European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 16, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday april 16, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Haynes Johnson Washington Abuzz about Book on Nancy As All the world knows Washington takes itself seriously some might even say portentous by. We who live and work in Washington safely if not smugly ensconced inside the Beltway like to boast about the intensely pressured nature of our most important jobs. And of course its de Rigueur to boast about How we thrive in the All powerful world Center where.01ympian characters Deal dramatically with earthshaking events set against a backdrop of a monumental capital it is the stuff of hundreds of books to mini terrible and Hollywood melodramas the collective tales of Power town Hollywood East and Potomac intrigues great and minor. Some of this self perpetuating lore even bears some resemblance to truth. Myths aside Washington is a serious place inhabited by serious hard working people. But lets not kid ourselves. For All its pretensions and pomposity Washington retains a Small town air. And like a Small town it loves nothing More than a Good Juicy scandal the grubber and More salacious the bet Ter. Abut it can to be just any scandal that rivets the attention of the capital it must be a scandal or whiff of scandal that connects the mighty with the fallen or better yet has the mighty falling and falling in highly Public View. Its not Good enough to make the a list of scandals for a Fanne Foxe a stripper billed As the a Argentine firecracker a to be arrested after jumping after hours into the tidal Basin in various stages of undress. Its when her companion in her nighttime frolic is a real Washington Power broker like Wilbur Mills then chairman of the influential House ways and Means committee that the Ordinary becomes extraordinary and the stuff of great gossip on which the capital thrives. Of late in the Wake of wars aftermath and the inevitable sense of emotional letdown in the capital Washington happily has a wave of High level scandal to Wallow in a and divert its attention from the grinding work of governance. First came the latest instalment in the longest running Saga of scandal Power politics that regularly transfixed the capital. Yes again the Kennedy. The stones out of Palm Beach have had everything beloved of the tabloid culture and a gossip hungry pub lie easter weekend bar hopping amid the a a decadent Palm Beach social set both its jaded matrons and bored Young swingers an inside albeit murky View of the Kennedy estate allegations of lust nude strolls in the night rape perhaps robbery confused and opposing testimony intimations of official coverup and even conflicting accounts of whether Teddy presented himself before a Young woman Clad in a to shirt a or was it Ellen Goodman another Kim Keller Bombshell Nancv amp slug go a Button Down Oxford cloth shirt a and with or without his pants. Naturally All this was served up by an army of journalists some of them it is reported have attempted to practice Check Book journalism with a vengeance. Ben Hecht and a the front Page live anything for a Story at any Price. A no sooner was this Story setting off Ripples of gossip throughout Washington than it was overtaken by an even greater sensation involving the Pinnacle of Power. Yes the Kitty Kelley Nancy Reagan imbroglio. Here Washington fans is one that has everything and besides the Kennedy Are passe while the reagans Are still hot. So for Days now Washington has been churning Over the revelations in the Kelley Book and for Days washingtonians have been lining up avidly to buy the Book that a stirring the capital As nothing since Well the last scandalous revelation about life among the powerful whatever that was. Now the army of journalists focuses on the Kelley Book and everyone with a License to comment or with out weighs in with opinions. Typical of Washington the controversy has been invested with solemn discussion of the probity a and the politics a of the Case. Is this journalism or trash should it have been played on Page 1, or not at All is there a a Aback Way Quot to the White House and what were those a a luncheons with old Blue eyes is this yet another sinister attempt by the a Liberal Media to smear the reagans How dare a commercial publisher the same one that produced Reagan a memoirs for a Titch millions Are reported to have been paid print such material gasp is a profit motive involved there a another question but it too wont be answered what if the Media invested such Energy and space to finding out How and Why the a amp a debacle occurred or whatever happened to affixing official responsibility for the Hud disaster and what if a oops sorry got to go there a another Rumor to run Down. A c the Washington Post another Type of patriotism needed at Home the Day after Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon i started collecting a list of stories and editorials that included the phrase a if we can put a Man on the Moon we can a the list grew to monstrous proportions including everything from finding a cure for cancer to eliminating housework. My favorite was the All time non sequitur a if we can put a Man on the Moon we can make panty Hose that does no to in the past month i have started a new list every bit As Heartfelt and half baked. A if we can win a War in the persian Gulf we can a 1 find a cure for aids 2 House the homeless 3 resurrect the inner City schools. This list grows fertilized with the false notion that every problem is essentially technological. A human struggles however can to be solved by the massive movement of men women Money and machinery a five Day assault on the schools wont bring a Victory. The Way to solve our Domestic woes is not to make War on them. It does no to work that Way. But the wish list also expresses a desire to see the can do competence of desert storm applied at Home. More than anything else it expresses a Wistful longing for the same Unity of people that we brought to the persian Gulf. It comes from a belief that patriotism nation ism is the necessary and missing ingredient to solve the woes of the Home front. There is some truth on this list americans seem to know what patriotism looks like in War. But we Don t know what it looks like in peace. Americans know who a a we Are when we re up against its harder to define a a us without an enemy. If we done to feel like one people at Home it is probably because nationalism everywhere is being torn in two directions. By both the new world Economy and by old world tribalism. In the �?T90�?Ts, Borders Are crossed As fast As a fax. Nations done to have the same importance they once did. Economist Robert Reich likes to talk about a neighbor who works on software that is financed in Tokyo computer coded in Bulgaria and used with hardware put together in Mexico. He a a worker of the world. But at the same time nations have become part of an International Economy Many Are splintering politically. The soviet Union is breaking up. The serbs and croats Are at each other again. There is an immense chasm Between a Market that makes people interdependent and the hatreds of blood and belief that put them at each others throats. These trends both pull at our sense of being one in a United states. The people of Reich a neighbourhood May have modems attaching them to foreign colleagues but within our Borders too we worry about our melting pot no longer melts everyone. Many americans find their strongest sense of identity not in citizenship but in race religion ethnicity. V a the unease Over multiculturalism reflects a question in the background. Who Are a we a a says Reich. When we re no longer one marketplace do we connect less As people have weaker ties to other zip codes other classes How do you keep and revive the sense of american Ness americans May be More self conscious about identity than other Peoples because we have in fact created and keep recreating ourselves. We be been the Home of the free and the Brave the Frontier the land of plenty. During the cold War we knew who we were because we a we rent to in the �?T80s we were a no. in the Gulf War americans recognized each other. The uniform made it easy. But the role of a world copy Isnit much of a patriotic identity either. It May look Good on a passport it holds Little Promise at Home. A great Deal of harm has been done in the name of nationalism. But to avoid the equal troubles of tribalism we need to Shore up our Best sense of Unity. Not through tanks or think tanks but building at Home. In that sense we have come full Circle yes a country acts Best when people feel a sense of Unity. But we May Only feel United when we act for and with each other. Remember in his inaugural address when the president said we have More will than Wallet one thing we Learned in the Gulf if you have the will you find the Wallet and the Way. What we need is a new list for a new Homeland in the world order. If we can find the will to win the Gulf we can. A in the Boston Globe
