Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Where I Stand — Ruthe Deskin: No shortage of hot topics to ponder these days

It's either feast or famine.

Columnists often find themselves staring at the blank display on a word processor frantically trying to find a subject for a column.

These days the opposite is true. There are so many hot topics it's difficult to choose.

The Super Bowl game is easy -- especially for Denver Bronco fans. It was a great game and lived up to all the expectations and excitement surrounding the Super Bowl hype.

The city of Denver has good cause to celebrate for the Broncos, even as they find themselves in a similar spot as Rebel basketball fans with the Denver Nuggets of the NBA. Actually the Rebels have a better record. The Nuggets are setting records with 38 losses and 3 wins to capture the title of one of the worst teams ever in the NBA.

The state Ethics Commission and their censure of County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates has been cussed and discussed so much that there's little left to be said.

Yvonne happens to be a friend of mine and I believe she would never consciously do anything that she thought was wrong. Hers was certainly a case of bad judgment from beginning to end.

Sometimes the best defense is to admit mistakes and throw oneself on the mercy of the court.

Knight Allen offers the best advice of all to public officials in a letter to this columnist:

"I can't help thinking it's ridiculous to give a bureaucrat and another in the endless line of blue-ribbon panels the task of defining ethics."

For the best guideline for ethical conduct in or out of government, Allen recommends Thomas Jefferson, who said: "When tempted to do anything in secret, ask yourself if you would do it in public. If you would not, be sure it is wrong."

Which brings up another subject and a pet peeve.

I cannot abide the number of television advertisements that use the dead -- no matter how prominent they were in life -- to hawk a product.

Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Ed Sullivan are names that come to mind as recent examples.

Give me those beer frogs and lizards any day.

Another subject that could be good column fodder is the practice by the government of awarding persons caught with their hands in the till or other nefarious activities.

A guy admits to theft. He should be fired on the spot. Instead he is kept on the payroll. It's discovered that a union executive played fast and loose with a checkbook before accepting a job in Las Vegas. He resigns and the media is chastised for bringing the story to light. Government employees are found to be wanting in their areas of expertise so they are "bought off" of contracts they never should have had in the first place. Ex-Rebel coach Rollie Massimino comes to mind.

And, if all that weren't enough, there's President Clinton.

Enough has been said and written about the president's pecadillos to fill a library with books.

Never an ardent admirer of President Clinton, nevertheless, I feel sad that he is being required to face such an onslaught of innuendo and character assassination before all the facts are known.

Personally, I could forgive but not condone his sexual escapades. Heaven knows we've forgiven past presidents for their amours. But, if it is proven that he lied about the Monica Lewinsky affair, then he should suffer severe consequences.

Today, we know that he didn't tell the truth about the Flowers affair in 1992 when he was running for president.

President Clinton is a very intelligent man. If he did indulge in some kind of sexual dalliance with this young woman, he showed absolute stupidity -- and that's hard to forgive.

On a lighter note -- let's hope the maritime scientists agree that Keiko, the star of "Free Willie," has been in captivity too long to adjust to the rigors of life in the open seas.

Keiko should be able to spend the rest of his life delighting school children and living the life of a happy whale in his specially built habitat in Newport, Ore.

Finally, what a sad sound it is to this old Rebel basketball fan to hear the boos aimed at our team and young coach.

There's no debate that there's something missing with this team. Although they are not blessed with outstanding talent, they do have the potential to be much better than they have shown so far.

The loss to Utah was expected. They are facing a tough schedule for the rest of the season, including a return with Utah and a game against another rated team, New Mexico.

The puzzle is the lack of concentration. The team plays well for five minutes or so and then loses it.

Ask me and I would say that Bill Bayno and his coaches must decide on a starting five and stick with them. Maybe Bayno should do his teaching during practice sessions and forget the frantic sideline coaching during games.

Just for the record, here's one Rebel fan who will never be caught booing the team. I might hide my eyes and slide under the seats and groan a little, but I will never boo a Rebel team.

Finally, President Clinton should remember that a man who deludes himself is often more dangerous than one who deludes others. (Z.A. Bhutto)

archive