European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 19, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Dav Mcneely compassion was Cornerstone of Lelan cts life Mickey Leland was always an ally nation get tar. Classified for racial purposes As Black Leland Proba Bly was closer to Grey and he had Blue eyes. He stood out. Although he was sometimes criticized for focusing too much attention on himself he claimed the spot Light for issues that needed it. In the Texas House of representatives where he spent sin years before going to Congress he won Pas Sage of legislation allowing prescription of generic drugs and pushing state employment opportune is for minorities. In Congress he became the main spokesman on world hunger. I met him in 1971. He was sitting on a Box at the Headquarters of Houston mayoral candidate Fred Hofheinz. Mickey was affable and approachable to a stranger from out of town trying to decipher the complicated political Battle. He was a natural politician interested in people. From then on i was one of the growing number that Mickey called Friend. Hofheinz lost the mayor s race a blow to the Black Community. But Mickey s own political fortunes got a boost Early the next year when a Federal court ordered that members of the Texas legislature be elected from single member rather than at Large districts. Leland was one of several minority legislators suddenly swept into office. When he arrived in Austin in 1973, he and the troupe of Black freshman House members that accompanied him were a new Breed they were the first Blacks in the House chosen by their own communities without first requiring the acquits Cnoc of White Lead Walter Mears to be sure there had been Black legislators in the 1960s, including Barbara Jordan elected to the Texas Senate in 1966. While they attracted attention they were for the most part rather mainstream. When Mickey Leland Craig Washington Paul Ragsdale of Dallas and a few others arrived in january of 1973, things changed. The legislature was finally truly integrated. The most flamboyant of the lot was Leland though Washington was a close second. With his afro haircut Yashiki various types of attention getting hats and occasionally his fist in the air the former anti War protester and student body president of Texas South pm University gave new flair to legislative dealings. Some of it was show for sure. Had that been All Mickey had to offer it would not have been enough. But once he got attention he followed up. Despite his sometimes Tough sounding rhetoric Leland was a coalition builder who made friends easily and who wanted to make the world a better place. Mickey Leland was Able to represent his mostly Black constituents to the White Community. He built Bridges that otherwise might not have existed. He and several minority  forces to help conservative Democrat Billy Clayton become House speaker. They were rewarded with positions As part of the speaker s team and with attention to issues they considered important. I remember watching Leland sit across the table in the quorum club where Nick Kralj served up drinks to legislators and lobbyists having Friendly arguments with then Houston chronicle editor Everett Collier or with it regents chairman Frank Erwin and others in powerful positions. He got their attention and their help. With his warm smile and genuine love for people of All kinds and colors Mickey made almost everyone he met feel they were a part of his efforts to belter the state and when he moved to Congress the world. He was inclusive not exclusive. His personal Charisma made support for issues comfortable and acceptable for those who otherwise would have paid them Little  he went from Ashikis to three piece business suits and his hair grew progressively Shorter some accused him of being too close to the White establish ment. But Leland s Friendly persuasion magnified his efforts for causes like hunger and  that needed  support for Walter Mondale for the democratic presidential nomination in 1984 brought heat from Many Blacks who wanted Jesse Jackson. But Leland had pledged to Mondale for his unstinting support for issues important to the minority Community and he kept his  Leland supported Jackson s efforts in 1988, he was received mostly with open arms despite some grumbling from some Early Jackson supporters who Felt displaced by his joining Jackson s  Mickey had to die it is fitting that it would be while working to combat hunger. Even his death called attention to the most burning concern of his life. There arc tears All Over Texas America and the world for Mickey Leland a world class Man. He will be missed  urn my of flex Lor the Austin to and twin Suttman. Bush walks precarious path with hostage crisis once while Oliver North was Riding High a spokesman for Ronald Reagan s White House issued a statement that seemed to Rule out . Talks with Leb anese hostage takers. North objected saying that administration policy was to invite talks while forbidding any concessions to terrorists. So the statement was amended. In that 1985 refinement the Reagan administration said it had offered to talk with anyone including the kidnappers themselves but never had received a response. The distinction was a Fine one revolving around the question of what would amount to negotiating with terrorists As opposed to talking with any and All Par tics about freeing the captives. To negotiate is to communicate with another party in an Effort to Settle some thing. The word implies bargaining and Compromise yielding one thing to get another. President Bush says he will not permit Hal. Reagan said so publicly even while his administration was secretly breach ing its own Rule in the Iran arms for hos tags Deal. As Bush seeks to open lines of Dis Cussion for the release of the eight americans held captive in Lebanon he has drawn the line against the kind of negotiation that would amount to Ransom for hostages. I m not going to do anything that would put some other american per haps in some other place at some other time at risk Bush said last week. And that Means trading off or negotiating for  put another Way Bush said he would do nothing that will be seen As quid pro quo for  the president said there was no Subtle change in policy behind his statements. The record bears him out. His position in the current situation matches the avowed policy of the Reagan years when the Beirut hostage ordeal began. As vice president Bush headed a task Force on terrorism which declared in its 1986 re port that there should be no negotiations for deals with terrorists. But there has been a change in tone in the heightened tension Over hostages since Israel seized a shiite cleric in Southern Lebanon on july 28. Bush said he is looking for Contact through every possible Channel. I m not talking about terms i m talk ing about talking to get people out that arc held against their will he said. And i think i covered that pretty Well in my inaugural address when i said Good will begets Good  that message was directed to Iran which holds some measure of control Over the shiite moslem factions holding the Beirut hostages Tehran is said to have offered help on the hostages in Exchange for the release of iranian assets held by the United states. The administration is willing Only to suggest that Good things could happen if the atmosphere Between the two nations were to improve after a decade Long freeze and that nothing would do More to improve it than release of the hostages. In a Way that docs involve negotiations guarded and indirect toward a Long term thaw that would bring free Dom for the hostages and later presumably would include the release of iranian assets impounded by the United states in the embassy hostage crisis a decade ago that won t be a simple process . And iranian estimates of the sums involved Are billions of dollars apart and an International tribunal in the Hague is settling asset disputes. Some $3.9 billion in iranian assets were returned after the embassy hostages were released in 1981. There s at least a Chance that pattern could recur and the administration knows that if it did there would be suggestions that the whole Deal had been Cut in Advance. But the while House says it won t be done that Way. We arc not willing to link the iranian assets questions to the hostage ques Tion Fitzwater said. That fits within the definition of our policy of not trading arms or Money or whatever for hostages and of not paying Ransom for  he said that applies even though the assets were Frozen in the first place be cause americans had been taken hostage. Then the other conciliatory. Half of the message the administration. Is open to improved relations with Iran and there Are benefits associated with having better  the United  but we would t speculate on any specific one Fitzwater  ,."-." Wilur r. Momti Leporin on Amhi Fagton ind