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You deserve a factual look at ...

Those "West Bank" SettlementsAre they really the "greatest obstacle to peace"?Not too long ago, then Secretary of State James Baker made the astonishing comment thatIsraeli settlements in Judea/Samaria (the "West Bank") were the greatest obstacle to peace inthe Middle East. This claim is constantly being repeated; many have come to accept it as truth.Could Mr. Baker possibly be right? It's a serious accusation and it deserves examination.

allotted to them by the U.N., the Jewsdeclared their independence, and the state

A recap of history. Some thumb- of Israel was born. On the same day, sixnail history may be in order. Large num- Arab armies invaded the new-born state.bers of Jews have been living in these In what can be described as an almost bib-territories since biblical times. Most of the lical miracle, the Jews defeated them.Arabs living there are in fact relative new- When an armistice was finally secured,comers. "Palestine" is the entire area however, TransJordan remained in posses-now covered by Israel, including sion of Judea/Samaria (the "West Bank")Judea/Samaria (the so-called "West and the eastern part of Jerusalem; Egypt

. Bank") and what is now the Kingdom of remained in possession of the Gaza Strip.Jordan. It originally also included the TransJordan then renamed itself Jordan.Golan Heights, which later, in an agree- The Six-Day War. Once in posses-ment between England and France, were sion of the "West Bank" and Eastceded to France, and to Syria as the sue- Jerusalem, the Jordanians promptly pro-cessor in possession. -...;.-------------- ceeded to expel allIn 1922, contrary to "Why should the Arab countries Jews and systematical-the Mandate of the Iy to desecrate and toLeague of Nations, and the 'West Bank' be the only destroy most Jewishthe British severed places in the world where Jews sacred places, ceme-the entire area east are not allowed to live?" teries and houses ofof the Jordan and worship. No Jews,gave it to the Hashemite Arabs for their regardless of citizenship were allowed intoassistance in World War I. Thus, fully 75% the "West Bank" or East Jerusalem, theof Palestine, all of which under the locale of the Western Wall, the holiest siteMandate and under the terms of the in Judaism. In 1967, Egyptian presidentBalfour Declaration was meant to be a Abdel Nasser joined by the same array ofhomeland for the Jewish people, was lost Arab armies that had unsuccessfully triedfor that purpose. Only the area west of the to destroy Israel at its birth in 1948,Jordan was left for Jewish settlement. launched another war against Israel "to

How the West Bank became drive the Jews into the sea" and into obliv-"Arab country". In 1947, after decades ion, once and for all. But the Israelis utterlyof strife between Arabs and Jews, the defeated the combined Arab might in the 6-British decided to relinquish the Mandate. Day War, one of the greatest military victo-The UN stepped in and proposed a parti- ries in history. When the dust of wartion plan under which the country (west of settled, the Israelis had not only retainedthe River) was to be divided into respec- their national territory, but had repossessedtive Arab and Jewish areas. Jerusalem was the territories of Judea/Samaria (the "Westto be internationalized. The Jews accepted Bank"), the eastern part of Jerusalem, thethe plan; the Arabs refused it out of hand. Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and hadIn 1948, on the twice truncated territory occupied the vast Sinai Peninsula.

What are the facts?

It is clear from this abbreviated history that the Israeli claim to the 'West Bank" is far strongerthan that of the Arabs. About 100,000 Jews now live there. And why shouldn't they? Whyshould the Arab countries and the 'West Bank" be the only places in the whole wide worldwhere Jews are not allowed to live? How can 100,000 Jews living among 700,000 Arabs bethe "greatest threat to peace"? How can our government be concerned about a new settlement

. of a few mobile homes on some barren Judean hills as the "greatest threat to peace", when weseem to be oblivious and totally unconcerned about the unrelenting hostility of the Arab coun-tries, the de facto incorporation of Lebanon by Syria, the Scuds and chemical weapons stillremaining in Iraq, and the relentless and ominous build-up of Syria's missile forces?

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INA PRA YER OFFERED up at the Inaugural ceremony that Clintonites inother circumstances would have responded to with prolonged hissing, the

Rev. Billy Graham delivered what nowadays-if reported at all-is called aconservative message. He thanked God "for the moral and spiritual founda-tions which our forefathers gave us, and which are rooted deeply in HolyScripture." It gets better: "Those principles have nourished and guided us as anation in the past." And now for the killer part: "But we cannot say that weare a righteous people, for we are not. We have sinned against You. We havesown the wind and are reaping the whirlwind of crime, drug abuse, racism,immorality, and social injustice. We need to repent of our sins ... " Needlessto say, carried away by Maya Angelou, the press simply ignored this coldshower and reprinted not one word of Graham's invocation. In fact, in theonly extended mention I could find, the New York Times focused on Mrs.Bush's eyes during the prayer (they "were shut unusually tight") and reportedthat young Chelsea had trouble staying awake through Graham's briefremarks (only to revive during Dad's speech, which put the rest of us tosleep). Perhaps, as with many young people, Chelsea's nodding off came as anatural response to unfamiliar concepts. From all accounts, her father isn't oneto emphasize the link between righteousness and repentance.

As IT TURNS OUT, he's not the only one. This month we present twoarchetypes of unrepentant self-righteousness, Messrs. Lawrence Walsh

and Gary Sick, profiled and confronted with damning material by MichaelLedeen and Steven Emerson, respectively. Bob Tyrrell, Tom Bethell, JohnMeroney, and Aram Bakshian, Jr. report and remark on some of the countlessfrauds who turned the Inauguration into a debauch of biblical proportions. Buta word of caution: lest anyone hold it against Dizzy Gillespie that Bill Cosbypresented a sweatshirt with the late jazz great's visage to Bill Clinton, tumimmediately to Victor Gold's "Cool Diz and Me." Somehow as a nation weremain blessed with people who know the way to the Promised Land.

The American Spectator March 1993

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Among the well-educated the myth still cir-culates that religion is the preserve of the dim-witted, unlettered, and irrational, that the priceof salvation is checking your mind at the PearlyGates. Yet, from Harvard to Berkeley, and amonginquisitive people generally, there's an undeniablerenewal of interest in the questions traditional re-ligion raises and seeks to answer. This fascinationis largely the result of the failure of secular sub-stitutes for religion (such as positivism, rational-ism, hedonism, consumerism, technological utopi-anism, Freudianism, and Marxism) to give abid-ingly satisfying answers to the' truly significantpuzzles in life: evil, goodness, suffering, love,death, and the meaning of it all.

Contrary to stereotypes, this religious renais-sance does not imply a retreat from working for'peace, justice, and human dignity; nor does it sig-nify a hostility to science, only an appreciation ofthe limits of science and technology.

We at the NEW OXFORD REVIEW are spear-heading today's intellectual engagement with thesacred. Among other things, we scrutinize the reli-gious dimensions of the great events and issues ofthe past and present, and probe the wisdom offer-ed not only by the Bible and Church fathers, butalso by such giants as St. Francis, Aquinas, Dante,Kierkegaard, Newman, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky,Bonhoeffer, Barth, Niebuhr, Gandhi, Buber, Au-den, Eliot, Silone, Maritain, Merton, Schumacher,

, CONTENTS

The American Spectator

......................................................................................................•.........................

Vol. 26, No.3 March 1993

Departments:The Continuing Crisis 10

Correspondence 12Editorials / Clinton: Week One / Clinton: Week Two,by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr 12Capitol Ideas / Include Me Out, by Tom Bethell 16Politics / Coverdell' s Winning Formula,by Grover Norquist 40The Nation's Pulse/ Cool Diz and Me,by Victor Gold : 42Ben Stein's Diary / Crying Games,by Benjamin J. Stein 44Presswatch / The Set-Aside Set,by Terry Eastland ; 48The Great American Saloon Series /Newport's White Horse Tavern,by M. D. Carnegie 50The Moscow Spectator /Horsing Around,by Jonas Bernstein 52

The Talkies /Alive and Dead, •by James Bowman 54Current Wisdom, by Assorted Jackasses 66Clinton's America:The Real Maya Angelou, by John Meroney 68Grits and Glitz, by Aram Bakshian, Jr 69

Thomas More, Dorothy Day, C.S. Lewis, MartinLuther King, Flannery O'Connor, Mother Teresa,and Archbishops Romero and Tutu. .

An ecumenical monthly edited by lay Cath-olics, we've been characterized by George Will as"splendid," by the University of Chicago's MartinE. Marty as "lively," by the Los Angeles Times as"influential," by Newsweek as "thoughtful andoften cheeky," by Utne Reader as "surprisinglyoriginal," by Library Journal as "brilliant," andby Christopher Derrick, England's foremost Cath-olic apologist, as "by far the best Cathol ic maga-zine in the English-speaking world."

We pu bl ish Protestants, Cathol ics, Angl icans,Eastern Orthodox, Jews, and an occasional non-believer. Writers who've appeared in our pages in-clude such diversely penetrating intellects as Rob-ert Bellah, Christopher Lasch, Jean Bethke Elsh-tain, Daniel Bell, Robert Coles, Irving Howe,Walker Percy, Norman Lear, John Lukacs, J.M.Cameron, Henri Nouwen, Avery Dulles, GordonZahn, Will Campbell, Stanley Hauerwas, RichardMouw, and Sheldon Vanauken. We bat around awide variety of issues and defy easy ideologicalpigeonholing. We'll keep you on your toes!

Whether or 'not you're Catholic, if youyearn for a sane, intelligent, and nonglitzy explor-ation of the religious dimensions of our lives andour world, we invite you to get to know us.

Book ReviewsThe Rascal King (Jack Beatty),reviewed by Fred Siegel 56

Edgar A. Poe (Kenneth Silverman) andEdgar Allan Poe (Jeffrey Meyers),reviewed by Erik Rieselbach 58Rising in the West (Dan Morgan),reviewed by Christopher CaldweIl 60Pilgrim in the Ruins (Jay Tolson),reviewed by John R. Dunlap 62

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Page

28

Lawrence Walsh, Grand Inquisitor, by Michael Ledeen 18The Iran-contra Special Prosecutor has padded expenses, played fast andloose with his taxes, lost classified documents, and misled Congress.Does he think he's above the law?

Gary Sick's Bald-Faced Lies, by Steven Emerson 25The October Surprise hoax is laid to rest-s-at least outsidethe Clinton Administration.

International Studies in Los Angeles, by Edward Norden 28Fairfax High barely resembles the place Jack Kemp and Herb AlpertgraduatedJrom in 1953, but both wouldfeel at home ifthey ever went back.

Cover illustration by John Springs. Interior art by John Springs. David Turner, Jake Tapper. andChristopher Caldwell.

The American Spectator March 1993 7

• On January 20, Governor Bill Clintonwas inaugurated 42nd President of theUnited States and the stock market lost 14points. January went like this. On January13, a task force from the United StatesHouse of Representatives reported that itcould find "no credible evidence" to sup-port allegations that back in October 1980the Reagan-Bush campaign entered into aplot with the late Ayatollah Khomeini todelay the release of American hostagesthen held in Iran. American liberals, manyDemocrats, and others of an equallymalignant disposition had come to believein the existence of such a plot after Mr.Gary Sick, a former member of PresidentJimmy Carter's National SecurityCouncil, published an essay to this effectin the New York Times. Alas, now it turnsout that Mr. Sick may be suffering froman Alzheimer-related disease known asChumpheimer's disease. In recent yearsmany on the left have suffered this debili-tating affliction. With Alzheimer's thepatient forgets things that once were. WithChump heimer' s the patient remembersthings that never were. A recent sufferer,Mr. Spike Lee, has been notifying jour-nalists that AIDS was concocted by theAmerican government to wipe out theblack and Hispanic communities.• President Bill Clinton was not yet inau-gurated when fate presented him with hisfirst candidate for a presidential pardon.On January 10, Felix Bloch, the formerU.S. diplomat suspected in the 1980s ofspying for the Soviet Union, was chargedwith stealing $100 worth of groceries inChapel Hill, North Carolina. It has neverbeen all that clear what Mr. Bloch's poli-tics are, though the suspicions that heraised in the 1980s suggest that he is verymuch an anti-war activist, and with hisarrest in Chapel Hill it is now manifestthat his views on how wealth is createdcoincide nicely with those of many in theClinton Administration. In Des Moines,Iowa, Mr. and Mrs. David Harknessentered upon what might be called adivorce of convenience. Mr. Harkness's

election to the board of the famedBroadlawns Medical Center was almostinvalidated when it was discovered that incontravention of regulations his wife, nowthe former Mrs. Harkness, was a nurse atthe hospital. And so it was off to Tijuanafor these two yuppies who now arerumored to be cohabiting without benefitof state certification.• British naturalists were dismayed byfindings that the UK's robin redbreastpopulation has declined by as much as24 percent over the past year. Nor did itreassure them to read that the Englishcountryside is now inhabited by hun-dreds of pumas and lynxes. English natu-ralists are inveterate hikers, and thosewho have not shriveled themselves intoanorexia nervosa with disgusting vege-

tarian regimens might well tempt therobust appetites of these misplaced carni-vores whilst tramping over hill and daleand singing the naturalists' usual lunaticanthems. In South Australia it was a dif-ferent story. There the news was auspi-cious for friends of the lower orders,after the flattened presence of a pygmyblue tongue lizard was found within thestomach of a deceased snake. The snakehad been squashed on a road 100 milesnorth of Adelaide, and once the won-drous contents of its stomach had beenrevealed it was only a matter of timebefore naturalists located a thrivingcolony of the pygmy blue tongues. Thelizard, known for its elegance and quickintelligence, had not been seen inAustralia since 1959; but authorities willkeep the location of the colony secret lest

local farmers do it damage. Some havebecome extremely jealous of the lizard'ssuperior intelligence.• On January 3, the Cold War was shovedever further back in history as PresidentsBoris Yeltsin and George Bush signed thefifth nuclear-arms-limi tation treaty inMoscow. Three days later, in a dramaticdemonstration of how important it is tokeep in touch, British peace activist, Mr.Chris Cole, 29, was nabbed in Londonafter he broke into a British Aerospaceplant, shouted biblical passages, and ham-mered $770,000 worth of missile parts,which was most unnecessary given recentworld events. Chances for a powerful newpolitical alliance between environmental-ists and nudists loomed large after offi-cials in Encinitas, California, expressedinterest in combating beach erosion byreplacing lost sand with ground glass. InAuburn, California, Mr. Mason O. Cristpled not guilty to peeping at Olympicswimming champion Miss SummerSanders. Mr. Crist has faced similarcharges for his pursuit of women, and inhis apartment police found letters of animpertinent character addressed to theunfortunate Miss Sanders, Miss ElizabethTaylor, Mrs. Priscilla Presley, and Mr.Andre Agassi, who perhaps looks muchprettier when shaven.• Populist President Bill Clinton's nomi-nee for attorney general, Mrs. Zoe Baird,withdrew her name once it was learnedthat her kitchen staff was a virtual sweat-shop, despite her family's annual incomeof nearly three-quarters of a million dol-lars. In Saudi Arabia, Mr. David Brown,32, seemed faintly pleased when a Saudireligious court sentenced him to a stiffcaning for his use of foul language at theBritish-run King Khaled National GuardHospital. Mr. Leroy Wilkinson, 46, ofQueens, New York, pled guilty to blow-ing up his goat and was sentenced to fivedays of community service, though "it hasnot been reported how he might serve. Histalents could be used, of course, at theQueens dog pound. In condom news,

Miss Natalie A. Lerma-Solis has receivedU.S. patent number 5,172,480 for herCondom Pocket Underwear, a line of bothladies' and men's underwear featuring azippered pocket for what has become oneof the essentials of modem life.• A huge row ignited over President BillClinton's plan to end the military's ban onpoofters in the barracks. Mr. Clinton'schoice as secretary of health and humanservices, Miss Donna Shalala, publiclydenied that she is a lesbian while failing toexplain-why her last name is an inscrutablelyric in a 1950s pop song. Documentssmuggled out of China by Mr. Zheng Yiindicate that the Cultural Revolution of the1960s was not only a Marxist-Leninistdream but also a gastronome's delight.Thousands of strict Marxists not only puttheir lax countrymen through re-educationand torture, but in Guangxi Province theyate some. Apparently, the revolutionarycannibalism was frequently organized byparty official's with a disregard for public-health standards that would shockAmerican liberals.• The last days at the Bush presidencywitnessed an unseemly outbreak of anti-Hinduism. In Clay County on the out-skirts of Kansas City, Missouri, a seriesof what officials described as "drive-bycow shootings" left ten cows dead in oneweek. In Canastota, New York, 130cows were poisoned on one farm alone.And in Pryor, Oklahoma, Mr. RogerWilliams, 39, was arrested after he useda .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol toshoot his truck. In Bangkok, Thailand, aBuddhist monk was arrested after beingcaught in flagrante delicto with a femalecorpse in his temple, though it is possiblethat the lady was actually alive and asteadfast follower of Gloria Steinem.• Finally, the Crisis Continues in London,where a secretly taped telephone conversa-tion between Prince Charles and hisinnamorata, Camilla Parker Bowles, dis-pels claims that he is a "cold fish" but alsopresents the royal family with a slight pub-lic relations problem. As a public service toYankee readers, what follows is a particu-larly memorable passage from the Prince'sbedtime telephone talk with Mrs. Bowles:

Cam: ... I can't bear a Sunday nightwithout you.Ch: OhGod.Cam: It's like thatprogram"Start theWeek." I can't start theweekwithoutyou.Ch: I fill your tank.Cam: Yes you do!

8 March 1993The American Spectator The American Spectator March 1993

Ch: Then you can cope.Cam: Then I'm all right.Ch: What about me? The trouble is Ineed you several times a week.Cam: Mmm. So do I. I need you all theweek, all the time.Ch: Oh, God. I'll just live inside yourtrousers or something. It would be mucheasier!Cam: (laughs) What are you going totum into, a pair of knickers? (bothlaugh) Oh you're going to come back asa pair of knickers.

Ch: Or, God forbid, a Tampax. Just myluck. (laughs)Cam: You are a complete idiot! (laughs)Oh what a wonderful idea.Ch: My luck to be chucked down a lava-tory and go on and on forever swirlinground on the top, never going down.

Alas, now Prince Charles will have theenvironmentalists against him owing tothis ecologically repugnant disposal of a _Tampax. His troubles worsen.

-RET

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Inadmissible EvidenceAs a graduate and one-time AdmissionsCommittee member of Harvard's KennedySchool of Government, I must commenton Daniel Wattenberg's "beef ... withHarvard" ("Harvard's· New ,InteriorMinister," TAS, January 1993). TheKennedy School's acceptance of LuisCarri6n, the former Nicaraguan InteriorMinistry deputy and Sandinista, quite pos-sibly reflects the school's unfortunate ten-dency to allow ideology to overcome rea-son. It is no secret that most of the facultylean sharply to the left at the KennedySchool; but when political proclivities areallowed to threaten the school's academicquality there is legitimate cause for con-.cern. Regrettably, this happens not infre-quently in the admissions process.

Although it may not be commonknowledge, one can graduate with hon-ors from Harvard College without everreceiving an "A" in any class. While anapplicant with a strong academic recordwho admits he is a Republican may bethe brunt of jokes, a favored minoritywith a poor academic record-but whograduated with "honors" from Harvard-is likely to receive special consideration.Harvard's strong bias in favor of liberalsand Ivy League graduates would be fine,except for the fact that these decisions toaccept students from their schools whothink like they do are carried out in thename of diversity. Such ideologicalfavoritism and liberal elite academicincest make a mockery of an otherwiselegitimate goal.

Fortunately, many of the faculty andstaff do place a high premium on acade-mic ability and public policy experiencein the admissions process. There arethose, however, who think for examplethat being a pugnacious lesbian compen-sates for academic mediocrity. While Idid not serve on the mid-career admis-sions committee that admitted LuisCarri6n, it would be naive to deny thatsome may have had purely ideologicalreasons to accept him, thereby certifyingCarrion with the Harvard seal ofapproval. For better or for worse,Harvard's approval still carries a lot ofweight in this country and around theworld, as the OAS demonstrated byawarding Carri6n a scholarship on the

basis of his Kennedy School acceptance.If those who seek to subjugate academicquality to ideology prevail, though, thiswill cease to be so.

-Shelton M. VaughanAustin, Texas

Hunt CountryThomas Mallon's worthwhile article"Dallas Greets President'" (TAS,December 1992) makes a few mistakesand one or two accusations that meritimmediate clarification. First, I am not,as he asked, "related to the notoriousH.L. Hunt family." Secondly, the SixthFloor exhibition includes both a photo-graph and a brief film clip that show themoments when the fatal shot hitPresident John F. Kennedy in the head.The Polaroid photograph corresponds toZapruder frame 315. The film embracesZapruder 313 and the frames that follow.The organizers elected not to show themore gruesome frames from theZapruder film for the reason that Malloncited: children.

Finally, the motorcade route throughDealey Plaza seems to have confusedMallon, as it has frequently confused ear-lier assassination writers. The route wasnot changed at the "last minute" as crit-ics have often asserted. Officials agreedon the route in mid-month; the route wasdescribed in a Dailas newspaper onNovember 19 and appeared in a newspa-per map on November 21.

Mallon is correct that the purpose ofthe motorcade was to place the Presidentclose to a large number of people. Themotorcade went down Main Streetbecause that street was the center of thedowntown business district. Main Streetgoes through Dealey Plaza at its westernedge. The luncheon was to be held at theDallas Trade Mart, and the most immedi-ate and fastest route to this location wasvia Stemmons Freeway, which was andstill is accessed off Elm Street in DealeyPlaza. There is no access onto theFreeway from Main Street at that loca-tion.It is possible to get to the Trade Mart

by staying on Main through DealeyPlaza, and then turning right ontoIndustrial Boulevard and wanderingnorthwest, but this is a more circuitous

and time-consuming route than the onethat was taken. There never was a tempo-rary barricade between Main and Elmthat could be removed. The limousinewould have had to hurdle a permanentdivider. As for the danger of passing neartall buildings, there were many morealong Main Street than in Dealey Plaza.Sadly, we must recall that presidentialsecurity in 1963 was more lax than it istoday. -Conover Hunt

Former Project Directorand Curator

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Thomas Mallon's article offered an inter-esting and different perspective on theassassination of President Kennedy, But,like most writers on the assassination, heneglects one very important event out ofthe many surrounding the President'sdeath.

The key to understanding Lee HarveyOswald's motive in shooting thePresident was his earlier attempt to mur-der retired U.S. Army General EdwinWalker. The most important issue thatWalker and Kennedy agreed upon, andthat Oswald sought revenge for, was theopposition of both to Fidel Castro'sCommunist regime in Cuba. By March1963, Oswald had purchased a pistol andrifle and set out to murder someone inorder to prove his loyalty to his idolFidel Castro.

In his article Mallon asks, "WasOswald on his way to see Ruby [afterkilling the President and Dallas policeofficer J.D. Tippit]?" Oswald was proba-bly on his way to General Walker'shome, located in the same Oak Cliff sec-tion of Dallas as Oswald's NorthBeckley Street apartment.

-James S. PattenTorrington, Connecticut

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Thomas Mallon replies:Mr. Patten's speculation is intriguing. Anovelist working this material wouldprobably reject it as anticlimactic, but apsychologist might find it plausible asthe demonstration of a terrible need for"completeness." Who knows?

Regarding Conover Hunt's letter: in(continued on page 70)

10 The American Spectator March 1993

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11

Clinton: Week Oneby R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

Iwonder if at some dizzying point turned toward the beaming co-president, Not only members of the "entertain-during President Bill Clinton's several inches below his chin I perceived ment community" felt this sense ofunique glorification rites, he saw two halos radiating from both eminences. emancipation. The poet, Maya Angelou,

what I believe I saw. Perhaps it was Next I expected the famous couple to also expressed the notion that only Billwhen he, his wife, and the vice presiden- sprout wings and levitate a few inches Clinton's election had released her fromtial couple withdrew down the steps of from terra firma, but good taste pre- a long and frightening period of captivitythe Lincoln Memorial, or when he sat on vailed. or exile or something-or-other that hada bar stool pontificating to the children at Never before has so much money made life hell for her (she did not go intoMonticello, or during that characteristi- been expended on a presidential inaugu- details and neither did Shep).cally euphuistic acceptance speech. At ration. Nor have so many Hollywood Thus all the talk of "reunion" andsome point I saw a golden halo encircle entertainers hit Washington. Nor have "reclaiming America." This sense of athe head of the gently smiling leader. It tears and mawkish sentiment been so Democratic presidential victory repre-was not unlike the halo that the painter abundant. It was Shep Gordon, manager senting national salvation is not unprece-Fra Angelico used to confer on biblical for the singer Luther Vandross, who dented. Immediately after the inaugura-notables back in the fifteenth century. said: "The Inauguration has mobilized tion of John F. Kennedy another poet,

Had President Clinton but looked into the whole entertainment community. We Archibald MacLeish, wrote Presidentone of the myriad of television monitors feel like we can be heard again after all Kennedy that his inaugural ceremonyalways nearby, he would have seen it. these years." "left me proud and hopeful to be anNow in the gray aftermath of his r-----===-;~~:::::::::_--------_,American-something I have notimmortalization, as he gets down felt for almost twenty years. loweto governing us all, I still do not you and send you my deepest grat-know if that halo was a genuine itude." MacLeish was reacting, itmanifestation of Divine approval. seems, to the hellish tyrannyMost likely it was another of the imposed on the nation by Generaltechnical marvels pulled off by Dwight David Eisenhower of theGary Smith, executive producer United States Armed Forces, andof the American Gala, but no one the grateful poet had to write fromknows. We have heard some that infamous Caribbean hellhole,amazing testimonials to our new St. Lucia, for times were againPresident. Never in the history of tough.presidential inaugurals has per- Yet, in light of all the derisionsonal glorification been such a and repugnance that thecentral theme. Nor has high tech Democrats so recently leveledbeen so exuberantly resorted to against the "Hollywood glitz" offor what Hollywoodians call the Reagan years, this garish"special effects." At one point, Hollywood saturnalia is a bit jar-when President Clinton slowly ring. And the millions shoveled

out by corporate America forthese revels add irony atop irony.Then, too, imagine the whiningthat we would hear from the

Adapted from RET's weeklyWashington Times column syndi-cated by Creators Syndicate.

12 The American Spectator March 1993

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Democrats if at Ronald Reagan's 1981inaugural the incoming conservativeshad said that they were "reclaimingAmerica." "Are they saying they have asuperior claim to America than we?"indignant liberals would blubber. "Arethey questioning our patriotism, ourdemocratic values, our Americanism?"And their complaints would recirculatethrough the public discourse and on intothe history books, adding yet anothermythical example of conservatism'sintolerance, jingoism, and bigotry.

Well, hypocrisy is the homage thatvice pays to virtue, as Senator Joe Biden

has undoubtedly said. So blatant, howev-er, have been the hypocrisies of theincoming administration that even beforethese glorification ceremonies the presswas growing restless. Its credulousnessgoes only so far. Sure the media believedit when candidate Bill let on that he hadread "300" books in one year and "40" inthe first eight months of 1981. But nowthe press corps is in a snit that Bill isbreaking campaign promises wantonly.His problems with the press will grow,for a rule of American politics is that hewho lives by conning the press dies byconning the press. 0

Clinton: Week Two

For a new administration well sup-ported, as a new administrationalways is, by the abundant good

will of the American people, the ClintonAdministration is facing an unusualamount of enmity and doubt. Why isthis? The recent observation of one of theWestern world's leading students of thehuman face gave me a clue.

John Springs is a distinguished sketchartist here and in London, where he lives.He sketches caricatures for major newsorganizations on both sides of the water.Pursuant to his art, he has just finishedstudying President Clinton's face.Springs is convinced that our youthfulPresident has had a facelift. The lumpybody does not comport normally with thesmooth face. There are scars from afacial refurbishment that the trained eyecan perceive below the jaw and ears.Springs is, by the way, nonpartisan. He isconvinced that Ronald Reagan wasdependent on hair dye. But Springs issurprised that a 45-year-old man withrelatively good looks would have afacelift. Springs. has not had enoughexperience with Americans of theYuppie left. To them, appearances areeverything, and forever manipulable.

Perhaps Springs is correct andPresident Clinton now smiles through asecond face. Perhaps, too, this is whyPresident Clinton has been less thanforthcoming about his medical records.But what does this have to do with the

heavy weather Mr. Clinton is experienc-ing at this very hour in Washington? Theanswer is: appearances aren't everything.Behind every appearance there is a reali-ty. The realities of American politics arenow shaking the appearance thatPresident Clinton believed he could end-lessly manipulate.

President Clinton came toWashington claiming to be a championof populism and diversity. The reality isthat his administration's appointmentsreflect not populism but elitism. Contraryto President Clinton's claim, his adminis-tration's face is not the face of Americabut the face of Harvard's KennedySchool of Government: blacks trained inelite schools, tans trained in elite schools,

whites trained in elite schools, womentrained in elite schools-and most of thetraining is in law and the jargon of socialscience. The Clinton Administrationincludes few Asians, eastern Europeans,urban Catholics, or rural Protestantsbeyond the President's native state.

If the Clinton Administration weretruly in touch with ordinary Americans,the President would have anticipated thepublic outcry against nominating asattorney general a millionaire corporatelawyer who had knowingly employedillegal aliens. What is more, Mr. Clintonwould not have spoken so rashly aboutopening our shores to Haitian boat peo-ple. Nor would he have created the pre-sent furor about ending the military's banagainst homosexuals. Concerning theselast two imbroglios, President Clintonwas responding to the ideologicaldemands of human rights purists and ofmilitant homosexuals. My guess is thatthere are actually many homosexualswho recognize the idiocy of allowingovert homosexuality in the barracks.

Behind all President Clinton'srhetoric about diversity and populism isthe reality of an administration com-posed of the Yuppie left. Its members arelawyers, career government employees,university faculty members, andcareerists for such special interests as"consumerism," "environmentalism,"and "human rights." They are not partic-ularly productive people, but at a ratherheavy price to society they do produceharangues and endless squabbles. Mostof what they claim to believe is pishposh.Throughout the Reagan-Bush years theydoggedly manufactured untruths aboutthe economy, the society, the world.Their rarefied community has so littlediversity that they have never heard theiruntruths challenged.

Now they are in power. After alltheir guff about recession and depres-sion they are faced with an economicrecovery and they have not a clue abouthow to sustain it. After promising mid-dle-class tax cuts they think they caneffortlessly pass a middle-class taxincrease. They cannot cut governmentspending, because they cannot say no totheir special interests. The reality we areabout to discover is that the Yuppie leftcannot govern. All it can do is squabbleabout race, gender, and other gaudyhypocrisies. The President's populistface is a false face. 0

14 March 1993The American Spectator

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AcouPle of days before theInauguration, I went downtown totake a look at America's Reunion

on the Mall, a "celebration of America'scultural diversity" that was somehowintended to "unite us," The emphasis ondivisions is of course more likely todivide than unite. But let that be.Diversity Mall was one of the few inau-gural events open to the general public. Ithink many people come to Washingtonfor the Inauguration only to be disappoint-ed. They don't know what to expect.Perhaps they vaguely imagine that theywill bump into the new President, asthough we were still in the age of AndrewJackson. They end up standing on somestreet corner trying to catch a glimpse ofthe parade by peering through a periscopepurchased at a novelty store. Then they gohome. Diversity Mall at least gave thepeople something to go to. But I think thatwill be the extent of my praise for the "co-chairs" of the Presidential Inaugural,Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, TV sitcom producers andFriends of Bill.

Several large white tents had beenerected on the Mall. I went into onecalled Community Hall. A folk singernamed Tish Hino-Josa from Austin wassinging to a crowd of a couple of hundredin that lame-lamenting, folky-guitar-strumming wail that has been plaguingAmerica nonstop since Joan Baez hit thecoffee houses of Philadelphia thirty-fiveyears ago. Is there no progress at all? Forsome reason this had been advertised as"Mexican-American" music. Ah=-butthere was something new. Also on stagewith this Hino-Josa was an Americansign-language translator. She came cour-tesy of the Smithsonian Institution, I wastold; for the benefit of deaf folk who are

Tom Bethell is The American Spectator'sWashington correspondent.

always presumed to be present whenthese singers ply their trade.

But how come they never ask before-hand? What about the strong possibilitythat there are no deaf people present for amusical event? The woman didn't ask.When the music started she just launchedofficiously into her flurry of ambidex-trous activity, hands curving about andmouth working away busily as she trans-lated this ballad about some broken downSan Antone romance in World War II.She went so earnestly about her businessthat you might have thought she was thesign-language translator for a deafAmerican President at a summit confer-ence with Brezhnev or Khrushchev orsomeone. When it came to the sadparts-"He was a strong man in his way,lost his first wife in 1943"-she put on asuitably woebegone look. Then sheperked up as bright as a button and herhands seemed to fly even faster for thehappy parts.

Oh, well. Welcome to Diversity Mall,1993.

Down toward the WashingtonMonument was the 88-foot-longAmerican Town Hall Wall, a

"low-tech medium" dedicated toClinton's "theme of seeking opportuni-ties for inclusion." Messages could bewritten on six-inch squares of coloredpaper and stuck onto the plywood wall.Across the top was written: "What AreYour Dreams for America that PresidentClinton and Vice President Gore CanHelp Make Come True?" One of theorganizers, Meyer Braiterman, a "consul-tant to arts organizations' in New YorkCity," told me that the SmithsonianInstitution had put up a big fight beforeallowing this Democracy Wall to be partof "America's Reunion." It had onlybeen admitted after weeks of discussionand negotiation, apparently. .

by Tom Bethell

objects, conch shells, and elephants. Shelearned the skill from her family inBombay and is now billed as being fromDanbury, Connecticut.

Tanya Osada and her sister AkaPereyma had a booth nearby and they areegg dyers from Troy, Ohio. Next to themwas Gomya Domsch, a lace-maker fromAtwood, Kansas. Then there was MiguelCaraballo, a carnival mask-maker fromPonce, Puerto Rico, and let's not leaveout Yang Fang Nhu and Ia Moua Yang,needle workers from Detroit, Michigan.Louise Goings is a basket-maker from aCherokee Reservation in North Carolina,Marie McDonald (McDonald?) is a lei-maker from Hawaii, and Halimeh AbdulFattah is an embroiderer from Dearborn,Michigan. And so it went.

In the Heritage Hall, packed tight withpeople, there was a performance by agroup called Los Comperos de Nati Cano,about twenty guys wearing those great bigMexican hats and shaking more maracasthan you could shake a stick at. Out on the. Mall, a couple was dancing to the musicof Mingo Salvi dar y los TrernendosCuatros Espadas. NB: No simultaneoustranslations provided for us Anglos. Weseem to have been overlooked by theSmithsonian's political oversight commit-tee. There was also a NASA tent and, inaddition to the Smithsonian, the officialprogram offered thanks to: the NationalEndowment for the Arts, the Library ofCongress, the National Council for theTraditional Arts, the National ParkService, and the National Park Police.

On my way back I stopped in again atCommunity Hall, where a group calledthe Badland Singers were holdingforth-some kind of a Red Indian WarDance, complete with feathered cos-tumes. Chuck Spotted Bird was on thedrums. The sound effects-I'm trying toavoid the word music-included some ofthe strangest grunting and warbling Iever heard in my life. Sorry you missedit.

"You know why they objected?"Braiterman asked me.

I gave up."They said it was political!"

Braiterman looked amazed. "They saidthey weren't about to have it next to theirArts Workshop Tent." He pointed to it."But this whole thing is political," hesaid, sweeping his arm with a gesturethat encompassed the Mall in general."All of it is political."

He was right about that. It's instruc-tive to realize that the SmithsonianInstitution=-provider of sign-languagetranslations for folk ballads-doesn'tknow this and probably imagines that itsactivities in general avoid the taint ofpolitics. The messages on the Wall werepolitical all right-but the politics wereuncontrolled. Some of the messages:"Support Kids in Business" (against thelaw, of course). "Prove America Free ByLessening the Regulation of People.""No More Taxes." "Help Make OurGovernment Efficient." (Heaven forbid!)"More Funding for Public Education.""Bill and AI: Gays in the Military Now!"And inevitably: "Cure AIDS." For themost part, the messages echoed Bill andAl and the news media in expressing alimitless faith in government.

Iwent into the Arts Workshop Tent toobserve some apolitical crafts, forcomparison. The first booth I came

to was occupied by Bharati Parikh, a"mendhi," who "paints decorative pat-terns with henna plant dye on women'shands." She learned the art from her fam-ily in Gujarat, India, and now lives inQueens, New York. I thought the betterof asking to see her immigrants' GreenCard. No illegal aliens being exploitedhere, I hope! Next to her was HansaAshar, a practitioner of something called"rangoli." She uses flour or sand to drawfloor designs that resemble heavenly

Inshort, this was not so much anAmerican festival as a festival ofmulticulturalism and affirmative

action, the old criterion of quality havingbeen replaced by political litmus testssuch as ethnicity and gender (particularlygender). Which brings us to that so-calledpoem recited by Maya Angelou at theInauguration: Rock, River and Tree. Didyou ever hear such nonsense? Robert

Frost, her poet-predecessor on the (1961)Inauguration stand, called this kind ofthing tennis without a net. He didn'tknow the half of it. Rock, River was littlemore than a portentous recital of politi-cally correct categories: the gay, thestraight, the French, the Swede, thehomeless, the teacher, the Apache, theNative American: what rot. I suppose wewere all meant to admire the thoughtful"inclusiveness" of Angelou's lists.

The New York Times the next daycravenly praised her "mighty Whitman-esque cadences." C'mon! Let's have alittle respect for the truth, and forWhitman. The truth is that MayaAngelou is a Quotapoet, and "Rock,River and Tree" is a Quotapoem. Doesanyone believe she would have beenasked to compose it if she had not been ablack woman? She demonstrated, ratherdramatically, that affirmative actioninvolves lowering standards for the bene-fit of those who otherwise can't make thegrade; which in turn demeans membersof legally privileged groups who need nosuch assistance.

"It is as if you have been looking inour brains for the last six weeks," HillaryClinton told Maya Angelou after it wasover. "YQU said it much better than wecould." That at least had the ring of truth.In the campaign, Bill Clinton kept usingthe word change. The less polite wordthat comes to my mind is decline. FromFrost to Angelou we see decline: artisticstandards swallowed up by political ones.Compare the inaugural addresses ofPresident Kennedy and President Clintonand you will also see decline. Clintonhimself constantly invites the compari-son. He wanted to express Kennedyesquesentiments without using Ted Sorensen'sphrases. Maybe he should have askedSorensen to write him another speech. Atleast he would have avoided the clunkycliches-v'the vision and courage to rein-vent America," and so on.

Inthe last few weeks, the great themein Washington has been: Restoration.At last the Republican usurpers are

gone. Back in our midst we have aPresident who believes in big, activistgovernment, the way Kennedy andJohnson did in the heady days of the1960s. The persistent belief within theBeltway is that big government can bemade to work, but only if it is headed bythose who believe in it. Reagan didn't.

Bush was half-hearted. Clinton is enthusi-astic. And so he is adored.

The new political code-word isSacrifice. Both the Washington Post andthe New York Times used it in banner head-lines on the day after the Inauguration. ThePost editorially parsed the "root idea"behind it as: "a greater national effort onbehalf of public purposes." Put bluntly, thismeans that the parasite classes are gettingready to dig deeper into our wallets.Congress's unrestricted ability to spendmore than it collects is construed as arequirement that taxes be raised according-ly. Routinely, today, the expansion of thestate is masked by the rhetoric of thrift. Inhis Inaugural Address, Clinton said that"we" (meaning the parasite classes) need to"reduce debt" (meaning raise taxes). Andof course "deficit reduction" doesn't meangovernment reduction. It means the oppo-site. So the Clinton people will soon bepassing the (compulsory) plate for anotherlevy on our incomes. "Sacrifice" meansthat the people who live at other people'sexpense are planning a little belt-tighten-ing. But it's not their belts they plan totighten. It's ours.

Which means that Clinton isheading for danger. The para-site classes are urging the

Democrats to take over the role tradition-ally assigned to Republicans: tax-collec-tor for the welfare state. Clinton hascompounded his difficulty by placing inhis entourage a number of faithfulbelievers in unlimited government-Leon Panetta and Alice Rivlin come tomind. The big question is whetherClinton will be able to resist this chorusof greed (the desire to spend other peo-ple's money) dressed up as "sacrifice."Probably, a sizable tax increase willmake its way to Capitol Hill this spring.This could land Clinton in serious trou-ble, as it did George Bush. Then again,it's possible that Clinton will keep hispolitical radar switched on and skirt theshoals into which the Beltway chorus istrying to steer him. Perhaps someonewill remind him that the KennedyAdministration supported a big tax cut.

One way and another, the prospectsfor a successful Clinton Administrationare not high. Big government does notwork and has been repeatedly shown notto work. Probably, President Clinton willtry to make it work. If he makes this mis-take, he will be a one-term President. 0

The American Spectator The American Spectator March 1993 1716 March 1993

Walsh insists on unprecedentedstandards for others, particularly

when they are on the opposite side of thecourtroom, but is very broadminded

concerning his own behavior.

vent the law and that what was important was that the INS begiven a.plausible basis for doing so.!

.........................................

But that was then, when 49-year-old Lawrence Walsh wastrying to advance the national security interests of hiscountry. This is now, when the 81-year-old version holdshis successors to super-rigorous standards, even whennational security is at stake. Just as Queeg told his menthat his ship was governed "by the book," but was quickto rewrite the record when his own inattentiveness senthis vessel around in a great circle to cut a towline, Walshinsists on unprecedented standards for others, particularlywhen they are on the opposite side of the courtroom, butis very broadminded concerning his own behavior. Thus,the intended victims of the Special Prosecutor are scruti-nized for the slightest infraction, but whenever LawrenceWalsh is annoyed by official regulations, for example onthings like pay and travel, he simply ignores them, since(in the words of his Olympian response to a recentGovernment AccountingOffice inquiry into the op-erations of his office) "hedoes not believe that theserequirements apply toindependent counsels as amatter of law."

Lawrence Walsh, Grand InquisitorThe Iran-contra Special Prosecutor has padded expenses, played fast and loose with histaxes, lost classified documents, pnd misled Congress. Does he think he's above the law?

by Michael Ledeen

You've seen his fac~ repeatedly over t.hepast six-plus.year~, right outof American GOthIC;a stem, gaunt, nghteous face WItha tinge of theTorquemada, the sort of face that matches the title: Special

Prosecutor of Iran-Contra. It is a picture he clearly enjoys, for JudgeLawrence E. Walsh has cultivated the image of asevere, relentlessly painstaking investigator and prose-cutor, a judicial Captain Ahab obsessively engaged in aseek-and-destroy mission against the great white whaleof Reaganism.

The seafaring image is a suitably evocative one, forLawrence Walsh has sailed through many stormywaters in the pursuit of his target, but he is not Ahab.He is Queeg. This is not a tragic hero who is graduallyperverted by his quest and finally sucked into the sea ofevil once within reach of his nemesis; he is instead asly, quirky, righteously rigid individual who has longbeen ready to stretch the rules to the limit and has nothesitated to go beyond the boundaries of the law itselfin order to achieve his objectives.

Listen to a younger Lawrence Walsh, vintage 1960,acting Attorney General of the United States in thewaning months of the second EisenhowerAdministration, discussing with Christian Herter andAllen Dulles the best way to get a grip on the vast num-bers of Americans and Cubans moving back and forthfollowing Castro's seizure of power in Havana. Hertersuggests that it might be desirable to pass some new

laws to strengthen U.S. control over the travelers, but Walsh dismisses suchlegal niceties:

As of last March,some thirty of hisemployees had run

up more than five thousand hours of unjustified excessleave, and Walsh has paid himself some $78,000 above theauthorized rate for per diem expenses, which were them-selves suspect because he had declared his "work station"to be Oklahoma City rather than D.C. (where he spent thebulk of his working hours). This maneuver had the addi-tional advantage of permitting him to charge the govern-ment for his (unauthorized, first-class) travel betweenOklahoma and Washington, and temporarily enabling himto neatly circumvent the annoying D.C. income taxes,which he paid-along with a fine-only after hiscircumvention was uncovered by a congressional investi-gation and reported in the newspapers. At the same time,he was circumventing income tax in New York, where hedeclined to pay taxes on over $200,000 of pension an-nuities cashed in from his old law firm. After three yearstrying to convince New York State of his righteousness,the Judge once again claimed all possible advantages, firstacce('ting an amnesty that enabled him to pay his debtwithout penalty, and then going back to court to argue heshouldn't have to pay anything after all. New York Statewas not persuaded.

