Show 4A Saturday June OgcJen o j 7 1985 Standard-Examiner ihctiitoriais Border harassment cannot be tolerated French and British Through the years the Americans have been exacting in their relationships in Berlin the enis clave German city that composed of four zones and surrounded by the infamous wall that went up in the dead of night in August of 962 Berlin has remained a single Despite this bifurcation modern prospering city with rights and prerogatives of its flavor and in face of the bellicose provocations of the Soviet puppet state of East Germany that d makes Berlin an oasis in a region The relative peace and tranquility of Berlin has been marred by a diplomatic flap that boils down to symbolism and protocol more than substance Without any advance notice the East German border guards have begun confronting the Americans British and French diplomats and others from NATO countries who are accredited when they attempt to pass through checkpoints into East Berlin Guards have demanded that they show passports and are refusing to accept their authorized diplomatic cards ifel f Needless to say it has created a confrontational mode not only at the borders but in other diplomatic relations this get tough attitude stems from the Presumably tighter security that has been imposed by the allies since the disco bombing in Berlin that took the life of an American serviceman that subsequently lead to the US air strikes over Libya It probably will cease when tensions are eased Laxalt would strengthen any ticket However it is an incident of significance It shows that a Soviet state has the ability to impose at will some irritating restrictions on the West A good many thoughtful observers are by no means convinced that the 1988 Republican presidential nomination is "all locked up" for George Bush despite the vice president's continued (though diminishing) lead over various possible rivals in the polls At the same time they note that Rep Jack Kemp has thus far failed to project himself alternaas the chief let alone only possible tive to Bush In order to win the nomination Kemp must not only persuade the GOP's powerful conservative bloc that he is its tiger but that Bush — and for that matter anybody else — just won't do Thus far Kemp has failed to make any such demonstration and as a result his candidacy hasn't yet "taken off" The nomination therefore may very well be still up for grabs And that may be why there is increasing speculation these days about Sen Paul Laxalt of Nevada Laxalt's assets as the possible 1988 nominee are several and impressive At 63 he has served four years as a governor and is now retiring from the US Senate after two full terms there He is well liked by his colleagues — and also by President Reagan who regards Laxalt as his closest friend and ally in the Senate On the safe assumption that the 1988 Republican convention will want to nominate someone who is Reagan's ideological soul mate committed to carrying Next time — however mindless the act — getting even could undermine the rights of the allied powers in Berlin Moscow and East Berlin should understand that border harassment will not be tolerated Educating to work Editorial r a 1936 Ogdcn If you ask Dr William E Grady associate superintenwhole the schools York New plan of modern dent of city education is wrong Accordingly Dr Grady thinks it's From high time to make a few pertinent revisions "I don't think the educational pattern we have set up meets the needs of the situation today" he declared recently "We've kept our children in school but on the wrong diet "Nine out of 10 students want to enter the learned professions If they cannot have that they want to be in the white collar group and we have the tragedy of excess We are going to have to introduce more vocational activities the dignity of labor" and Dr Grady's suggestion seems entirely sound The saturation point in the white collar and professional groups has just about been reached n VUUI I JJ B St&t&U& the Supreme Court going to OK the ostrich game in cases of sexual harassment? Will employers be able to bury their heads in the hand and say "Sorry we didn't know about the problem so we can t be liable' 3 UR lUV3UUII llll Ul II 1131 13 IIU(Jlllg "III to answer in the first sexual harassment case ever to go before high court The key participant in the lawsuit is Michelle Vinson 31 former bank teller at a Washington DC savings and loan company who claims she was forced into a sexual relationship with her supervisor the bank's branch manager She submitted for four years she says because he threatened her life and her job if she didn't She didn't report s but quit the bank and the situation to BBBBBUS her case the court will decide whether companies are responsible for harassment even if senior management doesn't know about the situation Claudia Withers of the Women's Legal Defense runu nas suiu'i mai n:crL inson loses ner iasc inner women will have a tougher time proving company Rusher Reagan's program Laxalt fills the bill In addition Laxalt is familiar with the gritty details of party work currently serving as general chairman of the Republican Party People familiar with his work in that capacity speak favorably of his skills as an administrator — useful attributes not always found in a legislator In some ways most important of all Paul Laxalt is a man of the West where (along with the South) the Republican Party has its greatest strength today As pointed out recently in this space all but a small handful on of names on the "long list" of possible Republican presidential candidate nominees belong to Easterners or Midwesterncrs Not counting Bush (who moved to Texas to go into business and politics but almost remains the archetypal Easterner) only three people spring to mind: California Gov George Deukmejian Colorado Sen William Armstrong — and Laxalt On the debt side the principal item is a loose newspaper accusation that a Nevada gambling casino of which Laxalt was a part owner was skimming the profits and (by implication) that Laxalt was aware of this Laxalt has sued the paper for libel and a verdict " If 1S a WUSSS&SB Is got a lawyer When it rules on William Rusty Brown liability and will probably be less likely to get nancial compensation According to a recent article in Common Cause magazine: "Some Supreme Court limits the employer's liability for sexual harassment it could send a message