European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 4, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday Friday july 4/5, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 9public backs Bush court nominee poll shows Washington a most americans support president Bush s decision to nominate Clarence Thomas to the supreme court and agree with the prospective Justice re supposition to affirmative action says a poll released tuesday. The Abc news poll taken several hours after Bush a announcement monday afternoon found that 54 percent considered Thomas a a Good choices and 60 percent liked the fact that Bush had nominated a conservative. As far As Thomas a views on racial issues 56 percent said they agree with his opposition to programs that give preference to minorities to make up for past inequalities. The poll also found a 58 percent approval level for the court s 1973 Roe is. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Forty one percent of those questioned said Thomas should pledge to uphold that ruling 30 percent said he should pledge to overturn la. More than half those polled said the Senate judiciary committee should examine Thomas political views plus his background and qualifications during confirmation hearings. Past. Nominees have declined to reveal their positions on certain issues such As abortion. Bush said he did not choose Thomas a Black on the basis of his race. But 48 percent of those in the Abc poll said they believed Thomas was picked because he like retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall is Black. Almost As Many republicans As democrats believed race was the basis of Bush s decision and nearly As Many Blacks As Whitetta is Nitro u go t so. Nearly one Quarter of those who believed the selection was based on race said that was a Good thing 19 percent said it was a bad thing. More than half those in the poll said the supreme court has been getting More conservative in the past few years and they were evenly split on whether the trend was positive or negative. Overall. 39 percent said they think the court is generally balanced in its decisions. One third said it is too conservative a up from 19 percent who believed that in fall 1987. Abc interviewed a random Sample of 553 people by Telephone on monday night. The poll results have a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage  urge defeat of Thomas Washington apr supreme court nominee Clarence Thomas in 1987 praised an essay that attacked the court for legalizing abortion and in his writings has expressed misgivings about a ruling on which the court based much of its landmark abortion decision. Those comments were cited As a smoking guns tuesday by abortion rights forces. They urged the Senate to reject the nomination of Thomas a Federal appeals court judge unless he declares his support for the 1973 Roe is. Wade decision. That declared a woman a constitutional right to an abortion. A judge Thomas slate includes speeches and articles that Mark a Trail that leads directly to the loss of a fundamental right for millions of american women and families a said Kate Michelman executive director of the National abortion rights action league. A unless judge Thomas explicitly repudiates this Legal philosophy and clearly recognizes that the Constitution protects the fundamental right to privacy including the right to choose the Senate should reject this  Thomas has never ruled in an abortion Case. On monday when the appointment was announced Thomas declined to give his views on this and other issues Likely to dominate his confirmation hearings. But abortion rights activists fear David h. Souter president Bush a first supreme court nominee and Thomas could provide the votes to reverse Roe is. Wade. Souter also has never ruled in an abortion Case. The activists cited in Thomas background a a 1987 speech to the conservative heritage foundation in which he praised As a a splendid example of applying natural Law an essay in which conservative scholar Lewis Lehrman said the Roe is. Wade ruling ran counter to the Constitution and declaration of Independence and had resulted in a  a writings in which Thomas appears to question the supreme courts 1965 decision in Griswold is. Connecticut in which the court struck Down a state Lawann Landers dear Ann Landers i first read this stirring essay Many years ago. It was written Back in 1955 by Otto Whittakerjr. Of Roanoke a. In be taken the Liberty of updating it slightly. In be sent it along because especially on this Day it is extra meaningful and i thought your readers might enjoy it. M.t., Foresthill Calif. Dear . Thank you for sending the perfect piece for this special Day. Desert storm has made us All More appreciative of our army Navy marines air Force and coast guard. America is walking tall again. I am the nation i was born on july 4, 1776, and the declaration of Independence is my birth certificate. The bloodlines of the world run in my veins because i offered Freedom to the oppressed. I am the nation i am 250 million living souls and the ghosts of millions who have lived and fought and died for me. I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere. I stood at Lexington and fired the shot heard around the world. I that forbade All use of contraceptives. It was in Griswold that the court ruled there were some areas so private that the Constitution protected