St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 16

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH EDITORIAL SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 1998 http: www.stlnet.com FOUNDED BY JOSEPH PULITZER, DECEMBER 12, 1878 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH JOSEPH PULITZER EDITOR PUBLISHER 1878-1911 NICHOLAS G. PENNIMAN IV PUBLISHER TERRANCE C.Z. EGGER GENERAL MANAGER COLE C.

CAMPBELL EDITOR RICHARD K. WEIL, JR. MANAGING EDITOR CHRISTINE A BERTELSON EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR ARNIE ROBBINS DEPUTY EDITOR lACCnU II IT7CD CniTOD JC. QWPD 1912-1955 JOSEPH PULITZER EDITOR PUBLISHER 1955-1986 CHAIRMAN. 1979-1993 MICHAEL E.

PULITZER CHAIRMAN PRESIDENT, 1993 TERRORISM B2 Consecrating our dead rorld-class powers have world-class ene-I mies who can strike anywhere. That may be the most immediate lesson of the bomb ings on Friday of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenva. and Dar es Salaam. Tanzania.

1 That lesson supuests a napping nnestinn: Whv hadn't the United States followed through with i plans to improve security at all of its embassies? The United States is the world's only remain-'ing superpower. That makes our embassies whether they're in sleepy Reykjavik, Iceland, or Saudi Arabia more likely targets LETTERS TO THE EDITOR man tnose or otner countries. u.a. emoas- tially unprotected embassies in downtown areas," said Ed Badolato, a former military attache and now security expert at Contingency Management Services. 'Some say you can't protect these buildings.

I say that's baloney." Mr. Badolato observed in an interview that the "most minimal and least expensive" measures were not apparently taken. The most obvious is parking. If the buildings csin't be set back far enough from the street to esca.Te damage, no parking should be allowed on the t'treet close to an embassy. That has to be a basic precaution at every embassy, no matter how peacea'c'e its location.

In addition, windows should be protected by kevlar strips, to prevent the horrh'c gashes caused by flying glass. The New York Times reported Saturday that neither of the bombed embassies met the security standards that had been ordered for overseas posts after terrorist bombings in the 1980s standards set to guard against car bombs. Congress provided about one-third of the funds needed for the security upgrades. Now is time to grieve. But it's also time to ask questions, to look for weak links, to anticipate where future problems could occur and remedy them.

The people who defend U.S. interests abroad deserve no less. The honor of the people who died on Friday demands no less. sy, as a piece of the United States abroad, has to be protected, not just from the dangers posed by the countries in which they're located. They have to be better secured against the threats the States faces worldwide.

Before Friday, the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were not considered risky. That changed in a heartbeat. At least 11 Americans were among the more than 130 people killed in 'Kenya. Army Sgt. Kennth R.

Hobson II, a Neva-'da. Mo. native, was one of them. Sgt. Hobson St Louis International Airport.

The $2.6 billion expansion is buying much more than one additional runway, and if St. Louis can't afford it now, how will St. Louis afford a cost of two to three times as much, five to 10 years from now. Rick Lettau Belleville women. The fact that some churches are liberalizing does not solve the core problem, which is religion itself.

The ecumenical movement is the vestige of defunct belief systems that are holding on by their fingernails lest the believers be forced to face the facts. Religions are artifacts of Dark Ages civilization. Gays and lesbians who wish to be "accepted" by churches would do better to join secular organizations like the Rationalist Society of St. Louis, and the Ethical Society and help cut out the cancer of religion, which infects the body politic. If you put a saddle on a dog, that doesn't make it a horse.

Give up the church now and avoid the rush. Despite the current backlash, America is a secular nation and will never be a theocracy. Eric R. Roberts University City survived the Persian Gulf war, but had no chance against this invisible enemy. The United States has invested heavily in security for its embassies, yet with curious lapses.

