European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 27, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes columns . Rosentha Lour leaders allow corporate Crooks to walk streets the ultimate takeover once upon a time in an earlier life Wise men came to instruct me in the ways of something called management incentive compensation which was always pronounced reverentially capital letters understood. Occasionally it was referred to less formally. But with just As much respect and Devotion As the Bonus system. The instruction came when i was deemed to have attained sufficient hierarchical stature on my newspaper. That was some years after i gave up the pleasure of reporting and writing for the privilege of becoming a human target. Also known As an editor. Most reporters who become editors have no previous executive experience. Even the dullest of them however do understand several things about bonuses. One is that they arc not paid out just because a company makes Money. A company is supposed to make Money and a Board of directors has the right to assume that is one of the reasons executives arc paid anything at All. So. It was explained bonuses Are paid out to executives when they do something special to help increase the Compa no s profits. The idea is that if the company reaches a specific agr cd upon goal of More profit eligible executives get a Bonus. Sometimes the Board even insists on seeing each executives actual plans for helping boost profits something More than a generalized expression of Good intent. That is called management by objective. As i came eventually to grasp. Now. If the company Falls Short of the final of increased profits the bonuses arc Ess. Or nothing. And. Of course if the company should lose Money a Knock Wood and spit three limes into the wind a not Only would there be no Bonus but perhaps even the annual salary raise might be skipped. It All seemed reasonable until feb. 21. Then we All discovered that the executives of or excl Burnham Lambert had thought up a nifty plan under which they would not Only get bonuses if the company lost Money but even if the whole shebang collapsed. Collapsed into bankruptcy a All non onus employees Laid Oil desks sold to Ellen Goodman the secondhand Man and creditors standing in line whistling for their vanished hundreds of millions. And i mean big bonuses As High As $10 million a crack adding up to at least $260 million. This Money was All handed out just weeks before filing for bankruptcy. Of course the Drexel Burnham boys arc just Peanut shall cars compared with the gang of savings and loan Bankers who gambled with their depositors Money and lost hundreds of billions that we ail will have to make Good. Hundreds of billions. Imagine a enough to fight and win the drug War at Home and abroad with enough left Over to improve american education so we arc not embarrassed every time we see a japanese to care for the poor and sick in our shameful streets to help Eastern Europe and Africa and the disaster areas of Asia. Hundreds of billions. It happens that i think drugs Are viciously dangerous a drugs and the Slaughter in the streets that they bring. So from time to time i visit a therapeutic Community to talk with Young ale giving a year or two of their lives ing with every nerve end to try to break the drug habit and build a decent life for themselves. Many have been in jail. They were convicted of peddling drugs in the streets or stealing to get crack Money. _ i think they should have been jailed. So do they which is a step on the Way to their salvation. I also know a number of very Good people who arc important in the business life of this country. Tell me. John Alan Jim Carla Walter Felix Dan. What do i say to those Young sters when they ask me Why the Crooks swindlers pirates and High rolling con men of the business world whom you All know by name Are Stilt walking the streets do you have a better answer than the one i have been giving so far a that it is a scandal our political and financial leaders Are Loo frightened to face a or too cynical Tell me the answer and 1 will Tell those Young people. Then i will report what they say. New York time silent treatment offers no cure for verbal abuse its been a Long time since i believed that a names can never Hurt me. By kindergarten we All team that words can be As damaging As Slicks and stones. The vocabulary of prejudice in particular can be As destructive As a physical weapon. Words like Wop. Kike Nigger Bitch fag Are thrust deliberately to wound another. But so arc the other words with which we Tongue lash each other these Days. Racist bigot anti semite homophobic. Sexist. In theory these words were created and stockpiled As an Arsenal of self defense. Yet we use them As aggressive implements All their own. They have become a Public and preemptive strike. A deadly Silencer. In the past few weeks. Andy Rooney was struck by one of those accusing words. He was cast and cast out from lbs. As a racist for allegedly telling a Magazine that Quot Blacks have watered Down their  next Ann Richards candidate for governor of Texas was coloured in racist hues when some heard through her Texas twang the remark that Quot no judge and no bureaucrat has any business in determining whether a White woman has an  political linguists poured Over the tapes to decipher if she said Quot whether a White woman or As Richards claims Quot whether or Why a  then in Massachusetts. Boston University president John Silbur. Running for governor was attacked by a Rainbow coalition. Once. Tor calling the City of Lowell the cambodian capital of America. Twice for comparing Jesse Jackson a oratory to hitlers. Thrice perversely for alluding to racism among jews. And finally for sexism in using the phrase a sons of  these were just the most Public cases of the past month. Charges of a anti Quot or a ism Quot a the big verbal guns to be drawn out against serious attacks a now seem to be the saturday night specials of discourse. They Are part of a random civic violence. Who was caught in the verbal nets this time Rooney. Who was arrested in 1942 for integrating the Back of a bus. Richards whose autobiography is a civil rights Story. And Silber who is to All appearances an equal Opportunity misanthrope. For the most part those who speak up for these and others accused of some bigoted remark have hinged their defense on the first amendment. Freedom includes the rights of americans to say things that Are cruel or stupid outrageous As Well As inspired in Eastern Europe after All Neo nazi skinheads now roam uttering anti semitic remarks. People there Are discovering the hateful Side of free speech. But what 1 am struck by is something else the disparity the Gap Between our current hypersensitivity to Public speech and our relative and lingering insensitivity to private speech. This year a slew of truly racist sexist anti Gay anti semitic acts took place on campuses across the country. They were followed by protests and then by administration speech bans and then by debates on the first amendment versus harmful speech. The pattern became familiar. I wondered then and now How Many of the students had Ever personally confronted someone Al Sci a stupidity and bigotry Eye to Eye. Had the undergraduate spoken up when her Friend was called a jewish american Princess had the Young Man Ever challenged his buddy on a casual slur about their Black teammate had a female student who d been harassed at a fraternity party Ever phoned the president of that House with a personal complaint had the Black who d been hassled in a Campus Bookstore called the manager before calling the protest meeting in our work lives in our social lives it happens time and again. Something is said. Not knowing How to reply whether to reply we say nothing. We May avoid the people avoid the situation but they go on not knowing their offence. The right to free speech was never meant to silence opposition. I can defend your right to say what you think and fight to change what you think. If Over the years americans have Learned to hold their tongues and change their minds it is partly because of the personal reactions to bigotry. On the other band those who truly ply hate in Public have often tried it out first in private. Names can Hurt. To hurl them indiscriminately in the name of self defense is dangerous. It seems that we have become trigger Happy in Public. What we need is More courage against prejudice in private. The to amp ton Globe