Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 86, Greencastle, Putnam County, 17 December 1981 — Page 7

opinion

LARRY GIBBS Publisher

Letters to the Editor Ordinances should be written in language all can understand

To the Editor: I have taken the American Heritage Dictionary in hand and tried to understand Ordinance 1981-10, printed in the Banner-Graphic Dec. 12. 1. Gaming devices -- games of chance, gambling. A machine used to perform one or relative simple tasks. Gambling is illegal in Indiana. How can a city license gaming devices? One must purchase a federal gaming stamp, legal or not. 2. “Previously regulated and licensed ‘such’ devices. ’’ Such - Being the same as that which has been last mentioned. The 1931 amendment to 1895 ordinance (not in files) had quite a list to be licensed - billiard, pool, alleys, etc. If these are the same “such” devices, why have only pool tables been licensed until now? 3. The use of “all other” infers that video games and pinball are “gaming devices.” Then are not bowling alleys, bingo games, cigarette machines, soft-

City Council should act to eliminate the 'double standard'

To the Editor: In regard to Tuesday night’s (Dec. 8) City Council vote on an ordinance to license video games and pinball machines: At a previous meeting as reported in the Banner-Graphic, the subject of vandalism and theft of (parking) meters was brought up. An obvious-assumption was made that all money taken by theft was put into game rooms. This of course is an incorrect, illogical assumption. Who is to say with authority where the money is used? Undoubtedly, some of it goes into games. Also, the money could be spent in fast-food establishments, theaters, bowling alleys or other forms of entertainment. In addition, much of it is undoubtedly used for illegal purchases. Sp why discriminate against a very, very small segment? It seems as if any facilities designed for young people are always condemned by the adults. Many of these same adults condone the illegal Las Vegas-type nights and bingo at socalled non-profit organizations. Instead of making it easier to remain in business and keep the young people

Visit by Santa Claus appreciated at courthouse

To the Editor: There we were Wednesday morning, beginning another busy day in the courthouse, thinking it was going to be that - - just another busy day. Then what to our wondering eyes did appear but a man in a red and white suit and cap greeting us with a jolly “Ho! Ho! Ho!” and passing out candy canes and cheer in each office.

"Russians will kill us if we go back, the climate is killing us here'

By Andrew Blake (c) 1981 Boston Globe The fate of the snail darter as an endangered species received widespread attention in recent years, but the Kirghiz, dying in scores, are virtually unknown. The snail darter is a fish; the Kirghiz are people. Until recently, the Kirghiz tribe lived in the frigid Pamir mountains of Afghanistan at altitudes up to 15,000 feet, herding their yaks and sheep, horses and camels. At night they slept in yurts black, domeshaped tents covered with yak hair. Now they sweat in the relative lowlands of Pakistan, dying of malaria and other diseases they’ve never encountered before. They have lost most of their most prized possessions, their livestock. They brush dust from their clothes instead of snow. Once hardy and self-sufficient, they are now hungry, dependent and sick. “Without our animals there is not much we can do,’’ Alan Jones, a field worker for the International Rescue Committee, quoted Haji Rahman Qul, the khan (chief) of the Afghan Kirghiz, as telling him. “The Russians will kill us if we go back, and the climate is killing us here.” Jones was interviewed by telephone in Washington.

ERIC BERNSEE Managing Editor

drink dispensers! A fee is paid. Games -- A way of amusing, pleasure, diversion. 4. “Persons responsible for the payment of such fees shall be ‘either’ persons (a) owning such device, (b) persons using such device or (c) persons occupying the premises...” Either - One or other. Although sometimes occurs in examples involving more than two. Most grammarians consider any or any one preferable to either. Now just who is responsible? In a democratic society, it would be helpful to have ordinances written in language (terms) easily understood by the citizens. The official signed copy does not include the statement “prepared by or approved by Jerry D. Calbert, City Attorney.” Who said it wouldn’t snow by Christmas? Mary Frances Strain Greencastle

out of cars, the Council has chosen to make it more difficult. The money spent on illegal purchases used primarily while riding around kills thousands of young people every year and permanently affects thousands of others. I do not know of a single death or young life being ruined by video games;- > • I realize the financial burden our city, along with others, is experiencing. I also know it is up to the mayor and Council to provide the necessary funds. In no way can it be an easy task. I respect their efforts. I do doubt that the small sum derived from such a discriminate action is a step in the right direction. In closing, I suggest that as long as old ordinances and statutes are being reviewed that the Council take a long look at statutes concerning lotteries, games of chance that are presently condoned. Elimination of the “double standard”, though perhaps not economically wise, would certainly be morally wise. Marvin Long Greencastle

