opinion
A new script for Ronnie
Reagan tries to stop
sex discrimination
by Art Buchwald
It is no secret that Ronald Reagan
works best from a script. Therefore, the
other day, just before he went out on the
road to campaign for Republican candi
dates, his writers handed him a bunch of
new pages to read.
“OK, Ronnie, now here’s the story
line. You’ve been President of the United
States for two years, and no matter what
you’ve tried to solve the country’s econo
mic problems, nothing has worked. So
you’re ticked off because people are
starting to blame you for their troubles.
You’re no longer going to be Mr. Nice
Guy.”
Ronnie studied the script. “Gosh, you
really want me to say that the Dempcrats
are responsible for the rotten mess we’ve
been in for the last 40 years?”
“Right. But you must do it with feeling.
The people have to believe that you in
herited the biggest financial disaster of
anybody who ever sat in the Oval Office.
You’ve tried to do something about it but
the fat Democratic spenders in Congress
have stood in your way. Can you do it
with feeling?”
“Gee whilikers. It’s so out of character
for me. What’s my motivation for becom
ing a demagogue?”
“You’re on the hot seat because the
1982 Senate and House elections are
coming up, and the Democrats are laying
the blame on you for a stagnant eco
nomy, high interest rates and two-digit
unemployment. If you don’t come out
fighting, you’ll lose a Republican Senate
and 40 or 50 seats in the House.”
“I get it. By attacking Congress, I’m
still a good guy because I’m trying to save
the country.”
“That’s the way we wrote it. Now in this
scene you are talking to the people who
still believe in you, but occasionally there
is a heckler in the audience who starts
yelling for ajob while you’re talking. You
never get flustered by him. You say,
‘Look in the want ads.’”
“I like that line.”
“It never fails to get the audience on
their feet.”
Ronnie went over the pages. “How ab
out this one where I say, ‘The fall elec
tions offer a clear choice about the kind
of nation we will be — whether we will
continue our sure and steady course to
put America back on track, or whether
we will slide backward into another eco
nomic binge like the one which left us
with today’s pounding national hangov
er.’ That’s a big mouthful for me to say.”
“We’ll leave it in for Richmond, Virgi
nia. If it doesn’tgetalaughwecs
drop it out on your nextcarapaif.
Ronnie kept turning the
“Jumping bullfrogs, I seeyoui
blaming Washington for all oo;
lems. Suppose they say I’m
problem now.”
“Ignore what they say
best bet is to attack Jimmy Carter:
mess you inherited. Thewayw:
ten it whatever you can’t blameor
you blame on Tip O’Neill. Thisis';
of the picture where you reallygo
jugular. Can you do it, Ronnie:
“I’m going to try my dame
you’re sure the people will still
me.”
“They’ll root for you, Ronnie,
the way we’ve written it you’rety
hat, and the Democrats arethekl
The more you say it, the
believe it.”
“Are all these facts in the
rect?”
“Don’t worry about facts.Ifyotj
with conviction people will!
whether the facts are true or
get on your horse and let’s sn|
cameras and see how it plays."
“QUIET ON THE SET.TAB
‘THE GIPPER FIGHTS BACK.’
’EM.”
mat:
by Helen Thomas
United Press International
WASHINGTON — With the demise of the
Equal Rights Amendment that he opposed.
President Reagan is now making a major
effort to wipe out some of the more blatant
vestiges on sex discrimination that are on the
government books.
The president has given Elizabeth Dole, his
dynamic assistant for Public Liaison, the
green light to organize a broad attack on sex
bias and legal inquity.
Dole, who was an ERA supporter, is enthu
siastic about the new battle plan and believes
that she will have the support of the activist
women’s libbers in ridding government reg
ulations of obvious discriminatory termi
nology.
She feels she has a mandate to move ahead
and says there is a “quiet revolution” taking
place with a “tidal wave of women coming into
the work force.”
“We have to sort out the problems and what
needs to be addressed,” she said in an inter
view. Furthermore, she said polls show
women have “less faith ... less of a certainty
about our institutions ... a lack of confidence
about the future as they have come into the
work force.”
Dole has her work cut out for her in pur
suing Reagan’s pledge to work with the gov
ernors of the 50 states to root out discrimina
tion against women in their statutes.
“We have to move them to corrective legis
lation,” she said.
Dole said that she has meet with “many
women’s groups who say we’ll work with you.”
