European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 6, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns William Safire the stars and stripes monday october 6.1986 Are congressmen out of their Blooming minds the House of representatives after two minutes of discussion and by unrecorded Vole approved a Bill passed by the Senate after a Century of debate. It made the Rose our National Floral president Reagan who Supi Nely sent word to the Hill that he deferred to Congress on this Issue is now set to sign inc Bill creating the Rose As our National Flower presumably in the White House Rose Garden. To Avert a philosophical embarrassment he should Wake up to the symbolism involved and veto the Bill. In today s essay eare will be taken to avoid Arch talk of Rosy scenarios thorny issues late blossoming inter Cost or the need to nip this legislation in the Bud Nei ther Gertrude Stein nor Shakespeare s Juliet will be Loo Long the if hate Over the National Flower has raged Over which Flower is to be have pushed for the Rose ignoring the environmental Hazard in the powders needed to protectors Bushes from insects. The Richie care no thai a do in Long stemmed american beauties remember Liosi showgirls who worked in Billy Rose s Diamond Cost s40 plus delivery ferns extra. Even Bunch of Pink sweetheart roses hand delivered by a Lover in Ralph Lauren suspenders is a Yuppie tradition. And the wars of ii roses were no part of Amer ican Rose paddlers careful there claim thai George Washington was a Rose breeder but that Only under scores inc Flower s sinister roots. In a 1776 Fetter Gen eral Washington used the phrase under the Rose based on the latin sub Ross to mean in strictest secrecy in ancient Rome the Rose was the sign for silence because cupid bribed Harp crates god of silence with a Rose to conceal the carousing of Venus. Populists have been disunited some pushing the Shasta Daisy others championing the Cornflower Black eyed Susan Violet or Carnation. Anarchists like the dandelion. In the Senate Everett Dirksen stood for decades defying inc Rose interests speaking Mell flu Ousby of the cheerful Hardy Marigold affordable to All easy to grow As radishes and resolutely indigenous to this country. But with inc wizard of ooze Long gone the Rose lobby has climbed Over the Wall. I m not Here to Cut roses although it should be noted that Many of thermoses sold in America Are shipped in from Colombia source of much cocaine. Could in be that some of the sniffing is snorting nor do 1 suggest As the Wall Street journal does that the debate is symbolic Only of congressional triviality. The real Issue is not which Flower to choose but whether we should have a National Floral Emblem at have a Flag. We have a Symbol in the Bald Eagle James Reston which won its wings in the revolutionary Era Despi Teben Franklin s preference for the Turkey. We have a National and him losing before kickoffs. We even havea National Day of thanksgiving a wartime device dreamed up by Abraham Lincoln to snatch attention and authority from the state governors. Who needs another National Symbol instead of symbols of National homogenization wended symbols of federalism diversity. We should emphasize state flags state songs stale Flowers because too much Power has been sucked Inlo the political vortex. For example in the tax Reform Bill the National government ii about to Tell the states what form of state taxation to permissible refusing to allow deductions from Federal returns of the types of state taxes Washington frowns on. Never has Iacre been such stripping of taxing Power from slate Legislatures by Central government and we hear hardly a Peep fro the boonies. When a Issue is thrust in front of president Reagan his instincts arc usually right the55-mile-an-hour Speed limit was imposed by the nation on the states during open s War on motorists when the fuel shortage changed to a Gas glut bureaucratic nationalists tried to retain Central Power under the Guise of safety. Wisely Reagan decided to support the return to the Stales of the right to Sci Llie Irown Speed limits reflecting the difference Between Jam packed states and wide open need to Slop concentration o " Power not Cele brate it. To Slick a National Flower in our Leeth isto signify a misunderstanding of our Mission. Only a presidential veto can now save us from Congress Sweet smelling jubilation about centralism. Americans know it is belter to live in a salad bowl Han a melting pot. We Are better off As part of a mix Tun rather than a Mush. What Calls for Celebration it not so much our Unity As the strength and glory of our one Flower can Ever symbolize this nation. Amer Ca is a bouquet. Reagan likes to pretend mistakes never happen. ,._ a pm win., of in to Nile h it most of fiscal 86. Federal expenditures have unlike most members of the human race government officials make mistakes occasionally but president Reagan has mastered the Art of no fault politics. He simply pretends mistakes never happen. He said recently that there would Beno Deal to Swap a soviet spy for an inno cent american reporter. Then he Cut the Deal and said he did t. The russians blinked he explained. A couple of Days later the Washington Post reported that on aug. 14 the presi Dent approved a plan by John m. Poin Dexter his National Security adviser to leak disinformation to the press that Libya s Moa mar Qadhafi was about to at a meeting in the White House family theater last thursday morning the president kept a previously schedule Date with a few newspaper columnists and Media commentators to discuss his forthcoming meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland and he was asked about the Post Story. I Challenge the veracity of thai entire Story that i read this morning with great Shock the president said. Adm. Pom when they re i trouble but t them Are usually smart enough not to write three Page merges on their calculated plans of deception. And some Are even Wise enough to admit their mis takes rather than make them worse. Reagan himself has from time to Lime pulled track when he was on a wrong Way Street. His withdrawal from Lebanon and his reversals on nuclear arms control Are cases in Point. But lately As in his poin m Ruiika m a i. We Dexter would t say whether he had writ South african policy he has defied con Len the memo and could t remember Gress and. Is now in danger of losing con whether the Post s quotes were accurate of "-1 a but he denied that anybody was trying Louse or deceive the press. Later the Jere is Donl said we Are not telling lies or doing any of these disinformation thai the United slates might have Labomb him again. One of the key the three Page Poindexter memo said according to the Post is that it combines real an illusory events through a disinformation program with the Basic goal of making Qadhafi think that there is a High degree of internal opposition to him within Libya that his key trusted aides Are disloyal that the us is about to move against him . His May be added to his crisis of credibility. In the Long Story of presid Euls using the press As an instrument of their for eign policy these May seem to be minor incidents. But the irony is that the Reagan administration which is supposed to be so Clever at the Art of propaganda was so Clumsy and obvious. All governments mislead the press Anthepe a e a met m 811 particularly tool of key elements of his foreign an Domestic policies maybe this was bound to happen. He has come to the end of another fiscal year and although the magic of his personality remains his policies Are not Matching his promises. It is now coming out that after Only six months in office he was told that his budget cuts would t match his tax Cut Sand that his administration was moving decisively away from its Promise to bal Ance the budget the disinformation techniques were at work even then. Total government employment has not come Down but has increased from 4,966,000 in fiscal 81 to 5,210,000 in Fisca in creased from j590.9 billion 10 s979.9 billion. And though inflation has comedown almost everything else is higher. The Federal debt during his administration had doubled by 1985 and has now topped j2 trillion. Incl interest on the debt has almost tripled the Trade deficit is now four limes larger than in Waithen he came into office and for the first time since 1959 the United state Isa net importer of food. As a result the political dialogues changing. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan d-n.y., for example remarked on these economic figures recently now this sort of thing happens All the Lime in government. Honest mistakes Are made wishes Don t come True. But Gener ally speaking the integrity of the process is preserved nol to this Lime. Ideology corrupted. Rather than give up its beliefs the administration sacrificed ill the president s popularity with the people remains. The people like him be cause they Are like him hopeful amiable and More interested in personality than in the facts. Nam vex a Lim to
