Fort Worth Star-Telegram du lieu suivant : Fort Worth, Texas • 92

9 8-E FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM Sun July 16 1972 1 LETTERS FROM THE READERS itfi 1s -4 Police Fort Worth's True Minority Ideology Issue Forced by McGovern Democrats part the manikins looked like old gangsters in a black museum No I like to think of tomorrow As a matter of fact when my son Robert left for college he unthinkingly left behind a neat wig It's glossy and black Someday when I'm alone here I just might try it on There's no law that says I can't ROBERT A MEACHAM 4205 Bonnie Dr I 0 0 I I 1 Joe Doe II worked 30 years for one company but it folded His pension plan was inadequately handled There were no funds when he needed and deserved them About five million people are unemployed in this country today Tens of thousands of professionals have had to change jobs and thus lose private pension benefits This group needs help They need a portable plan so that their pension can be transferred even if they have to change jobs They also need better protection with respect to how their money is managed The Ways and Means Committee is now reviewing the whole system of private pension plans Write your congressmen now and send a copy to the Democratic and Republican platform committees Tell them that the middle class needs to be considered for a change DR VIRGINIA ANIOS crime Regardless of what the "experts" can come up with showing that severe punishment does not curtail crime I cannot agree It is true that the prospect of punishment does not completely do away with crime but it definitely does curtail it A person does not deliberately walk into a lion's cage knowing that there is a possibility that he may be eaten by the lion When a criminal knows that there is a possibility that the death penalty can be imposed it does cause the criminal to have second thoughts before he executes a major crime Since we are forced to accept the opinions of our federal judges and the Supreme Court declaring the criminal laws of our land to be unconstitutional it appears the recourse for correcting such errors should and must be made by our senators and representatives And while they have not taken any direct action other than to omment on the premises it is time to locate new candidates who will pledge and agree to get some constitutional amendments initiated whereby the people can have the type of laws they need for the betterment of society I have found that neither the Mexican-Americans nor the blacks are the minorities in Fort Worth The police are the minority and they are being discriminated against every day I should know because my husband is one of them The police receive a small pay check but are expected to raise a family on it They are shunned by all except close friends family and fellow police They are not supposed to frequent certain places because if something happens they are held responsible They aren't told to wear their firearms off duty but if they don't and a robbery or assault takes place the policeman is blamed Ile didn't prevent it The police I know have families attend church and respect life as much as the next even more so A policeman tries to protect himself When he is shot at etc he is the one blamed if he shoots back and injures the other Why? Because the injured screams discrimination and police brutality The charges against the suspect are dropped but the policeman is suspended and receives no pay He does get to return to work but his chances of promotion are slim I feel sorry for the people who have made the policeman the minority One day they will need the protection they did away with and there won't be anyone around to help Maybe that will be the day people wake up and realize the policeman is not only human but also much needed In the meantime I'll continue to say a prayer every day that my husband returns home safely I hope he isn't forced to defend his life and be fired or sued for it It is a cinch that no one else cares what happens to him MRS JAS BODDIE 7304 Lola Dr Plain People Some of the older newsmen reporting from Miami say that compared to party conventions of former years among the delegates there are more women young people and ethnic plain ordinary people This description should please the writer of the July 4 editorial in the evening Star-Telegram "Since 1776: An Old Peril in a New Day" which was a good job for Independence Day thinking The continuing scandals of elected and appointed officials in this state as well as in other states were not skipped The substance of the editorial when boiled down is that in the face of the growing lack of confidence in the dominating leaders of the country we have little left to depend upon except as the writer says faith in "the plain people" It is said that plain people started this country anyway despite the claim of the British that they were rebels BEN MILLER 3215 Pecan Confused HERBERT NIEURER Attorney at Law Muenster "ticket balancer" from the ideological center of the party These hopes were not fulfilled by the selection of Missouri's Sen Torn Eagleton a little-known liberal who stands with Senator McGovern on most of the issues that will be prominent in this year's campaign There NV as the expected division of opinion about