Editorials
Tuesday, August 4, 1998

Castro's Grenada
visit is no cause
for alarm

NEARLY 15 years after U.S. forces invaded Grenada to foil a Cuban takeover, Fidel Castro was warmly received Sunday as he stopped off on a tour of English-speaking Caribbean islands. It was an ironic demonstration of how much has changed. This was not a triumphal tour. Castro has not won his struggle to overthrow so-called U.S. imperialism. Rather, he is no longer a threat to U.S. security. Washington doesn't care much what he does.

Upon landing, Castro unveiled a plaque thanking Cuba for the role it played in building tiny Grenada's Point Salines airport. The presence of a paramilitary Cuban construction battalion, dispatched to build the airport, had aroused the Reagan administration's concern that Grenada was about to become a Cuban outpost in the Eastern Caribbean.

The airport project was begun in 1980, shortly after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and his New Jewel Movement took power and began to cultivate close ties with Cuba. In October 1983, Bishop was killed in a coup attempt led by a dissident faction of his own party.

The violence prompted Washington to intervene. The Reagan administration contended the invasion was needed to protect American medical students studying at a school near the airport. But the students' safety appeared to have been only a pretext. The deeper concern was the danger of Cuban control of Grenada.

After several days of fighting, in which about 20 Cubans, 19 U.S. soldiers and 45 Grenadians died, the remainder of the Cuban battalion surrendered -- defying Castro's orders -- and was returned to Cuba. The U.S. troops left after restoring order.

The current prime minister, Keith Mitchell, maintains that his move to strengthen ties with Cuba was not a rebuke to the United States, which has drastically cut its aid in recent years. But he said he has told President Clinton that the United States should do more to help the Caribbean nations.

The world has changed greatly since the days of the Grenada invasion. The collapse of the Soviet Union has left Castro devoid of military and economic support.

The Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis, the conflicts in Central America and the Grenada invasion have faded into history. Castro still clings to power but his dreams of driving the Yankees out of Latin America and replacing them with communist-style regimes have evaporated. Cuba is too concerned with economic survival to consider any new ventures in subversion or revolution.

Far from being cause for alarm, Castro's visit to Grenada is a reminder that the one-time menace has become a harmless curiosity.

Polygamy in Utah

SINCE Utah authorities stopped prosecuting the crime of polygamy 46 years ago, the practice of men taking multiples wives has grown. Polygamists in the West now are estimated at 30,000, and Utah's governor made matters worse by suggesting plural marriage may be constitutionally protected under freedom of religion. It is no more protected than incest, which it often involves, and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent.

Gov. Mike Leavitt made the comment at his monthly news conference in July after being asked about a felony child-abuse case that emerged from a Utah polygamist clan that boasts 1,000 members and business holdings worth $150 million. A prominent member of the clan was accused of whipping his 16-year-old daughter with a belt when she rebelled against an arranged marriage with his brother.

Leavitt said he assumed there was a "legal reason" that authorities had not been prosecuting polygamy. He added, "What needs to be cracked down on, if there is to be such a crackdown, is any abuses of people's civil and human rights." The American Civil Liberties Union praised Leavitt for his remarks, from which he has since retreated.

Leavitt is a descendant of Mormon polygamists who followed the teachings of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints founder Joseph Smith, who had 33 wives. However, Utah outlawed polygamy in its constitution as a condition for statehood, which was granted in 1896. The church banned polygamy in 1890, but it has continued under splinter groups comprised of excommunicated Mormons.

Polygamy is an unacceptable lifestyle that denigrates women and victimizes children. Authorities have shied away from prosecuting it because of the political debacle created by a 1952 raid. Leavitt now says he believes polygamy has not been prosecuted because of the difficulty involved. That is a poor excuse for allowing this crime to flourish.

Sydney's water

THIS has not been a good year for public services in major cities in the Pacific region. In Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, electric power was cut off to the downtown area for five weeks starting Feb. 20 after the last of four cables supplying the area failed.

In Australia, residents of Sydney have been told to boil tap water for drinking, cooking and washing due to parasite contamination of the city water supply.

Sydney Water, the city's water authority, has said the contamination had been tracked to a major filtration plant in the western suburb of Prospect, but that the exact location of the source might never be known.

Honolulu's water quality has been high for many years but the island has had its share of electrical blackouts over the years. The controversy over power lines on Waahila Ridge has its origin in the need to strengthen the system. Nor can pure water be taken for granted.

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John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor