Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / Nov. 16, 1988, edition 1 / Page 5
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Wednesday, November 16, 1988-KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Page 5A ea i You “18% * By ROBERT L. WILLIAMS As pre-election rhetoric began to get dirty this Jeo, Bush called Dukakis something like ‘an old ddie,” and Dukakis, not to be out-insulted, responded by saying, “Oh, Yeah?” . When Martin said that Jordan was not par- ticularly nice, Jordan retaliated by saying, You're another!”’ _ All candidates were recently quoted as deliver- ng, to their opponents the classic riposte: “I'm rubber and you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.” . These modern kids don’t know what campaign insults are. A few years ago one candidate for the presiden- cy was accused of wanting not just to defeat but to, kill the other team, and the alleged victim responded by saying, “It is the determined pur- pose of that dark designing sordid ambitious vain roud arrogant vindictive knave to remove me rom the face of the earth by assassination direct or indirect and to ruin your (the nation’s) fame and fortune forever.” Now, that’s campaign dirt as well as gross theft of commas, 1° nent was *‘...treacherous in private friendship and a hypocrite in public life and the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an imposter, whether you have abandoned your good principles or whether you ever had any.” Another attack on the same candidate include this choice bit of verbiage: ‘If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by (him). If ever a nation has suf- fered from the influence of a man, the American nation has suffered from this man. If ever a nation was deceived by a man, the American nation has been deceived by (him). Another said that the same candidate was ‘the source of all the misfortunes of our country...itis a subject of the greatest astonishment that a single individual should have cankered the principles of republicanism...and should have carried his designs against the public liberty so far as to put in jeopardy its very existence.” Another candidate’s political career was said “to begin with hypocrisy, proceed with arrogance, and finish with contempt.” He was also said to be morally repulsive and to have brought his own children to the hammer and made money through his private debaucheries and Sonnds Tike The °88 ment of the world.” The same candidate was also said to be, at his very best, ‘nothing but a mean-spirited, low- livered fellow”’ who would ‘‘sell his country at the first offer made to him cash down, should he be elected to fill the Presidential chair.” If the candidate was elected, opponents said, ‘Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with cries of distress, the soil soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes.” Another opponent said the candidate was a pathological liar and that ‘‘the artful villain will purse the innocent lovely girl to her ruin and eath.” Another man said the candidate’s politics were “tinctured with fanaticism,” that he was ‘a con- temptible hypocrite,” and that “our wives and daughters will become victims of legal prostitu- tion...and dishonored and speciously polluted.” The candidate’s weapons were said to be falsehood and slander, his literary output was the work of a hired person, and that the man himself suffered from abysmal ignorance and stupidity. A third candidate was described as a monkey and as a gorilla whose soul was made of leather Presidential Election The candidate was said to have presented in public an “offensive boorishness and vulgarity’ and that the man was, in essence, a “Filthy Story-Teller, Despot, Liar, Thief, Braggart, Buffoon, Scoundrel, Usurper, Monster, Ignoramus, Perjurer, Robber, Swindler, Tyrant, Fiend, Butcher, and Land- Pirate.” Compared to this man, another said, mediocrity is superb. Obviously, modern political dirt-slingers have much to learn. They can’t even insult each other with intelligence. Almost anyone could do better. For instance, a man once told Truman Capote that the author would one day fall into a tub of Prepara- tion H and shrival himself to death.” Now, that’s an insult. Incidentally, the recipients of the attacks above were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln! Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States who always short on words, once actually spoke more than a couple of them when he woke from an afternoon nap and said, ‘Women are dif- ferent from men!” A startling revelation. I wonder if he was the same president who said, Another camnaigner euggected that the oppo- that he represented ‘‘a slur upon the moral govern- and who lowers and never elevates his fellow man. ‘I do not choose to run.” Community Calendar THURSDAY: y 12:00 - Kings Mountain Rotary Club at Holiday nn. i, Yi - Kings Mountain Kiwanis Club at Country ub. 7:00 - Kings Mountain Jaycees holiday open house at Warlick & Hamrick Associates, 106 E. Mountain St. Drawing for ‘‘Jonquils,”” original print by Bob Timberlake. 