His other extravagances are, as the GAO has admitted,virtually impossible to calculate. The known direct costs are

Walsh pointed out that there was some point at which you simply had to circum-IForeign Relations of the United States (1958-1960), Vol. VI,"Cuba" (Washington: Department of State), p. 1018.Michael Ledeen is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

somewhere between $30 and $40 million, but TerryO'Donnell, one of Oliver North's lawyers, believes the billmay run as high as $100 million:

... massive teams were constituted at CIA, NSA, DoD, andState merely to respond to the insatiable appetite for documentsof the Independent Counsel. Consider, as well, our defenseteam: $1 million a year to supply a vault in which the defenseteam could work, $500,000 a year in rent, and $250,000 times2 for security contracts, armed guards and double-padlockeddoors [and] Department of Justice support.

One should perhaps not linger too long on such details,save to notice their contribution to the atmosphere of loftysuperiority and noblesse oblige that has long accompaniedthe words and actions of Lawrence Walsh. And it is alto-gether understandable, given the man's list of accom-plishments: partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, arguablythe pinnacle of the New York legal establishment; chiefnegotiator at the Paris Peace Talks; president of the

American College of TrialLawyers and of theAmerican Bar Associationitself. Such a career notonly testifies to the man'stalent and energy, and tohis secure place in theupper regions of the EastCoast nomenklatura; itreinforces his confidencein his own righteousness,

thereby entitling the man to circumvent as he sees fit.The pattern long predates his anointment as Special

Prosecutor. When he traveled on behalf of well-endowedclients like AT&T, Lawrence Walsh was not content witha single hotel room, but took three or four or even five,surrounding himself with soothingly empty rooms onboth sides, and above and below, so that his sleep wouldnot be disturbed (and his enemies would be unable to lis-ten to his ruminations). It should not surprise us that, asSpecial Prosecutor, Walsh created the largest pros-ecutorial force in the history of the Republic, with morethan seventy lawyers, more than fifty agents, and sixoffices spread across the country. When he set up shop inWashington in the early 1980s on behalf of a chemicalcompany he was defending against charges that one of itsmedicines caused birth defects, he took two floors at theWatergate at $85,000 a month, justifying it in part onsecurity grounds. In 1980 alone, the chemical firm paidWalsh and his team $3.3 million in fees and expenses. Aman worth such a treasure does not hesitate to take everyadvantage on behalf of his cause, and Federal AppealsCourt Judge Patricia Wald would later chastise Walshand his colleagues in the case for hiring the secretary ofthe opposing lawyer:

There was evidence ... that defense counsel had engaged indiscussions about a case with a confidential secretary for

The American Spectator March 1993 1918 The American Spectator March 1993

To their dismay, the investigatorsin the FBI's Washington Field Office

found that several of the Walsh employeeshad arrest records, some of a nature (e.g.,narcotics violations) that would normallypreclude granting security clearances.

opposing counsel without her employer's knowledge, had madeex parte contact with the court's law clerk ... touching on atleast some matters of substance, had on its own obtained "inde-pendent counsel" for [the secretary], and was paying substan-tial sums of money to provide [the secretary] not only withcounsel, but also with a comfortable apartment and other finan- .cial needs for her and her child ...

These words prefigure the very Special Prosecutor whoreimbursed himself and his associates according to hisown notion of equity, who conjured up new applicationsof criminal law with which to charge the Iran-contradefendants, and who has frequently failed to observe therules and regulations that bind most mortal men andwomen engaged in the enforcement of laws. When he wasselected in December 1986, Walsh quickly assembled sec-retarial and administrative staff without waiting for theFBI to perform its routine name checks on all those em-ployees who would be han-dling classified documents.To their dismay, the in-vestigators in the FBI'sWashington Field Officefound that several of theWalsh employees had arrestrecords, some of a nature(narcotics violations, forexample) that would nor-mally preclude grantingsecurity ciearances. Somewere subsequently removed,others had their access to secret documents restricted, butothers remained in place.

This impatience with annoying security regulationshas been one of the leitmotifs of Walsh's activi-ties:

• CIA cables, complete with highly sensitive markings(known as "slugs," invaluable for anyone who wishes toforge such documents), were publicly released as"Exhibits" during trials, in violation of security require-ments.

• During closed court discussions of which classifiedinformation would be introduced at North's trial, one ofWalsh's full-time press aides was invariably present. Thisled O'Donnell to ask: "What does that do to the time-hon-ored principle of 'need to know'?"

• During a discussion of a motion to quash a subpoena,the Walsh team identified a covert agent by name.

• So-called "redacted pleadings" from Walsh containedclassified information instead of having it deleted. Onoccasion, classified material was included in letters, whichsubsequently had to be retrieved and classified or redact-ed.

• Highly sensitive documents were delivered to recep-tionists at defense counsels' offices instead of being placedin special secure facilities.

This last may appear of little import, but it is of a piece

with the most spectacular example of Walsh's cavaliertreatment of government secrets. Last July, when he trav-eled to California to interview former President Reagan,Walsh carried along a satchel of classified documents.Having completed the interview, Walsh gave his luggage(including the satchel) to his staff, instructing them tocheck the bags onto his flight back to Washington. Thebags were checked in at curbside at Los AngelesInternational Airport, but the satchel never arrived at itsdestination. The dramatic disappearance of such sensitivematerial must have shaken even the Special Prosecutor, buthe failed to report the event for several weeks, and when hedid, he suggested to the amazed security officers at theDepartment of Justice that the entire procedure had beenapproved by his security personnel. This was denied by aWalsh security officer, who took a polygraph test on thematter and passed it.? The case is still under investigation

at the Justice Department,and Bush's DeputyAttorney General GeorgeTerwilliger has termedWalsh's behavior a "fla-grant violation" of securityregulations.If any normal official of

the executive branch hadbehaved in this manner, hewould find himself in deeptrouble. Quite aside fromthe casual disclosure ofgovernment secrets in

court, regulations require a security escort when transport-ing classified documents and immediate reporting of anyloss. Anyone circumventing such strictures would, at anabsolute minimum, have his security clearances suspended,and might very well be placed on extended leave pendingthe outcome of the investigation. Nothing has been done toWalsh, or-if you accept his version of the facts-to hissecurity people. Justice Department officials are properlyreluctant to discuss an ongoing investigation, but it isknown that the matter came up in a discussion with a Justiceofficial held by Senior Judge George MacKinnon, a mem-ber of the panel that appointed Walsh (but which, by statute,plays no role in the activities of Walsh's office).

That Walsh has remained immune from punishment,indeed from even the slightest official reprimand,testifies not only to the gravitas of the man himself,

but also to the immense power of his office. We tend toforget that there were grave misgivings about the creationof Special Prosecutors (or, as they understandably preferto be called, Independent Counsels), precisely because of

2 I take a dim view of polygraphs, but government investigatorsgive them greater weight. This outcome would therefore havestrengthened the hand of anyone inclined to take action in thiscase.

20 The American Spectator March 1993

the Senate, for example,

t,;;;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~t high government officials~ of criminal law" than nor-on complained of outrightarl Levin bemoaned "doubleof the act, a few steps weretial defendants: the attorney.itude to ignore allegationsiecial Prosecutor was gener-Justice Department "writtendants were guaranteed theirj by the government if they'ounds for firing a Specialept "Independent Counsel")were changed from "extra-ordinary impropriety" to"good cause."

This was all to thegood, but it only lasteduntil the next scandal. Asluck would have it, theEthics in Government Actcame up for renewal justas Congress was removingthe bloodstains from itsclothing after the Iran-con-tra investigations, andWalsh was contemplatinghis first indictments.Politics overwhelmed anylingering concern aboutprosecutorial abuse, and"any concern for fairnesshad fairly evaporated.">There was blood in thewater and the congression-al sharks attacked with afrenzy that stripped virtu-ally all initiative from theattorney general (he couldno longer evaluate thequestion of criminal intent,

for example, in deciding whether to appoint a SpecialProsecutor), imposed new reporting requirements (withCongress given sole discretion to make them public), anddemolished virtually all boundaries on the IndependentCounsel's investigation. The Special Prosecutor was nowinstructed to investigate the original issue, "and all mattersrelated to that subject matter." As Terry Eastland com-

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released in five of the eightcases, and the other three(Carter/Mondale, RichardAllen, and William Casey),were, dismissed for lack of """._.-"'"evidence.

Looking back, one hasthe impression of an age ofastonishing innocence:Gerald Gallinghouse, whoinvestigated Kraft, actuallypostponed his inquiry untilthe 1980 elections wereover, because he feared hewould be accused of politi-cizing his activities, andArthur Christy, who lookedinto Jordan, made sure thatno one in his office had ----------- ... iiI.any contact with the media,on the grounds that anything other than "on-the-record"contact would be unprofessional. By contrast, Walsh origi-nally scheduled three major cases (North, Poindexter, andFernandez) to run during the 1988 election campaign,brought an outrageous indictment against Weinberger onthe very eve of the 1992 elections, and had so much directcontact with the press that one finds, on perusal of severalmonths of pis media calendar, that he would often processjournalists like so many widgets on an assembly line,bringing in a new one every forty-five minutes for hours onend.

Despite the exemplary behavior of the first generation ofSpecial Prosecutors, the Justice Department wanted thewhole thing repealed. The consensus on Capitol Hill wasthat the Specia~ Prosecutor was a dangerous thing, that its

ments,

This new language seemed to suggest that the job of theIndependent Counsel was to investigate a person, not a crime,

3The quotation is from terry Eastland's indispensable study,Ethics, Politics and the Independent Counsel: Executive Power,Executive Vice 1789-1989 (National Legal Center for the PublicInterest, 1989), p. 79.

The American Spectator 21March 1993

opposing counsel without hex parte contact with the coleast some matters of substapendent counsel" for [the setial sums of money to pro viccounsel, but also with a corrcial needs for her and her ct

These words prefigure tlreimbursed himself and hown notion of equity, whoof criminal law withdefendants, and who has frules and regulations thawomen engaged in the enfcselected in December 1986retarial and administrativeFBI to perform its routineployees who would be handling classified document:To their dismay, the investigators in the FBI'Washington Field Officfound that several of theWalsh employees had arrestrecords, some of a nature(narcotics violations, forexample) that would nor-mally preclude grantingsecurity clearances, Somewere subsequently removed,others had their access to secret documents restricted, but

"A lively, entertaining intel-lectual memoir---one part pol-itics, one part gossip, one parthistory of ideas-good writ-ing and good reading.

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Now you can obtain your copy of R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. 'sConservative Crack-Up for half price when you start or renew yourAmerican Spectator subscription.

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found that several of the Walsh employeeshad arrest records, some of a nature (e.g.,narcotics violations) that would normallypreclude granting security clearances.

X3CA

grant VIOlatIOn" or securityregulations.If any normal official of

the executive branch hadbehaved in this manner, hewould find himself in deeptrouble. Quite aside fromthe casual disclosure of

others remained in place.

This impatience with annoying security regulationshas been one of the leitmotifs of Walsh's activi-ties:

• CIA cables, complete with highly sensitive markings(known as "slugs," invaluable for anyone who wishes toforge such documents), were publicly released as"Exhibits" during trials, in violation of security require-ments.

• During closed court discussions of which classifiedinformation would be introduced at North's trial, one ofWalsh's full-time press aides was invariably present. Thisled O'Donnell to ask: "What does that do to the time-hon-ored principle of 'need to know'?"

• During a discussion of a motion to quash a subpoena,the Walsh team identified a covert agent by name.

• So-called "redacted pleadings" from Walsh containedclassified information instead of having it deleted. Onoccasion, classified material was included in letters, whichsubsequently had to be retrieved and classified or redact-ed.

• Highly sensitive documents were delivered to recep-tionists at defense counsels' offices instead of being placedin special secure facilities.

This last may appear of little import, but it is of a piece

government secrets incourt, regulations require a security escort when transport-ing classified documents and immediate reporting of anyloss. Anyone circumventing such strictures would, at anabsolute minimum, have his security clearances suspended,and might very well be placed on extended leave pendingthe outcome of the investigation. Nothing has been done toWalsh, or-if you accept his version of the facts-to hissecurity people. Justice Department officials are properlyreluctant to discuss an ongoing investigation, but it isknown that the matter came up in a discussion with a Justiceofficial held by Senior Judge George MacKinnon, a mem-ber of the panel that appointed Walsh (but which, by statute"plays no role in the activities of Walsh's office).

That Walsh has remained immune from punishment,indeed from even the slightest official reprimand,testifies not only to the gravitas of the man himself,

but also to the immense power of his office. We tend toforget that there were grave misgivings about the creationof Special Prosecutors (or, as they understandably preferto be called, Independent Counsels), precisely because of

2 I take a dim view of polygraphs, but government investigatorsgive them greater weight. This outcome would therefore havestrengthened the hand of anyone inclined to take action in thiscase.

20 The American Spectator March 1993

cage needed strengthening. In the Senate, for example,William Cohen complained that high government officialswere held to a "stricter standard of criminal law" than nor-mal citizens, Thomas Eagleton complained of outright"miscarriage of justice," and Carl Levin bemoaned "doublestandards." In the new version of the act, a few steps weretaken in the interests of potential defendants: the attorneygeneral was given greater latitude to ignore allegationsfrom unreliable sources, the Special Prosecutor was gener-ally expected to comply with Justice Department "writtenor established policies," defendants were guaranteed theirlegal fees would be reimbursed by the government if theywere not indicted, and the grounds for firing a SpecialProsecutor (now officially yclept "Independent Counsel")

were changed from "extra-ordinary impropriety" to"good cause."

This was all to thegood, but it only lasteduntil the next scandal. Asluck would have it, theEthics in Government Actcame up for renewal justas Congress was removingthe bloodstains from itsclothing after the Iran-con-tra investigations, andWalsh was contemplatinghis first indictments.Politics overwhelmed anylingering concern aboutprosecutorial abuse, and"any concern for fairnesshad fairly evaporated.v 'There was blood in thewater and the congression-al sharks attacked with afrenzy that stripped virtu-ally all'initiative from theattorney general (he couldno longer evaluate thequestion of criminal intent,

for example, in deciding whether to appoint a SpecialProsecutor), imposed new reporting requirements (withCongress given sole discretion to make them public), anddemolished virtually all boundaries on the IndependentCounsel's investigation. The Special Prosecutor was nowinstructed to investigate the original issue, "and all mattersrelated to that subject matter." As Terry Eastland com-ments,

the lack of any meaningful administrative, political, orbudgetary control. As former Independent Counsel JacobStein remarked recently on C-Span, if you've got unlimit-ed budget and unlimited staff, "you can overpower any-one .... Nobody can compete with you, especially an indi-vidual." Sensitive to the possibility it was creating a mon-ster, Congress limited the 1977 Ethics in Government Actto a five-year run, promising to review it in the earlyeighties.

By the time the act came up for renewal, three SpecialProsecutors had been appointed (to investigate twoDemocrats, Hamilton Jordan and Tim Kraft, on rumors ofdrug use; and one Republican, Labor Secretary RayDonovan, on corruption). None found grounds to indict histarget. Moreover, on eightother occasions, the attor-ney general had conductedpreliminary investigationsto see if appointment of aSpecial Prosecutor wouldbe necessary. No informa-tion whatsoever had beenreleased in five of the eightcases, and the other three(Carter/Mondale, RichardAllen, and William Casey),were dismissed for lack ofevidence.

Looking back, one hasthe impression of an age ofastonishing innocence:Gerald Gallinghouse, whoinvestigated Kraft, actuallypostponed his inquiry untilthe 1980 elections wereover, because he feared hewould be accused of politi-cizing his activities, andArthur Christy, who lookedinto Jordan, made sure thatno one in his office had iiii_any contact with the media,on the grounds that anything other than "on-the-record"contact would be unprofessional..By contrast, Walsh origi-nally scheduled three major cases (North, Poindexter, andFernandez) to run during the 1988 election campaign,brought an outrageous indictment against Weinberger onthe very eve of the 1992 elections, and had so much directcontact with the press that one finds, on perusal of severalmonths of his media calendar, that he would often processjournalists like so many widgets on an assembly line,bringing in a new one every forty-five minutes for hours onend.

Despite the exemplary behavior of the first generation ofSpecial Prosecutors, the Justice Department wanted thewhole thing repealed. The consensus on Capitol Hill wasthat the Special Prosecutor was a dangerous thing, that its

II

This new language seemed to suggest that the job of theIndependent Counsel was to investigate a person, not a crime,

3The quotation is from terry Eastland's indispensable study,Ethics. Politics and the Independent Counsel: Executive Power,Executive Vice 1789-1989 (National Legal Center for the PublicInterest, 1989), p. 79.

The American Spectator March 1993 21

and if the person were innocent of the original allegation-orany other-but were found to have resisted the investigationin some way, he would be pros~cuted for that.

Everyone who has lived to middle age, and has con-ducted his affairs outside a monastery, has done somethinghe should not have done, or failed to do something heshould have done, so we are all vulnerable to the kind ofopen-ended, sky 's-the-Iimit investigation that only theSpecial Prosecutor can unleash. Sooner or later he'll findsomething wrong. The original act was bad enough, butwith the 1987 amendments, the Office of the IndependentCounsel took on the awesome aspects that Madison fore-saw if the judicial and executive functions were combined."Were the power of judging joined ... to the executivepower," he wrote in passionate defense of the separationof powers in the Constitution, "the judge might behavewith all the violence of an oppressor." The danger wasthere 200 years beforeLawrence Walsh took the

_ helm, and in seeking tounderstand what he did andwhy he did it, we must con-stantly remind ourselvesthat the institution itself isan exceedingly dangerousone, and that Congressknowingly designed it thatway on the occasion ofIran-contra.

Moreover, there was at least one good reasonwhy Walsh, for all his experience and knowl-edge, and all his righteousness, was poorly suit-

ed to the job. He had extremely limited prosecutorialexperience, confined to his two years in Washington asdeputy attorney general (where he oversaw the army ofU.S. attorneys), after a three-year stint as district judge inNew York. In hand-to-hand combat with the best defenseattorneys in Washington, he was at a disadvantage. Thiswould show up in a series of remarkable missteps, two ofwhich give a sense of the whole: he brought indictmentsagainst CIA officer Joseph Fernandez in the wrong venue,thereby risking the entire case; and he repeatedly failed toabide by the terms of the Classified InformationProtection Act (CIPA), which required him to ask the intel-ligence community to look at the information he plannedto introduce, and tell him if they would tolerate suchsecrets being blown in the courtroom. Finally, there weresigns that the legendary Walshian attention to every jotand tittle was slipping: in the runup to the North trial, hesomehow failed to notice that he was in possession ofsome eighty (80!) boxes of files-North's office files, tobe precise-that were finally uncovered by a discoveryrequest by the defense. Walsh's hordes had never lookedat the stuff.

There was another reason that a different man might

branch, and that there was no basis for the claim that therewas anything wrong with the President asking other coun-tries to help the contras.

The indictment of Dewey Clarridgeis even more astonishing, for his grievous"crimen was to testify he knew about aweapons shipment to Iran on a date afew days later than Walsh asserted

Clarridge had known it.

have been better suited for the task, but it was purely theo-retical: the 1987 amendments had required that the SpecialProsecutor be the sort of person who would conduct theenterprise in a "prompt, responsible and cost-effective man-ner," language that probably reflected congressional con-cern with the bills Walsh had run up in his first year ofoperation. But such general language is always a cover-your-ass maneuver by legislators, who know how to putclear limits on the executive branch when they are serious.All they had to do was to require completion within a speci-fied period (with provisions for extension where justifiable),and put a ceiling on spending. They did neither, and Walsh.advanced, the media probing behind enemy lines for weak-nesses' and a massive congressional force in readiness inthe rear.

The act had stipulated that the Special Prosecutor shouldobserve official prosecutorial guidelines whenever possible,but Walsh made it clear early on that he would not be trou-

bled by such annoyances. Ata Bar Association prayerbreakfast (than which fewmore desperately necessaryactivities can be conceived!)in August 1987 , Walsh an-nounced the first of manynovel theories when he saidhe had an obligation to pros-ecute if he found "probablecause" to believe a crimehad been committed. This

Walsh backed off, and promised to pursue his vic-tims on the basis of violating specific laws,rules, and "enactments." But he soon ran into

difficulty with those annoying CIPA requirements. In caseafter case, the government was unwilling to permit Walsh'stargets to defend themselves by introducing highly classi-fied information, driving Walsh to enraged diatribesagainst "phony secrets." Certainly that reflected his ownview of such matters, as his insouciance in handling classi-fied material amply demonstrates, but the governmentcouldn't possibly have been expected to agree. The twomain counts against North-conspiracy to defraud thegovernment, and theft of gov-ernment property (regarding ,the profits of the "enter-prise")-were dismissed onCIPA grounds, as were themain counts against JosephFernandez, the CIA stationchief in Costa Rica, the firstmember of the clandestine ser-vices to be indicted in U.S.history.

Fernandez was accused oflying about his activities, bothto investigators from theTower Commission and to amember of the CIA'sInspector General staff.Fernandez denied it, andasked to present the jury withinformation about his activi-ties in the field. The informa-tion would have revealed the ............. -location of all CIA stations in Central America, and alsothe details of several secret operations-including activitiesinvolving officials of foreign governments. To make suchinformation public would have gravely compromisednational security (how could the CIA expect to findcooperative foreign officials after such revelations?), andboth the district court and two appeals courts ruled that theinformation was exculpatory. Once the government refusedto declassify the material, Fernandez could not fairlydefend himself, and the case was thrown out. Walshappealed twice, trying to find a way to "sanitize" the infor-mation by substituting numbers and phrases for countriesand persons, but the court wouldn't buy it, and the casedied.

But even if he had gotten to court, our Queeg was sailinginto a gale. The claim that Fernandez had lied to the IG staffat CIA rested on the testimony of a single person, and thatperson had already told Walsh that he was unable to testify

was a dramatically lowerthreshold than the Justice Department's, which required thatthe prosecutor believe that an unbiased jury would convictif the case went to court+ But this was only the beginning.In his early submissions to the court, Walsh argued thatNorth could be found guilty "even if he technicallycompl[ied] with all relevant statutes and regulations,"because

the defendants ... chose to hide their activities from Congressto ensure that Congress would not have the opportunity to con-sider whether to close any loophole.

In other words, if the President wanted to do somethinghe was obliged to check first with Congress. This preposter-ous assertion of legislative hegemony enraged the StateDepartment's legal counsel, Abraham Sofaer, and he, alongwith counsel from the White House and the Pentagon, chal-lenged Walsh's views, pointing out that secrecy was a tradi-tional and legitimate element of foreign policy, that foreignpolicy was explicitly placed in the hands of the executive

4 "Probable cause," as Judge Laurence Silberman causticallyobserved in his ruling declaring the Ethics in Government Actunconstitutional (only to be reversed 7-1 by the SupremeCourt), "is that low standard of confidence thought sufficientto support the issuance of a search warrant or an arrest war-rant."

solely on the basis of his interviews with Fernandez; he hadread Fernandez's immunized congressional testimony, andhad marked up his interview notes with material taken fromthe testimony. Anything based on such testimony was inad-missible in court, and when the witness insisted that he couldnot distinguish between the immunized and non-immunizedinformation, Walsh's man got extremely agitated, and, rais-ing his voice and flailing his arms, insisted that the witnesstestify, using only the non-immunized testimony.

Why go to court with such a case? It seems as if, con-vinced that he was in the presence of the wicked, Walshwas determined to use the awful weapons at his dispos-al-weapons that could ruin a man who chose to defendhimself against the Special Prosecutor-as a means ofpunishment. As Queeg subjected his crew to a humiliating

investigation to find the realor imagined pilferer of aquart of frozen strawberries,so Walsh tried to break hisintended victims through anordeal by investigation. Hemight not get a conviction,but he'd make them paynonetheless. Some, confront-

'. ed with the agonizing alterna-tives of defending their honorat the cost of financial ruin orpleading guilty to somepenny-ante charge, copped aplea. His own righteousnessthereby confirmed, Walshsailed on. Even after so manycounts were thrown out onCIPA grounds, and even thehandful of convictions werereversed because of the"taint" of immunized testimo-ny by North and Poindexter,he refused to give up the ship,

when a normal prosecutor, held to traditional standards offairness, would probably have decided the fight was invain. Walsh was made of sterner stuff: unable to getconvictions for their actions, he attacked the Reagan menfor things they had said. Never before had an executive

f

branch official been prosecuted for making unsworn falsestatements to Congress, but it became Walsh's favoritecharge. 5

The indictment of Weinberger is paradigmatic. Oneday, in conversation with General John Vessey(then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff),

Weinberger was told that there was a story going aroundto the effect that the Saudis were giving money to the

50f course, Walsh himself could conceivably be investigated byCongress for false statements, for example his declaration ofOklahoma City as his "work station."

The American Spectator The American Spectator March 1993 2322 March 1993

contras. Two days later, Weinberger mentioned the rumorin a meeting with John McMahon, the deputy director ofcentral intelligence, and McMahon noted it in his notes.Two years later, in congressional testimony, Weinbergersaid he did not recall having any knowledge of the Saudicontributions, and Walsh subsequently called him on it,showing him McMahon's notes. Weinberger replied bysaying that the notes did not "refresh his memory," hestill didn't remember it, but he had every confidence inMcMahon, and if he said it was so, it must have been so.Walsh's men indicted him for "making false statements toCongress." The indictment of Duane "Dewey" Clarridgeis even more astonishing, for his grievous "crime" was totestify he knew about a weapons shipment to Iran on adate a few days later than Walsh asserted Clarridge hadknown it.

Such mean-spirited actions bear distinct signs of pettyvengefulness, along with a disturbing element of partisanpolitics. The Weinberger indictment at election's edge,replete with greater detailabout the old stories ofBush's alleged knowledgeof Iran-contra, was thrownout of court, because thestatute of limitations hadexpired. As Robert Bork hasacidly observed, Walsh &Co.

must have known ... that the charge would likely be dis-missed. Any regular prosecutor, accountable to a superior,would undoubtedly be called on the carpet, and probably dis-charged, for what looks remarkably like a partisan attempt toinfluence the outcome of a presidential election.

Can it be that, having failed to stage his three big showtrials during the 1988 campaign, Walsh sought to punishBush this time aroundjf When the President struck back onChristmas Eve, pardoning past and would-be targets of theSpecial Prosecutor, Walsh erupted with a most unprofes-sional diatribe, asserting the guilt of Weinberger, proclaim-ing Bush a "subject" of ongoing investigation, and darklymuttering about sinister cover-ups. The least that one cansay about such behavior is that good manners shouldrequire that if he can't prove his case in court he ought toremain silent. But silence is not for the righteous, especial-ly when they command the po wers : of SpecialProsecutorhood. Unable to demonstrate guilt in court, hesimply proclaims it to the nation. To this day, Walsh pon-tificates about a vast "conspiracy" to "cover up" Godknows what, even though he has never proved a shred ofthis Queeg-like worldview.

Despite his distinguished past, Lawrence Walsh hasacted cruelly and wickedly, he has shown disdain for tradi-

6If this was his purpose, he may have succeeded. According toexit polls, a solid 39 percent of Clinton voters, and 26 percent ofPerot's, listed Iran-contra as one of the top two issues.

tional standards of propriety and fairness, and he has spokenin a way no prosecutor should. No doubt his human quirkshave been accentuated by the enormity of his power and thetemptation to see himself as the avenging angel of Iran-con-tra, and that was inevitable, for the institution itself inviteswicked behavior.

Steven Emerson

Gary Sick's Bald-Faced LiesThink back to the early fifties. Truman is in theWhite House, and Joe McCarthy is hunting Reds inthe executive branch. Obsessed with the fear that

the government has been infiltrated with Communistagents, he introduces a Loyalty in Government Act. Grimlyarguing that you cannot rely upon the attorney general toinvestigate his own friends, McCarthy proposes that theinvestigation and prosecution of high-level officials sus-pected of having Communist connections be entrusted to aSpecial Prosecutor. The Special Prosecutor must be givenvirtually all the powers of the attorney general, be ap-pointed by a panel of senior judges, be granted the freedom

to break the accepted rulesof prosecutorial behaviorwhen he deems it neces-sary, and have unlimitedstaff, time, and budget. Theappointment of a SpecialProsecutor can be triggeredby any plausible complaintfrom any source, or byrecommendation of a

majority of either party's members on either Judiciarycommittee. Had such a monstrosity been established,McCarthy's victims, instead of being merely smeared,would have faced criminal indictments and years ofruinous court proceedings. Even if they survived the ordealand were found innocent, the damage would have beendevastating."It is a virtual certainty that the Supreme Court would

have proclaimed the monstrous thing unconstitutional. Totheir shame, Chief Justice Rehnquist and six otherJustices supported it, and Congress will undoubtedlydebate its renewal in the next few months. It should havea stake driven through its heart, and be buried in a leadcasket. In the meantime, those who care about abuses ofprosecutorial power should conduct a thorough investi-gation of the activities of Lawrence Walsh and his crew.If he's lucky, he might be able to get Barney Greenwaldto take the case. 0

The October Surprise hoax is laid to rest-at leastoutside the Clinton Administration.

The "October Surprise"episode-based on theassertion that Reagan

campaign aides sought to delaythe release of Americanhostages in Iran in 1980-rep-resents one of the most scan-dalous political hoaxes this cen-tury. And on January 13, 1993,following that morning'srelease of the exhaustive Housereport that categorically dis-proved it, the man who didmost to legitimize the fraud wasnowhere to be found. CarterAdministration national securi-ty aide Gary Sick left a messageon his New York answeringmachine that he would have nocomment until he'd had achance to read the report.

That in itself was surprising, for Sick had spent two yearsmaking himself readily available to reporters, talk shows, andop-ed pages. From "Donahue" to "Nightline," from the NewYork Times to the Associated Press, he flooded the news pagesand airwaves to defend his account of what he called the Reagancampaign's "political coup." He had been quick to disparage hiscritics. He accused Frank Snepp, the ex-CIA official turned free-lance journalist who exposed Sick's sources as fabricators, ofbeing still connected to the CIA. He and his Random House edi-tors, Steve Wasserman and Peter Osnos, accused me of beingpart of a "Zionist" or "Israeli" campaign to discredit him.

When his facts were challenged, Sick would jump into the

Can it be that, having failed to stagehis three big show trials during the1988 campaign, Walsh sought topunish Bush this time around?

7This example is taken from a speech by Judge Silberman to aFederalist Society conference in Washington on January 19, 1990.

©1993 The American Spectator

Reprints of this article are available. Seepage 9 for order information. Steven Emerson is an investigative reporter living in

Washington.

24 March 1993---------

The American Spectator March 1993

fray. In May 1992, when CNNreported that secret 1980 wire-taps showed that a Paris meet-ing Sick alleged William Caseyattended could not have takenplace, Sick immediately told anAP reporter that Casey couldhave traveled to and from Parison the Concorde, In November1992, when a Senate reportcalled the October Surpriseunfounded, Sick showed upjust hours later on television,claiming the report showed thata new "cover-up" was under-way. Sick said he would awaitthe outcome of the Houseinvestigation. Sick's partner incrime, the New York Times edi-torialisjs=-who endorsed the

conspiracy from the day they put it on the opinion page-leaped to his defense, saying "a fuller, fairer understandingmay have to await a parallel House inquiry."

For Sick, however, the day of the House report's releasewas a day of reckoning. Ever since he first began making thecharges publicly, he had been careful to cloak his accusationsin the mantle of wanting to assure justice and fairness. "If[the October Surprise] did not happen," he testified before theSenate Foreign Relations Committee in November 1991, then"we owe it to Mr. Casey and others to clear any suspicionfrom their name." In a separate interview, Sick promised toapologize to President Bush if the charges were disproved.

Sick dishonestly implied that he was only chroniclingcharges made by others. Nonetheless, his avowed willingnessto abide by the results of the investigation made the projectlook at least superficially reasonable. But on the day after the

25The American Spectator

House investigators slammed the door on Sick's theory, bothhe and the New York Times were conspicuously quiet.

On January 24, eleven days after the report wasissued, Sick finally surfaced, 'returning once again tothe scene of the crime-the New York Times op-ed

page. Instead of acknowledging that his charges had beenproved to be utterly false and that he had been duped-itwould have been a bit much for him to confess to havingfabricated them-Sick contended that in fact the Housereport "does not lay those claims [that Casey met in Madridsecretly with Iranians to delay the release of Americanhostages] to rest." And he went on in his op-ed piece toengage in the same blatant mendacity that had characterizedhis allegations from the very beginning. (That the New YorkTimes collaborated in this deception is another story foranother time.) In alleging the continued existence of a Caseyconspiracy, Sick betrayed his dishonesty. He wrote: "TheCommittee's own evidence places [Casey] at the[Bohemian] Grove" on the weekend of August 1-3 ratherthan on July 26-27, thus keeping alive the possibility thatCasey was actually meeting with the Iranians in Madrid. Butthat is a lie: the committee's evidence-including diaries,telephone call records, credit card receipts, eyewitnessaccounts, and photographs-showed that Casey "attendedthe Bohemian Grove on the weekend of July 25-27, and thathe was not there on the weekend of August 1-3."

Sick refused even to acknowledge that every single sourcehe cited in his book had been discredited as a liar. If therewere still any doubts that Sick has become detached from real-ity, one had only to read his concluding statement that he was"gratified that my research prompted these investigations."For Sick had effectively accused the late William Casey,George Bush, Robert McFarlane, Laurence Silberman,Richard Allen, and several others of treason. He had triggereda $5.4-million investigation and unleashed a collection ofwholesale liars on newspapers and broadcasts throughout theworld. Itboggled the mind that the instigator of a McCarthyitewitchhunt could profess himself "gratified" with the result.

The ten-month bipartisan congressional investigationdevastated every single aspect of Sick's fabrication. Its con-clusions: All of the meetings that Sick had described ingreat detail-and which he said he "independently con-firmed"-never occurred. All of the clandestine U.S. orIsraeli arms sales to Iran that Sick enumerated never hap-pened. All of the sources on whom Sick relied for makinghis charges of treasonous acts were "wholesale fabricators."And a critical analysis of Sick's book October Surprise(published last year by Random House) and every one ofhis footnotes juxtaposed against the findings of the 968-page congressional report shows that Sick was not just adupe in the matter but a deliberate purveyor of falsehoods.

The October Surprise was an exercise in abject dishonestyfrom beginning to end. The documents collected by the con-gressional investigators show beyond a doubt that Sick know-ingly quoted sources who made demonstrably false allega-tions to him, that he weeded out mounds of evidence showing

That Sick's two key sources had vacillated, switched sto-ries, made demonstrably false claims, and contradicted eachother and their own accounts should have immediately trig-gered alarms in Sick, who had been trained as an intelli-gence analyst. Sick's own contemporaneous notes show thathis sources were making increasingly outlandish statements.Yet instead of concluding that his sources were liars, Sicksimply discarded anything that did not fit into his conspira-cy. Thus, he not only falsely presented both Hashemi andBen-Menashe as giving consistently straight accounts ofmeetings in Paris and Madrid but also wrote that each manhad "independently confirmed" the other's account. AsSick's own notes make clear, that was a blatant falsehood.

Throughout his book, Sick repeatedly misrepresented orfabricated his evidence. To pick one fabrication at random,Sick claims that Israel secretly planned to give Iran a missilewith nuclear capability. In Sick's footnote, he cites shreddedclassified U.S. documentsleft by American diplomatsin the U.S. Embassy in Iran,retrieved, pieced together,and published by Iranian stu-dents. I examined the verydocument Sick cited-and itcontained absolutely nothingto support such an allegation.Indeed, other documentsshowed that Israel refused toshare any nuclear technologywith Iran.

his sources to be lying and their claims to be inventions, andthat he actually fabricated evidence in a desperate attempt tomarshal proof for what turned into a profitable book.

When Sick endorsed the October Surprise conspiracy inthe New York Times in April 1991, he convinced many rea-sonable people who previously might not have given the alle-gations a moment's thought. His persuasiveness was enhancedby the manner in which he embraced the conspiracy: Sickrepeatedly claimed that he had at first refused to believe theOctober Surprise conspiracy. He said that when he beganworking on a book in 1989, he intended to concentrate onlyon the Iran-contra affair during the Reagan Administrationand had no intention of even raising the October Surprise alle-gations. Only after "hundreds of interviews," two years' worthof "intensive research," and the development of an "elaborateset of chronological files, biographical files, and transcripts ofinterviews" did Sick become convinced that the conspiracy heall along refused to believe had indeed occurred.

Sick's labored explanation is manifestly untrue.Documents acquired by congressional investigatorsshow indisputably that Sick fully endorsed the October

Surprise conspiracy as early as June 1989-before he hadconducted even one interview-based on the rumor-monger-ing of several journalists. Not only did Sick endorse the con-spiracy before he conducted any research, he simultaneouslysigned an unreported contract for a television movie to bemade of it. It was to be executive-produced by Oliver Stone,and Sick was to be paid $60,000 for his "rights." As part of hiscontract, Sick gave an interview on June 1, 1989, to a LosAngeles movie producer. According to the transcript-whichwas made to help the scriptwriters-Sick espoused his beliefin all of the same components of the October Surprise conspir-acy that two years later he would claim he so reluctantly cameto believe. Sick even alleged that Henry Kissinger was themastermind of the conspiracy-the same charge that had beenpeddled earlier by Lyndon LaRouche and his followers.

When Sick fmally began conducting his own "research,"which amounted to regurgitating the accounts of impostors,his sources made numerous claims that irreconcilably contra-dicted one another, changed with each interview, and-mostimportantly-contained assertions that Sick knew to be false.Sick's own records show that one of two prime sources,Jamshid Hashemi, repeatedly changed his story about pur-ported meetings between William Casey and Iranians inMadrid and Paris. Hashemi, Sick's notes show, could notkeep straight the dates of such meetings or who attendedthem. Sick's other primary source, Israeli con-man Ari Ben-Menashe, made claims about his own purported role inattending Madrid, Paris, and other meetings which alsochanged from day to day and which conflicted with all of theversions provided by Jamshid Hashemi.'

!In the congressional report, investigators call both Hashemi andBen-Menashe "fabricators"-and specifically point out that none ofthe meetings they alleged ever took place. The report was particularlyblunt in its appraisal of Ben-Menashe: "Aside from early biographicaldetails, everything he told the Task Force has been found to be false>'

26 The American Spectator 27The American Spectator March 1993

The book was a good read, but contained flagrant omissions.It ignored the Carter Administration's schizophrenic policytoward the Shah, and its efforts to destabilize him. It neglect-ed to mention that, when the Shah's downfall becameinevitable, Carter's people did nothing to reach out to Iraniandissidents to preserve an American foothold.

The book actually represented a first effort to rehabilitatethe Carter Administration, and in particular Sick's own rolein Iran. In essence, Sick parlayed one of the most abysmalforeign policy failures of post-World War II history into araging success. Here was a man who presided over the col-lapse of America's strongest Islamic ally, leaving the ReaganAdministration with few options in dealing with a rogueregime bent on disrupting the Middle East. Instead of beingheld accountable for the loss of Iran-after all, Sick was incharge of Iran policy on the Carter NSC-Sick managed toshift the blame elsewhere.

Soon after the bookcame out, Sick became a reg-ular on the networks (partic-ularly the "MacNeil/LehrerNewsHour") and was quotedroutinely in the WashingtonPost and New York Timesany time Iran was in thenews. Yet his analysis waspedestrian and his specialinsight derived from nothingmore than reading the pub-licly available ForeignBroadcast Information

Service translations of Iranian radio and newspaper reports. Infact, it was no secret that Sick knew virtually nothing aboutIran. He never spoke Farsi and never studied Iran. One of thereasons he got the job at the NSC was that he had received anadvanced degree under Zbigniew Brzezinski at ColumbiaUniversity in the 1970s.

That Sick was asked to provide apaper on Iran for the Clinton transition

team and was being seriously considered fora Middle East policy position in the ClintonAdministration shows how thoroughlyCarterites have taken control of the

foreign policy apparatus.

March 1993

The day after Congress released its report, Sick was inWashington, attending a conference on Iran spon-sored largely by American oil companies. He pre-

sented a paper that spelled out an agenda for discussion withIran under the Clinton Administration. The paper was basedon a report Sick had prepared for the Clinton transition teamat the request of Secretary of State-designate WarrenChristopher in December 1992. Sick had glorified his formerboss Christopher's 1980 hostage agreement with Iran-anagreement that gave appeasement a bad name. AndChristopher returned the favor in early 1992 by echoingSick's call for an investigation into the "October Surprise."

Christopher's endorsement of the investigation was scan-dalous-for if there was one official who had to know thatSick's charges were demonstrably false, it was Christopherhimself. As chief hostage negotiator, Christopher had readall the State Department and CIA cable traffic and govern-ment intercepts of Iranian conversations. Those cables and

(continued on page 67)

Sick's embrace of the October Surprise conspiracy-first on the op-ed page of the New York Times andthen in a Random House book-won him a hearing

on two "Donahue" shows, ABC's "Nightline," and PBS's"Frontline"; an article in Esquire, and respectful attentionfrom vacuous Washington columnists (such as MaryMcGrory) and politically correct talk-show hosts (such asWAMU'S Diane Rehm).

I once specifically asked a network producer why Sick'scharges were given such prominence on network television,particularly in the absence of corroborative evidence orindependent reporting. "Because" he said, "it is Gary Sickwho is making these allegations. He is not just a guy off thestreet-after all he was a top official on the NationalSecurity Council." Sick, it seems, had acquired such a repu-tation for sober political analysis that all critical judgmentnormally applied to outlandish and wild conspiracy storieswere suspended. In essence, the reputation Sick had devel-oped became a license to say anything he wanted-even tolie.

Thus, one of the most compelling questions arising outofthe October Surprise affair is how Sick ever developed hisreputation as an honest and accurate analyst on Iran in thefirst place. When his account of the Iran debacle, All FallDown, was published in 1985, Gary Sick was suddenlyacclaimed as one of the nation's foremost experts on Iran.

salary keeping the Hispanic kids, and especially the blacks,in line.

"Yo, my man!" he called suddenly."Who, me?" A black boy detached himself from the

group he was hanging out with, boys and girls, all black."What's that?" Smith asked, pointing to the beeper

clipped to the boy's belt."My momma give it to me. So's she can know where I'm

at."

Edward Norden

.International Studies in Los Angeles

beepers. Of course, firearmsand knives are also unaccept-able, yet there's no friskingat the doors, and no metaldetectors either. A~ Smithexited the rotunda and cutacross the grass between theathletic facilities and thehuge main building, a personwith a hawk-eye might havecaught sight of a butt-aplain butt, not a reefer-being pinched dead. Smithchose not to see it this time.He might be compared toBill Cosby, if the quiz showhost's salary were a fractionof a fraction of what it is,and if an aura of menaceemanating from Smith didn't

•• IIIiiIII . inspire among the kids he is

in charge of equal measures of respect, affection, and-fear.The deanship means discipline, a full-time job.

Officially, Smith is in charge of discipline for all ofFairfax's more than 2,000 kids, with their thirty-four moth-er-tongues, their memories and trepidations, their ambitions,hormones, and debilities. This includes the Ethiopiansspending nutrition time with other Ethiopians over there, theRussians with Russians over there, the Israelis with Israelisover there, the Koreans with Koreans over there-eachgroup of refugees and immigrants had staked out its turf inthe yard, where the language spoken was its own, notEnglish. There was also the Anglo minority on its turf,speaking a form of English. Its members, like those of theabove groups, occasionally create a disciplinary problem.But the fact is that Smith earns the best part of his measly

Smith shook his head. "Lloyd, you know better than that.You've had your warning." And made a "hand-it-over" ges-ture with his fingers.

