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Pag* 4 NORTHWEST HERALD Section B Wednesday, July 24,19*5 Opinion Waiting for next act It looks like Laidlaw Waste Sys­ tems is determined to keep filing for its landfill application until it gets it right. Late last week, the attorney for the company withdrew its applica­ tion from ongoing hearings be­ cause of what was referred to as a technical hitch. Opponents of the application had charged that all nearby residents of the propsed site had not been properly notified of the application. Laidlaw said it intends to refile. In June, Laidlaw withdrew its application because a parcel of the land proposed for the site was found to be under the juristictiion of Lake in the Hills. The firm then amended its application and refiled. There have been shorter runs for Broadway plays than this appar­ ent comedy of errors. << The McHenry County Selection and Site Committee and the Coun­ ty Board should do themselves and everyone else a favor by making a decision. These postponements and refilings tend only avoid the main issues of landfill ownership and site selection. 01 Red ink at the post office The U.S. Postal Service has fall­ en back into its old habit of losing money, which probably means that the new 22-cent stamp will give way to yet a higher one before long. Postmaster General Paul Carlin indicated the other day that agen­ cy's deficit for the fiscal year end­ ing Sept. 30 may exceed $500 mil­ lion. This is disappointing because it had seemed that the organiza­ tion finally might be getting the hang of operating within its revenues. The Postal Service broke out of its decades-old pattern of deficit budgets in 1981. The reason for that development, of course, was that it kept jacking up postage rates. But now it's running heavily in the red again after having in­ creased the price of first-class stamps by two cents in February. Since the quasi-independent USPS took over the mails in 1971 from the old Post Office Department, the cost of mailing a letter has zoomed to 22 cents from 8 cents. Postal officials had hoped the 22- cent stamp would last four or five years. Chances are it won't sur- Guest Editorial vive for half that long. What happened? High labor costs, as usual, are the culprit. Even the approval last year of a two-tiered wage scale -- one for veteran workers and a lower one for new employees -- hasn't helped. Although the new starting salary is about $5,000 lower than the old one, the number of employ­ ees has risen from 702,000 to 740,000 in the past year. In addi­ tion, new hires move up the wage scale quickly, reaching the same level as older workers in less than three years. These moves may be good public relations but they won't get at the real problem: that the Postal Ser­ vice pays far more to mail clerks, carriers and handlers than the qualifications for those jobs justi­ fy. Until USPS management quits caving in to excessive wage de­ mands from the powerful postal unions, the outlook can only be for more deficits and higher postage rates. (Scripps-Howard News Service) On traditional marriage A recent editorial in the McHenry Plaindealer by Donald Kaul asks: What's so good about the traditional family? " Kaul answers his own ques­ tion by viciously attacking women who stay at home to mind their children while their husbands pro­ vide for them financially, insinuating mothers at home are pathetic simpletons, unfulfilled and useless to society. Once again the tired feminist rhetoric of the past 15 years rips at the foundation of our nation, its fami­ ly structure. Again, women at home are portrayed as less productive and inferior to those who hold down a paying job. Volunteers are called foolish. Who would work for nothing in this day and age? And that, the almighty dollar and its relationship to the state is the core of the feminist agenda. No one is con­ sidered productive unless they are earning money that can be taxed by the government. The state in turn can replace or undermine many parental responsibilities by pro­ viding day care centers, early c h i l d h o o d e d u c a t i o n f o r preschoolers, federally financed abortions and protection of abortion profiteers, and recognition of homosexual marriages. Feminists seek to lower the salaries of workers in male- dominated fields by a theory called comparable worth, which would allow an outside party to set wages for state and private business, destroying free enterprise and rais­ ing taxes by billions. Thus, the pressure on homemakers to get out and work to pay taxes and help finan­ cial pressures on the family would be escalated. Guest Editorial While many women dp go to work as the children* gfet oraer, institu­ tionalizing their children in day care centers would have been out of the question for their babies and tod­ dlers. They know the state can't love or teach or care for children better than the parents. As more women leave the home to work, the rest of society pays the cost of child care. Il­ linois Education Superintendent Ted Sanders says in two years