VIEWPOINTS
EDITORIALS. OPINIONS. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Bosnia: U.S. would act
if money were at stake
OUR OPINION: I f Ui tori
Slates should pul its mili
tary where its money isn't
"Never again."
While Americans mOwi
on the 50th anniversary of
the end of World War II this
year, and politic ians deliver
poignant, politically benefi
cial speeches aliotit tlur N.i/i
extermination of the Jews,
thousands of Muslims are
being slaughtered or evil ted
from their homeland 1 he
death toll in Bosnia llerze
govina continues to rise, as
Orthodox t Htristian Serb
fori es shell anti "cleanse"
I hiited Nations' "safe
zones." pushing thousands
of Muslim refugees further
south.
Sint e this war began in
April 19'I2. the l anted
States. Britain and other
Western countries have
been unwilling to get
involved in any real wav
The United Stales has sent
humanitarian aid (food,
clothing, etc ) hut no
weapons, ground troops 01
aircraft that do anything
mm li more than survey the
extermination and destrut
tion taking place under
their wings i'he t Hinton
administration lias been
"considering” military
at tion, "threatening” I ’• S
intervention, and "warning"
Serb fort es sini e loo t Still,
not lung has been done
Clinton has said he has no
intention of leading Ameri
i an fori es into a war in
Bosnia without siguilit ant
support from the United
Nations. Of i nurse, fori es
from several hasten) nations
are already there, so new
reasons have to be created.
Despite Clinton's "outrage"
at the Serbs' human rights'
violations, he has failed to
act because it is a politically
risky move for a president
seeking reelection More
important. Western nations
consider Bosnia expendable
and unworthy of militar\
assistance because tlie\
have no economic ties to
the agricultural country In
short, we don’t care about
the slaughter of Bosnian
Muslims bee ause nothing
I hot happens in (his small
Balkan < ounlrv has any real
effec i on lhr» e< onotny <>f the
I Jnited Stales
Al first glance, it appears
that Americ a has frequently
come to the aid of countries
in similar < in umstancos.
U S involvement in World
War II helped dismantle
Hitler's Third Reich and
freed the living from i on
t nitration t amps We
Waged the Gulf War we
were told, bet ause of Sad
darn Ifussein's bloody
imperialism and horrific
a< is of torture against inno
cent Kurds ()ur military
action m Haiti "restored
democrat v " These moral
inside a! lore, tor vs ,ti wn.
sn ondary to the real moti
vation for Ament an action
In all t a si's, the United
States had a vested econom
il interest in the countries
involved. Thus, while it
may lie politically prudent
to portray America as the
Great Protector of Human
Rights, the thousands of
dead bodies in Bosnia
reveal our true nature
(Hinton has spent his
term selling his vision of
the "global community
From the Information
Superhighway, to NAFTA
and GATT, he has said
repeatedly that America
cannot afford to isolate
itself from the world mar
ket Yet. when the dialogue
shifts outside the economic
realm. Clinton becomes
ambivalent. We are encour
aged to ilo business with a
neighbor, but should turn
away when we hear him
killing his wife and chil
dren through the adjoining
wall
American military action
is Bosnia will not win an
elm tion or remove an eco
nomic threat, but it is a
moiai imperative l ’nfortu
nately, morality has rarely
been a spark for political
action, and 50 years from
now a different president
will stand at a mass grave in
Zepa and say. ‘ We knew
and did nothing. Nev er
again.”
