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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Tony Snow Subject Files
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Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
foia Number:
S
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Snow, Tony, Files
Subseries:
Subject File, 1988-1993
OA/ID Number:
13895
Folder ID Number:
13895-009
Folder Title:
[Robert H. Knight Resume, 9/13/91]
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
G
18
29
2
3
The
MEMO
Heritage Foundation
To: Joe Duggan
From: David M. Mason
Director of Executive Branch Liaison
Date: 9/13/91
Subject: Bob Knight
Ed Fevlner met Snow for breakfast
Tuesday. Tony said he still had two
openings, and Ed said he'd have
me pass along some resume's This
is a top recommendation. We really
like the work knight has done, but
he'll probably be leaving with Bennett's
hiring (this is not annourced yet).
Feulver personally wanted this
one passed along. I'd appreciate
it if you would get it to Show
Thanks
Dan
214 Massachusetts Avenue
N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
(202) 546-4400
Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
(George Bush Library)
Document No.
Subject/Title of Document
Date
Restriction
Class.
and Type
01. Resume
Re: Robert H. Knight; contains personal information. (1 pp.)
n.d.
P-6, (b)(6)
Collection:
Record Group:
Bush Presidential Records
Office:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Snow, Robert Anthony (Tony)
Subseries:
Subject File
WHORM Cat.:
File Location:
[Robert H. Knight Resume] [9/13/91]
Date Closed:
12/22/2004
OA/ID Number:
08678
FOIA/SYS Case #:
Re-review Case #:
2005-0485-S
P-2/P-5 Review Case #:
MR Case #:
Appeal Case #:
MR Disposition:
Appeal Disposition:
Disposition Date:
Disposition Date:
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - [44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P-1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
(b)(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P-2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
(b)(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of an
P-3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P-4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
(b)(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
(b)(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P-5 Release would disclose confidential advise between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
(b)(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P-6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
(b)(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed of
(b)(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
(b)(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
(George Bush Library)
Document No.
Subject/Title of Document
Date
Restriction
Class.
and Type
02. Letter
David Harrison to Thomas H. Henriksen, re: Robert H.
03/30/89
P-6, (b)(6)
Knight. (1 pp.)
Collection:
Record Group:
Bush Presidential Records
Office:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Snow, Robert Anthony (Tony)
Subseries:
Subject File
WHORM Cat.:
File Location:
[Robert H. Knight Resume] [9/13/91]
Date Closed:
12/22/2004
OA/ID Number:
08678
FOIA/SYS Case #:
Re-review Case #:
2005-0485-S
P-2/P-5 Review Case #:
MR Case #:
Appeal Case #:
MR Disposition:
Appeal Disposition:
Disposition Date:
Disposition Date:
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - [44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P-1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
(b)(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P-2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRA]
(b)(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of an
P-3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P-4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
(b)(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
(b)(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P-5 Release would disclose confidential advise between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
(b)(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P-6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
(b)(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed of
(b)(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
(b)(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
Withdrawal/Redaction Sheet
(George Bush Library)
Document No.
Subject/Title of Document
Date
Restriction
Class.
and Type
03. Letter
From Gene Beauchamp, re: Robert H. Knight. (1 pp.)
n.d.
P-6, (b)(6)
Collection:
Record Group:
Bush Presidential Records
Office:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Snow, Robert Anthony (Tony)
Subseries:
Subject File
WHORM Cat.:
File Location:
[Robert H. Knight Resume] [9/13/91]
Date Closed:
12/22/2004
OA/ID Number:
08678
FOIA/SYS Case #:
Re-review Case #:
2005-0485-S
P-2/P-5 Review Case #:
MR Case #:
Appeal Case #:
MR Disposition:
Appeal Disposition:
Disposition Date:
Disposition Date:
RESTRICTION CODES
Presidential Records Act - [44 U.S.C. 2204(a)]
Freedom of Information Act - [5 U.S.C. 552(b)]
P-1 National Security Classified Information [(a)(1) of the PRA]
(b)(1) National security classified information [(b)(1) of the FOIA]
P-2 Relating to the appointment to Federal office [(a)(2) of the PRAJ
(b)(2) Release would disclose internal personnel rules and practices of an
P-3 Release would violate a Federal statute [(a)(3) of the PRA]
agency [(b)(2) of the FOIA]
P-4 Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
(b)(3) Release would violate a Federal statute [(b)(3) of the FOIA]
financial information [(a)(4) of the PRA]
(b)(4) Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential or financial
P-5 Release would disclose confidential advise between the President
information [(b)(4) of the FOIA]
and his advisors, or between such advisors [a)(5) of the PRA]
(b)(6) Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
P-6 Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy [(b)(6) of the FOIA]
personal privacy [(a)(6) of the PRA]
(b)(7) Release would disclose information compiled for law enforcement
purposes [(b)(7) of the FOIA]
C. Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in donor's deed of
(b)(8) Release would disclose information concerning the regulation of
gift.
financial institutions [(b)(8) of the FOIA]
(b)(9) Release would disclose geological or geophysical information
ROBERT H. KNIGHT
206 Markwood Drive
Sterling, VA 22170
WORK EXPERIENCE
Heritage Foundation
1990 - Present
Senior Fellow, Cultural Policy Studies.
Primary responsibility is to research, write
and edit studies on federal policies and
programs that affect American culture and
cultural values. I also chair Heritage working
groups, do interviews for newspapers, radio and
television, arrange Heritage lectures and
represent Heritage at conferences.
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
1989 - 1990
Media Fellow, National Fellows Program.
Researched. and began writing a book about
American values to be titled "Killing the
Culture, Softly."
Los Angeles Times
1982 - 1989
News Editor, Copy Editor, Writer for Metro,
View and Calendar. Wrote articles for all of
the above plus Orange County Life, Business and
op-ed.
Fort Lauderdale News/Sun-Sentinel
1980 - 1982
Weekend Projects Coordinator, News Editor.
Directed Metro projects for Page 1, Part I
Sunday display.
Maryland Gazette/Annapolis Evening Capital
1978 - 1980
Assistant Editor for the Gazette, in charge of
weekend edition. Police beat and general
assignment reporter for Capital.
Maryland Coast Press, Ocean City
1975 - 1978
Editor, Editorial Writer, Reporter. I also
created and performed radio spots doing various
impressions and sound effects.
Robert H. Knight
Page Two
PUBLISHED WORK
Heritage Backgrounders
"Women in Combat: Why Rush to Judgment?, " "Federal Support for
Early Childhood Programs: Caution is Needed, " and "The National
Endowment for the Arts: Misusing Taxpayers' Money."
Freelance Articles
National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times,
Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle,
Dallas Morning News, San Jose Mercury-News, Baltimore Sun, San
Diego Union, Orange County Register, Cleveland Plain Dealer and
other publications.
EDUCATION
1975
American University, Washington, D.C. Master of Science
in Political Science (3.9 GPA).
1973
American University, Washington, D.C. Bachelor of
Science in Political Science, cum laude.
1972
Internship in the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Peter Kyros
(D-Maine).
References available upon request
Robert Knight composed this article for Mr. Bennett,
writing about half of it and leaning the rest from
a Bennett speech.
PAGE D4 / SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1991
The Washington Times
a series of "what works" publica-
Battle for the U.S. culture
tions that profiled the inspired ef-
forts of adults who adhere to certain
bedrock principles.
