European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 03, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday october 3, 1985 columns Tom Wicker Ueberroth s drug remedy worse than the problem. _ in a. Aih Mere Promise that those in authority commissioner Peter \ Kbar Roth his proposed n remedy worse than the porn Htom in his Appeal to major be i be baseball players to submit to unscheduled testing for possible drug abuse. The play ers have every reason to insist that this program be negotiated with i hair Union and their rights respected. It s not even Clear that the program the Union already has agreed to is not work ing or that a drastic new approach is needed. The drug abuse by a few players that a is exposed in the rial of a Small Lime dealer in Pittsburgh occurred several years ago. No doubt some such abuses continue but Ueberroth has not established even by circumstantial or hearsay evidence that drug abuse in the major leagues is increasing out of hand or even unusual. If anything it s Likely that players involvement with illicit drugs has decreased for a number of reasons increased knowledge of the dangers in cocaine use the bad publicity resulting from the Over blown Pittsburgh trial. Inc prison sentences already served by some baseball players the wrecked careers of others the clubs and the players Union s educational efforts and Ueberroth s activist Campaign. Where demonstrable abuses do exist the commissioner and the baseball clubs have the Power to Lake either rehabilitative or punitive action or Bolh. Preventive action is better but not if it Means that All is 1 All players guilty or innocent alone among All civilian americans must sub Mitlo mandatory unscheduled tests that demean hem personally invade their Pri Vacy threaten them with unwarranted suspicion of guilt and probably could t be sustained in a court of Law. Is major league baseball really Asue Berroth roundly charged under a Cloud called drugs that s permeated our game if that can be said of baseball when the evidence is that the vast majority of players officials Etc. Is clean How much More forcefully and truthfully can it be said of american society in general in which sadly cocaine use really has been increasing at virtually Alt Levels the drug enforcement Agency reports that 50 to 60 tons of cocaine entered the United states in James Reston 19h3. Against Only 34 to 45 tons in 19hi and customs projections suggest that 20 percent More will enter this year than in 1984. Cocaine use is extensive and grow ing it s the drug of Choice for virtually any Field you care to name lawyers Doc tors entertainers businessmen students Assembly line workers housewives mor Ali ing sportswriters and other journalists. Anyone foolish enough to Lay out the Nec Essary Cash can get the stuff. In a society so permeated it s downright hypocritical to single out baseball players. But these players it is solemnly insisted should be role models for youth. Baloney. Do you want your son drooling tobacco juice kicking dirt on umpires throwing at batters Heads spiking opponents no one threatens mandatory pro Grams to Stop such role modelling. Ath letes arc athletes glorious for that and Well paid but otherwise human and often repugnant. Besides what kind of role Model for youth in a democratic society is a program that treats the innocent the same As the guilty under which an innocent or re formed player who stands on his rights and refuses to be tested might Well be suspected or even publicized As a drug abuser. Perhaps traded to another team or sent to the minors Ueberroth promises and surely intends confidentiality and no reprisals but human nature which afflicts club owners managers and  has not yet been repealed. And the voluntary relinquishing of any citizen s rights on the Mer t author ii will not abuse them is another role Model that threatens rather than enhances a democratic society if a drug addict in baseball or a player indebted to a supplier might be tempted or forced to throw a game or a series so might a Drinker a Borrower a Gambler a Stock Market loser a Homo sexual or a heterosexual frequenting the wrong bedrooms. Or any Ordinary human being. Peter Ueberroth is right to be worried about baseball and cocaine but wrong to think his worry justifies special action out Side the Law whether of baseball or the larger society. Cd new York Jimei. ,. A am til All your Ruhr for a Mil card eve time they Schmel earthquake focuses . Attention closer to Home it took the acc Cal earthquakes in Mexico the cries of children in the rubble to make Washington think a Little More seriously about the accidents of life and death and the common probe cons of inc Western hemisphere. Washington h is been thinking about other things All of Ihm important a Toul disasters that might happen with the soviet i  tin Earlh and in outer space for example and about others perhaps less important. In fact More hours have been spent in recent years on the politics of Nicaragua and Al Salvador than on the economic and social tangles of Mexico which is bigger than All of Continental Western Europe with a population knocking at our door that is larger than Britain s or prance s or West Germany s. The govern ment and people of the United states reacted with sympathy and generosity to Mexico s recent tragedy As they usually do to human suffering. Aside from this the earthquakes along the rim of the Pacific reminded us of cur common geography and mortality and brought us a Little closer to Home. But there s a problem. It seems that like most people we pay attention not to the causes of human tragedy but Only to the consequences and then with the utmost but tardy Good will try to Deal with  when they break out into physical violence rebellion anarchy and death. It s not a new Story. We ourselves tolerated slavery in our own country for a Hundred years and loitered Down into inc terrible War Between the states before we finally got rid of that curse the remnants of which arc still with us. Likewise it took two world wars which were really civil wars within Western civilization n bring the nations Hal believed in personal Freedom to their senses to fetch America out of isolation to compose the ancient enmities of France and Germany and produce the beginnings but Only the beginnings of a com Mon economic and political Union in Europe and a sensible common purpose among the nations of the at lactic and the Mediterranean. What has been sad about All this though understand Able is that while Washington has been preoccupied almost transfixed by its conflicts Wilh Moscow on inc nuclear balance of Power in Europe and outer space it has or so it seems Here to have forgotten what was happening on its Southern Border in inc night namely a population explosion almost a dust of people fleeing from poverty across our Borders which arc now beyond our control. There is no Way the United states can isolate itself from the clash of ideologies and weapons with the soviet Union or from the tangles of the Middle East or the racial struggles of Africa or the economic financial and communications revolution of the coming Century. But in the midst of All this distracting tumult about what might happen in the military stars we have tended to forget the human Star that guided so Many wanderers from inc world to this continent. Everybody in Washington agrees with the Monro Doc Rinc about defending the Security of the America irom invasion by alien troops and ideas from othe t1ik new soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze has been in the United states in recent Days talking about a 50 percent Cut in nuclear weapons which is a Good sign but maybe we need at least a 50 percent Cut in poverty in Mexico and even More in misunderstanding Between Washington and Mexic City. L Monroe i americas troop other comments. What has been forgotten or at least minimized in the confusion of the cold War with the russians is that other doctrine that Franklin Roosevelt called the Goodneighbor policy. This has come Down in Washington to an unresolved question of philosophy which is not Washington s favorite subject and also to Money which is washing ton s favorite subject. And ultimately it comes Down to the question of  where does it lie in More billions for weapons or More for food in a hungry world or at least a Lillic better distribution Between the iwo pc i re Lac 1ucslions the tragedy of Mexico has raised in Washington in recent Days. Washington did t produce the earthquakes or population explosion Mexico but they made folks Here think a Little about the fire next door. C new York t i in More