The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 11

VIEWPOINTS Saturday, June 6, 1998 Al.l. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Saturday Talk LETTERS, FAXES AND E-MAIL Feed senior citizens in school cafeterias While I was living in Milwaukee in the 1970s, the school board allowed senior citizens to go to a school lunchroom and obtain a nutritious meal for the price of a student meal. This was great since many of the seniors might not be able to provide themselves with a hot, well-balanced meal that was convenient and economical. With all the pork-barrel fiascoes that politicians engineer, this would seem to be a very beneficial and humane project that would be worthy of taxpayer subsidy. RICHARD BAUMGARTEN Stone Mountain Inside the AJC QWhy was David Letterman's "Top 10" dropped from the Leon Davenport, Blairsville Features editor Susan Soper responds: In redoing the daily TV page last month, we were looking for more space to devote to the growing cable network and prime-time offerings.

We thought as at least one caller to the Vent has already pointed out that the Letterman list had run its course. The humor in the list was not always appropriate for a family newspaper and despite our best efforts to edit it, the changes often fell flat. Sometimes, too, repeat lists v-were sent to us and felt old. Letterman himself once said he was thinking about doing away with the list we just beat him to it. But if a list comes across is timely, truly funny and still appropriate forV Follow Oregon's lead on land-use planning With air quality the No.

1 issue, according to a poll by the Journal-Constitution, it is in the best interest of our state to consider the Oregon Land Use Act of 1973. The 25th anniversary of this highly successful legislation is being celebrated this week in Oregon. The celebration is a tribute to the results of this legislation: clean air, minimal traffic congestion and professional land planning and growth management. Oregon was the first state to contain sprawl by establishing geographical limits growth within which most urban development is required to occur. With sensitivity toward economic growth, Oregon pioneered commuter and rail systems, the creation of "urban villages" that concentrate trip origins and destinations, policies to ensure that 90 percent of residences and businesses are within walking distance of public transit, and substantial surcharges on parking to discourage the use of automobiles.

Land planning and growth management should be a priority for our next governor and a challenge to the 1999 General Assembly. JOHNS. SHERMAN John S. Sherman is an instructor at Emory University. CHIP BOK Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal Independent counsel Ken Starr just doing his job Why do members of the media think Ken Starr is being outrageous simply because he is seeking the truth? Is it not the job of an independent counsel, or a major newspaper, to push the envelope in order to determine the real story lying beneath the surface? The privilege and power afforded our president does not include exoneration from any and all actions, especially when these actions involve the strong possibilities of lying, cover-ups and questionable relations both here and abroad.

TIM EDMONDS Dacula pop it in. 77e Atlanta Journal-Constitution invites questions about why we do the things we do. Write or fax JeffDickerson, Saturday Talk editor at the address or fax number listed on this page, or e-mail him at jdickersonajc.com. How you can reach vis Tobacco bill a grab for profits The tobacco tax bill is one of the most outrageous pieces of legislation in recent years and represents a wholesale sellout of the American people. On the surface, the bill is for our children, but in reality it is another tool to make money and fool the people.

The bill is a concerted and coordinated effort by money-seeking lawyers and politicians to make a windfall profit. The electorate is going along with this rape because it has been convinced it is for our children. And since most people hate tobacco smoke and smokers in general, they are on board with any action that eliminates or punishes the evil tobacco companies. And what about the smokers who are imperiled by their habit? They are still left with their addiction but are paying for it dearly through higher prices for cigarettes. If they all quit, then we face a general tax increase to pay for programs that have been funded by their continued smoking.

RODGER M. WEST Marietta DOT signs serve a purpose Regarding Martha Ezzard's May 23 column, "Few candidates talk of DOT'S choke too, am troubled by the power of the DOT and its lack of responsiveness to the people of Georgia. I am troubled by the smog, the air pollution and the ozone. However, I do not agree with Ezzard about the DOT signs. I find them informative they tell me where traffic is moving well or whether I should take an alternate route.

I think it is good for people to know when there is an ozone action day. I am a state employee, arid sometimes I have to take MARTA or car pool on ozone action days, so it is good for me to know the preceding day. I try to combine and limit trips on ozone action days to do my part to reduce the smog. Though there is certainly room for improvement in the DOT, the signs are not a poor use of money. SUE CLARK CERTAIN Atlanta To clarify and say 'thanks' I'd like to try to clear up some confusion that followed two recent items in the Journal-Constitution.

Before the expiration of my CNN Headline News contract on Dec. 12, 1 was offered the usual, three-year renewal. For reasons too varied and personal to enumerate, I chose not to sign again. I did ask for and received a six-month extension of my contract; hence the June 12 departure date. I want to thank the many fans, acquaintances and friends who have called and in other ways expressed concern, support and good wishes.

I really did just decide after 13 extraordinary years in the CNN family that it was time for something new. I'm going to take a rest, forget for a time how to pronounce Slobodan Milosevic and have some fun! LYN VAUGHN Lyn Vaughn is a retiring news anchor at CNN Headline News. Letters to the editor should be no more. than 1 50 words. They may be edited for clar; ity and length.

Letters must be signed and include the, author's full name (no initials, please), address and daytime and evening phone numbers. To fax letters, dial 404-526-56 1 0 or 404-. i 526-56 1 1 Letters may be faxed from any. Mail Boxes Etc. for 50 cents.

To dictate letters, call 404-222-1927 ff Mail letters to Letters to the Editor, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, P.O. Box 4689, Atlanta, 30303. E-mail letters to constitutionajc.comv', SATURDAY VOICES California voters spoke clearly Neighbors make house feel at home At A special experience is unfolding. Surely it is unique, the warmest of all possible welcome-homes. As my husband and I unwrap the brown paper around some of our favorite things, stored in a huge trailer parked on our North Georgia farm for the The Republic just keeps on rolling.