alone, the cost of full-day kindergarten and preschool programs could cost the taxpayer an extra $200 million to $230 million. Woman in traditional marriages are as varied in their interests and pursuits as those of wage earners. But they share a common goal of pro­ viding a secure and consistent loving environment for their family. They justifiably resent paying baby-sitting costs through taxation for working women under the guise of all-day kindergarten, preschool and federal­ ly financed day care. Parents have known and research shows that the warm, continuous presence of the mother, a one-to-one relationship, provides the track on which the child can develop optimum security. Feminists are working to revolu- tionalize society. Many of their ideas have gained acceptance. But there are mothers and fathers who have no intention of giving up the parenting role because elements of the press ridicule them. (Marilyn McNally, the author of the guest editorial, is the director of the 12th Congressional District Eagle Forum) SWiS'tVN Xsrxr-SMatKTli •• SA' NORTHWIST HERALD "The man who would control others must be able to con­ trol himself." B.C. Forbes ROBERTA. SHAW Editor and Publisher LEONARD M. INGRASSIA Executive Editor STEVEN H. HUNTER Marketing Director MICHAEL E. MORSCH News Editor/Regional DENNIS M.McNAMARA Editorial Page Editor RONALD L. STANLEY Circulation Director Confesses ignorance to its appeal Two nights before the affair, I had not known it would take place. The woman on my right at dinner, whose husband is professionally engaged in the production of rock music, told me she had not been disposed to go to Philadelphia for "the concert," but now she thought that if she did not go, she might in fact be passing by a historic event. With that prompting, before going out for dinner on Saturday, I hooked up my VHS to catch the three-hour abbreviation of the 16- hour marathon, and when I got back, sat down with my wife and watched the last 20 minutes, which began With Jack Nicholson intro­ ducing Bob Dylan and his two ac­ companists. Jack Nicholson said that, for the finale, they had saved someone who "transcended histo­ ry," no less. Here was an event, philanthrop­ ic in design (all proceeds would go. to Africans being systematically starved by the implementation of Marxist doctrine in Ethiopia) and impulse. The show-biz aspect of the great Live Aid spectacular was not what engages the attention. It is, rather, a plight one needs to explore. Not a purely private prob­ lem. I would not write a column to explore the difficulties I experi­ ence in virtue, say, of having a sixth toe. I have become a truth- seeker in the matter of the rock culture, and my problems aren't, I think, unique. 1. More people tuned in on Live Aid, we are told, than tuned in on the Summer Olympics. This datum is absolutely extraordinary, given that sports have been the lingua franca of internationalism through much of recorded history, and that there is an instantly communica­ ble excitement to a sports event (Who's going to win?) that does not attach to a musical event, the excitement oir which comes in through a different sensory appa­ ratus. What is being said for rock music, in effect, is that the entire world is at its feet. That the undis­ puted international celebrities of the world are the rock stars. 2. If this is so, then why is it that they do not appeal -- well, to me? My other appetites are normal. Could it be that there is a dirty little secret no one is prepared publicly to discuss, namely that that kind of thing does not appeal to a whole lot of people who are not willing to confess their alienation from the overwhelming majority of the young? 3. "'That kind of thing,' come on William F. Buckley now, Buckley, what exactly do you mean?" Fair enough. Bob Dylan comes on stage, and on either side of him are two famous guitarists from the Rolling Stones. He last shaved, oh, three days before. (Why?) He is wearing blue jeans and a scruffy T-shirt arrangement of sorts (Why? Trademark? Change trade­ marks?). The two guitarists arrive smoking cigarettes, which dangle from their lips for the first minute or so of the first song. (Why?) Their arms are entirely bare, and they otherwise wear what looks like a stripped-down dark-colored T-shirt (Why? Heat?). Then in­ tense concentration on Dylan, and neither I nor spouse can pick up a single word he has sung, and wfe frankly doubt that anyone else could. (Why?) The songs were without discernible melody, the voice was whlny, with enough gravel in it to stop Jean-Claude Killy in mid-slope, the guitarists were hard to listen to (why? why? why?). But we were engaged in transcending history. Of one thing I am absolutely convinced, and that is that there is no doubting the sincerity of the rock-worshipers. I know one or two who are without affectation, and they will, in stretches of solitude, clap on their Walkmen and listen to Bob Dylan before they will lis­ ten to Vivaldi, or Verdi, or Strauss, or Cole Porter. Obviously there is a generational imbalance, and