Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 74, Greencastle, Putnam County, 3 December 1981 — Page 8

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The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, December 3,1981

School lunch realities

A mother's dilemma: 'lt's a horrible thing, but half the time I don't have 40 cents'

By DENA KLEIMAN c. 1981 N.Y. Times News Service PINE PLAINS, N.Y. - It is lunchtime here at the Seymour Smith Elementary School, and the fourth grade is lined up against the wall. The kitchen staff is busy loading gravy-smothered pork onto rice, the kind of dish that has been served up in the immaculately scrubbed cafeteria for years. But the lunch costs 10 cents more this year than it did last year, and because of new federal guidelines, fewer youngsters qualify for a free or reduced-cost meal. Many youngsters who used to get lunch for free now must pay 40 cents, while many of those who once could get it for 10 cents now must pay the full price of 70 cents. As a result, requests for hot lunches have fallen off 21 percent, and more youngsters are bringing sandwiches from home. No one is going hungry at Seymour Smith and its neighboring junior and senior high schools. Some are not buying the lunch because they do not like it or have always found it too expensive. But for many of the farmers, factory workers and laborers who raise families in this area and in similar working-class communities across the nation, cuts in the school-lunch program have had a direct effect on their lives. The United States Department of Agriculture

opinion

LARRY GIBBS Publisher

Letter to the Editor

Misconceptions in Brian Bex remark require clarification

TO THE EDITOR: One paragraph in the report of a talk given by Brian Bex, as printed in your issue of Friday, Nov. 27, contains three misconceptions that should be clarified. The paragraph cited states, “Noting that there is an increasing emphasis on human rights, Bex said that when someone is given a right which he has not earned, someone else has been deprived of a right he did earn.” Clarifications of the three misconceptions: (1) Human rights are not “given by someone”. They are, as Thomas Jefferson put it in the Declaration of In-

Mexico eyes'communicator'role between U.S., Central America

By ALAN RIDING c. 1981 N.Y. Times MEXICO CITY Like a marriage counselor struggling with a seemingly irreconcilable couple, Mexico has offered to act as a “communicator” between its friends in Washington and its’friends in Cuba and Nicaragua. Its motive is to keep the entire regional family from paying the price of any further deterioration in United StatesCentral American relations. Bitterness and distrust run deep, but for a start, Mexico has urged the rivals to abandon their “verbal terrorism” of accusations and threats. “This escalation suits no one,” said President Jose Lopez Portillo, “and I’m sure other avenues exist.” Last week, Mexican officials renewed their offer to Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. Haig, on a brief visit to Mexico City, repeated warnings that “severe measures” might be required against Nicaragua’s Sandinist regime. Lopez Portillo countered that any use of force in the region would be “a gigantic historical error.” He insisted that political solutions were still possible. Haig responded that he would consult with President Reagan. But there were early signs the administration might support a Mexican initiative. After Haig’s return to Washington, the State Department said Mexico would express concerns it shared with Washington about the Nicaraguan situation directly to the Sandinist government. Significantly, Nicaragua’s foreign minister, the Rev. Miguel d’Escoto, flew here for talks the next day. Cuban officials, who have ex-

Cuban presence in Nicaragua poses threat to peace in hemisphere: Haig

CASTRIES, St. Lucia (AP) Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. and Nicaragua’s foreign minister swapped charges of intervention after a 90-minute meeting, but “at least we are speaking,” the Nicaraguan said. “It would be valuable to continue our discussion," Haig agreed after conferring Wednesday with Foreign Minister Miguel d’Escoto Brockman following the opening of the Organization of American States

says the number of school lunches purchased by families for their children has dropped 11 percent nationwide as a result of cuts this year in the school-lunch program. The cuts, which have resulted in higher prices and a reduction nationwide of 2.3 million meals, were sought by the Reagan administration to reduce waste and tighten eligibility standards. Many families no longer can afford to buy lunch, for their children here in the Pine Plains School District, about 100 miles north of New York City in an economically depressed area of Dutchess County near the Connecticut and Massachusetts borders, and they are making do in different ways. THE ROLFS Carl and Betsy Rolf have four children. He is a mechanic, she a night aide at a home for the mentally retarded, and they share a house that has needed a new roof for years. But like so many other families in this area, the Rolfs have learned to do without. They no longer go out with their family to eat pizza. They go to the movies only twice a year. They keep goats so that they no longer have to buy milk Last year, because Mr. and Mrs. Rolf together earned less than $20,250, their children were each entitled to purchase hot lunch at school for 10 cen-

