Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 8

A-8 VOL. 117, NO. 350 APRIL 11, 1972 Much at Stake THE STATE JOURNAL Founded April 28,1855 jJDJRZJUUILJ! SCT5. IEIXT33: IMKBSBBHi Assessment Mess Needs Overhaul home. To do this effectively, the support of the schools in this direction is also needed.

It is incredible that we now must find ourselves pleadipg for such support. To bring our focus into line, we wish to make it clear that it has never been our intent to destroy the drama department, create animosity nor alienate anyone at any time. We asked oniy that the school uphold standards of decency and respectability. We recognize the many talents portrayed by the drama students as well as we recognize the skill and ability to produce displayed by our drama coach and others involved. We urge all concerned parents and citizens to attend a meeting with the school board to be held at the St.

Johns High School at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12, for the purpose of discussing how we might curb this dilemma before it becomes firmly established. MRS. DARRELL H. POPE ST.

JOHNS: In reference to the situation which has been developing in the drama department at St. Johns High School, as well as indeed most other high schools, it is apparent there is. a need for some clarification from the parents involved in this particular case. First of all, some would "mislead" you to believe that this situation does not merit the attention it has been getting as it only involved several "loosely termed" slang expressions. For the benefit of those who have never attended any of the productions, let me say that our Lord's name has been spoken in vain more than a few times in these plays.

Is this no longer considered "profane" either? We feel there is more at stake here than folks would have you believe. My husband has been a state policeman for 15 years which might explain one sound reason why we have come to recognize the importance of maintaining a moral concept in the NEXTI JOSEPH ALSOP Hanoi's Big Gamble God Bless Them single Democratic candidate was publicly pledged to give Hanoi victory on a golden platter, as they all still are. So why not wait and see? The answer, undoubtedly, had to do with two aspects of Hanoi's own situation. After the human hemorrhages the Hanoi leaders have inflicted on their army and their people, the quality of their forces in uniform has naturally deteriorated. WORSE STILL for the" Hanoi leaders, the dilapidation of their one really irreplaceable military asset has been contin-u and progressive, ever since President Nixon's Viet-namization began.

The Viet Cong, inside South Vietnam, are the irreplaceable asset. At Tet, the remaining Viet Cong in the few provinces where the Viet Cong are still theoretically strong, quite openly and crossly defied Hanoi's orders. So Hanoi is going for broke because Hanoi has to go for broke. You do not go for broke without risk to yourself. But that works the other way, too.

So one must wait and see, and even go and see, as this reporter will soon be doing. 1973, The Lo Angple Ximei ple as the Hanoi leaders have used the North Vietnamese people, would now be pushing up towards a horrifying "body-count" of close to ten million American men. Yet Hanoi leaders have never before exposed themselves, by leaving North Vietnam all but defenseless except for a single division, plus training detachments, plus unreliable and sometimes disaffected militia. In the biggest offensives of the past, three or four effective divisions have always been kept in North Vietnam as a home-guard. PARTLY, NO doubt, this astonishing divergence from past precedents can be explained by President Nixon's Vietnamiza-tion program.

While there were a lot of American troops on the ground, the Hanoi war-leaders always felt they had to worry about something like the Inchon landing, by which General Douglas MacArthur broke the back of the North Koreans. In the main, however, the "more-of-the-same" analyses we are already beginning to hear, are nothing more nor less than purest twaddle. This is not more of the same. It is much more like Adolf Hitler's effort, when he threw all his OBERDORFER LANSING: Thank Pastor Burgess for his letter of Tuesday, April 4 upholding not only the moral, but the Christian conviction of this girl and her parents con; cerning certain words in a play. Oh; that we had more such families standing firm in their witness for Christ.

In school and out. I hope and pray your letter helps many others to stand firm in the right direction. Also I would commend Mr. and Mrs. Chas.

Rider on their letter of April 7 for their testimony. Yes what a distorted perception of right or wrong. One can't open the daily paper any more without some evil, drugs, drinks, evil show ads or other evils running rampant, and so little that is of good report. No Fire LANSING: What has happened at the federal level since President Nixon (after waiting to see how Gov. Wallace made out in Florida) asked for a moratorium on busing? It looks to me like his words (belated though they were) were paid no heed.

I am wondering why the oppor-t i was wasted several weeks ago, when the New York school bus with 50 children on it was hit by the train. As terrible as it may have been, someone should have pointed and asked, is this what you want to do to my children? The more buses we have, the more accidents we are bound to have. Lansing is not under a court order to bus. Your school board is about to make a decision to volunteer our children unless you stop them. Once they do it it will be too late.

