European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 2, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday december 2, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13commentaryhaynes Johnson Long term problems need Long term solutions in this season of discontent americans can be thankful for one thing. At least they wont have the politics of Washington to contend with for a while. The capital badly needs a break. From the highs of the persian Gulf War Early this year when America seemed to have recaptured lost Confidence and belief in its ability to forge the future 1991 has been one Long slide into the Depths of political wrangling and ineptitude. Nothing seems to be working. No Good news seems forthcoming. Recent Days brought More dispiriting examples of the Way Washington works a or does no to As one chaotic scene tripped Over another before the thanksgiving break. First came the credit card fiasco. Triggered by an improvident presidential remark that Banks should lower credit card interest rates legislation was produced hastily sending Wall Street into a dither and in turn abruptly ending any attempt to regulate rates. Then came debate Over the crime Bill deemed so important by All sides. It produced another fiasco and another example of what House speaker Thomas s. Foley d-wash., called the a no legislation this was followed by the charade Over tax cuts and More signs of presidential vacillation. Then came the rancorous self serving debate Over which party has the Best a growth package a As republicans like to Call it. Of course neither party has been Able to devise any a a package to Spur the flagging Economy and both sides know it. Their skirmishing last week however bordered on the politically grotesque. Conservative House republicans led by minority whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia attempted to prod their own president into action and to Embarrass the democratic majority by demanding an immediate vote on their supposed economic growth plan. It was a plan that As Foley sardonically noted existed in name Only. A it is not in legislative language a he told reporters accurately. A it is a piece of paper with headings on it subjects on Gingrich a political grandstanding failed miserably. It resulted Only in further weakening Bush by making him seem a Pawn of the right or a pliable politician desperately eager to placate the right. In this Case democrats although they have much about which to be embarrassed held the High hand. They called the Republican Bluff by threatening to bring Congress Back this month to Deal with All proposals to Aid the Economy. Such a move could place Bush and the Republican minority at a disadvantage by forcing them to oppose democratic sponsored plans to help the burdened Middle class. Against this divisive backdrop Congress lurched George will beating rcessionthlng1 the Busk method 1. Iriv amp Ribe interact Quot take on in amp it East pc. 1 the senator Aiken. Memorial solution 3. Limit Unema Klymant Benefit i to in weeks and get people Beck into the Economy faster. A Maclare Victory out of Ihu country f am a thre amp car free onto the vacation heme so Puc amp a finally g? and buy that third car. S. Give All c�0�?~6 making Ever a our million year a big tax break thus encouraging move people to become Ceon a. Al no. I limped and staggered into recess with an outside Chance of return ii was left appearing Chance of returning unhappily this month and Bush a foolishly inde Cisi were these Normal times such disarray would matter Little. But they Are not. It is increasingly evident that the nation faces Long term problems re airing Long term solutions. Yet Washington from White House to Congress operates on the Short term especially in this Media age where virtually every Public figure jockeys for partisan advantage through the fleeting Lens of the television camera. This recession has painfully exposed problems that grew through the last decade. Two Are Central. First is the massive Long term debt accumulating at every level of society and strangling business and enterprises Public and private. Second is the nations failure to raise sufficient taxes to pay for Middle class entitlements now regarded As a a a rights but one that citizens arc unwilling to fund. Neither will be solved easily or quickly. Respected economists Are predicting Little if any growth in the near future and As one said recently a a level of output considerably below potential indefinitely into the if this proves Correct the nations Long term problems wont even be addressed let alone solved by the scapegoating politics As usual atmosphere in Washington. A fresh approach is desperately needed a kind of coordinated Public Effort similar to what the nation experienced after Pearl Harbor was attacked. That event shocked americans but showed that there is nothing they can to achieve when United in Pursuit of common goals. The question so years later is who will define those goals in a time of disunity impotent leadership and the ineptitude of the political system c the Washington pos courts foaming Over and Beer suit shows