European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 12, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                What a difference a decade makes turns Riding the streets at night in an unarmed Citi lately patrol looking for crime is the big menace one of them it thinks out to steal  alone live in Bow criminals and to tolerant judges were a of conversation in Huntington deep Creek of Chesa i Bay and other places i i crime is something that happens to someone else then one Day outside the Butmore hotel on Madi i got jostled in the noon heard a Mur 4 excuse me and my Wallet was two Ting Angels at the Midtown South precinct got in a that Day Over whether i was complaint go or on their Itte motor vehicle applying for a re Fem eat driven i was inline for vexed elderly rabbi who Tou Roe us problem Loag Regalon had Given urn a stolen Automo ii there was Eye a form to cover the Boston and Washington and i worried aloud about child i drug addicts taking Over the Public Parks ads and making the streets a danger zone i thought of Antun a retired steel to from who had gone Back to his birth can Yugoslavia to live of his pension i met him on Flay where a Little bit homesick come to watch a destroyer put in for Shore fuck myself All the time now which is the free coun watching those Young sailors alight from Here i cant say what i want or read what met i can walk in the Park or Down any Street Long in i was a prisoner in my own speech is a great but at my age theres not to say from fear is More import fett to crime aa4 the Lack of the m that most enrages the citizenry from coast to to Tus meandering Sara is the gnawing Arnout of government iut Erfer their uves and Pursuit Al Bunroe Over at the body shop has to redo All his signs said a Man in a Barbe chair in Long Only has one mexican working for him and thai the Barber turned to a fellow waiting behind Tell him Bow often you bad to re hang that nun Gusher every time Osha occupational safety health administration came out with a new Rule How Many feet it should be above the a re faced Man in a floppy Stetson boiling Over a government regulation that says is got to be a toilet every Block for the hands at bar has that idiot Ever seen a wheat farm hey sent out a 48page Booklet explaining the new fied form on growled a Stockman Watt or an overdue plane at grand the file Iger than my for the first time in my americans at my Lacome Levels expressed concern Over illegal hot political Issue for Many years to january Jimmy Carters amnesty offer raised questions at the grassroots level Long after his to press get rid of the illegal immigrants and you solve the unemployment argued a restaurant Supply distributor passing through Scotts he held up a copy of the Rocky Mountain news with a front Page Story eng Leonel head of the immigration and realization to the effect that Between and s million illegal immigrants had entered the country since people arc on the California is losing population to industries Are picking up whole plants and Headquarters and moving farther and farther from the declining Urban Small not just Small while the rate of growth in Are Richmond and Birmingham is As in the the pickup truck is in with the Back window painted up with a pretty Small vans and panel trucks Are replacing the station Wagon As a family something called a moped has become the College Jalopy of the Energy the nonsmoking segment of the citizenry has made great gains in advancing Row by Row Down the air plane Cabin so that soon the smokers will be relegated aft of the a number of towns Are thinking of Banning smoking in Public like restaurants and after the manner of which used to tolerate just about especially in the smoking i had spent nearly half the last decade in the far witnessing the americanization of coming Home 1w years after the fall of the Story has taken a curious Viet namese culture is taking hold in some of the most unlikely towns have a Fine vietnamese some of the smallest a vietnamese dentist or in san Francisco there is a vietnamese daily newspaper and a weekly in Kansas they Are the second largest foreign ethnic our tart two doctors moved away because they didst make a million dollars in the first year of complained a Nebraska wheat now we have a vietnamese dentist and and both seem As Happy to be Here As we Are to have the first shiver of Winter moved across the land As i headed Back from a train the red Streak of dying Day seemed to hang Over the Miles and Miles of empty desert that gave Way to soaring dark Green waiting for the and then in the faint the endless Tawny i had forgotten How big Amer Ica on the Tran european express you would have crossed at least four Borders by Arih this the iw1 Imp it was Gratifying to that Chimney Rock has become a National Monument without a hot dog stand in Dawn came and America was still out chevrons of geese honked Down the flyway from autumn had spread her Rich persian carpet Over the Adiron and the Apple Orchards were heavy with fruit that according to the radio in the dining car cried out for pick i found it proclaimed the bumper stickers on sever Al cars when the interstate ran along the i lost it several answered and the conductor told me it was a religious joke bom out of the upsurge in evangelistic in almost every town the train passed new houses were going a rare sight in Europe anywhere these and clusters of condominiums marked the approach to a big City As surely As the motels and the suburban shopping reversing an american fad now blighting billboards seemed to be an almost endangered ii was Gratifying to learn that Chim Ney Rock has become a National Monument without a hot dog stand in not even a signboard to Walls drug store to obliterate the so Little that changes Ever changes Truman capote americans Are trying to do something about that fighting against the tide of time and sometimes in the old victorian scroll work right out of Willa gathers o Pio Are being restored As lovingly As the ironwork in the new Orleans French Quarter or a cobblers shop in colonial new with All its is rediscovering its despite the ugly juror Over school is showing a renewed affection for the handsome wooded three Deckers in Dorchester and with the future promising the past takes on new what a difference a decade the morning paper reported James a former Catholic priest who now drives a bus in was attending an Episco pal Church with his and had been turned Down in his attempts to become an Episcopalian the last time i saw him he was leading a civil rights demonstration into polish town in Milwaukee with a police escort against could also be More than a decade ago the same afternoon i read about the former father Groppas changing lifestyle i drove my rental car into a service station in Anita the sign Over the pumps said self service i asked the Little old lady sitting by the Cash Register what that meant when she told i went Back outside and tried to figure out How the nozzle that was the easy then i  find the Gas tank on the the lady had to come out and show me where Detroit had hidden it behind the License must be a she i Hope youll like our i do like our and what i like about it most was Best expressed by the longhaired English hippie who did yoga exercises every morning on the ship we came Home on and always came to the dining room in White Swami but when we steamed under the verrazano he had trimmed his put on a conservative Pencil striped Blue substituted shoes and socks for sandals and removed the Gold ring from his ear to meet the immigration in not bowing to he told in on the wait ing in i dont want to blow this theres a new life waiting the same sentiment could be read in the eyes of a pakistani family further Down the line and of the old jewish couple who had left both Russia and Israel within the last two the last Best Hope of the Bicentennial orators kept quoting Abraham Lincoln on the american exclamation Points exploded in my mind every time the immigration Man stamped a passport that Homecoming Day in new York the stars and stripes Page is