The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

MR. LEHRER: Good evening, and Happy New Year. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight the state of the union. Elizabeth Farnsworth talks to six college newspaper editors. Fighting violent juvenile crime, Betty Ann Bowser reports from Jacksonville, Florida. Whatever happened to the luxury tax? Kwame Holman has an update. And a look back at the year called 1995 by essayist Roger Rosenblatt. It all follows our summary of the news this New Year's Day.NEWS SUMMARY

MR. LEHRER: The flow of U.S. Army troops and vehicles continued today over the Sava River from Croatia into Bosnia. They came across the pontoon bridge army engineers completed yesterday. Most of the 20,000 U.S. troops in the peacekeeping force will enter Bosnia this way. The first U.S. casualty of the operation remained at a military hospital in Croatia. American specialist Martin John Begosh was hurt when his truck hit a truck over the weekend. He was badly injured in the leg and foot. But doctors said Begosh's condition looks very good. He was awarded the Purple Heart Medal yesterday. On the budget story, there is still no deal to reopen the closed government offices. President Clinton and Republican Congressional leaders took the day off from negotiating. They are scheduled to meet again tomorrow evening. Mr. Clinton was in Hilton Head, South Carolina, today for the annual Renaissance Weekend. House Speaker Gingrich was at his home in Georgia. Senate Majority Leader Dole was campaigning in New Hampshire for the Republican presidential nomination. At least 26 people were killed today in a head-on collision between two buses in Northern Mexico. At least 22 others were injured. The buses collided near the border town of Sonoita, about 100 miles Southwest of Tucson. Authorities in Pima County, Arizona, said one bus was a tour bus. Police said the injured were taken to hospitals on both sides of the border. In Saudi Arabia today, King Fad Fahd temporarily transferred control of the government to his brother, Crown Prince Abdullah. The king issued a statement saying he needed to rest. He was hospitalized in late November, following a stroke. The statement did not say how long the prince would retain power, and it gave no details about the king's condition. Both men are in their 70's. Retired Adm. Arleigh Burke died today at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington. He was the World War II Navy hero who went on to be chief of naval operations for three terms in the late 50's and early 60's. As chief, he sped up construction of nuclear- powered submarines and surface ships. Adm. Burke was 94 years old. And that's it for the News Summary this New Year's Day. Now it's on to a young view of this young year, fighting violent juvenile crime, a luxury tax update, and Rosenblatt looks at '95. FOCUS - GENERATIONAL VIEWS

MR. LEHRER: We begin this first program of the new year with a State of the Union review. The reviewers are a group of college newspaper editors from around the country. Elizabeth Farnsworth talked with them last week.

MS. FARNSWORTH: With me tonight are editors Patrick Strawbridge, a junior at the University of Missouri; Yi-Shun Lai, a senior at Claremont McKenna College in California; Bill Lara, a senior at Dade Community College in Miami; Jeanette Bennett, a senior at Brigham-Young University in Utah; Ronald Eyester, a senior at the Citadel Military College of South Carolina; and Monica Lewis, a senior at Howard University here in Washington. Thank you all for being with us. As we start the new year, are you optimistic or pessimistic about how the state of the nation appears now? Yi-Shun.

YI-SHUN LAI, Claremont McKenna College: Pretty optimistic about it. Even with the budget collapse and everything, it seems as if things are running pretty smoothly, and I have hopes that everything will iron itself out sooner or later, and I think it has to pretty much.

MS. FARNSWORTH: And I'm thinking about politics and culture, just sort of in general, do you look at what's happening around you optimistically or pessimistically? How about you, Monica?

MONICA LEWIS, Howard University: I'm pes--excuse me, optimistically. With the Million Man March in October, it just seemed like black people were coming together more and more, and I think the more that we come together and learn more about ourselves, then, you know, the relations between blacks and whites will improve, so I'm pretty optimistic.

MS. FARNSWORTH: How about you?

RONALD EYESTER, The Citadel Military College: I try to stay optimistic in general, but some things you look at in society you seem to be pessimistic, but I agree with Monica. I think people are making more of an effort to improve society they were living in, and that the state of nature, it seems to be improving a little bit, and hopefully, if everyone keeps this optimistic view on things, hopefully things will get better.

MS. FARNSWORTH: And being in Washington, Jeanette, doesn't make you feel somewhat pessimistic about how things are going? I mean, here we are, the government is closed.

JEANETTE BENNETT, Brigham Young University: Well, that is frustrating, but I'm optimistic for the new year. With technology changing as it is, there are going to be new opportunities, and with an election year, people are more interested in government and more interested in things, and any time you get people to be less apathetic, it's an optimistic thing. So I'm excited about it.

MS. FARNSWORTH: What do you think about that, Patrick?

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE, University of Missouri: There is, I think, a general tendency to cry crisis a little too early. A lot of people look around and said we've had big problems on the racial front, the country, or the government, or the budget or the deficit, but all in all, I think the country's got a good future in front of it. I mean, I think it can still end where all of us can get what we want as long as we work hard enough to do it. I think it's a pretty optimistic future we're looking at.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Bill, do you share that, or are you a little more pessimistic?

BILL LARA, Dade County Community College: Actually, I'm more in the middle wall there. I'm neither completely optimistic or pessimistic. I think there's a lot of gray going on, but what I do have a lot of is faith. I believe in the country and the people and the young people in this country, and I think that this is a good time, perhaps better than the past in many ways to make changes and make 'em stick.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Do you think enough attention is being paid to the concerns of young people? I mean, now that you're just about to graduate from college, when you look back over your life, do you feel like the public sector provided what you needed in the way of schools, education, clean streets, safe streets, that kind of thing? Did we--did the older generation fail you?

