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Asking About The First 100 Days

GOOD morning, Mr. President, Saturday was the 100th day of your administration. What have you to show for yourself?

You haven't forgotten your promises to the American people, have you? You know, those bold initiatives you proposed in the campaign, those...

What's that? Sorry, my mistake--there were no bold initiatives in the campaign. But you did say something about wanting to be the environmental/educational/ethical president, didn't you?

Are you satisfied with your first 100 days, Mr. President? Should the nation be?

THE poisoning of the environment is the most pressing problem facing the world, not just the United States. You ran your campaign in the Greenhouse Summer, the summer of drought, the summer of medical wastes washing ashore on America's beaches.

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You started out well. Your acid rain proposal has the potential to be the first plan to succeed in stopping the decay of our lakes and forests, and your endorsement of a European plan to end chlorofluorocarbon use will help protect the ozone layer.

But your administration was slow in responding to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. When Exxon failed to fulfill its responsibility to clean up the mess, the federal government could have acted to avoid irrevocable damage.

Why didn't the Secretary of the Interior go to Alaska soon after the spill to see the scope of the disaster with his own eyes? Three weeks before the spill, an Environmental Protection Agency report criticized oil companies' "careless management of chemical and oil wastes on Alaska's North Slope." The lack of a coherent plan to deal with such crises has given new meaning to the phrase, "from sea to shining sea."

YOU said you want to be the education president. What have you done? The biggest menace to America's public school system is drugs. You appointed a "drug czar," William Bennett, but haven't given him the funding he needs to develop a successful program.

You believe in supply-side drug management, but it has not worked and never will until the rot of America's inner cities is stopped. The drug war must be coupled with a war on poverty.

Are you happy to live in the murder capital of the world? Banning the imports of automatic weapons will just force drug dealers to "Kill American." It's a heck of a way to fight the trade deficit, Mr. President. You must take stronger action against guns, or else the violence will continue--that's more important than jeopardizing your life-time membership in the National Rifle Association.

For the ethics President, it has been a rough 100 days. Your first nominee for Secretary of Defense, John G. Tower, crashed and burned on the character issue. Ethics czar C. Boyden Gray '64 was lambasted for the appearance of impropriety.

And you, Mr. President? The trial of Lt. Col. Oliver North draws attention to a deafening silence from the White House. What were your ties to the Contras? Did you keep close ties with CIA friends involved in the arms-for-hostages deal? What did you know and when did you know it, Mr. President?

If you did have an important role in the operation, Mr. President, don't expect North to keep quiet if he is convicted, and don't expect public opinion to be merciful if you yourself do not explain your involvement.

Mr. President, you promised us a clean administration--clean planet, clean schools, clean government. After 100 days, what do we have? An oil slick in Alaska, blood-stained streets in Anacostia and mud-spattered reputations in the government, your government.

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