European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 05, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday novembers 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page is Mike Feinsilber if Bob Packwood Felt he had to keep a diary height have taken a hint from Samuel Pepys one of the most famous diarists in history. Pepys kept his in cod and it took 156 years before anyone could read it. In committing his daily musings to paper Pac Woodis in Good and bad company. Richard Nixon mused at night into a dictating machine during his White House Days. Harry Truman Dwight Eisenhower and Jimm Carter All kept diaries. They help in writing Clinton his press Secre tary said takes notes during the Day and tape records his thoughts late at Bremer the Young loner who shot and oar Al Zed presidential candidate George Wallace in 1972, kept diary. This will be one of the most closely read pages since the scrolls in those caves Bremer wrote comparing his journals 148 pages of which were discovered years later buried near his rented room in Milwaukee to the dead sea scrolls. Former defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was indicted last year on the basis of his Handwritten Jour Nal in the Iran Contra Bush whose own diaries raised questions about his involvement in the affair pardoned Wein Berger last Christmas eve. If diaries can be troublemakers Why keep them diaries can be substitutes for human confidants said psychologist Gerald Goodman of the University of California at los Angeles. We have a fundamental need for being known by another. We want need to be understood. Even hermits go out and talk to animals or also want to be sure their versions of events get history s politicians can t resist the Opportunity to use their journals As posthumous press releases scholar Thomas Mallon observed in .4 Book of their own. He said they Jot to explain to justify to plead a Case be fore after Reading hundreds of diaries Mallon concluded that no one Ever kept a diary for just Packwood wanted to share his diaries with posterity intending to give them to the Oregon historical society not to be opened until Many years after his truth diarists have enriched history. The million and a Quarter spare no secret words written by Samuel Pepys pronounced peeps Between 1660 and 1669 give a sense of life in England during the great plague and the fire of London As Well As a glimpse into his womanizing life. He wrote in a private shorthand his code was t deciphered until 1825. Journal1ng, keeping a spiritual diary is a tradition going Back to the mystics and Early saints of christianity. Henri Nouwen a Catholic theologian said the practice enabled him to discover a quiet Stream underneath the fluctuating affirmations and rejections of my Little St. Augustine Pope John Xxiii Dag Hammarskjold and Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote Down their thoughts. The diary of Anne Frank shows the horror of hiding in a cubbyhole with eight other persons in constant fear of being ferreted out by the nazis. Today s College generation is a big keeper of Jour nals. Richard Hughes literature professor at Boston College said classes in journal keeping Are so popular the College has to scramble to find enough teachers. My students Are addicted to diaries and journals said Hughes. It s supposed to Sharpen their writing ability and Lead them to take a closer look at them Hughes keeps a diary himself. He arises at 4 . To write and has been doing it for 30 years filling volumes. He keeps them under lock and key. C a health care Din reaches headache decibels nobody argues that the problems of the automobile Industry would be less threatening to the . Economy if it were brought under government ownership and record of state financing of Auto Mobile companies in Western Europe i convincing evidence that Consumers will get better cheaper cars and that More jobs will be created in the Long run if car manufacturing is left to the private Sec Tor subject to state intervention Only in areas such As service is another Story. If you compare say the magnificent system of intercity service in France with what passes for passenger service Here it Tell you Only that massive state investment and subsidies will give you a Good widely utilized system and a cheaply subsidized system will give you what we have in the United states. It is also Clear that without any subsidies or government intrusion there would be Little or no intercity rail service in the United states for cows and pigs maybe but not for brings us to the question of health doubt the Best medical care in the world is available in the United states. Some people argue this is be cause so much of the system is in private hands driven by Market forces and private decision making by companies an individuals free to make immense profits. But you can argue just As convincingly that medical care in the United states is far costlier and less widely available than another Industrial countries that life expectancies and immunization rates Are lower Here and infant mortality rates higher. Robert Reno just , Market forces in . Medical system operate More imperfectly Are More distorted Are less subject to Laws of Competition and of Supply and demand than in almost any other area of the private sector. President Clinton s health car program is amazingly enough not that different from alternatives being offered by its critics in Congress or by the various interests in the vast and fragmented health care lobby. All of them have in common the notion that the huge overlapping bureaucratic employer supported system of private insurers can be tinkered with to varying de Grees and in ways that will reduce costs preserve excellence and ensure availability. If your head hurts when you listen to the health care debate it is because it is taking place within a narrow com pressed band of alternatives largely promoted by the bickering interests within the existing system who want to preserve their present advantage. It is an asymmetrical debate. Because virtually exclude from it is the one specific alternative that enjoys the most solid support in a otherwise dithering and confused con Gress. More than 90 members of the House and five senators publicly support replacing the present system with a simple government financed single payer Canad an style system that preserves Patien Choice and rejects the quaint almost mystical idea unknown to earlier history that a person s health care is somehow irretrievably connected to his or her employment. The single payers May not have a Hance. But there Are a lot More closet single payers in the administration than there were nine months ago when the president began subjecting health care to exhaustive examination and debate. Press them and All they la Tell you is it s just no politically i
