6 The Palladium -Item Letters To The Editor Rtodort art invited 10 lubmlt lttn to Hilt column. Slantd nomtt and addrtun mutt accompany tach Itlttr. But a ngnature may bo limited to Initial only tor publication, If tho writer wlihei. Cvtlert Mould not (cM 300 word. Palladium Established Jan.
1, 1831 Consolidated With Sun-Telegrtm 1907, Item 1939 Our 142nd Year Help Others Help Themselves Member of The Associated Press Leased Wires of United Press International How Did They Get By? Social Security Reply Editor, The Palladium-Item: I feel compelled to reply to a recent letter from Dan M. Jackman regarding the Social Security program. Mr. Jack-man is entitled to his own opinion, but a response is necessary to an attack containing misinformation, half-truths and strong allegations. The basic idea of Social Security is simple: During the working years employes, their employers and self-employed people pay Social Security contributions which are pooled in special funds.
When earnings stop or are reduced because the worker retires, dies or becomes disabled monthly cash benefits are paid from these funds to replace part of the earnings the family has lost. Part of the contributions go into a hospital insurance fund and when the worker and his dependents reach 65, money from this fund helps pay his hospital bills. Recent legislation extends this coverage to certain disabled individuals. Mr. Jackman stated that an individual would have done better to invest his Social Security taxes in a savings account at 4 per cent compound interest.
This was not true in his own case. He stated he has been drawing Social Security for 18 years. Assuming a worker had maximum earnings until he started receiving benefits 18 years ago, the most he could have paid into the program is $669. He now receives much more than that in benefits each year. In fact, he would have received over $25,500 from Social Security during the past 18 years.
Mr. Jackman, by his own admission, is in a favored position because of his age cosmetic containers opened and inspected, it would seem to the casual observer that lethal weapons certainly would be uncovered unless ingeniously hidden or somehow protected from the electronic eyes searching for just that kind of material. One can wonder, too, about the so-called personality traits which are supposed to bring suspicions of hijacking tendencies. Did the three suspects appear as harmless travelers? Although hijackers ultimately are caught and their ransom loot recovered hijacking is a growing menace which must be brought under control. As long as hijackers can find havens in other countries, they likely will continue to try that game.
It must be said to Fidel Castro's credit that his police immediately arrested the latest trio. Some have been nabbed in other countries but there still is no united, worldwide front against these criminals who use this newest means of extortion either to gain money or political asylum in some other land. Hijackers are potential murderers who must be treated as such. Some have been shot and killed. That's what they deserve.
The astounding airline hijacking over the past weekend raises this question: What happened to the detection devices which these days screen every passenger going aboard an airliner? The three hijackers in the current case, now being held in Cuba, apparently went through routine screening as did other passengers. Yet they smuggled guns and hand grenades aboard. They had to be on their person or in hand luggage. They had no access to any baggage. Any airplane passenger who has passed through the metal frame which gives off instant warnings of metallic or other potentially suspicious substances must wonder why the weapons the hijackers carried were not detected.
At the terminal at Vandalia, for example, the check seems quite thorough. Not long ago one passenger was stopped because of a flurry he caused on the checking device. Apparently a row of pens and pencils in his pocket was the cause. If that would raise suspicion, how could anyone get by with guns andor hand grenades? When personal carry-on luggage is searched, purses looked through, handbags and Use Of Siren Defended Editor, The Palladium-Item: In regards to the letter that appeared in the "Letters To the Editor" section of your paper on Nov. 8.
1972, concerning the noisy sirens: As assistant chief on the Richmond Fire Department I would like to make my position on the matter to Mr. Pettengill and the general public. 1. The truck that was involved was in service, fully equipped, including radio contact with fire headquarters, ready to respond to any emergency. 2.
We realize that the use of sirens by police and fire apparatus was somewhat disturbing for a short period of time to some people. We were merely trying to proudly announce that our football team had won another hard-fought championship. 3. Anyone who would have seen the caravan of vehicles and the slow speed at which they were proceeding would have realized that it was a nonemergency situation. We are sorry for any disturbance that we might have caused anyone.
