THE WEEK

□ What with Donna & Gary & Tammy & Jim (coming to your drive-in soon), not to mention AIDS, this has not been a good week for the Sexual Revolution.

□ Was Benjamin Linder, the young American engineer killed by anti-Communist forces in Nicaragua, a Communist? He was, says the columnist Richard Cohen, “a man whose intent was to make life a bit better for Nicaraguan peasants . . . a dreamer out to bring a little light to a dark corner of the world.” Yeah, but was he a Communist? The New York Times reports that his friends described him as a “political activist interested in Central American causes.” Well, was he a Communist? He was “a founder of a campus group called Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador.” And was he a Communist? “He was a self-effacing, gentle person with a twinkle in his eye and a laugh,” says his friend Millie Thayer. The nearest thing to a straight answer is provided by the Washington Post: Linder and other foreigners in Nicaragua “are among the thousands of intenacionalistas who have come to Nicaragua to work for the Sandinista cause. Many are Cubans or East Europeans sent by their governments, but a larger number are American and West European volunteers.”