European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 16, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Tom . Is land of the free but not if you disagree this week the president of the United states proposed an amendment to limit the first amendment to the Constitution the american guarantee of Freedom of speech Assembly and religion. This same week a Federal judge in Florida found that the words of a rap hit 1.7 million albums sold were obscene whereupon police arrested a retailer for Selling it and members of the group 2 live Crew for singing it. This week too sen. Jesse Helms who is running for re election in North Carolina and other protectors of the Public complacency continued their efforts to abolish or restrict the Grants of the National endowment for the arts. Thus at the highest level and in All three of its branches officials of the Federal government sponsored efforts to diminish a fundamental american right Freedom of expression. The most threatening of these efforts to limit Freedom is president Bush a renewed assault on the first amendment. The constitutional amendment he proposed ostensibly would outlaw nothing but burning a Flag but that might restrain not just free speech but free Assembly in the event More than one person should join in the attempt and possibly even free religion if a Church group should be involved. Besides once the first amendment is opened to restriction As it never has been in american history who can say what others of its magisterial provisions might fall before fearful and passionate majorities Freedom of Assembly for example might Well have been endangered during the difficult years of protest against the Vietnam War had presidents Johnson or Nixon surrendered to political temptation As abjectly As has George Bush in the puerile Case of Flag burning. Bush is playing politics with the Bill of rights assuming that republicans will support his disreputable amendment and that in the fall elections the Public will punish any Democrat with the courage and patriotism to oppose it. But most americans who applaud Bush against the mighty danger of Flag burning As Well As those who support the attempt in Florida to suppress 2 live Crew and those who agree that a there ought to be a Law against Federal Grants to sexually explicit or ant religious Art a most of these americans Are motivated by nothing More elevated than fear. Fear of sex hardly. Not when Eddie Murphy concert films Andrew Dice Clay performances shelves full of skin magazines can flourish As they do a even in Miami where 2 live Crew Felt the Force of the Law. Not when advertising television and movies Are drenched with sex and no one in authority lifts an  j. Kilpatrick fear of the overthrow of the government ridiculous. A Flag burning in every City every Day might signal much discontent but not even that would threaten Bush a Power. A few flags burning occasionally threaten literally nothing the exploitation and demeaning of the Flag by Sleazy merchants is More obnoxious to Many americans. Fear of a threat to religion not Likely. Not in a country where an overwhelming percentage of the population professes if it does not always practice a Faith and where the phrase a under god can be inserted into a supposedly secular pledge of allegiance with something like unanimous consent. Fear of Art this gets closer to a truth As the likes of Helms proclaim their anxiety that the morals of youth be protected from certain photographs and paintings. But museums movies the theater even orchestras All demonstrate that its not Art itself but Only some Art that arouses the protectors. Fear of race that seven closer since 2 live Crew is a Black group singing quintessential Black lyrics. But Eddie Murphy is Black too and so is Richard Pryor and they also offend Many sensibilities. The artists whose work most specifically brought criticism on the Nea Are White. All those fears May be at work to some extent As Are the overwrought emotional appeals of Bush Helms and other Clever politicians. But what really threatens Freedom of expression in America now Only More visibly than usual is the persisting fear of difference and the willingness to be different even to be despised. Political dissent provocative or outrageous Art and expression social protest an insistence on the rights of the individual a All at some Point strike fear into the hearts of Many who loudly extol the land of the free. But that land cannot exist if it is not also the Home of the Brave. C new York time affirmative action does t erase past wrongs several months ago Christopher Newport College a Small state institution in Newport news va., placed a classified and in science Magazine. The College wanted to hire an assistant professor of biology. Thereby hangs this depressing tale. The and set Forth the usual information. The professorship would be a a tenure track teaching position beginning in the fall of 1990. A . Degree would be required teaching experience at the College level was desirable. A the successful candidate will show evidence of excellence in teaching and Active  salary would be commensurate with experience. Applications with accompanying letters of recommendation should be sent to or. Edward Weiss chairman of a biology search committee and so Forth. The and concluded with two sentences in italics a the College is committed to a rigorous affirmative action equal Opportunity program. Applications from women and minorities Are especially  perhaps those stereotyped sentences should have been read As a warning no White male professors need apply. In any event an assistant professor of biology at another state institution thought a change might be desirable. His credentials were impeccable he had his ., he had done Post doctoral work with the National institutes of health he had published scholarly papers and he had received awards for excellence in teaching. So he put together a resume and formal letter of application provided the required recommendations and fired of the package to or. Weiss. A considerable time elapsed. On May 9 came an answer a it is with considerable disappointment and much frustration that i write to inform you that the search for the general biology vertebrate biology position has been terminated by the administration due to an inability to find a viable Black candidate. A i apologize for the delay in providing word of the outcome of the search but the process was lengthy and somewhat contentious. At this time it is Uncertain As to what will happen with this position in the future n what can be said of this remarkable decision at the very least it provides a sad example of racism in its naked form. It has to be assumed that the College needed an assistant professor of biology. The Slot was available within the department of biology chemistry and environmental science. Funds were on hand. Presumably an expanding enrolment justified an additional faculty member. And Here was a manifestly qualified applicant who might have been hired but for one unforgivable flaw his skin was White. Or. Weiss regrets. It is to this Lunatic end that a affirmative action is taking us. Christopher Newport College is not alone in coping with a racial quandary. Harvard a Law school recently was embroiled in the same kind of thing. Col Leges and universities across the nation Are competing furiously for qualified minority faculty members. A number of Southern institutions of higher learning Are under court orders to find such teachers Willy Nilly. Fire departments and police departments similarly Are coerced. One wonders what this does to the Blacks. Suppose the College resumes its search for a a viable Black candidate a and that eventually a Black biologist is recruited. What does he ask himself a was i hired because of my qualifications or was i hired because of my race. The sorry incident in Virginia relates directly to the pending civil rights Bill in the Senate. One purpose of the Bill is to overturn a decision by the supreme court a year ago in wards Cove is. Atonio. The effect of the courts opinion was to put the Burden of proving racial discrimination largely upon the plaintiff. If the but passes prudent employers will be driven to racial quit Otas they will have to count White noses and Ziack noses and relate the noses proportionately to All noses on the payroll. If the nose ratio is out of balance costly litigation will ensue. It is True a it is undeniably sorrowfully True that for generations racial discrimination Wor. J other Way. No qualified Black biologist could have been found on the faculty of any White College in the South. But two wrongs never yet have made a Ngn and in its decision last month a Small Virginia Coli leg went woefully inexcusably wrong. C Universal press Syndicate