OUR VIEWS

'D' is for due process

Christopher Beamon, 13, of Ponder, Texas, can now testify to that.

His seventh-grade composition class was assigned to write a Halloween horror story. Beamon wrote about a school shooting in which his teacher and two classmates are killed. He got extra credit for reading it aloud in class.

You can question the teacher's wisdom in giving the assignment and perhaps the propriety of Beamon's use of real names (even though they come back to life at the end of the story), but what happened next was outrageous and flat-out wrong.

The authorities got wind of Beamon's story, whisked him out of school, apparently without notifying his parents, and put him in jail for five days. The charge: "making terroristic threats."

Then there was then telltale sign that the authorities had done something stupid and knew it: Once the press learned of Beamon's incarceration, he was quickly released and no charges were filed.

The judge who jailed Beamon won't talk about the case, not surprisingly, but school officials cited "worries" and "concerns"" and hinted, without specifics, about past disciplinary problems. In this country, we don't jail people because of "worries" or "concerns." And the unspecified disciplinary problems — the family's lawyer says they were tardiness and talking in class — sound like post-facto rationalizations to us. As does Superintendent Byron Welch's statement that the outcome would have been different if Beamon had used made-up names.

School safety is indeed a legitimate worry and concern, but "zero tolerance" is fast becoming synonymous with zero judgment and zero common sense. The lawyer, William Short, had it right: "It's insane."

The school administrators and local authorities who sent Christopher Beamon off to jail should be made to write 500 times on the blackboard "I will not violate the U.S. Constitution" — but first they should be required to read it.

China's barbarity

Of course, even before the legislature acted, China had rounded up thousands of adherents of the Buddhist-like faith and shipped some off to do slave labor on prison farms. The purpose of the legislation, apparently, is to legally legitimize what the government was doing anyway and also to open the door to the death penalty. China's leadership, it seems, may have it in mind to kill some of these people.

All of this strikes observers not only as hopelessly cruel, but as irrational on several grounds.

For one thing, the Falun Gong has no political purposes that anyone has been able to unearth. Believers meditate. They do breathing and martial arts exercises. They are seeking spiritual and physical health and a way to heaven when they die. They are not after power in the here and now.

And it's not as if the Chinese government is without real issues, such as an economy that seems to take a step backwards for every couple of steps forward. By persecuting these people, the government risks losing sight of what it must truly strive to accomplish, and, some have asserted, could awaken further protest.

Possibly, some experts say, the arrests could even exacerbate divisions within the Communist leadership.

The other possibility, of course, is that this massively powerful and indecent government will do exactly as it has set out to do — extirpate this faith and quiet those who don't like this show of force.

The major lesson here seems to be that China's rulers remain tyrants who can abide no challenge to their absolute authority. They seem a nervous lot, and they apparently have not graduated to anywhere near the level of civilized enlightenment that apologists for China so frequently seem to assume.

The United States should speak loudly about this outrage, and should keep in mind that we are still dealing with a rulers capable of awful barbarity.

YOUR VIEWS

School management shows contempt

THE MAIL

This would be appalling if it weren't so typical of management almost everywhere. They are arrogant and egotistical, loving themselves and their positions more than the students and citizens they serve. They show flagrant contempt and disrespect for the people who work for them, yet seem genuinely baffled when they rise up in protest.

That many reasons have been provided why it makes sense for select members of administration to get astronomical pay raises while the teachers and others who do the real work get little or nothing at all is not surprising. The biggest concern of most managers and administrators is maintaining their places in the hierarchy, not living the mission of the organization. They pay lip service to the concept of leading by example, but what they really communicate is "Don't do as I do, do as I say do." What they do best is convince themselves that they're doing a great job, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

It is particularly disgusting that these same people would try to have us believe their main concern is "the children." They beg for more money, but make sure they reward themselves first. If the taxpaying citizens of this city have any concern for children at all, we should support the teachers and support staff of our school system, and let the Birmingham Board of Education know that we find their approval of this decision outrageous and unacceptable.

Lee Ann Self

1405 17th Street South

Get off high horse

Parents are not welcome in the public schools except when they need money or supplies. If parents question what is being taught to their children, they are told by educators, "We know what is best for your child." We complained in the years past about sex education and its consequences but were ignored. Now we have higher numbers of teenage mothers. We are told that moral values must be taught in the home but when the school system contradicts these values in the name of political correctness, the problerns grow. If we demand high and rigid qualifications for teachers, the Alabama Education Association and other groups fight this effort.

In so many schools, a student who really stands out is shunned by other students. It is politically incorrect to give special attention to those students that are high achievers, it will make the other students feel bad.

Why should voters give more money to a system when you see examples such as the Jefferson County Board of Education voting to pay Superintendent Bruce Wright $170,000 and then tell us they need more taxes to increase the teachers' pay or buy supplies.

Until educators get off their high horses and accept that fact that they don't have all the answers and parents have a say in what is taught to their children, nothing will change.

Donald Dunlap

1335 Montevallo Road

Army needs help from a new force

In order to handle the extra duty, the Army is choosing to use its regular troops. This decision requires employing three combat units simultaneously. One unit trains for the mission. Another unit executes it and the third one is retrained for ordinary combat. The strategy is putting a tremendous strain on the already overtaxed resources of the Army.

As an alternative, Col. Don M. Snider, U.S. Army retired, proposed last year the formation of an Army Constabulary Force. The new organization would require a relatively small commitment of approximately 15,000 men and women.

The creation of the ACF would produce distinct benefits. For example, if the ACF were fully committed, it would be clear that the United States would be able to undertake no other peacekeeping operations. Additional manpower would have to come from some other country.

Another advantage would be an increase in recruiting potential. Many young people who have not previously been attracted to military service might be anxious to serve in the ACF for both idealistic reasons and also college tuition benefits.

I believe that the creation of the ACF will allow the Army to better serve the government for the common defense. It is time to revisit this proposal and consider its merits.

Peter Kenney

606 Devon Drive

Where are they?

But did you know the exhibit also includes a shark in formaldehyde, a cow cut into 12 sections, a bisected pig in formaldehyde-filled cases, and a device in which maggots feed on a dead cow's head and give birth to flies, which are then electrically zapped? Now my next question is ''where are the PETA people for goodness sake?"

My congratulations to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in withholding payment of the city's subsidy. If this is "art" there really is a flying elephant named ''Dumbo."

It's time artists become accountable and self-supported, just as nurses, plumbers, waitresses, taxi-drivers and all the other hard-working, tax-paying Americans are who do not have a government subsidy putting free money in their bank account.

Please inform your legislators that you oppose this scandalous waste of our money that could be well spent in more important and worthy places.

Juanita J. Dorrah

676 Village Crest Circle

Hoodwinked

Another big winner in this purchase is the media to which most "big money" campaign funds are funneled for the purpose of prejudicing the wanting electorate. We saw this money at work leading up to the recent election as we were satiated with partisan TV and radio ads and outsized (and expensive) newspaper spreads which the electorate could never afford, not to mention the selective editorial biases. The media will continue to enjoy and protect the flow of the millions of dollars of perpetual campaign money into their coffers; perpetual campaign money that wouldn't otherwise be required, thus denied to the media under a system of "term limits."

No sour grapes here. Mississipians have been hoodwinked — again.

Armond "Si" Simmons

104 Wadsworth Lane

Pell City

LOOK BACK

50 years ago, Nov. 5, 1949:

Childersburg's new Beaunit Mills Plant is recognized as most modern rayon mill in America.

25 years ago, Nov. 5, 1974:

Birmingham's team, Hubert Green and Mac McLendon, win $250,000 National Team Golf Championship in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

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