Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 8

Decatur, Illinois, Friday, May 8. 1992 A8 9 Jilllll Jeff Greenfield Let's stop looking for perfection in presidential candidates Commentary Herald Review EDITORIAL BOARD William K. Johnston, Publisher Richard H. ken, Opinion Page Editor James P. Santori, Editor Gary Minich, Business Writer J.

Damon Cain, Graphics Editor Richard Manugian, City Editor Carol Alexander, Exec. Projects The following are opinions reached by consensus of the Herald Review Editorial Board All other articles on this page ar the opinions solely of the authors. We encourage readers to offer opinions on information provided by the HeraldS Review. It I I By MARX SIMON Peninsula Times Tribune Who gains politically from riots? women's TOBe must But Perot is just entering the kitchen, and it's probably only a matter of when it will be time to stick a fork in him. Once the first blush of Perot-mania fades, we'll find there are things about him that are off-putting, like, for example, that he has no idea how to make government work, or any experience making it work.

It does seem like a novel approach to self-government to put in charge of the system someone who is known for going outside the system to get what he wants. The point is that I'm confident we'll find Perot is no more perfect than the rest of them. Columnist Molly Ivins describes him as one of an assortment of loopy right-wing Texas billionaires. Somewhere there is someone who doesn't like him. And somewhere, sometime, Perot probably was accused of violating the federal labor laws or the environmental laws or the law of gravity.

Put another way, I'm confident Perot is no more perfect than the rest of them. Or us. It's a tough reality to face in the last days of the 20th century, but all we've got for candidates are human beings. Earthlings. Americans.

We're electing a president, not a god, the irony being that most of us probably understand this better than the opinion molders and scandal mavens. I think maybe we need some standards other than perfection: Have some idea of what to do. Don't tell lies. Understand us and our problems. Care.

Stay flexible. Be open-minded. And it might be nice to have someone who regards ethics laws as superfluous. But even by that standard, there's plenty of room for a candidate who also happens to be a human being, and has made a few mistakes and committed a few sins. Mark Sfenon is a columnist for the Times Tribune of Palo Alto, Calif.

Sometimes it seems like all we get are lousy choices, which is to say we're getting no choice at all. This is how it's been going my entire voting life George Mc-Govern or Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter or Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan or Jimmy Carter, Bedtime for Bonzo or Walter Mondale, George Bush or Zorba the Clerk. Hey, I would say to myself, at least I get to choose. And off I would go, merrily, to the polls, exercising my god-given right to fight communism at the ballot box. Until the communists pooped out and the Russians were offered a choice between Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Maybe the problem lies not with our candidates, but with ourselves. But our candidates do pose some interesting problems. In the president, we've got someone who appears to be constitutionally incapable of telling the truth unless you've forgotten no new taxes, the education president, the environment president and the president who nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, but not because he is black. Among the Democrats, we've got Bill Clinton, who decided to admit he's human, and hope no one holds it against him. Then there's Jerry.

Actually, I think Jerry screwed up when he asserted the other day that he had never tried drugs. Not only does this come as a surprise, but you would think he would keep this in reserve as a possible explanation for some of the goofy things he has done. This is the choice we've got, which is why every day I'm getting between one and three phone calls from people who want to contact the local organizer for Perot. The candidate is always greener on the other side of the primaries. SOMEONE NOT BEHOLDEN Election returns in the 21 century TO OTHER.

PEOPLES' SPECIAL INTERESTS. THE V07S3S UERE APR4REM7LV tf SEARCH OP AN OUTSIDER CANDIDATE. A I UP ZDs, vRV AMERICAN JJ The senators who approved Clarence Thomas' apppointment to the U.S. Supreme Court last year did more than dismiss allegations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill. They convinced a lot of women that their concerns are lost on the Senate's predominantly white, male membership.

And a lot of voters seem to agree. Women are running in 16 of the 35 Senate races this year, and the results so far have been startling. In the Illinois primary, for instance, Cook County recorder of deeds Carol Mosley Braun dealt a decisive defeat to longtime incumbent U.S. Sen. Alan Dixon, whose late support of Thomas had been much publicized.

In Pennsylvania, political newcomer Lynn Yeakel upended Lt. Gov. Mark Singel in the Democratic primary for a seat held by Republican U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter.

Yeakel decided to run after watching Specter interrogate Hill during the Thomas hearings. Moreover, Yeakel spent the primary campaign attacking not her Democratic opponents but Specter. Now she'll take her anti-Specter campaign to the general election in a race that offers a head-on test of what analysts have come to describe as "the Hill bump." And the likely winners will be the American people. Ideology aside, what's good for this fall's female candidates will be good for America. People can debate all they want whether it was Hill or Thomas who lied, but few can argue against the need for more diversity in the one-sided ranks of the male-dominated Senate.

Men can talk all they want about abortion, for instance, but cannot begin to imagine the physical, emotional and psychological factors for women who wrestle with the choice of aborting a pregnancy or carrying it through to birth. Similarly, men can only guess at the insidious lasting effects of rape, or of the low esteem caused by sexual harassment or wife beatings. Women know of these problems firsthand. And when more of them represent us at the highest levels of government, our government will do a better job of addressing these and other serious concerns now lost in the shuffle. Until then, our senators will continue to grope for the answers from a singularly masculine viewpoint.

