The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 10

PINION AH Sunday, Oct. 23, 1994 The Pantagraph OTU YOUifc A CORRUPT, BRUTAL Donald R. Skaggs Publisher Fred Kardon Executive Editor Bill Wills Managing EdltorEdltorlal Jan Dennis Managing EditorNews The Pantagraph THUG VIHOS RAPED WD PlliWSED HIS OWN COUNTRY! VIHAIWA Jndei GMW WIN Founded Fell Editorials gc to McLean County's top cop good for his fifth term we Jan. networked and have access from computers carried in their cars. The need for access to computer files has been acknowledged by Brienen in his quest for substations in the smaller communities, which is a good idea.

Money and technology should be a challenge, not a reason to pooh-pooh a good idea. Dissolving the process-serving division, as Ploense has suggested, doesn't change anything except perceptions. If it takes three people to serve these court papers, spread Steve Brienen should be turned as McLean County sheriff. His endorsement over Democrat Gary Ploense is based more on organizing the department to a professional police level and his performance as a policeman than on his improvement plans. A major improvement would be the Enhanced-911 system, which Brienen is ramrodding but which seems to be taking forever to implement.

Brienen says it is the most complicated matter emergency agencies in McLean County have worked on, ENDORSEMENT Our readers write XI Steve Brienen I Gary Ploense but it has been nearly three years in the making with a target date of Sept 15, 1995, before implementation. For this slowness, Ploense has criticized Brienen as chairman of the E-911 committee. His criticism merit Why should Normal send any of its police to Haiti? In The Pantagraph on Oct 15 there was an article entitled "Normal force Haiti-bound?" In the article it spoke, about how the Normal Police Depart-, ment has the opportunity of sending of- ficers to Haiti to help train the forces President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. There are several things that must be considered in light of this situation. First, did not the Normal Police De; -partment have a problem handling a situation not too long ago with African- American students on the Illinois State 1 University campus? Second, was not a task force set up to 1 work with the Normal Police Department and the African-American community at ISU to work through differ-' ences between them? Third, is it not true that the Normal Police Department does not have a person of color working on the force? Now the question must be asked: How can the Normal Police Department send officers to Haiti to train people of color, to work with people of color, when the police force seems to be having trouble working with people of color here at home? Gary S.

Young Bloomington Time for reconsideration of regional airport ideas Peoria's air transportation continues to deteriorate as major carriers announce cancellations of flights important to our area. My personal experience with air travel on return flights from Chicago and St. Louis over the past year has been dismal. Of the four times I flew into Peoria, each flight was either canceled or seriously delayed! I now have my wife call the airport before my scheduled arrival to find out when they expect my plane to arrive. It's time to once, again consider the possibility of joining forces with our neighboring communities of Blooming-ton-Normal, Springfield, Decatur and Champaign-Urbana to form a new regional airport at a central convenient location, such as Lincoln.

Lincoln is approximately 35 miles from Peoria, 25 miles from Bloomington, 25 miles from Springfield, 25 miles from Decatur and 55 miles from Champaign. All of which are less than an hour's drive away. Any of these trips would be effortless compared to driving into Chicago or St Louis! By quadrupling the ridership at a regional airport surely we could create a major airport with more extensive, better-quality and cheaper flights. We could leave the Peoria Airport to serve the Air National Guard, our burgeoning air transport service and local private aircraft. Let's encourage the Greater Peoria Chamber of Commerce and Peoria Airport Authority to take the lead in promoting better commercial passenger service to downstate Illinois with a Central Illinois regional airport! Wayne Nowlan Peoria Cartoon attack on Rush was 'offensive' Your political cartoon by Etta Hulme in the Oct 18 Opinion pages was nothing more than childish and nothing less than personally offensive.

A man and woman are sitting together reading. The man says, "It says here that listening to Mozart makes you smarter." The woman replies, "You can reverse that by listening to Rush Limbaugh." I suppose this was meant to be funny. Why don't you just come right out and say that people who listen to Mr. Lim is not without At the heart of each sheriffs race is always the number of deputies patrolling roads. Ploense has made it an issue, suggesting that moving some of the brass into patrol cars would help.

