Opinion Page THE BRUNSWKK^BEACON Edward M Swcatt and Carolyn H. Swcatt Publishers Edward M. Swcatt Editor Lynn S. Carlson Managing Editor Susan Usher Neius Editor Doug Rutter Sports Editor Eric Carlson Staff Writer Mary Fotts & Peggy Earwood Office Managers Carolyn H. Swcatt Advertising Director Tlmbcrley Adams. Cecolla Gore and Linda Cheers Advertising Representatives Dorothy Brcnnan and Brenda Cletnmons Moore . .Graphic Artists William Manning Pressman Lonnie Sprinkle Assistant Pressman PAGE 4-A, THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1994 Violent Teenagers Have Abdicated Their Rights To Be Considered Children It's healthy that the state Senate and House of Rep resentatives have fundamental ideological differences to work out during their special session on crime. Maybe the punishment versus-prevention dialog coming out the session will result in legislation which does some good without wasting too much tax payer money. But it's difficult to understand the logic of those who take is sue with a Senate-passed hill requiring that 14- and 15-year-olds charged with violent felonies he hound over to Superior Court and tried as adults. State law alreadv mandates that 14-and 15-year-olds charged with murder he tried in adult court, and judges currently have the discretion to hind over 14- and 15-year-olds for aduit court if they see fit. Opponents of the proposal to make that a require ment argue that ihe proposal would not serve as a deterrent and would place more "children" in an already failed adult system. The sad fact is that the juvenile justice system is failing, loo?miserably so. Youthful offenders tried in juvenile court and sentenced to training schools must he released at age IS. no mat ter what they've done or how great the likelihood they'll do it aiiain. !n this asie of escalatino violent crime :md repeated offens C C P " I es by adolescents, that is simply no longer an acceptable practice. The system as it exists was designed to deal with "incorrigi hles." out-of-control kids stealing cars for joy rides and running away from home. Your average '90s kind of violent teenager probably has a gun. may have a drug habit and should legally be considered to have abdicated his or her right to be punished like a "child." Two other long-overdue juvenile crime bills were passed and sent to the House for consideration last week. They would: ? remove the option of expunging juvenile records if the youth is convicted of a violent felony. There are often instances when district attorneys cannot use the juvenile convictions in adult prosecutions because the records are expunged when the ju venile reaches 16. The hill would allow for the use of such records if the convictions were for violent felonies; and ? require law enforcement agencies to notify the parents any time a minor is taken into custody. A teenager who rapes, robs at gunpoint or commits any num ber of other offenses has crossed the border between adolescence and adulthood. There's nothing wrong with the law acknowledg ing that as fact. GUEST COLUMN Destroying North Carolina Families Through Taxation BY THOM GOOLSBY It you were intent on destroying the North Carolina family, how would you go about it? Would you outlaw marriage, break up couples and attempt to forcibly take children away Irom their parents? No, those types ot actions would be met with stiff resistance. In order to accomplish such a complicated task, you would need to do it slowly so that society-at-large would never catch on to your agenda until it was too late. Although any claim of "conspiracy" is probably hogwash, social policy "wonks" have done a very crafty job of destroying the North Carolina fami ly by enacting misguided programs that insert bureaucrats into the role ot parents and by continuing to virtually "tax the family out of existence." Over-taxation of the tamily unit is probably the most insidious ot all government activities and leads lo the wholesale destruction of families. When my patents were raising my brothers and me. our mother could af ford lo stay home and care for us because the income tax deduction for de pendents was si/able and my father paid less than 20 percent of his income in taxes. 1'his was before we had hundreds of federal and state programs designed to "help" the family, and before the average family was losing al most half its income to taxes. My upbringing was a lar cry from life in the 'Xls. where more and more children are raised by minimum-wage day care workers in govern ment-subsidized warehouses. And once these children grow old enough to become latch-key kids, they can then be raised by the likes of MTV's Bcavis and Butthead and Nickelodeon's Ren and Stimpy. Wh\ are these children pawned off on others to raise them? It's not be cause their parents do not love Ihem, but because both parents must work in order to make ends meet a tough but necessary evil for most couples who desire children in the modern world. So. how arc we currently proposing lo solve our dilemma? Will we do it by reducing anti-family social programs and by cutting taxes in order to economically invigorate families? No, those types of solutions are not be ing offered, instead, we hear cries for even more social engineering and the increased spending of taxpayer dollars. The most recent policies designed to "strengthen families" were pre sented by Governor Hunt in his crime package for the special session of the General Assembly, fhey include state-run after-school programs for mid dle-school