BILL LARA: How could you fail? How could you fail in taking responsibility for my life? It doesn't--it's non sequitur. I mean, the same way I look at college and the way we accomplish things at where I go to school is if you want to do it and you really want to do it, you will do it. If you don't, if you lack that desire, that motivation, sometimes, true, sometimes it requires a mentor, somebody gives you an inspiration point and you go off from there, but it comes down, in my opinion, to the basic desire of achieving. So I don't blame any generation. I have--the Japanese have a saying. Don't blame--fix it.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Well, just thinking about the budget shutdown, does it worry you? Do you feel like the older generation is sort of blowing it here, or is this--I mean, the shutdown, the partial shutdown of the government, because of the impasse over the budget, or is this a historic moment that shows that people are really thinking about you? I mean, after all, in Congress people say they are doing this so that you all don't have to pay the bills that other people built up. What do you think about that, Jeanette?

JEANETTE BENNETT: Well, one good thing about it is that it's affecting people. Things are closed in Washington. I know at our school they weren't processing Pell grants, and so when things like that happen, it wakes people up, and they say--

MS. FARNSWORTH: Pell grants are grants for student education.

JEANETTE BENNETT: Exactly. And, and so when students see that the government is actually affecting them and the shutdown is affecting them, people are taking more interest. And it is frustrating, and I hope they reach an agreement soon. I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen with that. But, you know, it's at least waking people up.

MS. FARNSWORTH: What do you think?

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: I don't know. I don't think anyone blames the previous generation for our problems, or even looks to Washington and says this is an example of them letting us down. To be honest, I don't think most students on my campus at least at Missouri and most big schools are--feel too close to the situation in Washington. Whether or not their office is shut down, they don't see how that affects them. They're looking for jobs. But I think there is a danger of the previous generation--I think it's done now, I think the recent political trends in Washington--the repealing of some of those helpful programs that were mentioned earlier, that, umm, that do provide people with help, and I hope that gets reversed. I think most young people in this country still believe to a certain extent in the need for welfare programs and to help people out. I think that's something that everyone here believes. I hope that doesn't get turned around in a new era in Washington, as they're calling it.

MS. FARNSWORTH: How about that? Are you worried about repealing the--the repealing of important programs?

MONICA LEWIS: Yes, definitely. I, myself, never had to rely on welfare. My family didn't rely on welfare, but I know that it's helped people, and a lot of people say it's a crutch, and it's not a crutch. If anything, it's a tool to help you get to where you want to get or help you get on the right track, and I think a lot of people in politics right now are trying to put blame on people who have no control over their fate. They weren't with their parents when their parents lost their job, and, therefore, they had to rely on some type of programs to assist them. But it's--I don't- -I mean, it bothers me a lot. It worries me, because there are a lot of families out there, our future, you know, politicians, who may not be able to have a chance to go to school to help their country.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Do you have the feeling, Ron, that we're in the middle of a kind of historic change that's, that's for the better or not?

RONALD EYESTER: Well, I don't know so much for the better. I think it's--it's kind of hard to view definite--you know, in definite terms, but as far as like what Monica said about welfare and so forth, I mean, programs that help people obviously is going to nurture our foundation of the culture and going back to the shutdown of the government, although obviously I think we're going to resolve all these problems. It's kind of scary when the foundation of your nation is shut down. I mean, it's a scary thought that that's the base work of our very existence and the fact that it's shut down.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Do you get the feeling that the grown-ups just can't get it together or something?

RONALD EYESTER: Well, no. I mean, it's human nature to disagree, obviously. I mean, we're going to disagree on certain things. I mean, that's the advantage of different types of education. We all have different views of how we feel about things, and people are going to conflict, and it's just a matter of coming to a compromise. It's similar to this panel. I mean, we all came from different backgrounds, and we have different thoughts, but, you know, once we could share those thoughts and, I mean, it's obvious, it's ironic when you really listen to people how much you can learn what they have to say and how they can open up new doors, and maybe that's some of the advice people in Washington should be taking.

MS. FARNSWORTH: How much is all this discussed on your campus, the government, politics, the economy? We're going to get to the economy in a minute. Are students interested in these things? What is--what are topics of concern on your campus?

YI-SHUN LAI: It's really--the budget shutdown has really served to humanize the government and the workers that are, that are part of the federal government. And so to that extent, it's brought it closer to my school.

MS. FARNSWORTH: What do you mean?

YI-SHUN LAI: Well, we see people getting laid off, and we all of a sudden realize that parents of our friends work for the government, and those are the people who are being laid off, and so it's really, it's really brought it, like I said, it's brought it closer to the campus. And to that extent, it's being discussed more. But then I think that the inside workings of the government are still very much a kind of foggy figure in our minds. I come from a very, very small college. We're only about 900 students, and so to that extent, it's really, really hard to get everybody interested in the government.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Is there any topic, say the environment or race relations, that is particularly hot on the university right now?

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: Race relations--I know at my campus, a very big state school--are always a hot topic.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Because?

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: I think it's something that is on people's mind. I mean, a great deal of the movies you see out these days, and a lot headlines revolve around the racial conflict. I mean, when you start throwing around terms like you're going to scrap affirmative action, or you start bringing up these issues, I mean, they're going to get a little hot and, you know, a little heated debate. There's a lot more debate. I'll tell you, there's one debate about those kind of issues, race relations that seems to affect each one of us, more so than Washington politics, and they may work on affirmative action issues in Washington, and they'll ultimately make the decisions, but I mean, I'll receive, you know, at the newspaper we'll receive fifteen/twenty letters on a racial incident that happens on campus. We haven't received one letter on the budget shutdown, on the budget crisis. There's a general distancing from Washington. I don't know if you'd call it disgust, but just kind of figure, you know, it is politics as usual, and I don't think a lot of people on campus really expect a lot and really feel that there's a great, a great matter of concern over a budget shutdown. I think there's a general faith that they will pull through in Washington. Washington will be Washington. But they look at the issues that affect them on a day-to-day basis as whether or not the road outside of their house is littered, or whether or not the people next door are black or white, whether or not they get along. That's the kind of things that are going to promote tension and more discussion on campus these days.

MS. FARNSWORTH: You said you were feeling better about the state of racial relations after the Million Man March. And do you think that people in your age group, are people at Howard worried in general about the state of race relations in the country?

