The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 4

1 -fJ nfarf RET if? ARE Thomas Sowell Altxaniria Dailg Zmn Salfc Established on Match 1 7, 1 883 Tuesday Morning, February 26, 1985 The Pot of Gold The Police Jury Association of Louisiana has joined the lottery bandwagon, provided local governments share in the profits. Several proposals to legalize lotteries or casino gambling were rejected by the Legislature last year. The state's lingering budget problems give hope to supporters of such legislation that it might meet a better fate this year. Police jurors endorsed a state lottery during their annual convention over the weekend in Lafayette. As explained by the Metropolitan Task Force of Jefferson, Orleans, SL Bernard and St Tammany Parishes, about $63.6 million would be returned to parishes and cities from a lottery's proceeds.

Jurors see gold in those lottery tickets. In fact, the gleam blinds them and other public officials pushing a lottery to a few facts. According to information given the police jurors, a lottery would gross about $252.4 million in its first year of operation in Louisiana. Off the top would go $12.6 million in agent's commission to the firm chosen to operate the lottery, which gives one some ideas as to why such firms tout the game as the answer to state financial woes. Another $7.6 million would go to administrative and operating costs, translate that as the bureaucracy accompanying the lottery's creation.

Next comes the $126.2 million returned to players in prize money. This is the literal version of the legendary pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Then there is the $63.6 million to be split between 64 parishes and innumerable cities, towns and villages the local government version of the same pot of gold. Remaining is state government's share $42.4 million, according to the task force proposal. That's a lot of money, but in the scope of a $7 billion annual state budget it is just a little more than one-half of 1 percent, certainly not the revenue boon proponents would have us believe.

Lotteries are popular in states which have them for one reason, and one alone they provide the opportunity, long though the odds might be, of striking it rich. The players care not what is done with the government's share. That is a method of government financing to which we cannot subscribe. There is apathy enough already about how the public dollar is spent 25 IJears in the Atontria 3aila Saft News Highlights of February 26, 1960 President Eisenhower flew into Buenos Aires today and received a warm official welcome nine kours after five bomb explosions rocked the city. The Argentine government clamped heavy security precautions over the city and around Eisenhower.

The President's heart was heavy because of the loss of life in the crash of two planes over Buenos Aires Thursday in which part of the U.S. Navy band was killed. Asking Women to Throw Away the Banners Readers Write Government Has Its Limits "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again and then give up. Don't be a damn fool about it" W.C. Fields' wisecrack contained a lot of wisdom.

Nowhere does it apply more than in the crusade against drugs. Drug raids are good politics but they don't make a dent in the problem. The federal government's seizures of cocaine are six times what they were just a few years ago. But the flood of cocaine into the country has continued to be so massive as to drive down the price. A variety of drugs are for sale within a mile of the Drug Enforcement Administration's headquarters in Washington.

The ban on drugs has become Prohibition writ large. Like Prohibition, the ban on drugs has been a financial bonanza for organized crime, and its profits have financed the corruption of law enforcement agencies, politicians and judges. Drugs can be hideous things. And those who push drugs are slimy and poisonous. But let us not forget that a similar case was made against alcohol and bootleggers many years ago.

Tens of thousands of lives are still lost each year to drunken driving alone. That doesn't count the lives destroyed in other ways, or dehumanized, under the influence of the bottle. If drugs and alcohol had never been discovered, this would be a lot better world. But it is a dangerous illusion to believe that we have the omnipotence to undo every evil. The crusading mentality can easily make things worse.

Drugs are inherently a problem for the individual who takes them, but they are a much bigger problem for society precisely because they are illegal. It is their illegality that makes them costly and drives people to desperation to get the money by any means, at anybody else's expense. The Were cost of production of drugs Can be very cheap. It is all the people who have to be paid (or paid off) for hazardous and illegal work that makes it costly to the final consumer. Cheap and legal drugs change the whole economic picture.

If an addict could support his addiction for a few dollars a week, he would still be an addict, but he would not have to steal, mug or kill other people to support his habit. Neither would drug pushers have the financial incentive to try to get children hooked on drugs, if there was no big money in it. Many cannot accept the legalization of drugs because they see that as some kind of stamp of approval for harmful substances. But everything the government doesn't ban is not socially approved. Stupidity and hatred are both perfectly legal.

So is alcohol. Drugs belong in the same category. The law has too many urgent and important things to do to be used merely as a means of expressing disapproval There are plenty of other uses for police resources that are squandered in futile drug busts. Crusaders cannot accept the fact that they are not God that they have neither the right nor the competence to run other people's lives. The years that preceded Prohibition saw private citizens take the law into their own hands, entering saloons with axes to destroy bottles of liquor.

