The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 5

Saturday, June 27, 1992 THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER CommentA-9. Office City U.S.A. in downtown's future Readers' views there for more oil. Let's all be part of the solution and not the problem. Write your legislators regarding these issues, now.

SUSAN WEIS Sharonville. Old money bags Is anyone else as concerned as I am about the money our government hands out to anyone who comes here, with both hands extended, asking for money? Our" government can see everyone's need but ours. Russia, or anyone else, comes here with many promises, so our knees weaken and the money is given never to return. How many countries have borrowed money in the billions in the last 15 years and had the debt canceled? We can have disasters earthquakes, floods, riots, recession, but do you hear any country in this world saying, "Here, we will help No! It's America, old money bags. And if they did help, they would want their money back tomorrow.

Wake up, America. We are having our pockets picked. MARTHA FOERDERER Oakley. paign efforts. Furthermore, despite rumors of her husband's infidelity, she has publicly announced her belief in him.

Let's get our issues straight. If political candidates are to be judged on their spouse's background and abilities, we should have elected Marilyn Quayle as vice president. That way, her spouse could have pursued his career as a comic and the country would have had an excellent vice president. ROYLEEN SEIBERT Fort Thomas, Ky. Riot control Shame on you, America.

Are you going to let a rowdy bunch of thieves, crooks, arsonists, muggers and murderers run this country? If you appease the Los Angeles rioters in any way, you will be haunted in the future by threats and more riots. Force and more force is all a rioter understands. If anyone is arrested in a riot, he should automatically be found guilty and given a year in jail. Use a loud speaker, give people in the riot area 30 minutes to go home, then start arresting everyone who defies the law. Set a curfew and arrest scofflaws.

CHARLES MARTIN Covington, Ky. Violence begets How ironic that two articles appear on the same page (June 17). "Doctors Squeamish About Domestic-Abuse Inquiries" reports domestic violence is so common that doctors should routinely screen female patients for it. The other article reports that in Ohio 70 of family physicians and 59 of pediatricians support the use of spanking. Is it any wonder we live in the most confused, most violent, most divorced and most war-mongering country in the whole world? Is not the spanking of a child the very place where child abuse and wife abuse begin? Don't we know violence begets violence? As one bumper sticker states, "You cannot plan for peace and plan for war at the same time." This violent attitude certainly places Ohio right in the same line with other red-neck states where individual rights are violated, where might is right, and where common sense is not very common.

And it certainly speaks well for the physicians and pediatricians in Ohio. RICHARD A. BUSEMEYER Glendale. Save the Earth Your editorial on the Rio Summit (June 6) seemed more focused on defending obsolete Earth-damaging technology by a greedy few, rather than acknowledging the summit's central theme: "The need for sustainable development in which economic growth no longer results in the net destruction of natural resources." In the long run, this benefits everyone. Why defend an administration that refuses to create a national energy policy, refuses to raise auto-fuel-efficiency standards, and won't reconsider higher energy taxes? (Gallop poll says 65 of Americans would trade higher prices for a safer environment.) Instead of saving oil, President Bush would prefer to deface the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and drill TO THE EDITOR: Regarding "Lazarus Puts Heat on City; Downtown Store: Move Us or Lose Us" (June 17), Mayor Dwight Tillery's statement, "We have to keep Lazarus in this city.

We have to really press hard to make it happen," was well-meaning and enthusiastic. Quentin Davis, Cincinnati's economic development director, was noncommittal about the Lazarus move to Fountain Square West, stating he didn't know if it Could or would happen. Sounds indifferent to me. It further sounds like the same old runaround the previous economic development director, Nell Surber, recently appointed to city council, used to espouse. If the city is serious, given all the warning signals such as the sudden closing of L.S.

Ayres, I suggest Mr. Davis and the members of council get down to business and go to the drawing board now. The last thing we need is to lose a well-respected anchor store like Lazarus. Fountain Square West, probably the most prime piece of real estate in downtown Cincinnati, sat abandoned from 1985 to 1991, when what they tell us are temporary parking meters went up. I get the feeling they are not so temporary.

I get the impression people like the convenience Fountain Square West parking offers. Better wake up and smell the coffee, Mr. Davis, Gerald Newfarmer and members of city council, before the city of Cincinnati becomes the biggest little fully occupied office city in the United States. ANITA BOLCE Walnut Hills. Hillary Clinton "Clinton Foes Say Hillary Is Anti-Family" (June 10), about the Citizens Against Clinton (CAC), made me realize just how far off base some people have gone where political campaigns are concerned.

