Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 101, No. 93, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 17, 1983 Page: 4 of 48
forty eight pages : ill. ; page 23 x 15 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
PAGE 4A-THE POLK COUNTY ENTERPRISE, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 17, IMS
Editorial
Short hours
A>
Airline pilots are fighting tooth and nail to pro-
tect their comfortable working conditions despite
the fact that many of the air carriers are in the
red financially and need to use whatever devices
they can to reduce operating costs.
Pilots say that the airlines are requiring them to
fly more hours each month with shorter rest
periods between trips. They contend that the new
requirements raise serious questions about safe-
There can be no compromise with safety, of
course, but it’s impossible to agree with the pilots.
The average pilot now works 83 hours a month,
up from the standard of the major carriers of 75
hours a month before the federal government
deregulated the airlines. For this, the average
pitot receives $69,000 a year - and some make as
much as $140,000 annually.
the Federal Aviation Agency has stated that
airline pilots can fly up to 100 hours each month
without compromising passenger safety. It says
that pilot fatigue caused by long working hours
has never been cited for a major airline accident
or a crash.
The Air Line Pilots Association, representing
31,000 members, plans to appeal to the public, us-
ing the safety ploy to regain the old work
schedules. The public should turn a deaf ear.
Pilot pay is extraordinarly high for what often
amounts to two weeks of labor out of every month,
even though the work does require precise skills
and responsibilities.
Any demand for working conditions beyond the
strict FAA requirements is featherbedding. If the
pilot cannot accept reasonable conditions, there
are planty of other qualified fliers who will
replace them for a whole lot less money. And if the
airlines don’t operate with economy and efficien-
cy, they will not survive in the free market.
Too quick
P
''i ■'■■■
'.'it-'
;■
There have been studies that show surgeons are
too eager to use the knife, performing hysterec-
tomies and removing breasts and lungs un-
necessarily.
Now, a National Institutes of Health report says
that of thd 17a,OQO heart bypass operations
performedi.fiaich year ihjhe United States could
better be avoided or postponed.
The study indicates that many heart conditions
can be treated and controlled as well and at less
cost with drugs and that surgery is not necessary.
Heart Patients with mild chest pains and those
who have survived heart attacks without com-
plications do not need coronary bypass surgery
that costs a patient from $15,000 to $20,000.
“What we are saying is that if you don’t need it
and can function well without it, there is no need
for an immediate operation,” said Dr. Thomas
Killip during a news briefing on the report.
The study took 10 years to complete. It selected
780 heart patients for study and found no signifi-
cant difference in survival rates between those
treated with drugs and those treated surgically.
Coronary bypass operations go around blocked
blood vessels. Veins or arteries from other parts
of the body are surgically installed to carry a sup-
ply of blood to the heart.
If all unnecessary heart surgery were avoided,
the report says, it would represent a savings of up
to $500 million a year - and the money saved could
be used to finance health programs being phased
out by government.
We’re for that. Health costs are out of sight.
Medical insurance programs and Medicate are
grand enticements for doing more instead of less.
If unnecessary surgery for heart patients can be
reduced, cutbacks in vital health-care services
can be avoided or reduced.
And that is a goal every surgeon should endorse.
fetter to the editor^
Red Cross needs assistance
To the editor:
Your Polk County Unit of the
American Red Cross has met the needs
of many of you in the past. Now we are
asking for your help. Many of you were
housed and fed during the well-
remembered gas well rupture. Recent-
ly, during Hurricane Aicia, 166 people
were Sheltered by the Red Cross, at
least half of which were Polk County
residents. The American Red Cross is
helping YOU....
How many of ydu, or your children,
hare taken first aid, CPR or swimming
daset*? Your American Red Cross is
fe*totog you,...
Hew many of you have fathers,
feMfeMds. ions or daughters in some
lassdkof the service? During any time
Of snesrfiwry or time of need, you can
OmmI ape* the Red Cross to help you
with your serviceman.
pi If
Urn Red Crass is there for you.....
