European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 21, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse The stars and stripes thursday August 21.19b6 columns Jim Fain of by and for the people occasionally the lax Reform by legislators in Washington proves thai even in this fantasy worshipping City of of it s hard to resist the Power of an idea whose time is overdue. There was no populist uprising. No party push. No outcry. The lobbyists of Gucci Gulch fought to their last credit card. How did democracy pull off such a coup claiming credit is almost a much an Industry Here As dodging blame. We arc up to our blow dries in self congratulation now thai House and Mcnace conferred have actually done something right. Presi Dent Reagan. Sen. Bob Packwood a Ore. And rep. Dan Rostenkowski Dell. Were the first to measure for hairs. All deserve modes Praise but tax Reform has Only one daddy Bill Bradley the basketball Star turned senator. Reagan joined the reformers last year after punting through the 84 election by ordering a study. He made a Tew speeches that lil no fires and sat out most of the legislative process. Packwood performed nobly at the end but fought Reform until the t Ullh hour when he suddenly stepped to the altar and asked to be saved. Rostenkowski worked hard Ellen Goodman and artfully to ensure that neither he nor the democrats missed out on a political Plum. Bradley not Only fathered inc idea. He began a one Man crusade for it in 1982. He ailed to sell it to Walter Mondale but so frightened republicans in the process that some latched on. He lobbied on the Hill letting others have the applause. He even played pickup basketball with House committee members an awesome sacrifice. The result is a genuine Miracle though not for what it will do to rates. You probably won t notice your extra Dollar or so a week. Assuming final Pas Sage the prime benefits will be to rid us of Loop holes that let Rich corporations and individuals escape and to take 6 million poor off the Rolls. That s no Small feat. Tax preferences have so skewed the code that honest Folk arc disgusted. Democracy cannot Long endure such cynicism. Presi dents Kennedy and Carter broke their picks trying to Force reforms. Each time fat cats used heir hired guns in Congress to subvert the Effort end punch More loopholes. I All seemed hopeless. I remember wondering How someone As naive As Bradley had made it to the Senate. But the new Jersey Democrat had Treasury Fig ures to show that nearly 50 percent of the nation income was tax exempt. Thinking the holes could halve the Rales at least on paper. Once he persuaded Packwood that a lop rate below 30 percent was achievable Reform look on Maic momentum. Congressmen were intrigued by the Novelty of doing something decent and right. They stopped taking Calls from lobbyists and revealed in unaccustomed Grace. Now they re about to feed the Multi tude with two Little fishes of 15 and 28 percent. There Are Pitfalls. Despite All Reagan s posturing we cannot afford adequate defense at present tax Levels. With the i Raj fraudulent Revenue is Timilee we May postpone coming to grips with the deficit for another year but soon Well have to raise us or rekindle inflation. Thai s when special inter till will go Back to work. The new lax Bill is too easy on the very wealthy whom Reagan tries hardest to protect we need to restore progressively. But Bradley j Reform All made a magnificent beginning proving hat democracy not Only can but occasionally even Dot function of by and for the people. Ads High risk group not lust them anymore in the beginning ii was called the Gay plague. The term seems almost quaint now. Aids was a disease thai happened to them to the in the course of Lime they were translated into polite medical terminology. The people most Likely to con iraqi aids became High risk one by one More people were added to that list. Homosexuals blood recipients intravenous drug users. Next came their spouses and their newborns. The majority of american could still scan that Lisl and breathe a Vijh of Relief. If we were not on it we could take aids off our private worry Chart. Then the High risk groups expanded. Prostitutes in Haiti nearly half had the virus. Africans a Mil lion or two Are said by the world health Organiza Tion to be infected in what they Call the aids Belt the list was growing longer. Last month there was the Repon about Young americans tested As they enlisted in the army Gui of every 1,000 of these men and women were infected with the virus. Was there a new High risk group Young american heterosexuals tie Effort to separate them from in to keep this epidemic at Bay front the majority went on. The rate of infection among he army applicants we were told was three times As great for Blacks As Whites 2.s times As great for men As women far greater among applicant from Manhattan san Francisco the District of Columbia. How Many who Are not haitians or Young Black men from new York or homosexuals or drug users or their spouses still try to squeeze the last bit of Comfort from them what does in take to realize that a deadly virus does t discriminate on the basis of race sex or sexual orientation does in Lake another Story if so i will pass on pan of a letter that i got in the mail this week. A Mother who described herself As crazy with terror wrote this a few weeks ago our daughter a Dean s list student in a University told us after much questioning by us about her highly abnormal behaviour that she tested positive for the aids i admit thai i skimmed this letter looking for clues. Was her daughter a drug user did she have a bisexual Lover had she received blood Bui there were no hints and so i was unable to separate my own family from hers into a safety zone. What the Mother did write in her emotional plea for attention was this there is a primal dishonesty going on Here in the face of primal human Ter ror. If some country held 50 americans hostage and kilted another 50, the politicians would have this country galvanized to attack what was attacking them and no amount of Money would be Loo much. This is not now and never will be again primarily a homosexual problem. It spreads into the heterosexual Community and is spreading daily. Only if it is seen for what it is a life threatening reality to the heterosexual population will the fund ing for research and testing be made the rest of the letter was As personal As anxiety death sex evil All combined into one reality is Loo much for my soul to thirty percent of those who its positive May come Down with full fledged aids. This Mother made her Point. The list of High risk groups is so Long now that ii is easier to number the exemptions the celibate and the monogamous. Are we ready to Call the rest including this daughter them last fall in a grotesque column Norman Podhoretz questioned whether the government should allot Federal funds to develop an aids vaccine. Such a vaccine would he said just allow homosexuals to resume Buggering each other by the hundreds with Complete medical is in this sexual morality thai muted our alarm about a sexual plague that continues to mule it so Long As this plague passes Over inc houses of the Virgin and the faithful is in this sexual morality that keeps i from leaching about the danger of aids in All but a few school systems in California the Larouche forces want to by people infected with aids virus from work if u food handlers teachers and administrator and from attending classes. In Washington the Justice department says an employer can fire � worker whom he fears May infect others even if inc Fer i unfounded. We Are acting on the irrational fear that aids u spread through casual Contact. We Are not at with mass education with massive research 1 on the rational fear that aids through sexual Contact woman. Woman to Man. Man to Man. Everyone looks at the death role of aids Rote this Mother but i assure you one diet wrote them 4 in Toto Qew Jim sch pwt Wmma pm it thuse
