Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 8

A8 Casper Star-Tribune Sunday, October 23, 1994 Sfar'Tribune Copyright 1994, Casper Star-Tribune Rob Hurless, Publisher Anne MacKinnon, Editor Opinion 170 Star Lane, Box 80, Casper, WY 82602 307-2664)600 The Casper Daily Tribune: Est Oct 9, 1916 by J.E. Hanway, The Casper Star: Est in 1949 STAR-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL Good candidates, bad year Help keep river clean to compensate for spill BN deal could fund research for North Platte protection CHEYENNE One of the ironies of the 1994 elections is that the Democrats have the strongest candidates for the top three offices in years. But this impressive lineup comes in a dismal year for Democrats, particularly western Democrats. The electorate nationwide is described as a 1. Wi ith talks scheduled on possible compensation from the Burlington Northern railroad for its spill of sulfuric acid just northwest of Casper last week, we'd like to make a suggestion.

sulking, vindictive bunch that blames Clinton for everything but their ingrown toenails. Recently a couple of national pundits blamed the electorate's dyspepsia on talk radios shows hosted by the conservative right We're talking about folks like Rush Limbaugh who attacks Clinton relentlessly when he isn't babbling his usual drivel about femi-nazis. In states and communities where talk radio shows like Limbaugh's are popular, voters are turning mean and are leashing Democrats to the Those offices are U.S. Senate, U.S. House and governor, the latter occupied by Democrats for 20 long years.

The split-tailed Republicans (an unfortunate yet vivid phrase created by former GOP state chairman Tom Sansonetti eight years ago) are members of the state's majority party who elected Democrats to lead the state for the past two decades. These folks are the members of the majority party who are likely to throw in a minority party member as a balance to keep the two-party system alive. The only Democrats to capture those votes have been conservative Democrats so conservative in fact it has been difficult to distinguish them from moderate Republicans. If it weren't for the splitrtails, no Democratic candidate would ever be elected to the top offices. Consider the primary election totals for the U.S.

Senate race. Republican Congressman Craig Thomas polled 81,381 votes to Democratic Gov. Mike Sullivan's 39,563. Those are daunting numbers for Sullivan. The sport in the capitol complex is speculating on how many, if any Democrats, will get those critical cross-over GOP votes on election day, Nov.

8. The Republicans will likely wander to the Democratic side of the ticket once. Maybe twice. But three times never. Not in this strange year of discontent The Democratic candidates, at least Sullivan and Secretary of State Kathy Karpan, are straining against the downward pull of the unpopular Clinton administration.

According to the Washington Post Weekly, Clinton's approval rating dived because he has aligned himself with the liberal wing of his party in Congress and has abandoned his "New Democrat" image. This tilt comes at a time when the entire nation is becoming more conservative. Clinton's accomplishments and his ambitious attempts to fulfill his campaign promises have been eclipsed by the voters' mood swing. The GOPs are salivating in particular over the possibility of taking back the governorship. As one mournful GOP faithful pointed out recently (former Auditor Jim Griffith), Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Richard V.

Thomas was the last judge appointed by a Republican governor t- Stan Hathaway. Democratic governors have appointed Republican judges, however. One that comes to mind is G. Joseph Cardine, recenUy retired from the Wyoming Supreme Court A former Republican Natrona County attorney, Cardine was tapped -by the late Gov. Ed Herschler under the non-partisan judicial selection system that has been in effect for the last 20 years.

And, as many unhappy Democrats are quick to point out Sullivan; has appointed a batch of Republicans to head key agencies and departments. There was further bad news for the Democrats this year: the GOPs hung together. To the credit of GOP Party chairman Diemer True, the Republicans came through their gubernatorial primary without fatal, eviscerating rifts if not hugging unity. At this point in the campaign I'm sure of only one tiling. It takes guts for a Democrat to run for the Legislature this year.

The Democrats have no chance whatsoever fof winning a majority in the Wyoming House or the Senate. So any Democrat seeking one of those offices is doomed to watch their bills die in committee. They know they can never chair a conimittee, can never ascend to a leadership position. Yet they run. This powerless role of the Democrats was brought home recently as I researched Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Geringer's legislative voting record.

The legislative journal traces the sad toll of most of the Democrats' bills, voted down time after time in committee, destined for the legislative graveyard. Republican bills die there, too, but not in the same profusion of numbers. And yes, once in awhile a Democratic sponsored bill gets through. But not often. In recent years, Republican legislative leaders have been even-handed and fair, however, which keeps the poor-outnumbered Democrats relatively happy for the scraps.

The Democrats haven't controlled the Legislature for 30 years and there's no sign of a change anytime soon. Maybe the Libertarians will rise and bring a fresh new spin to legislative business. Meanwhile, turn off the radio. Joan Barron In states and communities where talk radio shows like Limbaugh's are popular, voters are turning mean and are leashing Democrats to the same mast as Clinton. same mast as Clinton.

In a cruel twist, meanwhile, the Wyoming Republican candidates are blitzing the state by bus in the last weeks of the campaign, an idea they lifted from Clinton and Al Gore. In the past the GOPs hopped from town to town to town by air. And in Wyoming, split-tail Republicans will decide whether any Democrats are elected to the top three posts this year. The spill, at a crossing of Casper Creek some 10 miles north of the North Platte River, ultimately killed off thousands of native fish in the creek and several hundred rainbow trout at the confluence with the North Platte. County crews quickly built three emergency earth dams on the creek to stop contaminated water from reaching the river, but the creek breached the dams and the contamination traveled the 10 miles to the river in a little over 12 hours.

