The Lexington Herald from Lexington, Kentucky • 14

Lexington Herald Published by the Lexington Herald-Leader Co Main Midland Lexington Kentucky 40507 Creed Black Chairman and Publisher Ray Frazier President and General Manager John Carroll Editor Andrew Eckdahl Senior Managing Editor Jim Green Managing Editor Philip Terzian Associate Editor Wednesday November 25 1981 PageA14 Mixed tidings for education: our own trickle-down effect The asphalt jungle: any room between the roads? Letters to the editor There is some good news and some bad news on the education front in Kentucky The good news is that Gov Brown has made two distinguished appointments to the Council on Higher Education: Thomas Spragens retired president of Centre College and former Gov BerJ Combs Of course both appointments are meritorious: From the governor's point of view however the Combs appointment is commendable Bert Combs has lately been at political odds with Gov Brown and the governor had even expressed some advance misgivings about appointing his adversary on the succession amendment to the council But the governor said his press secretary Frank Ashley not a person to hold grudges and I think this is part of the continuing effort to find the best talent for all positions" felt" as Ashley explained Gov Combs experience and wisdom would be valuable to the council" In that certainly he was correct: Bert Combs has long been devoted to the cause of quality in Kentucky higher education and the state will be richer for his services For that matter the uncommon qualities that characterized Thomas Spragens quarter-century as president of Centre will be of inestimable value to the council His was an imaginative choice for if Dr Spragens can offer to the state even a measure of the vision and versatile leadership that distinguished his tenure as president the council should flourish in the years to Gov Combs and Dr Spragens and not least to Gov Brown The good tidings for higher education however are matched by some pessimistic notes struck by some recent studies of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators In a word secondary education in the state is facing a crisis The root of the problem of course is money and the source of despair is the means to get more We are clearly approaching a reckoning The double-edged blade of higher costs and lower revenues continues to cut into the quality of secondary education in the state Budget reductions and economizing have seen the system through thus far but such measures must reach a point of diminishing returns Sacrifice is necessary but it need not indeed it cannot be our oily recourse The legislature must consider new sources of revenue We have suggested two possibilities: First a raise in the state coal severance tax is past due Second the state tax on cigarettes (three cents) is scandalously low and could easily be doubled According to one of the KASA studies each cent would generate another $7 million and a three or four-cent increase would make an appreciable difference in the resources available to school systems throughout the state: In faculty materials textbooks and a wide range in curriculum After all education responds to a kind of trickldown effect What is the point of a quality system of higher education if students are ill-prepared for it? Education necessarily aid at the university level and it begin there either nal They have the race down to an art The stragglers at the back are the problem seen a wide variety of participants including those putting on makeup drinking coffee reading and doing other leisurely activities not fit for a Monte Carlo race much less the Amato 500 I would estimate the stragglers are approaching 00 mph (96 KMPH) in a vain attempt to stay with the pack The problem is that someday someone who is not aware that a major race is in the runningwill pull out onto the track and a spectacular smashup on the field will occur GEORGE KOPSER Lexington Simply subdued For nearly all of my adult life I have been an observer of police conduct If I have learned anything it is to resist judging the circumstances of any episode until I have-carefully reviewed the entire inicident which includes listening to the officers involved It would seem that you do not subscribe to this philosophy The recent friction between the Palm Springs California police officers and the doctors present at the scene of the collapse of a seriously ill woman lends itself to sensationalism It somehow does not seem fair that you have condemned the police with only a reporter's description of the event upon which to base your judgment You readily accept the reporter's story as factual and truthful but just as readily you dismiss the chiefs opinion that the conduct was correct Could it be that the chief has reviewed the statements of everyone with first-hand information and based on that review has concluded that the officers acted properly? Has it occurred to anyone that the doctors may be guilty of the criminnal charges for which they were arrested? Do you really know for a feet that the doctors were by the police or were they simply subdued? Do you know for a tact that the police were their nightsticks" or is that phrase used simply to dramatize your position? Perhaps the police were dead wrong and should be fired or even arrested Perhaps the doctors were wrong and should be convicted The purpose of this letter is to say that perhaps just perhaps the original article did not have enough information to allow an intelligent conclusion to be made I wonder if you are concerned enough with your own question is to follow up this incident and should die police be vindicated give equal space and emotion to a retraction THOMAS SHIELDS Nicholasville I recently attended a public hearing conducted by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Division of Planning concerning their proposed highway development of the next 20 years The plan calls for the building of 12 new roads six of which would be four-lane and the widening of 17 existing roads either from two to four lanes or from four to six lanes as well as the widening of four additional roads to "standard width Many of these new and expanded roads are being planned to accommodate projected increases in population According to the US Department of 1979 highway statistics as of Dec 1979 we had 1 2 miles of highway for every square mile of land area in this country and in a recent TV program on transportation it was reported to be now two miles square mile Every major city in the United States is covered with super highways and expressways most of them so congested with traffic that the city is literally choking on its own exhaust fumes and it stiff takes forever to get across any sizeable city Lexington should not have to suffer the same direct experience to learn what these larger cities have come to realize: That the development of efficient mass transit systems is essential if we are to maintain any semblance of our quality of life in urban areas I do not argue that the population will not increase over the next 20 years from all available information it seems inevitable that it will However if we accept the planning division's solution of increasing highways in accordance with projected increases In population at what point do we stop? With a national population of 300 million will five miles of highway per square mile of land be sufficient? Ten? I have been told by the division of planning that copies of the plan are available at 227 North Upper Street in Lexington I would encourage every Lexington citizen to obtain a copy of the plan and respond either by writing to the division of planning at the above address or by communicating with their council member andor neighborhood organization Almost every house and neighborhood in Lexington ultimately will be affected by this plan BEVERLY SALEH I Lexington 'I must speak The coverage of the University of Kentucky athletic program by your sports department is unbearable It has been my privilege to live at least four years in each of the following cities: Raleigh NC Little Rock Ark and Houston Texas Never have I seen a group of sports reporters so against the home team as yours come Our congratulations to all three: To Up the down staircase are against the University of Kentucky I have endured the Monday morning quarter backing and nitpicking commentaries that your staff shoves at subscribers for two years without raising my voice But you Nov 14 sports section was such a slam at my team that I must speak out Your sports editors played into the hands of Notre Dame public relations people by publishing the Skip Myslenski article Learned How to Rebound the Hard It praised a fallen giant and laid the foundation for Notre successful recruiting program in Kentucky The same problems at Kentucky and Florida were presented in such a negative manner that no high school senior would consider either of these schools if he had a chance to play for Notre Dame If our Kentucky team got the favorable treatment your writers give Notre Dame then we might recruit a few top players who could turn our program around HAROLD RICE Quicksand Ask any Christian In response to a letter about a holiday for atheists entitled and which appeared in the Nov 15 Herald: When I was younger and should I have heard you say what you had printed in the paper I would have told you that as a rule I never forget a face but in your case I would make an exception Now I am older and all I can say is that I feel sorry for you and your community Mr Harris Read Matthew 12:30132 If you find it all you have to do is ask any Christian GOODWIN Stamping Ground The Amato 500 finest are going to have to do something about the traffic on Nicholasville Road Since the reversible lane system went into service noticed a steady increase in the speed and of some of our southern commuters I cross Nicholasville Road at Malabu and Stone each day and see an average of two cars blatantly ran the northsouth light Running red lights within an urban environment is normally not too dangerous but the reversible lane system is a different animal I call it the Amato 500 i Those at the head of the pack are alert have the finest machines and are constantly looking out for the dwindling cross traffic so they can take advantage of the yet-ttHum sig it rejected the Marshall Plan as a trap and the Baruch Acheson Lillienthal and Eisenhower plans for the control of nuclear weapons as American tricks to dominate Europe and therefore threaten the Soviet Union so is now condemning the Reagan proposals as another US Imperialistic pfot By so doing the Soviets apparently hope to encourage the leaders of the anti-nuclear demonstrations In Europe to raise such a public howl in the streets that Schmidt and the other West European leaders will not be able to agree to the emplacement of any new US cruise or Pershing 2 missiles in Europe and thus leave the Soviet SS-20 and SS4 and SS-5 missiles dominating die European balance of power Yet would' probably be a mistake to take all these pronouncements out of Moscow and even out of Washington too seriously for the moment This is not the end but only the propaganda beginning of a long negotiating process that will start in Geneva at the end of this month BETWEEN NOW and then it might be helpful to avoid or at least minimize charges of bad faith if both sides would try to clarify an important preliminary question There is a fondamental conflict in the public statements out of the US and Soviet governments about the FACTS iff (1) what the present balance of missile power is in Europe and (2) about what that balance or imbalance would be if the US or Soviet proposals were accepted Germans are unconvinced by proposal cost of oil or an increase in taxes consumption declines While increases in gasoline taxes can be justified (if the intention is to encourage energy conservation) an increase intended to generate new money for highway construction and maintenance is an exercise in futility It will place an added burden on Kentuckians who drive extensively as a part of their job and it will prompt other people to leave their vehicles parked But it rescue the road fund However the drop in revenue since Gov tax increase was approved is a lesson that seems to have been missed by a highway advisory committee appointed recently by Transportation Secretary Metts The committee has tentatively approved a proposal that includes a tax increase of perhaps five or six cents per gallon The plan for saving the road fund has other features some of which are good and some of which are no better than the proposed tax increase The better ideas include raising the price of car and truck registration plates and eliminating some of the exemptions now granted on truck registration Kentuckians pay much less to register their vehicles than residents of most other states