The Daily Times from Mamaroneck, New York • 8

A Their work merits support VnewnDODnimits Gannett Westchester Newspapers Tuesday, November 8, 1983 WHEN YOU WENT to the polls, uide did you take along a Voters Gui SectionA MK 8 today, that came in the mail a week or so ago? Or are you planning to take one along when you vote later this afternoon or this evening? Halas: No Our views Those 16-page brochures listing all propositions and all candidates on the ballot were mailed to 10,000 homes By Mika Royko CHICAGO In recent years, Ive found myself sitting around with other Bears fans and defending or at least trying to explain George Halas. or because of any of the explanations. They slid because he was very human. Halas had a son, Muggsy. And like, many men who build successful businesses, Halas dreamed of his son taking over the business someday.

The day came in the late 1960s, when Halas decided to step aside for his son. Halas had already done every- You wouldnt think it would be thing more than everything that somebody in his work could ever hope Forum Tht late George Halas to. He had won a world championship in 1963, when he was almost 70. He had won more titles and games than anyone In the history of Ms sport and still has. So he turned the team over to his, son, Just as businessmen do all the time.

It became clear that Muggsy didnt have his fathers genius to foothalL That is sometimes the case in any line It would be easy to say: Well, then he should have told his kid to move aside and put somebody else lb there. That would be easy to say, especially to somebody who isnt a father. So Halas didnt push back in. He waited and hoped. But instead of the success he hoped to, tragedy came In its most devastating form.

His son died. Halas could have shriveled from grief. Instead, like the bid oak he was, he withstood the pain. And then he came I think that, if there had been more time, if his old body had held up, he might have pulled it off one more time. At least I prefer to think so.

I was at a small party for him on his 87th birthday and he was crackling with enthusiasm, hope and ideas. But the dock ran out before he could do it again. Too had, but tt really doesnt matter. What matters about those losing years is that Halas knew what was really important in life and tt wasnt happening on a football field. necessary to have to speak up for a who was a towering giant in his field.

To those of ns who are old enough to have seen him in his prime and fortunate enough to have known him personally no defense was necessary. But to the late-coning fans those who took np football-watching when it became a TV spectacular Halas was just a penny-pinching relic of a past that they didnt know or care about All he cares about is making a buck, the fans would bellow after another Bears loss. Actually, that wasnt true. But if it had been, would that have made Halas any different from the average Bears fan? I mean, how many of them devote their lives to the unselfish betterment of their fellow man? Hes too old and ought to sell the team to somebody who knows what theyre doing, theyd shout Just like that A man devotes his life to building a business. His business.

He does the hard work, takes the risks, puts his mooey and his imagination on the line and builds something. Nobody gives it to him. Its his. But when he starts getting old, the cry goes up to shove him aside, get him out of the way, let him fade from sight and mind. There are societies that honor and value their old people.

There are other societies that push them out into the cold to die. Which kind of society are we? I first got to know Halas about 20 years ago. Of course, I had known about him as far back as I can remember. What Bears fan didnt? He was the man who brought us those great bruising, bristle-chinned teams, with players who had fearsome names like Bruno and Bulldog. But when I pit to know him, I realised there was much more to admire than his success in football He was, in many ways, a classic Chicagoan.

Like most of us, he was an ethnic. He came out of a working-class family on the West Side and hustled snd scrapped and worked his way toward success. He might have heard of the eight-hour day, but didnt get close enough to it to pick up any bad habits. Like this city, he could be tough, almost brutal at times. He could be shrewd and conniving, pushy and loud, arrogant and overbearing.

But he could also be' generous, compassionate and direct If he had something to say, he said it to your face, nose to nose, eyeball to eyeball Can you imagine somebody like Halas ever coining out of a city like Los Angeles? He would have caused the natives to swoon. That Im sure, is why he had a life-long attraction to players like Dick Butkus, another Chicagoan with soot behind his ears and cinders under hisnaUs. But in any recent argument about Halas, no matter what you said, somebody would slam the table and repeat So what? He was still a loser. In recent years, sure. We all know that his Bears havent been what they were in the old days.

