Who knows ?
WHO KNOWS? It looks as though the nation will have Bill Clinton to kick around a while longer. On Topic A we know nothing more than we read in the newspapers and see on television (nobody's...
...Indifference to sexual sins...
...I have since read news reports that people were unfamiliar with the Mass...
...Our first attempt to land in Havana ended in a scary maneuver...
...It is also time either to revise the independent-counsel law or to let it expire...
...These hospitable people certainly seemed ready...
...On the brief drive to Havana, we drew alongside a caravan of rickety buses from San Luis...
...We hope that he did not ask her to lie...
...Tour buses met us, complete with young women in red flight-attendant uniforms...
...He also reported that there had been speculation among Cubans about Fidel's private meeting with the pope...
...On Topic A we know nothing more than we read in the newspapers and see on television (nobody's leaking to Commonweal...
...When the pope arrived, the crowd waved the flags wildly, screaming "Christ is present" and "Cuba siempre Cat6Iica...
...Yet, the pursuit of rumor-mongering, fueled by the well-oiled machinery of Clinton-bashers, hardly does credit to the office or purpose of the independent counsel...
...I assured myself: no plane with so much ecclesiastical purple on it could crash...
...We hope that Mr...
...Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater prosecutor, after expending three-and-a-half years and millions of dollars, has succeeded only in exposing the corruption of Arkansas politics...
...And now I turn you over to the Cuban people," the young woman from the Ministry of Tourism said, gesturing toward Havana's Plaza of the Revolution where hundreds of thousands waited for Mass to begin...
...Few reported "facts" are verified...
...Is it favor-the-underdog sentiment...
...They picked up the rhythm of the chanting crowd, "Juan Pablo our friend, Cuba is with you," and "With the pope, Cuba has hope...
...Under the circumstances, the latter is a sound principle...
...9 Topic C: The media will self-flagellate about the frenzied coverage even as the coverage continues...
...In English, he replied, "Yes and the Mets have a Cuban too...
...By the end of the Mass, I knew the tour guide had done me a great favor in turning me over to the Cuban people...
...When he saw me try to take a picture, he put his son up on his shoulders, gestured for me to give him the camera, and the boy photographed the crowd and the altar...
...The pope got one of his biggest cheers when he calIed for Cuba to open up to the world...
...So many went to Communion that they ran out...
...He could resign if he is found "not innocent," but we doubt he will be so found, even though he may be guilty of something--or other...
...Standing at the edge, I saw many families with children and groups of teen-agers wearing tee shirts that said, "Juan Pablo II: Mensajero De La Verdad La Esperanza...
...I followed...
...Overload on high dudgeon...
...Commonweal 6 February 13, 1998...
...One of our group wrote "Viva El Papa...
...But a man in a red-and-white striped shirt was skillfully guiding two boys ever forward, so I stuck with them until the crowd became impenetrable...
...Enough said...
...Her words were meant kindly--and, for me, it worked...
...On Topics B, C, D, this should be said: _9 Topic B: The Office of the Independent Counsel was established to thwart the abuse of executive privilege...
...Starr does not find an indictable offense, it's time for someone to call an end to what looks like a fishing expedition for minnows...
...Not at all...
...Esperanza" was the theme of the day, that and a fervent desire for an end to isolation...
...I had expected our trip, put together in Miami at the last minute, would be a circumscribed experience...
...this leaves a thousand to create the feeding frenzy...
...Which is to say that what we "know" is a mass of contradictions...
...Starr is not part of a right-wing conspiracy...
...To a young man in a Florida Marlins baseball cap, I tried in my bad Spanish, "Hernandez, bueno...
...MARY PAT KELLY Mary Pat Kelly, inveterate traveler and frequent Commonweal contributor, is author of the novel, Special Intentions (Dublin: New Island, 1997...
...The procession dissolved against a wall of people...
...Conclusion: for all of the coverage, we know very little...
...Clinton did not have sex-any kind of sex--with a White House intern...
...If Mr...
...Perhaps Fidel has gone to...," he searched for the English...
...Nods and applause...
...He has yet to find an indictable offense by the president...
...No, Mr...
...We were soon exchanging peace signs and thumbs up...
...9 Topic D: The American people, thus far, reserve judgment but in a paradoxical manner...
...Just then, the San Luis bus group arrived carrying yellow balloons and processed toward the front with a little Samba in their steps...
...Remedy: more self-flagellation, more self-criticism, and more genuine reporting...
...As we write on February 3, the impeachment of Mr...
...Clinton appears unlikely...
...the Eucharist was shared...
...Or is it simply an invocation of the common law principle, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law...
...We (cardinals, bishops, priests, and lay people) would fly to Havana at 5 A.M., go straight to the Mass, and return immediately after...
...Most people sang without referring to the printed words...
...There were no vendors and nothing for sale...
...I got my flags from an older black man, a self-appointed distributor...
...A woman handed me a pamphlet with the hymns and I joined in the singing...
...Their passengers held small homemade paper flags...
...The altar was five football fields away, and the crowd was enormous...
...To forgiveness," he said...
...Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania, appearing on the "News Hour with Jim Lehrer," offered this astute rundown: The news is ahead of the story...
...Opinion polls show that many do not believe the president's denials, yet his standing in the polls has never been higher...
...Probably ten reporters in Washington have good sources for this story...
Vol. 125 • February 1998 • No. 3
