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Page 6 NORTHWEST HERALD Section B Wednesday, August21,19S5 Opinion By Dick Pau/us Reader Forum Thompson's gamble Gov. James Thompson has end­ ed the suspense. He announced Monday that he will seek re-elec- tion to a fourth term as governor. It really wasn't a surprise con­ sidering the amount of fundraising and the number of recent high profile appearance he has been making. Nonetheless, Thompson's historic decision is big news. Thompson became the longest- sitting governor in Illinois history earlier this year. He first won elec­ tion to the post in 1977. He was re­ elected in 1978, and managed to edged out Adlai Stevenson III in the 1982 gubernatorial race. The will-he-or-won't-he drama concerning a decision to seek a fourth term had people guessing for a while. It was pretty apparent within the last few months that Thompson would go for it. He has promoted some good, im­ portant programs of late, and the feeling was that if he cared to see them come to fruition, he'd run again. It's obvious that he decided that the public likes his record of the past few years, that his best chance for a major governmental, political or private business posi­ tion would be enhanced by his re­ election, and that his opposition (Democrat Neil Hartigan and In­ dependent James Nowlan) could be defeated. We'll know the answer to his gamble in November. A home away from home Should the Philippines blow -- and even in Washington they are reluctantly coming to think that it may come to that -- the country's presidential couple should have no difficulty settling in at a suitable address in exile. A good bet would be 13 East 66th Street, New York, NY 10021. Imelda Marcos, the sleek and scheming wife of President Ferdi­ nand Marcos, owns the six-story town house there, according to an impeachment motion against her husband in the Philippine National Assembly. The motion charged Marcos with taking unconstitutional advantage of his office and powers to enrich himself, his family and close asso­ ciates at the expense of the Philip­ pine people. It failed to pass, to no one's surprise since Marcos's ruling New Society Movement has a 2-to- 1 hammerlock on the 183-member assembly. But it was a shrewd move by the opposition, focusing public attention on the corruption that pervades his 20-year-old re­ gime and is feeding a rapidly ex­ panding communist rebellion. Marcos himself, refusing to re­ lax political restraints or clean up his own house, is widely regarded as the rebellion's greatest asset -- not only by the domestic political opposition and his increasingly alarmed mentors in Washington, but by the rebels themselves, the Maoist-inspired New People's Army. As a high-profile target, he could not be easily replaced should he be removed or die. (Marcos suffers from an undefined ailment, believed to be kidney disease.) His regime is fast losing all pub­ lic credibility. It is openly looting the economy and is apparently in­ capable of responding to the spreading guerrilla war except by military repression, which only drives more of the back-country population into the rebel ranks. Human rights abuses have drawn complaint from the Ameri­ can Bar Association, not particu­ larly noted as a champion of liber­ al causes at home or abroad. But the ABA has protested the system­ atic disappearance and killing of Philippine attorneys courageous enough to take the cases of Mar- cos's political opponents. The administration, concerned about big U.S. bases at Subic Bay and Clark Air Force Base, if noth- Don Graff ing else, and American business interests, with $1 billion of Philip­ pine investments at stake, have been exercising their influence on behalf of reforms quietly but ever more urgently. To no apparent effect as yet on Marcos. But that doesn't mean some sort of message isn't getting through. The house on 66th Street isn't the only place First Lady Imelda has to call her own. The impeachmeilt papers also credited her with sev­ eral large office buildings in Man­ hattan, a mansion in London and an estate in Italy. Nor is she the only one close to the president to be dabbling in foreign investments. Several Cabi­ net members, the head of the na­ tional airline and a number of businessmen, longtime beneficia­ ries of Marcos' "crony capital­ ism," are reported to be doing very well. According to a recent investiga­ tive report in the San Jose, Calif., Mercury News, total foreign hold­ ings of Marcos and company may be on the order of $100 million. If -- or, more likely, when -- worse comes to worst, no one need worry about