LOOKING AHEAD OLD

LOOKING BACK by Wally Dobelis


While visiting with T&V neighbors for a two-day party and birthday celebration at their Hemlock Farms weekend hideaway in the Poconos near Lake Wallenpaupack, we stayed overnight at a most delightful Bed and Breakfast.

The Double W B&B, at the Triple W Riding Stable in Honesdale PA, near Hurley (717/226-2620) is run by a sturdy lady, Doris Waller, with curly white hair, who is three-quarters Lenni-Lenape (that means "original people"), also known as the Delawares, a nation within the Algonquian Native American family. In case you're wondering what this has to do with T&V terriotory, the Lenni-Lenapes are our hosts, having sold Manhattan to Peter Minuit, first Director General of New Netherlands in 1626, for 60 guilders ($24), in a questionable contract. Alan Dershowitz would make mincemeat of it. Anyway, they helped create New Amsterdam, much to their eventual sorrow. Old Peter Stuyvesant (Director General 1647-64) took their children hostage, to insure good behavior. That was after the Dutch massacred Lenapes who had killed two farmers in the Hackensack area for letting their cattle mess up the Indian's corn fields.

Doris hosts the Labor Day Native American Pow Wow at her 181 acre ranch, with educational programs, arts and crafts demonstrations and sales (she had 40 participants from various tribes with traditional silver, leather and wowen products), and dance programs. On the ranch there are 30 horses available for saddle riding and the Double W will board your horse for $300/month, in a herd, with farrier and limited in-house care services supplied by the manager, her son Kevin Waller, who has experience. If you want a stall, it is extra money, more for daily excercise. Similar boarding in Belmont would cost $1,000. T&V horsey trade please note.

Doris' great-grandfather was a shaman, and great-grandmother Kathryn a medicine woman who collected healing herbs and smoked them in a clay pipe. When Doris was born, prematurely, weighing 2 1/2 lbs, the 7th child and first daughter, her great-grandmother wrapped her and put her in a lit owen, the equivalent of a modern hospital incubator. The child survived thanks to the oven and and Eagle Brand store-bought milk.

Doris' mother was a healer too, a midwife. The environment was not favorable for Native Americans, who were looked down upon by the Anglos. Doris' family appears to have been local gentry, judging from family photographs. The women wore quality couture, garden hats and fine heeled shoes. Nevertheless, the Lenapes were outsiders.The tribe had been driven out of Pennsylvania by the successors of William Penn, a good Quaker and a friend, who in 1682 learned the language ("a gentle speech") and made friendly treaties, buying land at fair prices. After William's death in 1718, his son Thomas produced a spurious treaty giving land "as far as a man could walk in 1 1/2 days" - the Walking Purchase - to the Quaker settlers. To get the most of it, they trained three men in running and after two dropped out, one, Edward Marshall, managed to cover 60 miles of distance, giving 1,200 sq. miles to the settlers. The coastal Lenapes had to accept, under protest. Pressured by the Iroquois Federation, they moved out in the Susquehanna Valley and in time were forced further out west to Eastern Ohio (1740s), then to Spanish Missouri and north to Ontario in the 1800s, eventually reaching the dumping grounds of all displaced Native American tribes, in what is now Oklahoma.

Doris, over the past 20 years, has returned to many of her inherited ways. Lenapes practiced meditation long before the current fad, and would spend many quiet hours "letting bad thoughts wash away." They were tolerant ("never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his mocassins") and did not use corporal punishment on children - "get on that chair and sit" was the worst. When Doris' teenage brother started acting up, his father took him outside, pointed to the road and told him to take it, unless he apologized to his mother. It worked. When Doris' mother was on her deathbed, she summoned the family to announce: "The white horse was here last nigh to call me away. Never cry for me, remember the happy times. We were lucky to have each other.Throw some wildflowers to the four winds in my memory."

When Kevin Waller was married, the official ceremony was performed by his cousin, a Methodist minister, followed by a Native American celebration led by a medicine man, in which Kevin and Susanne were wrapped in a blanket, given a symbolic vase and a corn bowl, and walked to the four winds, east, west, north and south, to complete a full circle of life. The names of Grandfather Sun, Grandmother Moon and the Great Creator (Spirit) were invoked in the blessing.

Not all times were happy. The family home, on an island in Popeek Creek, was flooded in the 1920s to form the Wallenpaupack Lake and resort area, and the small pack of "the Paupacs of the Lenapes of the Munsee band" (in Grand Sachem Tashawinso's time, 1560s, the tribe split in three main groups, Unami, Munsee and Turkey) had to move, once more. Doris and her husband eventually bought the ranch, a cluster of fieldstone buildings built 130 years ago by an Italian mason, whose family settled in the area.

Still under the impact of Doris' stories, we walked through the meadows, only to run into a large enclosure with a nervous white horse pacing back and forth. To our relief, it turned out to be one of the two Arabian stallions of the ranch.

If the Poconos area appeals to you for weekend or retirement living, Hemlock Farms community, with 2500 homes on 4500 acres, may be of interest. There are 900 year-round residences and 72 miles of pawed roads, and the comunity is surrounded by 40,000 acres of state forest. The part we visited was woodsy, with no lawn upkeep to speak of. Summer life seems to center around the four lakes with beaches and boating docks, tennis courts and ballfields, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and group activities managed by a Community Association. Visitors are issued separate daily passes for entry and pool use. The main part of the property was assembled from 12 land grants issued by the Commonwelth of Pennsylvania in the 1780s (you know now how they got the land), purchased in the 1920s by contractor William Brewster and kept as a steer ranch and hunting lodge. It once served as a secret meeting place for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. When the Brewster Corporation met with unforeseen losses in constructing the ramp for the George Washington Bridge, in 1963, the property was sold to Canadian developers, and within 10 years they built and sold 1000 homes. Current prices range upward from $72,000 for a rustic retreat to $300,00 for lakefront, and some $15,000 for acreage. Our hosts have had their house for 17 years, with excellent privacy and security.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

The heritage of the great Communist dictators is haunting us. In former Yugoslavia, the absence of majority rule and minority rights (jus Marshall??), the civil rights orgs like NAACP, ACLU has brought on five years of rule by the gun. The same applies to colonialist-run countries like Rwana, Burundi and Somalia.

In the USSR (descriptive term ) the state capitalism for 70 years brought on a Mafia-type anarchist criminal class who see the state as a prey to be defeated. Some 15% of USSR citizens allegedly lived in the underground economy, and a lot of them have acquired wealth and power. Some of them have transplanted themselves here. They go into business and sell illegal bad gasoline, cheat on sales taxes, and perpetrate crime. The Albanian gangs rob super markets. The Israelis import their sick and make up phony groups, insured by Blue Cross. Scams that the Mafia and the drug gangs never thought of.The good benevolent USA taxpayers are getting hurt by their own altruism.

All of this has to be considered when we rail against the new legislature that does not permit legal emigrees to go on welfare for five years, and the restrictions on immigration. Huge numbers of refugees from political oppression, once safely here and having acquired citizenship, import their indigent relatives and throw them on welfare. Can we, the good USA taxpayers, be the support of the world's burdens? Is it right? When the goodhearted liberal New Yorkers read the appeals against immigration restraints, think of the abuses.

The overpopulation of the world is the prime evil. Pressure on land, move to the cities, exhaustion of resources in the country, loss of water table, loss of arable land, deforestation. Every horrible thing that we rail against can ultimately be traced to overpopulation. Every good cause that protects us, in the name of humanism, has to be examined from the point of view of whether it increases the population. Defeating the effects of aging would be a monstrosity against humanity, an act of selfishness of the present generation that would destroy life as we know it. Think the limits of what I fear to say. Is cancer research productive or not?

These topics came to mind while listening to Hamilton Jordan, President Carter's chief of staff, on Public Radio. Jordan, who has had two kinds of cancer, is now the head of a cancer research foundation. He plays the usual strings of humanism, with a parenthetical reference to demographics, and never mentions the fact that the US has had an increase in longevity fom average age of 60 in the 1930s to 75 in 1990s, and therefore are more subject to geriatric problems. And we are the 11th amomg industrialized nations, with Japan (nearly 80) on top. If population growth continues, particularly in Islamic and other 3rd world countries, at the rate of doubling every 36 years. But, to his credit, he emphasizes research in juvenile cancers.

A much more clever speaker is xx, thwe 1996 commencement speaker at Harward. He sees certain health research, such as elimination of Alzheimers', as economically contributory. Alzheimers suffererers require costly institutionalization, with huge daily charges to Medicaid, whereas a cure would keep them in a family or own environment, not dependent on society. perhaps that is the direction we must fund - not general research but emphasis on cures for disabling illneses.