7:30 - American Legion Auxiliary Unit 155 at the American Legion Building. Hostesses: Ruth Gam- ble, Mallie Parker and Annis Babb. Mrs. Lisa Neisler, guest speaker. FRIDAY: 1:45 - “Putting On The Hits,”’ a reward program. for students at Central School. SATURDAY 9 p.m.- 1 a.m. - American Legion dance at the American Legion building featuring music by Prssway South.” Tickets $10 couple. Public in- vited. SUNDAY: 1:30 - 6:00 - Open House by Southern Arts Socie- ty, Inc. at A.B. Snow Studio, 3600 Margrace Road. Hand-screened 1989 calendars to be displayed as well as local art. Refreshments. Public invited. 7:00 - Loatian students of Cindy Wood are presenting a program at First Baptist Church. MONDAY: 10:00 - Central School “Memories Day’ pro- gram sponsored by Central School 6th grades. Don Parker, Wanza Davis, Steve Baker, among speakers. : TUESDAY: 7:30 a.m. - Farm-City Week breakfast at Cleveland County Extension Office honoring Farm Family of the Year. Sh ! ; 9:00 - “‘Strut for America’ sponsored by “I Love America Club” of 6th and 7th graders at Central School. Ted Silapeth, formerly of Laos, will talk about U.S. citizenship he earned a year ago. 7:30 - Kings Mountain City Council in Council Chambers at City Hall. WEDNESDAY: 7:30 - Kings Mountain Community Thanksgiving service at East Gold Street Wesleyan Church. 7:30 - Joint worship service for Love Valley, Baptist, Victory Baptist and Dixon Presbyterian churches at Love Valley. 7:30 - Grover community Thanksgiving service at Grover’s First Baptist Church. News Deadlines - The Herald welcomes your news items for publication in each Wednesday’s paper. We ask that you follow these guidelines when presenting stories or information for stories: All material for the People Section (Sectien B) must be submitted by 5 p.m. Friday. These items include weddings, anniversaries, engagements, birthdays, feature stories, club news, school news and church news. Items received after 5 p.m. Friday will appear in the B section if time and space permit. If not, they will be withheld until the following week. Items for the A section must be received by 5 p.m. Tuesday. In cases of emergencies, or for meetings or ballgames occuring on Tuesday nights, items will be accepted until 10 a.m. Wednesday. News normally carried in the A section include community news, obituaries, and sports. Deadline for all advertising copy is 5 p.m. Tues- day. rr N FF 0 0% ON ALL DRESSES eo Sweaters e Belts ® Scarves e Jewelry 115 E. Virginia Ave. Bessemer City, NC 28016 Jean P. Grant Owner (704) 629-3594 ~ Dear Editor: Few disasters stir more emo- tion than a fatal school bus crash like the May, 1988 crash in Car- rollton, Kentucky that claimed the lives of 27 people. This tragedy threatened to damage public confidence in the pupil transportation system in this country. Concerned parents everywhere expect both an ex- planation of how something this awful could happen and what is being done to prevent it from happening again. The simple answer to what happened in Kentucky is that the driver of the other vehicle had too much to drink, drove the wrong way down a highway at a high rate of speed and subjected a bus full of children to the horri- sibility. Drunk driving is, unfortunate- ly, an everyday occurrence in this country. Most of the time, the victims are killed one by one in hundreds of cities and towns from coast to coast. The effect is diluted and few people take notice except, of course, the families and friends who are left behind. In Kentudky, the conse- quences of a single drunk driver created a catastrophe that made front page news. Everyone took notice. And yet, every day in this country, drunk drivers kill more “ ‘than twice the number of victims of that one horrible crash. It seems almost disrespectful to the families of the victims of the Kentucky crash to explain that school buses are the safest form of motor vehicle transpor- tation and that a crash like the one that claimed the lives of their children has never happened before. The big, yellow school bus is an American institution that rolls through our neighborhoods every morning and afternoon transpor- ting millions of children over 3.3 billion miles each year. ble consequences of his irrespon- Are school buses safe? Yes, they are extremely safe. Most of the relatively few school bus- related fatalities each year are occupants of other vehicles or children who are killed while get- ting on or off the bus -- not the oc- cupants of the bus itself. Until the Kentucky crash, there had never been a school bus passenger death due to fire. Over the past ten years, the oc- cupants of school