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Some answers to questions I get asked these days:
· What about the football strike?
I'm still trying to decide whether professional athletes are the most pampered people in America or among the most exploited. Pampered because they are heroes in high school and are then exposed to expensive educations, followed by immense salaries. Exploited because the colleges don't care whether they graduate, just as long as they bring in fans and alumni donations, and because the average career of an NFL player is three years -- a career that can end any Sunday afternoon with an injury.
What's left is a has-been without a future, someone who devoted his formative years to developing skills that he can no longer use. Of course, miners, cowboys and lumberjacks face the same risk with much greater frequency, for a lot less than $230,000 a year. See why it's so hard to decide?
· Aren't you happy that the Bork nomination is likely to be defeated?
No, I'm not. Robert Bork has demonstrated intelligence and a sense of humor, qualities that are rare among people in public life, and even more uncommon among Reagan appointees. I suspect that Bork knows the difference between playing devil's advocate in a philosophical debate for a law journal and issuing a ruling that carries the force of law.
It isn't that Bork is the best imaginable justice for the Supreme Court. But consider what Ronald Reagan has dealt us since taking office -- James Watt, Anne Burford, Edwin Meese, Michael Deever, Oliver North, etc. If they aren't offensive, they're sleazy, and if they're not sleazy, they generally try to undermine the constitution they swore to protect.
Given Reagan's tendencies, it's safe to bet that anybody he nominates now will be worse, much worse, than Bork. Eventually, he'll discover some neanderthal whom the U.S. Senate cannot find a way to reject.
· Doesn't it bother you that Gov. Romer is making all those trips?
When he was campaigning a year ago, he said he was going to travel widely to promote Colorado. I didn't like the idea then, and I don't like it now. We should be electing a statesman, not hiring a salesman. But that's my problem, not his. He's keeping his word.
· Should Public Service Co. burn natural gas instead of coal to help keep Denver's air cleaner?
Denver is choked with cars, which cause most of its air pollution as well as scores of other problems. However, Denverites seem to believe that pollution is not a result of their curious inability to walk, ride bicycles, or catch buses.
When they want to look for someone to blame for the brown cloud, they'll look anywhere except in a mirror. And they're more than willing to put hundreds of miners and railroaders out of work if it means that they can continue driving for a little while longer. But it's probably a provision of the city charter that all metropolitan residents have the absolute right to pamper themselves at the expense of the other citizens of Colorado.
· What about high-oxygen fuels? Won't they make a difference?
Maybe not in the toxicity of the air, but Colorado's economy will improve. The next time your car stalls, you won't know whether it's the MBTF or the distributor. Instead of spending your money on the latest novelty in consumer electronics from the Orient, you'll take your car to the local garage. More money will stay in Colorado.
If you're looking for an easy way to make some big money this winter, figure out some way to bootleg old-fashioned undiluted gasoline. Worried and confused auto owners will likely pay upward of $2 a gallon for the familiar fuel, as they blame every stall and sputter on the new-fangled stuff.
· What's going to happen to your column when the Post's new owners take over?
How would I know? I live 150 miles away, and people who work right at 15th and California don't have any idea what's going to happen.
But I have grounds for optimism. Every time a newspaper
has changed hands, and the new owner has said You're
really an asset to this organization, Quillen, and we want
to keep on you the team,
I've lost my job shortly
thereafter.
This time around, no one has given me any such assurances, so I feel reasonably safe.
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