Lancaster New Era from Lancaster, Pennsylvania • 8

8 LANCASTER, NEW ERA SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1984 OUR IDEAS Cut Back on Federal Benefits LETTERS Asks Rubber Horseshoes, Buggy Tires I --50UND5 FAIR, BUT WHC5TOWHAT I "COMWRABLE WORTH' save billions of dollars. When government workers talk about salaries, they demand that government pay scales be comparable to the private sector. But they dont apply that same comparison to benefits. Government pensions are fully adjusted for inflation increases, while private-sector adjustments average only 33 percent. The typical retirement age in the government is 55, versus 64 in the private sector.

Federal employees use 64 percent more sick leave (nine days) than private-sector employees (five and a halfdays). We are not saying that federal workers do not deserve to earn a respectable compensation for their labors. We are saying that they do not require as much in retirement benefits as they receive at the expense of taxpaying citizens who dont begin to receive such benefits. Thats just one of the areas the president could attack without requesting permission from Congress. If such radical moves are hot possible during an election year, we certainly hope they will be kept high on the list for the next term.

It may not be generally recognized that an estimated 27 -percent of the Grace Committees 2,500 recommendations for cost-cutting in government could be implemented by administrative action, without the aid of Congress. President Reagan could not SSegin to eliminate $424 billion in 'government spending over the next three years solely on his ini-1 tiative. But theres a lot he could do without the help of a Democratic House of Representatives. For example, he could save $30 billion by bringing the federal governments retirement benefits in line with private-sector retirement benefits, and another $3.7 billion by doing the same to sick-leave policy. Thats how far out of line those programs are, according to Peter Graces report on wasteful spending in the federal government.

Of course, the president -would have difficulty with a powerful union of federal workers in an election year. They would no doubt fight such a loss 'with all the power they could muster. But even a partial cut--back of fringe benefits would Is Radio Moscow Broadcasting from loWa? I Einstein Never Flunked Math Editor, New Era: I have been following your editorial page on a daily basis, since that incident of an Amish horse and buggy driver being was prosecuted for failing to yield the right of way. I believe that this officer was fulfilling one of his many duties. Any horse and buggy or any horse drawn equip- ment insisting on staying in lane of motorized vehicy should be pulled over, 6 0 cuted, and fined, if at the cation, there was amplgjnbn; shoulder to be used by- tlieij a violator, ins! This has been a problems a.

which has been ingoredifoEehts' too long. No, I have no object tion to the obsolete manner im which the plain folks travel ns however, I do believe thdy 6-' should show and give sbmte nr! consideration and courtesyto" their counterpart, the motor-'2113 ist, and keep on the should1 whenever possible times 3'iu Yaloi umes' ro Su As for road taxes, lets3ih honest with tfeefcoic pay none what soever. the damage that is inflicted, by the horse, with his fiardewci steel shoes, has to amount tqrstv many, many dollars. owners of motor vehicles, quo1 who use studded winter have to have them off, ob certain time of the yearbj face a possible fine if caught by a law enforcement How much more damage tiff1 24r studded tires do to our high-ways, then the horse. to me the time is ripe some positive adjustments, believe every horse an47I3v; buggy should have to chase a registration plate, all such equipment, using the bor.

public highways. I alsojberfT lieve they should be madetabjoe use hard rubber horse shoek as well as hard rubber on tfad-Ibw buggy wheels, which Ddoinus know for a fact are Walter G. Slant Jrj rri Jiv IeJimM Some Ib3 About 91 1 Operators Editor, New Era: Ive been tossing this around in my mind, since Thursday Feb. concerning the 911 emergency number. An elderly woman in Lancaster had her friend lying on the floor unconscious.

She dialed 911 for help and was put on hold. A minute can meadM the difference between tokii death. A fire in a homeailqooi minute counts. She wasrft'd! even asked what the emeft nov; geneywas. lytobir ijjoeicil' After reading Feb.

