St. Joseph News-Press from St. Joseph, Missouri • 7

COMMENTARY Better living through science REE MICHAEL E. MARCUM. The battle cry sounds faint now. But as God i is my witness, it will echo from the banks of Wildcat. Creek to the humble bluffs above Alanthus.

As long as I have a breath to breathe, this pioneer of time travel will not be crucified at the clumsy hands of the unenlightened. You must have heard by now about Marcum, the former Ohican and present martyr of Stanberry. He is the scientific oracle whom authorities accuse of daring to reappropriate a half-dozen electric transformers in order to tap into that mystical stream called time. This cosmic surgery, of course, involves creating a vortex of electrical energy to pierce the fabric of the universe. Through that hole, we will be able to saunter back and forth through time like a stroll through the mail.

THAT'S RIGHT. When Marcum says, "You caught me at a bad time," he truly means it. Sure, he's broke today. But once he gets the bugs worked out of his time machine, he will be rich. Indeed, once he gets that time machine humming, he will be able to slip into the future to get the money for his bond and bring it back or just as easily visit the past to takes steps to avoid the arrest.

Shucks, he might return to the past, beat out Mayor Scott Downtown Mall only then we wouldn't be able to celebrate the Downtown's amazing rebirth. House Speaker Bob Griffin could return to his halcyon days in Braymer, to pursue those singing lessons his mother tried to get him to take. It's much better to be a smooth crooner like Tony Bennett, after all, than an embattled speaker. Surgeon General nominee Henry Foster could drop back a week and help the Clinton administration get straight the number of abortions he has performed. Or he could pull back 38 years and avoid, the legal behavior that would become an emotional battleground today.

SOMEONE, ANYONE, any- one, should go back to the seed of the dispute between the ballplayers and owners to settle the baseball strike. Let's see that would be either the first time a ballplayer, put his name on the back of his jersey, the first time an owner turned an obscene profit, or the occasion on which Adam plucked that fateful apple out of greed. The first order of business, however, must be freeing Michael E. Marcum. Would we not have done as much for Thomas Alva Edison (who also flickered a few lights in his day)? I just wish he would have told me before he got arrested.

Fortunately, he still has time. Clinton strikes out on wild pitch WASHINGTON Two muchdiminished institutions, the presidency and major league baseball, saw their downward spirals intersect last week. The episode should illuminate the nation's thinking about the uses and abuses of government. President Clinton, whose exasperation is more understandable than his decision-making, is asking Congress to empower him to impose binding arbitration on the players and owners. But even if Congress had spare time to invest in a matter of such marginal importance to most Americans and of negligible importance to the national interest, it should not do so.

Rather, it should use the president's improvident invitation to intervene as an occasion for demonstrating a mature sense of proportion and limits. Relations between players and owners are so poisonous that there does not exist the minimal trust that is requisite for real negotiations. With spring training camps set to open Thursday, there is not even agreement, even 'among the owners, concerning the industry's basic financial facts. FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS may be unproductive. Unless binding arbitration is imposed, the season may begin with the comic operetta of "replacement players" and baseball will go from 1993 to at least 1996 without 'a serious season.

Presidents cannot impose binding arbitration whenever it suits their fancy; this would not be a free society if they could. But these facts do not establish a case for Congress to authorize Clinton to Impose such arbitration by law. In a free society, government should not, even if it could, save private parties from the consequences of their mismanagement of their institutions, unless their FAMILY DOLLAR King Hill Plaza 6958 King Hill Ave. St. Joseph Drapery Supplies Available FABRICS AND SEWING MACHINES 420 COURT SAVANNAN 324-4053 By MARK SHEEHAN Staff Writer Eckad and proclaim Stanberry a safe haven for explorations in time travel.

FOR ALL WE KNOW, Mar- cum has been to the future. Otherwise, why would a man with the key to the universe cool his heels in the Gentry County Jail when the bond is only Don't kid yourself; Marcum knows that his legal woes are temporary. Time travel promises endless possibilities. President Clinton could, should, go back to that moment in his psychological history when he developed the need to please all at the risk of accomplishing little. He might even want to get Betsey Wright's bimbo list and avoid those on it this time.

