Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 10

star Opinion Friday. July 13. 1984 i A10 Star-Tribune, Casper, Wyo. Oh to buy ripe tomatoes to fling at troubles Newspapers get a lot of mail who cares' about the truth, the "33. Elephant throws Willie to quit eating.

i A i. 1 -I. I 1 1 I I who cares" about the truth, the CaHpcr tar-tErthum release challenges, the tomatoes must be shipped hard and green so If peaceful coexistence has a ground and sprays her with water. every day, and it has been my experience that most of it involves someone complaining about somebody else. 170 Star lana, Caspar, Wyoming 12601 307-2M050Q Tha Caspar Daily Trlbuna Eil.

Oct. 9, 1916 by J. E. Hanway Tha Caspar Star Est. In 1949 USPS 092-660 Publittwd daily.

Second Clati Paid at Caspar, Wye. (3601 by Howard Publicationi, Inc. Thomas W. Howard Publisher Robin HurUst General Manager Richard C. High editor Miscellany 0 name, it's Mahatma Jones.

In Cheyenne last week, one young guy had a complaint over how loud two other young guys were playing their portable radio. When he mentioned it to them, they beat the tar out of him'. The young man then went home to get his .25 caliber pistol, and when he returned, he fired it in the direction of the music lovers who Kid laughs at silly woman. The NCTV points out that "this movie is highly successful at increasing the likelihood that one will use violence when confronted with a difficult situation." I know Raiders of the Lost Ark made me want to solve my problems with a bullwhip. "There was a total absence of any attempt to resolve problems through non-violent and peaceful Dave WW -w Simpson Presidential campaigns enlarge the vocabulary A writer for the Journal reported that winter tomatoes from Florida are 'green as kelp and as hard as a bill collector's they will not be "tomato paste when they reach their destinations.

All you need to do is leave them at room temperature for awhile and they will ripen on their own. But the Journal hasn't listened. The Tomato Exchange has registered numerous complaints, but according to Hawkins, the Journal staff "treated the truth in this matter with indifference." He says the Journal "seems like a fine newspaper that everyone ought to read at least once a month for an interesting contrast with progressive journalism in this country." He even likens the Journal to the National Enquirer. If I were a Journal reporter, which is a fine thing to be, I might, observe that Mr. Hawkins is as tough as a Florida tomato.

The National Coalition of Television Violence is complaining about the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. According to a release from the NCTV, "the two-hour movie contains 215 acts of violence, or 108 acts of violence per hour. NCTV moitoring noted 39 attempted murders, 33 of which were by the evil villains. However, Indiana Jones manages to kill 14 villains." NCTV catalogs the 194 incidents of violence in this movie, with amusing listings such as, "15. Jones hits bad guy with object on his head," "24.

Reckless driving endangering many lives," and I thought today we'd take a look at some of the more interesting complaints that have been lodged lately: The. Florida Tomato Exchange is complaining bitterly about some stories in the Wall Street Journal regarding winter tomatoes. On May 25, a writer for the Journal reported that winter tomatoes from Florida are "green as kelp and as hard as a bill collector's heart." A year earlier a Journal reporter wrote that the tomatoes are "as tough and tasteless as so many, slices from one of those new orange golf balls." Wayne Hawkins, executive vice president of the Tomato Exchange, was not amused. "It's a little literary game they like to play," he said in a recent news release. "The writer, who is always misinformed, falls back on the trite argument about how hard and tasteless winter tomatoes Getting the story straight is secondary to developing cute phrases about tomatoes.

They set aside the truth in favor of academic exercises in imagery." "If there'; a journalist out there NCTV reported. That gave me an idea. A smart producer would come up with a movie combining the excitement of Indiana Jones and the nonviolence of Ghandi. It could be called "Mahatma Jones and the Temple of Non-Violent Protest." Then we would see incidents such as, "103. Prime Minister attacks Mahatma Jones with dagger, Mahatma writes letter to editor," or "179.