SOtAtONE WHO 7RULV UNDERSTOOD IND VDUAL PROBLEMS. ONt VOTt. I TED hi FOR A NEW YORK That Wednesday morning, I stood in front of a thousand people in a hotel ballroom on the island of Maui and talked about presidential politics: about the economy, foreign policy, the angry mood of the electorate, the prospects for Bush, Clinton and Perot. By Wednesday evening, I could watch the Hawaiian sunset out of the hotel window, then turn back to the TV screen and watch Los Angeles burn, live and in color, and watch the American political landscape open all along the fault line of race that has been our torment almost since the birth of the republic. When 58 people have died, when close to a billion dollars in property damage has been inflicted on neighborhoods least able to bear such damage, when the daily life of tens of thousands of people has been made harsher, when children have been traumatized, it seems almost indecent to gauge the political effects of such horror.

BUT THE FACT IS that public disorder is also a political toxin; an event powerful enough to empty the streets of New York City out of baseless fear of mobs is clearly potent enough to change people's behavior in the voting booth. Disorder on college campuses and city streets helped elect Ronald Reagan governor of California in 1966. Urban riots and protests over Vietnam drove Lyndon Johnson from office in 1968, helped elect Richard Nixon president, and fueled George Wallace's independent presidential campaign that same year, which won 10 million votes and four states. This history suggests that violence is a "conservative" political force, that it drives voters to "law and order" candidates. But it is not that simple.

DOMESTIC DISORDER can be seen as an indictment of those in power evidence that officeholders have failed in their first obligation to the citizenry, which is to protect the peace. That may well be why the first post-riot surveys showed a drop in support for the president. Those of us with long memories also remember that in the wake of the disorder of the 1960s, the public hunger seemed to be for leadership that could "deal" with disorder competently and confidently. So who benefits in these circumstances? Does George Bush win the votes of frightened whites who regard the Republicans as better on law and order? Or does he suffer from the belief that he symbolizes the people who have been in power and have done nothing? DOES BILL CLINTON benefit from his long-standing themes of racial harmony and individual responsibility? Or does he suffer from the belief that at root he is simply another liberal Democrat, proposing to spend "our" money on programs that won't work and on people who won't be responsible? Does H. Ross Perot benefit from more evidence that "politics as usual" does not work, that the radical remedy of an independent president is needed? Or does he suffer from the belief that this is no time for experimentation? In an ideal world, none of these questions would matter because there would be an overwhelming public demand to face up to the issues of race, crime, jobs, order, civility, opportunity and decency that would drown out political matters.

Unhappily, that is not the world we Jive in. Jeff Greenfield is a media analyst for ABC News. His column appears Fridays in the 1 PCtA UIOVLD'VE VOTED FOR. fAE, TOO, BUTSUi Ani I 1 UTI. WAS AFfiAlD I'D CUT SOOMStaJRlTV Arthur A.

Boye St Peter No Yes Should a constitutional amendment be adopted requiring the state to spend more money on education even if this would mean higher taxes or a cut in other services? .3 ONo 6 Yes Too vague. Some districts do not need it. Unfair to other state services. Our property taxes already support our schools. Emily F.

Grothe Decatur Too much money is being wasted now on education. Example: build new Decatur high school and closed Brush College high school and downtown high school. Too much money is also being spent on administration. R. Cundiff Decatur State taxes are already too high, especially since the flat-rate income tax that we have in Illinois is grossly unfair to lower and middle income people.

Allan Keith Mattoon CBD Because the poor people are the ones Do you think President Bush reacted properly to the violence in L.A. following the Rodney King verdict? No more property tax. Homeowners have carried the burden of school funding too long. We need another form of taxation which would be more fair income tax, sales tax should be implemented. Jan Cox Decatur Our future is being developed in our future's minds.

If something isn't done to improve our education system, educated leaders will suffer along with the uneducated. "Pay now or later." Nina M. Reynolds Decatur on Because our future lies in our children's hands. J. Manion Decatur BY GARRY TRUDEAU who have to pay.

Alyne Moxley Sullivan Absolutely not! Taxes are too high now. We must find ways to lower taxes, not raise them. Frank Mercer Decatur One college professor receives $50,000 to teach one class one hour per day. Only 5 hours per week. Ridiculous.

The more these schools receive, the more is spent for non-essentials. NO YES WHY? Doonesbury THE KIND OF CAMPAIGN I UJOULD UJA6E A6AJNST DRUGS WOULD BE MASSIVE, RELENTLESS AND TOTAL! WE WOULD WEtL.THAT SHOULD RELIEVE TWCM5R- MR.P5RCT.IFIC0UIVF0UVU) UP ON THE DPD6 UJAR ISSUE, TPS BEEN REPORTED fOUONCE SU06ESTEDCORPONIN60FF MINORITY NEI6HBORHOOPS TDCON- WHAT I WAS TRYING TO SAY 15 THAT IF XXI'REFtXJNG TO MAKE A UW ENFORCEMENT OMELETTE, YOU BETTER BE PREPARED TO BREAK 665, FGPFriAUX THE RADINFI HEY, IT'S JUST A COLORFUL FI6UREOF SPEECH! TAKE HQ PRISONERS, CR0UIPIN6. Name: Address: SEND REPLIES TO: Richard H. Icen Opinion Page Editor Decatur Herald Review P.O. Box 311 Decatur, 111., 62525 Phone: Replies must be signed and contain an address and phone number tor ventication.

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