European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 30, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday March 30, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Carl t. Rowan character assassination just propels Clinton there is something Daffy about presidential politics in America and it is crazy to the Point of being self destructive in the democratic party. Nothing illustrates this More than the fact that the More votes Arkansas gov. Bill Clinton wins and the closer he gets to the democratic nomination the More his fellow democrats whisper destructive things to the Media about his character and his ability to defeat George Bush. Typical of what a happening is an almost endless Story in a recent edition of the Washington Post about the number of democrats in Congress who wait nervously a for other shoes to drop about Clinton a alleged womanizing his failure to fight in the Vietnam War and a business Deal that carries the smell of a conflict of interest we have a situation in which democrats who did no to dare expose themselves to the arduous campaigning and the Tough Media scrutiny of their personal lives Are now playing the Republican game of badmouthing Clinton who carried his warts and All into territory where Mario Cuomo Jay Rockefeller Richard Gephardt and others dared not tread. I confess that i made the erroneous declaration that Clinton was a a goner when a draft dodgers allegations and a a Shady land Deal charges were piled atop Gennifer Flowers sleep and brag allegations that she had been Clinton a longtime Lover. But the voting so far indicates that people without jobs or bereft of health care Arentt much swayed by peekaboo bedroom politics or smears and character assaults. Note that in Texas where some profess Bible Belt philosophies and boast of Manly patriotism Clinton got 976,142 votes on super tuesday March 10. Scandal free Paul Tsongas got 286,422. On the Republican Side 552,665 texans voted for president Bush. Those texans had heard and read All about Gennifer Flowers they had been flogged with the a draft dodgers stories and had fresh in mind reports that Clinton and his wife had engaged in an unethical business Deal with a Friend. Still he got 976,142 votes in Texas 65 percent 573,194 51 percent in Florida 140,013 73 percent in Mississippi and 263,566 69 percent in Louisiana. The super tuesday votes suggest that the people Are worried about things More fundamental than questions about whether Clinton Ever committed adultery or whether the Bush team is waiting to introduce Clinton to some curly haired baby of Uncertain parentage which has been the most titillating gossip in town recently. Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska on realizing that Clinton was the Clear front runner for the nomination unleashed some strident rhetoric about How it would be a tragedy for democrats to nominate Clinton because the arkansans was Kerry got so few votes that almost no one thought him qualified to declare who was electable and he quit the race. Voters know that no politician is without some vulnerabilities of character or judgment. Voter decisions have to be made As to How to weigh old mistakes against the policies and promises of 1992 and beyond. So far voters have rejected salacious gossip and a character flaws charges against Clinton and voted for his vision of americans future. C North am orca synd into inc George f. Wil Baltimore giving troubled youths a Choice South of the Patapsco River across from Baltimore a glistening inner Harbor sprawls Cherry Hill a neighbourhood where 50 years ago Public housing was built for White steelworkers who came to the City during the second world War. Today the housing much the worse for Wear is inhabited mostly by fragments of families that Are poor and Black. It is an Ocean of distress for adults and anger for children. Mark Shriver and his colleagues in the Choice program Are determined with youths Noble disregard for daunting evidence to bail the Ocean. Choice is a Low budget High Energy labor intensive Cost effective program run by Young adults willing to spend a year or More supervising troubled youths in this City a most troubled neighbourhoods. The staff divided into teams is on Call 24 hours a Day logging 200 Miles a week on the wheezing cars they use to track and Contact a three to five times a Day 365 Days a year a the children assigned to them by Public agencies. Early each morning the staff gathers to Pool information on the barely on the rails lives of the Young people Choice adheres to like a Bandage. Choices Aims and methods Are simple the aim is to keep the children Ages 10 to 17, swaddled in attention. The method is in basketball parlance a full court press. The information is swapped briskly. One staff member is away accompanying a child to court. One child was a a dry eds disciplinary removal from school and will spend a Day at Choice Headquarters receiving tutoring rather than spending the Day on the streets or watching television. One Choice staff member a slight Young White woman from Texas wearing a tailored suit Black pumps and glasses reports that the previous night one of her Young people did not Check in so she went out after him. Choice workers make it a Point to know girlfriends boyfriends and hangouts. She found her Young Man loitering in a Park. She required him to be Home in 15 minutes. He is 17 and weighs 235 pounds. He did As required. A a required Choice workers have almost no Sanction except their moral authority but they have lots of that because they Are lavish with life a most precious commodity time. A they respect you a says one of shrivers recruits a from seeing you so when Shriver makes recruiting visits to campuses he loses about half the interested people in the first interview when he explains the hours 60 to 70 a week with eight Days off a year and pay $17,500. About half of the remaining half Are lost when they take their first drive with a Choice worker a a tracking kids. John Kane 23, a College of the holy Cross graduate like Shriver relishes the work because he is a living All the problems we read All the problems flow he says from three failures a no values taught no limits set no consequences in the argot of Choice a a consequences can be a verb As in a Darnell is missing school so consequence when the morning meeting ends Kane and his colleagues fan out to schools making sure they know where their kids Are. Often school officials do not need to be asked. As Kane enters the office someone Calls out a Tanto inner a Fine. Raymond is when the Choice children Are not in school they Are Apt to be on the ragged Edge of trouble. So the Choice staffers not Long gone from the comforts of Middle class Homes and elite campuses go searching Down mean streets and into sour smelling hallways. Cherry Hill schools Are plastered with posters addressing elemental subjects a a baby costs $474 a month. How much change do you have in your pockets a Choice encourages Cost Benefit thinking. Baltimore spends Between $40,000 and $60,000 to incarcerate a troubled child for a year. Choice requires just $6,100 in Public and private Money to Monitor a child. Today a parents who would rather do something other than Parent assuage their guilt and disguise their neglect by saying they give their children a Quality i have never heard a child ask for Quality rather than Quantity. Choices indefatigable Young adults Are supplemental and sometimes surrogate parents for a a their children. These children Are fortunate Only a but this is a lot a in getting from Choice both Quantity and Quality. This is a truth of parenting Quality is Apt to be a function of not an alternative to Quantity. For the children of Choice the neighbourhood is their world. Many of them have travelled the mile and a half to the inner Harbor Only two or three times in their circumscribed lives. If their lives attain equilibrium credit shrivers Credo which is on a poster in his office. The poster is of a Small Black child and these words. A god made me. God done to make c the Washington poet the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government
