European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 15, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 column the stars and stripes wednesday april 15,1987 James Reston first lets rnp7he mask maps m Sefc blame society not educators president Reagan has a Story Tor every Occa Sion and an excuse Tor every disaster. He blame the Congress for the budget deficit the japanese for the Trade deficit Bis aides Tor the Iran Contra scandals and now the educators for the latest Security outrage at the . Embassy in Moscow. In California for the easter recess he condemned the russians for spying on our embassy and the marines for letting them in but then suggested that Maybethe problem was not that boys like girls but that we were no longer teaching values in the schools. His Story this time was about the Counselor who asked his students what they d do if hey found a pock Lbook with 1100 inside and the owner s name on the Flap. Most of them said they d keep the Money but when they asked the Counselor what he d do he did distinguish Between right and wrong but ducked the question teachers could sue Reagan for that one yet he was gelling at a valid Point namely that we cannot explain the scandals of he present time without looking Al he decline of decency and moral values in the society As a whole. No doubt the educational system is part of the problem. More Young americans arc spending More years in school than Ever before and More like the Marine guards in Moscow Are going to High school and beyond at greater expense than in any other coun try in he world. But in this last hair Century there has been a startling change in american society hat requires much More knowledge of the world and placet a far greater Burden on the schools. Now As the president suggested the schools Are expected to perform Many of the educational functions that used to be performed by the family the Settle Community and the Church and they often perform William Buckley them in Peculiar ways. Modem american education most of the time an most of he places no longer emphasizes for example the cultural tradition on which the Republic was founded and the Constitution written 200 Yean ago. Instead he usual school curriculum is filled no with a study of the students responsibilities but of their rights ii is concerned largely with elective specialized accidental and incidental studies in Accord Ance with the students personal ambitions rather Lantheir Public responsibilities accordingly it is probably not too much to say that the present generation is no coming out of school with no common body of knowl Edge no common moral and intellectual discipline and no common Faith. But it would be too much to say that the schools Are wholly to blame for this predicament. Look at the predicament of the american family which always was and still is the main repository of our values look at the divorce rates and the rate of illegitimate births and the dropout Rales and the models put before our children by Madison Avenue and Wall Street an Pennsylvania Avenue and on the television screens of the nation. Look also Al the record of the president s own administration. For he also is supposed to be a teacher in fact the principal teacher in a secular society and he has been teaching that private concerns Are More important than Public concerns indeed that governments not the answer to our common problems out is itself the problem. The president is quite right in suggesting that the society itself is also to blame for the dereliction of duty we have seen recently in Moscow and in the basement of the White House but the state of mind of he people is often a reflection of the Quality of the irresponsible leaders. For if you teach people that they Don t have to pay Tor whal titty want thai they can spend and borrow hat Success is for those who equivocate and evade Llinat private wants Are the things that matter you should t be surprised if marines Chase girls and neglect their duties. -".meanwhile, i Don t believe there s a teacher in the country who would t Tell the students to turn in the Hundred Bucks to the person whose name was on the pocketbook Flap. No Yorac nmn ser a eliminating nuclear missiles won t make us safer some admirers of mrs. Thatcher have worried that whenever she meets with or. Gorbachev Al close quarters she leaves with her Knees jul a Little wobbly when first they communed in London a couple of years ago she said very pleasant things about him a Dafler her last visit to Moscow she said that she would "trust1 Gorbachev to abide by agreements having Lodo with disarmament. There was some feeling of of my god Dimerc goes the Inin lady Bui a close scrutiny of what she did and said in Moscow is reassuring. What she said in inc endless hours they spent together was As dismaying to Gorbachev As it was reassuring to the cause of Western survival. The Exchange was nicely summarized in time mag Azine in a couple of sentences. Her Thatcher s de sense of nuclear deterrence was so impassioned thai soviet officials seemed at a loss to describe the chasm hat separated the two leaders. Said Georgi Abalov director of the soviet Institute for . And Canadian studies on nuclear issues. President Reagan is More Forward looking than Thatcher. At least Reagan under stands that he humanity and America can i live for Ever with nuclear  this statement Falls in the category of the Nice thoughts department h comes to pieces by asking just a couple of rudimentary questions. The first is Why can t we live forever with nuclear weapons Given thai we have done so Tor 40 years and inc second question what is it that we have in mind As a substitute for nuclear weapons their abolition that alternative was addressed with wonderful clarity by retiring assistant Secretary of defense Richard Perle in a speech delivered in Munich on feb. I at a conference without allies. Or. Perte made it very Plain thai he was speaking As an individual rather than As an a genl for the Reagan administration but what he said is consistent with or. Reagan s strategic philosophical position consider the notion that an agreement to abolish nuclear weapons would enhance our Security and diminish the threat of a nuclear War. This idea was artfully and disingenuously cultivated by or Gorbachev in his january 1986 proposal to eliminate All nuclear weapons by the year 2000.it is dangerous nonsense calculated to undermine the legitimacy of weapons isl Are Villa to Western Security an to whose numbers the soviets have been adding steadily for the past two  but we Are entitled to ask How is it that Corei Arbatova fell free to suggest that mrs. Thatcher and or. Reagan Are divided on the question of nuclear Elimina Tion the objective evidence of or. Reagan s disposition to work toward a nuclear free world traces to the dreams of Reykjavik where an idealistic poker game was played out with Gorbachev suggesting the elimination of so percent of joint nuclear inventories and or. Reagan countering with ill slay and raise you so percent the whole dreamy Busi Ness came apart when or. Gorbachev said slyly thai of course Progress could not be made unless or. Reagan gave up the idea of a space shield but or. Reagan was not a outdo give up his strategic defense initiative and everybody went Home. But the soviet Union is Back. We Are More or Les agreed on the virtual elimination of the intermediate missiles. If you gave the leaders of Italy West Ger Many France and Greet Britain a polygraph test on that question you would learn that they greatly fear this ostentatious step in the direction of disarm  Why because the diminution of the Western inventory of nuclear deterrents does not enhance the Security of Western Europe. Said mrs. Thatcher to or. Gorbachev a world without nuclear weapons May be a dream. But you cannot base a sure defense on a dream. A world with out nuclear weapons would be less stable and More dangerous for All of us exactly so. Unn Trul a twi Syndicate