Senator Eagleton among party members on the convention floor A few appeared enthusiastic others (like Governors Carter of (mrgia and Bumpers of Arkansas) were cautiously unenthusiastic and some (like Texas gubernatorial nominee Dolph Briscoe) called the selection of Senator Eagleton "stupid" Or vo rse Ideology aside the Democrats appear to have picked a vice presidential candidate with an adequate amount of charisma and one whose campaign record in his home state indicates that he could be a definite asset to his party in the physical speech-making aspect of the campaign But that's putting ideology aside and this is not going to be the year when it is safe to assume the election outcome will be decided on anything but ideology Theorists have speculated on and dismissed as unlikely the development of a clear-cut 100 per cent liberal-conservative party alignment in the United States It may still be unlikely but at least the McGovern Democrats now have staked out their side of that pasture and for the moment at least have driven out moderates and conservatives like unwanted mavericks The other boxer has now entered the ring followed by some of his seconds But some of his seconds and entourage apparently have gone home The bout will go on as scheduled and will end on Nov 7 The new challenger Sen George of South Dakota has won an impressive string of victories in the past four years punching and hooking almost exclusively with his left It was not until he reached Miami Beach that he demonstrated any inclination at all to use his right and not much hen But in national politics as in boxing a winner needs a capability from both sides and it is because the liberal Senator McGovern has not shown that kind of balance that many of his fellow Denmcrats now are distressed over the prospects for November both for him and for themselves Tennessee Rep Ray Blanton who as the Democratic nominee will try to unseat Republican Sen lloward Baker Jr on Nov 7 put that issue simply and bluntly after the nomination of Senator McGovern in Miami Beach: "I am convinced a minority viewpoint has taken over the Democratic party I face an extremely tough campaign for the Senate If I tied my campaign to McGovern's presidential campaign it would amount to an abandonment of the majority of Tennesseans to a continuation of Republican domination of our state offices" Democratic contenders for state and congressional offices across the nation who share Mr Blanton's gloom had a brief interval at Miami Beach in which to hope that the McGovern choice for Vice President would be a Big Lie Re the Democrat Party's beg-a-thon: Nothing gives the "big lie" to the concern for the two-party systetn like the rotten one-party system that controls local politics in Port Worth and state politics in Texas DAVID FOWLER I'm confused A letter in last Sunday's forum Everywhere" by Vernie Barber Jr) threw me in a shock Up 'til then I felt that even at 55 with black flare-bottom pants and a pink nylon shirt I was in the stream of things that I was a part of a progressive society Now I'm browbeaten shook up But just for the record let's hop back to the Garden of Eden back to the time when Adam and Eve had their "thing" over the apple Was a law established at that period requiring men to adorn themselves in the blue-black shade of monkey skin and the women to appear only in the ever popular polka-dotted leopard fur? The answer to this can be found in the archives of antiquity But today it boils down to human choice Anyway Adam covered with whatever he could put his hands on Personally I don't care for the old days That's when department store dummies stood gaunt and stiff displaying dull blue suits and funny white shirts and big tough-looking shoes that were black and white and brown But for the most Penalty Helps To comment on a letter of Mrs Cooper appearing in the Star-Telegram Sunday July 9 relative to the Supreme Court's action declaring the death penalty unconstitutional because in the court's opinion it is unusual and inhuman punishment I would have to agree with the Titer wholeheartedly By the same reasoning we should then also do away with all penal institutions repeal the criminal code and let each citizen take care of himself or herself It is obvious that all penalties must be assessed according to the type of Pension Losses Joe Doe I an ambitious aircraft engineer works hard and conscientiously but now nears retirement without any private pension plan Due to ups and downs of his industry he had to change jobs three times and each time he lost pension benefits Irving God Help Us I felt I must write in answer to the letter from Clarence Barnes of Weatherford that was in the July 3 Evening Star-Telegram One of the big problems of this country is that there are too many people who fail to realize that when President Nixon took office we had 500000 combat ground forces in Vietnam and now we don I have any As for McGovern God help us if he gets elected The only thing that would save us then is that Congress would have sense enough not to go along with his harebrained ideas On the other hand I am 100 per cent with Mr Gus Thomson on his letter (Eve S-T July 3) "Democrats NO!" JOHN MONTGOMERY 808 Russell Rd Everman UNEASY RIDERS 1 We Salute the