European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 04, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday october 4, 1994 commentary the stars and. Stripes Page 13 Haiti Mission c " merits Praise when the United states carries out a military operation abroad effectively safely and for a Good end Why can t More americans take Pride in it the question is raised by some of the Public response to the Haiti Mission. Many politicians and other critics condemned it at the Start and they Are still bewailing it. You might think that american troops were doing terrible things and being killed in Large numbers. The fact is that the Mission has been amazingly successful. So far. More than 15,000 . Service members have landed without a single combat death. Haitians almost All of them Are cheering the american troops. In terms of military efficiency the Haiti Mission is far Supe rior to the last two . Operations in this hemisphere. In Grenada the command Struc Anthony Lewis Ture was badly confused. In Panama excessive Force led to the bombing and unnecessary destruction of a dense housing area. The objective of the Haiti Mission to undo the Mili tary s seizure of Power and restore president Jean Ber Trand Aristide and elected members of parliament is certainly an honorable one. And it is on the Way to being carried put. For one Day mistaken orders had . Forces standing by while thugs of the old regime beat people up. But since then american forces have limited the haitian atrocities. V i of course hard problems Are ahead in Haiti. There is the danger of violence such As the explosive device that killed at least five civilians. The proposal for am Nesty of the haitian officers and civilian Frac is who killed and tortured so Many raises painful questions of definition and of the willingness to forgive. But the prospects for some kind of decency in Haiti Are undoubtedly better because of the american Mission. So the question is Why All the carping one reason is politics. Many republicans Are out to  crossed our Fath destroy Bill Clinton s presidency and hence will try to undermine anything he does and deny him credit for successes. Some on the extreme right really favor Haiti s military and do not want its elected president Back in office. The More troubling element in criticism of the Haiti Mission is i think a general Public disinclination to Send american forces anywhere abroad. Yes realism is Wise now As always in american policy. But there is less danger of visionary Over activity these Days than there is of the United states shrinking from its proper role m the world a Good Many of our allies Are worried about la latter. Some republicans in Congress Are pushing legis lation to Force the immediate withdrawal of All . Forces from Haiti. Just imagine what that would do to America s reputation in the world. When the tank Landing ship Harlan county and its american trainers turned ignominiously away from Haiti a year ago after thugs demonstrated on the docks asian leaders openly mocked the United states to give up the Haiti Mission now would be far worse. _ _ there were legitimate reasons to question the Clin ton policy before the unopposed Landing in Haiti among them the failure to build Public and congressional support. But an opinion by assistant attorney general Walter Dellinger argues convincingly that Clinton Drew congressional authority by complying with terms of the defense appropriation act on Haiti now if is time for Pride at a Job being done Well. N3\v York times news service _ modern a Dlf Dre problems Analysed in 1835 the idea that welfare demean those it would help did t Start with Charles Murray s Call for an end to Public assistance. More than 150 years before there was a Charles Murray the French political observer Alexis de Tocqueville was worrying about the deleterious effects of welfare. There is nothing which generally speaking elevates and sustains the spirit More than the idea of rights Tocque Ville wrote in a Little known 1835 Memoir on pauperism. But the right of the poor to obtain society s help is unique in that William Raspberry instead of elevating the heart of the Man who exercises it it Lowers him. From the moment that an indigent is inscribed on the poor list of his Parish he can certainly Demard Relief but what is the achievement of this right if not a notarized manifestation of mis Ery of weakness of misconduct on the part of its recipient. The More extensive and the More secure Ordinary rights Are the More Honor they Confer the More permanent and extended the right to Relief is the More it  m thinking about that Tocqueville Memoir which by the Way resulted from an examination of european not Ameri can welfare because i m in Washngton for an awards luncheon sponsored by the Points of Light foundation. The Haf do in award winners arc corporations that have led the Way in encouraging local Volunteer programs. They have funded Volunteer centers clearinghouses where individuals who want to Volunteer can be linked to people and programs that need their help. They have urged the involvement of their corporate Peers. They have created programs to encourage their employees to devote serious time to Volunteer Community work. But the reason i m thinking of Tocqueville is that the Points of Light foundation separate from and Independent of the thousand Points of Light program of the Bush administration seems to answer an intriguing question the Frenchman raised How to avoid simultaneously demeaning the poor and increasing their ranks. Toca Vieville made a convincing Case that Public Charity demeans in ways that private Chanty does not and not Only for the Rea sons cited above. Private Charity establishes a Bond a sort of social contract Between donor and recipient giving the latter both the incentive and the Opportunity to even the books. Public Charity on the other hand strips the Man of wealth of a part of his surplus while producing in the poor no gratitude for a Benefit which no one can refuse him and which could not satisfy him in any  the principal trouble with private Charity however is that it is too haphazard too dependent on geography or personality or whim. Private Charity is More Likely to provide one Well publicized shoeless youngster with 30 pairs of shoes than 30 youngsters with a single pair each. Public Charity has no heart private Charity has no mind. Tocqueville thought he knew a Way out of the dilemma and promised a subsequent paper on the subject it never came.  of infiation1 no matter. What the Points of Light foundation is doing May come very close to what Tocqueville had in mind. It com Bines the personal satisfactions of private giving with the efficiency of Public giving. By establishing and supporting Volunteer centers it makes possible a much wider distribution of the Volunteer Effort. I d be extremely careful though not to let the splendid notion behind the Points of Light program Lead anybody to sup pose that we should just do away with Public welfare As Murray has proposed. There w a lot to be said for regularizing and generalizing Community Charity not merely favouring the docile poor the at Tractive mendicant the cute children and there is a lot to be said for dispensing Charity in ways that build Community rather than setting the haves against the have not. The social prob lems that concern us Are not solely about poverty. They Are about the absence of relationships that work. That s something the welfare Reform ers ought to keep in mind. Instead of Sim ply jettisoning welfare perhaps it would be possible to distribute its benefits through Points of Light like Volunteer centers in which indigenous leaders would play a major role. The Point would be not just to look after poor people but to build communities Capa ble of looking after themselves