Sapulpa Daily Herald (Sapulpa, Okla.), Vol. 77, No. 303, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 3, 1991 Page: 4 of 8
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PAGE POUR—Sapalpa (Okte.) Hsrtld, Tuesday, September 3, 1991
Opinion
Bush loyal to the Company
MY WP SAID WHEN HE WAf>
INSC°UT$,THEY'D GOTO
THE WOODS FOR THEIR
RETREMS.
George Herbert Walker Bush is,
above all else, a Company man.
In the mid-70s. he won high marks
from the Company professionals at
the Langley. Va., home office for be-
ing a CIA director who stood firm
when critics attacked.
G.H.W Bush pays off in loyalty to
those who loyally serve. And that goes
a long way toward answering the
question that has even prominent Re-
publicans scratching their heads: Why
would Bush shatter his uneasy Iran-
contra truce with Congress by forcing
upon it his in-your-face CIA nomina-
tion of Robert M Gates - who had
been tied to Iran-contra, and whose
confirmation hearings would surely
force a new look at the old scandal1
To understand Bush's decision on
Gates, we need only recall his deci-
sion on another ex-CIA man who loy-
ally served - Donald P. Gregg For
the careers of Bush. Gates and Gregg
are wound with common threads.
Gregg and Gates are Company men
who served loyally but became
stained by that snafu. Iran-contra In
the administration of almost any oth-
er president of our time, Gregg and
Gates would have been honorably but
quietly discharged to sanctuaries in
private enterprise
Not so under Bush These men who
took their hits for his honor were re-
warded with promotions damn the
torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Bush's reward for Gregg was the
U S ambassadorship to South Korea
In 1989. in a honeymoon mood at the
outset of the Bush presidency, a su-
pine Senate confirmed Gregg's am-
bassadorship in the face of evidence
that still makes Democrats cringe,
knowing they'd baldly abdicated their
consent role.
That abdication in brief Gregg,
then Vice President Bush's national
security adviser, sent a memo to Bush
saying one of Ollie North's key opera-
tives in the illegal operation was com-
ing in to talk to the vice president
about the ‘resupply of the contras *
Whoops! — that was illegal and Bush
has publicly said he never heard any-
thing about it. Gregg blithely ex-
plained this must have been a secre-
tarial typo - the memo meant to say
‘resupply of the copters." not ‘con-
tras.’ Right.
Senators pretended they believed
that one. Otherwise, they'd have to
conclude that our new ambassador
was just an old liar — which, of
course, would bring up the question,
too tacky to broach during a honey-
moon. of whether our new president
was one as well
(There is, in fact, reason for the
Senate to take a new look at Gregg
Former Carter national security aide
Adm. Gary Sick says sources of ques-
tionable reputation have identified
Gregg as having accompanied Rea-
gan campaign chairman William Ca-
sey to a meeting in Paris with Irani-
ans. in an effort to delay the release of
Americans held hostage until after
the 1980 election Gregg, though a
Bush loyalist, was on loan by the CIA
to the national security council staff
of then-President Carter Gregg says
he was at the beach with his family on
that October day and produced a pho-
to as proof — but weather experts say
the picture couldn't have been taken
on the day in question, because the
weather was too chilly and cloudy.
Maybe someday an official body will
chase the clouds away on the-Gi
affair.)
Perhaps Bush hoped to recapture
his honeymoon bliss when he sent the
Senate his latest loyalist. Bob Gates.
He might have slipped Gates through
if it were not for the new evidence re-
vealed by ex-CIA official Alan Fiers,
a Gates subordinate, who just pleaded
guilty to Iran-contra crimes. Now the
Senate can't ignore mounting evi-
dence that suggests while Gates was
No. 2 at the CIA. there was lawbreak-
ing going on all around him — by his
subordinates and his superior.
But those mystified by Bush's deci-
sion to choose Gates and taunt the
Senate into probing anew would do
well to remember how Bush was will-
ing to stick with Gregg - even if he
had to stick it to the Senate That also
wasn't smart politics. It was just
Company policy.
regg —
ts
MARTIN
SCHRAM
Killings in U.S. mount at record pace
WASHINGTON (NEA) - A record
number of Americans will be mur-
dered this year, according to a newly
released study by the Senate Judicia-
ry Committee However, there is no
consensus as to why.