We should praise what is praise-
worthy in the arts, rewarding true
looms as the '90s issue
virtuosity and creativity with our at-
tendance and our patronage. If we
want more of what is beautiful and
noble in the arts, then we must pro-
vide more than lip service.
fare best when they are able to guide
We should talk about abstinence-
By William J. Bennett
The good news is
their own destinies and handle their
based sex education programs that
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
own problems in their own neighbor-
reduce teen pregnancies. Teen-ager
hoods.
uring the last 25 years,
D
many of America's intel-
that our cultural virus
should get the facts but they also
Cynics dismiss this resurgence
should get sound guidance. They
of interest in American values as
lectual elite have perpe-
should be told the larger truth that
trated a doctrine of nihil-
has created its own
mere "nostalgia." There is a grain of
sexual relations are a wonderful
truth in that. The "good old days"
ism and moral relativism whose
gift, but only in the context of com-
always look better in retrospect. Mi-
purpose has been to undermine tra-
mitment and marriage.
ditional American values and be-
antibodies.
nority Americans and women only
We should talk about why Asian-
recently acquired equal rights after
American schoolchildren excel in
liefs.
Unfortunately, these elites made
some hard-fought battles. But Amer-
academics: lots of hard work and
significant inroads: For a time,
tral - political issue of the 1990s.
icans are not nostalgic for every-
homework, combined with support
America lost her cultural immune
The new emphasis on recovery of
thing in their past, only the parts
from close families who believe in
system. We allowed the public
traditional values is showing up on
that worked and are worth conserv-
the value of education.
square to become, in Richard John
several fronts. During the past year,
ing. They are not eager to embrace
We should talk about the commu-
Neuhaus' term. "naked." We allowed
numerous books have been pub-
a new definition of civil rights, for
nity leaders who reduce crime and
lished dealing with childbearing,
instance, that jettisons the core con-
our social and cultural institutions to
drug use in their cities by fostering
drift from their moorings. We
family life and cultural values.
cept of individual protection and in-
a sense of civic pride and civic re-
ceased being clear about the princi-
Newspapers are carrying more arti-
stead champions a government-
solve.
ples we hold and the standards by
cles with cultural themes. Influen-
administered spoils system based on
And we should talk about the
tial new magazines are being pub-
race or sex. Resistance runs deep to
which we judge.
many ways in which people who are
As a result, we suffered a cultural
lished that deal explicitly with
perverting the Rev. Dr. Martin Lu-
Photo by Willard Volz The Washington Times
employing traditional virtues suc-
breakdown of sorts - in areas such
religious and cultural issues. A New
ther King's dream of a colorblind
America, showing that most Amer-
William J. Bennett: "And we should talk about the many ways in which
ceed when others don't.
as education. art, family life, crime
York Times poll reveals that many
The success stories are out there;
Americans are rediscovering reli-
icans have not lost their commit-
people who are employing traditional virtues succeed when others don't."
and drug abuse, as well as in our
they need to be told. It is not enough
attitudes toward sex, individual re-
gious faith as a foundation for mak-
ment to justice.
Our task as parents and citizens
firming the common sense and com-
moral lessons are taught to our chil-
to lament the tearing down of Amer-
sponsibility and concepts such as
ing decisions about daily living. The
dren, we will have a better society.
ica's traditional values. Without em-
is to build on the "great relearning"
mon beliefs of the American people.
civic duty and public service.
TV networks have unveiled a num-
We will experience greater and
barrassment we must reaffirm them
that is under way. First, we need to
Second. we need to make clear the
Our children have borne the
ber of programs for the fall season
speak openly, seriously and candidly
link between the condition of our
broader well-being, fewer personal
in public forums, in the public
brunt of this cultural breakdown.
that are set in the post-World War II
The good news is that our cultural
years and reflect a time when Amer-
about the moral good as an essential
culture and the well-being of our
catastrophes, less social violence
square and in our public schools.
virus has created its own antibodies.
part of our life together. And we need
and fewer wasted and lost lives. At
We owe it to ourselves. But we owe
children. The battle for our culture
icans were secure in their values.
the same time, it's important to dem-
it even more to our children.
Having seen the consequences of
Attitudes about traditional values
to do so in a direct, succinct, under-
is too often presented as an abstract
have improved.
standable way. Too often, people with
debate among academics and public
onstrate the bankruptcy and human
these disastrous social experiments,
At the same time, polls show that
traditional values have hurt the
policy experts in Washington: the
cost of contemporary liberalism,
William Bennett. former secre-
we are engaged in what Tom Wolfe
cause by coming across publicly as
American people (and American
whose driving force is envy, not op-
tary of education, is the Heritage
has called "the great relearning." We
Americans have lost faith in some of
uptight scolds, too moralistic, too
portunity.
Foundation's Distinguished Fellow
their major elite-run institutions -
parents especially) need to see the
have begun once again to pay atten-
preachy. We need to speak in a com-
consequences - both good and bad
Finally, we need to draw attention
in Cultural Policy Studies and a
tion to the cultural environment in
government, the mainline churches,
to success stories. As secretary of
Senior Fellow at the Hudson Insti-
the media and the legal system.
fortable common language; upbeat
- that culture has on their everyday
which we raise our children. Culture
and confident and assertively af-
life. They need to see that if the right
education and "drug czar," I put out
tute.
will be a central perhaps the cen-
There is a growing sense that people
ceives as this nation's moral and po-
bot followed the writer around for a
Smithsonian's backing has been
CARLOS
litical shortcomings. Madly charm-
year to make a documentary. It por-
questioned in the press and else-
ing, claim his friends. A truly
trays the author in all his conflicting
where by those who are reluctant to
brilliant novelist, according to many
facets, charming and infuriating.
view 1492 as a misstep of history.
From page DI
critics here and abroad. Others see
See Mr. Fuentes radiate self-
Critics also question the appropri-
him as a provocateur, a Maserati
confidence into the camera while
ateness of supporting the personal
Europeans unwittingly killed native
Marxist who's not quite caught up
speaking of having his critics for
and political visions of Carlos
people. We cannot read our post-
with all that's been happening since
breakfast - critics who have be-
Fuentes. Here is a man, they say,
Freudian. violent 20th century into
the Berlin Wall fell. And then there
come somewhat less enamored of
whose life has been spent as a virtual
the past."
are those who call him simply a fat-
him since the time of "The Death of
obsession with his love-hate relation-
A book based on the series will be
uous poseur. Friend and foe alike
Artemio Cruz" because of books like
published next year by Houghton
ship with the United States - a na-
agree he is a self-promoter in
the surreal Gothic romance "Aura"
tion that has both rewarded Mr.
Mifflin. Unlike the TV program. the
spades.
and the almost unreadable word
with
financial
and
profes-
Distributed Nationally by Scripps Howard News Service
THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Monday, Dec. 10, 1990
ROBERT KNIGHT
the holidays approach, the
one else" is obeying the law.
A
Salvation Army is doing
Grinch
But the salient issue, the army
what it has done for more
contends, is religious freedom, not
than 100 years: setting up
the-benefits of the go-along-to-get-
its collection kettles, aiding the
along philosophy. Unlike Goodwill
down-and-out and providing a shin-
rattling
Industries, which is solely con-
ing example of real compassion.
cerned with job training, the army's
This season, however, a Grinch is
program is a religious mission to re-
rattling the kettles. More than a few
of those nickels, dimes and quarters
the kettle
claim the unemployable. The mini-
mum-wage requirement would gut
are disappearing down a legal black
the program, Col. Hood says, and
hole to fend off the federal bu-
lead to the layoffs of 7,000 regular
reaucracy.
says he has had no contact with La-
employees already covered by labor
The struggle already has cost the
bor since Mrs. Dole's action in late
laws.
army more than $20,000 in legal fees
September. "They haven't responded
Conceding government authority
and other expenses, says Col. Ken-
to anything we've sent them," he
in areas in which it has none opens
neth Hood, national chief secretary.
says.
the way for further infringement on.