Downtown planners could go back and stop the new, beautiful By GEORGE WILL Syndicated columnist institutions are crucial to the social order, which major league baseball is not. Robert Reich, the secretary of labor, speculates that "if the public is concerned about baseball. well, I imagine that a lot of members of Congress will give the president the authority that the president is seeking to order binding arbitration. But on the other hand, if the public basically to say, 'A pox on both your well, at least we tried." is to say, the government is going to keep its ear pressed firmly to the ground, even though it is hard to look dignified in that position. Actually, there is no need for it to get dirt in its ear.

A few facts are clear: Baseball's core constituency consists of at most 15 million repeat customers; baseball is no longer even close to being the most popular sports component of the entertainment industry. There is no way to torture the word "public" to make a settlement of baseball's dispute important to "the REICH OFFERS a number of reasons for binding arbitration, perhaps hoping that quantity can substitute for quality. He says "many cities" are "dependent" on baseball. But no metropolis large enough to support a major league team can be "dependent" on it. ONE STOP SERVICE LIFE HOME CAR FARM BUSINESS JAY ADAMS DALE RAUER SHELTER KENT AHRENS JERRY MYERS We'll always be there for you Shelter Home Office: 1817 W.

MO 65218 RESPECT ELECTRICITY USE IT SAFELY! The LiGHT POHER Company Clara's Clearance Hurry Sale Ends Soon! ALL WINTER NOW Off MERCHANDISE Regular Price Clara's fashions Bast Ridge Village St. Joseph Open Weekdays 10 to Mery Mart Shopping Center Frederick Saturday 1419 South Main 582-3012 Sc. MO Maryville Open daily 10 to 6 Maryville, MO 7A MINE "MY DOG ATE THE DISK MY HOMEWORK WAS ON." Is the Golden Goose a goner? He says "many cities have put up enormous amounts of money for stadiums." True, but that does not generate a federal obligation to guarantee that those dubious investments shall always be remunerative. Reich finally resorts to the rhetorical mode familiar regarding baseball. Call it Full Gush: Baseball "is intimately related to the morale of the nation," and "after all, baseball is baseball." But a tautology is not an argument.

And such dewy sentimentality about baseball's status is a large part of baseball's problem. It is impossible to see clearly through misty eyes. Gene Orza of the players association says that when Franklin Roosevelt asked baseball to continue during the war, "he didn't add up the dollars only. He recognized the impact of the sport on the national But this isn't 1942. Earth to baseball: has anyone noticed any changes in your game's standing with the public? IF CONGRESS MAKES a federal issue of the mismanagement of this fraction of the entertainment industry, it will tempt disputants in many industries to hold out for similar treatment when they think it is in their interest.

That is another reason why imposition of binding arbitration in baseball is bad public policy. Denied the hope of an imposed solution, and face to face with the reality of replacement players and another ruined: season, baseball's two sides may recognize that they are already in the realm of splittable differences. If so, Congress, by refusing to rescue them from failure, will have faci-. litated success. George Will is a columnist for the Washington Post.

His columns are distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group. SHONEY'S America's Dinner St. desapb 1119 N. blesk north of Frederick) 233-2308 cal tell 1-800-525-0018. Ent.

6213 That seems to be the politically correct response to all of America's woes these days. Maybe it's the right answer, if, as U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R- suggested more than a year ago, all federal programs were to be cut across the board, let's say by 5 or 10 percent. Since that's not likely to happen, it's imperative that Congress and all Americans use their heads and a little logic about which cuts are smart and which cuts are dumb.

One of the dumb ideas is eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts. This is why: The National Endowment for the Arts, on the surface, is providing funds for thousands of art organizations and arts projects. What it is really doing is contributing to the economic health of many communities where the arts organizations are receiving grants. How so? Careful studies by reputable researchers have shown that the arts bring money into a city. People who come to a concert, play or art exhibit in St.

