The La Crosse Tribune from La Crosse, Wisconsin • 4

4 Thursday, August 28. 1980 diplomacy An Independent Newspaper KENNETH 0. BLANCHARD. Publisher KENNETH F. TEACHOUT, Editor THOMAS S.

JENKS. Gtryral Mtnigar RICHARD MIAL. Opinion Pago Editor DA VID B. OFFER, Managing Editor T. BURGESS, Publisher Emeritus SANFORD GOLTZ, Editor Emeritus Founded In 1904 Let's adopt budget earlier may By WILUAM O.

BEEMAN Pacific News Service Insignificant as it may seem to Americans anxious to have the hostages back immediately, real progress has been made in recent weeks toward a peaceful resolution of the U.S.-Iran crisis. The keys which have helped open doors have not been found in the corridors of diplomacy, but in the arena of people-to-people contacts. The gestures of private citizens, particularly the Ramsey Clark mission, have had a major impact on Iranian public opinion. It is that public opinion and not the maneuverings of Iranian officials which will be the decisive element in the hostage situation. This was clearly demonstrated by the fact that the death of the shah changed nothing.

Many Americans had hoped that the hostages would be released soon aferward, based on the assumption that the Iranians wanted the shah returned to Iran above all things, and that the hostages were being held against that rettura. With the shah dead, there would no longer be any point to holding the hostages. This is, unfortunately, a very shortsighted view of the crisis. It assumes that the hostages are being held just because of the shah's crimes. In fact, the hostages are being held because of And up to now, it has been overlooked in the heat and debate surrounding adoption of a budget to operate the schools.

That is that the budget was adopted virtually at the last possible legal minute by the Fiscal Control Board. There was, in effect, no opportunity for discussion, compromise or reasoned approach to reducing the proposed budget. It was strictly meat ax. In effect, the cut is half a million dollars, now figure out where it can be applied And, unless your memory is short, you will recall that this is the second straight year that the budget process has gone down to the wire. In fact, last year, final action was taken by the Fiscal Control Board, questionably, after the state imposed deadline.

This is no way to arrive at a workable budget. The students, who are supposed to be educated by the system, and the teachers and administrators who are employed by it, deserve better. At least let's benefit from this years hassle to the extent that the budget doesnt go down to the legal wire next year. Jhe reprecussions and reactions tithe Fiscal Control Boards mandated $500,000 reduction in the proposed La Crosse School District budget are continuing to be fejt and heard. it is still not clear how much longer those reprecussions will be felt.

While the school board, at a meeting Tuesday night, appeared to have trimmed $514,000 from the budget, school administrators Wednesday questioned that figure. According to Superintendent Richard Swantz and Director of Operations Woodrow Wieden-hoeft, the figure actually might fall as far short as $110,000. If that is the case, then considerably more cuts will have to be made, and one of the more obvious places for those cuts is in the area of extracurricular activities, which already have been trimmed by the board's plan. How deep those future cuts will have to be is a little difficult to determine at this point. It is even conceivable that some future cuts could come in the instructional area.

Again, how much is unclear. One thing, however, is clear. The 1st Amendment; it belongs to you 9 crisis the party headed by Ramsey Clark at the Conference on American Intervention in Iran. There are excellent indications that the State Department tacitly approved of the Ramsey Clark mission. Indeed, advice received by the State Department from a committee of Iranian experts meeting with top officials in April called precisely for direct contact with the Iranian people.

The intention was to express sympathetic American concern for the success of the revolution, and some understanding of the grievances Iran had against the United States. Such contact, it was advised, should also let Iranians know of the deep emotional feelings generated among U.S. citizens by the hostage crisis. Ramsey Clark gave a magnificent performance which was televised throughout Iran, carrying out this agenda, to the letter. State Department officials were subsequently elated to see that in his first official speech following the Clark appearance, Ayatollah Khomeini had ceased blaming the United States for internal dissension in Iran and placed the responsibility for disorder on internal factions.

This pattern has continued to the present. American scholars with an interest in Iran and the American Society of Foreign Student Advisors, along with many college presidents and other concerned citizens, were also successful in halting an abortive plan by the administration to deport all Iranian students this fall. This plan, reportedly the brain-child of White House counsel Lloyd Cutler, involved complex changes in regulations governing all foreign students, aimed at making it possible to expel Iranians with educational visas. If the administration hopes to ease the hostage crisis, it must not expect to capitalize on the death of the shah. It must launch more careful initiatives designed to appeal directly to popular sentiment in Iran.