The whole subject of Kervokian expediting of death in incurable situation is disgusting but must be addressed. Where is the line? Is it as simple as permitting anyone who wants to die to poll the trigger? Or the other extreme, having a medical college determine whether the cry for death is legitimate? and deny the patient's request because of the Hippocratic oath? It must be addressed. The extremes are insurance, taxpayer and family funds carrying virtual vegetables for decades of hospital care.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis


The Kurds must be the most suicidal non-fulfilled non-autonomous five million people in the world. Bunched up in the Iraq/Iran/Turkey triangle, these ethnic Sunni Muslim Persians want independence and territory, but cannot unite, and have given, by asking for Iraqi help, Saddam Hussein a chance to destroy the leadership of their more rebellious, Iran-oriented faction. The help was requested by Massoud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party, battling the Iran-oriented Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. It was incredible that Barzani asked for Hussein's help, despite the Iraqis' history of destruction of Kurds over the recent decades.

Saddam Hussein, since his assumption of power in Iraq in 1979, has been at the root of continuous death and suffering, both abroad and in his country, through purges. In 1980 he caused a bloody eight-year war with Shiite Iran, heirs of the 2,500-year empire and hated sometime ovelords, resulting in over 2 million deaths in both countries. In 1988 he dropped mustard gas and cyanide on rebellious Kurds, killing thousands. In August 1990 he invaded and looted Kuwait, threatening Saudi Arabia and forcing the US, under the umbrella of the UN, to form an unusual alliance that included such countries as Israel, Syria and Egypt, for the purpose of liberating Kuwait. The coalition, with airplane and missile attacks, caused the Iraqis to withdraw, with a loss of 85,000 Iraqui lives. But the coalition did not invade Iraq, and Hussein remained in power. Not daunted, he attacked and killed thousands of rebellious Iraqi Kurds, forcing the UN and the coalition to establish a protected no-flight zone over the Kurdish triangle in north Iraq, which borders on Turkey and Iran and now houses 3 million refugees. The US has had to spend some $1 billion in Kurdish refugee relief to date. And now Hussein has reestablished his authority in north Iraq by marching in troops and destroying the Iran-supported Kurd opposition.

The US has responded by bombing Hussein's air defense sites in south Iraq and increasing its military presence in Kuwait to 5,000 troops, as a deterrent to any other Iraqi military threat to its southern neighbors. Remember, as recently as August 1994 Iraq assembled 70,000 soldiers in a show of force at the Kuwait border, forcing the US to fly in several thousand troops from Ft. Hood.

Hussein has always had major conquests in mind. While leading the bloody and costly war with Iran, he used much of Iraq's oil revenue (Iraq has 1/10 of the world's oil reserves) to finance the building of atomic weapons. In June 1981 Israel launched an unexpected preemptive air strike, bombing Hussein's atomic plant near Baghdad out of existence; but the clandestine research and attempts to buy bomb materials in the world market appear to continue.

Yet, a total evil though he may be, destroying Sadam Hussein is not in the best interests of the USA and the industrial nations. That this is US policy became perfectly evident at the end of the Gulf War in 1991, when President George Bush and his advisor Colin Powell left him in power, and is equally so in 1996, when the US is weakly retaliating against Hussein's attack on the Kurds by minimally strafing his air intelligence stations in South Iraq. Why is it so?

Well, in 1991 as well as now, Saddam Hussein and his 17 million Iraqis are the only military bastion against the powerful 65 million Muslim fundamentalist wave from Iran that could engulf and unify the Middle East against Israel and the West. If it were not for Saddam, the autocratic rulers of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf emirates, Kuwait and even Jordan might be overrun by the restive masses of nationalistic militant Muslims, fed by the aggressive fundamentalist Iranian regime. The devil has to be used to keep the terrorists in check. Saddam had to be kept subdued enough not to engage in new conquests, and powerful enough to hold off a wave of Iran-backed fundamentalists. And if Saddam were to be overthrown, a democratic Iraq would go through its own "Yugoslavia phase" and probably divide into a Shiite middle, Sunni south and a Kurdistan north. Divided Iraq would certainly be no defense against the Iranian militants, and the royal rulers in our client states - the Saudis, Bahrein, Kuwait and the emirates, and even Jordan - would topple one by one. Egypt, Algeria and Morocco, already under a considerable pressure by the militant religionists, would follow suit. The Middle East, under more uniform anti-Western Muslim fundamentalist rule, would be a destructive threat to Israel, and to the world powers that have kept it afloat with the aid of some of our client nations. World economy would be endangered because the 350 billion barrels of oil in the ground of the threatened monarchies constitute 1/2 of the world's oil reserve (260 in Saudi, 100 each in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirate) and with the 200 bb in in Iran and Iraq combined, a Middle East consortium can dictate energy prices and supply for the entire world. In 1973 the same countries did just that, utilizing their 1960 OPEC (Organization of Oil Producing Countries) structure, when irked by a monopolistic cut in oil royalties promulgated by the muscle-flexing Big Seven oil companies. The resultant OPEC embargo of oil exports to the West and the eight-fold increase in oil prices disrupted the world economy, resulting in a commendable but short-lived international effort to curb oil consumption. If it had not been for the needy OPEC members, such as Nigeria, dumping oil at reduced prices and breaking the cartel, OPEC might still be controlling the international fuel supply.

Presently, the US, as the protector of Saudi Arabia and the other monarchs, can regulate oil supply and keep the flow uniform and reasonably priced. A successful revolution in Saudi Arabia alone, today the most internally threatened of the Mideast coutries, could shift the world's economic picture. If a fundamentalist-driven OPEC were to be resuscitated and prices were to go up, in a 1973 pattern, the West and the Pacific Rim countries would go into a major depression.

The threat that Saddam Hussein presented to the Arab nations and the economy of the world in 1990 was recognized by the rulers, hence the ease with which President George Bush in 1990 was able to organize the alliance of Mideastern and Western powers. It could easily have resulted in the destruction of Hussein's empire. But Bush and his military advisor Colin Powell were aware of the dangers that would ensue, and let Hussein continue in power, albeit under severe restrictions of his economic power. His conventional military power was left intact. An embargo on his sales of oil assured the West that he would have no money for military conquests and no price manipulations from Iraq would upset the marketplace.

Likewise, Hussein's access to the rebellious Kurds in the corner where Iraq, Turkey and Iran meet was restricted by the no-fly zone. This area presented a direct threat to Hussein's rule. Fortunately for him, Kurds are unable to unite, and when one faction looked to him for help, he took the opportunity to invade - in his own country - to destroy the leadership of the hostile Kurd faction that had allied itself with Iran, the age old enemies.

One dilemma - what was the CIA doing in Kurd country, fostering attempts on Hussein's life? The answer may well be that a half-hearted effort (they worked with a puny $20 million budget) satisfied the anti-Hussein US public opinion
as well as warning him not to overstep the boundaries and start new external military adventures. A more serious effort would have been to use the full US economic aid to unite the warring Kurd factions. But now Hussein has managed to remove the threat of Kurd revolt coming from north Iraq. The US has to amass forces in Kuwait and bring an extra fleet to the Persian Gulf to show our retailiatory preparedness, in case he should once more try to attack the monarchies.

Why did President Clinton take the weak unilateral action against Hussein, destroying $60,000 worth of radar equipment in the south of Iraq, at the cost of 44 million-dollar cruise missiles, as charged by Speaker Gingrich? Why were all the Arab nations against this action, with evenn Kuwait, the most vulnerable nation, dragging its feet in accepting President Clinton's request to accomodate 5,000 American soldiers who presumably would defend Kuwait from an invasion? The answer would seem that a weakened, UN-controlled Hussein in power is more to their advantage than out of power, that they do not see him engaging in external conquests, and their concern is that the headstrong Americans with their military power will upset the balance. But doesn't Clinton know all this? Yes, he does, but the election is near, and he could not leave himself vulnerable to the Republicans' accusations of ineptitude and inactivity in the face of Hussein's attack. What about the Republicans, heirs of the Bush and Powell policy? Yes, they know, but in a life-and-death election campaign anything is permissible, including accusing the opposition party of inept policy to which they actually subscribe. That's election year politics, not a source of pride for either party. I wish it were over.

Do you remember a play in which the narrator sees his town as the center of the universe, in the eye of God? That's how I feel about the T&V country. Our people are the hundreds of faces at the corner of 14th Street and 1st Avenue at 8 A.M. waiting for the 15M bus, the moms and kids going to school in dungarees, in blue ant tartan school clothes, the big highschool kids with tattoos, the hospital and office people going to work. And the thousands out on the street at lunch hour on Union Square, and the gamesters roller blading, having medieval encounters, the musicians and dancers and author reading attenders at B&N, after business hours. They have stories to tell, eight million stories, by those who moil for gold, toting that barge and lifting that bale in the towers of my town.