where to go or what to live on. Meanwhile, the looted Philippine economy is virtually bankrupt, an­ other basket case for the anything but painless remedies of the Inter­ national Monetary Fund. That al­ ways requires belt-tightening from those whose stomachs have al­ ready shrunk. The Philippines would appear to be as ripe as any country in sight for a communist takeover. And Mr. and Mrs. Marcos, currently of Manila but perhaps soon to be of East 66th Street, would appear to be doing their damndest to ensure that it happens. Never accuse them, however, of not being prepared. (Don Graff is a columnist ^for Newspaper Enterprise NORTHWEST HBRALD "Find your place and hold it; find your work and do it. And put everything you've got into it." Edward Bok ROBERTA. SHAW Editor and Publisher LEONARD M. INGRASSIA Executive Editor STEVEN H. HUNTER Marketing Director ' MICHAEL k. MORSCH News Editor/Regional DENNIS M. MtNAMA RA Editorial Page Editor RONALD L. STANLEY Circulation Director Use logic To The Editor : I have never been so proud of being a McHenry County resident and never been so disappointed, disgusted and ashamed of my county board. At a meeting held at McHenry County College on Wednesday even­ ing at 7:00 p.m. (August 14), for the (supposed) purpose of obtaining public input, over 80 percent of the board could not bother to attend. Over 1,500 McHenry County residents could bother to attend. The majority of this county knows that a regional airport is not needed and not desired for our predominant­ ly rural county. Thousands and thousands of our dollars have already been spent and are continu­ ing to be spent to arrive at a fact the board members should and could have known a long time ago. But our opinions were not/ are not con­ sidered. But who are we? We are JUST the people who LIVE here. The board evidently does not trust the people they are supposed to be representing to know what is good for them. There are board members who consider the matter of an airport a foregone conclusion. They have only to locate the "right" vanishing farmland to put it on. Yes, someone let this little matter "out of the bag" and now the public knows .... causes you to wonder what else the board keeps us in the dark about, doesn't it? What can we do? Put to use the rights and privileges that are ours - contact your politicians, board members and your friends, neighbors and unin­ formed residents and make known your concerns. Hopefully our elected officials will listen to us and we will be allowed to vote on this vital issue. F.E. Sheets Huntley Whose rights? To The Editor: We are senior citizens on a fixed in­ come who cannot afford additional taxes to support a county air travel facility. Good ground travel facilities are our (first concern. The section of Bunker Hill Road on which we live (between Routes 14 and 23) is a disaster, and is in chronic disrepair to the point of being hazardous. We have faithfully and promptly paid our taxes for many years hoping that eventually our road would be properly paved but, after twenty years, we are still waiting. As McHenry County appears to be unable to meet such PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES to its tax­ payers, it surely cannot justify com­ mitting us to the costly secondary project of the proposed airport. * Mr. and Mrs. F^ed Christman Marengo 2 Primary J responsibilities ' ) : To The Editor: ; Let me state that I am strongly Op­ posed to an airport in McHenry Coun­ ty. But let me also state that I flm vehemently opposed to those people who attended the airport study meeting on Wednesday, August 14, and comported themselves with ^so little show of manners that it embar­ rassed me to be considered in $ie same group with them. 1 recognize that many of the people there were angry about the idea of Jin airport or the site selection. But ttfat is no justification for heckling and in­ terrupting the Burke spokesman, who was attempting to conduct the meeting. Those who disrupted tjie orderly meeting process accomplish­ ed nothing but to display, their ig­ norance and to engender disgust 4n others who might have supported their cause. *• Let's fight this airport but let's do it on logic and intelligent presenta­ tion, not by shouting louder and more rudely than the opponents. : Ruth Ferguson * Woodstock What did we expect from Botha? President Botha of South Africa is incontestably right in saying in effect that he was not elected lead­ er of his government in order to preside over the liquidation of the South Africa he was elected to govern. Critics are perfectly free to contend that his election does