European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 06, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday september 6, 1995 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 meals Are metaphor o Jill Lawrence on Capitol Hill food turns out to be a reliable reflection of the institution serving it. If the Senate were a restau. Rant it would be a combo Steakhouse malt shop. On the House Side things Are More hip and modern. A typical menu at the carryout in the Senate basement features delicacies Suchias be Faroni the Macaroni beef and Tomato sauce dish favored by preschoolers beef Ravioli Salisbury Steak stuffed shells sausage pizza and Coq  Auvin never fear it s served Villi a Side of waterlogged Green Beans and boiled to death potato wedges. The stodgy Senate is having a hard time keeping up with the fire breathing House with its tidal wave of Republican fresh men and a speaker preoccupied with the third wave Post Industrial Laptop age. The upper chamber is not As Young. It s not As speedy. In. Short it s As traditional As its food. For Money saving reasons More than anything else the House broke with Cus Tom last year and contracted its food service out to a private company " ". You can still get the same Bacon cheeseburgers grilled cheese Sandwich Sand cheese Steak hoagies that Are Avail Able across the Capitol. But the House carryout also offers an array of extras bottled water hazelnut Coffee vegetarian pizza gourmet cookies smoked Turkey Ham and brie on a Baguette. Carryout diners might find Salsa topped flank Steak sole florentine or grilled swordfish served with Green Beans Almandine or steamed vegetables. Or maybe a weight watchers entree a pasta salad tomatoes with Mozzarella sesame string Beans Aldene marinated Artichoke hearts. For dessert perhaps fresh peach  impression is that the House More than the Senate reflects modern life in a number of ways. _ you be got rep. Bill Orton a Utah Wheeling his new baby around the floor twice a week. You be got rep. Enid Waldholtz a Utah expecting a baby herself. You be got a married Yuppie Power couple each keeping their own name in gop reps. Bill Paxon and Susan Molinari of new York. There s even a single mom rep. Cynthia Mckinney a a. Consider a Senate moment in june. As be Faroni was being served Down stairs sen. Edward Kennedy d-mass., an icon of the Brand of liberalism that Many believe is dead was on the floor upstairs bitterly accusing republicans of waging War on working people. Senate majority Leader Bob Dole at 72, is 20 years older than House speaker Newt Gingrich yet 20 years younger Hansen. Strom Thurmond . No won Der age and gender gaps sometimes Are evident on the Senate floor. Retiring Democrat James Exon of Nebraska who is 74, recently opposed an amendment using this argument that s like my wife going to a Sale and being forced to buy a dress because of the amount of Money she would  sputtered sen. William Cohen a Maine who is 55, divorced and from a shipbuilding state we re not talking about dresses we re talking about  aThe Senate has controlled its own restaurant operations since 1961, when a private contractor was ousted. But the food services lost More than $350,000 last year and May be headed once again for private  " _ Are employees voting with their feet Many Senate Side workers do trek to the House Side for  such As  Don Broil or Salmon Steak. But the Senate. Has its defenders. The cramped basement carryout is not the True presentation of what we do in More expansive dining areas said Rob Ert Martin director of the Senate food service " in fact Bill Raines administrative assistant to the architect of the Capitol said he recently saw a House officer hav ing lunch in the Dirksen Senate office building because he thought the food was better  " tha associated toss heart of nation the two documents arrived in the same mail. The letter from a Man in the quiet Community of Wellesley mass., a Truman. Democrat now Disi Llu. Signed with his party Sard he feared that the divisions of class race and culture Are now so deep that if Pat Buchanan exploits  shrewdly As he seems Capa ble of doing his message Wili not just resonate Amon working americans it w ill explode the second was an essay titled from fair and anger to an american covenant of Hope arguing that the emotions described in that letter can perhaps still be harnessed in a positive Way. The essay is an unlikely collaboration of or. Big City _ and or. Outdoors Secretary of housing and Urban development Henry g. Cisneros and National Parks director Roger Kennedy. J the two men were strangers until they met recently at a Washington dinner party. Cisneros a Street smart politician whose Job exposes him to All the frustrations in our cities was asking another guest for historical parallels to the present Era of discontent. Kennedy whose last Job was As director of the smithsonian s National museum of american history offered several ideas. The conversation took off and after Many faxes and Many backyard discussions produced this essay already read and praised by president Clinton. It opens with a reminder that social unrest and frustration with government Are As american As Apple pie. Mass citizen action is an american tradition. It is incur character As a people not to wait for. The government to get it we have in such times taken charge of events through expressions of. Moral outrage Fol Lowed by citizen organizing and  in where the conflicts have proved irreconcilable they have resulted in violence the revolutionary War an the civil War being Only the largest of those explosions. As Cisneros remarked after a recent Visi Tjo Vermont Ethan Allen and his. Green Mountain boys can be considered a citizen militia fighting with government agents.".  ,. On other More frequent occasions capable leadership has emerged to Channel Public rage into peaceable Reform movements producing such developments As jacksonian democracy the progressive movement and the new Deal. The test for today is whether our leadership can take the brew of economic social racial and cultural pressure that americans find so disturb ing and convert them into  for another Reform Effort. Here the authors offer two suggestions that make a great Deal of sense. The first is to decentralize with a  Cisneros who is managing what has been one of the most intractable Washington bureaucracies knows that when a single phone Call to an International airline allows americans to Book a flight Reserve a seat and order the meal they want they Are justifiably crazed by government bureaucracies that move at glacial Speed and insist that the customer accept a lowest common denominator of service the second suggestion is to Ria Maize that if Covern David Broder 2 Wise men meat is disbelieved there Are thousands of local Lead ers who Are trusted because the people can see How they Are making a visible difference in their Conui cities. Summon their energies and voices to the task of Reform Kennedy and Cisneros urge. All across America in churches neighbourhoods Small businesses nonprofit groups health care clinics local governments and schools there arc wonderfully creative institutions led by people who Are better educated than Ever before who prefer working at the grass roots level who eschew the traditional routes of advancement to bigger institutions and who Are full of Good ideas about Liow America can manage  know  As  Are better positioned than the organizationally encumbered government in Washington. They Are the ones who can reassure peo ple and help prepare the nation for  consciously or not the two Clinton administration officials have provided eloquent testimony for a Way of thinking about National leadership that is at the heart of former Tennessee gov. Lamar Alexander s bid for the Republican presidential nomination. But that just  much on the Mark they really Are. If we Are Lucky the Winner in 1996 will not Bethe person who Best panders to Public anxieties As the Man in Wellesley fears but someone who helps Ameri cans surmount them. In these times More than Ever Kennedy and Cisneros write the people look to the president not As the Leader of the government and even less As the Leader of a political party but As a Cul Tural Leader whose principal business it is to bring peo ple together around the Best approaches to master frightening