Costs vary from region to region,
Rep. Marge Roukema, New Jer-
the freedom of private institutions.
but the Washington division of the
sey Republican, who criticized the
Army capitulation to the notion that
army reports that meals for the
initial Labor action as "mindless bu-
down-and-outers are "employees"
homeless cost about $1.50 each,
reaucracy at its worst" and lobbied
would open the door, for example, to
which means the legal battle has al-
Mrs. Dole to suspend the order,
a host of other labor laws and more
ready eaten up the equivalent of
plans to introduce corrective legisla-
expensive legal battles.
13,000 meals.
tion when the 102nd Congress con-
In many ways, the Salvation
In September, the Labor Depart-
venes in January. Meanwhile, the
Army's principled stand resembles
ment ordered the Salvation Army to
Salvation Army has until tomorrow
the lonely battle for educational and
pay the minimum wage to more than
to decide whether to file an appeal of
religious freedom waged by Grove
50,000 people enrolled in work-
the judge's ruling.
City College in Pennsylvania and
therapy programs. Labor officials
Hillsdale College in Michigan. Both
contend the derelicts and drug ad-
The problem could be solved im-
colleges are independent Christian
dicts in the program are "employ-
mediately if Labor officials were to
schools that do not accept federal
ees" covered by the 52-year-old Fair
obtain a ruling from the solicitor
funds precisely because they wish to
Labor Standards Act. Salvation
general's office on whether the cli-
remain free of federal regulation.
Army officials say the people are
ents are covered by the law. The Sal-
Although neither school has been ac-
"beneficiaries" in need of spiritual
vation Army's attorney Mr. Moss
cused of discrimination, both have
counseling, food and shelter, and
says he doubts this will happen be-
been besieged by federal officials
that obeying the order would cripple
cause Mrs. Dole left "this little can
wielding civil rights laws. The issue,
the program.
of worms to her successor." Mr. Moss
much as in the Salvation Army case
says regardless of who the president
The army filed a lawsuit against
(which stems from a single com-
appoints to take Mrs. Dole's place, he
Labor. but U.S. District Judge Albert
plaint filed in 1985), is not whether
hopes the Roukema bill will end the
Bryan of Alexandria dismissed the
the schools have actually done any-
matter by exempting organizations
case. The lawsuit was premature,
thing wrong but whether they will
such as the Salvation Army from the
the judge ruled. because the Labor
knuckle under to federal power.
Fair Labor Standards act.
Department had not actually moved
Hillside President George Roche
against the Salvation Army, just
By holding fast against the Labor
sums up his institution's stance this
threatened it.
Department's bullying, the Salva-
way: "We will defend ourselves, as
tion Army is doing more than fight-
best we can, by distancing ourselves
This leaves the army with little
ing red tape; it is making a stand for
from governmental reach, whether
but professed good intentions. Labor
religious freedom by saying to the
that is intended to harm or [God for-
Secretary Elizabeth Dole, who re-
federal government: "You do not
bid] help us."
cently resigned her post to take the
have sovereignty in this area. Back
Whenever a private institution
top job at the Red Cross. informally
off, Caesar."
fights bureaucratic encroachment,
suspended Labor's minimum-wage
The army could have taken the
it is a reminder that America's free-
order for 120 days with a promise
easy way out, acknowledging fed-
doms rest on restraint of govern-
that Labor would give 20 days notice
eral authority in return for "help"
ment power.
of any attempt to enforce the order.
from Labor officials in finding loop-
In its battle to preserve the tradi-
Labor officials were supposed to be
holes in the law. More than 100 other
tional values of compassion and
negotiating with the Salvation Army,
charities are in compliance, says re-
mercy in the face of federal bureau-
but army attorney William J. Moss
tired Adm. David Cooney, chairman
crats expanding their power base,
of the Advisory Committee to the
the Salvation Army deserves sup-
Secretary of Labor on Special Mini-
port. It also deserves a clear, written
Robert Knight is senior fellow for
mum Wages. Adm. Cooney, chair-
declaration from Mrs. Dole's suc-
cultural policy studies at the Heri-
man of Goodwill Industries, has lob-
cessor or the solicitor general for the
tage Foundation. Distributed by
bied for legal action against the
Labor Grinch to leave the Salvation
Scripps Howard News Service.
Salvation Army, arguing that "every-
Army alone once and for all.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 5, 1989
Hollywood, You Slay Me
By ROBERT H. KNIGHT
wrought tale of a hitman and hitwoman
aren't supposed to take it seriously. It's a
A good laugh isn't what it used to be. At
who fall in love, innocent folks are once
kick. That's all.
least not at the movies. More and more,
again caught in the crossfire. This doesn't
And, perhaps, SO it is. But as you look
comedy is keeping company with murder,
slow down the madcap antics of these evil-
around the theaters and hear people guf-
torture and other violence.
but-cute killers. An innocent woman is
fawing at less cartoonish horrors, you will
gunned down by mistake in an elevator as
notice young people laughing the heartiest.
It's not that comedies have not had vio-
she arrives with an armload of groceries.
You could conclude that the young have al-
lent scenes; many of them have. What is
The killers see this as an inconvenience.
ways been more callous than their elders.
new. is that violence and comedy are
Oops. Shrug. Ha ha.
After all, they have no sense of their own
woven into the same scenes in quality,
Audience: Oops. Hmm. Well, shrug, Ha
mortality and little acquaintance with real-
mainstream films.
ha. We are supposed to be laughing, right?
life tragedy to temper their indiscriminate
We are not talking here about the Three
The reviews said this was a comedy,
exuberance. You could also say they have
Stooges, but realistic portrayals of vio-
right? No sense spoiling a good flick with
been "dulled down" by watching 10,000
lence, the kind that should make us cringe.
concern over a graphic random killing!
killings on television. But you might also
As with any dilution of the moral code, it is
Likewise, in flast year's "A Fish Called
wonder about the impact of slasher films,
happening at an almost imperceptible rate,
Wanda," we are not supposed to be dis-
where violence is the comedy, and main-
sneaking in here and there. What shocks at
turbed when an inept killer is crushing a
stream films that use killings as a comic
first becomes routine the fourth time, and
woman's pet dogs to death; we are sup-
device.
"normal" the 14th.
posed to laugh at his inability to kill the
Not SO many years ago, a little comedy
The line in mainstream films was
woman herself, which he finally does when
called "King of Hearts" was a cult favorite
crossed in 1976 in "Silver Streak, a suc-
she has a heart attack over the carnage.
of college students. It is the tale of a first
cessful comedy with gratuitous violence
Are you laughing yet? The people at the
world war soldier's reactions to French vil-
spicing up the slapstick. It was not gener-
theater I went to were howling. A couple of
lagers, who unknown to him are escaped
ally thought of as a black comedy, and the
viewers cocked their heads as if they
inmates from an asylum. They have taken
genres began to be blurred.
sensed something out of balance, but then
the roles-butcher, baker, ballerina- the
The next breach was in 1978's 'Foul
succumbed to the good humor around
former inhabitants of the deserted town.
Play," in which a senile pope applauds at
them. Who wants to be a wet blanket?
The soldier is captivated by their sweet
a theater as the curtain comes down, upon
Perhaps the most disturbing mix of vio-
goofiness. But before he can rejoin his out-
which are dead security guards, festooned
lence and comedy was in the biggest hit of
fit, his comrades enter the town and en-
like shells and buoys in a net at a seaside
this summer. In "Batman," innocent peo-
counter enemy soldiers. As the two sides
bar. The joke is on the pope; who is so out
ple die, grotesque, agonizing deaths while
slaughter each other, the lunatics soberly
of touch that he doesn't notice the dead
"Joker" Jack Nicholson cracks one-liners.
slip back into the asylum, a "saner"
people. Or maybe he does. Ha ha, gosh,
The result is an audience uneasily laughing
world. Contrasted with the preceding lev-
what will that zany pontiff do next? As
at ghoulish depictions of human suffering.
ity, it is a powerful message.
comedy, it is sophomoric; as religious sat-
But laugh they do.
