Show 1 0A Standard-Examin- T uesday July er 1 0 1 990 Sports no excuse to injure destroy Violence and destruction done in the name of victory are giving the sports world a black eye again Soccer riots in Italy last month Beatings shootings stabbings and deaths in Detroit after the NBA Finals More soccer riots last week in Germany home of the World Cup championship team where four people were : : killed and hundreds hurt when jubilant street celebrations turned reckless and violent ! brawled with police in East Berlin and two West German cities Bands of skinheads and other hooligans neo-Na- zi Heaven forbid someone said that New York should ever win a World Series again — the celebration would be I too much Sadly the sports world itself must share some blame Look at the trendiness of black-hheroes in sports: The “Bad Boys" Pistons with their logo and the “Nasty Boys" pitching trio of the Cincinnati Reds to name a couple ‘ They may seem harmless It’s just a game isn’t it? But they send a message that it doesn’t matter if you’re bad or nasty — the good guys are bad and nasty so why not ev- eryone else? It goes deeper too than nicknames and macho images Pete Rose gambling basketball players shaving points and i college football programs cheating are all fuel on the fire ’ The rule is win at all costs and you’d better make a lot of ‘ money while you’re at it even if dishonesty is involved Anything goes So it shouldn't be too surprising that modern sports values find their way to mirror-imag- e tragedy on the streets But while it may be easy to point to sports corruption as the bad example it's stretching too far to accuse sports alone for the carnage on the streets Social decay lays the "groundwork and the individuals who kill maim and de-- : stroy should get the largest share of the blame Anne Thompson a Detroit television reporter who was attacked as she covered the Pistons victory celebration : said “I'm furious over what happened The people in the streets behaved like animals I sat in the hospital wondering why don't they care about other people’s lives? Why don't they care about other people’s property?" Another witness to the rampage said he saw several police officers “who were sort of trying to stay away from ev- erything They stood there leaning against a building like they were try ing to prop it up But I can’t blame them It was an awful situation” Like a barbarian horde an English mob attracted to Ita-l- y by the World Cup soccer competition went looking for its Dutch enemies last month and battled police who were determined to stay between the gangs of thugs In East Berlin last week about 5000 youths watching the championship game on a huge television screen across from the Parliament building began hurling bottles and demolishing concession stands when it ended A group of 500 shouting epithets against foreigners rampaged on the main square chasing Vietnamese workers and ransacking a bar frequented by homosexuals ' ' “I was astonished by what had happened last night" ' said Detlev Liepmann a sociologist at West Berlin’s Free University “There is a special group at the right side of - ' at ' ‘ neo-Naz- is 1 T our spectrum who are searching for any occasion to do these sort of things” “The people who cause trouble they’re not fans" said England goalie Peter Shilton after the Italy riots “The The same people who watch are always was said in Detroit where responsible sports fans didn’t ' indulge in violence to celebrate their team’s triumph Responsible players and true fans tainted by the extra-- " curricular violence and robbed of the simple joy of victo- -' ry must speak out against these sickening episodes Society cannot afford to become desensitized to such horror It must attach heavy stigma to those who use spectator sports as an excuse to hurt and destroy well-behave- d” Stinging new tax - Now that George Bush's lips have quivered he should look for some more innovative ways to raise taxes For example in Miami drug dealers are being taxed in a unique way It ought to be tried elsewhere Federal undercover agents in Miami opened a moneylaundering business taking in $22 million in the yearlong sting operation from street-levdrug dealers They have made only one arrest so far in the sting but then what the heck Twenty-tw- o million in free money is not peanuts That could bankroll some successful battles in the cash- strapped war on drugs But even that's small potatoes compared to its real po- tcntial Bush could be the real hero to spread the program into the major cities where drugs are increasingly a serious el menace Say that Bush ordered federal undercover agents into the nation's 20 top cities with the program If each program netted $22 million think what the tally w ould be in New York City or Los Angeles If agents were to put in some overtime the total could easily climb to $25 million or more year per city That’s a half-billion dollars in revenue Now that Bush has moved his lips on