European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 10, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 1g columns the stars and stripes wednesday. June 10,1987 Ellen Goodman Rich Contra backers skirted foreign policy if i had to choose just one thing to remember from the Iran Contra mess it would t be the Swiss Bank account num Ber. It would t even be the Snow lires skimmed off the patriotic travellers checks. What Ould choose to remember is How easily How comfortably How casually a group of wealthy people in America Pur chased a private foreign policy. The millionaires who testified last week weren t just the pigeons of those can do fund raisers Ellie North and Carl Channell. The Trio of adventure capitalists Ellen Garwood. William o Boyle Joseph Coors regarded the Chance to build a Nice Little army in Nicaragua like the Chance to build a Hospital Wing in their Hometown or a College Library at their Alma Maler. The fund raisers presented them with a Catalon of goodies to pick and choose from everything fron planes to boots Complete with Price lag. A truly generous contributor might gel a plaque on the plane bearing his or her name the Way Hospital elevators proclaim their donor the super generous were even offered a Chat with the president. Wat in not stirring How Ellen Garwood s heart and purse strings were plucked by the anxiety thai supplies to the contras would languish much As supplies. To feed the starving people of Ethiopia were left on the docks and rotted but i dont want 10 remember these adventure capitalists and heir Charity As simply bizarre. In reality they Are not weirdos. They Are rather the logical Extension of the Reagan Era s Rule by the Rich. This is an Era that began in i980 when angry candidate Reagan demanded to Lethis Way at he new Hampshire debate because i paid for this from thai Day until the Day of the Trio testimony there has been a single connecting ethic. You can do anything you want As Long As you pay for it. One of the precious things the Rich can buy in America is Oul if people have enough Money in appears they can buy out of consensus building buyout of Community buy out of compromising buy out of around or Over the common will. James Kilpatrick "nob0py Here but just us patriots consider what it is that people who hav Rocney and super Money just regular of Brioney do with in. The first thing they buy is Independent movement a car to re place mass transit. The next thing they buys Independent space a House id replace an apartment. And then they buy a larger House. And then a second House in the country. In upwardly Mobile Homes the process or compromising taking turns or making group decisions is increasingly Circum vented by buying. Put the More up Ward the More Likely it is for children to have their own bedrooms their own do Mains their own doors 10 shut. Rather Ihaza hassling Over the to the family gets a Sec Ond. Rather than coming to terms with to can agora Over the Telephone the teen agers get their own. At the most rarefied level of limousines helicopters corporate empires and vast personal estates the whole pro Cess of buying out gets vastly exaggerated. The very Rich negotiate less Ana decide More. They Don t Nave to arrive at a consensus among their employees they left them what to do. The Man who pays Jbf the microphone gets to make the rules the person who owns the plane decides wherein should Fly. If you have the Money you can do it whatever it is. For Many thai is the Point of getting Rich. I am not suggesting that people go directly from buying a second television set o buying private planes Tor the con Rai nor that every wealthy person is incapable of Community. It is far More Subtle than Hal. But the very Rich whether they Are on Wall Street or Washington whether i Public or private life Are. Susceptible to impatience with process impatience with Community constraints. With the con Gress. With the Law. The Reagan administration Rife with the attitudes and emblems of these Rich regarded the congressional no to Supply ing contras As a traffic Jam they could flyover. The adventure capitalists for their part sprung for the planes. They bought out of the system. And for a while in America the Rich had not Onty their own private estates. They had their own private foreign policy my Wenera group Reagan s feds recommendations Moke sense eventually As president Reagan Sai Aast week a vaccine against aids will be found. Unryu Nally As he added an effective vaccine is at Lear 10 Yean in the future. The question that and politicians alike can be posed in a few words what do we do in the meantime the president s moderate and rec umme Nealions make sense. He wild require testing for the virus in certain areas of sberal responsibility. He would make it mandatory a immigrants to be tested before entering the uni lab states he would re quire tests of All prisoners in Herat institutions. Mili tary recruits and persons inn he foreign service Al ready Are subject 10 an Al Vest. The president would Eyo Urage but not require blood tests for marriage a tenses. Similarly he would urge that persons whoa sit drug abuse clinics be tested. Those who Are fated for venereal diseases also would be asked to checked for aids. He asks the states to require rapine testing in their own penal institutions. Beyond that Truf president s approach Calls for Edu cation counsel in and research. He makes the sensible Point that without widespread testing Public health authorities a no Way of determining the scope of the aids epidemic. Last month the Federal centers for disease control reported 15,500 confirmed aids cases in the United Stales of whom 25.500 have died from the disease. Experts who met in Washington last week estimated that another 1 million to 1.5 million americans Are carrying the Sims. What our citizens must know the president said in his address to a fund raising foundation is thai America faces a disease that is fatal and spreading. This Calls for urgency not panic. In Calls for compas Sion not blame and i Calls for understanding not ignorance. It s also important that America not reject those who have the disease but care for them with dignity and All these elements ought to be combined in an approach to this disquieting and dangerous Situa Tion. Congress is prepared to appropriate roughly $900 million in the next fiscal year for aids research. It probably is More Money than can be spent effectively but Given the seriousness of the epidemic some waste and duplication can be condoned. The president is right in not asking the slates to Institute mandatory tests As a prerequisite for a marriage License. Sen. Jesse Helms . And rep. Wil Liam e. Dannemeyer r-Calif., Are pushing in the other direction. Helms offered an amendment to the Pend ing supplementary appropriations Bill that would deny any pan of a s30 million aids fund to states that failed to fall in line. The approach not Only would violate principles of federalism in also would waste resources. More than 95 percent of aids cases Are found among homosexuals or drug addicts classes not Likely to apply for marriage licenses in any event. Helms argues that premarital tests make sense if the tests succeed in preventing transmission of the aids virus to even a few unborn children. The presi Dent made the same Point i would think that every one getting married would want to be Twenty seven states now require premarital testing for syphilis and other venereal diseases. What s the difference one difference is that syphilis and gonorrhoea can be treated effectively. No treatment for aids has been found. Another difference is that the Wassermann test is simple and inexpensive. The current blood tests for aids Are complicated and costly. Public health authorities make a believable argument that Money and Effort can be belter directed to classes at greater risk. As recent debates in the Senate have made Clear the aids epidemic has provoked a clash Between private rights and Public health. Rep. Henry Waxman d Calif. Is pushing a Bill that would make it a Federal offence to discriminate in housing or employment against a person who has tested positively for the aids virus. His Bill complements a recent decision of the supreme court indicating Hal an aids victim is a handicapped person within the meaning of Federal Taw. Waxman s proposal is Well intentioned but some distinction should be made Between those who Are merely carrying the virus and those who Are actively infected. Not everything is yet known about transmission of the disease. Until we know More my thought i that the health of Many is More important than the rights of a few
