The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 7

PAGE 7A Montgomery, Alabama Tuesday, May 5, 1992 QTHER VIEWS Veteran Basher Reconsiders Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said before the acquittals of four white police officers in the King beating, Chief Gates made big promises about how well the department was prepared to respond to civil strife, only to have the police act slowly. "When the chips were down, the emperor had no clothes," said Mr. Yaroslavsky. "That to me is more troubling than anything else. I don't understand why two hours could go by while on citywide TV we're watching a guy getting beat up, many people getting beat, and seeing no police in the area." Chief Gates didn't return a phone call Monday, but on Sunday he said he regretted attending the fund-raiser.

"There's no question about it," Chief Gates said. "On reflection, I wish I hadn't because of the criticism that comes from it. But I was very close to the location at the time that the incident broke out. I simply went over, excused myself, and left. I was there only I five minutes or so." During the early violence, Mayor Bradley was attending a rally at First AME Church in South Central Los Angeles, urging people to channel their anger from the acquittals in posi- tive directions.

Television news used split screens to show scenes of the rioting against Mayor Bradley's appeal for reason. to-face conversation came at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday in the emergency operations center downtown. By then, buildings were ablaze, looters were running wild and people were getting killed. As the unrest intensified, Chief Gates and Mayor Bradley were in different parts of the city at events that were philosophically miles apart.

Chief Gates was speaking at a Brentwood fund-raiser for a group opposing a ballot initiative to overhaul the Police Department. Mayor Bradley backs the measure, which would limit the tenure of the chief. The chiefs attendance at the event sparked controversy. He told CBS-TVs "Face the Nation" he was at the event for "five minutes or so." In fact, a video of the fund-raiser showed he was there for about 90 minutes, the Los Angeles Times reported. 'Counting travel time from downtown, 15 miles away, Chief Gates was away from his command post for up to two hours, from about 6:30 p.m.

to about 8:30 p.m. During that time, the streets grew increasingly violent. A mob at an intersection in South Central Los Angeles was beating motorists and setting fires. No officers responded and the rioting spread. Feud Continued from 1A over Chief Daryl Gates' actions would have been minimal at best," said Ralph Sutton, spokesman for the Brotherhood Crusade, a South Central Los Angeles community group.

The Police Commission, a civilian oversight panel, plans to explore the issue in its review of the city's response to the riots, said commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum. The bad blood between Republican Chief Gates and Democrat Mayor Bradley goes back years. It reached a peak last year when Mayor Bradley called on Chief Gates to resign after the Christopher Commission issued a report critical of the Police Department following the Rodney King beating. That report and pressure from many lawmakers, including Mr.

Wachs, led the chief to announce his retirement. He's set to step down next month, to be replaced by Willie Williams, Philadelphia's police commissioner. Mayor Bradley said he and Chief Gates hadn't spoken to each other for a year and a month, right up to the night the rioting started. Although accounts vary somewhat, it appears their first face- By TOM KENWORTHY I've bashed Congress with the best of them. I yelped along with the rest of the press pack as it nipped at the heels of Speaker Jim Wright and helped drive him from office.

I worked overtime to whip the public into a frenzy over the 51 percent pay raise a few years back. I've blistered them for abusing the mailing frank. I think that just about the most fun a person can have sitting down is to write a story about congressional pork. And it might be healthy if some of the House's check-kiters get the bum's rush at the polls in November. But amid all the frenzy over the House bank scandal and congressional perks some of it justified, much of it not perhaps a little Congress-defending is in order.

Not much, mind you, but if Jeffrey Dahmer deserves a defense, then Congress does too. Sure, Congress as an institution seems hopelessly paralyzed, unable to do anything meaningful about health care, the economy or anything else. Sure, Congress is so hog-tied by the campaign-finance system and so terrified of 30-second commercials that many lawmakers are incapable of casting a tough vote. Congress Gutless About Blocs Sure, lots of members of Congress spend so much time with guys wearing $1,200 suits that they start thinking like them. Sure, Congress is so gutless about the elderly and other powerful voting blocs that they've spent the country into what seems like permanent bankruptcy.

But all of that has very little, if anything, to do with parking spaces or the House gym or free allergy medication at the office of the attending physician. Or kiting checks, which serves as a dandy symbol for people who think that Congress is imperial and out of touch with the kinds of problems real people face. Don't misunderstand. I'm all for members of Congress losing elections. I spent the last two election nights scanning the results for an upset, any upset, that would get my story on the front page.

In 1990, Rep. Newt Gingrich, broke my heart. The second-ranking GOP leader in the House, Newt toyed with me for three editions before eking out a narrow victory. But voters ought to be a little CONGRESSIONAL CHECKBOOKS and their competing philosophies with distinction for many years. Or go to Energy and Commerce and watch its chairman, Rep.

