European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 12, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes . Rosenthal . Watkins leading the Way in aids bottle at la guard a Airport a Driver was holding up a sign with the name of a Man coming Oft the washing inn shuttle. I stopped Short when i saw the name and Felt a slicing urge id Wail for the Driver s passenger. Introduce myself and congratulate him on what he is doing Tor the country so i did. The passenger Wai . James a Watkins retired chairman of president Reagan s aids  All laughed when he Sal Down in the chair. An Admiral Watkins has done As much As any american to make the country face the realities of the aids epidemic. Along the Way he Lias calmly shown that an appointed official not Only has the right but the duly id speak out when he finds himself in deep disagreement with the Man who gave him the Job. The Admiral has come out Tor a Federal Law to right discrimination against people who have the aids virus. The commission is expected to follow his Lead. Now almost everybody is against discrimination in theory but the country it still full or people including inc Reagan administration who Are against put Ting theory into Law. Distaste for homosexuals and narcotic addicts the principal groups of sufferers so far is one of the Rea sons. But there arc some practical objections Loo. The Law would be extremely difficult to enforce. It would involve the Federal government in one More part of life at a Lime when Many americans arc trying to pry their lives free from bureaucracy but Watkins is presenting Laws against Dis Crimi James Kilpatrick nation not Only As a matter of civil liberties but also of Public health in fact he sees Ami discrimination legis lation As the key in slowing the spread of the epidemic. The logic is simple. The epidemic simply cannot be traced and fought without the cooperation of those who earn the deadly contagious virus that leads to aids. They spread the plague through sexual inter course or Exchange of blood mostly addicts using dirty Needles to five Yean at least 450,000 americans will have died from aids and More than a million others will be carrying the virus. The epidemic will never be braked until those who fear they May carry the virus submit to testing. Manda tory testing is simply impossible a Dayman. It would turn the country into a vast network of spies and cops tracking Down All those who seem suspicious and forc ing them into hospitals and laboratories. It will never happen unless the country lets the epidemic get so out of hand that it is willing to abandon the Constitution. So the Only Way to get widespread testing is by what is still supposed 10 be inc american Way voluntarily and through persuasion. People simply will not come Forward to be tested or will not Supply names of sexual contacts for notification if they feel they will lose their jobs and Homes Watkins said. At every commission hearing there has been Testi Mony about that. The Admiral asks for Laws to make sure that those who do lest positive will not lose their jobs and Homes. These Laws will indeed be devilishly hard to enforce. Bui they will be evidence that at last the country understands that discrimination itself is a dirty Needle spreading the disease. That will encourage Many to submit to testing. Then perhaps inc pressure from people who Bave had the courage to face testing will make refusal unacceptable. No guarantees just maybe which is belter than How things stand now. In Geneva Switzerland a couple of week before Watkins recommendations became known the world health organization which includes almost every country on Earth adopted a Resolution calling for a Campaign against aids discrimination throughout the or. Jonathan Mann the american who directs who s efforts against aids said the Resolution was not a political measure or even primarily a matter of human rights which is not who s real concern. But Public health is who s business. Mann Aid that action against discrimination was the Point where Public health and human rights were inseparably inter twined. Nobody outside who paid much attention. Bui when Walkins spoke up he received attention in full which should be valuable not Only to american Ami a1ds work but also to who s. All this docs not mean the legislation will be passed quickly and probably not during this administration. I docs mean that on his watch Walkins is doing his Job pointing out Shoals and harbours a Man Worth wait ing for just to shake his hand. La to York Titi Wright Meese both tarnished a bit smudged where there s smoke so they say there s fire but experience also leaches us that where there s smoke there May be Only a smudge pol. In inc matter of House speaker Jim Wright inc Lime has come to determine formally which is which. The same observation applies of course in the mat Ter of attorney general de me Csc but a Csc is under format investigation and Wright at inc moment is not. The cases arc not exactly parallel but the similarities Art sufficient to invoke another homely proverb what is sauce for the Goose is sauce for inc Gander. Doth Mccase and Wright hold positions of Formida ble responsibility. Meese is the nation s chief Law enforcement officer Wright stands behind the vice presi Dent for inc presidency itself. It is said of Meese that his conduct should be above even the appearance of impropriety. Surely the same High Standard should apply to the most powerful member of Congress. Meese is in rouble because of his friends chiefly inc smothering bothering mothering e. Robert Wal Lach. With friends like Wallach one has to ask who needs enemies a Csc insists thai he did no More for Wallach in the cd tech scandal than he would have done for any other citizen in any other matter brought to his attention. It is a feeble defense. Years ago Meese should have told this Leech to get off his Back Don t write me memos Don t Call me an the phone Don t ask me to lunch. He never did. An attorney general of the United states should have no friends. A speaker of the House should live by the same lonely Rule. Wright also is in i route because of his who Clur dealer friends. Wright intervened with inc Federal Home loan Bank Board in behalf of his Friend and fund Raiser Thomas Gaubert. This Friend is under indictment for wire fraud and false statements. The indictment charges that he gulled an Iowa savings and loan institution into financing a Slick Deal in Dallas county Texas by which Gaubert reaped a s5.6 million profit overnight. Who needs friends like Gau Burtt Wright also intervened with the Board in the matter of Dallas millionaire Don i on the Federal savings & u an insurance corp. Has charged Dixon with Sham transactions bogus profits and making false statements. Under Dixon s ownership the Vemon savings and loan has sunk $350 million into debt. Why would the speaker of the House go to Bat for this fellow yet again Wright intervened with inc Board in the matter of Craig Hall a Dallas real estate promoter. Hall was running behind on si57 million in Loans. Was it the proper business of the speaker to invest the prestige and dignity of his office in Hall s misfortunes there is the troublesome matter of Wright s Liesl Book. Unlike his earlier literary efforts which were published by commercial houses this Cul and paste collection of speeches and anecdotes was published by a fort Worth Printer named Carlos Moore. The circumstances Are Peculiar. Wright receives a Royalty of 55 percent on every copy a royally unheard of in the Book publishing world. It has transpired that Moore received $250,000 in printing business from Wright s Campaign fund for re election. Wright has received nearly $60,000 in royalties and there i something Royal indeed about the Deal. This week it further developed that one of Wright s Start assistants Matthew Coss Fotio spent an Esti mated 200 hours working on Wright s Book. Wright says this was proper. But rules of the House absolutely forbid the diversion of Public servants for private gain. The speaker insists that he has done nothing wrong hat he was doing for his constituents Only whal any member of the House would do for the folks Back Home. He wonders plaintively Why there should be such a commotion about his royalties when Larry Scakes and Don Regan received hundreds of thou Sands of dollars in publishers advances for their books. But Scakes and Regan Are out of Public office. Wright remains in the speaker s chair. Let me go Back to the metaphor of the ire and the smudge pot. In both instances my guess is mostly smudge pot. When the smoke clears it Wilt be seen thai neither Meese nor Wright has violated any Law but in will also appear that Mccase has behaved unwisely and that Wright has behaved imprudently. Such conclusions would not support resignations but they might make us hunger for the Days when Public office was revered As a Public Trust. Pc univ Toul Ptim synd Ccu