that should not surprise, whether one asks about relative young-old en­ thusiasm for the Rolling Stones, or relative young-old enthusiasm for "Raiders of the Lost Ark." But the totality of the mobiliza? tion of the young appears to have swept with it the not-young, and one wonders whether the capitula­ tion of the middle-aged suggests a cultural insecurity? If all the world thinks Picasso's double- jawed, cockeyed dames are mas­ terpieces, ought one to defer to universal sentiment? If one does not master rock and roll, is one closing the door on a transforma­ tive experience? Is it the equiva­ lent of inviting color blindness? Deafness? Impotence? - Well, I have said it, and in pay­ ment for exercising the privilege of skipping the first 2 1/2 hours of tape, I'll make a contribution ta Live Aid, reviving the movement of sticking a dime in the nickelode­ on to buy five minutes of silence. (William Buckley is a columnist for Universal Press Syndicate) Reader Forum Wonder Lake resolution To the Editor: When the Village of Sunrise Ridge - now renamed Village of Wonder Lake - was incorporated on Nov. 23, 1974, it was with great pride, dedication and determination that the first village rident, six trustees, clerk and reasurer undertook^ the respon- iv villa* Among the early accomplishments sibilities of organizing the ttm ge. was t the passage and adoption on Sept. 22, 1977 of Resolution No. 77-004 - "For the futherance of common puposes and objectives of the Wonder Lake area." Said resolution was circulated throughout the whole of the Wonder Lake area through the efforts of the corporate authorities then in the office. Following are some quotes from said resolution: "The said Village extends official recognition to the Master Property Owners Association and to the various property „ owners associations and expresses its desire to work harmoniously with - said organizations*. The said Village ap- Klauds the invaluable contributions eretofore made by ctoe MPOA, its member associations ^aqd many private persons toward the preset vation, protection and enhancement od Wonder Lake, its facilities and its environs. The rights to use the lake are private rights, The said village acknowlegdes that its territorial an­ nexations cannot affect the continued existence of mergers of individual property associations nor does it have any intention to diminsh their rightful integrity."' It is with great embarrassment for me to have to admit that I reside within the corporate limits of the Village of Wonder Lake. (I chose to live in this area because of the lake - the Village was imposed upon me.) It is because of this fact, I must offer my personal apology to you, the people of greater Wonder Lake for the actions of the corporate authorities of said village who persistently continue to ignore this commitment made in refusing to honor to uphold the provisions of Res. No. 77-004. Seemingly, it has become the policy of the village administrators to impede progress within its own borders ana not withstanding, to impede the preser­ vation and enhancement of wonder Lake. The corporate authorities have said a big "no" to the MPOA Calendar even though it is within their own power and jurisdiction to make such raffles (etc.) legal through the passage and adoption of an ordinance compatible to that of McHenry County. Such an ordinance would help assure the integrity of the people of the Village of Wonder Lake in Guest Columnists The guest opinion column ap­ pearing in The Herald is prepared by writers with expertise and ex­ perience in specific areas. Their participation in our Opinion page is welcomed when their comments may give our readers new insight or perspective^on local topics of current Interests Guest columns should be no longer than two pages of double-spaced, typewritten copy. Prospective writers are ask ed to call 815-459-4040, ext. 291, to make arrangements. adhering to the provisions of Resolution No. 77-004. Eugenia Ehlen McHenry County , *' Library not % just building To the Editor: I have often heard it said that in the truest sense, a church is not a: building. The building merely serves' to house the real church -- the people; inside. I guess the same is true of libraries. No matter how humble or sumptuous the building, it is the peo­ ple inside -- the chief librarian and; her staff -- that determine how good a library is. No amount of brick and mortar can make a good library out of people that do not care or cannot do the job, no matter how the staff may struggle with inadequate* facilities. - Crystal Lake is about to open a newt library building to house Arden Perkins and her staff. Soon there will pomp and ceremony, including rib-: bon cutting and champagne. We will- tell each other what a fine new! building we have and we will be right. But before the speeches and the celebration before the ribbon cut­ ting and salutes to concrete and steel -- I'd just like to say that we already; have a wonderful library, and I mean • that in the truest sense of the word. r'" LorensP. Tronet Crystal Lake w