European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 24, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday january 24, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 All that glitters in figure skating is Money figure skating is like a dream Grace and Beauty in slow motion what the body could be if released from the everyday burdens of Gravity. Everything was Beautiful at the bal let three dancers with fractured child hoods sing in a chorus line of their ref _ la Jiuji Iii i Uge in toe shoes and tutus. That s what skating evokes when the ice is Silver Bright the Blades Swift the skater accomplished a Beautiful momentary release from the tatters of real life. That is some what illusory As Anna Quindlen any girl child who has risen before Dawn to practice her compulsory figures Day after Day year after year can testify. Behind the glorious line of leg and upraised Arm behind the double axes and the triple toe combinations lie sweat and tears and pain. And behind it All at the highest Levels lies that Golden thing that has become All that glitters in much professional sport today Money Money Money. So Why so shocked sports fans to find How far and How Low the love of Lucre can take competitive athletics Why so shocked to discover that those Allied with Tonya Harding Brilliant bumpy skating career and some say Harding herself were allegedly willing to do violence to her rival Nancy Kerrigan for a pot of Gold at the end of the olympic Rainbow get real. The statistics about top foot Ball basketball and baseball players today Are As often the sum total of their commercial endorsements and contract negotiations As they Are batting averages or pass completions. Watch Wimbledon and it is like watching a collection of tiny moving billboards the corporate logos of juice companies and shoe manufacturers plastered on sleeves wristbands shorts. It has gotten so bad that Chris Evert the Champ who always knew the differ ence Between competitive and cutthroat said last week that she was glad she was not playing Tennis professionally today. Wherever there s More Money there s going to be More downfall she told new York times reporter Robin finn. Jennifer Capriati Tennis Whiz and teen Ager did t sell her adolescence for the thrill of that percussive sound of Ball meet ing Racket. She spent the years Between 13 and 17 in child labor on the pro circuit earning More than $1 million. No one should be surprised that bad things Are done for that amount of Cash or that Capriati is now burned put and wants nothing More than to finish High school. For a time figure skating held itself above All this with Little of the rough and Tumble or dirty laundry of con tact sports. But Peggy Fleming and Dor Othy Hamill proved that a Gold medal could Lead to brighter rewards and in re cent years it has sometimes seemed that officials might As Well simply hang a calculator around the neck of the Winner. And it also became Clear How much athletes were willing to do to win. Featherlight gymnasts their rib cages aflutter As they stood with arms raised to the crowd threw up their Low Cal meals or did t eat in the first place. Steroids be came the breakfast of champions for the bulk up sports. Is it really that great a leap from hurting yourself to hurting the Competition there May have been a time Light years ago when the feeling of the Earth moving so effortlessly beneath the Blades of her skates was Harding s great Reward. And maybe there Are moments when those Blades still mute the sound of coins clinking when she forgets that she is famous and just about broke and cares Only that she is Superb at the sport. Harding like so Many others was in it for the Money. Now with All the bad publicity it will never come. Perhaps it never would have. Harding is a hard Case Tough and smart mouthed and enormously talented. If she were a Young Man in baseball she might have made a mint. But figure skating is still a dream and Kerrigan not Harding is a dream girl Sweet Beautiful Graceful and suited to chiffons. No bad childhood no financial woes no Competition or rewards could Ever excuse the moment when someone acting on Harding s behalf if not her Behest whacked Kerrigan in the leg. But Why so shocked the motto of professional athletics has been Clear for some time it in t How you play the game it s whether you win. Twist a biblical caution and re cent events seem almost inevitable. When Money is the Root of All evil follows. What shattered the reverie of figure skat ing was despicable. But not surprising. C Tho new York times Public servants have no inherent right to gratitude the past week prominently featured a Day in the life of president Clinton and another in the life of adm. Bobby Ray Inman. A few thoughts crowd the mind on matters raised by both gentlemen. It has to do with Public  rather lost Contact with his audience during an hour in which his mind appeared to be insufficiently focused on the questions at hand. The arrangement of the Basic data is pretty straightforward Clinton asked him to serve As the new Secretary of defense and Inman agreed to do  gave As the Basic reason for his change of mind that he saw no reason to endure the suffering and in dignity of what Lay ahead of him in what he had detected As a conspiracy Between columnist Williana a fire and sen. Bob  no such conspiracy As he described is plausible Safire s performance Over the years rules out any possibility that he would tether his analyses to the ends of any Public official one was left with the bewilderment engendered in 1992 when Ross Perot suddenly pulled out of the presidential race charging that the Republican party was threatening the happiness of his daughter. The sense of it is that Inman s reaction was generated by a Confluence of emotional and psychological factors. One assumes that he especially resented something in Safire s column exactly what the Reader does t , obviously there had been a deep ambivalence on the question of taking on the defense Secre tary s Job he had already informed the White House that he probably would simply rent a Condo in Washington and maintain his two houses in Texas and Colo Rado intending to spend Many weekends at Home. With his nomination Inman was exposed on deck to winds of adversity he had t Ever Felt before and he decided to Chuck the whole thing. But since his analysis of his change of heart was not Clear in his own mind his rendering of it to the Public was less than Lucid. But Inman did manage to refer More than once to his 30 years of Public service. And this cliche used with such fre Quency is an unexamined sum Mons to other people s Admira Tion and indebtedness. The same Day that Inman was performing in Austin Clinton was performing in los Angeles. There he was garbed for the people in shirtsleeves no tie. And what he said was that he had campaigned for president because of his Devotion to Public service and he wished the people to know that he was with them in any catastrophe and that government his government would stay with them through the end of their troubles How Ever Long it was. He dropped $45 million of spare change into the stricken City s coffers. Here we have a gentleman of great skills and intelligence calling attention to his 30 years of Public service. To which one is bound to say what exactly have been the sacrifices you have endured that you ask us to focus on men and women in America who enter Public service Are not automatically entitled to grat William f. Buckley etude for sacrifices made. To enter let us say a service Academy is to take a larger risk of getting killed in com Bat but professional soldiery is a Way of life entered into willingly by whole classes of people throughout the Ages. The pay is often less than what one would have received following other pursuits that one s intelligence might make accessible. But there Are compensations in Public work varied in nature that make up for such losses. I know a half score men and women who Lead miserable economic lives because they decided at about the age when some people decide to join the army that they wished to de vote their lives to music. One can and does feel sorry for the economic hardships they endure. But this does t entitle them to Lay claim to immunities earned in Exchange for Public service. The men and women who go to deserts and Jungles to preach the word of the lord and to perform Corporal acts of Charity while living lives of penury they Are entitled to the special considerations of their fellow men. But his fellow citizens Are not in debt to the Public servant who touches Down in los Angeles and extends multimillion Dollar favors generated by other americans or to the Public servant who goes from the University of Texas to the National War col lege to naval cryptography to intelligence analysis to the National Security Agency to the Cia. Bobby Ray Inman is master of his own Fate. Bill Clin ton is master of his own Fate and also substantially master of our own. But then we gave him that Power and we Are masters of our own Fate. C Universal press Syndicate