European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 27, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday. June 27, 1987 column s William f. Buckley or. Donna Rice s ignorance is hard to believe a recent Issue of people Maga inc pwned. When casting about to Al local featured he shocker from Donna Rice s blame we begin by acknowledging hat it Girlfriend or a Alicr in Girlfriend con can hardly be Iuo percent of the Slu i rating that the Romance Between Donna and Gary Hart had not been a a tonic. Bui thai was nol the most arresting Ilem in the Story since few people were surprised by Hal news. What raised the Reader s hair was the discovery that Donna on being introduced to Gary Hart in Aspen did not know that Hart was running for president. That was ignorance of Whai one might Call a professional kind. Hut she was also ignorant at a personal level she did not know that Gary Hurt was married. Not to know that Hart was running for president was on he order of not knowing that after summer comes autumn or thai Colum bus sailed the Ocean Blue in fourteen Hundred ninety two. Donna Rice is a Phi hem Kappa graduate of the University of South Carolina. We arc accustomed to culture Shock after a series of recent revelations Hal document the quite extraordinary int Ranee of the younger generation. There arc examples galore. The Tsas College students who do not know the name of the foreign country South of the Border the students who cannot place the civil War within 50 years of when it Hap William Safire dents. James Jackson Kilpatrick pointed out that when asked in 1950 what is the name of inc capital of the Philippines 84 percent of College Stu dents answered Quezon City. Asked the same question in 1984. Only 27 percent gave the right City. It is unreasonable to suppose thai genetic decomposition set in Between then and now. No in in t the raw material of american youth but it obviously has much to do with their study habits and these have a lot to do with their teachers How demanding arc they of student Progress and with their parents How demanding Are hey that i hair children spend time learning. There should be Carrol and stick in facing she problem of Youthful Igno Rance and herewith a Concrete Sugges Tion. There is one thing one Universal craved by boys and girls Ai age is. It is Hal minutes at Moil Days or a week after they arc 16, they receive a Driver s License. For most americans in is he most important rite of passage in life on a scale with birth marriage and death. When my son was 15,1 Learned thai like his father at that age he was a secret cigarette smoker. That was about inc Lime the doctors were discovering that cig relic smoking is a genial form of self abuse leading to cancer heart disease emphysema and All Hose other things. So said to him unless you give me your word you will Stop smoking i will nol sign the parents permission Fonn required to get a License in the absence of which in most Stales you need to wait until you arc 18. That did it. At 16 and one week he drove a Nicoliny fryc car. Why should t we make that Universal yes Why should t the slates insist that a common information in Lesl be required of the 90-plus percent of Ameri cans who apply for a Driver s License the problem is of quite devastating dimensions. As professor . Hirschjr. Has said in his Book cultural literacy what every american needs to know the schools have abandoned heir Moil essential fun Ripon which is the transmission of National culture the teaching of commonly shared traditional inform  the teachers need prodding to teach and the students need prodding to learn and this essay focuses on student pressure rather than teacher pressure. Charles True cart of the Washington Post wrote about or. Hirsch s Book in an engaging article under inc headline hey remember the Maine he wrote open his new Book. To he fun part the list Al the Back and plunk your Finger Down somewhere crimean War critical mass Cro Magnon Man Crockett Davy Crocodile tears Croesus Rich As. Feeling culturally deprived keep scanning the list. Empiricism empyrean encyclical endocrine infant terrible  there would be a lot of controversy Over whether any single entry in the teen agers informational in test be longed there but Hal in t a Lough prob Lem. Professor Hirsch gave his test to 600 lawyers on the Assumption thai lawyers arc High specimens of the educated class and they scored an average of 92 percent. Well the states might reasonably insist on say. 50 Pyrc Cal in order to pass but of my what a Rush you would Sec to the books beginning at approximately age 14. Among the High school graduating class of i to Yoti would t land anyone who was unaware Hal that  s Gary Hart was running for presi Dent. There s a Flower in the nettle of Media moralist London american politics is now aft iced with the application of standards of Post Hart morality to behaviour considered private before inc Hart Down fall. Being Good or being careful while running for president is no longer enough every candidate must now Issue denials of rumours of Long ago liaisons for gotten or imagined. The rumours about the rumours concerning George Bush arc being front paged in Britain but editors know that the standards of political journalism trav eled eastward across the Atlantic and inc new fascination Wilh the personal lives of Public figure is bound to affect coverage of a valuable institution called the Royal family. The British Are not newcomers to the reporting of sexual scandal inc Profumo affair of Long ago was covered in delicious detail. Bui thai inquiry was made legitimate by the connection of a prostitute with a soviet official in the same Way american rave lations about president Kennedy were triggered by another woman s simultaneous Liaison this Lime with a top mafia mobster. Since the Hart Story however the old Barrier the need for a crime or Security breach to be associated with the escapade has crumbled. That Means that no Escuss seems needed for an invasion of privacy in celebrated cases. In the Wake of the oui real of Media moralist in the colonies what s a responsible British editor to do traditionally the peccadilloes of married male Royalty were observed with a Blind Eye and in recent limes the moral rectitude and absolutely proper behaviour of Queen Elizabeth ii offend no grist for the news Mills. The Way some of the British press is now dealing with Post Hart morality is to denounce the gossip and in denouncing to print it. The tabloid Sun writes piously of How Prince Charles and Princess Diana suffer real dread about what inventive gossip mongers will come up with  such As a Story of a secret Rendez Vous Between the Prince and some stunning Conley a and sympathising Wilh the Princess for her fears of revelations of a secret Lover. When Murdoch is competing with Maxwell Ries the guardian Aboul warring press lords the rules change and the Seamer publications of Hans and Rome begin to look  to show its disdain for the Way readers of the Continental Down Market press would have to pick their voyeuristic Way through unlikely tales of Royal philandering the serious guardian disapprovingly quotes the gossip just As 1 do Helio miam Holt tips Here twice removed and without on site verification. Then the editorialist of Rupert Murdoch s sunday times ostensibly wagging a Finger at Princess Diana for wandering around Ascot playfully jabbing any body in sight with her Brolly adds this admonition that some readers thought was intended to apply to More troubling matters Charles and Andrew have married two attractive and charming women. But inc Sloane Ranger aspect in them often overwhelms the More decorous behaviour that Royal rank should Dici Aie. And the result is not always  Sloane rang ers arc swinging single women who frequent the area of London s Sloane Square anybody can Sec what s coming under the rules change non British newspapers will report on re Mored Hanky Panky followed by questions Aboul Why Here should be a double Standard for princes and princesses in this Day and age that will be followed by indignation and heavy quotation in the British press at such voyeurism followed in turn by the serious press denouncing Bolh popular press and errant Young Roy ally for producing soap opera sovereignty. Bui out of this nettle Public life we Pluck this Flower comeback. A few years Back 1 predicted rare thai the dynamic conservative party chief Cecil Parkinson would be come foreign Secretary. Then scandal struck head milled impregnating his Secretary and resigned in Dis Grace. All agreed he was washed up. Last week after a Long Campaign of bravely mending fences Parkinson carried his her timer constituency with a vote 10 higher than before. Prime minister Lii tidier promptly named him to her Cabinet Asen Ergy Secretary. If she. Ever retires he could go All the Way in the blazon of moral Media s worst a Public figure who will not quit can be absolved by Home folks who understand human foibles. Royalty and politicians from Kensington Palace to troublesome Gulch o  worried about the Tierce new Media rules or already brought Down by i hem can take heart in inc political Rcd Nipton of Cecil Parkinson