and the increases discussed by the advisory committee could increase revenue by $40 million to $70 million annually Neither Metts nor the governor is committed to supporting the advisory proposals so there is a possibility that the tax-increase proposal will never get off the ground It seems foolish to us now as it did when Brown proposed his tax increase to base salvation of the road fund on en ergy consumption in an era of energy conservation The road fund is in trouble there is no mistake about that Inflation has driven the cost of construction and maintenance through the roof But individual Kentuckians are facing the same financial limitations that afflict state government and new taxes do not necessarily strike us as a useful solution There are other sources of revenue as the committee has noted and they ought to be seriously explored Perhaps it is time to eliminate the line separating the road fund and general fund and let reads compete with other state services for the limited available tax dollars Once again an effort is under way to rescue ailing road fund with another increase in state gasoline taxes And as George Santayana conve-- niently observed who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" It has been less than two years since the then newly-elected Gov Brown took the same approach to saving the road fund from the ravages of inflated construction and maintenance costs He won legislative approval for his plan to change the nine-cent gasoline tax to a tax of nine percent The tax computed quarterly is now 101 cents per gallon What has been the result? The road fund which relies heavily on the gaso-: line tax has seen its revenue decline from $4006 million in 1979 to $368 mil- lion in fiscal 1981 To be sure the road fund has not been helped by the fact that the price of gasoline has stabilized even declined over the past several months But the simple fact of the matter is that people are not consuming gasoline as I they did in the days of cheap energy In-: stead they are buying high-mileage cars and driving less As prices go whether it be from an increase in the Thanks to you Everyone associated with the United Way of the Bluegrass campaign can celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow with even more satisfaction than that holiday usually generates and a lot They will know that because of their efforts there will be a bit of Thanksgiving the year for those 90 agencies served by the United Way in eight Central Kentucky counties Led by Lynwood Schrader as general chairmen the United campaign resulted in the raising of an unprecedented $2444125 This figure was 12 percent more than the amount raised last year and well above the $285127 set for the campaign Needless to say in belt-tightening times like these an impressive achievement Everyone in the campaign rates a hearty you" from throughout the Bluegrass and so do the thousands of contributors who responded so generously So far the propaganda on both sides has concentrated on the intentions or motives of each other which is a dangerous game But the facts can be measured or at least clarified President Reagan has defined the facts of the miltiary imbalance as he sees them Brezhnev or at least Zamyatin his propaganda chief has rejected Reagan's analysis as nonsense and insisted there is no imbalance except the one Reagan is trying to create with his negotiating proposals AT BEST this is a tangle of complicated military and scientific problems beyond the understanding of most mortals But has been thrown into the arena of public opinion and at least Moscow can take one by one and instead of dismissing than as misleading rubbish publish their answering so that there can be a more rational basis for comparison Some progress obviously has been made The president has finally made an excellent speech which six months ago might have avoided much trouble with both the allies and the Soviets He has been responsive to the objections of the Soviets the NATO governments and the leaders iff the anti-nuclear movement that he was avoiding negotiations and had no dear proposals for negotiation Now however he is entitled to a fair hearing from them all He is getting from Schmidt and the other NATO leaders and also from some anti-nuclear organizations here who have played a major part in forcing Reagan to consider their concerns Yd it is not dear in Hamburg that they will give his concerns as much consideration as he has tardily and reluctantly given theirs They are not anti-American they insist but they are mockingly anti-Reagan and will not be convinced by his speech until it is followed by serious negotiations on both sides at HAMBURG West Germany This old German sea-faring city has been watching the political winds since die 13th century and observes the present East-West storm with a very canny eye Over half of it was totally destroyed in World War II and has now been restored and modernized with exquisite taste It is only 20 miles from the Soviet tanks in Communist East Germany It is also a center of the popular West German publishing houses that have dramatized the European anti-nuclear peace demonstrations Accordingly it is perhaps less impressed by President nuclear arms proposals than the present West German government in Bonn But even here there is relief that Washington has finally offered a plan for negotiating a pause in the arms race This is not much but at least it is agreed here that there is now hope for a new beginning Before the Reagan speech with Reagan showing little enthusiasm for arms control talks with his lieutenants talking casually about limited nuclear war and the NATO alliance in doubt about the future this country already studded with 1000 nuclear weapons faced a public revolt against adding new cruise and Pershing 2 nuclear weapons The speech did not quell the anxiety but it certainly helped ITS EFFECTIVENESS may be measured first by Chancellor Helmut enthusiastic response but also by savage condemnation of it as a fraud and a deception We have been listening to Radio Moscow here In Hamburg these last few days Before President Brezhnev arrived in West Germany bombarded this country with an artillery barrage of propaganda without the slightest suggestion that there was anything in proposals worth considering all this directed from Moscow at the leaden of the anti-nuclear demonstrators in Germany strategy is quite dear Just as Nm York Tims News Santos 1.