The Daily News from Lebanon, Pennsylvania • 8

f1 6 8A Lebanon Daily News, Thursday, November 18, 1999 Editorial ti A MediaNews Group newspaper 718 Poplar Street, Lebanon, PA 17042 DAVID L. SMITH Publisher KEVIN G. KEANE PAUL B. BAKER City Editor a si KAROL E. GRESS News Editor PHYLLIS STEWART Features Editor Of cats and dogs VI Cl ju n.

6 PUBLIC FORUM d. ei ci P. ti Si Support meant a lot to candidate for bon At 25' Iper mg -ble TJ.I $2. the fai to me CI wi sei coi re tei 2 Ir la er ti rn tl di 1e a ti it a a ui cc hi who gave me wonderful encouragement. To the hundreds to whom it was impossible to speak personally, I appreciate your support and confidence in me as well.

Walter L. Smith Palmyra Area School Director, Elect they were, in the celebration of one of our greatest holidays. This is another case where Clinton continues to please the Hollywood Crowd, and its in your face for the rest of us. This president was a draft dodging, political activist liberal, and he is showing us more of his arrogance. Worse still, he is showing complete disdain for our Armed Forces and those who served their country.

J.G. Rauch Palmyra slap in the face for all Americans and in particular all veterans, living and dead. What did he do this time? He stooped about as low as he could. Imagine, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg at Arlington Cemetery, helping to honor the Normandy Beach survivors and those who sacrificed their lives. OK So they had something to do with Saving Private Ryan.

Let Hollywood the rest of the celluloid heroes laud them. But Hanks and Spielberg have no business being involved, the way that Editor: I wish to express to the people of the Palmyra Area School District my sincere thanks and appreciation for your support which resulted in my recent election to the Board of School Directors. To the many people who helped along the way by their hard work, encouraging citizens to vote for me, I am truly grateful. I spoke with many people ei CE 10 FI a i re ca Bi th 11 This wasnt a role they should have played Editor: Its Veterans Day 1999, and once again, Bill Clinton displays his arrogance: Another Ti oi No matter how many lives theyre allotted, cats just cant seem to get the respect they deserve. Take North Lebanon and Jackson townships, where officials are refusing to pay the fees charged by the Lebanon County Humane Society for taking care of stray cats in their communities.

As a result, the Humane Society will no longer race out to trap or pick up a cat spotted in those areas, nor will it accept a stray cat brought into the animal shelter by residents of either township. Jackson and North Lebanon officials say the Humane Society fees are too high and difficult to verify at least when it comes to cats. Theyll pay the charges related to stray dogs, but well, under state law, cats dont really count. Its true. Unlike dogs who have their own bureau of licensing in Harrisburg cats arent considered property under Pennsylvania law.

The difference makes it possible to hold dog owners responsible for their pets and recoup the costs of any shelter-related services. Beth White, president of the Lebanon County Humane Society, has a theory that the different treatment of cats and dogs under the law is a reflection of our male-dominated Legislature. Men are dog people, she says, so cats have simply been left to fend for themselves. That view is particularly acute in traditionally agricultural regions like Lebanon County, where bam cats are free to roam the roost and go largely uncared for. There would be no problem, of course, if owners did the responsible thing and spayed or neutered animals in their charge.

White and other Humane Society officials are pushing for legislation to compel pet owners to do just that. In the meantime, though, theres a shelter to run and bills to pay. Municipalities that dont pay rightful fees only exacerbate the problem. And under animal cruelty laws, Jackson and North Lebanon have to take responsibility for every stray animal brought to their attention yes, even cats. North Lebanon officials have expressed a willingness to sit down with White and work out the issues.

But Jackson, which has never paid the cat-charge, has so far refused to budge. Ultimately, wed like to see the county commissioners step in and provide more funding for the Humane Society. Despite the fact that the Humane Society operates the only animal shelter in Lebanon, the countys donation covers just 4 percent of the shelters $200,000 budget. Single-mindedness hurts poorest women be th ELLEN GOODMAN tered abortions. But the deal hacks away at funding for these groups even if they use their own money to support or advocate safe cl cc tb SI bt government funding for any international family planning groups that dare to even speak for abortion.