Real grievances must be acknowledged by the U.S. and bargaining in good faith must start to demonstrate to the Iranian people that America is willing to negotiate a new relationship with them. Only then will holding the hostages cease to have any political meaning. William O. Beaman teaches anthropology at Brown University, Providence, R.I., and Is an expert on Iran and the Middle East.

ideas? party of progress needs new progams. There was polite applause. Bill Clinton was just into his teens when John Kennedy was elected. What he knows of NRA and WPA and PWA and farm price supports hes read in the history books. He was in the sixth grade when the first blacks entered Little Rocks Central High School, escorted by Army troops ordered out by Ike.

But he knows that liberals, and the liberal philosophy, are in trouble this year. The way things are going, there may not be an admitted liberal running for office in this state by Nov. they're all heading for the middle of the road. Things may brighten up by late fall. But I'm reminded of a remark by Lou Holtz, Arkansas head football coach, who could match Henney Youngman on one-liners.

Beware of the light at the end of the tunnel, Holtz said. It could be an oncoming train." Sanford Qoltz, a former Tribune editor and Opinion Page editor, writes a weekly column from his home at Cherokee Village, Ark. wmmm longer serve a useful purpose. That examination has begun and should result in some much needed deregulation of industry. I anticipate with interest the position papers on these issues.

Dorothy Dcdo, 1061 Cedar Road EDITOR'S NOTE Dorothy Dedo Is a candidate for the Republican nomination lor the State Assembly from the 95th District. Letter policy The Tribune encourages letters to the editor, but please keep them brief. We reserve the rigid to edit all letters and require that all letters Ini hide the name and address of the writer In certain Instances, if personal safety or Job security could lie threatened, names will be withheld on request. 9 crimes Iranians feel the United States and not simply the shah committed against them and against their revolution. By admitting the shah to American soil last November, the U.S.

government seemed to show that it was opposed to the new revolutionary order in Tehran. More serious, the admission of the shah to the U.S. looked suspiciously like the first chapter in a plot to return him to power in Iran and undermine the revolution entirely a suspicion the White House made no convincing effort to allay. The cry in Iran to return the shah was perhaps more than anything else a cry for an act which would demonstrate conclusively that the United States was willing to support Iran and its revolutionary goals. But the U.S.

continued its refusal to acknowledge that these goals had any validity. On the contrary, it imposed economic sanctions and mounted the abortive rescue mission in violation of Iranian territorial soverignty. As a result, the shah and his personal fortune quickly began to lose significance as the principal focus for Iranian rage. The United States itself became the principal target. It matters not at all that the seizure of the U.S.

embassy was accomplished without the direct knowledge of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The sei few other young voices in his party, was laying down some questions that veteran Democrat officeholders have tried to ignore. "Those in this country who are alienated from us tonight are asking some very gnawing questions, he said. They want to know why they should participate in a system that does not work for them. They want to know why, if they do vote, they should return to office a president and a party that has presided over a time of high inflation, high unemployment and lagging productivity.

They want to know what is at the root of our misery, and what we as Democrats are going to do about it. "They wonder if there is anyone in this whole land with a clear vision of where we are going. The doubts that Clinton feels how the shifted money would be applied to pick up more than 50 percent of local education costs. Would it be 50 percent of each municipalitys costs equally applied? that could be a boon for Shelby with a school levy of $1,235,944 and state shared revenues of only $225,446. What I examine is the net result.

I can see that this could double the town levy and Increase the county levy, but if it could also lop off one half of the school levy, I'd be for it. On other points, I agree that some property tax exemptions may be due for elimination. Welfare reform is long overdue. Wisconsin spending in this area is 23.2 percent per capita above the average of all states. I also favor a workfare policy whereby all able-bodied adult recipients perform a useful service.

(This should accomplish the additional purpose of enhancing the self- zure was literally a popular act popular in the sense that it was an act of the people, not of Iranian officials. All evidence thus far supports the theory that the hostage takers are genuinely students acting without outside political support. The taking of the hostages was pop- ular in the more generally understood sense as well: the people of Iran enjoyed the notion of giving the United States some of its own back in return for what they felt were legitimate grievances against Washington. Thus it is not surprising that the death of the shah is suspected in Tehran as a further plot of the American government, accomplished through the dark, and seemingly omnipotent, hand of the C.I.A. Amazingly, the shah himself could be on the verge of being declared a martyr to American political machinations, a good ruler who fell under the evil designs of U.S.

governments from Truman to Carter. Nevertheless, the White House has continued to carry out absurd cloak and dagger operations, based on such long shots as the Billy Carter-Libya connection. Is it any wonder then that its efforts fail? In fact, the most positive developments in recent weeks were spearheaded by groups acting in spite of the administration, not in accordance with its plans. Chief among these was have new rather sudden doubts, as it happens, with the chill winds blowing across the nations liberals this election year are not new. Rep.