High priest tries to tear out Mahatma Jones' heart, Mahatma negotiates mutually-agreeable settlement." And when Mahatma Jones is faced by those two guys brandishing their swords, he could just attacked him. He missed. Police later explained that the pistol "didn't work very well." Having failed to shoot his attackers, the young man went home and took an overdose of drugs. He was discovered and taken to St. Paul Hospital for treatment.

The matter has been referred to the local district attorney, who may file charges. The young men involved are. between 15 and 1,7 years old. Sometime during the fight and the gunplay, the offending portable radio was slammed to the ground and rendered inoperable. Nice to see a story with a happy ending, isn't it? I REAGAN vs.

REAGAN is. MONDALE NOT ON It. of definition, the business of wooing, listening and responding. It's not for nothing that candidates eat kielbasa in Hamtramck, bagels in the Bronx and ribs in Dallas. It's not for nothing that they bowl, chop wood, ride horseback and shake hands.

Candidates have to prove that they are one of us while also proving they are better than us. Each candidate walks the line between seeming aloof from voters and groveling for votes. The process gets pretty sticky. Pols can win the outrage of groups who are ignored and the scorn of groups who are courted too ardently. In Mondale's case, the dilemma is expressed in another 1984 political wordset: "special interests," as in "pandering to the special interests." The recent Minnesota parade admittedly looked a bit like a First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth of July parade.

But the current notion that blacks, women, Hispanics, unions, teachers, are special interests is weird. If you want to see a special interest, I suggest you check out the oil lobby, the Tobacco Institute and defense contractors. There is something peculiar going on when Mondale's supporters are considered a special-interest conglomerate, while Ronald Reagan's Three coalition the rich, the right wing and the redbaiting are considered all-American. What's peculiar is American politics, especially presidential politics. American Presidents, it's been said, are both kings and prime ministers.

They represent the flag and a delicate coalition of voters. The most successful candidates simultaneously appeal to their constituencies while aiming above them. They make some ideological link between self-interest and the public interest. Those are the candidates we call leaders. Theyfre the winners.

Mondale's problem isn't that he's reaching out too hard for voters. Not at all. The problem is that he hasn't yet reached above the voters. He's been a better prime minister than king. In San Francisco he'll need the right words not to appease the delegates but to lead them, not to play to the voters but to act for them.

Words are always tricky in politics. But if you're looking for one that's absolutely lethal, then this is the year that "pander" bears watching. 1 By ELLEN GOODMAN Washington Post Writers Croup I BOSTON One of the great delights of the quadrennial intel-; lectual experience we call the presidential campaign is the way it our vocabulary. There was "window of vulnerability" and "wimp" in 1980, and now in 1984 a new and 'delicious entry: "pander." Pander, for those of you who have been on vacation the past two weeks, is not the name of a rare black-and-white bear living in the mountains of China. Not unless you say it with a Boston accent.

Pander is a political name as in "sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will hurt my image." It has stuck for the moment to the personage of one Walter F. Mondale. In the process of choosing a running mate out of the Democratic rainbow coalition, Mondale has been accused of "pandering" to blacks, women, Hispanics. Mondale was "accused" of this crime, first by a candidate for the job (Hart) and then by opponents (Republicans) and finally by analysts (the media). When a candidate is "accused" of something, you know he is in trouble.

On to the dictionary. The Oxford American defines "pander" as a verb meaning "to gratify a person's weakness or vulgar tastes." As a' noun, pan-derer is the word for a pimp or, more benignly, a go-between in an illicit love affair. Of course, this literal definition of pandering doesn't fit the current political scene. It is safe to assume that Mondale was trying to pick, rather than procure, a vice-presidential nominee up in North Oaks, Minnesota. It's safe to assume that he was not trying to gratify a public "weakness" for blacks and women in high places.

Equal opportunity is, not strictly speaking, a weakness or a vulgar taste. But, in slang terms, the issue is whether Mondale was trying to flatter and please women, blacks, Hispanics in short, huge groups of voters. This leaves open some intriguing questions about the linguistic relationship between politicking and pandering. Interviewing Wilson Goode, Dianne Feinstein, and Henry Cis-neros for vice president is not exactly the same as kissing babies. But politicking is, by another sort II i vs.

