The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 12

Page 12-A Call Doug Toney at 744-3611 or 986-7711, Ext. 233 OPINION Thursday Feb. 3,1994 A i. f-: ir DAILYNEWS Texas' Oldest Newspaper Since 1842 Les Daughtry Editor and Publisher Emeritus Dolph Tillotson Editor and Publisher Doug Toney Managing Editor Editorials Parents smiling at MCH ill-child center far as working parents are concerned, the folks who are running Mainland Center Hospital have made good on their promise to serve the community. The county-owned, privately run hospital in Texas City has opened a sick child day-care center.

Mothers and fathers across Galveston County must be breathing collective sighs of relief to learn about this option for taking care of their kids who are too sick to attend school or regular day care. As far as we know, this is the only sick-child center in our market area. Most regular daycare centers won't accept children who are running a fever; public schools normally try to send children home if they have a temperature over 100 degrees. Sick children present a major worry for all families, but cause even more concern when both parents work, in single-parent households, when there are no grandparents around and especially when the children are too young to stay home alone. With the Mainland Center service available, working couples no longer have to worry about which parent will have to take time off from work to tend a sick young 'un.

While the service is not free, the charges appear reasonable, considering the center is staffed by health care professionals and trained aides. We commend Mainland Center Hospital for this family-minded outreach and we encourage other health-care institutions to consider similar centers. Great memories in Culpepper's tenure ast week, we were surprised to learn that Ball High School's head football coach and athletic director, Pat Culpepper, was leaving to coach elsewhere. As he leaves, we'd like to say we're proud of the coach's performance during his two-year tenure. Culpepper lead the Tors to a lot of victories a 19-5 overall record and an undefeated district 23-5A record and a pair of district championships.

But Culpepper also overcame a rough start to accomplish a lot more than a winning football record. Despite the ruckus that flew when the coach was hired over Jerry Drones, Culpepper brought a lot of discipline to the Ball High program, and went a long way toward improving the team's conduct and behavior on the field. He also brought a lot of disenchanted fans in the community back into the fold. We wish Coach Culpepper the best of luck in his new position, and we thank him for two years of great football memories. Today's editorials were written by Wanda Garner Cash, assistant managing editor- mainland, and Michael Casey, copy desk editor of The Daily News.

Looking back 50 years ago Feb. 3, 1944 Enlistments in the WAVES were five times greater in January than in December, according to Chief Irving Lunt, local Navy recruiting head. Twice as many boys joined the Navy in January as in December. 25 years ago Feb. 3, 1969 While you were enjoying your sleep, hundreds of groundhog watchers were up and doing their thing.

At Punxsutawney, about 400 people trekked to the top of a hill and watched a little groundhog called Punxsutawney Phil cast his shadow. At Sun Prairie, about 100 people turned out to watch Jimmy, a 4-year-old groundhog, cast his. THE BEATLES 4RE REUNITING! What happened to the Bill of Rights? very year about this time, the ghost of James Madison is said to appear at his old estate at Montpelier. "What have they done to the Bill of Rights?" the sad specter asks. Madison drafted the first 10 amendments to the U.S.

Constitution to satisfy the minds of well-meaning opponents of the document who feared that it vested too much authority in the central government, while providing too few protections for individual citizens. For much of the past two centuries since it was ratified Dec. 15,1791, the BiU of Rights served this republic well. But over the past three decades or so, the principles of liberty and freedom set forth in the document have become so badly corrupted that Madison himself hardly would recognize his handiwork. None of the 10 amendments has been more grossly distorted than the first, which specifies that no law shall be enacted that establishes a state religion, or abridges freedom of speech or of the press.

Just look where that has brought us. Since 1962, prayer has been banned in public schools because it offends the sensibilities of the godless. This is a legacy of the Warren Court, which did more to subvert Madison's original intent than any Supreme Court in history. It matters not if, say, a prayer is nondenominational, or that a student may be excused from reciting it if he or she so desires. "Any state-sanctioned religious utterance amounts to an unconstitutional attempt to establish religion," the high court held.

Once this dubious constitutional principle was established, the godless element in American society took full advantage. They've sued, for instance, to have nativity scenes removed from public property during the Joseph Perkins holiday season. They've petitioned to have crosses removed from public grounds, like Mount Soledad here in San Diego. While this bogus constitutional attack on religion is going on, the free speech clause of the First Amendment is being exploited by purveyors of crudity and obscenity. Often this material is passed off as art.

And in not a few cases ic is publicly funded. Like the photographic art of Joel-Peter Witkin. His more noteworthy works include "Testicle Stretch with the Possibility of a Crushed Face," "Woman Castrating a Man," and "Mask and Severed Genitalia at Netsuke." No less offensive (however unsupported by taxpayer dollars) are the violent and misogynistic songs often heard from hard rock and gangster rap groups. Like these lyrics from rockers Motley Crue: "Not a woman, but a now I'm killing watch your face turn blue." Or from the rapper Dr. Dre: "Rat-a- tat and a tat like that.