John Dingell, skewer a bureaucrat or corporate titan. Dingell may overstep at times, but it's a good bet that the mere thought of being pursued by his panel's oversight and investigations subcommittee has kept a lot of people in the executive branch on the straight and narrow. Or go home to Kokomo, with Rep. Jim Jontz, and watch him enjoy his four-day "weekend." I did that once and never again. We started at 6:15 a.m., and at 10 that night Jontz was still racing across his rural district in a ratty old Chev-ette so he wouldn't miss a meeting with eight members of a Junior Chamber of Commerce to brief them on a road-construction project.

That's his idea of fun. Spend Time With Michel Or spend some time with House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel, R-Ill. He's been beating his head against the brick wall of a Democratic majority for all of his 35 years in the House and is still cheerfully coming back for more, convinced that people of goodwill from both parties can still work together and get something accomplished. And then go down to the House restaurant and eat a subsidized meal.

If afterwards you can honestly say that such swill is a perk, then go home and vote against your congressman. Tom Kenworthy, national environmental reporter for The Washington Post, covered Congress for five years for the Post. Once More C.W. Nimitz came aboard 0843, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur came aboard 0856, Japanese representatives came aboard. At 0902, the ceremonies commenced and the Instrument of Surrender was presented to all parties.

Thus ended World War II in Tokyo Bay. The Missouri was towed from Long Beach to Bremerton, where it will join the Inactive Fleet. The ship was mothballed once before, from 1955 to 1984. During that period it could be visited by the curious and the nostalgic. Any battleship of the Missouri's generation is a treat to explore.

A plaque on "the surrender deck" makes a visit to this ship doubly inspiring. But don't buy a ticket to Bremerton. This tour through the mothballed ship will not be open to the public. The same defense cutbacks that caused the Navy to decommission its last battleship prevent it from maintaining it as an historic site. Lippman writes a column for The Baltimore Sun.

just now, and all the food in the refrigerator spoiled." Larry Jackson and his 2-year-old daughter were the first through the line. "We've got to get something for the babies to eat," Mr. Jackson said. "We've been living on sandwiches." The Red Cross said more than 180 people left homeless by the rioting were in shelters, and numbers could grow as volunteers begin door-to-door assistance. Hospital officials said Reginald Denny, a white truck driver who became a symbol of lawless rage after his near-fatal beating by black youths was televised, learned about the riot for the first time Monday.

"He was shocked when I told him what happened to him," said Cicily Kahn, a social worker at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood. "He didn't know there was a war on the streets and he just happened to be one of the first victims." Ms. Kahn said Mr. Denny, 36, who still can't speak because of massive facial injuries, replied in a note that he didn't want the responsibility of representing the worst beating in three days of violence last week. "I'm just a regular guy," he wrote.

"I work. I go home. I never wanted to be famous." Police Sgt. Ronnie Fudge also said about 25 black youths ran through a mall Friday night overturning trash cans. Car windows were smashed in the parking lot.

Sgt. Fudge said two of those attacked in vehicles were black, the others white, and it was difficult to tell if all the violence was an offshoot of the King reaction or just typical weekend crime. He said the incident at the mall was unusual. Sunday night was described as quiet in Huntsville. bill was amended in the Senate to place the panel under the direction of the state Revenue Department and thus under indirect control of the governor's office.

Rep. Harper said those oversight provisions were not acceptable and committee members agreed to revert to the House version and to extend the panel's expiration from September 1983 to September 1984. The committee also agreed to a compromise for a new personnel control committee that Mayor Bradley renewed his criticism of the acquittals Monday, saying, "I don't know how and why any jury can justify that verdict." The mayor, who hadn't spoken to embattled police Chief Daryl Gates in the 13 months before the riots, also called for an explanation from the police department of its initial slow response to the rioting, and Chief Gates's handling of the situation. Chief Gates attended a fundraiser Wednesday night for a group opposing a ballot initiative to overhaul the police department. "The chief of police has his legal duties to perform," Mayor Bradley told reporters.

"Whether he and I ever talk would not deter him from carrying out those duties." Mayor Bradley himself has been criticized for an angry speech broadcast the night rioting began. At his news conference, the mayor defended his actions. "I said people are angry, as I am angry," Mayor Bradley said. It was "a clear message, a consistent message, throughout this incident." In Washington, the White House said the Small Business Administration would make $300 million in loans available and the Federal Emergency Management Agency would provide $300 million in cash grants to help repair damage. In Gadsden, Mayor Steve Means was punched in the mouth when he went to the scene of a firebombing and tried to calm down a young man who was running around shouting "Rodney King, Rodney King" as a crowd of about 50 gathered.

