European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 18, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes tuesday october 18, 1977 James Reston Carter Medicine too sour for Gas drunk . San Francisco when the president of the United slates and the big Oil boys Start tossing thunderbolts at each other that s the time to get out of Washington and across the continent As fast As Possi ble. It s also probably the Best Way to under stand Why there s so much disagreement on Energy policy among other things. Forthe country is just too Damn big different and Rich to imagine itself running out of Gas or anything else. Shortage the evidence is Clear on the surface that it is our surpluses and not our shortages that Are choking and strangling end of the american Frontier Why outside of a few Little piddling strips of humanity along the coast and around the great lakes one has the impression vault ing the continent that the whole country looks almost empty and unconquered. In Washington the tussle Between Carter and the Oil Barons sounded like the opening shots in a Long War but it took place at 7 30 in the morning out Here and columns comments at that time of Day in these parts Drivers cutting Down to 55 Miles per hour would probably be arrested for obstructing tray , the farther you get from Washington the More you realize that politics Don t rate very High on the scale of popular american interests especially at the end of the pro baseball and the beginning of the pro football the moment. Sparky Lyle s to rating is higher than Jimmy Carters and the popular question out Here is not whether America is running out of Gas but whether the Yankees Are running out of pitchers. And this of course is what drives Jimmy Carter out of his Peanut Pickin Cool. He blames the Oil companies and the Oil companies blame him. The press blames the Congress and the Congress blames the press. In fact everybody is blamed but the american people who Are obviously at the Bottom of this whole unnecessary mess. When the arabs shut off the Gas we go crazy and when Jimmy Carter tells us the Independence and even the Security of the country will be at stake if we Don t Cut the waste we go fishing at 70 Miles an hour behind All this amiable american Confidence however Are two serious questions How to persuade a vast Continental people to take reasonable precautions for their own future and How to get effective action in the Senate of the United states where any determined minority with the acquiescence of an indifferent or divided Public can hamstring both a democratic president and a democratic Congress it can be argued of course that in his concept of an effective Energy policy president Carter was too complicated and in his management of this legislation he was at first too neglectful of Senate Pride and finally too one sided in his severe criticism of the Oil companies. But this is by nature a devilishly complicated subject and even if he did t stroke All the egos in the Senate a formidable task this does not relieve them of their the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those the authors and Are in no Way it be considered As representing the views of the stars surf mar us unite states to everment. Duty to pass legislation equal to the Magni tude of the All. The business of the Oil Compa Nies is to make Money and the business of the president and the Congress is to make this As in other controversies car Ter s backswing has been better than his follow through but he has defined the Energy problem in the starkest terms which even the dullest of senators have understood. The problem is not so much that his definition of the crisis has been Dis pro Ven As that his prescription is sour medi Cine for a nation of Drivers drunk on gasoline. He said in effect that we were a greedy and feckless people. Prices have gone up drastically he observed there was potential War profiteering and this could develop with the passing months into the biggest rip off in this is fairly simple language. Carter has done everything except mount a horse and cry alarm in the night that the arabs Are coming but Oil imports have almost doubled in four years and the United states now imports More Oil than All the european countries combined on top of our own substantial production. Clearly the president decided the time had come to startle the people into Atten Tion but out Here in the Sunshine there is Little evidence that he has succeeded sofar. On the Day Carter started fighting Back sales of new cars by the nation s big four for the first 10 Days of the new Model season were up 15.1 per cent Over the same period a year ago. So it s Little wonder that the president started shouting out the window. His clutch has been slipping for months and he had to tighten it up or get run Over. C new York times Jesse l. Jackson social bomb ticking in High court there is a social bomb ticking in the . Supreme court. The catch phrase for the issues at stake is reverse discrimination but the question really is whether the . Will be Able to continue its Strug Gle to win a reversal of the Case that has lit the fuse is Allan Bakke is. The University of the apparent Issue is whether Bakke a 37-year-old aerospace Engineer deter mined to become a doctor was a victim of discrimination when he was denied admission to the medical school at the University of California at Davis. The question of reverse discrimination arose after Bakke found that some members of minority groups admitted to the medical school at the time he was rejected had grades and test scores lower than his own. Bakke s Case seems simple enough but then most bombs do and the Bakke bomb is no exception. It threatens to unravel traditional As Well As special Antinis criminal tory practices in virtually every Corner of american Justice department has reported that Bakke s position if upheld by the court could scuttle Many important Public programs each designed and put into action As part of an Effort to make Good on the Constitution s guarantee of equal opportunities for All. Here s a Sampler of the programs that will be in jeopardy if Bakke prevails affirmative action programs at every level Federal state and local. The Public works employment act which requires Grant applicants to spend at least 10 per cent of each Grant with minority businesses. The department of health education and welfare s mental health training Grants program which includes minority group projects. The department of Commerce s minority business Enterprise programs. A variety of desegregation programs of the emergency school Aid the most vulnerable private sector targets of Bakke is higher Educa Tion. The Bakke Case says Ohio state University s or. Frank w. Hale jr., is direct attack on affirmative action pro Grams. Designed to insure or. Hale went on the politics of reaction seems to be gaining More anymore support among the majority of Whites who have difficulty in getting beyond the rhetoric of the american Creed of equal Opportunity for All individuals when it comes to the application of those affirmative action programs that Are critical to the abatement of the medical school that turned Bakke Down admitted 100 students 16 of them disadvantaged it is to the treatment of those 16 Blacks Chicano and Oriental americans that Bakke takes exception. The other 84 students were All Peers of Bakke and they simply outscored him in the admissions standards. He does not Challenge them Only the disadvantaged 16. Do the test scores and grades and the cultural biases they undeniably contain really prove that Bakke would be a better medical student a More competent or humane physician than any of the disadvantaged 16? is this the kind of question that we should allow to undermine All that has been done to eradicate 200 years of overwhelming institutionalized discrimination in the United sates there Are an Swers to that question hard fact answers. Next week i d like to share them with you and then ask yourself is Bakke a question of reverse discrimination or does it undo what we be done to win a reversal of discrimination c los Angeles times