If "King of Hearts" were filmed today
ire, it is less than sophomoric. We are not
In a class by themselves are the slasher
by some other filmmakers, they might not
supposed to worry about whether the
films, in which young people lose their
resist going for one more big laugh at the
guards had families; they are merely
lives in varied ways, often inventively and
end. Right after the killings. Or better yet.
props not accorded the dignity of their own
with much loss of blood and limbs. Ask
during.
deaths.
the fans-usually teens-why they aren't
Mr. Knight is a media fellow at the
In "Prizzi's Honor" (1985), the slyly
repulsed and they remind you that you
Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Relativism is the last
refuge of old leftists
the
Pierre Trudeau, others won't face the
truth about the horrors of communism
By Robert H. Knight
Nicaraguan resistance, and the forces
that oppose Fidel Castro.
The invasions of Panama and Grenada
A
S the moral high ground in interna-
supported overwhelmingly by the peo-
tional politics shifts with earth-
ple in both nations, a fact he did not men-
quake intensity, socialist intellec-
tion - are proof the United States is an
tuals are scrambling to stay on their feet.
international hypocrite, Trudeau said. So
At Stanford University last week, for-
was the US effort in Southeast Asia,
mer Canadian Prime Minister Pierre El-
where America tried to stop a foe that
liott Trudeau demonstrated the left's
eventually butchered thousands, operat-
breathtaking inability to learn from his-
ed "reeducation" camps, and produced
tory as he blamed the West for all the
nearly a million "boat people" who con-
world's ills.
tinue to risk their lives rather than live
Even as horror stories about life under
under communism.
communism proliferate in the Soviet
Perhaps Trudeau might ask the Cam-
Union and Eastern Europe. Trudeau pro-
bodians if it was a good thing that the
claimed that "the containment of com-
communists prevailed in their country,
munism was only a gambit in the policy
where 2 million people - a third of the
of empire." Western empire, that is, not
population - were slaughtered to create
the empire of gulags, Berlin walls, and
a "new society."
psychiatric torture wards.
The old line of the left has always been
"If ideas are the stuff of which history
that the United States was the problem in
is made," Trudeau said, "governments
international affairs, that if we would
in the western world seem singularly un-
only relax our opposition to communism,
prepared to shape their own destinies."
the world would know peace. The ex-
What Trudeau and other socialists fail
cesses of communism, the left intellectu-
to understand is that ideas do not come
als said, were the results of the United
from governments but from people -
States' stubborn resolve to continue the
LURiE
free people.
Cold War.
Trudeau called on the newly liberated
In other words, for opposing the ideolo-
Eastern European nations to embrace
gy that leads to mass murder and the
"the egalitarian aspirations of collectiv-
abrogation of all basic human rights, in-
Ranan Lurie/for the Register
ism" by retaining a large measure of
cluding freedom of the press, speech, re-
Pierre Trudeau
"democratic planning." Likewise, the
ligion, and property ownership, the Unit-
West, whose-comparatively free econo-
to their collectivist views despite over-
ed States is guilty of having, as former
The moral high ground is now occupied
mies left the communist world in the
whelming evidence of that philosophy's
President Jimmy Carter said, "an inor-
- as it it always was - by those who
dust, should "return to a more regulated
propensity to cause human misery.
dinate fear of communism.'
oppose totalitarianism, not those who
Alexander Cockburn, the Wall Street
economy, where the public interest
For years, people like Dwight McDon-
seek to appease it. It took an enormous
Journal's token Marxist and a columnist
would have priority over private profit."
ald, Mary McCarthy, Alfred Kazin, Ed-
amount of intellectual dishonesty for the
In a free society, the public interest is
for The Nation, has complained bitterly
mund Wilson, Jean-Paul Sartre, Norman
latter to appear to hold the high ground
determined. mainly by free decisions
of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, saying
Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, and Trudeau
for so long.
made by free men and women. In Tru-
they undermine the Stalinist, er, commu-
tried to persuade us that socialism was
From Armando Valladares, who spent
nist ideal.
deau's vision, social planners dictate
the only acceptable political stance. They
two decades in Castro's prisons, to Soviet
In a front-page article for the New
what is best. The same social planners,
criticized the West for not being perfect
gulag prisoner Natan Sharansky. dissi-
no doubt, who brought us the utopian de-
York Times Book Review last July, Ar-
while glossing over atrocities in the East.
dents say that they lived on the hope that
lights of America's inner cities.
thur Schlesinger Jr.-declared that rela-
They equated justice with unlimited state
the West would resist - not accommo-
tivism - the belief that all values are
After his speech, Trudeau was award-
date - communism. Whenever the West
power, and some declared terrorism to
ed the Stanford Law School's Jackson H.
merely relative to time, space, and place
be merely a "different" form of struggle.
alleviated the pressure through moral
Ralston Prize in international law for
was "the American Way. He proceed-
Doing his own part for socialism, Tru-
equivocation and financial assistance, it
ed to show how his own relativism breeds
"original and distinguished contribution
deau left Canada with a huge deficit, an
postponed the day of reckoning.
to the development of the role of law in
Trudeau-like moral equivalence. De-
unwieldy welfare state, confiscatory tax-
scribing conflicts between "absolutists,"
As unswerving apologists like Pierre
international relations."
es, a revitalized separatist movement in
Schlesinger noted that "Buddhists and
Trudeau try to take credit for develop-
This honor was given to a man who
the French-speaking provinces, and a
favored unilateral disarmament in the
communists are killing each other in Ti-
ments that they helped delay, they should
neutralist (when not actually pro-com-
bet."
be held accountable, not awarded prizes.
face of the Soviet military build-up, a
munist) foreign policy. Under Prime
man who cannot differentiate between
This is like saying that Jews and Nazis
Minister Brian Mulrooney, Canada is
were killing each other-in the Warsaw
Soviet-sponsored brutality in Afghani-
still trying to dig out from under Tru-
ghetto. Inability to tell victim from killer
Mr. Knight, a media fellow at the Hoover
stan, Ethiopia, and Angola and Ameri-
deau's edenic sludge.
ca's support of the Afghan rebels, the
is the most crippling kind of moral blind-
Institution at Stanford University. is writing a
Like Trudeau, many intellectuals cling
ness.
book about relativism.
The Orange County Register Thursday, February 1990
THE SUN, Sunday, December 23, 1979
K3
The land of warm sun
seethes with discontent
By ROBERT H. ANIGHT
Small factories are closing for lack
leftward. He has also welcomed more
of spare parts. and automobiles are
Cuban advisers (most recent estimate.
rusting in driveways for: the same rea-
about 500), who have built some
son.
schools and small dams and provided
Before Great Britain squeezed off
A burgeoning black market for
medical assistance.
the flow from its former colonies. most
parts has emerged, fed by very profes-
Trade deals with the Soviet Union
Jamaican emigrants set their sights on
sional thieves. Recently. an American
have been negotiated. and Mr. Manley
London. Now the United States and
Embassy official awoke to find his car
has visited Moscow
Canada beckon with proximity and eas-
on blocks, all four radial tires missing.
Some Jamaicans say they fear Mr.
ier access.