The railroad and state officials from the Game and Fish Department and the Department of Environmental Quality said early last week they would start looking at possible enforcement or compensation action. The likely result is a settlement that combines elements of both fines and compensation. We'd suggest that the settlement be aimed at promoting research on how to both protect the North Platte from new contamination threats and clean up existing contamination. The river is a major economic and aesthetic asset for central Wyoming. But its very value is a threat to its future, since the urban and industrial users attracted to the river bring with them the potential for contamination.

Both the routine daily discharges of riverside users and the risk of accidents on railroads and pipelines accidents seem to pollute the river regularly every few years pose an everpresent danger of water quality degradation. If the North Platte river is to continue to supply water for people, for agriculture, and for industry, as well as to supply its delightful recreation opportunities all along its length, the people of this region of the state need to focus their energy and imagination on the river and how to keep it as clean or cleaner than it is now. The BN is a longtime member of central Wyoming communities, with a vested interest in participating in such an effort It might appeal to BN as well as to Game and Fish and DEQ to put settlement money from this spill into a variety of efforts to help people here work on the problems of the river. We'd suggest not only the kind of mitigation that has followed other accidents, such as purchase of river access areas, or perhaps assistance to the Platte River Parkway. In addition, the negotiators might consider providing some seed money for research and education efforts aimed at comprehensive thinking about prevention and cure for North Platte pollution.

The money might go to ongoing research work at the University of Wyoming, or within the Game and Fish Department. Or it might go to finance locally-based research projects at Casper College or at the top flight science programs of area high schools, in order to spur students' interest in the river. We hope the negotiators consider this suggestion as they work on their proposal. "We vc-uJin't want the "kids ho be dfi ttint any ideas about representative After the rape By ANNA QITNDLEN New York Times News Service he came back from the pool carrying her towel, and as soon as she was i inside the apartment he was behind her with the knife. He told her to lie victims are invited to shower and wash their hair.

Fresh clothes and underwear are available. "Before, we were having victims walking out in a hospital gown," said Helenmarie Zachritz, the program coordinator. Being set down in the manic maelstrom of city emergency rooms is not only horrible for rape victims but may also impede the gathering of evidence. In some emergency rooms, victims aren't even counseled about AIDS testing. "In the ER," says Gail Gresham, a nurse in the Tulsa program, "a rape victim comes last.

With us she is first and only." America goes through cycles with social disorders, hashing out problems until it seems that they have been fixed when they have only been discussed. In a year or two we will feel as if we've dealt with domestic violence, when all we really did was talk about it And rape? Oh, rape's been done. Well, it hasn't, but what can be done, has been done in Tulsa, is to create some sensible and humane way of treating its victims, not just because that is kind and good but because it may better serve the cause of justice. The man who police believe raped Erica is in jail now; because she never saw his face, if he is convicted it will be on the basis of DNA evidence collected by a SANE nurse. "Had I been taken to an emergency room," Erica says, "and if I'd had to be around a lot of people, I think I would have turned around and gone out the door.

And then he'd still be out there." Brooklyn complained that she felt the horror of the rape had been compounded by the humiliation of the hospital, where she had to wait in an examining gown amid handcuffed male prisoners there for treatment, ordinary New Yorkers were shocked. But not those familiar with sexual assault Many city hospitals keep rape victims waiting for hours while the staff treats stab and gunshot wounds. The exam that a rape victim undergoes to gather forensic evidence may take as long as three hours, and it is frequently performed by a resident on rotation, who may never have done such a procedure before. Linda Fairstein, the sex crimes prosecutor in Manhattan, remembers one exam performed by an oral surgeon because he was the only available doctor. But a program called Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners has changed all that in Tulsa.

Today any rape victim in that city is taken to the quiet of what was once a hospital birthing center, where she is met by a volunteer advocate and examined by a specially trained nurse. While rape victims frequently face the added indignity of getting a bill for their exam, the SANE exam is free, the nurses paid a $100 fee by the state Victim's Compensation Board. The nurses serve a dual function, skilled at forensics every case brought to trial in which a SANE nurse has testified has resulted in a conviction as well as the human touch. At the end of what can be a humiliating exam, down on the floor and then he put the towel over her head and he raped her. When he was gone she called 911 and the police came and they took her to the hospital.

And then something remarkable happened. She was treated with sensitivity and great care by people whose only duties were to look after her, explaining what was happening as the semen and saliva samples were taken, as her pubic hair was combed for evidence, as she dropped her bathing suit onto butcher paper. The rapist took away her sense of safety and dignity, and the women who held and helped her tried to give it back. When the exam was over they invited her to go into an adjoining bathroom and take a shower. "I felt as if I was in that shower forever," recalls Erica, whose assailant comes to trial in Tulsa, Okla, soon What happened to her after the violation was done and the experts took over sounds like it should be standard operating procedure for sexual assaults.

The sad truth is that it is a program so exceptional that it has just been given an Innovations in State and Local Government Award from the Ford Foundation and the Kennedy School at Harvard. When, earlier this month, a rape victim in 1 fall Mtd Lot AngtM TnH SfnOtm. Opinion Editor Charles Levendosky. For information, questions and comments about this page, call (307) or (800) 442-6916; email editorialtrib.com; fax (307)266-0568..