I am, however, certain that the majority of people would prefer this type of encouragement to our young people for their hardy attitude through honest competition than to completely ignore their efforts in behalf of our city. I am sure they would much prefer this type of noise to the noise of sirens screaming through the streets trying to apprehend young people that have gone wrong and cause destruction to people and property because they had no one to say, "I care." We can show our students that we believe wholeheartedly in their programs and accomplishments by such caravans that took place on the evening after the Richmond-Kokomo game. This type of recognition has been a tradition in this city for several years and cannot be done without an order from the mayor's office. Marion Williams, Assistant Fire Chief, Richmond Fire Department. bankruptcy is reminiscent of earlier critics who predicted in 1935 that the system would be broke in 5 years.
Thirty-seven years later this program has grown rather than diminished. It is financially sound according to the most recent report of the boards of trustees to the Congress. No aspect of Social Security has received more attention than its financing. Great care has been taken, both by Congress and the executive branch of the federal government to make certain the program is adequately financed. In addition to the annual report of the trustees to Congress, the financial structure is reviewed periodically by independent, nongovernmental advisory groups.
each of which reports Social Security soundly financed. It is well for individuals to be concerned about the value of Social Security. But when we evaluate something, we should look at the whole picture and not just at a few isolated facts that serve our own purposes. Misconceptions and distortion of facts should be discarded. The cost of Social Security is increasing, but so is its value.
Any program of real and lasting value must be paid for by its participants. Ronald L. Talley, District Manager, Social Security Administration, Richmond. Fair Coverage Editor, The Palladium-Item: It would be a real injustice not to comment on how fairly The Palladium-Item has presented the views of candidates and constituents during the recent political campaign. Despite Mr.
Agnew's wailing against what he calls the "biased press" I believe there is not a single candidate in our area who could rightfully claim he has been unfairly treated. Freedom of the press includes an obligation to present all the facts without discrimination or distortion. The Palladium-Item has met that obligation commendably. Dan Bartram, Greens Fork, Rural Route. Indian Attack, 1972 Little Big Horn it wasn't.
But the "Trail of Broken Treaties" protest which saw a band of American Indians take, over the Bureau of Indian Affairs recently was enough to destroy, temporarily, a federal agency. Protesting Indians occupied the bureau office in Washington for more than a week during which time negotiations with federal authorities were in progress. Presidential assistants agreed to create a special federal body, headed by the White House, to make recommendations regarding century-old treaty rights, education, economic opportunities and self-determination. These agreements and a promise of amnesty-toward those Indians who illegally occupied the bureau building were not enough. The Indians left unmolested by authorities, but they left behind a decimated Capitol building with destruction estimated at $2.3 million.
And while policemen and plainclothesmen watched, the protesters carried documents, paintings and priceless Indian artifacts from the six-story structure. The theft and destruction of the bureau do not touch simply those who work with the Bureau of Indian affairs or those take issue with its policies. The artifacts that were stolen and the building that was damaged belong to the American taxpayer and he has a right to be outraged by an attack on his property. If there were a question whether the protesting Indians had a legitimate grievance with the federal government, there is no question now that the federal government has a legitimate grievance with the protesting Indians. A Strong Hand and the period of time he contributed to the program.
While the older worker is getting a break, the younger worker is still getting his money's worth. He has income protection for himself and his dependents if he becomes disabled at any age before retirement and protection to his survivors in the event of his death. Some individuals treat Social Security as if it were only a retirement system, overlooking the value of the disability and survivors protection and Medicare coverage at 65 regardless of his state of health. Mr. Jackman's prophecy of future v.
1 ir A Peace With Honor Reality Behind African Headlines ambitions. That piece of statecraft will be the principal fact about the Nixon administration which future histories will record. (General Features Corp.) jfuickie" Vuotes" Ernest Hemingway American Author (IHS9- I9fil) "The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both brinn a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic oportuii- ist No, on rfct Ntxt wot -j.
-iyf. 1, one became afraid of being alone. Slowly you came to terms or made alliances with these hazards; but then there were the people. A people who from the dawn of history knew no alphabet, could not communicate other than by word of Jeffrey Hart mouth, knew no roads other than the African footpath, no cooking pot other than an earthenware vessel, no weapon other than spear, knobkerry or primitive bow and arrow, no form of dress other than cow or goat skin, no building other than the fast -vanishing mud-grass hut. Vietnam: Can peace really come to Indochina? A cease-fire agreement is an armistice, not a treaty of peace.