The question is: Why? And the answer is something that those who admired and respected the old man which would include Just about everybody who knew him would not talk about because it could have hurt him. The Bears slid not because Halas was cheap, or because he lost his 1 here by' the Mamaroneck and Larchmont Leagues of Women Voters. They cost the two leagues more than $2,000 plus 500 volunteer-hours. The local leagues, like their counterparts throughout the nation, strive to foster citizen involvement in government To this end, they register voters whenever and wherever they can the Emelin Street Fair a month ago, for example publish an annual directory, called They Represent You, and operate a citizens information seryice in Albany when the state legislature is in session (toll-free 800-462-6204 from 10 to 4 weekdays). League members study local, state, regional and national issues and, when they arrive at consensus, campaign for what they believe is desirable While all the work is done by volunteers, it requires money for things like printing and mailing.

Much of that money comes from dues, but gifts are needed to balance the budget Election Day seems an appropriate day on which to remind everyone that the leagues, which 'serve the public, need and deserve the publics support Potemkin, N.Y. PRINCE Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin is alleged to have built sham villages of facades to impress his patroness, Catherine the Great Now we may have a Potemkin Village in the Smith Bronx. City officials are going to use money, from a $300,000 grant to put vinyl decals on the windows of empty building shells facing the Cross Bronx Expressway to make the apartments seem lived-in. Potemkin may have thought he fooled the empress, but nobody is going to be fooled by this latest facade Job. Investors dont make decisions based on perceptions, as a Bronx planning official contended.

Residents of the area are as likely to be insulted as they are lifted in spirit by the attempt to paper over their misery. And vandals are just as likely to vandalize the cosmetics as the real thing. This is no time to borrow a scheme-' from Imperialist Russia in any case. Pravda would have a field day. By the The rate of inflation in Brazil has soared to 200 percent Shoppers probably have to sprint from the grocery shelves to the checkout counter to beat the next price increase.

A campaign aide of Sen. John Glenn said of Glenns home state: Ohio is our single biggest resource state, people and money, but we havent gotten it totally together. That last part describes the whole Glenn campaign so far. A survey of 2,000 teen-age achievers found that nearly a third of them said that at times they cheated in school. How many of them cheated in answering the question? Government health officials say about one in four Americans will catch a cold before New Years Day more than at any other time of the year.

OK if they say so, but it frequently seems, throughout the winter that the figure is more like four out of four. Mike Royko is a syndicated who writes from Chicago. ISSITHE RXNMaDNM lS0ER-FBDNBiefBISlNWC Jazz bo will be missed I'Ll i fill m3 -f I- .41 4 .1 Jf? I iy 'to 2 i if ft Hi iJ v.r A I Si Of all the many adages in our English language, there is one that has particular meaning now. This adage can be related to an individual who has given much Letters Victory: More black voters Forum I This is to pay tribute to a fine gentleman and amhMMdor of impeccable music whose professionalism knows no boundaries. In a world where many true The leaders of the voter, registration drive in New York, who did a brisk business this summer signing up voters outside public hospitals and unemployment offices, smile.

They are looking to register 600,000 new Democratic Voters in New York in time to the 1984 presidential election. Jesse Jackson is their ticket The Daily Times 126 Library Lana. Mamarenack, N.Y. MM) -Wlh year No J9 Ina Meyen artists are unappreciated 'by the to know masses, it is gratifying By John McLaughlin It is September 1981, and the Justice Department has postponed elections to the New York City Council because its new apportionment plan violates the federal Voting Rights Act in that it discriminates against black and Hispanic candidates. The argument has spread to the state Senate in Albany.