When I grow up I want to be single-minded. It makes life so much easier. You can stake out a position which is, as my father used to say, Consider Russia. Under the Soviets, abortion was once the primary form of family planning. Now the availability of contraceptives is up, and the abortion rate is down.

in sh Anyone with an open, as opposed to a single, mind might wonder what paying our debt to the United Nations has to do with family planning. The short answer is nothing. Even Jesse Helms thought Chris Smith was out of line. unencumbered by facts. You can talk about the one hand without worrying about the other hand.

shrink the pot for family planning. As Gloria Feldt, the president of Planned Parenthood, describes the compromise, Theyve made the women of the world the bargaining chip. One of the great disappointments is that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright supported the agreement and volunteered to defend it to irate population groups. To which Amy Coen of Population Action International replies: She better wear armor. Ironically, one of Clintons first acts as president was to deep-six the old gag rule, an executive order of Ronald Reagan.

Now it appears that hell be the first president who signs it into real law. Is it any wonder that both Gore and Bradley have already distanced themselves from this deal? We have to pay our U.N. bills. Those who support family planning are, of course, expected to understand. We are, in fact, always expected to understand.

We are expected to be responsi-blct to see the big picture, while the man with the tunnel vision wins the day. OK, the rent is overdue. First things first. But how come that always means putting the poorest women of the world last? But Russian family planning groups also lobby the government to improve the notoriously unsanitary conditions of abortion clinics. Under the new rules, they could lose money for birth control because they also spoke up for safe abortions.

The Single-Minded Smithies want to do more than restrict abortion in other countries, though abortion is legal in our own. They want to impose a limit on free speech in other countries, a gag rule that would be unconstitutional in our own. Anyone might also wonder what the Smith crusade against international family planning groups actually has to do with limiting abortion. The short answer is, well, almost nothing. Or maybe less than nothing.

Since 1973, not a single dollar of American money has been used to pay for overseas abortions. In fact, the funding that goes to international groups for family planning has greatly reduced the number of unwanted pregnancies. That translates into fewer abortions. I think of this as the Chris Smith advantage. The congressman from New Jersey manages to view the entire world through a single fetal lens.

With unrelenting, uncompromising stubbornness, hes now managed to rewrite foreign policy. For years, Smith led his band of right-to-lifers in a game of legislative chicken. They wouldnt authorize the money to pay our debt to the United Nations until the government agreed to restrict international family planning funds. Clinton kept refusing. Finally, this week, with a deadline looming, the deadbeat United States faced losing its vote in the international body.

So a deal was struck and victory went to the most stubborn. The United Nations gets a billion dollars in dues and the Smithies get restrictions on OUR POLICY Letters must bear your signature or e-mail address, along with your full address and telephone number where you can be reached, day or night, for venfication. We reserve the nght to edit and condense all letters. We ask that you limit your letters to 300 words. We will not print unsigned or anonymous letters (name withheld or pseudonym).

This is the deal thats being passed off as a compromise. In fact, the administration got one loophole: a waiver. By the terms of the agreement, he can either defund the programs altogether or use that waiver, which comes with a penalty cut of $12.5 million out of international family assistance money. This is a compromise? Just who got compromised? Either way, we are continuing to The money also translates into fewer deaths of women, though womens deaths dont seem to come into focus on the right-to-life screen. Some 600,000 women worldwide die during pregnancy and childbirth every year, some 75,000 die from unsafe or self-adminis- BIBLE VERSE Goodman writes for the Boston Globe.