students, mentor training programs run by state workers and the creation of Family Resource Centers which are to provide child care, health care, referrals to welfare agencies and parent training. These programs are expected to cost taxpayers another $30 million per year. I he real question is this: Who can best provide for the family, the state or the parents? Lach new program takes more money from the pockets of parents and further reduces their abilities to build strong, loving homes and to raise intelligent, law-abiding citizens Continuing to trust politicians, bu reaucrats and misguided policies to strengthen families" is a uiajoi mis take. The basic building block of our society?the family?is much too im portant lo leave lo our politicians to handle. Only by giving control, respon sibility and economic resources back to parents can we expect to rcinvigo rate the family and restore hope to the future of our slate and nation Thorn (loolshy is the editor of Carolina Syndicated Columns, an attorney and a professor 'it ( ampbell l a* School Sorry, No Unholy Alliances, Conspiracy Scenarios 1 made .t dumb mistake last week thai, if my source isn't exaggerating, gut some people at lloldcn Beach imagining ail soils of unholy al liances and conspiracy scenarios. I lost two stories Doug Ruttcr wrote about the Feb. 23 lloklcn Beach Hoard of Commissioners meeting. Well. I didn't exactly lose them; I stored them in the wrong computer tile, so they didn't get picked lip and placed on the inside pages of the A section of iast week's Rcacan as I intended It wasn't until the next Wed nesday afternoon, after the paper was on the racks and in the mail, that we realized Doug's lloldcn Beach stories weren't there. I apolo gized. he said it was okay and we agreed to run them this week with an explanation lit her that or to in corporate the information into his account ot Mondax night's commis sioners" meeting, whichever seemed most appropriate when the lime came. Some harm, some foul, but not a hanging offense. I felt bad. though, and hoped Lynn Carlson Doug wasn't secretly mad at mc. I'd be inclined to hit the ceiling if my stories go! mislaid alter I suffered through a town hoard meeting when I could have been relaxing at home. But that's not Doug's style, so all I could do was hope he understood. Then Thursday afternoon I heard that folks "all over lloldcn Beach" were outraged that the Beacon had suppressed news of the commission ers" meeting. I even heard that one commissioner was taking credit for having quashed the stories. I did a double-take and called up the two articles on my computer screen. "Holden Beach Rejects Ke Inspcction Fee" was the main head line. about a plan that got voted down. The secondary story was "Board Has Two Vacancies." six short paragraphs about open slots on the planning and zoning board. I didn't get it then and I don't get it now. That doesn't exactly seem like bombshell news to me. but granted, I'm no insider. In fact, in the two years I've lived at llolden Beach, I've never been to one of our commissioners' meet ings. Until recently it was my job to cover the Sunset Beach Town Council which meets at the same time. Just like W and 44/100 percent of out readers, what I know about llolden Beach municipal govern ment is what's in the Beacon. I do understand that it makes a more interesting mini-drama to as sume the stories were suppressed rather than misplaced. Sorry to dis appoint. I couldn't help feeling somewhat gratified?first that people relv so strongly on the Beacon to carry the news of their town, and second that anyone would ascribe that kind of power to us. It gave me a momentarv Alexis Carrington kiiul of fantasy?you re mcmbcr. the soft-focused stone hearted dame on "Dynasty," who ran a successful multinational corpora lion and made every decision solely on the basis of who she wanted to tick off at the moment There I was in my daydream, wearing a thousand-dollar hat and a couturier suit with ermine collar and cuffs, smoking a long French ciga rette in tortoise-shell holder, sipping Roedercr Cristal from a Baccarat flute as I paced my seventieth-floor glass-walled office screaming into the phone: "I warn you, DON'T tri fle with me or I shall destroy you!" I opened my eyes and caught a glimpse of the printer's ink all over my sneakers. I looked around and remembered that I share a small of fice with two other people and lots of machinery, and that I barely have time to empty the cat box at my house, much less manipulate the machinations of elected officials. The brutal truth is, it's a lot more like "Beat the Clock" than "Dy nasty" around here. Again, sorry to disappoint. v Web be happyio donate seme -trailers OS -ferojporcm/ housiry w _ , ,.y tor prisoners/' upo kidding ? 1*he courts (dootd never h+ y$ i^v< cAAotlNA Cflf*T?OKS Time For The Annual March AyAoto-Migration Get your motor rutin in' Head out on the highway. Lookin' for adventure In w hatever comes our way. -Steppenwolf They rumbled inlo the parking lot at Kirby's Food Center in Supply last week: four llarley-Davidsons loaded down with rolled up sleeping bags, extra clothing and camping gear. The riders dismounted slowly, pulling oft gloves and helmets, stretching muscles and straightening out knees gone stiff and achy from a hundred miles of late-winter wind. I glanced at their license tags to see where they were from. I already knew where they were going. "Daytona?" I asked. "Where else?" said one. For years, like the swallows re turning. to ( ?i|tisii