"It's amazing to me to find out that after all the millions spent on security, we have two essen CLINTON AND STARR Damaging the presidency Tne muo-wresumg maicn oerween bui cun-ton and Kenneth W. Starr has damaged this j. i i -i it i presiueni, uirnimsiieu uie prcsiuency aim raised serious questions about subjecting presi- dents to never-ending investigation. Most Americans thought Mr. Clinton lied "about not having sex with Monica Lewinsky even before Ms.

Lewinsky's reported testimony -about a dozen incidents of intimacy. That credibility gap diminishes Mr. Clinton. Summer of 1944 I saw Steven Spielberg's movie, "Saving Private Ryan," recently. It has brought back memories of the summer of 1944.

My family and I lived in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland, isolated from the rest of the world, sick, starving and under a constant threat of deportation. June 6, 1944 we did not know the significance of that date then. We did not know what was happening in the theater of war. There were no newspapers, and hiding a radio could get the offender the death penalty. On June 6, 1944, 1 was a girl in my late teens.

I might have been standing in line for some rotten turnips or potato peelings discarded by the public soup kitchens. Maybe I was tutoring a small boy with cerebral palsy and being paid with a food coupon. My father might have been giving clandestine foreign language lessons to students foolhardy enough to hope for survival. The Lodz Ghetto was being liquidated that summer. The cattle and freight cars packed with the resigned deportees were leaving the railroad sidings on their way to Auschwitz and crematoria.

We knew nothing about the heroic Allied landings on Normandy shores. We did not know that the fates of war were changing. For many of us it would be too late. But for those of us who have survived the 6th of June 1944 and the American and Allied heroes who lived and died in the desperate struggle with the German forces on the Omaha and Utah beaches will always remain in our hearts. Marylou Ruhe Glendale Nor is the damage limited to tnis president, in barricading the White House against Mr.

Starr, "Mr. Clinton has piled up every piece of legal Home health care Thank you very much for the Aug. 2 article regarding home health-care services. The public needs to know its taxes are going to go up a lot if we put all these old people in nursing homes to say nothing about demoralizing the elderly and to say nothing about the difference in the care a patient receives in a nursing home as opposed to a familiar loving home with the help of home-care services. Great Rivers Home Care Inc.

gave my mother loving, professional care for nearly 20 years off and on. I couldn't have taken care of her without their help. Please keep the information flowing regarding this serious matter. Hazel F. Pratt Elsbeny, Mo.

furniture in sight. He was right to claim that his conversations with White House lawyers should be privileged. But the courts threw out that i. i i At i i- i tiiu riMnir Mifmu uiiri iiim 11111 ui 11 ill ivii i nun 1 exaggerated claims of executive and Secret -vice privilege. As a result, this president and future presidents will have a harder time ob calling for a new prosecutor to investigate the 1996 Clinton fund-raising abuses.) Still, it is disturbing that presidents have been under almost continuous investigation for two decades from Jimmy Carter's Billygate to the Reagan and Bush administrations' Iran-Contra scandal, to Mr.

Clinton's Whitewater. Should presidents be subjected to continuous criminal investigation under circumstances where they can't confide in White House counsel and know their Secret Service protectors might be called to testify against them? These are long-range questions. A more immediate dilemma is what to do with Mr. Clinton. Normally, impeachment would seem the proper punishment if a president were to lie under oath, lie to the nation and get others to he.

But that punishment is disproportionate where the lie if it occurred at all was about sex and the forum was a civil deposition in a lawsuit about to be thrown out of court. The American people don't want Mr. Clinton impeached or prosecuted for lying about something almost anyone would he about. But that doesn't mean Mr. Clinton can he when he testifies next week.

He will be talking to a grand jury in a criminal case with plenty of time to consider his answers. In the end, it may turn out that Mr. Starr's evidence is broader than the sex scandal and involves a pattern of obstructing justice that extends to missing Rose Law Firm billing records and Webster Hubbell. If so, Mr. Clinton is beyond simple solutions.

