European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 7, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes monday july 7,1986 columns Carl Rowan . Con f afford to allow Mexico to collapse i he Drift toward major economic and Politi Cal tragedy can Linus in Mexico which Means that the sink1 inward minor tragedy goes on for inc United stall s. Not Man americans of her than texans and inc Heads of the big Hanks of new York and California can Comphie it j Ithai inc fall in Petroleum prices has done to Mexico. A colossal debt crisis of 1982 has been compounded by a drastic decline in income Mexico counts on Oil imports for 60 percent of its foreign Exchange meaning thai Mexico can t even pay the interest on its j98 billion foreign dbl. We neighbors to the North watch in a no Lii son of bemused men l. As though ii is nothing More serious than someone repossessing inc Auto. To set and refrigerator of a next door neighbor who is suffering from jobless Ness. But Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker did t Rush Sec Cal to Mexico  Mexico s plight is trifling. He went Bevaun of the possibly devastating rippling effect of a debt default by Mexico roof Buller off third world countries demanding the same con Cessions granted to Mexico regarding interest and debt repayments. I think Volcker also went to Mexico because he and others in the Reagan administration and the Congress know that the United slates cannot afford to Sec a comic collapse and political upheaval in Mexico any More than it could allow Greece and Turkey or Western Europe to go under at the end of world War ii. That raises the question of something larger than the Nickel and Dimo Aid programs that the . Has provided Mexico during recent years whether something approaching a Marshall plan is necessary for a major neighbor in a  of the world that is so vital to our Security. We Yankees arc at each others throats Over inc communist threat in Nicaragua. But we have not faced a credible communist threat in this hemisphere until the forces of poverty and eng acct unleash a Politi Cal explosion in Mexico. A communist Cuba is one thing a potentially communist Mexico with a Popula Tion of 76 million is a peril of another magnitude. We will become More and More the victims of a drug traffic operating through and out of Mexico As the George will economic desperation of Ordinary mexicans and the impotence of the mexican government increases. The United states is a nation without meaningful control of its Borders. So Many mexicans Are crossing , Borders illegally that Mexico might just As Watt be our 51st state. Or to put it another Way by illegal immigration mexicans arc reclaiming Texas califor Nia and other territories hat they Long have claimed the United slates stole from them. Don t know that any . Marshall plan can be big enough or successful enough to convince mexi cans to stay in woefully overcrowded Mexico City or even Acapulco or Cancun. I do know that the Price of illegal immigration in terms of welfare education crime and other factors will be As great As any Aid plan Congress is Likely to approve. The economic woes of our huge neighbor Are every bit As crucial to our own tomorrows As the Sovi i american jousting Over strategic arms negotiations. But most americans Don t seem 10 know thai the mex ican crisis May be far More fateful than the conflict and thie veries of the contras and sandinista in Nicaragua. We have just got to Stop thinking of Mexico in terms of Lacos and Sailfish and cozy ditches of cronies in Cuema Vaca. Id Newt Ann red syn Hali Burger court failed to live up to expectations Zeke Bonura was a Large and remarkably immobile first baseman whose slowness did not Grieve him because he understood a vital principle of base Ball you arc rarely charged with an error when you do not touch the Ball. Conservatives have hoped the supreme court would adhere to the Bonura insight sometimes known As judicial restraint. The Burger court has nol. Indeed. Its judicial activism has been As marked As and arguably More destructive than. The Warren court s. None of the Warren court s most important rulings has been overturned or even significantly Circum scribed in the 17 Burger years. The sweep of the Miranda ruling on the rights of suspects has been Only slightly circumscribed. The Burger court is responsible for the ruinous spread of forced busing a a remedy for segregation. The Burger court misconstrued the 1964 civil rights act to permit reverse racial discrimination on behalf of government approved minorities Burger court activism extended procedural due pro Cess guarantees to Public school students accused of behaving badly. The Burger court has done nothing significant to reassert reason in the interpretation of the ban on establishment of religion nothing that is. To re establish the principles that government must be Neutral Between sects not Between religion and secularism. And nothing the Warren court did was As raw and Radical an exercise of judicial Power As the 1973 decision thai swept away the Laws regulating abortions in 50 states. Supreme court appointments Are the Premier spoils of presidential politics. Each appointee is 20 percent of a majority Ai the Apex of one of the three branches of government the Branch that has assumed custody of the issues race abortion Etc the political branches have been pleased to relinquish. The supreme court is where american Public philosophy is published As an unending serial. The departure of Burger the Elevation of William Rehnquist and the nomination of Antonin Scalia Are important episodes in he process of length ening the Shadow today s president will cast into to Morrow. The supreme court is a Small face to face society where politics has Subtle dynamics. The players Are Strong willed professionals reasoning about hot issues in the Cool climate of a written Constitution changing statutes and a vast body of Case Law. The building of coalitions is influenced by intellectual nuance and the Power of personality. On both counts Scalia and Rehnquist will augment the Power of conservative jurisprudence. Scalia is an intellectual in a Way thai Burger is not by training and inclination Scala has Hughl it several of the finest Taw schools. He has the theoretical turn of mind thai deepens analytic Powers and does no dispose a judge to try to split All differences. That disposition can make intellectuals ineffective politicians but forceful judges. With Scalia Leavening the court it May be less inclined to torture itself and All who love logic with Over More baroque criteria for distinguishing permissible from impermissible race conscious stale action. A Wuh Walton pm a Fuji group