European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 19, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday augast19, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 19 gop compasses seem to be shifting to North William f. Buckley on the matter of Oliver North Many full time . Conservatives including me backed James Miller for the Republican nomination for senator in Virginia. In our estimate Miller was bet Ter prepared and educated for the Post. But that be came irrelevant when two months ago 14,000 Republican delegates vote overwhelmingly on the question they wanted Oliver North As their candidate. Two subsidiary but not irrelevant Points. The first is the Legal barbed wire that sur rounds candidate North s Back ground. You will perhaps re member that he was found guilty by a jury on three counts. The first involved a chronological shuffle that served the Pur poses of North s Superior  Poindexte Rand his Supe rior Ronald Reagan. The Sec Ond had to do with the shred Ding of material judged by the court to have been the equivalent of destroying evidence that might have had a bearing on the Legal questions before the House. The third i always thought this strange had to do with accepting an intruder alarm system As a  to dispose of this question there Are those who in Cline to permissiveness on the matter of installing de vices whatever their provenance that stand betwee the designs of terrorists yes North had been threat ened and the safety of one s wife and children anyway the appellate court overruled the trial Courton the grounds that North had t had a fair trial in that incriminating material had been ventilated which had been Given to a congressional committee on the prom ise of immunity. Anti North people will continue to say that he go tout on a technicality. Defenders who include not Only Reagan ites but also Acle types will object he did not in their judgment get a fair trial. My own retrospective View of the situation i that yes North did lie to a congressional committee. The Gravamen Jere what was it he did to which behave an enduring moral objection is not easily fixed. To begin with most men engaged in Public affairs lie quite regularly. It is probably Correct to insist that there is a differ ence Between lying to 100 million listeners at a political convention i will reduce taxes on the Middle class and lying under oath to a congressional committee. Granted. But another consideration is there did the person who lied do so for personal gain or did he do so out of loyalty to. A command Structure it was never doubted even by North s critics that rethought himself As engaged in acts of loyalty to his superiors. Bad judgment but not surely terminally Dis qualifying. We Are not talking about a Niernberg de sense useful to men who practice genocide. And then finally there was. A certain reaction against North s bearing when he appeared before the congressional committee. One too Many stanzas of the a Ciutti by. Bb1senate Star spangled Banner. Patriotism can cloy and Olli North did his Best when he was on the stand to make it cloy. On the other hand so did Gen. Douglas Macar thur. Yard after Yard of velvet Whittaker chamber privately commented on Macarthur s famous speech advising us that generals just fade away they never die but that was awhile ago and other perspectives Are in order. One of them is that a Republican senator from Virginia could make the difference Between an other horrible term with a democratic Senate and a Hance for republicans to get into the act of govern ment. You name it Oliver North is on the conservative Sid of the Issue. Term limitation presidential line item veto a constitutional amendment on the deficit Resto ration of the right of prayer in the Public schools vouchers for schoolchildren Etc. Almost immediately after the convention in Rich mond James Miller came out for the election of the candidate he had opposed for the Republican Nomi nation. A few Days later after a Brief but noticeable pause Kansas sen. Bob Dole did As much. The entire Republican Hierarchy with the exception of Virginia s other senator John Warner who does t much Tike conservatives came around. And to the consternation of such doomsayers As Kevin Phillips whose profession is to disdain conservatives who do not follow this lonely Lead the polls suddenly reveal that North is running almost neck and neck in the race against incumbent Charles Robb. There Are two distracting candidacies one demo cratic gov. Douglas Wilder who hates Tobbone Republican Marshall Coleman who hates North. But these Are strategic irrelevancies. The next senator willbe either Robb or North. I should add that a month or so after the awful Mylai episode in Vietnam when a loony lieutenant fired and killed the civilian population of a vietnamese Vil Lage i had a letter from a first lieutenant indignantly objecting to the proposition then widely advertiser that this was the Way marines tended to act. It was very eloquent and the record showed that it was written by a highly decorated Marine who had risked his life to save the lives of fellow soldiers. I invited him to state his Case on firing line which he did cogently and persuasively. It was of course Young Oliver North in 1971. C Urti dorsal press Syndicate courageous City takes charge of its schools something stirred a few weeks ago in the Dallas suburb of Irving. It waste sound of parents and elected officials taking Back  Power and responsibility for the direction of children s minds and souls in the City s Public schools. After much debate Many drafts and not a Little controversy the Irving school Board passed a Resolution authorizing the teaching of traditional moral values throughout the District s 27 schools the key word is "  there had been discussion about requiring that such values be taught but. Board men Bers feared this might open them to Legal challenges. Irving school Board president Joan Sears tells me the Resolution fits in Well with other attempts the Board has made to bring physical and moral order to the Public schools after a shooting incident at one High school last year showed that big City problems can filter into smaller com  the heels of earlier resolutions addressing safety and Security issues inthe schools the Board approved an abstinence based his curriculum that ban the distribution of condoms and focuses. On self control respect of others and per Sonal responsibility for one s actions. This Resolution allowing for the teaching of moral principles was an Extension of those efforts and fits in Well with the Community values of the vast majority of the people of this Community said Sears. Reading the final draft of the Irving Resolution is encouraging but it also shows How far schools and the nation have moved from what once was consid ered the vital foundational principles that established and maintained America through wars an economic hard Cal Thomas ships. It is recognized that traditional moral values such As determining right fro wrong honesty integrity accountability self discipline sexual abstinence self restraint sincerity loyalty love of country and respect for and value of human life and property Are common to All established societies and Are clearly reflective of Irving As a Community. Did t this list used to be so widely held it rarely had to be expressed there was concern by one boar member Ben Thomas that because All Board members Are Anglo Saxon upper Middle class protestants who had All taught sunday school the Resolution might be taken amiss by some members of the Community. Did he mean to Sug Gest that the Virtues noted in the Resolution Are not shared by hispanics Blacks asians or people of different or no religious Faith in fact such values could be said to be Central to most Western Socie ties but not in ours for the past three decades. One Irving resident Buist fanning who has four children in the districts schools testified in favor of the Resolution noting families like mine Are no extremists we re not fanatics and we re not outsiders trying to take  Sears tells me that when classroom opportunities present themselves teachers will now feel free to apply these commonly held principles to the teaching process and will know they have the support of the school Board. One teacher has decided to do a virtue of the  in the past teachers in most of the nation have been reluctant to do anything that might upset the administration or spark a lawsuit fro i the theological thought police. This could quickly spark a trend a parents and politicians realize that every thing they be tried to impose from the outside to cure the consequences of a downward moral slide has tailed to pro Duce desired results. Gary Bauer presi Dent of the family research Council in Washington says polls Are showing people think America is in the midst of serious moral decline. This is one of the first responses around the  and it certainly won t be the last sword spreads about what the courageous school Board in Irving Texas has done to help its children survive and prevail in the culture wars. C los angles time the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the unite states government