«SMV*
mmUrtham *
whstoed i
1 with basic
such ks fires,
iting cir-
i lit; ucu us», uu ou&u 11 ujeci oai e,
has helped many senior citizens in pay-
ing utility bills during times of need.
Your American Red Cross has helped
this community countless times. Now
we need your help. Our funds locally
art very low. The United Fund has
always been our major source of in-
come, but we no longer have a United
Fund in Polk County. The American
Red Cross is TOTALLY dependent upon
contributions, so won’t you please help
us to continue doing our job.
Send your check today to the
American Red Cross, Polk County
Chapter, P.O. Box 1342, Livingston, Tx.
77351.
You could be the next person who
needs our help. Help us to continue be-
ing there for you.
We also need volunteers to help in
various capacities. Please call Carol
Beane at 327-4416 amd let us know we
can count on you as a community ser-
vice volunteer. Thank you.
Carol Beane
Executive secretary, treasurer
Jack Anderson
Devotion works both ways
*1
WASHINGTON—American service
men and women are serving all over
the world, and some give their lives for
their country. But the armed services
don’t always give their people the same
full measure of devotion. This is the
shameful story of one such betrayal.
Staff Sgt. Richard Voll served 18
years in die Army. He volunteered for
two tours of duty in Vietnam and was
awarded the Purple Heart and the
Bronze Star. He needed 20 years in the
service to qualify for a full Army pen-
sion.
But when Voll tried to sign up for
another hitch, he was turned down. The
Army said this was because of five low
evaluation scores and one “non-
judicial" reprimand on his record.
So Voll was mustered out last June -
two years shy of the 20-year mark. The
extra two years would have meant $600
a month more in his pension.
In fact, this may have been the
Army’s primary reason for refusing to
let Voll re-enlist. An aide to Rep. Les
Aspin, D-Wis., explained the Army’s
cold-hearted dollars-and-cents reason-
ing this way: It is more expensive to
keep old-timers on the payroll until they
qualify for full pensions. It is far
cheaper to sign up new recruits for less
pay. And with the high unemployment
of recent years, there are plenty of peo-
ple showing up at the recruiting office.
Not only are there plenty of ap-
plicants, but many are more highly
qualified than those already in the ser-
vice. So veterans like Richard Voll are
repaid for their years of service by be-
ing turned out in the cold.
Voll and the Army agree on one thing
- though for different reasons. The Ar-
my says it should have let Voll go years
ago. Voll wishes the Army had. Now he
is 37 years old, and it’s tougher to find a
decent job at his age than it would have
been 10 or 12 years ago.
Voil’s wife, Nancy, refused to accept
the Army’s decision without a fight. She
painted a picket sign, obtained a permit
and staged a one-woman protest out-
side the Army recruiting office in
Fayetteville, N.C. She has enlisted the
help of Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo.
Now Nancy Voll has signed up herself
- as a volunteer in the Marine recruiting
office in Macon, Ga. She says she wants
to make sure that no one joins up
without a full appreciation of the risks
of being put otu to pasture whenever the
Pentagon decides it’s time to save a lit-
tle money.
Ex-Staff Sgt. Voll is now working as a
truck driver for $200 a week. Nancy has
just applied for food stamps to help
them and their two children make ends
meet.
Unfortunately, Voll’s story is not uni-
que. There are many like him around
the country who have learned just how
the military sometimes rewards loyal
servants.
YOUNG VICTIMS: The nation’s?
economic recovery hasn’t trickled ’
down to the most vulnerable members
of our society - the children.
The story is told in government .
reports that will be made public later "
this week. They’ll show that children
are the principal victims of high '!
unemployment, cuts in federal pro- „
grams and the lingering effects of the ’
recession. The evidence will show that: 5
MUST EE GETTING CLOSE
T0THANK5G1VING...THE
STORES M?E PUTTING UP
DECORATIONS.
IT
A.
