The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 11

LETTERS POLICY Write The Jackson Sun at P.O. Box 1059, Jackson, Tenn. 38302. Call 425-9604 to fax. Letters must include the writer's name, address and a daytime telephone number.

Shorter letters are preferred. All letters are subject to editing. OPINION "I disapprove of what you -say, but I will defend to the; death your right to say it." Voltaire If you have any comments or questions, please call Alan Bauer, editorial page Wednesday, Nov. 10, 1993 11A editor, at 425-9686. Free-trade treaty will be Clinton's Watergate Jj ls3 Charley REESE OUR COMMENT Skip lobbying, only lawsuits sway state pols See a fire? Call a firefighter.

Leaky faucet? Call a plumber. Need something fixed in state government? Better contact an attorney. Time and again from prisons to education to minority representation in government lawmakers have ignored what's right in favor of maintaining the status quo. They're spurred into action only when a judge is breathing down their necks. You know NAFTA the misnamed North American Free Trade Agreement is bad for the American people when President Clinton says let's stop talking about its economics and talk instead about American leadership in foreign affairs.

That's the old blue sky routine, necessary because the specific facts about NAFTA would cause any reasonable American to oppose it. If it passes, it will do for Clinton what the Watergate burglary did for Richard Nixon. Clinton is either dumber than I thought or else the multinational money boys have such a tight grip on him that if they tell him to walk the plank, he goes splash. This word document, which libertarian Murray Rothbard calls international socialism mislabeled as free trade, is going to cause so much harm and misery to the American people that Clinton will be lucky if they even give him a pension after we the American people want are built into the price of manufactured products. Those products cannot compete against products made where those social costs are negligible, as they are in Mexico.

That's why the jobs will flow south. Only idiots or liars will tell you that opening up our gigantic market in exchange for access to a market only 4 percent the size of ours is going to result in a net crease of jobs in our economy. NAFTA will create jobs in Mexico not good-paying jobs, but jobs. In the United States, it will add to unemployment, which, in many of our major cities, is the core infection that creates crime and tensions ever ready to explode into rioting. Clinton lies We need jobs, and when Clinton says NAFTA will create jobs, he's telling a lie, lawyer-style.

(That's a technically true statement with a lot of relevant facts omitted.) NAFTA will create jobs all right in Mexico and a few on Wall, Street. But in the American heartland it will create human misery. But what this does, however, is transfer the costs of the multina-' tionals' production from themselves to the American people in1 the form of unemployment and the taxes necessary to provide welfare and to build more prisons. Clinton is apparently the puppet of the multinationals, who are-willing to sacrifice his political fu-' ture along with American jobs as long as they get NAFTA. Make a list of those who back NAFTA and those who oppose it.

That way you'll know who deserves your' rage if you lose your job or who deserves your applause if you prosper under NAFTA Charley Reese is a columnist for King Features Syndicate 235 E. 45th New York, N.Y. 10017. they boot him out in 1996. Don't let Mexico's $30 million worth of lobbyists and such great populists as David Rockefeller and his crowd of paid courtiers fool you.

NAFTA will cost Americans many jobs. It will impose higher taxes on Americans (one estimate is that it will cost $40 billion to implement). It will attack and weaken American sovereignty. It will drag down our wages, our environmental standards and our health and safety standards. It's simple logic.

All the environmental protection, worker protection and social amenities that AT ISSUE State lawmakers keep the status quo. YOUR MOVE The latest example came just last week when a panel of three federal judges ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by the Rural West Tennessee African-American Affairs Council. The court said Senate voting Go straight to courts for action. ''irJ Clyde jg3 tilley Can prison thinking help ZS3 Tfgpqai disaster i districts in the area violated the rights of minorities. Already the House districts are back on the drawing board after courts found population discrepancies.

Did lawmakers know that blacks were not fairly represented and deserved not only another Senate seat, but also additional House seats? Sure they did. Just like they knew school funding plans discriminated against rural school districts and that the prisons needed an overhaul. Just like they know the state's tax system is unfair to poor people and that Tennessee is getting murdered by legalized gambling in surrounding states. It boggles the mind how grown men and women can stare at pressing issues for years and refuse to even try to address them. Last week's court ruling may or may not result in a majority-black voting district for rural West Tennessee since lawmakers might be able to comply with the court order by adding one to Shelby County.