Lansing has other problems as well, a good example of the kind of job your city council is doing is. In Oct. 1971 Councilman William Brenke waged a lone battle against six other One of the hottest political issues in Michigan today is the continuing battle over property tax reform, and after years of stalling by the Legislature it appears the deadlock may break in 1972 through petition drives for public referendum. Mostly overlooked in this struggle is that it deals primarily with only one part of the overall property tax problem. Virtually all efforts to date have been directed at supplanting property tax as a major means of supporting public schools.

There is, however, a second and related area of tax reform of equal importance one which must be resolved if true property tax reform is ever to come close to reality. This, of course, is the need to overhaul local assessment practices throughout the state. Last week a House taxation subcommittee, headed by Rep. Philip O. Mastin, D-Hazel Park, outlined the problem as it released results of a one year study.

While the committee made 27 specific recommendations on reforming assessment procedures, the one overriding theme was that there is a shocking lack of uniformity in local assessment practices. This leads to considerable inequities. Mastin observed that "The state has a very real interest in correcting assessment practices because approximately $700 million is returned from state funds in the form of the school aid formula. This formula is based on the assessed valuation behind each child. If assessed valuation is low, the school district receives more state money than if the assessed valuation is high." He stressed that when artificial or incompetent assessment practices are used locally, some school districts receive more than they deserve.

It could be added that this means other districts may be shortchanged. Mastin bluntly asserted that "lack of competent people at the local level is one of the problems we discovered." The subcommittee study revealed widespread disparity in property assessment methods which are often entangled with local politics, lead to unfair tax rates and a staggering increase in appeals to state tax officers. The subcommittee chairman cited four key reform measures needed now: 1. A speedup in implementing a 1969 state law requiring the full certification of assessors. 2.

Legislation requiring township boards, singly or collectively, to hire a certified assessor if the local supervisor is not so 3. Legislation requiring county equalization departments to perform the assessing function on a contractual basis in the event a local township or city fails to provide a certified assessor. 4. Require by legislation a mandatory appraisal assessment at the local level on a three to five year basis to keep the tax picture stabilized. These are only a few of the proposals made by the study subcommittee.

We congratulate this effort and wish the members success in attempting to at last reform this long neglected area of taxation. Until some uniformity is brought to the muddle of assessment practices across the state, true and complete property tax reform remaining resources into the famous Battle of the 1 which ended at Bastogne. No rational government bets every last remaining blue chip on a single toss of the dice of war, except under pressure of harsh necessity. Hanoi is eminently rational, if sometimes unwise and always ruthless and cold-blooded. So as we wait breathlessly for the outcome, the question is: Why were all the blue chips bet at this time? SOME SAY that the motive was a desperate hankering to catch President Nixon between the wind and the water in the election year.

There is some sense in this. The Hanoi leaders did not win their war against the French at Dien-bienphu or anywhere else in Vietnam. They won their war against the French in Paris. Of course they want a repeat. But the planning for this offensive demonstrably began when the "undesirables" began to be drafted, about six months ago.

At that time, any sensible man would have said the Democrats had an even chance to beat President Nixon, as the polls also indicated. Except for Sen. Henry M. Jackson, morever, every candidates of sharply-defined views to his right and left. Moreover, the vaunted endorsements by establishment political leaders have so far done little for him, though the party wheelhorses may prove of greater value in Pennsyl-v a i Massachusetts and Ohio.

There are well-known defects of organization, including lack of clear direction and failure to make decisions, and Muskie's seeming inability to attract and motivate volunteer workers in adequate numbers. Most of the other Democratic contenders, notably excluding George McGovern, suffer from some of these ailments too He the One? Get Schools in Order Let's remember these young people, who dare to stand firm in their convictions of what is right before their God and conscience. I was amazed, and shocked by Mr. Steve Menovske's letter, "Just a small crisis." This looms as a very large crisis and a very important one. As for telling Pastor R.

S. Burgess to focus his attention on more important matters; What's "more He is doing exactly what his office as pastor asks of him. Up-holding God's standards of clean speech, and defending those who dare, in this perverted age, to live by them. God bless him, and his like; and this girl, and her family for their testimony. MRS.

ESTHER M. STOBERT Insurance members of council on a resolution to co-sign a lease on the 82-year-old Benjamin F. Davis mansion. The purpose of the lease, was to give the Historic District Study Committee time to raise money to save it. Mr.

Brenke did not want Lansing to co-sign this lease because he felt as the lease was worded it could cost the city a lot of money. Mr. Brenke was overruled 6 to 1. The lease was signed. Among other things the lessee agreed to pay was all insurance costs.

