Word: furore
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...task should have been fairly routine. Instead, a series of staff miscues and a lack of sensitivity by the President not only cast a pall over his German trip, they managed to stir up all the old wartime passions that Reagan had hoped to put to rest. As the furor over the Bitburg cemetery visit escalated for more than a week, he seemed unable to understand the emotions that he had aroused and, instead of recovering, slid more deeply into controversy...
...visit the military cemetery. Asked who was buried there, Speakes replied that he "thought" both American and German soldiers were interred at the site. He later refused to ex plain where he had received that impression or whether the President had also assumed this to be true. The furor broke when reporters discovered that not only were there no Americans in the cemetery but that the notorious SS officers were among the dead there...
Shaken by the reaction in the U.S., a senior official in Bonn looked back at the furor and put the issues in a broader perspective. Said he: "No one could have imagined how thin the ice was we were gliding on. History comes through so easily, so quickly. Now all the controversy is directed against the President. But afterward, it might be directed against the Germans . . . Even 40 years may not be long enough, even 50 years, even an entire change of generation...
...cemeteries of World War II, one containing such men is the most unworthy of a visit by an American President. The most worthy--the graves of Allied liberators or of the Nazis' victims--were originally excluded from President Reagan's agenda. After the furor, the Administration hastily scheduled a trip to a concentration camp. It believes it has balanced things...
...aftermath of the Schiavo furor, physician-assisted suicide is likely to erupt as the next big conflagration over end-of-life issues. Indeed, things have already begun to heat up. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last month to take up a Bush Administration challenge to the Oregon law. The White House wants to revoke the license of any doctor who writes a lethal prescription, arguing that federal drug laws trump states' rights to regulate medical practice. Meanwhile, legislative committees in Vermont and California will vote this month on whether to adopt Oregon-style statutes. Other states have considered similar laws...