15, New Era about the ambulance- mixup, Im asking, how efi jc0. cient the 911 emergency, op4 eratorsare? 1 Swiss archives. It turns out that the child was father of the man: Einstein was always smart. What caused the confusion was that Einsteins Swiss school switched grading systems in 1896. Top grades had been 1 and lowest grades 6.

The new system had 6 at the top and 1 at the bottom. When little Albert began getting 6s in math, 20th century biographers failed to note the switch in marking systems. Late bloomers are still very much with usi but genius of Einsteins caliber is born with the brain. Another grand illusion is gone, but future generations of school children, and their parents, will doubtless be the better for the loss. Is nothing sacred Among the treasured rejoinders of generations of school children who have brought home less-than-satisfactory report cards was the old Einstein excuse: 'Albert Einstein flunked pop, and look what he be-Came! Even parents jumped on that rationalization bandwagon.

If son or daughter were not doing so well in school, there was still the chance that genius would set in later in life and EMC2 would be popping out out of those young brains before they left college. The bubble has been popped. Princeton University is planning to publish Einsteins academic records, recently acquired from U.S. ships are leveling villages and killing innocent women and children. The President would rather save face than save lives.

He has ordered indiscriminate and I use that word intentionally indiscriminate naval bombardment of territory outside of Beirut. John Glenn is thus accusing the U.S. Sixth fleet of waging a war of terror and perpetrating atrocities on Lebanese civilians on the direct orders of the president of the United States. On Saturday, Gary Hart got into the act: Ronald Reagan clearly wants to give a blank check to the Pentagon to prosecute and increase the cold war. Running through this bile is a recurring theme: The enemy of peace and justice in this world is not the Soviet Communist Party and the Politburo; it is the president of the United States and the U.S.

Department of Defense. Jesse Jacksons wife in Nicaragua was explicit: The most critical problem we face, not only in the barrios here, but in Nicaragua and Central America, is that of the threat of an invasion by the United States against Nicaragua. The menace, then, is not communism or Castroism; it is U.S. Maripes and Airborne troops, on the orders of President Reagan, doing to poor, peace-loving Nicaragua what they did to Grenada. Because the national press largely shares the mindset of the Democrats employing this demagoguery, their watchdog function is temporarily suspended.

Giving the Democrats a pass, however, does them no favor. As in 1972, this garbage will be recycled in the fall. In its frustration and hatred of the conservatives, the American left has begun to sound like the Tass News Agency. While NCPAC the National Conservative Political Action Committee gets all the press notices for dirty campaigning, hearken to this late release from its respected liberal counterpart, the National Committee for an Effective Congress. Sen.

Jeremiah Denton, Medal of Honor winner from Vietnam, is an extremist zealot. Seh. Orrin Hatch of Utah is a right-wing extremist zealot. Sen. On in Hatch of Uah is a New Right fanatic, and freshman Sen.

Gordon Humphrey, New Hampshire, an extremist too fanatical even for New Right leader Orrin Hatch. Will someone explain the difference between that sort of vilification and what you can hear daily tuning in to Radio Moscow? WASHINGTON When John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas by a Marxist assassin, collateral blame was laid at the feet of right-wing extremists in the city, who were said to have created the climate of hatred in which the president was slain. If, tomorrow, some would-be assassin makes yet another attempt on President Reagan, an identical share of blame for creating a climate of hatred might rightly rest at the feet of the Democratic aspirants to the office he holds. Before a single primary has been held, the Democratic candidates seem to be urging the American people not simply to oppose and replace Reagan, but actively to despise him.

With this comment upon the death pf Yuri Andropov; the jackal who for 15 years headed the dreaded Soviet secret police, George McGovern leads the pack. It is modern tragedy that one of the Soviet Unions most intelligent and realistic leaders has served and died during the administration of the most ill-informed and dangerous man ever to occupy the White House. Alan Cranston was aiot far behind with his characterization of Reagan during Saturdays Iowa debate, as a dangerous man who has left a legacy of fear and hatred. Walter Mondale, pressed from the left by McGovern, Cranston and Jesse Jackson, suggested Reagan be treated as some sort of aberration in the White House. Ronald Reagan is not a moderate or a conservative, Mondale declared Saturday, but a radical.

