RUST COMMENTARY: RIGHT IDEAS AND RIGHT PHILOSOPHY ARE ESSENTIAL FOR THE FUTURE

Too many businessmen are worried about material and financial results ... and leave the world of ideas to others ... . It is ideals that determine social trends, that create or destroy social systems and which now threaten our free enterprise and religion-based country of principles. Therefore, the right ideas and the right philosophy should be advocated and spread, or one has little to complain about regarding the decline of moral values in this country.

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In a recent speech celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Heritage Foundation (a think tank), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reflected on the lessons his grandfather taught him as a youth that helped him develop character and a personal code of ethics.

His grandfather said, "If you lie, you'll steal. If you steal, you'll cheat. If you cheat, you'll kill."

Thomas praised the Heritage Foundation for always discussing serious matters with the gravitas that issues of great consequence demand. He urged all Americans to focus on the small things each day: honesty, politeness, charity and responsibility.

"We lead by deeds as well as words," Thomas said. "Our respective families and communities are better off for our efforts. Also, as we participate in the affairs of the institutions closest to us, such as our churches, our places of employment or businesses, schools, charitable organizations and civic associations, surely we know that we have helped someone."

The Supreme Court associate justice concluded that "we acquire virtue in much the same way we acquire other skills: by practicing the craft."

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June 4 was the ninth anniversary of the massacre in Beijing's Tianamen Square. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators labeled the president's policies towards China as one of appeasement ... and serious concern about our China policy has become the majority sentiment on Capitol Hill.

The minimum Congress should consider is banning trade with the People's Liberation Army. Congress should also remember that the last time it seriously moved, during the Bush presidency, to void most-favored-nation trade status for China, the regime relaxed its grip and released hundreds of political prisoners. Our appeals for China to change are fruitless if they are not backed by the prospect of damage to Chinese interests and trade -- where China now has a $50 billion advantage with us -- both of which they prize. Bill Clinton has developed a China gap: the rift between his actions and American values. That gap is producing a popularity gap as well: an ABC "Nightline" poll conducted June 1-2 shows the public's approval rating for the president's China policy is 21 percentage points below his overall job approval rating.

The American people want and deserve a better foreign policy than they are getting. -- Excerpts from a report by Gary Bauer in Washington Update.

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Communist Charity: As President Clinton prepares for his trip to China, let's hope that he takes 24 minutes to watch a video sardonically titled "Communist Charity." It is about some important revelations by Harry Wu, who spent 17 years as a political prisoner in Communist China's notorious slave labor camps, the "Laogai." Wu, who now lives in California, has dedicated his life to exposing human rights violations in his native land and how foreign businessmen profit from the misery of Chinese political prisoners by buying the goods produced by their slave labor.

The recent news about China has focused on President Clinton's approval of exports of rocket and satellite technology that could enhance China's ability to target our cities with ICBMs. But Wu would like to see the media and the president also focus on one of China's exports -- human body parts. At a recent conference sponsored by the Council for the Defense of Freedom and Accuracy in Media, Wu described in graphic detail how the Communist regime, which President Clinton plans to honor with a visit, produces human organs for export by executing thousands of prisoners each year and harvesting their organs for sale. Residents of nearby countries are flocking to China to take advantage of the relatively abundant supply of kidneys, hearts, lungs and other transplantable organs.

Wu disclosed that a member of the Thai royal family had come to China for a kidney transplant and that a special surgical tent had been set up at the killing field for the most expeditious handling of the royal transplant. He said Japanese and Americans have also been in the market for human remains.

In the U.S., people who are sick and dying can volunteer their organs for transplant upon death. Consent is always obtained in advance. In China, by contrast, the regime has a national policy, dating back to 1984, of executing political prisoners and then taking their organs to be sold to those seeking transplants. Wu said that the government requires no permission when the family refused to take the victim's body. He said that in China when prisoners are arrested they are frequently cut off from their families, because their relatives are afraid to try to make contact with them. He said that he experienced this personally when he was first arrested. With the families immobilized by fear, they make no effort to claim the bodies when the prisoners are executed.

If the families want the body, pressure will be applied to get them to consent to having organs removed for transplanting. Wu estimated that there are 21,000 kidney transplants a year from executed prisoners. He said our State Department takes the position that if the harvesting of human organs is taking place as described, it would be a serious human rights violation. But the State Department has not gone beyond asking Chinese officials to comment on reports that it is taking place. The Chinese, of course, claim they wouldn't condone such a practice.

A video titled "Communist Charity," based on Wu's research, has been produced by Nancy Morgan with hopes of getting it shown on television. The title derives from secret documents that say the government is engaging in the "charitable activity" of utilizing human waste. The video features secret recordings of executions in China and interviews with Chinese medical personnel who perform the organ transplants and exchanges. These public executions, meant to intimidate the population into submission to the regime, are horrifying to watch. Their actual number is considered a state secret. The prisoners are shot in the back or head depending on which organs are needed. A head shot preserves the internal organs. A shot to the body will enable the doctors to save the corneas. In one gruesome sequence, when a prisoner appears to be clinging to life after being shot in the head, he is stomped on so the air goes out of him and he expires more quickly.

One Chinese doctor admitted removing kidneys from a prisoner before he was dead, which means the prisoner was murdered. In this case, the beneficiary was a member of the Communist Party. Organ recipients in other countries, such as Thailand, are also interviewed, and some express strong concern when they're told that their new body parts may have been taken from executed political prisoners.

The video shows Chinese sales representatives who travel to Hong Kong and other countries describing what organs they can provide and their prices. Lungs, hearts, kidneys and even skin are for sale. A lung can go for $20,000, with a guarantee that it came from a nonsmoker. Skin can be provided at low cost, with the guarantee that it carries no unsightly tattoos. Wu compared this to a butcher in a meat market, chopping up a carcass and selling portions at different prices depending on the demand for them. In this case, we're talking about people.

If this video were shown on American television, it would horrify and outrage the American people. President Clinton might even reconsider his trip to China. PBS has refused to air it. -- Accuracy in Media.

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Be a "Clock Builder" as opposed to a "Time Teller" -- A "Time Teller" tells his or her followers the time. A "Clock Builder" builds a clock so his or her followers can tell the time with or without the "Clock Builder."

One of the most selfish acts of leadership is to make an organization dependent upon you. One of the greatest acts of leadership is to make yourself dispensable.

"Clock Builders" focus on building enduring organizations. -- Jim Collins in "Built to Last."

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Gay Rights Gambit: After years of allowing federal agencies to blaze a trail for him, Bill Clinton jumped on his own bandwagon and issued an executive order banning "discrimination" against homosexual federal employees. With a stroke of his pen, and without Congressional authorization, Clinton has added a new category to the nation's civil rights laws as they apply to federal workers. This is the same president who overturned Ronald Reagan's executive order on the family. At least he's consistent.

Our staff is looking at the scope of the order and at ways in which it can be undone. Perhaps most disturbing is that the new order amended an existing executive order mandating affirmative action. That's right. Homosexuality will now be a preferred status for federal employees. Gay organizations immediately praised the decision, which Clinton himself tied to a direct appeal for Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would make homosexual conduct a civil rights category for all private employers above a modest size. This move is patently political. It "solves" a problem that does not exist and will create numerous problems that will be hard to cure.

When was the last time, apart from the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, that you heard of any federal worker being fired for "being homosexual"? It isn't happening. What is happening is a steady stream of invasive and outright bizarre "sensitivity" and "re-education" sessions at federal agencies designed to intimidate federal employees who object to homosexuality or any part of the gay agenda. That is the real civil rights issue here. The White House is hoping this new executive order will be greeted with silence on Capitol Hill. We will by trying to disappoint them. -- Washington Update.

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