We all live a drean, la vida es un sueno, and some of them are fulfilled while others fail. My friend Arnie who has toiled for 30 years in daily tasks, with an eye to the stars, has two sons, both fine ballplayers, affectionately known as Adam and Clayton by the office friends. Arnie and Marlene have spent hundreds of hours and energy taking the boys through untold neighborhood Little League matches, ascending to the National Championships. In his office he keeps pictures and blown-up newspaper reports of the feats of the kid's uncle, a 6'4'' pitcher,xx, as as a reminder that it can be done. But after years of the dream, reality struck home, and the boys went off to college to pursue more mundane ideas - in accountancy. and biology. But the love never died, and now both young men have switched to doing physical therapy, sports-oriented. A dream partially fulfilled.

Another friend David, is the father of a little girl wo liked to dance. I met her when she came in the office on holidays, to play computer games, a lively and expressive child. Mom took her to dancing classes and a few years later young Jennifer was dancing on TV, "In Living Color." Having turned into a sultry Latin beauty, Jennifer Lopez went to Hollywood and did supporting roles in My Family and Money Train, then played Robin Williams' fifth grade teacher in Francis Ford Coppola's Jack, dancing between takes when she was happy with her performance. Recently she played a Cuban nanny who cannot decide between her suitors Jack Nicholson and Stephen Dorff in a crime film, Blood and Wine, directed by Bob Raffelson. She is now in a dream role, the story of the Tejano singer Selena, slain by her fan club president, for director Gregory Nava. And another role is under contract, that of a documentary film maker who has jungle adventures, in Anaconda.

Looking at Jennifer's sultry publicity pictures, there are the unmistakable features of David, a gentle person who never misses a day's work, keeping a computer system on track. Soft-spoken, he carries pictures of Jen and tells stories of her phone calls home and the support group that the family provides. Not all kids of her generation have the background that we have given her. And it is evident in her attitude towards the family. She calls home frequently, comes to stay with the family for Christmas, easter and Mother's Day, and recently brought them to san antonio for a long weekend, to see the filming of a Selena concert

This is a long way for a girl who studied for a year at Baruch, hoping eventually ti go to law school. But the many acting and ballet lessons, and auditions that she went to in the supportive company of Lupe, her mother, paid off at the age of 19. Her younger sister, Linda, 24, graduated fro C.V.Post University, and now has a rock DJ prohram on WBAB, in Babylon, N.Y. Older sister Leslie, 29, was a schoolteacher until her recent motherhood.

David, who has worked for the same company for 25 years, has an level-headed attitude towards success in life. A house and a home for the family has to be earned with work. Easy life after retirement comes from saving and sacrificing. Good schoolwork comes with good parenting. If you work, you can succeed in life.

The Kurds must be the most suicidal non-fulfilled non-autonomous five million people in the world. Bunched up in the Iraq/Iran/Turkey triangle, these ethnic Persians of Sunni Muslim persuasion want independence and territory, but cannot unite, and have given, by asking for Iraqui help, Saddam Hussein a chance to destroy the leader ship of the more rebellious, Iran-oriented Kurd faction. The help was requested by Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party, battling the Iran-oriented Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Barzani asked for it, despite the Iraquis' history of destruction of Kurds over the recent decades.

Saddam Hussein, since his assumption of power in Iraq in 1979, has been at the root of continuous death and suffering, both in his country, through purges, and abroad. In 1980 he caused a bloody eight-year war with Iran, resulting in over 2 million deaths in both countries. In 1988 he dropped mustard gas and cyanide on rebellious Kurds, killing thousands. In August 1990 he invaded and looted Kuwait, threatening Saudi Arabia and forcing the US, under the umbrella of the UN, to form an unusual alliance that included such countries as Israel, Syria and Egypt, for the purpose of liberating Kuwait. The coalition, with airplane and missile attacks, caused the Iraquis to withdraw, with a loss of 85,000 Iraqui lives. But the coalition did not invade Iraq, and Hussein remained in power. Not daunted, he attacked and killed thousands of rebellious Iraqui Kurds, forcing the UN and the coalition to establish a protected no-flight zone over the Kurdish triangle in north Iraq, which borders on Turkey and Iran and now houses 3 million refugees. The US has had to spend some $1 billion in Kurdish refugee relief to date.