In the history of this nation weve never had a president that has so assaulted the interests of working Americans This administration has just gone out of its way to assault the average working family Elected to a second term, Mondale warned, Reagan could nominate justices to the Supreme Court. That could mean the end of civil liberties in America. Shades of Mussolini. Even John Glenn has begun to hit the same hysterical notes we used to associate with McGovern a dozen years ago. The U.S.

naval shelling on behalf of the Lebanese Army, says Glenn, is morally reprehensible, a moral outrage. Smiles and Frowns To the four McCaskey High School students who won first-place awards in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Sciences Region Four meeting. They are Jon Stigel-man, Bao Nguyen, Richard Field and David Sick. To Nicholas P. Monatesti, Lititz, named Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year by his Pennsylvania Air National Guard unit at Willow Grove.

To squirrels who eat bird seed. Whats the matter with these rodents? Dont they store nuts for the winter anymore? To drivers who gun their engines while waiting for lights to change. Who needs the noise and aggravation, not to mention the energy waste? To people who know they have the right idea ana refuse to listen to another persons point of view. To Annette Kurtz, crossing guard of the year for 1983 in the School District of Lancaster. She works at East King and North Broad streets.

To Robert Swisher, of Landisville. He found a bag with $34 in it that had been lost by a 7-year-old boy. He turned it over to police. For Want of a Staple The Case Was Lost OTHER IDEAS '1 re 1 Just Ask Alice been obtained under an illegal warrant: The two pieces of paper had not been stapled together. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts agreed with this contention and ordered that the defendant either be freed or tried anew.

The Commonwealth appealed. The case was argued before the Supreme Court last month. What about it? The appellate court in Massachusetts went out of its way to praise the careful and commendable police investigatory techniques" that led OMalley to evidence that was highly probative in the case. The magistrate was a member of the bar. It was not OMalley's fault it was the fault of the careless magistrate that the warrant and the supporting document were not tied together.

The police had acted in good faith, and they had obtained evidence that satisfied a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. On the other hand, the warrant was in fact defective. It was a mishmash of wrong terms and unreferenced data. Which is more important, form or substance? Without the evidence, the Commonwealth may have no case at all against Sheppard. But if the evidence was indeed admissible, the guilty verdict stands.

Common sense says the evidence was properly admitted in the first place, but common sense and Supreme Court decisions are not necessarily the same thing. ries and ties them and the 19th century monarch's often unhappy personal life to Alice and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass. This literary dispute reminds us of another concerning the possible authorship of William Shakespeares plays by Sir Francis Bacon, or others. As in that mystery, neither Victoria nor Dodgson are alive to defend themselves. But if this literary debunking is on the mark, it certainly goes against the modern-day trend of politicians and celebrities having others ghost-write their thoughts.

Sacromonto Union Lewis Carrolls magical Alice in Wonderland has long been viewed as both a drug metaphor and expression of the author's fondness for little girls. Now a group of San Francisco researchers is claiming that Britains Queen Victoria secretly wrote Alice in Wonderland." as a way to cope with life's frustrations and bribed Carroll (Charles Dodg-son) with royalties to go along with the fabrication. In a 241-page study, The Secret Diaries of Queen Victoria, anonymously authored, we might add the society examines Victoria's dia Realizing they may be vol-ij unteers, but they should iW dedicated or get out. io.r oJT- A VoluntMfj ioIoo r.ra He Would Bandit: All Amish Buggies 99 Editor, New Era: I propose banning the buygies from our' highways Altogether. I agred W'r with freedom of religion but not when it endanger-" other peoples lives.

