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LD Section B Wednesday, August 28,1985 Opinion When to cry 'wolf' The problems of racial divisive- ness In this country and in South Africa have dominated the head­ lines recently. • The difficulties in South Africa are readily apparent. The system Of apartheid will destroy that na­ tion unless legitimate reforms are made. If that government contin­ ues to ignore the obvious prob­ lems, there will be more blood­ shed. 'Such a situation can only open the doors for Marxism. The problems in South Africa will not be solved by people such as Jerry Falwell calling South Af­ rican Bishop Tutu a phony. Tutu is ;we|l-respected black leader in country. Falwpll's comments olily serve to fuel the impression of American arrogance.« On the other hand, insulting, de­ risive remarks about Falwell and Ills religious beliefs (and those of his followers) further define the battle lines which seem to be drawn between the races in this country. The recent furor in Chicago illus­ trates that point. A tragic bus/auto accident earli- er in the month claimed the lives of seven suburban young people. Immediately after the accident, the bus driver involved was charged with manslaughter. The charges were later dropped because evidence showed that the car with the youths had cut in front of the bus. The Cook County State's Attorney dropped the charges after an independent study showed the bus driver was not in the wrong. That first action was a mistake. In their zeal to quickly charge someone with wrong, th£ state's attorneys went only with the initial accident reports. Yet immediately after charges were filed, black community lead­ ers decried the action. "Racism" was their cry. Not incompetence, nor error. But "racism." Such cries only trivialize the term when it is used legitimately. Such as in describing tire sttu a* tion in South Africa. Business needs help WASHINGTON - The late, great jjumorist, Sam Levinson, wrote a wonderfully funny book titled, "You Don't Have To Be In Who's Who to Know What's What." And this classic title couldn't be a more apt comment about the U.S. trade deficit and America's Inability to be able to compete more aggressively in world markets. Few within the Washington es­ tablishment are addressing the problem of anemic U.S. exports with anything approaching clarity or common sense. Most lawmak­ ers seem perfectly content to make Japan or some other entre- reneurial country the whipping >y when the problem and the so­ lution are really right here at home. But listen to the views of one small-business man outside the Washington Beltway who isn't in Who's Who, but who certainly knows what's wjiat: *'I wish that^ our^ media would ve the same attention to the job s due to our loss of export markets that they give to the job losses due to imports. "We lose those export jobs long before the import jobs. When we lose a large contract in India or in Africa, why doesn't that get the same amount of attention paid to the import of subway cars into New York City, or Japanese automobiles? "Our best defense is a good of­ fense, and exports put our prod­ ucts into world markets to com­ pete with • foreign companies on their own turf, or at least on neu­ tral turf, before they come into our domestic markets." The speaker is Gordon 0. F. Johnson, who heads LogEtronics, a small business in Springfield, Va., that manufactures film-devel­ oping equipment and cameras. He spoke about foreign-trade prob­ lems at a symposium of small- business entrepreneurs, and they were published in The Center Magazine. Instead of cursing the "dark­ ness" of foreign imports, as a lot of politicians and businesses are doing, Johnson thinks that Ameri­ can businesses should light some export bonfires by aggressively seeking out new markets. The government, he thinks, NORTHWEST "Why was I bom? Are children in other countries like us? I've seen happy children in magazines playing in gardens. Why do we only die?" Randdah Ammar 10-year-old Lebanese girl ROBERTA. SHAW Editor and Publisher LEONARD M. INGRASSIA Executive Editor STEVEN H. HUNTER Marketing Director \ N copUr Ntfrt&rtvicfe DEADBEATS OFTHE V/ORLD. UNITE/ H l U o M Y N A M E FOREIGN DEBT CONFERENCE Donald Lambro could do a lot to help expand U.S. exports by clearing away a thicket of regulatory laws and rules that make foreign trade for small busi­ nesses a difficult, if not impossi­ ble, obstacle to surmount. "Some people in this country look at the foreign cars on our streets and say, 'This is terrible. Look at the American jobs that have been lost because of foreign cars.' "And yet," says Johnson, "these foreign cars have kept U.S. car prices down. If we were to go protectionist, U.S. businesses would be less productive domesti­ c a l l y a n d l e s s c o m p e t i t i v e internationally." If we are to expand U.S. markets and thus create more jobs at home, he