The Republic from Columbus, Indiana • Page 14

B4 Tht Republic Columbus, lna, Sunday, May 9, "1 993 Leader Editorial hip program worth ride and 3) police see the world through a different set of eyes than the average citizen. The phenomenon perhapsla mostclosely Fitting time for By -John Harmon Editor's Notebook OPINION TT HO is that woman tooling around town in a police A new recruit? A suspect? A distressed motorist? Someone locked out of her car? Nope, it's Laura MoseiKfamiliar face through her role as executive director" of the Bartholomew County Historical Society. Most recently, she has received two crash courses without' the crash, thankfully in local law enforcement The first course came as a 'member of the current Leadership Bartholomew County class. The many qualifications for graduation in. the nine-month course include attending city council and -school board meetings, monitoring a nonprofit board meeting and visiting (and participating) in a social service agency such as Sans Souci or Eastside Community Center.

But with respects for those areas, few experiences can equal the requirement of riding with a Columbus Police Department officer. Though it was four Februarys ago, the memories I spent riding with Officer Ruth Stillinger remain fresh as today's paper: The order for the evening was to be on the lookout for a white van whose driver not only was unlicensed but also had a strong dislike for police. Another officer had the van pulled over within a few minutes and Stillinger was quickly on the scene for backup. An abrupt turn into a dark alley somewhere near Orinoco Avenue and the questioning of a driver who slowly emerged from the car. Talk about drama.

Any backup around here? The man checked out OK, but Stillinger explained that she had been tracking the car for several minutes because it had parallel to the old craze of wearing 3-D glasses at a movie. Now you see 'em; now you don't The years have passed, but the impact hasnt as evidenced from Laura Moses' letter sent to Police Chief Charles Imel and several city officials. Moses' tour of duty was with Officers Tony Darnell and David Patterson. "It was obvious to me their dedication for the safety of the community was very strong," wrote the Columbus -native and mother of three. "That evening made me aware of the risk each officer takes every day in the line of duty." Through her interest sparked by LBC, she was encouraged to participate in the police depart ment's Citizen Academy, a six-week series of classesNJ that has been organized by Capt John Myers and Lt Alan Trisler.

Sure enough, part of the academy involved another shift in a squad car. "Officer Ed Olibo was very willing to have a passenger who spent eight hours asking questions and making conversation. The care, concern and cooperation exhibited by Olibo with the public was very enlightening." Although she insists that the Indiana State Police Academy in Plainfield is not next on her agenda, Moses did have a parting message to police from her "inside" viewpoint in Columbus squad cars: "Congratulations, you're all doing a super job!" John Harmon is editor of The Republic. He can be reached during normal business hours at 379-5621. been driving with the lights off.

And yes, there was hackup available. The stop of another suspicious car suspicious to Stillinger, not me along Central Avenue. It had been driving erratically and too slowly, which piqued her interest The "suspects" turned out to be a retired couple running out for an ice cream cone at halftime of an IU game on TV. No ticket just a warning. And there was the chase down Rocky Ford Road which Stillinger gracefully called off in deference to her passenger.

Perhaps the most interesting moments were in the brief lapses of inaction, when she described her interest in police work, the challenges presented on joining the staff and the minute-by-minute pressures. It should be noted that this trek was in 1989, well before local law enforcement people were placed under a collective magnifying glass. A consensus among LBC graduates about these evenings could include 1) that these police probably could arrest 50 people a night; 2) there's a whole different world out there when the sun goes down; Mainstream U.S.: Where does it stand on gay rights? nlPf I COME A ATA BAPTIME? recognition IT'S only fitting that the Columbus Rotary Club would have selected the month of May to honor the contributions of Susanna Jones and Evelyn Seward to the people of Bartholomew County. Jones and Seward were named, Paul Harris Fellows by the Rotarians at a Donncr Center ceremony Monday during the club's weekly meeting. The award was named for the founder of the national Rotary organization and recognizes outstanding community efforts.

What makes their recognition especially fitting is the timing. Here, as across the rest of the country, the month of May is being observed as Older Americans month, a time to highlight the contributions of citizens who are not bound to calendars or clocks. Certainly the careers of the two recipients of the Rotary Club honors attest to their contributions. The name of Evelyn Seward is synonymous with two words education and causes. Her career as a teacher in the Columbus and Bartholomew Consolidated school systems stretched from 1932 to 1972 with a couple of interruptions one to enter military service as a WAVE and another to spend two years as a John Hay Fellow at Columbia University.

