European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 22, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday january 22, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary Sydney h. Schanber no matter How it s spelled prejudice stinks prejudice is like a garbage Landfill. You can cover it Over or Spray it with chemical deodorants but it will still stink. The Best you can do is keep the offal pile from growing any larger a by not throwing More garbage on it. We often like to pretend that we have made inroads against prejudice that we have become More tolerant More open to different lifestyles More liberated from the landfills in our minds. Maybe so. But frankly i done to see much evidence of this new tolerance. In the City where i live new York a recent Rush of racial assaults has seized headlines again a As happens every few months. But non dramatic prejudice the kind that a a Nice people let into their living rooms when they laugh about fat people or make stereotyping remarks about the Irish or the italians or the jews is rarely discussed in the newspapers and yet is As everyday As the Sunrise. We Are strangely comforted when a David Duke appears because his hate peddling comes with Neon signs and blaring horns and is Brazen and outrageous and thus we can say that he is foul and we Are not like him at All. The open bigot makes us feel Superior a when we have Little reason for such self congratulation. Lee Iacocca who is at the same time a Titan of american Industry and a blowhard likes to talk to the big boys in locker room language. In 1971, Iacocca paid a visit to Richard Nixon in the White House to lobby against the mandating of air bags arguing that the Auto Industry was already in trouble and could not afford the Cost. We Learned of this visit from the watergate tapes. Iacocca told Nixon a and the japs Are in the wings ready to eat us up  a yes a the  har de har. Was this a show of prejudice or merely a lapse into what Iacocca Calls his favorite pastime bashing Japan i done to know but we have now seen Iacocca cavort in Public in his Japan bashing costume a on the recent asian trip with the president a so he has established openly that he is a crude and arrogant Man. If he is also an exponent of prejudice then perhaps we have less to fear because we know him. I feel much the same Way about Pat Buchanan whose friends say he is a decent Man Given to Pugna City and rhetorical excesses. He has said and written some harsh things that have an anti semitic ring and some other harsh things about homosexuals and Blacks. He denies prejudice but he continues to inflame. In announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination he said a when we say we will put America first we mean also that our Jude Chris Tian values Are going to be preserved and our Western heritage is going to be handed Down to future generations a not dumped onto some Landfill called  what does he mean by multiculturalism Well Theo Lippman or. On a recent sunday morning Abc to show with David Brinkley Buchanan said a i think god made All people Good. But if we had to take a million immigrants in say zulus next year or englishmen and put them up in Virginia what group would be easier to assimilate and would cause less problems for the people of Virginia Quot another clue he has a proposal known As the a Buchanan Fence a a wide Trench along the mexican Border to keep out illegal immigrants. Buchanan is seen by some As dangerous because he gives affirmation on a National stage to some of the mean sentiments uttered privately in a lot of barroom and kitchens and penthouses and sometimes White houses in this land of ours. But i tend not to become too worried about him. The garbage Landfill is always with us and i prefer the undisguised dumper to the secret one for How do you Challenge someone who is undercover about a month ago George will wrote a column that was critical of Buchanan s Flamethrower tactics but reasonably gentle about his ideology. For example he said that the subject of immigration a brings out Buchanan a strength a his eagerness to talk about whatever is troubling people a and his weakness do not expect from him nuances of thought or delicacy of  and then will adds about Buchanan a immigration stance a the correctly warns that there can come a Point when indiscriminate diversity in a population produces National incoherence by blurring identity and diluting Community  there Are some Nice attempts at delicacy of expression in that paragraph but somehow it still gives off a disturbing odor. What kind of code phrase is Quot indiscriminate diversity a is will saying we should Start keeping out certain kinds of immigrants which ones does he endorse the a Buchanan Fence Quot except that he would phrase it More delicately Haven to we always prize our diversity even As we acknowledged and accepted that it required of us a greater Effort to make the mix work is will suggesting we should make America More White and european the following is not very delicately put yet i think it fair to ask for arguments Sake just How much distance exists Between will a sentiments and the Bilge that David Duke used to spew about How jews Blacks and latinos Are a among realizing Quot our society. I am much More troubled by deftly nuanced paragraphs of prejudice than by garbage shouted through a bullhorn.  of Harding s death begs for Oliver Stone after Juk what does Oliver Stone do for an encore How about win As in Warren Gamaliel Harding one Jarre Ccaw-6son5 rhp1n&s lie w a 69hk� a Harding was president from 1921 to 1923. He was the Man Republican pols picked in the legendary Quot smoke filled room at the 1920 Chicago convention after delegates hopelessly deadlocked. Trivia buffs what room what hotel president Harding presided Over the most corrupt administration in history. His Secretary of the Interior attorney general veterans Bureau chief and other High ranking officials a Many of them the presidents friends a a were indicted for and in some cases convicted of crimes. The president himself was not personally involved being too Busy having an affair with Nan Britton 3 Odd years his Junior often in a 25-Square-foot closet in the White House. At any rate in 1923 on a trip to the West coast Harding became ill. His physician said it was food poisoning from eating crab meat. But nobody else in the entourage was stricken. A few Days later recuperating in san Francisco Harding suddenly died. Tri via Bull s in what hotel what room his own doctor said he died of a stroke. Others said it was a heart attack. His widow Florence prevented an autopsy. Remember that. In 1930, a former investigator in the department of Justice Gaston b. Means wrote a Book called the Strunge death of presiden t Harding. In it he discussed some of the scandals of the administration from his insiders Vantage Point. And he was insider enough to have gone to jail for bribery and bootlegging. He strongly insinuated in his Book that several other insiders who died suddenly he always used italics when making this Point were murder victims. As he put it they were Quot silenced  As was the president., in his View Means had been hired by Florence Harding to investigate the presidents cronies and Nan Britton. His Book recounts verbatim Many conversations he says he had with the first lady in which she is shown to have thought she had motive to kill. But lie quotes her in a Way that suggests she killed her husband not out of jealousy but concern for his reputation. Tearing that he would be impeached she poisoned him As he recuperated from his upset stomach in room 8064 of the Palace hotel. Other trivia answer suite 404-406, the Blackstone hotel although played Down by the mainstream press. Means Book was a Best seller. It would make a terrific movie. Gaston Means later got involved in another criminal Endeavor involving another major event in american social history. That was the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. This was a National frontage Story for weeks in 1932. Means conned wealthy do Gooding Washington socialite Evelyn Walsh Mclean into believing he alone could Ransom the child of the famous aviator. Means got $ 104,000 from her for which he got sent to prison where he died in 1938.thu Balli ranuio Sun