The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 40

Reader forum Sentinel Star Magic of the Econlockhatchee Charles T. Brumback President James 0. Squires Editor Emmett Peter Chief Editorial Writer Joseph J. McGovern Executive Editor Robert J. Bonnell Managing Editor Editor: I would like to bring up a topic which has been forgotten.

The Econlockhatchee River is one of the most beautiful areas that the Orlan Orlando, Florida, Sunday, May 29, 1977 of the original Central Florida can be maintained. A committee funded minimally by each of the plus volunteer support from local organizations, could meet and conduct studies, find and use existing studies, and act as a nucleus from which a plan might be promoted and pursued. The scoffs and sighs that the developmental community might make at the idea just presented I think will act as adequate indicator of what is in store for the land and the people if we act as we have acted the past few years. DAN M. PENNINGTON.

number of developmental schemes, and instead be kept undeveloped. I am aware that the Econlockhatchee has been mentioned in the past as an area of concern for preservation but, each mentioning dissolves with time. So I would like to suggest that a committee of responsible citizens from the tri-county area of Orange, Osceola and Seminole create and implement a plan for preservation of the area known as the Econlockhatchee River Basin. My premise is that Central Florida is large enough to warrant buying these lands so that some semblance Inertia, politics and sewage do area has going for it. It surpasses Disney World, Circus World, and even Club Juana in beauty and perfection.

For you, or for your readers who don't know what I'm speaking of, the Econlockhatchee River is a short river on the east side of Orlando, approximately 50 miles in length from its source in Osceola County to its outpouring into the St. Johns River in Seminole County. It is one of those winding, meandering, dark-stained rivers that have evoked imaginative stories from primitive Indian people, to early Florida settlers, to modern weekend canoeists. The given beauty of this river and lowlands surrounding it is slowly but steadily being devoured by the gapping mouth of the creature we all know as development. Is this realtors' capital of the southeast it's hard to promote wise land use.

It's even harder to speak out loud enough or vociferous enough to outdo the continual promotions and propaganda of the development-minded institutions which include the private sector, government sector, and the ecclesiastical sector at times. Unfortunately, for the citizens of Central Florida the wisdom of proper land use will be nothing but wishful hindsight in a few short years for improper development will have already leached our area void of any original naturalness. My hopes, and there is hope, is that certain areas, especially the area known as the Econlockhatchee River Basin, can be vigilantly protected from houses, stores, golf courses, churches, or any possible 'V-p A glimmer remains. Seminole commissioners have agreed to a final hearing June 7, but the mood of the ruling majority is negative. Three of Seminole's five commissioners oppose the environmentally approved system of discharging treated waste water into the Little Econ River.

Their alternatives, however, are unacceptable to federal and state pollution engineers. Why Seminole commissioners continue to think in terms of county politics and narrowly defined boundaries and why Orlando Mayor Carl Langford and Public Works Director Paul Matthes were unaware of the brewing opposition may, at this point, be irrelevant. A DER spokesman believes Orlando has produced too little too late to qualify for the government's $37 million. Negotiations with communities eligible to subscribe to plant service hang fire and will until after July 30 when Orlando presumably will have its plans in order. PRESSURE is being put on the DER people from 'Florida cities next in line for federal money if Orlando drops the ball as they expect it to.

And DER must have every nickel allotted and accounted for in its Sept. 30 report to the government, or the money goes out of state where applicants await, plans in hand. The ripple effect of the looming loss poses a stunning blow to Central Florida economy. The inadequate Bennett Road plant will have to be expanded at a cost of hundreds of thousands of tax dollars until a regional plant is revived. Because of limited sewer service, municipal and county growth to the east will halt.

And the job impact of a $50 million construction project with a potential of $90 million will be lost at a time of urgent need. A REGIONAL advanced sewer treatment plant the City of Orlando proposes to build in Seminole County may have the distinction of becoming history's longest proposal. It began about seven years ago as an East Orange County replacement for the city's aging and overburdened Bennett Road plant. As population grew eastward and spread across county lines, as the environment came into public awareness and as regulations were imposed to preserve it, local, state and federal studies pushed the plant site north into Seminole County where, at present, it is still a proposal. Time, however, is rapidly running out on the offer of federal funds that make the new plant possible.

Because of conflicting requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Pollution Control Board, predecessor to the present Department of Environmental Regulation (DER), there is some rationale for early delays. But why construction isn't complete by now or, at the very least, well under way, reveals a shocking lapse in local government leadership. At a meeting called in Jacksonville almost two years ago the DER commission, which supervises state allotment of federal grants, reported funds available for municipal improvement and advised Orlando to select a site and proceed with plans for advanced sewage treatment. Last fall commission members gave Orlando a March 15 deadline to submit the plans, then pushed it back to June 15 when city officials requested more time. Orlando has since stretched the date to July 30, leaving only two months for the massive reports to be compiled and filed on the federal government's Sept.

