European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 3, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes Tom Teepen Reagan should have tossed Meese Long ago Ronald Reagan has a raved pc r seven Yean thai the United slates can gel along without a president but he by also proved it cannot it along Well with out one. The latest Case in Point is he rejigs nation fever at the Justice department the no. 2 and no. 3 men have quit taking respected assistants with them. The group apparently is trying with its coordinated resignations to get a simple message to the while House tilings Are a mess at Justice and will remain so As Long As Edwin Meese is the attorney Gen eral nor Are these two resignations necessarily the last. The no. 4 fellow solicitor general Charles Fried is said to be uncomfortable As the de Facto chief Dep Uty especially again with Mece As sheriff. To All of this Reagan plays Alfred e. Newman the what me worry kid of mad Magazine grinning foolishly As a lengthening Chain gang of his associates and top hires shuffles off to the court and prisons for assorted malfeasance. To each he remains Loyal to the end. Or at and rate loyally is the Quality assigned to him by the Public re lations types who run interference for the Gipper. You have to be Girt wondering if a Dingy indifference in t often More like it. For whatever reason however. Rea Gan is clicking by Mcnese too in the Way Hal its victim is clicking by a Burr. A Csc s several Sec arcs and dubious doings would have embarrassed a dump rat by now but the president is not concerned. Never mind that his confirmation hearings showed Hal Melesc until then a while House Counselor had indulged i dealings with cronies that although not illegal were us cozy nil so loaded with Mutual profit they would Slink up a lobbyists bar never mind that putting the Best pos sible face on it a Csc bungled the Itaru Mok inc Vigallon Wilh a thoroughness that defies the Law of averages. Imagine Tom Wicker investigators taking control of one set of files while Jolly Ullie Nonh is busily shredding away at another nearby. For that matter imagine a National Security aide shredding files while Justice depart ment investigators were securing other tilts Ai his Elbow. There was More Cheek in that scene than in a Voca Shower room. And never mind thai this attorney general tins pcs lifted to Mure grand juries and has been under the review of More investigators on More matters Hart any Oiler in living memory. Or that his Deal Ings with the corrupt cd tech Corpora Tion remain under sceptical that in Hal weird p. Clinic Deal in the Middle East Melesc improperly got int foreign affairs on behalf of his pals and in his mishandling of the Mailer Man aged to at least Embarrass if not to com Promise America s Best Friend in israeli politics labor party Leader Shimon Peres. None of this nor any of the other lesser misadventures of the attorney Gen eral moves the president to suppose he and the nation remember the nation might be better served by a pro at the head of the Justice department in Stead of a pol. Reagan continue to Puller about the while House grinning nicely when that is called for end cutting a l the ribbons lie is asked to Cut. His own Tower com Mission faulted his hum inattention for the Iran amok mess. No one in Washington believes the president has Ever had More than a general nation of most of the major issues and affairs of his and is the last of the old California gang Reagan brought to president no doubt needs the Succour of his proximity. The Legal affairs of the nation will just have to Wail until Nicil january and a new administration if that is the grand juries let Mcew nay where he is. A hands on president would have Long since used one Hind to grab Meuse i Collar the other to grab the seat of his pants and both 10 show him the door. C co a a s4i� from to own my is Lucr at if Atlanta civil War Battleground per led by shopping mall Bull Hun is a Creek that meanders through Vir Ginia so near Washington that member of Congress and ladies of fashion could take horse and buggy Oul to witness the first Bat lie of the civil War fought along the Creek Banks near Manassas Junction on july 21,1861. A Confederate Victory sent them scrambling Back to Washington in panic. After a year of War no sightseers ventured to the same bloody Fields when a second More terrible Battle in August ib62 resulted in Robert e. Lee s most Complete Victory the Retreat of most Federal troops from Virginia and a forced delay in Abraham Lincoln s planned emancipation proclamation one of the first postwar acts of veterans from both sides was to Clum in Amity to this dual Battleground Manassas As confederates called it Gull run to the federals. Together they erected primitive monuments of local Sione on the Henry Hill where Stonewall Jack son earned his nickname in 1861, and at the deep Cut where Al the Climax of one of the War s gnat charges Jackson s battered Defrin Dirrl threw no is Al Porter s Bluc Coats in 1862. A Century and a Quarter later in a nation that sometimes seems not to care about much less Honor its past the biggest Developer in Virginia has been cleared by Prince William county authorities to build on part of the Manassas Battlefield a monster shopping mall and a housing development. Heavy new Auto traffic moreover will suffocate the roadways thai give Access to he inadequately protected battlefields and their Many monuments. Congress authorized a Small Manassas National Battlefield Park around the Henry Hill in 1940, expanded it in 1934 to include some of the second Battle Sites then took in much of the rest of the area in 1930. But in a Compromise Wilh local authorities a segment be tween . 29 the important Warrenton Turnpike during the civil War and the new interstate �6 was left out of the expanded Park obviously for development purposes. That excluded area however had in 1862 been the site of general Lee s Headquarters and the staging area for Gen. James Long Sirlei i massive counterattack that drove the Federal army of Gen. John Pope from the Field. Bounded also by Pageland Lane and Groveton Road which were important a Crici during the Battle the excluded land was of unquestioned historical importance. Its development More Over could have great Impact on the National Park. 31 Prince William officials recognized. The county Board of supervisors has absolutely no intention whatever in violate the integrity of that Park Donald l. While then vice chairman of the Board said twice during Senate bearing on the Park Bill sponsored by John Warner of Vii Nia. That May not have been a Legal pledge but it gives what s Hap pening now an even More duplicitous Aura. First in 1986, the Hazel Peterson cos. Obtained the county s approval for1 a housing development an Nylk a Park a Small shopping Center and parking lot All to be screened by 4 narrow landscaped strip from the Park land the site abutted. Considerable opposition was heard from local citizens and historical groups but they succeeded Only in scaling Down he project from 97s houses to 560. But three month ago Hazel Peterson announced that it would Cut the office Park in half and substitute for the shopping Center a huge mall 1.2 million Square feet featuring five major department stores. From the slope in front of Brawner s farmhouse where in 1862 Stonewall Jackson determined to attack King i Divi Sion As it passed on the Turnpike below the Road was Blue Wilh them the Confederate general William c. Gates wrote Lateran observer won will Sec jammed parking Bis and a blight of modern mall architecture. When Park service officials protested the sudden switch which had been kept from the Public until in was accomplished the current Board of supervisors find right Back two Park arid the Quanico Marine base occupying 20 percent of Prince William territory provide Only $20,139 a year in Federal payment but the malt will provide 2,900 jobs and Over 20 Yew $135 million in net revenues. The county May have � legitimate complaint but is desecrating hallowed ground the remedy and Manassas is Only one example of a National heritage imperilled by development