Lloyd is most of the way to equalling Mike Tyson inheight and bulk. He was wearing a Malcolm cap and lO-holeDr. Martens boots and he handed over the item damned quick,not with a rapper scowl but a respectful, fearful half-smile.

"You'll get it back when your momma calls me andpromises that you'll never come to school with it again,"said Smith to the man-child,taking it and then giving hima not-so-glancing punch onthe biceps.

Fairfax High barely resembles the place Jack Kemp and Herb Alpert graduatedfrom in 1953, but both would feel at home if they ever went back.

I. Discipline

"There's JackKemp rightthere," said Earl

Smith. He was pointing atone of the names in the rotun-da of Fairfax High in LosAngeles. "Kemp's okay. Imean, he's conservative, buthe's human, you know? Notlike that Rush Somebody."

"Rush Limbaugh?""That's the one. Lim-

burger, I call him."Indeed, the outgoing sec-

retary of housing's name waslisted in a pantheon ofFairfax's best-known grads:Jack Kemp, class of '53;Herb Alpert of the sameclass, who sponsors a$10,000 teacher-of-the-year award; Phil Spector '58;Mickey Rooney '37. "This school," commented Earl Smithnot without pride, "has a major history."

In his red-and-yellow windbreaker and carrying hiswalkie-talkie, Smith-Dean Smith or Mr. Smith to you-was making his rounds during nutrition period one morninglast December. Nutrition is what used to be known asrecess. Smith is a black man functioning with a slightlygame leg, and as dean is responsible for keeping things niceand law-abiding, ajob he was doing effectively that day.

Among the laws at this not completely atypical schoolare no smoking, no skateboards, no Walkmans, and no

Edward Norden is a frequent contributor to The AmericanSpectator and Commentary.

"He should have come here whenhe came to inspect South-Central withBush," Smith said of Kemp. "He wouldhave seen how at his old school the

races get along not too bad."Smith is popular-hewas greeted repeated-ly, especially by black

kids. "Has this placechanged since I first gothere!" he exclaimed. Thatwas back in 1961, when the student body was composedmainly of overachieving Jews and the nearest thing to agang was a clique. Eight years Smith taught and coachedhere, then left to pick up a law degree at UCLA, but insteadof using it to get comfortable, he put in some time workingfor the California Bureau of Prisons and state attorney-gen-eral, then actually returned to the Los Angeles UnifiedSchool District (LAUSD). Besides taking care of discipline atthe new, contemporary Fairfax High, Smith until last yearcoached the trophy-winning football team, somethingFairfax never had when Jack Kemp, future pro quarterback,was among the few non-Jews on the Mighty Lions.

"He should have come here when he came to inspectSouth-Central with Bush," Smith said of Kemp. "He wouldhave seen how at his old school the races get along not toobad. That's because we work at it."If this high school, which isn't in the inner city but draws

many poor and variously handicapped and difficult kids,isn't as hellish as you might expect, it's partly, according toSmith, because the teachers offer an example, partly becausehe and his staff "keep right on top of it." He has two assis-tant principals under him, and there are two LAUSD cops-one male, one female, both with walkie-talkies, nightstick,and revolver=-on the grounds at all times for back-up. True,there's no more corporal punishment, as there used to be inthe old days, in the sixties when Smith was the designatedpaddler. On the other hand, there's the possibility of so-called "opportunity transfers," which according to Smith, if

not to Mike 0' Sullivan, is effective-the kids who had.fought again the week before after getting their first warninghad been "finalized" and were gone, he said.

Most fighting, Smith explained, is gang-related. This iswhy, although gang membership can bestow on a kid theonly identity and protection he has, the policy is to suppressinsofar as possible. This means outlawing gang colors andarticles of clothing like bandanas, also looking with particu-lar disfavor on "tagging," that is, the spray-painting of ganggraffiti such as "KGB," "Kids Gone Bad." And indeed,except for some KGBs on an outside wall, there were fewgraffiti anywhere. This high school may have seen betterdays academically and physically, but it's not yet vandals'meat-the toilet bowls in the boys' room are unshattered,the plastic windows throughout are scratched but whole.

"Fighting in 309," rasped Smith's walkie-talkie just as thebell for the end of nutrition sounded. He headed for the thirdfloor, but he didn't seem alarmed, continuing to opine that

American society expressesits contempt for educationby paying teachers what itdoes and indicating hisreadiness to strike when andif his colleagues did. Hestuck his head into Dr.O'Sullivan's office.Someone had posted this onthe bulletin board: "AVER-

AGE SALARY OF TEACHER IN

CALIFORNIA: $37,812. AVERAGE SALARY OF STATE PRISON

GUARD WITH THREE YEARS' EXPERIENCE: $42,552."The signal about 309 turned out to be exaggerated. The

second bell emptied the halls of kids. They went obedientlyto their next exams, this being the last week of semester, aspecial time. Now they bent their heads over their desks,squeezing their pencils, chewing their tongues, those whoknew a good deal of English and those who knew next tonone, those who would go to the University of Californiaand Princeton and those who, if they were lucky, would sellBig Macs. Earl Smith was irritated to see a young man inthe hall after the second bell. His irritation turned to plea-sure, however, when he found that this was one of lastyear's grads, now a freshman at Morehouse in Atlanta,wearing that black college's coat-of-arms sweatshirt.

II. He Cried When They Took Him Away

E SL teacher Carole Razi is an Anglo and a blonde. Theman she married and whose name she carries is animmigrant, an Indian, a Moslem from Hyderabad,

where his co-religionists try to get through the day outnum-bered by Hindus. Carole and her husband had been planningto fly to the other side of the globe to introduce her to his fam-ily over winter break, though with the inter-communal prob-lems there recently, they were now undecided. Their ThirdWorld vacation destination might therefore be much closer tohome, i.e., Mexico, where her Spanish would come in handy.

In fact, Razi doesn't have to journey to the Third World,

28 The American Spectator . March 1993 The American Spectator March 1993 29

since every day it comes to her. Almost all the students inher English as a Second Language class are newly arrivedfrom Central America. The others are from the Philippinesand a Third World country with left-over ICBMS, Russia. Nogirl or boy has been in this country for more than a year,some kids arrived only a couple of months ago, and as arule homesickness is at war in young hearts with relief at. having made it to the U.S. Memories of one sort of an exo-dus or another are universally fresh. Among the Hispanics,of tearfully saying good-bye to the village, of hiking alongrivers and over mountains, of numbing bus rides, of late-night dashes guided by "coyotes," of arrival in aBrobdignagian land of freeways, air pollution, and multicul-turalism. The less cautious, or more with-it, of theseHispanic kids made no pretense to an unannounced visitorin Razi's classroom that they and their parents were any-thing but "undocumented" -exposure and deportationapparently weren't regardedas dangers, not even duringa bad recession. There wasunanimity on why the par-ents had uprooted them-selves and their kids to infil-trate such a weird, half-wel-coming country as theUnited States. First, thecluster of motives subsumedunder the banner of work-money-food-opportunity.Second, to escape the wars.

When you ask themwhether they are here tostay, that's when theseteenaged Hispanics divide. Among them, as among thenewly arrived Ethiopian and Afghan kids in the ESL pro-gram, there are some who claim that after getting anAmerican education, becoming doctors or lawyers, they'llgo back to their native lands to help pull them out of themuck. Only the ex-Russian Jews never offer this scenario.The declaration of intent to return and contribute is general-ly made by the freshest of greenhorns, those bearing theheaviest load of nostalgia, and generally it's delivered inSpanish, a complex idea in English being beyond these stu-dents of Razi's. Those who have been here somewhatlonger, whose English is apt though not guaranteed to bebetter and whose center of gravity has shifted, will lift aneyebrow, smile to themselves to hear such talk from theirfriends. Even those who make the handsome affirmationsare likely, in the next breath, to cast them in doubt. TakeIsabelle Urrutia, whose sister Veronica and cousin Rosa arealso in Razi' s class. One year in the States from EISalvador, Isabelle first said she intends to repatriate herselfafter getting a higher education, then remarked how smalland dull her village already felt to her on a return visit shewas able to pay, documents or no documents.

Razi translated and Elmer Mejia, the vet, helped with theslang, elements of which were so delicious, and so baffling

Yes, after the special remedial inter-session coming up, astrike loomed. The district, pleading a $400 millionbudget shortfall at mid-year, had announced it had no

choice but to cut teachers' salaries by between 6.5 and 11.5rT:--:-:-----.-:------::-.,--"""-:-:":-""""':;"~~;;;;;;;;;:::--...., percent, this following a cut last

year of 3 percent. Worse, down-town refused to promise that itwouldn't shrink paychecks againnext year. So after barren negoti-ations, the LAUSD teachers' unionhad voted to go out on strike onthe first day of the spring semes-ter. The vote to strike at Fairfaxhad been as lopsided as at theother union chapters.It was the money, and the

principle of the thing-in fact, avisitor understood that the twowere one and the same. Money,like it or not, symbolizesrespect in America, and cuttingan American's pay while refus-ing to promise not to do it againnot only makes it harder for himto go to the dentist, it tends todemoralize him by drivinghome the impression that thejob he's doing isn't appreciated,not by society and not by the

education bureaucrats who never have to face a student yetget paid twice or three times as much as teachers. Dutifullyhammering out a new schedule, 0'Sullivan tossed offzingers to show that he too understood this, that his heart andmind were with his outraged troops. For example, he opinedthat what the "characters" downtown could use most was agood audit. This probably fooled no one. The shirtsleevedDr. O. finds himself in the position of the managing editor ofa troubled newspaper, trapped between the boss on one sideand the hacks and yeomen on the other. Once, when hetaught, he belonged to the teachers' union. No longer.

Yet he truly appeared to have scant respect for thebureaucrats and politicians through whose fingers the taxbillions flow. And though he'd rather be caught dead thanwax eloquent, he was not unconvincing when speaking ofthe difficulty, not to say the impossibility, of the job thatschools like his have. _.

to the teacher, that the Urrutia females had to giggle behindtheir hands. "Now you know it's not nice to talk so thatother people don't understand," Razi admonished. But itwas all right. Relations between students and teacherseemed easy and mutually appreciative. This seemed to bethe rule in the ESL department, an ever-growing school-within-a-school at Fairfax, enrolling some 650 kids andstaffed by ten teachers as devoted as they are demoralized.

The idea is to get the newcomers out of the ESL settingand into regular classes with native-born students quickly-"mainstrearning," it's called. Until then, these Hispanic kidsare beautifully behaved because they do not yet feel at homeand have not yet let go of their original if war-ravaged moth-er-culture. They are also appreciative, because they sensethat their ESL teachers do care about them, because for alltheir wounded culture-pride they understand that English isthe door to better things, and not least because school is a

refuge. If the U.S. is arefuge from poverty andwar, school is a refuge fromthe gang warfare of the bar-rios, and a reprieve from thesweatshops which, if thetruth be told, many of thesekids will have to go into, atleast temporarily and possi-bly forever.

to his village one day when he was 15 and took him away.Yes, he cried when it happened, he said, this 19-year-oldboy who now has experience and just enough of a machopresence to be interesting. The trauma aside, he is not unsat-isfied with having attained the rank of corporal. The gov-ernment side, with U.S. help, had won the war, and that wasa good thing, in his opinion. He knew that others of hiscountrymen in L.A. and right here in school disagreed.Jaime, from Nicaragua, interrupted-only in the JuniorReserve Officer Training Corps unit do all the races andnationalities and factions get along, he said. Elmer made nocomment. He works every day after school at a conveniencestore. He'd like to be a cop.

III. Dr. O.

Right angles, rightangles. Dr. MikeO'Sullivan, principal of

Fairfax, continually makes surethat all the objects on his deskare positioned at right angles.He also answers his phone byalmost barking into it,"O'Sullivan!" Does this meanthat the man, himself the prod-uct of a parochial Catholic highschool, is uptight? Not a bit ofit. An indication of how light helikes to keep things is thenotice, in Gothic, posted on oneof the filing cabinets in hisaccessible sanctum: "TheFloggings Will Continue UntilMorale Improves." Dr. O. likesto keep things under controland moving right along.

Speaking of morale, he andseveral representatives of hisdemoralized, somewhat mili-tant faculty were now in hisoffice going over how a planned new district-wide sched-ule which he had received by fax from the Board of Edwould be implemented. He referred to the plan as "one ofthose bright ideas they spasmodically get downtown." Theschool day would be extended 36 minutes, until 3:41 p.m.,and the spring semester cut by eight days, resulting inabsolutely no loss and no gain of instructional time. Thischange necessitated much juggling, which O'Sullivan andthe teachers now proceeded to spend an hour on. It wasn'teasy, Fairfax in practice being many schools and tracksunder one roof, ESL and regular, deaf and hard of hearing,Advanced Placement, Honors, and something known asImpact, a euphemism for remedial.

Glancingly mentioned by the principal was the Board ofEd's thinking: by cutting the eight clays, and labeling them afurlough, "downtown" could hand out state compensationmonies to district workers, in this case public school teach-

The point he'd like you tograsp and retain is that the public

schools are required to take all comers.In America's big cities now, this meansnot just kids from Sicily and Ireland andthe Pale of Settlement and Harlem, as

in the old days, but Cambodia,Somalia, Guam, you name it. Carlos Perez was vis-

iting in Razi' s class,now that the exam

was over. A Salvadoranwho has been here five

years and has serious problems expressing himself inEnglish despite having taken ESL and been mainstreamed,he said that his parents worry, that they don't want him outof the house when he's not in school. Tagging can end withkilling, said Carlos. An obedient boy, he presumably drivesstraight home in his Dodge Colt, killing the rest of the daysleeping or watching TV. His father is a carpenter, hismother cleans houses. He'd like to go to college but proba-bly won't. "Some people," he said, "think us Latinos maketrouble." Should there be limits, real ones, on immigration?Either Carlos didn't understand the question, or didn't wantto. As for a possible teachers' strike, he said he had heardnothing about it.

It's actually safer in the U.S. than in the Third World,and safer and calmer inside the perimeter of Fairfax Highthan in the streets of L.A. Which doesn't mean that you canlet your guard down completely. The Urrutias, reluctantly,told of problems between Hispanic girls and black girls inschool, fights during nutrition. "They say we don' respectthem. They don' respect us." More: Elmer, the 19-year-oldvet, the fighter, had seen FMLN graffiti in the metal shop,FMLN being the Marxists in El Salvador whom he had spenttwo years and three months of his life combating. Not thathe had volunteered to do so. The government troops came

ers. A minute was spent figuring how much the Fairfaxteachers stood to be compensated. Of course, O'Sullivansaid, it remained to be seen how this went down inSacramento. In the meantime, he and these members of hisstaff painstakingly and good-humoredly cobbled together anew schedule, down to the second. Unmentioned wasdowntown's transparent hope that the maximum of $368 incompensation to which each of the district's 21,000 teacherswould be entitled might persuade them not to walk off thejob on February 22, 1993, after all.

The American Spectator March 1993 3130 The American SpectatorMarch 1993

The point he'd like you to grasp and retain after theteachers have left his office is that the public schoolsare required to take all comers. In America's big

cities now, this means not just kids from Sicily and Irelandand the Pale of Settlement and Harlem, as in the old days,but Cambodia, Somalia, Guam, you name it. Fairfax High'scatchment area stretches from West Hollywood with its ex-Soviets, through the barrio on Western Avenue, downthrough Koreatown and all the way to Pico, which bordersSouth-Central. The school has to welcome the children ofall the refugees and immigrants of the world, along with the20 percent of the student body that is black and liable to doits growing-up with one parent, and Anglos whose homeenvironment and previous education may not be that great,either. Teachers facing an aver-age of thirty-nine such young-sters per class are supposed tokeep them awake and awayfrom each others' throats. Theyare also supposed to preparethem to be happy and useful cit-izens with a capacity to learnskills and a respect for the com-mon good. 0' Sullivan wassteadily ironical and cheerfuleven when alone with a visitor.The latter was amused andimpressed, and reminded ofsomething he'd come across inSection 44806 of the state edu-cation code:

councilors, he expressed admiration for VMI's sexistadmission policy. The smiling, friendly, eager Jin had hisfuture completely mapped out. He'd be a Marine officer,then he'd go to law school, then he'd do something in gov-ernment. This from a kid who arrived in the U.S. five-and-a-half years ago with only his mother and not a word ofEnglish. His mother runs a coffee shop, and he works threeafternoons a week in the freezer of a supermarket, justenough to pay for his clothing and sports uniforms and givehim a permanent cold.

cost? O'Sullivan's solidarity with and concern for his teach-ing staff were laced with background knowledge. Now thathe was alone for a short minute with his visitor, he couldexpress his doubts as to whether the teachers' union, whenit came down to it, would be "stupid enough" to strike, thereal motive behind its threat being the preference of thosewith seniority to protect the salary increases they had wonin a strike in 1989 rather than free up money for entry-leveljobs. This preference aggravated the graying of the profes-sion. But the pleasures of duty called. The gray-haired trou-bleshooter grabbed his walkie-talkie, pulled on his redwindbreaker with the "Dr. 0." in yellow script personaliz-ing it, and dashed out to have a routine look at his many-splendored kingdom. Chris, on the other hand, was brought to this country

when she was so young that she knows hardly anyKorean, despite the fact that she lives with both par-

ents, who own and operate a dry-cleaning establishment andof course speak Korean together. They wouldn't let her takea job, insisting she concentrate on her schoolwork. Sheintends to apply to Stanford,Harvard, and Yale, then itwill be on to graduateschool, perhaps law, perhapsengineering. The spirited,copper-skinned Kiva mayalso go east, having appliedto NYU as well as theUniversity of California.There were five gold ear-rings in her right lobe, nonein the left. She's a great fanof MTV and the soaps, andvery proud of her dad, a black who's an agent in the musicdivision of William Morris and who had just moved backinto her-German-Irish mom's house after a period of separa-tion.

Chris, Jin, and Kiva agreed that their teachers were great.What wasn't so great, what was, like, lacking, was schoolspirit. The native-born Kiva seemed especially concerned,almost perturbed, by this. It wasn't always so. She remem-bered that in the old days, which is to say when she was asophomore, there was more mixing, a friendlier atmosphereat Fairfax, better attendance at football and basketballgames, in short, more spirit. Now people stuck with theirown kind, a trend reinforced by the riots in South-Centrallast spring.

Anyway, there's not much to do together in the way ofextracurricular activities, clubs, and so forth. Again, thereused to be more. The change had to do indirectly with par-ents and teachers, directly with money. It seemed to thesehigh-flying kids that at public high schools in the Valleyand Beverly Hills, the parents in their BMWs chip in tofund all sorts of clubs and trips and things. Well, at Fairfaxthere were few parents who could do that, certainly theirown couldn't. Then there were the teachers without whosesponsorship and guidance such activities were impossible-some clubs had died recently because unhappy teachers hadceased volunteering their time. Kiva didn't exactly blamethem, nor did she blame them for threatening to strike. If

Each teacher shall endeavor toimpress upon the minds of thepupils the principles of morality,truth, justice, patriotism, and atrue comprehension of therights, duties, and dignity ofAmerican citizenship, includingkindness toward domestic petsand the humane treatment of living creatures, to teach them toavoid idleness, profanity, and falsehood, and to instruct them inmanners and the principles of a free government.

Nothing less! O'Sullivan, who cannot hide the fact thathe takes pleasure in his work, did not go so far as to say thatwhat big-city public schools are being asked to do is impos-sible, and would be even if more were budgeted for it. Norwould the principal say that, once in the country legally orillegally, anybody should be excluded, save perhaps theworst gang-bangers. At any rate, these matters of high poli-cy were out of his province. He was officially the educa-tional leader of Fairfax, but his real job, he stated, was totrouble-shoot from morning to night-that, and boostmorale.

The sagging morale of his teachers, not the students. Thelatter generally loved the place, according to him, becausewhere else could they get two square meals per day free of

She brought up her owngreat-grandparents, who had fled thepogroms and beggary of Russia-whowas she, a grateful descendant who stoodin awe of their heroism, to propose thatthe U.S. now slam the golden door?

IV. Likely to Succeed,'Iguess I'm just com-petitive," reckonedChris Paik, a member

of the student council. Onemust at all times fight stereo-types, they do great harm toeveryone, but there was no get-ting away from it-Chris, ajunior, is smart and driven. Sois senior Jin Kim, student bodypresident, so are so many ofFairfax's Korean-Americansthat when it comes to overcom-ing and overachieving, theymake even the stereotyped ex-Soviet Jewish kids lookslouchy. Including the Chinese,the Asians at Fairfax compriseabout 12 percent of the studentbody. Yet they pack theadvanced placement classes andcart away most of the school-wide academic prizes, leaving a

crumb here and there for the ex-Muscovites. It must bereported in all honesty that some are nerds. Others, likeChris and Jin, are anything but nerds, for if they were nerds,how could they have persuaded anyone to vote for them?

The council had met in its room over the rotunda, andnow Chris, Jin, and Kiva Stewart, senior class presidentwithout a drop of Asian blood in her veins, were alertly andreadily and happily answering a visitor's questions. Evenwhen critical, as Riva was when she complained that schoolspirit had fallen off, they were basically your happy, ener-getic kids. They were satisfied with their corner of the king-dom, they.were young and hopeful despite having been con-ceived at the tail end of the twentieth century and con-demned to bloom in a time of plague.

All were in that third of the student body which heads toa four-year college on graduation. Jin had been accepted atthe Citadel, was awaiting word on his applications to theNaval Academy and VMI-unfazed by his two female co-

32 March 1993The American Spectator The American Spectator March 1993

she were a teacher, she wouldn't take a pay cut lying downeither. Yet both she and Jin hoped that there wouldn't be astrike. They remembered the one in '89. It had lasted ninedays, during which movies were shown to everybody. Thistime, it might go on longer. If it did, college-bound seniorswere in danger of not graduating.

V. Conspiracies

Your typical Fairfax teacher is female, isn't gettingany younger, is devoted and demoralized, holds nomore than a master's degree, and voted for Bill and

Hillary Clinton. This makes Dan Victor-with his Ph.D.,wire-rimmed glasses, salt-and-pepper beard, and tweedjacket-atypical. Instead of showing evidence of demoral-ization, the devoted Victor with his memories of the sixtiescouldn't help feeling high that day last December. In thefirst place, his first book had just been published-The

Seventh Bullet, a SherlockHolmes mystery set inWashington, D.C. in themuckraking, ragtime era.Victor teaches English tothe high-fliers, and to cele-brate they had hung a list ofimmortals over the black-board: Poe, Twain,Melville, Fitzgerald, Victor.In the second place, he hadrecently become a father forthe first time. His wife,

Norma Silverman, among the youngest of the teachers atFairfax-in point of gossipy fact, she had once been his stu-dent-had presented him with a son and heir. So, despite asleep deficit, Victor was in a good-no, a fine-mood.

"We're basically in this situation because our politicalleaders don't want an educated citizenry," he said. "An edu-cated citizenry would be potentially revolutionary.' I reallydo think sometimes that there's a plot being carried out tokeep the American people ignorant."

Now it's important to emphasize that although Victor'spolitics are somewhere on the border between liberalismand radicalism, and that he voted for the Clintons faute demieux, the sleepy teacher and author said this with unmis-takable and redeeming self-consciousness.

"I'm a great conspiracy buff," he explained in the samevein. "I thought JFK was a great movie and told my stu-dents to go."

By "this situation," he meant a teachers' union justifiablyprimed to strike. By an "ignorant citizenry," he meant notthe advanced placement and honors students who happenedto make up all his workload this year, but the mass of unfor-tunate yet educable kids whom he had taught in previousyears and would teach again, and who were being intention-ally kept dumb by the powers that be. More in agreementthan not, Victor quoted Jeff Horton, a member of the schoolboard downtown: "The real enemy is Reagan-Bush corpo-rate America." And the instrument by which this sinister

33

Your typical Fairfax teacher isfemale, isn't getting any younger, is

devoted and demoralized, holds no morethan a master's degree, and voted for

Bill and Hillary Clinton.

and cunning power-structure perpetuated and spread igno-rance and passivity was of course money, that is, by seeingto it that the education bureaucrats were paid too much andthe teachers in the trenches too little. Victor was happy withhis life at the moment. Also, he doesn't appear to be the sortwho takes himself too seriously anymore. But there couldbe no doubt that he believed this analysis, and that on someprimordial level it made him almost as mad as it had whenhe was young.

"To be a public school teacher is to be a patriot," he saidwithout vanity. "It's to do a service for America. By thesame token, anything which tends to weaken the publicschool system is a disservice. Take the idea of vouchers thatyou conservatives are so crazy about-'choice' you call it.That's not the solution, because it would only weaken thepublic schools further, and the public schools are the onlyinstitution that gives Americans something in common."

So what was the solution?"Number one, better pay for teachers. You get what you

pay for. Yes, if the only wayto raise the money for it isthrough more taxes, thenmore taxes. The politicians,the state and national leader-ship, should explain to themiddle class that if youdon't save the publicschools, you'll have to shellout even more for privateschools and security on yourhouse and car. Number two, more autonomy for individualschools, less power for downtown. We ought to have morediscretion to tailor our programs and spend money."

Like many of his colleagues of both genders, Victorcame on militant at first, hot to strike. The prospectof half a million kids in the street with nothing to do

ought to concentrate a few minds downtown, he intimated.For the truth was, untrained as they were for it, he and hiscolleagues had generally kept the multicultural, multiracialpeace in the year of the riots. For this, their salaries shouldhave been raised by a grateful establishment. Instead, theywere being cut! A strike, or the threat of one, was totally inorder.

It didn't take much probing, however, not with Victorand not with the others, to discover that these likable, self-sacrificing liberals-to-radicals didn't really have the appetitefor a war in 1993 and would be glad for a way out. Theseare missionaries at best, not martyrs. For one thing, theyknow very well that their union is weak, nothing like whatyou still have in New York City. For another, people likeVictor, whatever they might have been at Berkeley, havebecome softies with the passing years. Even if they struckthey wouldn't close the schools down and leave the kids toroam the streets-they'd come and show them movies, asthey did in '89, as some of the best of them do even whennot on strike. For yet another thing, the pay cut and the

yard. Working on that casserole, Shirley Cooke con-firmed that exam week was special.

Board of Ed's refusal to promise not to cut again may havehurt the teachers more in their feelings than their pocket-books. Victor himself mentioned in passing that the '89strike had won three straight years of 8 percent pay raises.

Strikes have lives of their own, but with a little good willand budgetary sleight of hand, Jin and Kiva will probablyget their diplomas on schedule.The real question is whether,in six years' time, Dan Victor, himself a Fairfax grad, willsend his eldest son to public school. "We'll see," heanswered. And might The Seventh Bullet be optioned byHollywood? "From your mouth to God's ear."

The college counselor, Ginger Emerson, is a whitewoman who appears somewhat more demoralizedthan your average Fairfax teacher. Emerson had

complained that too many kids in the 10th and 11th grades VII. Mugged, Remains a Liberalwalked around in a fog, refusing to understand that if they FairfaX High's library is a clean, well-lighted place. Itwanted to get into a decent college, they had to jack up their is stocked with an autographed copy of The SeventhGPAs. The high-fliers were no problem-they possessed Bullet and thousands of other volumes, a couple ofsomething inside driving them to excel, plus their families computer terminals, and thirty magazines on the rack, downpressuring them. It was the others who made her job frus- from a hundred because of the money crunch. Sherrytrating. Either they refused to be motivated, or their English, Miller, the librarian, was pleased to be able to say that whennever mind the devotion of the ESL staff, was so poor that it it came time to decide which seventy subscriptions to can-was cruel to have them take the Verbal SAT. She had cel, she'd been fair and responsible and killed both Thedragged out and recited last year's mean scores: nation- American Spectator and the Nation, leaving Newsweek.wide, 423; California, 416; Fairfax, 364. As a result of their Miller is another frank liberal. By which she means thatproblems with English, most of she believes that humans bythe one-third of graduating nature are basically good orseniors who enroll in two-year potentially good and should becommunity colleges, thinking to given almost unlimited oppor-transfer to UC, are fated to drop tunities to prove it. If an indi-out. vidual behaves destructively,

"I'm gonna graduate," Tia unless he's a physical danger tosaid. "I'm gonna walk that stage others, you must think lessand get that diploma from Dr. about restraining or punishingO'Sullivan. I'm gonna go to a him than about rectifying "thecommunity college, and then underlying causes." Reason andI'm gonna transfer to Spelman. understanding and love, not dis-I'm gonna prove it to everybody cipline, hierarchy, and thewho thinks I can't." threat of pain, will heal us, set

Charity served up the cook- 1~;;i~~~~~us free. Thus, if the JROTe pro-ies. Unlike her friend and ex- :: gram at Fairfax was valuable,co-cheerleader, she had no as she agreed it is, this wascomplaints about Fairfax. In thanks to the services the cadetsher words, "This school is perform for their fellow stu-OK. I don't hate it." True, she dents, certainly not thanks tosaid, there was less school the guns and uniforms andspirit than in the past. Buses saluting. Miller, like the rest ofwere no longer laid on for her colleagues, is somewhataway games. Charity hoped to demoralized, somewhat tired,go on to Santa Monica City ------------------ yet she is sweetly defiant aboutCollege. In a way, she wished that she had remained at the difficult, unselfish, comforting faith that she has clungthe parochial school, Immaculate Heart, where she had to despite experience. A resident of the neighborhood, shebeen enrolled before, since college is stressed there. On walks to work and has been mugged in broad daylight.the other hand, Immaculate Heart is all girls, an Also, her apartment has been burglarized. These undeniablyunhealthy situation-she had left for that reason. Girls extremely unpleasant experiences have tested, perhaps tem-who go to school with other girls only, she explained, pered, not shattered, her faith.are liable to become either fast or retarded. Coeducation It was the head librarian's impression that even the"balances you out so you don't run wild." On the whole, right-wingers on the faculty had voted Democratic. Theretherefore, she preferred Fairfax, liked it very well, was was something about being in the trenches that made itglad that she had switched despite the tidbits of gossip impossible for anyone to assent to the government washingand information that she provided in hopes of putting a its hands of these kids. Miller was referring not to thevisitor's favorable impressions in perspective: a member minority of kids who, thanks to their choice of parents,of the student council whom she named was supposed to love to read and learn, and who come on their own to usedrop acid, there was extensive "ditching" or cutting of her facilities. She was talking about the majority of kidsclass, Mr. Smith wasn't all that tough if you knew how nowadays who through no fault of their own "just haven'tto get on the right side of him, and except during exam got it." They hail from too many poor, illiterate countries,week there was always considerable commotion in the and even if American-born, are liable to have grown up inhalls and sometimes trash cans set afire outside in the homes where a book is never seen. Foreign-born or native,

VI. Tuna Casserole

Because it was exam week, and because exams in thiscourse were over, and because Shirley Cooke, theteacher, is a wise, jolly, tolerant sort of black woman,

the Temptations were doing their rendition of Christmas car-ols at mid-volume on a tape deck someone had brought toFood & Nutrition, formerly home economics. "Sleep in heav-

enly peee-eace," CharityHayes chimed in, snappingher fingers. She and herfriend Tia Burton, who wasalso a senior and had oncenot only been on the cheer-leading squad but had actual-ly captained it, had bakedsome cookies and were nowhelping Mrs. Cooke with atuna casserole, sort of.

"It's not just us blacks," Tia was saying to a visitor whohad brought up the subject of broken families. "I live withmy momma. It's just me and her. But it's not just us."

"I live with my momma and my grandmomma," Charitysaid cheerfully. "I don't even know my father."

"When I graduate, maybe I'll go to San Diego and livewith my grandmomma," Tia said.

These were happy kids-especially Charity, a very cutenumber in a short flouncy skirt, dredlocks, and a sequineddecal in the shape of a heart pasted on her forehead. Therewas going to be a basketball game later against GardeniaHigh. Charity was going to cheerlead, the disentitled Tiawas going to look on, and Jeff, who was using the Food &Nutrition classroom/kitchen to study math, was going tocompete.It seemed that Tia had been doing so poorly with her

schoolwork that she had had to give up her extracurricularactivity. She blamed not herself, but the faculty, especiallyFairfax's college counselor. It was because of the non-sup-portive, non-informative, indifferent teachers and coun-selors that she had failed to take her schooling with enoughseriousness in the IOth and 11th grades and now lacked thecredits to graduate with her classmates. Only teacher CathyHead, of the Afro-American history department, escapedTia's criticisms."If it wasn't for my momma," she said, "I wouldn't even

know how to write a book report!"

34 March 1993The American Spectator The American Spectator 35March 1993

their illiterate parents, even if present and well-meaning,are too tired after sweating or hustling all day to take a use-ful interest, to do the crucial nagging and helping. As terrif-ic as Miller believes the ESL department is, it can't workmiracles, and shouldn't be expected to. America simplymay not be able to bring so many disadvantaged kids withso many absent parents and varied mother-tongues up tospeed.

used at the elementary school level to buy expensive pro-fessional help for kids at risk. Otherwise, there reallyought to be a strike.

ly believes is that the U.S. has been chosen to playa star-ring role in this world. No less than twenty-eight years hehas been teaching in the public schools of L.A., of whichtwenty-four years at Fairfax. He agreed with Earl Smith thatback in the sixties it was still mostly Jewish beavers fromthe immediate neighborhood. Soon after Safier began teach-ing, however, the school's attendance boundaries wereflung much wider to preempt a busing order, and years ofturmoil followed, at the end of which the white flight that itwas feared busing would touch off had taken place any-way-most of the white students at Fairfax today, Safierclaimed, are Russian immigrants.

One of this neocon's manias, which amuse and scandalizehis colleagues, has to do with the English language. Hebelieves that if this country is to survive and profit from thecurrent immigration, schools must become English-onlyzones. Yes, he'd include ESL classes, especially ESL classes,though he realizes that such a law would be "hell to enforce."Once a year, he writes to Mike O'Sullivan demanding a stopto the practice of usingSpanish, etc. for school-wideannouncements over the PAsystem. In vain. But you canbet that in his own class-room, where among the por-traits of Washington andLincoln and a VCR thenotice concerning floggingsand morale is hung, Englishonly is the enforced rule.

"My job is to assimilatekids into America," Safierdeclared. "That's the greathistorical function of the public schools." So he assigns theGettysburg Address and parts of the Constitution for memo-rization and recitation, as if his classroom were in a schoolin New York City a century ago. It's neither hopeless noreasy. Even the brightest, most nearly literate of the kidshave grown up in what appears to Safier to be an MTVlumpen culture. "Would you believe it if I told you thatmost of the kids in my best class don't know who CaryGrant is? And that most of the black kids today don't knowwho Duke Ellington is? They're ignorant! Look, when Ishowed them It Happened One Night, they were charmed,but I had to explain the reference to the walls of Jericho.You can't assume that a kid entering high school todayknows anything."

The graying history teacher and jazz and black-and-white movie buff admitted that in every generation since thefirst pharaohs, the middle-aged have said that youth wasgoing to hell, and often they were mistaken. Was his prefer-ence for jazz over rap sclerotic? He thought not. He thoughtthere' was a genuine culture-war going on now, thatMadonna and Michael Jackson are truly inferior, and that itwas a teacher's duty to propagandize for the good andagainst the bad. To do this, he or she must first provide asafe, disciplined classroom.

S afier has earned himself a reputation as something ofa disciplinarian. He has also earned himself somegrief thereby. Earlier this year, he kicked a disruptive

female out of class: She then wrote a letter to O'Sullivanclaiming that Safier had said to her, "You blacks are alwayscausing trouble." Worse, she spread the lie around verbally,taking it out of the loop and possibly damaging Safier's rep-utation. Now he was consulting a lawyer to see whether aminor could be sued for libel or slander. There are kids andkids, according to Safier, and there are black kids and blackkids. He showed off a photograph on the wall of DannyEverett, from Watts, who found a way to attend Fairfax andwent on to UCLA and a bronze medal in the 400-meters atthe 1988 Olympics, and another photograph of a black girl,also a student of Safier's, who went on to get her Ph.D.from Cal tech. A good many blacks are intelligent and moti-vated or motivatable, he said, while too many are intelligentbut lazy as a matter of principle, their laziness sanctioned byadults who proclaim that America owes them a break for

past and present mistreat-ment. "I know that there areteachers in this buildingwho break down their whitekids, make them confesstheir racial prejudices inclass," Safier disgustedlyconfided.

And yet, and yet. Thisman with his possible law-suit seemed less demoral-ized than his eternally liber-al and radical colleagues,and did not rule out the abil-

VIII. Timeout

Fairfax High squeaked by Gardenia in a home-courtthriller witnessed by Dr. 0., a number of parents, aclot of obscenely funny, potentially violent non-stu-

dents rooting for the Mighty Lions, and no more than 200increasingly rapt sophomores, juniors, and seniors of all theraces. Who said there was no school spirit? The game wasas fast and physical as perhaps only teenagers who worshipMichael Jordan's shoes can be. "That ain't no foui!" yelledone of the musclebound clowns in the stands, a character of

voting age if he was a day, atthe ref. "Don't you go callingthat sissy s--t!" He and his bud-dies exchanged high-fives. Thepacing Dr. O. in his windbreak-er sawall, heard all, made surewithout appearing to do so thatthe school cops and JROTC

monitors didn't leave. TheGardenia fans who were beingtaunted on the opposite sidejeered and stomped and tauntedback. They, their starting teamand bench were all black.Fairfax's starters were allblack, but a white sub for thehome team broke Gardenia'sheart with a series of outstand-ing tip-ins. Explosive cheeringin the final, very tense quarter.Throughout the game, cart-wheels, splits, and Rockettekicks from Charity and hermultiracial friends in theirflouncy skirts. "Miss it!" these

chicks screamed in unison whenever Gardenia had a shotfrom the line. The shot would often be missed. "You missthis," one of the hoodlum non-student clowns supportingFairfax hollered as Jeff stepped to the line, "you don't getno more c--t!" Everyone in the gym heard this, few couldhelp laughing, and Jeff didn't miss. Final score: Fairfax 52,Gardenia 47, and no bloodshed.

1

JItwas interesting to watch the attractive Miller squirmwhen asked whether in light of this it wasn't time forimmigration from the Third World, especially non-

Asian immigration, to be seriously restricted. She couldn't,wouldn't buy such an illiberal idea. By way of an answer,she brought up her own great-grandparents, who had fled thepogroms and beggary ofRussia, had been pushed out bycircumstances and welcomed,more or less, in the NewWorld-who was she, a grate-ful descendant who stood inawe of their heroism, to pro-pose that the U.S. now slam thegolden door?

And yet, and yet. She under-stood that if something isn'tdone to stem the current tide,cities like L.A. risk breakingdown. Their infrastructures,their services, above all thebeloved public school systeminto which she has put her life,might well crack. It was inter-esting to see her writhingbetween her principles and herappreciation of the situation,and it was interesting to hearher say finally that somethinghad to be done back in the immigrants' home countries torender them more habitable, to reduce the push factor.Vaguely she spoke of improving their economies.

Which wasn't to say that the system was doing all itcould. It had gotten its priorities outrageously backwards.Instead of putting what money there was into the schoolsand the kids and the teachers, into buying the audiovisualmaterials Miller needs to make her library more seductive,the bureaucrats downtown and the politicians inSacramento were feathering their nests. This waste andcynicism demoralized the younger teachers, driving someof them right out of the profession, and it made herdamned mad. It's not as if she thought unlimited dollarswere out there, however, or that she merely felt terribleabout the impending cut in her salary. No, she said, sheunderstood that there was a genuine crisis. She'd be readyto live with a pay cut, so long as the people downtowntook an even heftier one and the resultant savings were'

"To be a public school teacher is to bea patriot," he said without vanity. "It's todo a service for America. By the same token,anything which tends to weaken the publicschool system is a disservice. Take the idea

of vouchers that you conservativesare so crazy about ... "1

ity of a smart, motivated kid of any color to obtain an edu-cation. It depended on getting the right teachers.Unfortunately, some members of the faculty were lousy buttenured. One of them, a "mini-Robespierre," had actuallyquoted Mario Savio in the meeting held before the strikevote. Safier was against a strike now. California was in factbroke, so the issue should be not money but the applicationof race-blind standards and honest grading.

X. Finale, With Excitement

The last day before winter break now rolled around.Elmer and Jaime and a number of the rest of the boyand girl cadets of the school's JROTC unit were in Dr.

O.'s office around noon stuffing envelopes. They were intheir civvies, as were the luckier cadets practicing with airrifles down at the unit's hut between the teachers' lounge andthe baseball diamond. Two other Hispanic cadets, in a shortessay they had collaborated on for a mainstream English classin the semester just ended, told what JROTC is about:

)1

IX. Neocon

Your diligent reporter didn't find a single teacher atFairfax who didn't vote for the Clintons. Even thefaculty's most prominent heretic did it.

Howard Safier has long thought of himself as a neocon-servative. Yet in all the presidential elections in which hehas fulfilled his duty, only in 1972 did he actually not voteDemocratic-he sized McGovern up as an isolationist, andthat was too much. Among the things Safier, a teacher ofAmerican history and Fairfax's cross-country coach, fierce-

The JROTC storted in 1916 arouned the time of the ferst warWorld. 332 schools have JROTC and also they have 11 events.These events are rifle team, best platoon, best squat color guredetc.

36 March 1993The American Spectator March 1993 The American Spectator 37

The IROTC give you money scholarships advancement inthe Armeed force. The JROTC is funded by the school districtand the melitery. There are 107 students in JRTOC at thisschool. JROTC allows students to handle gun and helps them todo malitary drill for the maximum leadership experience.

According to O'Sullivan's fact sheet, Hispanics make up 40percent of Fairfax students. Your reporter's impression wasthat they make up 80 percent of both ESL and JROTC, therest of Don Bishop's troops being Russians, blacks, andIsraelis. All kids who take the JROTC elective, besides learn-ing to shoot, drill, read maps, etc., train in first aid againstthe day when the Big One hits and in fact generally putthemselves out to serve others, as the anti-militarist SherryMiller herself said. Army sergeant-major (ret.) Don Bishopis their C.O. He's a red-cheeked bear of a white man, a highschool dropout who served in Korea and Vietnam and hasbeen at Fairfax so long that he can remember when theworst thing that might happen was that someone would puta yarmulke on the bust of Lincoln in the rotunda. Service,according to Bishop, "instills a lot of discipline and citizen-ship." Elmer and Jaime and the others assigned by him toserve in the principal's office would have preferred to tar-get-shoot, but did as ordered. Chattering peacefully inEnglish and Spanish, they were stuffing into envelopesroughly 2,000 letters concerning the new schedule of longerdays and shorter semesters, 60 percent headed "DearParents," the rest "Estimados Padres."

What these good kids didn't know, what the restless kidsand devotedly scolding teacher in a classroom upstairswhere the movie version of Lord of the Flies was being runthrough the VCR didn't know, what the teacher and the twowhite kids who had shown up for a class on stereotyping,bigotry, and racial harmony didn't know, what the whiteand black teachers drinking coffee together, griping' andwearily joking in the barebones lounge were unaware of,was that a student had just been attacked and beaten up onthe street outside.

This boy cultivated a goatee and was now being treatedin the office of Margaret Matagna, school nurse. She getsthis sort of thing from time to time, yet Fairfax isn't as badas other schools she could name, knock on wood. Most ofher work is arranging dental care for immigrants, distribut-ing free condoms to those kids whose parents haven'tspecifically demurred, counseling pregnant girls on theireducational and other choices. Later, Matagna would drivethe bandaged boy home in her own car, to the comer ofSlauson and Crenshaw in the barrio, so as to make sure hegot into no more trouble that day. In the car, she'd ask himto take off his signature porkpie hat. For as even a visitorcould infer from the goatee, from the questions being askedby the school cops and from the answers being given in fairEnglish by this kid as the nurse, wearing rubber gloves,fixed him up, he was not unacquainted with gangs. The fourtypes who he said had poured out of a Toyota on MelroseAvenue and started clubbing him with a metal bar were, hethought, Salvadorans, while as for himself he was fromHonduras. No, he had never seen any of them before. No,

he had no idea why they should do such a thing. Yes, theyhad also shown him a gun, either a .38 or .45. The maleLAUSD cop scribbled, scribbled.

