European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday. September 24, 1937 . Rosenthal Federal Low needed to protect aids victims the firk is spreading and we can Sec Al from out House. But we stand in the doorway and say in is not our fin.1 in is theirs those people Down the Sirwet and we Don t like them anyway. Then we go inside but is ill in spreads. Sidly. That still sums up the a hides and a motions of Many americans and their government toward he aids epidemic. Two issues of importance make this Clear. One is whether aids is something Hinl humic duals and drug addicts should worry about but the rest of us can really forget beyond an expression of compassion from time to Lime. The other is now before Congress should the fed eral government try at least try. To prevent discrimination against aids victims a lot More than emotion is involved. These iwo issues will decide if the country sees aids As a National prob Lem to be attacked nationally or As something that can be segmented and confined to those others. Ana that in turn will decide How much Money Energy and planning will go into the Effort against aids. The first question is bubbling up More and More look i am a heterosexual and 1 Don t take drugs or sleep with junkies. In t the truth that tomorrow As today the victims will be the same homosexuals and addicts stupid enough to use dirty Needles the spread of aids to heterosexuals is documented. In bitter statistics. Or. Sheldon h. Landsman director of the aids study group in the stale University of new York health science Center in Brooklyn says that in new York City alone there arc 100,000 intravenous drug using males who have been infected with aids and there Are 15,000 to 20,000 women who have been infected by having sex with addicts using contaminated Needles. Only god knows How Many Olner women will get inc Sims in the years ahead. But will these women spread aids to heterosexual men who will then spread it to other heterosexual women there Are few known cases of that having happened in this country. But to assume in will not happen in a disease known Only for a few years and still mysterious in nature origin and transmission is inc most dangerous kind of self Del uding complacency aids Lias become heterosexual in Africa and to say it cannot happen Here is not science but russian Roulette. Katie Leishman writing in the february 1987 Atlantic monthly on and aids put it this Way "11 can t Hurt to think of the virus As having an intelligence and a commitment to survival that exceeds that of Many there is no cure or vaccine for aids and there May not be for decades. Therefore Only people can fight it people with he aids virus and people without to. With Flora Lewis out inc Effort of one group the other will fail. The untouched need the help of the sufferers and the aids carriers who have to make the moral commitment not to have sexual Intercourse Wilh those nol affected. There is no other Way for the victims to Gua Rantee for their own souls Sake that they Are nol spreading death. American society must persuade those who May have had sexual Intercourse with carriers to be tested. Soil is Plain self interest As Well As Plain humanity to try to protect anybody who May carry aids from the earful discrimination bigotry and isolation that goes Wilh the disease. We will never succeed entirely bul at least the sufferers and their friends and families can be shown that the country is trying through social education and through legislation and now along comes inc Reagan administration and announces thai it is against proposed Federal legislation aimed Al protecting aids victims from discrimination. Leave Illo the states says or. Otis r. Bowen. Secretary of health and human services. Thai is a stand thai helps neither health nor human sen ices. There is no Legal reason to prevent a Federal statute forbidding discrimination against aids victims. And inc administration acknowledges that infected persons have been subject to discrimination. But to Vetn says in should be fought state by slate. Or. Don t do in one Way what can be done 51 different ways provided some slates want id do it at All. Blown explains thai under a system of state a Iii discrimination Laws each stale and Congress will be Able to observe and learn from the aids carriers also will learn from . They will learn thai As far As Federal Protection is concerned they arc abandoned. The moral commitment argument to aids carriers will still be valid. But unless Congress refuses logo along Wilh the administration s callous Ness that argument May ring terribly hollow. In Vori turns missile treaty is first Small step in right direction Paris the double Zero treaty to eliminate soviet and american medium Range nuclear missiles in t quite wrap cd up. But it s Well on its Way. Already. Progress on this limited Iskui is sparking new efforts on More critical problems the big Long Range missiles inc balance of conventional forces nuclear testing. So it is right to consider the successful negotiations As a breakthrough and to evaluate in. There has already been a Good Deal of foolish speculation. People ask. Is in the end of inc cold War no but in is the Start of a new period in East West relations whose ultimate development cannot be foreseen. Is it the of Europe no hut As nato s Secretary general lord Carrington. Has said in docs mean Europe will become a much less nuclear ii in the beginning of the end of us commitment to inc defense of Western Europe no. There Are 315.000 american troops to incarnate the convict nun thai american and european Accuri by Are a common slake. There will be 3 lot More fun debate Aboul the importance of the treaty and what it Pel lends in Boih the . And Europe when it is signed and offered for ratification. In mailers to put it in perspective from inc outset. 1. In strict military terms the treaty does nol make a huge difference. To the extent that it changes inc nuclear bal Anceil definitely favors the West and Asia bul the arsenals Are still so huge and varied thai the change will be Margi Nal. 2. The deployment of american mis Siles in Europe was undertaken More for political than military reasons. Other less controversial measures could have Mcl the military threat of soviet ss-2q.5. Nato fell it should make a demonstrative response to the threat of political intimidation lha could weaken or de couple Atlantic tics. This was achieved the russians Are to pull out their mis Siles. The treaty is a political gain for the West. 3. The gain was won by steadfastness in the Alliance us a whole despite All he bickering and spun of recrimination. In is impossible to say just what elements of the situation decided the soviet Turna round whether in was the Reagan admin isl ration s military buildup or Mikhail Gorbachev s sense of need for lessened East West tensions to promote his Domestic Reform plans. Bul soviet failure to split inc Alliance was crucial. 4. Much of the european doubt and concern now expressed comes because leaders bought their own hard sell arguments when american deployments were launched. They automatically get Wor ried when Uherc is a change in the barometer of soviet american relations either for belter or for worse until they Sec what it actually Means for them. They will be reassured when they see the satisfaction of their own Public As the mis Siles Stan to be removed and As their military planners adjust to new calculations. 5, meanwhile the agitation within establishments has led to new talk Aboul More defense cooperation among euro peans. This is All to inc Good especially because there is Little Chance of an in crease in european conventional de sense. That is All the More reason 10 move rapidly 10 probe soviet suggestions for military talks on balancing conventional forces Al lower Levels. Even More important than inc re Moval of some missiles however Are certain precedents thai the impending treaty will set. There is symbolic mean ing which should be neither exaggerated nor brushed aside that for the first time in the Easl Wesl arms race there is Actu ally going 10 be joint reduction of one part of the arsenals instead of partial Lim its on expansion us before. The arms race in t Over but Al last there is some official recognition of its futility. There will also be Concrete new action. 1. Missiles will be physically destroyed presumably before a global to audience for the first time. Experts Are Only now facing the very Complex prob lems this will bring particularly with solid fuel missiles thai Are Loo dangerous simply to dismantle. The studies and experience can prove valuable for future disarmament measures if they arc Nego Liale. 2. An elaborate verification system will be put into effect involving on site inspection for the first time. It will not be As intrusive As originally thought largely because the . Backed away from the idea of Loo Many russians poking around sensitive areas uhen Moscow unexpectedly reversed ii Wolf on inspections. However the of verification will provide an Tesi for provi Sions in an treaty to Cut Back strategic missiles making it a Little easier to All this is Progri a w be Lakin with sober satisfaction we re in t out of inc Woods by a Long shul hut we re walking again