them from state interference a a Case the court cited eight years later in the Roe decision. The National abortion rights action league has several allies on the Senate judiciary committee and was a Leader in the successful Effort to defeat president Reagan s nomination of judge Robert Bork to the supreme court. Thomas a 43-year-old Black conservative succeeded Bork on the . Circuit court of appeals for the District of Columbia. Civil rights groups the other major Force in defeating the Bork nomination on tuesday promised a Tough and thorough review of Thomas record As a judge and As head of the equal employment Thomas Opportunity commission. They Sald his race would not be a Factor in their deliberations. A we will review his record just As closely As if he were not an african american a said Benjamin l. Hooks executive director of the National association for the advancement of coloured people. Still Hooks said the a act and its allies also a have to compare what might happen if we go against him and he does no to make it who will the president appoint a Hooks and other civil rights leaders Are concerned with Thomas longstanding opposition to affirmative action As a remedy for discrimination. Michelman acknowledged that abortion rights forces would be hard pressed to defeat the Thomas nomination unless they can reassemble the anti Bork coalition. A am Washington Jefferson and Patrick Henry. I am John Paul Jones the Green Mountain boys and Davy Crockett. I am Lee Grant and Abe Lincoln. I remember the Alamo the Maine and Pearl Harbor. When Freedom called i answered and stayed until it was Over Over there. I left my heroic dead in Flanders Fields the Rock of Corregidor on the Bleak slopes of Korea in the steaming Jungle of Vietnam and the desert Sands of Kuwait. I am the Brooklyn Bridge the wheat lands of Kansas the Granite Hills of Vermont. I am the Coal Fields of the Virginias and Pennsylvania the Fertile lands of the West the Golden Gate and the grand Canyon. I am Independence Hall the Monitor the Merrimac and the challenger. I am big. I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific �?3 million Square Miles of land throbbing with Industry. I am More than 2 million farms. I am Forest Field Mountain and desert. I am quiet villages and cities that never sleep. You can look at me and see Ben Franklin walking Down the streets of Philadelphia with his bread loaf under his Arm. You can see Betsy Ross with her Needle. You can see the lights of Christmas and hear the strains of a Sauld Lang syne As the Calendar turns. I am babe Ruth and the world series. I am she said the group planned its own strategy session wednesday and a meeting with civil rights and other groups next monday. Bush said two Days ago he would nominate Thomas for the supreme court to replace retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall. Expecting a Tough confirmation the administration gave Thomas an initial briefing tuesday and said it wanted former White House chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein to Shepherd the nomination through the Senate. Duberstein served in that role Tor Souter. In the anti abortion essay that Thomas praised Lehrman wrote a can it be truly supposed that this explicit charter of the inalienable right to life is to be ignored by supreme court justices legislators presidents and Law school professors a May it be reasonably supposed that an expressly stipulated right to life As set Forth in the declaration and the Constitution is to be set aside in favor of the conjured right to abortion in Roe v. Wade a spurious right born exclusively of judicial supremacy with not a single Trace of lawful authority implicit or explicit in the actual text or history of the Constitution  concerning the Griswold ruling on contraception Thomas in a footnote to an essay written for the Harvard journal of Law amp Public policy referred to his a misgivings about activist judicial use of the ninth  in another written for the libertarian Cato Institute Thomas wrote that a far from being a Protection the ninth amendment will Likely become an additional weapon for the enemies of  the ninth amendment which reads a a the enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people a was cited by justices who supported both the Griswold and Roe decisions. 170,000 schools and colleges and More than 300,000 churches where my people worship god As they choose. I am a ballot dropped into a Box the Roar of a crowd in a stadium the voice of a choir in a Cathedral. I am an editorial in a newspaper and a letter to Congress. I am John Glenn and Neil Armstrong and their fellow astronauts who whirl through the spaces above my head. I am Eli Whitney and Stephen Foster Tom Edison Albert Einstein and Billy Graham. I am Horace Greeley will Rogers and the Wright Brothers. I am George Washington Carver Jonas Salk and Martin Luther King or. I am Longfellow Harriet Beecher Stowe Walt Whitman and Thomas Paine. Yes i am the nation and these Are the things that i am. I was conceived in Freedom and god willing in Freedom i shall spend the rest of my Days. May 1 always possess the integrity the courage and the strength to keep myself unshackled to remain a Citadel of Freedom and a Beacon of Hope to the world. Confidential to my Sis in California Happy birthday doll what can you give the person who has everything c creators Syndicate