The Daily Journal from Vineland, New Jersey • 10

ditori a OUR VIEW 1 0 Vineland Times Journal Probe spotlights VA troubles fohnirian was iust fv -uL. WASHINGTON The whistleblower who was fired after telling graphic tales of brutality at a Veterans Administration hospital won't get his job back. But a federal investigation into the case shows that there is plenty of room for reform in the VA. Among the revelations in the investigators' report is this story from an emergency room technician at the Cincinnati Veterans Hospital: The technician saw the hospital's police chief take a former patient into a guard office. The patient had been discharged, but returned to the hospital and refused to leave.

As the technician turned away, he heard "a loud crack" and looked back to see blood on the office door. Then he heard the former patient tell the chief, "Ow! You didn't have to bang my head against the door." MERRY-GO-ROUND Jack Anderson and Joseph Spear The police chief was Daniel Wilson, who was transferred to a VA hospital in Chicago last year as the investigation was winding down. The story 3553- 1 I kf lUr Li EC ii i 1 In the opinion of this newspaper Jersey economy is running well With the highest automobile insurance rates in the country, high property taxes and income and sales taxes, too, New Jersey is fortunate that its economy is perking right along. The latest news out of the U.S. Department of Labor is that New Jersey is one of the most prosperous states.

Its unemployment rate last month plunged to 3.5 percent, second only to Massachusetts with its defense industries and its 2.9 percent unemployment rate. Nationally, the rate is at 5.4 percent, a 14-year low. Economists are split as they usually are about whether the relative full employment will bring on inflation. "We have reached the zone of full employment when the jobless rate is so low that wage inflation starts accelerating," says Mien Sinai, chief eonomist for Boston Co. Economic Advisers in New York.

"There may be some slight upward pressure on inflation, but it is very slow and gradual," says Lawrence Chimer-ine, chairman of the WFFA Group, and economic consulting firm in Bala Cyn-wyd, Pa. "Manufacturing is strong, but other areas of the economy such as services, retailing and construction are showing some weakness." The Reagan administration, of course, hopes to keep the economy moving to keep Republican election prospects high this fall. The rosy new figures should reinforce some basic economic theories for Congress about minimum wages and free trade. The best way to keep people working is through a vigorous economy. The April figures show a marked increase in teen-age employment just the people who would be affected most by a minu-mum wage law.

If the value of their work couldn't equal the proposed higher minimum wage, they would be kicked into the unemployment line. The employment surge is due primarily to increased factory production. That's the result of a falling dollar which makes American goods cheaper overseas and foreign goods more expensive in the U.S. The protectionists in Congress would choke off that trade. Without making apologies for anyone, let it be noted that American dollars sent to Japan for televisions are relayed to the Middle East for oil and then back to the U.S.

again for computers and farm products. That's the way international trade is supposed to work with each country producing its specialties and everyone benefiting through lower prices. The American economy, when it's running on all cylinders, is the envy of the world. In fact, both Russia and China are now injecting old-fashioned American-style competition into their economies to rescue them from the smothering effects of decades of Compassion can be risky business one of many revealed in a federal investigation into allegation made by the whistleblower, John Berter. The probe began in 1986 when Berter, a VA security officer, and other VA security officers told the FBI stories of Wilson gouging a dis-; abled vet in the eyes over a parking violation, choking a patient who was in restraints, kicking a panhandler in the groin, according to the report and repeated testimony before Con- gress.

Berter was fired after blowing the whistle. He A appealed the dismissal to a federal personnel board, calling it retaliation for his candor. A scrappy group of whistleblower advocates known as the Government Accountability Pro- ject investigated and made Berter 's case ana-' tional issue. Details of the report and other problems with the VA security service will be re-' viewed May 19 at a hearing before the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Last year we reported on Berter's claims.

Now our associate Stewart Harris has obtained the re- port of the Office of Special Counsel's investigation of Berter's charges. The OSC has the job of investigating reprisals against government whistleblowers. The report zeroes in on discrep--' ancies in various accounts of alleged brutality. Even if the investigation had confirmed the alle-; gations, a legal analysis prepared by the OSC said the firing was still legitimate because Bert-' er had been AWOL from work. But the report also gives disturbing details about Wilson's background, including evidence that he had a history of making violent arrests and lied about his professional background.

Wilson quit the VA after his transfer to Chicago, In sworn testimony, Wilson said he had worked for two and a half years in the Chicago Police Department. Under questioning by OSC investiga- tors, Wilson admitted he never worked for-. Chicago P.D. A training officer at another police department the OSC that Wilson overreacted and was a hothead. The mayor of a town where Wilson worked said he could not make an arrest without aggravating someone and that Wilson blamed others for his troubles.

A police chief who once commanded Wilson said "Wilson's badge may have gone to his head." On the other hand, officials at the VA hospital 3 where Wilson worked before going to Cincinnati gave the OSC no complaints about his work. Wilson himself admitted to the OSC that he has ,1 been involved in bar fights. "I'm an Irishman. I get upset," he said. "I get vocal.

I get loud." Wilson denied the allegation of brutality when he talked to investigators, We could not reach A Wilson for comment on the report. In the past he has declined to talk about the specifics of his a case. Based on its investigation, the OSC also made recommendations on how the VA security serv- 1 ice could be improved. Among other things, the OSC suggested that 1 the members of the security service get better 1 training if the VA is going to continue using them 1 as a police force. Police also should not be used i to subdue patients, a job that rightfully belongs 4 to medical staff.

If VA police are used to quiet patients, the OSC recommended that a report 1 should be made of each incident. I PAYOFF The United States has been spending nearly $1 million a year for the past 30 years on premiums for life insurance that can never be collected. The government has a self-insurance plan for its workers when it comes to life insur-' ance. But the Federal Employees Life Insurance Act mandates that there be a backup policy from private insurance companies to cover the risk in case a national disaster prevents the government from making good on all the policies. Those "risk payments" to private insurance companies amount to $850,000 a year.

But the contracts, written back in 1954, incredibly do not require the companies to do anything in return for the premiums, not even to pay off policies. Rep. Tom Lantos, is looking into the problem. MINI-EDITORIAL One former governor of California dabbles in Zen Buddhism, is given the sobriquet of "Governor Moonbeam" and is re- garded as a continental flake. Another former governor of California can't remember when people put words in his mouth.

He signs treaties, give speeches and schedules news conferences to coincide with the fortuitous alignments of heav- enly bodies. He is president of the United States. 1 Go figure. ROYKO Mike Royko It's obvious that the Rev. Thomas Smith Jr.

is a compassionate person, a man who believes that nobody is all bad and that even the worst of us can be redeemed. So why would such a decent, compassionate clergyman fear that some of his angry neighbors might want to bump him it's unfortunate for the Rev. Smith, but some of his neighbors don't share his brand of compassion. The minister recently decided to provide a home for an ex-convict named Lawrence 60, isn't your ordinary, run-of-the-mill ex-con. He wasn't a stickup man, a burglar, a car thief or a swindler.

About 10 years ago, he kidnapped a young girl, raped her, then chopped off her arms with an ax and and dumped her in a gully assumed she would die, but miraculously she survived. Singleton was arrested, convicted and imprisoned. Because of California's dippy penal laws, he was paroled after less than eight years. That's four years for each lost arm, if you want to figure it that way, with the rape thrown in free.Not surprisingly, the parole created a public uproar. And it created problems for the parole authorities.

A parolee has to live somewhere. But every time the state tried to move Singleton into a community, the residents would raise hell about having a convicted arm-chopper in their midst.So the authorities kept moving him around, until finally they gave up and let him live in a trailer on the grounds of San Quentin prison. But now his parole is over and he becomes a free man. He can go anywhere he chooses. And that's where the Rev.

Smith comes in. He had heard about how one town after another rejected Singleton, and his preacher-heart was he offered Singleton a job and a home on the grounds of his church in rural Oregon. However, those who live near his church have less tender hearts. And, the preacher says, they have shown their displeasure. When the preacher and his wife go to the small local town, the natives sit in their pickup trucks and glare and scowl at them.

He sometimes hears guns being fired in the distance and suspects that this is an ominous message. I suppose it's just human nature, but most people feel less compassionate when they're told: "I'm taking in this ex-convict who raped a girl and chopped off her arms with an ax. But don't worry, he's mended his ways." And it's possible that Singleton has reformed and won't chop off any more arms. As one of his prison counselors said: "There are a lot of wonderful qualities about Larry Singleton." I don't doubt that. Even John Gacy, Chicago's most famous mass murderers, did other things besides kill 30-plus young gay men and bury them under his house.

He was also a hard-working political precinct captain, performed as a clown for children's shows, and had a modest talent for painting. But that's the way narrow-minded people are. Kill a few dozen young men, and who remembers your great clown act? And as Singleton's prison counselor also said: "The public has to look at the fact that we're sup- Eosed to be a country of laws. The man served is time. He's done all that's required through our legal system.

Give the man a fair chance." He's right. Singleton served the sentence the law demanded and he deserves a fair chance. Of course, if the law had required that he be dropped head-first off the roof of a tall building, that might have been a much fairer chance. I suspect that the Rev. Smith isn't in as much danger from his neighbors as he fears.