It was ego-boosting, moral exhibitionism. When crusaders finally succeeded in getting the Prohibition amendment ratified, it was their crowning triumph and the nation's tragedy. Organized crime blossomed. So did the corruption of the whole political process. When national Prohibition ended, many localities passed their own bans on liquor.

Bootleggers sometimes financed the campaigns to ban liquor. Their profits depended on liquor being illegal. Legalization of narcotics would similarly destroy the profits of today's drug pushers. There is no way that they can compete with drugs that can be mass-produced cheaply by big pharmaceutical companies. This is not a complete "solution." Nowhere is it written in stone that there are always answers in the back of the book.

What we can do as a society is to cut our losses. It is bad enough that some people destroy their own lives with drugs. We don't need to add vast numbers of innocent victims. growth economy into the 1970's. Tax indexing has been put into effect which means that rising (inflated) incomes will not push us into higher brackets.

Another act of "fairness" would be to index the personal exemption. By increasing the personal exemption in proportion to inflation we have suffered from since 1950 we could be awarded a personal exemption of $1,200 or $1,800 per individual. The economic results would be beneficial to the entire nation. Those individuals now "living together" would find it profitable to get married and use a joint return. More and bigger families would create additional prosperity.

Kent Courtney, Broussard, La. Disputes Figures Editor, Town Talk: Women's "rights" be damned I am sick of all these protestors. Women have been right far longer than men. The old saying is that if men had birthed the babies in this world there would have been just one generation. Does anyone know of the patience and kindness a real woman can exude and this is her right? Would a man soothe a sick, crying child or walk the floor with one while helping three others shake hands with the governor in the dark, saying, "Now don't wake your Daddy because he has to go to work in the morning." Work.

A man has a lovely 8-10 hours a day away from home when all his work is handled by a gorgeous 25-year-old making his coffee and sitting on his lap taking dictation, and otherwise helping him through the while his harridan is at home cleaning up after him, changing diapers and alternately throwing up, buying groceries, driving car pools, saying to the little ones: Just wait until your Father gets home This is no put-down on the housewife and mother I've been there. And, with nostalgia, I look back on it, now that the children are all grown and off on their own (except when they write home occasionally or call collect asking for a little loan: $500 no nickel and dime stuff Being a woman isn't so bad, or unrewarding just because I can't change a tire or fix the air-conditioning unit does not make one feel inferior. I believe women ought to stay out of the Army, Navy, space ships, professional football I don't want or need that kind of protection or sports thrills. My husband elicits feelings rewarding ones that make me want to serve him coffee, let him sleep at times, wash his clothes, pick up after him and respond to his masculinity as opposed to my innate femininity. Vive la difference women have the families so Daddy can protect and take care of them.

Women are no more right than men and none of us has to prove it to excess. Throw away your banners, get a part-time job, and go home. Nita Howell Schroll, Alexandria, La. Index the Exemption Editor, Town Talk: During the Truman Administration the Congress passed tax reform measures including the famous $600 deduction per individual. Thus a family of four had a $2,400 deduction and the result was that most of the working classes paid lower taxes.

Because of these "fair taxes" Americans had more and larger families, more homes were built and we enjoyed a Editof, Town Talk: The Newhouse News Service article by David Wood published on the editorial page is quite revealing. The second paragraph states "The retirement cost, budgeted at more than 18 billion is more than it takes to operate the entire U.S. Army for a year, and could buy all the Army weapons and the Air Forces missiles with enough left over to fund the MX Missile and the star wars strategic defense Well that bird sure is smart he has made a statement that shows he knows nothing about the armed forces cost in personnel. The personnel cost for the armed forces approach 80 billion for the almost 3 million members about evenly divided, between military and civilian personnel. It appears to me, the Town Talk should be more selective in publishing articles that are outright false.

There have been, lately, numerous articles published by various media distorting facts with the only evident aim to destroy the peoples' confidence in their government. May I remind the people that Congress makes the laws and appropriations not the President. Carl M.Burns, Alexandria, La. Editor's A sentence was edited from a letter, titled "Memorial Suggestions," published Monday. The newspaper is responsible for the letter making what the author considers an awkward transition from one subject to another.

Neighbors in the Plantation Acres subdivision Thursday night "seconded the motion" made earlier by incorporators of a residents' association, the first of its scope in the Alexandria area. The first general meeting of the Plantation Acres Community held at Jackson Street Presbyterian Church, saw some 70 persons ratify actions of a board pledged to "maintain property values and help make our area a better place to live and bring up our children." President George B. Braden and other officers and board members were officially elected. A sub-freezing cold wave gripped the Deep South today in the wake of a dizzy rampage of snow, ice and tornadoes. Temperatures dipped below freezing in all of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia and in Northern Florida and most of Louisiana.

