European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 23, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a the stars and stripes columns William Buckl Yonly the polls guide actions of George Bush film my things n do onsite holy Fajr sufi a course of masterly inaction. My if you do it a l0n6 en0u6m Feriod. Is a Feltre Atine Vixen you will incl table find Buhr a Quot done the right Tulang. And people will Praise ibo for y3ur \nis6 course of action. Salt a m course Isay .5 to my brother George Iii whose mind and Tongue make up a substantial share of . Reserves wrote an especially provocative essay for Newsweek May 7 whose thesis is pretty Well explicated in the columns Lead sentence a president George Bush or perhaps it is president George Gallup a the difference is negligible gives this defense of his policy of malign neglect of Lithuania a the policies and decisions in be taken have had Strong support from the american people and that a who i work translation read my polls a i to Clear the Way my own judgment is that or. Bush is mistaken in refusing to press the right of the Baltic states to be free mistaken strategically and morally. But George will a syllabus is freighted with a whole lot of other propositions that Bear scrutiny. It happened that the Day following my exposure to Newsweek i tripped Over a documentary on Franklin Delano Roosevelt on television. It was the routine business we Are All used to the Rise of the nazi and fascist totalitarians on that Side of the Ocean on this Side of the Ocean our Ostrich like insistence on isolation. What distinguished this go round from the usual were the scenes of for boisterous eloquent charming appealing drowned by applause. But the three segments illustrating Roosevelt diplomacy during those years were Given Over to his repeated promises a made again and again and again a not to involve the United states in Europe a War. Of course we All knew about of dry a double talk on the matter of involving the . In the War. But most of us however we arc forced to reappraise democratic theory have come to terms with of dry a foreign policy 1939-1941. It was hypocritical deceitful probably unconstitutional and we arc most awfully grateful that he proceeded As he did. George Bush docs not begin to be the Leader in the style of for. For one thing Bush is much less the demagogue. For another he did not ride into office on the populist express. He is More the technician in office in the style of Hoover and Eisenhower. The hoovers of this world Are never terribly exciting viewed on cinemascope. But they Are pretty useful models. Now to recall for is not to suggest that George Bush has it secretly in mind to suddenly convert an excess of Gorbachev into the equivalent of Pearl Harbor followed quickly by a diplomatic whirlwind after which suddenly the Sun is shining on the liberated balts. George Bush Hasni to the theatrical gifts of for and if he turned foreign policy in the direction of help for Lithuania and Latvia that redirection would probably appear to have been initiated by the soviet Union rather than by the Western Alliance. But it does pay to ask the question How is it that for did no to come out earlier for entering the contest on the Side of the allies the answer is quite obvious the american people would resolutely have opposed him. The selective service act survived in 1940 by a single vote one doubts that the american people would seriously oppose George Bush if tomorrow he announced that the . Government recognizes the Independence of Lithuania Anil Latvia and will Exchange ambassadors at the appropriate moment. That a quite different from of a Normandy Landing. Still it is a provocative act. Truman did no to refuse to recognize the satellite government of Czechoslovakia after dear old Joe orchestrated the defenestration of the democratic Leader Masaryk. And the great general Dwight Eisen Hower fumed up a Nice fuss when the tanks went into Budapest in 1956, and did a nothing. Truman and Ike were both politicians which distinguishes them from such As George will and your disobedient servant which is Why they go to the White House and we Bend Over our typewriters. Bush can to help but to have been influenced by the disaster of Vietnam. There we moved by Forward inertia to pursue our vision of containment of the communists. We ran into a greater inertia that of corporate self doubt by our intellectuals who together with College students seeking to avoid unnecessary hazards to their health joined inertial isolationism in America and pulled the plug on the whole of Vietnam. George Bush i repeat is wrong in hewing to the hype cautious air bagged Pursuit of Freedom for soviet colonies. But to say that he is the servant of the american people is hardly saying he is Servile a never mind of dry a furtive entry into the War and maybe the Louisiana