Supposedly, this conservative fund-raising group has mailed 12,500 letters against nominee-to-be Bill Clinton because of the so-called "radical past" of his wife, Hillary. Bill Clinton's qualifications for presidential candidate have nothing to do with his wife's background. CAC activist Peter Flaherty labels Hillary Clinton as a "radical feminist who has little use for religious values or even the traditional family unit," and as a person who "advocates open marriage." Claiming that Bill Clinton is unacceptable as a political candidate because of his wife is ridiculous. Although Hillary Clinton is not the one running for political office, she has put her successful career on a back burner while she supports her husband's cam Letters We welcome letters from our readers. Send to: Readers' Views, Enquirer Editorial Page, 617 Vine Cincinnati, OH 45201.

Limit your letters to 250 words or less, and include your name, complete address and phone number. Another editorial view Military keeps prejudice alive Anna Quindlen k2i The Navy's long effort to stall and defuse complaints about women officers and enlisted personnel being sexually harassed and assaulted at the annual Tailhook convention in Las Vegas last September hasn't worked. Anger over the ugly incidents continues to grow and will fester until the -Navy ends its cover-up and stops trying to protect those responsible. So far, the Navy seems to be trying to clean up its image without taking action against the scores of Navy pilots involved in the harassment and cover-up. It has asked the Pentagon for an independent investigation, although there seems little doubt about what actually happened.

It compiled and made public more than 2,000 pages of reports, but originally withheld 55 pages of documents, including information that Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett had been in the area where drunken parties and raunchy behavior were occurring. Centerpiece of the Navy's response is a sweeping new plan to enforce a policy of "zero tolerance" of sexual harassment. Such behavior will not be tolerated at any level, emphasize the new training procedures. Every person in a leadership position must ensure that instances of sexual harassment are dealt with swiftly, fairly and effectively, insists a new manual.

All Navy personnel have been ordered to participate. But the Navy's efforts would be taken much more seriously if it ever got around to identifying and taking disciplinary measures against the men involved in Tail-hook. What may give the whole process a shove is the commendable decision by the Senate Armed Forces Committee to refuse to give its necessary approval to the promotions and transfers of about 9,000 top Navy and Marine officers until it gets the names of those involved in the Tailhook mess. What angry public opinion, common decency and Navy harassment policies haven't been able to do, fear of losing promotions might just accomplish. Chicago Tribune their time protecting their female counterparts.

I imagine the admiral's aide would have some choice words about that.) It's funny to read about a new Navy training program which, for the first time in history, features sexually integrated boot camp. After all the arguments about fatal distractions, they've discovered that putting men and women together actually improves training and fosters the much-vaunted cohesion. "It's more cooperative and there's more teamwork," said one instructor. Armed Forces, meet real life. According to the General Accounting Office, the prohibition on gay people in the military costs us at least $27 million a year, given the fact that a thousand men and women are dismissed and replaced.

That's an absurd waste of time and money. But more important is the fact that the military continues to piously justify retaining regulations that are no more than codified prejudice. Officials sometimes say this is the will of the people; if they are keeping track, seven in 10 think women should be permitted to occupy combat positions and 50 see no reason to keep gay people out of the military. Instead of stooping to a comfort level of ignorance, the military should reflect the simple notion of performance as the gauge of job fitness. Besides, maybe their notion of comfort level is all wrong.

Maybe there are no homo-phobes in foxholes. The story of Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer had a certain deja-vu-all-over-again quality. It might as easily have been the story of Sgt. Leonard Matlovich or Sgt.

Miriam Ben Shalom or one of several other soldiers whose job histories included decorations, promotions, excellent evaluations. For Colonel Cammermeyer, the honors included a Bronze Star for her work as a nurse in Vietnam and recognition as the Veterans Administration Nurse of the Year. None of it made any difference when she was dismissed from the Washington State National Guard, one of thousands of Americans whose exemplary service has paled beside the military's determination to boot gay soldiers. Many in the service will tell you that this is a difficult issue, as is the question of women in combat and other adjustments the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines have been asked to make to the 20th century. It is not difficult at all.