In an effort to conserve foreign ex-
Manley's moves will speed up the al-
Because the usual immigration
change. the government has fashioned
ready brisk exodus. and force Mr Man-
channels are filled by the families of
a labyrinthine system of import rules.
ley to go further left. Others see sup-
Jamaican-Americans, the only legiti-
One Kingston businessman said he had
port building for the opposition leader.
mate way to get into the United States
tried to comply with the law when or-
Edward Seaga. who, according to the
is with a visitor's visa. Once here. the
dering parts for his machines, but had
latest polls. could oust Mr. Manley if an
visitor can try to wrangle a change in
waited as long as three months before
election were held now.
status from the Immigration Bureau.
requests were cleared.
But the next election is not sched-
or simply go "illegal" and disappear
"Now." he said, "I just send one of
uled until 1981. and a continued decline
Of 49,000 visitor's visas issued be-
my people to Miami to buy it and put it
could change the political puzzle. since
tween September. 1978. and Septem-
in his pocket. It's ridiculous to wait
Mr Manley's enemies keep leaving the
ber. 1979. 10 percent to 20 percent of
three months; I could be out of business
country.
the holders will fail to return to the is-
because of one small bolt."
A growing number of Jamaicans
land. according to U.S. Consular Gen-
Coffee plantation owners complain
have bought. property' in the United
eral Thomas Davis.
they can't find foremen or reliable field
States and are developing ties on which
Many are doctors. managers. skilled
workers. While vast areas of the Blue
they can fall back if the system col-
workers and technicians: in short.
Mountains lie uncultivated. Jamaicans
lapses.
what's left of the island's middle class.
are booking charters to harvest sugar
"Of course 1 think about leaving.'
Some are clerical workers who feel the
cane in the Gulf states and apples in
said a Kingston art dealer. "Many of
economic pinch and see no room for
New York.
my friends have already gone. If you
advancement in a deteriorating econo-
The island they leave behind. 90
don't hear from them for two or three
my.
miles south of Cuba and growing closer
weeks. you know they' gone.
Others are domestics who would
to the Castro ideology. is caught in the
The exodus. which had been fairly
rather take their chances in a Miami
swirl of an economic crisis with no ira-
steady through the 1950s and 1960s.
restaurant kitchen than wait to see
mediately foreseeable solutions.
took a jump when Mr. Manley made his
what their place will be in the new so-
On paper, at least, it seems prepos-
famous reelection speech in 1976.
cial order.
terous. Jamaica is blessed with white.
Buoyed by his new mandate. Mr Man-
In Kingston. a city of 600,000. of
sandy beaches. crystal clear waters. a
ley noted that anyone who didn't like
whom 40 percent are unemployed. 300
perfect year-round climate. a formida-
his policies could catch any of "five
to 350 people line up each weekday to
ble mountain range, a variety of crops
planes a day" leaving the nation's air-
apply for visas to the United States.
that even grow on trees in downtown
ports.
"That's actually a low figure." Mr.
kingston. and the world's biggest, rich-
Taking his advice. 12.779 persons
Davis said. During the peak period.
est market less than 200 miles away.
applied for immigrant visas in 1977. an
from June through August. as many as
The economy should be booming. In-
increase of more than 5,000 from 1976.
600 applicants are processed daily.
stead. it is reeling from steady de-
In 1978. 14.999 visas were issued. and
Consulate officials reject about one-
creases in production, an unemploy-
about the same number are expected to
third of the requests, largely because
ment rate estimated last year at. 42
be issued this year.
those people can't convince them they
percent. a severe foreign exchange im-
Because of strict new currency
will return to the island when the visas
balance. periodic power blackouts. con-
regulations. visitor's visas actually
expire.
sumer-goods, shortages, a per capita
dropped in 1977 by almost 20,000 appli-
Although it may help to know an
annual income of $1,100 (second only
cations, to 46,239. They rose to 65,211
American. unofficial rules require
to Haiti as the lowest in the Caribbean)
in 1978 and to 77,000 in 1979.
showing a financial interest in return-
and a depressed tourist industry.
Today. Jamaica is desperately
ing.
In 2 country with a 70 percent liter-
trying to live within its means and
We don't like to put it that way.
acy rate, there is nc shortage of citi-
what it has borrowed from the rest of
that they've got to have the bucks here
zens willing to debate what is wrong
the world. while Mr.: Manley continues
before we let them go there. but that's
Thanks to the outpouring of its man-
to rise as a Third World spokesman.
about the way it breaks down," said a
agerial and technically skilled classes.
He blames much of the economic
consulate official. "Instead of 'give us
Jamacia has few people able to do
problem on multinational corporations,
your poor. your teeming masses. etc.
something about it.
who: he says. are "punishing" Jamaica
it's more like 'give us your middle
At the center of the debate is Prime
for drifting leftward. He is less articu-
class. your technicians, your brains.
Minister Michael Maniey. the hand-
late when trying to explain why prod-
The policy may be sound from the
some, charismatic "democratic social-
uction has fallen off in government-
U.S. point of view, but it is likely exac-
ist" elected in 1972
controlled commodities, such as ba
erbating Jamaica's economic woes.
To his opponents, Mr. Manley is re-
nanas and sugar.
Even before independence came in
sponsible for everything from the gang
Since the bauxite industry remains
1962. Jamaicans showed a remarkable
wars in the Kingston waterfront to the
in the hands of a consortium of Amer-
penchant for emigration. But with in-
sharp drop in tourism on the north
ican and Canadian firms, it is an endur-
creasing political instability and an
coast:
ing symbol of the bad old days.
economy often described as a "basket
Before Mr. Manley introduced a
case." Jamaica's outflow is now of epi-
To his supporters: Mr. Manley is a
minimum wage and raised export
demic proportion.
champion of the people, and the only
levies. wages were pitifully low and re-
Of four million Jamaicans. only 2.1
Jamaican strong enough to stand up to
sources were being pumped out with
million reside on the island. The rest
the U.S. colossus that likes to think of
little compensation. White men called
are scattered around Britain and North
the Caribbean as its private lake.
all the shots in a nation 95 percent
America. Conservative estimates place
Of his persuasive powers. there is
black.
more than 350.000 in New York. 150.
absolute consensus. "If Michael Manley
Something had to be done to redress
000 in Miami and increasing numbers
gets up and wants you to believe that
the imbalance. but some Jamaicans
in Baltimore. Washington and other
Hell is the best place on earth. by the
feel Mr. Manley went too far. too fast
Eastern cities.
time be's finished. you'll believe it. He's
Many. including Mr. Manley's support-
With the middle class leaving in
that good." says Jennifer French. a re-
ers. say things are likely to get worse.
droves, its absence is being felt all over
porter for the government-owned
despite the infusion of $30 million in
the island. Only 10 specialized dentists
Kingston Daily News. "When Michael
annual U.S. grants. the highest per
(such as orthodontists) are said still to
talks. everybody listens."
capita aid program in the Caribbean.
be practicing, a ratio of one for every
And when Michael makes a political
While the prime minister makes up
200,000 prospective patients.
move, everybody watches. Following
his mind which way he's going, his
the nonaligned nations conference in
country's brains and capital continue to
Havana in September where he gave a
flow north, over an island where a
Mr. Knight is a political scientist who
pro-Castro speech, Mr. Manley moved
similar process occurred two decades
writes frequently on foreign affairs.
his People's National Party sharply
ago.