MONICA LEWIS: Yeah, I think we are. The fact that we chose to attend Howard, to begin with, shows that we're kind of--I mean, most of my friends came from majority white neighborhoods, where we were probably one of twenty, you know one African-American minority student out of twenty other white students. So we chose to go to Howard to kind of--for a few years maybe, be amongst people who are like ourselves, but we realize that once we get our degree that we're out there in the real world where your boss, your co-workers, everyone else, might be of a different race than you, so I mean, the fact we chose to come to Howard shows that we're trying to, you know, just branch out culturally, if anything else, but we are concerned with race relations.

MS. FARNSWORTH: But does the state of race relations in the world concern you, I mean, in the nation, concern you?

RONALD EYESTER: Well, obviously, I mean, concerning me as just a person in my everyday society. Well, yeah, I mean, the Million Man March was far from where I was at the time, but it affected race relations in Charleston, South Carolina, where I was.

MS. FARNSWORTH: How?

RONALD EYESTER: Well, I mean, people, it's a greater awareness, and that's what the country needs, is more of an awareness, more paying attention to what's going on, and, you know, greater literacy of reading the newspaper, and paying attention to what's going on and seeing, why, look how--there's something that took place in Washington, D.C., look how it just affected attitudes in Charleston, South Carolina, in a good way, and just a greater awakening and they--it seems like today everyone wants to blow things out of proportion with all kinds of fancy formulas and so forth, but so much--so many topics are just based on common sense and it's just an awakening of this common sense can make life a lot better on the easier state of mind.

MS. FARNSWORTH: What about affirmative action, there's such a strong opinion among some people in the country that it has not been good for the country? What do you think about it, and what do you think--how do you think young people see it?

YI-SHUN LAI: Growing up in the state of California, you know, we were all really shocked when we heard that it was going to be completely abolished from the UC system because it's kind of an integral part of our lives. You know, it's natural. It's there. It's always there. So, it's--it's hard to say really. Affirmative action obviously needs some working out. It needs some ironing out. You know, and it's very easy for me to see both sides of the issue; however, I am also aware that there are students out there who don't get the economic advantage that a lot of us get. And so to that extent, affirmative action needs to stay. It really needs to stick around. And on the other hand, it's easy to see the other side of it, that it needs to go away.

MS. FARNSWORTH: How about you, Bill, what do you think?

BILL LARA: I think that to a great extent most of these topics are political and they're smoke screens. There are other things happening that we could be concentrating on, like I said before, fixing, bettering, rather than rhetoric and trying to see who's going to be more powerful, the Speaker of the House or the President of the United States, or who or what.

MS. FARNSWORTH: You think people are using the affirmative action issue to gain advantage politically?

BILL LARA: In many, in many senses, yes.

MS. FARNSWORTH: It's hot issue, so they can use it to make their own points.

BILL LARA: Of course, we--I was talking to someone before, and one of the things that crossed my mind is we have a lack of heroes, a lack of people to look up to.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Do you think your generation has a lack of heroes?

BILL LARA: I think so. Who do we look up to and truly believe and say, you know what, I'd like to be like that guy?

MS. FARNSWORTH: Do you all agree with this, lack of heroes? Go ahead, Patrick.

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: Well, I think one fallout, you know, we talk about generational issues. I think a lot of people in our generation look back at the baby boomer generation and they see a lot of things that--

MS. FARNSWORTH: At the baby boomer generation?

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: Yeah. They see a lot of things that really just didn't, didn't ring true. I mean--

MS. FARNSWORTH: This is your parents' generation?

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: I know. And my parents did a good job--

MS. FARNSWORTH: Except for your parents, right?

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: Right. I mean, you look back at the 60's, and our impression of the 60's--obviously none of us were around then--you had great ideological heroes, but I mean, for all the ideological rhetoric of the 60's, and I mean, where did it lead them? It led them to the 70's and to the 80's, the "me" decade. But who do we look for, for inspiration? I'd say most of us look toward schoolteachers, people we dealt with--our parents, community leaders, people we see every day who make a difference. They don't- -they don't stand up in front of Washington and, and scream and yell and lead rallies as far as our individuals. This can be a spokesperson. Those can be people who act in the media. But who do I actually take my lessons from? Who did all our peers take their lessons from, the people next door.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Do you all agree with that?

RONALD EYESTER: I totally agree with that. Yeah.

BILL LARA: Yeah.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Go ahead.

JEANETTE BENNETT: I disagree a little bit. I think we're all in college, and so that separates us a little bit from the others who didn't, and I think those who don't go to college, don't look to teachers and family members maybe as much. Maybe they look to athletes and movie stars, because that's all they know is the world out there that they haven't experienced that, and that's, that's sad, that those are those are their role models, but I don't think we can say that no one looks at them as role models.

MONICA LEWIS: I agree a little bit that parents and teachers and principals should be role models, but also I think that in the 50's, 60's, you had Eisenhower, you had the Kennedys, you had Martin Luther King, you had Malcolm X, so many local people who were known worldwide for their issues and their standpoints, and so people's parents kind of looked at them to show them how to be role models, but now you have--

MS. FARNSWORTH: You don't see their equivalent?

MONICA LEWIS: You don't see those people in politics and entertainment, et cetera, being as vocal. I mean, you can kind of say that Clinton's kind of trying to be like Kennedy because of his age and the fact that he's kind of like this, I guess, the '90's Camelot, but you really don't see that now, so who do we have to look to as role models? We have to make ourselves role models. It's kind of--it's a touch-and-go issue. The leadership is not there. The leadership is not there.

YI-SHUN LAI: Isn't that to a certain extent because of the fact that our time era is just completely different from the 60's and the 70's when there was a lot of turmoil? There was a lot of--there were a lot of issues to make out of--you know, to make speakers out of. There were a lot of issues to take, to take issue with, I guess, to a certain extent, and I don't think it's so bad that we have to look to ourselves to be role models.

MONICA LEWIS: I think the turmoil is probably more now than it was then; it's just not as open.

YI-SHUN LAI: Right.

MONICA LEWIS: You know, you don't see people, you know shooting hoses and sicking dogs to people today.

YI-SHUN LAI: Right.

MONICA LEWIS: It's more inside, or you don't see men, you know, just basically out and out tell a woman, no, you can't have this job. You know, it's kind of hidden, so, no, of course, you don't see it now, but I think it's worse now.