As a teacher her primary subjects were Latin, French and journalism, but her greatest impact was in demonstrating to students the necessity to get involved outside of the classroom. It was a subject she practiced as well as preached, and she is still practicing it today. Her list of affiliations is enormous and she viewed membership as a call to action. She has been a community activist on a number of issues ranging from the Peace Fellowship to the environment She has stuffed envelopes, collected (and crushed) aluminum cans and papered her car with enough colorful bumper stickers to make Identification of that particular vehicle difficult She was never afraid to put her name to unpopular causes, often attaching it to the numerous letters she wrote to the editor of this newspaper. Susanna Jones is of the same stripe.

Long identified through her work with the Bartholomew County Historical Society, she has taken her avid interest in local history into Bartholomew County classrooms, alerting the young people of this community to their heritage. She too was not satisfied with mere membership on boards or organizations. That attitude was best described in her approach to a history of Columbus Township which she prepared to help mark the state's sesquicentennial. Instead of simply closeting herself in a library with research material she went from door to door seeking information and anecdotes about local history. That attitude was also prevalent in her other areas of voluntcerism.

In working with American Field Service she and her family played host for a year to a visiting Japanese student As a volunteer with the local Retirement Foundation, she regularly visited and cared for elderly residents. Through the American Cancer Society's "Reach for Recovery" program, she counseled women recovering from surgery, using her own experiences as a means of encouragement During her term as president of the Bartholomew County Historical Society, she guided the organization through one of its most important eras the move the basement of the courthouse to its current home on Third Street Evelyn Seward is still writing letters to the editor and Susanna Jones is still preaching the value of local history in local classrooms. They have filled their lives with activity and along the way they have shown others how to live. That's a pretty good testimony for anyone, no matter how many years they've been around. By Dawson Bell Knight-Ridder Newspapers In Michigan, the leader of a petition drive to ban gay rights laws says that if he found out one of his grandsons was.

gay, he would beat the boy senseless. In California, a minister leading an anti-gay-rights group says "homosexuality makes God vomit" In Oregon, a failed 1992 ballot proposal to condemn homosexuality was sponsored by a group that lumps gays and lesbians with pedophiles and serial killers. Do these people speak for that portion of mainstream America that is uncomfortable about homosexuality and leery of gay rights? Do they represent the consistent majorities who, in nationwide polls, oppose homosexual marriage and adoption, the huge segments of the population who don't think homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle and who don't like the idea of openly gay public school teachers? Carl Kellogg doesn't think so. He doesn't think mainstream America is that ignorant or bigoted. But he won't talk much about it Kellogg is a Grand Rapids, stockbroker who announced plans early this year to lead a petition drive against gay rights laws in Michigan.

He said government shouldn't be in the business of sanctioning sexual orientation, and that civil rights should not be extended on the basis of sexual orientation. Less than a week later, Kellogg abandoned his effort in the face of an intense counterattack by gay rights advocates who threatened national boycotts, picketing and sabotage of Kcllogg's employer, a national brokerage house. They compared his proposal to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. "I decided I couldn't force my associates to suffer for my beliefs," Kellogg said in a brief interview. Kellogg's subsequent silence his petition plan was picked up by George Matousek, a Bay grandfather who speaks strongly and bluntly against gays helps explain why it is so difficult to define the gay-rights opposition.

The issue is so emotional that the two sides can barely speak to each other without shouting. Much of the dialogue is conducted at extremes, with venom and hatred. But a good argument can be made that most of the people disturbed by the increasing visibility of homosexuals and the prospect of gay-rights legislation are not of a lunatic fringe or religious fanatics intent on trashing the Constitution's equal rights guarantees. Religion is certainly Important to many of them who believe there is a Biblical injunction against homosexuality. But part of the gay-rights backlash and increase bureaucracy.

"People are sick of government pushing things down their throats," says Don Devine, director of the American Conservative Union." "There is a growing revulsion against government setting Up special privileges of all kinds." The other group is perhaps the most significant, but least likely to be heard from: People who consider themselves neither particularly religious nor conservative, but are deeply concerned about what is happening in America as -the 20th Century draws to a close. They are worried about violence and teenage pregnancy and pervasive sexual messages almost exclusively heterosexual aimed at children. They may be people who have trouble talking to "their" children about sex but aren't ready to hand over that chore to schools with an activist-inspired curriculum. They're the kind of people who rose up in protest in New York City earlier this year when the school chancellor would not back down on his push for gay education in elementary schools and condoms for high schoolers. They are people who can't be sure why, but think the American culture beamed into their living rooms over television every night is seriously off track.