to business that discrimination whether in the form of harassment or inequities in pay and promotion will be tolerated" It is no secret that the Reagan administration and many of the nation's top employers are siding with the S & L That is disappointing because up to this point women have been winning significant victories in the courtroom Judges and juries have been sympathetic when complainants said their job performance was affected because they were propositioned fondled or forced to endure lewd remarks at work In recent years a harassing "environment" has been condemned as forthright-las the more blatant situations in which male bosses fired or demoted women for not granting O BSUSSiO sexual favors While requiring employees to report incidents of sexual harassment to management may seem a logical request some women have seen that procedure backfire A few have taken their outrage to court New Yorker Cecily Coleman was making executive when she $60000 a year as ABC-Tcomplained to the personnel department that an ABC vice president was annoying her with unwanted sexual advances The result of telling? She was fired without notice Understandably furious she sued the network and last July received an settlement reportedly close to $500000 Another who reported and then lost her job is Elaine Montano 29 one time grocery chain clerk in Los Alamos NM During two years at a Safeway store the head clerk tried to kiss her and repeatedly asked her for dates although she told him she was married A stocker made physical advances touching her breasts and thighs and other men in supervisory or jobs made vulgar jokes and gestures to her and m is expected around the turn of the year If as widely anticipated it is favorable to Laxalt that will totally erase that debit item Observers sometimes wonder whether Laxalt had the necessary "fire in the belly" to go through an arduous struggle for the nomination followed by the general election campaign "I think Paul would like to be president" former Senate Republican leader Howard Baker once wise cracked "but I'm not sure he wants to run for the job" But Laxalt's apparent indifference may be misleading — as matter of personal style rather than anything else You don't in this lough world get to be governor and twice a US senator purely by acting the shrinking violet — or if you do it's a pretty good act Laxalt has made no open moves toward the nomination (nor will he in any case until the libel verdict is in) but he is letting those who want to back him — and that includes some powerful people — keep on talking the idea up As far as Bush and Kemp — or for that matter just about anybody but Armstrong and Deukmejian — arc concerned Laxalt would balance the ticket quite nicely as the vice presidential candidate No doubt that has occurred to Laxalt as well but then as he would probably be too polite to point out any of the Easterners would balance his ticket too Newspaper Enterprise Association m BBS VWUSil m Ulalf& other women employees Montano told the store manager but he failed to take any disciplinary action so she filed grievances with the Safeway district office in El Paso Texas Her charges were investigated and corroborated but "it didn't change anything" she said Shortly thereafter the store cut her working hours then fired her The federal judge who heard her testimony decided in her favor and ordered Safeway Stores Inc to pay her nearly $77000 If complaining to management cost these two women their jobs is it any wonder that thousand of incidents go unreported every year? The reaction of bank teller Michelle Vinson whose case is before the Supreme Court is typical — quitting the job to avoid an humiliating situation I hope the Supreme Court reinforces management's responsibility to ferret out its own despoil-cr- s Without that necessary support it's too much to ask victims to turn in tormentors who ogle them as cohabitants instead of respecting them as Newspaper Enterprise Association Library of videotapes give promise to those in golden years "He jests al scars who never felt a wound" The vigorous and well imagine that they will live forever that any enjoyment of life can be deferred George Russell of Grants Pass Ore knew that his earthly time was likely to be cut short so he deferred nothing — he learned to enjoy every day And he lived to teach others how George Russell had Lou Gehrig's disease — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — for 31 years For 25 of those years he was in a wheelchair He also suffered from various kinds of cancer Yet few ever saw him without a smile When a friend Bob Schillinger was enduring the trauma of losing the fifth member of his family — his mother — to cancer he reached out to Paul Harvey George for courage George showed him how how to shed two tons of to shed a tear and then grief and make the remaining time with his mother as enjoyable as it could be Out of that experience those two men created an informal organization called OWL — On With Living With shared tape recordings they were able to help anybody despondent discover that he or she was not alone George died in 1984 but not before OWL had been expanded to include a whole library of videotapes available on loan to anyone and eventually marketed at cost through hospitals and nursing The message of the tapes is simple: Make tofor the Port la nd Area day count" A spokesperson I rt ri t fViiinnl five fn valuable program The videotapes are powerful moving they fill a vital gap in patient and professional education" Each tape is recorded by somebody who is suffering a terminal illness Sal Nobile's recorded message starts out "Not many people stop to look for the beauty in the fluttering fall of a leaf to the ground did And waifll you hear what's happened since!" Sal counseled "Too many people spend too much time racing around trying to get things done They never sec the tops of mountains or the of flowers" One of the tapes was made by Pat Murphy paralyzed confined to a wheelchair yet an active columnist and active in church and his face mirrors so much more happiness than you are likely to sec in so many with so much less OWL — On With Living a permanent memorial to an uncommon man George Russell If his tapes are sufficient to get the terminally ill off the and back to enjoying whatever time they have his philosophy should be a remonstrance to us all Los Angeles Times Syndicate |