European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 09, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes Money talks thursday june 9, 1977 George f.w1u Normal rape decree strikes at Rule of Law the languor of late Spring hitherto undisturbed by astonishment has Bee disturbed by judge Archie Simonson keeper of the modern Scales of Justice inthe thoroughly Modem Community of mad Ison Wisconsin. From Simonson comes the thought that when a 15-year-old boy rapes a 16-year-old girl in the stairwell of a Madi son High school the boy is Only reacting normally to the loosened moral fiber of a permissive boy who did that was fortunate enough to wind up in Simonson s court. The boy two companions in what once was consid ered a straightforward crime were 14 and 15-year-old boys. The 14-year-old was condemned to a Milwaukee group Home. Charges against the 15-year-old were dropped when he promised to testify against the others. Presumably his Testi Mony helped convict the boy that Simonson found guilty of behaving sentenced that boy Only to a year at Home under court supervision. And what you May Well wonder is supervision supposed to achieve behaviour by the boy that is Normal less Normal this is a vexing question because Simon son s emphatic opinion is that the problems not with the boy after All boys will be boys but with the social landscape. Which Simonson says is planted thick with a extenuating circumstances in a sexual % by permissive town like Madison Simon-1\ son asks rhetorically. Should we punish severely a 15 or 16-year-old who reacts to & it evidence of permissiveness he cite prostitution salacious newspaper advertisements bars with nude dancers and women who dress provocatively to Fer should be a restoration of modesty in,.?america." and whether you like it or a not a woman s a sex object and they re columns William f. Buckley Bito Blarney about another Bill it happens three or four times a member of our myriad Security forces wants a word with me about or. Jones or miss Cadwallder who have been appointed to this or that Federal Post and now must submit to a routine Security clearance. If the kill agent or state department Secu Rity official or whoever asks to see you. It Means Only that you have had some con tact personal or professional with the subject under study and that you were by coincidence there when or. Jones got drunk at the bar and talking to this her soviet Trade expert arranged the peanuts on the bar counter to illustrate the deploy ment of our nuclear submarine Fleet. Or perhaps you were at Union Hall wearing Mustache and a red wig and suddenly spotted old Jones standing up and cheering at every mention of Stalin s the other Day the agent from the state department Security office pulled anew one on me. He had come to discuss with me one William v. Shannon a local terrorist who writes editorials for the new York times and has been nominated sour ambassador to Ireland. The gent stopped me before i could open my Mouth to say. Or. Buckley i must warn you that under the 1974 privacy Art anything you say about or. Shannon that is derogatory will go into his folder to which he will that struck me As an ironic arrangement. Here Bill Shannon has been writing about me off and on for 15 years inthe new York times in unsigned editorials and if i marched Over there and stormed into the building demanding to know just who had written the piece saying that in my race for mayor of new York iwas appealing to the baser instincts of the people i d have been told to go away there is an honorable tradition behind the unsigned now under the 1974 act if you feel the obligation to pass along an Anim Adver Sion on somebody you might As Well be prepared to print it and i doubt that that i what Security is intended to accomplish. We know that in 1972 there were lots of people around who knew that senator Eagleton had had some difficulties. But none Rose to speak about them when he was nominated for vice president of the unite states. It is always a depressing business to give out bad reports. The extra Strain of having to give them out in what amounts to an open letter addressed to the person being looked at is for most people i suspect marginal. One Speaks to Fri agent Sand stale department Security officials Only out of a sense of civic duty and wit Confidence that a disparaging report will be thoroughly checked out and rational evaluated. If you say about Jones in answer to the question have you overseen him drunk yes. At the Bachelor s party before his wedding you will Bot have told the truth an obligation of sorts and supplied the context within which what you say has a Chance of being amply of these Prolegomena remind me that the pressure of the recent event was entirely hypothetical. I racked my mind trying to think of something derogatory today about William Shannon but for the life of me i could t. Needless to say i told the agent his politics he is a Liberal demo crat Are impossible. A week docs not goby that i Don t Pray to St. Judy for William Shannon. St. Jude is the Patron Saint of the impossible. It is to St. Judy. For instance that you Pray that the supreme court will discover the meaning of the Constitution of the United to move from editorial writer for the new York times to a position with the Carter administration is a step in the evolutionary process hardly a mutation what else can one expect it you begin with the idiopathic Ascendancy of Jimmy Carter you accept a new York times editorial writer As ambassador. After All we Are talking about an administration in which Bella Abzug was offered several , senator Moynihan said publicly he would recommend her for any Federal Post. I have privately lobbied for Bella As chief of protocol but my recommendation has not been taken seriously. But As to Shannon it is not the Job of people consulted by Security to approve or disapprove so it did no harm for me to say about him that he is a first class writer an first class human being. I Only Hope it did not Hurt him. A Washington sur is the Fri. Comments the ones who turn the Man on generally the provocative 16-year-old sex object who was the victim of the rapist s Normal be Havior was wearing Tennis shoes leans and a Blouse Over a Turtle neck sweater. Madison is the state capital seat of the progressive tradition of which Wisconsin is inordinately proud. Madison also is the Home of the University of Wisconsin. Age1 cannot Wither nor custom stale the infinite variety of ideas that Bloom in University towns. Like most towns blessed with the dominating presence of an institution of higher learning Madison is a scene of cheerful Bustle. It has a wide open mind through which blows the Breeze of advanced thinking. But every Blessing a University towns worry about leakage of dangerous material involved in scientific research such As recombinant Dan " the mind of Simonson suggests an other legitimate worry leakage of contaminating sociology into the Community Simonson obviously regards himself As a Man for Stormy times keenly alive to the temper of the age. Although his thinking is As vague As fog. He has tried to be True to Modem thought it is Normal indeed it is a natural right to indulge natural desires especially the most imperious ones. But lost somewhere in the fog Here is serious Point progressive communities that tolerate the casual commercial in flaming of sexual passions should not be amazed and clearly Compromise their right to be righteous when the flames leap out of control. Women s groups with their remarkable ability to miss the larger Point s decision As sexist which it is. It also is hard to Square with the Rule Law which is supposed to shape and Rood late desires especially the most Imperi Ous. In Simonson s defense note that be is 00activist judge of a sort much approved these Days. He is susceptible to sociological transports he is not distracted by Dusty precedents he is not inhibited by niggling worries about what would become of the Law if All judges were As Frisky As fees in pioneering theories of moral responsibility and normalcy. The Simonson Ian doctrine seems to be that it is Normal and barely reprehensible to surrender to Strong desires stirred by whatever stimuli society provides. Simon son is just unusually forthright in joining do we not favor the Unity of theory an practice the sociological theory thit people Are Mere toys in the hands of social situations and the contemporary moral in sight if it feels Good do perhaps Simonson will adjust his Juris prudence if it stirs in Madison s reactionaries an imperious desire to do him bodily harm. Some people consider such a desire Normal. C Weihin Lon pm
