European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 2, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday March 2, 1993 t commentary the stabs and stripes Page 15 madness it was a miserable Gray icy Winter morning in a City suffering from three major epidemics the february blahs the flu and another rash of no school Days. Indeed the Boston that greeted the head of the task Force on health care Reform was a col bed of seasonal affect disorder. But Hillary Rodham Clinton came Here on her appointed rounds Forjone of a series of trips billed As Quot pulse taking sessions. She is out taking the pulse of the Public and clearly the Public is taking the pulse of this new sort of first lady. Here and everywhere that she travels there seems to be a Mutual checkup and an ongoing Public discussion about what makes her tick. Hillary Analuz ing threatens to become a chronic condition. It s More than a month since the Little Rock lawyer moved to the White House. Seven months since the candidate s partner was locked in a chocolate Chip cookie bake off with Barbara Bush. A year since Bill Clinton s wife was introduced to the american Public As a woman who was a not Tammy but the dissection of Hillary s character and motives remains something of a full time specially particularly among those who write character prescriptions for a living. Ellen Goodman even in the medical Mecca of Massachusetts Hillary Rodham Clinton a her name her Job her hair a can produce More free association than a Rorschach blot. I am not surprised by the intensity of the interest in inc first Fady who has now been on More Magazine covers than Cheryl ticks in a Good year. Hillary belongs to a generation of women whose changing lives have been under constant examination and self examination for Over 20 years. The roles that most women her age Are struggling to Bridge in their everyday lives a balancing work and Home juggling children and jobs Success and acceptance a Are now being played out against the most rarefied an Ltd Public backdrop of the White House. We Are witnessing the High profile of the first full fudged professional woman to serve As first lady and the first first lady to take such an open part in Public policy making. The newspapers and television bring us daily portraits of Hillary the hostess Hillary the Mother Hillary the health Honcho. We see Hillary setting a table and Hillary setting an Agenda. Its As if the Long dormant and much debated superwoman had finally broken through the Glass ceiling. But what bothers me is the Way the talk about this woman so often seems to turn into a Hunt for the seven Early warning signs of Power grabbing. Remember when she became head of the health care panel one Magazine warned a she risks being accused of using her marriage As a route to another woman sleeping her Way to the top. Remember when she set up shop in the West Wing of the White House her move was universally described As a Power trip. Remember when she took her briefcase to Congress the newspaper headlines Hung on one word clout. After her very first a pulse taking trip the sunday morning pundits hinted darkly about a Hillary run amok because she has no and even now those who administer weekly political Potency tests assert that As the first lady rets More Power the vice president has Ess. The fixation on female Uppit Yness is common enough to rank As a cultural disease. Women who struggle Long hours at Low wages May be praised As virtuous or self sacrificing. Somewhere on the Way to the top they Are often mysteriously re diagnosed As Power hungry and self aggrandizing. But this Case deserves a second opinion. Hillary Rodham Clinton moved from primary family wage earner to full time a truly full time a Volunteer. The task she has taken on is not some beautification program sure to yield Praise and popular support for her Effort. Indeed at the end of a grueling Day in Boston after listening to hours of health care horror stories the clearly weary head of the task Force said a we Are not going to be Able to propose to you. A system that has Etc Mything in it you the woman has volunteered to walk into the propeller of health care Reform. Does that sound like a savvy career move or does it Spund possibly remotely like a Public service. Yes 1 know. Diagnosticians even amateurs Are always searching for what s wrong. But when the first lady takes on a task that May be literally thankless ifs pretty strange to continually scrutinize her for symptoms of Power hunger. This habit might even be called unhealthy. C the Boston glob the opinion ipod in i com i nth cartoon on thl to Pri Holt the of m Orthor Ond Oro in no my to to Coni Edwod a repro Mung Kwh Sims of in Star and strip or the unit Slat on Gay Issue May be necessary William f. A Buckley in a column some months ago i opined that surely the time had come to end discrimination in the armed forces against Gays. The analyses i have since read and the Many letters i have received have caused me to reconsider the Point. I continue to believe that Gays should not be Dis honorable discharged. If a Soldier contracted syphilis As Early in world War ii this became under army regulations a disease contracted a in the course of the patient was entitled to receive pay White in a Hospital. If moral laxity becomes thus institutionalized it would seem Correct to proceed honorable to discharge a Gay caught in flagrant Delict but not to persecute him nor use him in an attempt to identify Bis partners. Most convincing was a communication from capt. Kenneth Bashford of the air Force and i Hope to do my readers a service by reproducing it almost entirely. A forget for a moment about the Battlefield and the foxhole. What in a talking about Here is a Type Ltd a military base and something As routine As the assignment of unmarried men and women to its dormitories. A the military is sufficiently modern to have coed dormitories which Means unmarried members of both sexes Are permitted to live together in the same building. We do not however have coed rooms. Why Are roommates required to be of the same sex quite simply because if they Are not something unseemly and disruptive might happen involving sexual activity. Quot now suppose pvt. John Smith who enlisted in the army As an admitted homosexual reports to his first duty station upon completion of Basic training. He knows the policy is two persons of the same sex per room. He asks to be assigned to a room with another known homosexual male. What should the army a policy be with respect to private Smiths request Quot it would be useful to eliminate untenable options. The army and the parents of its prospective Young recruits Are unlikely to accept any rationale for changing the current policy against allowing men and women to share rooms with each other regardless of sexual orientation. Such a Radical departure from traditional norms is virtually unthinkable m military dormitories and to my knowledge even in their More progressive civilian ii�u0 Kwa Nice Bop \ Cadieu Ntow amp i my v now Barr or counterparts on College campuses. A it follows therefore that if the army will not allow heterosexual men and women to share rooms it cannot Grant pvt. Smiths request without subjecting itself to charges of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. To further protect itself against such charges the army also cannot let private Smith have a room to himself simply because he a Gay. So what is left for the army to do with pvt. Smith if it can to Grant his request a simply this the army must establish a policy which allows two persons of the same sex to share a room Only if it is known that at least one of them is exclusively heterosexual. Under such a policy private Smith could share a room with an exclusively heterosexual Man. This policy would be consistent with the rationale of the current policy which is to establish a de Facto prohibition of sexual activity Between roommates in their room while maintaining gender segregation. A this policy presupposes knowledge of each individual s sexual orientation. Will it be Legal for the army to collect such information from new recruits other questions come to mind suppose private Smith lies about his sexual orientation in order to be assigned to a room with his Gay buddy will prospective roommates have the right to refuse to share a room with private Smith if so on what grounds a pm in in my 25th year of Active duty. In be served in the enlisted ranks As Well As the officer corps. I have shared dormitory rooms with other men. In be been a supervisor and a commander. This business of dormitory assignments May seem quite trivial to someone with no military experience but 1 assure you it is not we Are left then with the problem of distinguishing Between persecution which should not continue an discrimination which capt. Bashford persuasively argues is up to a Point necessary. Ltd Urt be adj pres Syndi amp at
