Teche News from St. Martinville, Louisiana • 4

4 Editorials Opinions Quito pck Pense Done LOUISIANA'S US. SENATE IkZl THIS flt THAT Bertha a bust Tropical Storm Bertha came and went with hardly a ripple and we're hoping it was the closest call well have this hurricane season. The Gulf and tropics have really been quiet so far, but we've got at least four weeks of prime time left before we can start breathing easy in regards to big storms. I've been saying the same thing for several years now, but we're getting pretty far overdue for a serious hurricane in our neck of the woods. You know it's going to happen sooner or later, but we'd all prefer it to be later.

Good Coverage Our area continues to get lots of good press as a great tourist destination. Jimmie Bulliard sends me a clipping of a. nice half-page feature on St. Martinville from the July 7 issue of the Dallas Morning News, and I'm sure many of you saw two-page spread in The Advocate of July 29. It focused on the Acadian Memorial and featured a huge picture of the mural.

It was part of the Advocate's "Landmark Series." Anniversaries Friends and subscribers who celebrated wedding anniversaries during the past two weeks included: July 31 The 26th anniversary for Nathan and Renee Molbert of Loreamille; and the for Jamie an Nancie Huval of Breaux Bridge. Aug. 1 The 45th for Lin and Renate Berard of Breaux Bridge; and the 22nd for Alton and Melinda Sieber of St. Martinville. Aug.

2 The 63rd for Elie and Vivian Guidry of Breaux Bridge; the 44th for John and Dolores Trosclair of Breaux Bridge; the 27th for Jay and Yvonne Romero of St. Martinville; the 6th for Ricky and Michelle Martin of St. Martinville; and the for Steven and Laura Serrette He-bert of St. Martinville. Aug.

3 The 39th for Bobby and Charlene Kidder of Cecilia; the 34th for Howard and Johnelle (Blanchard) Theriot of St. Martinville; the 28th for Tom and Sheila Lasseigne; and the 23rd for Kirk and Juanita (Hulin) Sieber of St. Martinville. Aug. 5 The 4 1 st for Harold and Peggy (Comeaux) Trosclair of St.

Martinville; the 38th for Gary and Mattie (Solari) Barras of St. Martinville; the 32nd for Mr. and Mrs. James E. Demouchet of Breaux Bridge; the 2nd for Duncan and Melanie Dubois of St.

Martinville; and the for Mr. and Mrs. Gene Lowry of Corona, Cal. Aug. 6 The 36th for Jules arid Juanita Escagne of New Iberia and the 26th for Billy and Yvette (Theriot) Greig of St.

Martinville. Clair comme le jour: Life is too short to drink the house wine. Helen Thomas This war will never end by Henri C. Bienvenu SCHOOL BOARD MOVE Supt Valerie Haaga floated a pretty big trial balloon last week when she asked school board members to take a look at the Norris Rader building on Rees Street in Breaux Bridge as a possible location for the parish to consolidate its various central staff operations. The 46,000 sq.ft.

building sits on nine acres of property and is up for sale after the business shut down. The idea received a lukewarm reception from board members, with several expressing serious apprehension and only one voicing strong support for the site. It would be a rather expensive undertaking, as the asking price (almost sure to come down) for the facility is $1.9 million. Architects estimate it would probably take at least another $1.2 million to renovate the building and set up office space for staff operations. Then there's the political ramifications of abandoning the main staff office in the parish seat of St.

Martinville to consider. There's no question that there's enough space to house the entire central office operation as well as the food textbook warehouse (located in St. Martinville) and the bus maintenance facility (in Breaux Bridge). In fact the building and property are almost too big for the board's needs. But there's no question the board will, in the not-too-distant future, have to make some decisions on what to do about with its cramped central office in St.

Martinville (which has no room for expansion) and the Instructional Center in Breaux Bridge (a hodgepodge of cobbled together offices and hallways very badly in need of major renovation). And it's certainly not the most efficient way to operate a central staff. With the superintendent operating out of two offices, with half the key staffers in St. Martinville and the business finance operations (and other staff members) in Breaux Bridge. High-paid supervisors spend a lot of time on the road running back and forth between the two offices, and secretaries are challenged to keep track of who is where at any particular moment.