While attempting to conquer Iran, he also used Iraq's oil revenue (Iraq has 1/10 of the world's oil reserves) to finance the building of atomic weapons. In June 1981 Israel launched an unexpected preemptive air strike, bombing his atomic plant near Baghdad out of existence; but the clandestine research and attempts to buy bomb materials in the world market appear to continue.

Yet, a total evil though he may be, destroying Sadam Hussein is not in the best interests of the USA, This was perfectly evident at the end of the Gulf War in 1990, wwhen Pesident George Bush and his advisor Colin Powell left him in power, and is equally so in 1996, when the US is minimally retaliating against his attack on the Kurds by blowing up Hussein's air intelligence stations in South Iraq. Why is it so?

Well, in 1990 as well as now, Saddam Hussein and his 16 million Iraquis are the only military bastion against the powerful 65 million Muslim fundamentalist wave from Iran that could engulf and unify the Middle East against Israel and the West. If it were not for Saddam, the Saudis, the Gulf emirates, Kuwait and even Jordan might be overrun by nationalistic militant Muslims, fed by the aggressive terrorist Iranian regime. The devil has to be used to keep the terrorists away. Sadaam had to be kept subdued enough not to engage in new conquests, and powerful enough to hold off the Iran-backed fundamentalists. And if Saddam were to be overthrown, a democratic Iraq would go through its own Yugoslavia period and probably divide into a Shiite middle, Sunni south and a Kurdistan north. It would certainly be no defense against the Iranian militants, and the royal rulers in our client states - the Saudis, Bahrein, Kuwait and the Sultanates, and even Jordan - would topple one by one. Egypt, Algeria and Morocco, already under a considerable threat by the militant religionists, would follow suit. The Middle East, under more uniform anti-Western Muslim fundamentalist rule, would be a destructive threat to Israel, and to the world powers that have kept it afloat with the aid of some of our client nations. World economy would be under a threat because the 350 billion barrels of oil in the ground of the theratened monarchies constitute 1/3 of the world's oil reserve (260 in Saudi, 100 each in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirate) and with the 200 bb in in Iran and Iraq combined, a Middle East consortium can dictate energy prices and supply for the entire world. In 1973 the same countries did just that, utilizing their 1960 OPEC (Organization of Oil Producing Countries) structure, when irked by a monopolistic cut in oil royalties promulgated by the muscle-flexing Big Seven oil companies. The resultant OPEC embargo of exports to the West and eight-times increase in oil prices disrupted the world economy, resulting in an international short-term effort to curb oil consumption. If it had not been for the needy OPEC members, such as Nigeria, dumping oil at reduced prices and breaking the cartel, OPEC might still be ruling the international fuel supply.

Presently, the US, as the protector of Saudi Arabia and the other monarchs, can regulate oil supply and keep the flow uniform and reasonably priced. A successful revolution in Saudi Arabia alone, today the most internally threatened of the Mideast coutries, could shift the world's economic picture. If OPEC were to be resuscitated and prices were to go up, in a 1973 pattern, the West and the Pacific Rim countries would go into a major depression.

The threat that Saddam Hussein presented to the Arab nations and the economy of the world was recognized by the rulers, hence the ease with which President George Bush in 1990 was able to organize the alliance of Mideastern and Western powers, which could easily have resulted in the destruction of Hussein's empire. But Bush and his military advisor Colin Powell were aware of the dangers that would ensue, and let Hussein continue in power, albeit under severe restrictions of his economic power. Thus, the embargo on his sales of oil assured the West that no price manipulations from Iraq would upset the marrketplace.

Likewise, Hussein's access to the rebellious Kurds in the corner where Iraq, Turkey and Iranmeet was restricted by the no-fly zone. This area presented a direct threat to Hussein's rule. Fortunately for him, Kurds are unable to unite, and when one faction looked to him for help, he took the opportunity to invade - in his own country - to destroy the leadership of the hostile Kurd faction that had allied itself with Iran, the age old enemies.

[As to why the iran-Iraq enemity - Iranians are Persians, and their 2500-year empire had often conquered the nearby Arabs of Iraq.....................

