21-

Readers' Forum

opinion.

Herald & lantern 29 December '82

the SOVERf IGN STATE ol AFFAIRS

DAVID BOYD

Who Teaches^ Moral Values?

Janr AM ( unnlnKham

V0» C ANNOT Hn hack aflw you have opened Pan ffcWA » Ho* ' ... Madalyn Murry o Hair and other atheisU who forced a t injri tftM isiph <»n 'prayen* in achdol have made it imponHi

fife for VfvH»l prayer

cmjMlKtfm to the Pledge of Allegiance have cauaed

many <M honU to ittecofltiflue H

H. is doubtful-that many children were irreparably harmed fiv liatertinR to a few vrr*e* from the Old Teata ,„cni ; Nuyingthe l^ord a Prayer or aaluttngthe HaR Some rnav have fa'Wfiterl <-— MIK HAH THINCr is that many children today get very jiiiit e.sjaFMire to fhe fundamental value* which separate

man fom other fnimals

• Wt' ^ave heard all the pasRionafe arguments that it is the responsibility of the rhurth and the Home to teach moral value* and that the schools and teachers should be

• ompletely neutral in siMp matters

I ^fortunately, in real life, many children are never ex imMiJ.to religtods training and come from hobtes where, imj itnc ri^son or another, ethical principles are unknown nr rioi a high priority Schools are the only opportunity for many to learn that there are standards v, I legate the claims of thW who have espoused the con n pi of situation ethics, there is a difference betweeft right

and wrong, between good and had

IT IS KN( <it RACilNCi losee lhat a school in Virginia ia using, the McGuffey Headers, which contain stories and poetr^h emphasising honesty, fairness; punctuality, the

pork ethic and patriotism

How many of ua have received inspiration from "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again," Kipling’s ’iF" and other ertcourging poerhs? Someone has said, ’if everyone tried to follow the Ten Commandments and the fiirl Sc«Ut/Boy Scout l^iws, what a better world we would have • • • It s«*ems to me. there is a/vast difference between ii-aching "religion" and instilling moral standards, to \onng children They are important ingredients in educa tion Any society is a better place ifo live in when the majority of its memhers have learned that kindndks is more acceptable than cruelty, honesty more valued than dishonesty, And respect for other* is not a weakness but a strength # • ’ . • tllK THOt'HI.KN of tlM' 80* and the 70s produced a generaliOp to whom patriotism is a dirty word • Many have tried to equate our government with that of Russia and ( hina. Teel it is not worthTlefending. and are unconcerned

•bout possible threats to our existence

The United Slate* freely admits it is imperfect < do other countries’’*, but.where else in the world are people so iree’’ How many outspoken critics of the government can you find behind the Iron Curtain 7 The first.choice for (hone wanting to leave their own;country is stil the U * They know what many Americans refuse to see* - this is

still the land of freedom and opportunity

Mrs Cunningham is the/ormer publisher °1 the Cape

Mhv County Herald * * yX

fyew Year Prayer-^

By Vlney Kftdtcott v

May all our thoughts be in accord Nvith Thy divine commandment, Lord. That with contrite and-f.umWe heart To pray this year will lie a start. That each in countries everywhere Will seekfor peace ahd he aware C; That realln tajies the place of fear When each of us shall,draw quite near In making this a better world . Where flags of progress are unfurled Vlney Fndicotf writes from Cape May Court House

t Ml NUMBFROf K(.n •-SPIF.S TURNING UP IN BRITISH IN IF l UGf NCF IS ASTOiJNDlNG'

' TMF V MUST Bf IN COMPUTF. DISORDER DOtS*ANYONt KNOW • WHAT S GOING ON’-

v.-’-'V

Organized Terror

Soviet KGB Has Few Restraints

By CHRISTOPHER C. HARMON Because I^enin lielieved that ’’The courts must not ban terror, tnit must formulate the motives underlying it I and I legalize it ps • principle," he created the Soviet secret police AS years ago this month, on Dec 20, 1917 , Once called the Cheka, and now known as the KGB, the organization has had many names throughout its history luhas known only one purpose, however: to act as the "SWot-d and Shield" of the Communist Party of the USSR. Thd'Cheka, or "All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for' Combating • Counter-Revolution, Speculation.. and Sabotage." began as an investigative agency charged to search out deviant Communists It was swiftly;transformed ihto a secret pdlice force with innumerable duties and few discernible restraints. | Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the agency’s.first dihpetor.* laid down hiif policy: "We stand for organized ferror." he declared Under his direction, the first 200,000 "official’ executions occurred; hundreds of thousands of Mother Russians disappeared Into the first Soviet Gulag Ar- * hipelagoes, where uprisings cost 300,000 more lives. ALREADY BY MARCH. 1921, Petrograd sailors (the naval forces which had helped instigate the Revolution^ four years earlier) issued a manifesto declaring communism to have "brought the workers, instead of freedom, an ever-present fear of being dragged into the torture chambers of the Cheka, which exceeds by many times in its horrors the gendarmerie administration of the Czarisi regime " And yet the Leninist-Dzcrzhinsky regime was to appear almost mild by contrast with that of Stalin and Beria which,succeeded it. Dzerzhinsky Square, two blocks from the Kremlin, is the site of KGB,headquarters The building is not marked; everyone knows what it is. There is a new statue of Dzerzhinsky, raised by Khrushchev, who, if he closed some of Stalin’s concentration camps and executed Stalin’s chiefof secret police, Beria. nonetheless pledged to

"Strengthen in every way revolutionary vigilance and the organ of state seqprity." , ; - * He renamed the agency the "Committee for, State Security," or KGB, but still called its personnel "our Chekists." He brought the reorganized KGB more within the control of the friHy, and gave it more funding as wjell as new, international dimensions, *' . , i THE BREZHNEV LEGACY was one of explosive growth And it was under Brezhnev's eye that Yuri Andropov and his lieutenants made their steady advance into positions of govenlment and party power The promotion of KGB head Andrbpov to generaT Monetary of the Commiinist Party (upon Brezhnev’s death) was, of course,

without any precedent in Soviet history.