So the board will very likely be spending some big bucks on the present facilities if they expect to continue using them for any period of time. Or they'd have to consider building a new central office from scratch at an estimated cost of almost $2.5 million, not counting land. It's a tough decision, and one I suspect not too many board members are anxious to make as they prepare to campaign for re-election. BEWARE OF 'SKEETERS This West Nile virus has certainly got people's attention and is serous enough to cause us to take precautions in our outdoor activities. The Pen or the Sword by Robert Walters I have said several times, "This war will never end." I still say, I am correct.

It is not impossible to win the war, it is just that we refuse to act like a world power and, therefore, forfeit any chance of victory. I was threatened with court martial and dismissal from the Navy in 1953 for saying much the same thing. I was right then and I am right today. I was in charge of main engine control aboard an escort destroyer. The Korean War was just about to end with the South Korean border at essentially the same spot where it had been at the outbreak of hostilities.

All that blood spilled, all those good red-blooded American youngsters killed. All the hell, the suffering and the misery had been for absolutely nothing. We were at quarters one morning. I stood at the head of my division and announced to 65 men who worked for me, the following: "America has won her last a war that we wanted no part of from the beginning. I am sorry to say that our own parents and friends back home have turned chicken and shown cowardice in the face of the enemy." The same situation exists today.

We went after a third-rate, semi-civilized, backward enemy in Desert Storm only after enlisting the help of half the world! We could not carry through when victory was within our grasp. We are now paying the price for such timidness. The current war could be easily won if our people could find their pride, their guts and their determination once common to them. I am ashamed of the people who dodge the horrors of war by sacrificing their own sons rather than allowing them to kill their enemy. The Arab League could end terrorism overnight.

They know the terrorists. They know where they are, they finance, train and direct terrorism all over the world. Saudi Arabia, while claiming to be our friend is nothing more than a nest of liars and terrorist sympathizers! So what do you do? You list the capital cities of every Arab and Muslim nation, beginning with Baghdad. You tell the Arab League that for every act of terrorism committed against the United States, an Arab capitol will be destroyed. The list should be circulated so that every school boy in the world knows which cities are on the list, in what order, and who is next.

With the next attack on America or American interest, we destroy Baghdad. The next attack will be followed by the destruction of Damascus. The next attack followed by the destruction of Tehran, etc. until every Arab city is destroyed or threatened with annihilation! Everybody would know who is next. The people in the cities concerned would have the time between the destruction of one city and the next terrorism attack to evacuate or be killed.

What about oil? Simple we occupy the Middle Eastern oil fields at the outset. We embargo any nation that refuses to join our crusade against terror. We serve notice on the world that this world power has decided to once again act like a world power. To the nervous Nellies out there who bemoan the destruction of civilian life I would only ask: Where were you when we destroyed Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hamburg along with hundreds of thousands of German civilians? Where were you when you thought the Japanese army was about to come over here and assault your girlfriend, your wife or your daughter? Japanese civilians didn't seem to count very much then! Kill 'em all! war! All the hell we have been through has been nothing more than a facade, a mockery of all that is good and decent and holy. We have lost the will to use our power.

The Chinese dubbed us a paper tiger when Truman ordered us out of Chinese waters after bragging to the world that we would defend China from the Communist hordes. They were correct! Today is Sunday in the states, our people are all at church professing the God of our fathers. They sent us here and they forsook us! They refused to let us kill our enemy, they refused to allow us to win At what cost energy? by Thomas Sowell YouVe heard the advice to wear long-sleeve shirts and long pants. But, hey, it's way too hot for that, as far as I'm concerned. But you can easily load up on the bug repellent.

There's some good ones on the market, and it's a cheap safeguard, especially for your children and grandkids. And it makes sense to drain off any standing water around your yard and keep the grass mowed. And if all else fails and you start feeling badly don't put off seeing a doctor. True zealots sav that "if it saves iust one human life," any measure for the sake of salety is worth whatever it costs. But what Now that we have all breathed a sigh of relief at the rescue of the miners trapped underground in Somerset, perhaps we might reconsider some of the things that send men down into such hazardous places to get us the fuel to power our economy.

