Protest - Terday And Today
What goes around comes around. About 30 years ago, the Berrigan brothers, the Chicago Seven, Timothy Leary and others were making quite a nuisance of themselves opposing the Vietnam War and promoting drugs. College students were encouraged to burn bras, draft cards and flags. Meanwhile, conservative America had a message for the dissenters: “America - love it or leave it.” Today, the right wing is protesting government regulations, taxation and unruly federal agents. Abortion clinics are being picketed instead of ROTC buildings. And ultraconservative leaders such as talk-show host G. Gordon Liddy are advocating lawlessness. Recently, Liddy urged gun owners to purchase the 19 assault weapons outlawed last year by Congress: “They’re not going to put 150 million Americans in jail.” Ironically, President Clinton, a former draft dodger, wants tougher anti-terrorism laws to crack down on neodissidents. Apparently, freedom-of-speech rules apply only when you agree with the speech in question.
The good are dying too young
A stunned sportswriter shook her head last week and said, “God’s forming quite an all-star team in heaven.” The tragic death of Post Falls runner Christina Finney, which prompted the writer’s comment, was the latest in a series. Christina was killed in a two-car collision. Her death comes about two months after former Coeur d’Alene High School soccer goalie Jennifer Stokes was fatally injured at the dangerous intersection of Northwest Boulevard and Lincoln Way. Last November, Kellogg High School cheerleader Joni Groth was killed in a one-car rollover, North Idaho College wrestler John Turpen died of alcohol consumption and Post Falls pastor David Hutchison, a softball enthusiast, died in a two-car crash. Let’s hope and pray that God has filled all the roster spots on his North Idaho team.
Huckleberry Hound is a dirty dog
Huckleberry Hound (my pseudonym in another life) deserves a “Hot Potato” for dropping out of Wallace’s Huckleberry Sheriff 1995 contest - before the campaign heated up. And so does Don Lehman, representing the Silver Valley’s monthly news magazine. Lehman threatened, “If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.” Don and I are party poopers - plain and simple. Only local radio personality John Davis has gotten into the spirit of the race for “sheriff,” dropping subliminal messages into his broadcasts. Huckleberry Festival planners admit they had ulterior motives in asking us media types to run. They wanted free publicity. Unfortunately, they got what they paid for.
, DataTimes MEMO: “Hot Potatoes” is a feature of the Tuesday and Thursday Opinion pages.