She acknowledges giving her husband.
Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., a nudge when he
introduced a bill before congressional ad
journment at the president’s behest to sanitize
100 laws from sex bias language.
In addition, she said that the Justice De
partment has organized a team of 15 to 20
men and women lawyers to look into discrimi
nation in each government agency and de
partment.
In a letter to Senator Dole on Sept. 27,
Reagan noted that last year he had issued an
executive order directing directed the attor
ney general to complete review of federal laws
and regulations containing language “that
unjustifiably differentiates or discriminates
on the basis of sex.”
“I am happy to report that the first stage of
that process is under way, and I fully expect
that when we are finished a significant contri
bution will have been made toward the
achievement of full equality for women be
fore the law,” Reagan said.
He said the bill Dole introduced would re
vise a number of statutes identified as “sex
biased” in a Justice Department report last
June.
“As important as this is, all of us realize that
it is only one step that must be followed by
many others,” he said. “But in the end, I hope
we will be able to say that full equality before
the law is not just an ideal but a practical
reality.”
Dole, who holds a Harvard law degree and
a Phi Beta Kappa key, said she has had two
meetings with the president to discuss plans
which she is certain will show “some signifi
cant movement” in the drive for female equal
ity in the workplace.
At a news conference last July 28, White
House reporter Sarah McClendon, a long and
active member of the National Woman’s Par
ty, challenged Reagan to make public the Jus
tice Department interim report on the discri
minatory regulations it had turned up gov
ernment-wide.
Her questioning of the president spotlight
ed the issue and is credited with forcing the
slow moving White House to accelerate the
pace of eliminating the age old inequities,
many of them economic.
the small society
by Brickman
TJJJ
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>1981 King Features Syndicate, Inc. World rights reserved.
6-"
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Florida f
At least a lane beats a line
by Dick West
United Press International
WASHINGTON — I drove into a gasoline
station the other day to fill up my car. This is
not the simple process it once was.
Back when motorists had to wait in long
lines to buy gas, we wouldjolly well lurch up to
any pump that was operating with no ques
tions asked as long as there was enough room
to nestle alongside. No more.
Now motorists must make a choice not only
of the type of gasoline to buy — regular or
premium, leaded or unleaded, etc. — they
also must decide which lane to get in.
Some lanes are self-service. Others are full
service. Some are for cash only. Others are for
credit card users. And this is no time for gas
line roulette.
According to oil expert Dan Lundberg, gas
prices may vary as much as 60 cents a gallon,
depending on which pump and which lane
the motorist patronizes. So it pays to know
what you are doing.
On the occasion of which I speak, I wanted
to buy leaded regular gas at self-service prices
with a credit card. It was my first visit to this
particular station and I was frankly nervous.
When I pulled up to a leaded regular
pump I had spotted, an attendant ambled out
of the little glassed-in cashier’s cage and began
removing the cap from my gas tank.
“Isn’t this a self-service island?” I asked.
“No, this is a full service island,” the atten
dant replied. “The self-service lanes is the
next one over.”
I backed up and parked by an unleaded
regular pump at the next island, but I made
the mistake of approaching it from the wrong
side.
Instead of getting into the self-service cre
dit card lane, as I discovered when I went over
to the glassed-in cage to pay for the gas, I had
gotten into the self-service “cash only” lane.
“This is most irregular,” the cashier told
me when I dropped a credit card into the
sunken aperture. “You are supposed to be
paying cash.”
“Tm terribly sorry,” I apologized, “but I
don’t have that much cash with me.”
“On the north side of the self-service is
land, you get a cash discount and the pumps
are calibrated to compute prices at that rate. If
you paid by credit card, you would be getting
a discount to which you were not entitled.”
I said, “Why can’t you just charge me at the
credit card rate?”
“I could figure it out, I suppose, but it
would be terribly complicated,” the cashier
said sadly, shaking his head. “The cash price
already has been recorded on the pump and
any difference throws our
tern out of kilter. I am not an accounia
know.”
“Ok,” I confessed, “I goofed. TliiJ
first visit here and I got confused !
do now? Am I supposed tosiphontheg
of the car and pour it back intothep
The cashier sighed a weary sigh, “Pi
that would be the best thing,” he said j
Berry’s World by Jim Berry
© 1982 by NEA, Inc.
“No. Actually, I am not aghast. I heard my first
Christmas commercial of the year on Septem
ber 14th!”