It comes down to this: Will we continue to support one of America's largest and best-known institutions as it, not simply by custom but by regulation, engages in the rankest forms of discrimination? The question is particularly apt as the Navy finds itself embroiled in a sickening sexual-harassment scandal. If you were wondering where your defense dollars go, almost $200,000 of them were spent to fly naval aviators to a military frat party in Las Vegas last year at which Navy women were passed down a gantlet of their male colleagues, grabbed and mauled in a form of hand-to-hand combat not taught in basic training. An aide to an admiral had to resort to biting one flyboy who pushed his hand inside her bra during this group grope, which apparently had become something of a Navy tradition. There is wailing and gnashing of teeth about this by the brass, a search for blame and underlying cause. It seems never to have occurred to them that if you treat women like second-class citizens by denying them promotion to combat positions, your male personnel will get the idea that they can treat them like second-class citizens in other ways, too.

And that if you make homosexuality the modern equivalent of Godless communism, then hetero conduct in even its most abusive forms may seem sanctioned, even blessed. The Vegas debacle renders almost comical one fear of allowing gay people into' the military. Same-sex propositions seem sedate compared to being pushed down a long hallway of guys with nuclear hands and Cro-Magnon mores. But that is not the underlying cause of this ban. It is the perceived comfort level of straight male soldiers.

The term of art is "cohesiveness," what we civilians might call male bonding. In other words, they may have to fight or serve beside those with whom they lack proper kinship. This is the argument once used to keep black soldiers in segregated units, a bit of military history that seems unthinkable today. And it's also been used to oppose women in combat. (There's also the argument of the pedestal, the idea that male soldiers will spend all MEN'S SHOE SALE Anna Quindlen, a columnist for the New York Times, was a 1992 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize.

Weinberger deserves pardon Evans Novak SAVE 30 AND MORE was adamantly opposed to the sales of arms to Iran and spoke up forcefully inside the government in an effort to prevent it from occurring." Walsh, 80, a retired federal judge, still signs off on everything but in effect has moved back to Oklahoma. The shop is run by Walsh's 40-year-old deputy Clark Gillen, who operates at a level of nastiness extreme even for the legal profession. Gillen is after heads even bigger than Weinberger's. He offered a non-jail sentence misdemeanor plea if Weinberger would finger Reagan. The trial is intended to add more incriminating evidence against the former president.

Nor is the incumbent president safe, as his gratuitous mention in the indictment suggests. That ultimately might prove Weinberger's salvation. With Reagan and even Bush now threatened by the rampaging Walsh team, the president might yet decide it prudent to pardon Weinberger, for his own sake if not Cap's. WASHINGTON: The decision by the Iran-Contra special prosecutor to indict Caspar Weinberger stirred hope among the Republican faithful that George Bush would use a pardon to display his fortitude. But those dreams are fading amid familiar caution and delay that pervade the White House.

It is hard to exaggerate the outrage over the prosecution of the former secretary of defense, not limited to Republicans but certainly stronger among them. Angry GOP members of Congress implored President Bush to kill the indictment by closing down Lawrence Walsh's operation as special counsel, pardoning Weinberger or doing both. Although an independent counsel can be dismissed for "cause," sacking Walsh would trigger endless lawsuits and probably not terminate Weinberger's problems. The more direct course would be the presidential pardon. This course is fraught with political peril.

While pardoning Cap Weinberger is not comparable to pardoning Dick Nixon, what happened to Gerald Ford is keenly remembered. In a White House that trembles when accused of insufficient "fairness," it is feared Our Men's Shoe Collection includes ideas, designs and quality controls from some of the World's great designers and manufacturers. For a short time you can enjoy substantial savings on selected styles from this seasons presentation. Hundreds of pairs are on sale, however not all sizes are available in every style. Come in soon for the best selection and great prices! Bush would be swept under by populistic ire fed by the news media that the establishment takes care of its own.

Weinberger's many friends believe such considerations pale before what is being done to a distinguished statesman after a long career of honorable public service during which there was no suggestion of impropriety until Walsh's eager young lawyers got to work. At age 74 and in questionable health, Weinberger faces a bruising trial that will cost him $1 million to $2 million, exhausting his estate. Those considerations might be compelling even if Weinberger had been a secret principal in the Iran-Contra scandal, but such is not the case. "I believe that Secretary Weinberger was one of the true heroes of the Iran-Contra matter," Gen. Colin Powell, who served as his military assistant, said in an April 21 affidavit.

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