‘Life in the Age of Clinton’

I was amused, and then instructed, by Llewellyn Rockwell Jr.’s alarmist column, “Life in the Age of Clinton” (Column Right, Nov. 22). He is amusing because Clinton ran and won as a centrist. A lot of liberals are going to be delirious with amazement if 10% of Rockwell’s predictions come true. Rockwell seems to be in a panic of fear and loathing, or is warming up a fund drive among the gullible.

Rockwell describes an aversion to inclusion, to social responsibility, to environmental responsibility and to just about anything you can imagine that would describe a mature society. His catalogue outlines what I would like to hope is a legitimate fear for the loss of American adolescence. While our adolescent years were exuberant and productive of wealth and conquest, they have also been wasteful and too often harmful to the many. If we are to compete globally, we must learn to live and to govern ourselves more maturely.

For example, we must learn, in relation to our environment, the Christian concept of stewardship, a passion curiously lacking from the political agendas of the religious right. In education, we must learn how not to lose the poorest among us to poverty, desperation and crime. I don’t expect Bill Clinton to usher in a new age, but with his thorough knowledge of our economic competitors, I am hopeful that Clinton will help us not only to “grow” but to “mature” our economy.

DEAN HISER

Orange