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OPINION
A needed helpin’ of Southern humanity
When we stereotype hating, open
minded residents of the Croat
Northwest think of those who dwell
in the Deep South what images
tome to mind' Well, there's tie* arterv-t logging
bis» nits and slop those people love to eat Then
there's that music that always has some redneck
i owboy moaning aiaiut shotguns and mobile
home parks And then there's that ear vvrencli
mg twang that Southern. Iter k of the-woods,
inv w ile is -also-my-umsm-sounding noise that
those people velp out w henever they talk
It s safe to sav that all of us who live in this
land of free thinking have a pretty good idea of
w ho Southerners are and how they behave So
when a voting mother murdered her two beauti
ful suns in l intuit. NT. last ()i tober, we North
westerners could easily apply our bias-free
knowledge to the amt. Those bigoted tools
would fight eat h other for the honor of nm lung
the rojve around the murdering mother's neck
In light of our expertise, it's difficult to make
sense of the news that came out of Union this
week The reports indicated that the jury sells
turn in the Susan Smith double-homicide tase
was arduously slow It seems the pros«*cut»on
was hard-pressed to find 12 |urors and six alter
nates who would l>e willing to send Susan
Smith to the electric chair even if the evidence
supported that sentence
After 50 jurors had been questioned, only to
were deemed qualified to sit on tile panel The
main reason for the other 4(>'s dismissals’ Moral
opposition to the death penalty
Maylte we don't have the i ase right This
couldn't l»e the Susan Smith who I wt rayed our
pain and sympathy when she confessed that she
hail strapped her sons. Michael, t. and Alev. H
months, into her red Mazda and rolled them to
their death in a nearby lake.
And yet w e heard panelist No 1? tell prose
cutors, "I am against the death penalty because
two wrongs don't make a right "
In the w ake of the news from Union, perhaps
we should momentarily put aside our biases
against those with that irritating twang it would
appear that these small-town Southerners are
quite extraordinary in their ability to champion
a vision of humanity over the “human" c all to
vengeance
Panelist No 17 seemed to display this ability.
The prospective juror told prosecutors about a
personal tragedy in her own life. She said that
she understood how "things happen to some
body. that they could go off the deep end."
If only Panelist No. 17 knew just how befitting
her commentary was to the ai i used Indeed
many things' have happened to Susan Smith.
Her father committed suicide when she was a
child She battled with mental disorders
throughout her adoiesi em e At age i t, it was
re< orumetided that she l>e admitted to a hospital
for the treatment of her depression. Her mother
and stepfather coldly denied their daughter this
assistance Soon after. Susan was molested by
her stepfather
1 ive years later, Susan found herself married
ton man who would eventually cast her aside
Keith
( unningham
alter Michael ana Alex were
horn. Given Susan's tortured
history, the feelings of made
qtmi v and confusion that are
often associated with parent mg
could only have been exaccr
bated by the arrival of her two
sons 'Hus was a time of "crisis
parenthood” for Susan
On Ot t 25, after having been
told by another lover that he no
longer wanted her or her chil
dren, Susan’s mental anguish
reached <1 noil, I he result was a tragedy that we
certainly • annot condone but perhaps < an trv to
comprehend.
And now. looking behind w ire rimmed glass
a* and appearing many wars older than the 2 i
shu is. Susan Smith sits silently between her
two lawyers She is taking a daily dose of the
anti depressant Prozac and is not allowed to say
much bet a use whenever she does tall., she begs
lor death Vet the responses from her neighbors
to questions about their moral statu e on tin*
death penalty are overpowering
They have stood proudly, and said "Only
God can take lives" — "Two wrongs don't make
a right" — "I t ouldn’t give anyone the death
penalty" "I couldn't live w ith myself if 1 did"
— "I would never" — "I feel like taking a life
hei a use two lives is gone is not going to change
the situation."
The lucid words overshadow the dialect that
we arrogantly categorize as "quaint." 1can only
wonder what words would have been uttered by
the murderer's peers if the event had occurred
somewhere in lane County
The people of Union argue for the sanctity of
life with more eloquence than any lawyer or
judge could ever hope to display. They know
that the story of the murderer as well as the
murdered must In* known before any judgment
can be passed, drat no form of revenge w ill bring
back the victims and that no person can solve
violence with violence. Those dose-minded
rednecks will never cease to amaze me.
Keith Cunningham, and English majorat the l -m
versity. is a columnist for the Emerald.