European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 4, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday May 4,1992 the stars and stripes Pago 13 com Mentar James j. Kilpatric just another Busy month for . Lawmakers yes its True. We of the press Are forever picking on Congress. In defense we say that Congress deserves All the criticism it gets but let us be fair. Let us look at the month of March and let us look factually with minimal editorial opinion at what our legislators were up to. Not much of substance was accomplished in March. The House adopted not one budget for 1993, but two budgets for 1993, known As plan a and plan b. The House also completed work on reauthorization of the higher education Bill. This will make another 2 million students eligible for Federal Loans or Grants. The Senate fiddled with a child labor Bill. The two houses went to conference on a Bill to finance congressional campaigns. That was about the size of it. But much else was going on. It is a base falsehood to suggest that our lawmakers Are not Busy. They Are constantly Busy. In March one House or the other or both passed Bills to designate National scleroderma awareness month National agriculture Day National senior nutrition week National women in agriculture Day National Public safety telecommunications week and National awareness of life saving techniques week. Bills were introduced and most Likely will be passed to designate child care worthy wage Day National baseball Day National substitute teachers Day National education and sharing Day National Domestic violence awareness month and National adult and continuing education week. Regrettably House joint Resolution 434, intended to designate april 2 As Chuck Taylor Day still is languishing in committee. Or. Taylor a famous basketball Star played a major role in developing the sneaker Industry. Let it be said that Congress is concerned not Only about problems at Home but also about problems abroad. In March the Senate commended president . De Klerk of South Africa. The Senate expressed its concern for democracy in Zaire. On the 18th the Senate passed a Resolution dealing with human rights in Tibet. The House for its part congratulated the government and people of Van Pezuela. Resolutions Are pending or have passed to express the sense of Congress regarding the peace process in Liberia to express concern about Justice in Ireland to deplore the suppression of democracy in Kenya to urge Protection of elephants in Africa to commend Turkey for helping the kurd of Iraq and to Call upon president Alberto Fujimori of Peru a to restore immediately the democratically elected  in other influential actions sen. Chuck Robb of Virginia seeks to bring to Justice the National Khmer Rouge leaders who committed crimes against humanity in a a a a of Noi Cambodia. Sen. Jesse Helms Forth Carolina condemns the military regime in. Of rights. Rep. Edward it Feighan of Ohio met. Burma for its Horn As abuses of human offers concurrent Resolution 298 to express the sense of Congress that the Vatican should recognize Israel. From rep. Benjamin Gilman of new York comes a powerful statement of congressional concern. In House Resolution 422 he a condemns unequivocally the conduct since november 1991 of general Mohamed Farah aided interim president Ali Mahdi Mohamed and other warring parties which has resulted in the destruction of Mogadishu in  turning its eyes homeward our industrious Congress has designated a Hospital in Northampton mass., the a Edward p. Boland medical  or. Boland is a former member of the House. In the same cheerful spirit 11 former members and a  former judges will find Federal buildings Post offices and courthouses named in their Honor. That is a fair accounting of Congress at work in March but the record of accomplishment a or pending accomplishment a would not be Complete without mention of a Bill to strike a medal commemorating the 250th anniversary of the american philosophical society. We ought also to recognize sen. Paul Simon of Illinois for sponsoring Senate Resolution 264. It would a express <�038 Root the sense of the Senate that people in the United states should Plant More  from Jan. 3 through March 31, i can report to you the Senate had been in session for 300 hours and 50 minutes the House for 162 hours and 16 minutes. Members had filled 7,657 pages of the congressional record. Together the two Chambers had received 1,301 Bills and resolutions. The Good news is that Only 22 Bills had been enacted into Law. C Universal press Syndicate Ellen Goodman Cosby had recipe for Success in parenting at the very end Cliff and Clair Huxtable waltzed out of their living room off the set past the studio audience and on to that place where All Good shows go when they die. The afterlife of television reruns. The grand finale the much ballyhooed last episode of the Cosby show was bathed in the warm Waters of premature nostalgia. It was soft around the edges comfortable As an old sweater just what the doctor a or. Huxtable a ordered for his Loyal audience. One rite of passage was tied to another. Theo Huxtable was graduating from College. Cliff Huxtable grading and predictable As Middle age spread had seen another child Over the thorny Divide of adolescence and fully launched. Mission accomplished. Parental Mission accomplished. And of course by implication television Mission accomplished. In some ways there was always a parallel in the two worlds that Bill Cosby created. Patriarch of the Huxtable household he was also progenitor of the television Enterprise. As both actor and producer Cosby held to his own standards and ideas. So this week those who pay attention to Media history May talk about How Bill Cosby saved the sitcom. Those who write about social history May critique the shows role As Well in the evolution of racial images. For Many years the one family that seemed to represent Ever family was also Black. The father who became the idealized Ever father was also Black. He is praised by Many for breaking through a clutter of negative Black stereotypes. He s condemned by others for producing a falsely positive picture of Rich professional Black americans. He a lauded for presenting Blacks a just like  and criticized for the same thing. But those of us who Are neither critics nor historians but mothers and fathers of the a a Cosby Era remain most conscious of the other stereotype shattered by this show. Bill Cosby deliberately staged a counterculture revolution against the clueless Parent the feckless father the out of it adult and the in charge knowing smart if not smart ass child. Cosby arrived in 1984, just As the two working Parent family became the Norm. He set up shop just As the baby Boom generation was raising its Booklet. Parents were no longer the establishment. They were us. And a querulous us at that. As Jay Rosen of new York University put it a Cosby did no to conform to the absent father image or to the pleading negotiating new age father. In the earlier shows adults were shown confounded by the child culture. But Cosby knew enough to get the better of the  on this show As Bill Cosby put it himself a the adults  they got the better of the children but for the Good of the children. The messages that spoke to a new generation of parents and children watching this show together were Clear. Parents could Wield authority without being authoritarian. They could pass on values without laying on trips. They could raise kids without losing their sense of humor or self Confidence. In the afterlife of reruns some future audience May imagine that the Huxtable were a typical american family. That a no More True for our time than the father who knew Best was for the 1950s. The Huxtable were a television two career couple a a doctor and a lawyer a who always seemed to have enough time for their children. Work formed a backdrop for their lives and their Bank accounts but it rarely interfered with their family life. Most of us squeeze family time More tightly than a 22-minute sitcom in a 24-hour Day. At the end of eight years with the Huxta Bies it is Confidence that seems the most reassuring and Strong Cosby trait. Its a Confidence that often feels elusive to parents who raise children with More stress and less certainty in real life than on television. But it was comforting nonetheless. Cosby put an image on the Home screen of the families we miss the parents we Admire and the Home life to which we still aspire. It Isnit just a coincidence that As the Huxtable go dancing off the family set a lot of other parents arc trying to learn their Steps. C the Boston Globe the opinion 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