European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 30, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday september 30, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 Tom Teepen former vice president Dan Quayle has re turned to the political circuit crying values and president Clinton has cried values right Back at him. Two can play this game. It has been one of the Republican conceits in recent years that the gop represents values and democrats represent Well something is never Clear just what though the suggestion is that it must be something pretty Nasty if not actually from its preoccupation with the Small stuff of the cold War nuclear annihilation the Freedom of Humankind american politics has gone on to the big questions like should Murph Brown be stoned As a Fornica Tor Quayle returned to the scene of the Murphy Brown speech to restart his political career the first of a series of value speeches. He claims vindication where there was ridicule at first saying even democrats now agree wit him that the epidemic of single teen age mothers is a no Good thing few Ever disputed that. But Many in his own party cringed at Quayle s weird discovery of an unwed to sitcom mom mature White professional educated and Well off As the evil role Model for the real pregnancies of poor ill educated hopeless minority girls the bulk of the predicament. The Issue was never whether there s a problem but what s to be and Clinton Are both fight when they argue As the president for his part did in a recent speech to the National Baptist convention that for effective change the most directly impacted Community must bestir and everyone of us must be personally responsible Clinton said for working in our communities and making a Quayle would t disagree but responsibility can prevail alone and those who take it up will find Little realistic support in a Quayle an Agenda that would outlaw abortion kill sex education punish welfare mothers and commit other acts of retribution and denial. A " we need As a nation As a people to pull off two tricks at once both have to Deal with the problem As it stands -. The babies of poor teens can t be put Back. We need in school Day care so their mothers can finish classes and be tutored in parenting. We need to counsel the Young mothers to dissuade them from subsequent pregnancies any time soon the common pattern. We have to Stop denying Abor Tion funding to the to break the Cycle we need to create a cred years ago i brushed my Teeth with Kolyno toothpaste. Then Harry von Zell or somebody got me to switch brands to Pana forthe smile of 1felt vaguely guilty about deserting Kolonos especially after Pana squeezed its recently i was swept up in the wave of private brands. No More Bayer the aspirin that cooled my childhood fevers i was persuaded by consumerist that the same product sold for less under the name of my drugstore Peoples that outfit has since been sold to some Chain with forgettable initials and now my medi Cine Chest is filled with strangers to which i feel no attachment and from which i get no sense of familiarity or Security. Nobody s fault but my own. The seduction of the generic fad made me Brand disloyal. Having slipped my moorings i now Drift from Brand to Brand one morning giving toothpaste with baking soda a shot next Day trying one striped with peroxide vainly searching for the shores of a permanent relationship that is symbolic of the new disloyalty that afflicts us at every level. A corporate loyalty once an asset of both management and labor is now a phrase that elicits a snicker. Little More than a generation ago the average worker could expect to work for three Bosses in a life time. Now we Start our careers expecting to work for seven different companies. Middle managers hop around like pro ballplayers who sell their services with no team spirit while top executives leap from Peak to Peak Happy to do Battle with the companies that gave them their Start. The comeback Trail ble not just a sentimental Hope. That Vejins crash programs for education in impoverished areas Cost be damned. Economic development policies that Don t take 6percent unemployment As a Given. A social system that assures righteous Effort will pay off far More often than not hard workers should to for instance be redlined but of mortgages. Unwed teen pregnancy is embedded in a pathology of racial isolation and social estrangement and in a widening economic inequity. The Issue is very much the proper business of poli tics but it can t be reached without digging through those issues too and that will take hard political i c Cox mows so Vlco / puts squeeze on Tyft Jeffi if Public policy encourages this corporate disloyalty. Company s attempt to bind its employees to itself with incentives to stay is scorned As paternal so the portability of benefits is the newest entitlement. Quick vested interests Are in while slowly maturing options Are out. ". ". A. Management gurus deriding As inefficient Compa Nies that cling to experienced workers in Slack periods advise instant layoffs to stay lean and mean when business picks up employers turn Toio Osey goosey Temps. In response workers made insecurely the threat of loss of promised Security look to government tomake pensions personal and less binding to the institution that used to be a As a result the longing for belonging has been replaced by a dependence on politics the new Dis loyalty manifests itself in the glorification of the Maverick and the vilification of the regular. The once revered phrase party loyalty is now remembered Only in Juk s line a some tires party Loy Alty asks too much True enough Buir other times party loyalty asks too Little. No loyalty atm discipline no discipline no victories of legislative action. What about National loyalty allegiance to one country the amalgam of nationhood that holds a diverse people together is being eroded by ethnic and re William Safire Gigious separatists. Comes the devolution the new Dis loyalists cry we won t have to live with the different and ,. Of. " " some empires like the one ruled from Moscow were properly broken up. And some Peoples with distinct identities and no recognition deserve a separate nation like the kurd palestinians and tibetans. But Only National loyalty will keep the scots and Welsh from pulling away from Britain and the Quebe Cois from pulling out of Canada. The absence of National loyalty is what keeps the serbs muslims an croats at each other s throats in Bosnia. I make no Case for Blind loyalty. In Poland presi Dent Lech Walesa recently appointed a top communist spy _ once jailed by the United states for stealing secrets of our Patriot missile system to head his intelligence Agency. When nato objected the appoint ment was rescinded but the professional spy claimed he had loyally carried out the orders of Poland s legitimate government. Was Marian Zacharski being a polish Patriot under communism no he knew he was working for his coun try s oppressors and because his work impeded polish Freedom his Fidelity was misplaced. Adherence beats detachment. Stop the pernicious worldwide devaluation of loyalty. Encourage allegiance to nation to party to corporation and labor Force to family and to conscience. Pick a Brand of toothpaste and stick with it. C nowt Yort times