The incident, about which Dr. O. had been notified overhis walkie-talkie, was, in his own words, "nothing to getshook about." Which isn't to say that he wasn't actingslightly disgusted as he stood outside near Melrose.

"Far as I'm concerned," he said, "a kid like that doesn'teven belong in school. He's a known gang-banger. Healmost had it coming. But what happens if we opportunity-transfer him out of here? He stays in the system, he justlands at another school, like the kids who got opportunity-transferred out of North Hollywood and ended up here. Doyou want to hear a shocker? It's just about impossible to getexpelled from the public school system. Like I told you-we have to take all comers, and even if we opportunity-transfer them away, we'll be getting somebody else's badguys in return. The parochial schools like the one I went tohave always had it easier. They can pick and choose."

O'Sullivan pounced on a gum wrapper lying on the grassand slam-dunked it into a trash can. Every afternoon whenschool lets out, he spends an hour outdoors with several ofhis teaching staff, making sure the kids disperse. Of course,he can't do anything about what he calls the "attractive nui-sances" nearby, such as the Retail Slut clothiers and espe-cially a comics store directly opposite the school, which asusual was drawing males with their backwards caps anddragging laces. An LAPD prowl car visited and departed.

Also disgusting in Dr. O.'s eyes were the TBC tags thathad appeared overnight over the KGBs on an outside wall-the newly spray-painted letters stood for Too Busy Creating.It would cost, he said disgustedly, a thousand dollars to cleanup that mess. And yet, he was probably not as disgusted, notas upset, as he acted. This minor beating and this taggingwere small, ordinary events. They were only backgroundnoises that he, his teachers, and the mass of good, apathetic,heroic kids starting out in life have learned to put up with. Ifthey were lucky, no strike would keep them from continuingto put up with them, come spring semester.

• • •Postscript: During the remedial intersession between the falland spring semesters, Fairfax High and Los Angeles werejolted when a student fooling around with his .357 Magnumshot.and killed a classmate and wounded another. The boywith the Clint Eastwood cannon wasn't a regular Fairfax stu-dent. He had come from another school in the city for theremedial English course, and he told police that he had start-ed packing a gun after gang-bangers had robbed and beatenhim on the way to school. The dead boy was DemetriusRice, a sub on the Fairfax varsity football team, by allaccounts a sweet kid. His mother, who raised him by herself,asked for donations to enable her to bury him. A crisis coun-seling team was dispatched by the school district to helpFairfax cope, and a state assemblyman said he was going tointroduce a law appropriating to the district $30 million so itcould install metal detectors at all its high schools. 0

38 March 1993The American Spectator

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my was the driving force" in the Bushloss.

But the platform was pro-life in 1984and 1988, two very good years forRepublican candidates. Had theAmerican public changed its mind on theabortion issue?

Probably not. A Wirthlin exit poll(see box) found that abortion was one ofthe one or two issues that "matteredmost" for 16 percent of voters. Amongthose voters, Bush won, 68 percent to 25percent, giving him a net gain of 6.9 per-cent on the abortion issue. A VoterResearch and Surveys exit poll commis-sioned by the four major networks found13 percent of voters had abortion as "oneof the one or two issues that matteredmost" and this 13 percent broke for Bush55 to 36 percent, giving him a net plus of2.5 percent. The VRS poll also asked thesame question on family issues andfound a 6.5 percent advantage for Bushthere. The argument that the abortionissue hurt Bush appears to come pri-marily from Democrats and fromRepublicans who have always beenuncomfortable with the anti-abortionposition of the rest of the party.

Even if the abortion issue cut for Bush

Act. Phyllis Schlafly, the founder andleader of the Republican NationalCoalition for Life, the group committedto keeping the pro-life language in theRepublican platform, pointed to thethreat posed by FOCA in the mailing shesent to pro-lifers in support of Coverdell.The Focus on the Family radio newsprogram "Family News in Focus"appeared on fifty-four radio stationswith a special on the Coverdell/Fowlerface-off that emphasized the abortiondifference.

Dole, Mitch McConnell, and JohnWarner, along with Jack Kemp and LynnMartin, all traveled into the state to helpCoverdell. Sen. John McCain, a war heroand former North Vietnamese POW,wrote a letter to Georgia veterans, oppos-ing Fowler and endorsing Coverdell. Butthere were new elements to the coalitionas well: term-limit advocates, the Perotstate organizers, and the Libertarianparty endorsed and campaigned forCoverdell.Coverdell's Winning Formula by Grover Norquist

Coverdell was a low-tax, small-gov-ernment traditional Republicanwho had supported George Bush

over Reagan in 1980, over Robertson in1988, and over Buchanan in 1992. Hewas also pro-choice on abortion. Verymuch so. In the 1992 primary, Coverdellran against and defeated, first John Knox,a pro-life advocate, and next, in anotherrunoff, former U.S. Attorney Bob Barr.How, then, could Coverdell draw on thesupport of the Christian right, so crucial toReagan-era candidates?

The pro-life leaders, pro-familygroups, and traditional values-supportingevangelicals caucused and came up witha nuanced approach. Coverdell wouldnot vote for the Human Life Amendmentto ban almost all abortions-the touch-stone of the pro-life community foralmost twenty years. But Fowler wouldvote for the Freedom of Choice Act(FOCA), which would forbid any restric-tions of abortions at all-even for sexselection, parental notification, or late-term abortions. Coverdell would allowsome state restrictions and therefore voteagainst FOCA.

That was the critical divide that setthe stage for a new and welcome depar-ture for Republicans: a moderate's mod-erate elected with the enthusiastic sup-port of the religious right. The ChristianCoalition, the political organizationformed in the wake of Pat Robertson's1988 presidential bid, set up phonebanks and delivered 1.2 million nonpar-tisan "voter guides"-contrasting thecandidates' positions on FOCA, Prayer inSchool, and taxes-to evangelicalactivists. State Christian CoalitionChairman Pat Garland put 8,000 mileson his van distributing the voter guides.The Committee for a Pro-Life Congressspent some $30,000 in radio advertisinghighlighting the difference between thecandidates on the Freedom of Choice

highlighting the importance of this cam-paign to small businessrnen.' The U.S.Chamber of Commerce weighed in forCoverdell.

The National Rifle Association mailedthree times to its Georgia membership of90,000 (who also were sent NRA bumperstickers reading "Sportsmen forCoverdell"). The NRA also sent out250,000 flyers to gun dealers and gunclubs so that they could share factualinformation on the stands of Coverdelland Fowler the gun-grabber. For the lastfour days of the runoff, the NRA ran adson sixty-eight radio stations ten times aday. Six campaign activists came into thestate to help thirty volunteer activists runa phone bank for the final six nights thatcalled all 90,000 NRA members inGeorgia. Charlton Heston flew intoGeorgia, his boyhood home, for a day ofnon-stop campaigning.

Such sustained and targeted profes-sional campaigns were denied toPresident Bush, whose administrationmade concessions to union bosses in keycases and banned the importation ofsome assault rifles. Bush's positions wonhim neither support nor money nor evencivility from the side he was trying toplacate. He simply convinced two partsof his natural base-gun owners andunion opponents-that he could not betrusted to protect them. On election daythey had other things to do.

All the expected organs of MainStreet Republicanism did their part inGeorgia. Senators Phil Gramm, Bob

Coverdell's 17,000-vote victory in therunoff-in the face of visits on Fowler'sbehalf by Clinton and Gore-was adefining moment for Republicans: itshowed that the entire governing Reagancoalition can be reassembled, even as theissues change.

ManyRepublicans were quick toask whether they lost Nov-ember's election on the explo-

sive social issues, abortion in particular.Maybe the abortion issue helped Reaganin 1980 and 1984, the reasoning went,but now that Roe v. Wade was crackingup, the pro-choicers were getting asactive and agitated as the pro-lifers hadbeen in reaction to Roe v. Wade itself.Should the party purge Pat Robertson,evangelicals, Phyllis Schlafly and PatBuchanan? Would the Republican presi-dential primary contest for 1996 be acivil war?

Mutual suspicion could have contin-ued for years, but the party was quicklyput to a real challenge-the November24 runoff for Georgia'S U.S. Senate seatheld by Democrat Wyche Fowler andcontested by Republican Paul Coverdell.The runoff, made necessary by the fail-ure of either candidate to win an absolutemajority on November 3 (Fowler hadpolled 49 percent, Coverdell 48), wasimportant by any calculation. With onlyforty-two seats in the Senate andOregon's Bob Packwood in trouble, theRepublicans were in danger of fallingbelow the forty-one votes necessary tomaintain a filibuster.

And Georgia had always been a rock-solid exception to the recent history ofRepublican successes in the South.Georgia is the only state in the nation thathas not elected a Republican governor inthe last hundred years. Prior to 1992, onlyone Georgia Republican had been electedU.S. Senator, and that had been underunusual circumstances. (In 1980, MackMattingly was swept into office by theReagan landslide, against an incumbentweakened by alcohol and ethics charges.)

Coverdell, who clashed withevangelicals throughout theyears, now praises the "pragma-

tism" of Christian Coalition leaders likeGarland and national Executive DirectorRalph Reed. Consultant Roger Stone, anearly Reagan backer and ardent pro-choicer who fought to remove anti-abor-tion language from the Republican plat-form, also finds the Georgia victoryencouraging. "The great war [over abor-tion] everyone expects doesn't have tohappen," he says. Stone thinks, however,that a "perception of an abortion litmustest" in the Republican party hurts theparty, while admitting that "the econo-

The National Right to WorkCommittee, with 2 million mem-bers nationwide, took out news-

paper ads, and sent two mailings to theirGeorgia membership highlighting thefact that Coverdell supported Right toWork laws, and Fowler did not. Thesmall business community was active forCoverdell. The National Federation ofIndependent Businesses (NFm) mailed toits 17,000 Georgia members a piece thatcontrasted the stands of Coverdell, him-self a successful small businessman, andFowler. NFIB established a phone tree

When should abortions be legal?

Always

Never 12.0%or

seldom(55%)

In earlypregnancy(29%)

A.. At any time, for any reason.B. Not after the second trimester.C. Not after the first trimester.D. Only to save the life of the mother or after rape/incest.E. Only to save the life of the mother.F. Prohibited in all circumstances.

)Political hacks in Washington foolishlycompare the political clout of labor unionsand Fortune 500 businesses. The real com-parison is between 17 million union mem-bers-many of them belonging onlybecause of compulsory union laws-and 11million small business owners.

Grover Norquist is president of Americansfor Tax Reform.

(Source: Wirthlin exit poll, November 5-7,1992)

The American Spectator March 1993 March 1993 4140 The American Spectator

in a narrow sense, the establishment presswas insistent that the Christian right-par-ticularly its performance at the Houstonconvention-hurt Republicans overall.Poll numbers tell a different story. TheABC NewslWashington Post poll takenon the Sunday before the conventionfound George Bush trailing Bill Clinton57 to 36 percent. Seven days later, afterReagan, Buchanan, and Pat Robertsonspooked America, the Bush campaign hadclosed the gap by fifteen points.

The Coverdell race bodes well forthe upcoming Senate race inTexas and the 1994 elections,

where the Democrats must defend twen-ty-two, seats to the Republicans' twelve.

First, the conservative coalition ofsmall businesses, taxpayers, gun owners,pro-lifers, right-to-work supporters, andpro-family activists can defeat the get outthe vote efforts of politicized blackchurches and labor unions.

Second, the tax issue is back, and cut-ting for the Republicans. Coverdell cam-paign manager Tom Perdue madeFowler's vote in favor of the 1990 bud-get deal central to the campaign. Fowlertried to point out that the 1990 tax hikewas, after all, a Bush proposal, butCoverdell hammered away. If GeorgeBush was Darman's first victim, WycheFowler was his second, and Congress isfull of such targets.

Third, the Coverdell election was thefirst where the discussion of abortioncentered on a Freedom of Choice Actrather than a possible Human LifeAmendment. In past years, a candidatewas accepted as pro-life if he supported aHuman Life Amendment that would out-law almost all abortions. Now a candi-date is objectively pro-life if he opposesFOCA, which contains a pro-choice posi-tion supported by only 12 percent of theAmerican people. The scramble by"moderate" Republicans to try andchange the party's abortion language issilly, for the hard-line Democratic lan-guage on abortion is now at odds with 88percent of the electorate. As soon asthose Republicans who have always beenpro-choice "with exceptions" find them-selves on the other side of the barricadesfrom NOW and NARAL, pro-lifers willbecome willing and welcome allies. BillClinton's signing of the FOCA is about tochange the entire terrain upon which theabortion wars will be fought. 0

42

nized as a Southern outlander, answersuch questions as "No s--t, man, are youreally a member of the Alabama legisla-ture?"

My own chance to make up for losttime came in the autumn of 1951, when,as a member of the 31st Infantry("Dixie") Division called up for "policeaction" in Korea, I was happily mis-placed for six weeks at Fort Slocum,New York, forty-five minutes fromTimes Square. Every evening I'd driveinto the city, park in the Bronx, and catchthe subway into town, where Birdlandwaited on 52nd Street. It was there, onmy twenty-third birthday, that I first metDizzy; though my introduction, as Irecall, was somewhat awkward.

Anyway, Birdland. It was the mecca,if not the cradle, of progressive jazz. Andthere I was, second row front, thanks notto any lavish gratuity but by the mere cir-cumstance of wearing a uniform. NewYorkers in the forties and fifties werenotoriously soft when it came to the"boys in service." Presenting yourself inkhaki could bring free entry at the PoloGrounds and choice tables not only atBirdland but also at late-night celebrityhangouts like Sardi's and Lindy's.

Dizzy arrived fifty minutes late, browarched and beret at a rakish angle-that,not the tilted trumpet bell, was his shtickin those days. Sorry we're late, he said,but it can all be explained. Civic duty.He and the group had been playing abenefit performance in Harlem, co-spon-sored by the NAACP, B'nai B'rith (abeat), and the Alabama Chapter of theKu Klux Klan. Another (beat) while wewaited for the arched brow to drop. "Soyou see," he added, fingering his trumpetvalves, "we're lucky to be here at all."

NOwit may be true, as an existen-, tial critic once wrote, that what

Dizzy, Charlie Parker, J.J.Johnson, and Thelonius Monk were play-ing in those years drew members of mygeneration because it was "the music ofshattered experience"; but in my case,upscale metaphysics was the last thing Ihad on my mind. What drew me to pro-gressive jazz was Gillespie's wit and theput-on style of his music. He didn't dis-appoint that night, opening with apicaresque disquisition on the roots ofjazz, how it drew inspiration from thechurch, etc. About the time I, along withother members of the audience, waslooking for a pencil and pad to start tak-ing notes, he broke into an updated ver-sion of "Swing Low":

Cool Diz andMeby Victor Gold

Itwasn't easy being a Dizzy Gillespiefan at the University of Alabama inthe late 1940s. Race had nothing to

do with it. The problem was getting therecords. Be-bop, take my word for it,wasn't a big inventory item at the musicstore in downtown Tuscaloosa back then.Hank Williams and Frankie Laine weremore like it.

In later years, my classmate and fel-low Gillespie fan Walter Emmett Perrywould make up for our cultural depriva-tion by traveling to the Newport JazzFestival, where he would sit on the lawn,soak in the chords, and, on being recog-

Victor Gold is The American Spectator'snational correspondent.

[looked over Jordan and what did [ see,Com in ' for to carry me home.An El Dorads comin' after me,Comin' for to carry me home.Swing low, sweet Cadillac,Comin ' for to carry me home.Swing low, sweet Cadillac,Comin' for to carry me home.

Then, Henny Youngman-like, heinterrupted this neo-Baptist rendition ofthe old spiritual to take up again the sub-ject of life and labor in the Old South, insome way referring to Alabama andMississippi; at which mention, one of myjackass friends at the table broke intoapplause. Actually, only put his handstogether once or twice before re-membering he wasn't in Tuscaloosa. Itwas, however, applause enough to attractDizzy's notice. Looking straight at me(whom he unfortunately mistook for thejackass), he asked, all innocence, "Ohhh?Somebody here from Alabama,Mississippi ?"

Understand, my father instructed meearly on never to run from what you are,so I nodded yes, though hardly as a mat-ter of principle. What was I supposed todo, sitting front-and-center with the Starsand Bars on my khaki sleeve? Tell him,"No, East Passaic"?

"Well, now," said Gillespie, sum-moning Shorty, Birdland's midget m.c.,to his side. "You come to the rightplace. Shorty here has the lastConfederate flag ever flown." The eye-brow arched again. "You want to seeit?" I nodded, yes (since it was clear Iwas going to see it anyway). "Show it to

him, Shorty," said the Diz; on whichcue Shorty drew out a white pockethandkerchief, almost as long as he washigh, and slowly flapped it in my di-rection. Nothing personal, just a crowdwarmer, but happily the lights wentdown and I disappeared into bop,Bourbon, and New York anonymity.

A dozen years later, at Charley Byrd'sjazz mill in suburban Maryland, Ireminded Dizzy of the incident. Oddly,although it had been one of the formativemoments of my young life, he didn'trecall it. "Birdland," he said, stroking hisgray-flecked goatee. "A lot of notes havepassed over that bridge."

The session at Byrd's was a mati-nee, one of those rare occasionsto catch a jazz giant in daylight,

and I'd taken my kids to see, for once intheir Washington-bred lives, anAmerican original who wrote andplayed his own material. We'd arrivedan hour early, just as the group was set-ting up, and the man himself, spotting6-year-old Stephen's gaze at his up-turned trumpet, came down from thestage to ask whether he'd like to "sitin." A little young, I said. Maybe in afew years.

"Never too young," said Dizzy, join-ing us at the table. And there I was,forty-five minutes with Dizzy Gillespie,one-on-one. Well, not really. It wasclear, between his rambling observationson the State of the Union and the rela-tionship of the Bahai religion to hismusic, that what had really drawn him tothe table was the kids. Maybe, he sug-gested, one of the girls would like to sitin: "The group needs some variety."

On the way home, our oldest, Paige, 9at the time, had a question. "Daddy," sheasked, "was he serious?" I don't think so,I answered, but with the Diz you neverreally knew. "Is he," she wanted toknow, "what you call 'coo!'?" Honey, Ianswered, you just met the man whoinvented cool.

But now, alas, he's gone, and there'sone less giant from the golden era of myyouth to roam the earth and reassure me,through his music, wit, and warmth, thateverything I grew up with in thosepre-Baby Boom days isn't going to hell.Most things, maybe, but not the Diz. Nothim. He's headed the other way. Carriedhome, I'm certain, in a sleek, two-toned,long-finned El Dorado. 0

The American Spectator The American Spectator March 1993, March 1993

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43

Crying GamesThursday

NewYear's Eve at Morton's. I'mthere with my new b.f. Maxine,visiting from Portland, Oregon.

Tonight, the place is jammed with youngrich people and a few middle-aged poorpeople, or at least one of us. Behind me,there's my co-star from Honeymoon inVegas, Sarah Jessica Parker. She's with ahuge table of young, rich-looking kids, all,smoking cigarettes as if there were notomorrow. Smoking is definitely making acomeback among the young in this town.

To my right, there's the staggeringlygood-looking girlfriend of Steve Tischwith someone I gather is her hairdresser.Somewhere nearby is Marty Starger.

The people around me look happy,slender,' rich, proud, but edgy. That'swhat's going on here. The recession.People look edgy.

As I ate my fresh tuna fillet and lis-tened to the overpoweringly loud mari-achi band, I thought about how I proba-

I bly should have stayed in bed or at leastat my tiny dining table, instead of beinghere in all of the noise. I feel ...- ......,.......,.--------,edgy, too. Especially when Ithink about how much moneyI've lost in real estate. It makesmy skin crawl.

My aunt Pearl once told methat when my grandfather lost hisjob during the Great Depressionand couldn't get another one, aquiet settled over the house foryears. A gloomy quiet. It's noisyat Morton's tonight, but there's

Benjamin 1. Stein, author mostrecently of A License to Steal:The Untold Story of MichaelMilken and the Conspiracy toBilk the Nation (Simon &Schuster), is a writer, lawyer,economist, and actor living inMalibu, California.

tary at the Commercial Appeal inMemphis. That paper publishes my workfrequently. I got to be friends with theeditor, a fabulously thoughtful guy namedLionel Linder, at a banquet honoring myfather when he won the Seidman Prize inMemphis about three years ago. Lioneland I became fast friends. He was deeplyinterested in social issues, particularly inhow America was ever going to copewith the huge racial problems we faced."There has to be a way for people to learnto live together," he said. "If we don't,we're in big trouble."

The last time I saw Lionel, in March,in Memphis, we had lunch at the Peabodyand talked about race. "I read once thatyou started that mini-series, 'Amerika,' toshow what life in America would be likeif the Soviets took over, and why weneeded a strong defense program," hesaid to me, or words to that effect. "Nowit's time for you to do something aboutwhat's going to happen to us if we can'tget along as different races."

"Maybe a movie about a racewar in America," I replied. "Asort of Rhodesia/Yugoslavia inAmerica, with actual warfarebetween and among the races, asthe whole dream falls apart andthe glue of tolerance and sharedbeliefs dissolves. A sort ofChristmas Carol, a man's night-mare of what life in America'sgoing to be if we don't learn toget along."

I can remember Lionel nod-ding vigorously. He was about togo to South America, he said, tosee how countries of many differ-ent races were getting along. Thegoal of a lifetime.

Anyway, I have been workingon that movie, and it's NewYear's Day, and there's a secre-

an edge. There's still an underlying fear.I don't know. Maybe it's just me.

I slept on my couch in my livingroom. My neighbor at the ShorehamTowers, the lovely D., who had beenextremely sick with what was thought tobe an irreversible disease, and has nowseemingly completely recovered, wentaway for Christmas and left me her tree.I bought colored lights for the tree andwatched them flicker all night long. As Iwatched, I fell into a deep and seriousfear about providing for my retirement.That's the,way it is. It seems only yester-day that I was wondering how I couldstretch my allowance to the end of themonth in college.

Worry is the constant.That's got to change.

Friday

NewYear's Day. Day of PoliticalCorrectness. Day of Reckoning.Dies [rae.

I was awakened by a call from a secre-

"

by Benjamin J. Stein

44 The American Spectator March 1993

tary from the Commercial Appeal on theline. "You're working awfully hard," Isaid. "I'm impressed."

"I have some bad news," she said."Lionel Linder was killed yesterday. In acar accident. A drunken driver crashedinto him a few blocks from the paper.Skidded on a wet street, and now we'rehaving a memorial for Lionel ... "

In my own 48-year-old way, I fadedout for a while, and could only seeLionel nodding enthusiastically in thatrestaurant at the Peabody. Lionel laugh-ing next to me at the dais at the MemphisCountry Club. Oh, Lionel, how true it isthat the good die young.

Lionel Linder, an editor who sweatedand bled over the sorrow he reported,dead at 60 because some fool just had todrive after he was loaded. Lionel Linder,another one who cannot be replaced.

After I lay in bed in shock for afew hours, I got up, and with mynew best friend Maxine at my

side went off to see a movie. I rarely seemovies, but I thought this would distractme. So it did.

At the Beverly Gonnection(sort oflike a Connection), we bought tickets forThe Crying Game. Everyone had ravedabout it, and I wondered what was goingon. It was like, for the first time, everycritic in New York and L.A. thought amovie was perfect, and I wanted to knowwhy.

I soon found out. My first clue wasthat the theater was extremely heavilyoccupied by gay men and women. Mysecond clue was that the first few sceneswere of Miranda Richardson looking likeMadonna, or a gay man's idea of what awoman is. My third clue was that theheavy early action in this spy-IRA-twists-and-turns movie had to do with an IRAman fondling a British Jamaican soldier'sprivate parts and then sharing a cigarettewith him. My fourth clue was that theshared love object of the IRA man andthe Jamaican was a male transvestite.

The Crying Game is the first political-ly perfect movie of the Clinton era. It'sthe first cross-over homosexual lovestory to find its way to the big screen.The homosexuals are all great, compas-sionate, fun-loving guys. The women-woman-is a murderous, square-shoul-dered, cold-hearted witch. The straightmen are bloodless and also murderous.Heterosexual love is sick and twisted-a

The American Spectator March 1993

barely ambulatory British judge with aprostitute, the murderous MirandaRichardson with the hero even as some-one is being tortured nearby.

And now we know why the criticsloved it so much. Prepare for a lot moreof this in the Clinton Nineties. Gay is in,straight is out. Not that it's wrong, ofcourse. It's part of the mosaic ofAmerica.

Today happens to be the firstanniversary of the death ofMaxine's parents. She wanted to

go to Friday night Jewish services to sayprayers. Luckily, on our way out to thebeach, we passed a synagogue in the SanFernando Valley. It was having services,so in we went.

Political correctness has reached farinto the guts of shul. The congregantswere almost all ancient Russian Jewishimmigrants, who looked as tormented aspeople can be. I was touched by theirclinging to the synagogue after all theyprobably went through in Russia.

The service has also changed. Wherethe prayer book has something like, "Wethank God for all of His blessings on us,"the Thought Police have altered it to

read, "We thank God for all 'of God'sblessings on us." This change crops upover and over, deleting the politicallyquestionable idea, passed on by thosewell-known sexist pigs, Abraham, Isaac,Jacob, Moses, and David, that theAlmighty should be thought of in themale, ptooey, gender.

Then there's that old ethnocentricbaloney about us Jews being "God's cho-sen people." That's gone, too, even in theprayer book. The new line, straight fromthe Ministry of Truth, is that we are cho-sen to be witness to the equal feeling thatGod has for all of his people, and certain-ly not singled out for special favors.

Then there's the prayer that com-mands us to "respect the environment."Somehow I don't recall that one from myyouth, either.

My favorite part, though, was thesmall sermon that the rabbi preached. Hereminded us that it was New Year's Day,shabbat, then he told us that governmentswanted people to stay in their place, andbe slaves forever, but that as Jews, wewanted people to change and grow.Hmmm. What government? NicholasI's?

Suddenly, a blinding thought came

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45

through my head. This is what it's allabout-the media's hatred of authority,the media's hatred of the countryside, themedia's rage at powerful business. It'sall the working out of the fears that arosein the Russian Jewish people over cen-turies of terror at the hands of the Tsar,the Cossacks, the nobility, the RussianOrthodox Church, the peasants whodrowned Jews in wells.

The fear is so deep that it bubbles outas anger even after we've been inAmerica-a totally different animal fromTsarist Russia-for over a century. We(or some of us) equate Nixon with thetsar, equate the Army with the Cossacks,the executives of Du Pont with theStreltsy. Wow. Scary. I'll have to goover this with Irving Kristol.

Off to Hollywood to pick up TheImperial Child, his highness,Master Tommy Stein. He was

loaded for bear."Daddy," he demanded, "I want a

lizard.""No," I said. "It's New Year's Qay.

The pet shop will be closed.""Make them open it up," he said.

"You're a movie star."This kid."No, I'm not a movie star," I said. "I

am a lowly day player. At best that'swhat I am. A lowly day player."

"Well, I want my lizard.""No.""Why not?""Because I said so," I answered. "And

that's that.""Daddy, can we stop at McDonald's

on the way to the beach?""No.""Why not?""Why can we not stop at

McDonald's? Is that your question?""Right, Daddy." ."Because the last time we did that,

and the ten times before, you orderedfood, got a miserable toy of some kind,and then wouldn't eat your food. Doesthat answer your question?"

"No.""Well, then because I said so."We drove through the night. How, I

wondered, can Tommy ever be expectedto be anything but little Caligula if every-one is always catering to him? He is fiveand he has his own Nanny who allowshim to do anything, his own mother whois his total personality captive, teachers

who fall all over him to earn a smile. Thisis what makes little dictators. No, as Itold myself, I will stand up to him.

How can he ever be expected to doany work if no one ever expects him todo anything but be waited upon? Howcan he ever be expected to show anyself-discipline if he's endlessly praised,never criticized, and never expected todo anything but smile?

We got out to Malibu and stopped atthe videotape store. He picked out sever-al child's tapes and we went on our way.

Out at my house, it was drizzling.Various columns of ants marchedthrough the house en route to God knowswhat. No dead rats, though, and that's ablessing.

I listened to my messages and wentthrough my mail. It's become prettyclear that most of my callers are women.It's also clear that I soon won't be able toafford this lavish way of life with houseseverywhere I tum. No, the next stop is alittle trailer by a lake in Idaho. Yes, just alittle trailer where I can read Barron'sand TAS, occasionally stroll into town toplay checkers with the boys at the barbershop, and prepare for the HighChaparral.

"Daddy," Tommy called from thebedroom, "I want my lizard."

"I already told you you can't have ittonight."

"I want it tonight and that's that.""What?""Are you saying you're going to get

my lizard? Is that what you're saying?"Tommy asked.

"What?" I asked in shock."What am I saying? Is that your ques-

tion?" Tommy asked with a huge smile,as he burst into the living room.

Still, after he fell asleep watching TV,I thought about Lionel Linder. "One ofthe best. He was one of the best." That'swhat we say at funerals, and sometimesit's even true.

Wednesday

A hh, but then there is Pepperdine.I started teaching my class inAdvanced Securities Law there

two days ago, and I love it. My class is inan underground room with no windows,which is a shame, since Pepperdine LawSchool offers the best views of any lawschool in the world, from a small moun-tain overlooking the Santa Monica Bayin Malibu. You can see the sunlight off

the waves on most days, and even today,when it's raining, you see a magical hazeover the water.

I have only about twenty students,each one a jewel. Alert, polite, thought-ful, they even do their assignments. Wetalked about leveraged buyouts, about14-a-9 and 1O-b-5, about fiduciary duty,about everything, and then, gar nichts,back outside, into the pouring rain. Oneof my students followed me to my caranyway, talking about Metromedia andDelaware law. I love this job. If anyonewould like for me to teach anything likeSecurities Law or Hollywood Culture,just say so.

Off in the deluge to a meetingwith a producer. ThroughMalibu Canyon, through sheets

of water, past a scary rock slide, througha flooded interpass, and then into the SanFernando Valley. It was pouring there,too. Los Angeles has taken on a green,emerald quality that's unusual. I like it.Ireland in Southern California. All that'slacking is the IRA.. Anyway, lunch at Solly's Deli to dis-cuss a project with the producer. He's alikable, intelligent man of about 40, I'dsay, with many kids and many ideas. Wetalked about my plan for a show about arace war, and he liked my pitch a lot. Infact, a great, great deal.

Then, after much chewing by me on arubbery sandwich, he asked me who, inthe race war story, would be the "oppres-sors."

"No one," I said. "People in thiscountry aren't even slightly oppressed byany group."

"Yes," he said, "I agree, but it makesit better at the network if it's clear whothe oppressors are, and preferably thewhite people." I disagreed.

"All right," he said. "People aresometimes bad, sometimes good. That'sall right. The network will take that. Butremember it's got to be correct."

I paused and thought for a moment."Does that mean 'politically correct'?"

"Right," he said tonelessly, "political-ly correct."

So that's how it is now, Comrade.The commissars at the networks nolonger even make any bones about it. Aproject has to be politically correct. Thatused to be implicit, and now it's explicit.Well, well, well. At least we know wherewe are.

46 March 1993The American Spectator

Off to my new favorite hangout,The Borderline Cafe, near myhome in Malibu. It's Electric

Slide Night, and I get to look at the menand women (especially the women)going through their elaborate countryroutines on the dance floor. The womenare generally the better dancers. Theystrut their stuff in tight jeans and cowgirlboots, and try to look seductive and oftensucceed.

A middle-aged woman in cowboyclothes came over to flirt with me. Shetold me she designed plant "environ-ments" by "re-creating gardens indoors."I saw another woman who's a big-timerecord producer. Yet another is a mort-gage loan officer. Then over in the cor-ner are two Pepperdine students, bothgood friends, and then a beautiful formermodel, now a waitress. These three arepretty enough to make Clinton sign a taxcut for millionaires.

It all reminds me of sock hops at theSilver Spring Armory, circa 1959. There'syours truly, the nerd, sitting on the side-lines watching the pretty girls dance.More important, there are the girls, danc-ing and smiling. They're not demonstrat-ing in favor of murdering their own chil-dren, whining about being exploited, ordemanding preferential treatment. They'rejust having a good time.

Then on home to listen to my MartinLuther King disc. I listen to it every day,and always learn something. For exam-ple, I notice that Dr. King in his speechesdoes not quote African princes of somelong-ago imaginary era. He does notclaim to be a descendant of Ramses II.No, he quotes Shakespeare: "Love is notlove/Which alters when it alterationfinds." He quotes Wilhelm Reich andSigmund Freud. He quotes Aristotle. Hemust have assumed that as a human hewas heir to all that was best about humanintelligence, and that all knowledge washis to explore and learn. His was a bigview of man.

John Coyne says that we are making alot of changes to accommodate peoplewho will never be satisfied, and whenwe're through with the changes, wewon't like what we have, but won't beable to go back. He's right, and it scaresme.

Thence to sleep, as my TV showsphotos of the Clintons. Someday, my TVis going. I have too much to do to watchthe Clintons. 0

The American Spectator March 1993 47

The Set-Aside Set

Mytext this month comes from astory by Thomas W. Lippmanthat ran in the Washington

Post on December 1. The headline,"Energizing Minorities' Objectives," andsubhead, "Legislation Offers Opportunityfor the Incoming Administration," set thetone. The piece was less journalism thanad copy (indeed, it ran on the Post's"Federal Page"), about a provision addedin the final stages to the voluminousEnergy Policy Act of 1992, which wassigned into law in late October.

The provision, as Lippman summa-rized it, "requires that at least 10 percentof all federal contracts for energy conser-vation in government buildings, purchaseof natural gas-powered vehicles andenergy research and development be-awarded to small businesses owned byminorities or women, to historicallyblack colleges or to universities whosestudent body is more than 20 percentHispanic or American Indian." What wehave here is a perfect example of a poli-cy more commonly called a "set-aside,"not that Lippman ever uses the term.

His piece is disturbing in severalways. The first concerns press coverageof government. As the textbooks tell us,Congress makes the law, the executiveenforces it. Obviously, the press can'treport on every new law or effort atenforcement. Journalists have to pick andchoose, and they often are as much in thedark as the public they claim to serve.Still, I would argue that the kind of fishylaw-making Lippman reported (I'll givehim this much: I saw no other news storyon the set-aside) ought routinely toattract press attention, if only becauseitems tacked on late in the legislative

Terry Eastland is resident fellow at theEthics and Public Policy Center inWashington, D.C.

game are often ones their sponsors donot want debated in public.

The lO-percent set-aside was justsuch a debate-avoiding late addition. AsLippman observed, the idea "was hardlymentioned in all the months of hearingsand floor debates over nuclear power,offshore oil drilling, and expanded use ofnatural gas"-the main stuff in the bill.The set-aside was the work of MichiganDemocrat John Conyers, who "had noparticular interest in energy as such,"according to Lippman's congressionalsources, and who "kept quiet so as not to

arouse opposition from legislatorsopposed to affirmative action 'quotas."Certainly there's a role for journalism inexposing efforts to make law with no onenoticing.

Then there's the question of thepress's skimpy coverage of civil rightspolicies, whether set-aside laws (a con-'gressional staple in recent years) or theexecutive branch's support for racial andgender preferences. And when the pressdoes cover these issues, it often finds ithard to be timely. (The LaborDepartment's practice of "race-norming"

by Terry Eastland

the results of the General Aptitude TestBattery Examination began in 1981 butwas not reported until 1990.) If BillClinton further tilts executive-branchenforcement in favor of measures thatallocate jobs and other benefits on thebasis of race and sex, will the press reportit, and before the end of this century?

The open secret, of course, is thatthe press generally supports suchmeasures and thus in effect col-

ludes with politicians who advance them.Consider Lippman's lead paragraph:

President-elect Clinton, who hasespoused a policy of racial inclusion andsaid he wants his administration toresemble the ethnic composition of thenation as a whole, may find a useful toolfor achieving those objectives in ... theDepartment of Energy.

But Candidate Clinton had alsoespoused an anti-quota view. Thus, thelead just as easily could have been:."President-elect Clinton, who hasopposed racial quotas, may find himselfat odds with a provision in the recentlyenacted Energy Policy Act of 1992."Lippman could only have assumed thatthe set-aside in question was either not aquota or hardly newsworthy even if itwas. He withheld pertinent facts, such asthat the set-aside does not require proofthat its beneficiaries have suffered frompast discrimination or that, if they have,it has undermined their ability to com-pete successfully for federal energy con-tracts. He also failed to mention thatCongress, in passing the Energy PolicyAct, didn't find that the legally preferredgroups had endured past discriminationin federal procurement contracts. The 10-percent set-aside thus is not a "remedial"provision.

48 March 1993The American Spectator

The distinction is important. The mainreason the Supreme Court upheld a 1977minority set-aside law (another Conyersspecial) was that Congress had made afinding of past discrimination, whichserved as an adequate remedial "predi-cate," as the lawyers call it. The set-asidein thenew energy bill is therefore ripe fora lawsuit on constitutional grounds. Italso merits objection as pure pork, porkdispensed to people on the most objec-tionable grounds: skin color, ethnicity,and gender. But Lippman doesn't seemremotely aware of these contentiouspoints. To the contrary, let's "energize"minorities' objectives! What a wonderfulopportunity for the new administration!

Day coverage of Clinton's final cabinetselections, the Post said the President-elect had selected "the most diverseCabinet in history." There were noquotes around the word "diverse." Andthere was no definition of "diversity,"although diversity can be defined manydifferent ways-in terms of religion,geography, ideology, not just race, eth-nicity, and gender. On January 3,Thomas Edsall, another Post writer,praised Clinton for trying to change theterms of debate. I'll say. The press wasseconding Clinton in his doubletalkwhile declaring diversity an unproblem-atic good not requiring definition.

During all the bean counting,reporters ignored the people han-dling civil rights law for the tran-

sition. Granted, it was a busy time, thepress can only cover so much, and theactual nominees were the big stories. Butfew journalists bothered, for example, tocheck out such figures as Emma Jordan,a law professor assigned to a most criti-cal civil rights spot-the office of attor-ney general.

Jordan, president of the Association

of American Law Schools, has definiteviews on quotas. In the November AALSnewsletter, she defended the Universityof California at Berkeley's law school. admissions policy, which had been criti-cized by the Bush EducationDepartment. The policy reserved 23-27percent of the seats in each entering classfor "black, Chicano, Asian-American,and Native American" students. Theapplications of these "minority" studentswere separated from those of all otherstudents, and comparisons were madeonly within each group.

I happened to write a column(December 22 for the Washington Times)relating Miss Jordan's views. The LegalTimes's Stuart Taylor decided to followup on it, and reported that the AmericanCivil Liberties Union's "Blueprint forAction for the Clinton Administration"even urged Clinton to revive race-norm-ing!

With advocates like Jordan and theACLU, one can only imagine the shapethe new administration's civil rights poli-cies-which will probably affect a major-ity of Americans-will take. Beware thenew math of Bill Clinton! 0

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A few days later, the Post's editor-ial page defended Bill Clintonagainst Evan Kemp, the outgo-

ing chairman of the Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission. Kemp hadargued in a speech that Clinton wouldhave a hard if not impossible time recon-ciling his commitment to "diversity" andhis opposition to racial quotas and pref-erences. The Post, hopelessly if willfullyconfused, said diversity doesn't meanquotas. It simply means you have to payattention to "forbidden factors," appar-ently the latest euphemism for aggrievedgroups that enjoy official sanction.

Presumably, the model for diversity atthe Post is the Clinton cabinet. DuringDecember and January, just whomClinton would appoint to what positiondominated the news, and dominatingthose decision'S was Clinton's goal of"di versi ty," defined in terms of those"forbidden factors." Clinton managed tomake his diversity mania even more of astory when, on.December 21, he accusedcertain women's groups of being "beancounters" playing "quota games andmath games" with his cabinet and sub-cabinet choices. Clinton's remarks-"hismost animated comments since his elec-tion," according to one story-led thenews. The move was supposedly akin tothe one he made against Sister Souljahduring the campaign,. a signal to anti-quota Americans that he was still againstquotas. Meanwhile, he continued tomake his picks with diversity foremost inmind.

The press did not question the sinceri-ty of Clinton's bean-counting remarks, ifonly because it has long played the sametwo-faced game. Thus, in its Christmas OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

49The American Spectator March 1993

Newport's White Horse Tavern

When architectural plans forwhat became the Rhode IslandState House were drafted in

the 1730s, Newport officials becameembroiled in bitter controversy about thedirection the new building should face.The avant-garde thought it should betoward the waterfront and the town'smain thoroughfare, a nod to comme_rceata time when Newport was one of the mostimportant cities in the colonies. A vocalfaction of traditionalists demurred, coun-tering that it should point at the tavernhard by, to which the General Councilwas in the habit of repairing, and which,at half-a-century-old, was already some-thing of an institution itself.

Well, the old State House is now hometo District Court, whence the feloniouscan barely catch sight of the Atlantic forall the tony harborfront shops, and nowa-days Rhode Island pols are more likely tobe discovered in the minimum-securitywing of the state correctional facility. Butthe White Horse Tavern still stands,smack where it was built in 1673. It is theoldest continuously operating publichouse in our United States.

Though the thirsty can no longer for-tify themselves with a dram of crank,much of the tavern has remained as itever was. Outside, a hand-painted wood-en sign announces simply: Cocktails.Inside, the floors are still black andunlevel, the enormous central fireplacestill roars. There is no piped-in music, nobuffalo wings or nachos supreme. Food,of the French variety, is available inhelpings inversely proportional to theirexpense, and the several dining roomsattract a necessarily well-financed crowd,whose cash is largely as nouvelle as thecuisine. Newporters like things that are

M.D. Carnegie is a writer living inRhode Island.

old, however, especially money, and inthe town where Cornelius Vanderbilt isstill thought a bit of an arriviste, it is thebar at the White Horse that is the lastrefuge of those who make their moneythe old-fashioned way-by inheriting it.

There were at least six licensed tav-erns operating in the town by 1691,and competition for the tippler's

farthing was keen. Location counted for agreat deal, as the State House architecturalflap showed. And cultivation of the rightclientele, as always, was critical. TheMarquis of Granby, a competing pub, was

the favored watering-hole of the Hessiansoldiers in the Fusileers. Secret plans wereroutinely discussed there over a few steins,and the Hessians believed themselves sosecure in their native tongue that theynever bothered to clear the place out whentalking business. Anyhow, they'd neverhave tossed out the barmaid who servedthem; young Gertrude had emigrated fromGermany at age three, young enough tolearn accent-free English. She listened toeverything, then passed the information toa patron, a slave named Cudjo, who wouldthen get word to the local patriots. Therest, as they say, is history: the Marquis ofGranby closed after the war.

The first owner of the White Horse onrecord was the lesser-known Willie

by M. D. Carnegie

Mays. He handed it down to his son, butMays fils was already in the midst of astaggeringly successful career as arms-dealer, rum-trader, and at-large privateer.The place was then acquired by JonathanNichols, who would become deputy-gov-ernor of Rhode Island. The White Horsestayed in the Nichols family for two hun-dred years. It changed hands severaltimes before being purchased by a groupof Texans a decade or 1>0 ago. That saleraised a few hackles around town, withsome public hand-wringing about sellingoff a piece of local history, and a gooddeal of venting of local prejudices againstSoutherners. Just yards away, after all,'Ted Turner had capped off a successfuldefense of the America's Cup by stagger-ing fifth-in-hand off the side of the dock,and plunging flush into the briny deep.But the gentlemen from Texas took somepains to quell native suspicion, and in factonly two great changes have been madeduring their tenure. The tavern is nowalso the titular Atlantic headquarters forthe Fort Worth Yacht Club, and it nowoperates at a profit.