But if all Mr. Starr has is the Lewinsky matter, there is a simple, if unpleasant answer. Tell the truth. Mud-wrestling isn't good for this president or the presidency. The American people will be quick to forgive and get out of the muck.

taining candid advice on the sometimes wavy i i- i i 'line ueiweeu wuai a legal miu uicgcu. But it is Mr. Starr's long, expensive investiga- 'tion that has most diminished the presidency. Is Lambert expansion best for the region? The Aug. 4 editorial, "Scheduled to depart," asks that we recognize those in our community who will have to make a sacrifice if Lambert's W-1W is implemented.

While those of us who travel frequently certainly cannot deny that the proximity of the airport eases our trip to and from the airport, I wonder if it is not time to recognize that Lambert is "landlocked" and soon we would have to develop a new, larger regional airport elsewhere. Why not make that time now instead of later? To me, MidAmerica Airport is a viable alternative if at the same time the infrastructure is developed to make this airport more accessible to those of us residing on this side of the Mississippi River. A major roadway link or sufficient parking on this side of the river, coupled with rapid surface transport certainly would be less expensive and less disruptive to people than W-1W. And the slightly longer ride to get to the airport would be no less a trip for St. Louisans than for the residents of most other major U.S.

cities. I would certainly exchange my current drive time for reducing the disruption of lives in Bridgeton and the other communities neighboring Lambert. Cart Moskowitz Creve Coeur Let me see if I understand the Federal Aviation Administration's position on Lambert Field correctly. It is going to destroy 1,937 homes, six schools, 75 businesses, six churches, four parks and one nursing home. It is going to completely ignore the safety concerns of the Air Line Pilots Association and the air traffic controllers' union and it is going to spend almost $3 billion.

It is doing all this so that Joe Traveler's average delay will decrease to three minutes from six minutes. I know time is money, but are three minutes worth $3 billion, not to mention the destruction of a third of the city of Bridgeton? Thomas H. Johnson Bridgeton Two of the Aug. 4 letters contained the same error with respect to the W-1W design. The "severe" stagger, with the terminal at the ends of two or more runways, is in no way a disadvantage, and has in fact been used in the past and in the most modern airport designs.

Travis AFB in California has had runways in this staggered configuration for more than 40 years. More recently, the new Denver International Airport has all of its runways in a pinwheel configuration so that one end of each runway is immediately adjacent to the terminal. At Lambert, when traffic is landing or taking off toward the west, the new W-1W runway would logically be used primarily for departures, with one or both of the existing runways handling arrivals. When traffic is landing and taking off to the east, the new W-1W runway will be used primarily for arrivals, with one or both of the existing runways handling departures. In both cases, traffic is taking the shortest route between terminal and runway end and vice-versa.

The staggered configuration is one of the most efficient layouts and will significantly increase the capacity of the Lambert- Mr. btarr recklessly subpoenaed a White House adviser for leaking dirt about his prosecutors. Meanwhile, his office leaked so much that he 'faces an unprecedented contempt hearing. Also, a 1 i 1 1 Mr. aiarr ignored ine ume-nonoreu lawyer-cu- Foster may have confided before his suicide.

"-And he has pierced the privilege between White riuuse lawyers aim uie yieaiuciu. Once, the special prosecutor stood for an objective pursuit of the truth. Now the prosecutor stands for a zealous, partisan pursuit of gossip. It's too early to adopt the conventional wis- uuin uiai we snuuiu give uu luucyciiuciu counsels. (Just look at how many people are HEALTH CARE What kind of nation are we? Sims' campaign An Aug.

5 article stated that when Sen. Betty Sims "returns to the campaign trail, the abortion issue may no longer be a key factor." In repeated radio ads, Sims called pro-lifers hateful people and liars. Do you think pro-life Republicans are going to rush to the polls to support her? Her 245-vote victory over pro-life John B. Lewis will melt in November. Now she and Democrat Howard Shalewitz can slug it out in November as to which is the best pro-abortion candidate.

