Birmingham Post-Herald
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OUR VIEWSWrong for ConstitutionMost people were probably unaware that President Clinton earlier this month proclaimed National Crime Victims' Rights Week; it was mostly an occasion to boast about his administration's record on crime.Fortunately, the Republican-led Senate, after first seeking to avoid being out-compassioned, declined to take up the president's challenge to approve a victims' rights amendment to the Constitution. This feel-good amendment is not worthy of being only the 17th change to the Constitution since the original Bill of Rights and would achieve at great cost to that document what could be more easily — and in most states already has been — accomplished by state law. Amendment supporter Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., argues in favor of equivalency: The "Constitution guarantees 15 separate rights to criminal defendants" but "not one word ... on behalf of crime victims." What could the Founding Fathers have been thinking? The Bill of Rights, with its guarantees of due process, counsel, jury trial and bars against self-incrimination and double jeopardy, among others, was intended to protect the individual from the overwhelming power of the state, not to sort out who should be present at a parole hearing. The amendment would give victims and their families the constitutional right to reasonable notice of all proceedings involving the defendant, to be present at the trial, to have a say in plea bargaining and sentencing, to speak out on any parole proceedings and to be notified of the prisoner's release. Many of these protections are reasonable, and many are already a matter of state law. Making these protections a matter of constitutional right, rather than statute, would ensure gridlock in the federal courts. The Supreme Court would be endlessly refereeing the balance between the constitutional rights of defendants and the constitutional rights of victims. The proposed amendment already has a built-in clash over the rights of habeas corpus and bail and it is shot through with language that invites endless litigation. The added rights greatly increase the possibility of mistrials and the likelihood that the loser in a state case, either the defendant or victim, would seek to have the verdict overturned in a federal court.
Clinton, who once taught constitutional law, and a Republican-led Congress that professes great reverence for the Constitution, surely know better. Let us stipulate that all concerned are compassionate and genuinely concerned with victims and then let's shelve permanently this unneeded and unworkable addition to the Founding Fathers' masterpiece. Proof will be in doingAlabama could use a broad-based plan for protecting its natural resources. What little protection we offer is both piecemeal and often done only in response to federal pressure.This is not to denigrate existing programs and organizations that are engaged in protecting our environment. Many of them do have valuable accomplishments to their credit. But we lack a statewide strategy to ensure that the things that make Alabama a wonderful place to live are preserved and that those environmental situations that are harming us are corrected. All of which makes Gov. Don Siegelman's newly named Commission on Environmental Initiatives a potentially positive development. The task force has been directed to develop, among other things, proposals for restructuring the often justly criticized Alabama Department of Environmental Mangement, toughening air and water quality standards, implementing vehicle emissions control programs in areas like Birmingham that have seasonal air pollution problems, protecting rare animals and plants and cleaning up roads and waterways. All are worthy projects.
However, the real proof of the task force's value will come when it is time to implement its plans, which will require leadership from the governor's office. The best of plans are useless if they are not followed. A heartening discoveryDinosaurs have a fascinating, almost eerie grip on the human imagination. Some of it due to their size and ferocity. Some to their sudden and mysterious disappearance 65 million years ago. And some to the realization that Earth was their planet for a lot longer than it has been ours. And maybe because dinosaurs are so totally different from us.Now comes a discovery from researchers in North Carolina who made a rare find: the fossilized, grapefruit-sized heart of a smallish — 13-feet long, 660 or so pounds — plant-eating dinosaur that died 66 million years ago. They made an even more startling discovery when they subjected the heart to a computer-enhanced CAT scan: The heart had four chambers and an aorta, meaning dinosaurs were more like mammals than reptiles. Instead of sluggish creatures, reliant on the environment for their body heat, this dinosaur, a Tescelosaurus, had warm, oxygen-enriched blood coursing through its arteries and romped around Mesozoic South Dakota in a state of high activity. It is the distant ancestor of birds, not crocodiles.
This dinosaur was, it seems, warm-blooded, like us. Perhaps dinosaurs are not so different after all. YOUR VIEWSClinton struck a new blow for CastroTHE MAILI awoke early Saturday and was shocked to see on TV, live, Fidel Castro's long bloody arm at work in Florida. Bill Clinton had struck another blow for world communism. Selling out America to the Chinese, trashing the Constitution, lying under oath, covering up drug running for Comrade Castro are all Clinton's handy work. Make no mistake the United States is in a war with Communists. Cuba's No. 1 weapon is drugs, ie; 10,000 pounds of cocaine intercepted on the way to Cuba aboard the ship Castor in 1999 and covered up by Clinton under the ruse of not embarrassing his fellow tyrant.If there is any one left who thinks the Second Amendment is not relevent, let them look at the picture of the goon holding the automatic weapon on this small child. A picture, I might add, that Clinton's lawyer Greg Craig tried to keep you from seeing. Now the Cuban-Americans are being demonized. Americans must take our country back before it's too late!
Stan Shaw DisappointedI just would like to express my disappointment in the recent Native American Festival at Linn Park. I can't say anything about the festival itself since I did not attend it. Reason I didn't: The admission fee of $10 per person was in my opinion ridiculous. Even more so when I found out that there was no reduced admission for students above 12 years of age. This meant that not even a junior high or high school student was able to attend at a reduced rate, unless the student had a letter from his teacher stating he or she would be there for educational purposes.I find such admission fees make it impossible or extremely hard for a family of three to go there. It means paying $30 just to get in, not to mention parking fees and maybe a souvenir or a drink. I find this rather sad that only those with a high income can attend such activities while others with a lower income must stay away, or have to struggle to come up with this money. It would be beneficial if all people could attend such activities and it might even help people to understand different cultures, etc. My wife, our son and myself went to Linn Park in the hope of seeing and learning something about the Native American Indians but when we saw and heard that it would cost $10 admission even for our son, who is still a student, we turned around. We could have saved the parking fee and the gas money to go to Linn Park had we known that the admission fee is so ridiculous.
Martin Ebel EnjoyedI want to write a few words about how much I enjoyed the festival presented by the Birmingham International Festival.The enormous amount of work done by their volunteers and quality of work was superb. I was fascinated by something at each display that I visited and left Linn Park feeling that Birmingham had added another plus. Congratulations to all!
Richard B. Wasson Enmity winnerThere's "Talk Show Emmy Awards" and there's "Talk Show Enmity Awards." Emmy Awards are presented by liberal media, with colossal fanfare, to liberal talk shows that best promote the liberal agenda. Enmity Awards are presented, also by liberal media, but under an "unwritten law," to conservative talk shows. This award is presented in the form of a veiled "letter of termination" of employment, signaling that the awardee talk show has become all-too-successful in presenting an opposing viewpoint.Congratulations to Russ and Dee Fine and "The Fine Line" for recently earning this conservatively prestigious award!
Armond "Si" Simmons Why not trustedAsk the average voter if he or she trusts politicians, and the answer is likely to be "No!"At a recent state Senate Conservation Committee meeting in Montgomery, I observed a sad example of why this is so. The committee had scheduled a public hearing on a bill being contested by architects and interior designers. People from around the state had come to voice their opinion. The procedure for a public hearing follows common sense: People testify before the committee votes on a bill so lawmakers can make an informed decision. But incredibly, Chairman Larry Means, D-Atalla, first voted to approve the bill, and then held the public hearing — virtually thumbing his nose at the people who were there to speak. Although I didn't "have a dog in that fight," I was deeply disturbed by this mockery of the legislative process. When I questioned Sen. Means about the propriety of his actions, he snapped, "We can do that." As long as the party bosses continue supporting politicians like Means, they will fail to earn the trust of the people. The rule of law is undermined when the process lacks integrity.
Michael T. Chappell, provisional chairman Reports on asbestos are inadequateAfter the storm that ripped roofing tiles off the Birmingham Water Works, the public was warned by the news media not to crush these tiles as they contain tiny asbestos hair fibers that can be inhaled into the lungs if they become airborne and cause health problems. The public was also told there is no threat of asbestos in the drinking water because of the filtering system. I think the public needs a better answer from ADEM than that.I saw pictures of workers cleaning up the asbestos debris and they were wearing special suits and masks, but as yet I have not heard any ADEM official tell the public just exactly what health problems asbestos can cause. I think the Alabama Department of Environmental Management should tell the public that asbestos is commonly used as an acoustic insulator, thermal insulation, fireproofing, and that asbestos fibers are very strong and are resistant to heat and are often found in ceiling tiles, pipe and vessel, (shipbuilding), insulation, floor tiles, linoleum and in numerous building materials. I also think ADEM should inform the public that researchers have not determined a "safe level" of exposure but we do know the greater and longer the exposure, the greater the risk of contracting an asbestos-related disease, and we do know once the tiny Asbestos fibers are inhaled into lungs they react like tiny glass hairs and the risk of asbestos-related diseases grows greater each year the person lives and never goes away. It bothers me that it took a storm for the news media to alert the public to the dangers of asbestos. Where have television reporters, newspaper reporters and ADEM been? In the past 10 years, I have never seen a local report about the hundreds of retired workers in Jefferson and surrounding counties, who are now suffering from the effects of being exposed to asbestos in the workplace more than 30 years ago. Some of these men now have have pleural disease, asbestosis, and lung cancer. One fatal lung cancer in particular, mesothelioma, which is a rare cancer of the outer lining of the lung, and/or the lining of the abdominal wall. This form of cancer is caused only by asbestos exposure. I have never seen a local report about all the personal and class-action lawsuits over asbestos exposure that have been filed and settled within the last 10 years, (most in Texas courts), or that compensation was paid according to the severity of the health problem. My husband was an unsuspecting worker at USX Corp.n, who knew since 1927 that asbestos caused severe health problems, but he was exposed anyway, on a daily basis for 36 years. No amount of compensation can ever put his lungs back into the condition they once were, but in case someone thinks he got a pile of money, he did calculate his compensation once and it amounted to a few pennies a day and hardly worth two healthy lungs. It would be nice to see the local news media report a story, like the dangers of asbestos, by telling the whole story and without having to dodge pressure put on them by big business and politicians when they do.
Peggy Hocutt OTHER VIEWSOlder people should make friends with time By ART LINKLETTER It is tempting as we grow older to grouse about those things we no longer can do. Jack Nicklaus may be the greatest golfer ever to walk a course, yet as much as golf fans may wish it were otherwise, he probably won't win another Masters. |
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