REAGAN vs. MONQALEFEI M0NEWFEERAR0 REAGAN vs. 1 tC I MONDAIKNTSEN 'Wi- vW rREAGANvs. 1 REAGAN vs Democrat gives unlikely acceptance speech White House. None of our good intentions none of this administration's follies will matter to the American people if we fear to speak truth to them.

Then we might as well begin now. We know that racial discrimination has scarred our nation as has no other domestic evil. We know that Mr. Reagan's administration has at times been woefully blind to this reality. But we know or we should know that more than half of all United States has befriended every tin-horn thug with an army and a uniform as long as he was anti-communist.

But we also know or should know that not every revolution is led by tribunes of the people. For too long, too many in our party have worn the blinders of "Vietnam" the way our elders wore the blinders of "Munich." There are governments in -Central and South America and elsewhere that deserve our assistance, including military assistance, to prevent totalitarian The fact that Mr. Reagan cannot make distinctions among countries is no excuse for us to shirk from a real foreign policy. some villainous fool. It is best to think of him, instead, in the.

words spoken by the Wizard of Oz after Dorothy discovers him to be a trickster. "You are a very bad man," Dorothy says. "No," replies the Wizard. "I'm a very good man. I'm just a very bad wizard." Mr.

Reagan is a very good man. But he has been a very bad president because he lacks the political courage to even ask, much less answer, the hard ques'-, tions about our future: for example, the threat to our children posed by the half-trillion dollars in debt racked up by this same president who promised us a balanced budget by this year. If we want the chance to lead America into a better future, we had better show them that we understand reality, and that reality includes understanding the difference between a good man and a bad president. The further reality is that government is not the solution to our problems, as many of us have thought, nor our problem, as President Reagan declares. 'Government is simply an instrument designed by the people to do the people's will.

I look forward to meeting President Reagan this fall to debate the nature of that will; and I pledge to him to meet in the spirit of good twill and mutual respect. I look forward to a campaign where, win or lose, we will have spoken truth to America. I have tried to begin here. I pledge to continue that effort for our party and our country in the days ahead. By JEFF GREENFIELD Universal Press Syndicate NEW YORK The following is the text of an acceptance speech that, is certain not to be delivered by the presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention.

Fellow Democrats and Fellow Americans: I accept your nomination with somber appreciation. In turning away from the declared candidates for president, you have decided for better or worse to choose a candidate who has made only one pledge to you, and to the American people: to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We might as well begin now. Far more Americans call themselves Democrats than Republicans or independents. Yet only once in the last 40 years has our presidential candidate won more than 50 percent of the popular vote.

Why? We are the party that led America out of the Depression; that led working-class America into prosperity; that enfranchised blacks who had been denied their civil rights for a century; that made education a reality for rich and poor alike. Yet now we find ourselves indifferent to our past triumphs, insensitive to our present failure, and at times almost incoherent about our intentions for the future. This is not how the Democratic Party achieved greatness before; it is not how we will defeat President Reagan this fall; it is not how I intend to battle Sot and win the black children today are born out of wedlock; we know or should know that the growth in single-parent black families has exploded geometrically across our land. If black leaders from the Rev. Jesse 'Jackson to Eleanor Holmes Norton can recognize this fact, so can the rest of us.

Without an all-out assault on the welfare culture that breeds such family disasters without a massive effort to restore economic and family stability throughout black America none of our good will and none of our public efforts will save the next generation of black Americans from the inevitable consequences of this reality. We know that far too often the takeovers. The fact that Mr. Reagan cannot make distinctions among countries is no excuse for us to shirk from a real foreign policy; and by that I something more than a refusal to exercise force anywhere in the world. We know that President Reagan has badly misgoverned this country.

But we know or should know that most Americans like and respect this president. For that, and for restoring a sense of optimism and personal decency in the White House, he deserves our thanks. We will not win this election, nor will we deserve to, if we attempt to portray Mr. Reagan as the Antichrist or 1.