Based on the first seven months of
1991, the committee staff predicts
that 23,700 Americans will be mur-
dered this year. That would be 260
more than 1990’s record of 23,440 ho-
micides. (1990, in turn, broke the pre-
vious record of 23,040 set in 1980)
However, 1980 will probably re-
main as the most violent year in U.S.
history. The murder rate that year
(i.e., the number of killings per
100,000 people) was 10.2. This year,
thanks to the nation's growing popula-
tion, the rate should be about 9.5 To
reach the 1980 murder rate, more
than 25.600 persons would have to be
slain this year.
By way of comparison, the lowest
murder rates of the post-World War II
era were recorded in the early 1960s,
when, for several years in a row, the
U.S. rate averaged about 4.5 murders
per 100,000 population.
According to the Senate Judiciary
Committee’s projections, the number
of murders in various states will
largely follow population size: Cali-
fornia, the most populous state, will
continue to be the No. 1 murder state
with 3,550 killed this year. Texas will
move ahead of New York into second
place, followed by Illinois and
Florida.
As far as increases in numbers of
murders. Texas is showing the largest
murder increase this year, followed
by Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri. Arkan-
sas and Wisconsin. Twenty-one states
will show homicide increases this
year; 18 will show declines, 11, plus
the District of Columbia, will be
about the same as 1990.
In releasing the report. Judiciary
Committee chairman Sen. Joseph Bi-
den Jr., D-Del., blamed “this record
carnage' on “the three Ds ... Drugs
and the mayhem caused by hard-core
drug addicts and dealers. Deadly
weapons, particularly the easily
available military-style assault
weapons. And demographics, which
are fueling the growth in violent teen-
aged gangs."
The study and its release have a po-
litical purpose. To stem this tide of
killings, Biden has urged passage of
the core of the congressional Demo-
crats anti-crime package. Among its
features: a ban on military-style as-
sault weapons, final passage of the
Brady gun-control bill, and increased
funding and emphasis on drug-treat-
ment programs.
Said Biden: ‘Drug addicts must be
forced off the street and into jails,
prisons and drug-treatment centers.’
While Biden and today’s headlines
blame most murders - especially the
huge number in the nation's inner cit-
ies — on drugs, many experts see in-
stead a basic societal change at work
Based on the murder rate. Washing-
ton. DC., and Detroit area are still
neck-and-neck for the dubious distinc-
tion of murder capital of the United
States. New York City, however, re-
mains far and away the murder capi-
tal based on sheer numbers of
murders.
As Washington, DC., Homicide Bu-
reau Sgt. Joseph Arroya puts it:
“There’s an old Wild West mentality
at work today in the inner cities Hu-
man life just isn't important. More
and more of our murderers are kids
who could care less that they have
just killed someone It seems that kill-
ing, or being killed, has become a part
of their everyday lifestyle.
“While drugs are often involved, re-
venge is the number one motive for
the killings that I see If you think that
your honor has been disparaged, if
you been have disrespected or
dissed, in the street term, you go get
a gun and you come back and you
start shooting.
“And the killing can be over the
smallest thing. This year I have seen
homicides over a remark about some
one's clothing looking funny, about a
girlfriend's bad haircut and about a
minor fender bender "
Actually, say DC. police, there
have been six murders so far in 1991
as the result of minor traffic alterca-
tions. In a recent one, a car reportedly
cut another off at an intersection. The
two drivers exchanged words, and got
out of their cars. One allegedly
stabbed the other in the head with a
screwdriver, killing him instantly.
So far in 1991. there have been 331
murders in the D.C. area, including
the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.
According to statistics drawn togeth-
er by The Washington Post, police in
those jurisdictions believe the major-
ity were not drug related. Ninety-four
ismtaiMtw (tsr. Wl ^FlHlErV
Fundraiser also raises questions
dren who helped raise money for
MDA.
In Greg MacRae's opinion, people
at MDA seem to be working to satisfy
some bureaucratic goal, which may
or may not serve the person with mus
cular dystrophy.
An engineer, MacRae is self-sup-
porting and independent. He has tried
for the last three years to attend
MDA's summer camp as a counselor
or attendant. He feels he could make
an enormous contribution as a role
model who has experienced the physi-
cal changes the kids are going through
and as someone who has devised solu-
tions to many problems they face. In
addition, there haven't been enough
attendants for campers for the last
three years. But the MDA in Cleve-
land won't let MacRae be a counselor
because — if you can believe this —
he has muscular dystrophy!
No matter who I talked to around
the country, I heard different ver-
sions of these same stories. No one
likes to be called one of Jerry's Kids
Some wonder what the philosophy is
behind MDA's impersonal policies.
Others question the focus of 41 years
of research. I question a system that
seems to foster dependence, rather
than fund independent living skills
and aids, whether or not you’re in
school or working.
