In the ninth grade I had an English teacher named Mrs. Astle. She was a formidable woman, actually from England, who frightened me to death. She was a stickler for proper word usage. One of the points she insisted upon was the difference between “can” and “may.” I will never forget that “can” is used when one has the ability to do something; “may” is used when it is permissible to do something.

She drummed into us that just because one “can” do something doesn’t mean that one “may” do it. But I didn’t realize then that Mrs. Astle was teaching us more than just proper word usage. She was also teaching us basic ethics and proper behavior. She was teaching us how to live as civilized human beings. Recently, I’ve come to realize how important that difference is.

I have not bought Bill Clinton’s new autobiography and I don’t intend to buy it. My reasons for doing so have nothing to do with Clinton’s politics. I’m certainly not part of what ex-President Clinton perceives to be the vast right wing conspiracy out to get him.

I will confess that I’m rather disappointed in him and his performance as president. He has such great talent and intelligence but, in my opinion, he accomplished far too little. Further, as a lawyer, I cannot forgive the lies he told about his personal affairs. But none of this has anything to do with why I won’t buy his book.

I’m not willing to buy his book because of what he has said in interviews (and, I gather, in the book) about why he had sex with Monica Lewinsky. Mr. Clinton has been openly saying that the reason he had sex with this young woman was because “he could.” I think I might have been a bit more understanding if he had said that he had done this because he was in love with her, or because he was having marital problems, or because he was lonely as president. Such reasons would certainly not excuse his behavior, but, at least, they would be understandable.

Instead, Mr. Clinton has explained his behavior by simply acknowledging that he took advantage of a young woman because he had the power to do so. Obviously, Bill Clinton never learned Mrs. Astle’s lessons. Civilized people don’t do things just because they can; they do things because society, ethics and morals, say that they “may.”

I think Vice President Dick Cheney also would have benefitted by a few months in Mrs. Astle’s classroom. He has sullied the Senate of the United States, a body of which he is the president, by telling Sen. Patrick Leahy, a colleague for whom he obviously has little love, to “go —- himself.” What I find most appalling in Mr. Cheney’s behavior is not his actual use of an obscenity but his response to questions about why he did so. He explained to the world that he did so because it “made him feel better.”

In other words, since he had the ability to curse, he did. Well, Mr. Vice President, there are many things that most of us would like to do but don’t. There have been times in my life when I would have liked to hit someone, for instance, but I haven’t done so because I knew it was wrong. I know that I can do these things, but I understand that as a member of a civilized society, I may not.

To my mind President Clinton and Vice President Cheney have forgotten the difference between “can” and “may.” They also have lost sight of the fact that it is that difference that makes us civilized and better than mere beasts in the jungle. That difference is one of the fundamental bases of civilized society. It is a sad day when two of America’s leaders make it clear that they either don’t understand or don’t care about that difference. Perhaps, it’s time to bring Mrs. Astle out of retirement and send her to Washington to give some of the folks there remedial lessons.

Mike Hoeflich, a professor in the Kansas University School of Law, writes a regular column for the

Journal-World.