Will the Communists of Hanoi, and the Viet Cong, resume their assault on South Vietnam the moment when the last American has departed and American military supplies have ceased to flow in large quantities to Saigon? Well, President Nixon and Dr. Henry Kissinger are not fools. They knew better than to agree to any cease-fire that would bring about the fall of the Saigon government, the disgrace of the Nixon foreign policy, and great damage to American influence throughout the world. If firing ceases, as it must soon, it will occur because Nixon and Kissinger are confident that a tolerable peace may be patched up, and will last for some years. There are several practical reasons to sustain their confidence.
First, North Vietnam is exhausted. More than 900,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers are said to have been killed, and the blockade by mines has been successful, in large part. North Vietnam's spring offensive failed, with hideous losses in men and materiel. Hanoi must settle for the status quo antebellum, substantially, because Hanoi could not fight much longer. Second, the patrons and suppliers of North Vietnam, the Soviet Union and Communist China, desire that the war should end.
It has been a drain upon their resources, too, without any satisfying return. Moreover, both Communist powers now desire good relations with the United States, to be sure that they will continue to get American wheat, for one thing. Third, the proposed international force to supervise the cease-fire and subsequent arrangements will be large and reasonably impartial. The soldiers from Canada and Indonesia (supposing that both nations agree to supply troops) are not to be suspected of Communist sympathies. The soldiers from Hungary and Poland will be heavily influenced by Russian policy, true; but Russian policy now is to let Indochina quiet down.
Fourth, the United States will retain the power of retaliatory air strikes, from the fleet and from bases outside South Vietnam, if Hanoi should violate the cease-fire seriously. And North Vietnam's harbors easily could be mined a second time. Fifth. Hanoi counts upon economic aid from the United States to assist greatly in recovery from the devastation of the war. That prospect would be lost, of course, if Hanoi were to launch a new campaign.
President Nixon's firmness in refusing to sign a cease-fire agreement until Hanoi should withdraw substantial numbers of troops from South Vietnam shows the Communists that the United States does not mean merely to cut and run. It would have been to Nixon's advantage in the elections to announce a cease-fire before Nov. 7. He did not take that bait, which Russell Kirk was Hanoi's last major resource in cunning. Some of America's "peace" zealots are furious that Nixon has in prospect a genuine peace with honor.
They actually longed for peace at any price that is, they desired a virtual surrender by the United States. The President has baffled them, and Hanoi has failed them. They cannot even extract an amnesty for draft evaders. American diplomacy and military policy in Indochina fell into grave errors during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the worst of which were State Department connivance at the overthrow (and murder) of President Diem, and the dispatch to Vietnam of an army of conscripts half a million strong. The Nixon policy extricates America from the vain attempt to determine the destiny of Southeast Asia, but without sacrificing America's allies to Communist Rosebud SCRABBLE.
Va. A considerable problem in diplomacy, strategy and old-fashioned hospitality has arisen at our small spread here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a problem that has to be approached with delicacy and courage, if indeed it has to be approached at all. It is the problem of Rosebud and Lord Macaulay. They are skunks.
Our problems up here, you will understand, are not problems of large dimensions: no crime, no drugs, no traffic, no sirens in the night. This time of year, to tell the truth, there is not much to do. November is that kind of month. If a cow wiggles through a fence and comes up in the yard, Lorenzo chases the beast away and we talk about it for two or three days. Anyhow Lorenzo talks about it for two or three days.
He is a great talker, that Collie. But about Rosebud. The general rule at our place is that Lorenzo kills the groundhogs and my wife traps the mice. I swat the flies, but otherwise no one kills anything. The rule is live and let live.
If the human race would just observe that rule, we'd have a better human race. Here the rule works admirably for And Lord Macauley, Please Go I have just received a letter from a correspondent in Africa. It is so vivid, and so different from the usual sentimental pap, that I thought I would pass along a few of its key passages. It illuminates, I think, the reality behind the headlines: "I was brought to British East Africa in 1919. No boundary existed; there was no country called Kenya; even tribal lands were indeterminable.
