European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 03, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Instant packaged entertainment Andy Rooney it s difficult to act think or be anything but your age. A columnist knows that he or she sin danger of cutting out a lot of readers if everything written reflects that age. I m nervous about acquiring the old fogey image. The fact is not everything used to be better than it is today. The Good old Days were not All great and life m the United states was neither better nor worse Hon All of us were younger. I Laving said All that though i want to act my age and Tell you How much i object to All the Gigantic artificially exciting Pla lands that arc being built around the world. Disneyland and Disney world on our two coasts arc the biggest entertainment extravaganzas in the United states. Disney has built another monster outside pans and giant amusement Parks arc springing up All Over Europe. There s one going up in Spain South of Barcelona time Warner is building a place called movie world in Germany Lego the dutch toy company is planning a theme Park near Windsor England and a japanese com Puter game maker is opening one in London. A Jap anese amusement Park in London v it makes you wonder who s going to look at the architecture the cathedrals the museums and the ancient ruins in these old countries once All the amuse ment Parks arc in place. Why would an american go to France Spain or England and then pay to get into an amuse ment Park packaged entertainment is a growing business in part at least because of the population explosion parents who used to take their kids camping can t find any place to go anymore. Lake shores arc solid with Wall to Wall summer cottages. Entertainment Parks get millions of visitors a car and one of the reasons is that Yellowstone and All our other great natural Parks Andy Rooney is a former stars and stripes reporter. Do women have what it takes m for Clarence Page o race pioneers have More guts than gender pioneers that was the question put quite bluntly to me by Northwestern University sociology professor Charles Moskos one of the nation s Foremost experts on race and gender in the nation s military. He was referring to Shannon Faulkner s recent withdrawal from the Citadel after less than a week us its first female  generally agree on the important lessons the Mili tary offers to private businesses for the attraction train ing and promotion of minorities without need for quota  fact he is currently writing a Book on that  we respectfully disagree on the feasibility of drop Ping All barriers to women. I support it. He does t the politics of the Citadel which receives Public funds intrigue me especially when the same people who think Public Money should never fund reverse discrimination against Whites or men arc quite de lighted to help fund the Citadel s old fashioned discrimination against women. Moskos has a different argument. He questions whether women have what it takes for combat and he seemed to find some support for this View in Faulkner s withdrawal. Remember Charlayne Hunter James Meredith and other Young Blacks who withstood jeers and hoots in the 1950s and 1960s to integrate schools and colleges he wrote in a fax to me. Or to go Back further the terrible tribulations of Henry o. Flipper the first Black to graduate from West Point 1879 at least 20 other Young women Are reported lobe waiting to apply for an Opportunity to endure what Faulkner decided she could not. It is Only a matter of time before someone succeeds. I would be a liar Jyh did not admit to asking myself the same question when i received word that Faulkner had dropped out after two years of death threats harassing Telephone Calls and being hissed at in Public places and a week of hell week most of which she had spent in the Hospital. When i called Charlie Back he put the question even More pointedly do you think Faulkner would have dropped out had she been Black i suppose that would depend on which Black she happened to be. We should not prejudge anyone s ability based on their race or gender or sexual preferences. Prejudgment is prejudice and prejudice is unfair. Gender pioneers like race pioneers cannot be just As Good but must be better than the rest but few can be prepared for the psychological torture As Well As physical punishment a Pioneer often must endure. Flipper and each of the other Blacks who made it to West Point until world War ii were silenced by j White cadets meaning they did not speak except to Issue orders. ".".-.-v. A year after Flipper graduated three masked men attacked his Roommate Johnson c. Whittaker As he slept in his bunk beat him on the head slashed his ears set fire to pages ripped from his Bible and left him tied to his bed unconscious. Whittaker was expelled after being falsely accused of fabricating the incident. President Clinton in july awarded Whittaker s commission and his Bible this descendants 115 years late. Retired air Force Gen. Benjamin o. Davis com Mander of the famed Tuskegee airmen history s Only All Black combat flying unit also endured four years of silencing at West Point in an interview a few years ago he described How his surviving fellow alumni now apologize profusely to him at class reunions. Faulkner s stomach pains and death threats Pale Only when compared to getting beaten. The suggestion that Blacks can take it better than whiles gets to the heart of the matter no More quickly than the old myth promulgated during the heyday of Joe Louis that Black prizefighter had thicker skulls than Whites and there fore could take punches More easily. No matter what race you May be abuse hurts. Of 25 Blacks appointed to West Point during the 1870s and 1880s, 12 survived the Neil dance examination but Only three graduated and to received commissions. That Means nine did t make it. That s no disgrace. Neither is Faulkner s failure to reach her goal she prepared the Way for others to reach it. As for the Citadel cadets who celebrated Faulkner s departure they just Don t know who their real enemy is. When they enter the real military and encounter female commanders they will learn. The enemy is prejudice. It keeps you from being All that you can be. Chicago Tribuna Page 20. Sunday september 3, 1995