Joseph, for instance, leave money at hotels, restaurants, gas stations and stores. A 1991 (pre-Trails West!) study by Missouri Western economics professor Patrick H. McMurry showed that $4,063,230 found its way into St. Joseph businesses in just one year as a result of arts and cultural events attended by residents and BUSINESS PEOPLE told us that during the weekend of the first Trails West! festival, hotels were filled to capacity, gas stations took in more money than on any single previous day of business and McDonald's had its best three days ever. A grant from the NEA gives an arts organization the legitimacy needed to a attract more much-needed money from corporations, foundations and individuals who are very careful about the organizations to which they give their nonprofit dollars.

Many NEA grants improve or provide school programs that 1. may spark new interest in learning for underachieving students, 2. give kids opportunities to see and hear some the world's finest art, drama and mu- MERCANTIE MEMBER FDIC BACK By KAREN GRAVES And EILEEN LOCKWOOD Guest columnists sic which would not otherwise be available to them, and 3. offer artists in residence an opportunity to link the arts with math, history, political science and language in a way that makes the "core" subjects easier to understand and more interesting. In other words, money from the NEA may do a lot more for education, crime prevention and building self-esteem than billions thrown away on programs that turn out to be useless.

DOES ANYONE KNOW, for instance, how much crime has been averted because of arts programs for kids, such as youth orchestras and jazz bands to play in, theater arts workshops and youth choruses? Remember the old, old adage, "A busy boy is a good boy?" There are so many solid things to say about the value of the NEA that it would take a thousand more words. But we should not forget the many small towns, including those near St. Joseph, where people would be denied access to dramas and fine music if subsidies were not provided either directly by the NEA or with funds funneled through a state arts council. As for the NEA and Missouri Arts Council partial funding for Trails ask yourself these questions: Did the first festival provide a badly needed island of pleasure after a summerful of terrible flood disaster? Did it help create a new sense of community togetherness? Did it bring enjoyment, pride, learning opportunities and an up-close-and-personal relationship with fine art and music? AMBASSADOR TRAVEL GoGo Tours Cancun air 3 ats htt. from $400 Are you eagerly looking forward to more of the same at Trails West! 1995? (That's Aug.

18- 20. Mark your calendar.) FINALLY, Mr. Editor and all you critics out there. please, please understand this: Public support for the arts is NOT "welfare for the affluent." It's an antibiotic for everyone whose psyche is in danger of permanent damage from overexposure to the loud, the raucous, the ugly and the stupid. Try a steady diet of the above, and see how long it is before someone calls the little men in white coats to come and get you! And, oh yes, on that matter of grants to "undesirable" artists projects: In its 30 years of existence, the NEA has made 100,000 grants.

Fewer than 10 were controversial. That is one one-hundredth of 1 percent. Think about it: 99,990 grants went to worthwhile recipients. We challenge anyone to find any government agency with a small record of waste or reckless spending. Remember the Defense Department's $100 screwdrivers and $500 toilet seats? The Hubble telescope that cost $1 billion to fix in space because of shoddy workmanship? The Challenger plosion that cost the lives of seven Americans because of a faulty "0" ring? ONE JOY RIDE on Air Force One by a presidential aide? It probably took 10 to 15 years' worth of taxes from everyone in the News-Press newsroom to cover the cost of that.

It's a fact that most NEA grantsgo to communities the size of St. Joseph and smaller for projects that bring people and the arts closer together. In a world already reeking with hate, violence and mediocrity, isn't it a good thing to fight for the things that uplift our spirits and counteract the ugly with beauty and intellectual stimulation? Karen Graves has been intimately involved with arts for many years. In St. Joseph, she was chairman of Trails West! for two years She is a past president of the Allied Arts Council board.

Eileen Lockwood has served on orchestra and humanities boards in Milwaukee and in St. Joseph. She is currently a board member of the Allied Arts Council, Robidoux Resident Theatre and St. Joseph Symphony. Phone Your Orders TOLL FREE 800-892-2212 JONES STORE CO.

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