BEYOND JUSTICE / ROBERT H. KNIGHT
BYE BYE BIRDIE
Los ANGELES radio broadcaster
Bradley's ringing non-position, while
only three death sentences since Cali-
probably put it best when he
not ranking with his flip-flops on gun
fornia reinstituted capital punishment
reported on Democratic Mayor
control and offshore drilling, was prob-
in 1977. Those cases are now winding
Tom Bradley's long-awaited decision
ably the best he could do to minimize
their way through the federal courts,
on whether to support California
the damage. If Bradley had come out
and, at last count, California's Death
Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird in
against her he would have been ac-
Row, which has not had an execution
her reconfirmation bid: "Tom Bradley
cused of abandoning his principles and
since 1967, hosted a population of
has come down firmly on the side of
turning his back on an ally.
more than 160. In none of the nearly
neutrality." The mayor, who is run-
sixty murder cases appealed to the
ning for governor against popular Re-
Bird Court has the Chief Justice voted
publican incumbent George Deukme-
W
HY ALL this fuss over a judi-
to affirm a death sentence. The public
jian, had been badgered for months on
cial campaign, usually one of
has begun to suspect that she has a
the question. Forging his own path in
the more boring exercises en-
soft spot for convicted murderers.
a swamp explored by few other rank-
dured by the electorate?
According to the latest polls, sup-
ing Democrats, Bradley transformed the
For starters, both parties rightly see
port for capital punishment has reached
art of waffling into a profile in cour-
the composition of the seven-member
83 per cent among Californians, the
age, albeit a low profile.
State Supreme Court as pivotal to Cal-
highest ever. Even many who had con-
Bradley has good reason to keep his
ifornia's political evolution. Depending
sidered opposition to the death penalty
head down. Recent polls by the Los
on which side of the aisle you are on,
an integral part of the civil-rights
Angeles Times and by Mervin Field
Justice Bird and her allies on the
movement have swallowed hard and
show Justice Bird steadily ceding
bench are either the last hope of hu-
reassessed. Cases such as that of Theo-
ground and eventually losing by twenty
mane, responsive government or the
dore Frank, convicted of murdering a
points or more. The Field poll shows
tool of liberal ideologues bent on in-
two-year-old girl in 1978, help explain
her losing even among Democrats.
stitutionalizing egalitarian values.
why.
The consensus among political ob-
But it's not her court's social engi-
Frank's crime was particularly grue-
servers is that Justice Bird will hurt her
neering that has got the public's dan-
some: After kidnapping the toddler
party in the November elections; the
der up. It is the death penalty-or,
from the backyard of her babysitter's
only question is how much. This leaves
more precisely, the refusal to apply it.
home, Frank proceeded to bind, rape,
Democrats with a painful dilemma.
The State Supreme Court has upheld
and torture her with a pair of pliers
before strangling her and dumping her
body in a canyon. A jury found Frank
guilty of first-degree murder and rec-
ommended the death penalty after re-
QUITE FRANKLY,
viewing evidence seized during a
JUSTICE REHNQUIST,
I JUST DON'T BELIEVE
court-sanctioned search of his home,
A MAN WITH YOUR
PAST HISTORY IS
including a pair of pliers that matched
FIT FOR SUCHA
the wounds on the girl, and his dia-
HIGH OFFICE...!
ries, full of passages like this: "Chil-
dren, made-to-order outlet for my an-
ger and sex. Innocent, trusting, scared,
vulnerable, and submissive.
I
want to give pain to these little chil-
dren. I want to molest them. I want
to be sadistic. I want to harm them."
The Bird Court, concluding that the
warrant used by the police had been
too broad, threw out the death sen-
SEN.
KENNEDY
tence. Justice Bird herself went further,
Mr. Knight is a news editor for the Los
CORRELL
Angeles Times.
42 NATIONAL REVIEW / SEPTEMBER 12, 1986
favoring reversal of not only the death
who stopped to ask directions on a
tioning the crime and the victim only
penalty but the conviction. She said
street corner was told to hand over all
in passing as if to avoid arousing a
that Frank was denied a fair trial be-
his money and was shot to death after
populace poised at the jailhouse door
cause potential jurors who were philo-
he refused and tried to flee; a fast-
with a rope. Now grisly deeds are re-
sophically opposed to capital punish-
food-store manager was told to kneel,
counted in the stories' leads, and the
ment were excluded. In other words,
then shot at close range through the
Bird Court's record in death-penalty
in a system in which unanimity is
head by a robber; a couple who owned
cases is trotted out repeatedly, ham-
required for the death penalty to be
a grocery store were shot to death by
mering home the message that the
applied, Justice Bird wanted to require
a robber as their eight-year-old son
court may be out of step with the
the seating of jurors who had made it
watched. In all three instances, the
public. But the public may soon get a
clear that they would not uphold the
court ruled that although the prosecu-
court more to its liking.
law under any circumstances.
tion proved the defendants had killed
The outcome of Frank's appeal was
the victims in the course of robberies,
not a surprise. For the past several
it hadn't proved that they had actually
ALIFORNIA justices do not run
years, the court has shown itself will-
intended to kill. The death sentences
against an opponent but are
ing to employ the most farfetched legal
were thrown out and new trials or-
merely yea'd or nay'd by the
rationalizations to void death sentences.
dered. Case after case is now being
voters periodically. In theory, a justice
Its latest contribution to jurisprudence
tossed out on the intent rule, and doz-
disapproved by the voters leaves office
has been to rewrite the legal definition
ens more that were considered "safe"
and the governor appoints a replace-
of "intent" in such a way as to make
are slated for review.
ment. In practice, no justice has been
it almost impossible to sentence any-
All this has predictably evoked out-
defeated since the system was insti-
one to death. To the rest of the legal
rage from law-enforcement authorities
tuted in 1934. Yet at this writing,
world, "intent" is determined by ask-
and victims' families. More surprising-
Chief Justice Bird and two of her
ing: Would the reasonable man expect
ly, the dissatisfaction has spilled over
colleagues-Cruz Reynoso and Joseph
a given action, such as shooting some-
into the media. Many articles and TV
Grodin-are in jeopardy. (Last Decem-
one in the head, to produce a par-
segments about murder-case appeals
ber another liberal, anti-death-penalty
ticular result, such as death? But for
have been decidedly unsympathetic to-
judge, Otto Kaus, retired and was re-
Rose Bird, intent means a state of
ward the killers, who used to be cast
placed by Edward Panelli, a conserv-
mind that the prosecution can never
as Dickensian dregs of a failed social
ative Deukmejian appointee.)
prove existed. Take three recent death-
system. For a time, articles on this
Now even Assembly Speaker Willie
penalty cases decided by the court:
issue went into great detail over pro-
Brown, a Bird ally, has taken note of
A student from a Christian college
cedural duels between attorneys, men-
(Continues on page 59)
suits have changed the face of public
likely to turn on the death-penalty
liability. The lawyers say they support
issue. There's something about child
Justice Bird because they believe in
murderers getting off on technicalities
an "independent judiciary." But they
that motivates even the most bored
also believe in contingency fees, and
constituents.
they have benefited greatly from the
Should the critics knock off Justices
Bird Court's record in tort law.