This little visit from Santa was certainly an unexpected and appreciated surprise and helped to start our day on a very cheerful note. So a very Merry Christmas and a jolly Ho! Ho! Ho! to you, too, Cy! G.D. and all of us at the Putnam County Courthouse

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AFGHAN REFUGEE CHILDREN Uprooted by invasion

The Kirghiz, a nomadic Mongol people who speak Turki, a language related to Turkish, would like to emigrate to moun-

Begin had larger purpose in mind

Golan Heights action severe blow to peace

By ANTHONY LEWIS c. 1981 N.Y. Times On Oct. 23, 1956, Hungarians rebelled against their Communist government. Six days later, by prearrangement with Britain and France, Israel marched on the Suez Canal. The attack, begun while world attention was on Hungary, diffuses outrage at the Soviet Union’s brutal suppression of the uprising. And it ended disastrously for Britain, France and Israel. Twenty-five years later another Israeli government has taken drastic action at a time of trouble in the Soviet empire. The move this time was political: the annexation of the Golan Heights. But it was deeply provocative - deliberately so, in my judgment. And it will do severe damage to the hope of peace in the Middle East. Prime Minister Begin could hardly have made it plainer that he was seizing on a moment when the world was preoccupied by Poland. A year ago he turned aside demands for annexation of the Golan Heights. Now he produced the bill without notice and drove it through the Knesset in just six hours. The action was highly embarrassing to President Mubarak of Egypt, underlining his isolation from the rest of the Arab world at a time when he is trying to bridge

Showdown in Poland

At moments like this the weakness of the West becomes incandescent

By WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR. Universal Press Syndicate One has the feeling that a wanderer through the streets of Warsaw today in a remote corner, defined as one not directly under the supervision of Polish, communists, might run into a graffito which would say, “POLLYANNA WAS HERE.” People really thought Solidarity would be permitted to triumph. At this writing the Soviet army has not moved. But is it absolutely certain that it will need to move? There are 9 million members of Solidarity and their solidarity is renowned, and certainly they outnumber the Polish armed units and police, who take their dirty instructions from Moscow. But the large size of the Polish dissident movement does not argue that it can overwhelm the men with machine guns. ADVISED THAT 100,000 American Germans would not tolerate America’s entry into the First World War on the side of

tains in Alaska or the northwestern United States, ecologically similar to their homeland. But they are not having much success. Groups working to save the Kirghiz say the tribe members have applied for immigration to the United States as refugees but the State Department says they have not. After the successful Soviet-backed coup in Afghanistan in i 978, the fiercely independent Islamic tribe of about 1,300 were branded as reactionaries, bandits and troublemakers. Soviet troops faced them across the valley. The 280 Kirghiz families decided not to wait for the inevitable confrontation. They do not like communism, and this is the third time in 60 years they have fled from alien regimes, first from Russia and then from China before they settled farther down the mountain range in Afghanistan. Qul has bitter memories of the first time he encountered Russian troops in 1930 when the tribe lived within Soviet borders. Many tribespeople were killed. He said the Russians offered his father and himself a choice of being shot or taking poison. “We took the poison and then we took local medicines and mare’s milk to fight

that gap. There are some Israeli politicians who would like to provoke him to some hostile act withdrawing his Ambassador from Tel Aviv, for example. They want an excuse not to proceed in April with Israel’s final withdrawal from Sinai. But Begin has repeatedly affirmed his intention to carry out the Sinai withdrawal. I believe he had a larger purpose in acting so suddenly and dramatically on the Golan Heights. That was to disrupt diplomatic moves looking toward Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank in exchange for a peace settlement and security guarantees. The basic United Nations document on the problem, Security Council Resolution 242, pointed to such a solution. It called for Israeli “withdrawal from territories occupied” in the 1967 war and for establishment of “secure and recognized boundaries.” The implication was that both sides should move. For years no Arab government would make a clear commitment to normal relations if Israel withdrew. Then, in Jerusalem, President Sadat offered “full peace.” The bargain, including total Israeli abandonment of Egyptian territory, was struck at Camp David. Lately there have been signs of movement elsewhere. The peace plan put