The cost of coal is more than dollars and cents. It is also danger and lives. So are the costs of other ways of producing power for our homes and industries. Hydroelectric dams can burst and wipe out whole communities. Oil can spill over vast areas of land or sea, or catch fire and pollute the air.

Nuclear power has its dangers as well, as Chernobyl demonstrated. Too often, individuals, organizations and movements seize upon one particular kind of cost or danger and try to block it by all means possible. But how many miners' lives are we prepared to risk, in order to spare any inconvenience to Caribou near the Alaskan oil reserves? Or to snare Teche News "Established 1886" Henri C. Bienrenn PublisherEditor Stmn K. Landry Hews Editor Rachel B.

Lemoine Manafer Bookkeeper Brenda C. Cynthia 8. Demanding "clean" air and water is like demanding "safe" sources of power. There are no such things. There is air and water containing greater and lesser amounts of other elements and compounds, some of which represent varying amounts of danger that can be removed at varying costs.

Some of these elements and compounds are dangerous pollutants, which can be removed to a great extent at relatively modest costs. But to remove that last infinitesimal fraction of pollutants means skyrocketing costs to avoid ever more remote, or even questionable, dangers. Some things that might be lethal in high concentrations may be easily handled by the body's natural defenses when there are only minute traces in the air or water. Unfortunately, such complications do not lend themselves to political slogans or to ideological crusades that can energize zealots in environmental cults or Chicken Littles who demand absolute "safety." Politicians pander to such people, especially during election years, as California's Governor Gray Davis has done by approving more stringent "clean air" standards for automobiles sold in that state. Since there is no way to burn fuel without producing emissions, the mantra of "lower emission standards" is a blank check for never-ending escalations of costs for removing ever more remote dangers.

The most fraudulent of these lower emissions efforts are those directed toward producing electric cars, which will have no emissions at all, because the pollutants are emitted where the electricity is produced, rather than in the cars where it is used. But the emissions are still Servtna the information and communication nerds of our mm munitu bu providing, quality products OJ a superior value while jutnutng our cwk responswmty. Published every Wednesday by the Louisiana Suburban Pre, Inc. 214 H. Main 8t.

Marturrllle. U. 70582 Phone (337) 394-6232 or (337) 332-3562 Fax (337) 394-7511 the delicate feelings of nature cultists who will wring their hands over oil drilling that neither they nor 99 of the American peo ii its costs can include other human lives? Wealth saves lives. The miners who were trapped underground in Pennsylvania would have been dead in many Third World countries, because the costly technology and the highly trained specialists who rescued them would simply not have been there, and could not have been gotten there in time over dirt roads or through jungles. An earthquake that kills a dozen people in California will kill hundreds of people in a less affluent nation and thousands in a truly poor country.

Not only does wealth enable buildings and other structures to be built to more earthquake resistant standards, wealth also provides more advanced rescue equipment and more elaborately equipped hospitals with more highly trained personnel to treat the injured. They say talk is cheap. But some kinds of political rhetoric can end up costing lives as well as money. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.

ple will ever see? Children can set their hearts on one thing and throw tantrums when thev can't Pertodtcsls Portage PsM at 8. Martiarilk. La. 70882 USPS 53S-6O0 SUBSCRIPTION RATES St. Martin Pariah 1 631.20 In Louisiana -1 yer 636.40 Outside Louisiana -1 get it, or can't get it right now.

But the mark of maturity is weighing one thing against another in an imperfect world. An adult weighing trade-offs cannot demand that nuclear power be "safe" because nothine on the face of this earth POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Teche News. P.O. Box 69. St.

Harttarllle. La. 70582 is 100 safe. The only meaningful question is: Compared to what? Compared to diemne for coal or burning oil? Comnared MEMBER OP Louisiana Press Association National Newspaper Association QBrtal Journal of (hp CtoofSL MaranrOe o) Breaux Br to hydroelectric dams? Compared to running out of electricity and having Taun of lleitierwon. VHJner of Porta.

St Martin Pansh Ooorrnment one School Hoard. St Harm ParBn. Warn A Sewer Onmtewi No. I. Si amn Parish Water A Sewer Ommbstan No.

3 and St Harm Ported Hospital Servtrr Dtsmtt Nry I and 2.