taxes he shouldn't should pass up this chance to put some bite into his position that more taxes are necessary by ordering money-launderi- pr ng -‘ sting operations against those culprits who are peddling illicit drugs on the streets of the nation’s cities 'I wanted a new TV with multi-imagin- so that I wouldn't miss any of the action' g Japan flexes political muscle in Asia HOUSTON — If you want an image change Houston which had an image problem of its own not so long ago is a good place to come The city went bust with the oil industry in the and the world thought of it one Houstonian said “as having tumbleweed growing in the streets and the buildings boarded up" But now after a painful economic recovery and a big boost from its famous adopted son George Bush Houston is decked with flags and flowers and is playing host to the economic summit of the world’s seven industrialized nations And if Houston — “hot and proud” — can come back why can’t some sinner countries find redemption among its steaming pavelots? ments and innumerable used-ca- r Here is Germany once the jackbooted scourge of Europe coming on as sports fan The German briefing room and here still hums with the vibes of its victory in World Cup soccer And West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl threw a letter over the wall just prior to his arrival challenging the other six nations to join Germany in a drive to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent in the next 15 years German reunification may still cause shudders among the older generation but Kohl as a friend of clean air will make no new enemies — as long as you don’t count White House Chief of Staff John Sununu who held a press conference warning against “haste" in cleaning up the environment It is a matter of some amusement in the vast convention center where the press and spokesmen gather that Germany and her old Axis partner Japan have been reunited mid-198- tree-hugg- 0s er Mary McGrory They are third-floneighbors and do the most business of all the delegations At a first-da- y press conference Japanese spokesman Taizo Watanabe showed that they are still in cahoots this time benignly on the environment: Japan he said has made the greatest reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of any industrialized country Fifty years behind schedule Japan appears to be conquering the world Germany taking custody of Europe and Japan’s old vision of the “Greater East Asia Sphere” coming true Germany’s plan to give financial aid to the Soviets has its critics as does Japan’s proposal to do the same for China After a and entorced diffigeneration of dence in foreign affairs Japan is back — and being accused of grossness and crass commercialism in asking for economic sanctions to be dropped against the perpetrators of Tiananmen Square The Japanese say that the United States will profit even more from renewed trade But those who remember the Bataan Death March and similar horrors thought Japan could do better its first time out So did Japan The economic geniuses of Tokyo have begun to turn their talents toward peacemaking They have quietly and humbly tried to revive that battered child of Asian nations Cambodia For the past year they have been behind the scenes dispatching emissaries and observers throughout their neighborhood The Japanese were deeply hurt several years ago when France convened a parley on Cambodia with or well-earn- ed out inviting them But last year Japan was invited to Paris for yet another futile conference and since then it has conferred with the Vietnamese government and the prime minister of Thailand who urgently encouraged Japan to take a lead in a regional settlement Last spring Tokyo reached down into a low level of the bureaucracy in the Southeast Asia section of its foreign ministry and sent to Cambodia an observer named M Kohno He reported that the Cambodian people seemed “inclined to accept” Hun Sen the president installed by Vietnam and that the young president seemed to be trying to loosen Vietnam’s grip on his government Surprisingly US State Department officials invited Kohno to Washington to share his impressions with them The State Department it seems has been floundering more than was thought in its search for a policy that would punish Vietnam but prohibit new atrocities by the Khmer Rouge Last month Tokyo convened a cease-fir- e conference which was attended by representatives of Hun Sen and Prince Sihanouk but not by the Khmer Rouge The State Department was not in the words of one observer “100 percent for it" and later dismissed the results But Japan is doing even more It is leaning on China to cease its arms supplies to the Khmer Rouge It is apparently telling China it would be much easier to grant the loans that China wants if it would help end this pathetic war in Asia You could hardly ask more of the Japanese It seems that people can change Ask Houston Universal Press Syndicate US political geography can