There are guidebooks that will tellyou people visit Newport for thefabulous mansions of the swells,

but they are also the sorts of books thatadvise which pricey waterfront cafeserves the better eggs Florentine, andhow your holiday would be incompletewithout a stop at the village scrimshon-er's. They are not to be trusted. In factpeople come to Newport, in the summerat least, because it is full of blonde girls,heartbreakingly beautiful blonde girls.There are German au pairs and GrossePointe debutantes, Manhattan photoassistants and Aussie round-the-worldsailors. There are baronesses, tennis pros,and jewelry-designers here; there are richheiresses with trust funds. They are all

50 March 1993The American Spectator

blonde. Of a summer' s evening, there aremore blondes in this town than in theSwedish Green party.

And, as my Palestinian date remarkedon our walk to the White Horse, they areoften half in the bag. A beautiful and his-toric seaport town full of drunken blondesis apt to be popular with l'homme sportif,and as we waded through the sea ofsweatshirts from colleges I'd never heardof, she allowed as how the forms ofcourtship in the West appalled her-thedrunken whoops, the upsetting of trashreceptacles, the public profanity, the puk-ing. It was a warm and typical summernight in Newport. I thought the WhiteHorse would be the perfect antidote.

As always, the patrons, nattilyturned out in loafers and cran-berry trousers, looked like a Cos

Cob alderman's assembly. These weremen who had spent their lives sailing andnegotiating bond deals, and now theywere having a few Scotches with whichto wind it down. Life must have seemedvery fine to them, and I felt a twinge ofnostalgia for the days before the WorldWrestling Federation and Animal House.We took seats at the bar. On my right sata woman, fortyish, and to her right washer date, a stout Beau Bridges manquesort of character with that great perturb-less visage of the well-to-do. As theywere a bit lit up, they broke custom andasked us where we came from. Kuwait,my date responded, to which the mansaid, "Fine country," sounding as muchlike a Hemingway safari guide as hecould. He had just been to Saudi Arabia,Kuwait, and the UAE working on somelarge communications deal.

"Too many weeks without a drink, I'llsay," he said, grinning warmly andapplying the finishing touches to his old-fashioned. My date nodded knowingly,though as a faithful Muslim she hasnever tasted alcohol. And where was Ifrom? We native Newporters love beingasked this question.

"Blumpy's Mayflower," his dateblurted out as soon as he'd packed offtoward the 100. I was so stunned that Iwasn't sure I'd heard her properly;maybe it was Bunny, or Bumpy, orBuzzy. This was the very best sort of lin-eage, of course, but to reveal it thus wasa gross error of protocol, and I felt ratherashamed suddenly. Further conversationrevealed that she was not married to him.

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She wasn't even blonde, after all-prob-ably not even Protestant.

Well, there we were at the White HorseTavern, me and Blumpy and our non-Protestant dates, one an Arab teetotaler andthe other a potted Italian Catholic. Blumpywas too civil ever to mention my date's notdrinking, which is something of a sin onthe seersucker circuit. And for my part 1never raised the Mayflower issue. Wewere, after all, two gentlemen who met at abar, and that is a rare enough thing in ourRepublic today, indeed. We had a couplemore rounds, and talked warmly about thesailing and the business potential in theArab world and the jazz festival. We shookhands and called it a night, and when mydate and 1 walked outside again, the fratboys had dispersed, and the stars were out.I felt more at peace, as if some of the tran-quility of the old geezers had come to mesimply by my having shared their spacealong the bar.

1 wanted some more of that tranquili-ty in the winter, when I felt oppressed bythe cold and the tinny refrains of theChristmas carols blaring from everyspeaker, and when 1 popped into theWhite Horse on a rainy Thursday inDecember, the fire was going great

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blazes. But the place was empty, save asmall party who were lunching with thetavern's curator. She was lecturing theguests over their pastas primavera, andstraightaway it just didn't feel, well,right. The feeling of warm security hadbeen supplanted by a tense air of guilt. 1couldn't figure it out until the curatorsaid, "I want to tell the real story,because the real story is a story of manypeoples, and not just one." And then, ofcourse, I knew what was wrong.

But I said nothing, not even when, asan aside at the end of her talk, the curatorallowed as how she'd purchased books tobe distributed to poor kids at Christmas,and was then returning them in favor ofsomething else. "Imagine," she said, "ifI'd given the story of Cinderella to somelittle black girl." A gentleman wouldnever have pointed out her assumptionthat all poor kids are black, nor would hehave been so crass as to mention thatperhaps the timeless romance of a younggirl's fantasy come true might actuallyhave a wonderful effect in the child. Ididn't either; 1 only asked what she'dbuy instead. "A big Tonka truck," shereplied. 1 walked back out in the rain,dreaming of the blondes of summer. 0

The American Spectator March 1993 51

HQrsing AroundMoscow, December 23

The mosaic on the side of a build-ing across from Dobrinskayametro station-where I catch a

train each day to my job at MoscowNews-proclaims "We Are BuildingCommunism" to the oblivious multitudesdoing holiday shopping at the kiosksbelow. In the chaos that is today'sMoscow, just who's building what-ifanything-is difficult to ascertain.

Gregory Kazankov, a young business-man and political consultant who alsoteaches chemistry at M9SCOW StateUniversity, is an anomaly in a sea ofRussian pessimism. Over dinner at Pizza

~ Hut on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, he shrugsoff such seemingly negative indicators asthe replacement of Yegor Gaidar withViktor Chernomyrdin, the former energysector chief and an old-line nomenklatur-ist, as prime minister. Kazankov believesthe disintegration of the state sector andthe concurrent march to the market areaccelerating "at the micro level"-that is,in daily life-and are irreversible, with.the government more a spectator than aplayer.

After dinner at the apartment of one ofmy expat friends, an American metalstrader, the TV is giving a different atmo-spheric reading: a live television talkshow, with an audience asking questionsof a panel of experts, is focusing on thequestion of land privatization, a problemthat has yet to be tackled in earnest.Repeatedly, questioners state their fearthat "the Americans are going to buy upall our land." An hour later, on a "60Minutes"-like program called "BlackBox," the subject is black-market sales ofvital organs to Westem buyers: Russia, itseems, is joining Brazil and other ThirdWorld countries as a major exporter. A

Jonas Bernstein is an editor for theEnglish-language edition of MoscowNews.

crooked doctor is exposed, MikeWallace-style, on camera. Moments later,a Russian medical specialist opines thatthe Americans are buying human tissuehere in order to study its makeup and todesign anti-Russian genetic weapons. Thisrather astonishing statement passes with-out commentary.

At midnight, I leave my friend's placefor home. At Leninsky Prospekt metrostation, a train pulls in. The door of thecar opens to reveal a man covered inblood lying on the floor. Another is sit-ting on the bench clutching his head.Evidently, these two, who seem to bedrunk (a very common sight) as well asinjured (an increasingly common sight),started a fight with three young guys(two long-hairs and one short-) and lost.The short-hair is alternately kneading hishand, clearly damaged in battle, andringing the emergency intercom. Thetrain remains motionless except for itsdoors, which are mindlessly opening andclosing. The car, half-full, is completelysilent, and no one appears the least bit in-terested in what's happening; some ofthe riders are reading newspapers. Noneof the metro employees or the police areparticularly interested, either, so after afew minutes one of the long-hairs simplypicks up the beaten-up drunk anddeposits him, like a Hefty bag filled withgarbage, on the platform. A lone militia-man finally shows up, and as the trainpulls away a discussion of who did whatto whom begins.

December 24

It's 10 a.m., and I'm chatting withIrina, one of the editors at theMoscow News English edition,

before I begin my daily routine of editingand hanging out in the magazine'S bar.Three gentlemen walk through the doorand into the neighboring office; theyappear to be of Oriental extraction.

by Jonas Bernstein

"I think they're Chinese," Irina whis-pers.

"Maybe Kazakh," I reply, wanting toappear knowledgeable.

Moments later, the three appear. before us, led by Natasha, another editor."Jonas, these men are interested in hiringyour services to edit some English trans-lations," she says. "But it's on your owntime. They're from Korea."

The apparent spokesman of the troopsmiles at me beatifically and holds up apackage:

"Okay," I say immediately-SouthKorean businessmen with contracts writ-ten in English. "What is it?" I ask him,pointing to the package.

"It is a chapter from the memoirs ofour Leader," he says in English. "Therewill be 700 pages in all, due by the endof February, 400 rubles a page."

Our Leader? Whoops-wrong Korea.Realizing that such work doesn't

exactly conform to the guidelines ofeither the National Forum Foundation(from which I am receiving a grant tohelp build democratic institutions inRussia) or the National Endowment forDemocracy, one of its main contribu-tors-nor of the Registration of ForeignAgents Act, for that matter-I improvise:"Thanks very much, but I'm really toobusy to take on such a big project."Being thoughtful, I add: "Maybe my col-league is interested; she's also a nativeEnglish speaker." I run down the hall andquickly tell Lucy, a young Britishwoman right out of journalism schooland in search of other media experienceand extra money, about this chance forsome free-lance editing-nearly 700bucks at the current exchange rate, Inote. "It's the memoirs of Kim II-Sung,by the way," I feel obliged to add.

Lucy talks to the trio and says maybe,and they leave a chapter with her. "Wewill return tomorrow at three," says the

52 March 1993The American Spectator

...------'THE AMERICAN...______,5PECTATOR threesome. One

be Kim ll-Sung'sis about four feet

ecurity chief. (I ams of North Koreans

Koreans: Mao

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her throat andhave to say no ... "takes on all the

on a bad day.ng, and terse

flying back andbeing busy is not

and booze sitting onlater swears that

BBC's Moscow bureau. Suddenlythere's a knock on the door. It opens, andfor a split second it looks as if the ThreeKings from the Orient have descendedon Moscow News to convey season'sgreetings. It is instead the three

to help convey thethoughts of the Great Leader to an anx-iously awaiting English-speaking world.After a few minutes, Mao snatches hisLeader's chapter and they shuffle out."Merry Christmas," I call after them, notknowing what else to say. 0

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When Kim later has to part with hishorse, he cries into its nape. The chapteris also sprinkled with reminiscencesabout revolutionary comrades. My per-sonal favorite:

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When he was a member of theChildren's Vanguard, 0 Paek Ryonghad crossed the Onsong in the homelandwith a matchlock pistol he himself hadmade, and shot a policeman at the cus-tom house and snatched a rifle fromhim. He was such an audacious boy.

December 25

The day begins with a look atMoskovsky Komsomolets, thewildly popular daily that was for-

merly the organ of the local YoungCommunist League. These days it's aRussian hybrid of Spy magazine and theNational Enquirer, ideologically alloverthe map. Russian nationalist, yet it sawits offices attacked by members of theultra-right Pamyat group (some say as apublicity stunt); pro-gay, yet, in the viewof some Moscow News staffers, racist (itrecently published stories explainingaway several racially motivated murdersof African students here).MK reports that earlier in the week

several metro drivers were sleeping in anoffice in one of the city's stations whensuddenly one awoke, screaming:"Somebody is crawling on me!" It seems

The American Spectator March 1993 53

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Gregory Kazankov, a young business-man and political consultant who alsoteaches chemistry at M9SCOWStateUniversity, is an anomaly in a sea ofRussian pessimism. Over dinner at Pizza

~ Hut on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, he shrugsoff such seemingly negative indicators asthe replacement of Yegor Gaidar withViktor Chernomyrdin, the former energysector chief and an old-line nomenklatur-ist, as prime minister. Kazankov believesthe disintegration of the state sector andthe concurrent march to the market areaccelerating "at the micro level"-that is,in daily life-and are irreversible, with-the government more a spectator than aplayer.

After dinner at the apartment of one ofmy expat friends, an American metalstrader, the TV is giving a different atmo-spheric reading: a live television talkshow, with an audience asking questionsof a panel of experts, is focusing on thequestion of land privatization, a problemthat has yet to be tackled in earnest.Repeatedly, questioners state their fearthat "the Americans are going to buy upall our land." An hour later, on a "60Minutes"-like program called "BlackBox," the subject is black-market sales ofvital organs to Westem buyers: Russia, itsee~s, is joining Brazil and other ThirdWorld countries as a major exporter. A

Jonas Bernstein is an editor for theEnglish-language edition of MoscowNews.

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stanon, a tram puus m. The door ot thecar opens to reveal a man covered inblood lying on the floor. Another is sit-ting on the bench clutching his head.Evidently, these two, who seem to bedrunk (a very common sight) as well asinjured (an increasingly common sight),started a fight with three young guys(two long-hairs and one short-) and lost.The short-hair is alternately kneading hishand, clearly damaged in battle, andringing the emergency intercom. Thetrain remains motionless except for itsdoors, which are mindlessly opening andclosing. The car, half-full, is completelysilent, and no one appears the least bit in-terested in what's happening; some ofthe riders are reading newspapers. Noneof the metro employees or the police areparticularly interested, either, so after afew minutes one of the long-hairs simplypicks up the beaten-up drunk anddeposits him, like a Hefty bag filled withgarbage, on the platform. A lone militia-man finally shows up, and as the trainpulls away a discussion of who did whatto whom begins.

December 24

It's 10 a.m., and I'm chatting withIrina, one of the editors at theMoscow News English edition,

before I begin my daily routine of editingand hanging out in the magazine's bar.Three gentlemen walk through the doorand into the neighboring office; theyappear to be of Oriental extraction.

1ne apparent spokesman or me troopsmiles at me beatifically and holds up apackage;

"Okay," I say immediately-SouthKorean businessmen with contracts writ-ten in English. "What is it?" I ask him,pointing to the package."It is a chapter from the memoirs of

our Leader," he says in English. "Therewill be 700 pages in all, due by the endof February, 400 rubles a page."

Our Leader? Whoops-wrong Korea.Realizing that such work doesn't

exactly conform to the guidelines ofeither the National Forum Foundation(from which I am receiving a grant tohelp build democratic institutions inRussia) or the National Endowment forDemocracy, one of its main contribu-tors-nor of the Registration of ForeignAgents Act, for that matter-I improvise:"Thanks very much, but I'm really toobusy to take on such a big project."Being thoughtful, I add: "Maybe my col-league is interested; she's also a nativeEnglish speaker." I run down the hall andquickly tell Lucy, a young Britishwoman right out of journalism schooland in search of other media experienceand extra money, about this chance forsome free-lance editing-nearly 700bucks at the current exchange rate, Inote. "It's the memoirs of Kim II-Sung,by the way," I feel obliged to add.

Lucy talks to the trio and says maybe,and they leave a chapter with her. "Wewill return tomorrow at three," says the

52 March 1993The American Spectator

smiling English-speaker, who, I laterlearn, is press secretary at the NorthKorean embassy here. His smile remindsme of Chairman Mao's.

Lucy and I weigh the pros and cons ofher accepting the job (i.e., extra moneyvs. prolonged unwanted proximity toNorth Korean intelligence). We thenmove on to the sample chapter, entitled"The Memory of a White Horse."Thirty-three pages long, it is a boy-meets-horse story, a Communist MyFriend Flicka. "It was in the spring of1933 that a horse came into my hands,"it begins:

One day officials of the people's revolu-tionary government in Shiliping andsome guerrillas came to see me, drivinga horse to me....

"Commander Kim, we wish to pre-sent a horse respectfully to you whohave to travel many rugged miles.Please accept this," one of the officialsspoke for his company.

When Kim later has to part with hishorse, he cries into its nape. The chapteris also sprinkled with reminiscencesabout revolutionary comrades. My per-sonal favorite:

a pack of large rats, having consumed thedrivers' food, had moved on to theirclothes. The rats were driven off, accord-ing to the paper, after an hour-long bat-tle.

At the Moscow News, we are prepar-ing a small party to celebrate WesternChristmas-at the request of the Russianstaffers at the English edition, who lookfor any excuse to party. Lucy has bril-liantly improvised a Christmas cake, andI've bought some Spanish wine andStolichnaya at my neighborhood kiosk.Lucy has decided to blow off theKoreans-for the obvious reasons, aswell as the fact that, according to variousRussian colleagues, 400 rubles a page forediting is a rip-off. Koreans forgotten,we get on with our usual mix of editingand sitting in the bar.In the afternoon, Lucy and I are chat-

ting in our office with Sveta, a formerSoviet junior and world figure-skatingchampion who now helps out in theBBC's Moscow bureau. Suddenlythere's a knock on the door. It opens, andfor a split second it looks as if the ThreeKings from the Orient have descendedon Moscow News to convey season'sgreetings. It is instead the three

Koreans-or rather three Koreans: Maohas returned, but with two different com-rades rounding out the threesome. Oneappears old enough to be Kim II-Sung'sfather, while the other is about four feettall-probably the security chief. (I amlater told that the lives of North Koreansin Moscow are indeed organized into"troikas": there must be no fewer thanthree together at all times.)

Presently, Lucy clears her throat andsays, "I'm sorry, but I have to say no ... "and the atmosphere takes on all thefriendliness of Panmunjom on a bad day.Mao is no longer smiling, and terseKorean sentences are flying back andforth. Our excuse about being busy is notbolstered by the cake and booze sitting onthe table (though Sveta later swears thatthe little security guy was staring cov-etously at the goodies). Finally, Maospeaks: "We expected more from you,"he says, clearly astonished that we did notjump at the chance to help convey thethoughts of the Great Leader to an anx-iously awaiting English-speaking world.After a few minutes, Mao snatches hisLeader's chapter and they shuffle out."Merry Christmas," I call after them, notknowing what else to say. 0

When he was a member of theChildren's Vanguard, 0 Paek Ryonghad crossed the Onsong in the homelandwith a matchlock pistol he himself hadmade, and shot a policeman at the cus-tom house and snatched a rifle fromhim. He was such an audacious boy.

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53

December 25

The day begins with a look atMoskovsky Komsomolets, thewildly popular daily that was for-

merly the organ of the local YoungCommunist League. These days it's aRussian hybrid of Spy magazine and theNational Enquirer, ideologically all overthe map. Russian nationalist, yet it sawits offices attacked by members of theultra-right Pamyat group (some say as apublicity stunt); pro-gay, yet, in the viewof some Moscow News staffers, racist (itrecently published stories explainingaway several racially motivated murdersof African students here).MK reports that earlier in the week

several metro drivers were sleeping in anoffice in one of the city's stations whensuddenly one awoke, screaming:"Somebody is crawling on me!" It seems

The American Spectator March 1993

Alive and Dead

One of the simplest ways to judgea film is on the basis of its truthto life. Last month I wrote of

Hollywood's neglect, as I see it, of theelementary requirements of verisimili-tude in some recent fictional works, and Ican only regret that the new Madonnafilm, Body of Evidence, was released toolate for inclusion as an example of thatneglect. A hypocritical middle-classestablishment's putting "a beautifulyoung woman" on trial for screwing aman to death is obviously a vehicle forthe authoress of Sex. But in the Madonnaworld the preposterousness of such apremise might have passed almost unno-ticed if it had not been for the preposter-ousness of everything else about thefilm-especially the leading lady's per-formance. .

"Real Life," however, from whichmore and more films these days seem tobe taken, is no guarantee of a lifelikequality. The simulated reality of fictionhas to try hard to look real, while realreality often manages to look quite unreal.A good example is Alive, FrankMarshall's film based on the real-lifeexperience of members of a Uruguayanrugby team who, their airplane havingcrashed in the Andes, were forced to eatflesh from the bodies of their dead team-mates in order to survive. The extremecircumstances give rise to an interestingproblem in practical morality, but theproblem carries with it little dramatic res-onance because we can so easily detachourselves from it. We know that, whatev-er happens to us, we are most unlikely tohave to choose between death from star-vation and cannibalism.

Whether for this reason or because itwould have been bad for box office to

James Bowman, The American Spec-tator's movie critic, is the American edi-tor of the Times Literary Supplement.

show the teen heartthrob, Ethan Hawke,tucking into a plate of man-meat,Marshall downplays the cannibalism andmakes his film into a story of survivalscarcely distinguishable from any other.Oh sure, they eat some guys, but they.'revery discreet about it. There are a fewanonymous stiffs on the ground fromwhose backs the lads cut their lunch withshards of glass, but it is easy to forgetthat they were people. We don't even seetheir faces, just the meat, which lookslike any other meat. For the most part weare kept firmly focused on the physicalrather than the moral perils that the sur-vivors must confront, and we have totake it on faith that they'll "never be thesame again" once they are forced intocannibalism.

This is the stuff of an interestingtelevision documentary, maybe,but not really a feature film. Or

at least not this feature film. That it isbased on fact may add a piquancy to theflavor (people tartare) that the dramacannot supply but is otherwise irrele-vant-as it is too in the cases of Chaplinand Hoffa. Does it matter that the sub-jects of both of these films really exist-ed? Yes, but only because the filmswouldn't have been made otherwise.Their being real people turns out to bethe filmmakers' apology for the other-Wise unjustified claim they make on ourattention. If we didn't already know whyChaplin and Hoffa are important histori-cal figures, the movies of their liveswould not tell us. Or rather, they wouldtell us but not show us.

Consider the contrast between CharlieChaplin's reputation and what we see ofhis life in Sir Richard Attenborough'sfilm. We come to it predisposed tobelieve that here was a great man, acomic genius whose legend still survives.A fictional work could never create such

by James Bowman

a towering figure, because he wouldbump his head against history and so callattention to his fictional status. Butalthough he has so much audience goodwill to draw on, Sir Richard does nottake enough trouble to explain what wasso great about him. We see too little ofhim at work, and even his colorful pri-vate life comes off looking sketchy com-pared with the political material. J. EdgarHoover has a bigger part than those ofChaplin's first three wives put together.

A man from Mars who saw this filmmight take away with him the impressionthat Chaplin's greatest achievement wasrefusing to shake hands with a Nazi orexpressing (obliquely) left-wing views inthe presence of J. Edgar. It is sad toreflect that, even in Hollywood, whereyou would expect Chaplin to be remem-bered for his films, the story of his life ismore an occasion for yet another self-congratulation over the "creative commu-nity's" resistartce to the McCarthyist ter-ror. Of course it all happened. Or some-thing like it happened. But a lot of otherthings happened in Chaplin's life thatdidn't make it onto the screen, and theaudience must be left with the feeling thatamong those other things was whatever itis that makes Chaplin a great man.

Ifyou admire anybody after seeingthe film it is Robert Downey, Jr. forbeing such a splendid mimic that at

times you can scarcely tell him from thereal Chaplin. This too is typical of thenarcissism of the "creative community":the subject of the film takes a back seatto its star and so is diminished even fur-ther in our estimation. Who cares aboutChaplin when we've got RobertDowney, Jr.? And who cares aboutJimmy Hoffa when we've got JackNicholson? Indeed, who cares aboutJimmy Hoffa even if we didn't have JackNicholson? This is another unimpressive

54 March 1993The American Spectator

film with an impressive leading man, andNicholson, with the help of the make-upman, also does a bang-up job of mimic-ry-though his acting is charac-teristically hammy.

But if your interest is in Hoffa ratherthan Nicholson, the film is so sketchyand inaccurate an account of his life andcrimes that its "truth" is dissolved in pol-itics: here was a flawed but colorfulchampion of the working class aboutwhose demise there remains a mystery,so Danny DeVito thought that his lifewould be a good subject for a movie. Itisn't. Hoffa comes across as a nastypiece of work, with the kind of toughnessand single-minded devotion to his unionthat wins him a certain grudging respect,but that's about all there is toit. The mystery of his physicaldisappearance turns out to bemuch less mysterious than hisreappearance eighteen yearslater in a major motion picture.

The film's one gesture inthe direction of history is toremind us of people, places,clothes, cars, furniture, andattitudes that were once famil-iar, but it supplies no particularreason for us to rememberthem. Such aimless nostalgia isanother reason-along withinstant name recognition, theHollywood political mytholo-gy, and the confusion of mim-icry with acting-why bioflicks get made. A less com-mon but perhaps more power-ful reason is the inspirationalquality of true-life stories likeLorenzo's Oil, which, likemost inspirational stories, Ihated.

NickNolte and Susan Sarandonplay the parents of a childstricken with a genetically trans-

mitted wasting disease. They transformthemselves into biochemists in the spaceof a few months and manage to invent ifnot the cure at least a palliative for thedisease. Unlike Hoffa, this movie has apurpose, which is to persuade people togive money to research on myelinrepair-what Lorenzo now needs inorder to do anything more than blink hiseyes. This makes it a great fund-raisingappeal but not much of a movie-if onlybecause it has the desert-island quality of

Alive. Making our own miracle is not anoption available to most of us faced withthe death of a loved one.

In fact, I found that kind of medicaltriumphalism (cleverly masked by theparents' struggles against the medicalestablishment) very off-putting. This isreally a yuppie movie committed to theyuppie idea that death is optional. Givenenough "resources" -taken from thethings that make life worth living andcommitted to mere health care-we couldperhaps, they seem to say, prolong lifeindefinitely. That is why the doctorplayed by the ex-Soviet apologist PeterUstinov is allowed to make a gratuitousswipe at "the iron hand of Reaganomics,"as if the Gipper were personally responsi-

ble for young Lorenzo's transformationinto the mute, suffering subject of his par-ents' amateur medical experiments. Aswith Chaplin and Hoffa, the "true" storycarefully cut and trimmed to reveal abogus political and moral message turnsout to be very much less true than moreresponsible fiction.

As great art is the record of thehuman spirit's response to its confine-ment in and limitation by nature, so thedenial of the lljost fundamental such lim-itation-death-in a film like Lorenzo'sOil is essentially philistine. We maydecide that we want the Struldbrugian

life lusted after by the health fanaticsmore than we do any amount of art, butat least let us recognize the ghastly taste-lessness of our ambitions.

March 1993

Itis scarcely possible to imagine agreater contrast than that betweensuch vulgarity and the link forged

between art and death in the Movie ofthe Month, Alain Comeau's Tous lesMatins du Monde-which is also basedon a "true" story. Are you beginning toget the feeling that the word "true"applied to a story is a singularly unhelp-ful adjective?

To be sure, so little is known about thereal lives of the film's subjects, two sev-enteenth-century French composers called

Sainte-Colombe and MarinMarais, that a great many gapshave had to be plugged withfiction. Sainte-Colombe (Jean-Pierre Marielle) is seen as acharacter obsessed with thedeath of his wife and withmusic. The two obsessions arefinally fused in an over-whelming passion for the artthat transcends language and sooffers "refreshment to the dead,who have run out of words."He takes as his pupil the youngMarin Marais (GuillaumeDepardieu), who shares themaster's love of music butqualifies it with a worldlyambition that the older mandespises.

The story is told in flash-back by the aged Marais(Gerard Depardieu), andinvolves an unhappy loveaffair between himself andSainte-Colombe's elderdaughter (Anne Brochet) that

after her death enables him to under-stand and finally to share his formerteacher's obsession with death and toecho his romantic view of art. It is allrather over the top, but I confess that Iloved it-partly because of the beautyof the imagery and the music, per-formed by Jordi Savall, but mostlybecause I was swept up, while I waswatching it, in the film's passionatecommitment to music as the bridgebetween life and death. That may not betrue, but it still rings truer than any ofthe other true-life tales now making therounds. 0

The American Spectator 55

BOOK REVIEWS......•...........•.•••...................•..............•..•.••.......................•.•........•...•......... _ .

THE LIFE AND TIMES OFJAMES MICHAEL CURLEY (1874-1958):

AN EPIC OF URBAN POLmCS AND IRISH AMERICA

jack Beatty, senior edi-tor of the Atlantic, haswritten the best book

on African-American his-tory published in recentyears. It is The RascalKing, a definitive accountof the greatest of Boston'sIrish-American politicalbosses. Beatty, who writeswith a pre-postmoderndevotion to narrative andfactual accuracy, wants towrest James MichaelCurley from the mytholo-gy that has obscured himsince he was immortalizedas the charming rogue Frank Skeffingtonin Edwin O'Connor's 1957 novel TheLast Hurrah. (Curley took advantage ofO'Connor's novel to embroider hisalready larger-than-life past.) First electedto Congress in 1911 and to the mayor'soffice in 1914, Curley dominated localpolitics-and the political imagination ofthe Boston Irish-from before the FirstWorld War until after the Second, when,again a congressman, he won a fourth andfinal mayoral term despite having servedtime for mail fraud.

A man of compelling contradictions,Curley cared for the Irish poor even as hehad contempt for their helplessness. Hemade a career acting out the Irish hatredof the English even as he aped the man-ners and mores of the British aristocrat.And he made lawlessness almost lovable,explaining that "I never stole from any-one who couldn't afford it."

In the course of saving his scoundrelfrom the netherworld of nostalgia, Beattyilluminates the compelling parallelsbetween the histories of the Irish and theAfrican in America's cities. It's a com-parison that was made by Daniel PatrickMoynihan and Nathan Glazer in Beyondthe Melting Pot, but it has never beenmade more effectively than in the courseof Beatty'S retelling. Occasionally Beattyinterrupts the history to point to parallelsbetween Curley and, for instance,Washington's former mayor Marion

Fred Siegel is editor of the City Journal,published by the Manhattan Institute;and professor of history at the CooperUnion.

THE RASCAL KING:

Jack Beatty

Addison-Wesley / 571 pages / $25

reviewed by FRED SIEGEL

Barry, but the narrative itself commandsthe comparisons.

In the late 1840s, the Boston YankeeEphraim Peabody called the arrival of theIrish "about the equivalent to a social rev-olution." The Irish shattered the commu-nal consensus on values and initiated acentury of cultural/political conflict.Similarly the African-Americans arrivingin the cities en masse from the peasantSouth, after having been driven off theland by mechanized cotton-picking-themodem equivalent of the enclosure move-ment that sealed the fate of the Irish peas-antry-shattered the urban consensus cre-ated by the common experiences of theNew Deal and World War II. For bothgroups, oppression helped produce father-less families and the associated instability,violence, and escape into chemical intoxi-cation so eloquently chronicled byMoynihan. But most striking among theirshared experiences-their misery at thehands of Anglo-Saxons aside-is thatthey almost alone experienced not onlyupward but also sharp downward mobilityin the cities they settled in.

The first generation of prominentIrish politicians were franklyintegrationist. In 1876 Patrick

Collins, the first Irishman elected to theMassachusetts state senate, denounced

any man or body of men who seek to per-petuatedivisionsof race or religionsinour midst. ... I love the land of my birthbut in Americanpolitics I know neitherrace, nor color, nor creed.Let me say thatthere are no Irish voters among us. There

are Irish-borncitizens ...but the moment the sealof the courtwasimpressedon our paperwe ceased to be foreign-ers and becameAmericans.

But this integrationismcollapsed at the turn of thecentury under the burdenof a restructuring anddeindustrialization similarto the one we're livingthrough today. WhenBoston's shoe and textileindustries moved South,

the city went into sharp decline and tookthe Irish with it for half a century. "Onegeneration after another," Beatty writes,"was being forced by present needs tosacrifice future promise." Stranded,angry, increasingly violent in the yearsafter the depression of the 1890s, "theyseemed like a people without ancestry,"wrote sociologist Robert Woods. "Eachgeneration stands on its own strength."

The combination of the depression andtheir new-found political successunleashed the long-held Irish anger at theYankees who had first disdained and thendeserted them; "Curley rose as Bostonfell." Delivered from their deference tothe Boston Protestants, the Irish turnedpolitics into what Henry Adams hadfeared: "the systematic organization ofhatreds." Quoting Boston's CardinalO'Connell, Mayor Curley taunted: "ThePuritan is passed; the Anglo-Saxon is ajoke; a newer and better America is here."

Curley, the best accuser of the Yankee,succeeded in playing both the bully andthe victim at a time when the worst ofIrish suffering was well past. He becamethe voice of Irish Power. "[In] Curley'Sversion of historical revisionism there wasan Irishman at the bottom of everythingAmerican." The Irish, says Beatty, wereto be both separate and the bestAmericans. If the Catholics couldn't com-pete economically with Protestants, criedBishop O'Connell, they could win politi-cally through sheer numbers. O'Connelleven drew on Booker T. Washington tosuggest the need for accepting one's limi-tations. This mix of political assertivenessand economic resignation was a formula

56 The American Spectator March 1993

,for envy and hostility, which expresseditself through Curley's capacity to conjureup anti-Irish and anti-Catholic conspira-cies behind every turn of events. Therewas always someone else to blame.

'In the wake of the failed integration,Curley forged a new order in Bostonbased on the simultaneous distrust of

both Protestant legal authority-out-comes, not integrity, were what count-ed-and dependence on government.Disdainful of the dole, which he saw asdangerous to both discipline and self-respect, he favored a policy of "work andwages"-he would first succor and thensnare the Irish with a local welfare state.

Curley was at his best in the earlyyears of the Great Depression, for he saweven before Roosevelt that the mainenemy was "the psychology of fear," andfought the Depression with a publicworks building boom. Sounding like anearlier version of Mickey Kaus and othercontemporary proponents of work-fare, he said that he'd "rather spend$10 to keep people working thangive $2 in the dole." Curley's NewDeal avant la lettre razed 2,000tenements, built twelve parks, andadded three subway extensions-while cutting the relief budget. Hisexample and ideas influencednational policy. Drawing on hisown local brain trust and his elec-tion in 1930 as president of theNational Conference of Mayors, heproposed hydroelectric and flood-control projects, old-age pensions,and public works that anticipatedmuch of the best of the New Deal.

But Curley, as Beatty puts it,"was a hero to break your heart."He never built a machine becausestate legislation, aimed directly athim, forbade a mayor from succeed-ing himself. Instead, playing the"racial" card-"No Irishman wor-thy of the name can vote for [fill in theopponent]"-the perpetual candidate waselected governor in 1935 and promptlycost Massachusetts substantial sums offederal money by insisting on direct con-trol of the aid. National reporter LouisLyons characterized Curley's reign as"frankly racial beyond anything knownelsewhere in America." Curley attemptedto outlaw civil marriage and to banspeech or thought that might be offensiveto Irish Catholics, and invariably

responded to his critics by accusing themof anti-Irish prejudice. "One set of intol-erances," wrote Lyons, "has beenreplaced by another."

In the late 1930s, Curley's admirationfor Mussolini, along with what Beattycalls his "civil authoritarianism," led himinto all the excesses that Roosevelt wasunjustly accused of. Likened to HueyLong and called "the Codfish FUhrer" bysome of his critics, he was extravagant inhis admiration for the Duce, whom hesaw as just a New Dealer in a hurry."Mussolini," he said, "believes in spend-ing public money for public good, offer-ing advantages and opportunities andthereby providing employment." In aparallel to the left-wing argument that"Communism was twentieth-centuryAmericanism," Curley claimed that "thefaith of Columbus, of Washington, ofLincoln and Mussolini is now beingexemplified by Franklin DelanoRoosevelt." Some of this, like giving the

fascist salute, was part of courting theItalian vote, but when Curley roamed thestate in his huge touring car, runningpeople off the road, it was clear that theadmiration was more than rhetorical.,'Government," claimed Cur-

ley, "was not created tosave money and to cut

debt. But to take care of the people.That's my theory of government." Andtake care he did, at least in the short run.

By 1948, according to the MunicipalResearch Bureau, Boston had 45 percentmore city employees than the average ofthe eight largest cities. Fifty-five thou-sand Bostonians lived in public hous-ing-one of every fourteen, the highestproportion in any city. Per capita expen-diture for police and fire were the highestin the nation, as were Boston's tax rates.

The consequence, one contemporarynoted, was "a creeping paralysis which[was] slowly destroying Boston as a busi-ness center." To avoid the crushing weightof Curleyism, downtown property ownerssometimes chopped off vacant upper sto-ries to reduce confiscatory assessments,and not a single new "office building wasconstructed in the downtown area between1927 and 1958." (In effect, Curley drewon the three centuries of commercial capi-tal built up in Boston, withdrawing theprincipal without replenishing the capital.Twenty years after Curley's death, NewYork plowed down the same path, with a

predictably parallel result.)For the Boston Irish, writes

Beatty, "like peoples emerging fromcolonialism around the world, Whogoverned them would be moreimportant to their group pride thanHow they were governed." But atwhat price such pride. On balance,Beatty concludes that "Curleydeserves the gratitude of posterity."But, as honest a researcher as he isskillful a stylist, Beatty providesmore than enough evidence toundermine his own conclusion. Asthe city budget swelled, the econo-my shrunk, and property-ownersweren't the only losers. "ManyBostonians," Beatty writes, "wereworse off in 1950 than they or theirfamilies had been in 1914 andCurley was a major reason why." Inthe long run, government workfarehad-like the dole and other entitle-ments-produced a people entitled

to little but their poverty. Politically, it ledto a Peronism that reproduced the resent-ments that Curley used to cadge votes timeand again. Curley "had a stake in leavingbasic problems unsolved, the better tomanipulate the frustrations that meantvotes to him." The sweet salve of rightingpast injustice foreclosed the future of apeople whose leaders were more interestedin spite than success. As such, Beatty con-cludes, Curley "emerges as a contempo-rary, a prince of our disorder." 0

The American Spectator March 1993 57

EDGAR A. POE:MOURNFUL AND NEVER-ENDING REMEMBRANCE

Kenneth Silverman

HarperCollins/576 pages/$27.50; $13 paper

Jeffrey Meyers,

Charles Scribner's Sons/348 pages/$30

Erik Rieselbach is the poetryeditor of Grand Street.

58

He took refuge with his father's sister,Maria Clemm, who would mother himfor the rest of his life, and eventuallymarried her daughter when she was 13.When John Allan died, leaving none ofhis ample fortune to his former ward,Edgar was 25.

Poe lived fifteen more years ofpoverty and misery. He worked for asuccession of magazines, whose editorswere impressed by his brilliance butalienated by his personal habits; he quit

or was fired from each of them, workingno longer than fourteen months at anyone. He wrote and published widely, butwas paid next to nothing, even thoughsome of his works-especially "TheRaven"-were hugely popular. As abook reviewer, he denounced almosteverything that came before him, thusearning him the eternal enmity of thatpart of the literary world he had notalready alienated with his drinkingsprees. Poe was a particularly unpleasantdrinker: he would gulp down his drinks,driving himself into a state of totalintoxication as quickly as possible, andhis belligerence would overwhelm hisusual studied courtesy. "If he took butone glass of weak wine or beer or ciderthe Rubicon of the cup was passed withhim, and it almost always ended in ex-cess and sickness," noted a friend. Poe'sfirst employer, Thomas Willis White ofthe Southern Literary Messenger, whohoped to rehire Poe after he had quit orbeen fired, warned him in. a letter, "Noman is safe who drinks before break-fast!"

For a few months after publishing"The Raven," Poe found himself lionizedin literary salons. A number of societyladies, most of whom fancied themselvespoetesses (Poe gladly puffed their writ-ings in his reviews), fell under his spell:"I see," wrote one of them to another,"that your beautiful invocation hasreached the Raven in his cote ... MayProvidence protect you ... for his croak

[is] the most eloquent imagin-able. He is in truth 'A gloriousdevil, with large heart andbrain." But these relationships,which were passionate, if pla-tonic, landed Poe in hot water,and when one of his jealousprotegees accused him of slan-dering her, the salon doors wereclosed in his face. After hiswife died of tuberculosis, Poecarried on intense relationshipswith four women simultaneous-ly, and thought of at least twoof them as possible wives. Buthis reputation and his ownambivalence made marriage im-possible.

Poe died in the course of aprotracted alcoholic binge,dressed in clothing that was nothis, "bloated and unwashed,his hair unkempt, and his

EDGAR ALLAN POE:HIS LIFE AND LEGACY

reviewed by ERIK RIESELBACH

Only a handful of Edgar AllanPoe's tales maintain a grudgingrespect on their literary mer-

its-except among adolescents andFrenchmen. Yet Poe's life has alwaysexercised a fascination over the read-ing public, derived in equal measurefrom Poe's untruths and foes' slan-ders-and from the raptures ofBaudelaire.

The facts are well known. Born inBoston, Poe had lost his parents, bothactors, by the time he wasthree: his father had abandonedthe family and his mother haddied. (His brother was a roverand a drunk, his sister appar-ently retarded.) He was takenin by the Richmond merchantJohn Allan, who "neverallowed him to lose sight of hisdependence upon his charity,"and sent him to the Universityof Virginia with too littlemoney to pay for his classes.Poe took to drinking; ran awayfrom home, then joined thearmy. He negotiated a releasein order to attend West Point,but was not happy there either,and deliberately had himselfcourt-martialed and dismissed.

The American Spectator March 1993

whole physique repulsive." Even thoughhis enemy Rufus Griswold-whodescribed Poe as "exhibit[ing] scarcelyany virtue in either his life or his writ-ings"-was given control of his literaryestate, Poe's collected works were intheir seventeenth edition within nineyears of his death.

Kenneth Silverman's book is inmany ways a perfect academicbiography: Silverman has con-

sulted a vast amount of primary materialand assembled it unexceptionably. Inthe sheer marshaling of details, he suc-ceeds in creating a vivid picture, if notof Poe himself, at least of the worldthrough 'which Poe's inscrutable figurestalks. Silverman's analysis of the writ-ings is not particularly profound, but heusefully traces the thematic connectionsamong various works. (I'm especiallyfond of his penchant for revealing thecountless names in Poe's writing thatinclude the double a's and l's of"Allan.")

This is Jeffrey Meyers's ninth biog-raphy, and Silverman's renders it almostuseless. Meyers lays out Poe's life insome detail, but includes almost nothingthat can't be found more fully discussedin Silverman. Meyers provides muchcommentary, but all is on the most super-ficial plane. He all too frequently tries toilluminate Poe's behavior by adducingparallels from other writers, many ofthem subjects of previous Meyersbiographies: "Like D.H. Lawrence, Poecould say, 'I daren't sit in the worldwithout a woman behind me.' LikeGeorge Orwell ... Poe precipitously pro-posed to several ladies who rejectedhim."

Meyers's two final chapters-"Reputation" and "Influence"-have acertain summary usefulness as a catalogueof later writers' responses to Poe, includ-ing a nice description of Baudelaire's fas-cination with him. But many of the sup-posed influences are tenuous indeed: Poewrites a piece on premature burials; inUlysses, Bloom meditates on the horror ofbeing buried alive. Poe's story "TheSystem of Doctor Tarr and ProfessorFether" describes the mutiny of patients ina lunatic asylum; this "prefigures the ideasof iconoclastic thinkers like R.D. Laingand Thomas Szasz, and the theme of KenKesey's novel One Flew Over theCuckoo's Nest."

Poe was clearly a maddening man, "achaos of deep passion," as he says in theearly poem "Dreams." He constantlyinvented false histories for himself,claimed that various poems had beenwritten much earlier than they really had,misstated his own date of birth to makehimself younger than he was, and pro-duced all manner of bizarre rationaliza-tions for his own behavior. A manipula-tive streak seems to have characterizedhis relations with virtually all of hisfriends and employers. He repeatedlyturned on those who had tried to helphim, and Elizabeth Barrett described thereview of one of her books as vacillatingbetween "the two extremes of laudationand reprehension, folded in one another.-You would have thought it had beenwritten by a friend & a foe, each starkmad in love & hate, and writing the alter-nate paragraphs."

Poe also felt compelled to under-mine himself. Late in his life, heseems to have written a pseudony-

mous letter defending Longfellowagainst accusations of plagiarism thatPoe had made in his own signed articles.Poe then published five rejoinders to hisown pseudonymous attack on himself.'Poe's idea of plagiarism was obsessiveand odd: no actual lines, or even words,had to be purloined; rather it was thegeneral subject that was craftily stolen.The irony is that Poe's own writings arefilled with wholesale liftings from otherpoets, critics, even encyclopedias. Themost astounding comes in the "Letter toMr. -," in which Poe announces that "apoem, in my opinion, is opposed to awork of science by having, for its imme-diate object, pleasure, not truth." Thisdefinition is almost exactly that given inColeridge's Biographia Literaria, downto the italics. Poe's only contribution isthe phrase "in my opinion," which itexactly isn't.

But the oddest incident came at areading Poe gave in Boston in 1845. Poehad always been at odds with the NewEngland transcendentalists-for onething, they were abolitionists, while Poethought blacks sub-human. But he washungry for acclaim in the city of hisbirth, and he arranged to give a readingat the Boston Lyceum, promising todeliver a new poem. This he was unableto write. On taking the stage, after a fif-teen-minute apology for the "indefini-

March 1993

tiveness" and "general imbecility ... sounworthy a Bostonian audience," of thepoem he was going to read, Poe launchedinto "AI Aaraaf," an astronomical fanta-sy almost 300 lines long. The audience-which had already endured a two-and-a-half-hour speech by the Americancommissioner to China-found it inter-minable and pointless. Many listenersfled. At a reception afterward, Poeclaimed that "AI Aaraaf' had been writ-ten when he was 12 (actually, it probablydated from his twentieth year).

