European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 16, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday december 16, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary William f. . Should t deny bread to Russia it Al its a bad time to be asking americans to give Money to foreign countries and there to Fao urse a special irony that tends to undermine the request for help to a country that in pledging to Bury us Cost trillions of dollars in self defense. All of this Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii was aware of when he spoke at Princeton which is Why he was careful not to mention Money to be shipped to a Russia it Al.,�?� As we May As Well agree to Call that conglomerate. Instead he put it this Way that he had in mind agricultural and medical Relief that would Cost every american the sum total of $2. Even though the arithmetic is easy in this Case and an absolute Breeze for a Princeton audience he did no to do it for them. To have said "$500 million would have caused every television network on thursday night to have presented a dozen stricken men and women in a dozen towns claiming How much they could Benefit from a very Smalt fraction of that $500 million. There is no denying the stress of the times dramatized by the television news shot of the upscale Pawn shop in Beverly Hills. You drive in your Rolls Royce and walk out without your Rolls but with a Check for 50 grand or so. The Rolls will stay where it is for exactly four months. During each of those four months you must Send in 4 percent interest. That Means $2,000 per month. If you re Lucky you can get Back your car and you Are out Only $8,000, but the $50,000 you borrowed May have been just exactly critical in saving your real estate business or your funeral parlor Enterprise or keep two kids in College by paying the Bills. It is in times like these that one needs to think Back on the great structures of Europe so Many of them diadem celebrating the artistic explosion of Faith in the a to and 13th centuries. It was then that the four a great ladies of France were built at Chartres notre Dame Rouen and reims. The four cathedrals make anything built since that time appear to be Wistful acts of architectural Petti forgery one can to walk into the Cathedral of Chartres without knowing that one has seen the most Beautiful creation in the world. And in quieter moments one asks How is it that such a Monument was paid for it is Worth repeating to oneself the generality of an economic historian made a few years ago a namely that the level of income did not change much Between the time of Christ and the beginning of the Industrial revolution. In current terms that would have meant that approximately 99 percent of All human beings lived below the poverty level. And yet they willingly contributed their savings to create such As the great ladies of France. Bakers is not suggesting that the United states alone Bear the Burden of seeing Russia it Al. Through the forthcoming agricultural depression. There Are wealthy countries and Many of them have much More to lose should the anarchy and fascism described by Baker take hold in that desolate part of the world. What Europe reasonably fears most in the months immediately ahead Isnit a nuclear attack from rogue scientists in Kazakhstan. What it fears most is a wave of immigrants that would make the mexican irruption into the american Southwest look like an orderly afternoon Outing. Eastern Germany could end itself seeking to Block 10 million russians who want a who demand a food As every human being alive demands food unless he is an Irish terrorist Bent on suicide. There is no Way the United states can say no in such a situation. It has been a crazy year a Volu stuary feast for the historians of the future the year in which the Union of soviet socialist republics outlawed the communist party in which Mikhail Gorbachev time magazines Man of the decade began to fade into insignificance in which Saddam Hussein challenged the greatest Power on Earth was humiliated by the greatest Power on Earth and somehow ended the year with a higher prestige than the american president who brought him to his Knees but forgot to behead him. It must not be the year in which americans concern for itself denies to human beings whose entire lives have been a wretched struggle against the totalitarianism of their ideology sized elite to suffer now the Fate of starvation or the whiplash of reaction. C unite sat press Syndicate that5 not our problem �i99ielizabeth Ives Solomon Trudeau s strip generates difficult questions when it comes to politics even comics Are no longer a laughing matter. In the Wake of last months decision by 25 newspapers to a a kill a controversial doonesbury series by Garry Trudeau regarding vice president Dan Quayle editors and Legal experts Are still trying to sort out what was at Issue whether the charges were unfair and How newspapers should Deal with controversial cartoon strips. The doonesbury series reviewed allegations that the government had investigated decade old drug charges against Quayle and then illegally blocked their publication. The 25 newspapers that pulled All or some of the strips including the Atlanta journal and Constitution Ana the Chicago Tribune took the View that the cartoons had lobbed unfair charges against Quayle without backing them up. But some Industry ombudsmen say selective omission of regular features can plunge newspapers into Choppy ethical Waters. Bill Monroe former Moderator of no cd a meet the press and until recently editor of the Washington journalism review called the practice of omission  a by running a regular opinion or cartoon the newspaper is presenting the cartoonist or columnist As someone whose opinion is worthwhile a he said. A when the newspaper decides to omit portions of a regular feature its a statement that they done to Trust the writer. And they done to Trust their readers to judge for  on the other hand said Monroe comic strips can be unsatisfactory vehicles for airing political charges because of their physical limitations on space for explanation. A a it a disturbing to see a cartoon make major charges in the limited number of words he Trudeau is Able to get into those few sentences. The Reader does no to have a fair shot at understanding where the cartoonist is coming from a he said. But Robert Peck legislative counsel to the american civil liberties Union said the Law does no to View comic strips and factual reporting As equal entities. A if indeed this were a Story in the newspaper which did blur fact and fiction and presented monstrous falsehoods it would give Rise to Legal action a said Peck who specializes in first amendment issues. A but we re talking about a comic strip which is not regarded As a journalistic report. We expect hyperbole exaggeration or a comic Angle which might not necessarily be  Peck cited political cartoons in which politicians May be shown to be stealing from Public coffers for example even when such activity Hasni to been proven. Cartoons he said a give a voice to something that perhaps cannot be said directly but is thought by a lot of people. Trudeau is attempting to fit himself into that  Peck said that the reaction to Trudeau a work might have been caused by a latent sentiment in the press that it has been Overly critical of the vice president. A after so much time that Quayle was sort of a National joke suddenly when this came up and no one could get much More proof of it people said a we be been unfair before maybe we should be fair this time a Quot Peck said. But whether Trudeau a charges Are new or unsubstantiated is also being contested. In a letter to Ron Martin editor of the Atlanta journal and Constitution the cartoonist said his strips did not allege drug use on the part of the vice president. Rather Trudeau said they raised the subject of the charges to establish motive for the governments treatment of a Federal prisoner named Brett Kimberlin a convicted drug dealer who says he sold marijuana to Quayle and was abruptly put into solitary confinement on several occasions just before he planned to make a Public statement on the Issue. In his letter Trudeau called the governments treatment of Kimberlin a an extraordinary injustice which he plans to explore further in his cartoons. A one tactic in dealing with this kind of thing is to publish the cartoon with material expressing newspapers reservations about it a Monroe said. A it seems to me there Are some serious questions that need to be answered about this Case a Peck said. A a it a Clear the facts Are unusual and i think there needs to be some  c Cox nows Sor Ico