LETTERS: TRUST IN GOOD CHOICES

To the editor:

I would like to respond to Alan Journet's rather partisan letter of Sept. 6 criticizing the Republican presidential candidate, Bob Dole, and his running mate, Jack Kemp, for their supposed naivete in economic and environmental matters. It would appear that in the mind of Mr. Journet, it is naive for Mr. Dole to prefer a more limited federal government approach to legislation.

The Republican Congress has attempted to give the individual states more power to regulate many activities that the federal government has usurped over the years. It is not necessary for me to cite numerous examples of the failings of our federal environmental laws. The Republicans believe that the individual state legislators want their homes and families to have a clean environment too.

The central difference in the liberal philosophy that Mr. Journet seems to espouse and the one that the Republican Party believes is the conservative belief that individual Americans and individual states can be trusted to make good decisions. No one has attempted to make war on the environment. In a similar manner, business is not the evil monster that Mr. Journet seems to believe it is.

Certainly, business needs to have safeguards to ensure that dishonest, immoral or lazy persons will not unduly damage the environment or the community at large. It does not follow that Washington, D.C., is the mecca from which all wisdom flows. I am willing to bet that every small business in Cape Girardeau could tell a story about how "wise" some federal regulations are. Jobs come from these businesses, and most businesses are small businesses. These small business owners often risk their own home and their savings to make their dream come true. We should encourage these people instead of pummeling them day after day with liberal rhetoric. The local states and communities can regulate their own citizens much more effectively than a federal politician can.

Mr. Journet states in his letter that Bob Dole is not sure if tobacco is a drug in need of strong regulation. I would like to ask Mr. Journet if he approved of Bill Clinton's decision to cut drug enforcement activities of the federal government. Cocaine use is up 166 percent in teen-agers since Bill Clinton took office. Other drugs register shocking use increases as well. I maintain that this president needs to control illegal and dangerous drugs effectively before he attacks a legal substance.

I hope that Americans realize the enormity of what Congress has done in the past two years. For the first time since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, some small, concrete steps have been taken to actually reduce the intrusions of the federal government. This is unlike Bill Clinton's claim that "200,000 federal jobs have been eliminated" (all military -- the civilian bureaucrats increased by thousands). I encourage a strong and healthy skepticism in anything this administration claims.

An informed voter needs to hear more than the 6 o'clock news sound bites. I encourage voters to take the time to actually read the bills and laws that concern them. The internet is a great resource for this activity, and it is fun too.

JOHN CARTER WILLIAMS

Chaffee