The Knoxville News-Sentinel from Knoxville, Tennessee (2024)

May 14, 1989

Publication:

The Knoxville News-Sentineli

Location:

Knoxville, Tennessee

Issue Date:

Sunday, May 14, 1989

Page:

65

Extracted Article Text (OCR)

The KnoxvMe News-Sentinel 8unday May 14 1089 FI OPINION Latin nations will tell Noriega they are fed up A WMatza-tip by tha Wellington staff -QfTha SBrtppa Howard News Sendee WASHINGTON Latin American nations are led up with Panamanian strongman-bully Manuel Noriega and win let Mm know about it in the meeting of Organization of American States foreign ministers next week The normally apathetic OASconsid- era suspending Panama's membership in the organization plus recalling of ambassadors and imposing trade sanctions aaainst Panama 1 TV rootage of the Moody beating of democratic opposition and his ham-handed nullification of the May 7 election was too much tor OAS to swallow Latin leaders apprsdate President Bush's decision to let them take the lead in efforts to solve the crisis in Pan- Washington Calling law that lets them inspect company books Sources say investigation are wider way involving a number of companies including severs! whose only customers are clandestine labs making PCP LSD and ether illegal drugs 1 Some lawmakers scoff at claims by the president's pay commission that a 50 percent pay increase wu needed because the government was having trouble attracting top-level talent at government salaries Congressional investigators found that while there were 319 senior government jobs vacant for more than 120 days on Jan 31 there were plenty of applicants for all but two The American Facsimile Association reports that during 1989 alone 28 million fax machines will transmit and receive more than 30 billion pages Fax sales are expected to top $25 billion and charges for transmissions to exceed $48 billion And over the next three years more affordable machines are expected to triple all the above numbers Bush is likely to free more house flak when he goes to Europe for the NATO meetingand later economic summit British officials say privately that British Prime Minister Maragret Thatcher will bend Bush's ear on the problem of global warming Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Bruntland tried to bring up the subject at a White House visit 10 days ago and got nowhere One newsman in the weary gaggle of reporters covering the travails of House Speaker Jim Wright says ha knew been on the story too long when a congressman called to tease him about being listed in the newspaper as a "Washington Post Staff The misspelling was corrected in later editions Ten countries in the region have elections in the next 12 months and civilian leaders want to send a clear message that soldiers belong in the barracks not in the government Storm clouds gather on the economic horizon Confidence among small business owners who provide most new jobs is at its lowest level since the last recession began in 1988 according to William Dunkelberg dean ef business at Temple University He finds four times as many merchants are raising prices as are lowering them Housing economist Michael Sumich-rast agrees "The beat strategy for builders is to stay away from speculative building cash in some assets and cut he says "For that matter that formula applies to all of Hotshot Houston lawyer Stephen Susman representing House Speaker Jim Wright is usually paid upwards of 1300 an hour for his advice but he cuts his billing rate to $125 an hour for Wright That's the same rate the House ethics committee pays special counsel Richard Phelan himself a very pricey Chicago lawyer NOTE: House Democrats noting new defense timetable see the Wright case dragging through for most of June They rueftifly recall their wen-publicized hopes that the speaker would be cleared by last year's Democratic National Convention -I Postal Service plans relief for those pestered by misfeeding sweepstakes committees subtle when they cover their beta A survey by Common Cause found 62 PAGs bankrolled the losers in seven 1988 Senate races then turned around and donated to the winners after the results were in Federal Express led the Ust giving $63800 to both the winners andlosers in Florida Mississippi Nebraska Montana Nevada Washington and Connecticut The Exxon Valdez oil spill may lead to upgraded safety devices for the domestic maritime industry pwny barges on the Mississippi River Dixfe politicians argue the Mississippi poses greater hazards than open coastal waters They want towboats equipped with devices such as around-tho-bend radar to avoid collisions Expect another push to require double bottoms in ocean-going oil tankers too but the tanker industry is sure to howl because of cost The final version of the budget agreement between the House and Senate is as toothless as the deal struck by congressional leaders and the White House House negotiators refined to go along with Senate provisions to tty to force some $7 billion in sales of government assets in order to close the deficit Watch for indictments of US chemical companies suspected of knowingly supplying chemicals to narcotics traffickers for use in processing illegal drugs Drug Enforcement Administration officials Bay they're only waiting for final regulations implementing a 1988 Postal lawyers are putting the finishing touches on regulations requiring sweepstakes mailers to prominently display the value and range of prizes and the odds of winning Several national charities welcome the new rules as a way to keep out of lawsuits with aggressive state attorneys general under fire from irate postal customers Special-interest political action Haiti health care center will be named for chairwoman of KC board A wwkfly viaw of tocal nMnti lui fka Bf NMwMnimi I QROrmi Wf Knoxville Calling ers about the need for the business community to support the public education system Chancey got their attention right away when he said: supposed to talk about education but rm really here to take Wade and Alan Houston back with Wade Houston