Each year, Brienen has asked for more deputies. In 16 years, three patrol deputies have been added. He could move four lieutenants to patrol, but four lieutenants would only add the equivalent of one full-time person. Then, who would do their administrative duties? Something similar was tried a dozen years ago. On one campaign issue, we side with Ploense and think Brienen should have a more open mind laptop computers in police cars.

Instead of having deputies go into newly created substations in rural areas to file reports via computer, Ploense thinks they should have computers in their cars. Brienen says there isn't money for such computers, and that he isn't wholeheartedly for them anyway because deputies would be spending too much time in their cars and not enough out meeting and greeting residents. Brienen's argument is weak. Just because the County Board has had a reputation for saying "No" to such requests, Brienen should not give up. All county police agencies should eventually be A round of For Hou Tak Cheung, Rad-heshyam K.

Jayaswal, Anthony J. Otsuka and Devaka K. Weerakoon, professors in Illinois State University's biology department, who received $86,960 in cardiovascular ing the work among more people won't mean less manpower. Deputies are serving about a fourth of the court papers while on their beats. The ideal solution, in Brienen's view, would be to change state law so police are not required to serve any court papers and then transfer the duties to the circuit clerk's office.

That's just shifting the burden from one department to another. It's unfortunate, but things could get nasty before this race is over. Ploense worked for Brienen, and it's obvious that Brienen doesn't think Ploense is qualified to be sheriff just because he was a deputy from 1972 to 1976. Ploense left the department and returned as a correctional officer, eventually becoming jail superintendent before he resigned in 1988. Brienen emphasized that Ploense was not fired, Ploense has spent most of his time knocking Brienen's operations instead of coming up with innovative plans.

After 16 years in office and easily winning re-election, Brienen should not be so defensive when improvements to his department are suggested. His attitude during the campaign has been more like a cop than a politician. He has done a good job, so he doesn't need to get so edgy that he begins preaching to the masses about what is good for his department. Brienen's police knowledge and proven track record are enough to convince us that he is the better candidate. MONDAY: McLean County Board District 2 endorsement.

applause research grants from the American Heart Association, Illinois Affiliate. ISU is not always thought of as a research institution. These grants recognize that research is being done there. tlement getting married continues to be too easy. And talk about illogic! Here we are in a society where one faces six months of training to obtain a driver's license, 12 years of schooling to procure a high school diploma and tens of thousands of dollars in money spent to get a college degree.

But to marry, one of life's biggest steps? Required is basically nothing. Until a couple years ago In Illinois, a blood test was required, but now even that has been waived making marrying all the simpler. What we need, it would seem to us, is the reverse. What we need are a few federally mandated, premarital requirements for potential marriage licensees Thorough background checks If you can be denied a gun license baugh are How childish can you get? Does the cartoonist hope to dissuade people from listening to Rush by implying that doing so will make them The only dumb person is the one who listens to all the media hype a-bout Rush Limbaugh, but refuses to hear what the man has to say for themselves. Furthermore, legitimate accusations are one thing; name-calling is quite another.

Liberals often laud themselves as being "caring" and conservatives as being "mean-spirited." On the contrary, I find this type of political propaganda "uncaring" and "mean-spirited." If Etta Hulme can't do any better than this, maybe this cartoonist should find another job. And by the way, "you can reverse that" by reading liberal political cartoons! Marcla Wllwerdlng Delavan Police need a better policy for handling parade detours On Saturday, Oct 15, 1 was delayed for 20 minutes while waiting for the Illinois Wesleyan homecoming parade to pass across Illinois State Highway 9. Not only was the traffic stopped, but those of us heading west (about eight cars) were unable to move in either direction. We were trapped! (I was given a Tootsie Roll by a Wesleyan student and thanked for waiting so patiently!) After waiting for 15 minutes, I spoke with the police officer on duty at the intersection, and told him that it might have been wiser to reroute traffic a block further east so that cars were not blocked from proceeding, simply asked to detour. His response was that he thought that it was a good idea.