And they are people who feel that there is value in the traditional is also due to a perception that government has taken a stand on things sexual, siding with militant gays and lesbians. For them, gay rights is not a question of civil liberties; it's about the meaning of life itself. For them, accepting homosexuality as a lifestyle, or even an innate characteristic, undermines the concept of what is normal that holds civilization together. "Look, I personally empathize" with homosexuals, says Harold MacDonald, a Birmingham, lawyer who worked with a citizens group that fought the local school district's gay health curriculum last fall. "But I think we're capable, as a society, of rising above, of saying no to the things that are wrong and yes-to the things that are right" But instead of rising, the debate over gay rights has sunk to one of tolerance er intolerance, especially the intolerance attributed to the so-called religious right, with any argument against gay rights labeled homophobic, MacDonald said.

The people whose opposition to gay rights is rooted deeply if not fanatically in religion are often joined by two other segments of society. One is conservative-libertarian, people who believe that government rarely succeeds in legislating morality, and that any mandates only stifle Birmingham's MacDonald argues that many Americans have been fooled, in large part by biased news media, into believing that 10 percent of the population is homosexual when the true number is closer to 1-3 percent He believes that if schools are to address the issue at all, children should be taught that the homosexual lifestyle, especially that of gay men, is much more likely to lead to physical and mental illness, and that gays die early. Most controversially, MacDonald believes that homosexuality is not innate but learned, that it can be unlearned, and that gays should be encouraged to change because homosexuality is wrong. The Birmingham School Board refused to abandon its curriculum that regards homosexuality as natural and considers attempts to change sexual orientation as scientifically unsound. Howard Simon, executive director of the Michigan branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, which defends gay rights around the country, says scientific evidence doesn't support the judgments MacDonald makes about homosexuality.

"But even if it were true," Simon says, "the essence of civil rights protection is to prevent the law from treating a person as a stereotype. "People should be judged as individuals. I think it all goes to the basic fear people have about the evolution of culture," he says. Public Office Quote World War II INDIANA GENERA! ASSEMBLY. COLUMBUS CITY COUNCIL MAY 9 Rap.

Robert Hayta Statehouse -Indianapolis. 46204 Sen. Robert Carton Statehouse Indianapolis. 46204 BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY BOAPB OP COMMISSIONERS 1st District Larry Kltinhtnx (all of Hawcreek. Ratrock and German township: th northwest coMer of Columbus Township, outside city limits: 1 Mayor: Robert Stewart, Franklin Street 1 st District August TJndttl, Reo Street 2nd District Ab Schumaktr, Flatrock Drive 3rd District Fred Armstrong, Silver Fox Drive 4th District Ted Ogle, Walnut Grove Court 5th District Lynn Blgtty, Riverside Drive At Large John Brown, North Riverside Drive At Large Michael Totttn, Gilmore Street Tanks of Britain 6th "Military strikes are much more likely than they were even a few hours ago." cp.

Ltt Hamstoa D-lnd. On prospects of MBtary ut In ffw Sooner TugoslAvJt Armored DMion taka Hammam Uf, wrecking tw attempt by Garmans and Italians to twow up a nal detents Ins on Tunisia Cape forest to tie norffi surrender. In ttw Madrttrransan between Tunisia and Sicily, the talan island of PantoOtna it bombarded before an Allied invasion. Rtp. Jtffrey Under Statehouse 46204 CONGRESS Sen.

Richard a Lugar Rtp. Lea Hamilton, 306 Hart Office Building 8th District Washington. DC. 20510 21 87 Raybum House Sen. Dan Coals Office Building 404 Russefl Office Building Washington, C.

Washington. C. 20510 20515 Rep. Phfl Sharp, 2nd District 221 7 Raybum House Office Budding Washington, C. 2051 5 and an of Harrison Township, except the portion inside city limits) 2nd District Jusntta Harden (al of Ohio.

Clay and Qifty townships: most of Columbus Township, except the northwest comer; and me part of Harrison Township inside city tmKs) 3rd District SyMa Kiel (al of Jackson. Wayne. Sand Creek and Rock Creek townships) ADDRESS: County Board of Commissioners County Governmental Offices 440 Third St. Columbus. Ind 47201 ADDRESS: City Councl Columbus City Ha 123 Washington St Columbus.

IN 47201 Source: "2184 Dm of Wet' W. H. Smrt ubHhem ht; "World Almanac Book of World We Bwn Books Corp, 1M1.