Last year, the American public,
corporate sponsors and labor unions
donated a total of $109 million to the
organization. For MDA, fund raising
is big business. Next week we'U look
at how that business is run with an eye
on who actually benefits from the
money spent.
LIVING WITH
A DISABILITY
Jr„„;
ML—
‘Labor Day gets its heart and soul
from one man. Jerry Lewis,’ claims a
press release announcing the Muscu-
lar Dystrophy Association's 26th tele-
thon. But for me. the true spirit of
that day lies with the American peo-
ple who pledge because they believe
with all their heart that the money
will help “Jerry’s Kids."
Yet do we really know where all
that money goes1
Does it help buy people motorized
wheelchairs so they can be indepen-
dent? Well. no. Not unless you have
reached age 11; or unless it will enable
you to get or keep a job. or further
education
Does it pay for the respirators
many will need as their diseases ad-
vance and breathing becomes diffi-
cult? Not any longer.
In fact, no services or equipment
are given unless prescribed by an
MDA clinic doctor, and they are free
only if no other sources of payment
exist, such as insurance or family
resources
A comparison of the 1985 and 1990
MDA Services brochures indicates
that some 55 orthopedic, respiratory
and daily living aids are no longer be-
ing provided to Jerry's Kids, includ-
ing nightsplints. which can delay or
prevent the need for heel tendon
were directly drug related, with an surKerv
other 29 coming during robberies, The reason given by MDA is spiral-
Te?to support^dru^habits^TOe rest
were for various other non-drug rea- f t .
sons, including 42 that were incidents
of domestic violence.
Surprisingly, the state showing the
largest murder increase so far in 1991
is New Hampshire. It is estimated
that 22 people will be murdered there
this year compared to 13 last year.
A New Hampshire State Police
spokesmen said that most of this
years murders, as in the past, ‘are of
the old-fashioned boy kills girl, girl
kills boy. husband kills wife, wife kills
husband's girlfriend variety. Access
to guns makes many of these killings
easier, but the motives are the same
old ones."
THE WAGMAN FILE
But since pledging money for re-
search and helping Jerry's Kids is the
telethon's focus. I decided to talk to
some of those “kids" about the help
they get.
Many people I spoke with asked
that their names be withheld because
they fear being cut from the MDA ser-
vices that still are available.
A former attorney in Tennessee de-
scribed her feelings this way, ‘It’s a
love-hate relationship. I couldn't
function without the things MDA has
bought, and I've always found the peo-
ple nice at local offices. But I hate the
way they raise the money. You sure
wouldn't want to look for a job the day
after the telethon."
In Ohio, a teacher who is receiving
a new motorized wheelchair from
MDA had this to say. "They were very
good when my insurance wouldn’t
cover this new chair. But if I wasn't
working, I wouldn't qualify for help
even though I couldn't function at
home without it. And after 41 years of
research, they’ve discovered nothing
that's affected my life in any way.
“I've also often wondered why,
when I was in high school, the MDA
doctors didn't suggest a motorized
chair. My first few years teaching, I
had to pay someone a lot of money to
push me around. The state depart-
ment of vocational rehabilitation
bought my first electric wheelchair!"
Joan Barnekow of Ohio, recalls
singing a song at MDA summer camp
that the counselors didn't much like:
“Jerry, please buy them electric
chairs. Our friends all drive manuals,
they can’t get nowheres!" Barnekow
didn't go to college until she was 32
because, after years of watching the
telethon, she thought she wouldn't
grow up. At age 57, she can't work.
When her electric wheelchair wore
out. MDA wouldn't help. She had to
borrow $1,000 from an aunt for down-
payment on a new wheelchair, even
though Medicaid and Medicare paid
the supplier and the loan was paid
back. Without a motorized chair, she
would probably end up in a
wheelchair.
When John Neunzer of California
was diagnosed at age 5, MDA doctors
said he wouldn't see age 10. At 25.
when his electric wheelchair died, for
two years he wasn't able to leave
home during the day. In 1990, when
MDA finally got him the manual chair
they had fitted him for in 1988, Medic-
aid (Medi-Cal in Calif.) paid for the
power-pack attachment that enables
him to get around independently
again.
In Chicago, Cris Matthews had to
threaten MDA with a lawsuit before
they would pay $500 toward wheel-
chair repairs, which is all that's al-
lowed in any one year. Matthews and
Neunzer are two former poster chil-
The man who really discovered America
ROBERT
WAGMAN
Today in History
By The Associated Press
Today is Tuesday, Sept. 3,thc246ih
day of 1991. There arc 119 days left in
the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 3,1783, the Treaty of Paris
between the United States and Great
Britain officially ended the Revolu-
tionary War.
