European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday december 12, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Carl Rowan it will take teamwork to slam Dunk aids we have had anguish and encomium Over Earvin a magic Quot Johnson a stunning announcement that he has been infected with his which causes the deadly disease aids. Perhaps it is not too late to address some worrisome questions about the depth of effect of the basketball superstars Brave and Classy revelation that he was afflicted through unsafe sexual Intercourse with a woman. The first question is whether Johnson a Brave appeals have removed one of the most horrible things about aids the stigma created by politicians super moralizing preachers and others who said that aids is a disease of a bad people Quot that aids is a a god a Way of punishing adulterers homosexuals drug abusers and those who engage in sex before marriage. This stigma had been embraced to the Point that president Bush declined to talk about the aids epidemic. Black preachers got lockjaw too timid or confused to preach about sex related illnesses on sundays even though aids was devastating Black America including members of their congregations. I fear that even the intense emotions the profound Shock surrounding the infection of a world superstar will not wipe out All the stigma. Does any Reader of this column really believe that an american can say Quot i Cany the aids virus a or a i have aids a and still find his or her Job secure a promotion possible their social and professional contacts unaltered their children Welcome in school and sunday school including children themselves who test positive for the human immunodeficiency virus has Johnson so sensitized America to the reality that aids is an epidemic and that millions of americans including heterosexuals will face a risk of a sexual death sentence unless More Money and scientific dedication go into efforts to find preventions and cures in these hard times 1 doubt Well see any a a magic infusion of research Money. Perhaps the most important question now is whether the Johnson Shock has made us More understanding and compassionate to the Point that we will not leave so Many aids victims without meaningful medical care literally abandoned to die the ghastly deaths that some think befit those a cursed Quot by god. Then there is the question of How deeply and permanently magic this basketball Star of great courage and Charm has a a enlightened the Young people who live in environments where the temptations toward and pressures for sex a Safe unsafe or in any form a Are relentless almost 24 hours of every Day. Andre Rison the super receiver of the Atlanta Falcons football team says Johnson a tragedy has convinced him to a get married a  yet the Prospect is that millions of our Young men will die a not live a by the truism that an excited Penis has no brain and no conscience. There is surely a corresponding deadly truism for Young women in this Era of a sexual  for All his greatness magic never won a basketball game alone. He cannot win americans War against aids alone. Bush Black preachers the Congress Junior High school teachers hispanic leaders the entire medical profession must Rush to our court of human behaviour if we Are to a islam Dunk a virus that is More and More a threat to All of us a or at Best a peril for our children and grandchildren. C North american Syndicate magic he Ain t. Ellen Goodman Smith rape trial evolves As a huge Gray spot the women in this Case fill a Rolodex of roles. Presiding Over the courtroom a woman judge. Prosecuting for the state a woman lawyer. Testifying As an expert witness a woman emergency room physician. On the front Bench a Phalanx of females named Kennedy Mother aunt family defender. And looming Over them All the accuser woman As victim or Vixen. Old roles new ones traditional and even Post feminist a How Many female images can fit into a courtroom what do they say about How much life has changed for women and How Little 1 will not attempt to scoop some redeeming social message from the hazardous waste oozing out of Palm Beach. The trial of William Kennedy Smith has been stripped of any such pretence. Neither can a the station that gave us the War in the Gulf a nor the print Media even attempt any longer to flavor this Story with any greater issues. The people who line up for seats have come not for social insight but for a glimpse of her undies and his Uncle. But what of the women who read about this Case. Despite themselves what of the Young women who were glued to the strange talking Gray spot on their television sets a the spot that blocked out the accusers face turning her into Ever woman or no woman what about their body language As they watched and listened and thought about rape violence consent sex and their own vulnerability and responsibility in the months since this Story first emerged and in the Days since the trial opened i have talked with a number of Young women about the complexity of their own changed lives. They have grown up being told that they can be the judge the lawyer the doctor and the rape victim. Why they can have it All. If there is one thing that unites these women in an Era when much of sisterhood has been shattered by Success it is the fear of sexual violence. This is the chill in the Campus air the threat in the garage late at night the tension on their faces As they listen to this woman a Story. But there is also enormous confusion around the words that infiltrate their single lives with less terror than the word rape words like sexuality sexiness and the nature of a consensual  it is As if another huge Grey spot has covered up these topics too making it hard to see clearly. Any woman under 40 h As grown up with the disintegration of the double sexual Standard. That double Standard did no to evolve into a single Standard but into a thousand smaller ones. Cultural cues Are no longer Universal and the likelihood that two people who meet will share the same assumptions Isnit As High As it once was. In Palm Beach the jury is being asked to determine if this was rape or Consen sual sex. But i hear Young a and not so Young a women talk about the contour of consent the nature of not saying no in their own experience. They hear of a woman being a a tackled on the Lawn of a Brief encounter in which the Standard of pleasure was his own and another woman left worried about pregnancy. They talk about the times they did not say no and the men who did no to notice that they did no to say yes. Even now and future doctors lawyers and judges talk about the difficulty of setting their own sexual Standard in such Uncertain times. There is no crime for sexual mis Man Nurs for thoughtlessness or the absence of tenderness. But there Are personal penalties we hear about every Day. In a time of fewer norms the Only Way to Bridge the gaps of changing sexual mores is through Public and private conversation. So we have the Case with a giant Gray spot. In this years on going dialogue about men and women the Palm Beach trial has become another unhappy unseemly and riveting conversation piece. Catho Boston a Toby