European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 3, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday decembers 1983 Mary Mcgrory pardoning Hasenfus could make political Hay the nicaraguan government May be on he verge of something intelligent for once. President Dan Iel Onega he of the stoned ineptitude in Public relations May Pardon Eugene Hasenfus the hapless cargo kicker who went Down with a . Plane thai nobody owns and who has been sentenced to 30 years for run Ning arms to the contras. A Pardon would go Well in Congress which expects to have before it Early next year a Reagan administration request for additional Contra funds. Proof that Ortega is not the terrorist dictator of Ronald Reagan s rhetoric would be Welcome and make the vividly Rele vant Point that Ortega marxist Leninist though he May be is not in a class with Ayatollah Khomeini the mass executioner Reagan so shamefully sought to be Friend. On a purely practical level the sandinista can Sec that has plus in the witness chair Al congressional hearings the democrats plan to hold Al the earliest possible moment could do them infinite More Good than Hasenfus in prison. The family resemblance Between the Nicara Guan and iranian operations has been noted. Both were run by the colonels in the White House cellar. Both were shrouded in secrecy and lawlessness and people Are suggesting that the reconciliation Mission to Tehran might better have gone to Managua. Pardon talk began immediately after Hasenfus was convicted of attempting to disrupt Public Security a charge o which he readily confessed. Nicaragua s vice president Sergio Ramirez who is making a two Eck tour of the United states pushed the possibility during a Stopover in Georgia. Domestically the Pardon would bring Ortega in rare Accord with his Nemesis Cardinal Obando y Bravo a most desirable political turn of events. The Only prob Lem in seems would be How to put it to Nica meguans who might resent the liberation of someone who was bringing in weapons to kill them. Ortega could simply say he s from ii would be explanation enough. Hasenfus comes from the state that has done More to undermine Reagan s pro Contra policy than any other stale in the Union. Resolutely wilfully fervently the people of Wisconsin have chipped away at his attempts to overthrow the sandinista government. Some 70 organizations in the Badger state Are devoted 10 seeing to it thai the people of Nicaragua get cows computers diapers blackboards fire fight ing equipment Medicine schoolbooks wheelchairs and sewing machines. A la Crosse group calling it self godparents pays so percent of the Upkeep for three orphanages and Many Small children Are romping about wearing Wisconsin to shirts which Are also provided. Flora Lewis muh a bits ufth3.v in 1986, Wisconsin raised a million dollars in goods and another million in Cash for the country that has been its sister slate since 1963. Next year it is going for $2 million. Residents can t match he Bucks of Reagan s Rich Friend in states such As Texas and Flor Ida but they intend to kick in their share of the $100 million that their fellow overt subversives around the country Hope to Send to undo the amount voted by Congress last summer. Several prominent lawyers Are engaged in helping the nicaraguans draft u new Constitution and there is much traffic Between the sister Stales. Doctors Are brought to Wisconsin hospitals for special training. A steady Stream of utterly respectable wisconsinites Bishops Union leaders stale legislators go Down to see for themselves what the president Calls a terrorist some work at building Bridges and school houses and repairing the damage from Contra raids. Others Leach nicaraguans How to raise fat poultry and contented cows democratic gov. Anthony Earl who was Defeated in the november election not because of his Nicara Guan activity but because he proposed to build a prison in Milwaukee is a member of the Wisconsin coordinating committee on Nicaragua which was founded in 1984 to create a United front against the president s belligerence. Earl has called for the release of Hasenfus whose Home is in mar Incle. He was Ramirez s Host in mad Ison welcoming him Al inc Airport and escorting him on a round of receptions and press conferences How Hasenfus came out of such an Environ ment to become a gun runner for the contras is a matter of joblessness not conviction says a can director Michelle Seiring. He s not a she cannot explain How Wisconsin re elected re publican sen. Robert hasten a Contra fan and rep. Les Aspin the Only Democrat in the state delegation to vote for Contra Aid. But Aspin May be getting off the bus. When the administration found it could t Send $300 million in economic Aid to Nicaragua s neigh Bors his office announced that the funds had been a Factor in his in Wisconsin stand. Omega has a quarrel with Reagan but none surely with Wisconsin and the state Hopes be makes thai Point nol just for Hasenfus Sake but for his own. Univ Lizul fat syn alb Gap be Ween to ski rulers ruled remains wide Warsaw Pound life in Poland goes on. There in t much news which some poles say is a Good sign that things Aren t so bad and others say is a bad sign of How glum and depressing things have become. Even the usual daily Supply of fresh tart political jokes seems to have narrowed to a trickle. The Gap Between the rulers and the ruled is immense and unabridged. The regime keeps trying one Way and another to woo at least the toleration if not Active allegiance of its dispirited people so As to renew their energies. But most poles simply go about their personal lives scrabbling for necessities and what Comfort they can find and ignore the people in Are evidently trying As Best they can to act on the advice or writer Adam my Haik to live As if we were his remarkable phrase sums up the situation. The poles have simply taken for them selves certain liberties that the state will not Irani and that they exercise in the inter Ajces of i diminished Power. Or in another Way thai Michuk Puta in instead of having social in with a human face we live under a communism which had its Teeth knocked poles envy hungarians their much better living standards and hungarians envy poles their vigorous assertion of intellectual Freedom. There is still a flourishing illegal press that pours Oul a Stream of papers books tapes and now even vide Casselles. Many Are of a mar Velous Quality sparkling with humor and the uncanny clarity of High Talent. Political prisoners have been freed. People live without fear but they Are producing poorly because there Are no incentives neither material nor ideological nor moral. The regime keeps try ing to Spur them but with half measures concessions that once would have been considered tremendous in a communist stale but that no longer evoke Hope or even much interest the deadlock is profound and there is no visible Way out the regime has even come to speak of the opposition in Stead of the underground or the enemy but the Only political truce is one of impotence on both Side. The government looks for stimulation from abroad. It claims that . Sanctions have Cost Poland $ is billion directly and indirectly since 1982, and in i looking for a new infusion of foreign Money in Aid and Trade when sanctions Are lifted which is Likely fairly soon. And it is looking for a new infusion of enthusiasm and Effort when the Pope comes to visit Early next summer after a planned trip next year to Rome and the Vatican by polish Leader Gen. Wojcieck Jaruzelski. Senior officials talk of introducing socialist pluralism and gradually broadening our socialist democracy they nuke a distinction Between what they Call the moderate opposition and the Adamant opponents of the system hoping to lure the less hostile into a com Promise that would give them the trap pings of official legitimacy without con ceding any actual Power. None of All this seems Likely to prove effective. It in too late and then have been too Many disappointments and too much disillusion. But neither Are there any Light of another confrontation loom ing. The opposition leaders Are weary and know their limitations the once ardent followers have withdrawn from the futile fray. It is the Story of postwar Poland that every decade has its upheavals. Each time new leaders suddenly emerge from the unknown and when their Hopes Are dashed they fade away. The common tangible yearning among those involved in the regime and their critics alike is to become a fully accepted part of Europe an Ordinary coup try As even supporters of the government put in mow can it be that 40 Yean of str the War we still have to live this Wayt asked an elderly nun who Hai spent nil adult life in the regime i spill Over Benefit is Antido Mundl from Mikhail Gorbachev s Reform pro Gram for the soviet Union. It got Tate Short of the Aniali factory level Poland hit already readied. So the Outlook Tau. Changing for the time being but to be to Distant grab. their Rel clip poles make do with Eug af7.7�?sate a Bettenia nothing
