OUR VIEWS

A decent session

This is not to say lawmakers — and the governor, who has a significant leadership role in legislative activities — did all they could and should have done. They didn't fix the franchise tax, which means they must either do it in a special session later this summer or tell voters why they imposed draconian budget cuts on the state agencies financed by the state's General Fund. Nor did they attempt the broader tax reform that is so badly needed.

Legislators also did some things they shouldn't have done, such as granting excessive pay raises to state judges and again filling the state budgets with pork barrel money that — regardless of the individual merits of the projects that receive the money — distorts the budgetary process. They almost let state Sen. Roger Bedford get away with vindictive action against the attorney general — fortunately, Gov. Don Siegelman and Attorney General Bill Pryor worked out a way to defuse Bedford's attack.

However, considering the records of past legislatures, the senators and representatives accomplished more than Alabamians have come to expect from them.

For better or worse, they sent Siegelman's lottery proposal to the voters, which will settle the issue one way or another. If they had not done so, the issue would have returned again and again. Further study is needed to be sure, but the legislation appears sound, which should leave voters free to decide the fundamental issue: Is gambling an appropriate way to raise revenue to pay for governmental services?

After more than a decade of debate, legislators actually approved significant tort reform legislation. The three new laws shouldn't be the end of the reform effort. We still need better consumer protection laws. But the caps on punitive damages and the restrictions on class-action lawsuits and jurisdiction shopping are major steps forward.

And then there was the pleasant suprise of the session: mandatory insurance coverage for Alabama motorists. Using his power to add executive amendments to bills, Siegelman converted a weak bill that would have required liability insurance be purchased by the state's worst drivers into a bill that requires all car owners to carry liability insurance. And the Legislature agreed to the broader requirement, which was long overdue.

All in all, a decent session despite its horrible start.
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Unfortunately, despite the statewide accomplishments in which they share, local legislators did not serve their constitutents well in the regular session.

They refused to approve a motor vehicle inspection program that is needed to help reduce the air pollution that limits economic development in Jefferson and Shelby counties — not to mention the health risks to which area residents are exposed.

Worst of all, asked to correct legal problems with the Jefferson County occupational tax, county legislators abused the power of their office by diverting county revenues to political self-promotion with pork-barrel projects.

That arrogant action deserves a voter backlash when they stand for re-election.

NATO, Russians and Kosovo

The Russians helped broker the settlement and having their troops acting as peacekeepers will make it difficult for them to walk away from that settlement. Their presence also strengthens the hand of the Kremlin faction that favored working with NATO rather than the reckless course favored by hard-liners of arming Serbia against the allied air campaign.

Russia is acutely and humiliatingly conscious of the fact that it is an inconsequential player in European, let alone world, affairs. But that will not always be the case. Russia will revive one day, and when that happens, it will be better if Russia is tied into Europe, economically and politically, and not a spurned and simmering outsider.

The Russian military is needlessly paranoid about NATO, seeing its continued growth and long-term expansion plans as a shadowy plot against Russia itself. By working with NATO, a cadre of younger officers may come to realize that these suspicions are unwarranted. Despite Serbia, NATO is still a defensive alliance and one that is downsizing militarily.

The Russians do not want to be, or, at least, do not want to be seen to be, under NATO command. However, despite necessary face-saving accommodations, the Russians are not in charge in Kosovo, NATO is, and the allies should do nothing to dilute that responsibility. Primarily, that means the Russians should not be allowed to occupy territory that, in collusion with the Serbs, could lead to the partition of Kosovo.

The Russians' mad dash to grab Pristina airport — with only 200 troops — seems like a thumb-in-the-eye gesture to NATO, a way of saying, "We will not be ignored." As long as that is all it is and the allies soon get access to the airport, NATO should let the snub slide; the allies do, after all, have their foot on the Russians' supply lines. And the airport incident will probably not be the last assertive act of Russian mischief in this operation.

Russian peacekeepers should be stationed where Serbia's brutality was greatest. The mass graves, the burned homes, the poisoned wells, the struggle of the surviving Kosovars to rebuild their lives should convince even the most obtuse Russian soldier that what Russia does there can be both a moral good and in its national interest.

