European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 25, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday december 25,1986 columns James Reston 1986 gave . Much to be concerned about one of the reasons for dividing Lime into Yean is that it gives us a week or so for reflection on the past and the future. The american people and their leaders have much to consid crat the end of 1986, it has not been a Good year from lop to Bottom too much cheating and Chisling Loo Many lies too Many cardboard heroes ducking behind the fifth amendment. On the whole we arc very Rich and As we Sav some of us Are having a Good Lime but the Bills arc coming due and there s a general anxiety in the land thai something is wrong. The evidence is All around us in the present scandals Over sneaking Money and arms to Iran and Nicaragua in the insider tricks on Wall Street in the divorce rates and he illegitimacy rates and the general decline of decency Man ners and Trust. It s not merely that the government has lost its Way piling up alarming re Cord budget and Trade deficits bul thai the american people have been doing the same. This year personal income was up by an estimated 2.6 percent but con Sumer spending in 1986 has almost Dou bled since 1981, from under j3qo billion to 1585 billion. Not so Long ago we worried about the democratic parly s tendency to spend and spend elect and now the democrats Are complaining Hal the republicans borrow and borrow spend and spend and borrow in abroad at the rate of Over � 100 Bill Ion a year. So by the end of this year we will owe $250 billion abroad and on present official estimates s700 billion by the end of the 1980s. This is not a Happy Christmas message even for inc Rich let alone for the Urban poor or the bankrupt Farmers of the Middle West in the most successful agricultural country in history now buying if you can believe in More farm products from abroad than in Sells overseas. How is All this hangover to be corrected after the Holiday parties and celebrations at the end of he year there is some evidence that thought Ful people in the country Are begin no to think seriously about these problems. Pm Crayon s Law of compensations is James Kilpatrick beginning to work. Every Irick Oral Iasi some of them is exposed at the end every Good deed rewarded and every1 scoundrel punished. Or so the old Man believed and this idea is beginning to get around. For example it has been popular to argue in the United slates that Progress is made primarily by Competition Between government and management and labor. But along come the Defeated nations of world War i Japan and West Germany dominating the world markets and demonstrating that More Progress can remade by Coo Cral Ion Between government management and labor than by endless Industrial Competition. Even the leaders of the two major political parties Here in Washington Are be ginning to realize that Here can be no successful . Foreign policy without honest consultation and cooperation. There was a time just after world War to when the Leaden of both parties remembering president Wilsons partisan disaster Over the league of nations worked together to create the United nations in the Hope of producing a belter world order. It was not a Triumph but it was t a disaster either. The new leaders of both parties in Congress arc now coming around again to this old idea that the policy decisions of the nation Are too serious to be considered in partisan terms. Even the presi Dent is beginning to recognize the differ ence Between Public relations and foreign relations. H will probably take a Little time be tween now and the president s state of the Union address at the end of january to sort things out but the misjudgments of his Summit meeting at Reykjavik and the stupidities of his Iran Nicaragua pol icy Are compelling a Long overdue reappraisal of How to proceed into the last two years of h is Admi nitration. The major problem now is not what the president knew or did t know in the past bul How to help him him in the future. That will take an example of support but if he really wants cooperation instead of Competition with Congress and the allies and the american people he can undoubtedly get it As he has in the past. C to of Timai you were Saylom 5 y0tj thin you re 6ettik6 it Bemp you lawyers drowning out the sounds of Christmas this has been in some ways an unpleasant Christmas season. Above the sound of Christmas car ols we have heard the anger of opposing lawyers. Across the nation we arc entangled with the constitutional command that government must Lake no action respecting an establishment of look around in Mississippi . District judge William h. Barbour or. Ordered the governor to extinguish lights in a stale owned building. The lights had formed a Cross. In Pittsburgh a group of protesters sued unsuccessfully for removal of a nativity scene and hanukkah Symbol from the City county building. In Downey calif., the american civil liberties Union demanded that a privately owned creche be removed from Public property. In Chicago a Federal judge approved a nativity scene at City Hall the american jewish Congress is appealing. In an unrelated Case . District judge Marvin Aspen ruled in Chicago Hal the Illinois Isaic government May not establish a room in the slate Ca Pitol for prayer and the room had been planned for the use of legislators but would have been available to the Public also. Judge Aspen said the act establishing the room described it As a quiet and Spe Cial place where members May seek god the Comfort of his presence the Light of his guidance and the strength of his the language said the court demonstrates its Clear religious for guidance in these matters the Best source is the supreme court s opinion of March 5, 1984, in Lynch v. Donnelly. That was the Case involving a Christmas display that had been erected in a Public Park in Down town Paw Tuckel . The display included a Santa clans striped Candy poles and figures of an elephant a Teddy Bear and a Clown. It also included a nativity scene Complete with nearly life sized figures of Mary Joseph Angels shepherds Kings and he infant Jesus. The a lusted to have the creche removed. Both the District court and the 1st circuit agreed that the creche violated the establishment clause but the supreme court reversed. In a 5-4 Deci Sion chief Justice Warren Burger held that when viewed in the proper con exl of the Christmas Holiday season the creche served a legitimate secular Pur pose. Any Benefit to the Christian religion he said is indirect Remote and after an emended review of precedents that spurned an absolutist View of the clause. Burger concluded for the majority we Are unable to perceive the archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Rome or other powerful religious Leaden behind every Public acknowledgement of the religious heritage Long officially recognized by the three constitutional branches of government. Any no lion that these symbols pose a real danger of establish ment of a state Church is farfetched Burger s main Point is that the establishment clause does not mandate a callous indifference to religion in Public life. On the contrary he said the High court repeatedly has sustained Laws that serve to accommodate religious interests. He cited sunday closing Laws tax exemptions for Church properties and free text books for parochial pupils As examples of Laws that have been held constitutionally valid. Justices Brennan Marsha Blackmun and Stevens dissented. Speaking through Justice Brennan they agreed that government to some extent May Art to accommodate the opportunities of individuals to prac Tice their religion. Some apparently violative acts such As declaring ours to be a nation under god Brennan said have lost through Rote repetition any significant religious Content but the Christian creche said the dissenters is differ ent. It is a mystical re creation of an event that lies at the heart of Christian its symbolic purpose and effect is to prompt an observer to experience a sense of simple Awe and wonder appropriate to the contemplation of do of the Central elements of Christian Dogma that god sent his son into the world to be a members of the High court in sum see nativity scenes and presumably other Christian symbols or Christmas carols in the context of the yuletide Holiday season. Such displays and programs have become traditional. In accommodating them governments do not violate the establishment clause. A nativity scene in a Public Park at Christmas does not communicate a message that the government intends to endorse toe Christian beliefs represented by the the Dis play celebrates a Public Holiday and no one contends that declaration of that Holiday is understood to be an endorsement of most americans i believe. Will concur with Burger s opinion. In Una Wal Pruhl synd Cui