RONALD EYESTER: It's more dangerous because it's like camouflaged. I totally agree with what you're saying. You can't recognize it as easily as you could of, like when she's talking about people getting mowed down by fire hoses, just total violence and chaos, and now it's, like you said, it could be just in the average office. It could be in any building, anywhere, and it is dangerous.

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: I think the lines are a lot more--the area is a lot more gray now. I mean, I mean, what is the righteous side of the affirmative action debate? What is the clear, righteous side to follow on and to rally around an issue on? I mean, it's not like a segregation issue, where you can look at that and say, two people are people; they should work together. It's much more of a gray area. I mean, the military involvement; none of us are faced with the draft. It's not do you go, or do you stay? It's not a clear issue to really bring about strong leaders or people to look up to.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Let me ask you this about the whole issue of heroes. There is this perception, rightly or wrongly, that your generation is--some people in your generation are a bit apathetic against the whole question of slackers, the generation X and all this--do you think that--to the extent that's true--and I understand it's not entirely true--it does have to do with a lack of heroes in the next generation, or the two generations about it?

JEANETTE BENNETT: There's never been anything to really unite our generations. You know, in the past they had world wars, they had depressions, where they had to come together, and we're just sort of all over the place, and everything's sort of gray to us, because we've never really had to stand up for anything or fight for anything, and so that's where some of the apathy comes from.

YI-SHUN LAI: I agree with Jeanette. I think there's a certain lack of issues to be excited about.

MS. FARNSWORTH: At least clear issues, issues that are clearly defined.

YI-SHUN LAI: Yeah. Right.

RONALD EYESTER: It's like a self-centered society. You know, people just wonder what they're going to get for Christmas and how many--but, you know, I bet we could go on the streets right now and ask people about the government shutdown, and some people would be completely ignorant to the entire fact that it's going on. And that's sad. That's really scary. You talk about passing the torch from generation to generation. Well, in years to come, we're going to pass the torch, and who are we going to pass it to, you know? You know, a kid growing up right now who his hero is Bart Simpson or Beavis and Butthead, I mean, it's ridiculous.

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: Anybody who truly feels that this is a lazy generation or a generation that's not doing work, just sitting around, watching TV shouldn't, you know, ask their 10-year-old grandkid to come over and program the VCR. And we may not be building a--but I mean, we're building--it's a whole new infrastructure, and, I mean, it's an incredibly intelligent and technologically advanced generation. People I meet--I have a lot of faith in this generation. No, we're not out marching in the streets, waving the signs, but we have gray areas, we don't have clear cut lines to debate, and I still think there is some disillusionment from what happened in the 60's and what happened in the 70's and the 80's. You know, there's going to be a build-up, more of an individualistic approach, but like I said, I'm optimistic that in the end our generation, they know what they're doing.

MS. FARNSWORTH: What about Bosnia, is Bosnia an issue that you get lots of letters about it at your paper?

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: Not that many. Perhaps more now that, during the break, the troop build-up has really accelerated, but to be honest, foreign relations issues take a back seat to on-campus, localized issues.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Is that true at Howard too?

MONICA LEWIS: I would think so.

MS. FARNSWORTH: How about the Citadel? I would think at the Citadel there would be a lot of interest in Bosnia.

RONALD EYESTER: There is interest only because, you know, the guys who I'm sharing barracks rooms today could be in Bosnia tomorrow. I mean, it hits home, because we're a military school, and the fact that, you know, we practice military ideals, and we wear uniforms, but, you know, we're not a service academy, so people don't center their lives around the armed forces, but a third of our graduating classes go into the military, so this is a big issue.

MS. FARNSWORTH: What are people saying about Bosnia?

RONALD EYESTER: Well, I mean--

MS. FARNSWORTH: I mean, this is an issue that involves a lot of idealism, whether you're for it or against it, it's partly based on wanting to help, right?

RONALD EYESTER: Yeah. I think people, a lot of people, I mean, obviously, people are going to voice a variety of opinions and people believe that, you know, why are we going over there? I mean, my main concern, I've talked about it with my friends, is they're talking about keeping peace. I mean, you have to make peace before you can keep it. I mean, they're talking about maintaining something that really doesn't exist, and you know, it's dangerous, and I think now a lot of people wake up, especially during the holiday season when, you know, you're watching the news and you're watching these soldiers eat off paper plates, and, you know, it really saddens you, and overall, though, I think as a nation, I mean, whatever the decision is, I mean, I think as an American, you know, we should support that decision and, you know, we are Americans, we are citizens, and we should support the decisions that are made, and you know, show that commitment to other nations.

MS. FARNSWORTH: How about at Miami, at your college, is there much interest?

BILL LARA: Well, yes, as a matter of fact there is. Miami Dade is such an international hub. We have many, many, many places, and there's a lot of interest in things that are happening outside the country, not just Europe, Latin American and things of this sort.

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: We need to keep in mind that the betterment of the whole and it's a gray area. Affirmative action isn't a perfect program, but what's the alternative? The mission to Bosnia, no, it's not a perfect mission. It's not clear cut, and we're not fighting the Nazis, and it's not something we can all rally around, but what is the alternative? What else is going to bring peace to that region? I would point that, you know, we say it's not worth one American life. Is ten thousand Bosnian lives worth one American life? They're not clearcut issues. They're tough issues to grapple with.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Do you think that one reasons students aren't so interested in Bosnia or in some of the other foreign policy issues is that they're facing such a tough job market? I mean, do you have the feeling that this is a tougher job market for you all?

MONICA LEWIS: Definitely.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Are you worried about it? Are you worried about doing as well as your family, for example, or as well as your family wants you to do?

MONICA LEWIS: Umm, probably--in the business that we're trying to get into, I know that it's hard because you--

MS. FARNSWORTH: You want to be a journalist?

