European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 05, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday november 5,1985 columns Tom Wicker affirmative action working so con f try to fix if if his past statements and general attitude ate a guide. President Reagan probably will Side with attorney general Edwin Meuse in a dispute on affirmative action that has split the Cabinet a split that reflects an even deeper division among americans. The attorney general wants to make Cru Cial changes in an executive order signed by president Johnson in 1965, and its accompanying labor department regulations they now require government contractors to try to hire and promote Blacks hispanics and women in reasonable proportion to the num Bers or available qualified candidates in a Given labor Market. Contending that the goals and timetables that usually result fro these requirements tend to become rigid employment quotas Meese and other critics among them the Black conserva Tive chairman of the civil rights commis Sion Clarence m. Perdition jr., and the while House communications director Pat Buchanan want to Issue a new order that would eliminate Federal requirements for numerical hiring goals. Bill Brock the Secretary of labor who As a former Republican National chairman consistently sought to make the party More appealing to Blacks countered with a plan to leave the 1965 executive order intact but to lighten his department s regulations to prohibit mandatory quotas. Some use of goals and timetables still would be permitted. At a showdown Cabinet meeting that must have been one of the More dra Matic episodes of the second Reagan administration Brock a soft spoken but highly effective produced some formidable Cabinet support reportedly including Treasury Secretary James who was not present and Secretary of state George Shultz. He also had the backing of Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole and House Republican Leader Robert h. Michel. And numerous business groups notably including the National association of manufacturers say the current policy is working Well enough. Brock and his supporters argued the Issue to a standoff. Instead of a Clear Cut recommendation of a desc s position to the presi George will Are just we to have to to what the a Job. Become Whitcamp male Dent the Cabinet sent Reagan an option from it he can choose a course backing Mcnese or one expressing the Brock position or a third that would prohibit quo tas in a new executive order but make no mention of goals or timetables. The attorney general s inability to get a Cabinet consensus in support of his position was unexpected but not a Cay so Surpris ing. The Cabinet debate was narrowly focused on government employment but that is a key element in affirmative action a subject on which americans remain deeply and emotionally divided. On the one hand Are those who believe the Constitution permits no race conscious remedy even for a racial problem. No mat Ter How Blacks might once have suffered from political and economic discrimination they argue a color Blind Constitution pro Hibits remedial action through racial preference. Anyway such preferences tend to damage minorities in the Long run others argue by making it unnecessary for them to develop the skills necessary to compete economically. This position is shared rather As Oisin Terest edly by some who fear that goals for minority employment threaten their own jobs and by others who believe that goals for the inclusion of one minority could be used to exclude other americans. The opposing View is that the racially caused disadvantage to Black americans has been so extensive that Only some forms of racial preference such As hiring goals can be an effective remedy. Those of us who share lha approach believe the Ideal of a color Blind Constitution was so diluted by centuries of racial discrimination that it is hypocritical to contend now that a Constitution that for n Long countenanced the one form of racial preference discrimination against Blacks and in favor of Whites prohibits another form of racial preference to repair the damage. On such an emotional subject whatever Reagan does will surely be controversial but probably the More so if he sides with a Csc and Rolls Back 20 years of affirm ivc action policy. For in Michel s Sage not original words when it works you Don t fix cd new York time Reagan Gorbachev ought of mind their manners from Harvard of All unlikely places but of course from someone just a visitor there comes some thing useful. It is a tract for these troubled times. Its title is common Courtesy in which miss manners solves the problem that baffled or. miss manners . Judith Martin writes a splendidly authoritarian and in the bargain authoritative column for Rentiers who like the smack of firm govern ment. Although she reigns in Washington she does not write about government As that is narrowly understood Here. But Harvard s Kennedy school of government no sensibly despaired of with Laws invited miss manners to lecture on the role havin perfecting the Republic of manners. Her lecture supplies what the founding fathers forgot a philosophically acceptable and aesthetically pleasing Standard of american the problem my opinion not miss manners began in Early july 1776, when Jefferson was asked to go upstairs and draft a declaration of insubordination. Head a journalist s weakness for a Snappy Lead to he began with that stuff about everyone being equal. Predictably american etiquette suffered vertigo and 200 years later a philosopher Peter do Vries who also writes novels says that the trouble with treating people As equals is that they Are Apt to Start doing the tame thing to problem Jefferson left was How do you express such american values As Equality individual Liberty social mobility and the dignity of labor in etiquette As miss manners says the abolition of ancient regime etiquette by French revolutionaries was All very Well but who wants to watch a Bunch of revolutionaries eat dinner America s revolution was almost a Black tie affair having been launched in Large measure by landed Gentry. But it has been Baxly translated into Netiquette whereby you Are assaulted in restaurants by i i m Donald and i m your waiter Donald is a practitioner of a common vice instant intimacy through the Universal use of first names All men Are created. Donald May be of impeccable personal virtue and so perhaps be horse whipped. But if he is not checked the result will be As miss manners says soc Al chaos and the end of civilization or about what w Nave miss manners target is the Jean Jacques Rousseau school of etiquette which involves the belief that Natu ral behaviour is necessarily Beautiful and that rules Only impede the spontaneous flowing of such Beauty. She notes that the idea that nature is benign is especially popular in earthquake and flood Ridden California. She also note that we live in an age in which it is easy to insult people inadvertently. Ask any gentleman who has opened a door for a woman who is so Bell cosely emancipated that door opening u an affront. And it is hard to insult people intentionally. Ours is an expression. It depends on reticence and decorous Nen just As a durable marriage depends on the ability today with a straight face Why i Don t know wha t you re worrying about. I thought you were very funny last night and i m sure everybody else did miss manners theme that armageddon not affection is produced by substituting honest self expression for the artifice of manners has an application to diplomacy. The american weakness for the Rousseau etiquette translates into the belief that Frank i honest dialogue Between nations is bound to incr am understanding and understanding is Synon mom with comity. Hence the american enthusiasm not to hut giddiness about summits. Hence also the Uslay Tufe Faith in the Middle East peace the wort process n popular with people who have an Ide logic or vocational interest in something sterile. Hence a bears control he i m5"r?c" recalls Bein a Sid Cal of a school Faro Ano differing with another member on every que Ion that member suggested taking the Board on a re i m they All.? uld to know one another manners said to him n under d. The Only reason 1 Haven the person it Apt to reply wit i dreadful tolerance i Tauare just feeling hostile because you Are depressed and you will feel better tomorrow. Miss manners knows that a harmonious society de pends on not treating All impulses As equally worthy of Wel univ y " do a i. Sec � give of the bin Ceil of the double do you want to remove that doubt messes. Reagan and Gorbachev Are going mar. A 8" 1? Kow no another than i manners they and you have been warned. Ice with Englon Poti
