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C o m m u n i t y p o r u m views of readersForget The Fifth, Government Must Come Clean On Arms Deal NowAttached are two composite letters from children to children. The first set came from the seven children in our Sister Church, La Merced, in Managua, Nicaragua. The responses are from ten of our church children.The letters are self-explanatory.The Sister Church arrangement was organized in April of this year when several of our members went to Nicaragua on a Witness For Peace tour.This was a natural culmination of our interest in Central America for several years. %u2014 Rev. Finley A. Schaef, Park Slope United Methodist Church, Sixth Avenue.Composite letter from seven Nicaraguan children in our sister church in La Merced, Managua, to the children of Park Slope United Methodist Church in Brooklyn NY, USA:Dear North American children:Greetings.In the name of our friends and in our own, we plead to you that we do not want destruction and death. Please tell your government that we have a right to live and study in peace. We want to be happy, like you because it is our right.Do not continue helping the contras with money and arm s so that they will not come to kill us and our brothers. We are not bad.If you do this we will be grateful in the name of Jehovah. The God of life is first.We want to be friends and thank you for listening to us.Goodbye with affection. %u2014 Eduardo Jose Vela Lopez (age 10), Danico Torrez (age 6), Eugenia Carolina Vela Lopez (age 7), Alexis Omar Romano Lopez (age 14), Morales Lagos (age 11), Sfaerli Vela Lopez (age 9), Valerie Anderson (age 7).Composite letter from the children of the Park Slope United Methodist Church to the children in our Sister Church, La Merced, Managua.testify to that effect at any time. The fact is, he was violating laws passed by Congress which were opposed by his Chief when they were under consideration, and to which Reagan obviously never reconciled himself. There is too much baloney around about the presumption of innocence for those who takeOnce the Reaganites start rallyingaround the political crimes o f thePresident, they should not beallowed to hold the fielduncontested. That is why Solarz %u2019courageous act is so important.the Fifth in these circumstances. As a national officer of the American Civil Liberties Union for over twelve years I am a passionate supporter of the Fifth Amendment. Everyone should be presumed innocent for legal purposes %u2014 that is when it comes to the decision of a jury in a trial. But no such presumption is appropriate to the political arena, any more than it is to those chargedwith enforcing the law, such as district attorneys and grand juries. If Congress is to presume them innocent by of any wrongdoing, why is the public purse being expended on hearings, special prosecutors and the like? It is only their sympathizers, public or shamefaced, who will hide behind the presumption to avoid the political effects of vigorous and tenacious questioning even when this appears impolite or hostile.Now is the time to speak out. The detailed acts performed by Oily North with the connivance of Poindexter and Casey and others under the direct or implied approval of their Commander In Chief were crimes against the people of Nicaragua committed in the name of and with the authority of the government of the United States and all of Latin America which should be rejected in principle and in practice by the American people. Unless we believe the polls which show that a majority of us do, in fact, reject these policies %u2014 and act on that belief %u2014 Reagan, and not his opponents, will prevail.Gordon Haskell, formerly a Clinton St. resident, now lives in California, but follows Brooklyn politics and politicians.BY GORDON HASKELLCongressman Stephen Solarz has finally said what needed to be said: the Emperor has no clothes! And it needed to be said now, because Reagan%u2019s cohorts, led by Patrick Buchanan, were beginning to rally the President%u2019s supporters by politicizing the discussion. Brooklynites living in Steve%u2019s district should be proud to be represented by him.Buchanan had put his finger squarely on the politics involved. I would guess that a very large percentage of the American people are distressed by the idea that their government would push one policy in public, and pursue another behind the scenes. A slightly smaller group would find lying by public officials, no matter the circumstances, regrettable, or even unacceptable. But only a handful of purists really feel strongly about people who violate laws which they think are misguided, or downright wrong and immoral.Thus, we get back to the politics of it. As long as Reagan%u2019s supporters were distancing themselves from the White House basement strategy, or even attacking each other, it was smart for their opponents to stay on thesidelines and cheer them all on. But once the Reaganites start rallying around the political crimes of the President %u2014 they should not be allowed to hold the field uncontested. That is why Solarz%u2019 courageous act is so important.Whatever Congressman Lantos%u2019 motives may have been in his encomium to Oily North at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, it succeeded in conveying the impression that those who demanded he come clean were persecuting a national her\Poindexter should have been compelled, to take the Fifth ten or twenty times. Such questioning drives home the fact of their refusal to tell this authorized body of the Congress what they know about important government acts in the field of foreign policy. As it was, they merely seemed to be reluctant victims of some technical legal inhibitions against testimony %u201cat this time.