it for connoisseurs of the amusements that american litigious Ness produces it does t get any better than this. For it seems centuries Stroh brewery maker of old Milwaukee Beer has run television commercials featuring males out fishing hiking and generally bonding and come Sundown drinking that Beer and sighing a it does no to get any better than but in recent ads just after that line is sighed the swedish Bikini team arrives by raft or Parachute or whatever and not dressed for High Tea. Trouble is five female employees at Strohs St. Paul minn., brewery have done something As american As buying a six pack. They have gotten a lawyer and gone to court charging that the commercials produce encourage and condone three distinctly different things sexual harassment discrimination and assault in their workplace. Each employee is seeking monetary damages for numerous verbal and physical offences detailed for the court. Now pity the people who must make Beer commercials. Most Beers taste pretty much alike. Furthermore the target audience consists of Young males who drink too much of the stuff thereby proving that getting their attention requires messages More glandular than rational. Let us As lawyers say stipulate something the stroll s ads which the company says Are supposed to be parodies Are offensive and incompatible with americans evolving sensibilities although perhaps not the sensibilities of the less evolved target audience. The question is do we want courts scrutinizing commercials for evidence of causal connections with bad behaviour already legally proscribed commercial speech enjoys less first amendment Protection than most other speech but it usually is protected if it is truthful and not misleading. However the women a attorney Lori Peterson is undeterred by the radicalism of asking government in effect to punish commercials that have never been found obscene indecent illegal in purpose or harmful to the audience. Her argument is that the harm eventually done to women is caused by the debasement of some men who see the commercials. One supporter of the suit Law professor Ronald . Collins of Catholic University in Washington d.c., says the commercials Are part of a the infrastructure of sexism a so they should be treated As legally equivalent to the behaviour they allegedly foment. Certainly this suit asserting casual connections Between speech broadcast into living rooms and behaviour in workplaces is potentially the thin end of an enormous wedge. If successful it could give Rise to a censorship regime from which Only one Good would flow if courts undertook to extirpate from advertising anything that any moly considers part of the a infrastructure of sexism a courts would have no time for other mischief. Peterson says a just As a kid looks to its parents As to what is appropriate behaviour in the Home so does the employee look to the employer As to what behaviour is appropriate in the amp leave aside the quaint paternalism of Peterson a View of the american working Man and for that matter the american kid. But note the logic of the argument even speeches by corporate executives might be considered causes of bad behaviour arising from a bad workplace environment. A imagine a says Peterson a your collective horror at seeing Black men drop out of the sky to serve White men Beer tap dance and Shine shoes for them. Why is this scenario seen As horrible but similar caricatures of women with oversized chests and undersized minds still accepted Quot her argument is that the racist commercial would arise from a legacy of slavery and would result in continued racial disadvantage and that the swedish Bikini team commercials similarly have antecedents and results involving stereotypes associated with injurious social treatment. But she is postulating something that cannot be demonstrated a direct causal connection Between broadcast stimuli the commercials and subsequent behaviour by particular people. The Basic Point lost in the Rush to litigate is this sexual abuse of the sort the women allege violates Clear enforceable Laws. The attack on the commercials is a gratuitous reach for a a consciousness raising judicial Fiat to impose preferences and tastes by claiming them As rights. Recently a Federal judge in new York said something germane to this contretemps. He made a plaintiff pay $60,000 in Legal fees to the defendant a school Board she had sued. She had charged that her son was kept out of an Honor society As retaliation for her family a criticism of his school thereby violating the family a first amendment rights. The judge said a your Federal court system is being brought into ridicule and our Constitution is being debased by persons who proclaim themselves to be its strongest supporters civil rights activists and attorneys purportedly working in the Public interest. By attempting to elevate Mere personal desires into constitutional rights and claiming denial of their civil rights whenever their desires Are not realized these persons Are demeaning the essential rights and procedures that protect us it does no to get any better than that. C tha Washington Post