MONICA LEWIS: I want to be a reporter for a newspaper. It's not a career, you know, so to speak, that needs a lot of people, you know, whereas, like a mortician; you always have business. But there is really nothing pressing about journalism, so it's hard, but I think the whole--everyone I meet--the economy in the state that it is, and so many people laid off, and you know, with technology taking the place of actual people, it's like pretty soon there will be a computer that can, you know, generate stories and put out papers, or pretty soon people won't want to read newspapers; they'll just want to watch TV or listen to the radio. So it's kind of, you know, depressing but I do think that I'll be- -I'll do as well as my parents, if not better.

MS. FARNSWORTH: Do you worry about the economy and about your role in it?

YI-SHUN LAI: Yes and no. It makes things--you know, it makes--I think it's really hard to say. We're so unpredictable as a generation. I mean, the human race is so unpredictable as a people. I think it's hard to say. It really is.

MS. FARNSWORTH: But you're not--is somebody in somewhat sort of despair about the economy?

RONALD EYESTER: I think a lot of it's exaggerated. I mean, like going back to what Bill said, if you want something, and you're determined to get it, and you're going to dedicate a lot of effort to do it, I think you will get it, and I think it goes back to everyone having their own American dream, what they want to do. You know, as long as you can see something, just reach out for it. I mean, I firmly believe in if you want something and you, you know, you got enough work going into it, you're going to accomplish that goal.

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: So long as the program and the support is there to help you see what the goal is going to be.

YI-SHUN LAI: This is this gray, foggy area that we're talking about, makes us more a go-getter generation. You know, it's like, well, we don't know what we're going to get, so I guess it's just up to us to go get it. I mean, that's the only thing we can do. I mean, what else--

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: Like trial and error.

YI-SHUN LAI: --can we do? Exactly.

BILL LARA: Getting it as it comes.

PATRICK STRAWBRIDGE: Colleges aren't the philosophical debate type places that maybe they were once meant to be. I don't know how true that ever rang, but it's more a job factory than any other-- I don't know--people need to work. People need to find jobs. That's what they go to college for these days, and outside interests and foreign policy issues are going to take some of a back seat to that. Again, it's, what do you know, and what do you want to do?

MS. FARNSWORTH: Well, this has been very interesting. Thank you all for being with us.

MR. LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, juvenile crime, a luxury tax update, and Rosenblatt on 1995. FOCUS - JUVENILE JUSTICE

MR. LEHRER: Now, one city's attempt to deal with the country's No. 1 crime problem, violent crimes committed by teenagers. Betty Ann Bowser reports from Jacksonville, Florida.

MAN: Do you all feel like you're big enough to be in this cell? Most of these guys in here are my size or bigger, my size and bigger.

MS. BOWSER: Going to jail in Jacksonville, Florida, can be a very personal experience for teenagers and their parents.

MAN: All of a sudden you're in this holding cell and you're in here with 20 individuals. Guess what? If you have to go to the rest room, you're going to go to the restroom right here. There's no-- do you see a wall here? There's no wall.

MS. BOWSER: Most of these kids visiting the jail are what's termed "at risk," youngsters from single-parent homes, or from the projects, kids who may have skipped school a couple of times but so far have not done anything serious enough to be charged with a crime. So the state attorney's office takes them on a tour of the Duvall County Jail in hopes it will impress upon them how stark life behind bars can be.

MAN: And you're going to be able to walk with this outside this institution. I want you to feel how much this weighs, because these aren't light.

MS. BOWSER: They examine the "jewelry," a jailhouse term for hand and leg irons.

MAN: Go ahead and pass those down. And there's no way that you can sit there and try to break those or try to pick them. You think you're going to pick them?

MS. BOWSER: And they also meet with incarcerated inmates from the jail's sixth floor. It's all to hammer home the point that when a kid commits a serious crime in Jacksonville, chances are pretty good he will skip the juvenile system and go straight to adult court, and from there, straight to the Duvall County Jail, where all three of these boys under the age of 18 are doing six months to a year of hard time.

RICHARD: I guess I didn't learn from the first time when I had my other burglary charge, and I guess I'm payin' for it doing 10 months in Duvall County Jail.

MS. BOWSER: Since 1991, state attorney Harry Shorestein has been trying violent juvenile offenders as adults by the hundreds. The result: Juvenile arrests are at their lowest point in a decade. Overall juvenile crime is down 30 percent, and violent crimes committed by juveniles have dropped by 50 percent. Shorestein wastes no time explaining his brand of juvenile justice to his visitors.

HARRY SHORESTEIN, Florida Attorney General: Where a lot of people feel that a teenager or a juvenile commits a crime, nothing will happen to them, in this jurisdiction, as you know, something will happen to you.

MS. BOWSER: Florida leads the nation in the number of juveniles who are tried in adult courts, largely because of Shorestein's "get tough" policy in Jacksonville. More than 500 kids under the age of 18 have been tried and convicted as adults under Shorestein's tenure. A few have been sentenced to the state prison system, but most are sent to the Duvall County jail's sixth floor, where they're housed with other juvenile felons. Television and cigarettes are not allowed, but there is a recreation program and inmates attend school.

[COMMENCEMENT EXERCISE]

MS. BOWSER: Last summer, this home video captured the jail school's first graduation ceremony. Five boys received their diplomas. But most of the inmates do not finish high school while in jail. Mostly, they just do the time in what federal court monitors say may be one of the most dangerous teenage lock-ups in the country. Alonzo Lightsey is serving a year for a serious drug conviction.

ALONZO LIGHTSEY: It's hard. I haven't seen plenty of people get jumped on, get their head busted, and all that, but--

MS. BOWSER: Physically abused?

ALONZO LIGHTSEY: Yeah.

MS. BOWSER: Sexually abused?

ALONZO LIGHTSEY: [nodding in the affirmative]

MS. BOWSER: So it's a grown-up place?

ALONZO LIGHTSEY: Yeah.

MS. BOWSER: Even though you're kids.

ALONZO LIGHTSEY: [nodding in the affirmative]

MS. BOWSER: And it's a lot different from being in a juvenile detention facility?

ALONZO LIGHTSEY: Yeah.

MS. BOWSER: Anthony Durst is doing a year for burglary and stealing a car.

ANTHONY DURST: Same thing happened to me. I got jumped on, you know, five or six people. They beat me up so, I just--I can't handle that so, I go to the box, you know, where no one messes with you.