YOU MEAN COLORFUL
CX5PLAV5 OF TURKEYS
AND PILGRIMS?
s
GUE55
AGAIN.
Kr «
am
-One out of every five American ,
children now lives in poverty.
-Chidlren at the poverty level die at a ;
rate three times greater than those at
higher income levels.
Child abuse is 10 times higher among |
families earning less than $7,000 a year
than among families that make $25,000
a year.
-Hunger and malnutrition have!
become more common among children
in the United States.
All the statistics add up to an
anguishing conclusion: America’s im-
poverished children are suffering the
worst from the recession’s sting.
JESSE’S DILEMMA: The Rev. Jesse
Jackson recently launched a drive for
the Democratic presidential nomina-
tion. The civil rights activist is the only !
black running, and he would like to be \
the candidate of all minorities. !
But Jackson hasn’t been able to unite 1
blacks, and he may have already lost
the support of the nation’s second;
largest minority. Many Hispanic
political leaders have told us privately1
that he may have waited too long to ’
declare his intention to run. Key1
Hispanics have already pledged their
support to other candidates.
The political power of Hispanics is
growing fast. There are 14.5 million
Hispanic voters in five key primary
states and registration among
Hispanics for the 1984 elections is ex-
pected to reach 60 percent.
HEADLINES AND FOOTNOTES:
President Reagan recently signed a
classified National Security Decision
Directive clearing the way for the
Defense Department to cooperate
closely with the Israeli army in
Lebanon. Our sources say Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger is dead
set against the idea.
The.fmtorgMnent of SenvEdward
Kepngty.JiKttss.,. wpup rmresent a
coup for ' any presiaenBar candidate.
Kennedy told us he hasn’t ruled out an
endorsement. He wouldn’t name his
favorite candidate, but he is a close
friend of Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio.
T-Wheeler
Impeachment talked
By Alan Miller
We sure would have liked overhear-
ing the President’s answer to a com-
ment from his press secretary last
week that seven Congressman back in
Washington wanted to see him im-
peached.
The President was in Japan at the
time trying to get the Japanese to agree
to buy more beef and fruit from us so
that there wouldn’t be all that hur-
rahing about Japanese cars killing
Detroit.
But even that visit to Japan wasn’t all
cherry blossoms and toasts of rice
wine.
Two Texas congressmen, Mickey
Leland and Henry Gonzalez, joined
with five others in the House of
Representatives to offer a resolution
for impeachment over the President’s
conduct in Grenada.
Kind of like what happened when
Richard Nixon was stonewalling the
Watergate affair and the taped conver-
sations from his office.
We gather front what the papers tell
us that Leland and Gonzalez are upset
about the President “declaring war"
without Congress giving its okay.
And that we were meddling in a
human rights situation, invading a
sovereign nation without permission,
and breaking treaties right and left to
boot.
Pretty head stuff when you stop and
think about it!
We would guess that Leland and Gon-
zalez missed the party at the White
House a few days earlier when the
medical students that were in Grenada
dropped by to tell him how happy they
were that they had sent in the Marines
and Airborne troops to get them off the
island.
The students kind of felt that the pre-
sent government on Grenada that had
killed the prime minister, some cabinet
members and assorted civilians to gain
power might Just pose a threat to their
safety the way they were going.
So when some other folks in the
Caribbean called the President and
asked for help, he said we’d do that,
clean up the mess, get out and let them
go on with trying to put their govern-
ment back together.
Leland and Gonzalez didn’t seem to
put much stock in the fact that there
were warehouses of military weapons
and ammunition on the island, Cuban,
Russian, North Korean and other Soviet
imt
block troops and advisers running
. i, :y.-
around loose. We suppose the two Con-
gressmen call that
"self-determination,” just as we’ve
seen it practiced in Hungary and
Poland.
The leader of their party, speaker of
the House Tip O’Neill, thought maybe
the President had jumped the gun going
to Grenada’s aid, but he joined some
other Congressmen and visited the
island after things had cooled down a
bit. Came home and said he thought the
President had done the right thing. But
that he hoped he didn’t make a habit out
of it.