30 deadline. MEANWHILE, unexpected opposition to the: plant's location has rumbled out of the Seminole County Commission. That body, acting parochially but within its rights, has all but sealed the tomb on the floundering civic hope of modern regional sewage treatment. Sk SS Idyllic scene at an underrated attraction Deceit set the stage THSUCHHilUAH1 Splitting difference is sensible Tallahassee, as the legislature faces a decision on the 1977-78 budget, the present 4 per cent sales tax won't do it, and one of 5 per cent would bring in millions more than we'd need. Responsible citizens don't want their government in a fiscal bind.

Neither do they want their officials subjected to the temptation of having too much money on hand. So why not make it 4' per cent? THE STATE of Washington has a general sales tax of 52 per cent. The rate was set by the lawmakers at Olympia because of a dilemma similar to the one Florida faces today: They found that 5 per cent wasn't enough to pay for state government and that 6 per cent was too much. They split the difference. Florida's problem, fortunately, centers on a lower percentage.

The way it is shaping up in It is more difficult, and calls for higher energies of soul, to live a martyr than to die one. HORACE MANN By CHARLES REESE What is going on today in Israel, which will inevitably affect all of us, is a result, as so many of today's problems are, of British chicanery. Prior to World War Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. In the course of fighting World War Britain promised Palestine to both the Jews and the Arabs in an effort to enlist their support against the Turks. Following the war, Palestine was made a British mandate.

Britain's primary interest in Palestine was because of its strategic position and the fact that the Mosul oil pipe lines terminate at Haifa. At the time, Middle Eastern oil was virtually a British monopoly. THE MANDATE pleased neither the Jews nor the Arabs naturally enough. At the time the population was predominantly Arab. Nor did they care a great deal for each other.

Israel is the end result of a movement called Zionism. Not all Jews are Zionists and in fact from its beginning, as an idea by a group of Russian Jews in Odessa in the 1880s, there has been some Jewish opposition to the idea as a whole and differences of opinion among Zionists themselves. Basically, the Zionist idea was to establish a Jewish national state in Palestine. An Austrian journalist is credited with being the father of modern, political Zionism. Early in this century, the movement, financed principally by the Rothschild family in France, Child porn: use existing laws Tune to hike the trash out of Senl'uwl Star Editor: I certainly agree with the lady who wrote to the editor opposing the trashy things that are printed in the Sentinel Star.

I don't have any young children to read it, but I would like to read more that's worth while, but it's scarce. Those horrible pictures, sometimes with bad words, are a disgrace in the Sentinel Star. I miss seeing the Country Parson, as I always looked forward to that. Isn't that more important than trashy stuff? Also, I see the patterns are out. Why not clean up the Sentinel Star so it would be fit to read? NAME WITHHELD, Center Hill.

PUBLICATION of child pornography, subject of a hearing before the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, is being defended by some on First Amendment grounds. That's not a valid position. First, let there be no question that the use of children for pornographic photography is deplorable. Publication of such pictures is sick. But there seem to be ample state and local statutes to nip this growing filth industry in the bud without even getting into a freedom of the press confrontation; Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is one charge that would apply in each case of children being pictured in sexual poses.

It could apply to the maker of the photographs and those who purvey them. The case of Larry Flynt and his publishing horror, Hustler magazine, is hardly analogous. In the Flynt case the photographs are of consenting adults and the key issue is obscenity unlike child porn, which is legally and morally a form of child abuse. THE HEARINGS are to consider whether federal laws are needed to address the sudden spurt in child porn photography. That may or may not be the case, but judgment must be reserved until the substance of the bill is drafted.

Meantime, state and local jurisdictions should crack down on everybody disseminating books, photos and films of sexual acts involving children. began to encourage Jewish emigration to Palestine. By 1914, there were 90,000 Jews in Palestine. On Nov. 2, 1917, the British foreign secretary, Arthur James Balfour, wrote a letter to Baron de Rothschild saying the British government viewed with favor establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and would use its best efforts to achieve it ACTUALLY, it was a weasel-worded document but it became known as the "Balfour Declaration" and the Zionists held the British to it for decades.

The influx of Jewish immigrants caused early clashes with the Palestinians. There was a big attack in 1929 by Arabs on Jewish settlements. An Inquiry Commission concluded that the pressure of Jewish immigrants and the fact that the better financed Jews were buyh ing up the arable land caused the conflict. Meanwhile, after World War the major Zionist organizations were concentrated in the U.S. In 1948 Britain bailed out and while the United Nations was debating a resolution to create a trusteeship, the Jews took matters into their own hands and by military force created a new nation.

The U.S. immediately recognized the new state of Israel and the die was cast. There is no question, from a historical viewpoint, that the modem Israelis are intruders on the modern Palestinians' land. The legitimacy of Israel is based either on the Balfour Declaration or on religious grounds. I won't argue the religious question, but obviously Britain had no moral right to give away Palestine which she had taken only by conquest and at that with considerable help from the Arabs.