The new KGB chief is a 64 year-old Ukranian, Vitaly Fedorchuk He comma'hds perhaps 90,000 staff officers, some 2-300,000 specially armed border troops, and tens of thousands of other paid informants ahd agents. If he has a budget, it is virtually unlimited. And government, party, and army organizations prbvi.dd logistical and other support free • The "Chief.Directorates" conduct foreign operations, border controj, and routine and special operations against the Soviet population, foreigners, and touTists. The KGB works closely with, and oversees, the GRU, pr military intelligence service of the Hfcd Army General Staff. KGB OFFICERS staff the armed forces* at every echelon down to the company level. They wear military uniforms, but report through their own chain of com-

mand. and can disobey military orders.

During the jast few years, this national and international apparatus has crushed a nascent Soviet peace movement with arrests and psychiatric treatment, while funnelling large sums into the same kind of movements in the West, dnd spending millions oik “peace" front organizations based in Moscow, Sophia, and Prague. Chrlitopher C. Harmon, a student at Claremont (Calif.) " Graduate School specializing In the Soviet Un|pn. writes

for Public Research, Syndicated,

How Soon We Forget

Reagan Cutting Energy Program

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jMwtliaa Artfr—jMepkR Z« »mk Editor . Boanir Krina General Manager John f lutiwoody • Advertising Coordinator DarrrU Kopp * Publisher

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LANTERN

Energy politics is a growing field of endeavor, or perhaps skullduggery, if we are to believe the things we read and hear Things like an administration in Washington intent on gutting already inadequate funding , of research for solar and related sources of pow^r, while lulling us all into the mistaken belief (hat there’s no problem with oil supplies n On the latter aspect, the superficial observerjan agree with that thesis by noting reports of an “oillnut" and prices actually dropping from time to time at the gas pump. But he conveniently ignores the fact that the mfdeastern countries can end our false sense of security anytime they please, just by restrirting oil supplies. How soon we forget that those countries control the critical percentage of worldwide petroleum MANY HIGHLY regarded economists argue that today’s "easy energy." such as decreasing gasoline prices, simply results from the economy Despite all cla'ims to the, contrary, the economy is not in good shape either here Or anywhere else in the world. Given an upward shift in the Pay Hike a Disgrace By James Alexis With unemployment approaching record levels and people finding it more difficult to survive on their income. I was appalled io see that our Congress found it appropriate to vote themsejves a 16 percent pay increase Just beforfc Christmas. I wonder how the helpless unemployed must feel when they read such happenings — espixrially when they will find it difficult to provide the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter for their families, let alone buy Christmas presents and other needs for the holidays. It is a disgrace for every ejected official who would entertain such a thought. When Things get tough, our elected officials should set the example and show us what leadership means, not raid the "Pork Barrel" to benefit themselves i 1 WAS PLEASED, however, that our. Second District Congressman did not vote in favor of the salary increase. Bill Hughes would like to have a 15 percent salary increase. hut he knows that times are tough and he Conducts himself appropriately. That’s why he is truly a man qfi class It s too bad his colleagues don’t take a page out of his ■book and follow his example during our economic crisis.

economy, we can expect higher oil prices due to increased demands. - The' federal administration seems bent on letting the future take care of itself. I’m afraid we are sticking our heads in the sand and waiting to gef hit ffom behind. Our salvation, I believe, lies in major part in relatively small energy production systems and better conservation. We should be doing all wc can to get individuals and small groups of homes or businesses to do more toward using the sun or its derivatives — wood, wind and tides — to produce more energy for us. -YET ARCHITECTS still get awards for energyinefficient buildings. We insist on scattering our homes all over the landscape, thus creating more automotive energy demands, plus energy needed in building and operating roads, sewers and water systems to service that scattered development. A recent issue of the magazine "Science/’ published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, noted that efforts are under way in Washington, with approaching budget deadlines, for the U.S. Department of Energy to cut the present energy conservation budget of $384 million down to $51 million. That would spell curtains for practically all projects The solar energy budget would be slashed from the current, $268 million to $87 million Included among the victims of budget cuts would be the solar thermal energy program. This action reflects a fear that innovative small electric-generating systems would cut into the volume of business now enjoyed by big utility companies. SUCH POWER distribution is the job of big corpora tions, and any research which could help a person generate part of his or her own energy at home seems to get short shrift. r The same magazine, on the next page, tells us of a com pany in Maryland which has invented a type of "breeder" system through which solar cells can produce more solar cells. That’s the kind of creative re§egj:eh which necfds to be pushed. It was helped by conservation tax credits and a low : interest state loan for land development. But back at ' the Enefgy Department, budgetcutters are eating into any remaining federal grants to state and local governments which are already beset with other federal cutbacks. Just when the administration should be fostering innovative alternative energy sources, during a J)rief surplus of oil supplies, it chooses instead to sabotage what should be our future life-support system. David F. Moore is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.