Battle Creek Enquirer from Battle Creek, Michigan • Page 5

Wednesday, June 26, 1996 Battu: Creek Enquirer 5A THE BATTLE CREEK ENQUIRER Established 1900 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Randy Miller Publisher Nan Seelman Executive Editor Bill Church Managing Editor John Sherwood Opinion Page Editor Sonya Bernard Staff Writer Tim Hodges Circulation Department Cynthia Spencer Human Resources Gustavo Guzman and Mary E. Smith Community residents Enquirer's View represents a consensus of the editorial board, and is expressed on behalf of the newspaper as a local institution. ENQUIRER'S VIEW Day of Caring SERIOUSLY-THAT'S MOW 0 ir can extend to the full year We enthusiastically support any effort that brings people together in a spirit of mutual help, tolerance and constructive understanding. That's why we've always encouraged residents of the ANALYSIS Tobacco issue full of thorns By WALTER K. MEARS The Associated Press As a presidential-campaign issue, tobacco and smoking may warrant a warning label like the ones required on cigarette packages for the past three decades.

It could caution that both Democrats and Republicans receive political contributions from the tobacco industry, and that neither can avoid the strains that go with the habit Even with President Clinton challenging the industry in his drive against smoking by young Americans, there have been assurances from the administration that tighter regulation in this country wouldn't hamper tobacco exports. There have been divided messages from the federal government since the first surgeon general's report that cigarette smoking was a health risk, issued in 1964. While one arm of the government warned against the habit another helped tobacco farmers. Indeed, the House voted a week ago, by a two-vote margin, against ending government-subsidized crop insurance and technical assistance for tobacco growers. Almost as many Democrats as Republicans voted to continue it 'Tobacco has always had a special place in the politics of America," Rep.

Richard Durbin, conceded, as his effort to block that $25 million item was rejected. It has, and does. So when Republican Bob Dole said at a tobacco country campaign stop that smoking is not necessarily addictive, and that he does not think the Food and Drug Administration has authority to regulate tobacco, Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were quickly on his case. Dole, in Louisville the other day, said he did not quarrel with such steps as closing vending machines to put cigarettes out of the reach of children. At a subsequent stop in Winston-Salem, N.C., he addressed some of the advertising restrictions the president wants, saying "I don't mind banning advertising that affects teen-agers." "But I think the more serious question is whether or not the FDA has jurisdiction," he said.

The attempt to assert it is not yet resolved. "To some people smoking is addictive," Dole said, "to others, they can take it or leave it" Clinton countered in a radio talk that "when political leaders parrot the tobacco company line" they cater to powerful inter Accuser should try to warble a tune that gets child-abuse claims to stick Battle Creek community to get behind and get Remember Evan Chandler? He's the Beverly Hills dentist who years ago accused pop music Michael Jackson of sexually his then-13-year-old son. Instead of DEWAYNE WICKHAM trying to put Jackson in jail, Chandler sought to pick his pocket The civil suit he filed in 1993 was settled out of court reportedly for more than $10 million. Now Chandler is hoping for another visit from the tooth fairy. involved in the annual Day of Caring" sponsored by the United Way of Greater Battle Creek Volunteer and Information Services, which is one of the several local agencies supported by the United Way, is coordinating the volunteer-recruitment effort again this year.

We hope many people get involved, for if a special event that helps to bind together the entire community, and make this a much better place to live. The purpose of the special day is to mobilize hundreds of local residents who seek a deeper understanding of critical social problems through serving their community and to spread the concept (and joys) of voluhteerism. This year's Day of Caring will be Sept 4, beginning with the United Way's campaign kickoff breakfast at McCamly Plaza Hotel. For three to four hours, participants will perform special tasks at several locations in the community and at local United Way-supported organizations. The jobs might include painting murals, carpentry, making quilts, landscaping or taking homebound, wheelchair patients for an outing.

The result can be a greater understanding of the needs of our neighbors, and even a greater commitment to helping ease those needs. The United Way this year is celebrating 75 years of song Jackson sings: "somebody's out somebody" out to use me, they really wanna use me, they falsely accused Chandler believes these words are targeted at him. Maybe. Maybe not In recent years Jackson has been dragged into civil court by a Denver songwriter who accused him of stealing her lyrics and a woman who said he fathered her child. Maybe he was talking about them.

Or maybe like most song writers he wasn't talking about anyone in particular. And remember the recent controversy over Jackson's use of terms like "Jew me, sue me" and "kike me, don't you black and white me" in a song on the HIStory album? Well Chandler, who is Jewish, suggests in his lawsuit that they were aimed directly at him. Now he wants a chance to fire back with his own repertoire of songs. Evan, get a life. The statute of limitations for your child-abuse charge expires in three years.

If Michael Jackson did the unspeakable to your boy, give prosecutors the evidence they need to put him in jail. Put up, or shut up. DeWayne Wickham's column for Gannett News Service appears Wednesdays. wants at least $60 million to settle his latest complaint against the pop music king. He also wants an album.