But it is a step in the right direction to ensure minorities have a stronger and rightful voice in state government. And it's another reminder that if residents want anything accomplished at the state level, they shouldn't waste their time with lawmakers, but go straight to court. Health-care battle one worth fighting Good for first lady Hillary Clinton. On Monday she said if those who oppose health-care reform want a battle, they'll get it. The battle to bring universal and affordable health-care coverage to America is one worth fighting.

It's refreshing to see Mrs. Clinton finally take the gloves off and fight for a worthy plan. For LETTERS AT ISSUE Mrs. Clinton fights back. OUR VIEW months now, Clinton bashers have had a field day, while all the time ignoring the positive aspects of the plan and the administration's expressed willingness to compromise and listen to other ideas.

Clearly, stop crime? I probably never would have thought of it myself. The idea came from a recent letter to me from a Madison County Jail inmate. His suggestion was that consultations on crime should have a place for the criminal. "I truly believe," he wrote, "that to fight crime we must consult with those who commit the crimes. In my opinion, the only way to make a dent is by every en1 tity (law enforcement, citizens, press, civic leaders, educators and the criminals) coming together to make a sincere effort toward progress." These words echoed when columnist Larry Daughtrey's article "Should state spend money on children or inmates?" appeared in The Sun Oct.

31. He bemoaned that $19,000 yearly is spent on each convict and barely $4,000 on each school child. In his view, "many lawmakers are convinced that their brand new prisons are playgrounds. Not so many are worried about what's happening on the playgrounds that will end up filling those prisons." Of course, not every criminal would be a constructive contributor to these consultations. Nor would every citizen for that matter.

But there are earlier felons who now are going straight and there are current inmates who are trying to use their incarceration time constructively in efforts to help both themselves and society. Thus the suggestion that there are people who may have insights on what about their earlier conditions prompted them to go wrong and what changes would have given them a better chance in life: An example A good example of what I am talking about is a paper, edited and published by inmates within a Tennessee prison, called "Equal Times." This paper is designed to improve both the prison situation and society at large. A recent article enumerates 19 things that happen every day in our country. A random sampling: 2,795 teens get pregnant, 27 children die from poverty, 437 children are arrested for drinking or DUI, 1,512 teens drop out of school, 1,829 children are abused or neglected, 3,288 children run away from home, 1,629 children are in adult jails. The article ends: "And no one understands why the prison populations continue to spiral." That is a sample of prison thinking.

It also agrees with some of the wisest people in our society. Is there an empty chair at the table? It may be worth a try. Clyde Tilley is a professor of religion and philosophy at Lane College and resident of Jackson. Write to him in care of The Jackson Sun, Editorial Department, P.O. Box 1059, Jackson, Tenn.

38302. Health-care reform won't be stopped. article written by Bob Parkins refers to The Sun's release of this information as "political garbage." He criticizes citizens who oppose the administration's lack of good stewardship with two years of out-of-balance budgets and failure to take low bids or any bids on construction, sidewalk improvements and purchases. If Mr. Parkins and the people he refers to as "our city leaders" had released the information in a timely tnanner rather than setting themselves up as a self-appointed censor board, this could have been avoided.

Mr. Parkins or any other citizen has no right to censor information vital to the health and welfare of Milan's citizens. After interviewing former ITT executives, I determined that it is no longer safe to drink Milan water until we have a full report. Harold Manner JACKSON Criminal, not his tools, are cause of crime The Jackson Sun's Oct. 17 editorial on guns is just another attempt to try to make people believe "guns are the cause of crime." It is part of The Sun's continued efforts to disarm America.

If guns cause crime, matches cause arson and automobiles cause drunken drivers! This is an old liberal trick to focus attention on the tool a criminal uses rather than the criminal. Why is there little or no punishment for criminals? Why won't our government convert abandoned military bases to prisons? Based on Department of Justice surveys, why are 75 to 80 percent of U.S. violent crimes committed by career criminals, many on some form of conditional or early release? According to a Heritage Foundation report, nearly 1,800 times a day 645,000 times a year private citizens use handguns to prevent crimes. The Sun's editors say, "People who trumpet their constitutional right to bear arms keep forgetting that guns alone won't protect them or reduce crime." Now who would you believe the Department of Justice, the Heritage Foundation or The Sun? William "Jake" Kelly GREENFIELD Sending money to Russia is 'criminal' During the final two days of September, 321 U.S. House members, 88 senators and President Clinton approved sending an additional $14.6 billion in foreign aid.