But if he's really concerned about his safety, he'd be wise not to give his handy-man Singleton any chores that involve using an ax. Bigotry surfaces again in Chicago CURRENT QUOTES By the Associated Press "Suddenly everything went flash. We were lucky to come out alive." Andreas Georgiou, a driving instructor who was driving 50 yards behind a car packed with explosives that blew up on a bridge in Nicosia, Cyprus. "We did itl And the thing that I am so proud about is that we did it the old-fashioned way we earned every single vote. Nebraska Sen.

David Karnes, on winning the GOP Senate primary. "If he 's 1 00, he 's probably sleeping. Roberta Kaufaman, as a group of people serenaded composer Irving Berlin's New York mansion to mark his 100th birthday. Berlin didn't show. AT LARGE DeWayne Wickham WASHINGTON There are times when an apology just isn't enough to right an ugly wrong.

Steve Cokely tried to quiet the many people he offended in Chicago recently by scribbling a few words of apology onto a piece of paper. But it was hardly enough to quell the protest or save his job as an aide to acting mayor Eugene Sawyer. Having publicly accused Jewish doctors of causing the AIDS epidemic by injecting the virus into blacks, Cokely was also heard to say that black children are made to attend school so that whites can profit from the inoculations they are required to have. Not done, he labeled Christopher Columbus a "Hispanic Jew" and blasted Jesse Jackson for having Jewish advisers. Then, when it appeared that public outrage over his remarks imperiled his $36,000 a year city job, Cokely began to moonwalk on his "convictions." Saying he "humbly apologizes," the black mayoral aide clung to his city paycheck while mayor Sawyer waffled in reaction to Sawyer's bigotry.

ne's got a wife and family; he needs the income," Sawyer lamely offered in defense of his initial reluctance to jettison Cokely from the municipal payroll. "What Steve Cokely does on his own time is his business," the mayor's press secretary said, while his boss was explaining that Cokely "indicated to me that he did not mean those things in his heart." In the end, Sawyer succumbed to public pressure, if not good sense, and fired his community liaison aide. the overwhelming support of black voters. Given the Democratic mayor's ruptured relations with blacks in New York, his critics had good reason to suggest that his attacks on Jackson were racially inspired. Ironically Koch is now making overtures to blacks, who along with Hispanics, hold the key to his 1989 re-election bid.

The two minorities are thought to comprise a majority of Democratic Party voters in New York a city that has been rife with racial incidents in recent years. Sensing the rage he engendered among blacks in his city, Koch too has shown a willingness to moonwalk on his convictions to save his job. "I'm sorry that I injured their feelings," Koch said of the black voters he must go before next year. "And I will try to redress that as best I can, not just with words, but with programs," the mayor told reporters. And what kind of programs will he be offering disillusioned blacks? Koch says he's talking about new city-funded housing and health programs in poor neighborhoods.

That sounds like the kind of domestic programs "hizzoner" once said Jackson would use to bankrupt America. "I regret any pain I may have caused the supporters of Jesse Koch offered after the New York primary. "It may be I didn't take into consideration sufficiently the impact of the criticism." Yeah. And it just may be that next year New York voters will teach Ed Koch the lesson that Steve Cokely had to learn the hard way: There are times when an apology just isn't enough to right an ugly wrong! The writer is a Gannett News Service columnist. But in next year's mayoral election Sawyer will no doubt be called upon to explain why he didn't rid his administration of Cokely with the dispatch that Mike Tyson floors his boxing opponents and rightfully so! Likewise, many voters in New York can be expected to remember the bigotry of Ed Koch when next they go to the polls to elect a mayor.

It was Koch who spewed his racist venom throughout the Big Apple during last month's presidential primary in the Empire State. Saying "Jews would be crazy" to vote for Jesse Jackson, Koch lashed out at the black presidential contender with the kind of rage that Eugene "Bull" Connors once vented upon defenseless civil rights protesters. Citing disputes over Jackson's 20-year-old claim that he was the last to speak to Martin Luther King Jr. in the moments after he was struck down by an assassin's bullet and the candidate's initial refusal to acknowledge his 1984 "Hymie-town" remark, Koch called the Baptist minister a liar. The feisty mayor also charged that, if elected, Jackson would bankrupt the nation with his domestic policy proposals tideas that have won Vineland Times Journal LOUIS BARSONY Publisher Richard Leonard Editor Marvin Smith Editorial Page Editor 691-5000 Evening Journal 1875 Evening Times 1925 Consolidated 1942 Published daily except Sundays at 891 E.

Oak Vineland Second Class Postage paid at Vineland. N.J. 083601 UPS 659 920 A Gannett Newspaper.