The Springfield News-Leader from Springfield, Missouri • Page 16

The editorial page editor is Robert Leger, 836-1113. News-Leader 16A Wednesday. December 2, 1998 Opinion Readers' Ijtiers How to get your letter published Mail it FAXe-mail Voice it Springfield News-Leader "Tisa privilege to live in the Ozarks" Editorial Board members Bernard M. Griffin President and Publisher Randy Hammer Angel Streeter Executive Editor Assoc. Editorial Page Editor Call anytime to 836-1212 or 1-800-695-1779 Letters to the editor News-Leader 651 Boonville Ave.

Springfield. MO 65806 FAX phone number: 417-837-1381 or e-mail it nleditormail.orion.org Kate Marymont Hank Billings Your letters are an important part of the daily debate on this page. Preference is given to letters that are brief and direct, 150 words or less. We verify all letters, so please include your name, address, a daytime phone number, and if you wish, a photo. We edit for grammar, clarity and length.

Please call 836-1275 if you have a question. Managing Editor Editorial Page Coordinator Sarah Overstreet Columnist Robert Leger Editorial Page Editor Our View Gangs take root in towns Issue: A killing in is -suspected to be gang-related. suggest: Small commu-: hities aren't timmune to gang violence. Buffalo now Way- nesville have 'shown that. Call In: If you wish to -record a letter to 3he editor on today's editorial, Tplease call 836-n212 or 1-800-L695-1779.

Please spell your name and include a phone number. SMS gets it right with this request Nine years ago, the editor of Southwest Missouri State University's student newspaper asked to see campus security records. The university said no, and the issue ended up in an acrimonious federal lawsuit. Last month, a student editor again asked for records, this time from the university's student judicial process. He based his request on a new federal law that closes a loophole some universities used to hide disciplinary actions involving violent crimes or non-forcible sex offenses.

This time, SMS showed that it had learned from its mistakes. The latest request is headed for court, too, but under far friendlier terms. The federal law is clear, but the state open records law is vague on student records. "We said this is what our best interpretation of the two laws is. Now, we want a judge to tell us if it is right," said Bob Glenn, the dean of students.

The university will pick up the cost of the lawsuit, which seeks clarification only. "There's no reason we should hide what's going on on campus," Glenn says. "I'd love to be able to tell exactly what we're doing to some rascal." That's the point of the new federal law: To ensure that students know about crimes on campus, how they're handled, and can take whatever precautions they believe to be necessary. It would have been good if SMS had simply released the information. The legal issues are such, though, that asking a court's opinion is the right thing to do.

family, including his father, two brothers and an uncle, were indicted by a federal grand jury for charges of crack cocaine distribution. How can a. child grow up in that kind of environment and not be affected by it? And what of the other misguided young people in this community? Waynesville authorities have reopened a five-year-old murder in which it was suspected that children ages 8 to 15 stabbed a man up to 18 times for a gang initiation. Gangs aren't anything new to this small community of 3,000. Six years ago, the school district instituted a zero tolerance policy toward gangs, disciplining those who flashed gang signs or had gang graffiti on notebooks.

The FBI has been called in to help the overburdened Pulaski County Sheriffs Department deal with a growing gang problem along Interstate 44, which runs through the county. Gang members from large cities are looking for fertile ground. And they've found it in towns like Waynesville and Buffalo, in Springfield. We're leaving our children vulnerable. For some reason, they find that gangster lifestyle appealing.

What they're not getting at home, school, church, the community, they're finding with gangs. For the second time this year, the alarm has been sounded. Who would have thought a possible gang-related murder could happen in Buffalo? Who would have thought that Waynesville would have a problem with gangs? It's going to happen again if small towns steadfastly deny that something like this could occur in their community. If they thought Buffalo was a fluke, Waynesville has shown them that no one is immune. The outrage begins anew.

This time it's Waynesville. A 17-year-old is charged with first-degree murder. Four other teen-agers are charged with first-degree assault in a drive-by shooting related to the slaying. And authorities don't hesitate to call it for what it is it's gangs. No doubt about it.

It's another Buffalo, another small community rocked by a senseless death. It's another shocker, only maybe not so shocking because the suspects involved have a history of criminal activity or maybe because we've been down this road before. It's familiar, too familiar. Before our mouths were gaping in disbelief. Now we're shaking our heads as if to say, "Oh no, not another one." School officials in Buffalo said not to cast a net of negativity around all the young people there.

Most are good kids. School officials in Waynesville say the same about their students. Don't let the actions of a few overshadow the achievements of the students and the schools. How soon will we hear another school official from another small community, from our own community, mouth the same words in response to another gang-related incident? We're treading this road one too many times. The path is wearing thin.

And with each passage over it, do we become less stunned, more complacent? Do we become, better at placing tie blame elsewhere gangs from Chicago and St. Louis, young people who just cause trouble? How many more times does this have to happen before we realize we're failing our children? The suspect in the murder, Gregory L. Haggard, clearly didn't come from a normal home life. In July, several members of his remember why the state received the funds in the firft place, to pay for causes from the use of tobacjo products. These funds will not come from state taxation, so should not be considers excess state income.

In my opinion, the settlement funds should be placed in an interest-bearing tjUst fund to pay for the tobacco-related illnesses of emphysema, cancer and arteriosclerosis (heart bypass, heart attacks, strokes, etc.) arid for de-addiction, not just for Medicaid recipients but for aU users of tobacco products. Very simply, the settle, ment should be used for the reasons the state is receiving it and that is to pay for co-related health bills, not as a Hancock refund. It will be political demagoguery to make taxpayers think they are getting windfall when they will have to pay it all back in support Medicaid. The public should forgej about what tax funds have already been spent on tobaQ: co-related illnesses and comfort that they will not have to pay further, if the funds are placed in trust. Jack W.Ward Verona Ms raise prices -of Clinton cigars -r To my liberal smoking friends: You know who it was who pushed the price of tobacco over the edge.

At $24 a'car-ton, only the rich can smoked Obviously the criminals are not going to stop smoking, so watch the crime rate soar after the New Year. K2 i If we could raise the price on those little cigars Clinton is smoking, perhaps to about $200 apiece, this might even things out and he might have to quit smoking like the working people. OK, unions, here is your cue better talk to ybiir friends in the White House A.J. Clemens -Springfield- WRESTLING Don't put down help for tourism Re: "Is Springfield ready for body Our View Nov. 27.

I've been a wrestiingian since I was able to watch a fun pastime with family. $id friends for a long time. This in a day when cities fight for industries and someone is trying to stop growth before it even gets started. As for big names, four of the greatest wrestlers that have ever stepped into the ring, Harley Race, Hacksaw Butch Reed, Dan the Beast Severn and King Mable, were all at the match Sunday night. I also want to address the comments as to it being a sport.

People get hurt. You take many risks to wrestle. We must be licensed by the state of Missouri Athletic Commission and train just as a boxer or any other athlete would. Here's the bottom line, we can't have major concerts or events because the area won't support it, i.e., large stadiums, pro football, major league baseball, so when a small corporation tries to help by bringing a breath of fresh air and something else to town, you want to tear it down before it even gets started. The issue is this; One, Is it fun? Two, Is it safe? Three, Will it benefit the community? The answer is yes.

People come from as far away as Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas City, so it helps tourism as well. Look folks, this is the greatest show on earth. John Epperson Nixa READERS' LETTERS Contributors are limited to one "Ozarks Voices" publication and one letter to the editor in a 30-day period. Because of the need to ver i-fy information, all submissions should be accompanied by daytime and evening telephone numbers. KEVORKIAN Physician presses for patient rights I'm a retired registered nurse with degrees in nursing, counseling and education.

I'm responding to your editorial in the Nov. 29 News-Leader, "Dr. Death kills debate" and to the Nov. 29 column by Kathleen Parker, "Televising man's death a display of true indecency." Kathleen Parker obviously is talking about emotional experience and her own ideas. The person who wrote the editorial is somewhat the same.

They're calling Dr. Kevorkian "Dr. Death" without realizing that what Dr. Kevorkian is trying to do is establish a legal procedure where people can make choices about whether they live or die. I've been in nursing for over 50 years and have seen a lot of people who have been relieved of the pain of terminal illness by doctors who didn't consult the patient.

What Dr. Kevorkian is trying to do is to establish the patients' rights in making this decision. The things said in this column about Dr. Kevorkian being a charlatan or a crusader are an exaggeration of his attempt to make euthanasia possible for people who suffer from terminal illness. I think we have to give him credit for putting himself on the front line and trying to fight back at these things.

Jean Brooks Nixa Why not charge abortion doctors? Re: Dr. Kevorkian I don't think what he's doing is right. I would like someone to explain how what he is doing is any different than what other doctors are doing when they are performing late-term abortions or abortions at all. No one has the right to play God, but yet Dr. Kevorkian has chosen to do that as well as a bunch of other doctors are doing that.

I think it's ridiculous to have him on charges and they don't have all these other doctors on charges. Frances Dean Springfield CLINTON President mustn't be above law Each day I am more grieved for the moral state of our nation. I hear the media chuckling over comments that voters wonder why the House and Senate are still considering accusing the president of lying, of obstructing justice. These crimes are a fact, no one seems to deny that, but the idea of someone being accused of adultery and then lying about it seems to be a big joke. It is not a joke, and it is not only about adultery it is about breaking the laws of the United States.

We hear "So what, the economy is the best ever." Is this what our nation was founded upon money? I think not. No, I know not. Unless we can become the godly country we are supposed to be, according to the Constitution and God's laws, what is to become of us? Please think on these things, not as Republican or Democrat but as one of God's holy creations. A lie is a lie, no matter who says it. No one should be above the law, even the president of the United States.

Virginia Klncaid Springfield TOBACCO Reserve funds for smokers' care Before the state politicians gleefully decide to parcel out the funds from the tobacco settlement to influence their constituents (about the time of the next election), they should The scber, impartial impeadvrnent deliberations. lAR.STWfc.lWMJTTO REM) THIS POENU IT'SCALim''aCE70KBY YOUWWT mm Libraries' rights should allow filter between kids, porn Now here's a nice puzzle for those of us who fancy ourselves First Amendment absolutists. A federal judge in Virginia, in the first-ever such ruling, has held that a public library cannot install computer filters to keep kids away from Internet pornography, because doing so has the collateral effect of denying adult library patrons the same access. The constitutional principle is long established that publishers and sellers can't be forced to meet a juveniles-only standard of appropriateness, but while that is unquestionably sound at tie creative and production end, is the same principle still valid at the access end? The First Amendment, bless it, does magnificent but limited work. It prevents government from interfering with an open exchange between publishers, artists, filmmakers and the like and their willing patrons.

The amendment, however, is just as important in what it does not do. It does not require booksellers to stock all books or oblige them to cater to clamorous clienteles if they don't wish to. And libraries are not required to buy every book; they routinely decide Clinton arrogance may backfire Tom Teepen WASHINGTON In blowing off the House Judiciary Committee's 81 interrogatories, a mockingly evasive Bill Clinton told the Congress: Take your impeachment process and stick it in your ear. Clinton stiffed the Congress on questions about hem the most characteristic moment in his presidency. In January, caught lying under oath in the Jones lawsuit, he consulted Dick Morris about the people's reaction if he told the truth.

Morris testified that he took a poll showing public forgiveness about adultery but not about perjury. He reported Clinton's declara ft William Safire Do they let him treat them with unconcealed contempt or do they let him force them to hit him harder than they want to? Few doubt that on the basis of the last election Democrats should oppose impeachment. Clinton is triumphalistic; the market is booming; Ken Starr proved only lies about sex; nothing can stop the move-on movement But politicians know that it is in the nature of the political wheel to turn. Two years hence, we could be in a recession, with people finding fault A missile from a rogue nation could remind us who opposed a missile defense. With the statute of limitations run, Chinese fund-raising culprits could start confessing for fame and profit Memoirists will be impelled to reveal all and Democratic partisans will claim to be shocked, shocked at President Pinocchio.

That is why Democrats, denied a genuine contrition fix, want the shame-on-you way out They want to be able to say: "I voted to verbally skin him alive; I wasn't soft on Clinton's wrongdoing." A scolding resolution is their insurance policy for giving him a constitutional pass. They are desperate to get right with the possible condemnation of voters in the next election. House Republicans rightly don't want them to get away with it. And the Comeback Kid, by coming back too cockily, is helping those who want to let the Senate make the final judgment. William Safire is a columnist for the New York Times.

which ones not to shelve. It hardly seems a great constitutional affront, then, for libraries to make similar judgments on Internet access, especially when children are at the mouse. As long as full access is continued for adults, setting aside limited-use terminals for juveniles is only prudent. Libraries should be the last places parents are afraid to send their kids to, and librarians shouldn't have to serve as fire brigades, rushing buckets of cold water to giggle-and-gasp clusters of the newly pubescent Except for worthy policing against child porn, legislative efforts to sic the vice squad on the Internet have so far flopped. Congress' latest attempt has recently been put in abeyance by a federal judge in Philadelphia, and just as welL The kind of control Congress wants does offend the First Amendment And is hopeless anyway: The Internet is beyond policing.

A simple word-search click in Yahoo! turns up 296 "sex" sites, most with links to more sites. Libraries have got themselves intq a muddle over the Internet in part by extruding the American Library Association's current, dubious blurring of the traditional distinction between adult and juvenile collections. But the risks of a kid plowing too young through Henry Miller's wild-man prose are compounded beyond measure by the hairier outre a quick hand can find in cyber raunch. The freedom to publish and exhibit is not diminished, but is enhanced when the public can be confident bookstores, libraries and theaters retain the right to select their wares according to their own standards. Tom Teepeh is national correspondent for Cox Newspapers.

tion of dishonesty: "We just have to win, then" that is, to hang tough with his line of lies. In his answer to Congress, Clinton had to admit the polling consultation because phone records back up what Morris told the grand jury. But that damning quote about winning by lying? Clinton answered "I do not recall." What Clinton has done in his mocking answers to 81 questions is to fling down a gauntlet: Impeach me if you dare. If you dare not, then the only adjectives acceptable to me in a shame-on-you resolution are "indefensible" and "wrong" about my initial behavior, and "misled" about my subsequent denials under oath. Clinton's present in-your-face attitude places many representatives in a pickle..