YOUR VIEWS

The genocide has been ended

THE MAIL

Based upon the public facts of this conflict, genocide was both limited and now ended compared to what it would have been. It was and is far better to have intimidated the Serbian military and paramilitary into sending hundreds of thousands south to Albania, Macedonia and Greece vs. all of them being murdered.

It is again a public fact that the United States and her allies have come to the aid of people of the Muslim faith who were caught up in a wrongly religion-based slaughter. The United States and its allies likewise saved the population of Kuwait from an inter-Muslim sect slaughter in Desert Storm. Nazi-corrupted Christianity was used to murder our Jewish brothers and sisters in World War II. In 1999 politically misled faith has been stopped.

Some "nut cases" decry other faith systems. In fact, we do all worship the same God, and we are all children of Abraham, as found in the Bible.

Rev. Billy Graham said on live national TV recently that he plans soon to conduct a crusade in Kosovo. I think Graham will have a warm reception and find many people are now impressed by the living witness of Christian western nations who make up NATO.

NATO fights and has fought for an end to genocide and peace among mankind in Europe. These are key Christian faith tenets.

God bless our U.S. and allied airmen and troops as their army of occupation goes forward. Genocide has been ended with minimal U.S. and allied casulaties.

Col. George L. Singleton, USAFR, retired
2509 Matzek Road

Should tear down

Far too long have we honored Confederate statesmen and soldiers. We should bury Davis and Lee by tearing down their statues, burning all Confederate flags and renaming all public buildings and schools that bear their names.

This voluntary action would represent a true rebellion from that archaic past which ties the deep South to a dead Confederate nation.

The longer we raise our children to honor and respect symbols of the Confederacy, the longer we preserve that spirit which divides our great nation. This homage gives encouragement to the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists who would destroy America in the name of icons like Adolf Hitler, Davis and Lee. It is part and parcel of that divisive false hero worship that leads to school violence and disrespect for authority. To allow such idolatry is lunacy!

I propose that cities and states throughout the Southeast mark the new millennium by purging our nation of false Civil War idols. Tear down Confederate war hero memorials and replace them with statues which honor those who died not to destroy our union, but to preserve our union!

Then our children will grow up proud that they went to schools named after great Americans like presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy and great generals like George Patton and Douglas MacArthur instead of losers like Davis and Lee!

Terry Lynch
P.O. Box 241035
Montgomery

New opportunity

Peter Kenney
606 Devon Drive

Rather see

Well, you guessed it. This weekend warrior's heroics are being highlighted on "The Geraldo Show" with his "TGS" sidekick excitingly interview-extracting every hair-raising morsel of his bravado.

Will it be exciting? Will we watch it? Probably. But I'd much rather see and hear from that poor cameraman who stood calmly over and around the heroic subject as he went through his antics.

Armond "Si" Simmons
104 Wadsworth Lane
Pell City

Contrast

On the front page of The Birmingham News we learn that the results of Alabama's recent practice graduation exam "left state educators optimistic ... that students may do better than once thought." this comment was accompanied by data that showed the percentage of students answering 50 percent or more of the questions correctly in each of four areas (reading, language, science and math).

Alas, in the Birmingham Post-Herald these same data, now presented as the percentage of students who answered less than 50 percent of the questions correctly, are preceded by a headline which reads: "Grad exam results dismal."

One unnerving interpretation, of course, is that both stories are accurate: the results are dismal, but state educators are optimistic because they could have been worse.

Dail W. Mullins Jr.
2321 First Ave. North

LOOK BACK

50 years ago, June 16, 1949

Infatuated fan Ruth Steinhagen, 19, shoots Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus in chest after planning for two years to kill him just for thrill of being one to murder him. Waitkus is hospitalized in serious condition.

25 years ago, June 16, 1974

Richard Zuck, 28, sentenced to 40 years in prison for slaying of 70-year-old stepfather, Gordon Zuck, in Vestavia Hills home.

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