On this date:
In 1189, England's King Richard I
(the Lion-Hearted) was crowned in
Westminster.
In 1658, Oliver Cromwell, the Lord
Protector of England, died.
In 1939, Britain and France
declared war on Germany, two days
after the Nazi invasion of Poland.
In 1940, Artie Shaw and his Gram-
ercy Five recorded "Summit Ridge
Drive,” "Special Delivery Stomp,"
"Keepin* Myself for You” and
* ‘Cross Your Heart' ’ in Hollywood for
RCA Victor.
In 1943, Allied forces invaded Italy
in World War II.
In 1951,40 years ago, the television
soap opera “Search for Tomorrow”
made its debut on CBS. (It moved to
NBC in 1982, and signed off for the
last time on Dec. 26, 1986.)
In 1967, Nguyen Van Thicu was
elected president of South Vietnam
under a new constitution.
In 1967, motorists in Sweden began
driving on the right-hand side of the
road, instead of the left.
In 1967, the original version of the
television game show "What’s My
Line?,” hosted by John Charles Daly,
broadcast its final episode after more
than 17 years on CBS.
In 1970, football coach Vince
Lombardi died in Washington, D.C.
In 1976, the unmanned U.S. space-
craft Viking II landed on Mars to take
the first close-up, color photographs of
the planet's surface.
In 1978, Pope John Paul I was
installed as the 264th supreme pontiff
of the Roman Catholic Church.
Thought for Today: “The readings
of history and anthropology in general
give us no reason to believe that
societies have built-in self-
preservative systems. And therefore
we can’t say that man will be sensible
enough not to destroy himself. He
never has been sensible enough not to
destroy himself, but he lived in small
groups so that when he destroyed
himself he didn’t destroy everybody.
So the necessity for new inventions for
the conduct of the world cannot
possibly be over-emphasized.” —
Margaret Mead, American anthropo-
logist (1901-1978).
WASHINGTON (NEA) - Christo-
pher Columbus, wherever he is. must
wonder if it was all worth it. As the
hemisphere gets ready to commemo-
rate the quincentenary of his first
voyage to this part of the planet, in
1492. latter-day critics are accusing
the Genoan sailor of having set in mo-
tion the liquidation of the aboriginals
and the more or less permanent ruin-
ation of the neighborhood
And yet he's gotten off rather easy
in the matter of New World grump-
ing. Compared to one of his country-
men and fellow travelers, anyway
Fussy historians and commentators
have been far more ready to condemn
Amerigo Vespucci, a gentleman who
gave not only his time and energy to
the Americas, but his name as well.
Don't be surprised if you only
vaguely recall Mr. Vespucci The
schoolbooks have likewise forgotten
him, in general He was the Italian
merchant-explorer who followed Co-
lumbus here, searching for a trade
route to Asia His reworked name was
casually attached to the place when
new maps of the Earth were
constructed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of
many who have thought the attach-
ment was incomprehensibly wrong
The 19th-century essayist called Ves-
pucci a mere “pickle dealer," a lying
and dishonest one at that. Emerson
wrote that it was an odd shame that
half of the globe, “broad America,"
was baptized with "the name of a
thief.”
Historians before and since have
agreed. As have many editorialists,
encyclopedists and even Vespucci bi-
ographers. The weight of censure has
been so heavy that the Italian has
been largely relegated to the historic
ash heap, and until recently there has
not even been a statue of ‘he man in
the United States.
The censure began, as it happened,
in the wake of the Columbus journeys.
The admiral found the West Indies,
but he failed to chart a new route to
the Orient. And so. Vespucci hoped to
finish the job. Like Columbus, he
sailed first on behalf of Spain (and lat-
er Portugal); also like Columbus, he
reportedly made four trips.
Vespucci claimed he went much
farther than his countryman, howev-
er. He said he bumped into the coast
of South America in 1497, a year be-
fore Columbus, and eventually sailed
hundreds of leagues along the shore.
He was to record his observations in
letters to patrons and friends.
As it turned out. Vespucci did not
find a route to Asia. He discovered
something more profound instead: Co-
lumbus had not reached India, as he
had reckoned. Vespucci realized that
South America was too far south to be
Oriental, thus it was a continent by it-
self. and — after Europe. Africa and
Asia - a “fourth part of the world."