"On Feb. 29 or March 1 a fire took place in this old building and purportedly did over $20,000 in damages. It now comes out that the fire insurance was allowed to expire by the owners on Oct. 30, 1971. It appears the city did not provide fire insurance.

The city has now been given notification by attorneys of the owners that unless a settlement is made voluntarily a formal complaint and lawsuit will take place. Taxpayer, my guess is you are in trouble. L. R. LAUTERBACH forfeits his right to attend school.

I do not feel that expelling any student six weeks for a first offense is too strong and permanent expulsion for a second offense would not be too stringent. If these students really wanted an education they would not be behaving in this manner and the school system does not need them. I feel that by the time a person reaches high school age he knows right from wrong and they either want to continue their education or quit Let's get our schools in order! CHERYL DAVIS to Move roads as poor and ill-maintained as those of Clinton county a relatively wealthy county located in one of the richest states in the union. It seems to me that the conclusion is inescapable: the people of Clinton county simply do not care about their roads. Since collective action apparently will not be taken by the citizens of Clinton County, the only real solution for the individual resident is to move out of the county.

This is precisely what I intend to do. FRANK L. SCHMIDT Rules Fair Let us try to keep the rules fair and as simple as possible. Let us enforce rules regardless of race, color, or creed. Let us get signatures from all parents accepting our school discipline code, therefore giving the school personnel the authority to enforce the rules.

for one, am willing to sign something of this nature. What happened to the discipline of the past when students were sent to the principal and the parents were called? VICTOR PARDO WASHINGTON In preparation for the present major of-f i the Hanoi war-planners ordered massive draft calls of "the undesirables." The "undesirables" are really the unreliables the remaining North Vietnamese Catholics, for example. Despite the fearful character of North Vietnam's losses, the "undesirables" had always been draft-exempt in the past. In preparation for the present offensive, again, Hanoi did a good many other things that Hanoi had never done before. The Nixon administration is stressing the flagrant crossing of the supposedly "demilitarized" zone.

But here the difference is only that between covert and overt illegality. THE BIGGEST thing that Hanoi had never done before, was in fact stripping the whole of North Vietman of viable fighting troops. The Hanoi war-planners have kept at home only a single division, the 325th, to guard the capital. In this respect, the contrast with the past is dramatic. Hanoi has poured out its people's blood as though that blood were water.

In proportional terms, an American government that had used its peo DON WASHINGTON From the beginning the first big question to be answered by the early 1972 presidential primaries was: Is Muskie the man? As of today, the answer to that question seems to be "no," and the politicians of this town including those who lined up confidently behind the senator from Maine are mystified over what has happened. RARELY, IF ever, has a presidential campaign started with such widespread political support and fizzled so fast, leaving so many people stunned and embarrassed. Edmund S. Muskie is by no means out of the reace, but he has fallen back almost over- night from a front-runner to a horse well back in the pack. Unless he can make a strong an impressive run on April 25 particularly in Pennsylvania against Hubert Humphrey it is unlikely that he will be able to recover.

A seemingly endless and agonizing series of reappraisals has been taking place in the Muskie camps since the Wisconsin primary. As might expected, it has produced a wide variety of answers, recriminations and suggested remedies. ONE LINE of thinking, which is persuasive as far as it goes, is that Muskie has suffered from a misreading of the politics of 1972, based in large measure on outdated assessments flowing from the 1968 and 1970 campaigns. Fearful of another Democratic debacle on the order of Chicago 1968 and recalling the failure of the Nix-on-Agnew hard line campaign in the latter days of the 1970 congressional campaign, the Muskie effort began as a consensus campaign, holding firmly to the Democratic Party center. Muskie.

was. seen as a healer who could bring disparate factions together. His candidacy proceeded on the assumption that this was wanted by the voters as well as needed by the party. The message of the early primaries seems to be that the voters are not seeking safety and solace so much as they are seeking ways to express a fierce frustration with what Is has been happening in the country, economically and socially, and with the inability of the political system to deal with it. The enfranchisement of the 18 to 21-year-old voters, the Democratic Party reforms, the extension of the primaries to 23 states, and the entry of George Wallace as a Democrat have given new political opportunity to millions of people and they are using it with a vengeance.

MUSKIE'S FUZZY rhetoric on issues which sometimes masks strong issue stands, making them acceptable to those who might otherwise sharply disagree has been a liability in competition with will remain a mirage. but they were not expected to be the front-runner. In the final analysis, the fundamental problem may be that expectations about Edmund Muskie far outstripped the reality. He turns out not to be a godlike father figure but a very human one; to this reporter, the least hooded and most easily fathomed of the pack, warts and all. Perhaps he was asked to be more than he was because the hopes of so many people were riding with him.