says, "we must stress the need for frafe trade, iiot protec­ tionism*1 -•The key t<r paneling' exports, says Johnson, is to "help small businesses compete in the global economy." Until now, the export market has been largely dominated by big cor­ porations that have had the exper­ tise and the manpower to deal with a mountain of export rules, regula­ tions and paperwork. "Some of this hassle may be inherent and unavoidable," says Johnson, "but some of it is self- inflicted by our government." Among the worst obstacles: the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; the anti-boycott laws; excessive export controls; and agencies like the Domestic International-Sales Corporation and the Foreign Sales Corporation, "which are unneces­ sarily complicated from the point o f v i e w o f a l o t o f s m a l l businesses." It's time for the politicians to stop making Japan and other success­ ful exporting countries the scape­ goat for their own failures. There are thousands of small businesses, like LogEtronics, that want to make a buck by exporting their products abroad -- if Congress would just sweep away the regula­ tory obstacles that now make it prohibitively difficult for all but the biggest multinationals to do so. (Donald Lambro is a columnist for United Feature Syndicate) Again: The establishment clause WASHINGTON -- Over the past 15 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has heard 30 cases that in one way or another have involved the sepa­ ration of church and state. This fall it will hear at least one more. It will hear the appeal of Larry Witters, 28, from a decree denying him a tuition grant under the fed­ eral vocational rehabilitation program. The grant was denied by the Washington State Supreme Court because Witters wants to become "a pastor, a missionary or a Chris­ tian youth director." There is no question of Witters' medical eligibility for state and federal assistance. He is blind. If he were attending a state or non- sectarian private institution of higher learning, with a view to­ ward becoming a writer or sales­ man or stockbroker, t£ie grant rou- * tiiteiy wtuijd .be .approved/ But Witters wants to attend Whitworth College, a Presbyterian institution in Spokane, with a view toward earning a B.A. degree in Bible studies. According to his petition, he expects to pursue "courses in Old and New Testament studies, e t h i c s , s p e e c h a n d c h u r c h administration." The case presents one more head-on conflict between the two religious clauses of the First Amendment. The amendment says that Congress (and by extension the states) "shall make no law respecting an establishment of re­ ligion or prohibiting the free exer­ cise thereof." In the Witters case, to award him a rehabilitation grant to become a minister, or to pay tuition directly to Whitworth College, would appear to violate the establishment clause. But to deny him the same vocational grant awarded to others, solely because of his religion, would ap­ pear to violate the free exercise clause. The high court has been grap­ pling with these issues for many years. Justice Lewis Powell says they present "some of the most perplexing questions to come be­ fore the court." As a general prop­ osition, the court has rejected most efforts to provide public aid j to private religious institutions, b u t t h e r e h a v e b e e n m a n y exceptions. A case that still is frequently cited arose in Washington, D.C., when Congress appropriated funds for a hospital run by a Catholic order; speaking through Justice Rufus Peckham in 1899, the court unanimously found no violation of the establishment clause. In 1970, over the strong dissent of Justice William O. Douglas, the court up­ held New York's power to exempt ui' £« James i. KUpatrlck churches from taxation on real property. In 1976, the court upheld Mary­ land's tuition grants to students attending private sectarian col­ leges, but the case is of little help to Larry Witters. Maryland's act specifically excluded students en­ rolled in "seminarian or theologi­ cal academic programs." In other cases, the court has approved South Carolina bonds for construction at the Baptist College in Charleston, federal grants for construction of non-religious build­ ings at church-controlled colleges, and Minnesota's program of tax deductions for parents of children who attend parochial school?. Long ago, in the landmark Ever- son case of 1947, the court ap­ proved public transportation for private schoolchildren, and in 1068 i t a p p r o v e d s t a t e l o a n s o f textbooks. Those are exceptions to the gen­ eral rule. In one case after anoth­ er, involving efforts at state aid in Pennsylvania, New York, and most recently in Michigan, the court has said no. Last month It nullified a program of federal aid to disadvantaged children because the program involved the use of public funds to pay teachers to go into