The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 16

THE BOSTON GLOBE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, Wasserman's view BENJAMIN B. TAYLOR, Publisher Chairman MATTHEW V. STORIN, Editor H.D.S. GREENWAY, Editor, Editorial Page WILLIAM B. HUFF, President STEPHEN E.

TAYLOR, Executive Vice President HELEN W. DONOVAN, Executive Editor GREGORY L. MOORE, Managing Editor t.nj Founded 1872 A16 fn' CHARLES H. TAYLOR, Founder Publisher WS-1921 fylLLIAM 0. TAYLOR, Publisher 1921-1955 WM.

DAVIS TAYLOR, Publisher 1955-1977 WILLIAM 0. TAYLOR, Publisher 1978-1997 JOHN I. TAYLOR, President 196S-1975 LAURENCE L. WINSHIP, Editor 1955-1965 THOMAS WINSHIP, Editor 1965-198i Endorsements, 1998 jw i A low turnout is predicted in today's election, as a message from voters disenchanted politics. Voters would send a far stronger message with a healthy turnout, since the election itself is the only poll that counts.

The Globe endorses the following candidates: STATEWIDE RACES )I For governor and lieutenant governor: Democrats Scott Harshbarger and Warren Tolman of-jfer independent, forward-looking management of the state. For attorney general: Middlesex district Tom Reilly. For state treasurer: Shannon O'Brien. For secretary of state: William For state auditor: Michael Duffy. 1 CONGRESSIONAL CONTESTS The Globe endorses Peter Torkildsen in "the 6th District, James McGovern in the 3d District, 'jVtichael Capuano in the 8th District, and all other incumbent congressmen Joseph Moakley, Frank, Martin Meehan, Ed Markey, William IDelahunt, Richard Neal, and John Olver.

lr COUNTY OFFICES The Globe supports incumbent Jeffrey Locke for district attorney in Norfolk County and Martha Coakley for DA in Middlesex County. For sheriff, Peter Foreman in Plymouth County and Jack Flood in Norfolk County should be reelected. LEGISLATURE In the Senate, incumbents Cheryl Jacques and Therese Murray deserve reelection, and former state representative Sue Tucker of Andover is endorsed for an open seat. In the House, incumbents John Slattery, Kay Khan, Michael Festa, and Paul Demakis have earned reelection, while newcomers Jarrett Barrios in Cambridge and Patrick McNally of Ipswich would be fine additions. QUESTIONS The Globe recommends a yes vote on all four statewide questions: Question 1, linking legislative pay raises to the rate of inflation; Question 2, establishing campaign finance reforms; Question 3, reducing the tax on dividend and interest income; and Question 4, preserving the state's electricity deregulation law.

Letters to the Editor Fluoride for better oral health The coup at Bromley-Heath TheBoorse brouhaha: Why? Leslie Boorse appears to be an intelligent, hard-working, personable, decent young woman Single Year," Oct 25-31). She deserves a week in the limelight. Let's consider who has been there for most of the last year. Let'fe consider what's usually on the front pages of our newspapers. A return to something as mundane and healthy as a young woman's journey through life seems to have thrown many people into a tizzy.

I wonder why? i RONPAULUS Jamaica Plain i iV: ple who would deny the health and economic benefits of fluoridation to their communities. Not only do children benefit; all residents of the community, including the elderly, benefit. The Boston Public Health Department obtained fluoridation by working with many community organizations and agencies 20 years ago. That investment in fluoridation and preventing a disease of epidemic proportions is a success story in itself. MYRON ALLUKIAN DDS Boston The writer is director of Bosfin Pub-Ik Health Commission's community dental programs.

Eileen McNamara's Oct. 3 column on fluoridation in Wayland was a sound bite for better oral health. Before Boston became fluoridated, thousands of children suffered from unnecessary pain and infection, and the average 17-year-old had 17 tooth surfaces affected by tooth decay. Today, although Boston's children still have great unmet dental needs, they and their families have much better dental health and lower dental bills because of fluoridation. When more than 145 million Americans are benefiting from this safe, effective, and economical public health measure in more than 14,000 fluoridated communities, I am surprised that there are still some peo Muddy River cleanup the BHA itself.