It appeared that this thought had never occurred to him. He then told me that when traffic began moving again it would be wise of me to turn right there rather than proceeding further east on Highway 9 because traffic would be stopped another block further east! A copy of this letter was sent to the traffic division of the Bloomington Police Department to possibly alleviate this problem from occurring again. I urged the department to develop a policy to handle parade detours if there was not already one in place. Barbara Colba Rural Bloomington nerves together at day's end. Changing of the wedding vows Back during the times of the Pilgrims or even Archie Bunker words like love, honor, obey and 'til death do we part, more than sufficed as the primary promise part of the wedding ceremony.

But in these times, an era buffeted by change, confusing marital roles, and heightened ideals in a drastically less-than-perfect world, it's the little things that eventually end up to be big trouble in a marriage and clearly should be addressed in the ceremony: "Do you, Mary, honestly think that you will be able to handle two kids, a job, attend all soccer games, get the car to the mechanic and make sure the bathroom is cleaned for when his mother comes?" "Are you, Bill, troubled by the thought that no matter how many pieces of broken-down, dilapidated, so-called antique furniture you store in the basement, your wife will still collect more?" "Do you, Mary, think you will able to adjust to him trying to scan all 53 channels every 3.2 minutes, just in case there's something better on, such as Successful golf outing helps exchange program I would like to take this opportunity to thank those responsible for making the Jim Scott Golf Outing a very successful event Mayors Kent Karraker and Jesse Smart proclamation making Oct 15 Jim Scott Day in both Bloomington and Normal made a very special day for me and my family. It was a great honor, since it benefited the Bloomington-Normal Sister City Japanese Youth Baseball Exchange Program. I would also like to thank the former players, parents and friends that attended the outing and made it a success. I am continuing to receive phone calls and letters wishing they could have attended the outing and helped the kids. Thanks to all, for the kind words and donations to a great cause.

Jim Scott Normal (The write is a longtime coach at University High School, Normal) fragments of everything ever televised?" A marital assessment review board No, not one comprised of bureaucrats, research assistants or lab techs. What is needed, to interview prospective couples and judge them before they take the big step, are federally named panels made up of, say, a bartender, a divorce judge, an ex-wife and a man who has diligently 1 paid child support for 20 years. They know the ingredients to a good and bad mix of individuals. THERE ARE, OF COURSE, two sides to this issue and two kinds of people those who would say toughening marriage I standards is wrong, that marriage is a right not a privilege, and those who instead strongly believe marriage-license requirements should be tightened. I know, I do.

Oops, there I go using those words again. Too many others have as well. Bill Flick, whose column appears Sunday, Wed- nesday and Friday, is a Pantagraph staff columnist To hear the FLICKL1NE bulletin board, call 829-9000, enter 2450. To leave him your thoughts on arty matter, enter 2400. JUST HARRIED: Tougher standards for getting hitched Bui f.J Flick i I 1 zsfA few days ago now, I did some-MjL thing a bit out of the ordinary and away from the usual daily routine.

I got married. The process to apply for the actual marriage license entailed going over to the county clerk's office one afternoon for about 10 minutes, answering a few questions (name? address? you guys aren't first cousins, are plunking down $15 to defray processing costs, signing our names and saying thank you. And that was it Period. End of process. Friends, we've got things backward in this country.

While the marriage death-toll continues to rise with more than half of us expressing love's allure at the altar, only to eventually realize otherwise and go from needing rings at a wedding ceremony to metal detectors at the final property set because of being considered a threat, it would seem some sort of process should at least be carried out on a marriage license as well, especially considering marriage is, in fact, one of the leading reasons in this country people eventually take up arms. Arduous "on-the-job" training Generally, you need to pass an exam civil service, entry-level, whatever to qualify for a job. The least they can do is require the same of marriage have prospective mates wallpaper a room together (although not known, the leading cause of violent crime in America), give them a house full of kids for a month, have them each encounter stress-filled jobs they all are in today's downsized la-la land and make them thoroughly enjoy gnawing at each others'.