4 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, January 31, 1996 A EDITORIALS Try taking the bus, you just might like it Ridden the bus lately? The overwhelming majority or readers will say no to that question, then offer a variety of reasons why they don't feel comfortable using municipal bus transporta- tion. They should take another look. For all its faults and recent travails, bus service provided by the Luzerne County Transpor- tation Authority is surprisingly good. Buses serve a number of locations in the Back Mountain with service about every half hour throughout the day, and they're almost always on time. The buses are clean, and the drivers are universally competent and courteous. They also share something with the Maytag repair man — they're often lonely. Taking the bus is not as fast or convenient as driving your own car most places, but there are a number of good arguments for public transit, both for individuals and the society at large. One that makes sense for many people is the low cost of bus travel compared to automobile ownership. Someone could commute round-trip to Wilkes-Barre five days for as little as $7.50 per week. That amount — $390 a year — would barely pay for the gas a car would use to make the same jaunt. Even if you have a car, if you have to drive it to your destination and pay to park it, the bus could save a few dollars each trip. Public transport offers plenty of advantages on a larger scale. Sharing space in one large vehicle — whether a bus, train or commuter van — saves fuel and decreases pollution. Perhaps more important, economical public transportation gives every- one the chance to travel as necessary to work, worship or family affairs, and that helps make our society stronger. The tradeoff is time. It will take about a half hour to get to Public Square on the bus, and if you need to transfer to another destination your excursion could take an hour or more. Since time is money during working hours for most of us, the bus offers no advantage on that score much of the time. A weekend trip is another matter, and well worth looking into. You'll pay more postage, so TIME pays less Benjamin Franklin must be spinning in his grave now that the Postal Rate Commission has signed off on a plan that will raise postage for nearly everyone except huge bulk mailers. It will be a sad day for the nation if this proposal is adopted by the U.S. Postal Service. Franklin, you may recall, in addition to inventing that stove and helping to found the nation, served as our first Postmaster General. In that capacity, he established the Post Road, which knitted together states in the Northeast in part by offering service to all at uniform rates. The rate commission's action would destroy that heritage by offering large-volume mailers lower rates than are available to smaller operations, particu- larly those that serve suburban and rural communities like the Back Mountain. What does this mean to you? A couple of things: First, you will likely pay higher rates for first-class mail than you do now, while huge publishers pay less. The junk mail that floods your mailbox will get a break, which you'll subsidize with higher prices on letters, subscriptions and the prices charged by all businesses which must use the mail to send invoices and other material. Second, you may not be able to get some publications at all, since smaller publishers may be forced to drop rural subscribers because of the high cost to serve them. Organizations representing newspapers of all sizes believe the rate commission used flawed data to calculate the cost of delivering mail to small communities. We agree, but would go one step further; adoption of this skewed rate plan will place the welfare of large, profitable businesses ahead of that of ordinary citizens. That is a formula for dissension and distrust, the very emotions that fed Benjamin Franklin and his contem- poraries to act against King George. We're not advocating revolution. But you need to contact your Congressman and Senators now, to let them know fairly- priced universal mail service is more important than Time magazine or Lands End's higher profits. Publisher's notebook Uncle! I promise to never again complain about northeastern Pennsylvania's wimpy weather. I have been known to remark that the weather here is bland and uninteresting, with nary a hurricane of major storm in sight. Not! I was ready to write off the winter of 1993-94 as an aberration unlikely to be repeated in the next century. Was I wrong. This winter began with more snow and cold than that infamous season, and then came the floods. We are fortunate it wasn’t worse; another two hours of rain and the Susquehanna would have had its way with the valley. As it was, many residents of low-lying areas suffered severe damage, and people to the west of us got hit even worse, with several fatalities and worse damage than Agnes caused. Perhaps if I swear to give our weather more respect, Mother Nature will lay off. It’s worth a try. The Dallas Post Published Weekly By Bartsen Media, Inc. P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612 717-675-5211 Ronald A. Bartizek Charlotte E. Bartizek PUBLISHER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Peggy Young Grace R. Dove ADVERTISING ACCT. EXEC REPORTER Paul Rismiller Olga Kostrobala PRODUCTION MANAGER CLASSIFIED/TYPESETTING Jill Gruver OFFICE MANAGER 2) PRINTED WITH NINE Tits SOY INK ON AL NEWSPAPER NEWSPAPER Along a country road in Kunkle. Photo by Charlotte Bartizek. LETTERS ] Smaller elementary schools are the best choice for students = Editor: I attended a very informative meeting at Westmoreland Elemen- tary School in the Dallas School District last week. Six options which are under consideration by the Dallas School District concern- ing the closing of Westmoreland were discussed. It seems that the School Board is only seriously considering one of these options which would close Westmoreland, build a new grade 4-5 school attached to the Dallas Middle School, build a new Admin- Women's Commission seeks information about summer programs for kids Editor: On behalfof the Luzerne County Commission for Women, I am re- questing information on summer activities for school age children (ages 7 to 17). As I was saying [Jack Hilsher 2 TWO ODDS ‘N ENDS: Probably only ahandful of readers have seen or will know what is meant by a “Chautauqua.” To save you look- ing it up, Webster calls it a noun meaning “an assembly for educa- tion and entertainment by lectures and concerts.” That says it well. My first - Chautauqua, really my only one, was in Canada whenlwas 12 years old. Anauntand uncle were steady followers