Roads, communications, health services, were nonexistent. On the smiling shores of Lake Victoria, poisonous with disease, there were large tracts of uninhabited land. Here we settled. "We lived hard and often alone, until don't-walk sign changes. Live and let live.
Then, 10 days ago, we were coming home by twilight, ver-r ry slowly, and there was her gentleman friend. Back in September we had built an umpire's platform for the tennis tournament plywood nailed on a couple of sawhorses and sitting on that platform, if you would believe it, haughtily surveying the turf, was the noblest skunk I ever saw. He had a certain arrogance about him. You remember do not hesitate to pronounce," he used to say. After awhile, when it suited him and not one moment before, this skunk shinnied down and strode across the driveway.
It is no use telling me that skunks amble, or waddle, or lumber along. Lord Macaulay strode. What to do? They have moved in. They have taken up housekeeping. Last week Rosebud hung out a line of wash.
Lord Macaulay has taken to sitting around the tennis court by evening, in white ruffled shirt and black smoking jacket, smoking a thin cigar. We are having a flossy party next week for the press. Suppose the Washington Post They resisted any form of education or influences that would alter their primitive existence woven around witchcraft and superstition. "Through contact and experience we were to learn of the vast psychological chasm that divided us. There was no time or security for self-delusion.
Like the weather and wild animals they were unpredictable they remain so to this day. Tremendous material advances have been made, but the cruelty, oppression and superstititon still prevail. With the tremendous advances in livestock, agriculture and medical science, many of the earlier difficulties were overcome and slowly the land was tamed. The wild animals were confined to parks, and in their wake came hordes of gullible tourists. "In later years a new discovery was made in Africa: In its aftermath came independence and a revival of barbarity i.e.
Ruanda, Burundi, Biafra, Congo, Zanzibar, Sudan, Uganda, Central African Republic, etc. But we forget quickly, and through the United Nations the flames are quickly damped down with political expediency, assisted by a decaying West, glossing over this trail of murder and atrocities. "So we return to the African scene and we observe the changes with diffidence, because we have not had the security to become deluded. We find it even more difficult to comprehend the gullibity of the white man. They come here in hordes members of a new order.
They come to 'identify' with the black man, whatever that means. They are disrespected and despised; but they do not have pride, so they do not care, and accept the insults with equanimity. "Their unprincipled behavior may cause smiles and laughter, but in the depths of the dark eyes there is thought. "It is futile to try to get the truth across. Apart from communism, Africa is going to cause more trouble in the future than it is worth!" (Kino FMlurei Syndltol) quail, doves, deer, fox, possum, 'coon, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels and even snakes and of course Rosebud and Lord Macaulay are entitled to the same Fifth Amendment protections.
But as I say, they are well, they are skunks. Rosebud appeared about a month ago, James J. Kilpatrick along a fence row a hundred yards from the house: a cunning creature, black as a Bible, with a white-washed face and a white-tipped tail. She was grubbing away in the front field, minding her own business. Everybody came out on the deck to look at Rosebud and Rosebud looked back at us.
Lorenzo, who is nobody's fool, lay down and looked the other way. This was about the middle of October. Every night we now see Rosebud on patrol. Once, coming home from a good party, I durned near ran over her in the driveway. Since then we have been coming up that driveway ver-r ry slowly If Rosebud is in the way, we wait till the contingent comes up the drive, and za-a-ap! It boggles the mind.
One distant friend has suggested that Lord Macaulay and his paramour be trapped alive and transported. Some months ago, when the chipmunks and squirrels were stealing our bird feeders blind, I bought two Hav-a -1 lart traps, one small, one middle-sized, but I never had the heart to set the big one and the small one caught nothing but Charlie the chipping sparrow. It caught him twice and he was plenty burned up. Besides, how would you get a live skunk out of the trap? So there is the problem. It is not exactly a monumental problem, compared to those that afflict the larger world, but it worries me.
Rosebud was grubbing away last night within 25 yards of the house. If Dr. Kissinger will hurry up and settle this Vietnam thing, perhaps he could run out some weekend and negotiate a truce with these characters. Otherwise we may have to let Lord Macaulay referee the next tournament, and who wants this guy to keep score? (Washington Star Syndicate).
