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actment as a pc ment of religion r toeeiHeA^ sSSat*. One down, more to come? 'Hustle' gets record Love him, hate him or be indif­ ferent towards him, but give Pete' Rose his due. Hose broke Ty Cobb's major league baseball record of career hits Wednesday night when he sin­ gled. Rose later tripled in the ball game, which his team won 2-0. It may have taken Rose more games and at-bats to get to the record than it took TV Cobb to set it, but that doesn't diminish his feat. Yes, he has a bit of the hot dog in him. His maddening habit of slam­ ming the ball onto the turf after the final out of an inning is just a way of showing up the other team. When interviewed, he can recite his season and career statistics without pausing to think. But he also tries hard. He didn't get the nickname "Charlie Hustle" because of his lack of effort. The head-first slides and his running down to first base after drawing a base on balls have becomc trademarks. Years ago, he promised to be­ come the first $l00,000-dollar-a- year singles hitter. It wasn't com­ pletely true that he only hit singles, in fact, he had occasional power. But you know it was years ago because back then $100*000 was the mark of a big-time profes­ sional ballplayer. Now days sin gles hitters command multi-mil­ lion dollar contracts. Rose now can relax and concen­ trate on becoming a full-time man­ ager. He has remained as a player/manager while in pursuit of the record. Baseball history has shown that ex-players without in­ credible talent, but who have' pushed themselves to the limit of­ ten make better managers than superstars. Ronald Reagan rates very high at the moment in Doreen Brown's book. The reason is shoes. The presi­ dent, as you may have heard, has rejected a request by the U.S. shoe industry to curb foreign imports that in the past few years have captured the greater part -- more than 70 percent -- of the home market. He did so for the right reasons, saying most of the right things, in the opinion of Ms. Brown, who is president of Consumers for World Trade, a Washington-based lobby opposed to trade restrictions. The proposed curbs would have set quotas on imports of all but the lowest-priced footwear. Whatever the specific mechanism, the presi­ dent said, it was still protectionism which "does more harm than good to those it is designed to help." He estimated the probable cost of quotas in higher prices to Amer­ ican consumers at $3 billion a year, with those with lowest in­ comes hit hardest, and the damage to other U.S. industries, as a result of retaliation against American ex­ ports, at another $2.1 billion. "As president," he said, "it is my responsibility to take into ac­ count not only the effect of quotas on the shoe industry, but also their broader impact on the overall economy." There was more along the same line, every word of which could probably have been written for him by Consumers for World Trade, which sees any trade re­ striction as a hidden tax on con­ sumers and ultimately most dam­ aging to the economy that seeks their shelter. There is no question, even Do­ reen Brown admits, that many American industries are in a bad way. In part, especially with older, labor-intensive industries such as footwear, this must be accepted as inevitable when an industrial econ­ omy matures. But that does not mean, she says, that we must or should allow all our basic industri­ al capabilities to go down the drain and become primarily a service economy. Don Graff Bennett, yes; Bennett, no It does mean we should focus our efforts in those industrial areas where our potential is greatest and we can be compete most effective- l y w i t h o u t t h e p r o p o f protectionism. "I think," Ms. Brown says, "that eventually we will come to our senses and decide that there is something besides foreigners that is making trouble for us. It's not just the Japanese. They are taking advantage of the fact that there is something very wrong with our industrial sector, but they are not the cause of the damage." Our worst problem may be, she suggests,, that we prefer not to address the real cau£ed*bf industri­ al problems because it is so much easier to put the blame on trade. Welcome as it is, she doesn't think the president's refusal to blame trade for what's wrong with shoes is going to do much by itself to change that attitude. The tide of protectionist sentiment is running too strongly, especially in Con­ gress. Bills are pending, bills that promise shelter from predatory foreign competition for some 300 American-made products ranging from electronic hardware to water beds. "There's no question about it," Ms. Brown says. "We're going to have a bad year." There is even the possibility that some form of relief for the hard- pressed footwear producers might yet sneak through, attached as a rider to other legislation. She is now waiting, you might say, for other shoes to drop. (Don Graff is a columnist for N e w s p a p e r E n t e r p r i s e Association) WASHINGTON - William J. Bennett, U.S. secretary of educa­ tion, went around to a meeting afc the Knights of Columbus recently and made a bell-ringing speech. He was talking about the relation­ ship of church and state in the American experience, and he had it just about right. "American history," he said, and by this he meant the funda­ mental shape of the American ex­ perience, "cannot be understood without reference to the Judeo- Christian tradition, a tradition which gave birth to us and which envelops us." In that sentence, the gentleman committed truth. It is a felony in Washington, D.C. Not even the most casual student * of the colonial period can miss this vital aspect of our beginnings. Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Anabaptists, Jews -- they all came to these 18th-century shores. They had at least two things in common as the fledgling union began to stir in its nest: a belief in one god, and a conviction that in a new republic there must be separation of church and state. The very Declaration of Independence invoked a "Creator" and called upon "Divine Provi­ dence." The Constitution was drafted "in the Year of Our Lord 1787." The First Amendment no sooner had been adopted than Con­ gress set about the employment of chaplains. "In God We Trust" be­ came the national motto. "So help me God," swore our public officers. Notice the language of the First > James J. Kilpatrlck Amendment. It says that Congress shall make no law respecting "an establishment" of religion. That word "respecting" gave me trou­ ble for years. It means "concern­ ing" or "with regard to" or "in reference to," but obviously Con­ gress many times has made laws respecting religion -- chaplains in the armed services, resolutions for Thanksgiving Day, tax exemptions for contributions to churches and temples. Then it struck me that the First Amendment does not pro­ hibit laws respecting religion; it prohibits laws respecting an estab­ lishment of religion, and there is all the difference in the world. That is why the Supreme Court was so very wrong this past term in striking down Alabama's law permitting -- not requiring, but merely permitting -- school teach­ ers to call for a minute of silence at the start of the school day. Dur­ ing this minute, the pupils could not be required to do anything ex­ cept to shut up. They could think about the six-times tables, or about the girl or boy in the next seat, or they could say a silent prayer. To perceive this permissive en- potential "establish- was quite simply preposterous. Ridiculous. The Ala­ bama statute, because it men­ tioned "prayer," may have been a law respecting religion, but it as­ suredly was not a law respecting an establishment of religion, and that is what the Constitution is all about. In his address, Bennett went a little bit overboard. He asked for support "in our effort to restore prayer to our public schools." The government has no business in any such effort. What needs to be re­ stored is a sense of neutrality on the part of government. It is this b^evpient and accommodating neutrality that the Supreme Court has wandered away from. Bennett criticized the Supreme Court's summary rejection five years ago of a Kentucky law requiring that a 16-by-20-inch copy of the Ten Com­ mandments be posted in every classroom, but the court's action in that cape was plainly right. My reading of the First Amendment clearly prohibits the reading of Bi­ ble verses or the recitation of pre­ scribed prayers in the public schools. TTiis is not neutrality. If Bennett means to institute or­ ganized, ritualized religious ser­ vices in the classrooms, .I will op­ pose him all the way. If he means to accommodate religion just -as atheism and agnosticism are ac­ commodated, let him get on with that admirable task. (James Kilpatrick is a columnist for Universal Press Syndicate) Reader Forum NORTH WIST HERALD "We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.' Charles Kettering ROBERTA. SHAW Editor and Publisher LEONARDM. INGRASSIA Executive Editor STEVEN H. HUNTER Marketing Director KAREN A. ANDROS Saturday Editor MICHAEL E.MORSCH News Editor/Regional DENNIS M. McNAMARA Editorial Page Editor RONALD L.STANLEY Circulation Director Government spending To the Editor: - There have been a number of editorials and articles in the Herald in the past month or so, telling about what our government does to us. The articles are spread out and usually report the happening after it's all signed off and on the books. This isn't the fault of the newspaper, the government hands out the releases when it's too late for the public to act. A letter to the editor recently summ­ ed it up. The writer attended a school board meeting in which everything seemed to have been already decided behind closed doors. The public meeting was rubber stamping and the public be damned. The governor recently announced the schools chief received over $30,000 a year pay raise. That's more than most of us can earn in a year. Then the state added a new state holi­ day so there is another day for state employees to stay home. In a way we should be thankful, every day they stay home, the less tax money they can spend. The government reports that auto odometers are being rolled back on used cars and it is spending a lot of tax money trying to run down a few of the law breakers. This is nonsense, they can't enforce the law. If the state is worried about money people might lose on high mileage cars, why don't they worry about the money we all lose on cars because of salt on the roads in winter. How a car is main­ tained is more important than mileage. Another article reports the federal government is "forcing" Illinois to emission test cars. This hassles the poor man who can't afford to spend a lot of money on an old.car. But the worst part is the feds are threatening to keep money that belongs to the state if Illinois doesn't comply. If the feds keep money belonging to Il­ linois; then Illinois should keep money belonging to the feds. Years ago, Governor Reagan threatened the feds with that when the feds tried to force all states to pass a helmet law for motorcyclists. California was the only state not to comply, and never did lose any money! Ed Armstrong Fox River G rove Seniors neglected To the Editor: It's too late for Marvin, Margrit and Mae for the seniors' dream to Write us! '"V. Send letters to Reader Forum, The Herald, 7803 Pyott Road, Crystal Lake IL 60014. Letters must be signed and give the author's ad­ dress and telephone number for the editor's reference. Werecommend letters of 300 words or less. All let­ ters are subject to editing for clari­ ty and brevity. come true. A committee was formed to find a permanent Senior Center, but since the building on Illinois Street was vacated almost two years ago, no meeting has been held and nothing has been accomplished. { The seniors now have a small room at the American Legion hall with no room for expansion. This is not to say that we do not appreciate the generosity and graciousness on the part of that group, but the would-be "All American City" has overlooked its seniors. We've stood helplessly by while many suggestions, but^no solutions, have been made. We wjfre promised a place of our own, "but nothing materialized. The planned new municipal building has nothing for the seniors. Several municipal and privately owned buildings were mentioned in the past, but nothing has been done about them. Talk of studies by consultants, lawsuits, bicycle paths, swimming pools, airports, tennis clubs and referendums fill the air at public meetings. The seniors seem to have been forgotten except at tax time.: Many grojips and many people have helpea us and this has been greatly appreciated, but we need a meeting place -- old or new. Somewhere in our schools, park district or business community there should be an adequate facility. Children cannot pay for or build schools or a Swimming pool, nor can seniors repair, build or pay entirely for a place for themselves. Seniors must have help now. 'Mary Rossiter Crystal Lake Pay • NORTHWEST HERALD Section B Friday,J Opinion It. WITH ENOUGH VMJBAGSAND HOT MR... jtember 13, lfIS