Even as the delay-and-denial tactics of President Clinton reach the point of disgust and the people seem comatose, they arise to show uncommon sense. So it was Tuesday in California, where a whopping 61 percent of voters chose to do away with bilingual education and its lobby of such rare skills. There was the builder from nearby Lakemont who adds humor and mediation savvy to his professional building expertise. The artisan from Cleveland who built our kitchen cabinets, oiling and perfecting them into many a late night. The metal craftsman from Clayton who could hone any form in the world, from table frames to banister rails and fireplaces.

The shop owner from Dillard who made the front door glass from our rough sketch. These are people who not only work miracles with their hands, but also understand how to simplify life: Cut out the superfluous. They respect the natural environment they work in as much as its natural materials. They can tell me which trees are likely to fall on my house, how storms move through the mountains, when it's time to set out the tomato plants, why I should read the water gauge on summer days. For someone like me who has lived in cities most of my life, their wealth of information about the mountains is as amazing as their sense of connection past couple of years, we have the added fun of folks from our Tiger community dropping by to ooh and ahh with us over the work of local craftsmen who lent their talents to our new house.

For our family, this is the house that Shelly teachers and bureaucrats. They reached across party and ethnic lines to send a common-sense American message: Immigrants are welcome, but they must MARTHA EZZARD DICK WILLIAMS built, our own version of the familiar children's story, "This is the House That Jack Built." Shelly is our artist daughter who fashioned the structural concept first in rough drawing, then in intricate model, start at the beginning. Bilingual education hasn't been proved to work. The Wall Street Journal notes that only 45. percent of Hispanics over age 25 in California, Texas and Illinois have high school diplomas.

u.ti Contrast those numbers with the immigrant tradition of the late 19th and early 20th century; Italians, Greeks, Eastern Europeans and Scandi- navians flooded Ellis Island and set as their first goal to learn English, to assimilate proudly. (i They managed to preserve their national tra-, ditions, but in their spare time, so to speak. At school and at work, they were Americans like any other. On weekends they kept alive their cultural base. Today, diversity means excusing efforts not 'ir't to assimilate be they in speech, dress or soci- etal standards.

My grandfather arrived at Ellis Island from Ireland as a boy. With the benefit of only a fourth-grade education, he worked his entire life to speak without a brogue. It would have been unimaginable and laughable for him to wear even traces of some native dress to j.t.. school or work. His only concession to his Irishness was in his! -(, faith and his devotion to The New York Journal; American, the newspaper that appealed most to those of Irish descent.

But he also did The New York Times crossword puzzle every day. His education was informal, but effective. His company was a symbol of the common culture. Cohen, Powers and Rosenberg, it was called. All three men were immigrants.

None had a education. All spoke English, if a Brooklyn accent can be forgiven. Were they alive to know that American schoolchildren, by mandate of Congress, were taught mathematics and science and geography in scores of languages, they might have asked why they bothered. But in the end, California voters understood the fallacy and acted. It's one of those comfort-y' ing reminders that modern liberalism is but trendy experimentation.

Conservatism is last- ing, based on the lessons of excess. Ddc VWomi It a veteran Atlanta commentator. -f Hit column runt Tuesday and Saturday, E-mails thecritrmlndsprlng.com 9 Welcome to Tiger Population 301 to our Tiger house. Townspeople, too, seem to take pride in our new house, especially those who knew John's parents and grandparents. They have dropped in at all stages of the building process, never in droves or at inconvenient times, just when they see us working outside or bump into us at the hardware or grocery store and ask to peek in.

After all, they've picked blueberries, bought beans and corn and cut Christmas trees at the Ezzard farm for years. They're a pretty important part of our extended family history. from her fathers simple statement that we needed a house that looks like it belongs in a vineyard. But it was the home-grown talent of Rabun County that turned Shelly's model into a family home. Not that there's anything new about folks in a rural community offering their skills for barn-raisin's and house-fixin's.

The old stone farm house where my husband grew up is built of granite hauled by mule and wooden sled down Tiger Mountain by his father and grandfa FT learn English and become part of the common culture. Bilingual education with all courses taught in the native language of the student has become one of those politically correct notions turned nightmare. California schools hustled to find teachers fluent in Hmong and Cantonese and Mandarin. And as they did, Lady Liberty wept. Ellis Island was mocked.

California voters rebelled and approved a plan in which immigrant children will be given a year of immersion in English, then placed in regular studies. The undercurrent of the vote runs much deeper than one state's classrooms. At issue are such ideas as English first, English only and the bedrock belief that the motto on U.S. currency has currency. pluribus unum, we say.

Out of many, one. How far we have strayed from the idea of assimilation. Our near-religious celebration of "diversity" risks destroying the common culture. Our unifying national symbols give way to obscurantism studies of culture that, while of some value, detract from the studies that unite us. A first-grader today is more apt to be familiar with the Rev.

Martin Luther King Jr. than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, thanks to Black History Month. We no longer MICHELLE MACK Staff IT ther more than SO years ago. The whole town came to help John's parents build the stone house when fire Visiting with my neighbors is a lot more fun than unpacking, so I haven't found the paring knives or the everyday dishes yet. But who cares? We've never had a move quite like this one.

And we're not eager to end the warm, shared homecoming. Martha Ezzard on editorial writer for The Atlanta Journal. Her column appears Saturdays and Mondays. E-mail: mez2ardajc.c0m destroyed their small frame home. Neighbors pitched in to help haul the rock and lay the foundation.

Likewise, construction workers and artisans who "pitched in" for us weren't just contracting for a day's pay. They are serious craftsmen wood, stone and metal artists, fiercely proud of what they do with their hands in an age that pays scant attention to.