European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 12, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The trouble in rating Teddy Kennedy Andy Rooney i wish people in real life were More the Way people Are in novels or in movies All Good or All bad. When someone Good docs something bad its too disappointing. When someone bad does something Good its too confusing this thought occurred to me recently As i listened to sen. Edward Kennedy speak at the funeral scr ices for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. A she was a Blessing to us and to the nation a he said a and a lesson to the world on How to do things right How to be a Mother How to appreciate history How to be courageous. A no one else looked like her spoke like her wrote like her or was so original in the Way she did things.�?�. How Good i thought. How warm interesting and sentimentally affectionate. He genuinely liked her loved her. His brother s widow. The country came together in its Loving goodbye to Jackie and Teddy was an important part of it. For some time now id been having negative thoughts Ted Kennedy with Jackie Onassis in 1992. About Teddy. He looked so bloated dissolute and at work in the Senate he often sounded As if he was impressed with his . But then i watched him at Jackie s graveside and i melted. Years ago i made an unlikely Friend when i spent several weeks making an hour documentary called Barry Good water a Arizona. The unlikely Friend i made was Barry. He was so Normal so Friendly so honest and Blunt that it was impossible not to like him even though his political opinions were far different from mine Over the years since then in be seen Barry occasionally and on one of those occasions he talked about what a Good senator Teddy Kennedy was. Barry had worked with Ted Kennedy on the Senate armed services committee and he said Teddy was hard working and knowledgeable. It was some in Dorset Cut for a far left Liberal Democrat from a hard Core right Wing Republican. Three years ago i attended the Kennedy Center honors award ceremony in Washington. Sen. Kennedy was part of the program and after he finished speaking i turned to Margie and made negative remarks about him. At the intermission i was distraught to Sec As the people in front of us stood that the woman seated ahead of me was Ethel Kennedy. It was apparent that shed heard my crude comments and inadequate though it was i apologized profusely for having made the remarks. It was my Quot most embarrassing moment Quot and a stupid thing to have done. I Felt genuinely apologetic and i was grateful that Ethel seemed to accept it from me. Its a heavy Burden Teddy Kennedy carries. He is the youngest and the last of the four Kennedy Broth cars. He has conducted his personal life  level several layers beneath his professional life. I guess we have to get used to that with our political figures in Washington its difficult to forgive Teddy Kennedy his trespasses but you still have to Admire the Way he has carried on the Kennedy tradition of Public service in a manner that docs credit to the family. Teddy Wasny to born to be the family Leader. He in Heritch the title because his three older More substantial Brothers were killed each in his own tragic Way. Jack and Bobby were assassinated and Joseph the eldest died during a bombing raid Over Germany. Docs All this mean that i think Ted Kennedy a a great Guy afraid not. I just wish head Stop confusing us. I wish head be All Good or All bad and he a not. A Tribune Modla sort los a a. Andy Rooney la a Formor stars and strips Rop odor. Insanity verdict is All the rage Clarence Page William Kunstler was surprised and gratified at his Good Fortune. For weeks the famous criminal defense lawyer has been saying he plans to argue that Colin Ferguson should be sent to a mental Hospital not prison for killing six people and wounding 19 others in a Rush hour shooting rampage on the Long Island rail Road last december. Ferguson should be found innocent by reason of insanity says Kunstler because Quot Black rage a a sheer anger Over racism in America drove Ferguson off the deep end. Does this seemingly far fetched defense have a Chance that a where the Good news for Kunstler comes in. The a Black rage defense Quot was found to be at least somewhat compelling by almost half 49 percent of the 800 people polled by the National Law journal s second comprehensive Telephone Survey of Public attitudes toward crime. Results of the Survey conducted by Penn Shoen associates inc in March were sharply divided along racial lines. Sixty eight percent of Blacks found the Black rage defense compelling compared to 45 percent of Whites. Explanations it might have something to do with other poll results the Law journal offered that showed overwhelming majorities see racism in the ame Rica n or i m i Nal j us t ice system a 82 pc recent of Whites and 95 percent of Blacks up from 78 percent of Whites and 93 percent of Blacks in the magazines similar crime poll five years ago. Kunstler was overjoyed. A ooh my god that a excellent Quot the Magazine quoted him As saying when he heard the poll results. A i thought we would get a High degree of resistance from the Black Community that they would regard such a defense As somehow demeaning of Black people. Among Whites its even More  yes it is. I am one of the resisting Blacks Kunstler expected would find the Black rage defense demeaning. At Best i think it says we Black people can to control ourselves. In fact our self control has prevented another Bosnia from happening in the United states. At worst it brings to mind ancient stereotypes of the a crazy Nigger Quot a childlike primitive straight out of . Griffith a birth of a nation unable to control his hot blooded tropical lusts. For centuries such stereotypes have been used to turn race into Commerce slavery and social control. Richard Wright exposed the reasons behind the a crazy Nigger so Tage in his creation of bigger Thomas the tragic protagonist in native son driven to violence by a world that would not give people of his color a break. It certainly was t ready to give Wright the awards he properly deserved. In nonfiction Biack rage has emerged most prominently in the title of a repeatedly republished 1960s Book by two Black psychiatrists and More recently in Ellis Coset a the Rnic of a privileged class a collection of racial complaints by upwardly Mobile Biack professionals in the 90s. And what Are the televised beatings of Rodney King and Reginald Denny but visualizations of our worst National nightmares racism in the Justice system sparking a response of Black rage everyone should know by now that Black Macri cans have a lot to be angry about. But we have survived persevered and occasionally even prospered because of our facility for venting our anger through our spirituality our organized Community efforts or when All else failed our humor. Once the ability of Dick Gregory Richard Pryor Gil Scott Heron and numerous others to find biting irony in the Absurdity of the Black situation in America helped free our minds so the rest could follow. But niceties like humor wit or irony arc More Likely to get you into trouble with one politically Correct set or another these Day s. Fox tvs in living color for example has terrific moments but gets beaten up by Black feminists and others for doing precisely what it should be doing poking fun in All directions. Somehow this has become a much More Earnest and accordingly humourless age for political progressives. Instead conservatives like Rush Limbaugh Are left to have All the fun. On the other hand this can be a remarkably forgiving age for some. It is an age in which Lorena Bobbitt can successfully use the battered woman syndrome As an excuse to Cut off her husbands Penis. It is a Lime when the Menendz Brothers can use a variation of it to justify killing their parents. And it is the age of Colin Ferguson a Moody Man who according to neighbors could turn any slight racial or otherwise into a major offence. Some would make him a hero. The Mere mention of his name by minister Louis Farrakhan at a new York City rally Drew cheers. It was a High Point for rage and Low Point for reason or responsible Rome Dies. Rage does no to need reason. It Only needs targets. Yes Counselor Kunstler has a reason for glee and so does his client Ferguson. This Era of earnestness May be cruel to those who attack cherished icons. But if you Only attack people it can be remarkably forgiving. Iii Capo