John Calandra, a white Republican from the Bronx, shouts at Vander Beatty, a black Democrat from Brooklyn: If whites outvote you, its your fault Get your out to vote." i primary day, they come out Jackson may be too flam! too much the hustler for the iboyant, black PuMlibad dally and Sunday at lit Library Lana. Mama-ranack. N.Y 10S4L by Waitchattar Rockland Naawpaptra. Inc. Ono Gannatt Drlvt, Whlta Plaint, N.Y., Themaa P.

Dolan. Prmldant and PuMlihar, Ona Gannatt Drlva, Whlta Plain, N.Yj Thamat L. Richard E. Runway, Traemrar, Ona Gannatt Drlva, Whlta Plain, N.Y. political establishment But he has demonstrated in Brooklyn, where there are already 192,000 registered black voters, that he can torn people alition for a Just New York, an amalgam of black leaders.

Jackson is a hit So is his message that blacks can flex their political muscle only if they sign up to vote. There are an estimated 500,000 unregistered Mack voters in the city; 1 million statewide. At the City Technical College on Jay Street 1,100 people turn out to bear him. Run, Jesse, Run," they chant When his This-is-your-time speech is over, 2,500 people line up in front of the stage to fill out, voter registration forms. i on especially young people, who far the largest block of constitute Gannett Westchester Newspapers Jazzbo has earned his wings as an announcer.

And while Im on the subject of paying tribute, let ns not forget the fine Job that WNEW-AM has done to preserve the gnat music from the 1920s to the present The popular, Mg band and Jazs music from these eras have to the most part been neglected on the airwaves to years. WNEW-AM has proved that good music can withstand the test of time. With the help of advertisers and listeners, it will continue to bring REAL mnL. back on the radio. They vote heavily against New rfc May York Mayor Edward Koch.

niw aoowif stmummim mount HE6NON BMIY MOM mammomckmuytwh roar cnhih mm him wan ham waana mmtcn yomus mania statesman oiiaaNO otben stOBita TANVTOWN BAkV MWS. unregistered voters. It may be that the Jackson candidacy will tip the Democratic nomi-' nation away from Mondale to the more conservative John Glenn. It may be there will be a negative reaction among white voters that. will guar Thomas P.

Dolan 1 Jostph M. Ungaro Vta hsddnt, EaaAha Edbw They come close to nominating one of their own. City Clerk David Dinkins, for Manhattan borough presi-- dent In the black district of Harlem, the turnout is higher than in downtown white districts. Dinkins gets 80 percent of the black vote. In Brooklyn, former Rep.

Liz Holtzman wins the nomination for attorney inly because i rf heavy black support antee Ronald Reagan re-election. But there will be other elections 694-3002 Robort Emsiek Vin hmUmt, ChaMm (Under 643163 for Congress, for state legislatures, for mayorMor city councils. The only i Boyd Christianson 643132 Sheldon Lyons AM AALyL nvMov, 643137 Gordon Pratt am vo nwtumt, nuwRM 604-3101 Patricia D. Nag In AM 604-1166 It is Oct 21. On their television blacks all over the country hear the news that Jackson will be a candidate for president of the United States.

The grim Walter Mondale follows, and welcomes sort of Jesse Jackson to the race. Then comes Charles Rangel a black congressman from Harlem and a Mondale supporter. He says it is too early to tell which way black voters will move. Rangel looks almost as worried as Mondale. Good luck, Jazzbtf and WNEW-AM.

Keep that-, melody lingering on! SCOTT A. WENZEL Ryo thing Macks can do to win is what Calandra suggested get their people out to vote. 1 So it's run, Jesse, And worry, Walter, worry. 6043171 Elizabofh Bracken Vies hndM OrmoMn 643334 it A It is Oct 3, 1983, and Jesse Jack-son is in Brooklyn. Big, enthusiastic crowds turn out Jackson is here to drum up enthusiasm for a voter registration drive orchestrated by the Co- MEM6ER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS John McLaugMia is a syndicated columaist who writes about New York,.