parochial schools. Said Chief Justice Warren Burger, in a sting-; ing dissent: "Under the guise of protecting Americans from the evils of an Established Church su- >eh*as those 0f!lAie^l8tliFi@eiltnry and earlier times, today's decision will deny countless schoolchildren des­ perately needed remedial teaching s e r v i c e s . " ' • ' The effect of the Washington state court decision is to deny a young blind man a rehabilitation grant -- a grant to which he other­ wise would be entitled -- solely because he wants to become a minister. My guess is that the U.S. Supreme Court will affirm > the state court's decree. "The provision of financial assis­ tance by the state to enable some­ one to become a pastor, mission­ ary or church youth director clearly has the primary effect of advancing religion," the Washing­ ton Supreme Court concluded. 'It is not the role of the state to piy for the religious education of fit- ture ministers." That reasoning may seem harsh, but a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to find it sound. ~ J (James KUpatrlck is a columnist for Universal Press Syndicate) m Reader Forum The other shoe *&SSi hk& UtA B-P iaA|«ajrciB vi mvneury ship: ! other shoe has finally dropped, before the 1985 election, MICHAEL E. MORSCH News Editor/Regional DENNISM. McNAMARA Editorial Page Editor RONALD L.STANLEY Circulation Director Dear Taxpayers of McHenry Township: The Just t o w n s h i p o f f i c i a l s r e v e a l e d reluctantly that they had passed a substantial salary increase for themselves for the coming terms. On August 12, supervisor Albert Adams reported in a news story that the township is asking for a tax levy increase "because of an increase in the assessed valuation of property," always a good reason. A better one can be seen by looking at the figures published giving the current year's levy at $229,800. Proposed for nect year is $274,800. The difference is approximately that of the salary increase. Also the township is currently beating the publicity drums for the development of the new township park (a first in the county). What has not been made clear is whose money was used to buy the land and to hire the planner and pay for the development. A citizens' committee is to be selected (handpicked?) to determine uses for the park. Build first and find out why later is always good planning. And next year, what about maintenance, supervision and liability insurance (premiums soaring out of sight)? And if the federal revenue (deficit) sharing is cut, as it should be, is there another tax increase and the works to keep the park in operation? And finally we note that Supervisor Adams and Town Clerk Birmingham a r e s e n d i n g t h e m s e l v e s t o Washington, D.C. in September at our expense to learn how to combat the popularly-elected Reagan administration's "attack" on the revenue sharing program, which also is taxpayers' money. And because the revenue side of the federal budget is way short, this bolsters an already outrageous federal deficit. I suppose this trip is being taken at the insistence of us local taxpayers to ensure that our grandchildren will pay for their fair share for township aggrandizement. Lloyd Burger McHenry Sewage plant To the Editor: At long last the Cary Sanitary District structures appear to be nearing completion ana the residents of Root Springs subdivision will breathe a sigh of relief when the long disrupting messy ordeal comes to an end. It is ironic that the residents of unincorporated Root Springs have had to put up with the dubious honor of having the sewage disposal system for the entire town of Cary being situated at the entrance of their beautiful community especially view of the fact that all Root Sprini residents must provide and mainta_ their own septic systems. Most Cary residents, for whom the sanita# system is being rebuilt and vast! expanded, don't even know whi their sewage disposal plant looks 11 and haven't had the trauma putting up daily with the unsii sloppy muddy mess which has! imposed upon our Root SprinL community for over a year now. < With the Cary Country Club and golf course being situated in Rod! Springs, there are people coming here from Chicago and its suburbs as well as many visitors from othefr' States. We residents of Root Spring*' are proud of our little community and would like to see the entrance ta Root Springs become a pleasureabld» sight for au who come here rathef than the eyesore that it is now. We ask the village of Cary plannei to try to make up for these mai months of Sanitaiy District turnu by doing their best to beautify a landscape the area as soon as the j is completed. I would like ~ recommend tall evergreen trees all along the fence area so that the people who reside in Root Springs and visitors don't have to see thfc Cary sewage disposal works ip -j action. Eunice Murphy (On behalf of the people of Root Springs^ Cary <r