Bird, Reynoso, and Grodin, only one
In California under Justice Bird,
radical opponent of the death penalty
suing municipalities and government
would remain on the seven-member
agencies has become ever easier and
court. There would be at least two
more attractive. A number of Califor-
Deukmejian nominees remaining and,
nia towns have been socked with mul-
if the Duke is re-elected, there would
timillion-dollar liability judgments for
be five. In the current climate, such an
KNIGHT
(Continued from page 44)
injuries for which they are not conceiv-
opportunity might just be enough to
ably to blame. A jury recently award-
draw out the great numbers of Cali-
the political fallout from the death-
ed $6 million against the city of New-
fornia voters enraged by crime and
penalty issue and has advised Demo-
port Beach, for example, to a young
radicalized by Rose Bird.
crats not to take a stand on the Bird
man who paralyzed himself by diving
reconfirmation. Of the death penalty
into the ocean near the shore.
itself, he has merely noted that "there
The trial lawyers, not surprisingly,
are some people that obviously ought
are delighted with this trend. Some big
to go on and meet their Maker." More
firms have ponied up for Justice Bird's
and more Democrats seem to feel just
war chest, and the largest single contri-
that way about Justice Bird. She has
bution to her campaign-$110,000-
received little support from the state
was supplied by the California Trial
Democratic Party, which is still reeling
Lawyers Association.
from the 1984 election and continuing
In addition to the financial and legal
growth in Republican voter registra-
difficulties spawned by the court's tort
tions. Liberal Democrats would like to
decisions, some observers are con-
see her retain her seat so she could
cerned that the rulings are having an
continue to construct legal scaffolding
even more profound political effect.
for progressive causes (such as voiding
"What they are trying to do is to con-
initiative measures to undo the Demo-
vert the tort system into a system of
crats' gerrymandering of Assembly dis-
social welfare," Berkeley law professor
tricts, or giving blessings to a Dem-
John G. Fleming told the California
ocratic challenge to the legitimacy of
Journal. By siding with the plaintiff
new registrations because of errors
in personal-injury suits against a gov-
such as typos). But most Democrat-
ernment agency, the court creates le-
ic leaders seem unwilling to take the
gal obligations for the agency, thus
risks that might save her.
expanding the agency's role without
At a fundraiser last year in San
legislative sanction. Following the Bird
Francisco keynoted by Warren Beatty,
Court's lead, lower courts have man-
Justice Bird tried to rally the troops.
dated expenditures for abortions and
As the Los Angeles Times noted, "The
other services that were not specifi-
dinner attracted interest as much for
cally funded by the legislature.
who didn't attend as for who did."
Still, though tort law may be a sexy
San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein,
issue for lawyers and insurance com-
"who was sworn into office by Bird
panies, the November election is more
and listed as honorary chair of the
dinner, declined" to speak or appear.
Jerry Brown also skipped the event,
as did Democratic Congressman Tony
Coelho, who, according to reports, was
across the street at another hotel and
"didn't walk over."
So who was wining and dining Jus-
tice Bird? Some foes of the death
penalty, some party activists, but most-
ly lawyers who specialize in personal-
injury cases. For, although the death-
penalty cases have been drawing the
most publicity, the court's decisions
on damage recovery in personal-injury
Thicago
Friday. 1990
Samuel Beckett: A small dissent
By Robert H. Knight
Blood," on the meanness of a life with metaphysical
The death of playwright Samuel Beckett occasioned
knowledge of man's imperfection-but no spiritual
an outpouring of tributes focusing on the revolutionary
joy, no promise of redemption.
impact he had on modern theater. In the midst of the
An insidious destroyer, the abyss of pessimism has a
accolades, I would like to add this small dissent.
whirlpool effect, sucking the life out of any person
Beckett was modem, all right, in the worst sense: His
preoccupied.with its imponderable depths. It is
virtuosity became more important than the use to
insanity incognito, clothed with intellect and insight,
which it was put. Like the generation of soulless
yet lacking in both. By replacing meaning with
writers he influenced, his works rattled with pithy
cleverness, it leaves only the ruinous philosophy of
dialogue, bursts of humor and irony, and ultimately
relativism, the view that all beliefs are relative.
added up to nothing.
When one is left only with one's own perceptions as
Beckett was an impoverisher of the spirit, a writer
a guide to reality, there is little to justify existence
who gave bad directions to wayfarers of the soul.
except the surrender to the senses, the self-worship of
Drowning in a sea of despair, he used his considerable
hedonism. Beckett assaulted traditional values, helping
wit and imagination to reach out and pull others into
to damage a culture already drifting from its moorings.
his nightmare.
Whatever his intentions, he helped spawn mindless
In "Waiting for Godot," the 1952 Beckett play that
materialism by discrediting any other human
profoundly influenced theater and literature, two
motivations.
hapless tramps wait without relief for someone named-
Beckett was not alone in the assault on traditional
"Godot." Their hope is portrayed as a useful lie, a
values. Some of the most highly touted recent
denial of reality. Despair is seen as a heroic embrace
literature focuses on the aimlessness of the aloof
of realism. Happy people are fools who are happy only
generation. Art has also degenerated into a sad
because they do not know any better. Godot, that is,
carnival of the pointless.
God-and God's grace-will never come. Only the
In the cinema, technique is increasingly triumphing
wait is real.
over content; Sam Peckinpah's slow-motion splashing
Bcckett's milicu was the abyss-the unchecked
of blood across the screen in his '70s films is more
absurdity that sensible people reject merely by the act
memorable than any of the plots, and the gore level
of favoring something rather than nothing. Reflective
has continued to rise. In many movies, the technique
people take furtive glances into the abyss, renewing
is dazzling but the moral sensibilities are warped. Sex,
their commitment to living as they retreat from its
violence, bright colors and a loud rock score are
edge. They know that a long look might cost them
wrapped around the remnants of a moral tradition
their sanity, or even their lives.
that is no longer understood and is used only as a
Those who linger too long without the lifeline of
weak platform for the real show-sensations.
beliefs to tug them back watch their moral center
Audiences-are showing signs of tiring of this trend
disappear into the fathomless depths. They are left
and are beginning to tune out. According to the New
only with vague concepts of survival, which they
York Times, television producers facing declining
arrange haphazardly in an effort to construct a series
ratings are increasingly turning to the past for
of temporary meanings to life.
inspiration, resurrecting old scripts and scavenging the
Such joylessness should be seen for the waste it is.
filmi vaults. They are looking for works that touch the
As the joyless abuse their talents, they plunge further.
heart-works that were conceived before the wrecking
into the abyss, drifting ever farther from life's light
ball of relativism swung through the writers' ranks. ".
while crecting the armor of intellect around their
sadness. Human salvation, they are told by the
Critics who dismiss such efforts as an exercise in
Becketts of the world, is to be found only!in the scarch
nostalgia are missing the point. Recovery, not
for-not in the finding-of truth.
nostalgia, better describes the cultural revolution that is
In his own unrelenting pessimism, Beckett was the
gaining strength amid the decadence. People want
Book of Ecclesiastes without the promise of God's
plays and movies with a moral, art that reflects beauty
salvation. Hc was "The Church of Christ Without
or at least meaning, and literature that addresses the
Christ," Flannery O'Connor's comment in "Wise
struggles of the human soul without amputating hope.
To the extent that Samuel Beckett opened the way
for experimental theater, he was a genius. To the
Robert H. Knight, a media fellow at the Hoover
extent that he helped discredit the values that keep
Institution, Stanford University, is writing; a book on
barbarians from achieving respectability, he was an
relativism.
architect of madness. May he rest in peace, away from
the abyss of his own making.
Scene
depicts
"Durga
Slaying the
Demon," a
Nepalese
bronze.
