THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 17, 1996 TAG: 9602170301
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Precisely how much government we need and want, a question posed but often obscured in the presidential campaigns, was very much on the minds and lips of William Bennett, Nat Hentoff, Ralph Reed and others at Regent University Friday.
Almost no one seemed to question that government has some role in education, the environment, welfare and other national interests. But there was little consensus on what that role is.
The occasion was a day-long seminar, ``Restoring Civic Virtue: The Role of American Institutions,'' co-sponsored by Regent and several affiliated organizations.
Bennett - author of the best-selling ``A Book of Virtues,'' national chairman of the Lamar Alexander for President campaign and former secretary of education - said one of the great challenges of the coming years is for individuals to take back some of the duties now assumed by the federal government.
``Marx said in time the state would wither away,'' Bennett said. ``In the last 30-40 years, the state has not withered away.''
He called, as Alexander and other presidential candidates have, for dissolving the federal Department of Education, which he once led.
``We did our best to disestablish it,'' he said. ``We actually had higher test scores before the department existed. I don't think the department is actually causing that drop, but it's not helping.''
His speech was enthusiastically received by the friendly audience.
Later, however, some participants in a panel discussion added different perspectives.
Margaret Carlson, a columnist for Time magazine, quipped that anyone who says the family should be the basic unit of government ``has never tried to organize a carpool.''
She went on to say that Virginia Beach and other cities would be much less healthy places to live if it weren't for federal clean air and clean water laws.
``I think we have forgotten the good things government does,'' she said. ``It's OK now to hate government.''
Reed, director of the Christian Coalition, said Carlson was overstating opposition to government.
``Most religious conservatives would never want to entirely abolish government programs to care for the less fortunate,'' he said. But as much as possible, he said, those programs should be turned over to the lowest level of government.
One speaker, Catholic priest and author Robert A. Sirico, linked religious and economic liberty, arguing for the minimum government limits on property owners.
Hentoff, a writer for The New Yorker and respected authority on the First Amendment, said he has seen many distinguished, middle-aged men - obviously former corporate managers - bagging groceries in his hometown.
``They have been downsized,'' Hentoff said. ``They are not the celebrators of a free-market economy.''
One of the government's principal roles is protecting the individual rights outlined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Hentoff said, and it is neglecting that duty.
In Bennett's speech, he said the ``culture wars'' of the 1990s have at least demonstrated one thing: ``A sense of shame still exists in America. It still has power.''
The recent Academy Award nominations also showed that sex and violence are not necessary to sell good products to Americans, he said. Pointing to the nominations for ``Babe,'' ``Apollo 13'' and ``Sense and Sensibility,'' he said, ``This is what the public wants. We should give the public what it wants.''
Regent honored Bennett's visit by endowing a scholarship in his family's name. ILLUSTRATION: Color MOTOYA NAKAMURA photos/The Virginian-Pilot
William Bennett jokes after receiving a plaque, held by his son
John, from Regent University.
Writer Nat Hentoff, center, talks about justice during Friday's
panel on government at Regent University, while Ralph Reed, the
director of the Christian Coalition, right, looks on. The panel,
which represented a range of ideology, struggled to reach consensus
on many issues.
by CNB