The American Spectator

On returning to New York, he an-nounced in the BroadwayJournal that "we have been

quizzing the Bostonians, and one or twoof the more stupid of their editors andeditresses have taken it in high dudg-eon." When this provoked furtherattacks, Poe laid out a full "explanation"of his actions. Beginning by claimingthat he had in fact been "cordiallyreceived" and that the poem had beenread with "many interruptions ofapplause," he proceeded to attack thedullness of Boston, its bad hotels, itshostility toward himself, and its patheticduck pond. For such an audience, hecould hardly have been expected towaste his time in writing a new poem.Fortunately, he'd had "lying by him"one published when he was ten. 0

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59

RISING IN THE WEST:THE TRUE STORY OF AN "OKJE" FAMILY FROM THEGREAT DEPRESSION THROUGH THE REAGAN YEARS

Dan Morgan

reviewed by CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL

InThe Grapes of Wrath (1939), JohnSteinbeck portrayed the Oklahomansdisplaced in the 1930s as radicalized

victims of capitalism who would trans-form California politics-which theywere not. In the 1980s, Republicans sawthem as forming part of the backbone ofa supply-side revolution-which they didnot. More recently, their devout religiosi-ty has led some on the left to view themas reactionaries willing to tum back theclock on such issues' as racial integra-tion-which they are not.

Washington Post reporter DanMorgan-who developed a lifelong obses-sion with the Okies after his own ·readingof Steinbeck's novel, even spending a col-lege summer picking fruit with them-setsout in Rising in the West to discern theirmotives and measure their impact. Hechronicles four generations of one of themost successful Okie families, theTathams, who left Sallisaw, Oklahoma-hometown of "Pretty Boy" Floyd andstarting point for Steinbeck's Joad fami-ly-in 1934. (To a much lesser extent, hecovers a smaller family, the Tacketts.)

Oca Tatham had been drifting fromtent cities to migrant farms to welfarehotels, getting in trouble with women andrunning afoul of the law, until he marriedand was "saved." In 1934, he loaded histruck with fifteen others, including hiswife and two children and his parents, andset off for California. After severalmishaps-including the overturning of histruck-Oca wound up in Delano, justnorth of the Okie capital of Bakersfieldand just south of Fresno, which would bethe family's base by the end of the centu-ry. Over the years, Oca would take advan-

Christopher Caldwell is assistant man-aging editor of The American Spectator.

tage of his horse trader's instincts andlucrative real estate deals to tum himselfinto a multi-millionaire. His son Billwould multiply Oca's fortune severaltimes by operating nursing homes, leasingfirms, and professional sports teams.Ultimately, their plutocratic triumphs ledthem to a big-time involvement inRepublican politics. Morgan tells the storyin painstaking detail: while hardly typicalin either their ambitions or their fortunes,the Tathams experienced virtually all ofOkie migrant life in microcosm.

For Morgan, the Okie migration isan immigrant story, and the conse-quences of the culture of the old

country for California were profound. TheOkies grew the -tobacco they smoked.They gave their children odd nonce nameslike Brenee and Caprice. They broughtwith them a cornball sense of humor andan earnest sentimentality that manifesteditself not only in Woody Guthrie songsbut also in popular California radio showslike "Dog Talk." Importantly, as Morgannotes, they never stayed in anyone placelong enough to become part of the powerstructure; in turn, "their suspicions ofhigher authority meant that they created apatchwork of minimalist authority every-where they went."

At dead-center of Okies'-at least theTathams'-cultural life was their reli-gious faith. Drake's Prairie, the broadsweep of foothill farmland aroundSallisaw, was known as the "prayin'-estplace in all Oklahoma." Through "brush-arbor" revivals, populist religion enteredthe warp of Oklahoma culture, and thevarious Pentecostal sects quickly provednot only the most controversial but alsothe most durable. Pentecostalism mod-eled itself on Luke's description of the

days following the Resurrection, andsought "spiritual gifts" that were evi-dence of "Baptism in the Holy Spirit"-including prophecy and speaking intongues. The latter became the trademarkof Pentecostalism and almost immediate-ly earned its adherents the opprobriumarnong Christians that-it would later suf-fer among the public at large. Baptists inparticular saw this enthusiasm as leavingample room for spiritual fraud and"cheap grace." Thus, Pentecostalismbecame a fringe religion before mostAmericans had even heard of it.

Influenced by African worship andWesleyan Methodism, the modernPentecostal movement was launched bythe black Texan William Seymour at theAzusa Street revival in Los Angeles in1906. (It's an irony worthy of a RichardRodriguez essay that the religion theOkies "brought" to Southern Californiawas in fact launched there.) Morganasserts that Pentecostalism, not jazz, wasthe first major black influence on thewhite middle class. But Pentecostalismbecame widespread in California at aboutthe same time as radio, and soon took onmany of the "Middle American" trap-pings by which we recognize it now asthe Assemblies of God: televangelists,broadcast faith healings, modern church-es in the middle of gigantic parking lots,and Christian spin-offs, from vacationresorts to dating services.

The Okies were beset with slanders andmisunderstandings from the first, and itwas religion that led to most of them. Eventoday, the Joad family in The Grapes ofWrath is the source of most of the Okiestereotypes, and almost all of them arefalse. Steinbeck distrusted Pentecostalism,and portrayed it as something smarterOkies considered fanatic and risible, not asthe strongest common bond uniting thevarious Okie subcultures which it so clear-ly was. "Evidently," Morgan writes,"Pentecostal and other fervent religion wasseen by social reformers as standing in theway of molding Okies into a more pro-gressive force in California politics."

Steinbeck had a political axe to grind,portraying the Joads as having been "dust-ed" off their land by a combination offluke weather and rapacious bankers. (Infact, of the slightly more than 100,000Okies who came annually to Califomia inthe mid-1930s, only 2-3 percent camefrom the six panhandle counties of thestate's Dust Bowl.) The Joads get involved

Alfred A. Knopf /532 pages / $25

60 The American Spectator March 1993

in radical labor politics as soon as they ar-rive in California, but Morgan shows thatOkies, particularly those from the "Tri-State" area around Sallisaw, were a "fluidproletariat" not only disinclined to stagestrikes but renowned for breaking them.

Debates in Congress about how toresol ve California's "OkieProblem" centered on two strate-

gies that were equally anti-free market:Democrats favored increasing relief;Republicans favored relief cuts and actual"repatriation." The congressional studieswere the most comprehensive done onpoverty until the Johnson administration,and it's fortunate that they were shelvedby World War IT.Those who worry aboutan American farm policy set by Holly-wood actresses testifying before Congresswill find an instructive early parallelhere-the entire debate was driven bySteinbeck's non-existent Oklahoma.Specifically, the idea on which both polesof the argument rested-that the Okiemigration had been driven by drought-was simply not true.

But neither was the competing Okiemyth that arose after World War IT: thatthe group had pulled itself up by its ownbootstraps. Willy-nilly, the Okies werethe beneficiaries, Morgan writes, "of thegreatest infrastructure program everundertaken by the federal governmentand probably by any government in thehistory of the world." Federal water pro-jects-starting with the Central Valley. Project of 1933-have made California'sCentral Valley as pork-glutted and gov-ernment-dependent as any micro-econo-my in the country, but that was just thebeginning. And the Tathams-ironically,considering the role they were to playasbedrock members of the Reagan coalitionin the 1980s-took part in every boon-doggle and government works project thestate pushed their way. They arrived inCalifornia when it was still offering themost liberal social payments of any statein the country, and Oca immediately wenton the dole. Oca's father Walter Tathamsupported Upton Sinclair's End Povertyin California platform in 1934. All theTathams benefited from the defensebuildup that has made California theprime destination of federal largesse forthe last half-century. Oca owned a trans-port truck, which gained him not only adraft deferment but also the most lucra-tive contract of his life to that point-

transporting water to and from theHanford nuclear site in Oregon, wherethe Nagasaki bomb was being built.

With a big stake once the war ended,Oca began to profit handsomely from realestate investments. He entered the fledg-ling nursing home business just before therash of government legislation-thePublic Assistance Medical Care Program(1957), Medical Assistance for the Aged(1960), and Medicaid (1966), to name justthe federal programs-that would turnnursing home operators into millionairesat virtually zero risk.It was at this point that the Tathams

crossed the important line between mere-ly taking advantage of laws in place, andtrying to influence politics. They poniedup for campaign contributions to HouseWays and Means chairman Wilbur Millsafter he secured passage of a bill benefit-ing nursing-home operators. Once Oca'sson Bill and grandson Silly began tryingto muscle their World Football Leaguefranchise, the Memphis Grizzlies, intothe NFL in the late seventies, Billbefriended Tony Coelho. Bill and Billycontributed to Al Gore when his interestin an NFL franchise for Memphis dove-tailed with theirs; and they courted bothArizona senators-McCain andDeConcini-when they were trying toput an expansion team in Phoenix.Young Billy even supported the daffy"Ev" Mecham during his term asArizona governor.

For a nursing home magnate withpowerful Washington connectionsto become a Reaganite, i.e. to take

part in what most perceived as a small-government revolution, seems to be gallworthy of Ross Perot-peeling millionsout of taxpayer contributions and thencomplaining that the federal governmentis profligate. And the Tathams don't fitthe conservative profile in terms of tradi-tional family values, either-much as themedia has cast that most visiblePentecostal Pat Robertson as the pointman for that tendency in the Republicanparty. The nursing home business, ofcourse, is one of those callings-alongwith divorce law, day care, and the abor-tion industry-that have as their very rai-son d' etre the weakening of familialbonds. And while no one would doubtthat the Tatham family is strong andvalue-soaked, those values are hardly tra-ditional. Oca got remarried seven months

•

after his wife Ruby's death. He is a richman who put none of his children throughcollege; during one five-year period inthe 1940s, he sent his children to elevendifferent schools in four states. YoungBilly's hobby in his twenties was sell-ing-in bulk, without a license-IngramMAC-lOs, the machine pistols designedfor, and used almost exclusively by,cocaine dealers. (And this after his littlebrother has accidentally shot a playmatedead with a target rifle.) The family isriddled with social problems, from thefact that most of Oca's grandchildren'smarriages ended in divorce to Ruby'sbrother's conviction for molesting histhirteen children.

This is not to say that the Tatharns arethoroughly hypocritical, or do not recog-nize their problems as problems. For alltheir larger-than-life frailties, Morgan isfond of these people, whom he portraysas moderns, not reactionaries. "The sameindividuals," Morgan writes, "who spokein tongues, experienced healing, read thesigns in a deer crossing a cornfield, andsaw flames shooting down from heaven,could jury-rig a truck, fix a motor, andrepair a wagon with baling wire."Importantly, they are not-as it has beenfashionable to caricature conservativeRepublicans-casting "coded" votes fora return to an "earlier America," bywhich liberal commentators most oftenmean segregation. Aside from the deepblack roots of their own church, whichrepudiated the Ku Klux Klan as "un-Christian and un-American" in 1925-when the Klan was not to be trifledwith- Tathams of all generations havenot merely tolerated or even befriendedblacks: they have gravitated to them.Tathams describe their reception inCalifornia by saying, "It was sort of likehow the colored people felt ... "

Pentecostal politics is, after all,minority politics. Pentecostals and otherRepublican fundamentalists are perenni-ally underempowered, for their ownparty cannot afford to embrace them: Asthe controversies over last summer's del-egate selection at the Republican conven-tion make plain, the Pentecostals are aproblem for Republicans much as theblack left is a problem for theDemocrats: they scare the rest ofAmerica to death.

Part of this is the willful stupidity ofpeople who cannot tell a charismatic froman evangelical and cannot distinguish

March 1993 61The American Spectator

Jerry Falwell from David Duke. And the"tolerant" objection raised against Okiereligion is the same one that foes of immi-gration often level at newcomers: theyhave so little historical experience withdemocratic institutions that they have notyet learned to adjust their political goals toconstitutional realities. Specifically, sincemost Pentecostals do not at any levelbelieve in the separation of religion andpolitics, they cannot assuage liberal fearsthat they do not believe in the separationof church and state. Along typical minori-ty-politics lines, the media leads the widerpublic to feel Okies are arguing for spe-cial treatment when they feel they're argu-ing for basic rights.

These Christians are viscerally terri-fied of government, even if they do see itas a source of economic advancement.Their anti-Communism is really anopposition not so much to an economicsystem or even to authoritarianism per seas to the religious persecution thatalways accompanies Communism. Theiropposition to federal efforts to endsegregation stem primarily from a fearthat at some point the federal govern-ment will act to dilute the religious-notracial-composition of their owncommunities. If we give religion itsrightful place in the Tathams' politicalworldview, their voting patterns becomemore logical: they are part of a con-servatism directed more against theWarren Court than against the New Deal.

These are important distinctionsfor anyone seeking to understandhow the huge Reaganite coalition

has been reduced to a rump of peoplemore or less like the Tathams. If thebook is a bit too long and discursive, ifMorgan is occasionally too patient withhokey anecdotes, it is only because hehas important sociological work to dohere: detailing the position of a majorgroup inside the tribal pluralism that isbecoming the modus vivendi ofCalifornia society. Morgan's book doesfor the Okie migration west whatNicholas Lemann did for the moreimportant Mississippi migration north inThe Promised Land (1991)-it draws notjust comparisons but identities. And justas Lemann showed us that much of thenorthern underclass is merely Deltasharecropper society bricked in, Morgangives us a vivid portrait of Midwesternhardscrabble farm society aired out. 0

PILGRIM IN THE RUINS:A LIFE OF WALKER PERCY

Jay Tolson

Simon & Schuster / 544 pages / $27.50

reviewed by JOHN R. DUNLAP

Ina 1983 lecture on HermanMelville, Walker Percy remarkedthat Moby Dick "was a consequence,

not merely of great gifts, but also ofgreat good luck"-the luck of a novelist"breaking into the freedom of his art," ashappened to Melville when a whalingyarn somehow evolved into "a narrativethat unfolds not merely itself but oneselfand others' selves." Percy, too, knew thefeeling: on many occasions in his life, heenjoyed luck of a variety so decisive thatit's hard to come away from JayTolson's Pilgrim in the Ruins without asense that Walker Percy's life wascharmed.

Consider how Percy's first publishednovel, The Moviegoer (1961), took the1962 National Book Award. The usualprocedure for deciding the award beginswith publishers' recommendations, butPercy's publisher, the disagreeableAlfred Knopf, felt no enthusiasm for TheMoviegoer and was annoyed by its poorsales. As it happened, however, A.J.Liebling had just finished writing a bookon Louisiana politics, and his interestwas piqued by a review mentioning theNew Orleans setting of this first novel byan unknown Southern writer. Lieblingbought a copy of The Moviegoer, whichso enthralled him that he recommended itto his wife, Jean Stafford, one of thejudges on the NBA fiction panel.Stafford arranged for the other twojudges to receive copies of Percy's novelalong with the ten other novels nominat-ed that year. When the judges met inMarch 1962, their choice was unani-mous.

Percy also had the good fortune ofsuperb editors-sympathetic craftsmen

John R. Dunlap teaches English at SantaClara University.

like Stanley Kauffmann at Knopf andRobert Giroux at Farrar, Straus. Therewas, too, the regular correspondencewith his lifelong friend Shelby Foote, amajor source for Tolson. And there wasPercy's apprenticeship under the formi-dable Caroline Gordon, a close readerwho guided Percy through his unpub-lished The Charterhouse. When thenovel was rejected by Scribner's in 1953,Gordon's blunt reaction kept Percy'sspirits up: "They just don't get it." Andthe rejection started a chain of circum-stances that brought Percy into contactwith Elizabeth Otis, whose literaryagency served him well for the rest of hiscareer.

Percy was almost 46 when he accept-ed the National Book Award for TheMoviegoer, acquiring instant fame and agenerous new print run. It is in paper-back to this day, and none of his sixpublished novels has gone out of print.But if the serendipity of his rise issomething of a legend in American pub-lishing, this and other instances ofPercy's good fortune came to him thehard way.

Hewas born in Birmingham,Alabama, in May 1916, the firstof three sons, to LeRoy Pratt

Percy and Martha Susan Phinizy. Theywere not a happy family. Both parentswere of the Southern aristocracy, freight-ed with the artful strategies of noblesseoblige, the father's family going backthrough several generations of stoicachievers given to bouts of melancholy.The year after Percy's birth, his paternalgrandfather committed suicide; twelveyears later, when Percy was 13, thefather took his own life in a grisly repeti-tion of the grandfather's self-inflictedgunshot wound.

62 March 1993• The American Spectator

Tolson recounts a "strangely gratu-itous and self-dramatizing" commentPercy made to a student at LouisianaState University almost half a centurylater, when Percy was on a one-yearteaching stint at LSU. Late one af-ternoon the student, a young mannamed Wyatt Prunty, happened by theopen door of an English departmentoffice and stopped when he saw Percysitting alone in the office, his feetpropped up on another chair and "hisgaze fixed in the middle distance."Distracted from his reverie and withoutpausing a beat between sentences,Percy said, "Well, hello, Wyatt. I guessthe central mystery of my life willalways be why my father killed him-self. Come here, have a seat."

In fact, by his own account Percy wasneitherdeeply saddened nor idly fasci-nated by his father's suicide. He wasangered-and taken with a seethingdetermination from the age of 13 "tomake damn sure that it didn't happen to

Another influence was theCatholicism Percy embracedunder the usual conditions of

disaster and good fortune. Percy's keeninterest in science-to which, as a chem-istry major at Chapel Hill, he attached arather callow hope for a complete world-view-led him to medical school atColumbia. After receiving his M.D. in1941, he contracted pulmonary tubercu-losis during his internship as a patholo-gist working on the corpses of derelictsat Bellevue. A lengthy period ofenforced inactivity at sanatoria inSaranac (New York) and Connecticutgave Percy ample time-four years, alltold-to explore his own deepest convic-tions, while grappling with the awkwarddiscovery that he was now a certifiedmedical doctor with no real interest inbeing a physician.

Percy had been firmly agnostic sincehis late childhood. In Birmingham, hisparents belonged to a small congregationof progressive Presbyterians whose

"diluted religiosity" was taken up withethics and social action more than withmystery and belief. Uncle Will, the spiri-tualloner, was himself a lapsed Catholic,without formal religion. Young Percy, avoracious reader, embraced the scientismof Julian Huxley and H.G. Wells.

In Saranac, however, his confidencein science started crumbling, as he wadedinto extensive readings of Dostoevskyand Camus, Jaspers and Heidegger. Heread deeply in Kierkegaard, and in spirit-

ed debate with a fellow patient who hap-pened to be a well-informed Catholic, hediscovered Marcel and Maritain. He readAquinas.

At this time in his life, though, Percywas still more of a woolgathering misfitthan a serious thinker. When Uncle Willdied of a stroke in January 1942, he left asubstantial fortune to his three adoptedsons. Roy took over the Percy plantationin Greenville, and Phin eventually took upa career in law. (Both the younger broth-ers served with distinction in the SecondWorld War, which left Walker feeling allthe more useless during the stay atSaranac.) It would not have been inconsis-tent with Walker's depressive tempera-ment if he had taken his inheritance andsettled into the life of a genteel bum.

His depression, with the attendantself-disgust, dogged him most of his life,and Percy's keen interest in bourbon,would have turned into a problem were itnot for the moderation imposed on himby chronic diverticulosis. In a letter to

Shelby Foote, written when hewas in his early sixties, Percytook exception to his friendRobert Coles's portrait WalkerPercy: An American Search(1978), which Percy appreciatedbut thought too generous. "Whatlittle I accomplish," he wrote,"seems to get accomplishedthrough a peculiar dialectic oflaziness, malice and self-cen-teredness."

me."After spending a year with the

mother's family in Athens,Georgia, Martha Susan Percy andher three sons were invited bythe well-to-do "Uncle Will"(William Alexander Percy, firstcousin to Walker's father) to staywith him at his home inGreenville, Mississippi. Within afew years of their move toGreenville, Martha Susan-always rather aloof and emotion-ally distant from her sons--diedin a car accident; Will Percypromptly adopted the three boys.

Years later Percy would jokethat if it hadn't been for UncleWill he would have wound upselling cars in Athens. But therewas nothing flippant about hisclosely written tribute in anintroductory essay to a 1973reissue of Will's memoir, Lanterns onthe Levee (1941). Lawyer, planter, warhero, poet, lifelong bachelor (owing,apparently, to an "extreme idealizationof women"), Will Percy had "a com-plete, articulated view of the world astragic as it was noble." From UncleWill, Walker and his brothers learnedShakespeare, Keats, Brahms, Beethoven;they also learned character, and Walkerhimself gained "a vocation and in a realsense a second self."

But that is to ignore theimmeasurable influence ofMary Bernice (Bunt)

Townsend, whom Percy marriedin 1946, a personal triumph relat-ed by Tolson with tenderness andhumor. Bunt and Walker tookreligious instruction together, andwere received into the RomanCatholic Church in 1947. In 1948

they settled in the town of Covington("This is the nonplace for me!" Percyexclaimed when he first saw the town),near the north shore of LakePontchartrain, across from New Orleans.

Once settled, Percy was certain hewanted to write, and he had found atheme, which Tolson identifies as "thequestion of why man feels so sad in thetwentieth century." Percy's answer-which he would compose in several

(continued on page 69)

March 1993 63The American Spectator

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The American Spectator March 1993 65

Washington PostThe first balmy paragraph of what theeditors of the incomparable Postwould like to call a news story:Marshall Hull was too far away from theCapitol grounds yesterday to see BillClinton place his hand on the bible andrecite the 42-word presidential oath. Butfrom his wheelchair on PennsylvaniaAvenue NW, the 52-year-old Hull, whohas cerebral palsy, could hear Clintonfrom a giant, cone-shaped speakerstrapped to a light pole-and his eyesfilled with tears.

"Bill Clinton, president now. Is he? Ishe?" Hull asked.

Yes, finally, he is.{January 21,1993]

NewsweekAnother black eye for Eurocentrism,thanks to the spreading enlightenmentof multicultural audacity:

... to anthropologists, the folks who studymanners and mores on faraway shores,until recently it wasn't at all clear thatfalling in love is a global foible. To them,love seemed a mainly Western thing, anemotion too complex for less sophisticatedcultures to grasp. The assumption was thatto be moonstruck, you had to have a fewcenturies of romantic art and literaturebehind you, plus the leisure of romanticdalliances.

Now it appears that was a strictlyEurocentr ic view. Over the past fewyears researchers have been tuning inlove's old, sweet song in remote hamletsand time zones. They are encountering iteven in so-called primitive societieswhere prearranged marriage is the rule.One far-ranging 1992 study reportedfinding evidence of the phenomenon in asmany as 147 of 166 different cultures. Itsabsence in the other 19, say study authorsWilliam Jankowiak of the University ofNevada, Las Vegas, and Edward Fischerof Tulane University, probably reflects adeficiency of their study methods, not oflocal ardor.

{January 18, 1993]

New York PostThe fey Cindy Adams finds the nextPeggy Noonan hyperventilating undera palm at the Beverly Hilton:

Susan Sarandon of "Lorenzo's Oil," knownfor her political roles as well as her movieroles: "I feel passionately about feelingpassionately. More and more, as things getdemeaned and' deadened, I feel that politi-cal commitment is what can save us all."

Bush could've used her as his speechwriter.{December 17, 1992]

. Toledo BladeGhastly new perversities being practicedin progressive Toledo and soon to spreadto other unchaste regions where unheardof diseases and calamities are as sure tofollow as Gore follows Clinton:As 1993 dawned around the world, circlesof dancers moved gently to the strains ofancient religious chants, expressing human-ity's deepest desires to peace.

The movements they performed havecome to be known as the Dances ofUniversal Peace, a collection of simple folk,dances combined with the singing of sacredphrases from various world religions.

Developed by the late Sufi mystic andteacher Samuel Lewis in the 1960s, thedances are now performed regularly in theToledo area .... Sister Mary FrancesUicker, a Detroit music therapist who leadsa monthly group at The Barn, 529 StewartRd., Monroe, saidMr. Lewis referred to thedances as movements that taught peoplehow to move peacefully with one another.

"Our physical movements relate to allthe ways we need to interact with oneanother in terms of peacemaking in a moreglobal sense," she explained.

,"That's why we're always in a circle.There is no hierarchy and no domination ofone by another.It's being part of a whole andbreakingoff for the individualexperienceandthen comingback into thewhole.It's breakingintopartnerships,thenbreakingoff and receiv-ing a new partner.You bond with people,letgo, form new bonds, receive and welcomenewexperiences,and reverenceexperience."

{January 2, 1993]

Boston Sunday GlobeHow to make friends and influence thepeople of South Los Angeles-asreported in faraway Boston:

Seven months ago Steve Lim stood in theNew Star Market in blazing South LosAngeles and encouraged his customers toloot the store.

"Take what you need, take what youneed," he remembers telling them. "Justdon't bum it. Please don't bum it down."

They didn't.While six Korean-owned markets with-

in a one-mile radius were put to the torch,the New Star Market survived. It is a rarityin its mostly black and Latino neighbor-hood: A store owned by outsiders that hascultivated relations with the community.

{December 20, 1992]

Harvard CrimsonIn the student paper of a once distin-guished university, more puerile patterfrom another of the student body'sponderous mediocrities:I have a confession to make. I'm in love.But the object of my devotion is pledged toanother. In fact, she's been married for near-ly ~Oyears.My prospects don't look good.

Her husband, you see, is the next presi-dent of the United States.

I'm in love with Hillary Clinton,fortysomething wife of Bill and soon to beFirst Lady.

Don't get me wrong-I realize the prob-lems. She'll be in Washington; I'm inCambridge. She's Protestant; I'm Jewish.She hates TammyWynette; I like her.

But in spite of these admittedly daunt-ing obstacles, I plan to proceed .... Myfriends tell me I'm crazy. "You're crazy,"they tell me. "You're writing a thesis. Youwon't have any time for her." ...

I hope I'm making myself clear. This ismore thanjust anotherHarvardguy hittingonanotherWellesley(class of '69) woman. I'vefinally found that ideal female, that perfectcombinationof brainsand beauty,warmthandwisdom, legs and leftism. So she's married.Details,details.He travelsa lotonbusiness....

{November 17, 1992]

66 March 1993The American Spectator

Santa Barbara News-PressOn the pages of a great news organ ofthe Golden State, poetry, metaphysics,and worse:

As the Realtor representing Linda andHarry Thomason in the Summerland housetransaction, I was naively unaware of theimpact that their close friends the Clintonswould have on our community. Yet theThanksgiving weekend visit touched thehearts of Santa Barbarans, and left mefilled with hope for America.

I spent many hours each day at PadaroLane and shared special memories with ournext "first family."

Continually I was struck by their depthof sincerity and caring. Extra flowers werepassed on to invalids; cards and notes wereread and saved to be answered; adjacentneighbors were sought out and included infamily gatherings.

Some of my fondest recollections willalways remain with Chelsea.

She explored the tidepools, sharing herdiscoveries with the many other children onthe beach; she gathered the neighbor's wetpuppy in her arms to carry him over therocky path; she met with strangers and leftwith friends....

We must now learn from Chelsea. Maywe draw out the good in others, seekbridges instead of barriers, reach out ourhands when someone stumbles, and uniteas one nation under God.

America has chosen the Clintonsbecause we want and desperately needchange. This change must now begin withyou and me. =-Lois Landau

Santa Barbara{December 20, 1992]

in his office, studying his impassive expres-sion as I babbled away about this or that, Ihad to restrain the impulse to blurt "Mr.Shawn, I love you." I did love him and Istill do. I loved him, though I never for amoment imagined that in some everyday,familiar sense, we were actually friends.

Occasionally, late on a day when I hadsubmitted a Talk of the Town story, myphone would ring.

"Hello, Mr. Singer.""Hello, Mr. Shawn.""That's an ingenious and wonderful

piece you wrote.""Thank you very much.""Thank you for doing it."No, please, thank you. Again, though

certainly not for the last time, thank you.{December 27, 1992-January 4,1993]

Washington PostResident hagiographer Miss MarthaSherrill expatiates melodiously on theoratorical prodigies of Mrs. HillaryClinton in her historic 1969 com-mencement address to the agog gradu-ates of Wellesley College:

In keeping with the times, she was outspo-ken. In keeping with her personality, shewas balanced, mature-rather thoughtful.Without notes, Hillary addressedher class ofgraduating seniors. The speech, on paper,nearly 24 years later, is still passionate andeloquent and wise and "full of uncompro-mising language," as she would say later.

{January 12,1993]

Wellesley College(Publicity Office)

And now, through the miracle of mod-ern historical research, we publishchoice passages from Hillary's 1969commencement screed, which is bestread aloud while a chorus of hyenasbark lewdly into the sweet night:

Part of the problem with empathy with pro-fessed goals is that empathy doesn't do usanything.We've had lots of empathy; we'vehad lots of sympathy,but we feel that for toolong our leaders have used politics as the artof the possible. And the challenge now is topractice politics as the art of making whatappears to be impossible,possible....

We are, all of us, exploring a world thatnone of us understands and attempting tocreate within that uncertainty .... Thestruggle for an integrated life existing in anatmosphere of communal trust and respectis one with desperately important politicaland social consequences. And the word

"consequences" of course catapults us intothe future. One of the most tragic things thathappened yesterday, a beautiful day, wasthat I was talking to a woman who said thatshe wouldn't want to be me for anything inthe world. She wouldn't want to live todayand look ahead to what it is she seesbecause she's afraid. Fear is always with usbut we just don't have time for it. Not now.

{May 31,1969]

New YorkerSome of the lascivious thoughts thatMr. Mark Singer has harbored in hisfevered mind practically every day sincethe greatest moment on earth in 1974:

........................................GARY SICK'S BALD-FACED LIES

(continued from page 27)

intelligence reports unambiguouslyshowed that there were no secret meet-ings in Europe between Iranian andRepublican campaign operatives and thatthere were no secret arms deliveriesbetween the United States and Iran.Christopher also read highly classifiedintelligence reports, according to logsacquired by congressional investigators,that showed that the Ayatollah Khomeinidespised Jimmy Carter, that theAyatollah was determined to do anythingto hurt his re-election, and that he wouldnever release the hostages to Carter.

That Sick was asked to provide apaper on Iran for the Clinton transitionteam and was being seriously consideredfor a Middle East policy position in theClinton Administration shows how thor-oughly Carterites have taken control ofthe foreign policy apparatus. It alsoshows that there is no accountability forcommitting wholesale fraud.

Not surprisingly, Sick's paper for theincoming Clinton Administration claimedthat except for Iranian-directed "politicalviolence" against Iranian dissidents, Iranhad essentially dropped "classical terror-ism." To the victims of Iranian terrorismin Egypt, Israel, and Argentina, Sick'sstatements would come as a great sur-prise. And what would Sick tell theIranians about the religious death sentence(jatwa) issued against author SalmanRushdie? You can keep the Jatwa, hewould advise, but drop the bounty.

By any normal standard of accountabil-ity and rationality, the House investiga-tion-on top of other evidence of theman's incompetence-should have termi-nated the Clinton Administration's interestin Sick. It didn't. In the end, though, wemay be thankful to Gary Sick for at leastone thing: we now know a little moreabout why the Carter Administration lostIran. 0

March 1993 67

During my first conversation with WilliamShawn in 1974,he astonishedme by extend-ing an invitation to work for The NewYorker. I was twenty-three years old, abright-green rookie, and far from convincedthat I was a writer, much less a writer wor-thy of Shawn's nurturing indulgence. Therehave been few, if any, days since when Ihave not thought of him, always with grati-tude and wonder--often with more compli-cated emotions-and asked myself what thehell this whole thing has been about ....

He had an oracular presence, and virtu-ally every encounter with him felt loaded,full of intrigue and 'possibility.Often, seated

The American Spectator

The Real Maya' Angelou. Winston-Salem,North Carolina

Bill Clinton's choice of Hillary-palMaya Angelou to write a poem tobe read at his swearing-in is an

ominous harbinger. If Clinton has anyacquaintance with Angelou's literary andacademic career, then the President hasmade it abundantly plain that he has noreal interest in addressing our current cri-sis in higher education.

Angelou has gained attention as acolumnist for Playgirl, a poet (/ Shall NotBe Moved, Just Give Me a Cool Drink ofWater 'fore / Diiie), a screenwriter(Georgia, Georgia), and the author of notone but five autobiographies (including /Know Why the Caged Bird Sings andSingin' and Swingin' and Gettin' MerryLike Christmas). Her favorite subjectsinclude life as a single mother, life inBerkeley, her own rape, and traveling toGhana to "teach African dance andmusic" to the native Africans. Shedescribes herself in interviews and booksas a former madam, prostitute, burlesquestripper, and adviser to Malcolm X.

In 1982, Angelou, whose real name isMarguerite Johnson, was appointed"Professor for Life" by North Carolina'sWake Forest University. Angelou's nameand photograph appear year after year-with the title "Distinguished Professor ofAmerican Studies"-in Wake Forest'sadmissions applications, its annual reportsto trustees and alumni, and the alumnimagazine-but she has no meaningfulresponsibilities at the university; She col-lects an annual salary well into the six fig-ures, yet presently teaches no classes andhas no on campus office. The office listedfor her in the Wake Forest telephone direc-tory is a storage closet in a building farfrom the main part of campus. Her phonenumber gives an electronic voice mailrecording that announces only the exten-sion number; calls to it are not returned.

The registrar'S office says Angelou is

offering no courses at all this academic year,and isn't sure when she may be in the class-room again. Her personal secretary, whooperates out of Angelou' s mammoth colo-nial mansion in Winston-Salem, unapolo-getically stresses that the poet is "never oncampus," and says she doesn't knowwhether Angelou will be teaching again inthe future. (Imagine the luxury of receivinga salary of well over $100,000 from anemployer who doesn't care whether youshow up for work and has no idea whetheror not you will ever come back.)

In the rare years when Angelou hascondescended to offer a course, her lec-tures have been infrequent and erratic.Angelou herself has said she teaches"whatever comes to mind." Her schedule issometimes interrupted by appearances onsuch television programs as "The ArsenioHall Show" and "The Today Show." Andthere is even some ambiguity about whatAngelou is supposed to teach at WakeForest, for classes with the "AmericanStudies" name or division are non-existent.

Recently, Angelou told me of a class shehas been developing for the past few years

called "The Philosophy of Liberation." Thethesis of the course, she says, is that "mostpeople do not want change-they wantexchange. By that, I mean they just wantwhat their adversary has. If a person wantsfreedom, he just wants that freedom to beable to put his foot on the neck of the personwho gave him his freedom."

When I asked her about her salary inproportion to the time she spends in theclassroom, she replied that those whoraise such questions "don't understandthe politics of a university." Angeloudoes: Wake Forest could hire four realprofessors with the money they're pay-ing her! Students are not even permittedto select her courses. Pursuant to specialauthority granted by the Wake Forestadministration, Angelou's classes are byinvitation only. The registrar informs stu-dents that they must "audition" withProfessor Angelou for the rare openings.

Three decades ago, PresidentKennedy, at his inaugural, treatedAmerica to the genius of Robert

Frost, whose life was one gigantic poeticachievement after another. Where JFKoffered us genius, Clinton gave us a phan-tom professor with a broom-closet officeand an assumed name. More than that, hegave us a clear message that the WhiteHouse has no interest in facing the prob-lems that are destroying our universities.

Meanwhile, Thomas K. Heam, WakeForest's president, had arranged for alarge-screen TV to be placed in the stu-dent center so Angelou's appearance atthe ceremony could be seen on campus.One student remarked that, in fact, thiswas one of the rare times Angelou hadever been seen on campus at all.

-John Meroney(Mr. Meroney is a senior at Wake Forestand editor of the Wake Forest Critic.)

68 March 1993The American Spectator

.....................................................................................

Grits and Glitz

Historians will record that the1993 Clinton inauguration actu-ally began the year before in

early November. Scarcely had the votesbeen counted when lobbyists, pitchmen,political groupies, and Democratic hope-fuls began to flood Washington, D.C.Suddenly the capital's fashionable hotellounges and watering holes werecrammed with overweight, backslapping,pinkie-ringed redneck hustlers fromSouthern and border states and some ofthe more remote backwaters of theMidwest, all with something to buy fromor sell to the incoming administration.

Hard on the heels of the slick-hickbrigade came the bi-coastal limousineliberal set. Film stars, record and studioexecutives, media moguls and WallStreet operators, they all shared twothings in common: conspicuous con-sumption and conspicuous unction, theirminks, diamonds, stretch limos, flauntedriches and appalling manners apparentlyrendered politically correct by their will-ingness to call for more middle-class sac-rifice. Bringing up the rear came the spe-cial interest groups. At least this bunchwas sincere; they had worked hard toelect Bill Clinton and he had bent overbackwards to accommodate their desires.Agree with them or not, they really hadsomething to celebrate.

But there is something sad and ridicu-lous about the milling mobs of shrillultra-feminists, in-your-face gay mili-tants, well-heeled homeless advocates,designer-attired environmentalists, andself-serving ethnic hucksters. As I men-tioned to a lesbian on her way to anunofficial gay inaugural ball being heldin-of all places-the National PressClub, "I'm an Armenian myself, but Idon't think I'd be particularly thrilled tospend an entire inaugural night in a ball-room crammed full of nothing but otherArmenians."

The administration that had boastedof fielding a cabinet that "looked likeAmerica" had produced an inauguralturnout that looked as if it had beenrecruited exclusively from Hollywood,Manhattan, Cambridge, and Dogpatch.The middle had dropped out of Bill

The American Spectator March 1993

Clinton's inaugural America. But thenwhat should we have expected from aPresident who looks like a cross betweenthe young W.e. Fields and a dissipatedversion of the Pillsbury Doughboy, and aVice President so wooden he may be thefirst official in the history of theRepublic to die in office of Dutch ElmDisease?

Minding my own business andheading for a stirrup cup in theFairfax Bar at the Ritz

Carlton-the Vice President's boyhoodhome-I nearly collided with a dumpylittle figure encased in a dark hood andcape. Emerging from the shadows underthe hood was the unmistakable Streisandhonker. Elsewhere in the lobby, LaurenBacall was being rude to someone andWarren Beatty was doing his patheticbest to look intelligent while carrying ona political conversation.

Fortunately, the Dewar's and sodaflowed freely, the music was mellow,and, being on friendly terms with thebeleaguered barmaids, I was givensplendid service and soon was dreamilylooking forward to four years of exuber-ant attack journalism. Between thepudgy First Pol, his contentious consortHurricane Hillary, and the vice-presi-dential First Tree, there should be noend of fun.

Every twelve years or so, I reck-oned, people need to be reminded ofjust how awful Democratic administra-tions can be, and Republicans need asabbatical to shed deadwood, rechargetheir batteries, and draw a fresh bead ontheir old, eternal enemy, Big Brother.As the night of the living white trashturned to dawn, I edged past a carpingmiddle-aged couple who had misplacedtheir stretch limo, spotted a familiarPakistani cab driver-a fellow admirerof the late, great Mohammed AliJinnah-and reached home just as thesun was rising on the first day of BillClinton's decline.

-Aram Bakshian, Jr.(Mr. Bakshian is editor-in-chief ofAmerican Speaker. )

PILGRIM IN THE RUINS(continued from page 63)

forms, including six tightly crafted nov-els and a sophisticated theory of lan-guage elaborated in two books of philo-sophical nonfiction and assorted posthu-mously published lectures-is that thecontemporary, "postrnodern" mishmashof residual Christian ethics and regnantscientific methodology leaves us withouta coherent theory of man. There is noconsensus to animate the culture andgive meaning to life, certainly no con-sensus of the sort Percy uncovered atSaranac:

the belief that man was created in theimage of God with an immortal soul,that he occupied a place in nature some-where between the beasts and theangels, that he suffered an aboriginalcatastrophe, the Fall, in consequence ofwhich he lost his way and, unlike thebeasts, became capable of sin and there-fore became a pilgrim or seeker of hisown salvation ...

At about the time Percy was writing thatspare description of his adopted world-view (1974), he was entering the worstspiritual crisis of his own pilgrimage,one that would culminate in the publica-tion of his fourth novel, Lance/ot (1977),a bitter yet faintly hopeful rant about thereality and presence of evil. Althoughnever precisely autobiographical, Percy'snovels, as Tolson shows, "grew out ofstates of mind-psychological, moral,and spiritual predicaments-throughwhich he himself had passed." AfterLancelot, he referred to himself oblique-ly as "an ex-suicide."

Percy's deeply conservative visionalways got mixed reviews, and he usual-ly had mixed feelings about the manycritics who, as Caroline Gordon hadsaid, "just don't get it"-even if theirobtuseness gave an ironically gratifyingvindication of his theory about the"postrnodern predicament." Nonetheless,by the time he died, at his home inCovington on May 10, 1990 (of the"metastases from prostate carcinoma"that he blandly reported to Shelby Footethe previous year), Walker Percy knewthat his life had been favored with greatgood luck. Except that by then he hadevery reason to call it by a differentname: grace. 0

69

CORRESPONDENCE(continued from page 10)

answer to the question was a matter ofindifference to me.

As for depictions of the fatal shot: allI said is that the museum does not showframe 313 of the Zapruder film. And itdoesn't. The Polaroid and film clip thatMs. Hunt is talking about, which "corre-spond to" and "embrace" the horrificportions of the Zapruder film, are stillnot the Zapruder film; they were takenfrom the other side of Elm Street, on

Mrs. Kennedy's side of the limousine.The essential point, on which I think Ms.Hunt and I agree, is that the exhibit prop-erly avoids any conspicuous display ofgore.

I don't believe I am confused aboutthe motorcade route. I am aware that itwas described in the newspaper onNovember 19, and I never say otherwise.Again, it is not I who say the route waschanged at the last minute: Bob Kintzle,the tour-bus operator, says that. I do callthe route through the Plaza "curious,"even while I'm aware that it is the nor-mal way to access the StemmonsFreeway. I think the hairpin turn proba-bly seems curious to most out-of-townmotorists, regardless of its historicalassociations.

As for the barrier: I have alwaysassumed it was a "permanent divider."But as a resident of midtown Manhattanaccustomed to seeing heaven and earthmoved for frequent presidential visits, Idoubt that the divider's temporaryremoval would have been prohibitive ifpresidential convenience were at stake.

I never state that there was anythingunusually dangerous in deciding to ridepast Dealey Plaza's tall buildings, and Iam of course aware that the earlierblocks on the route contained many tallerones; my point was only that one of thebuildings in the Plaza happened to havean assassin waiting in it, and so, per-force, any decision to drive past it, forwhatever reason, ended up endangeringthe President.

my article, I'm not the person askingwhether Ms. Hunt is related to the H.L.Hunt family; the question is posed byone of the conspiracy-minded "newspa-per" hawkers in Dealey Plaza. I includedit as an index of his paranoia. As Ibelieve the context makes clear, the

Greenpeace: Lost at SeaPlutonium ship reaches destination

Akatsuiki Maru arrives in Japan from France with 1.7 tons of plutoniumfor fast-breeder reactors.

Source: Greenpeace APMlm. J. Castello

Doing Something RightI have greatly appreciated The AmericanSpectator over the years, but never morethan the last year when you published thedesperately needed articles about AnitaHiIl, Magic Johnson, and HillaryClinton. I realize the Dominent MediaElites' curious aversion to exploring thehistories of these people left the fieldwide open to your investigations. I con-clude the partisan agenda of the majormedia will continually require their vol-untary neglect of all sorts of choice infor-mation. What an entrepreneurial opportu-nity!

The approaching BilIary Clintonadministration is always a grim thoughtthese winter evenings, until I recall thatthe Spectator is in Washington, D.C.

=Susan LoeffelHastings, Nebraska

The Times\San Mateo, California, Tuesday, January 5,1993

ROUTE Of lHEPlUTOHIUMSHIPMENT

ASSOCIA TED PRESS GRAPHIC

San Francisco ChronicleTuesday, January 5,1993

(Special thanks to Stan Langland of Belmont, California.)

