European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 10, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Wednesday june 10, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 \ commentary Harry g. Summers guns first make the world perfect if nothing else the recent riots in los Angeles pointed up one of the inherent fallacies put Forth by advocates of gun control a the failure to take Basic human instincts into account. Sociologists portray this a Hierarchy of needs As a Pyramid with survival As its base and idealism and self actualization As its Apex. Those at one level find it difficult if not impossible to understand the views of those at another. The arguments of those at the Apex who oppose the Sale and ownership of handguns Are a Case in Point. Safe and secure themselves protected by their environment and in no danger of mayhem or violence they have the luxury of approaching the Issue from an idealistic standpoint. Their beliefs that guns cause More problems than they prevent sounds Good and in a perfect world there could be no quarrel with their logic. But the world is far from perfect. Those at the Bottom of the Pyramid insecure even in their own Homes with armed thugs looting and burning around them unable to count on the police for even rudimentary Protection have an entirely different Point of View. There the arguments of the advocates of gun control smack of the advice of Queen Marie Antoinette to the French sans culottes. To her a let them eat cake was a perfectly reasonable response to those who complained that they had no bread. After All that is what she would have done. And a let them rely on the police instead of handguns Quot makes perfect sense to those who work and reside where one can do just that. But to those living in areas where the police Are impotent and have Long since abdicated control of the streets to thugs drug dealers and armed gangs such advice is sheer nonsense. Survival not idealism is the primary motivator there. Thus the Rush to buy guns in the Wake of the riots. Idealists May decry such actions but to those whose lives and families Are in danger it is simply a matter of survival and common sense. It should be obvious that the Way to control guns is not through legislating bans on their Sale or Possession. As in Washington d.c., which has the strictest gun control Laws in the nation it May even be counterproductive. Since those Laws were enacted the District of Columbia has become the murder capital of the country where Ordinary citizens Are shot just for kicks. The Way to control guns is to create an environment similar to that in which most idealists reside an environment where guns serve no useful purpose. Until that is done citizens will continue to provide for their own survival and if that Means buying a gun then so be it. That is tic in the International Community As Well for survival forms the basis for International control As surely As it does for gun control at the local level. In 1788, during a debate on the Constitution James Madison said it As Well As it can be said a How could a readiness for War in time of peace be safely prohibited unless we Coula prohibit in like manner the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation the Means of Security can Only be regulated by the Means and dangers of attack. They will in fact be Ever determined by those rules and by no others. A it is vain a he warned a to in nose constitutional barriers to the impulse of and it is equally vain to think that it is possible to impose such barriers on sales today. The views of idealists at the top of the Pyramid who take Security from outside attack for granted differ completely from those at the Bottom whose Borders Are not so secure. Nuclear control has been Success Ful because there is a shared perception in the world Community that nuclear weapons Are not so much military As political weapons More useful for deterrence than for fighting a War. Hut conventional Are another matter. Here Madison a logic still applies. A if one nation maintains constantly a disciplined ready for the service of ambition or revenge Quot he noted Quot it obliges the most Pacific nations who May be within reach of its enterprises to take corresponding that need a to take corresponding precautions for the survival of the nation was at the heart of the a race during the cold War and remains the Root Issue with control today. To blame the a merchants of death Quot for sales abroad is like blaming the National Rifle association for gun sales at Home. It attacks a symptom rather than a cause. The solution is to create an International environment where such a corresponding precautions arc no longer necessary. Until that time sales As with gun sales will continue to proliferate. A lecturer in strategy and distinguished fallow of Tho War collage col. Harry Summers is the author of on strategy ii a critical analysis of the persian quit War c los Angelos Olmos synd Cato Anna Quin Plenet the Good stamp Roll along with the bad i have to say that i think the Post office people made a big mistake. And its not even the kind of rip Levis believe it or not mistake you re probably thinking or the marriage proposal delivered 37 years late 37 years in which a Sweet Young thing with a Light heart turned into a bitter misanthropic old coot who keeps too Many cats. Its the Elvis mistake. Some people thought the idea of an Elvis stamp was a mistake from the beginning. Why they asked memorialize a Man who a doctor said had 12 different drugs in his body at the time of his death almost none of them pronounceable. A Man whose motto was apparently just say Mon Quot the . Postal service said it was the first in a series called legends of american music. The Good news about the series is that you have to be dead so Metal Lica is not eligible. The bad news is that the postal service is handling this and its hard to picture its people sitting around their breath smelling faintly of glue saying a whoa Hendrix Man a a Primo Elvis was an obvious Choice considering that most of your Competition for getting on a stamp seems to be Guys who invented farm implements Guys who invented Library filing systems and Birds. This year at the american booksellers association convention i saw three Elvis cookbooks. My favorite was called Are you hungry tonight but you had to wonder what a in an Elvis Cookbook other than recipes for a dozen room service cheeseburgers at 3 a.m.? apparently the world is now crawling with Elvis Stamps. St. Vincent. Grenada. Tanzania. A lot of other countries whose representatives May have to pay their own Way to the miss universe pageant. It reminds me of going into an open front lean to in the Caribbean in which a Large lady in a flowered dress sold juice Beer and whatever produce had come wandering Down the Road that Day. Behind her was a painting on Black velvet of t he King. My travelling companion pointed at it. Quot Elvis a he said. A guest Mort a said the woman with great sadness. But the . Elvis stamp had a twist and the twist was democracy. We got to vote the Young Pelvis Elvis or the puffy jumpsuit aficionado. Side by Side the two were perfect the Elvis As one saturday night live bit had it at least in my memory although i Nave a tendency As i enter Middle age to think that everything funny in be Ever heard took place on saturday night live even things my husband swears he said. The fact is is that we should have kept both Stamps. You could put them Side by Side on an Oer stuffed envelope and via to your teen age children do you see what happens if you take pills to go to sleep and pills to Wake up do you see what happens if you eat room service in the Middle of the night and shoot out television screens in vegas you go from looking like Elvis Presley to looking like Wayne Newton a this would not be unprecedented. I understand that in England you can buy Stamps that show the Princess of Wales both just before her wedding with the Chubby Cheeks and the Bow tied Blouse Ana today in her exceedingly glamorous couture and cheekbones incarnation. This illustrates what a troubled marriage to an older wealthy Man can do for a person. In fact we do this very thing in our real lives. It is called a High school reunion. Before. After. The difference is that no one said Elvis Hadnot changed a bit although the artist who did the later Elvis the one with the jumpsuit the jewelry and the Girdle seems to Hac done some airbrushing around that telltale jaw line. I would like to see an entire series of before and after Stamps. Michael Jackson would be an obvious candidate. So would George Bush first As a Rockefeller Republican then As a Reagan Republican same picture but one facing right the other left. Paul Mccartney of the beatles. Paul Mccartney of wings. It would be interesting to try to visually communicate that while he looks exactly the same in each on one stamp Paul is changing the face of popular music and on another he is performing something aptly entitled a silly love when philatelic types Start bargaining for a slimmed Down Post Betty Ford Liz Taylor a As opposed to a lather of the Bride series Liz a we a know we be gone too far. Coming soon the Young Skinny Sinatra with the hat is. The thicker meaner Sinatra with the Rug. Do it my Way go for y few f n is
