European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 16, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Pago 10 the stars and stripes Friday october 16.1987 columns William Safire pension funds Are real Issue in football strike at a football game years ago i was sealed Between retired chief Justice Earl Warren and National Security adviser Henry Kissinger a Washington redskins cornerback made a great play preventing � Dallas touchdown but was called for pass interference. Bad Call i hollered poor judgment agreed the chief Justice Ris ing to his Teel Sha Inthis fists Kissinger i housed his prompt on Vot theory As we glumly glance at what passes for professional football on the lube today we ask ourselves on what theory have the owners and players been Basing their economic struggle what inscrutable scrimmage has been forcing so Many of us Consumers of their entertainment product into a new family togetherness Law mowing deep newspaper Reading churchgoing or so Many other archaic sunday lifestyles i interpret All this by using the theory of the sporting Oass. In i never be fore arli Eulalea economic theory the usual antagonists the capitalist class represented by the team owners and the working Clau represented by the players share a special Clement that modifies the perception of their class status. That element is their Mutual participation in an activity related to play the antagonists Are both in the sporting class. The majority of the owners Are men of wealth gained elsewhere getting a special thrill out of the prominence associated with sport. We suspend our judgment of them As Mere Impresa rial tycoons because they Are also avid most player enjoy no Only the thrill of the sport but Lap up the adulation of the audience which tends to class them As heroes because average player pay is $200,000 per season we deny them in usual underdog status when they go out on strike. Thus both owners and players arc viewed As members of the sporting class by the rest of us who make up the spec Talor Gass. When players go on strike for More Money we consider that unsportsmanlike they Are being untrue to our Conception of their class and deny us the pleasures of being members of our More passive class. James Kilpatrick this is All wrong. The sporting class is a fiction. The owners Are really capitalists often seeking tax Breaks on new Sta Dia and the players Are True workers their High earnings which have tripled since 1981 concentrated in an average four year period. We arc witnessing a classic labor management Battle and the Spectator class has to choose up sides. The workers Are losing. Union Solidar Ity is collapsing like the pocket around a dithering quarterback. Attendance at re placement or Scab games in a City like Dallas is picking up and no competing football league puts pressure on owners. The Central Issue is not Over free although every worker should be Able to sell his services else where when his contract expires professional football players do not have that Opportunity their Union made a pass at that but the owners held firm to their unconscionable principle and will not permit the Issue to go la arbitration be cause that Way lies sure economic free Dom for players. The real Issue is one that affects so Many other businesses Money in pen Sion funds. Until 1982, owners had been pulling a specified amount of dollars into the fund but the investments had not done As Well As hoped in providing benefits. The Union sough and received guaranteed level of benefits rather than a set amount of contributions. But then the Slock Market went up interest rates have been improving now the Union realizes it made a mistake in seeking Security without an upside fund potential. The owners shrug and say thai a Deal s a Deal they will contribute less to the fun because it already provides the benefits contracted for. Logic and economic Power is on the owners Side. They say the Union cannot have it both ways a guaranteed floor on benefits As Well As participation in an unexpected Rise in the fund. And this member of the Spectator class says Why not every few weeks redskins owner Jack Ken Cooke invites me to his Box Here i go biting the Hind that feeds me peanuts hot dogs every thing throughout american business the principle of guaranteed benefits should be accepted with the sweetener or in this Case the kicker of some participation in the unanticipated growth of pension funds. Thai will Stabi Lize the Economy while protecting the aging population with less Reliance on social Security or welfare. According to my theory of the sporting class the football Industry Wilt not Lead the Way in this some Strong Union will see the open ing and run to Daylight a Ryor Birnn not settee Safe Hood for . Is a preposterous notion september was a Busy month around were swirling Over Nicaragua the per Sian Gulf and judge Robert Bork. It is understandable that virtually no attention was paid to an extraordinary Bill thai came shooting out of a House committee on sept. 17. The Bill would Grant statehood to the City of Washington . The nation had belter Wake up to this Issue. The Bill . 51, is now Ripe for consideration on the floor of the House. We May be certain that the same coalition that ganged up again judge Bork will gang up again. The american civil liberties Union the National organization for women the Blacks the homosexuals the whole shebang will be whooping it up for the hate of Mew Columbia unlike i constitutional amendment which requires the approval of 38 states the pending Bill requires Only air Wplf majorities in each House of Congress. The possibility that this unique City could become the 511 sate is real and it is imminent the proposal is preposterous h is also unworkable and impractical. From the viewpoint of conservatives in both parties the Bill holds a Prospect of political disaster. This curious new suit predictably would Send two Liberal democrats to the Senate for generations to come and two More Liberal democrats in a closely divided senile of 102 members would carry heavy weight. The Bill rests upon a single premise that True democracy is denied the 626,000 residents of the District of Columbia because they cannot vote for Mem Bers of Congress. Simple Justice says the committee report demands that this grievance be corrected. The argument superficially appealing. After All residents of . Fight in the same wan pay the same taxes and live under the same Federal Laws that apply throughout the nation but they have no direct voice in Matin these Laws. As a practical matter of course residents of the District have a very loud voice in these nutters sheer proximity gives them unusual Power. This City is a one Industry town and that Industry is the Federal government. The people who live within the District live Here by Choice voluntarily they have made a Trade off. They have swapped their right to vote for members of Congress in Exchange for the advantages and amenities of living in Washington. The statehood Bill runs head on into grave constitutional problems. The 67 Square Miles that now constitute the District of Columbia were ceded by Maryland to the National government for one specific purpose to provide a seat of government for the United Stales. Over this Seal of government. Congress holds the Power of exclusive legislation in All cases what no stroke of legislative legerdemain ran nullify the constitutional Power. If Congress no longer wants or needs most of the 67 Square Miles the specific purpose of the original cession becomes controlling and Maryland s contingent title would have to be Hon ored. You cannot form a new stale within the jurisdiction of another slate. The Constitution forbids it. Another constitutional Issue transcends que Lioni of title to land. The 23rd amendment gives the District constituting the seat of government of the unite states three electoral votes for president. The pending Bill would carve out a Federal enclave extending from the White House and mall to Capitol Hill. This would become the Seal of within toil enclave a handful of voters would remain. Unless the 23rd amendment were repealed these few voters would function in presidential election As i whole state. They would cast the three electoral votes. Proponents of statehood Brush the 23rd Amend ment aside it would simply be superseded they say. In the same Way that the provisions relating 10 slavery inthe Constitution of 1787 were superseded by the 13lh amendment of t86s, it also it remarked that propose Constitution for new Columbia contains a Section 11 to that permits a resident of the enclave at his or option 10 be deemed a resident of new Columbia for purposes of voting. The argument will not Wash. Those three electoral votes cannot be summarily wished away. Perhaps the most preposterous aspect of the proposal u the notion thai the nation s capital belongs not to the nation As such but to the residents of Washington As such. Hokum the City of Washington belongs to All the people. We built it. We ought to keep it
