Coral Gables Historical Archive
The Times
Wednesday, May 26, 1976, page 5 (of 37)
The page
The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.
opinion
• editorials • commentary • letters
Enough of terror
The bold quote on Page One sums up the mentality people develop when exposed often enough to the carnage and violence wrought by terrorists. South Dade and Coral Gables have not been immune to the insane acts of those who will murder and maim for a cause or an ideology. Something as simple as the backfire of an automobile, or in our lead story's case, the more serious but nonetheless accidental explosion and burning of a car, immediately conjures terrorist actions. Shootings and bombings have not been confined to downtown Miami. The tragedy and waste has reached out to scar and bruise the quiet suburban neighborhoods that comprise our readership. Little more than two years ago, a man was shot to death as he sat in the living room of his Coral Gables home. A few months later, another man was murdered in the parking lot of Variety Children's Hospital. Just a few weeks ago, a car exploded in West Dade killing its lone occupant. Such violence is almost beyond the control of local police authorities. State and federal agencies have been called upon to stem the flow of blood. We can only hope they succeed.
Discipline no joke
Talk to educators and most of them will tell you that student discipline in Dade County Schools is a joke. It has been made so difficult for teachers to effectively reprimand disruptive students that there are some teachers who, rather than act as student baby sitters, are getting out of the teaching profession altogether. It's even next to impossible to expel an outrageously distruptive student from school. And what does this do to the majority of children who go to school to learn? Where are their rights? Must they suffer because of the few trouble makers who are preventing them from taking advantage of what school has to offer? Perhaps help is in sight. Support is being sought by a University of Miami professor for passage of a School Disruption Act by the Florida Legislature. It calls for stronger and more effective methods of disciplining disruptive students with the ultimate intention of making dismissal unnecessary. Meanwhile, as one teacher says, "I'm a professional baby sitter whose sole purpose is to keep students from physically harming one another." Let's hope the problem is soon solved with the help of concerned parents, educators and legislators so that the good kids can go about the business of learning.
High school memories fade as life's challenges grow
bea moss Not too many days from now, little kids, medium size kids and their big brothers and sisters will be packing away their pencils, books and gym clothes for another summer, leaving school and studies behind. For some, it will be merely a temporary arrangement, for others the stepping-off point to another kind of life. Many of the younger ones will find themselves half-way through the summer wishing they were back in classes "doing something." But for those students who are graduating, there will be no going back, only going forward. A new and exciting life will be waiting for them, perhaps in jobs, perhaps in marriage or perhaps in furthering an education. For those South Dade seniors who faithfully have contributed columns on high school happenings to the pages of this newspaper, there will be no more reporting on track meets, football games, award winning students and proms. Things like this will fade into the past but be remembered on occasion with fondness for they were fine times. And I thank you for sharing your experiences with me as well as our readers. But now comes the real challenge. Put all of your experiences to work for you. Even the smallest. For you'll need all the help you can get. No one, not even the smartest of students, are home free after graduating from high school. And if you go on to college, you'll have to fight for every piece of ground and do it on your own because when it comes down to it, you're the only one who can do it. Listen and learn and persevere. There are people out in the great,wide world pulling for you, though, whether you know it or not. And once in a while, when things seem pretty rotten and hard to bear, think back on all those elusive high school days. Those days and nights that seemed as though they'd never end but were gone all too soon. In the coldest of times, it will warm your heart thinking of those days, my friends.
Are rapes result of sick society?
EDITOR: Three rapes were reported in Dade County a few weeks ago. They happened in the dayli[?]ht hours. Rape is a pretty abhorent crime but these were particularly abhスrent because they touched helpless people. A 26-year-old blind girl was raped by two men. A crippled 19-year-old girl in a wheelchair was raped by a'lone man. A six-year-old girl was scooped up from a school playground and brought to a vacant house and raped. What is the answer? Will legalized prostitution help? How about the death sentence actually meted out to perpetrators of these type crimes? Or at least a removal of them from the mainstream of our society. How about castration? Is there a parent of a six-year-old rape victim that would offer an argunient to counter-that? Or shall we apprehend the vermin, merely sentence them to from six to 16 years and give them every opporttunity to behave themselves so they can be eligible for parole (they're eligible to be considered for parole from the first day of incarceration) and be on the streets again before you know it. They should've behaved themselves long before they were incarcerated, thereby eliminating the problem to begin with. This is not a game. Real people's lives are being shattered by an experience no male can ever really understand — an experience which puts a fear in the victim that no person should ever have to experience, fears which sometimes remain with them the rest of their lives. The perpetrators of these deeds should be punished and punished severely, so that others contemplating this type of crime will realize the full wrath of the law should they be apprehended. But herein lies another problem. When a deed of this sort is committed, the perpetrator is assuming he won't be caught. Severe punishment is not the ultimate answer. What is the answer? How do we keep society from being sick? How do we keep the vermin fron rearing their ugly heads? How do we deter these sick people before they start? Would a special phone number for them to call when they felt they had a tendency to commit a crime of this sort be any help? What is an effective answer? How about some of you readers presenting your ideas on what we can do to prevent this sort of thing from happening again and again. There uust be an answer? Until an effective one is found, more crippled, blind and six-year-old females will be beaten up, violated and traumatized for the rest of their lives, if indeed they are fortunate enough to escape with their lives. Instead of our county authorities worrying so much about prostitution and porno movies and massage parlors, their efforts might be better spent in using their limited manpower to track down and remove from our streets these vermin who do real harm to citizens who can't help themselves. Perhaps the job is too large to handle. Perhaps a sick society is what we'll have to accept until people really learn to live together and have compassion for their fellow citizens. Meanwhile, as the parents of a six-year-old rape victim somewhere in Dade County invent new epithets for the vermin who committed an unthinkable crime on the person of their daughter, it happens again and again and again. AL NADEAU
Inmate seeking pen pals
EDITOR: I am writing this letter in the hopes that you will find the space to print it in your newspaper for me. I am presently confined at London Correctional Institution. I would like very much for you to print it for me, with the hopes that someone may read it and correspond with me. I promise to write all who write me and to reach out with the hopes that they may be able to bring a little hope and also a little more insight into the world I left behind. I will close by saying that I hope someone will write and through corresponding we will develop a long and lasting relationship. MICHAEL R. BAXTER P.O. Box 69 London, Ohio 43140
Paper powerful community voice
EDITOR: On behalf of the students and staff at the Miami Senior High Adult Education Center, I wish to thank The Coral Gables Times/Guide for the most helpful publicity given our adult education program. According to a recent survey among our student body, 70 per cent indicated that they first heard of our courses by reading about them in The Coral Gables Times/Guide. The Coral Gables Times/Guide is indeed a powerful voice in our com-munity, and we genuinely appreciate its support of public school adult education. I know it would be most rewarding to you and the members of The Coral Gables Times/Guide staff if you could witness, as I do, the changes adult education makes in the lives of people. KEITH N. BENNETT Principal
the gables publishing company
serving south dade and coral gables since 1926 jim storey general manager bea moss managing editor gary gibbs news editor carole myers advertising manager bill mc hugh circulation address: 4627 ponce de leon blvd. coral gables, fla. 33146 telephone; 666-7961