European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 27, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday May 27, 1991, the stars and stripes a rage .13 commentary Marilyn Geewax breaking the greed Cycle starts at Home a a outrage stories about greedy political and business leaders appear so frequently these Days that most people seem to be getting raged out. We re starting to shrug off news about corporate executives paying themselves fantastic salaries uni varsity presidents building palatial Orcsi Dencks and government officials flying off to vacation spots at taxpayer expense. After a while All the stories sound pretty much alike. As soon As someone is put in charge of the cookie Jar he or she opens it up and starts munching away. Why is this happening there seem to be two ways of looking at the problem. On the one hand one could argue that people in relatively minor positions of Power a a becoming Griedier because they see really big leaders helping themselves to everything that Isnit firmly nailed Down. V should a Mere savings and loan executive feel guilty about sucking a Thrift institution dry when he sees president Bush a chief of staff John h. Sununu sticking taxpayers for ski trips should former Georgia state University president John m. Palms worry about tripling the Cost of renovating his official Home when he knows Nancy Reagan never batted a false eyelash when it came to gouging contributors to indulge her vanities or is it the other Way around do the captains of Industry and government help themselves to the wealth because they believe americans have come to regard avaricious Ness As perfectly Normal behaviour politicians and executives see property owners revolt at any suggestion they pay More taxes to educate other Peoples children. They know voters Arentt in the streets demanding that Congress spend More to vaccinate the babies of poor women. Senior citizen groups Are Quick to Start letter writing campaigns if they think medicare might Stop paying for $200 heating pads but they disappear when the subject of funding drug treatment centers is brought up. Were Ronald and Nancy Reagan the Ellen Goodman leaders who made greediness a trend or were they sent to the White House twice because most voters appreciated their a me first a values perhaps we no longer find it shocking that so Many officials have removed the words a a sacrifice and a a services from their vocabularies because met it of us have done likewise. When was the last time you heard a Friend or yourself extolling the merits of a a modesty when was the last time you even heard that word if we look to our big leaders for examples of old fashioned Virtues most often we will be disappointed. The Only Way to break the greed Cycle is to Start by changing ourselves. This will take practice and Effort. So Here Are some exercises the next time you have an Opportunity to make an Anonymous donation to a Good cause do it. Occasionally while at your workplace repeat the phrase a doing a Good Job is its own  vote Tor someone who shows As much in Terest in poor babies As in Rich lobbyists if you own Stock vote against directors who give themselves and top executives absurdly High salaries. Demand that Vii Union officials act responsibly at the bargaining table. If this country is going to flourish in the next millennium somebody is going to have to break the Cycle of avarice. And its going to have to be us. C Cox nows service abstractions no substitute in Concrete crisis if there is any doubt about How abortion has reshuffled the political deck consider this. On thursday a conservative majority on the supreme court delivered up a conservatives Nightmare. They declared that anyone who takes Money from the government must give something Back the party line. To put it succinctly the government that pays your rent can buy your speech. Anyone who works in one of the 4,000 federally funded clinics that provide family planning to 4 million poor american women is now forbidden from using the a a a word. Today if a patient asks about abortion her doctor is legally required to act like a Good government puppet. He or she must pull out the Federal script and read a the project does not consider abortion an appropriate method of family  if the patient persists and asks for a referral there Are More scripts. Her doctor or provider has to refer her for prenatal care to those who a do not perform abortions.�?�. Quo this is the real life effect of the supreme court ruling in a Case that came to court bearing the name of or. Irving rust the medical director of a planned parenthood family planning clinic in the South Bronx. A soft spoken Harlem raised physician or. Rust had worked since 1981 with the guidelines that forbid use of Federal funds to perform abortions. But in 1988. When the Reagan administration wrote a set of regulations for title x that banned even talking about abortion he walked. As or. Rust said last fall what was at stake was the relationship Between a doctor and a patient the ability to talk freely and honestly. A if a woman came in with cancer of the ovary and there were three methods of treatment a he explained As an analogy a could i Tell her the government says that chemotherapy is thl treatment no matter what i think a this was the argument that seemed to worry the newest Justice David Souter when the Case was heard in court. A you Are telling us the physician cannot perform his usual professional responsibility a said Souter a you Are telling us the government in effect May pie elude professional  but in the end Souter cast the tie breaking vote to form a 5-4 majority. In the first chilling indication of How he votes on the subject of abortion Souter went with Justice relinquish and Justice Rehnquist went with the government. These rules wrote the chief Justice weren t meant to inhibit the doctor s Point of View but to promote the governments a value judgment favouring childbirth Over  the regulations weren to made to a a Gage health care providers but to a simply ensure Quot that appropriate finds Are not used for activities including speech that Are outside the Federal programs  in one scaring if subconscious comparison Rehnquist showed just How political the courts own judgments have become. Funding speech about family planning but not abortion was he wrote like funding a Center for promoting democracy. The government does t also have to promote a competing lines of political philosophy such As communism and  All this smacks More than vaguely of arguments Over funding for the arts. Does the government Only fund along political lines it you re on the payroll do you still have the right to say what you believe or know Whitt is a question of medical treatment Lor or. Rust and his patients is matter of political philosophy for Justice Rehnquist Ard his majority. What is  crisis in the lives of poor women becomes a  abstraction in the words of the justices. Abortion rights supporters who Are learning the hard Way not to depend on the court will press Congress to change the regulations. There is a Bill wending its Way through the Senate Tiit would rave is the guidelines and allow doctors to once again Tell a Pool woman All her Legal options. ,. But As it stands today clinics can either take the hush Money or Cut their services. Doctors can choose Between government prescribed service to poor patients or leaving the clinics. And poor patients will face another hurdle in a double Standard health care system Quot want it the conservatives who always told us to worry about the Long Arm of the government it it s uncomfortable in the examining room at the clinic these Days that a because the government has moved m and put a firm hand Over the doctors Mouth. C the Boston glob a Hie opinion expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to he considered As representing the views of a the stars and stripes or the United states government