DEAR EDITOR
Dear Editor The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words. Strange Ball Game In his review of Anthony Lake's "Somoza...
...Commercial aviation refers to (as Etzioni might put it if writing on the other side) the fat cats and rich professors who flit about on Concordes, and the airline companies whose business is to sell them tickets...
...But it is more surprising and annoying that The New Leader would print a piece so full of falsity and foolishness as Amitai Etzioni's essay, "Welfare for the Rich," in the May 1 issue...
...Those that are not owned by corporations by and large are owned by the well-off...
...Are the media independent or largely an arm of big business...
...Almost all of his aviation "facts" are wrong...
...User fees for direct personal services can be fair and proper...
...media...
...Nonsense...
...Etzioni's figures on Massport's discrirninatory landing fee scheme are simply false...
...Is TV news designed to be informative or entertaining...
...But citing such facts would spoil his propaganda...
...My discussion of free towing services for yachts dealt explicitly and exclusively with non-emergency services...
...137 were killed in a midair collision between a Boeing 727 and a Cessna 172 in San Diego, in 1979...
...New York City Richard H. Shulman...
...Or to regulate simply for the satisfaction of the regulator, and then to charge the public for the cost of being regulated...
...Some examples: 82 people were killed when an Aeromexico DC-9 plowed into a tiny Piper PA 28 in Cerritos, California in 1986...
...True, a Cessna can land on a shorter runway, but that would mean building an extra one for the rich...
...Your own inquiry, "How China Manages the Press" (NL, May 1), was more forthright, comprehensive and useful...
...New York City David J. Russell Conflict of Interests I still find it disconcerting when a distinguished intellectual displays profound ignorance in print...
...A Cessna, for example does not need to have snow plowed or runway lights for 12,000 feet, as a Boeing 747 does—2,000 feet is quite sufficient...
...Existing short ones are often not as conveniently located as the long ones, hence the affluent typically prefer the major airports...
...Unfortunately there are occasional clashes between airliners and private planes, but they usually occur when an airliner simply runs over some poor guy because the airline pilots were not watching where they were going...
...Private aircraft, lacking essential safety equipment, do run into large ones and cause massive loss of life...
...But in these cases, where services are provided mainly to the affluent, user fees are quite appropriate, to put it carefully...
...Cincinnati G. Franklin Miller Amitai Etzioni replies: Just the facts (never mind G. Franklin Miller's grandstanding): "General aviation" refers to private aircraft...
...Do they give dissent a fair hearing...
...It reminds us that the rich do not like to pay for services...
...For instance, the case of someone who did not tank up and ran out of gas on a calm day, close to the beach...
...His characterization of "general aviation" is similarly misleading...
...But the trick used to justify unfair charges is for the government to force one to use its services (frequently in order to boost some administrative empire), and then charge the cost to the victim of the compulsion...
...Miller's letter is useful...
...These costs (if we have to suffer them) should be borne out of general revenues...
...I can't say whether Etzioni's knowledge of boating is similarly lacking, but must assume that it is...
...Correspondents feigned astonishment at the arrest of colleagues for "only doing their job...
...Has PBS been fulfilling its educational mission...
...But the thrust of Etzioni's article is to justify charging individuals for such governmental intrusion, and to promote the reprehensible practice of imposing taxes and fees in order to regulate conduct...
...Do contemporary journalists consider themselves watchdogs or antagonists of our government...
...It is unfortunate for The New Leader's reputation that Etzioni resorts to falsity, halftruths, sly innuendo, and misrepresentation to promote his opinion...
...General aviation is simply the general public—the ordinary people who use their airplanes for family transportation, sport, or business travel...
...Commercial aviation" refers to the regular tens of thousands of aircraft (and a few Concordes) that serve the great unwashed masses, you and me...
...They violated martial law...
...Apparently he belongs to that group of the self-righteous who want to prohibit or tax to death anything they don't enjoy themselves...
...If the U.S...
...Does personal political bias—liberal, conservative—color what we read in the newspapers or see on television...
...Media Message While denouncing Chinese officials' lies, our daily press itself dissembled...
...They would rather—while foaming at the mouth about handouts to the poor—pocket all they can get away with...
...We could use a New Leader survey of the U.S...
...My key points were the need for greater safety and an equitable distribution of costs...
...He does make it perfectly clear that he would rather drown people who have the effrontery to own boats than send the Coast Guard to save them...
...Next time you fly, look out the windowand you will see a small plane landing right on your long runway...
...In general, user fees are regressive and hurt the poor...
...Welfare mothers, the homeless, even regular working folks own very few of them...
...Strange Ball Game In his review of Anthony Lake's "Somoza Falling" (NL, May 15-29), Paul Berman seems to imply that the only good thing to result from American meddling in Nicaraguan affairs is that country's love of baseball...
...The number of airplanes owned by business corporations is a very small proportion of general aviation, and the number of private jets is similarly a tiny percentage...
...Should the frequent airing of subtle and even flagrantly pro-Arab propaganda by its New York affiliate, WNET, give one pause about our democracy's future in a misinformed society...
...is indeed a "failed empire, "then why are so many people in Managua lining up for visas at our embassy there...
Vol. 72 • July 1989 • No. 11
