i | xr Ee § 3 | 4) |) The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, October 19, 1994 LE ae « AsIwas saying | Jack Hilsher | ~. This business I am involved ) tvith is, of course, the newspaper industry. My newspaperis, I firmly believe, an excellent one, and deserves far wider readership. This" is especially true since I started writing this column. No, just'kidding. It was true before, but unfortunately one group of potential POST readers is proba- bly not the least bit interested. - That's the so-called “Generation pro NEWSWEEK says many of those in this age group of 18 to 29 never leave their TVs or their magazines or their computers, even to:merely glance (ugh!) at a newspaper. That would be, like, uncool, man. : In the 70s two-thirds of all young people read newspapers regularly but today that statistic is down to only one-half! “To be @iclevant to young readers, news- “papers have to change,” says Al \ Gollin, research director for the Newspaper Association of Amer- JW) [ John LAVA [0] A ETO) | In the late 80's a man received a speeding ticket in the state of aVaine. What followed this traffic ®yiolation turned out to be not so simple. It seems that a Philadelphia man-was clocked by radar; the radar said the man was traveling 45 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone. A district court judge directed the man to pay a $50 fine. (Eh The man protested, saying the radar’ unit was malfunctioning, ind that he was going down a steep grade while lost. The judge disallowed the man's protests and directed him to pay the fine. Dissatisfied with the court's decision, the man went to the trouble of rolling $50 in pennies; he then mailed them to the court in a 38-pound box. The judge was not pleased and ruled that the pennies were unac- acceptable; in effect, saying that they ‘Wwere not legal tender. It’s not hard to understand the man's frustration at what he considers to be an injustice. And there is some measure of under- standing of the judge's dismay at the man's method of displaying his frustration. However, the man had a right to do what he did. The judge did not have the constitutional right o declare pennies (or any other currency) illegal tender. Such a declaration is reserved unto Con- gress and Congress alone. The fact that the judge believed he could make such a declaration illustrates how far the mentality of theJudiciary has gone from its constitutional mandate of inter- preting law to creating new law and/or manipulating existing law to suit special interests. The Judge's decision was not upheld on appeal. But should the man who was fined have to pay an additional $500 for a $50 ques- tion which has already been an- swered, the question being Judi- cial attitude, not the veracity of radar? This case clearly illustrates a runaway Judiciary. something that, i.e., rejected Supreme Court ominee Judge Robert Bork was learly opposed to, and which opposition was the chief reason he was defeated by Congressional liberals-who see the Judiciary as kind of ‘an erector set for the masses. How did we get to this point? Comipromise ultimately evolved out of the debate over what our constitution should and should not be. And a republican democ- racy—the people ruling them- Selves through elected represen- tation—came out of that debate. Also out of that debate came the three branches of government and the theoretical checks and bal- ance system whereby no one branch of government is supposed to be stronger than the other. Of tourse, some of those checks and balances are dependent upon attitude and ideas and the atti- @ude and ideas in this nation, concerning Congressional versus Judicidl responsibility, have been at odds with the constitution since A pointed column of thoroughly modern news ica. So the good grey NY TIMES believed old Aland changed. They added a new section called “Styles” which appeared on Sundays. It has had four editors in two years and appears on shaky ground. However as an example of how hard they tried to be hip and appeal to the young, they once covered one of Generation X's pet crazes called “body piercing.” Well, what's good enough for the Big T is good enough for me. Today we examine that popular practice. You need to know about these things anyway. Body piercing moves the tradi- tional earlobe location to other parts of the body, really almost anywhere. This includes the tongue, chest, lips, nose and some other “I'd rather not mention” parts. Itis not like tattooing which is illegal in some states; body piercing can be done by anyone who owns aneedle. And, it has yet to become illegal anywhere. It involves dangling jewelry from the pierced part...rings, hoops or chains. In a popular eastern shore resort six stores on their ocean boulevard offer piercing services, all supposedly staffed by “experts.” Piercing by a needle costs up to $80; if by a gun only $17. Sterili- zation, sometimes offered at no charge, is questionable at best. In one stretch of a relatively few blocks over 75 piercings were done on 18 to 30-year olds in one day. A South Carolina paper, the Myrtle Beach SUN, polled young people with this result: three out of every four said they would consider body piercing because it gets people noticed. One 17-year old said, “It’s different, so you get attention with it.” Only one called it “gross.” Interestingly, body piercing has a long history. It was first men- tioned in the Bible as a way to mark slaves who ask to remain in servitude after six years. And