was young, you could see your feet wading the white sand.

You could even see crabs and little fish at six feet or more in the water. No more. Kids would catch crabs on a string baited with liver. People set crab boxes in the river to catch crabs for the tavern crab boils. Set out three boxes this past summer for a week to use the crabs for bait, no crabs.

Snapping turtles would lay eggs on the bank or in the garden each spring. Haven't seen any in about the last IS years. Mud turtles would sun themselves on the logs or rocks. No more. Frogs would croak and sing all summer with different birds in the marsh.

No more. A few ducks now. There were places where clumps of wild rice, wild potato and bull rushes were growing. The cattails are even gone. If you look in the fields of corn, row after row has not one weed growing.

Where is all that poison going, but into the soil and waters? It's time to ban and alter the use of some of these poisons before it's too late. Granted the people who use the land and industry must survive. But we must make some adjustments now. priests who have their religious foundation built at the school have done a mul titude for our communities. Make sure these incidents do not be Views of others come the ruin of this fine institution.

Let the investigations continue, let ar a model prisoner by Fighting the prison model. The irony is that she was "rehabilitated." Not by the system, but in opposition to it. "One fights to stay whole in prison," she wrote from her cell. Indeed, the self-esteem that eroded in long years of her destructive relationship with Tarnower was, remarkably, rebuilt in resistance to prison's attempt to destroy her. In one of three books she wrote, Prisoner 81-G-0098 described, in unspar- ing, unself-pitying detail, the petty tyr- annies of "correction officers." She saw life around her in society's warehouse for the criminal, the insane, the abused and abusive who were allowed one bizarre courtesy to be called "ladies." "How do you teach anything to a human being stripped of all personal dignity?" she asked.

Yet, she found an answer. In prison she also became an advocate for reform, organized programs as if it were her rests be made if founded, and let healing begin. Purge the school of the people involved and set up procedures so that it does not happen again, then let the school get on with its mission. These next few years will be difficult for the school. I implore benefactors to continue contributions.

The mission of the school has not changed and the need for priests and people of religious life has never been so strong. Mark Kohls 1033 Cardinal Lane, Green Bay, Wis. Wants Iraqgate coverage A national scandal and cover-up now has a local home base. Iraqgate the mention of God and his laws are banned from our public schools. While those holding the JudeoChristian world-view sleep, atheists have seized control of most of our courts, our public school system and the major media.

The ACLU, the atheists' legal arm, works tirelessly to expunge from our nation all mention of God except as an expletive in the sewage that now passes for entertainment. Having built a Berlin Wall between school children and God, declaring their religion, evolution, to be scientific, abundant evidence to the contrary, is censored from what passes as science in our schools. Using the courts, the ACLU, keeps all mention of the historical Jesus (the reason for the season) out of all public celebration of Christmas. Christ and the so-called Christian Right are the only group that political correctness in America allows to be blasphemed and ridiculed. "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil," says the Lord (Isaiah Is not that what is happening? Even as our food and money go to sustain its victims elsewhere, Americans have just elected the nation's chief advocates for socialism, euphemistically called economic democracy, the same system of coveting someone else's wealth, used to entrap Russians and their European victims.

Jo Beruow 1807 Ninth St, Green Bay, Wis. Letters should be brief preferably no more than 250 words. All are subiect to editing snd reduction. All must have tha signature, address and phone number of the author. Writers art limited to one letter Bush closing the books It seems strangely appropriate that one of President Bush's last official acts was to issue blanket pardons of Caspar Weinberger and five co-defendants.

By doing so he attempted to close the books on Iran-contra without resolving his own role. Many Americans never understood the indictment and impending trial of a former Cabinet member known to have sternly opposed the ill-fated arms-for-hostages deal. And few Americans would complain if the pardons actually ended an interminable investigation that has consumed six years and $35 million all while focusing on what a few people did or did not now when they testified before Congress. Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh's angry re-narks following the pardons played into the hands his critics. But if Walsh's zeal amounts to an ibuse of the special counsel's mission, Bush's par-Ions merely aggravate that abuse.

Bush's contention that the indictments amounted "the criminalization of policy differences" is an lutrageous misrepresentation of the case. Nobody, not even Walsh, accused Weinberger or iny other Iran-contra figure of disagreeing on poli-y. They were accused of lying to Congress and, extension, to the American people. pardons go far beyond holiday mercy, or even olitical cronyism. By extending his political gener-itv toward the pecpl? wr" piMic tMtiowwy ouid hurt him the most, he has provided Walsh ith ammunition to carry on his public attacks.

Bush has left the public, and eventually histori-ns, to ponder the real motivation behind one of his ist presidential acts. The Seattle Timet BNL banking fraud which diverted $5.5 billion of agricultural credits to Saddam Hussein's war machine with the outcome being U.N.U.S. Gulf War. Uke the savings and loan bail out, ultimately the taxpayer will pay the bill. Noted columnists, William Safire and Jack Anderson, and major networks, CBS and ABC, have all broadcast who is implicated the Bush Administration, CIA, Agricultural Department.

Justice Department and FBI. Locally, 8th District Rep. Toby Roth has acted as a blocking pcir.isian twice by cppcarir. on PBS to deny the charges and block further investigation. Wny? When I posed this question to the news editors school, taught classes for pregnant mothers.

The old headmistress ran up good marks even in the hostile "learning environment," We have become more sensitive to emotional abuse. We label people as "victims" with both more sympathy and more abandon. In some ways Jean Harris' strength is a rebuttal to those advocates who chose to see her as "a victim." In other ways, it's proof that even a seed of self-esteem can grow again. But either way, this woman has done her hard time. "Remorse has become an -appendage to me," she said once, "it's like another skin, and I live in it and I always will." It's 1993 and time to free Prisoner 81- g-0098.

We put man on the moon so we certainly possess the knowledge and expertise. Now we must have the will and guts to change. Isn't it a shame we're cautioned not to eat the fish from the same water we're drinking? Isn't it sad our kids have to go to a zoo to see a frog or turtle? Posslty (jooom. Green Bay, Wit. Don't widen Broadway Can we stand one more letter on the North Broadway street project? Looks like we're playing the 'ole con of the local TV stations and newspapers.

very 30 days Mail to People's Forum. Press-Gazette. Box 19430. Green Bay, Wis. 54307-9430.

or tax to 414-431-6379 it fell on deaf ears. They would not inter Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau HFf, ALMOST, KAY1 tVHY aw camcuArcpes xxi eerroKNoweACH n.eer may! Kr Artr urrr KNOCUKXi otppm.i'sexz IM BUST, MAN. Doug Larson $AT6AN6 KNOUMt. mum hejkl eeiwK? VJOM rv mmjs. a 1 1 I.N.

Few things cause more financial problems than having enough money for a down payment. The trouble with not having children is that you may never learn to appreciate peace and quiet. The only thing winter has going for it is the lack of complaints about heat and humidity. Of all the ways to spend winter, pretty high marks would have to go to hibernation. It's rather foolish to frpend a lot of money going to a rock concert when all you have to do is open a window.

If rray hair isn't caused by worrying, how come so many parents have it? There's a good reason why children find the study of history so difficult Every year there's more of it Larson is a Green Bay Press-Gazette columnist.