ERIC BERNSEE Managing Editor

i dependence, “unalienable rights” with which “all men are endowed by their Creator”. (2) Since such rights are the gift of God to all human beings, they are not and cannot be “earned”. (3) The recognition of any person’s rights, possessed because the person is a human being, a child of the Creator, does not and cannot in the nature of eternal truth deprive someone else of his rights. Edna McGuire Boyd Greencastle

pressed interest in using Mexico as a conduit for talks with Washington, were also reportedly briefed on Haig’s visit. In public, Mexico remains a firm defender of the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions and it strongly questions the administration premise that the source of

assembly on this Caribbean island. Haig told reporters he got no assurance that Nicaragua would stop what he called its “interventionism in El Salvador,” where leftist guerrillas are battling a U S.backed civilian-military junta. The United States cut off aid to Nicaragua’s leftist government earlier this year, accusing it of tunneling arms from Cuba to the rebels in neighboring El Salvador.

ts. This year the Rolfs’ income is just short of $25,000, and they no longer qualify for the reduced price. But since they cannot afford to pay the full 70 cents a day per child, the children pack sandwiches. That cost has become an additional burden on the family’s already strapped finances. Last month, when the Rolfs ran out of meat, they had one of their goats slaughtered. The wall in the bathroom has collapsed, but they do not have the money right now to have it repaired. They manage, as so many families in this area like to say they are able to do. They are not ones to complain. “They’re always asking me why they can’t have the hot lunch,” said Rolf, whose mortgage is $l7O a month and whose gasoline bills are high because he and his wife each commute4o miles a day. “It’s just hard.” THE ARSENAULTS Because of the cutbacks, not only do fewer students in the school district qualify for free and reduced lunches, but the cost of the reduced lunch itself has also gone up. Last year the price was 10 cents, today it is 40. “It’s a horrible thing to say, but half the time I don’t have 40 cents,” said Margaret Arsenault, who works part time as a maid and whose

Protecting the pork

Reagan fled the battle of principle, so grubbing at the trough goes on

By ANTHONY LEWIS c. 1981 N.Y. Times News Service BOSTON political mandate for any one thing, it was to reduce the role and the cost of the federal government to get Americans out of the habit of relying on Washington for support and subsidies. As he nears the end of his first year in office, it is clear that he has muffed the opportunity to make that sea change. How can anyone say such a thing about Reagan? After all, he has spent months pressuring Congress to cut federal spending. The press has recorded a series of victories for him on Capitol Hill. Right now he is working on proposals to hold down the next federal budget. Yes, there have been cuts, and they are real. But they are cuts based largely on the political character of the interests that will be affected. The losers are the poor, the weak, the sick: people mostly outside the Reagan constituency. There has been no meaningful reduction in subsidies to the groups -with influence in Washington, or even a real fight to cut them. The President'ran away from the battle of principle. And so the habit of grubbing at the Washington trough will go on. That was the larger point of “The Education of David Stockman.” When William Greider’s Atlantic Monthly article

Central America’s troubles lies in Managua, Havana or Moscow. But in recent weeks, Mexico’s own growing alarm at Cuban influence in Nicaragua and increasing violence in Guatemala has earned it greater credibility as a “communicator” in Washington’s eyes.

Nicaragua’s intervention “is extensive today in both training, command and control, and the provision of illicit arms,” Haig claimed. The United States is “the only American country to have made military intervention a custom,” d’Escoto retorted at a news conference, calling America ‘a symbol of intervention.” D’Escoto, who will pay an official visit to Moscow this month, said Haig told him if

KASSEBAUM

BAKER

Protecting the pork barrel

was published last month, the fuss centered on Stockman’s discovery that sup-ply-side economics was a mirage, that cutting taxes would not increase revenues. The piece was more important, and depressing, for its demonstration that efforts to resist unconvincing claims for federal money repeatedly failed when powerful interests were involved. “We have to show that we are willing to attack powerful clients with weak claims,” Stockman said before the administration took office. “I think that’s critical to our success both political and economic success.” Thus he told Greider, “I’ve got to shut down the synfuels program" end the large federal subsidies for companies set-

The United States and Mexico remain farthest apart over El Salvador, where Washington is sustaining the militarycivilian junta and backing its plan for limited elections in March. Mexico has recognized the guerrilla-led opposition as a “representative political force” and has

Nicaragua intervenes in other countries, it must “expect reciprocity from the United States.”, Haig also told reporters there are 1,500 Cuban military aavisers and 1,500 Cuban technicians, specialists and teachers in Nicaragua. “The level of Cuban presence in Nicaragua and the influx of sophisticated armaments is an ominous development which poses a threat to peace and stability

husband, Joseph, works from time to time at the county fairgrounds in Rhinebeck. Although last year the Arsenaults’ two children qualified for the reduced price, Mr. and Mrs. Arsenault did not even bother to apply this year when they learned what it would cost. The trouble the Arsenaults have in shopping for food these days is that they never know when either one of them will be unemployed. When they are asked on a form how much money they expect to earn, they cannot say. Bills pile up from month to month and are paid only when a check comes in. It is only after the bills are paid that they go out and fill their freezer Last year, Mrs. Arsenault said, when she knew that her children were eating a nutritious meal at school, she would serve them pancakes or a bowl of soup for dinner. Now, she says, she is forced to buy more expensive items. The other day, as the family gathered for warmth around the kitchen table to drink coffee, Joseph, the 17-year-old son, stood outside the house in front of the deer he had killed that morning his first. He came into the kitchen later carrying a bucket and said, “Here’s your liver, mom.” Mrs. Arsenault said the family did not like venison but that this year they were willing to try it.

ting up synthetic fuel plants. Another fat target was the subsidized financing provided by the Export-Import Bank for American companies selling their products abroad. Stockman’s education on that score began with the Ex-Im budget, from which he wanted to cut $752 million. He argued that the subsidies offended Reagan’s free market principles. And they looked inequitable. “How in the world can I cut food stamps and social services,” he asked his administration colleagues, “and you’re going to tell me you can’t give up one penny for Boeing?” But it was not so easy to brush off Boeing or Lockheed or General Electric or Westinghouse or the other big companies that benefit from cheap Ex-Im credit. Senator Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas, where Boeing has important plants, led a move to restore $250 million to the Ex-Im budget. Other Republicans joined her, President Reagan was not heard to object, and the money went back in. The pork barrel tradition in Congress members voting to support each other's local interests in feeding from the Treasury is one reason for the growth of federal spending. The problem is symbolized, as Stockman learned, in the figure of the Senate majority leader, Howard Baker.

called repeatedly for a negotiated solution to the civil war. With Washington again charging Cuba and Nicaragua with sending arms to the Salvadoran rebels, many Mexican officials now feel no solution will be possible in El Salvador without a broader detente. Otherwise, they fear, the Salvadoran conflict will gradually suck in not only Nicaragua, but also Guatemala and Honduras. The Honduran Army is permitting Sunday (Nov. 29) the first general elections since 1972, hoping that a return to civilian government will keep the violence from reaching its country. The army, however, will remain the power broker. Probably the only feasible broker of detente for the region is Mexico. The Organization of American States, which holds its general assembly in St. Lucia this week, is not even planning to discuss the Central American crises. Venezuela has poor relations with Cuba, while the Socialist International, the worldwide Social Democratic movement, is distrusted by Washington. “We don’t want to mediate or act as arbiters or judges,” Lopez Portillo has noted. “We simply want to put them in contact with each other’s problems. If they have the patience to listen to each other, I am sure they will find solutions.” week, Haig complained Nicaragua had rebuffed an administration invitation to work out a “nonaggression pact.” The Sandinists, in turn, charge Washington has ignored their repeated offers of friendship. “All we said to the Americans was, ‘Why don’t you let us represent your position?’ ”

in the neighboring countries and indeed peace and stability in the hemisphere," he said. Haig, in a speech to the 17-nation OAU assembly later today, is expected to attack the leftist Cuban-Nicaraguan axis as a threat to Latin America. En route to the nine-day conference, Haig told reporters in his plane the United States had two “clear manifestations” that Nicaragua was expecting to receive

THE BADORES > The children of Ceylon and Dianne Badore have received free lunches at school ever since Badore, 48 years old, had a heart attack eight years ago and had to quit his job as a,supermarket manager and go on Social Security. But this year, because of the federal budget cuts and a reduction in the eligibility levels, his three children must pay the reduced price for lunch. The Badores have determined that they cannot afford to buy their three children lunch at a cost of $6 a week, so Mrs. Badore makes sandwiches. “I only used to have to worry about two meals,” said Badore, who buys food once a month to cash in on bulk sales and limits the family’s monthly food purchases to S3OO. “Now we have to worry about three.” Although Badore has been told that because of his heart ailment, he should eat only lean cuts of meat, it has become necessary to buy the fattier, cheaper cuts. Since it has become too expensive to bake their own bread, they now buy it stale. Earlier this year, to prepare for the coming heating bills, they were forced to give up their telephone. “We are suffering, but there are others who are suffering more,” Mrs. Badore said. “It’s hard. But we make do.”

Senator Baker often appears in the press in the role of statesman. In fact, he remains overwhelmingly concerned with feeding the local Tennessee interests that keep him in office. He was largely responsible this year for keeping alive two of the biggest jokes in the federal budget: the Clinch River fast-breeder reactor in Tennessee, which even the nuclear industry admits is uneconomic, and the TennesseeTombigbee waterway, a giant ditch being dug parallel to the Mississippi River. But Congress and the pygmies who sit there were not solely responsible for conducting the pork business as usual in 1981. Reagan and his administration let them do so. Stockman admitted as much in discussing the Clinch River appropriation. “I didn’t have to get rolled,” Stockman said. “I just got out. of the way. It just wasn’t worth fighting This package will go nowhere without Baker, and Clinch River is just life or death to Baker. A very poor reason, I know.” And so it went, on budget issue after issue: a grotesque increase in the sugar subsidy, peanut and tobacco supports, more uneconomic water projects, the syn-' fuel subsidies. And Reagan similarly quashed a proposal by Stockman to curb some notorious “tax expenditures,” such as the oil depletion allowance and taxexempt industrial development bonds.

a key Mexican official said. “We re not going to tell the Sandinists to behave themselves just because Uncle Sam is angry. But we can act as a go-between if there is willingness on both sides.” Of course, Mexico is also protecting its own interests. Its relations with the United States have improved under the Reagan administration, despite the differences over Central America, and any United States military intervention in the region would jeopardize that improvement. Further, failure to reduce tensions would aggravate the situation in neighboring Guatemala, where a harsh rightwing military regime is being challenged by rural-based guerrillas. Although Mexico dismisses United States fears that a “domino effect” will eventually cause popular unrest to spread from Nicaragua through El Salvador and Guatemala into southern Mexico, it has withheld even moral support from the Guatemalan left. “We deeply lament what is happening in Guatemala,” Lopez Portillo said earlier this month. “We have neither sympathies nor antipathies. We do not judge what-is happening there. But unfortunately its internal problems reflect a great deal on international relations.” Mexico believes the essential first step to reduce tensions is to divorce the Caribbean basin from any revived cold war con text. Only then can such long-term efforts as the Caribbean basin development plan, cosponsored by the United States, Mexico, Canada and Venezuela, have any hope of success.

Soviet-built MiG fighter jets. “We’re watching an extensive program for the lengthening and improvement of airfields and we know that there are Nicaraguan pilots being trained in Eastern Europe,” he said “The natural conclusion would be there will be some MiGs.” Later, Haig said d’Escoto told him "that at the present time there are no plans to bring MiGs.