European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 4, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 14 a the stars and stripes saturday january 4, 1992 commentary William Safir Freedom shone too brightly for some in 91 for americans 1492, 1776, 1862, 1945 and 1991 were the five Best years of the past five centuries. Peace a real peace a has broken out Why is nobody celebrating democracy has prevailed in its worldwide struggle against tyranny Why Are democrats not dancing in the streets one reason for the curious reluctance to embrace the reality of the Good news is that it has taken months to unfold one Day victories Are easier to grasp for whooping up purposes. Another reason is that it seems too Good to be True and we done to want to Jinx our incipient no hitter by talking about it. The biggest reason is that we Are in the grip of the melancholia Industry. This High Priesthood of deep pessimism has a vested interest in the status quo of unrelieved worry. Diplomatic depressives must justify their mistaken past doom saying about soviet disunion political melancholia is must Knock Down any outbursts of Joy lest incumbents Benefit economic sages feel they must follow the Herd of Mal contented cows into their double dips Doodle. This cacophony of serious wailing is amplified by the megaphone of the Media. No conspiracy Only the realization that bad news Means Good ratings and Good news Means a vast Happy tuning out. Moreover the mild recession has touched the coastal Media centers As never before. With layoffs hitting Home the viewer and Reader would never know that non frictional unemployment is much lower than in the recession a decade ago even allowing for slow growth in the labor Force. As a result it is unfashionable to be feisty. To be gloomy is to be serious to be Joyful is seen As frivolous or deceptive. That a Why leaders Are unwilling to appear confident they fear the appearance of lacking compassion or being out of touch with the upside Down perception of reality. That a Why we foolishly flip Over the Coin of peaceful transition in 14 freed republics to examine violence in one Why we ignore the exciting potential for private farm Ana Oil development to deplore the possibility of food riots Why we focus at Home on the homeless and crime but Overlook the liberating breakthroughs in neuroscience computer education and genetics. That a Why in the world of the winners you never hear the word Quot Victory. A such stress on stress warps reality. Let us stipulate that Small wars and the poor will be with us that nuclear spread to terrorists will be cause for concerted action that earthquakes and floods will happen and the innocent will suffer. Now Deal with the reality that will change our lives in the run up to the millennium. Demobilization is real. The troops Are coming Home All Over the world and All we hearts Quot where will they live who will give them jobs Quot the fact is that tens of millions of Able bodied Young people will move out of the inflationary business of War Ana into the world of productive work. Here at Home the next generation will be much better off than ours because it will not have to Bear the superpower Burden of defense. Free of the Cost of protecting Japan and Europe the . Can better compete with them. This was also the year that we stopped a near nuclear dictator before he could take Over the worlds Oil Supply and dictate our inflation and interest rates. The lowest interest rates in a generation will sell houses attract equity investment and propel the Economy. Freedom shined so brightly in 1991 that too Many of us were willing to observe it through a Glass darkly. Throw away the filter that obscures reality. C the new York times Ellen Goodman &urm1tconfessing 91 missteps clears slate for 92 each year i like to close out the Calendar by purging myself of the mistakes misjudgments and misstatements that crept their Way into this space Over the past 12 months. My annual Media culpa ritual is Good for the soul Good for humility and Good for the clean slate business. Mind you my errors Are on a relatively modest scale. It was not 1 who said the recession was Over or that the soviet Union would hang together or that Mario Cuomo would run for president. It was the Post office that printed 300 million Hubert Humphrey Stamps with a wrong Date. And the Agency for International development that sent millions of condoms to Egypt where they ended up being sold As balloons. Nevertheless 1 had my fair share of errors. Consider for example the Clarence Thomas hearings. One Day i declared with ringing certainty that the hearings showed How much Quot less suspense less intensity less emotions the supreme court appointments provoked in the country Fiese Days. Then Anita Hill showed up. Circle false on my answer Sheet. During the same hearings i wrote that no politician facing confirmation dares to say what he thinks about abortion. Wrong. After the Thomas fiasco William p. Barr showed up at the Senate judiciary committee to get confirmed As attorney general and said flatly that the supreme court decision should be overturned. A flabbergasted Joe Biden said Quot you should be 1 go that far but Bill proved me wrong. How far would 1 go in one column on gossip this year i managed to link papa Joe Kennedy Ana Rita Hayworth in a romantic Liaison. As any number of gossip historians informed me it Wasny to Rita Hayworth but Gloria Swanson who was involved in the alleged affair. This raises the interesting question How do you run a correction on a Rumor like this. Speaking of Kennedy and allegedly since Patricia Quot i am not a Blue Blob Bowman came out on prime time people have asked whether the William Kennedy Smith Case changed my mind about protecting the names of alleged victims of rape. The snort answer is no. The Long answer is that the Best Way to get to a. Ost shame society is still by allowing women to with old or preferably Volunteer their names. However i confess to having violated the privacy of a male this year. A Cardinal. The flying kind. The Bird i named Knock was bashing himself into my barn window in Maine last Spring when 1 used him As column fodder. The Audubon society said that Knock would quit when his hormone level went Down and 1 relayed that. Guess what maybe they have a lot of testosterone in Maine but Knockom a making a career of hitting himself in the head. When last seen in november he was still at it. As for mate female relationships this was the year of Quot he said she said stories. One Way to Bridge the Gap of changing sexual mores i suggested is through More Public Ana private a letter writer spotted a double Lentendre in his dictionary. One of the meanings of Quot conversation is sexual Intercourse he said. Quot you re putting us on Arentt you a nope. I was just talking about talking about sex. So can we talk in writing about magic Johnson and promiscuity i heard from More religious scholars than basketball fans. Their worry my use of the seventh commandment. It appears that there Are two sets of commandments with slightly different lineups. In exodus the seventh commandment is Quot thou Shalt not commit but in Deuteronomy its the sixth commandment. Next time ill offer a multiple Choice. On another subject in this us Fertile year i wrote a piece about the bewildering oestrogen controversy. In the course of it i described the Onset of Fertility As menses. No. Its menarche. Now that we have the terminology straight How about the chemistry sometime this year i gave out a Kudo. This was meant As a compliment but some wordsmiths were insulted. There a no such thing As a Kudo they wrote. Kudos is always singular two kudos one kudos. The Oxford dictionary and the american heritage concurred. Indeed the heritage huffed Quot the singular term Kudo which is not acceptable in Standard usage is the invention of those who misconstrue kudos As exclusively Call me is construe. Finally allow me to recant my diatribe against the merchants who started Christmas in september. It turned out that there was some Good news in the Way they rushed the Calendar. The after Christmas sales started at thanksgiving. When Christmas was Over we could Tell it was new years by the Valentines. Welcome to 1992. Make no mistake about it. C the Boston Globe