the new University of Tennessee men's besketbaU coach was at the University of Louisville before coming here His sen one of the best high school bssketbali players in the country originally signed to play for Louisville but now wants to play for his dad Donelson Leake who has been named to the University of Tennessee's board of trustees by Gov Ned McWherter says remain a member of Cherokee Country Club "I don't see that it causes any Leake said He has been a member of the private dub since is a fine outstanding social dub Whether or not to belong to a club like that is a very private The all-wMte dub came under fire recently when new head basketball coach Wade Houston who is black was told by UTs Doug Dickey that membership wu an Former head coaches and the athletic director held university-paid membersMps at the dub UT President Lamar Alexander hu since pulled the memberships plants to capacity hu been a long time coming In 1985 the plant wu shut down for major safety and management problems The many repairs required to meet Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations needed to restart the plant cost TVA $700 million While the plant wu shut down it cost TVA upwards of $1 million each day in lost power Regular parkers at the Civic Coliseum parking garage are having to come up with cash instead of checks for the $15 monthly parking The policy change which goes into effect next month came because of the number of bed checks the coliseum received half the checks were for insufficient hinds said Ride Hamilton of the coliseum wu costing more fix- us to process them than we were making on he said In a case of dueling correspondence the Metropolitan Solid Waste Authority hu responded to a letter campaign critical of the spending plans The authority is a city-county agency planning an $85 million garbage incinerator countywide recycling and other trash-disposal programs Recently the Tennessee Valley Energy Coalition lobbied the commissioners Mayor Victor Ashe and newspaper editors asking them not to support the authority's plus for stepping up spending Authority officials anticipate spending mm than $20 million in the next year proceeds from a 3-year-old $175 million bond issue (hi Monday authority Executive Director Jim A HEALTH csrs center in Haiti is to be named in honor of Dr Edith Irby Jones a Houston physician and chairwoman or the board of trustees at Knoxville College Jones has worked extensively with the American Task Force for Health in Haiti to improve health care there through seminars distribution of medicine food clothing and supplies She will be in Haiti June 24 for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Dr Edith Irby Jonas Health Center TVA Director Charles Dean once flunked a nuclear aecurity test because of his secretary Douglas Claxton who taught nuclear security and operations at TVA before becoming a Knox County educator had Dean for a student failed one of my employee training desses because Ms secretary disturbed Mm so many times he Claxton eakL 1 Claxton was testifying in a whistleblower hearing last week before a Department of Labor administrative judge The hearing involves TVA1! nuclear security tytem Claxton said he trained many top managers st TVA including Admiral Steven White who was TV As nuclear chief from 1988 to 1988 and many of White's managers 1 i Malcolm Chancey a banker from Louisville was in Knoxville last week to talk to business lead Reynolds drafted Ms own letter clarifying the authority's position and stating that informs- -tkm they (TVEC officials) use misleading at best and in one instance completely TVEC had claimed the county must pay back whatever is spent by the authority if the authority foils to permanently remarket its bonds next April But Reynolds wrote in his letter that that is incorrect The project would have to foil completely before the county would be Habie for monies spent be said Statistically speaking South Knoxville appears to be the most dangerous section of the dty or at least the section that draws mast heavily on police to break up violent crimes according to a new Knoxville police study The report released by Police Chief Phil Keith during last week's budget hearings with City Council indicates that in a one-year period officers responded to 25 calls involving violent felonies for every 1800 South Knoxville residents in the First Coundlmanic District The study goes on to state that there were 1294 calls per 1800 residents for felonious property crimes end that the district overall drew 208 percent of the calls for police assistance involving total feloniea In comparison the Third District in Northwest Knoxville came in the No 2 spot for serious crime drawing 20 percent of the total folony calls Nuclear Plant the first time since Both reactors at the are operating at fiill power 1985 Getting to the point where TVA could run the Winds of change in China recall the silenced masses of earlier times Wllma Dykeman The deep voices of drums and the wail of dozens of other instruments familiar and unfamiliar spoke in accents as var- -led as the many regions of the vast geography of China Then suddenly with the choreographed precision of a ballet all noise ceased Conversation was no more Drums were silenced All other music shouting sound dissolved into the wind And the whiplash'of the flags Only one brief order from that balcony had brought this total instantaneous result Such a response was no less awesome than the massive ocean of people it they pour through the streets looking more western in drees and attitude than anyone could have dreamed possible a dozen years ago those students represent all that is different from the ember throng The winds of change are as sharp as the winds that Mow down from the GoM desert And those students demonstrate how quickly change can sweep through a society generating a whirlwind A country's leaders prepared or unprepared may emerge hum such a whirlwind hopeless or hopeful isolated or discovering possibility of new bonds among people