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LETTERS | MARCH 9, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 10 75TH ANNIVERSAY ISSUE |
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Letters INVESTIGATING THE PRESIDENT
"When the world needs sex police, we can give Kenneth Starr a
call. But until then, he should stay out of our bedrooms."
I am much more concerned about special prosecutor Kenneth
Starr's out-of-control investigation than I am about President
Bill Clinton's alleged out-of-control libido [Feb. 9]. I do not
want to live in a country where "friends" are encouraged to rat
on their pals, where body wires are used to gather information
about someone else's sex life and where fbi agents bully naive
people and rummage through personal belongings. This is the
stuff of totalitarian regimes.
You do not do justice to the special prosecutor. He has a job to
do. Why blame him? Point your finger at the President, not at
Starr.
Isn't it time to stop this insanity? The Spanish Inquisition was
an example of general-court powers gone awry. Starr is a
modern-day Torquemada with unrestricted powers to recklessly
punish anyone he judges to be heretical.
Starr is less interested in seeing justice done than in trying
to bring Clinton down. Starr keeps spreading his net ever wider,
but all that he has been snaring is red herrings.
No matter whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you feel
ashamed and dirty because of Clinton's antics. He makes us
embarrassed to be Americans. He has stripped us of our innocence.
I am a Gen-Xer who voted for Clinton twice. I am astonished by
the boys-will-be-boys attitude expressed by the American public.
I expect Clinton to show respect and keep his extracurricular
activities out of our White House!
If Starr is nonpartisan, I am the Queen of the Nile. He's on a
mission. To him it is irrelevant that the economy is healthy and
the majority of Americans are happy with the job performance of
their elected President. Enough already! I voted for a
President, not a husband.
To ignore the charges about President Clinton's behavior would
set a precedent that would encourage other powerful men to
engage fearlessly in questionable sexual conduct in the
workplace. Will we force our President to face the consequences,
just as any other man should? These are very serious questions
that all of us working women and potential victims of sexual
harassment must ask ourselves.
I'm reminded of the words of the German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche: "Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is
powerful." THE STAR CHAMBER IN HISTORY
Your article "Inside Starr and His Operation" [Feb. 9] said
Starr's critics have taken to calling the grand-jury room "the
Starr Chamber." It's interesting to note that a star chamber was
a court that existed in Britain from the 15th century until 1641
and exercised wide civil and criminal jurisdiction under rules
suited to the purposes of absolutist sovereigns. This court met
in secret session without a jury, used torture to force
confessions and handed down severe arbitrary judgments.
Dictionaries currently define a star chamber as any tribunal or
investigating body that is unjust, arbitrary and inquisitorial.
If the star chamber was abolished in 1641, how come it is
sitting in Washington? THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD
As a U.S. citizen long a resident in Europe, I cannot understand
what has happened to the American principles of justice and due
process of law [Feb. 9]. The "independent" counsel has spent
several years and $30 million investigating a two-bit real
estate deal and has extended the "investigation" to include the
President's private life. Clinton is a U.S. citizen and should
be entitled to protection, not persecution, under the law.
It is very sad that a majority of Americans think Clinton's
alleged affair with a young intern isn't important. This scandal
has shown that moral standards no longer exist in America.
It is totally beyond comprehension that a prosecutor in the land
of the free can ask an adult female to testify under oath that
she did or did not have a sexual relationship with an adult man,
be he the President of the U.S. or anybody else. It is an
invasion of privacy. Such behavior should render special
prosecutor Starr the seat of honor at a gossip session with a
bunch of sex-starved spinsters.
Adultery is not a crime in most places, nor is
cross-generational intimacy. And suppose someone did lie under
oath? People have a right to lie to protect their civil rights
from the state when it acts in totalitarian ways. Would you not
lie to the Gestapo under oath? I feel much more empathy with
Clinton than with the puritanical hypocrisy and power-abuse
patterns of Starr.
If in four years Starr could not discover anything more serious
than what we know about now, then America probably has one of
the most honest and decent Presidents in history! The amazing
thing is that the independent counsel continues to probe
endlessly for petty crimes (that were not committed, but hard to
deny) just to incriminate the President. Isn't everyone equal
under the U.S. Constitution? The '90s is an age of more law and fewer scruples. You can do whatever you please as long as some legal loophole makes it O.K. Clinton is the leader of this age. If Americans support him despite all the scandal and legal dodging, just because the country is enjoying a booming economy, they are after nothing but money. Can't people put aside greed? NARI YOSHIMURA Osaka, Japan
No doubt President Clinton boosted his ratings by the impressive
delivery of his well-rehearsed State of the Union address, but
people everywhere, not only Americans, need to be told
eloquently by him the real state of the union between him and
Monica Lewinsky.
How long will it take before the American people realize that
most U.S. Presidents had sexual adventures, lied to the nation
and the rest of the world and in some way obstructed justice?
Let Clinton get on with his job. This circus is becoming an
insult to the entire nation.
Starr is bringing back a new form of McCarthyism with questions
like "Are you now having or have you ever had sex with the
President?" CONSPIRACY THEORIES
RE the First Lady's right-wing-conspiracy theory [Feb. 9]: just
because you're a little bit paranoid doesn't mean they aren't
really after you.
Your story mentioned that Hillary Clinton served as a House
committee lawyer during Watergate and said she is "sounding a
bit like Tricky Dick himself." I view her more like Captain
Queeg aboard the U.S.S. Caine. You could almost see her rolling
those steel balls in her hand as she ranted on TV about the
conspiracy to thwart the commander of the ship of state.
I simply cannot agree with the First Lady's assessment that the
President's plight is the result of a "vast right-wing
conspiracy." Given the competence and credibility of all those
involved, from Starr to Lewinsky, this conspiracy can only be
defined as "half-vast." HOW ARE WE DOING?
Your readers would be better served by the broader coverage that
has made TIME the standard bearer for insightful reporting than
by so many pages on this scandal [Feb. 9]. All of us can obtain
gossip from the supermarket tabloids. Forget the sleaze, and get
back to doing what you do best.
If ever there was justification for TIME's weekly format, the
coverage of this story is it. After days of rabid TV and
newspaper reporting, it was a pleasure to see the situation put
into perspective. Keep up the good work! OLYMPIC DREAM COME TRUE
Nagano dreamed of playing host to the Olympic Winter Games [Feb.
9] even before the Sapporo Games which were held in 1972. The
reason is that there was nothing in Nagano other than snow and
the Zenkoji Buddhist temple. Despite a population of more than
350,000, transportation was poor. Playing host to the Games has
meant the revitalization of the city. Now there are newly
constructed highways and a bullet train connection to Tokyo. In
the end, however, we must consider that the Games are not only
for the city of Nagano but also for people all over the world.
Our success will be measured by the hospitable and gracious
reception we have offered visitors.
FEMINISTS AND CLINTON Some commentators have charged that feminists have laryngitis about President Clinton's alleged relationship with Monica Lewinsky [Feb.9], but several women readers have broken the silence. "I am sick to death of being told that feminists should decry Clinton's behavior," complained Barbara Stephens of McLean, Va. "I voted for Clinton to do a job, and he's done it well." "Feminists do not have laryngitis," Kathy Rodgers, executive director of the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City, declared. "We speak out when there are allegations of unwelcome sexual conduct. We don't comment on consensual situations because we are not the 'sex police.'" Explained Rodgers, "If a person finds sexual attentions welcome, there are not grounds for a sexual-harassment claim."
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