European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 28, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday March 28, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary James j. Kilpatric Bush must Sway conservatives independents Pat Buchanan sent me a letter the other Day. Nothing personal. It was a form letter seeking funds to continue his Campaign to get George Bush Back on track. I looked at the letter for a while and sighed and thought of Patsy Cline. Patsy was one of the All time great country singers. She often Sang a Ballad Why can the be you she might have been singing to George about Pat. To paraphrase the song Pat promises to take conservatives where they used to go. Pat gives them love a i never get from  paths love is True. A George Why can to Pat be you of the Buchanan letter dwells upon 10 Points that most americans support. This is Buchanan s Point 1 s support a phase out foreign Aid. Americans will always be first at the scene to help the victims of natural disaster from Kurdistan to Peru. But the steady siphoning of $300 million in foreign Aid a every single week a from a depleted . Treasury by third world and socialist regimes must end. Charity begins at  what a so terribly wrong with that Point 2 deals with Trade a a we will demand reciprocity. Nations that adopt a closed door policy to americans exports should not expect an open door policy to americans  a defend America first a says Buchanan. A it is time that Rich and prosperous allies like Germany and Japan Start paying Bills for their own  i say Hooray for Point 3. Point 4 deals with the kind of tax cuts that will Spur investment and create jobs. Point 5 is a Promise to veto tax increases if Congress approves them. Point 6 pinches a painful nerve a freeze Federal spending. Under George Bush social spending has soared faster than at any tune in 60 years and America has run the largest deficits in her  Buchanan a Point 7 goes to the need to keep America Strong not Only in National defense but also in Industry manufacturing and Standard of living. Point 8 should be quoted in full a equal Justice for All. If discrimination is wrong when practice against Black men and women it is wrong when practice against any Man or woman. All quotas in Federal agencies and programs will be abolished a and the ideas of excellence and Merit will be  in Point 9, Buchanan comes out for limiting the terms of members of Congress. His final Point deals with the pollution of our culture by the sex and violence that permeate our movies television programs and magazines. His platform hits a lick in favor of a constitutional amendment a to restore voluntary prayer in the Public  Pat will Lead a fight against abortion. I have problems with some of this. Buchanan is right to life i am pro Choice. He wants a constitutional amendment on school prayer i wont tinker with the Constitution. He is upset about cultural pollution so am i but i would be awfully careful about infringing upon Freedom of expression. On matters of foreign Aid and Trade policy Buchanan is quite sound. Though much foreign Aid comes Back in purchases of arms and agricultural commodities much of it is no More than a costly habit. I done to read Buchanan a Point 2 As All out protectionism any such Trade policy would be indescribably stupid. But Buchanan is plainly right in insisting that our principal trading partners abide by the fair play Rule of quid pro quo. Freeze Federal spending not All Federal programs certainly could be Frozen but hundreds of outlays Large and Small could be kept at current Levels. Buchanan is not asking any More of Congress than Mil Lions of american families ask of themselves. Hold the line learn to say no the bloated budget for agriculture surely could be kept in line. Space exploration can wait. Increases for Energy environment and research do not have to be granted. George Bush can to be made Over into a friendlier Pat Buchanan. The president is no slugger nor was he meant to be but his re election hinges upon convincing disillusioned conservatives and independents that he loves us too. Bill Clinton is waiting upon the Doorstep and he has Flowers in his arms. C Universal press Syndicate George f. Wil Baltimore offering quite a gift to illiterate Hod id of copy to div hda Slibe App my Ward. Two sch a bilk. Imagine seeing such written Static wherever you look. That is How the world looks to illiterate adults. Perhaps you have been approached in a supermarket by a shopper who asks you to read a Label or identify a product explaining that he left his glasses at Home. Perhaps he did. But perhaps he is one of the millions of americans who cannot read and he is practising the survival skills that such people develop As they navigate through our word saturated society. But in Baltimore which Calls itself a the City that reads a there Are places where people who have the everyday courage to Cope with their illiteracy can come for help when they summon the final courage to confess their disadvantage. For example in one of the thousands of Row houses that meander up the gently rolling Hills that undulate away from the Harbor there is the Ripken learning Center funded in part by a $250,000 gift from Cal Ripken the orioles shortstop and his wife Kelly. The fact that it is a pleasant place staffed with helpful people and Friendly machines does not diminish the admiration one feels for the people who come Here seeking help. Illiteracy is Apt to involve a deficit of self esteem a Quality needed by those who re enter an academic setting where they have failed before. It is easier to imagine and to simulate such physical limitations As deafness blindness or paralysis than to imagine or simulate a mental limitation. That is one reason Why adult illiteracy is a particularly poignant affliction empathy is in Short Supply. Furthermore a special embarrassment often accompanies the problem. And the afflicted portion of the population is virtually invisible. But non Reading adults also Are an alarmingly Large portion of Urban populations. Many Urban school systems practice the cruel kindness of a social promotions a churning out High school graduates with Reading skills As Low As a second Grade level. In this City with a High school drop out rate approaching 50 percent 200,000 adults a 46 percent of the population Over 16 a have not completed nigh school. About a third of Baltimore residents above age 16 Are unable fully to comprehend a front Page news Story. Such limitations Are calamitous in old manufacturing cities such As this one where Many smokestacks have gone cold and Opportunity lies in the word driven service sector. Anyone without a High school diploma probably has some significant Reading difficulty a significant m the sense that his or her life chances Are seriously limited. As Are the chances of his or her children. Illiteracy is a communicable affliction. An illiterate adult cannot help his child with Homework a cannot even be counted on to administer a child a prescription Medicine safely. The Label says four pills. But All at once the object of adult literacy programs is not to get students Reading moby Dick but rather to enable them to read Green eggs and Ham to their children and to read for themselves classified Job ads. As the crumbling of inner City education and inner City families makes the problem of illiteracy larger changes in the commonplace experiences of life make illiteracy More of an affliction. A few generations ago shopping required no literacy. You asked a grocer or dry goods clerk for a particular Quantity of flour sugar and other unpack aged goods. Nowadays a supermarket is an Arena of self help. For most of us that is the pleasure of the places. They Are Cornucopia of pleasant choices choices triggered by packaging that employs verbal cues. For the illiterate shopping must be part of a seamless web of tension and unpleasantness. So Public and private literacy assistance of the sort Baltimore offers is an enhancement of the individuals humanity. Quite a gift. C Tho Washington Post Wnters group