European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 2, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes april columns comments Tom Wicker Security zealots forget who owns government is it really so hard to protect Ronald Reagan or any future president that the secret service must close the two blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue that run in front of the White House and if the threat is that will even such an extreme measure prevent some fanatic terrorist from doing his evil work at some other location or in some undreamed of fashion James Baker who As Secretary of the Treasury oversees the secret has told con Gress that the proposal to Seal off the historic Avenue is still very much in the planning so there should be time to Stop this latest High handed scheme of Washington myriad Security they dont always get their the Reagan admin for has just smothered a proposal by its chief  William the Cia Casey wanted to include in a Cia authorization Bill a provision making it a crime for govern ment employees to to anyone not authorized to receive classified information that reasonably could be expected to damage the National reasonably secrecy buffs like Casey might consider it reasonable to expect that disclosure of an impropriety the Cia director would damage National and All kinds of some important and much gets classified by the thousands of government High and who Are authorized to Wield a secrecy cases if could have been used to muzzle cover up official wrong hide embarrassing administration blunders and generally Clamp a lid on information the Public needs about government policy and its effectiveness or Lack of its not so certain that it would have protected vital whatever they any better than such matters Are now an official secrets though aimed at government also would hamper journalists by intimidating their sources and would Lead inevitably to the criminal prosecution of if an official defied the act and gave classified information to someone in the press who then printed or broadcast the the reporter could be subpoenaed and ordered to disclose his if he he could be held in contempt of court and sent to the major weakness in any official secrets act is in defining whats to be kept on pain of criminal classified information is no an since virtually for any can be and is classified by government officials in any adminis and even some military secrets for a plan to invade if one existed would be better exposed to the Public before the United states found itself involved in a War that was a fait i George will is not Why an inter Agency group rejected the Casey if youre going to do something like an official told Stuart Taylor of the new York you dont do it As an obscure provision in a Cia authorization that suggests that the administration might yet put Forward a secrets since Reagan and other High officials Are known to be eager to Stop leaks to the but a major political Effort probably would be required to Over come congressional recognizing surely the administration will move slowly and think Long and hard before trying to close Pennsylvania tearing two blocks out of its heart would not Only disrupt a major Washington traffic a it also would prevent the hundreds of thousands of americans who bring their children to the nations Capi Tal from enjoying one of its great symbolic sights the View of the North portico of the White House from the Avenue passing Between it and Lafayette Why not sandbag the presidents House itself or build a 20foot Concrete Wall around it Little More damage would be done to the openness of this or to Confidence in its after have been strolling or Riding along Pennsylvania Avenue for nearly two sometimes even catching a glimpse of the White houses temporary occupants Treyve watched inaugural parades from the and funeral and seen the leaders of the world come and and the Security zealots can protect nothing More important than what they would risk the democratic sense that this government belongs to its 1985 new York times news service Kofu fees fleeing political brutality amp in Leonard is better than Peanut butter and Pickle thirteen months ago i bought my first Al More Leonard in his kind of since then i have read 10 a newspaper Story announced his new i put Down my Sandwich and drove to a it was a Peanut butter and Pickle so you know Leonard is today he is taking lunch in at the Manhattan Ocean you say Good news never gets into newspapers read two weeks after publishing 23 nov Els in 32 he finally made the new York times bestseller just in 1 St last week it was his Good Luck is Good news because Luck had nothing to do with craftsmanship has been re Leonard lives in a suburb of de the City where some of his stories Are the description of Detroit As Cleveland without the glitter could come from his Detroit is not Bloomsbury but with a Gray Beard and a wardrobe consisting mainly of a Tweed says he is not an just an his books Are not exactly crime although crimes occur and guns go the novels Are about marginal peo Small people incompetent at Petty or quiet professionals like Are underestimated for a Long there Are no verbal no arresting de scrip but his style is As Strong and personal As Van Gogh Brush he has perfect pitch for the Street talk you might hear from armed robbers who Are not very Good at armed assistant professors being what they there Are his style is As personal As Van Gogh Brush turgid essays thick with coagulated paragraphs about such novels As sublimation of the class i recently read started to an essay that says detective stories Are popular because secret crime and subsequent discovery Are associated in the readers subconsciousness with i am not making this up i could not the primal a psychoanalytic term referring to a Childs imagining of sexual Intercourse Between his has suffered a reviewer once said of him the aesthetic subtext of his work is the the paper the aesthetic subtext of his work is the systematic exposure of aesthetic i thought i was just taking leonards insistence that he is just a Story Teller expresses not he has a craftsman Pride that being a Fine craftsman is Good thank he sold his first fiction in to Argosy and his first a in his Mother wishes he were still writing westerns because the Lan Guage would be less until he sold his novel Hombre voted one of the 25 Best westerns of All time by the West Ern writers of America to he had to work full time writing advertising Wallace Stevens worked in an insurance Eliot at a Anthony Trollope at the Post after Leonard stopped writing westerns and started making books the Way a custom Cobbler makes shoes with no wasted he writes from to 6 he has been called the Dickens of Detroit because of the colourful characters he creates from the Seamer Side of but he reminds me of this is lord because of his subjects there Are no Palliser in his pages but because of his approach to his Trollope kept a meticulous diary of the pages he he noted that such discipline is considered be Neath a Man of he said not being a he had to be you say that anyone who works with his imagination should wait for inspiration Trollope said it would be just As absurd to say that a Shoemaker should wait for he should sit themselves at their desks As though they were and should sit until their daily writing quota is if they adopt his they will produce a Book in four his sudden Success is an overnight sensation after 32 years of hard plugging is a tribute to where people Are not and Cream if you want a sip of the Start with his novel swag and then read if you Are not go watch it will serve you