Not a copy of History, the Jackson album he cites in his suit Chandler wants a court order "to allow him to publish and cause to be distributed to the public for sale" his own musical composition something he calls EVANstory. And, yes, he wants to be taken seriously. Hummmm. But, of course, he blew his chance for that when he chose to press his child-abuse charge in a civil, rather than criminal court How many parents who really believe some guy was molesting their child would pass up the chance to put him in jail? Who would seek a financial payoff in lieu of a criminal prosecution? If Michael Jackson is a child molester, he belongs in jail. And if Evan Chandler has any evidence that supports the charge that Jackson "sexually molested and assaulted" his son, he should give it to a prosecutor not try to use it to launch his own recording career.

When Chandler and Jackson reached their out-of-court settlement lawsuit lawyers for both men announced the deal in a joint, onepage statement Twice in that document Jackson asserted his innor cence. Now, two years later, Chandler claims such a denial is a violation of the agreement Some of these denials, Chandler contends, are buried in the lyrics of several of the songs on Jackson's HIStory album. What is he talking about? Well, in one The former dentist to the stars is back in Los Angeles court And this time he's not just suing Jackson. Chandler has also named the pop music star's ex-wife, Lisa Marie Presley, the Sony Music Corporation, the Walt Disney Co. and some 300 unnamed persons as co-conspirators.

Aided and abetted by this cast of characters, Jackson violated the terms of their confidential 1994 agreement Chandler says. How? By denying in words and song that he sexually abused the young boy. He did so last year during an interview on ABC with Diane Sawyer, Chandler charges, and again in his latest album. And for that Jackson must pay, he says. How much? Chandler, who between root canals co-wrote the screenplay for the movie, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, DeWAYNE WICKHAM Gannett New.

Service 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22234 community outreach. Its Day of Caring is a special event that beyond the organization's annual campaign -focuses attention on what needs to be done in this area each day, throughout the year, in ways that mere cash contributions may not be able to address. The more that each of us gets involved actively in our community, the better that community will be. And it's necessary as we learn, more and more, that money alonjs won't eliminate the problems and challenges that so many of us face each day.

Volunteers now are being sought to participate in this year's Day of Caring. If you have some spare time that can be put to constructive use, we hope that youll get involved. We suspect that youll be glad you did and that youll help to spread the mood of volunteerism that can help ease problems in our community not just for one day, but year-round. WHAT YOU CAN DO: Call Volunteer and Information Services at 965-0555. Teen-ager set good example fir hateful mob READERS7 VIEW SCHOOLS SHOULD WATCH EXPENSES Citizens would be more receptive to millage increases for local schools' improvement if the school systems watched their expenditures more closely.

Why are teachers paid annual salaries when they work only about 180 days per year? Why can't public school buildings staffed with teachers who work all year be utilized to offer subsidized summer day care? Why are teachers covered by one of the most lucrative retirement and health plans around? Why aren't teachers re-val-uated for their performance like people in other professions are? Only after these questions are addressed will the general public be responsive to millage increases for local schools. What is the general public supposed to think when our well-paid teacher couples go off each June for three-month camping trips? Roland Jones Hickory Corners LIBERALS DISTORT OUR HERITAGE We are about to celebrate the independence of the greatest nation that ever existed. Why do liberals stubbornly refuse to acknowledge American history's rich Christian heritage, though the charters of all 50 states contain religious language? America was discovered by a Christian Christopher Columbus, a careful student of the scriptures. Virginia's charter (1606) was granted for "propagating (the) Christian religion." The first act at Jamestown (1607) was to erect a cross and hold a prayer meeting. The Mayflower Compact (1620) attributes "the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith." The Massachusetts Charter (1629) stated similar goals, "obedience to the onlie true God and Savior of mankinde, and the Christian fayth." The admitted aim of the New England Confederation (1643) was "to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ" It is obvious to everyone except liberals that America was founded by Christians to perpetuate Christianity! Puritan New England formed Christian government built churches and started schools using the New England Primer and Bay Psalm Book to teach children the Bible and Christian values.

Christians built the Ivy League schools to train pastors and missionaries to evangelize the Atlantic seaboard. Harvard's first president Charles Hodge, wrote "that the United States of America is a Christian nation is not so much the assertion of principle, as the statement of a fact" The Declaration of Independence (1776) was based on Judeo-Christian principles (faith in a living creator and necessity of law for depraved man). Two-thirds of its signers were members of established churches. When it was approved the religious composition of America was 98 percent Protestant Christian, 1.8 percent Catholic and 0.2 percent Jewish. The Northwest Ordinance (1787) was in force until a Constitution could be ratified.

It required every state entering the union to teach religion and morality in WHERE TO WRITE Readers' View: 155 W. Von Buren Battle Creek, Ml 49017 Fax: (616) 964-0299 Great Lakes Free-Net. Send to 'Readers' not Enquirer conference area. Letters must have author's signature, address and daytime phone. They should be no more than 250 words and may be edited.

