European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 10, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes May columns comments William Safire Pitburg speech redeemed blunders of Reagan trip to president Kennedy Ich bin Cin a powerful and personal statement of identification with people struggling for president Reagan added i am a jew in a world still threatened by i am an and i am a prisoner of the i am a refugee in a crowded boat foundering off the coast of i am a a a cuban and a miskito Indian in am a potential victim of the poet theologian John Donne made that Point in his no Man is an Island and Ernest Hemingway used a phrase from Donne in his title of a Book about resistance to for whom the Bell Many jews will remember the lesson from the seder service that requires commemoration of the need for personal during which it is recounted that an arrogant son what did the almighty do for you and is castigated for not asking As a what did the almighty do for me to understand you have to be an Active part of a month had no real grasp of the moral priorities of the Holo Caust or the fear of forgetting that pre vents his journey to under standing his own painful walk into the past opened the minds of millions to the costs of reconciliation in a Way that no other process could have in driving Home the lessons of his incredible series of blunders turned out to be a at he did not want to go to a concentration too gloomy to be part of an upbeat like so he praised remembrance so Long As it involved no personal the discovery of the is Graves in the scheduled cemetery visit saved him from the sin of at that Reagan and the world had to go to a death Camp and Bear then some invisible pedagogic hand led him to equate the victims of the death Camps with the dead soldiers of the third he soon along with Mil Lions who had never Given the matter any that no reconciliation could Ever come about by glossing Over the enormity of the crimes committed by the nazis and the germans who enthusiastically abetted feeling sadness at the grave of sol James Kilpatrick Dicks is on a different order of magnitude from feeling agony at the Slaughter of the president absorbed the in an inspiring instructional penance in the Oval he led a huge audience in listening to the testimony of Elie the quintessential the invisible teaching hand would not let an ignoble motive fear of appear ing weak and subject to pressure merged with a Noble motive the concern about insulting a new generation of germans to Send him to a place tainted with the Graves of storm this posed a test would he and be Able to articulate both the need for remembrance and the requirement for reconciliation in part one of this amazing he stood at Bergen Belsen alongside the Ger Man a Man of relentless re to confront and condemn the acts of a hated regime of the the jewish prayer for the dead Speaks not of the but determinedly of Faith in god the president stressed the message of the doomed Anne i still believe that people Are really Good at no horror photograph can be As affecting As that example of intelligent innocence and pure Hope snuffed out the ritual never again had in the final part of the at the Pitburg he acknowledged the presence of the nazi Graves first by turning his Back on then by contrasting them with the remains of Young and left the judgment to he did not equate them with their victims or with the soldiers who fell in a moral one false note was an extended anecdote about the suspension of hostilities on a Holiday As if the wehrmacht had been made up mainly of sentimental boys but he Drew the Central lesson clearly that Freedom must always be stronger than that Good must always be stronger than that followed his uplifting i am a i am a jew in a world still threatened by antisemitism and for me redeemed the thoughtless Early planning of this in seeking at first to sidestep the smouldering the president brought on a firestorm 40 years after a which in turn forced a forget Ful world through a most necessary new York times Syndicate soviet so wet Epis oct new Guy Ken onto report insufficient most feeding at Public trough the Bureau of the census came up with an astonishing figure the other Day almost half of All households in the nation 47 to be precise were receiving some kind of Check from the Federal government during the first Quarter of that is not the most astonishing if the bureaus Survey were truly so that it covered All kinds of Federal subsidies for it probably would develop that two thirds of american households Benefit in some direct fashion from Federal the bureaus Survey reflected the picture in 1984 Noth ing suggests that the picture is significantly different in in one Way or millions of us Are dependent on everybody favorite the Bureau divided its study into programs that Are mean tested and programs that Are the Survey found that 39 million of the million households were receiving benefits from one or More government in 23 million at least one person was receiving a Check from a no Means tested mainly social in 16 million at least one person was benefiting from such programs As food subsidized rental free school lunches and Aid to families with dependent As you would Many households benefited under several typically a family on Ardc also would qualify for medicaid and food the Bureau found that million households count on two checks a month million Benefit from three programs and million Are participating in four or in getting to its figure of 47 percent of All House the Bureau worked by some mystifying guide for the Survey included those House holds participating in other loan it included Railroad retirement excluded Federal civilian and Mili tary neither did the Survey include households that Bene fit from subsidized electric in the customers of the Federal Power marketing administration pay on third of the Market rates paid customers of the Tennessee Val Ley authority similarly Are roughly 10 Mil lion Consumers including As a matter of fact Are captive members of Rea presumably we Are beneficiaries of the coops subsidized though these it Are scarcely visible to the naked among the governments most costly programs Are the commodity support about Rural households Benefit directly from Federal purchases of tobacco and Dairy other programs come to the National endowments for arts and humanities provide Grants that support dancers and the bureaus Survey did not include about persons who last year were receiving training in the Job if the study had embraced All of us who Benefit directly and personally from tax such As the deductions we take for Home mortgages and charitable Contri the Survey would have taken in just about eve we Are All in the trough the statistics provide a quiet but eloquent explanation for the pressures that were Manifest in the senates debate recently on the when 30 million people Are getting social Security it is formidably hard to Cap a costo living adjustment in checks for military retirement go into million Homes every month and of those Homes have incomes in excess of a voters dwell in such lots of the Long and Short of it is that As a people we Are addicted to All sorts of direct Federal so Long As we insist that these programs be maintained at present Levels so Long As we Are unwilling to give up anything so Long will these appalling deficits o1985 Universal press Syndicate