France and England, Theodore Roosevelt is reputed to have observed icily that we have more than 100,000 lampposts. There are probably more lampposts in Poland on which to hang them than there are Poles equipped to resist. To be sure as a practical matter the Polish communists could not contain 9 million men and women, and the next few days will tell us how highly honed are the skills of the very few in subjugating the very many. It is awful to ponder how many Poles would need to die before their oppressors stopped shooting, because of fatigue or revulsion. Who could end it? God, or the Soviet. The pressures on God, to judge from prayers said round the world on Sunday, are very great. The pressures on the Soviet Union have hardly been unbearable. If only Sakharov had fasted for the Poles. AT THE EXTREME END of nonchalance, we have that brave old

the poison. We lived,” said Qul, who added that the Soviets once again have put a price on his head. Qul’s tribesmen engaged in running gunfights with Soviet troops before the buildup of Soviet troops in the mountains became overwhelming. So far, more than 160 Kirghiz, mostly women and children, are reported to have died from conditions related to their new environment. Most of the families in the tribe settled in the small town of Gilgit where they live on an erratically paid subsidy from the Pakistani government of 40 cents a day per person. “The Kirghiz would like to emigrate to America. They’d be no threat because they prefer to live by themselves in places where you don’t find a lot of people,” said Prof. Louis Dupree, an anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University and a specialist on Afghanistan. Dupree, also a member of the American Universities Field Staff, said, “Apparently their plea to emigrate as refugees is somewhere in the bowels of the State Department, where it is dying, just as the Kirghiz are dying.” Not so says Ernestine Heck of the State Department’s Afghanistan desk: “Their khan visited the U.S. embassy at Islamabad and made some inquiries in the

forward by Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia last summer implied that an Israel within its 1967 borders would be recognized. Despite the collapse of the Arab summit meeting at Fez in controversy over the Fahd plan, the Reagan Administration has been hoping for Saudi leadership in bringing other Arab countries, particularly Jordan, into the peace process. All this is anathema to Begin, and the reason is no secret. He does not accept the formula of peace, recognition and security guarantees in return for withdrawal when it comes to occupied territory apart from Sinai. He believes that Israel must retain the West Bank, which he regards for historical reasons as part of the Land of Israel. That explains why Begin rejected the Fahd plan out of hand, while even some of his colleagues wanted to meet it with the traditional Israeli willingness to negotiate. He saw that it pointed toward a situation in which the Arabs would be moving to the withdrawal-peace formula and Israel would be diplomatically exposed as unwilling to accept it. The same logic underlies the demarche on the Golan Heights. For by asserting that that territory is not subject to negotiation, Begin as good as makes certain that Syria will continue to impose an

democrat, Helmut Schmidt. He traveled to East Germany, of all places, to stress the point that nothing happening in Polandwhere orders had gone out to execute anyone who refused to go to work - was important enough to affect his scheduled visit to his erstwhile countrymen living in East Germany, who have not shown, in opposing their masters, the same courage shown by the Poles. It is high irony that when Mr. Schmidt arrived in East Germany, the only people permitted to greet him were the tested agents of the communists. So that while he walked about affecting informality and Gemutlichkeit, he found himself in a situation not all that different from what it would have been in Poland, or any tyrannical state; his reception was stagemanaged. It is gratifying that in France, in Norway and in Holland significant numbers turned up to protest, for a change, not American

spring of 1980. He never returned and no formal applications have ever been filed.” Moreover, she said, before the Kirghiz could be officially considered refugees, they must be so designated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “It’s a procedural matter. I don't think anyone doubts that the Afghanistan Kirghiz are refugees but it’s a formality that should be resolved,” she added. The U.S. uses the UN designation as its criterion to determine who is a refugee. “But,” said Dennis Murphy, an economic officer in the State Department, “there is no provision for an entire tribe to emigrate. Even if they did,” he asked, “would that be fair to about two million other refugees from Afghanistan?" Meanwhile, Dupree and his wife, Nancy, are trying to raise money to bring Qul and several other Kirghiz to the United States so they can look at possible sites for resettlement. “It’s not an easy job. There’s just not a lot of interest in saving a tribe and a culture that’s so foreign to most people,” said Dupree. Qul said America represents freedom to his people most of all religious freedom. The tribe he said would abide by all American laws.