"I don't think he knew 1 was mayor," Mayor Means said. "If he had, he might have hit me twice." Mayor Means told police not to arrest the assailant. "Things were strained enough as it was," the mayor said. would limit the growth in state departments by holding hiring for departments to a level no higher than the payroll average for the immediately prior two years. The committee will meet at 9 this morning and will review several scenarios for agreeing on a method for phasing out the state's sales tax on food.

It also will consider major differences in bills dealing with tax abatements as a means of luring new business into localities, and with government and education accountability. LA. Continued from 1A Los Angeles International Airport was mostly back to normal, but nighttime arrivals will continue approaching from over the ocean rather than land to avoid the risk of gunfire, said Fred O'Donnell, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Despite the return of routine for millions, Los Angeles remained far from normal as more than 7,100 heavily armed National Guardsmen, Marines, police and federal agents maintained order. The cities of Long Beach and adjacent Signal Hill kept their curfews in effect until Tuesday morning.

At hospitals, more than 200 of the 2,300 injured needed intensive care. Residents of riot-ravaged neighborhoods lined up at bus stops and at food distribution points where bags of donated groceries were handed out. "I've been living on peanut butter and crackers," said Mack Coats, a blind man who lives near a looted and burned Food 4 Less store in the ravaged area of south-central Los Angeles. "I was living without power until Arrington Continued from 1A two cases in which motorists were shot one was listed as serious, the second minor and two others in which people were pulled from vehicles and attacked. No arrests were made in those instances, but three people were arrested for disorderly conduct as store windows were smashed and property stolen early Sunday.

Reform Continued from 1A four new dollars generated. The conferees Monday moved back to the House version of a proposed new panel that would study ways to make government operate more efficiently. The House version calls for an Alabama Management Improvement panel to be appointed by Speaker Clark, Lt. Gov. Jim Fol-som Jr.

and Gov. Guy Hunt. The 3GReat souRces OF RUBB6R selective about voting against the incumbents and oughtn't to pull the challenger's lever automatically in a reflexive stab at the House bank "scandal." If you're going to vote to throw out your congressman, do it for the right reasons. Do it because Congress can't pass legislation providing unpaid family and medical leave, not because your congressman gets a free parking space at National Airport. Do it because you disagree with his vote cutting funds for the B-2, not because he saves a few bucks by getting a haircut at the House barbershop.

Do it because Congress hasn't enacted campaign-finance reform, not because his office gets free plants from the Botanical Garden. If familiarity really does breed contempt, after five years of covering the House I ought to be pretty contemptuous of what is, after all, a pretty easy target. There's no shortage of buffoons, charlatans, blowhards and intellectually dishonest people on Capitol Hill. The same could be said of The Washington Post, or the neighborhood convenience store. That's part of the beauty of the House: It really is representative.

But for every wacko you see ranting and raving on C-SPAN, there are dozens of bright, hardworking, serious-minded members who go to work every day and try to serve their own particular version of the public interest. Go to the House Judiciary Committee, for example, and watch Reps. Henry J. Hyde, and Don Edwards, at work. They may not agree on much, certainly not abortion, but they each have a ton of integrity and have served their districts barrassed Navy to drag it out of the mud.

Then it took a couple of months to conduct a very public inquiry into what happened. The Baltimore Sun ran more stories about the grounding and its aftermath than it ran about everything else the Missouri was involved in before and since. Of course, its 1944-45 whereabouts and activities in the Pacific during World War II were strictly censored. A slip of the lip could sink a ship. In Korea in 1950-51 and again on a second combat tour in 1952-53 there was some reporting of its activities, but it was limited.

In the Persian Gulf war, the Navy gave reporters a lot more material to file, about what the ship's cruise missiles and 16-inch gun rounds were doing to Iraqi targets. Some of this material was even true. The Missouri made a lot of history in three wars at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Inchon and Wonsan, and in the Persian Gulf. Yet it is best known for a peaceful event described as follows in its deck log: "Sunday 2 September 1945 08-12 Anchored as before. 0805, Fleet Admiral of twin week-old not have SO YOU 1 WONT BE TAKING NMES7 From 100 years was presence When wrote "A on Her social one.

50 years Pickwick Weil, Robert Lila Mae escorts; Marguarite black 25 years brood cow and beef tions Mrs. E.J. now keeping pranced Hereford USS Missouri Retires By TIIEO LIPPMAN I read in the newspapers that they decommissioned the USS Missouri in Long Beach, the other day. Marcel Damiens, one of hundreds at the ceremonies who had served on the battleship in World War II, the Korea War or in last year's Persian Gulf war, was quoted as saying, "If it was between my wife and the Missouri, it would be hard which to choose for decommissioning I Called my old shipmate in New Orleans. "Can you really do that jn New Orleans?" I asked.