Why did President Clinton take the unilateral action against Hussein, destroying $60,000 worth of radar equipment in the south of Iraq, at the cost of 44 million-dollar cruise missiles, as charged by Speaker Gingrich? Why are all the Arab nations against this action, with Kuwait even denying Clinton's request to accomodate 5,000 American soldiers who presumably would defend Kuwait from an invasion. The ansewr is that Hussein in power is more to their advantage than out of power, and their concern is that the headstrong Americans with their military power will upset the balance. But doesn't Clinton know all htis? yes, but the lection is near, and he could not leave himself vulnerable to the Republicans' accusations of ineptitude and inactivity in the face of Hussein's attack.

What about the Republicans, heirs of Bush and Powell's thinking processes? Yes, they knew, but in a life-and-death election campaign everything goes. So

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis



This is part of a continuing series to keep you informed of the city and country pleasures you and your out-of-town guests can enjoy.

This summer we took our foreign visitor, by request, to world-famous Chinatown. Unfortunately, the after-dark scene was disappointing. A glitzy dinner at the Silver Palace on Bowery helped, and we had some funny exchanges about ginseng and its powers, a case of multi-ethnic communications in broken English, at a Mott Street souvenir shop. Politically incorrect humor transcends ethnic differences. A bit dismal, nevertheless.

But then we crossed Canal Street at Mott and got on Hester Street and there were lights, and crowds, and cheerful talk at Puglia Restaurant (I've never seen it without a crowd outside) and at Ferrara's Pasticerria on Grand. And when we turned into Mulberry, the night truly became day - there were people strolling, crowded cafe tables on the sidewalk, waiters greeting you and handing you huge menus, all the way to the Grotta Azzura (the Grotto in SOHO dialect) on corner of Broome Street, the last outpost. Along the way, in front of Umberto's Clam House were two white stretch limos, and one across the street, probably provided by the local Chamber of Commerce to heighten the drama, highlighting the Joey Gallo to John Gotti heritage (there is a crime-oriented walking tour of the area available). An exciting gastronomic multi-ethnic evening would have been in the making, but we had already eaten.

Next day, continuing the ethnic theme, our scheduled tour was Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. After consulting, we decided to skip the Statue and see Ellis, and went downtown by train, to line up at Castle Clinton for tickets, while our guest held a spot in the Ferry boat line - a time-saving measure, accepted by everyone in the line. Buskers greet the people in line with songs and patter ("welcome to the streets of New York, the only place in the world where you can buy a Rolex watch for $25") and a hiphop show. The tour lets you get off at Liberty, a two-hour stopover, three or more if you want to climb the 22-story staircase to the top. An elevator will take you to the pedestal and the exhibits there, but you have to start at the bottom on foot for the visit to the crown.

The story of the statue is that it does not celebrate immigration, as the Emma Lazarus' poem tells us. The French Republicans who put it together did it to advocate democracy, then nonexistent in France under Emperor Napoleon III, and friendship with the US. Edouard de Laboulaye inspired it, Auguste Bartholdi made it in 1877, and Joseph Pulitzer raised the funds to install it, by 1884. It was formed from a four-foot tall clay model in 300 enlarged full-size plaster sections. Then 2.5 mm thick copper sheets were hammered into matching shape (repousse process). A massive wrought-iron tower or pylon was built, to provide the skeleton for attaching the copper skin, flexible and impervious to high winds and temperature changes. The tricky construction was engineered by Gustave Eiffel, who went on to build another interesting structure, named after him, for the Paris Exposition of 1889.

Ellis Island was the gateway to America for immigrants, 1892-1954, though the flow slowed after 1924, when legal restrictions were placed on immigration from East and Southern Europe. Before Ellis, immigrant flow was encouraged and was free of regulation, though some states had limited barriers. Ellis Island has museums, showing the pitiful overcrowded towns of Italy and Poland that prompted the exit of our forebears; there is a shipping line poster showing wistful people watching the liner depart, and glowing pictures and postcards of the ships. The descriptions of the miserable quarters provided for the $35 steerage passengers are not on the posters.

Once on Ellis Island, the immigrants underwent scrutiny for tuberculosis, communicable and debilitating disease, and there were huge quarantine quarters (not restored). Incidentally, women physicians were accepted for employment at Ellis Island. The bad cases, about two percent of immigrants, were shipped back, at the shipping company expense, therefore the screening of immigrants by the shipping lines in Europe was severe.