Too Many Congressmen Are Kings of Under the Bed Published every morning, except Christmas Day by McCormick and Company, Inc. A publishing and printing company founded March 17, 1883 By Edgar H. McCormick and Henarie M. Huis 1 201 3rd Strxl Telephone 487-6397 P.O. Box 7558, Alexandria, loulilana 71306 Jane Wilton Smith Chairman of the Board Joe D.

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start chopping down a deficit that has grown higher than Jack's beanstalk. The government must quit spending money as if we were a population of Rockefellers. This land's bounty is becoming Washington's booty. The economic consequences are dreadful to contemplate. Sounding as if they certainly measure up to the task, congressmen have showered the press with quotes about their good intentions.

They talk tough about coming to terms with that deficit, about making the necessary reductions. But will they? And if they do, where will they cut? So far during the Reagan administration, the choice has been to cut spending where it is easiest, in programs for the poor, the least powerful people in our society. Some of those reductions were almost certainly justifiable. But unless we've reached the point where we're willing to abandon all pretense of humane concern for others, those programs cannot be further reduced. What's needed now are cuts in other welfare programs, the programs for the middle class.

That's where Congress will find paydirt, but also where the most resistance will be found and the most courage needed. Some folks of middle-class means maintain they get no welfare. They should think again. The federal government provides subsidies to farmers who are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. It gives benefits to veterans who don't need them, lavishes Social Security payments on persons who could live quite comfortably without that help, and makes loans to college students whose families are well-off.

Nor should anyone forget the least touchable middle-class benefit of all, tax deductions for interest paid on home mortgages. I will be surprised if Congress fights this fight Even those who portray themselves as the most dogged of fiscal conservatives usually aren't, not By Jay Ambrose Editor El Paso Herald Post Congress has a lot in common with a dog I own. I wanted to call him Stradivarius, but was outvoted. His name is Pepi. Pepi is 20 percent Maltese, 20 percent Poodle and 60 percent dumb.

I say that even though I like him. Most of the time. Pepi, who is very little, sees himself as a great watchdog. If someone as much as gets near our front yard, he will bark like he just detected Attila the Hun, Charles Manson and Henry Lee Lucas sneaking into the living room. It matters not who the person is; innocent toddlers concern this dog as much as rough looking strangers.

In fact, he barks loudest at the children. I would say his bark is worse than his bite except that it's not a very impressive bark. It's more a sissified "yip, yip, yip" than a macho "Woof, Woof, Woof." And it's a hypocritical bark. When someone who's not a member of the family actually comes in the house, Pepi scurries under my bed and emits a muffled bark from there. Under the bed is Pepi's favorite spot.

He rules that roost with happy snorting when he's awake and is daydreaming about attacking toddlers, and with happy snoring when he's asleep and is enjoying visions that are perhaps even grander. Pepi, I have come to realize, is King of Under the Bed. And that brings me back to the members of Congress. They bark a lot, but they never bite at least, they seldom bite anyone who might bite back. When it's time for serious confrontations on serious issues, they scurry to safety.

They're much more accomplished at hiding out than serving as watchdogs for the nation's best interests. Right now, it is in this nation's best interests to really. Some months ago, Phil Gramm came by my office. He was running for a U.S. Senate seat, which he won.

He talked on and on about how good he was on economic issues. Guys like him could eliminate that deficit once and for all, he said. At the same time, he was at pains to make it clear that he was going to get plenty of loot for Texas if elected. Although he used other words, the message was that he wouldn't shrink from his duty to supply the barrel with pork. This is precisely how deficits are made you give me some goodies for Texas; I'll give you some for New York (or wherever), and pretty soon, there's nothing left in the coffers.

Of course, there are at least a few politically brave men and women in Congress, just as there have always been politically brave men and women in America. I recently read a novel based on the life of John Peter Altgeld, an Illinois governor from 1893 to 1897. He granted pardons to three men convicted of setting off a bomb in the Haymarket Riot in Chicago. Altgeld knew there was not one iota of evidence against these men and that their trial was a farce. They were imprisioned and four others were hanged because they were radical labor leaders.

Altgeld also knew that releasing them would bring the wrath of the nation down on his head, and it did, Hate was heaped on him from every quarter. He managed to exercise strong influence in the Democratic party of a period, but his elective career fell apart, as did a fortune he had accumulated in a Erivate law practice. His health deserted him, and died a relatively young, relatively impecunious man. Nothing like that faces a congressman who votes for a sound fiscal policy, but too many, I suspect, are more similar to a dog named Pepi and a senator named Gramm than to a governor named Altgeld. They are kings of under the bed.

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