Argus-Leader from Sioux Falls, South Dakota • Page 13

5B VOICES Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, South D.ikota, Friday. Dec. 2A. 2l Protecting faith saves money Government should respect religion i StHyr. 1 homeland.

In research on the role of the ethnic church in the social adjustment of Vietnamese adolescents, regular religious attendance was found to increase the likelihood that youths would attend after-school classes, as well as the likelihood they would retain their ethnic cohesion. This helped these immigrants get better grades, avoid substance abuse and focus on going to college. Regular religious observance significantly reduces self-destructive behavior. As an example, black youths living in impoverished urban neighborhoods who attended religious services at least weekly were half as likely to use illicit drugs as those who never attended, a study found. Perhaps best of all, studies indicate that religion is especially helpful to the poor, compensating in a way that policy never has for their socioeconomic disadvantages.

All in all, religion is simply one of the most valuable resources this country has. As with other resources, government policy should be directed to cultivating the environment in which individuals as well as society as a whole can freely benefit from religious practice, avoiding heavy-handed regulations that would wither the fruits of the spirit and curb the good works that are so beneficial to society. Neither man nor government can coerce faith. But government can and must protect the practice of religion, public and private. Government must protect and uphold freedom of worship, then stand aside and let religion do what it does best help and comfort the needy.

Pat Fagan la a naaarch tallow In family and cultural laauoa at Via Horltaga Foundation. Roadara may wrtta to tha author In can ofTha Harttaga Foundation, 214 Maaaachuaatt Annua ME. Washington, D.C 20002. The walls of Lyle Telkamp's workshop are covered with antique Sculptor: Hobby on 4 1 NOTOM KAMOf AROUS IHK wife died been told. Now, he said, "I just kind of live for my animals." His dog.

Snoopy, tears around the yard, chasing the birds and bothering the donkey. The horses stare disinterestedly at the whole pastoral scene. Trophies from the South Dakota Quarterhorse Association line the walls of his bedroom. The room was the Telkamps' living room before Gloria got sick and couldn't make it up and down the stairs anymore. When she was gone, Telkamp decided the room would remain the bedroom.

Telkamp said that since Gloria died, "I just haven't been motivated. But I've got some ideas." Roach Nestor Ramos at 331-2328. PAT FAOAN Th Kfflg Foutxutton Each year, government spends billions of dollars trying to address a host of social problems. Crime is but one example of the high costs of social breakdown. The Department of Justice estimates that federal, state and local governments spent $167 billion on police protection, judicial, legal and correctional activities in one year alone.

Victims' medical expenses, lost earnings and assistance programs cost an estimated 105 billion more. Congress and state legislatures spend countless hours investigating social problems and debating possible solutions. Political "solutions almost always boil down to the redistribution of money to COMMENTARY target whatever the social ailment. This approach has met with limited success at best. Meanwhile, a powerful resource is quietly and far more effectively contributing to the common good in myriad ways: religious practice.

Research shows that regular attendance at religious services across all denominations is linked to healthy, stable family life, strong marriages and well-behaved children. Regular religious worship also is tied to reduced incidence of domestic abuse, crime, substance abuse, addiction and various other diseases. Religious practice benefits not only individuals but also communities. Religiously active men and women are often more sensitive to others, more likely to be productive members of their communities, more likely to serve and far more likely to give to those in need. A strong religious background also helps immigrants assimilate to their new mom f- 4 over.

For years, he collected wTenches, lining the walls of his shop with them. One day, he decided to build something out of them, and what came out was this: There's a man under a coconut palm. He's made out of wrenches. There's a dog on a leash. That's made out of wrenches.

And there's a cat, rubbing on his leg. And that's made out of wrenches." Farther west of his house are more elaborate creations. Bonnie and Clyde are out there, being chased by the law. There's a soldier in a tank, too. This is a good part of the country to live in.

There hasn't sur-" prised me," he said. Someone stole the soldier's helmet an were getting the real deal, that he was the same in person as he was on TV and they were right." Lund served the business well and earned his place in South Dakota television history. Judging the facts When Ron Volesky seeks appointment to a 2nd Circuit Court judgeship from Gov. Mike Rounds, that position is a newly created one. Holy consolidation! Garrison Keillor was writing recently about reforming the United States map, reducing 50 states to 40.

So how did South Dakota rate in the new look? "We reduce to 40 by joining Rhode Island and New Hampshire, and making Idaho part of Montana and combining North and South Dakota into one state called (ready for this?) Minnesota. "It's called consolidation, folks," Keillor says. David Kram'a column appaara Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Call him at 331-2302 or write to him at the Argua Leader, Box 5034, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5034. Start the new year in an energy efficient home of your own! i I 1 i if tools and wrenches.

hold since expensive antique he bought to replace a salad bowl from Wal-Mart that had been doing the job so he went out to the shed and got the salad bowl back. And someone ran off with a little dog addressing a fire hydrant, so he built another one and bolted it down. For years, he's been welding and hammering and cutting out in the shop. But Telkamp hasn't been out to the shop to work since his wife, Gloria, died this summer. According to a 6-year-old magazine profile of Telkamp, the first thing he made out there was for her a chicken, then a rooster and some chicks.

But he didn't say too much about that, explaining that that story already has A Continued from IB "I never had time for my hobbies," Telkamp said. "Then I had time to go out in the shop and play around a little bit." There's an understatement Telkamp's sculptures range from tiny to giant a silhouetted cowboy in a small barbed wire frame; a Volkswagen perched on spindly legs like a spider. He remembers taking one of his first sculptures, a nearly life-size girl riding a horse, to the State Fair in 1994, where it won a people's choice award. "It stuck way up out of the pickup. People would gaze at it," Telkamp said.

"She got TT earrings and the whole works." His ideas come from all Kranz Continued from IB "I've probably done something on every collection in town," he says of his reporting on people's interests. It was always clear that Lund's success was based on the obvious. He liked people and knew how to get the most from them in his interviews. Of all of his interviews in those three decades, he says he most enjoyed the one with comedian Bob Hope. As he looks back on his work, his colleagues and their influence, Lund says it was Hemmingsen he learned the most from.

Hemmingsen says Lund had a rare ability to make interesting what some might find uneventful. "Doug's knack was making that largely unreported side of life as important as the calamities, like the calm eye of the storm. He loves it when people compare him to Charles Kuralt," Hemmingsen said. "People sensed that with Doug, you II Wm mm S3 jmpm mm, ss IS m.1 fiti will tir.f I III 1 I I.