Yet all of these leaders will say they're doing their best to fight deficits. As former Congressman Ed Jones knew during his long tenure in office, there is no constitutional authorization for foreign aid. The measure calls for $13 billion in new appropriations and $1.6 billion to be drawn from unused defense budgets. Some $2.6 billion will go to Boris Yeltsin's government in Russia. If the American people didn't have to pay horrific yearly bills for interest on the national debt, now $300 billion $2,400 per taxpayer per year they could and would be creating jobs with their money.

Instead their money goes to governments here and abroad. Giving away money is crazy and unconstitutional. Borrowing it to give it away is even crazier. Giving foreign aid to our enemies is worse than crazy; it's criminal. Richard Ward JACKSON Profits drive the abortion industry Have you ever stopped to think that those who favor abortion have already been born? It is also amazing that the pro-abortion crowd still insists that taxpayers should pay for these murders when the majority of Americans are not in favor of unlimited abortions.

The pious, hypocritical doctors and clinic owners claim they only want to keep abortion safe and legal, but they never add "profitable." If profit were removed, most abortions would stop immediately. There is also the argument that abortion is legal since the U.S. Supreme Court says so. If you will remember the court also said slavery was legal at one time, but the court was wrong! The supreme God of the universe said, "Thou shalt not kill." He also said, "Woe to them that call evil good." Mr. CH.

Enzor TRENTON Evidence proves DARE is effective I am writing in response to the Oct. 15 editorial, "DARE is dead, but war on drugs goes on." Of what authority did The Sun print such a statement? Where is the certificate of death? The paper backed up its comment with no proof. Could that be because evidence proves otherwise? I take great pleasure in saying DARE is not dead. It is alive and flourishing. Maybe The Sun's' editors don't realize this because they only know what "comes across the wires" or maybe it's because they view the real world through their computer screens.

DARE is being taught every day to some 50 million students all around this nation, and an additional 15 million are impacted positively by the program, In a recent Gallup survey of 632 young people between 11 and 18, more than 90 percent believe.that DARE provided them with the skills to avoid drugs and alcohol and increased their self-confidence'in dealing with negative peer pressure. To the pessimist, I would say, have they ever known anything to be 100 percent effective? Not even Jesus Christ converted all! Yes, there are those that DARE does not reach, but most of them have a closed mind from the beginning. I know DARE works and I know what it means to some people because I am out here in the real world every day. I am around the dopeheads and the "saints." I am around the kids and their parents. How do I know so much about DARE? Because I am proud to be a certified DARE officer.

Roger Norvell MILAN Political garbage or polluted water? I appreciate The Sun publishing an article about the Jones Manufacturing Companies' press release regarding the potential pollution of Milan's underground water supply from the toxic materials buried in the old ITT landfill. The Milan Exchange Oct. 27 change is coming and soon with or without the naysayers' support. Once most Americans learn the details behind what Clinton is proposing universal coverage, flexibility, cost control and less paperwork they are going to come around to Clinton's way of thinking. But first, they're going to have to sift through the barrage of advertisements and propaganda from the medical profession and insurance companies that makes a national health-care system sound like something out of a horror movie, The United States is the only industrialized democracy without a basic health-care plan for its citizens.

This isn't something new to the world, only to America. Hillary Clinton is to be applauded for her hard work and dedication in forming a blueprint for health-care reform. Now she's fighting hard to see that, for once, real Americans and not the special interests get what they deserve from Washington. Eventually, she's going to win. PARTING THOUGHT FHU's homecoming CAT ISSUE: Freed-Hardeman University's homecoming celebration begins Thursday in a big way with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.

The three-day event, in fact, is jammed full of exciting things to do from attending a play to Lion basketball games. OUR VIEW: Hats off to those who organized the homecoming for planning a terrific time. Those attending the function certainly won't be bored. i.