European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 22, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday november 22, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 Oswald fits into Mode of senseless violence Ellen Goodman we All know where we were. Every one of us Over 35 can Tell you what we were doing when we got the news. There Are moments in life when the clock Sim ply stops. There Are events permanently imprinted on a generation tattooed on nation. On nov. 22,1963,1 was working at my first Job in the wire room at Newsweek Magazine. One of the teletype machines began to Ping the Way i did for a news bulletin. I walked to the Back of the machine and read the words As they came Over the wire one at a time the presi Dent has been thirty year Slater it s impossible to communicate my own generation s sense of Shock to the younger generation. They Are More Shockproof than we were. Those of upraised in the Amr idiotic fluid of the 1950s had been sheltered from the knowledge of How vulnerable a country a Leader a person is to Chance madness bullets. Our own parents who had grownup with the depression and world War ii had tried to create a safer world for us a vast protected sitcom suburb in a country whose Only threats were american rebels of the 50s were without a cause and existentialism was a foreign As communism. It is no Accident that we still commemorate Juk s death Day and not his birth Day. After All it was t this Complex an charming Youthful and flawed Man but his assassination that exploded the safety of our american shelter. In the surreal atmosphere of his death we uttered the same words Over and Over i can t believe eventually that inability to believe it hardened into a refusal to believe it. As Ken Nedys biographer Wil Liam Manchester has said if you put the murdered president of the unite states on one Side of a scale and that wretched Waif Oswald on the other Side it does t balance. You want to add. Something weightier to Oswald. A conspiracy would of course do the Job a week after Kennedy s death after the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald after Jack Ruby shot Oswald after one bizarre event piled on top of another Only a and., Wen we pig our All these met foments.? we match the with the ones i found in diet Pepsi Wujs third of the american people believe that Oswald acted alone. In the next decades the need to make sense of the murder spawned a thousand conspiracy theories. The Loose ends of the investigation were tied into 2,000books. There Are More Board games bumper stickers and conspiracy Buff than we can count. The generation that had been shocked by Juk s death was horrified and numbed by the deaths of Bobby Kenned Yand Martin Luther King. We were hard ened on the Way from Dallas to water Gate to Iran Contra. Conspiracies be came easier to believe and government harder to believe and Oliver Stone s Juk too easy to believe. The truly alternative theory now is theone Gerald Posner spelled out in his Book Case closed. He carefully reason the Way along the path Back to the irrational Core of this Case to a loser named Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was unwanted by his Mother by the Marine corps by the russians and by every employer he worked was in his own words born in oct 1939 in new Orleans la., the son of an Insu Raen sic Salesman whose Earl death left a far mean Streak of Idepence sic brought on by neglect sic he failed at everything he tried except one thing killing Kennedy. If we can finally accept Oswalda the Lone killer it s not Only because of Posner s thorough and hard Edge investigation it s also because of our own Chan Ging times. We Are forced to accept Chasas easily As conspiracy now. We under stand that madness is As much a threat As any rational plot. The two words senseless and Vio Lence have adhered into one inseparable phrase. The generation now in their teens and twenties Are chilled by the randomness of danger drive by shootings children caught in the Cross fire craziness on the streets. Even scientists now propound a chaos theory. Jack Ruby of All people said it s hard to realize that a Complete nothing a Zero like that could kill a Man like presi Dent but today perhaps we can read again about Oswald the loser the abandoned and abusive Sociopath in the wrong place at the wrong moment and recognize the profile of a killer. S on nov. 22, 1963, while americans were going about their daily lives unaware Lee Harvey Oswald took deadly aim from the sixth floor of the Texas Book depository and changed our world in ways that still leave us wondering what might have been. Unbelievable. We said to each other i can t believe Only now in a world of senseless violence it s so much easier to c to Boston glob Clinton s lobbying for Naftal showed True grit after a slow Start president Clinton waged a surprisingly aggressive Campaign for a Trade agreement hatched by republicans and despised by Many democrats. It s Given Clinton bragging rights As a new style Democrat willing to rattle the China. After setbacks in Haiti. Somalia and Bosnia Clinto sorely needed a win on the North american free Trade agreement which he had deemed crucial tooth foreign policy and economic Prosperity. He also needed a boost for his political standing tied in one poll with Ronald Reagan for the lowest rating for any Post world War ii president a year after election. A Victory surely would improve Clinton s standing at least cot that last wednesday night with a comfortable margin. But it came after months of hard an Issue that split americans neatly Down the Middle Clinton stepped Forward to Lead an Odd bedfellows coalition that pitted him against pillars of the democratic Parry risking political divisions that could linger Long after the Naftal vote. It s a demonstration that he s Able to go up against very powerful interests in his party and articulate the National interest and bring along republicans an democrats said Ai from president of the centrist democratic leadership is one of a handful of issues that has really divided the from said and Clinton has taken the new democrats position which is to expand labor a Cornerstone of the democratic political base adamantly opposed the agreement on grounds that american Industry would Rush to Mexico in search of lower wages and lax Environ mental , who furiously battled Clinton on his budget and economic stimulus pro Grams provided the Backbone of political support for the Accord. They argued it would Cre ate jobs by providing new markets for american products George Steppi Anopol los Clinton s senior adviser said the president s willingness to stick out his neck shows he can stand up for what he believes in what is it also allowed Clinton to reposition himself Politi Cally after taking Liberal stands on allowing Gays in the military higher taxes and More government spending. Originally though there were serious doubts about the depth of Clinton s commitment to Naftal which he inherited from president the summer supporters of the agreement an Terence Hunt gushed As Clinton held his fire while labor and other opponents got a head Start on Public opinion. When two House democratic leaders Richard a. Gep Hardt and David e. Bonior came out against the agreement Clinton remained mum. Finally on sept. 14, Clinton brought Jimmy Carter Gerald Ford Ana George Bush to the White House and launched his Campaign for Naftal. It became an aggressive sharply focused crusade that dominated the president s Agenda for two months. The administration argued that a Naftal de feat would wound his presidency and imperil Clinton s ability to Lead particularly As he set out thursday to a meeting with asian Pacific leaders. Clinton promoted the agreement at 18 Public event Sand sent Cabinet members to 64 congressional districts. The president personally spoke to about 140 members of Congress and within the last 10 Days made phone Calls to 80 to 95 lawmakers according to a Whitehouse count. I have to say i am impressed Senate Republican Leader Robert Dole said. I had my doubts out it has become Clear that he understands this is important to win and he has not just stuck with it but fought hard and realized what would happen to his presidency if c the Amott