Thursday, November 18, 1999 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. (II John Trump-eting his chances for the Presidency Doonesbury by garry trudeau MAUREEN DOWD TO BUILP ON OUR. MOMENTUM ,1 THINK YOUNEEPTOGET THINGS THAT BAY YOU'RE A WINNER! ster, as he calls himself, is the apotheosis of our Gilded Age. Our politics is warped by money, celebrity, polling and crass behavior, and our culture is defined by stock-market high-rolling, boomer narcissism, niche marketing mania, rankings and a quiz show called Who Wants to Be a metic. About the candidates, he demands: Did they make billions of dollars in a short period of time? No.

Could they No. And: Hey, look, whats so good about these people? I do Face the Nation, Meet the Press, Larry King. I think I do better than they do. Theyre boring as hell. They get no ratings and everybody turns off the set.

He refers to W. as the anointed son of the president who should have finished the war and says he looks vacuous. He thinks Bill Bradley is not exactly Cary Grant. A1 Gore has made dreadful mistakes," including Alpha Girl. At the end of his first day as an exploratory guy, Trump was very tired.

Almost too tired to brag. But he rallied enough at midnight, in a limo from the airport back to Trump Tower, to check out a big poster with his name on it and to muse about how much of Third Avenue ho hud built. fans at the Bay of Pigs Museum yelling Viva Donald Trump! He gave a tentative wave to his first rope line, but soon recovered enough to note that Steve Forbes never had so many cameras at the airport or a supermodel by his podium. Trump does not live an examined life. He lives a quantified life.

He keeps track of all numbers, the sentinels of success the number of magazine covers his girlfriend is on this month and the number of men who are dripping with lust for her; the number of zoning changes he has finagled; the number of stories he was able to stack on his building near the United Nations; the huge amount of money he was paid to do a clever ad for an online company, in which he looks down a girls shirt, and the short amount of time it took him to do it; the number of favorable mentions in a Palm Beach publication about a club he has started at Mar-a-Lago; the number of working-class guys who call out to him. ABOARD AIR TRUMP -Melania Knauss pulls up her black Calvin Klein sheath to show off her supermodel knees. I never wear skirts this long, says the girlfriend of Donald Trump, with a pretty grimace, standing in the aisle of his plane, stocked with gilt fixtures, French impressionist paintings, a double bed and the creme-filled finger cookies the real estate king decrees the greatest. But politics requires sacrifices. And Mondays trip to Miami was a dress rehearsal for Trumps potential White House bid.

So the amiable Miss Knauss was doing her bit, wearing conservative gray and black Calvins chosen by a publicist for the Trump modeling agency. But the Slovenians stilettos by Manolo Blahnik gave her away as someone blissfully unfamiliar with rope lines. Trump was making his maiden foreign policy speech to Cuban-Americans who adore his Castro-bashing. Id have, personally, two words for him: Adios, amigo!" he told a large, cheering crowd, adding that he wanted the first hotel in free Cuba. FORWNATE-LY, YOtflE ALREAPY 60T THE IRQ- PHViillFFL.

YEAH, HOW LUCKY IS THAT! WHO KNEW YOU NEEPONE? I love Regis, Trump says. Why shouldnt billionaires play Who Wants to Be a President? Ive already got my own airplane," he says. We could save money on Air Force One." You gotta love a guy whose economic platform runs all of a page and a half and is a $5.7 trillion squeeze-the-rich tax plan that would make the Donald at least $750 million poorer. And there are more provocative plans to come. Oddly, given so many years of Trump plastering Trump on every available surface, the builder and casino owner actually looked a bit shy when he saw the Trump 2000 posters, with his own pouty kisser staring buck, and Cuban-American UK A HELICOPTER! ORA UK.

AMCMANGION! WHATT 57 ypp that I MAKES AIN 1 IMPRESSION! A. I think the only difference between me and the other candidates," he summed up, is that Im more honest and my women are more beautiful." I am just very popular with the black populace, he says. When Puff Daddy has a party, when Russell Simmons has a party, Im the person they call." lie uses a kind of ego arith- Dowd writes for the New York Times, The flirtation of the Trump-.