Never hesitate to put a nigga' on his back." Is this free speech the founders meant to protect? Hardly. The criminal justice provisions of the Bill of Rights which are included in the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments have been almost as badly adulterated over the past quarter century as the various freedoms set forth in the First Amendment. The founders felt it was important to provide protections for the accused to ensure that they were treated justly. They did not want citizens suspected of crimes to be routinely rounded up by the government and tossed into dungeons without benefit of a fair trial. And they did not want those convicted of crimes to be subject to torture and similar inhumane punishments.

So the Bill of Rights propcribes unreasonable search and seizures. It requires due process of the law. It guarantees a speedy and public trial. It protects against self-incrimination. And it forbids cruel and unusual punishment.

Since 1966, when the Warren Court somehow read into the Constitution that police were obliged to inform suspects of their rights (the famous Miranda decision), the rights of the accused have expanded far beyond the founders' intent. If, say, the police have a warrant to search a home for possible stolen property, and turn up illegal drugs in the process, they have to ignore the drugs. If they take the suspects into custody for drug possession, the case will probably get thrown out on grounds of unlawful search. Along the same lines, if a criminal is apprehended during commission of a crime, and the arresting officers forget to read him his rights, any defense lawyer worth his salt can get the criminal off on that technicality. The founders could not possibly have intended the Bill of Rights to be interpreted as it is today.

They hardly meant to outlaw public acknowledgment of the Creator or to provide cover for obscene and patently offensive forms of expression. They hardly meant for criminals to be coddled. Only that justice prevail throughout the republic. James Madison must be spinning in his grave. Joseph Perkins is a columnist for flie San Diego Union-Tribune.

Newspaper Entorpri.se Assoc. Today in history The Associated Press Today is Thursday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 1994. There are 331 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: Feb.

3, 1959, was "the day the music died" when a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, claimed the lives of rock n' roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. Today's Birthdays: Author James Michener is 87. Comedian Shelley Berman is 68. Sen.

Paul Sarbanes, D-Maryland, is 61. Football Hallof-Famer Fran Tarkenton is 54. Actress Blythe Danner is 51. Football Hall-of-Famcr Bob Griese is 49. Singer-guitarist Dave Davies is 47.

Doonesbury I HEARD YOU' 0)0'YOU, ALICB? suKa oio! 6M.AUCB. w'ASoiffiw HAKprrms rosewppYt i 1 WHY NOT, EU'QNT OF GOP. Allot, OUTCAST! ACtmiY, I A PARIAH! 1M A em HIM i-ii iia STAMP. 5HOKT, I Charley Reese The sad truth about our MIAs he U.S. government left living prisoners of war in Indochina, lied about it to cover it up, and continues to lie about it to cover it up.

Here's just one example of how the public is consistently being misled. Sen. John Kerry, in a speech attempting to discredit former Robert Garwood on the eve of his trip to Vietnam with Sen. Bob Smith, said, "I cannot believe any U.S. Marine under any circumstances would return to this country and he would not tell Americans there are Americans still over there.

But Bob Garwood did not do that. No, he did not do But in 1985, after some POW activists got ahold of him by God, Bob Garwood came forward and said he had seen Americans in Vietnam." Now, be clear. That quote is from the Congressional Record, dated July 1, 1993. Sen. Kerry says that Bob Garwood never mentioned there were Americans left in Vietnam until 1985 when, Kerry implies, he was put up to it by POW activists.

But what's the truth? The truth is that Garwood, while still in Vietnam, specifically and explicitly mentioned other living American POWs. Keny knows that. It's contained in a declassified memorandum from the U.S. Embassy in Sweden to the State Department reporting a conversation a World Bank employee had with Garwood in Vietnam in 1979. "Garwood told (the name was blanked out when the document was declassified) that he knew of 15 other American POWs staying iii his and other camps.

Fie indicated that there are probably yet more POWs." That memorandum is dated February 1979. From the very beginning of the betrayal, the U.S. government has consistently discounted and attempted to discredit any evidence that POWs were left behind while accepting as gospel the North Vietnamese assertion that none were. Why did Kerry want to discredit Garwood? Because Garwood was going to find three prison camps that he had spoken about, but that the Defense Intelligence Agency claimed did not exist. Sen.

Smith, who, along with Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, were the only members of the Senate Select Committee on POWs-MIAs who addressed the issue honestly, sent a formal letter to Attorney General Janet Reno requesting a Justice Department investigation of certain members of the Defense Department, Sen. Smith listed specific people and offenses he believed they were guilty of. Recently, Smith received a letter brushing off the request for an investigation. Smith said no one from Justice contacted him about the request or the evidence he had said he could provide.

Your government intends to "resolve" the MIA issue by declaring them all dead and then proceed, as the big business interests want it to, to lift the embargo against Vietnam. You probably don't want to believe that, but it's true. The part of our government that did this is evil there's no other word for it, Charley Reese is a nationally syndicaled coinmnist. King Features Syndicate Inc..