European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 15, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday february 15, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 i it s also the season for slings arrows of hate Cal Thomas of the verses this Valentine season of to turned into a season of hate and the greeting cards came from the likes of Byron de la Beckwith Louis Farrak Han s Deputy Khalid Abdul Muhammad russian Ultra a Tion Alist Vladimir. A Mirinovsky and even South Carolina s sen. Ernest f. Hoi Lings. Consider some chilling the permed for us. At Beckwith s third trial at which he was convicted of the murder of civil rights Leader Medgar Evers 31 years ago one witness testified that Beck with told a meeting of Kun flux klan leaders killing that in did t cause me any More discomfort than our wives have when they have a  Muhammad told a College audience in new Jersey that jews were sucking Blacks blood on a daily and consistent basis and that the holocaust May have been justified. A Mirinovsky said the United states is being overrun by Blacks and his panics. You and us the russians share the same threat from the dark skinned people from the third  he has also said i would bomb the japanese. I would sail our Large Nav around their Small Island and if they so much As cheered i would nuke  Hollings a Democrat likened Blac africans attending a meeting in Geneva to cannibals saying you d find these potentates Down in Africa you know rather than eating each other they d just come up and get a Good Square meal in  most of us Are sickened by these pronouncements and wonder where such disturbing attitudes come from. This  hatred bigotry and racism has roots that run deep into what is now called a dysfunctional Early life. Tommy tar rants knows something about this life. Hews once in charge of terrorist activity for the Kun flux klan in Mississippi in 1967 and 68. Tarrants says his conversion to Christ transformed his feelings about lacks and jews he now is co pastor of an integrated Church in Washington, says his Mobile ala., High school was among the first targeted for desegregation in 1963 i got carried away by the anger and excitement and it opened me up to Reading racist and anti semitic  Tarrants says he willingly sampled such literature and voluntarily associated wit people who supported such views. A lot of hate groups Are from the lower socioeconomic level notes Tarrants. One Way to lift yourself up is to put someone else Down psychiatrist and author David Allen ph.d., agrees and thinks the roots of big Otry Start in the Home. People exist by disavowing their inadequate part and projecting that inadequate part onto other persons or groups of people says Allen. Their sense of Inadequacy makes them feel More inadequate and these in adequate feelings can exist among Rich Whites and poor Blacks or the  Allen believes that a caring Par ent is the key to holding children s Posi Tive and negative feelings about them selves together so that the negative does t overwhelm the positive. Zhirik Nevsky Allen says is a special Case be cause like Adolf Hitler he projects his inadequacies onto the masses. These people already alienated and feeling disfranchised Bond quickly to a Leader who fixes blame outside them selves and promises Quick and easy solutions to their predicament. A a Mirinovsky like a Hitler can quickly achieve dictator status As the adoration of the masses meets his inner need and in turn their fears Are assuaged by the Strong Leader who tells them not the truth but what they want to hear. This is Why rebukes while necessary Are not enough. Rebukes alone merely affirm the wounded psyches of those who Are Al ready bruised. As Long As the groups such people Lead remain Small they Are an irritation at worst. But when those groups become Large massive damage can be done. Even one person such As a Byron de la Beck with when consumed by hate can kill. C los Angelos times Tail Hook gang dodged Gauntlet of responsibility maybe they ought to teach this As a Case study at the . Naval Academy or at officer candidate schools. It could be a lesson in the value of closing ranks the importance of military bonding or the Power of loyalty in the face of opponents. That s what it has come Down to. About 2 a year Sago some 90 women were assaulted at the infamous Tail Hook convention. Now the last cases to reach court have been dismissed. Not a single Man has been court Martiale or seriously disciplined in the scheme of things we should be grateful that we know what happened on the third floor of the Las vegas Hilton. If the men had not assaulted the wrong woman we might never have heard about the Gauntlet the streaking the leg shaving the butt biting. We might never have seen the photographs of the aviator with a Rhino hat or the one with the to shirt that read he Man woman hater s  was an Admiral s Young aide it. Paula Ann Coughlin who filed the first complaint. It was Coughlin who had the courage to go Public. And on thursday it was Coughlin who announced her  woman who had been passed Down and mauled by a Gauntlet of men said in Well chosen words that Tail Hook and the Covert attacks on me that followed have stripped me of my ability to  the very beginning the Navy has worried More about getting Over Tail Hook than getting to the Bottom of it. Their Early investigators talked to 1,500 men and turned up two  the Pentagon took Over the Case 140 aviators were accused of indecent exposure assault or lying under oath. Seventy of these cases were quickly dismissed and Only 50 men were Ever fined or moderately disciplined. Here a wrist was slapped. There a letter was written into a Man s  fall Coughlin s own Case was dismissed after mixed evidence on the accused s identity. Leaving court the aviator said he would not hesitate to go to the next Tail Hook association convention because you be got the Best and the brightest people  then this month the charges against three officers were also dismissed. This time the judge stated that their Superior the Navy s top Admiral Frank b. Kelso ii had manipulated the investigation to shield his personal involvement in Tail Hook 91." Kelso was there said the judge he knew and he did nothing. So the Case appears closed. The mess remains As open As a wound. I will leave it to others to As sess Kelso. Last fall the Secre tary of the Navy asked for his removal and then defense Secretary Les Aspin saved his Job. Now a military judge has called Kelso a liar. There Are some who see him As the one who let the debauchery go on. Kelso swears that he was t on the third floor that saturday night. Witnesses have sworn that he was and that As a gang of men urged a woman to strip he said Only am i hearing what i think i m hearing there Are others who Praise him As a Leader inthe Post Tail Hook Navy a Man who took the problem seriously and made changes. Pat Gormley head of a re search project on women in the military describes him Ellen Goodman As a Good Guy who had his head in the  either Way his Story is Only a piece of a larger Pic Ture. In this picture nobody is taking responsibility. Nobody is being held responsible. Since h. Lawrence Garrett i resigned his Post As Secretary of the Navy at the outset of the scandal the Mutual Protection society has held. It s notable because we live at a time when Pep Pic talk angrily about the Lack of individual responsibility. We talk about the bobbins the Menendz Broth ers welfare mothers. We talk scornfully about the victim defense. But nobody describes Tail Hook in these terms. We Don t talk about the failure of the military men to take responsibility. We Don t talk about the 1,500 men questioned and the Mere handful who saw evil heard evil did evil. The men who stamped themselves and each other not  indeed even those who suspect Kelso s complicity or at least his Lack of leadership often portray him in terms used to defend Republican sen. Bob Packwood of Oregon As a victim of changing mores. There is More Solidarity among men in the Navy than the Senate. Ask Coughlin. This is not a search for vengeance. I d rather the Tail Hook scandal produced wholesale change in the military culture than a handful of or a Hundred punish ments. But a very diff int message is emerging from a failed investigation and a Young lieutenant s Resig nation. It says Tail Hook 91, they got away with it. C Tho Boston Globo