Contradictions span right and left
Al Neiman
professional specialist
I write in response to Wednesday's column by James Seaman, entitled "Leaders of America's Left Fall to Flaws." Upon reading this piece I was left wondering: Why don't, why haven't, the leaders of America's right similarly fallen to flaws?
Reflect upon the Reagan-Bush legacy of illegal involvement in Central America, covert drug and gun deals, the destructive craziness of Star Wars, etc.
What was the Gulf War about anyway? Liberating Kuwait? How many Iraqi children died and continue to die as a result of our bombings (initiated, it is fair to say, by President Clinton as well as President Bush)?
Powell, Cheney, et. al., all the brave warriors who sat in their plush offices and orchestrated the rape and pillage of third world countries so that our 5 percent of the population could continue to consume close to 40 percent of the world's resources, whose repression of accurate information and reporting during the Gulf War still shames those of us who believe in the First Amendment. Why do we feel so lucky, so safe, to have these men back in charge?
As for George W. Bush, this is a man who presided, as Governor of Texas, in what will long be remembered as one of the most shameless systems of state execution in the developed world. We're not just speaking about capital punishment here, bad enough as it is (in the eyes of the Vatican), but the archaic Texas system of administering that punishment. Why is our new President Bush thought of as the man who will restore decency to our country?
In short, the Seaman piece compels me to ask another, but related (and somehow silenced) question beyond that of the authors: Why are Reagan, Bush and Bush and their henchmen still celebrated as unfallen leaders?
What Jesse Jackson did was wrong. Just as wrong, by the way, as what Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston and Henry Hyde did. And perhaps whatever else George W. Bush did (he won't tell us) before he found religion.
But I also struggle to think well of our country's future as long as the "more public" evils of Ronald Reagan and the Bushes are ignored, or somehow take second stage to the relatively private evils of Livingston, Gingerich, Hyde and Jackson.
Jesse Jackson, following his mentor Martin Luther King, has done more good for the poor and oppressed in our country than Reagan or the Bushes could possibly imagine. If Republicans can welcome people like Ollie North back into their good graces (for what? subverting the Constitution?), I imagine that we "leftists" will find our way toward forgiving Mr. Jackson and continuing to work with him towards "the promised land" that he and Mr. King have devoted their lives towards making possible.
Al Neiman
professional specialist
Notre Dame Philosophy Department
February 1, 2001
All Viewpoint Stories for Friday, February 2, 2001