No formal warnings had been issued by the Housing Authority regarding the major justification for the takeover failure to evict tenants for drug offenses during the past two years. Annual financial audits, according to the tenant group's attorney, reveal no wrongdoing. And physical rehabilitation at the project proceeds more quickly than at many BHA properties. The ousted Bromley-Heath police chief, Zyg-munt Choroszy, vigorously denies charges that his police overlook the offenses of relatives of the tenant management board. Choroszy wanted to supply a reporter with statistical proof of drug arrests, but his records had been seized.

More than 25 years ago, Bromley-Heath tenants formed their own management team and transformed a failed project into a livable development. Now, without knowledge of the mayor's office or the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the BHA has moved to dismantle that structure. This bewildering development needs im- mediate review by the mayor and HUD officials. lAuthority have direct evidence of fraud and abuse on the part of the tenant-run management board the Bromley-Heath housing project in Jamaica Plain, they should make it public. Otherwise the weekend administrative takeover of the 'project looks more like a coup d'etat than a sensible management decision.

On Friday, a strike force of federal, state, and local law enforcement agents swept the project, arresting 28 suspected drug dealers. That welcome was consistent with drug sweeps at large (housing projects citywide. But then BHA officials moved in, changed locks, secured records, and dis-- missed the tenant management team, the eight-'member police force, and maintenance workers. BHA officials hinted of financial mismanagement and selective enforcement by the project's security force. Suddenly, everyone fell under suspicion.

Too much about this takeover doesn't add up. j'Fpr one thing, Bromley-Heath scores slightly higher on federal housing performance audits than The doctor didn't deserve to be murdered For those of us who practice obstetrics, the cold-blooded murder of a col-leage, Dr. Bar-nettASlepian, precisely because he dedi Wi Time to crack down on Saddam The Oct. 29 editorial, "A Muddy River solution," is a welcome statement of support for the cleanup of the Muddy River. I applaud The Boston Globe fo'r outlining the need for a comprehensive plan supported and funded by federal, state, and municipal governments.

Citizen advocates can only lay the groundwork; action by publip agencies must follow. Thank you for supporting remej-dial dollars and action for this histoij-ic urban landscape. PAULINE R. KATZ Brooklirie i The Globe welcomes correspondence from readers. Please include your name, address and daytime telephone number.

Letters should be 200 words or less; all are subject fa condensation. Mail address: Letters to the Editor, The Boston Globe, P.O. Box Boston, MA 02107-2378. The e-mail address is ktterglobe.com. After giving his word to UN Secretary General cated his life to serving his pa- tients, is a cause for great grief, and no small amount of anger.

We know what it was like for Dr. Slepian to do the work he did, the long nights on call, the patients in need of emotional support at difficult times, and the joy of bringing new life into the world. Yes, he performed abortions, as part of caring for his patients in all the ways they needed care. But his life was more than that phase of his practice. And for his willingness to do whatever those patients needed, he deserved their, and our, gratitude and respect He didn't deserve to be murdered.

However much some may disagree, a woman's right to reproductive choice is the law of the BARRIE MAGUIRE ILLUSTRATION land. Peaceful, nonviolent protest, whose point is moral witness, is a right and, indeed, a responsibility for us all. Intimidation, coercion and assassination are quite another matter. Those whose overheated rhetoric has contributed to the view that such acts are justified have a particular responsibility to do all in their power to end such violence. Only if we all support the law, including the ones we disagree with, will we be able to live in the civility and security we all deserve.

SUSAN HAAS, MD Chair, Massachusetts Section American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Boston show the world he cannot be kept in a box. In effect, Saddam's officials are saying that Iraq must be allowed to keep its biological and chemical weapons as well as the missiles to deliver them, and at the same time the Iraqi dictator must be allowed to sell Iraqi oil, pocket the proceeds, and use the money to rebuild his military machine. In a show of contempt for the Security Council, Saddam has even demanded the firing of Richard Butler, the Australian diplomat who has directed the UN inspection teams with tenacity and patience. The demand was equivalent to a convict insisting that his parole officer be sacked. For his part, Butler has presented a lucid summary of the challenge facing the Security Council.