Purchase As shining examples of the occasional fruits of anti democratic behaviour. C Universal press Syndicate Ellen Goodman Wisconsin program saves Money but not the kids Naicam a a hit. i _ Madison wis. A the children school tripping through Wisconsin a elegant statehouse sat Down briefly in the Cabinet room. Their Heads Are covered in hand painted baseball Caps their feet Dangle from the grown up chairs. On the ceiling above them Are murals and mottos of an Era that held a More heroic image of government. A the Progress of a state is born in Temperance Justice and a the will of the people is the Law of the land. A this is Wisconsin the state that gave America both the progressive Robert la Follett and the reactionary Joe Mccarthy the state that introduced the concepts of income tax Workman a compensation child support and workfare. A place where social policy making is a vocation and politicians stake their futures on such matters As welfare Reform. On this Bright May morning gov. Tommy Thompson describes it this Way to his visitor a we have always been on the cutting the Edge we Are talking about today is la Marc a program that Thompson carved from legislation with his own executive knife. To put it simply learn fare is based on the notion that families on welfare have an obligation to Send their children to school. If a teen Ager does no to go if he or Lye a benefits Are Cut it is the Sanction part of learn fare the punishment of a family for a teen agers truancy that has become the focus of enormous controversy. Some regard this a cutting Edge As a tool to sever welfare dependency and get people off the Dole. Others Call it a weapon that further impoverishes the poor. But this visitor sees another a cutting Edge to the welfare program. Learn fare is one of a number of attempts to put parents Back in charge of their children. Even if we have to punish them for the a a sins of their sons and daughters. Five years ago this state passed a Law requiring some parents of teen age mothers and fathers to support their grandchildren. Last year los Angeles decided to hold parents responsible for teen age gang members. This month the mayor of Mechanicville n.y., made parents liable again for arrest if their children under 16 break a 10 . Curfew. Learn fare punishing families for their teen agers truancy fits neatly into the new Mode. Despite Little evidence that the children of Ardc families skip school More than others poor parents Are targeted by the state when they she is chronically truant then the Fame in Many ways this trend grows out of decades of frustration and anxiety about the breakdown of families about kids who Are a out of americans Are More Likely these Days to assume that parents have abdicated their role. Even Thompson while fervently talking about learn fare a Power to a break the Cycle of poverty a harkens Back to images of his own parents. A i come from a poor family but there was no question i would go on to what a missing today he suggests by comparison is that parental push out the door to school. What the government can provide he says is a Tough in a world of single Parent families Thompson adds a i believe learn fare acts partially As a substitute for the second Parent a role Model an authority social program As patriarch. The Earnest administrator of Leam fare Silvia Jackon defends the program because of its carrots a Day care for teen age parents transportation alternative education. But she also defends the tactic As a Way a to get families More involved m the behaviour of their she says a taxpayers want someone to ensure that kids go to High school. If the responsibility is not in families where Are you going to put it a the problem of course is that families Are More disrupted problems More Complex solutions More elusive than we May like to believe. The Threa of sanctions does no to automatically empower the Parent of a 16-year-old truant rather there is evidence that it May empower a teen Ager whose attendance re Cord is Worth $100 a month to his family nor does taking Money from the Pooi Over 6,000 families were sanctioned in the first 14 months break the Cycle o poverty through impoverishment. I saves the government Money but does no appear to save the kids. After the dueling statistics Are Analysed learn fare can claim credit for any teen agers return to school. Yet the governor now wants to expand it Down to the families of first graders. Any social Engineer with the vision o a caring Parent for every teen Ager a dependable teen Ager for every Parent car try to construct a support system u strengthen those ties. But a go Emmen cannot punish families into Harmony nor can it enforce parental control a controlling parents. Today in Wisconsin those families Al ready shattered into pieces Are now subject As Well to the cold steel of the cutting Edge. C the Boston Globe
