European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 15, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Flora Lewis Good to see Washington look at its options the foreign policy reviews to provide the hush administration with a new look at the Reagan heritage Are going on feverishly around the capital despite Many still empty offices even Hough there May be shifts of emphasis when the team is completed it Means the shape of the Bush approach to the world is emerging based less now on ideological dictates and More on facing known prob lems so tar there items to be surprisingly Little in fighting among the various institutional players not because Khimy have been coordinated yet but because minds Are running on similar tracks. The wounds of the fight Over John Tower s ill fated nomination As Secretary of defense still throb. Yet Given the getting on with substance the pain a ebb a Good Deal More rapidly than was imag ii d just a few Days ago. Jan. Or Cal scow Croft he National Security adviser enjoys a remarkable Confidence among officials and experts who often disagree on issues he is primarily a ii Chni Cian with a great Deal of practical experience in hammering out major positions. Hut he dots have Clear views on the directions Security and foreign policy should take and he has a manner and personality conducive to getting people to bras out heir differences instead of encouraging confrontation. There probably won t be a grand design an Over arching concept of where the . Should be going into the m it Century. Tod Many big decisions have to be Midei quickly to Wail for that. In any cute there in t that much Challenge to the policies i resident Reagan left standing on most issues though there seems to be a greater awareness now of How fast the world is changing and of How Many assumptions ingrained Over the last 40 years May no longer apply. There. I ii noticeable tension Between the Huish administration s desire to look fresh and self reliant and its acceptance of continuity on in it Reagan years this by recognition Leaf Power realty is divided Between opposing parties in . And the Congress demonstrated in Llu Tower fight. It s As though the Volcks wan led to add another big so Rofi Hacks and balances to the ones in the Constitution lx.-i.ausl1 they Don t Trust the politicians on either sidle said a leading democratic senator. Siefri tary of slate James a. Baker clearly has the James j. K1lpatrick need Tor legislative support Al the front of his mind. It s there on practically any Issue from How to Deal with the nicaraguan contras to nudging the israelis and palestinians into talks to making sure beforehand that and arms control agreements with the soviets will be ratified the problem is the pressure of Lime. Appropriations for the contras run out at the end of this month. The plan now apparently is to try to keep them going As is for about a year to Iff whether the Sandi nistas really do fulfil their promises for free elections and More open politics neither the Central american governments nor Many in Congress will like this reluctance in getting on with disbanding he fighting Force. But the fact is thai it can t be done much faster fit s to be done smoothly and decently. And there Are signs that this administration is pre paring at last to fulfil . Promises on Nicaragua to live with a reformed need be rather than persisting by Hook or by Crook in trying to overthrow it. If Washington is Wils Itig to make this Point clearly and convincingly the necessary compromises could fall into place. The biggest Issue is relations with Hie soviets mos cow is in a show its own peo pc that Mikhail " Gorbachev s new foreign policy is paying political and it ardently Hopes economic dividends. But Washington has to solve some of its own Long festering disputes Over what kind of strategic and conventional forces it wants before it can reasonably agree with the russians on important cuts.". This is Al last Clear to senior is a real departure front the Reagan approach of ducking Tough internal decisions. At least the right questions Are being asked about . Option. The new dangers arising from the fluidity of lie world is it enters a new Era Csehi better under stood. What Mas really been a resounding Success for. The West As the cold War ends opens new problems East West in astern Europe among allies in he Pacific Washington has t got answers yet but it s encouraging that it is looking to Sec what s possible in Stead of just wishing to make it so. As Maffer of a Deshaney decision was right in Ahles Dickens could not have Peri led a bidder Story of personal trag Edy and Public incompetence than he Stor of Young Joshua Deshaney it would inv a heart of Stone nuo Grieve for this abused child but it is. Wrong to Casio Gale chief Justice William Rehn quasi int the supreme court s decision in ihi1 ease. Asa matter of Law the opinion he wrote for the major us was plainly a hot Hwy arc the ugly facts torn in 197? to Randy and Melody it Shanks in i980a Wyoming court granted the couples divorce and awarded Cus 1od of Joshua to his father who soon moved to the. Small town of nce Nih in want Bifi county. Wis in january iv82 the county s depart ment of sen ices first Gol word thai the i hit May have been subjected to physical abuse. Over the next two similar reports repeatedly were i to the department s attention. A caseworker Ann pc Mcter. Made 20 10 the Deshaney Home. She noticed bumps and Brattoni in. The boy s had. A special team of social workers played Over Joshua s Case made recommendations to the father and corned a linux the child hut wok no action la remove hit1 boy from his father s Cusco a. Finally in March 1984, Deshaney took his Semi conscious son to mercy medical Center in Oshkosh the boy had been so severely beaten Hal brain sur Gery was required. About half of his brain had been permanently destroyed Joshua Wil spend the res of his life in an institution for Llie profoundly retarded. Randy Deshance child abuse and sentenced to two years in Pris on. It is a fair Assumption that no one is More deeply sorry than Ann pc time Ler who just knew the phone would ring some Day and Joshua would be seen in the unerring Light of Lind sight she and her associates by failing to put the boy in a Foster Home made a terrible professional misjudgment. So much for the facts. The Law is not so easily Sci Forth. Joshua is Mother brought suit against the Winnebago county department of social services seeking monetary damages for he de Parl Meni s failure to pro decl Joshua from his father s abuse this is the critical Csc men she did not sue in a slate court under whatever state Law migh have applied. She sued in a. District court alleging that the county had denied Joshua his civil rights under the due process clause of the 14 in . This makes All the1 difference in the world. As presented to the supreme court the question became one of constitutional Law docs the Constitution impose some affirmative duty upon the state to protect. U citizen from private violence chief Justice Rehnquist prop Erly answered rib it docs not for this he k receiving a denunciation he does no deserve. L it the question in another Cost Cal. In Washington the police know of certain blocks that have become visual War zones in the Battle against drug dealers several wholly innocent bystanders have been killed in shoot outs. Between rival gangs. Should the police be subject to suit for falling to prevent these 1 homicides \ _. A member Willie i Lorton he was the criminal released on weekend parole in Massachusetts who went on a Amtal Rannpage. Did the parole Board s error in judgment Depris a Horton s victims of a constitutional right Liis is the heart of he Issue. As Rehn que St observed in his carefully reasoned opinion the purpose of the 14th Amend ment was to protect the people from the state not to ensure Hal the Susaie projected Iltchi from each Oiler judges and lawyers wrote a Enqu i a like other humans Are moved by natural sympathy in a Case like this to find a Way for Joshua and his Mother to receive adequate compensation for he grievous harm inflicted upon them. But before yielding to that impulse it is Well to remember once again hat the harm Vas inflicted not by he state of Wisconsin bul by Joshua s father. Thic most thai can be said of the stale s functionaries in this cose is that they stood by and did nothing when suspicious circumstances Dici aled a More Active role for Rehnquist suggested obliquely Hittl in arc alg a relationship with Joshua Wisconsin May have acquired a duty under its of tort Law to protect the boy. That is a Mailer for an other lawsuit in another forum. In the midst of. Our dickensian emotion Over the beaten child and the bumbling bureaucracy let us keep a Clear Eye on the Law of this Case. Inc opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent Hose if tie authors and ure us no nay to be cum dared As repress tin the teens of the stars and stripes