THE MAN least taken by the extravagance of the buildup was the candidate himself. In his opening rally in New Hampshire, he volunteered that "I don't know for sure that I am the man to be the nominee of Democratic Party next July not completely sure that I'm the one man out of 200 million who ought to be president next January." He has said much the same at other times and places, but those who heard his words believed them to boy-ness or craft. There is the possibility he was simply being honest. Muskie does not seem to possess the usual passionate, burning ambition for the presidency, but rather the resolution that he must do the best he can with an opportunity that came his way. He did not seek the vice presidential nomination in 1968 nor the famous election-eve telecast in 1970.

The modulation of ambition is a reassuring and attractive feature in a president. But it may be fatal to a presidential aspirant in the grueling, seemingly impossible Democratic nomination race of 1972. (C) 1973. The Washington Post A Bible Thought But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. Luke 8:15.

This is from the parable of "The Sower." Let us pray that we be given an honest and good heart. LANSING: I find the situation in the City of Lansing Public High Schools very depressing. I would very much like to see the disciplinary program beefed up and enforced. Riots, demonstrations, dope, have no place in the educational system. Concerned parents and taxpayers are getting pretty tired of having their hard-earned money wasted by such actions! Furthermore, I for one am getting concerned for the safety of my own children.

I think any student who takes part in such activities Intends DEWITT: I would like to comment on the controversy about the condition of Clinton county roads. I am a former resident of Louisville, Kentucky and an amateur archaeologist. In pursuing this hobby in down-state Kentucky, I have trans-versed the roads of some of the poorest, most backward counties in the U.S. Wolfe County, for example, in which I did some work, is listed as the second poorest in the U.S. by the federal government.

In none of these areas did I ever see Keep the LANSING: I attended a parents meeting at Harry W. Hill High School on April 7, at 1 p.m. I was shocked to hear Mr. Rousseau put the blame on the parents for the problems by the students' at Harry Hill High School. Also Dr.

Candoli (via The State Journal). I don't believe my wife and I are perfect parents, or that we know the answers, but I would like to see some rules and regulations written, and then distributed to all the parents pertaining to the disciplining of students while attending school. FIVE YEARS AGO Tuesday Security precautions were rigid in preparation for the visit to MSU by the president of the Republic of Turkey, Cevdet Sunay A proposed 1967-68 municipal budget of almost $2.7 million was introduced to the East Lansing City Council Councilman John T. Anas was elected mayor pro-tem in the organizational meeting of the Lansing City Council Loren Shattuck became the City of Mason's youngest mayor in history at age 31 when his fellow councilmen elected him to the post For the fourth straight year Charlotte property owners will pay less taxes than the year before as city fathers approved a levy of $12.50 per $1,000 assessed valuation. TEN YEARS AGO Wednesday Fifty to 70 girls were expected to compete in the annual Miss Lansing Contest sponsored by the Lansing Junior Chamber of Commerce Bobby Fischer, 19-year-old former U.S.

chess champion is seeking a court order barring Samuel Reshevsky from competing in any public chess exhibition until after completion of a series of games the two started last year The "tough" 1962 winter has caused County officials to spend a record $103,000 in snow and ice removal, according to Frank K. (Tex) Evans, superintendent of the Ingham County Road Commission special committee was appointed by the Ingham County Board of Superivsors to study petitions advocating the annexation of "the JIopwood-Groesbeck area of Lansing Township to the City Lansing. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO Friday AU production operations in the Lansing unit of Fisher Body were halted early today as the result of an alleged wildcat strike by 31 workers Lansing won fourth place among cities of its size in the 1946 national fire waste competition, it announced .1 Workers at Oldsmobile were among those throughout the country who held a moment of silence in honor of Henry was buried today v. The Spartan Bowling Alleys, 3411 Michigan, were looking for pinsetters to work full or could earn $1.10 per hour. Facing Reality The nation is fortunate to have at least one voice in the windy political atmosphere of the U.S.

Senate that has consistently provided common sense during emotional and unsure times. Sen. Mike Mansfield, the Senate majority leader, helped again last week when he warned that Americans who see Red China as a massive, untapped market for U.S. goods are looking in the wrong place. He stressed that China has been self-sufficient for a long time and is likely to remain so.

Mansfield added that the Chinese probably will not only refuse U.S. foreign aid but would consider it an insult. The Chinese are a proud people. They have survived great hardship and built a society entirely alien to ours, and without endless handouts from Uncle Sam. What senator was saying is that Peking has no intention of becoming reliant on this or any other nation via trade or aid.

That fact has been adequately demonstrated during the past 20 years and Mansfield deserves credit for bringing this reality into clear focus..