RUST COMMENTARY: EXTRA READING HELPS OFFSET NEGATIVE, DEPRESSING NATIONAL NEWS

I hope we've had our last shot of winter and EASTER will give us a positive outlook and remind us what the important things in life are: peace, freedom, health and love. To paraphrase a recent book ... "Don't Sweat the Little Things"... and all things are really little.

I've been reading a lot of books lately ... and finally read the full book by MATT CHANEY, "My Name Is Mr. Ryan." This is more than just a basketball book of an unusual team and era. It's about the history, development, hardships, culture, principles and disciplines of the people of Southeast Missouri.

I find the building of the railroad along Crowley's Ridge by a Cape Girardean a fascinating addition to my previous knowledge on the subject. I'd recommend this book along with "Lessons From a Father to His Son" by John Ashcroft ... and "In Some We Trust, the Untold Story of Sam Walton and Wal-Mart" ... by Bob Ortega.

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JOHN GRISHAM'S new book, "The Testament," is worth your time ... but I'm giving mixed reviews on the audiotape by TOM BROKOW on "The Greatest Generation." I find Brokow's monotone news voice lends little to the stories of some of our country's little-sung heroes.

I need to do this extra reading because too much of the national news is negative and depressive. This is a lot because of the excessive repetition, tone and our current president.

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The draft and the president: One of the achievements of which Ronald Reagan was proudest was the extraordinary turnaround in the morale of the armed forces. At the Senate confirmation hearings for my appointment as secretary of defense, I was asked many times if the administration would favor reinstating the draft. Low morale had seriously reduced the number of voluntary enlistments, and many in the services were not willing to re-enlist. We adamantly opposed reinstating the draft. It had rent the social fabric of the country during the Vietnam War.

But in a short time, strongly improved recruitment numbers and morale measurements proved that the all-volunteer military was working, and all talk of a draft ceased. By the mid-1980s we actually had waiting lists for recruitment in many depots, and 95 percent of those volunteering were high school graduates.

What caused this dramatic turnaround? The welcome change in attitude of the new administration. President Reagan never failed to emphasize his strong support for the military or his enormous admiration for those who volunteered to serve. The Carter administration failed to support the services' needs and seemed blind to the importance of the work the troops were doing. President Reagan and his defense budgets changed all that.

Now we seem to have come full circle. It has taken six years for Mr. Clinton to see the need for an increase in the defense budget -- and to acknowledge that possibly the U.S. should have an effective missile defense. As a result, our military effectiveness is on a par with that of the 1970s. We can no longer carry out the basic mission that both parties have long accepted as a benchmark: the ability to fight and win two regional wars simultaneously. Indeed, when a Navy task force moved into the Persian Gulf in February 1998 (presumably to pressure Iraq, but we actually did nothing), our commanders in South Korea were warning the Pentagon that they were being stripped of forces necessary for the protection of South Korea.

Draft is still not the solution: The services are no longer meeting their recruitment goals. In December 1998 the Navy had 22,000 shipboard vacancies. The Air Force has a substantial shortage of pilots. And, as the New York Times reported, "Recruiting soldiers has become so difficult that between now and May, the Army will give $3,000 up front to any reasonably able young man or woman who enlists. In the first quarter of this fiscal year, the Army fell short by 2,345 recruits, nearly 20 percent below its goal for the period, despite new ads, bonuses and an increase in college aid." In short, we are a very long way from the 1980s.

Some are once again advocating bringing back the draft, arguing that we need troops to fill the required billets and that compulsory service would "provide an antidote to the military's growing detachment from society." The problem is that this administration, both by personal example and by failure to honor and support the nation's military needs, alienated a great many people who other wise would have volunteered. Also, it has taken too long to recognize that recruitment promises for retirement benefits must be kept and that compensation must keep pace with inflation. -- Casper Weinberger

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More taxes proposed: House Ways and Means Committee chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas) released a Joint Committee on Taxation analysis of the Clinton budget which concludes that the Clinton plan raised taxes. According to the report, the president's budget has 47 tax reductions that lower taxes by a total of $82 billion. However, it also has 75 tax hikes that add up to $171.8 billion. The president should listen to the ideas of Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.). In The Wall Street Journal, Paul Gigot notes that Torricelli is supporting tax cuts to protect Democratic senators from the tax issue in 2000. "No one is rich enough in this country that the government should be taking 40 percent of anyone's income," Torricelli has said.

China worsening: In its annual human rights report, the State Department said the situation in China "deteriorated sharply" in the last half of 1998. The report referred to killings, torture of prisoners and forced confessions. China has also imposed new rules on social organizations, the publishing industry, and the Internet. The Senate voted 99-0 to ask the Clinton administration to sponsor a resolution condemning China for human rights abuses at next month's meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, an effort that faltered in previous years. More arrests of political dissidents in Hubei Province were recently reported.

Shifting sand: Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), who led a special congressional committee's investigation into technology transfers to China, says that recent revelations of Chinese nuclear espionage at Los Alamos are "part of a much larger pattern" by China. That pattern is "a multidecade effort that continues today targeting America's most sensitive military technology." The report of the Cox committee on these matters is currently classified, but the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans are negotiating how much of the report to make public. A vote in the House on declassifying it could come as early as this week. Former and current FBI and U.S. intelligence officials say that China has a vast espionage network that has penetrated America's technology corporations in addition to U.S. nuclear labs. One former deputy director of the FBI said, "They send out thousands of agents to pick up grains of sand and come back and build their sand castle." -- Washington Update

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One of the wittiest interviews (and former interviewers) on television today is STEVE ALLEN, one of the original television talk-show hosts who combined his musical skills, composing abilities and intelligence to be No. 1 in his field.

Like CHARLTON HESTON (who at 75 is pushing for his beliefs on non-politically correct subjects) Allen (age unknown) is lending his name, voice and popularity to a "PARENTS APPEAL to TV SPONSORS" to look at the evidence of the results of some of the TV shows they sponsor. These are some of the tragic consequences of the TV filth, sex and violence they send into our homes:

* Since television started, around 1,000 studies and reports concerning the impact of TV violence have been published.

* The National Institute of Mental Health and seven more national organizations say there is overwhelming evidence that violent entertainment causes violent behavior.

* An ABC network study found 22 to 34 percent of young felons imprisoned for violent crimes said they had consciously imitated crime techniques learned from watching television programs.

* Homicide rates doubled in 10 to 15 years after TV was first introduced into specific areas of the U.S. and Canada.

* In a survey of 10- to 16-year olds, 62 percent said sex on TV influences their peers to have sex when they're too young.

TV sponsors: This is just a small sampling of the massive evidence showing the terrible damage you are causing by paying to send TV filth, sex and violence into American homes. We beg you to stop sponsoring it ... is the STEVE ALLEN message.

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.