"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism ... ." -- Historian Will Durant

If we can, let's forget for the moment the trials and tribulations of an American President and concentrate on the society that will judge him after members of Congress complete whatever it is they feel they should or can do. Few of us had expectations that the scope of the Kenneth Starr report would be as inclusive as it has proved to be, and perhaps even fewer anticipated the sexual details would be so turbid.

But, after all, should we expect any less for our $40 million investment in the investigation of a failed land development attempt in rural Arkansas? We have received not a predicted whitewash of Whitewater but a detailed description of the excesses of the top elected official in the United States.

This is not, thanks to an assortment of players but principally William Jefferson Clinton, America's finest hour.

But what I believe should worry thoughtful citizens of our republic more than presidential peccadilloes is the seeming absence of serious thought given to the direction our nation has been traveling long before the inauguration of our forty-second president.

If there is one redeeming feature of the current crisis in Washington, it is that millions of citizens are engaged in thought, discussion and debate over the actions of their national leader. Whether partisan or independent, this targeting of public participation has been beneficial in a country that for the greater part of any year invests far more attention to other, less critical and often insignificant matters.

Zippergate has attracted a considerable amount of attention because it involves one of life's basic functions, and for some reason many are surprised to discover that political figures are not immune. Most of our national heroes have been satisfied with the aphrodisiac of power, although Mr. Clinton is not the first to expand his interest into more basic activities. As an aside, many of the Oval Office's sexual satyrs have been Democrats, a fact that would seem to confirm the party's claim to be representative of the common man.

A fortnight ago, on a weekend in which the full text of Mr. Starr's report to Congress was being printed and our state's unquestioned hero-of-the-moment, Mark McGwire, has just broken Roger Maris' home run record, regional newspapers experienced something close to V-J Day circulation. But the public was buying record numbers of newspapers not because of the Starr report but because many wanted to read, and then preserve, the amazing record of the Cardinals' first baseman. Even the evidence that could impeach a president was overshadowed by a sporting event, which discloses more than many are comfortable saying about the capacity of citizens to understand or appreciate today's socio-political environment and culture.

This may sound strange, but one worries what will become the next national attraction if Mr. Clinton is impeached and leaves office. The baseball season is nearing an end, so the media and the public will have to decide about life after Big Mac and Sammy Sosa. But one thing we can be certain of, and that is our focus will not be on the problems that have been overlooked so easily in recent weeks and months, as we gave our wholehearted attention to home runs in Busch Stadium and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

We will be exhausted from the Clinton mess and bored by the home run quest, conditions that will excuse our thoughtful attention on matters of far greater significance to the future of America.

It's not difficult to identify these matters even if their study and resolution are slighted or completely ignored by the public, the political parties and their candidates and the news media, particularly the electronic variety.

-- Poll after poll shows the average citizen feels increasingly ignored by both major political parties, and that his or her opinion is of no interest or held in any regard by these groups.

-- The widening proliferations of nuclear weapons, even by small, once-impotent, nations has mitigated the U.S. claim as the world's only superpower, and at the same time has made America the prime target for religious and political extremists. America is in the sights of more guns today than at any time in our history, and all of these weapons threaten our national security as well as our domestic tranquility.

-- The constant upward mobility of 10 percent of Americans and the financial stagnation and outright decline for an increasing percentage is transforming the U.S. into a have-and-have-not nation that has not seen its likes since the 1920s, if even then. Solutions are not easy, and worse, solutions are not even up for discussion.

-- America's widening gulf between exports and imports can eventually drain our financial resources to such a degree that a depression becomes an irrefutable denouement. If you match this with the expanding tradeoff between corporate profits and the loss of manufacturing jobs to Third World countries, you have a double header that spells untold financial upheaval in all 50 states.

-- A seemingly uncontrollable drug problem, coupled with a loss of educational achievement, increasingly threatens the future of the next generations of Americans who even now display a cultural and moral ignorance that shocks anyone with sufficient interest to investigate.

If the Clinton impeachment has become a "national crisis," then what in God's name will be label these overwhelming problems that pose an even greater threat to America's future?

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.