LEGITIMACY is a difficult ques-tion, though, when it comes to nations. All land everywhere was taken by force from somebody many times over. The fact is there is a state of Israel and the Israelis are not about to give it up. The fact is the Palestinians have a perfect right to claim the land as theirs and many of them have no intention of giving up the fight. Fortunately for the Israelis, American foreign policy is often both hypocritical and illogical, for surely if the native populations of certain African nations have a "right" to kick out European settlers, then the Palestinians, who are natives of Palestine, have the same right to kick out the Israelis, the majority of whom are also European settlers.

The whole business in sticky. Britain, which is responsible for the mess because of chicaney and political cowardice, is now so weak it's useless to help one way or the other except to manipulate the American government, which it has a long and successful history of doing. I surely don't know the answer. I am sympathetic to both sides, which is no help to either. The best hope lies in a compromise, but compromises are difficult to build on such bloody ground.

TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE: And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do. Deuteronomy 1:14. The Rommie Loudd drug case: if lie did it, he has paid price By JIM SQUIRES Editor that long ago. And those who persist at the practice are quickly reminded of its unacceptability usually by newspapers. YET THE pressures to do so were many and intense.

At least one was compelling: Regardless of the newspaper's role, suggestions that the system of justice may have been corrupted in the Loudd case caught the attention of all who heard them. And no one who pretends to be a journalist can listen to the Rommie Loudd Of course, the inescapable conclusion is that if Rommie Loudd had not been vulnerable, such scrutiny would have yielded nothing. He would be free the same time it is also an inescapable conclusion that Rommie Loudd was not the big-time criminal the investigators and the resulting publicity made him out to be; that he was more likely a sometime drug user who did a favor for a friend who nagged him silly about it, and is now paying because the friend turned out to be a cop. PERHAPS the most important result of looking back at the Rommie Loudd case is the focus put on a most serious injustice the price Loudd had to pay. In retrospect it seems quite clear that had the general manager of Florida Blazers been a soft-spoken young white man, he could have bought and used four ounces of cocaine and no one would have cared.

But because Loudd was black, had a big mouth and made himself a ton of enemies he attracted the scrutiny others might have avoided. Under any circumstances, the sentence he is serving seems grossly out of proportion to the harm Rommie Loudd did society. And someone, either the judge who gave it to him or the governor, who has the power to commute it, ought to at least consider making some adjustment. good reporters from many out-of-town publications such as Newsweek magazine, the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times, usually enticed by Clark's telephone calls and letters, have spent hundreds of hours trying to substantiate those charges. So far they have been unable to do so.

Now, over the last three months, this newspaper has made a similar effort, including dozens of interviews and long hours of checking any lead provided by any source. LIKE THOSE who have gone before us, the Sentinel Star fell short of proving that Rommie Loudd was framed. And our best efforts show that the Sentinel Star is probably guilty of nothing more than shoot-from-the-hip journalism and a failure to demand proof and clarification of some rather outrageous statements by county investigators. While our investigation turned up nothing to suggest that Loudd is not guilty of arranging the four-ounce cocaine sale for which he was given 14 years in prison, it leaves no doubt that the drug investigators set out to get Rommie Loudd and got him. In fact, our reporting indicates that the probe of Loudd began simply because one investigator figured that a guy that young talking that much about huge sums of money had to be involved in something illegal.

story without being haunted by the smell of something rotten. Reconstructing what happened to Rommie Loudd, the details of which are published as the lead article in today's edition of Florida Magazine, has been a distasteful experience, mainly because navel gazing is an unpleasant and unrewarding exercise. It meant reporters interrogating their fellow reporters, and in some cases their own editors. And it meant wholesale second guessing of the policies and decisions of some news executives still with the newspaper and some who have departed. This could not be avoided because the heart of Clark's allegations and what made them seem so plausible to inquiring reporters was that the Sentinel Star, through its political clout and by its coverage of the Loudd case, systematically created a climate in which there was no way Rommie Loudd could get a fair shake from the law.

NOT ONLY do Clark and other Loudd supporters contend the Loudd arrest and conviction was a frame-up by the sheriffs department and the state attorney's office, they also suggest that the Sentinel Star was a willing participant or simply turned its head while it happened. Over the last 18 months many Due to circumstances beyond my control I now know more about a fellow named Rommie Loudd than I ever cared to know. It is not knowledge for which I thirsted. In fact, it was forced, ingestion, due mainly to the efforts of Bill Clark, a former Sentinel Star sportswriter, who seems to have dedicated all his waking hours to attacking this newspaper. His persistent allegations that the Sentinel Star was somehow involved in a raw deal given Loudd, the former general manager of the long gone Florida Blazers professional football team, left no alternative but to look into them.

It was like peering into the underground interworkings of a telephone company switching station. But at least phone cables connect. The threads of the Loudd case twist and intertwine through the power structure of this community, then drop off to dangle despairingly in the wind. At best the idea of a newspaper examining its own role in anything is a futile if not foolhardy one. An investigation of oneself automatically prejudices the credibility of the results.

Most lawyers and politicians learned wit Rommie Loudd.