70 The American Spectator March 1993

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April 28, 1993 TRIAD styleC over S tor

WAKE FOREST PROFESSOR AND POET MAYAANGELOU

utionor, Who f Vi

nd Nobody Come?. or

HowWake Forest student John Heroneytackled a poet and earned his 15

minutes of fame, and whyvirtuallyno oneat

WakeForest

seems to care. WAKE FORESTPRESIDENT

THOMAS HEARN

STUDENT 'CRITI)C'i.EDITOR JOHNMERONEY .f

Story by Edward Cone

9

MAYAGATE'S WAKEJohn Meroney leans forward over his uneaten pizza and speaks

with the cocksure intensity of an undergraduate who has discov-ered The Truth. "Papers like ours are the last, best hope of higher

education in this country," he says, modestly describing his role in thegrim twilight struggle against radicalism and political correctness.If the other students gathered for lunch in

Wake Forest's Benson Center are worriedabout much beyond Rodney Rogers' careerdecisions and maybe some upcomingexams, they do a good job of hiding it. ForJohn Meroney, though, nothing less thanWestern Culture is under siege, and he'snot about to sit still for that. Particularlywhen one of the chief antagonists to whathe calls "the natural order of things" is liv-ing large on the university payroll.Meroney is the editor of a conservative

journal called The Wake Forest Critic. At leastthat's what it's called today. If the universi-ty administration has its way, the student-run publication will have to change itsname. Lawyers for the school are pressingthe Critic to stop using the university sealand to drop or de-emphasize the words"Wake Forest" in its title.Meroney and his backers, including sev-

eral prominent newspaper editorialistsaround the state and the nation, say this iscensorship. They charge that Wake Forestpresident Thomas K. Hearn Jr. is just miffedbecause Meroney has gained nationalattention with his attacks on MayaAngelou, the Wake Forest professor per-haps best known for reading her poem,"On the Pulse of Morning," at PresidentClinton's inauguration.Not that Meroney had made many

friends in the administration during hisyears at Wake Forest and at the Critic. "Peo-ple can say we are going after blacks, orwomen, or gays," he says. "But the fact ofthe matter is that our Number 1 target isand has been a White Anglo-Saxon Protes-tant by the name of Thomas Hearn."Hearn says that Meroney and his pals at

the Critic are free to say what they want in"the marketplace of ideas that is a liberalarts university." Using the Wake Forest sealon the cover of a publication unaffiliatedwith the university, especially a publicationprone to stunts like printing an ideological-ly charged listing of "best and worst" pro-fessors for incoming freshmen, though, hasgot to be a no-no."We have to protect ourselves from pe0-

ple who want to use the name and the logowithout our permission," says Hearn. "Inthis area of the law, you lose your right tocontest such usage if you don't contest it atall times."Hearn says that the Critic is welcome to

become a registered publication at the uni-versity, like The Old Gold & Black, Wake'sofficial student paper. "But then they'dhave to hold themselves to standards ofaccuracy that I'm not sure they're willing toaccept," he adds.How did the president of a university

riding an unprecedented wave of favorablenational press get sucked into a slingingmatch with a young man whose previousclaim to fame was an impassioned plea for-

more reruns of The Andy Griffith Show?Hearn would prefer to let the whole thingdie a quiet death. Meroney would like tobuild a career on it. And most of the peopleat Wake Forest don't seem to care much oneway or the other.

All of the sound and fury generatedby John Meroney in his career atthe Critic - from his constant

bashing of the women's studies departmentto the critiques of affirmative action and theinfamous "Ten Best and Worst" list - wasjust an overture to the cacophony he creat-ed with the story he calls "Mayagate."In an article titled "The Real Maya

Angelou," which ran in the March 1993issue of the pit-bull conservative magazineThe American Spectator and subsequently inThe Wake Forest Critic, Meroney usesAngelou as a metaphor for "our current cri-sis in higher education":

She has no meaningful responsibilitiesat the university. She collects an annu-al salary well into the six figures, yetpresently teaches no classes and has noon campus (sic) office. The office listedfor her in the Wake Forest telephonedirectory is a storage closet in a build-ing far from the main part of campus.

Also, as he takes pains to remind aninterviewer, "She celebrates the fact thatshe was a madam and a prostitute, and anadviser to Malcolm X." (When asked if thislast part is necessarily bad, Meroneyresponds, "What if we had a professor whowas an adviser to David Duke?")Shortly after the story appeared in the

Critic, the paper received a letter from Dow-ell & Dowell, the Virginia law firm that rep-resents Wake Forest. The universitydemanded that the paper cease any activi-ties, such as use of the school seal andname, that could lead people to believe thetwo institutions have any kind of formalrelationship. Newspapers from Charlotte toDetroit decided it was a First Amendmentissue, and chastised Hearn for his heavy-handed treatment of the free press.By then the contest between allies of

Meroney and Angelou had degeneratedinto the kind of does-not, does-too argu-ment most often associated with 8-year-olds on long car trips. John Gates, the editorof the Winston-Salem Journal's editorialpage, took Meroney to task in an opinioncolumn, noting among other things thatAngelou's supposedly remote office was ina major campus building. A Meroney sup-porter responded in the same paper that hisoffice is in the same building, and he has towalk "a country mile" to get to his class-room.(For the record, the tired professor must

have grown up ina small country; Wingate

Hall, where both offices are located, isabout two-tenths of a mile from the mythi-cal center of campus, as measured by thesemiofficial TRIADstyle 1987Mercury Sableodometer.)It is true that Angelou is employed by

Wake Forest at least in part for her celebritystatus. That a university would employ awell-known scholar or artist more for herreflected glory than her performance as aclassroom workhorse, especially in anendowed chair of the type Angelou holds,should come as no surprise to anyonefamiliar with the academic scene in theUnited States.Yes,Angelou keeps the schedule of a Per-

sonality, not a professor. And yes, she is onleave this semester, and neither of her off-campus secretaries could produce her foran interview. But this reporter had no trou-ble finding students who had been touchedand taught by Angelou. Much less com-mon, in our random poll, were studentswho professed any great loyalty to or inter-est in the Critic."I've heard her speak three times," Ann

Moyer, a sophomore history major, says ofAngelou. "And it has always meant some-thing to me. I'm glad she's here."Still, why pay someone to teach such a

small course-load? Sandra Boyette, aspokesperson for the university, said,''Through her public speaking and high vis-ibility - and she is always identified as aprofessor at Wake Forest - she attracts stu-dents and faculty who wouldn't otherwisebe here, and brings in speakers of interna-tional caliber like Coretta Scott King."Adds Hearn, ''The same principle applies

to a research professor - this gives them aplace to do what they do."Even Meroney admits that he chose to

attack Angeloti because of her status, aswell as her politics. "I picked MayaAngelou because she was Bill Clinton'spoet," he says blithely. Still, he says that herlight course-load and unorthodox back-ground make her unfit to teach at theschool. ''The university has some explain-ing to do to the people who pay the bills,"he says.

Like many of his criticisms of WakeForest and the Hearn administration,Meroney's allegations against

Angelou seem to have less to do with aca-demics than partisan argument. When hecomplains that the university is overpriced

yet still strapped for cash, he ignores thefact that it is one of the cheapest privateschools of its class, and among the bestendowed financially. When he rails againstits "trendy" curriculum, he is focusing on ahandful of classes and turning a blind eyeto the school's tradition-heavy core require-ments. The conservative Common-SenseGuide to American Colleges, which Meroneyhimself recommends, describes the WakeForest curriculum as "old-fashioned."Meroney responds that Wake Forest pro-fessors are prone to interrupting lectures onShakespeare with reminders on how poorlythe 17th century treated its women andminorities.Perhaps it is this habit of exaggeration

and tendentiousness that accounts for thelimited attention Meroney garners at Wake,which he admits is one of "the more moder-ate" schools in the country.So why is he kicking up such a fuss? To

understand Meroney, you have to under-stand the philosophy behind him. Meroneyand Co. like to say that it's politics, notscholarship, that motivates their PC opposi-tion. They may even be right in some cases.But in this game, it takes one to know one.Take a look at these ideologues posing asinnocents, and their agenda becomes a bitclearer.The Wake Forest Critic began life as a spin-

off of the Carolina Critic, a conservative, newspaper published at the University ofNorth Carolina. Duke and N.C State havealternative papers of the same ilk. Aroundthe country, some 70 conservative journalshave sprung up on college campuses sincethe dawn of the Reagan era.Funding and support for these publica-

tions, including the Critic, comes in largepart from an organization in Washington,D.C, called the Madison Center for Educa-tional Affairs. The Madison Center was cre-ated in 1990 from the merger of groupsfounded by such right-wing icons as Rea-gan Education Secretary Bill Bennett, for-mer Treasury boss William Simon, neocon-servative don Irving Kristol, and AllanBloom, author of The Closing of the AmericanMind, a sky-is-falling primer for foes ofchange in university curricula.(Critic Robert Hughes, no fount of liberal

dogma himself, writes in his new book, Cul-ture of Complaint, ''The choir of conserva-tives denouncing 'well-subsidized/left aca-demics' as bludgers, whilst taking theirown subsidies from various right-wing

'CRITIC' EDITORS JOHN MERONEY AND JASON CONLEY

April 28, 1993 , IRIADStyle 11

'_ C 0 V e r S tor

•

foundations, is truly one of the wonders ofAmerican intellectual life.")The prototype for conservative campus

papers is the Dartmouth Review, a journalmade famous by staffer Ben Hart, whowrote about the liberal claptrap he enduredas an Ivy League undergraduate in the 1984book, Poisoned Ivy. Hart's Review colleaguesGregory Fossedal and Dinesh D'Souzahave gone on to successful careers in theclubby world of conservative think-tanksand journalism, and Hart got to enjoy amoment in the literary limelight.Providing inspiration, and some seed

money, for these intrepid lib-bashers wasnone other than William F. Buckley [r., whoburst onto the national scene by writingabout the liberal claptrap he endured as anIvy League undergraduate in the 1951bookGod and Man at Yale. Buckley, of course,went on to fame as the man who shepherd-ed American conservatism from its years inthe desert into the Promised Land of theReagan ascension, pausing only to writebooks about his seasons at sea and inSwitzerland, and to enlist Magnum, P.I. todo TV commercials for his National Reviewmagazine.Meroney, a short, bespectacled fellow

with close-cropped hair and an intelligent,likable air, seems intent on following themodel established by these latter-dayFounding Fathers. He is obviously enjoyingthe notoriety that has come from theAngelou article, and subsequent mentionsin National Review and Insight.The senior from the Davie County town

of Advance broke into the publishing busi-ness as a teen-ager with something calledThe Mayberry Gazette, a journal devoted tokeeping the flame of Barney, Goober, Andyand Aunt Bee burning brightly in thebosom of American youth.Since folding that noble endeavor,

Meroney has assiduously plugged himselfinto the conservative network, working as aspeechwriter for Ronald Reagan (after he

retired) and gaining a national forum forhis Angelou-bashing in The American Spec-tator. Next year Meroney will go to South-ern California, where he has a fellowship atthe Claremont Institute, a conservativethink-tank, and will write about the virtuesof papers like the one he now runs.

The conservative campus press existsto counter what it considers thedominant liberal ethos in The

Academy. This is done by exposing thepolitically correct pieties of the opposition,not an objectionable sport in and of itself.Unfortunately, when practiced by 19-

year-old boys it can tum ugly in a hurry.Alternative papers from the DartmouthReview on down have been accused ofracism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and otherbad-isms too numerous to catalogue, fortheir ham-handed versions of rapier intel-lect and satire.Much of the writing in the Critic starts

with the conceit that its authors are some-what smarter and more cultured than theirpeers, who are after all being led like sheepby the nefarious administration and bomb-throwing faculty. The tone varies from con-descending to waggish, and is always self-consciously virile, a frat house version ofthe kind of thing George Will does sounconvincingly when he writes about base-ball. No sprinkling of Latin bon mots andaphorisms from Winston Churchill canremedy that.In person, Meroney's delivery is earnest

and declamatory. Get him going on hisfavorite subjects, and he's hard to slowdown. Scratch the surface, and you discov-er the kind of Movement Republican whocreated the boom market in Adam Smithneckties and supported Jack Kemp.Meroney even has Ronald Reagan's "shin-ing city on a hill" speech playing in thebackground of his answering-machinemessage.But Meroney isn't just concerned with

the economy, stupid.He's a full-blooded cul-ture warrior, fightingthe fight of PatBuchanan and Bill Ben-nett.''Political correctness

and multiculturalismare opposed to naturallaw, to the laws ofnature and nature'sGod," says Meroney,still ignoring his pizza."It's inherently flawed.We are fighting a phi-losophy that wants tooverturn Western Cul-ture."Meroney claims that

the Academy has beenbody-snatched by ageneration of radicalswho want to destroythe things that madeAmerica great. "Theysaw the '80s as a decadeof greed," he says of hisprofessors. "The factsshow us clearly theywere not. We hearspeeches on how theevils of the world comefrom racism, sexism,

WAKEPROFESSORDAVID BROYlES

_ _'

'Political correctness and multiculturalismare opposed to natural law, to';'the'laws

, •.".,. ._,. 1<';'; • :< '""""""",",,,,,, • :::,: ~ 'ffi_~.-.-,. ,_" __ ,,,,_~,~~...c,

of nature and natures God.- " - ,-

It's inherently flawed. 'homophobia. They require sensitivity train-ing. Coeds must subject themselves to lec-tures from feminists who tell them they'llbe discriminated against, that one in four ofthem will be raped."Worst of all, perhaps, is the advent of a

course in Gay and Lesbian Literature.''What is it that we're teaching?" Meroneyasks. "We're celebrating the idea that thislifestyle has been a perversion, and now it's'not? They are teaching error. It violatesmorality."

Much of the rhetoric put forth byMeroney and his paper comesstraight from his mentor at Wake

Forest, professor David Broyles. Echoes ofthe older man's thought sound through hisprotege's mouth and in his written words.A couple of years back the Critic acknowl-edged its intellectual debt to Broyles (andits literary debt to Sir Walter Scott) by run-ning a photograph of Broyles in beatificpose on its cover, accompanied by a head-line reading, "He is vilified by the facul-ty ...He is venerated by the students."Pleasant and soft-spoken, Broyles is

unabashed in his strong beliefs. A signedphotograph of Ronald Reagan decorates hisbook-jammed office. He mentions withoutprompting that he was "fired" as the chair-man of the North Carolina Civil RightsCommission, explaining, ''Reagan caved into Bush, who caved in to the civil rightsextremists."The son of a Methodist minister, Broyles,

63, grew up in Florida. After graduatingfrom the University of Chicago, he servedin the Army and logged 10 years withHughes Aircraft before earning his Ph.D. inpolitical science from U.CL.A. He arrived •at Wake Forest in 1966. "It was a teachingcollege with some good students," herecalls. "Some people called it the best highschool in the state, and they weren't too faroff."Looking back on the progress of the uni-

versity in his almost 30 years there, Broylesis gloomy. "It's all been downhill - Ihaven't seen anything good done since I gothere."He is harsh in his criticism of Hearn. Of

all the bad things that have happened toWake Forest, none is worse than ThomasHearn, according to Broyles. He evenimplies that the university president is inthe business at least in part for materialgain, a fairly rare motive among academics.'1 think Hearn has taken Wake Forest for aride," says Broyles. "He lives very well."(Broyles dares go where even the Critic

fears to tread, attacking big-time athletics.'1t's very damaging, he says. ''The playersare very poor scholars." Upon reflection, heamends this last statement by noting thatthe tennis players and golfers have actuallydone quite well.)One of Broyles' most strongly held tenets

is that education at Wake Forest, and at

,

~ john Meronf1,American universities in general, deterio-rated as God was taken out of the curricu-lum. Acknowledging the conflict betweenold-time religion and newfangled notionsof academic freedom and personal libertythat marked Wake's history until its separa-tion from the North Carolina Baptist Con-vention six and a half years ago - the criesfor the head of president William LouisPoteat when he argued for the teaching ofevolution in the era of the Scopes trial, therule against dancing on campus that sur-vived into the '60s - Broyles still thinksthings are worse now.''The Baptist Convention might not be

my first choice," he says, ''but they'd cer-tainly be better than the present administra-tion."Broyles lists among his goals for an aca-

demic revival the requirement of courses inreligion. "And not comparative religion,either, taught without any effort to say onereligion is better than the others," he says.''That leaves you no basis to objectivelyrank religions. We should teach rigorouslythe doctrines of Christianity." He quotesapprovingly a colleague who says that Bud-dhists hold their beliefs because they can-not take "the rigors of Christianity."He fully supports the Critic in its battIe

against Angelou, whom he says he has notmet. ''Even if she was here full time," hesays, '1 think that she represents the wrongapproach to learning and teaching - thatknowledge can't be absolute and true."Broyles and his acolytes want no part of

competing in "a marketplace of ideas" -they want a monopoly. If you find hisbeliefs compelling, and see an importantplace for them in intellectual life, well, hewants no part of that. He demands every-thing. ''We're not one of the camps," hesays. ''We believe m an objective standard.That's part of the tradition that we,want tosurvive."Even if their antagonists reveal them-

selves to be more concerned with expand-ing the canon than in trashing it - arguingnot against the commonality of humanexperience, but for a broader view of whatthat experience has been and continues tobe - it's not good enough.Can the Critic survive the graduation of

Meroney, its co-founder and editor for thethree last years? Meroney says yes. "We'reriding a groundswell of support fromMayagate," he says.But one issue does not a revolution make.

One professor, no matter how well com-pensated or infrequently sighted, won'thold people's attention forever. And withno successor of comparable energy anddrive yet visible to succeed Meroney, theCritic's 15 minutes of fame may be drawingtoaclose.

Edward Cone, a free-lancer based in Greens-boro, has written for Forbes, Mirabella, Pillyboyand other national publia¥icms.

,TRIADstyle·12

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Pre vie w s Pre vie w s

Festival will raise moneyfor CD of Winston bands

N.C. Music Showcasebrings labels to bands

Let's see: The newset from Greens-boro's D-ToxRecords, PyloricWaves, is the latestcompilation ofNorth Carolinabands. Crisis Discs'Starter CD immedi-ately preceded it,even if it's notdevoted exclusivelyto North Carolinaacts. The N.C.-onlySelf-Recognition fol-lowed MammothRecords' frequeNCy

collection by about a year. I could startlisting the three or four compilations ofNorth Carolina bands released during themid-to-late '80s, but I think you get thepoint. Releasing a various-artists compila-tion of North Carolina bands is hardly anew idea.So why try a new one? Why attempt

one more trek down a well-traveled path

rThe Winston ...Salem Music" -

j" .. •.. 'W *.

\ Festival-will take /!lace at"'"..··w,:.:,· ,.,.

ZiggysMay 1. Itwill.feature Winston-Salem

~, -,

bands divided between anearly-evening all-ages show..and d later setfor the legals.

when your predecessors left no definitesigns of progress? How do you keep yourcompilation from being just one more CDthat fades into obscurity shortly afterrelease?"That's a tough question," says Seth

Khan. "And it's one I don't have ananswer for." Then again, Khan, an orga-nizer of the Winston-Salem Music Festivalat Ziggy's Saturday night, doesn't neces-sarily think he has to have an answer.After all, the show will be its own reward,signaling the clear arrival of the local rockscene. Although the final lineup wasn't setat press time, the festival will feature localstalwarts Two Pound Planet, the Gather-ing, and Speck, along with several otherbands divided between an early-eveningall-ages show and a later set for the legals.ItWillgive local fans who've been mean-ing to check out a particular band achance to do that and get several others inthe bargain.The festival will raise money for a

record of Winston-Salem bands that isintended for release this summer. "Basi-4!ally.thereason it's gonna happen is that

we're gonna take all the money and makea compilation CD," Khan says. "It willinclude all the Winston bands we thinkpeople need to hear. This is somethingthat we'd bounced around among a lot ofus for about a year.""We" includes several people in the

Winston-Salem scene, in which Khan hasplayed several roles. He used to managethe now-defunct thrash band Soda Can,and he played in a group called ThreeChicks and a Jew, since renamedSquatweiler and scheduled for inclusionin the festival. Lately he's been doingoccasional publicity work for rock showsat Ziggy's, including the Winston-SalemMusic Festival. "An outsider called andsaid, 'Hey, we need to do this,'" Khansays. "1 think that was the real catalyst,that it came from somebody outside thegroup."The outsider was Randy Johnson, who

plays in Speck. He's been instrumental inorganizing the festival and planned com-pilation CD, along with Jason Buss of TwoPound Planet and Trill Costner ofSquatweiler. "There are a lot of people intown in the right age group who wouldlove these bands, but they just haven'tseen them," Khan says. ''They just needsome catalyst. That was the original thrustof it."Then came the idea for the CD. It may

end up being just one more compilation,but the recent flurry of attention thatDetails, Entertainment Weekly and signings(the Veldt, Queen Sarah Saturday, Cry ofLove) focused on the Triangle's musicscene makes it look as though all the com-pilations might be starting to have acumulative effect. The effect of a Winstoncompilation CD might not be felt for sixmonths or six years, but it's a step towardputting a burgeoning scene on the map."As long as we have to live here, we

should make something happen," Khansays. "The other important thing is to tryto show people that 'local' isn't a badword. I was out at a show in Greensboroand heard a couple of people talkingabout Speck and Two Pound Planet. Theysaid, 'Oh, they're just local bands.' Thatgalled me to no end."

As a member of theboard of directorsof the North Caroli-na Music Showcase(NCMS), I am oneof a group of sixpeople assigned theprivilege and taskof sorting throughtaped submissionsfrom around thestate. The idea ofthe showcase is topresent the bestunsigned bands in alive setting torecord-industry

personnel whose job it is to sign bands totheir respective labels. Across the country,there are various regional music showcas-es - the New Music Seminar (in NewYork CitY),,50uth by Southwest (inAustin, Texas) and the New South musicconvention (in Atlanta).. Very few states, however, have theirown annual showcase as an ongoing con-cern, As a measure of its success, three of15bands landed major-label contracts as aresult of last year's NCMS. While a bat-ting average of .200would be on the lowside in baseball, it's astronomical in themusic biz.This year's NCMS will be the fifth. It

will be held in Wilmington on June 4, 5and 6 at the Mad Monk nightclub. Fivebands will play nightly, and there will bea Singer/songwriter showcase at a yetunspecified place and time. The event isopen to the public.Culling the artist roster down to 15 or

20 finalists is no easy task for the commit-tee. The sheer fecundity of the North Car-olina scene is impressive in its numbers.While some might feel that Chapel Hilland its array of alternative bands form thecore of the scene, the truth is that musicalacts have been submitting from every cor-ner of the state, including rural towns I'venever heard of and could not find on themap.This year, as has been the case for the

past few years, the showcase committeereceived in excess of 200 submissions.Every band or individual that did so

accomplished something simply by get-ting that far: they wrote and recordedthree original songs, managed to assemblea biography of themselves, and provedthat they have performed in front of pe0-ple by providing a list of actual gigs. Inthese tough times, with clubs closing allover while more and more people opt tocommune at home with their VCRs, themere act of making music and trying toreach people with it is commendable.In North Carolina, making music

appears to be not a hobby but a compul-sion. While not all the music proffered isof a level warranting national exposure,there's a great deal of competence andspirit amid glimmers of brilliance. Encour-agingly, a Ipt of bands are young andnone seems particularly intent on chasingand cloning the latest trend.And the variety of submissions is

daunting: from power pop to death metal

The North Carolina MusicShowcase will takeplace in

~lmin&1onJune4-~to grunge to free jazz to bar-band rock,this scene has got more flavors that Benand Jerry. From an initial survey of thetapes, based on a marathon listening ses-sion, there appears to be more geographi-cal parity this year, as far as the talentpool is concerned. Charlotte and the Triadare weighing in as heavily as Chapel Hilland the Triangle, it seems to me, which isall to the good.By the time this is published, the NCMS

committee will be close to announcing itsfinal list of entrants. At that point, ourears will be throbbing like civil air-raidsirens and our brains will be stultified bythe job of weighing the comparative mer-its of different acts, all of whom have tal-ent and probably deserve a shot in a moreperfect world. May the best hands win.And if you didn't make the cut, there'salways next year.

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TheaterGalleries

BASEBALL CARO SHOW. SpecialEYents Center, Greensboro Colise-um Complex, G. 373-7400.10 am-4pm. Admission: $1.50. Final day.

GREATER GREENSBORO SENIORGAMES. 373-2283. Activities ongo-ing in Greensboro through the week.ending May 7.

GREEK FESTIVAL. 435 Keating Dr.,off Country Club Rd., Silas CreekPkwy. 765-7145. 11 am-8 pm. fea-turing Greek food. shopping. music,dancing and other cultural attrac-tions. Admission $1. 10% proceedsgo to Brenner Children's Hospital.Final day.

WONDERFUL WORLD OF WOMEN.Four SIIIOIII Town Centre, G. 292-0171. April 29-May 2. Ideas abouteducational opportunities. careerprograms and more. Final day.

3 Mond(]yMus i c

OUTTA THE BAG NOON-TIME CON-CERT. WllI$IOn Square Park, 226 N.Marshall St., WS. 722-2585. 12:15-1 :15 pm. Livengood & ChaplinCountrY Rock. Concerts take placeMon.-Fri. through the end of Sept.Free.

UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY ORCHES-TRA STUDENT CONCERTO CON-CERT. Aycock Aud., UNCG campus.8:15 pm. Free. Robert Gutter, con-ductor. For information, call 334-5789.

tions, call the chapter office at 854-5454.COMEDY ZONE. TIle Exchange Lounge at TIle Hotel Greens-borough, 200 E. Market St., G. 333-1034 or 275-0811; or atthe Sheraton Hotel, University Parkway at Rle. 52, WS.631-6010. Friday and Saturday nights; two shows, 8:30 and10:30 pm. All seals $7; get there early for a stage-fronl seat.Greensboro: Real John King, Ray Thomas & Jonh James.Winston-Salem: Bill Tucker & J. Scott Homan.

GREATER GREENS80RO SENIOR GAMES. 373-2283. Activi-ties ongoing in Greensboro through the week, ending May 7.

GREEK FESTIVAL. 435 Keallng Dr., off Country Club R~_,Silas Creek Pkwy. 765-7145_ 10 am-l0 pm. Featuring Greekfood, shopping, music, dancing and other cultural attrac-tions. Admission $1. Partial proceeds go to Brenner Chil-dren's Hospital. Runs through May 2.

HOME I GARDEN TOUR: GREENSBORO IN FULL BLOOM. 10am-4 pm. Featuring five different homes and two gardens.Benefits local educational and beautification projects. Tickets:$8 advance, $10 at the door. For tickets call 647-6394. Lun-cheon and fashion show (by Gin-Ettes) from 11:30-2 for $6;at the Greek Orthodox Church. 800 Westridge Rd .• G. Forfashion info call 855-1352.

HOUSE .. GARDEN TOUR OF WINSTON-SALEM. 722-5640.10 am-4 pm. Tickets: $8 advanced. $10 at the door, $3 onehouse. lunch available: $7.50. April 28. 7:30 pm. lecture bynoted garden writer and author. Sandra Ladendorf, WakeForest U. Scales Fine Arts Center. Admission: $10. Final day.

HOUSE PARTY BENEFIT. The Trim Shop Warehouse, S.Church I E. Market, G. 855-5851. 11 pm until the fun stops.Refreshments will be sold; BYOB. Portion of the proceedswill help people living with AIDS. Two DJs will be present. $8before 12:30 am. $9 afterwards. A Badboy production.

LAW DAY FORUM. East Winslon Branch Library, 1110 E.Sevanth St., WS. 10 am-2 pm. Sponsored by the Winston-Salem Bar Association. Panel discussions on the topics ofcriminal law and consumer law. Members of the Bar Associ-ation will answer general questions.

NEW GARDEN FRIENDS SCHOOL YARD SALE. New GardenFrlendl Meeting, comer of Friendly Ave. I Guillord Col-lege Rd. 8 am-2 pm. Many items for sale. including bakedgoods.

WONDERFUL WORLD OF WOMEN. Four SeasoOl Town Cen-tre, G. 292-0171. April 29-May 2. Ideas about educationalopportunities, career programs and more. Ends May 2.

2 Sund(]y Miscellaneous

Theater GREATER GREENSBORO SENIOR GAMES. 373-2283. Activi-ties ongoing in Greensboro through the week. ending May 7.

HELPING YOUR CHILD COPE WITH DIVORCE. IrelandHouse, 602 W. Frlendty Ave., G. 7-9:30 pm. Social Out-reach and Renewal, (S.O.A.R.) workshop for parents.$10.

DON'T BOTHER ME, I CAN'T COPE. Arts Council TIIeatre, 610Coliseum Dr., WS. 725-1711. 8 pm. Presented by the NorthCarolina Black RepertorY Company. this spiritually upliftingmusical has a theme of hope and songs that reveal preciousBlack American historY. A journey through daily traumas tothe vibrations of faith, with sky-reaching Gospel tunes. Tick-ets: $15, $10 students & seniors. Final showing.

LETTICE AND LOVAGE. Augsburg Community Center, Broadand 6th SIs., WS. 725-7181. 2 pm. Comedy following thefriendship of a British tour guide. who gives her lecturesextra theatricality and romance, and a woman who is notimpressed by her "historY lesson." They awaken people tothe dreariness of their mediocre modem lives. Tickets: $10adults, $8 students & seniors. Today only: English tea atMichael's restaurant after the play; combination tickets $20.or $18 students & seniors (call ahead!). Through May 8.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Taylor Bldg., UNCG campus. 334-5546. 2 pm. Tickets: $8, $7 seniors. $3 UNCG students.UNCG Theatre production. Runs through May 2.

SESAME STREET LIVE: LET'S PLAY SCHOOL. GreensboroWar Memorial Aud., G. 373-7400. 2 pm. The Sesame Streetgang will share a school day with children. The show keepsthe entertainment and educational traditions of the 1V series.Tickets $10 and $9; children 2-12 get $1.50 off. Final show.

YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN. TIle CommunityTheatre of Greensboro, 200 N. DlYie St., G. 333-SHOW. 2pm. Tickets available through the Community Theatre ofGreensboro Box Office. Tickets: $5. Group rates available.Seating limited. reservations recommended. Final show.

4 Tuesd(]yTheater

HAMLET. Paul Green Theatre, Country Club Rd., UNC-Chapel Hili. 962-7529. Community Night: 8 pm. Shake-speare play presented by PlayMakers Repertory Company.A powerful tale of murder, love and revenge. Tickets: $8.Through May 16.

Mus i c

OUTTA THE BAG NOON-TIME CONCERT. Winston SquarePark, 226 N. Marshall St., WS. 722-2585. 12:15-1:15 pm.Zeke Saunders Bluegrass. Concerts take place Mon.-Fri.through the end of Sept. Free. Sponsored by the Arts Coun-cii of WS/FC and the City of Winston-Salem.

WINSTON-SALEM PIEDMONT TRIAD SYMPHONY. StevensCenter, 405 W. Fourth St., WS. WS. 725-1035. 8 pm. Thisfinal program in the Classical Series will Include Beethoven'sConcerto No. 3 in C minor for Piano & Orchestra and thepopular Symphony NO.9. Tickets: $11-$18. Final night.Mus i cMiscellaneousWINSTON-SALEM PIEDMONT TRIAD SYMPHONY. Stevens

CenIIr, 405 W. Fourth St., WS. WS. 725-1035. 8 pm. Thisfinal program in the Classical Series will include Beethoven'sConcerto No. 3 in C minor for Piano & Orchestra and the

GREATER GREENSBORO SENIOR GAMES. 373-2283. Activi-ties ongoing in Greensboro through the week, ending May 7.

..

ABUNDANCE. BuslnlSI CI,.ers Auditorium, GTCCJameltown Cempus. 334-4822 (ed. 2310). May 5-8, 12-15. 8 pm. Presented by the GTCC Theatre. This two-actBeth Henley play is about two mail-order brides whoattempt to conquer the American West. Tickets: $9, $7seniors and GTCCemployees, $4 students.

THE BAKKHAI. Proscenium Thrult Performlnce Place,North Carolina School of thl Artl, 200 Waughtown St.,WS. 770-3342. May 6-8.13-15; 8 pm, May 9; 2 pm. Tick-ets: $7. $5 students & seniors.

MAN OF LA MANCHA. TIIaatre Charlo"e, 501 Queens Rd.,Charlo"e. 704-376-3m. May 6-8, 13-15, 20-22, 27-30.8:15 pm. Tickets: $10-$15.

FOLLIES. Cerollna Theltre, 310 S. Greene St., G. 333-2600.May 7-9,14-16 at 8 pm; May 9 & 16 at 3 pm. Presented bythe Community Theatre of Greensboro. featuring greatmusical tunes. The setting is a showgirl reunion. Tickets:$10. $9 students and seniors, $5 children 12 and under.Group rates available. May 7, ·Standing Ovation," openingnight cocktail party, silent auction,dessert and raffle. Tick-ets: $25. $35 non-season ticket holders. Call for reserva-tions. May 9, 3 pm: Mother's Day Treat. With the purchaseof one regular admission. your Senior Mom will see theshow free.

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. High Point TIIealre. May 13-15,17:8 pm; 3 pm, 17th, Tennessee Williams' play presentedby the High Point Community Theatre. For ticket informa-tion, call 882-2542.

CATS. War Mlmorlll A"ltorllm, Greensboro ColiseumCompllx, G. 373-7474. May 18-20. Tickets on sale nowthrough TIcketmaster at 852-1101 or at the box office on S.Chapman St. TICket prices range form $26.50-$35.50.

ROBIN HOOD. S1IvIns Center, 405 W. Fourth St., WS. May19 at 7 pm. Musical presented by the N.C. School of theArts. For Information, call 721-1945.

Mus i c

TICKETMASTER TICKm NOW ON SALE: 919-B52-1100.May 1: Bryan Adami, Paladium at Carowinds, Charlotte.May 1: George Jonn, Charlotte Coliseum. Charlotte. May7: Paul McCar1nay, Williams-Brice Stadium. Columbia SC.May 7: Elton John, Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill. May13: Clint Bllck/Wynonnl, WVM Coliseum WS. May 29:Sting, Paladium at Carowinds, Charlotte. May 29: BeachBlast, Fayetteville Street Mall, Raleigh. July 13-18: PeterPan, Raleigh Memorial Aud., Raleigh. Sept. 21-26: Evlta,Raleigh Memorial Aud .• Raleigh. Nov. 2-7: Grand HOtll,Raleigh Memorial Aud .• Raleigh.

WALNUT CREEK AMPHITHEATRE CONCERTS. 3801 RockQuarry Rd., Raleigh. May 1: LoYln' Feelings II (starring:Spinners. Three Dog Night. Mamas & Papas, GarY Puckett& BJ Thomas.) May 2: Bryan Adams. May15: HlnkWilliams, Jr. May 23: Lynyrd Skynyrd. May 28-31: RibCook-Off I MUSic FIstlval. June 8: Lyle Loveff Ind HIILarge Bind. Tickets: $18.75-$26.75. June 18. 8 pm:Moody Blue. with Symphony Orchestra. June 19. 6 pm:Spin Doctors, Soul Asylum I Scre.mlng Trees. July 21:Van Hllen with VinCI Nell. Tickets: $19.75-$28.75. Call forlisting of entertainment for those days. Tickets: $5. Ticketsavailable through Ticketmaster at 919-834-4000.

BLOCKBUSTER PAVILION CONCERTS. 707 BlockbullerBlvd., Charlotte. 704-549-5555. May 23, 7:30 pm: DwightYoakam wllh Sazy BogIUS. June 4, 8 pm. Dolly Parton.Lawn tickets are $5 with discount 2 for one coupons avail-able from Blockbuster Video Stores, redeemable at Ticket-master outlets. June 11-13: Chlrlotte Folk MUlic SocietyFesIIYII. July 20, 8 pm. Van Halen - Right Here RightNow. Tickets: Reserved seats. $25; lawn, $20. Aug. 14:Lynyrd Skynyrd. Tickets: $14-$10. Tickets available throughTicketmaster or by phone at 919·852-1100. Charge byphone: Charlotte: 704-522-6500, Greensboro: 852-1100and Raleigh: 834-4000.

GREENSBORO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SEASON FINALE:BEETHOVEN. War Memorial Auditorium, G. 333-7490.May 8 & 10, 8:15 pm. Guest musician is 22 yr. old Sovietviolinist Vadim Repin. Tickets: $10. $16, $18. & $24.

NORTH CAROLINA SYMPHONY •• May 6 & 7.8 pm: Classi-cal Concert. Free pre;:oncert lecture in lower level-Memo-rial Aud. at 7 pm. Raleigh Memorial Aud .• Raleigh. Tickets:$18-$25. 919-831-6060 or 1-800-292-7469. Tickets at thedoor subject to availability .• May 14 & 15, 8 pm: PopsConcert. Tickets: Tickets: $18-$26, 919-831-6060 or 1-800-292-7469. Tickets at the door subjecl to availability.

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY SINGERS. Wake Forest Uni-versity, Wilt Chapel, WS. m-0076. May 7. 8 pm. Thisperformance will benefit the Enrichment Center. Tickets: $3.CaUfor advanced tickets and info.

NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS. 200 WaughlownSt., WS. 770-3342. May 8, 8 pm. Crawford Hall. "The LocalTurf: Music by North Carolina Composers American MusicFestival." Tickets: $7, $5 students & seniors .• May 13-15;8 pm, 16; 2 pm. Stevens Center. NCSA Spring Dance. TheWorld Premiere of "The Scarlet Letter," ·Paquita: &·Changing Steps." Tickets: $10, $8 sludents & seniors.

.... ....~ .., ."

fe/ore criticizing 'Critic'I how about checkingto see whether it's right?I

~ACINGFACTS

David BroylesCOLUMNIST

ohn Gates, the editorial page editor, does adisservice to journalism and also to truthwhen he attacks John Meroney, a Wake

student and the editor of The WakeCritic, as he did in his March 21 column.

M~roneyhas his facts straight when he criticizesProfessor Maya Angelou's influence on WakeForest education. Gates doesn't.$peaking of facts, Meroney's article for The

A~can Spectator magazine, reprinted in theOriuc and on op-ed pages across the nation,describes Angelou's so-called office as a "stor-age closet." Gates says, repeating the languageof 'a form letter put out by the Wake Forestadminlstratlon's public-affairs department, thatit's a "campus office."Meroney's description is, in fact, the accurate

one. The place that the administration says isAngelou's office is in a building far from themain part of campus - I know, because myoffice is in the same building and I have to walk acountry mile to get to my classroom. What theadministration calls Angelou's office is an ob-scure, tiny room that serves as a storage placefor books (and probably after all the publicityhas a few potted plants placed in it, too). Ac-cording to Angelou's secretary, it never housesa professor.But never mind mentioning other facts. Gates

is SUre that Meroney's views are listened to"because Angelou is who she is" and not be-cause "Meroney has uncovered any scandal."Gates goes on to muse about what he callsMeroney's "warped" facts and what they mightbe covering up. Darkly, Gates suggests that"Angelou is black, and some people believe thatthere is.more than coincidence at work in ...Meroney's choice of targets." So much for innu-endo and calumny - and who would havethought of such a thing! Who's the racist, Mer-oney or Gates?What it amounts to is this: Gates is sure that

Angelou is like all other professors, except for afew little characteristics not worth mentioning.Well, I've been a professor at Wake Forest forover a quarter-century, and I can say she's notanything like the others. Most professors havenever had the privilege, like Angelou, of havingsemesters that last for two weeks and thencaJ4ng it quits. Most professors have never beenable, likeAngelou, to have students audition forthem. Andmost professors wouldn't be satisfiedto teach, the way Angelou has said she teaches,"whatever comes to mind."Gates is sure Meroney is motivated to attack

Angelou because of racism or some other self-serving purpose. But it makes no difference toGates that Angelou's autobiographies celebrate

DAVID BROYLES: "Facts seem to make no difference."

her careers as prostitute, madam and stripperand that she's paid over $100,000 a year by theadministration. Did someone say somethingabout "role models"? It makes no differencethat Angelou has no academic degrees from anycollege or university, yet is referred to as "doc-tor." What makes little impression on Gates is,however, what's at the heart of education. Ange-lou's peculiar stories about overcoming difficul-ties in a racist society are glorified by the admin-istration because they set the pattern for what is"politically correct" education. That pattern isdisastrous.The administration wants to use Angelou not

as a representative of the real grievances ofminorities but as a vehicle for establishing apolitically correct liberal-arts curriculum. WakeForest's president, Thomas K. Hearn Jr., elabo-rates his understanding of this teaching in hismany speeches on education. After returningfrom an excursion to Vienna, Hearn told fresh-men that Wake Forest is "Vienna in all butname." Vienna has changed, though, saidHearn. What it now tells us is that educationowes no indebtedness to our priceless and irre-placeable Western heritage. Rather, we must"peel away the layers" of that heritage to reveala "human truth" beneath it, that truth being aFreudian thicket of savage drives.The impact of such thinking on the Wake

Forest curriculum was predictable - and sad-dening: Traditional teachings have been placedunder the ban of official disgrace, replaced in-creasingly by a mad abandonment to studyingvariety for its own sake. Gone from dear oldWake Forest are the Declaration of Indepen-dence's laws of nature and of nature's God.Gone is any serious attention to the institutionsthat Americans have relied upon to pursue thehappiness promised by those laws. Gone, even,is the Constitution.American political institutions are outmoded

for the problems we confront, Hearn tells us.Lack of guidance and discipline in moral mat-ters, things we deplore and are terrified bywhen

our children encounter them in public schools,are right at home at Angelou's Wake Forest.Students are said not to need guidance in choos-ing what are irrational and subconscious prefer-ences. How can we wonder why crime, suicide,divorce, drug use, racism and child abuse con-tinue to escalate in our society?Would you wantyour daughter to go to college?Gates accepts the tired assertion of the admin-

istration that problems arose with the Criticbecause people were unclear about the adminis-tration's involvement with the magazine. This is"fact" for Gates. Never mind that the Critic iswritten by undergraduates, law students andrecent alumni. It seems further to cut no ice withadministrators that Wake Forest is an institutionof higher learning. With shocking vulgarity theyargue that the university is threatened with an"image problem," just like Ivory soap, if stu-dents make "unauthorized use" of the words"Wake Forest." Never mind the fact that univer-sities are showered with support from taxpayersand private foudnations. Those facts seem tomake no difference.In the end, we have the judgment of Gates, a

writer who was once on the university's payroll,that writers for the Critic are "fanatics" butones who must be "tolerated." Meroney is oneof those students of whom the press can say thathe will "try the patience of even the most sereneamong us." How delicately put! But Meroneymust be tolerated, Gates condescends, becausehe is one of those who "keep us on our toes."What Gates fumbles for but drops is that it is forthose with the intelligence and integrity to seektruth and fight for it, students of Meroney's highcaliber, that universities are founded. No stu-dent who tries earnestly to assess what's hap-pening in today's academia deserves the kind ofcontemptuous dismissal that Gates serves up toMeroney and his fellow student writers.

• Broyles is a professor of political philoso-phy at Wake Forest University and facultyadviser to The Wake Forest Critic.

'8 'TillADstyle April 28, 1993

C a len dar -

28 WednesdayTheater

HAMLET. Paul Green Theatre, Country Club Rd., UNC-ctJapelHIli. 962-7529. 8 pm. Shakespeare play presented by PIay-Makers Repertory Company. Directed by David Hammond.Prince Hamlet of Denmark mourns the recent death of hisfather and is disturbed by the hasty marriage of his motherto his father's brother. The ghost of his father appears andurges Hamlet to seek vengeance. A powerful tale of murder,love and revenge. Tickets: $16.5a. Discounts available forseniors, students .and groups. Through May 16.

