European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 22, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes . Rosenthal Rosa Urena s death should concern Ever one notes from talks with new York City Detec Tives about 2 . Three men maybe More opened freon a building at 14 Marcy place in the Bronx. Likely a drug turf situation attackers Irving to frighten rival drug distributors or warn neighbourhood drug users away from them. Exact target of attack not Clear. At least 15 shots fired. One Bullet went through window on first floor apartment 1c, passed through bed headboard struck Rosa Urana. 20 years old As she Lay sleeping. Rosa s sister and sister s baby son also in room not hit. Rosa Urana was a totally innocent victim police of 44th precinct say. She did nothing whatever that would put her in a dangerous situation according toll. Donald step Hanson. Notes from talk with Lincoln Hospital spokesman Rosa Urana was declared brain dead next Day. Body transferred to Moalc Giorc Hospital where her organs were removed for donation. That is the entire Story a Young woman lying in her bed. Struck by a drug gangster s Bullet dead. It has happened before that bystanders were killed in drug wars scores and scores of limes in new York Chicago los Angeles Washington almost every big City in the country. Everybody is used to the idea by now not much attention is paid at All. The incidents fade quickly they linger Only in the memory of the family. That is everybody is used to it happening in the Marcy places of the country places where the people who live in the apartments Are Black and poor or his George will panic and poor. News Public interest and Public memory have values lied to geography economics and color or skin. Sometimes journalists arc fully aware of it. When 1 spent a week on night duty at police Headquarters Dur ing my Early reporting Days the first thing i was told by old time newsmen in the press Shack was not to bother calling the City desk with any Story including murder that took place North of 96th Street Harlem s Frontier. Now newspapers and to do report violence done to Blacks and hispanics. But the Plain fact is that if Rosa Urana had died in a drug shoot up of a fashionable town House in the East 60s, the whole City and probably the whole country would have been aroused. The coverage would have been full Long lasting and nationwide. For a week i have re in trying to figure out what new York s Calm acceptance of the death of Rosa Urana Means. I am not entirely sure but perhaps i never really will be. Surely it cannot mean that Whites in this country believe that drug addiction and drug crime Are horrors reserved for minorities no every poll shows that the drug problem is always rated among the country s worst. Docs it mean that people who Are not among the minorities simply Are not really concerned with the lives and deaths of Blacks and hispanics there i plenty of evidence for that. The world accepts with equanimity two things happening in Ethiopia Black people Are starving and a Black government helps condemn them to starvation. And yet simple racial callousness is not the Only answer either. For one thing there arc too Many americans neither Black nor hispanic who do care about the lives of minorities. And for another Blacks and his panics themselves arc usually the killers of Blacks an hispanic adults and the Sellers of drug poisons to their children. I think unconscious prejudice and the Lingerin delusion that Only poor people or minorities need worry about drug murders do count in some measure for the Public aloofness about the murder of Rosa Urana. But maybe the biggest reason is that the Public now understands that american society no longer protects us against drug violence no longer gives us the elemental right of safety in our streets and Homes. One More death m the night somewhere in the Bronx. This is a bitter understanding for americans but realistic and important. It can Lead us to say we can t beat it might As Well try to Cut our losses through legalization. That might reduce crime. The addicted might be less dangerous with drugs Legal and cheap except perhaps Only in the ghetto where most of them happen to live. Or we can at Long last do what we have failed to  can elect a president governors mayors and legislators we really Trust on drugs in our minds and our stomachs. We can insist that they commit our treasure talents total constitutional Legal Power and sensible military strength to the Protection of our Homes and streets against both drugs and the drug men who killed Rosa Urana. C new Kwh twi Bush should seize the Low ground in drug Battle if the Bush Campaign docs not feel As the folks did who lived at the foot of Vesuvius the Campaign is misreading the polls. The new York times lbs poll Sample of 1,056 nationwide three percent margin of error shows Michae Dukakis beating George Bush 49 percent to 39 percent winning in every Region and winning 28 percent of those who voted for Reagan in 1984. Pic polls confirm what primaries such As Indiana a indicate Blue Collar Volcks Are going Home in droves to the democratic party. A los Angeles times poll of a huge Sample of 2,202 Calico Means shows Dukakis trouncing Bush 53-39 with 11 percent undecided in the stale that has 17 percent of the electoral Voles needed to win the while House. In the new York times lbs poll Dukakis favor Able unfavourable rating is 38-14. That is Good but changeable because half the voters have no opinion about him. That causes republicans to rejoice because they assume they can define Dukakis As an inexperienced Liberal. Thai will Lake work. Only 27 percent of registered voters consider Dukakis a Liberal. Regarding Dukakis inexperience consider this Bush has wrapped himself in the Security Blanket Ofhie foreign policy resume. But More people 38 percent to 34 percent say this about Dukakis than about Bush has ability to Deal wisely with a difficult International  anyway the fact that Dukakis is largely unknown leaves him latitude to define himself As with a vice presidential Choice such As sen. Bill Bradley. That Choice would say life is serious and so am i regional balance is one of yesterday s ideas and i chose Quality. Bush has a Knack for negative campaigning lie will need it but can he risk it in California. Dukakis favourable unfavourable rating is 67-17. And it is 56-24 among republicans. Negative campaigning is risky be cause voters have a Low tolerance for it in presidential campaigns. So it might aggravate Bush s problem two thirds of registered voters have an opinion of Bush and his favourable unfavourable rating is 33-35 nationally. What can Bush do for starters he can take a Cue from the polls. In the new York times lbs poll More people 16 percent cited drugs than any other problem As their main worn1. A stunning 45 percent of Calico Means called drugs California s most important problem. Furthermore the new York times lbs poll asked people inc following government grows when provid ing services. Would you prefer smaller government Wilh less services or bigger government delivering More services in March 1980, smaller beat bigger 54-32. Now bigger beats smaller 44-43. That is essentially the result recorded in november 1976, when a Democrat won the White House. The 1988 election May resemble that of 1976, in which Gerald Ford left inc convention far behind Jimmy Carter surged but fell Short. And Ford had advantages Bush lacks. For one. Ford was president. But polls suggest that the place for Bush to Start is by advocating Strong government against drugs. His min Ute disagreement with administration policy regarding Panama s Noriega is not enough. Bush should advocate appointment of a Federal drug  the Federal government s futility against drugs is not Apt to be rectified by a new organization Chart. But this is a Campaign not a seminar so Bush should seize the Low ground. A drug Czar is a politically useful proposal be cause both de Mccase and the president oppose it. Meese argues reasonably thai the attorney Gen eral is the logical coordinator of drug policy among cab inet colleagues and that Oliver North s misadventures demonstrate the dangers of running operations out of the White House. With Congress hot to throw Money and the military at the drug problem it May want to throw titles too. But a drug Czar would follow in the Down Hill footsteps of the Energy Czar of 15 years ago. However leave the merits aside As merits usually arc left. By proposing a drug Czar Bush would Bedico Rousky at Odds Wilh a Csc and Independent of Reagan. That is not much but Given the trajectory of his Campaign As measured by polls no tactic is too trivial to try. Wilth