He; said, "No and I'm now sleeping in the garage." Damiens served on the Missouri in Korea. It was the only battleship in the fleet in the summer of 1950, when that war broke out. By September it was bombarding North Korea forces and installations. In a way, the war was a fortunate occurrence for the Missouri. It had been getting a lot of the wrong kind of publicity.

In January, it had run aground in the mouth of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. It took two weeks for an em- SUCCESSFUL UAPtR HAVE 10 KNOW WHICH BUTTS TO KICK, HOW HARP, ANP IN WHAT DIRECTION? OKAY, CAMPERS, has just CAUEP BACK ANP we're now onour, BEST I 0 jS0 I 1 I LETS NOT! PiOnB A vontmwposi- SIR, LETS HONS! THEfUJANT talk po-W action! theyiwit 1 SOMEONE WHO CAN, Spi PARPON Ml FRENCH, I KICK BUTT! Advertiser Files ago (1892) Montgomery Society ornamented last week by the of Miss Ethel Hodgson of Mobile. quite a small child, Miss Hodgson Modern Ivanhoe," a clear travesty Sir Walter Scott's famous work. charm is as great as her literary ago (1942) Lunching at the this Wednesday were Adolph Lucien Loeb and an out-of-towner, Shann, with two gentlemen guests; Jones with two handsome Minnie Lee Hobbie, Tip and Minnie Richardson, having a family party; and Hickey wearing a huge off-the-face American Beauty hat and a smart satin-bound tailleur. ago (1967) Twins born to a are uncommon and many dairy producers have raised genera None of the individual or corporate sources of potential new investment in the station is from Montgomery, Mr.

Sanders said. Currently, Frey Communications South, as general partner, controls about 60 percent, while the group of individual limited partners holds the other 40 percent of the station's equity. In some Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganizations, a few large creditors end up receiving equity in the debtor company in lieu of cash. Mr. Sanders said he had spoken Monday morning with ABC Television managers and found them "very supportive." "They've had other affiliates go this route," he said.

"They're going to stay with us through thick and thin." Mr. Sanders, who came to Montgomery as station manager in September, said no layoffs would be required at WHOA-TV, which jmploys 32 people. lie said he has made several personnel changes at the station since his arrival. Employees "took it well" when they were told of the bankruptcy filing, said Mr. Sanders, adding: "They understand that we're not going to go dark or something that we're going to keep on working to improve the station." Part of that effort, he said, will be a return soon to a 30-minute, locally produced news broadcast.

In an interview Monday, Mr. Sanders said the bankruptcy will "allow us to look forward and to concentrate on improving the station." "It's breathing room," he said. "In one sense, this is very positive for us because it is going to give us the chance to get our financial house in order and concentrate on the future." The station continues to operate at a profit, he said. According to the company's brief statement released on Monday, "business is the best it has been in two years." WHOA-TV's largest creditor by far is Concord Commercial a Connecticut lender that the station owes about $6.5 million. Mr.

Sanders said officers of Concord have expressed a willingness "to work with us" on restructuring the obligations. Most of the money owed is for programming debts, he said. The station's viewing area includes all of the greater Montgomery area and Andalusia, Lu-verne, Troy, Tuskegee, Clanton, Camden and Evergreen, among other south Alabama towns. According to Mr. Sanders, the station has "identified $2.5 million in anticipated new equity and is confident about the future." An injection of new money could alter the company's equity, or ownership, interests significantly.

I WHOA-TV Continued from 1A Sanders, said viewers would "see no change at all. Operationally, it will be business as usual." Mr. Sanders is an officer in the company that holds a controlling interest in the television station. WHOA-TV's debt totals about $9 million, with about $1 million of that unsecured. The station is owned by Montgomery Alabama Channel 32 Operating Limited Partnership, which consists of both individual and corporate interests.

The general, or controlling, partner is Frey Communications South of Orlando, Fla Mr. Sanders' employer. Because the station is not run by a public company, financial details were unavailable Monday, but Mr. Sanders said "debts inherited from the previous owner and the cumulative impact of the recession have made it necessary" to file for bankruptcy. WHOA-TV was acquired in 1985 by a group of investors whose general partner was Terrapin Communications of Connecticut.

Frey Communications South acquired controlling interest in the limited partnership in September 1988, and Terrapin sold out. without ever seeing such a pair. But Rogers of Route 1, Hope Hull, is watching eye on her third set Ii 11 -I' calves born on her farm. The two calves, one male and one female, around and posed with their mother. Sadly, twin calves do much promise of reproducing.

Baldwin S. Smith compiles this column. (May 5, 1992) 1.