We have a hunch that Leland and
Gonzalez may have just had their heads
turned a bit because of all the furor the
press has been raising that they weren’t
there when the landings were made. We
have a hard time imagining Dan
Rather or Tom Brokaw jumping out of
a cargo door in a parachute from 500
feet up as the army boys did, but that’s
K probably another story anyway.
If keeping the press away from a top
secret military operation is grounds for
impeachment, there’s a screw loose in
our legislative process somewhere.
And if Leland and Gonzalez were
looking for headlines, there must have
been a more tasteful lead for their story
than abusing the intent of the Constitu-
tion of the United States.
As it turned out in Grenada of course,
the American students, the killing of
the prime minister and assorted other
atrocities were only the tip of the
iceberg supporting intervention.
Treaties between Grenada, Cuba,
Russia and North Korea made it abun-
dantly clear that the island was not be-
ing developed as a tourist trap for
cruise ship passengers, but as a
military training base for the export of
terrorism and subversion throughout
the western hemisphere.
We may dislike the right wing power
politics of most governments in Central
and South America. They arc
repressive by our standards, and they
seem so slow to adopt democracy as we
understand it, but the fact remains the
alternative of a Soviet presence iB one
we must resist.
Grenada, and the concern it has caus-
ed around the world of those in-
timidated by Russia, is a cross we will
have to bear if we are sincere about
protecting our own national interests.
In our view, it would seem ap-
propriate that Leland and Gonzalez put
their talents to improving understan-
ding of the United States and those na-
tions south of us who are trying to sur-
vive the open revolutions being spawn-
ed by Russian arms and surrogate
troops.
The President also might adopt
more positive diplomatic stance - ond“
we read recently :
“Diplomacy is the art of saying nic~"‘
doggie, nice doggie, until you can find
rock.”
POLK COUNTY
ENTERPRISE
ALVIN HOLLEY, PUBLISHER
Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Post Office at Livingston,
Texas 77351 under the Act of Congress of March 3,1897.
1
Tv
; 'V
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Barbara White, Editor
Grace Holman, Family Editor
Beatrice Hall, Special Correspondent
Van Thomas, Sports Editor
Greg Peak, Area News Editor
Don Hendrix, Special Sections Editor
Linda Farber, Darkroom Technician
Paul Fortney, Reporter
PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT
Pressroom Personnel
Mike Sims, Production Supervisor,
Adrian Dunn, David Holley, Paul Holley,
Beamon Goodwin, Ricky Taylor
Composition Personnel
Dorothy Wilson, Composition Supervisor
Hilda Sylestine, Debbie Gay, Ollie Wyatt, Eve Bowen
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
Felicia Fiscal,
Emma Robles, Elizabeth Villarreal
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
Linda Dickerson, Ad Manager
Linda Jacobs, Carrolyn Vaughn,
Kathy Jordan, Mary Jo Watson, Patty Hankard
BOOKKEEPING DEPARTMENT
Sue Holley, Manager
Diane Holley
S
I
vi
,.“J
■I
SUBSCRIPTION BATES - $13.60 per year, in county, $14.80 per year,
out of county. $15.50 per year, out of state. Published semi-weekly,
Sunday and Thursday at 500 Tyler St. In Livingston, Texas by the Polk
County Publishing Co.
Any erroneous reflection upon the character, standing or reputation
of any person, firm or corporation which may appear in this
newspaper will be gladly corrected upon being brought to the attention
of the publisher.
Opinions expressed in columns nre those of the writer and net
necessarily those of this newspaper.
Opinions expressed In editorials nre those of the Enterprise.
Postmaster: Please send form $579 to P.O. Box 1278, Livingston,
Texas 77351.
I
%
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
White, Barbara. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 101, No. 93, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 17, 1983, newspaper, November 17, 1983; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth790860/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.