GLENN KOENIG
Los Angeles Times
PAGEANT REVIEW
A Celebration of the Human Element in Art
L
aguna Beach's Pageant of the Masters has always
By ROBERT KNIGHT, Times Staff Writer
several spots on the hillsides around the Irvine Bowl as
taken the long view, delighting its adherents and
well as on the stage, employs a historical narrative and
annoying those who decry the event's lack of
sound and lighting effects simulating a thunderstorm to
contemporary relevance.
criteria: It does not have people in it, nor is it beautiful to
tell the story of how the kachina dolls are used as spirit
In the pageant's 56th year, the grounds for the debate
more than a handful of people who must explain why it is
surrogates to ward off evil and to chastise wayward
were never so clear as during the narration for the
beautiful.
children. It all hangs together nicely.
showing of "Spirits of the Chinese Pagoda," sculptures of
In this sense, the pageant is a bald-faced thumb of the
Other works presented range from an Etruscan fresco
legendary beings that watch over the rooftops of Chinese
nose at the current art world, and at current philosophies
circa 480 BC to an ancient Egyptian necklace to Ken
villages.
that, in ratchet-like fashion, relegate human beings a
Auster's "Pier Shot," a 1988 watercolor depicting two
No mention is made of the current repression in China,
notch lower every year in the cosmic scheme of things.
surfers approaching the moment of truth in front of pilings
in which the Communist leadership is carrying out mass
Within the context of the pageant's history and mission,
at the Huntington Beach Pier. This last was not quite as
arrests of artists and film makers along with the usual
one would have to conclude that director Glen Eytchison
well received as some of the others, perhaps because it
political suspects. Instead, the Chinese art is presented in
succeeded this year as well as in any in conveying an
lacks the detail characteristic of the early masters' works.
nearly timeless fashion, with narrator Thurl Ravenscroft
appreciation of human diversity and beauty-without
It doesn't look as if it was as hard to bring off, and difficulty
noting, "As this Eastern land opens its doors to the West,"
controversy, or at least current controversy.
of execution is a criterion for eliciting oohs and ahs.
the spirit-statues "bid welcome and offer their blessings to
The pageant opens with a nostalgic look at Laguna
Despite the pageant's overall lightness of mood, some of
all."
Beach's founding through a series of sepia-toned photos
the works conceivably could be controversial, or thought-
The brief historical reference is to China's previous
tracing the city's beginnings from a patchwork collection
provoking, depending on the viewer's ideology. Louis
opening to the West at the turn of the century. But given
of shacks by the seaside in the 1880s to an artists' colony
Maurer's 1895 oil, "Great Royal Buffalo Hunt," depicts an
current events, the irony of that hopeful view is
confident enough to put on its first Festival of Arts in the
Indian slaying a buffalo as Buffalo Bill Cody looks on as a
inescapable.
summer of 1933. The first pageant artwork ever presented
co-conspirator. Animal-rights activists can't be happy
Over the years, the pageant has either avoided the
was "Girl of the Golden West," in which Josie Durkem
about such a work presented in nonjudgmental or even
temptation to comment or-as detractors have charged-
Rice, the original model for the 1914 Louis Betts painting,
approving fashion.
lacked the courage or imagination to do so. Its milieu is
reprised her role. This was re-enacted this year, as were
Women are sent a mixed message at one point in the
human diversity as recorded by the Monets; the Van
James McNeil Whistler's "My Mother," followed by Sir
program. A Nepalese bronze, "Durga Slaying the Demon,"
Goghs; the Renoirs; the ancient Greek, Roman and Hindu
Thomas Lawrence's "Pinkie" and Sir Thomas Gainsbor-
recounts the epic battle when the Hindu goddess drives
sculptors, the "masters" whose works outlived the
ough's "Blue Boy," also mainstays of the early pageants.
out an evil demon lord by magically changing her shape. In
immediate. The thrust seems to be of eternal consequenc-
Then it is on to the current offerings, starting with
the incarnation at hand, she sports 18 arms. It is a stirring
es, the things of the soul. The thread connecting all these,
Donna Schuster's sunshine-dappled "On the Veranda,"
sight, and it could be a fitting symbol for the modern
we are told by the narrator, is beauty, which requires of
followed by the guardian Chinese spirits, the Currier &
woman who is supposed to-and often does-do it all. But
the viewer the ability to appreciate.
Ives' skating-pond paean "Winter Pastime," Maxfield
just as the females in the audience might be starting to
Because of the pageant's nature-the posing of live
Parrish's lush "Garden of Allah," Gaston Doin's lively
hum "I am woman, hear me roar," the next work presented
models for a minute or so in re-creations of artworks-
"Carnival" and several other works before the first-act
is "Conversation Plaisir," a 19th-Century painting by
people are essential to the enterprise. You will not see a
finale, a multiscene presentation and history of Hopi
Victor Gabriel Gilbert that depicts a group of women
modern work on the order of "White Dot on Black
kachina dolls.
quietly enjoying a day by the river-doing laundry.
Background" because it does not meet the pageant's twin
The crowd-pleasing Hopi exhibit, which takes place on
Please see PAGEANT Page 9
Los Angeles Times
Monday, July 10, Part VI
PAGEANT
Continued from Page 8
Well, at least women are anything but
under-represented in the pageant's works:
And women get a break two presentations
later with a male nude under glass, George
Thompson and Tom Vincent's 1961 "Or-
pheus." This acts as a counterbalance for
Robert Krantz's "Fantasy of Wings" earli-
er in the program, which features a naked
young woman surrounded, but not ob-
scured, by sea gulls.
During the entire pageant, an orchestra
fronted by music director-composer-con-
ductor Richard Henn showed sprightly
versatility in as. eclectic a program of
accompaniment as one could imagine.
Also adding to the mood-or, more
appropriately, moods-were anecdotes and
quotes in the narration from commentators
as disparate as Mark Twain ("I don't like
work-even if someone else does it"),
James McNeil Whistler (who, when con-
fronted by a student who had announced "I
paint what I see," answered, "Yes, but the
tragedy of this is when you see what you
have painted") and current humorist Daye
Barry (New York "is the only city in the
country with an official arm gesture").
Lighthearted moments in the program
were provided by the Tiffany Circus
Collection, a colorful group of figurines of
circus performers, and by the Victorian
Valentines, a series of lacy, ornate paper
cutouts that celebrate romantic love.
Oops, there they go, trumpeting tradi-
tional values again. No wonder the cynics
hate this pageant. Chaste romantic love is
so uncool, don't you know, in an age of
herpes, AIDS and palimony suits. And, of
course, unrealistic.
Well, they haven't seen anything yet.
The pageant delivers a coup de grâce to
cynicism in a finale that, while infused with
Christian symbolism, transcends religious
doctrines through a careful narrative.
Since 1936, every pageant but one has
ended with Leonardo da Vinci's "Last
Supper." This year, the presentation is
preceded by a quote from da Vinci, who
explained his quest in painting Jesus'
disciples this way: "There could be no
greater challenge than to reflect the intent
of a man's soul."
At this point, confirmed cynics might be
advised to close not only their eyes but also
their ears, for the narration ends with the
words of Saint Paul, who declared that the
way of the righteous is to cling to "faith,
hope and love."
No, the pageant will probably never
include "White Dot on Black Background,"
or "Keg O' Plastic Inner Tubes."
But then, that's not what it's all about.
The Pageant of the Masters continues
through Aug. 27 at the Irvine Bowl, 650
Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Show
time: 8:30 nightly. Tickets: $9 to $35,
including admission to the Laguna Beach
:
Festival of Arts, an exhibition by local artists
and crafts people that is running concur-
rently on the festival grounds. Admission to
the festival only is $1 to $2. Information:
(714) 494-1145.
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ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
Dr. Edwin J. Feulner, Jr., President, The Heritage Foundation.
(202) 546-4400.
Mr. Gary Bauer, President, Family Research Council. (202) 393-2100.
Mrs. Kate Walsh O'Beirne, Vice President for Government Relations,
The Heritage Foundation. (202) 546-4400.
Dr. Thomas Henriksen, Associate Director, The Hoover Institution,
Stanford University. (415) 723-4255.
Dr. Helen DesFosses, Associate Provost, State University of New York at Albany.
(518) 442-5254.
David Galloway, News Editor, Los Angeles Times. (714) 966-5805.