Gregory Freeman: After 40 Years In Politics, Simon Continues His Search For "Tangible"; Solutions At SIUC. StL P-D 6/13/1999

Headline: AFTER 40 YEARS IN POLITICS, SIMON CONTINUES HIS SEARCH FOR "TANGIBLE" SOLUTIONS AT SIUC
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Jun. 13, 1999
Section: METRO, Page: C3, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

The first thing I noticed about former Sen. Paul Simon was that he wasn't wearing his trademark bow tie.
"It's a casual day, so I decided not to wear it today, " Simon said, greeting me in his office at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

A part of the Democratic political scene in Illinois and Washington for more than 40 years, Simon has settled into a new role: that of professor, founder and director of the Public Policy Institute.
Founded 2 1/2 years ago, the nonpartisan institute is designed to help national and statewide policy-makers develop solutions and workable answers to the country's problems. The institute hosts two or three symposiums a year, bringing people from all sides together on a problem and searching for tangible solutions to it.
"The bottom line is, is it possible that we can accomplish something?" Simon said. "We don't have sessions here for the sake of having sessions. We want to see tangible results. The idea is to take issues off of dead center and to provide some ideas on dealing with them."

One issue the institute has dealt with, for instance, is poverty.
   "I was involved in the civil rights struggle, and one thing that happened during that time was that various religions took on civil rights as a moral issue, " said Simon, the son of a minister.
   "I think poverty in this country is a moral issue as well, but it hasn't gained the same interest as civil rights."
   So Simon pulled together a group of religious leaders, from Imam Wallace D. Muhammad of the American Muslim Mission to the Rev. Pat Robertson, from the president of the Rabbinical Council to representatives of the Catholic Church.
   "As you'd probably expect, they started off on opposite sides, " Simon said. "But, eventually, they began to move closer together on the issue. When two people would disagree, I'd ask them to work on language during a break. They ultimately came up with a statement that was pretty powerful."
   The result? The Seventh Day Adventists have decided to tackle the issue as one of their projects, and several other religious groups are considering making poverty one of the moral issues they will adopt.

Other issues tackled by the institute include literacy, alternative sentencing and the Middle East peace process.

As the force behind the Public Policy Institute, Simon is doing what he did for years in the Senate, in Congress and in the Illinois Legislature - bringing people together to solve problems.
"I always start every debate with the assumption that the person who dis agrees with me is as sincere as I am, " he said.

Simon worries that Congress is considerably less civil than it once was.
"I think the lack of civility is due, in part, to the negative commercials that are used these days in campaigning, " he said. "Those commercials have done a great disservice to the nation. Certainly, open disagreement on issues is OK.
But if, for instance, United Airlines showed ads urging people not to fly American Airlines because of the plane crash in Little Rock, and then another airline started running ads urging people not to fly United because of another plane crash somewhere, soon people would begin to lose all confidence in the airlines. I'm afraid the same thing is happening in government."

Simon also teaches a different course each year. He just finished a course on the history of the abolitionist movement.

Simon looks fit and younger than his 70 years, and his schedule is more in keeping with that of a younger man. He still travels around the country giving speeches, and he still does some campaigning for candidates he likes.

He still favors "good government" as much as he did back in the 1960s, when Harper's magazine wrote about the many conflicts of interest in the Illinois General Assembly and how many legislators were in the pockets of the racing industry and crime syndicate. The story also detailed how many of the lawmakers were shaking down special interests for payoffs. The magazine's source was then-state Sen. Paul Simon.
Simon still believes that government should be more honest, and campaign finance reform continues to be one of his favorite issues.

He also maintains strong positions on such issues as television violence and its effects on children.
   "There is as much research on the dangers of televised violence on children as there is that cigarettes cause problems for our health, " he said.
   "The evidence is overwhelming, " he said, ticking off the names of universities that have done studies. "But it doesn't receive the attention by television and the newspapers that it should."
   Simon says he turned on a set one night and saw a movie where someone was being sawed in half with a chain saw.
   "I know it's not real, but what kind of message is that sending to a 10-year-old?" Simon asked. "At least if you're watching violence on the news, it's not glamorizing the violence. Many of these programs do. And the message many times is that violence pays. For many youngsters, there's no problem. But marginal kids can be affected, like those we saw in Colorado."

Another issue that continues to concern him is water.
   "We'll double the world's population in the next 50 to 90 years, " he said. "But the amount of useable water will remain constant. The nation has gone to war over oil, but there are substitutes for oil. There's no substitute for water."
   The government is not looking at this problem long-term, Simon said, so no long-term solutions have been developed. Conservation is important, he said, but so is developing an inexpensive way of desalinating salt water.
   "It's a problem that's only going to grow in the future unless we find some solutions, " Simon said.

On another issue, Simon said, he's happy that the United States is paying attention to Kosovo. "But places like Rwanda and the Sudan have also had ethnic cleansing, and the response from the United States hasn't been nearly the same, " he said.
Why?
"Racism is one of the reasons, " Simon said, matter-of-factly. "Western Europe gets so much more attention, partially because the people involved are white."

The other reason he gives is that most African-Americans can't trace their roots back to a particular nation in Africa because of the way slaves were brought here.
   "When I was in the Senate and went to places like Chicago, when I went to Greek neighborhoods, people asked me about Greece, " he said. "When I went to Irish neighborhoods, people asked about Ireland. But when I went to African-American neighborhoods, I was rarely asked about Africa.
   "There's work going on now to re-establish those ties between Africa and African-Americans. It's going to take leverage by African-Americans to raise Africa's profile in Washington."
   That leverage couldn't come a moment too soon, said Simon, former chairman of a subcommittee on Africa.
   "The needs in that part of the world are overwhelming, " he said.

At his age, many people are traveling, enjoying what some consider to be their golden years. And while Simon does some traveling as well, I left his office with the sense that he truly enjoys what he's doing now.
"I'm probably doing too many things, " he said. "But I love being involved, and I think I can make a difference here."

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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