of those popular tent LIBRARY By NANCY KOZEMCHAK The Back Mountain Memorial Library is featuring a collection of snow globes from Julie Howell of Dallas. She is 11 years old and attends 5th grade at Wyoming Seminary Lower School. Julie has been collecting snow globes since she was a young child. She has quite a large collection now and keeps them ona special shelfin her room at home. The smallest one is Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, which was given to her by istrative Building attached to the Middle School and convert Dallas Elementary to a K-Third Grade School. I have many concerns about this proposal. Current research in the field of education points out that the best schools are small and stu- dents are kept in one building as long as possible (K-5). Students have a better sense of belonging. They know and are known by ALL of the teachers. The results on National Achievement tests rou- tinely show that students from We have received inquiries from parents about summer activities for their children. Ifyour organiza- tion or agency is planning summer events, please send the informa- tion to the Luzerne County Com- A Chautauqua, Kipling and Lincoln shows, yet the word isn’t even in many modern dictionaries. This was, after all, over 60 years ago, and a lot usually happens in that length of time. They were magic to a kid. One example of typical Chautauqua fare: a stirring reading of Kipling’s “Gunga Din” with, and this what they were called, the elocutionist rendering “your as “yer”. His “safe” came out “cife.” Veddy British. (We interrupt this story briefly for a field report from my granddaughter's mom: During homework the youngster referred to an author as “Rude-yard Clip- ping.”) Now some of Mr. K's verse, oh- so-far removed from Gunga: “There is sorrow enough in the natural way, From men and women to fill our Snow globe her Mom. She now receives new ones for birthdays and Christmas and other occasions. Her newest one is The Wizard of Oz, that plays the music ofthe Yellow Brick Road, which she received this past Christ- mas. Another special one is The Lion King that plays the Circle of Light. The larger ones in the display are Phantom of the Opera, Uni- corn, Winnie the Pooh, two Nativity sets and two Christmas ones. The smaller ones include an angel with baby Jesus, angel bear, young girl with a snow flake, snowman, Santa Claus, lamb, bunny, Liberty Sci- ence Center, two snow scenes and Washington, D.C. This is a very exciting display and pleasant for Valentine's Day and hopefully, when it’s time for the snow globes to return home, our snow season smaller schools score among the highest. The current philosophy of the Dallas School Board is a campus style educational facility. How- ever, adding all of Westmoreland students and all of the traffic re- quired of a school administrative building to the current educational complex would seemingly create a nightmare of congestion and traffic problems. : Also, I don't believe it is in the best interest of a child to put them into a facility with 9 First Grades, 9 mission for Women's office at the Luzerne County Court House, Wilkes-Barre, Pa 18711. We will collect information and print a calendar of events for the summer of 1996 which can be day. But when we are certain of sor- row in store, Why do we always arrange for more? Brothers and sisters I bid you beware, Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.” Rudyard Kipling e000 One day I should do some col- umns on our 16th President, who was assassinated 130 years ago. There are many things our history teaches never even hinted at, and it should make great reading. His intellect and - in that old- fashioned expression - his “way with words” make one devoutly wish we had his like today. A small ferinstance: ~ Picture Sam Donaldson asking Abe Lincoln, “Mr. collection on display will be over. February 21st. New books at the library: “Crimi- nals” by Margot Livesey is a stun- ning tour de force, suspenseful, beautifully observed, inarguable in its intricate portrayal of character. We find the innocent, the maligned, the yearning and the betrayed, each rife with schemes and hope, each with a plan. The bumbling nature of desire has been turned out with such delicate precision. The story testifies to the power of love. A great read and pleasure. “Flesh Wounds” by Stephen Greenleaf is a new John Marshall Tanner novel. The long-sought- after heir of Spade, Marlow, and Archer meets the world of virtual reality in this powerful new thriller. Peggy Nettleton, Tanner's former secretary and former lover, who They will leave Second Grades, etc., and then move | them to another building for 4-5 | grades and then into yet another building for Middle School. In conclusion, I hope that par- - ents of Westmoreland and Dallas Elementary Schools can work to- gether to convince the School Board © to look more closely at the option which would build a new Westmoreland on land adjacent to the current building. Mary Barbara Gilligan . ; Lad fae Shavertown dessimated to parents upon their | request. Iran Fahmy LCCW President, did you black your own : boots?” And the answer, “Whose shoes do you think I shine?” «= « One example will illustrate his’ superb word power...in 1855; toa” friend: “Our progress indegeneracy | appears to be pretty tepid. As a - nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ Wenow practically read it ‘all men are cre: ated equal except Negroes.” When .. the Know Nothings get control, it.’ willread, ‘allmen are created equal" except Negroes and foreigners and . | Catholics.” When it comes to this I® © should prefer migrating to some ; country where they make no pre- tense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the | base alloy of hypocrisy.” End of quote...remember, that : was 140 years ago. left six years ago in circumstances i too painful to remember calls'and | reopens old wounds, rekindlingold desires. She lives in Seattle and is about to marry a wealthy banker. “The Bride of Texas” by Josef ' Skvorecky evokes a crowded mid- © nineteenth-century panorama as it tells the story of a group of emi- ; gres who flee the oppression of the Hapsburg Empire and, in their pursuit of freedom and a better life, find themselves immersed in the chaos ofan American war of eman- * cipation. The kaleidoscopicdrama is shaped by two parallel romances: Lida, the bride of the title marriesa plantation owner's son; hersoldier | brother, Cyril, falls in love with a” | young slave woman. We are swept * intoaworld at once unsentimental and romantic, in which love re- IY fuses to be easily snuffed out.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers