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"A MAJOR SCHEDULING
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The Primaries Are Past;
Enough With The Bickering
With Mayor Dennis Archer and other munici-
pal, business and religious leaders, Detroit is po-
sitioning itself to rebuild and regain its strength
and stature among America's biggest cities. The
leadership of finger-pointing is over.
The stain of election-smearing didn't end at
Eight Mile Road, though. In
West Bloomfield, voters re-
elected Township Supervisor
Jeddy Hood over challenger
Larry Wasserman. The elec-
tion was tainted by accusa-
tions, lawn-sign desecration
and the bad will of an irre-
sponsible minority. Enough.
West Bloomfield isn't exempt
from the kind of infrastructure
work that needs to keep up with a growing pop-
ulation.
Options abound. Among them is one where we
work together and move ahead, be it in Detroit,
West Bloomfield or anywhere else in the metro
area.
It's time to prepare for November.
Wreckage caused by a Palestinian suicide bomber.
What Price
Peace Process?
As a result of the "Peace Process,"
Arafat has provided a safe haven
for terrorists where Israeli forces
are forbidden. In the PLO-con-
Welfare Travesty
No reasonable person should be satisfied with
the American welfare system as it has evolved
in recent decades.
Programs are inefficient; officials are lacking
in accountability. The patchwork of benefits and
"entitlements" has spawned a culture of depen-
dence that defeats the ultimate aim of providing
transitional assistance while recipients seek
work.
That said, the welfare bill passed by Congress
last week and signed by President Clinton is a
travesty.
It seeks "reform" primarily by reducing fund-
ing, narrowing eligibility and turning programs
over to the states in the form of block grants.
It does all that without providing the essen-
tial mechanisms that might transform this into
genuine "reform," not just wholesale budget-cut-
ting.
So recipients will be forced to find jobs with-
in two years, but legislators conveniently ignored
the need for large-scale — and expensive — em-
ployment-training programs required to turn
longtime recipients into productive workers.
Congress passed a five-year cap on benefits
but failed to provide sufficient money for child-
care facilities to make returning to work a real-
istic option for single parents.
Proponents of the new law claim it will save
$55 billion over six years. Along with cuts in food
stamps, much of the savings will come from a
sweeping ban on aid to legal immigrants, a stun-
ning repudiation of America's traditional em-
brace of newcomers and a concession to the
Letters
AP PHOTO/NATI HARNIK
We've had more than our share of anger, crying,
name-calling and temper tantrums during the
previous few months. No, we're not referring to
playtime in a day-care center. We're talking in-
stead about what seemed like a very long pri-
mary-election season, which finally ended this
week.
Now we have the national
party conventions and the No-
vember elections to look for-
ward to. Hopefully, we've
learned a thing or two from the
primaries.
That Carolyn Cheeks Kil-
patrick soundly defeated in-
cumbent Barbara-Rose Collins
as the Democratic candidate
for the 15th Congressional District seat is a lo-
cal signal of enough. With Nation of Islam leader
Louis Farrakhan by her side, Collins portrayed
herself as a powerful black leader being perse-
cuted by the white world. Enough.
Ms. Kilpatrick campaigned instead on a plat-
form of coalition building and helping people.
public's eagerness to blame immigrants for all
of our nation's woes.
With so many other vulnerable groups fac-
ing real hardship as a result of this law, it's
almost unseemly to add that many Jewish im-
migrants from the former Soviet Union, their
families and the agencies that serve them will
be hard-hit.
Congressional backers envision a greatly ex-
panded role for religious and charitable groups
in filling the void left by reduced federal fund-
ing. But they also declined to build in stringent
safeguards that would prevent church groups
from mixing vital services with proselytizing. Be-
sides, there is no way for the private sector to fill
the enormous gap that will be left when the fed-
eral government steps out of the picture.
Some Democrats argued that the current sys-
tem is so badly broken that almost any change
will be an improvement; the recently passed bill,
they insisted, could stimulate a much more
thoughtful re-evaluation of welfare policy in the
future.
We disagree. Millions of lives will be affected
by what Congress and the White House did in
such haste last week, and few for the better.
Many of the most vulnerable members of our so-
ciety, including hundreds of thousands of inno-
cent children, will pay the price for this rash
experiment.
Genuine welfare reform is long overdue. In-
discriminate cuts in vital services and official
scapegoating of immigrants and the poor are acts
of political cowardice.
trolled territory, terrorists incite,
organize, train, arm and launch
attacks on Jews.
The PLO refuses to extradite
18 such terrorists who have at-
tacked Israelis. Mohammed
Dahlan, who arranged the 1972
massacre of Israeli athletes at the
Munich Olympics, is now the
PLO security chief in Gaza.
Hymie Cutler
Director,
Michigan for a Safe Israel
Jewish Unity
Does Exist
You may think that since I am an
18-year-old college student I am
simply naive by answering "Yes"
to the question, "Is there such a
thing as Jewish unity anymore?"
Throughout the years, howev-
er, I have participated in numer-
ous experiences which affirm my
position that despite our differ-
ences, the unique bond between
Jews still exists. I would like to
share a portion of a speech I gave
during my temple graduation cer-
emony:
"It was just another day and
I was walking through busy city
streets. It was 100 degrees out-
side and the streets were con-
gested. Cars were honking;
vendors were yelling, people were
hustling in every direction. All of
a sudden, a loud, high-pitched
siren started blaring. Everything
stopped. Cars stopped in the mid-
dle of the street; workers put their
tools down; people halted dead in
their tracks. Everyone stopped
and prayed. They prayed for the
6 million who died in the Holo-
caust as well as for all of the sol-
diers who died for their country.
Then, after 60 seconds, they
picked up their belongings, start-
ed their engines and continued
on the daily routine.
This is exactly what Israelis do
every year on Yom HaShoah,
Holocaust Memorial Day, and
Yom Hazikaron, Israel Remem-
brance Day. At that moment cit-
izens put all of their differences
aside and are united as Jews. It
is absolutely unbelievable to par-
ticipate in such a ceremony.
For the first time, I felt con-
nected with Israelis and realized
that we are all Jews and need to
help each other. As Jews living
outside of Israel, we must also
unite, not just one day but every
day. We must see ourselves as
one unit working together for the
benefit of our future, as well as
the future of all humankind."
When I was in 10th grade, I
participated in the March of the
Living trip to Poland and Israel,
in which over 6,000 Jewish teen-
agers from 34 countries partici-
pated. We traced the routes of
Jews during the Holocaust, from
their neighborhoods to the ghet-
tos, to the concentration camps,
to the pile of hu (flan ash.
Though the teens on my bus
came from numerous states and
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