Paul Tsongas, a Massachusetts protege of Ted Kennedy, laid it out in even tougher terms a month or two ago in a speech before the Americans for Democratic Action convention. The New Deal and the Fair Deal were fine for their times, said Tsongas, but what do we do in the Eighties and Nineties? Unless we change our ways and come up with new solutions, he said, the last meeting of the liberals will be held in an old folks nursing home. That warning, in fact, is a quarter-century old, though hardly anyone took it seriously at the time. It was Eleanor Roosevelt, her husband dead for a decade, who got 10 minutes at the 1956 convention at the old Stock-yards arena in Chicago, largely because she was the Grand Old Lady of the party. The times and needs are changing, said Eleanor.

The country is on the move, the Great Depression and dust bowl years are behind us, and the image of the recipient.) I have long advocated minimal competency testing for high school students as a requirement for graduation. A high school diploma should be evidence of mastery of basic skills, at the very least. Construction of nursing home beds does bear close scrutiny, particularly in the light of alternative programs. Disposal sites for toxic wastes are a necessity; and wetlands regulations are now being Imposed by the DNR. Already there is pressure for amendment and modification of these regulations, which I believe can be worked out.

One abstarle is that the regulations would not be uniformly applied. Rural people dislike being forced to do something that Incorporated areas can Ignore. I also endorse the abolishment of certain regulatory boards "that no When will liberals "For four days we have worked hard to bring together the core of our party. Now we must go on to an even more important task. We must speak to the millions of Americans who are not here who do not even watch us on television or listen to us.

Who do not care. Who do not bother to vote, or it they do, will probably not vote tor us. For if is these people who will decide the election of 1980. And they cannot be moved by the symbols and accomplishments of the Democratic party of the past." Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, addressing the Democratic National Convention.

Bill Clinton, a first-term governor and the youngest in the nation, got prime time at Madison Square Garden because he had just been installed as chairman of the Democratic Governors' Conference. NBC gave the Clinton speech four minutes. ABC and CBS had other things to talk about, in an evening crammed with speech segments to which few of the delegates listened. But Clinton, taking a cue from a Sen. William Proxmire has introduced a resolution in the U.S.

Senate calling for establishment of March 16 as annual Freedom of Information Day. Rep. Henry Reuss has said that he will introduce a similar proposal in the House of Representatives. The idea, though not earthshaking, is a good one and we hope it becomes law. In introducing the resolution, Proxmire said he believes many Americans take the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment for granted.

A fundamental principle of our nation is that, given the necessary information, the people can make the decisions that will determine their present and their future, he said. No other government in the world supports the rights of its individual citizens with this essential foundation: the right to know what is happening in their cities, their states and their nation. The proposed March 16 date is appropriate. It is the anniversary of the birth of James Madison, So far; George, it seems one of the founding fathers who advocated the Bill of Rights. The idea for the special day was proposed by the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, a national organization of newsmen and women, and journalism educators and students.

The organization has a student chapter at the University of Wis-consin-La Crosse and a professional chapter will be chartered here next month. The society asked Proxmire and other senators and representatives to support the special day to remind Americans of their right to be informed of events that affect the way in which they govern themselves. If the day is estal-blished, the society and other journalism organizations would present programs designed to remind Americans of the importance of their right to know. We encourage congressional representatives from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa to join Proxmire and Reuss as sponsors of Freedom of Information Day. tty Tht Christian Scenes Monitor like a nice arrangement 4 what Tribune? pcadopo any Another View Your editorial on the seven items for legislative action outlined by State Sen.

Paul Offner and State Rep. Thomas Loftus prompts several comments from me. The first proposal piques the most consternation: "A $200 million cut in general aid to counties and municipalities, with the money shifted to school aids, allowing the state to pick up more than 50 percent of the cost of local education. It sounds like robbing Peter to pay Paul, and that won't work. Every dollar that is taken from counties and municipalities will merely raise the levies of those units of government by that amount, and since such levies also constitute the property tax, that could get you back to square one.

I guess what really concerns me is 4.