%u201dWhat will be the %u201cappropriate tim e%u201d for them to tell what they know under oath? I doubt this will ever happen. If he worked under direct orders from Reagan, North will continue to be a hero by not spilling the beans on his boss. If he worked under orders which consisted of a wink and a nod, he will notSlope Children And Kids In Nicaragua Are Now Pen Pals For PeaceDear Friends and Children of Nicaragua:We have been learning a lot about your country in church. We are all praying together for peace in Nicaragua.We are sad that the children are dying in Nicaragua. We don%u2019t know why the government is killing children. We don%u2019t like what our government is doing, and we don%u2019t want anymore destruction either, and we don%u2019t want war any more than you do. We will try to tell President Reagan you are not bad. We will continue to do so until our government permanently stops to arm the contras.Amanda thinks that we have a bad government but Cheyenne is almost sure that President Reagan wants peace too. Clare says: %u201cI hope the next President doesn%u2019t send weapons all around the world to kill perfectly innocent people.%u201d We all agree that there should be no more fighting and, as Bryant says, there should be no more %u201caccidents.%u201d We will tell our government to send pencils, school supplies, and food. We think you will like this a lot. Another way to have peace is apeace conference.How is your country? Our country is OK. Some of us love to play soccer. Here is a picture of a soccer ball.Your President Ortega came to our church and to Justin%u2019s house last summer.We hope you have peace in your country during the new year. Please do not lose hope.Your American friends, hope to see you soon. %u2014 Amanda Zug-Moore (age 8), Justin Harriman (age 7), Molly Houston (age 10), Christopher Dumindin (age 10), Nathaniel Mowery-Hall (age 7), Bryant Floyd Harris (age 9), Cheesa Bunker (age 7), Mario Dumindin, Jr. (age 5), Cheyenne Libero (age 9), Clare Bruff (age 10).P.S. Would you like to be my pen pal? If you would, please write back.P.S. Merry Christmas!P.S. Here is a picture of a Christmas tree and a snow-man.vVelmanette Has A BoyWilliam Walker and Velmanette Montgomery Walker, State Senator from the 22nd District of Brooklyn, announce the birth of their son, William Montgomery Walker, on Dec. 13. The 7Vz pound boy was born at 11:58pm that day at State University Downstate Medical Center.Pinkett Hopes Bills Help AgedFt. Greene City Councilmember Mary Pinkett will introduce two pieces of legislation in City Council to increase City funding of insurance for hospital and medical programs for the aged and disabled.The first bill will increase to $17.90 the amount the City pays per month for City employees and retirees to assist in their medical costs. The second bill will make this increase possible annually at the rate established by the Federal government.%u201cI am hopeful that this year we will be able to not only increase the allowance but to make the increase an annual one that will not depend on legislative action,%u201d Pinkett said.Schumer Gives Library BookBrooklyn Public Library Director Kenneth Duchac received a new addition to the library%u2019s collection through the help of Congressman Charles Schumer in honor of the forthcoming bicentennial of the U.S. Con- 'n 1987%u201cThe Index to the Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789%u201d is a five-volume, 6,615-page guide to some of the most important documents in U.S. history. The constitutional study guide lists all the persons, places and \discussed in the 50,000documents created by the Continental Congress during the years from the Declaration of Independence to the creation of the U.S. Constitution. The guide is produced by the National Archives and Records Administration.Locals Tapped For New BenchFour Brooklyn judges were among the 23 nominees for new State Court of Claims judgeships announced Dec. 13 by Governor Mario Cuomo, who requested the new posts to help address a criminal case workload that has dramatically increased.Michael Curd, a graduate of St. John%u2019s University School of Law, has been a judge of the criminal court since 1976. From 1983 to 1985 he served as an Acting Supreme Court Justice. Robert Keating is the Administrative Judge for the Criminal Courts of the City of New York. He was a graduate ofHelen Palit, Executive Director of CityHarvest, thanks Comptroller Harrison J.Goldin (left) for more than 1,600 pounds offood, including some 250 jars and packagesof baby food and infant formula, donatedby his staff, as Park Slope resident TimStokes, food drive coordinator looks on.Congressman ChucK Schumer (below) givesa gift to Kenneth Duchac.Georgetown University and formerly served as Criminal Justice Coordinator in the Office of the Mayor.Donald Grajales is a judge of the Criminal Court, an office he has held since March 1979. He has served as an Acting Supreme Court Judge since January 1982. James Starkey is an Associate Professor of Law at St. John%u2019s University Law School. From December 1973 to September 1982 he was a Judge of the New York City Criminal Court.Once confirmed by the State Senate, the new Court of Claims Judges will serve as State Supreme Court Justices, allowing New York City Criminal Court Judges serving in Supreme Court to return to the Criminal Courts.Brennan Wants Meters OutPark Slope Assemblyman Jim Brennan has requested a meeting with City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ross Sandler to seek reversal of DOT%u2019s decision to install parking meters on 7th Avenue between 9th and 11th Streets.Brennan says that the parking meter plan had drawn such strong community opposition at the two public hearings held on the m atter that the local merchants association had seemed to back off from the proposal. In his letter, he said that %u201cthe installation of parking meters aggravates the serious lack of parking for local residents. In addition, I question whether the current commercial development of Seventh Avenue necessitates*1 . f _____ i_ i_ _______ rm .U1C dUUlUUll Ui p ainjutg, iUCKIlO. aiivzv tu vpresently many vacant stores on the Avenue; many buildings are being warehoused for speculative purposes. I am loath to reward absentee landowners who have withdrawn so many residential units from my district.%u201dDecem ber 25,1986, THE PHOENIX, Page 39