Shriners Hoodwinked During the recent Democrat primary Ralph Yarborough mentioned that the people of Texas had been "hoodwinked" in 1970 It appears that the people of Texas were hoodwinked again Barefoot Sanders successfully played conservative long enough to fool enough people to win the Democratic nomination Sanders is a liberal His voting record during his tenure in the Texas Legislature is proof He is a close associate of Ramsey Clark one of our nation's most renowned liberals Clark was a monetary contributor to Sanders' campaign He must have believed Sanders more liberal than Yarborough Is Sanders a conservative? No Don't be hoodwinked Let's return a true conservative to the Senate John Tower has these credentials BILL BURKHART 2685 Stephanie Lane Hurst l'sce--'s ((17'1 l'11 'i'T 110-3e- 1 ilok--- 1tF '--1)):) ro I A 4i -) 1 ii! tillt I 1 1 tvi 1 e-(1 '14 11 1 I olv -4 i s'kL i -f A I tc 'p 7 tit NI --) 0 sE i et 0 44i 4" :1 'i'11'il4'se I 'F 'C'fl I 0 't A 0 oll 7: tr 14s i 44) i7 1 I 1 1 a s''' 0 A i )' A 'p a 00 fl filo i r0 11 1 0 A1 lf-' I e-- 4I qpn3 Plogr" "'A itiesof 1 0 N' vy1 '') 4se 0 144-- 40 0 ::11 04b hi 4 tfi4 )m4k' rt ti 41y1firle -1- il lig lit ir t': 115447 0- vier- 11 I 1 pp A e4 I JAI lo 1 (c----T :1944 4410 14 11 th) rf' -7 7' 0 0 01'' 4'trle '4 le 't 111111101 VIO: ior' d1 14 11 1 4 jt fi 4 0 '''J'' 1 4 4 14retreetIgb I's4 4 pip fth kat iri '''1 1 'AI 01 10140i t' i4 0:04 11 'OP' E' 7 kt)eL i lk i i i f7 'A 4'91 2-00 ele'elie--4-A------ a 4--" 4 44" Ait leV4 '4i tt'c 13 'I' -I mAitipittdp11110I wi ii! sol ei dr orir 4 11 41 r0 're -4i' I 'pis Alit ir ilik bw 1 lio I IL i'' 1 cr At' 444 Shriners are here In fact they are here in such numbers around 100000 of it is taking the facilities of two big cities and their immediate areas to meet convention needs and so both Fort Worth and Dallas have the pleasure to be hosts The men in red fezzes represent 172 temples in the United States Canada Mexico) and the Canal Zone It's been quite a growth since the 13 charter members of the first Shrine unit conducted their first official session in New York in 1872 For us there's something no ore expressed than the customary warm greeting a host extends to his guests lien we say "welcome" to the Shrine rs Because every time we see a red fez we think of the Shriner Hospitals for Crippled Children The Shriners started that worthiest of projects in 1920 and by now there are 19 of them besides the three Shriner Burn Institutes At the crippled children's institutions are treated youngsters whose parents are unable to pay for the medical surgical and hospital help required And front the start the Shriner hospitals have been open to children of all races and of any creed So the Shriner convention we help to welcome the first in our area since 1913 means to us more than color and pageantry and conviviality It is a reminder of a scene that by now Inis been repeated some 160000 I imes Somewhere a crippled child and his or her parents are comforted and given new hope because there is a Shriner Hospital for Crippled Children offering the child the finest modern treatment Who can adequately thank the men in red fezzes for that? Senator Soaper Says: Apparently there is no such thing as a town any more Nccording to television you live in a nizrket while to professional sports you are a resident of a franchise Big Yawn Our accommodation with Russia reached through President Nixon's recent visit is in jeopardy It is hoped that the hot line to the Kremlin is being used to the fullest to reduce tension in Washington and Moscow so that World War can be averted The incident leading to this impasse is the Bobby Fischer chess nonsense If there ever was a shenanigan to generate a tremendous yawn that one should be awarded the mink-lined handcuffs Maybe there is significance in the fact that the match is being held in Iceland It can be no colder there than the interest in its outcome WILLIAM STONE 2404 Glencrest Dr Harold Maples Star-Telegram Cartoonist FOOTNOTES by Gaston Foote Sports Doesn't Need Federal Umpire CUT OW THE BUTTONS Firemen Commended We wish to commend the quick action and excellent service rendered by the Fort Worth fire department in put ting out the fire at the Forest Park amusement center on July 6 The alertness of Mr Reuben White in locating the fire and calling the fire department helped save several valuable trees and adjacent buildings and amusement rides Thanks to them all for a job well done GENE MATTIIEWS Forest Park Rides Inc trustees thank Cod rejected the gift The donor wanted to give the coat and snip off the but tons We are all familiar with the gentleman who is good for a WO gift but is quite broken up if he doesn't get V00 Nvorth of publicity out of it Some gifts are made with the disdainful air of patronage It is looking down one's long nose to the socially unwashed with the feeling of "Oh did the Lord make you I oo?" That surely snips the buttons off the coat no matter the size of the gift The New Testament has a good suggestion to make concerning giving: "Beware of practicing your piety before men ill order to be seen by them MINI you give alms sound no trumpet before you as do the hypocrites do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your alms may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you" In Jesus' day the winner of the Nobel Prize for philanthropy was the Good Samaritan Ile left all the buttons on the coat Mil sent along an extra set Ile gave his time his money his love without hope of reward On the tomb of an unknown soldier In Europe are these words: "He gave his all and forgot to sign his name" "Don't cut off the buttons" recognition of a mutuality of interest and the willingness to pursue the collective bargaining process of which I am a strong advocate" NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle an old hand at laying it on the line was somewhat more blunt than Kemp when he went before the Senate Commerce Committee recently to oppose the legislation: "Anyone who tried to (teal authoritatively with the particular and individual problems of each sport would have to have the knowledge of the Almighty the judgment of Solomon and the vision of Joan of Arc I don't find these qualities available in even in Howard Cosell" The fact is professional sports have not been exactly free of the bureaucratic web In the case of pro football Rozelle says that sports is the most over-supervised over-examined and over-regulated business in America today The NFL and its member clubs he points out currently operate under the federal anti-trust laws the National Labor Relations Act the Federal Trade Commission Act the Equal Employment Opportunity Act the Federal Communications Act the Federal Securities Laws the rules of the Price Commission end By VICTOR LAWRENCE in scheme of things it has been discovered that the federal government which has agencies to regulate virtually every aspect of society neglected to create an agency to regulate professional sports But that oversight would be corrected if "The Federal Sports Act of 1972" manages to clear Congress It is left to the reader's imagination what would happen to pro football baseball hockey and on down the line Listen to Jack Kemp on the subject The former Buffalo Bills quarterback put 13 years in pro football walked off with the American Football League Player of the Year award in 1965 and was co-founder and president of the AFL Players Association Kemp talks like a congressman now because that's what he is representing the 39th District of New York Ile might have said it differently on the gridiron but it came out this way on the louse floor: "I have seen the chaos that can he inflicted on the private enterprise sector by unnecessary federal intervention It is my conviction that the interests of all players and whatever problems now existing can best be reconciled and resolved through the the Pay Board and under a number of federal acts dealing with professional sports in particular Each member club is also subject to the standard array of laws applicable to local business such as the laws of workmen's compensation local safety and health codes and local tax laws The NFL's television practices have twice been investigated by the FCC and the member clubs' endorsement and licensing practices have come under FTC probe on two occasions The league's tax practices have been exhaustively reviewed by the Internal Revenue Service and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has made a half-dozen investigations of league and member club employment policies And they have been involved in four separate proceedings before the NLRB "I do not believe that the problem of reconciling the interests of fans stadium authorities players owners TV viewers networks and amateur athletes is going to be effectively resolved by waving the magic wand of federal supervision" Raze Ile points out "If a sport cannot accomplish this itself through a fair accommodation of the interests of each the sport Itself will bear the penalty" The people of the United States are quite familiar xvith periodic clothing drives for those less fortunate than ourselves in war torn areas overseas Concerninv '''o one of them a woman r1'- 1 was heard to say "I al- 1 ways like to give my ex- 5 tra clothing away but I 4I usually cut off the but-I tons from the coats etc --ok in case I might need them for myself" If as James Russell Lowell reminds us "The a gift without the giver is bare" it would seem that FOOTE a coat without buttons in the dead of winter would be bare indeed Every minister is acquainted with Mr Gotrocks on Plush Avenue who is quite willing to make a liberal contribution to the church budget provided he is allowed to dictate to the preacher and tell the official board how to run the church This is a case of giving the coat and snipping off the buttons Some years ago a well known but prejudiced philanthropist offered million dollars to an economically strapped Southern college provided it pledge to keep its doors closed to black students I Despilte the dire need for tho money the I i it No Regard I have been watching the Democratic national telethon to raise funds to retire their past-due accounts They handle their party funds ILIA like they handle the taxpayers' money that is without any regard for the day when the bills come due I am more than ever convinced that at the national level I am going to be voting Republican and will pretty much be doing the same on a local level RASMUSSEN Grapevine 40 4-.