Sure, a few buggies pulToff. the road and let drivers but most show no courtesy and keep crawling on their merry little way. NV The Amish should stayo home, get a ride from some-i one who drives, or learn to' drive themselves. juaoc Come on all you Amishpeo-ple out there, give the rest of us a break! Irion Ink BERRY'S WORLD LETTER Auto Junkyard Hit WASHINGTON The badly burned body of Sandra Boul-ware, 29, was found in a vacant lot in the Roxbury section of Boston about 5 o'clock on the morning of Saturday, May 5, 1979. She been murdered.

Almost five years later the U.S. Supreme Court is struggling with the case of the man found guilty of killing her. The case offers one more example of the exclusionary rule in action. This is the procedural rule, supported by 80 years of high court opinions, which says that certain evidence against a defendant must be excluded from a jury's consideration. Such evidence is inadmissible if it has been obtained in violation of a defendants Fourth Amendment right to be protected against unreasonable, unwarranted or unlawful search and seizure.

Many of the exclusionary cases baffle ones sense of justice. In recent years the admissibility of evidence has turned upon such weighty questions as: Was the policeman's foot inside the door? Was the plastic in which the marijuana was wrapped opaque or translucent? Was the inside of an open glove compartment visible from the sidewalk? In the Boston case at bar, the profound question of consitution law boils down to this Were the two pieces of paper stapled together These are the facts. You decide if justice is being served. The young woman had been beaten, bound with wire and set on fire before she died. Police investigation led to a boyfriend by the name of Osborne Sheppard.

The cops brought him in on a Saturday afternoon, read him his Miranda rights and questioned him about his movements on the night in question. As it turned out. Sheppard's alibi failed to hold up. Detective Peter J. OMalley became convinced that a search of Sheppard's home on Deckard Street might turn up some damning evidence.

O'Malley needed a search warrant. It was now Sunday morning. May 6, and the wind was up. Unless the search were conducted swiftly, it was likely that the suspect would destroy the evidence or take to his heels. The only warrant form that could be found at the station house was a form for drug busts.

O'Malley scratched out controlled substances" at one point and did what he could to adapt the form to the case at hand. Then O'Malley took a separate piece of paper, and here he described the place to be searched (the basement and second floor) and the things to be seized (wire, blood samples). O'Malley went to a magistrate and established probable cause to believe that a warrant should issue. The magistrate tinkered a little more with the form, but he neglected to cross out controlled substances" at another place in the warrant. The magistrate then handed the detective the two pieces of paper signed warrant and Malley's accompanying statement and the cops went off to Deckard Street.

There they found wire and matched the wire on the victim's body. They found blood samples that matched her blood. They found earrings and items of clothing that were identified as hers All this was admitted as evidence at Sheppard's trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to life. But then a motion was made for a new trial on the ground that the evidence had legal to maintain an auto graveyard in a residential area.

There is a particularly ugly, ever-expanding one on Owl Bridge Road. There are others in our beautiful River Hills area. Do the majority of people really want this? Don't we have ordinances against this? I think we need some new ideas and some new people in our supervisors' office. PwbWimr Editor, New Era: I want to commend both the Millers-ville Borough Council and the Lancaster Township Supervisors for their excellent work remembering who voted for them and following their wishes. 1 wonder if they would offer on-the-job training for our Manor Township supervisors.

Then maybe some of our laws about running dogs and auto junkyards would be enforced. I cant understand why it is Lancasth New Eju Fotsxfed 1877 KMWMrtMxngacMSinW I Swl uncj ISO UNCASTE1 NEWS! AKXS, MC A Stermen Erteyrse i Vf AS letters to the editor must be signed. However, the New Era may withhold he writer's name if retfjesb ed. Signed letters are ghmn preference. Suggested length is 200 to 300 words.

The New Era reserves the to condense aB letters to ewet space requirements. Address the Edton New Era. W. King Lancaster, Pa. 17603.

"Have you wand the good news about the unemployment rateT' A.