a freer world Great walk are foiling in China It is time for the building of great bridges li prtM-wtantef wOur ar na from the great balcony overlooking Tiananmen Square and people had been summoned to attend from nearby cities and distant minority regions of mountains and deserts Those of us among one of the first groups of Americans to visit People's after the Cultural Revolution did not expect to be permitted to attend this event But we found ourselves on a special platform among European and African visitors gazing up at the tiny figures of dwarfed by the massive architecture and distance and out at the press of human beings crammed into that sprawling square Ths wind Mew and cut through a winter coat as if the wool were no more than a chiffon scarf! Hundreds of flags circling the square snapped in the wind like the crack of a pistol shot Their crimson color blazed against the blue sky WHEN THE late autumn early winter wind sweeps down from the harsh country to the northwest and assaults the streets and byways of capital dty the pedestrians and bicyclists and animals or Beijing move a little foster burrow a little deeper into their layers of quilted clothing The long-ago October of 1977 now seems shnost like another century so great have been the changss shaking the realities ef Chinese life In at least one way however there is a line between that pad and the headlines of the present That link is people: people as crowd people as throng people as mass When the Chinese decide to have a celebration or a protest their turn-out makes the gate at an American football game or the assemblage at a British coronation or the multitudes at a European soccer match seem like an invitation- only tea party With a population of more than a billion China can gather overnight a half-million or a million people to celebrate the inauguration of new leaders or protest the slow arrival of a mors open society Sudi a gathering is an awesome sight And sound And crush of human bodies Perhaps the last time a million people congregated in Beijing was in that October ofl977 just after the death of Chairman Mao and a devastating earthquake A new leadership was introduced to Chi And I remember thinking if they should decide someday not to follow orders so faithfully? Because someday they will make sure a Little wonder then that the rering of 89 reminds me of the autumn of 77 As Presidential pardon for Oliver North would serve both law and justice Thomas Sowell stitutional issues can be sorted out in the federal courts if they can be it will be years too late for it to matter in Central America The Communists could have the Panama Canal by then Against this background it is easier to understand the desperate efforts by the White House to keep the Contra guerrilla movement alive in Nicaragua That perate expedient tor desperate times North as one of theee carrying out similar desperate expedients in our own time and skating on legal thin ice while doing it No one can be truly happy that such things were done or were nocos-aary If convictions stand then the law will be upheld And if the president pardons Mm justice will also be upheld No one in the fiiture win be able to break laws with impunity because no one can count on a presidential pardon Law and justice will both be served In the meantime North will need all the help he can get to carry on the legal battles still ahead in the federal appellate courts Those who wish to help hum can denote to the North Defense Fund P-O Box 96577 Washington DiC 20090-6577 Nicaragua not for ideological reasons but because he has an eye for the main chance internationally as well as domestically Any money saved by cutting off mill-' tary aid to the Contras is money that can go into domestic apending that will benefit the supporters of Jim Wright Pulling the rug out from under the Contras ana flying down to Nicaragua to flash that big Jim Wright smile on Communist dictator Daniel Ortega were just part of his usual approach to politics as the art of looking Someone has to look out for the country and for the fiiture That job foils on the president to whom the Constitution gave the task of conducting foreign peli-cy By passing laws making it illegal to aid the Contras militarily Congress grabbed some of that power in defiance of the Constitution By the tima the con THE OUTCOME of ths Oliver North trial could have been better and it certainly could have been worse but there was no reslly happy ending possible no matter what verdict the jury reached Perhaps a hung jury would have been the best that could have been hoped for not only for North but also for the country An outright acquittsl on all counts would have said that it is all right to break the laws of the land if you think your cause is fust We have already had too much of that kind of thinking over the past 30 years All ef society but especially the poor and the disadvantaged paid the price as victims of violent crimes as law and order were undermined A guilty verdict on all the original charges would have been a monstrous verdict to put on North who wu trying to save this country from a disastrous foreign policy imposed by a short-sighted Congress that exceeded its constitutional authority as much as it fell short of its historic duty It would be a galling injustice for North to be behind bars while those who enabled the first Communist satellite base to be established on the North American continent remained free and in Speaker Jim Wright has been the primary congressional promoter of the fause of the Communist regime in doesn't justify everything that in the Iran-Contra deal Two wrongs don't make a right But it also reduce North to the moral level of Jim Wright The Reagan attempts to keep ths Contra movement alive wss in many ways like Franklin 1940 efforts to keep Britain alive to a the spread of Nazism FDR did an run around a short-sighted Congress to send military supplies to the British despite the Neutrality Act It was a dss-.

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