The judgment was greeted in Eu-
rope with as much or more fascina-
tion than the Columbus claims. And it
particularly impressed a geographer
named Martin Waldseemuller. He
thereafter drew a new map of the
world, naming the land mass after
Amerigo (changing the word to the
feminine); and the practice took hold.
Then the post-Columbian criticism
started The admiral had just died,
mostly without lasting honors, and
people began to wonder if he had been
cheated by a less notable if more clev-
er colleague. Even Waldseemuller
had second thoughts, albeit too late.
The critics said Vespucci lied about
being first to South America, boasted
excessively about the lengths of the
other voyages, and, in fact, recorded
geographic information that could
have been taken from the Columbus
logs.
The conclusion, in other words, was
that Vespucci was at best a minor fig-
ure in the annals of the New World.
And the perpetuation of his name is
an accidental irony. American chil-
dren may be taught today that the de-
termined C. Columbus was a thor-
oughly mixed blessing, but they may
not be told about Vespucci at all.
That bothers some in this hemi-
sphere. And a retired California radi-
ologist is among them. Dr. Putnam
Kennedy says he found out a few
years ago that there wasn't so much
as a statue erected to Vespucci in
North or South America, and he took
it upon himself, with the aid of his lo-
cal Kiwanis Club, to correct the “sad
situation."
Dr. Kennedy says he and the Kiwa-
nis did not receive a great lot of sup-
port. He adds. ‘I found out that most
people don’t even know who Vespucci
was." He says he received yawns from
his congressmen, and California big-
gies. and ‘it seemed no one wanted to
honor the guy who had infringed on
Columbus."
Kennedy and the Kiwanis went
ahead anyway. They raised $31,000 to
commission three bronze busts of Ves-
pucci. One of the statues was placed
in the library at Glendale Community
College, near Los Angeles; one was
given to the Colombian Academy of
History in Bogota, Colombia; and the
third is now in a park in Rio de Janei-
ro, Brazil.
And that's it. says Kennedy: “I don't
know of a town named for Amerigo. I
don't know of a street named Vespuc-
ci. Here was a man who made this
wonderful intellectual determination:
He told people there was a whole new
place in the world. And what has he
gotten for it? Centuries of abuse. I
think it's very unfair."
Columbus might feel the same,
wherever he is. Dr Kennedy notes
that in addition to being contemporar-
ies. the explorers were pals. Amerigo
had proved Columbus wrong in his
major finding, yet the admiral said
that Vespucci "has at all times shown
a desire to serve me. and is an honor-
able man." Maybe after 500 years,
Kennedy sighs, it’s time for everyone
else to accept the sentiment.
SAPULPA DAILY HERALD
Published By Park Newspaper of Sapulpa,
Inc.
ROY H. PARK. Cham*
EaiabSahad Sapl 1,1814, ml pubMrad M18 S Parti, Sapulpa.
Oklahoma 74088. tmy altamoon aioapl SaMday aid Sunday
morning. Saoond Claaa Poataga Paid at Sapulpa. Oklahoma. Ron-
maaMt land J578 B 18 So. Park, S*arlpa, OK. 74068
_481880_
Chariaa S. Id*.........................................Qanard Managar
Dand Hardy..........................................Budnaaa Managar
Chariaa l. Fravda Jr_________________________Managing EdKo
Kay Monta....................................Advartahg Managar
M Armttona........................_.........Madiarlcd Sunarimandanl
ElMhra Octobar 1. 1867
Oatuaad by Cardar h SapUpa.......................mo. 8 535
Rural Roula Moot Ddhrary.....................................t 515
By Mdl - Cra* A
Adjohdng Counlaa pa yaa................................8 86 75
Bdanoa Oklahoma pa yaa...................................8104.78
Elaaahai h USA.........................................pa vaa 6111 75
NOTICE—Subacrlbaa mladng tab papal aa raquaaad to cad
224-6185 balaa 7 pm. avrtnga or batata 810 am, Sunday
momma._____
Mamba ONdroma Praia Aaan. Natond Nanpapa Aaan, Tha
AaaodaNd Praaa. Tha Sapulpa Hadd aaaumaa no raaponafelty
la tra naan ol uraoHdtad photxiaphn alorlaa a dbrtnaa
"WMt nanpapa. two la aomadnaa daordar, antroul tram two
la ataayi dtray."-8ar4amln CoraanL__
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Lake, Charles S. Sapulpa Daily Herald (Sapulpa, Okla.), Vol. 77, No. 303, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 3, 1991, newspaper, September 3, 1991; Sapulpa, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1499198/m1/4/: accessed April 25, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.