European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 31, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes James Reston tuesday May 31, 1977 that building climb is a sign of better Days you can Tell thai Tylnn. Are getting better in this country when people begin to do goofy things just for the hell of it. Aft Rall the solemn idiocies of recent years we have finally produced a citizen who has re Vived the sound of laughter. Not even Charlie Chaplin with his Crea Tive Genius and his sympathy for the Little Guy would have thought of producing movie about an obscure to maker out of Queens in new York with a pretty girl Friend climbing the 110 stories of the world Trade Center being arrested at the lop and then being congratulated and celebrated by the mayor in the last act. Georgem. Willig who should really change his name to willing makes Harold Lloyd in safely last or Welcome danger look like a Sissy. It s probably silly to draw big splash conclusions about All this because Willig was not really trying to make any big Point about the Little Guy As opposed to big Busi Ness. As he said at the top of the building he had no he was an Amateur Mountain climber who had run out of mountains or did t have the Money to Getto them so he climbed the tallest thing around and took Over the front Washington is beginning to relax a Little and do what comes naturally. We Haven t had a Giggle in this town since president Nixon lectured us on the importance of morality and Jimmy Carter is no frivolous character. But vice president Mondale is funny and full of self mockery and the new speaker of the House Tipo Neill brings All these big political issues Dawn to some kind of human is a big change in Washington. Nobody is pretending As in the Nixon an Johnson Days thai he knows All the an Swers to ail our complicated problems. Everybody is blowing off on his own and climbing any Mountain he likes but Carteris inviting their dissents and listening to their suggestions. At no time in recent memory have members of Congress or the Cabinet or the press had such easy Access to the White House to define their com plaints or their the mood of the country seems to be changing. Carter is going his own Way an climbing his own Heights. He is telling the Congress that we be had a deficit of $184billion since 1974. That Well probably have another $60 billion deficit in the next fiscal year and that the time has. Come to Cut Back on unnecessary expenses. If Theydon t agree he invites them Down to the White House to discuss is taking on the labor lobby the israeli lobby the farm lobby and All the pork barrel Waler projects he thinks Are unnecessary. I respect the Congress he said the other Day ill work Lay and night to reach an agreeable solution to these potential threats to Harmony but 1 have to Reserve the right and the duty to say no often spending is Carter is a Little like the lonely Guy climbing the face of the big building. He is a determined character. Tie wants to Dou melting different and draw attention to himself and ideas so he dominates the news. He goes Down in a submarine with Lus old Mentor. Add Aryl Rickover in an unnecessary and maybe even silly exer Cise to dramatize Lus position As com Mander in chief he puts Forward new proposals for the control of nuclear arms without telling Moscow in Advance. He suggests new ways of compromising the Middle East conflict without prior discussion with the israelis or the arabs. He insists on the principle of human rights in All nations except those with which the United states has special Security understandings. In abort he Fol lows his own instincts but invites everybody to oppose him if they Don t result is that everybody around Here is saying and doing about what they like it is sort of a creative mess but the Atmo sphere now is much More honest in Washington than in was two or three years ago. There is much More individual activity officials in the executive and the Congress speaking their own minds but also Muchmore discussion of their differences unfortunately and much More amiable self criticism and even laughter. The viciousness of the Vietnam and watergate Days has declined if not disappeared. The problems of family life Community life and what individual americans Are doing on their own Are coming to the fore and even Jimmy Carter has helped Cul the presidency Down to human dimensions. The climbing toy maker from Queens inner York somehow symbolized All this by chasing Richard Nixon and even Jimmy Carter off the big headlines. He did make a big Deal of it. I just wanted the prize of getting to the top. It my a per Sonal he said that mood in a Way la beginning tomake Progress in Washington and it is the happiest thing that has occurred around Here in Many years. % Kwh Koue neral for those camp1p View son Korea. William f. Buckley Core is Liberty or Rule of violence or. Bernard Levin of the Londo times has quoted or belter celebrated a speech recently delivered by Axel Springer the West German publisher. On a Day in which the vice president of the unite states flew across East Germany to Bel Grade to discuss with marshal Tito the fail ure of his Mission in Vienna with John Vorster of South Africa the Levin Springer ulu lation Here amalgamated for rhetorical convenience is relevant. I wrote Levin began not Long ago about the fact that in advanced societies in is now impossible for dictators however ruthless to Seal the Borders of their coun tries against the truth and of no state is that More True than Brezhnev s East German Colony where Freedom is in places Only a few meters away and i which at the trifling risk of being shot dead by Honecker s Gestapo a citizen feast Germany can wave to his fellow countrymen in the Federal Republic Springer i do not need to be told that really this was All the result of Hitler s Vio Lence and his insane War of Conquest. But one cannot condemn Hitler s policy of Vio Lence and today bless the soviet policy of violence. One cannot hate and bondage but propagate love and make Light of the red. A system of in Justice remains a system of injustice under any Kissinger once came to see me. He entered my study and assailed me with the rhetorical question you Are a nation Alist or. Springer .1 i answered no i am for Freedom people demonstrate for the Freedom of chileans of the Blacks in Rhodesia and South Africa. But for our neighbors who in East Germany Are behind bars for Politi Cal reasons or simply As disguised hos tages for communist spies arrested Here nobody demonstrates. Last year. 7.590 men and women hereunder arrest for political Levin it is necessary that we should be reminded of just what constitutes Politi Cal crime in the soviet Empire and just what sort of behaviour is considered Springer eighty per cent of the have been sentenced for an attempt at fleeing the Republic. And the sentences Are such As in civilized countries Are Only passed on murderers and habitual Levin go Back a Little Rummels Burg Boheneck Cottbus Butzow. Names on a map a More. Even i had never heard of any of them. Yet ought not these names to have burned their Way into the consciousness of the free Peoples of the world along Wilh Belsen Ravens Brack and Dachau apart from the vastly greater scale of the nazi Camps them selves Small by comparison with Stalin s what is the difference both were built to contain innocent men and women whose very existence was a reproach to tyrants and whose incarceration was As arbitrary As it was unjust. And it you think that the comparison is far fetched Springer in Brandenburg Penitentiary cells measuring ten by Twenty Are tilled with 32 prisoners. There is no toilet two Wash basins with cold water. The bunks Are three tiered. The top bunk is just10 inches from the ceiling. Sixteen inches it was like that in Levin surely you do not mean to Tell me that i am deceived that Tryranny snot bad just because it is tyranny but be cause it is right Wing tyranny and that concentration Camps run by left Wing re Gimes Are however regrettable in a Curi Ous sense justifiable it is so truly so Springer there Are Many people including politicians in important places who would like to consign this knowledge to limbo. They have thought out a trick a hey Presto formula that is meant to re Lieve communism from its encumbrances eur communism a tiny bit to the left or right of Dubcek the humane aspect commit us with Collar and tie. With nato and Bank secrecy eur communism. To make us forget Lenin and East Germany and its prisons. But the trick is so transparent it is not simply a matter of methods it is the Cor of the matter. And the Core is Liberty or the Rule of