buses have sus- tained fatal injuries at an average rate of 15 a year. It would be much better to report that no one is ever hurt in a school bus but fate isn’t that kind. Mile per mile school buses are at least four times safer than automobiles. These are several reasons: because they are larger, school buses tend to get the upper hand in most crashes. There are special traffic laws for school bus safety. The buses must meet rigorous federal safe- ty standards especially written for school buses and the National Highway Traffic Safety Ad- ministration reviews these stan- dards regularly to make certain the pupil transportation system in this country is as safe as possi- ble. Parents should not believe there is any safer way to send a child to school. Even walking to school is more dangerous than taking a bus. We are looking for ways to make this safe form of transpor- tation even safer. For example, we are testing new and improved materials that are more flame retardant, examining the number and placement of addi- tional emergency exits, and tak- ing a careful look at the ocation of the fuel tank. But all the safety standards conceivable could not possibly provide a 100 percent guarantee against tragedy, especially when someone drinks to excess and subjects a school bus or any other motor vehicle to the kind of assault that occurred in Ken- tucky. vacuums up 3.9 bushels of e Wide, pneumatic tires e Maneuverable automotive-type steering ® [ocal service and parts Optional bagger shown. Jw 123123123uS6 1 JOHN DOE $64 PER MONTH e 30” Flex-N-Float® mower deck e Bagger-Vac® Collection System clippings and leaves (optional) eo 6 forward speeds plus reverse rr : . with Ariens Power Charge Ariens. Geta SIDER EE a standard price. An Ariens Deluxe Rider makes tough lawn care jobs easy. And now it’s priced to be easy on your budget. Features include: e Powerful 8 HP electric start engine Sold and Serviced By: GAMBLE HARDWARE Downtown Bessemer City 629-2691 How can a community help avoid future tragedies? First and foremost, we need to keep the pressure on to combat drunk and drugged driving. But we can take extra steps for school bus safety too. Local school boards are responsible for administering pupil transportation under criteria adopted and monitored by the state governments. citizens should become better in- formed on school bus safety issues. They should monitor and press for enforcement of laws and regulations on school bus driver selection, training and licensing, maintenance, evacua- tion and safety drills. The laws on not passing stopped school buses are particularly important and should be strictly enforced. What about older buses? A number of stricter safety stan- dards for school buses went into citizens. Paid Political Advertisement THANK YOU TO THE VOTERS OF GASTON COUNTY REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL AFFILIATION ... A special thanks to my patients and friends who helped in the campaign, my campaign managers and advisors, my family, campaign workers, various contributors, the Gaston County Republican Women, the Teen-Aged Re- publicans, the Gaston County GOP and Executive Com- mittee, pollworkers, and the many Democrats who crossed over to make this a great victory for ALL our I will do my best to keep your vote of confidence. Writer Says Today’s School Buses Safe effect in 1977. Many buses pre- dating those standards are still on the road. but even the pre-1977 buses have an excellent safety record -- they’re not dangerous vehicles. If a local board of education can find the funds to replace an older bus, it’s always preferable to have the safest school buses available. What’s the bottom line? Your children are very safe in school buses. There is no safer means of transporting them to school. With your help, we can fight the drunk drivers who are responsi- ble for half of all fatal accidents including the tragedy in Ken- tucky. Together, we can make the excellent school bus safety record even better. Diane K. Steed Washington, D.C. Sincerely, | Dr. George L. Bradley Commissioner-Elect | 11:16p | “Always Looking For A Better Way.” ® QUALITY ® STYLE | We Offer: FIT eo VALU ® SERVICE E — Invisible Bifocals, you cannot see the line. — High Index of Refraction lenses, up to 25% thinner. — Fashion Tints, with a large line of Fashion Frames. With Purchase Then Buy Of Lenses 2ND PAIR You’ve always wanted and get 20 oFr the COMPLETE PAIR OF GLASSES. If you want Contact Lenses.... DAILYWEAR CONTACTS *45. Per Pair “Come By And Let One of Our Capable Staff Members Serve You Suite No. 2 Rookwood Plaza Forest City, NC 28043 Tel: 287-9232 CLEVELAND MALL Cleveland Mall 2001-32 E. 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The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Nov. 16, 1988, edition 1
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