December 17,1981, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

effective veto on Saudi, Jordanian or Palestinian participation in the peach process. Most Israelis, not their prime minister alone, oppose return of the Golan Heights to Syria. The heights command northern Israel strategically. And the Syrian govern nment is now in the extremist Arab camp; sponsoring terrorists who prey on moderates in the PLO. Yet Syria is essential to any Arab-Israeli peace. Henry Kissinger unj derstood that in 1974, when he pursued hij most arduous shuttle diplomacy to obtaiij a disengagement agreement on the Golarj Heights. President Assad of Syria has for* mally accepted Resolution 242. And somfi observers thought he would stop boycotting the Fahd plan if he saw some hope o£ fruitful negotiation on the Golan Heights. “ Resolution 242 has been accepted by sue* cessive Israeli governments including Begin’s in the Camp David agreement. But he has shown now that he does not read it the way the rest of the world does, ag allowing at most modest border rect tification. He was speaking of more thait the Golan Heights when he said: “No one will push us back to the borders! of June 4, 1967 no one, no people, no! power will succeed in pushing us back to! those borders, borders of bloodshed, bor-! ders of provocation and aggression.”

efforts to help the West, but communist efforts to kill the West. WHAT ABOUT AT HOME? From Alexander Haig we heard confusing references to his certainty that the reforms effected by Solidarity would “continue.” But it is precisely against thos® reforms that the Polish communists have been ordered to mobilize. Mr. Kissinger, on the air, predicted something very different from confident future reforms. H® said that it was altogether probable that)one year from now, Solidarity would have become nothing more than a communisL run labor union. So much for the agony, the dreams, of people struggling to be free. - It is, of course, at moments like this - ini deed, this moment may prove to have beeii very nearly unique - that the organic! weakness of the West becomes ini candescent. What have we got, this side of, atom bombs? Well, we have an affinity for. human rights, and that is not to be uni derestimated as a source of power. And we have the overwhelming part of the world’s 1 ; economic wealth. 3 Why have we not, in the United Nations,*’ programmed a theatrical, mind-arresting,*: heart-stopping filibuster? And on the Voice, of America? And BBC? WHY HASN’T the West 'German* sponsored consortium engaged in building; a $lO billion-plus gas line from Siberia tq; Western Europe announced a suspension; of its activity, pending developments in; Poland? Why haven’t the chiefs of government of the Western powers, who have no excuse for not having prepared for a contingency; over one year in the making, announced a£ total economic boycott of the Soviet Union; on the plainspoken ground that the Soviet* Union controls the Polish military, and the; orders to shoot dissidents were issued iif Moscow, not Warsaw? Why the West cannot seem to act is art; aspect of a disease best diagnosed by Whit* taker Chambers almost 30 years ago in hi£ book “Witness.” In Poland we see the best; in the Western soul. Elsewhere in the; West, we cannot do our part. Our* irresolution may prove terminally ef-* fective. A century hence the may group together Sarajevo - Danzig -> Gdansk.

“We would never give up our traditions but that should be no problem in, a la nd of religious freedom, ” he said. One organization has tried with mixed success to help the Kirghiz deal with their' immediate problems. The New York-.; based International Rescue Committed (IRC) has sent money from time to time; which helps the Kirghiz buy food and fuel; And they have sent field representatives to' get first-hand reports of conditions. Robert DeVecchi, IRC’s program director said, “I wish I could say that we’vsS done much more but we just haven’t beedf able to pull for the Kirghiz as aggressively as we should. I feel guilty that there seem? to be little interest in these people. ’’ Alan Jones, formerly of the IRC staff, recently returned from Gilgit. where h« lived with the Kirghiz, who he said suffering as much from a psychological malaise as from physical ailments." “The local Pakistanis are suspicious o| the Kirghiz. They do not look, speak of dress like others in Gilgit and they havs their own culture and foods so they are nojj easily assimilated nor do they want t£ be,” he explained. “I’m deeply concerned about theic prospects for survival. I just don’t knqw what will happen to them," said Jon£f

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