From: naveen@ms.uky.edu (Naveen Goud)
Subject: Political Humor (USA)
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 03:03:41 GMT
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Computer Science, Lexington

Hello guys,

Eventhough the elections in USA are over, here is a nice article I came across
in NYT. I am posting this for those who have not read this article. 
Read and enjoy it. 

- Naveen

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Drinking Fountain Politics :
Copied w/o permission from the NY Times, Monday 8/31/92 p.A15

Imagine that a network morning show has assembled six political heavyweights
for a call-in show. A teacher phones to report that during a recent class tour
of the White House, a student wanted a drink of water, only to discover that
the fountain was out of order. The teacher asks the panel what message a broken
fountain at the White House sends to the young people of America. Let's listen
to the answers :

ROSS PEROT :  The question here is simple. how do we fix it. I say, let's
bring together the finest plumbing talent in America -- from outside the
system. Let them look at the fountain. Turn it on. Turn it off. Measure the
flow in it. That sort of thing. And you can be sure, the next time you take a
White House tour, you're going to drink from a world-class fountain.

JESSE JACKSON  :  Let us not talk about this broken water fountain. Let us
talk about the thousands of broken water fountains across America. For they, 
too, are broken, like the broken dreams of America's forgotten children. And
whether you are black, white, brown or yellow, you cannot use them. Why?
Because the Republican Party is more interested in Perrier water and Pellegrino
water than it is in public water.

Al GORE  :  I love my country. And I love water. And I love the children
who drink from the water fountains in the country I love, and that my father
loves. And I believe in my heart that the time has come, now more than ever,
for all of us to be inspired by the young people of America whose dreams for
the future depend on our ability as a nation to provide them with the water
that is the essence of their survival.

DAN QUAYLE  :  I am very, very sympathetic to the disappointment young people
in America feel when they go to a water fountain in the single most important
building in America and cannot drink water from it. Because I too, would be
very, very disappointed if I were to go to get a drink from a water fountain
and discover that, because of the Democrats, the water does not come up. Water
is a terrible thing to waste, when there is thirst but no water, that is a
terrible thing.

BILL CLINTON :  I grew up in a home where public water fountains were very
important to me and to my family. And I have put forward a plan similar to the
plan I introduced to Arkansas. This plan is good for America. It takes the
$4.25 million savings we realize when we eliminate the 10 percent reduction on
the capital gains that exceed $30,000 in any given one-year period for
Americans under the age of 31 who graduated before 1984, and it allocates 18.5
percent of that sum to paying for 80 percent of the new fountain construction.

GEORGE BUSH :  O.K. Sure. Fine. There's something wrong with a water fountain
in the White House? Not denying it. Have to be a fool to deny it. But make no
mistake about it. There is a lot that is right with it, too. And that's one
thing I want to focus on, you see, not what's bad about the water fountains in
America but what's good about them. And with the help of the American people
and a Republican Congress I can work with, I can make the water flow again in
the water fountains of America.

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