European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 26, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes Turtur silly november 36. 1987 Flora Lewis it s a trying time for Reagan and Gorbachev next month s .  meeting is coming at a Lime of Strain at Hoth countries leaders. President Reagan s sins at omission and commission have been piling up. In his Boot i arc Stroika delivered to the print ers several months ago. Mikhail Gorbachev complained about the hostile rhetoric from washing ton which also ruins  and he said of course we can Wail until another administration conies to Power but we would prefer to come to terms with the present one. We have made a certain Start there arc personal contacts and a certain Mensure " the Sovei Leader goes on to say we will seek cooperation and productive talks with any presi Dent with any administration the american people  no doubt Moscow authorities Are aware of Reagan s latest series of lame tasteless anti russian jokes a crude and embarrassing blemish on the president s professed desire to show warm american hospitality. But Gorbachev clearly wants to come now and move ahead with arms control and diplomacy so that he can Clear he Way for his Domestic program of what he Calls Radical revolutionary  he too is under mounting internal pressures. The Case of the ousted Moscow party chief Boris Yeltsin should not be underestimated. We know Only a Small part of what actually happened at the tumultuous Cen trial committee meeting on let. 21 that brought Yeltsin s downfall and it is the part Gorbachev s aides chose to reveal. The Book stresses the difficulties he faces from critics on the other Side which he Calls i he braking mechanism and appears to urge reformers like Yeltsin to press Ever harder for movement. Clearly there has been some turnaround. It May be a temporary Concession like China s Deng Xiaoping made when he was forced by conservatives to dump party Secretary he Yanbang last january Only to come Hack and dominate inc party Congress Las month pushing out several conservatives. There is an old rus Sian Story about throwing the children off the Back of inc Sleigh to Stow Down the advancing wolves. Or it May be that the braking mechanism is proving Loo Strong for inc momentum Gorbachev seeks to create. In any Case a successful Summit meeting would help him. Just As u would take a Little of the accumulating tarnish olt Reagan. Hut it is wrong to suppose that either Leader can Lake advantage of the other s Domestic problems. Neither one looks Strong enough now 10 impose any further concessions on Bis ideological supporters. And it is wrong to see the Summit meeting As just a spectacular an incident in the politics of today and James j. Kilpatrick tomorrow. Ii will he an important step in evolving Easl Wisl relations at a Lime when the whole communist world is facing a Crossroads whatever May happen to Gorbachev personally. China is Farah cad of the soviet Union in redefining the practice of marxism and creating a new Model for communism. But practically every communist country is going in inc same direction bending to he facts and reality that Gorbachev keeps citing As he Speaks of or is in Bis country. The essential thrust it the failure of communism to deliver on its economic promises and therefore to sustain its visionary Appeal. And that failure has been made All the More dramatically visible by what communists now admit to be their mistaken predictions an the inevitable collapse of capitalism. Gorbachev still insists on the superiority of his country s system and blames what went wrong on hav ing underutilised the poli tial of  he focuses on science and technology As the Way of Salva Tion hut recognizes that words and gadgets alone won t fire his people s energies. He does t speak of abandoning dictatorship but he lets the hallowed phrase dictatorship of he proletariat slip into oblivion. There is a deep irony in inc fact that just when the communists arc beginning 10 admit the flaws in their rigid ideology he . Has a Rich in move Back into an ideological Siralli acct. It would be Wiser to examine More thoughtfully what in is hat has saved the capitalist system from the self destruction Man foresaw. Surely it has been the ability to respond to human need to tame the brutalities of the impersonal Market place and its cyclical upheavals. To restrain the impulse of selfish greed with social concern. It has been the ability to develop democracy and self government. Both Moscow and the . Have current roubles but despite himself Reagan has the strength of a responsive s Stem. So lust what is there to be thankful for today a newsman who comes Home for thanksgiving after a Good Deal of travel around the country comes Home with a question about news thai tics in with this Holiday week. In one form or another the question goes this Way Why Don t you Guys Ever print any Good news ? the question arose in Pensacola in Topeka. In the Small town of Hickory . Ii cropped up on a night flight from Chicago to the West coast. Every one of us in the news business has heard inc question before. The complaint is that we of the press Deal Only in bad news in news of crime disaster and hardship in news of Man s inhumanity 10 Man in news of things that Are wrong with our country and the world. Can t we find something Good to write about ? a defensive answer of course is that we do indeed run a great Deal of news thai May properly be described As  the Story of the Rescue of baby Jessica gripped the ensure nation. The recent development of a drug to control cholesterol Levels was widely reported. Much of the news thai gets into the papers or on the air is factual stuff carrying no overtones of either Good or bad. Much More needs 10 be said. What makes news Novelty is one Cri Terion. When a Hundred thousand planes Lake off safely it in t news but when one goes Down in Denver ii s a Page one Story. Proximity is another Factor an earthquake in California has greater news value than an earthquake in Peru. Cd another yardstick is involvement does an event have some Impact upon the lives of our readers or listeners the coming and going of a ship of War May be news in san Diego or Charleston. It s not much news in Cheyenne. So it goes but when in comes to Good Ness or badness it is Novelty that mat ters. The writing of news is the writing of history Gibbon is authority for the proposition that history is mostly a chronicle of the crimes Follie and misfortunes of Mankind. As Long As society is characterized by much More Good than bad it is the bad that makes our daily history. Bad news is news Good news often in t. Thus we lend to Grilc about divorce More than a million marriages break up every year about half As Many As the marriages thai Are entered into. We write about illegitimacy because it is news thai 800,000 children annually Are born out of Wedlock. We write about Latch key children about homeless persons about the 14 percent of our people who Lic a cow the poverty line. It s news that 1,6 million women undergo abortions that 45,000 persons die in automobile wrecks that 28,000 commit suicide it s news that 6 percent of our workers Are unemployed. Some of us write about the shortcomings in Public education the destructive partisanship in government. The crimes committed against our environment. This is our Job. 10 report the bad but it has a regrettable consequence it obscures the Good. And this is what a traveler cams there is so very much that is Good about America. Ii gels Over looked. It just in t news. In is unfashionable to quote Richard Nixon but never mind. Nixon used to say that if he could have chosen any time and Picc in All of history 10 be born he would have asked to be bom in inc United states in the 20th Century. He was t thinking Only of our material wealth of the prodigious output of our farms and factories. He was thinking chiefly of the intangible inheritance that is our Dearest treasure. Alter All the ills of our society have been catalogued and acknowledged the pessimistic tues it arises so Whai s there to be thankful for let us be thankful for a common Lan Guage abuse it As we May. That binds our people together. Let us be thankful for the freedoms we Lake for granted for the rights we Seldom think about for the so cur ii that is guarded by our armed forces. In september we observed the 200th anniversary of the Constitution soon we Wil Mark the Bicentennial of the Bill of rights. We Are inc inheritors of Magna Caria the trustees of Western civilization. Americans Are working. Never before have so Many of our people been gainfully employed peace is almost Al ways a relative condition but relatively speaking we Are at peace. For All of our worries Over Federal i fic is and a lop sided balance of Trade. America remains unbelievably prosperous. Our wealth is in our people in Wiur traditions in the Basic food Neu at a free society. Thuc Are things to think Ghoul on a Holiday that is peculiarly american and As we think let us publicly my priv icly say thanks