change too “These United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states” declared the Continental Congress on July 2 1776 Two days later for the first time we called ourselves the United States of America The Declaration of Independence however left open the question of just how independent these new states would be Our first constitution the Articles of Confederation made states supreme Each could veto decisions of Congress Only in 1789 almost a quarter of a century after the Declaration of Independence did a new Constitution transform a federation into a nation Yet the issue still remained unresolved until the 860 election of Abraham Lincoln and a Republican Party that favored an unprecedentedly interventionist central government: a national bank free land massive public improvements high protective tariffs Seeing their economies threatened seven Southern states voted to secede A constitutional compromise was proposed in early 1861 The House refused to consider it The Senate voted it down 28-- 7 Lincoln then declared the ordinances of secession “legally void” and warned that any resistance to federal authority was “insurrectionary or revolutionary” A month later civil war broke out The issue Congress insisted was whether we would “preserve the union” Two years after our Civil War ended the 1867 Canadian union took shape On July by an act of the British Parliament four colonies — Nova Scotia New Brunswick and the Canadas which were renamed Quebec and Ontario were melded together into a federation The federation eventually expanded from sea to sea but it was an uneasy compart beg Canada tween French- - and g In 1960 Quebeckers long 1 1 English-speakin- French-speakin- David Morris discriminated against by industry voted in a new government and embarked on their “quiet revolution” They demanded maximum autonomy or outright secession In the 1960s Canada revised its constitution to clarify the distribution of power between Ottawa and the provinces But Quebec refused to sign The only progress toward nationhood came in 1964 when after much controversy Canada adopted its own flag In 1980 Quebec nationalism exploded in tumultuous demonstrations the victory of the Parti Quebecois and a provincial referendum on independence The referendum lost in part because Canadian politicians promised to revise the existing constitution to recognize Quebec’s distinct status Out of that promise emerged the 1986 Meech Lake Accord For Prime Minister Brian Mulroney this was a necessary constitu- tional compromise For former Prime Further east in a bizarre turn of events the Russian Republic home to half the population of the Soviet Union and virtually all its national leadership issued its own Declaration of Independence Russia asserts the right to overrule federal laws Boris Yeltsin the new president of the Russian Republic proposes a revision in the Soviet constitution to convert the USSR into the USSS the Union of Sovereign Soviet States The result Yeltsin believes would finally make real the verse in the Soviet national anthem that calls for “the unbreakable union of free born republics” But if the Russian Republic has veto power can there be a nation? And what happens when Siberia declares its independence from the Russian Republic? As the Soviet Union moves from nationhood to federation Western Europe travels in the opposite direction In 1987 the Treaty of Rome that created the Common Market was ismodified to allow certain European-wid- e sues to be decided by majority vote not by consensus Individual nations were stripped of their veto power Europeans are discussing a USE a United States of Europe complete with a directly elected president a single currency and a powerful European Congress The new Europe already boasts its own flag - Minister Pierre Trudeau allowing Quebec the right to ignore federal legislation would mark the end of nationhood Canada reg Last month a baseball at A later Lake Meech day jected In these turbulent times no one should asthe nabooed in Montreal Quebeckers game sume that the political geography of the Unittional anthem Quebec will decide within the ed States itself will remain fixed Stephen from secede year whether it will formally Blank director of the Institute for Canada Business Studies at New York's Pace UniOn the other side of the Atlantic political versity sas the sense of “differentiation in structures are just as fluid In six months the Quebec is not all that different from what's six East German lander (states) that for 50 happening in the American Southwest" The years have constituted a nation will adopt an- governors of California Arizona New Mexiother nation's laws and structures Constitu- co and Texas hold regular border conferences tionally says one prominent West German with their six Mexican counterparts Is the w heel of history about to turn again? businessman “this was a takeover not a English-speakin- US-Cana-- merger" knight-Ridde- r da Newspapers ' ‘ |