European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 6, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday March 6, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary David s. Broder Tsongas Buchanan have the gumption to try. A. As this unexpectedly dramatic and intriguing Campaign year unfolds there is consternation i in the political establishments of both parties a and puzzlement among the journalistic pundits. Let me suggest at least a partial explanation of the mysterious happenings the voters Are recognizing courage or gumption or just Plain guts wherever they find it. The people who Are most disconcerted by what a going on Are those who assumed six to 12 months ago that president Bush was a shoo in for re election. Republican organization leaders and front line conservative spokesmen both overestimated Bush a strength. But so did the Best credentialed potential democratic challengers the congressional shrew Dies who decided to wait for 1996 when they could try their Luck against a non incumbent Republican opponent. In the vacuum that they left self starters such As Patrick Buchanan and Paul Tsongas Are running free against their favored opponents cheered on by an electorate that is tired of status quo politics and is ready to listen to anyone who gives voice to their impatience for change. The result is that establishment politicians plans Are being scrambled a not just this year but prospectively for 1996 As Well. The clearest Case is the reaction of the Republican right to Buchanan a foray against the president. As readers of this column know i have a Strong distaste for much of the Buchanan message a the nationalist nativist sloganeering that taps deeply rooted prejudices in our society. But there a no gainsaying that it took guts for a television talk show performer who had never run for Public office to launch himself into a race against an incumbent president of his own party. Already Buchanan has achieved part of his personal Agenda which was As Charles Krauthammer noted Early on to stake a claim to leadership of the right Wing forces in the struggle for succession that will begin the Day after Bush is elected or Defeated next november. Listening to House Republican whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia at a press breakfast last week watching former education Secretary William Bennett on this week with David Brinkley and Reading press accounts of vice president Dan Quayle a campaigning in Dixie it was obvious How seriously these other men of the right take Buchanan a Effort. Except for Quayle who is joined hip and thigh to Bush a at least through november a any of these men or Republican sen. Phil Gramm of Texas or Secretary of housing and Urban development Jack Kemp or former Delaware gov. Pierre s. A a Peter Dupont could have seized the Banner of conservative dissent and challenged Bush a wavering policies. If any of them had run it is Likely Buchanan would have been foreclosed. But they chose the path of caution and conformity and now they Are squirming As the to time the headlines and a Good Many votes flow to Buchanan the Guy who defied the Odds. Has Buchanan seized the pole position in the Start up of the 1996 contest in my View its far too soon to conclude that. I would not rank him on a Par with the Cabinet alumni the congressional leaders and the current or past governors who Are Likely to be in that 1996 Republican Field. But Buchanan will have one credential none of the others can boast he will always be the Man who challenged Bush when no one else would risk it. Tsongas enjoys a similar status among the democratic presidential candidates present and prospective. He decided to run almost a year ago six months before any other Democrat was ready to test Bush a seemingly invincible status after the persian Gulf War. When Tsongas talks about the a courage Gap Between himself and the others it is not just an ego trip. When you think of the democrats who delayed or demurred at running this year you can understand Why Tsongas has so few cheerleaders among the senators and governors and House members of his party. He was ready to try something that the Dick Gephardt George Mitchells Mario Csomos Jay Rockefeller Lloyd Bentsen and Albert Gores were not a to say nothing of the dozens or hundreds of other democrats in office or out who shared Tsongas obscurity a year ago a but lacked his gumption. Its simple human nature for them to resent his Success As much As the Quayle Kemps and Gin riches resent the inroads Buchanan is making. Tsongas policy proposals Are not As far out As Buchanan a but they Are unusual. Until now it had not occurred to Many people that the path to Victory for the democratic party Lay in wedding Strong Gay rights advocacy to a Call for capital gains tax cuts or linking an open mind on nuclear Power to a distinct scepticism on labor unions. Those views Are getting a hearing Only because Tsongas had the guts to sail into Battle when so Many other democrats decided to stay in Harbor. There Are risks in sticking your neck out. But some years its the Only Way to be seen. C Washington Post Waltors group Tom Teepe True account of african egyptian ties unfolding so Complex have americans race issues become that we Are now going Back thousands of years for arguments. The source is a concept called afr centrism. Boiled Down afr centrism says ancient Egypt was the first great civilization and Egypt was essentially african with essentially african ideas. Its africanist was denied later to suit the prejudices of european imperialism and american racism. So far so Good give or take a Little. But those notions Are now being pushed further by a few academics and a growing number of popularizing followers who Are working up a scheme based on them that has far More to do with american Black nationalist myth making than with history. The ancient egyptians this Extension goes were themselves Black. The philosophy and science of ancient Greece and thus of Western civilization were ripped off from Black Egypt Plato cribbed and the Story of their Black origins has been suppressed by a White conspiracy. By the end of that string of claims history has been stretched far beyond what the data or reason can Bear and the excesses tend perversely to distract from the very substantial Black african influence in ancient Egypt. If myth mongering can be put aside then conferences such As one held at Memphis state University in Tennessee last weekend on the Black kingdom of Cush can make a contribution toward establishing a helpful historical parity Between Black and White americans. Cush was a contemporary and rival of Egypt to its South in what is the modern Sudan. It built monumental temples and cities massed great armies and counted As a Force in the ancient world. In time with its Center still farther into Black Africa at the City of Mero it developed its own written language. Egyptians and Cus Hites a or nubian As some Call them a had a close artistic and religious Affinity and when Cush grew Strong enough to conquer Egypt the two populations and their ideas melded comfortably. Egypt a last great years of Empire were led by Rushite pharaohs and Black courts a period marked by military prowess and a revival of classical Art. Cush was a crucial intersection Between the african Interior and Egypt which in turn passed on certain african concepts to the near East and eventually to Europe. The idea of the divine right of Kings the powerful if much abused political tool that formed modern Europe May Trace to Black Africa through Egypt. Because so much egyptian study has been driven by biblical interests it has tended to emphasize Egypt a relationship to the near East. And no doubt Whites also have downplayed Egypt a africanist simply because the idea of a serious african history does not Square with prejudices born of the slave Trade. Thus egyptian and african gods take animal forms but the egyptians Are said to have had a a religion while africans Are called  modern scholarship is correcting the imbalance pointing to a potentially Healing appreciation of real african history a if Only it can be saved this time from distortions demanded by Black politicization rather than by White indifference and antagonism. 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