No author will appear more than once a month. Anonymous submissions will not be published. their schools. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention (1787) were brilliant statesmen who would not have adopted any document restricting the faith they held so dear! Article VI says no "religious test" could be required for holding public office. In a growing nation where many states had established churches and required politicians to be Christian, religious meant something other than it does today.

The Founding Fathers understood "religious" to pertain to a particular denomination. However, foreseeing problems with government intrusion, the Bill of Rights was added to limit government power. The First Amendment kept Congress from establishing the First "Baptist" Church of America, then forcing membership. The Supreme Court of 1892 reviewed our history and rendered the scholarly decision "this is a Christian nation." What possible motive could liberal revisionists have in distorting this truth? Hmm? Mike Johnston Battle Creek There's a thin line between the region dominated by Iovei caring and compassion and that area ruled by hate intolerance and destruction. It pan be crossed so easily and at a great cost in Ann Arbor, members of the racist Ku iKlux Klan staged a rally, which drew a number of counter-demonstrators.

Atone point a man wearing a jacket decorated with a i Confederate flag was confronted by a small group of anti-Klan demonstrators. According to Keshia Thomas, 18, of Ypsilanti one of the eounter-demonstrators the group began to shout at the man. Then someone hit him with a protest-sign stick. Others knocked him nvpr and stnmrWI him ests, not to American families. The Dole campaign then issued a statement wrongly quoting Gore as having questioned the link between smoking and lung cancer in 1992, when he'd actually said that was the tobacco industry position.

A partial quote made it sound otherwise. Dole issued an apology, noting that he hadn't made the statement himself Gore talked tougher than Clinton. "About the only people who don't believe nicotine is addictive or that smoking causes lung cancer are politicians who are addicted to tobacco money," he said in a speech in Philadelphia He meant Dole and the Republicans. While they've received far more, the Democrats got tobacco industry donations too. According to the advocacy group Common Cause, tobacco companies and interests gave $4.1 million in political contributions in 1995, $3.2 million of it to the Republicans.

That reflects GOP control in Congress and also the anti-smoking campaign of the Clinton administration. "I think cigarettes are harmful," Dole said in a recent Sacramento TV interview. "I would ask the president the vice president where they've been for 3 12 years. Suddenly in an election year they come out with a big anti-smoking program." Actually, it began before the election year, last Aug. 10, when Clinton ordered unprecedented restrictions to limit tobacco advertising, ban vending machine sales and assess tobacco companies to educate the young against using their products.

Those steps would be taken under FDA regulations, based on a finding that nicotine is addictive. "You in the tobacco business now surely see the clear, emerging consensus in America that advertising, billboards and promotions should not appeal to the children of this country," Clinton said May 7 at a rally against smoking by the young in Woodbridge, N.J. That reflects the political plus in his crackdown effort The down side is in the tobacco-growing South, diffi- cult territory for Clinton anyhow. It is a difficult issue to manage. "Am I supposed to tell someone in a legal business they can't contribute to my campaign?" Dole asked.

And earlier in Clinton's drive to cut smoking by young Americans by half over the next seven years, the administration reassured tobacco growers that their exports wouldn't suffer under the pro- posed restrictions. "You have every right to be treated not only as a legal product but as a product of the United States, and treated fairly in for- eign markets," Mickey Kantor, then U.S. trade representative, now secretary of commerce, told an agriculture conference in Raleigh, N.C., late last year. Walter R. Mears has reported on Washington and national politics for more than 30 years.

Doonesbury By Garry Trudeau "I just sort of fell on top of she said, "and put his head on my chest and yelled because once some body breaks the cycle of the mob mentality, then other people begin to realize what they're doing." She's right Hate suddenly can fill the minds of even the most well-motivated people when two sides disagree so vehemently. Police tear-gassed hundreds of people at the rally after a crowd rushed a side door of the police station where the 15 Klan members held their rally on the roof. Seven anti-Klan demonstrators were arrested Saturday and -arraigned Sunday. Thomas, an African American, is a student at Huron High School and works with at-risk children through the Black Student Union in Ann Arbor. She probably is no stranger to the results of prejudice and biased anger, i People who are targets for such anger can harbor anger of their own, and we can understand how that anger itself might boil up and get out of control.

However, by protecting this man with her own body, Thoinas bravely showed the counter-demonstrators exactly how far they had gone which was too far. One only hopes that they got the message and now realize that for a moment they had succumbed to the hostility they'd come to protest against If each of us could remain on guard against any form, we'd move a long way towards elimi-patiOg the destructive anger that plagues our society. N0P5.I THINK lanp pirate what poYousAYajepzm OUT TO TOUR SOME OF OUR. Otf SOUNDS GREAT! HOW ABOUT you, YOU GAME? SwS I ACTUALLY, RATHER STAY HSREANPPOOJN.