At its peak Ellis Island processed 5,000 immigrants a day, and the facilities bulged at the seams. The annual numbers: 446,000 in 1892, 179,000 in 1898 (down due to a cholera threat from Europe), 1.1 million in 1906 (up after the revolution of 1905 in Russia), 335,000 in 1927 (restricted by immigration laws). A huge French Renaissance main building (Boring & Tilton, 1898) and 34 additional structures were built on the island. The original three-acre island, annexed by New York in 1691, was expanded to 27 1/2 acres through landfills (construction of New York City subway systems provided the dirt). The fill has now given rise to a claim by New Jersey for the man-made sections of the island, which were placed on a part of the harbor that belongs to our sister state, under a 1834 compact that gave them the waters surrounding Ellis Island. The lawsuit reached US Supreme Court in 1993, and an appointed special master is reviewing the case. New Jersey is insistent, since the island represents revenue from salaries, concessions, and a potential convention center and hotel.

After 1924 the use of Ellis Island as an immigrant processing center declined, and it housed undesirable aliens slated for deportation, as well as a military hospital and a Coast Guard training facility. It was closed and nearly abandoned in 1954; some illegal squatters moved in, and it took an act of President L.B.Johnson in 1965, which made the island a National Park, to put this major monument of our national heritage, the American Dream, under government protection. Consider - about 12 million people moved through Ellis Island, to give birth to 40 percent of our population.

Several plans were presented to National Parks Service for rehabilitation, the most modernistic from Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson, neither with much respect to history. A groundswell movement to rehabilitate the island to its peak period state started in 1974. It was picked up by Lee Iacocca, chairman of Chrysler Motors, in 1982, and he was appointed by the Department of Interior to head a centennial commission and its fundraising arm, the Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation. Restoration specialists Beyer Blinder & Belle and Noter Finegold & Alexander designed the main building rehabilitation, which was completed in 1990, at a cost of $162 million.

The visitor walks in, following the path of the immigrant. The ground floor is a baggage hall, and steps lead to the overwhelming 2nd floor Reception hall, 200 ft. long and 100 ft. wide, with 56 ft. vaulted ceiling. Here the exhausted immigrant passed through a row of specialist doctors, who observed, examined and put a chalked code on his clothing if heart, lung and mental problems were suspected. The dreaded eye examiner could cause an instant reject, if trachoma was present. A final examiner asked 29 questions, the most treacherous being whether the immigrant had a job waiting. A positive answer was the wrong one, since contract labor was illegal. (Fiorello LaGuardia was a $1,200 Ellis Island interpreter, for Italian, German and Serbo-Croatian speaking immigrants, working 80-hour weeks before he entered politics.) 20 percent of arrivals were detained, only a half of them because of doctors' chalk marks, the others mostly for lack of money, if their American relatives were late in getting to the island with transportation funds. After five days the missionary and immigrant aid societies (HIAS was one of them) stepped in and guided the unfortunate arrival to his relatives.

The visitor has much to see. A one-hour guided tour takes you past the very impressive Immigrant Wall of Honor, 650 ft with over 500,000 inscriptions, principal fundraising tool of the Foundation. (I found three of my name, none in the spelling given to the 1905 arrivals. Research, research!) A touching movie -Island of Hope, Island of Tears - and oral histories performed by costumed actors (duration 1/2 hour each) bring forth the plight of the immigree. Poverty in the homeland, a 6-day journey in steerage, sleeping in tripledecker bunks squashed together (most people did not wash), soggy bread and a barrel of herrings for shipboard food (lucky the ones who packed a basket with sausages and black bread). And the Reception Hall, and the three floors of museum material - walls of passports, tickets, photographs of people hard at dirty immigrant work, and serious-faced picknicking in folk costumes, alone and with their fraternal organizations. America is a hard country. Go visit the Island on a sunny day.

Go, Yankees! Baltimore in four, Atlanta in five!

There are lots of golf courses: Van C, Mosholu, Pelham and Sp Rock
Dyker beach and marrine park
Clearview, forest Park, Kissena and Clearview
La Tourette, Silver Lake and South Shore

Arrangements vary slightly between golf courses,essentially you come to the course and get a city resident's $6 permit (show id), then pay greens fees of $21 weekends, $19 weekdays (gas carts are $25 and $24, not obligatory). Weekend waits may be 2-3 hrs, wekday after work 30 min or less. I n the 1960s we paid $1.75 weekdays, 50 c more weekends. If you had a $15 pass, you paid 75 c additional weekdays, 1.25 weekends.


A tennis photo permit is $50 (I paid $7.50), come to the Arsenal Blding 9-4 weekdays, 9-12 Sat, get your picture ID.