MS. BOWSER: Isolation?

ANTHONY DURST: Yes, ma'am. Juvenile programs, they're like, I don't know if I should say they're too easy or not, but I mean, whenever you get out of them, like my friends, they get out of 'em, they're back in the car, driving around the block, you know, just stole it, but whenever I get out of here, I know, you know, I'm not going to be back out stealing cars, 'cause I'm not coming back.

MS. BOWSER: Are you saying that because you think that's what I want to hear, or because you really mean it?

ANTHONY DURST: 'Cause I mean it.

MS. BOWSER: Do you have any problem knowing that sexual and physical assaults take place in your juvenile program, in your jail, where are 14, 15, 16 year old kids?

HARRY SHORESTEIN: We're not trying to suggest that the jail is a palace or a wonderful place to go. In fact, it isn't. It is an adult prison that truly does incarcerate 'em and take away their rights, and there are dangers in our juvenile-adult facility as there are in any confinement institution. We've continued to send the wrong message tothese children. What we're telling them is that there are no consequences for criminal activity, and what'll happen is they'll continue to build a record that will not give them any punishment until the record essentially consumes them.

MS. BOWSER: Rafael Williams is one of Shorestein's success stories. At the age of 15, he and four other older juveniles robbed a bank. It was his first offense. Still, he was tried as an adult and sentenced to one year in the Duvall County Jail.

RAFAEL WILLIAMS: It scares you. It shows you that the system doesn't play and you can't beat the system. I mean, people go to programs, they're going to think, hey, I can do this again, go to, go to a playground, a play camp for a couple of months and get out, but going straight to jail, I mean, that shows you had the system right there, right there with you.

MS. BOWSER: Right in your face?

RAFAEL WILLIAMS: Right there.

MS. BOWSER: Williams is currently a senior honors student at a Jacksonville high school. He plans to graduate in June, go on to college, and someday become a police officer. But chief assistant public defender Bill White says Shorestein's justice doesn't work for the majority of juveniles. His office represents most of the teenagers who get tried as adults.

BILL WHITE, Chief Assistant Public Defender: The maximum time they serve in that facility over there is a year, and that's just about enough time for them to pick up a lot of hints on how to do better burglaries and maybe how to eliminate a witness and maybe how to do a robbery without getting caught, how to defend yourself certainly, because they have to defend themselves against physical violence, against sexual violence. I don't know what the message ultimately is up there, but it's not scaring the kids, except the weak ones, and the weak ones come out of there, maybe say, I'm broken, my spirit's broken, my, my sense of self- worth is broken, I don't really have any, any desire to come back here, and maybe they won't. But the strong ones, they'll come back. It isn't--it isn't breaking the strong ones. It's making them tougher and meaner and probably better criminals.

MS. BOWSER: Shorestein's critics say many of the kids get out of jail and re-offend. A recent study by a Florida newspaper found 76 percent convicted as adults in 1993 were arrested on new charges or probation violations. But Shorestein says what counts is that there is less overall juvenile crime while the kids are incarcerated.

HARRY SHORESTEIN: Now that the word has gotten out the jail population of juveniles has dropped from 190 down to the lows 60's, so not only is juvenile crime down generally, with violent juvenile crime down substantially, the numbers that we're actually bringing into the system are declining significantly. I just don't see it. I don't see the quality of the charges being any different. I see the same types of people coming in. I don't see any of the underlying causes for these things going away, so it--I've just got some question in my mind that those figures really reflect what's going on in the community.

MS. BOWSER: So far, Jacksonville is the only major city in the country trying large numbers of juveniles as adults. But the practice is gaining popularity as violent juvenile crime figures continue to skyrocket. UPDATE - RISING TIDE

MR. LEHRER: Now, an update on a report we did four years ago. With federal budget negotiations ongoing, Kwame Holman looks at a problem the historic budget talks of 1990 produced and the solution that followed.

JOE DOCKERY, Boat Owner: It's nice to finally be able to see it completed, boy, and it has been two and a half years.

MR. HOLMAN: Joe Dockery is, in a word, rich, on this particular day, rich enough to take delivery on this 72-foot sailing yacht, custom-designed and built by Alden Yachts of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Cost: $2 1/2 million.

JOE DOCKERY: I'm very content. It looks just super.

MR. HOLMAN: These are the carpenters, fiberglass, and metal workers, electricians who actually did the work. Most are first and second generation Portuguese, skilled craftsmen with a specialty in boat-building. They are not rich, but their glad Joe Dockery is. His one order alone kept 20 workers employed full-time at Alden for two and a half years. And that's not counting the subcontractors who built the 100-foot carbon-fiber mast, molded the lightweight high-tech hull, and sewed the sails. Tony Abreau made all the customized stainless steel pieces.

TONY ABREAU, Metal Worker: This big piece over there cost between five and six thousand dollars.

MR. HOLMAN: Joe Dockery, who owns a string of successful car dealerships in New Jersey, didn't hesitate to choose Alden to build his boat. In fact, this is his second Alden. That's his first, a 54-footer now for sale. But Dockery wouldn't even consider having his new boat built here or anywhere else in the United States until Congress repealed the federal luxury tax on boats. That tax would have cost him about $240,000, a bill he could afford but refused to pay.

JOE DOCKERY: You're being chosen as a special person to pay extra, and I didn't see the logic behind it. I found it insulting. I was very close to building a boat in Finland, I mean, very close.

MR. HOLMAN: According to David MacFarlane, president of Alden Yachts, Dockery's order brought the company back from the brink of collapse. MacFarlane thinks back to November 1990, when President Bush and the Democratic majority in Congress agreed to levy the luxury tax. He says he still can't believe they did it.

DAVE MacFARLANE, Alden Yachts: I don't know anybody in the Marine industry that didn't know that there was a total disaster to start, and it's still amazing to think how somebody could come up with an idea that would shut off a business, and everybody that was in the business knew this would happen, and yet it floated right through.