Until the Declaration of Independence is declared unconstitutional, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will always be an issue! John J. Donnelly Warson Woods Weather warning We are seeing lots of extreme weather across the country, and St. Louis certainly had it share. From deadly heat waves and devastating drought to massive flooding and unmerciful storms. The weather is acting up.

Leading climatologists are now saying that this weather is an indication of global warming. Global warming does not simply mean the daily weather will get warmer, it means that we will experience more weather extremes, and weather patterns will become more chaotic. We can do something about global warming by cutting the pollution that is causing it. Increasing our energy efficiency is one place to start and it will save us all money. If we improve the efficiency of our cars, appliances, heating and cooling systems, and even light bulbs, we can cut down on the pollution that spews out of coal-fired power plants.

Unfortunately, Sens. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond and John Ashcroft are still co-sponsoring a bill, S. 286, that would freeze the fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. In addition, St.

Louis area Rep. Jim Talent didn't cast his vote in support of energy efficiency measures (HR 4193). When it came down to supporting programs that are good for the environment and our pocketbooks, Bond, Ashcroft and Talent appeared to be thinking more about polluters than protecting our children from global warming. Heidi Hellemeyer Maplewood Last year, as part of its overall plan for saving money and balancing the budget, Congress changed home health-care regulations to improve efficiency and to prevent fraudulent claims. Both are worthy objectives.

But when people who need help are cashiered in the name of efficiency and fraud-busting, we need to rethink what we're doing. Many of those providing home health care are small businesses that have found some of the new rules overwhelming. For example, some of these small business owners didn't have the capital to put up the bond that the law requires as a hedge against fraud. A few had to put up their houses as collateral. Last month, Sen.

Christopher "Kit" Bond, convened the Senate Small Business Committee to hear from this constituency. Mr. Bond persuaded the federal government to postpone the bonding requirement. Hopefully, Mr. Bond will follow up by moving Congress to rethink the regulations and restore the ability of home health-care agencies to serve those who need them.

Otherwise, what kind of nation are we? 1 needed care when they took it away." Ann Heideman, 95, of Florissant speaks with simple eloquence. She broke her hip in 1996 and relied on a home health-care agency to help her cope with her fragility. Now home rJiealth-care services are being drastically re- duced under last year's Balanced Budget Act. -Missouri has lost 50 of its 274 agencies already, and many others are cutting back their services as they cut back their staffs. So now Mrs.

Heideman must rely on an 83-" year-old neighbor, among others, to check on her and help her with the tasks of daily living. Carole Burkemper, owner of Great Rivers Home Care in St. Peters, told a congressional committee this summer that nearly 1,200 agencies nationwide have been driven out of busi-" ness. "There are lot of people who are going to 'fall through the cracks and end up costing tax-' 'payers a great deal of money." Before the recent cutbacks, home health care "'had grown tremendously as a less-expensive alternative to hospital or nursing home care. Medicare itself encourages patients to leave in-' stitutional settings as quickly as possible.

Abandon religion There is much discussion in the press regarding gays and lesbians and the push to gain acceptance by churches. Churches are the very purveyors of the senseless dogma that has led to discrimination against gays and lesbians and a plethora of other groups to include Jews, blacks and E-MAIL FAX MAIL i 1 KNOW THAT MY RETIREMENT WILL MAKE NO DIFFERENCE IN ITS CARDINAL PRINCIPLES. THAT IT WILL ALWAYS FIGHT FOR PROGRESS AND REFORM. NEVER TOLERATE INJUSTICE OR CORRUPTION, ALWAYS FIGHT T1 DEMAGOGUES OF ALL PARTIES, NEVER BELONG TO ANY PARTY, ALWAYS Send letters for publication to: Letters to the Editor St. Louis Post-Dispatch Letters must include name, address, and daytime phone number for verification; addresses and phone numbers will not be published.

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Louis, Ma 63101 THE POST-DISPATCH PLATFORM letters pd.stlneUom i I JOSEPH PULITZER APRIL 10, 1907.