"The council has made binding international law," Butler said Monday. "Iraq has to be disarmed under that law. It if refuses to comply and do the things required the council has to consider what steps it will take to see that law is enforced." Clinton ought to heed Butler. The time for muddling through has long passed. Kofi Annan last February and then breaking it, Rafter tweaking the Clinton administration and finding no resistance, Saddam Hussein's regime has declared itself in complete defiance of UN Security Council resolutions requiring inspection and Monitoring of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

US officials have been trying to put the best possible face on the new crisis, saying they have support now from other Security Council because the United States refrained tirom threatening military action three months ago, vtvhen Saddam forbade UN inspectors from doing their job. This is, at best, a curious argument, i Saddam, who has never lacked for audacity, has seized the opportunity presented by a US policy that amounts to an indefinite holding action, a self-deluding assertion that the combination of eco-' nbmic sanctions and UN weapons inspections may keep Saddam forever in a box. But it was President Clinton's passivity over the past three months that induced Saddam to Globe Newspaper Company EDITORIAL THOMAS F. MULVOY JR. Managing EcUNetvs Operations LOUISA WILLIAMS Managing EdAdministration MARY JANE WILKINSON Deputy Managing EdFeatures BEN BRADLEE JR.

Deputy Managing Ed.1 Projects LUCY C. BARTHOLOMAY Deputy Managing EcLjDesign RE NEE LOTH Deputy EdEditorial Page BUSINESS Maintaining anonymous AIDS testing Jefferson exposed early care. HrV reporting is conducted in states that offer both anonymous and confidential HIV testing. Individuals can choose whether to have their test results included in their medical record, and states receive the information needed to track the course of the HrV epidemic. The CDC recommends that states implementing HIV reporting maintain an anonymous testing option.

HELENE GAYLE, M.D. Atlanta, Go. The writer is director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention at CDC. Your Oct 28, article about the HIV-reporting debate confuses the issue of reporting and the type of HIV testing individuals are offered or confidential: Studies differ on AIDS testing," Page F6). You report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of California are in opposition on whether anonymous testing should be able.

There is no debate. Both organizations believe that anonymous testing options are important to ensuring as many people as possible learn their HIV status and, if infected seek Don't release traitor As a 75-year-old veteran of World War II, I have been able to enjoy the fruits of this great country of ours for more than 50 years. That is more than countless thousands of young Americans, whose lives were cut short while serving their country, were allowed. In light of this, the very thought of releasing convicted spy Jonathan The complex character of Thomas Jefferson becomes more so with the publication of DNA test -results in this week's journal Nature proving with fiear certainty that he fathered at least one child with his slave Sally Hemings. Rumors of a long- term affair surfaced during their lifetimes; scandal fodder for the president's enemies and him into history as biographers hotly debated the plausibility of this American icon having a secret love life.

The writing of history, often interpretive and has now come up against the objectivity of scientific fact: An unusual chromosome pattern found in the DNA of Jefferson's present-day descendants is shared by the descendants of Hemings's youngest son. RICHARD J.DANIELS Senior Vice President CFO GREGORY L. THORNTON Senior Vice President MARY JANE PATRONE Senior Vice President ALFRED S. LARKIN, JR. Assistant to the Publisher VP Human Resources CATHERINE E.C.

HENN VPCorporate Legal Affairs GODFREY W. KAUFFMANN JR. VPCirculation MICHAEL A. IDE VPProduction ROBERT T. MURPHY VPInformation Services LINCOLN MILLSTEIN VPNew Media HARRIET E.GOULD VPEmployee Relations JEFFERSON FLANDERS VPPromotion WILLIAM F.

CONNOLLY Treasurer Business Manager MARY E.MARTY AssL Treasurer cannot be diminished. Understanding the human being who expressed the great thoughts merely makes him more interesting. Was Jefferson a hypocrite for stating his opposition to racial mixing while having a relationship with a black woman? By today's standards, yes, but within his time and perhaps within his heart and hers, maybe not No one can know the truth, only that the relationship lasted 20 years. Just as historical figures cannot be judged by modern-day sensibilities, neither should players in the current Washington scandal try to use what might be called "the Jefferson defense." Every president weaves his own morality. The genetic study of Jefferson's family tells us about one relationship in an extraordinary public man's private life.

It also tells us about the diversity of the American family and how intertwined are the black and white experiences. Unfortunately, too many historians erased those vital black faces. We welcome Sally Hemings and her children to their rightful place in the record. Pollard is obscene. The bastard should have been hanged.

I would like to see him made to walk the entire Arlington National Cemetery on his hands and knees and kiss each cross of those who died making the country safe for the likes of him. JOHN MEAGHER Rowley The revelation should not be viewed as a 200-year-old "gotcha" requiring America to rethink Jefferson's accomplishments and possibly even to consider chipping out a face on Mount Rushmore. 1 The incomparable mind of the country's third 1 president and his role in the founding of the nation.