in many African tribes it has served to indicate everything from fertil- ity to adulthood. In theWestern world it first gained attention by repeated showings on MTV. There are, however, some horror stories which don't get any air time. There have been deformities from sloppy work, nerve damage and even virus infections. The Department of Health has managed to stay out of it so far, nor has any legislature acted. But there you have the change necessary in this column's mate- rial so as to make the paper be- come more relevant to younger readers. (VOICEOVER: The opin- ions, expressed are his own.) Truly, a cool subject. Subscriptions, anyone? Dangers of judicial excess the middle of the last century when Congress deferred making a decision in the Dred Scott slavery case. Congress instead deferred the decision making process to the Judiciary where upon the Supreme Court decided that a slave was not a citizen. The courts of this land have been making effectively monumental social policy decisons every since. It's not the court's decision in the Dred Scott case that's at issue here. The issue is what branch of government made that decison. Since the Dred Scott case, this nation has been accustomed to the notion that the Judiciary will . make policy decisons that a cow- ardly Congress will not make. There is no convincing evidence that ithe Judiciary sought both the role of initiator and interpreter; it's clear that the Judiciary has oftened acted out of an honest desire to deal with probems which were begging for solutions. And it is in fact that the self- indulgent and impatient citizen who is largely behind this abdica- tion of Congressional responsibil- ity. It is because of a citizen obsession with immediate gratifi- cation that the process of policy being made after considered de- bate has been by-passed, instead going directly to court. The danger here is that this process means it's not the people through elected representation who face the nation’s problems, deal with them, and come up with policy making decisions. Rather it is the Judiciary which is largely unaccountable to the people. And accountability is the cornerstone of the republican democracy proc- ess. The man who was fined for speeding was notified by the court that his pennies were not legal tender, and that if he didn’t send a money order to the court by a certain date, his driving privileges would be suspended. The issue here goes well be- yond the frustration and atten- dant actions of a man judged to be guilty of violating a traffic law. The isuse is how much longer a nation can afford to let the Judici- NEW ) SPECIALS FOUR SEASONS GOLF CLUB 7 days a week, after 4 PM. 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Fire damages bar under renovation By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff An early morning fire October 17 damaged the back wall of the Countryside Inn at Demunds Corners, Dallas Township, but quick work by firefighters pre- vented major damage. According to Kunkle fire chief Jack Dodson, firefighters could see the flames from Lake Catalpa when they answered the call shortly after 3 a.m. “The dispatcher had told us that the whole building was in- volved,” Dodson said. “We were ‘very concerned. In case of a fire there, Dallas is automatically dispatched with us because the building is very old and made of wood. It has roofs on top of roofs and no partitions. Ifit had spread, the whole place would have gone up.” Trooper Kelly from the Penn- sylvania State Police fire marshal’s office at Shickshinny is investi- gating the cause, which is still undetermined, Dodson said. The fire burned through the back wall of the dining room and sent smoke throughout the entire building, Dodson said. A tenant in an upstairs apart- ment wasn't home at the time of the fire, Dodson said. Firefighters believe the blaze started outside the building be- hind the dining room, near where an air conditioner is mounted in an outside wall, he said. The Dallas Township police and tankers and firefighters from Franklin Township, Franklin- Northmoreland and Trucksville assisted Kunkle and Dallas at the scene. Dodson estimated the damage at $10,000. The Countryside Inn was re- cently purchased by Bob Fox, who had been remodeling it, Dodson said. More local news and ads The Dallas Post ENE BS Witching RAVAN NBS Tal ZN NE REIN 19 JEFFERSON AVI 5 a ff] Jiao TA) i et as Fo SE / rtd This Seminar Is For People With One Thing On Their Mind. So you like the idea of being a homeowner. But you're having a tough time getting your head around stuff like points, escrow, principal and such. A good reason to come to our next seminar. Where you'll learn all about buying a house; from budgeting to negotiating to closing. So come. And see what you think. @) Mellon Bank Youre why we do our very best? HOME BUYING SEMINARS © 1994 Mellon Bank Corporation Wilkes-Barre October 25, 1994 7:00 pm. to 9:00 p.m. St. Stephen's Episcopal Church Stroudsburg October 27, 1994 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. St. Luke's Roman Catholic Church Community Room Lower Level 35 South Franklin Street 818 Main Street Parking is available in Mellon Bank Parkade Parking is available RS.V.P fo 826-5300 RSVP to 424-7173 Mellon Bank, N.A.-Member FDIC. Northeastem Region 2 November 1, 1994 7:00 p.m. fo 9:00 p.m. Delaware Valley High School Lecture Hall #1 Parking is available RS.V.P to 296-8576 Milford Route 209
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers