European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 3, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday april 3, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 Sidney h. Schanber inhale deeply fellas or risk going to pot commentary Hawf a. 0jv candidates everybody missed the Point. Who cares if Bill Clinton smoked pot More than 20 years ago the big thing is that he said he never inhaled. This needs major analysis because it Speaks directly to his character. Examine carefully if you will the text of his a a confessions on one of those sunday television quiz shows. A a in be never broken a state Law a he said. A but when i was in England As a Rhodes scholar at Oxford in the late 1960si experimented with marijuana a time or two and i did no to like it. I did no to inhale it and never tried it  look lets get serious. If he did no to inhale How could he know he did no to like it you can to get High from passive marijuana smoke. What is revealed from All this is that Clinton understandably wanted to be part of the Oxford scene one of the chaps so to speak so he Sticks a joint in his Mouth and pretends to puff on it. All right then what was it he did no to like the pretence the silly behaviour of his schoolmates As they became High the fact that this diversion took time away from his preparations to be president someday this marijuana thing goes right to the Core of the by criticism about Bill Clinton a that he a artful and Slippery and phony. In a not quite Clear As to How this distinguishes him from the Slipperiness of Jerry Brown or George Bush but anyway that a the criticism of Clinton that the hard driving insightful Media keeps throwing at him. Which is Why we now have to probe deeper into the Case of the unlikable marijuana. First there is the Issue of Why Clinton did no to Tell us about his pleasure less experience with cannabis before. When asked in the past about any illegal drug use Clinton responded that he had never broken any state or Federal Laws. On sunday when the reporter on the to show asked the question she included International Laws a and England specifically a and that is when he fessed up. He denied that this showed How Slippery he had been in the past. He said it was simply that this was the first time he had been asked a this direct  Well maybe not Slippery maybe just sly and nifty. Naturally the Media always fair asked the same drug questions of Jerry Brown who is now Clinton a chief rival in the democratic primaries and Brown said he had never broken any drug Laws anywhere a which brought cascades of laughter and astonishment from the legions of free spirits who had always believed it was Brown with whom they had smoked controlled substances Over the years. Maybe its All in the Way we ask the questions. Maybe we re not being precise enough. For example suppose Brown did his smoking a or thinks he did a at sea on a pirate boat outside the three mile limit. Is that Why he thinks he did no to break any Laws As for Clinton did he really not inhale lets imagine a somewhat different scenario one in which he sucked the smoke into his lungs. And by doing so became giggly and goofy and Felt like standing on his head or soaring through the air. And when he came Down from these Heights he realized he had been out of control and As a control driven person this frightened him badly because he knew it might put at risk something dear to him that he had written about at the time a the need a to maintain my political viability within the  and while we re examining these serious character issues what about the boldness Factor Clinton used the word a a experimented to describe his fling with marijuana. But do we want As president a person whose idea of an Experiment is to balk at taking the final risk who pulls Back just As he approaches a new Frontier who decides not to inhale or do we want a president ready and willing to embark on adventures into the unknown where no earthling has gone before this unfortunately sets the mind wandering Back to Clinton a earlier responses when the Media morality police pressed him about allegations of marital infidelity. He said a i have acknowledged causing pain in my marriage a but he denied the specific allegation of Gennifer Flowers who said she and Clinton had been involved in a 12-year relationship. He said Flowers was no More than a a Friendly  maybe in this circumstance too Clinton Felt that in a figurative sense of course he had not quite inhaled. In the end looking at All this running and hiding from the penalties of impropriety we can see where our presidential campaigns have finally arrived. It is a place where a candidate must be sin free. No worship of Pagan gods. No hallucinogenic experiences. No speeding tickets. No mooning. No inhaling. To be caught having done any of these things is to wave goodbye to your a political  so you have two choices. Either you deny everything or you offer up puny admissions that there May have been a few minor lapses but they done to count because they were All Joyless incomplete in inhaled. Rise up candidates throw off these chains. The people done to want frightened unfulfilled sin poor leaders. Call a news conference. Announce your transgressions. Be not afraid. You May never get to be president but you May still manage to inhale life. C nowadays Ellen Goodma Earhart mystery lives on beyond that atoll the detectives have come Back with their evidence. One rubber Heel for a woman a size 9 shoe. A threaded top from a bottle that once held stomach Medicine. A piece of aluminium skin from the fuselage of a pre world War ii plane. These artefacts Are now offered up As roof that Amelia Earhart died on an in hospitable atoll in the South Pacific. The 39-year-old Pilot and her navigator attempting to add yet another first to her list the first Pilot to Circle the Globe near the Equator missed Howland Island. Out of fuel they landed at Nikuma Roro. Out of water they died there. A for 55 years her Fate has been a mystery a said Richard Gillespie presenting his flotsam and jetsam of evidence. A today that mystery is  Well maybe. The Fate of Amelia Earhart has produced a cottage Industry of speculators and mystery lovers. In the Early years there were rumours that Earhart had been taken prisoner by the japanese rumours she had disappeared to assume another life. A few even believed she was Tokyo Rose. Today Samelia Earhart buffs Are a More scientific Bunch. But they remain sceptical and Are Likely to keep the Case open. So be it. Frankly i find the mystery of ear Harts death less intriguing than the mystery of her life. If this woman has remained in the limelight Long enough to lease even her ardent publicist and Hus it and George Putnam its not because of Ter disappearing role its because of her historic role. She is still one of that string of a first women who stretch Back through time. It links the first woman Pilot to the first woman astronaut to the first woman fighter Pilot. For some the title is a breakthrough and for others a Burden but each changes the world a bit. Amelia Earhart a girl Pilot a was born in 1897 in Kansas and never saw a plane until she was 10. She did no to Start flying until she was 23. In 1927, at the Tail end of one women a movement and Long before another she was a 30-year-old Boston social worker with a pilots License crimping her Way out of debt. Out of the Blue Earhart was asked if she wanted to Fly across the Atlantic. In the 1920s, flying was still something Between a feat and a stunt Between path breaking and barnstorming. After Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic and became an american hero some people seeking attention for another flight came upon the idea of the a girl  so ironically in an Era when her chances were severely limited by being a woman Earhart got this Chance because she was a woman. When she leapt into Fame As the first woman to Fly the Atlantic she was a passenger. This tall curly haired flight jacketed woman who might have passed for Lindbergh a sister quickly came into her own breaking records and preconceptions showing her strength. One month an article appeared saying it  be done a Why i believe women pilots can to Fly the Atlantic a an outspoken warning by lady  the next month Earhart did it Solo. Again and again she was greeted with the Peculiar applause and Celebration that we Reserve for women who do what we Tell them they can to do. Before she set off for the final trip around the world weary under prepared with a hard drinking navigator she told friends that she had just one last big trip in her. She never finished it. Had she made it Home Earhart might eventually have ended up like the Pilot Beryl Markham living in a Bungalow on the Edge of a Nairobi Racetrack. Instead she became the heroine perhaps a touch too romantic but properly courageous of any girl who wanted to Fly in the face of convention. A women must try to do things As men have tried a she wrote in 1935. A when they fail their failure must be but a Challenge to  so let the aviation buffs set off again in search of Bones and the serial number on a plane. In the end the mystery of the spirit the secret of daring and the Puzzle of courage Are More intriguing and much harder questions to answer than the whereabouts of a Long lost plane. T c the Boston Globe