MR. HOLMAN: The theory behind the luxury tax sounded simple enough. Congress believed anyone willing to spend $100,000 or more on a new boat surely would be willing to pay an additional 10 percent to the federal government. But that didn't happen. Rather than pay the tax, many people in the market to buy a boat either didn't buy one, or bought one overseas. As a result, the luxury tax didn't bring in much money at all, and the customers' reluctance to buy put the boat-building business, particularly here in Rhode Island, out of business. We first visited Rhode Island in June of 1992. The luxury tax had been in effect for 18 months. Tens of thousands of jobs had been lost across the country, thousands in Rhode Island alone.

WALTER SCHULZ, Boat Builder: [1992] When that tax came down, I mean, it was just as if, I know the metaphor sounds exaggerated, as if someone turned the faucet off.

MR. HOLMAN: At that time we talked with Walter Schulz, founder and president of Shannon Yachts. After 17 years of building boats, his company did collapse. Schulz was forced to declare bankruptcy.

WALTER SCHULZ: American boat builders, manufacturers were able to still dominate. We were able to compete head-to-head in terms of price. We were able to compete head-to-head in terms of technology. We were able to make the technological advances that still continue to dominate. We were able to make the design advances that dominate the world market. And that existed, by the way, right up until last year, I mean, and then it vaporized.

MR. HOLMAN: We talked with Ken Kubic, manager of the East Passage Marine on Narragansett Bay.

KEN KUBIC, East Passage Marina: [1992] We used to do close to $400,000 worth of launching and christening work for these manufacturers, and that, that just dried up to nothing.

MR. HOLMAN: When we talked with Dave MacFarlane in 1992, Alden Yachts had no new boats on order. MacFarlane had been forced to lay off dozens of skilled workers and at the time concluded the luxury tax was costing the government more money than it was collecting.

DAVE MacFARLANE: [1992] If you look at approximately say 35 or so people laid off at about say two hundred and sixty-five to three hundred and ten dollars a week in unemployment, if you add that up, you know, it comes to about $1/2 million.

MR. HOLMAN: Some members of Congress realized almost immediately they made a mistake in levying the luxury tax.

SEN. JOHN BREAUX, [D] Louisiana: [1992] Now there's no question that the economy has hurt the boat-building business, but I think that they were just barely treading water. And what Congress did was come up and kind of put our foot on top of their heads and just shoved them under the water line, and as a result, they really are drowning.

MR. HOLMAN: It took a relentless grassroots lobbying campaign by the boat builders, but Congress finally did repeal the federal luxury tax on boats in August of 1993. We returned to Rhode Island a few weeks ago to see if the boat-building industry had returned. It had for Dave MacFarlane. Joe Dockery ordered his $2 1/2 million yacht from MacFarlane five days after the luxury tax was repealed.

JOE DOCKERY: It was pretty close to immediately. We were just waiting for it to end, and as soon as it ended, we moved.

MR. HOLMAN: Ray Lavoie, supervisor of all electrical and mechanical work at Alden, was one of the few survivors of the layoffs.

RAY LAVOIE, Alden Yachts: [inspecting yacht] I think we're all set.

MR. HOLMAN: He said once the luxury tax was repealed, the turnaround in business was instantaneous.

RAY LAVOIE: Almost immediately, almost immediately, we started selling some boats, and interest picked up, and most of the individuals that we called that were working here came back.

MR. HOLMAN: Alden now has a backlog of half a dozen boats on order, and its full-time work force is nearly back to where it was before the luxury tax was implemented.

RAY LAVOIE: So it's a good feeling.

MR. HOLMAN: According to Ken Kubic, business also is up at the nearby East Passage Marine. That's due in part to Kubic, who, after leading the national effort to repeal the 10 percent federal luxury tax, also helped convince his home state legislators to repeal Rhode Island's 7 percent sales tax on boats.

KEN KUBIC: People like ourselves, who were really not influential, were not paid lobbyists, where people in small businesses had gotten together and got Congress to do something, correct something that was wrong. I thought it was a--it just shows that something like this can happen in this country. People complain about this country constantly, and I think the system really works both on the state and federal level.

MR. HOLMAN: Walter, what's different from three years ago?

WALTER SCHULZ, Boat Builder: Oh, just about everything.

MR. HOLMAN: And Walter Schulz was able to rescue his Shannon Boat Company from bankruptcy. He said new orders for boats came in as soon as repeal of the luxury tax was signed.

WALTER SCHULZ: Now, there was a pent-up demand, people just waiting, people who had had it up to here, so when the moment did come, however, it was instantaneous.

MR. HOLMAN: But Schulz says he resumed boat-building with mixed emotions.

WALTER SCHULZ: It's been explained to me as the foxhole syndrome, where you're standing next to the person and they get their head blow off, and you're still alive, and you start feeling guilty, and that set in very, very rapidly, because while I was able to get back, or I'm able to be standing here talking to you, we've got an awful lot of good folks who aren't working right now, and a lot of great companies that are closed.

MR. HOLMAN: And Schulz is less than forgiving of the political process.

WALTER SCHULZ: I wish it was the great American political system, and that was all to me very--and I said earlier was a negative. It was the most disillusioning period in my 34 years of work. I still believe in America, all right. I've got a real problem with that 15 acres of what we call Washington that's surrounded by reality, though.

MR. HOLMAN: Joe Dockery isn't happy with Washington either, particularly since he's still trying to get Congress to repeal the luxury tax that's still in effect on many of the new cars he sells, even though that tax is bringing in money for the government.

JOE DOCKERY: I hope they clean up that one too. You know, the more little taxes we have, the more confusing it is. If we could only get ourselves down to maybe one big tax, cut out a lot of bureaucracy, I think that would make more sense.

[BOAT CHRISTENING CEREMONY]

MR. HOLMAN: There was a brief christening ceremony at Alden Yachts to launch Joe Dockery's new boat, and afterward, a party for Dockery's family and friends, but particularly for the boat builders, themselves.

DAVE MacFARLANE: There's not too many fields of endeavor that people can get into where they leave a bit of themselves. If you're in this business, you really have to live it. It takes an incredible amount of dedication, and I'd like to have all of the employees of Alden stand up, and I'd like to give them all a round of applause. [applause]

MR. HOLMAN: Joe Dockery now is spending the holidays with his family, sailing the Caribbean in his new 72-foot sailing yacht. Most of the workers at Alden are spending their holidays a little closer to home, grateful they'll be back at work, building more boats in 1996. FINALLY - 1995 - REFLECTIONS

MR. LEHRER: Finally tonight, some reflects on the year 1995 from our essayist, Roger Rosenblatt. I spoke with him on Friday.

MR. LEHRER: Roger, what do you think was the most important thing that happened in 1995?

ROGER ROSENBLATT: I think the most important thing that happened last year was the truce or three truces in three areas that we'd come to associate only with war, destruction, and mayhem in Northern Ireland, in the Middle East, and in Bosnia. And if you have three areas where there is peace or the promise of peace, where there was nothing but war before, that has to be the most important event.

MR. LEHRER: In all three of those cases the conventional wisdom was that those people hated each other so deeply and had done so for so long that they would be the last to come around.

ROGER ROSENBLATT: It's true. Most of the worst wars we've got are civil wars in one way or another, and in fact, I think--I have been to two of those three places and the only place I was really afraid was Northern Ireland. It didn't have anything to do with fear for myself, but it was that you could feel the hate in the air between the Catholics and Protestants in Belfast. It was palpable. And to think that they had been able to reach some sort of--something that approaches peace is really miraculous.

MR. LEHRER: The same, of course, in Bosnia, the jury is still out, but all the, the reports are that all that hatred has suddenly kind of just gone away, at least temporarily. Who knows what may- -when it may come back.

ROGER ROSENBLATT: It would be wonderful if all the conventional wisdom were turned on its head and everything we've come to associate with the worst of tribalism turned out to be something decent and respectable.

MR. LEHRER: Yeah. Roger, what was '95 like for literature and the other arts?

ROGER ROSENBLATT: I don't think it was much in terms of artistic production, but one of the artistic events of the year that's interested me, at any rate, is the emergence suddenly of Jane Austin as a modern--

MR. LEHRER: Oh, yeah, yeah.

ROGER ROSENBLATT: --a modern hero. And I was trying to figure it out. Somebody said it's because she brought good manners back to the world. I'm not quite sure that was true, 'cause she was fairly, she was fairly satirical in her novels, as you know, but the one thing that I thought might be true is that her Sense and Sensibility, the title of a novel which is now a great movie, is something that really fits well with Americans and may have always fit well with Americans. She was born in the 18th century 200 years ago, wrote in the 19th century, and had a nice balance of thought between the kind of stable, orderly, organized institutional 18th century mind, and the passionate and adventurous, romantic 19th century mind. And if you look at all the people in her novels, they behave kind of crazily and often very badly, but there's always an order of society that's around them. And maybe her popularity in our country particularly these days has to do with someone who, on the one hand, prizes passion, on the other hand knows the value of order.

MR. LEHRER: Yeah. And maybe everybody--you mean, maybe we are ready for a little bit of order, as well as passion. We got our passion. Now it's time for order.

ROGER ROSENBLATT: You have it exactly right. I think we've had our fill of passion. I think we'd like to calm down a bit.

MR. LEHRER: What about heroes? I'm always interested at the end of a year. It's interesting in and of itself. We talk in terms of years, No. 1, but were any new heroes created that have any permanence to them, do you think?

ROGER ROSENBLATT: Well, permanence is hard to--in fact, it's very hard to know who are the heroes of any year and age, as you know, because sometimes the hero is a researcher in a lab, studying cures for cancer, who goes home to his or her apartment every night and makes one infinitesimal discovery, which may mean more than all the more dramatic or apparently cataclysmic events. One question that's always interested me is: Which is more important during World War II, World War II or the discovery of penicillin, in terms of lives affected, you'd really have to--you'd have to work your way through it. The two, two heroic activities did occur. I don't know how permanent they are. In one case, I hope it is not permanent. You'll see why. One is Richard Holbrooke's activity in Bosnia. I think any person who has worked so hard and long and really independently for a long time before he had a great institution, this country behind him, deserves a lot of credit for trying to manipulate, work, wield a peace, so certainly heroic act. I don't know in terms of the permanence. And the other is Christopher Reeve, who had that terrible accident, as you know, that horseback accident from which he is now almost entirely paralyzed. But his heroism seems to me to be in both courage and great cheer that he gives to other people, not just people with spinal chord injuries but people with diseases who seem to be in a hopeless situation, who are not as prominent, who are not celebrities. So that seems to me--these seemed to me to be acts of heroism. Their permanence will be up to the future, I guess.

MR. LEHRER: We--not just we Americans, we human beings, do live with our celebrities, don't we? I mean, you wrote a marvelous essay in the course of this last year about Mickey Mantle. Mickey Mantle died, and when you think of heroes, now, of course, it's not in a league with--it's an entirely different matter than the scientist or even Christopher Reeves or Richard Holbrooke, but Mickey Mantle stands for something too, doesn't he?

ROGER ROSENBLATT: He does. It's really hard to figure out, because not only did we know his faults, he knew his fault.

MR. LEHRER: Yeah.

ROGER ROSENBLATT: And you remember one of the things that was very touching about the end of his life was his strain to exculpate himself, to apologize, to his family, to the world, and so forth. But what I don't think he fully appreciated was how much we loved him simply for being. Americans can do that. You know, when we find a character like Mantle or like Ginger Rogers, for example, who also died this year, just, there's no way to explain it. They just look wonderful, and they are naturals in the sense of Bernard Malamud's wonderful novel, The Natural. What they do we can't do, and so we just sit back and offer them love.

MR. LEHRER: Yeah. And I offer you love and good wishes for the new year, Roger.

ROGER ROSENBLATT: And to you, my friend.

MR. LEHRER: Thank you. RECAP

MR. LEHRER: Again, the major stories of this New Year's Day, the flow of U.S. Army vehicles from Croatia to Bosnia continued over the newly-completed Sava River bridge, and President Clinton and congressional leaders took a break from budget talks. The negotiations are set to resume tomorrow evening in Washington. Have a great New Year's evening and a great new year. We'll see you tomorrow night. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.