MARVIN'S ROOM. The Broach 1beatre, 520 S. Elm St., OldGrellllborough. 378-9300. 8 pm. Scott McPherson's come-dy about one woman's commitment to caring for her familyfirst, even in the face of personal tragedy. Directed by HallParrish. Tickets: $12, $la students and seniors. Runsthrough May 1.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Taylor Bldg., UNCG campus. 334-554&. 8 pm. Tickets: $8, $7 seniors, $3 UNCG students.UNCG Theatre production. Runs through May 2.

THE SECRET GARDEN. Arb Council Theatre, 610 ColiseumDr., WS. 725-1711. 10 am & 1 pm. Theatreworks USAmusic show based on Frances Hodgson Burness's classicbook abou1 Mary Lennox, a young girl who comes to live onthe estate of her mysterious uncle after the death of her par-ents. Ages 7 and up. Tickets $3. Runs through May 1.

WALLY'S CAFE. The Bam Dinner Theatre, 120 StagecoaellTrail. G. 292-2211 or 883-7914. Bar opens at 6 pm, buffetserved 6:30-7:45 pm. Show time: 8 pm. Comedy chroniclingforty years in the lives of three lovable and eccentric people.Call for reservations. Runs through May 23.

Mus i c

CHEERS. Club Fifth Season. Holiday 1m Four Seasolll. 3121High Point Rd., G. 292-916t

CHRIS STAMEY with BRENT LAMBERT. Rainbow Ne ...Cafe. 712 Brookstown Ave. 723-0858. 7 pm. Rare Triadappearance by the former dB's guitarist.

CLU BU CLAM: lIgllY' •• 433 Baity St •• WS. 748-1064.DAVE SPENCER. The Cave. 452 1/2 W. franklin St •• ChapelHili. 968-9308.

DILLON FENCE. Cat'. Cradll. 206 W. Frenklln St., ChapelHIli. 967-9053.

KOUNTRY KARAOKE. Santa FI Rose, 3222 High Point Rd•• G.292-6024.

NERVOUS WRECKS and FIDO WENT TO HEAVEN. Intlnltl.411 N. Eugene St., G. 574-11144.

ROCKIN' HORSE. Santa Fe Rose. 3222 High Point Rd., G.292-6024.

TINA LOVINGS with SUNOOWNERS and SNUll BAND.Somewhere BII Tavern. 2017 Freeman Mill Rd •• G. 273-7532. Bring a can of food for donaJjon to Urban Ministry.

Miscellaneous

ALM: GRANT WOOD'S AMERICA. Reynolda Houll Museumof Art. WS. 725-5325. 9:30 am & 3:30 pm.

G.A.I.N. MEETING. Elm Street Cafe, 223 S. Bm St., G. 2B8-5143. 5:30-8 pm. Kitty Rankin will speak on "Managing Con-flict in Fun and Relaxing Ways." GAIN is the local affiliate ofthe National Association of Female Executives; open to pro-fessional women.

HOME. GARDEN GALA COCKTAIL BUFFET. Barblra •Mlnel Bruce's house. 111 Arden Pl., G.1I55-1352. 6-8:30pm. Celebrating the opening of the Greensboro in Full Bloomtour. Tickets: $12.50. The Home & Garden tour runs April28-May 1, 10 am-4 pm.

ST. FRANCIS EPISCOPAL CHURCH BOOK SALE. 3506 lawn-dale Dr., G. 10 am-8 pm. Thousands of novels, paperbacks,magazines, records, cookbooks, art prints and magazines.April 30, 10 am-l pm: half-price. Proceeds benefits thechurch's outreach programs, including Greensboro Urban

. Ministry.TRAVELOGS FILM: A BRmSH SUMMER. Carolina 1beltre.310 S. Greene St •• G. 333-2605. 7:30 pm. Tickets: $6.50,$5.50 students and seniors.

WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT CAR SERVICE ANDWERE AFRAID TO ASK. Spencer Love Room. Ant Presby-Ierlan Church, 815 N. Bm St., G. 373-6445. 6:15-7:30 pm.Presented by The Family Ministry Committee.

29 ThursdayI TheaterHAMLET. Paul Green Theatre, Country Club Rd •• UNC-CllapelHili. 962-7529. 8 pm. Shakespeare play presented by Play-Makers Repertory Company. A powerful tale of murder, loveand revenge. TICkets: $16.50. Through May 16.

INTO THE WOODS. Carollnl 1beatre, 310 S. Greene St., G.373-2974 or 333-2605. 8 pm. Presented by the UvestockPlayers Musical Theatre. Play featuring Cinderella, a Bakerand his Wife, Jack and the Beanstalk, and a fairy tale witch, .

ALENOAROF EVENTS

April 28 - May 4, 1993giving old stories a new twist with a great musical plot. Tick-ets: $10, SB seniors and students. Through May 1.

MARVIN'S ROOM. The Broach Theatre. 520 S. Elm SI., OldGreelllllorough. 378-9300. 8 pm. Scott McPherson's come-dy about one woman's commilment to caring for her familyfirst, even in the face of personal tragedy. Directed by HallParrish. Tickets: $12, $10 students and seniors. Runsthrough May 1.

MEASURE FOR II'EASURE. Taylor Bldg •• UNCG campus. 334-554&. 8 pm. Tickets: $8, $7 seniors, $3 UNCG students.UNCG Theatre production. Runs through May 2.

THE SECRET GARDEN. Arb Council Thlatre, 610 ColiseumDr•• WS. 725-1711.10 am & noon. Theatreworks USA musicshow based on Frances Hodgson Burness's classic bookabou1 Mary Lennox, a young girl who comes to live on theestate of her mysterious uncle after the death of her parents.Ages 7 and up. Tickets $3. Runs through May 1.

SESAME STREET LIVE: LET'S PLAY SCHOOL. GreensboroWlr Memorial Aud., G. 10:30 am & 7 pm. The SesameStreet gang will share a school day. This show holds up theentertainment and educational traditions of the TV series.Family night tickets: $6.50. Tickets sold through TlCketMas-ter out)ets or by phone: 373-7400.

WALLY'S CAFE. Thl Bam Dinner Theatre, 120 StagecoachTrail. G. 292-2211 or 883-7914. Bar opens at 6 pm, buffetserved 6:30-7:45 pm. Show time: 8 pm. Comedy chroniclingforty years in the lives of three lovable and eccentric people.Call for reservations. Runs through May 23.

Mus i c

BAND OF oz. 1be Gllrd, 4019 Country Club Rd., WS. 765-2157.

BAROQUE MUSIC. DANCE. The Vintage Theatre. 7 VintageAve •• WS. 75O-DOOO. 8 pm. Rare performance of BeethovenVIOlin Sonatas Op 12 Nos 1,2,3 on period instruments, fol-lowed by Baroque dances in period costume. Following theperformance, simple Renaissance dances will be taught to

the audience. Tickets: SB, $5 students, seniors, F&B mem-bers. Highly recommended for all ages.

CHEERS. Club AfIh Season. Holiday Inn Four Sellona. 3121High Point Rd•• G. 292-9161.

FESTIVAL OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS: PAST • PRESENT. HighPoint Theatre. 220 E. Commerce Ave., HP. 887-3001. 8 pm.This OPUS Concert of traditional African-American songs willfeature the lSD-voice Choral Society of Greensboro alongwith guest soloisls Barbara Hill Moore; Rubey Hebert; G.Carlton Hines; Louis Nabors; and Danny Kelley on the piano.Conductor. Maestro William P. Carroll. TICkets: $7.

GRAVITY'S PULL. Charlie Goodnight's. Raleigh.HILLBILLY LOVE GOD REV. BILLY C. WIRTZ. SkyllghlExchange, 4051/2 W. Rosemary St., Chapel Hili. 933-5550.9:30 pm. Wirtz, pastor of the First House of Polyester Wor-ship, is part piano man and part comedian who pokes fun atlife in the Bible BeH.

HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH. llgllY·" 433 Bllty St., WS.741-1064.

MIND CONTROL. KUOlU GANJA Ind THE FATHE. Soml-wllere Else TIYIm, 2017 Freeman Mill Rd., G. 273-7532.

OUTER LIMITS and PSYCHO ACOUSTIC RESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENT.lntlnIU, 411 N. Eugene St., G. 574-1844.

ROCKIN' HORSE. Santa FI ROil. 3222 High Point Rd •• G.292-6024.

SIDECAR JONES AND PERUSING THE BUKOWSKI. Th' Cave.4521/2 W. Franklin St .• Chapel Hili. 968-9308.

Dance

UNDERGRADUATE THESIS DANCE CONCERT. April 29 - May1 at 8 pm, presented by the UNCG Department of Dance. Forintormation, call 334-5570. Runs through May 1.

Galleries

OPENING RECEPTION. Theltre Art Galleries, 220 E. Com-

Theater

merce Ave., HP. 887-3415. 5 pm. Main Gallery: paintingsand drawings by Michael Klauke. Gallery B; Merrill Shatz-man's prints and drawings. Gallery C; High Point Fine ArtGuid's "Kaleidoscope: an open show. Exhibit runs throughJune 20.

Miscellaneous

ESPECIALLY FOR SENIORS' PROGRAM. Thl Science Centerand Environmental Park. 400 Hanes Mill Rd •• WS. 767-6730. 2-5 pm.

GREATER GREENSBORO SENIOR GAMES. 373-2283. Activi-ties ongoing in Greensboro throughout the week, endingMay 7.

HOME. GARDEN TOUR: GREENSBORO IN FULL BLOOM.Tour hours 10 am-4 pm. Featuring five distinctive homesand two gardens. Benefits local education and beautificationprojects. $8 advance, $10 at the door. TICket into. call: 647-6394. luncheon and fashion show 11 :30 am-2 pm each dayof the tours, presented by Gin-Ettes, Inc. ($6) will be servedby al the Greek Orthodox Church, 800 Westridge Rd .• G.Fashion info call 855-1352.

HOUSE. GARDEN TOUR OF WINSTON-SALEM. 722-5640.10 am-4 pm. Tickets: $8 advance, $10 at the door, $3 forone house. lunch available for $7.50. Tours through May 1.

OPERA: PUCCINI. OFFENBACH. Jonls Aud., Meridith Col-lege, Raleigh. 8 pm. Presented by the National opera Com-pany. Free. Also April 30 & May 1.

PEKING ACROBATS. Stevena Cantar, 405 W. Fourth SI.. WS.WS. 4 & 8 P,". Presented by the N.C. School of the Arts. 4pm; performance tickets: $10, SB kids & seniors. 8 pm;Reserved tickets: $18, $16. For information, call 721-1945.

ST. FRANCIS EPISCOPAL CHURCH BOOK SALE. 3508 lawn-dale Dr., G. 10 am-8 pm. Thousands of novels, paperbacks,magazines, records, cookbooks, art prints and magazines.April 30, 10 am-l pm: haH-price. Proceeds benefits thechurch's outreach programs, including GreenSboro UrbanMinistry.

WONDERFUL WORLD OF WOMEN. Four Seasona Town Cen-tre, G. 292-11171. Ideas about educational opportunities,career programs and more. Ends May 2.

30 FridayOON'T BOTHER ME. I CAN'T COPE. Arb Council Thel1i-e, 810Coliseum Dr••WS. 725-1711. 8 pm. Presented by the NorthCarolina Black Repertory Company, this spiritually upliftingmusical has a theme of hope and songs thai reveal preciousBlack American history. A journey through daily traumas tothe vibrations of faith, with sky-reaching Gospel tunes. TICk-ets: $15, $10 students & seniors. Through May 2.

HAMLET. Paul Green Theatre, Country Club Rd., UNC-ctJapelHili. 962-7529. 8 pm. Shakespeare play presented by Play-Makers Repertory Company. A powerful tale of murder, loveand revenge. TICkets: $19.50. Through May 16.

LETTICE AND LOVAGE. Augabllrg Community Canter. Broadand 8th St., WS. 725-7181. 8 pm. Comedy following thefriendship of a British lour guide, who gives her lecturesex1ra theatricality and romance, and a woman who Is notimpressed by her "history lesson." They awaken people tothe dreariness of their mediocre modem lives. Tickets: $10aduHs, $8 students & seniors. Through May 8.

MARVIN'S ROOM. The Broach Theatre, 520 S. Elm St., OldGreelllboroulh. 378-9300. 8 pm. Scott McPherson's come-dy abou1 one woman's commitment to caring for her familyfirst, even in the face of personal tragedy. Directed by HallParrish. Tickets: $12, $10 students and seniors. Runsthrough May 1.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Taylor Bldg., UNCG campus. 334-5546. 8 pm. Tickets: $8, $7 seniors,.$3 UNCG students.UNCG Theatre production. Runs through May 2.

OPERA: NORTH CAROUNA SYMPHONY. Jones Aud., Mered-Ith College, Ralligh. 890-8082. 8 pm. Performed by theNational Opera Company, 2 one-act operas: Puccini: GianniSchieei, and Offenbach, M. Choufleuri. Free. Final evening,May 1.

THE SECRET GARDEN. Arb Council Theatre, 810 ColiseumDr•• WS. 725-1711. 10 am & noon Theatreworks USA musicshow based on Frances Hodgson Burness's classic bookabout Mary Lennox, 8 young girl who comes to live on theestate of her mysterious uncle after the death of her parents.Ages 7 and up. Tickets $3. Runs through May 1.

SESAME STREET LIVE: LET'S PLAY SCHOOL. GreensboroWar Memorlll Aull •• G. 10:30 am & 7 pm. The SesameStreet gang will share 8 school day. This show holds up theentertainment and educational traditions of the 1V series.Tickets: $10 and $9; children 2-12, $1.50 off. Tickets soldthrough TicketMaster outlets or by phone: 373-7400.

WALLY'S CAFE. Th' Blm Dinner Theatre. 120 StagecolchTrail. G. 292-2211 or 883-7914. Bar opens at 6 pm, buffetserved 6:30·7:45 pm. Show time: 8 pm. Comedy chroniclingforty years in the lives of three lovable and eccentric people.Call for reservations. Runs through May 23.

Mus i c

BASS HEAD.lIa11Y'" 433 Baity St.. WS. 748-1064.

Apri128,1993

BLACK. BLUE. The Guard, 4019 Country Club Rd WS765-2157. ., •

BO. T & THE SPURS. Santa Fe Rose 3222 High Point Rd G292-0024. ' ., .

CHEERS. Club Fifth Sellon, Holiday Inn Four Seasona 3121High Point Rd., G. 292-9161. '

FESTIVAL OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS: PAST" PRESENT. Guil-ford Col~ege campus, Oana AuditOrium, G. 373-25498:15pm. Th!S OPUS Concert of traditional African-Americansongs will fe~ture the 150-voice Choral Society of Greens-boro a!ong With gu~st soloi~ts Barbara Hill Moore; RubeyHebe.rt, G. Carlton Hines; Louis Nabors; and Danny Kelley onthe plano. Conductor: Maestro William P. Carroll. Tickets' $8Greensboro concert. Call for more info .

GEEZER LAKE, BIG HAT, BABE THE BLUE OX and SPONGE-HEAD. Somewhere Else Tavern, 2017 Freeman Mill Rd G273-7532. ., .

GRAVITY'S PULL. The Cave 452 1/2 W Franklin St ChapelHill. 968-9308. ' . .,

H:::.SOUL POETS. Kilroy's. 708 W. Markel SI., G. 274-

HUNTER MOORE. ROle & Thlllle, 107 Lockland Ave., WS.725-6444. 8 pm, Fiddle & Bow Triad's Folk Music SOCietyCover. $7, $5 F&8 members. .

JOHN McCUTCHEON. Arts " Science Center, 1335 MuseumRd.• StaleSvll!e. 704-873-4734. 7:30 pm. Concert for Habi-tat for Humanity.

NCSA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. Slevens Center 405 WFourth St .• WS. 8 pm Tickets: $10 $8 students Ii seniors'Presented by the NC School of the Arts .

TRUE. TRUE. The Exchange, 340 S. T* SI. G. 273-224310:30 pm. $2 cover. ••

Dance

ElON OANCERS. McCrary Thealre, Elon College. 584-22438 pm. Free and open to the public. Performance also May 1 •

UNDERGRADUATE THESIS DANCE CONCERT. April 29 - May.1at 8 P,!!, presented by the UNCG Department of Dance Formformallon, call 334-5570. Shows through May 1. .

ter, 200 N.DIVII St., G.333-7475. 9am-2 pm. Day-long cuHuraJ event for children who are phYSically and men-tally challenged. Presented by the Center for Creative Arts.

G. 292-6024.CHEERS. Club Fifth SeasOR, Holiday Inn Four SIISOIII 3121High Point Rd., G. 292-9161. '

HILLBILLY LOVE GOD REV. BILLY C. WIRTZ. The Exchange338 Tate SI., G. 273-2243. 10 pm: Wirtz, pastor of the FirsiHouse. of Polye~ter Worship, is part piano man and partclife°~edh':lnwho sllT~ultaneously celebrates and pokes fun at

In IS home regIOn, the bible BeH $6 coverPIANO CONCERT. Hines Aud., Sailm Fine 'Arts CenlerSllem College, WS. 721-2702. 8 pm. Barbara lister-Sink'~& Alexander Peskanov's concert will benefit the Clemens~nd P.l!argaret Vardell Sandresky Scholarship fund Call fortICket Info. .

WINSTON-SALEM MUSIC FESTIVAL. llgllY's. 433 Baity St.,

Galleries

OPENING RECEPTION. Center For Creallve Leadership One~eadersh!p Place, off Rt. 220 N., G. 288-7210. 7-9 pmCelebratmg N~rth Carolina landscape Artisls: Includingwork~ by .M~r~la An.n McD~de McMann, Elsie DinsmorePopkin, Vlrgl~.la Wr!ght-Frlerson. Richard Fennel, MarkGottsegen, Philip A. link & Robb Wilkinson Prichard Exhibitruns through June 3. .

1 SaturdayTheater

MiscellaneousDON'T BOTHER ME, I CAN'T COPE. Arb Council Theatre610 CollllU!" Dr., WS. 725-1711. 8 pm. Presented by th~N~~~ Carolina Black Repertory Company, this spirituallyup .mg musical has ~ the~ of hope and songs that revealprecIOus Black ~me~an hlst~ry. A joumey through dailytraumas. to the Vibrations of faith, with sky-reaching Gospeltunes. TICkets $15, $10 students & seniors. Through May 2

INTO THE WOOOS. Carolina 1beatre, 310 S. Greene St., G'373-2974 or 333-2605. 8 pm. Presented by the livestockPlayers M~sical Theatre. Play featuring Cinderella, a Baker~~ his Wife, -!ack and the Beanstalk, and a fairy tale witch,glV~ngold ston~ a new twist with a great musical plot. Tick-ets. $10, SB senIOrs and students. Through May 1

LETTICE AND LOVAGE. Auglburg Community Cenier BroadI~ 8th .St•• WS •. ~5-7181. 8 pm. Comedy following thefriendship ~f a. British tour guide, who gives her lectures~x1ra theatncality ~n~ romance, and a woman who is notImpres~ by her history lesson." They awaken people tothe dreanness of their mediocre modem lives. Tickets: $10aduHs, SB students & seniors. Through May 8

MARVIN'S ROOM. The BrOich Thealre, 520 S: Elm St., OldGreelllborough. 378-9300. 8 pm. Scott McPherson's com-~ about o~ woman's commitment to caring for her fami-ly fll~t, even 10 the face of personal tragedy. Directed by Hallrn~nsh. TICkets: $12, $10 students and seniors. Final show-

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Taylor Bldg., UNCG campUI.:~~. 8 pm. Tickets: $8, $7 seniors, $3 UNCG students.

eatre production. Runs through May 2OPERA: PUCCINI" OFFENBACH. Jones Aud Meredith Col-lege. Rllelgh. 890-6082 8 .,d • pm. Two one-act operas pre-~~~e Sy~;:::n~~~:~ F?~~i;h~mpany with the North Car-

SESAME STREET LIVE' LET'S PLAY SCHOOL GWlr M orIal Au . . reansboroem d., G. 373-7400. 10:30 am & 2 pm The

Sesame Street gang will share a school day with childr~n 2-~2. The show keeps the entertainment and educational tradi-

$tlonsof the TV series. Tickets $10 and $9; children 2-12 get1.50 off. Runs through May 2.

THE SECRET GAROEN. ArIa Council Thealre, 610 ColillumDr •• WS. 725-1711. 10:30 am. Theatreworks USA musicshow based on Frances Hodgson Burness's classic bookabout Mary Lennox, a young girl who comes to live on theestate of her mysterious uncle after the death of her parentsAges 7 and up. Tickets: $5. Final show .

YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN. The CommunityTheatre of Green.boro, 200 N. DlYle SI., G. 333-SHOW 2pm & 7 pm. Tickets available through the Community The-atr~ of Green~boro .Box Office. Tickets: $5. Group ratesavailable. Seating limited, reservations recommended Showruns through May 2. .

COMEDY lONE. The Exchange Lounge at The Holel Greena-borough, 200 E. Market SI., G. 333-1034 or 275-0811' or IIIhe Sheralo~ Holel, University Parkway al Rle. 52: WS.63~-6010. Friday and Saturday nights; two shows, 8:30 and~0.30 pm. All seats $7; get there early for a stage-front seat'!lensboro: Real John King. Ray Thomas & John James'

Winston-Salem: Bill Tucker & J. Scott Homan. .GREEK FESTIVAl. 435 Keallng Or., on Counlry Clull RdSilas Craek~. 765-7145. 10 am-l0 pm. Featuring Gre~kf~od, shop~mg, music, dancing and other cultural attrac-1I0n~. Adml.sslon $1. 10% proceeds go to Brenner Chil-. dren s Hospital. Runs through May 2.HOME • GARDEN TOUR: GREENSBORO IN FULL BLOOMTour hours 10 am-4 pm. featuring five distinctive and differ:~nt homes, and ~o I13rdens. Profits will benefit local educa:-tional and be~utlfl~lIon projects. Tickets: $8 advanced, $10~t the door. Ticket Info. call: 647-6394. luncheon and fash-Ion ~how 11 :30 am-2 pm each day of the tours, presentedby ~ln-EHes, Inc. ($6) will be served by ladies PhiloptochosSociety. at the Greek Orthodox Church. 800 Westridge RdG. Fashion show. Call for more info: 855-1352. .,

HOUSE. GARDEN TOUR OF WINSTON-SALEM. 722-564010 am-4 pm. Tic~ets: $8 advanced, $10 at the door, $3 on~house. lunch available: $7.50. April 28, 7:30 pm. lecture bynoted garden writ~r and author, Sandra ladendorf, WakeForest U. Scales FlOe Arts Center. Admission: $10. Toursthrough May 1.

LOVE •.. WHERE ARE YOU? Farlow Fellowship Hall FlrslWesley ~urch,.191~ N. Centennial SI., HP. 282-1575. Sin-gles semmar, With dmn~r at 7 pm and discussion from 8-10pm. learn abo~t choosm~ the ~ight life partner and buildinglong and meaningful relationships. Regisler on-site April 30after 6:30 pm. led by Sherry Pallay of Professional Singles

OPERA: PUCCINI & OFFENBACH. Jones Aud., Meridith Coi-lege, Raleigh. 8 pm. Presented by the National opera Com-pany. Free. Plays April 30 & May 1

PROGRESSIVE OINNER IN OLD GREENSBOROUGH. One 92E.lewls st.-Roet 92, G. 272-6617. 6:30 & 8:30 pm. Enjoy af?ur course meal, each served in a different historic siteTickets: $2~, $50 couple. Advanced tickets in OGPS Do ~towners Office, 500 S. Elm St G wn

ST. FRANCIS EPISCOPAL CHURCH BOOK SALE. 3506 lawn-dale Dr., G. 10 am.-l pm: half-price. Thousands of novelspaperb.acks, magazmes, records, cookbooks, art prints andmagazl~es. P.roceeds benefits the church's outreach pro-grams, including Greensboro Urban Ministry

~VElOGS FILM: A BRITISH SUMMER. High PolnlThealre,JOE. Commerce Ave., HP. 887-3001. 7:30 pm. Narratorames Cole escorts yoU on a holiday excursion to places

V long frequented by vacationing Britons. Call for ticket info.ERY SPECIAL ARTS FESTIVAl. Greenslloro Cullural Cen-

WS. 741-1064. All dam nighl: Come down to see all the fab-~Ious bands from good 01' Winston-Salem. The evening willInclude performances by 2 Lb. Planet Speck The Face ofChange and more. "

WINSTON-SALEM PIEDMONT TRIAD SYMPHONY StavCenter, 4115 ~. Fourth St.. WS. WS. 725-1035. i pm, ~'::final program 10 the Classical Series will include Beethoven'sConcerto No.3 in C minor for Plano & Orchestra and thepopular Symphony No.9. TICkets: $11-$18. Also May 2&4.

Dance

ELON DANCERS. McCrary 11Ieatnt. Elon College. 584-22438 pm. Free and open to the public. .

GREENSBORO BALLET: BALLET ... A LA CARTE. OrchellraRoom, Greensboro Cultural Canter. 200 N. Dlvle St G333-7480. 6:30 pm hors. d'oeuvres and cash bar; perlor:~~c~~ p"!. ~rogram Includes Elissa Fuch's suspenseful

lum, RICk McCullough's new "Ladies in Waiting"

faonddthCehaco~d333iC"lulu's Place." $25 includes admission an'do. rge. -7481.

UNDERGRADUATE THESIS DANCE CONCERT. April 29 - May~t 8 P,!!, presented by the UNCG Department of Dance. ForI ormation, caJl334-5570. Shows through May 1.

Galleries

OPENING RECEPTION. The Artery. 1711 Spring Garden StG•.27~4. 3~ pm. "Color My World" originallandsca .,pal~t!ngs by Elaine Pelkey-Herrick. Main Gallery Fr:Exhibit runs through May 31. . .

Miscellaneous

ARTS 'ROUND THE SQUARE. Cotn1bouse Squire. Graham.~26f95.1 0 am-5 pm. Featuring country music star Hal

whetcleufam~nd a day of crafts and games and fun for theo mlly.

BASEBALL CARD SHOW. Speclll Eventa Canter. Greensboro

$Co1151110um Complex, G. 373-7400. 10 am-5 pm. Admission'

. . Final day May 2. .C~f~ ~:ER ANO AUCTION. Holiday Inn Four Selson.

D. • Rd•.• HD. G. The Triad chapter of the Crohn's Ii~olitis Foundabo~ presents its annual elegant event at 7 pmTo ~ke.~ 90s, Decade for the Cure" is the theme Th~

e,?,nlng ~1I1!nclude dinner, music and cocktail hour. Au~tionwill contain items to accommodate all budgets. For reserva-

Santa Fe Rose is a private club for members only & their guests! ID Required

The Triad's ONLY~,""tIIII~'*

Tues. April 27th 7:00pmLessons

Wed. April 28th 7:00pm CouplesDance ROCK!N' $2.00 MembersLessons HORSE $5.00 Guests

Thurs. April 29th 7:00pm FREE TwoStep ROCKIN' Mem~rsDance Lessons 7:30 HORSE Guests

Fri. April 30th 8:00pm AULady BO'!' AND

Members THE SPURS

Sat. May fst 8:00pm FREE BO'!' ANDTil JOpm THE SPURS

Sun. May 2nd 7:00pm LineDanceBODACIOUSLessons

Mus i c

BO. T. THE SPURS. Santa Fe ROil, 3222 High Point Rd.,

ROCKIN' HORSEFeatured April 28th & 29th

on occasion.Mamie Feree takes her place

as .Forum editor, compiling let-ters to the editor each day andchoosing the best letter of theday to receive three stars.Regional Editor Dwight Lewis

will join the editorial board,while retaining most of his cur-rent duties. He will also write anew column about minority af-fairs in Nashville.

•••For many years, section B of

The Tennessean has borne thenameplate "Metro/State" to de-note the local news section. Read-ers have told us that it's not avery helpful name for such a sec-tion.We considered many fancy

names for the section, but in theend we opted for simplicity andclarity: "Local News." You'll seethat name daily on section B.

Good reading,Frank •

Sunday/MAY 23,1993· TheTennessean. S.D

other place to go because of theirbehavior. These students' disci-pline records put them at risk ofdropping out or being expelled,and the legislature, realizing theultimate cost of letting this hap-pen - paying for their time inprison - has told local schoolsystems to provide alternativeways of dealing with these stu-dents.The report on alternative

schools begins on page lA today.In June, we will present a seriesof in-depth reports on what mayhappen with busing and with cur-riculum changes such as magnetschools. It's must reading for par-ents and for all citizens who paytaxes to support schools.

•••At the Three-Star Forum ban-

quet last week, Forum· EditorPrincess Patton made her lastappearance as a Tennessean em-ployee. Other obligations forceher to leave us, although she willcontinue to write columns for us

Reporting on our children's education

PatrickBuchanan

The doublestandard isalive, wellITwas near midnight, in Janu-ary. Eden Jacobowitz, a fresh-

man at Penn, was working on aterm paper. Below his sixth-floordorm window, five black sororitysisters all began "shouting, stomp-ing, singing and screaming thingslike 'woo, woo,'" says Jacobowitz.The racket went on for 20 min-utes.Exasperated, Eden Jacobowitz

opened his window and yelled,"Shut up, you water buffalo ... Ifyou're looking for a party, there'sa zoo a mile from here.""Did Eden Jacobowitz utter a

racial slur?" That question is nowbeing debated at Penn, on Ameri-ca's op-ed pages, even beyond thenation's borders. "Exactly WhatRace is a Water Buffalo?" asksthe Toronto Star.Jacobowitz is also under inter-

rogation by the Judicial InquiryOffice at Penn, to determine if heviolated school policy forbiddingracial harassment. The JIOThought Police want to know ex-actly what was in Eden's mindwhen he used that term, "waterbuffalo."Several weeks after this inci-

dent, black students confiscatedand trashed 14,000 copies of theschool paper, to protest the writ-ings of a conservative columnistwho criticized Martin LutherKing Jr.Are the Thought Police investi-

gating this incident? Nope.Instead, Penn President Shel-

don Hackney (Mr. Clinton's nomi-nee to head the National Endow-

- and just about everybody etse.In the 1970s, we desegregated

our schools in a meaningful way,but the tool we used, cross-townbusing, infuriated many parents.Some of them left the school sys-tem for private schools. Otherscould not afford to leave, but har-bored lingering resentment atsending three siblings off toschool on three different buses,to three different schools, atthree different times of day. Pa-rental support for schools dimin-ished.In the 1990s, we are about to

revisit cross-town busing, with

leadership not opposed to deseg-regated schools but looking forways to offer integrated, qualityeducation with shorter bus rides.With the development of urban

areas in the South in the '80s,discipline problems in schoolscreated new problems for teach-ers and new concerns for par-ents. Discipline has been a con-cern since the early 1960s whenthat generation of students re-belled against authority, includ-ing schools.Discipline problems reached

new levels, however, when gunsand other weapons started show-ing up in students' pockets andpurses. Students got killed. Out-rage was and is the appropriatefirst response, but the appro-praite second response - to thequestion, "What do we do aboutit?" - is more difficult to deter-mine.It's clear in the 1990sthat most

of our society is ready to makechanges in the way we educateour children, transport them to

school and discipline them whenthey are bad.That's why The Tennessean

has committed major resourcesto covering education for the restof the year. Reagan Walker, for-mer education writer for TheClarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.,has joined Dorren Klausnitzer asa second full-time reporter cover-ing education.To augment that coverage, we

have formed a special team con-sisting of former education re-porter Sheila Wissner, reportersJoe Rogers and Kevin Pollard,photographers Kats Barry andFreeman Ramsey, designer Su-san Holloway, graphics coordina-tor Kent Travis and photo pro-jects coordinator Nancy Rhoda.Special reporting editor LisaGreen heads the team which willbring you a series of special re-ports during the next severalweeks.Today, we offer you a look at

alternative schools that provide aplace for students who have no

~TERBUFFAlO!

Threaten a civil suit against Mer-oney, to force him to drop "WakeForest" from the title of his littlecampus magazine.Each of these incidents is a

telling commentary on the na-tion's academic community.The campus revolt of 30 years

ago, that began with the riots at. Berkeley demanding the freedomto use "filthy speech" on campus,has taken power, and revealeditself to be even more cowardlyand corrupt than the wimpish es-tablishment it replaced.Utterly lacking in backbone, in

standing up to the depredationsof black students, the SheldonHackneys compensate by the se-verity with which they punish theunacceptable speech of white stu-dents.The loss of moral authority by

the Academy, however, is not al-together a bad thing. After all,universities that celebrate Gayand Lesbian Awareness Week,provide abortions for coeds, andhand out condoms to freshmen,deserve ridicule, not respect,when they mount their moralhigh horses to hunt down the tell-ers of ethnic jokes.

But, in a sense, what is goingon on America's campuses isboth sobering and portentous.Segregation is back. This time,

however, it is self-segregation.Black students are demandingtheir own fraternity houses, CUl-tural centers, and dormitories,where whites need not apply.When black protests becomethreatening, campus authoritiescave in.The double standard on Ameri-

ca's campuses is adding to asense of resentment among whitestudents, already cynical at see-ing blacks with lower test scoresbeing admitted to better schools.

Again, history repeats itself.Liberals who came to power onthe campus turn out to be intoler-ant of free speech. The childrenof the civil rights leaders whomarched for equal rights appearin the vanguard of those clamor-ing for special privilege.And as we abandon the princi-

ples of justice, the goal for whichwe abandoned them, equality, re-cedes ever further into the fu-ture .•

(Buchanan is a syndicated columnistand TV commentator.)

N.ashvUle Eye

ment for the Humanities), asks usto be understanding of the "griev-ances" that caused the black stu-dents to destroy the press run."Two important university val-ues, diversity and open expres-sion, appear to be in conflict,"Hackney declared.Had those papers been confis-

cated by conservative students,the deed would have been de-cried as neo-fascist.At Dartmouth black students

pulled a similar stunt, collectingand destroying copies of the con-servative Dartmouth Review, us-ing racist insults on the whitefemale Review staffer who pro-tested.Nothing is being done in that

case either.At Wake Forest, student editor

John Meroney wrote a piece fora national magazine noting thatfaculty member Maya Angelou,who read the poem at Clinton'sInaugural, takes home over$100,000 a year, but is not teach-ing this semester and is rarelyseen on campus. Angelou, Mero-ney suggested, is an academicfreeloader.The university response:

The cry is onceagain 'tax revolt'ONCE again, the right-wing

bugle boys are sounding"tax revolt." From Sacramento toWashington, every far-out outfitwith a letterhead is asking Amer-icans to "Join the revolution, cir-cle the wagons, send money!"To potential recruits, I offer

this all-American admonition:Keep in mind precisely who werethe prime beneficiaries of thelast "tax revolt."Who was it that gained 12

years ago when Congress wasdragooned by Ronald Reagan in-to cutting the income taxes of thebetter-off, hiking Pentagon spend-ing through the roof and launch-ing the country on a $3 trilliontidal wave of red ink?Let me count the winners for

you:1. T-Bond Holders. When gov-

ernment borrows $400 billion ayear, that's how much govern-ment paper needs to be sold. It'sno surprise, given all the borrow-ing the past decade, that the big-gest growth item in governmentspending is "interest."Who gets all these hundreds of

billions in interest? The peoplewith money to stack up in federalbonds, notes and bills. Who paysthose interest payments? Thepeople punching a clock 40-plushours a week.

2. Foreign Investors. I don'tmean to sound overly nationalis-tic, but from 1981 right throughtoday, the "tax revolt" made hun-dreds of billions of dollars forfolks in foreign countries: folkswho love to buy our bonds, lovethose fat U.S. trade deficits wesustain to offset the interest pay-ments we electronically mail dayafter day across the Atlantic andPacific oceans.3. The Rich. After all the

smoke cleared from the '80s, thereal winners weren't the Ameri-can middle class or even the up-per-middle class. (They weresocked with higher Social Securi-

ChrisMatthews

ty payroll taxes.) No. The realDaddy Warbuckses of the tax re-volt were those at the top whoreceived the lion's share both ofthe tax relief and the tax dodgesthat remained in the system.4. The Far Right. Just as it

took Richard Nixon, a famous an-ti-communist, to convince Ameri-ca to open relations with China, ittook, Ronald Reagan, a famousconservative, to sell us on theidea that $400 billion deficits are"big enough to take care of them-selves."The truth is, no group in Amer-

ica benifitted more from the bud-getary nuttiness of the past de-cade than those partisans of theright. Think of it: What betterway to turn voters off to govern-ment than by demonstrating itsfiscal irresponsibility for all tosee? What better way to kill ev-ery proposal for public actionthan to rub a $300 billion deficitin the voter's face day after dayafter day?So here we go again. From

little Ross Perot to big Bill Ben-nett, the right is once againclutching the tattered flag of "taxrevolt."And the questions everyone

has to ask seem obvious: Whowon the last time? Who lost?The winners know who they

are. They are the folks now re-cruiting us to fight the Clintoneconomic program; the wealthy,the oil industry, the ideologues ofthe right who despise any form ofgovernment regulation. •

(Matthews is a syndicated columnist.)

Suggestion for ClintonHow about appointing the Rev. Will Campbellas U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Human Rights?

By BEVERLY CONEY HEIRICH

WHEN President John F. Kennedy created aspecial ambassadorship-at-large for an ex-

traordinarily gifted middle-aged singer with tiredI feet, he conferred on Pearl Bailey the official title

"United States Ambassador of Love."For the rest of her life, Pearly Mae was an

internationally acclaimed symbol of our youngPresident's belief in the power of good to tran-scend evil. She was a constant reminder to thewhole world that President Kennedy believed loveallows the human spirit to soar and triumph.

BEVERLY HEIRICH and WILL CAMPBELL

DEAR Reader,Good Morning!

For seven years, from 1967 to1974, I reported on educationnews for this newspaper. As Ireporter I watched the tumultu-ous changes taking place in ourschools.In the 1960s, I watched major

experiments with ourcurriculum.In the uproar following the Sovi-ets beating us in the space race,we studied, debated and revisedwhat we required our children tolearn in school. Many teachersand administrators during thoseyears actually discouraged paren-tal participation in schools, sayingeducators knew best what toteach. For example, they knew itwas OK to allow a high schoolstudent to substitute an electivefor fourth-year English.Now we seein to be unhappy

once again with our curriculum,prompted by the Japanese beat-ing us in the technology race inthe '80s. We have to teach ourchildren better, demand parents

Pearl Bailey's wondrous voice and presence aregone now, and of course so is President Kennedy.But we have another young man in the WhiteHouse whose style reminds a lot of the world ofJFK.Like Kennedy, Bill Clinton understands the im-

portance of symbols. He appears to recognize thathumari beings experience events on two levels,physical and spiritual, and that symbols properlyused are incredibly powerful communicationtools.

So will someone who knows Bill Clinton pleasetell him that on a small farm out in Mt. Julietthere's a living, breathing symbol of human rightscalled Will campbell? And if ever America andthe world needed to stop hiding its treasures, it'snow.The Rev. Will D. campbell is a fascinating

fellow. A prominent and influential civil rightsactivist from Mississippi, he worked in the trench-es during the dangerous 1960's. Some people sayhe's the paradigm for a wry poet, prophet, hell-fire-and-brimstone preacher in a comic stripcalled Kudzu.Eleven years ago in a story in The Tennessean,

campbell admitted that he had heard rumors thatthe comic strip preacher was based on himself.He stoutly deined the connection, but said hewould be flattered to be so honored. After all, hepointed out, "a number of famous people have

inspired comic strips, from Hunter Thompson andDavid Halberstam to Howard Cosell and PhyllisGeorge."But, Campbell declared emphatically, "The

Rev. Will B. Dunn is definitely not me. He is - asyou can see - a rather attractive, imposing char-acter with considerable theological insight andperception. There is, indeed, about the ReverendDunn an almost angelic quality. Now, nobody everaccused me of being an angel,"

Whether he ever inspired a comic strip or not,some things about the Rev. Will D. campbell arenot arguable. He is a distinguished scholar with anational reputation, an ordained Baptist minister,and a renowned speaker. His best-selling booksare often found in the hands of people who gatherin all kinds of church basements and communityhalls to study important human issues, includingcampbell's unorthodox ministry of reconciliation.His fame as an eloquent defender of human

rights has spread far beyond the small farmwhere he lives, but wherever the celebrated Rev.Will D. Carepbell goes, everybody calls him Will.Everybody.

On the outskirts of Nashville, a country singernamed Jim Janosky sits on the porch of a smallyellow farm house on a grassy slope overlooking acow pasture. He sings a haunting bluegrass songhe has written, Will Campbell was a PreacherMan.President Clinton has surely heard of Will, too.

For all I know, they've met. And I'm sure Will'sbooks are in the White House library.If we can only catch the President's attention,

maybe (like John F. Kennedy) he'll see the impor-tance of creating a special ambassadorship-at-large as a dramatic symbol of his respect andconcern for all people.Will D. Campbell, United States Ambassador

of Human Rights.Doesn't it sound exactly right - as if it has

always been? So will someone please tell BillClinton? •

(Heirich, of Franklin, is a well-known writer/speaker. Shesuggests readers send copies of this article to the WhiteHO~se for President Clinton's attention, Will Campbell canbe' 'contacted througl'l his agenfJ Judi Marshall, at615-790-1131.)

FridayMarch 19, 1993 PAGE 15WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL

STATE & LOCAL• Advice• Farming

CityEdition

Editor of Conservative Magazine Planning to Fight WFU• Attorney calls effort to have university name takenoff magazine an 'apparent attempt to chill free speech'By Will LingoJOURNAL REPORTER

magazine will make a minor change in itssubtitle but will vigorously oppose any oth-er changes.Dowell & Dowell, a Virginia law firm that

represents the university, wrote a letter tothe Critic's editors earlier this month ask-ing the magazine to stop using the universi-ty's name and seal.The letter apparently was triggered by

recent criticisms of Maya Angelou by John

The Wake Forest Critic will not removeWake Forest from its name, and the maga-zine's attorney and editor say they willoppose any efforts to restrict its freedom ofexpression.Hamilton C. Horton Jr., an attorney rep-

resenting the Critic, said in a letter toWake Forest University's attorneys that the

Meroney, the editor and a co-founder of theconservative campus magazine. Angelouwas portrayed as an overpaid figureheadwho seldom teaches and is inaccessible tostudents.Horton's letter called the university's ef-

forts "an attempt by certain elements in theWake Forest Administration to suppressfreedom of expression on that campus."Meroney said yesterday that he hopes

the university will drop its fight against theCritic. "This is a clear attempt to try tointimidate the editors and have the univer-sity distance themselves from what we're

saying," he said. "I hope they have noresponse and we can leave it at this."This is an outgrowth of four years of the

Critic printing information the administra-tion doesn't want people to know about,"he said. "It's amazing the university will goto these lengths to obscure this issue."If they were able to do this in any more

covert fashion, they would."Wake Forest's attorneys say that the

Critic's use of the university's name andsymbols causes confusion about whetherthe school sponsors the magazine.Horton's letter says that the Critic has

,-...

no intention of creating that impression.The magazine runs a disclaimer of anysponsorship in every issue, the letter says.The letter also says that the seal was used

once as an illustration and has never beenpart of the magazine's masthead.Wake Forest's attorneys referred ques-

tions about the Critic's response to theuniversity's public-information office. Aspokesman there said yesterday that theyhad not yet received the letter and couldnot respond to it.

See MAGAZINE, Page 18

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Continued From Page 15

Horton says he will advise theCritic's publishers to change itssubtitle from "The IndependentJournal of Wake Forest University"to "The Independent Journal atWake Forest University."Horton says in his letter that

Wake Forest has no exclusive claimto its name."Wake Forest is the name of a

Baptist church, a local hairdresser,a town in eastern Carolina, and sev-eral other entities besides," the let-ter says.

The letter says that universitiesshould encourage open discussion."And I suggest that many of the

Wake Forest faculty, even thosewho may disagree with the WakeForest Critic's stands, are appalledat this apparent attempt to chillfree speech by the threat of legalaction against an underfundedband of students who simply seekto have their views heard."Meroney said that the universi-

ty's attorneys may want to continuetheir effort to quiet the Critic."We stand ready, and we'll fight

it all the way," he said."We're willing to take this to

whatever level Wake Forest wantsto push it to."