not suit our political criteria. But having admitted that his govern­ ment does not do so it hardly makes sense to criticize him for proceeding on the basis of his (misbegotten) criteria. If you criti­ cize somebody for being mean to his mother, don't be surprised if he goes on to be mean to his mother. I was in South Africa for the first time in 1962, and it happened that our guide was the son-in-law of Mr. Verwoerd, the then prime minis­ ter. the young guide, much taken by the doctrine of apartheid, was -- surprisingly -- very critical of American racial practices, by which he meant Jim Crow in the South, and the systematic depriva­ tion, by Americans, of votes for what we then called Negroes. "I just don't understand it," he said. "What excuse do you people have? You outnumber the Negroes by 10 to one. Our problem is entirely different. They outnumber us by six to one." We need to understand that white South Africans see their so­ ciety as one that would not survive one-man-one-vote. And Mr. Botha, one concludes if one opens one's eyes to democratic practice in the continent, is entirely correct in op­ posing what years ago, surveying the evolution of African democra­ cy, was cynically -- and realisti­ cally -- described as one-man one- vote-once. One-man one-vote is a fanatical abstraction of self-gov­ ernment that not even the United States tolerates institutionally. In the U.S. Senate the state of Rhode Island exercises equal power with the states of Calitornia and New York. Mr. Botha says vague things about entering into negotiation with leaders of other South African groups, giving hope to the hopeful that there will be progress made, of sorts. But Botha recognizes that when opposition reaches the high $itch of the present day, those who emerge with the the most forceful constituencies aren't the Bishop Muzorewas of the situation, but the Robert Mugabes. The shah of Iran did a lot of foolish things in the course of his reign, but nothing more foolish than to deal charita­ bly with the opposition at a mo­ ment when Iran was lurching to- ward the ayatollah. William F. Buckley We have a perfect symbol of the problem in the matter of Nelson Mandela. He is the principal lead­ er of the outlawed African Nation­ al Congress and has spent the past 20 years in jail. Prime Minister Botha, in response to pleas for amnesty, has offered to release him from jail in exchange for a promise to gainsay violence. The kind of thing Botha has in mind was articulated in a broadcast beamed at South Africa by the African National Confess in Ethi­ opia last May. "Ambushes must be prepared for police and soldiers with the aim of capturing weapons from them. Our people must also manufacture home-made bombs and petrol bombs with material that can be locally obtained. In addition, our people must also bgy weapons where possible. After arming themselves in this manner, our people must begin to identify collaborators and enemy agents and deal with them. Those collabo­ rators who are serving in the com­ munity councils must be desdt with. Informers, policemen, spe­ cial branch police, and army per­ sonnel living and working among our people must be eliminated^' That is the party of Nelson Mati- dela. Where Mandela belongs, Jn his current frame of mind, is pre­ cisely where he is: in jail. We should, every now and theii, drawback a bit and ask ourselves the question: What are we doiijjg trying to fine tune the evolution of South African domestic policies? a few hundred miles from us in & little island a couple of weeks ago we had a one-man-one-vote demo­ cratic exercise, and what do yon know, Baby Doc got 99 percent 6f the vote. Could anyone care les$ They are all black. If Baby Do£ were white, Senator Kennedy would have led an expeditionary force of volunteers to liberate hie black subjects. Is history realty going to look upon the Unite# States as the master architect qf freedom and justice for other peo­ ple? The entire continent of Africa is near a state of decomposition, and anyone who maintains thsfjt such countries as Ethiopia anjl Uganda and the Central African Republic and Algeria and Mozani- bique are better off than they weii in colonial days is an ideologue, ty whose hands history is unsafe, even as history was unsafe when we held the trump cards and dis­ posed of the future of CambodUg, and Laos, and South Vietnam, an0 East Germany, Bulgaria, Czecho­ slovakia, Romania, and Hungary.* (William Buckley is a columnist for Universal Press Syndicate) i SAFETY TIPS '... AND S0.SEKMDRS,WITHG0DP0LDAMERICAN QUALITY GDHTR0L, m.. 0OCt> GRIEF, MAJOR" .WHAT WASUJAT?.