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About The North Coast times-eagle. (Wheeler, Oregon) 1971-2007 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2005)
TIM E S EA G LE N O RTH C O A ST V O L26N O 3 50C EN TS JABRUARY 2005 'In a d a r k t im e t h e e y e b e g in s t o s e e ' -THEODORE ROTHKE RO GER H A YES “The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press — in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past few years.” -ADOLF HITLER (From ‘The Speeches o f Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939’, vol. 1, Michael Hakeem, Ph.D., London, Oxford University Press, 1942: pp.871-872) THE SACRIFICE OF LIBERTY BY LESLIE MILLER The I Ching consists of sixty-four hexagrams that describe the process of change. Three of these symbols, Obstruction, Revolution and Tranquillity relate to change in social administration of a society. A time of obstruction is typified by the arrogation of power by the elite without right. This is followed by revolution. The time of tranquillity is when a developed elite, deserving of power, consider the interests of the populace as their own. Eventually the average person becomes complacent and the government adopts isolationist policies. Thus the cycle repeats. In a time of obstruction, highly evolved people withdraw from public service. The nearest example is that neither political party in the United States seems capable of fielding a candidate for President that can unite the American people. President George Bush's power actually depends on division of the people John Kerry’s weakness was that he never explained exactly how things would be different if he were elected President, or how he intended to achieve his objectives At least if you voted for Bush, you knew what you were going to get, however misguided he was. A wise man once said a people willing to sacrifice their liberties for a sense of security deserves neither This bodes ill for the future. The first premise of Sun Tsu’s The Art of War is that it is better not to cross a great ocean or keep an army in the field too long, for to do so will impoverish the nation A military operation is similar to a brush fire; if someone doesn’t stop it, it will burn itself out. During a long deploy ment, greedy people gather around the army and charge twenty times the amount for supplies than on the domestic market. When 70% of the national budget goes to the army, and at least 60% of the local economy is devoted to supplying goods to the military, the average person is impoverished by huge tax levies and the nation is ultimately bankrupted. The elite seems impervious (for the time being). Doesn’t this sound like life under neoconservatism? In my opinion, the chief executive is a figurehead for this arrogant violence-addicted elite corporate empire that has high-jacked power in the USA Domestic policies are just as overbearing as foreign policies. The superficial moralists who are corrupting the U S. government essentially forbid what is desired by the people without exploring the basic reasons for desire; they prohibit what is enjoyed without finding out the essentials of enjoyment. This is like trying to dam a river with your hands. Moralists cannot get people to not want, but they can forbid what people want. They cannot get people to not indulge, but they can prohibit what people indulge in “Political revolutions are extremely grave matters They should be undertaken only in stress of direst necessity, when there is no way out." , “As revolutions in nature take place according to fixed laws and thus give rise to the cycle of the year, so political revolutions — these can become necessary at times of doing away with a state of decay — must follow definite laws. 1st, one must be able to await the right moment 2nd, one must proceed in the right way. so that one will have the sympathy o f the people and so that excesses will be avoided 3rd, one must be correct and entirely free o f all selfish motives 4th, the change must answer a real need " ~l CHING, Hexagram KO' (Revolution) t Even if fear of punishment makes people afraid to steal, how could that compare to freeing people from the desire to steal (The Law of Politics by Thomas Cleary)? In regards the war on terrorism, if terrorism is caused by desperation, how much better to free the people of desperation than invade eleven “axis of evil” countries. If we spend one/tenth the amount of applying raw power to desperate circumstances trying to eradicate the causes of desperation, how much better would our foreign policies be? So too is the domestic war on drugs a moralistic failure. The body politic is injured by the current climate in which any criticism of Presidential policy subjects one to a litany of verbal abuse — "aging hippie,” “liberal,” "traitor,” “flip-flopper,” “peacenik," and "irrelevant” are some of the more polite examples of rebuke. The harm is that pigeon holing and stereotypical bias have replaced civil argument and loyal opposition. I am only a liberal by accusation and acclaim I consider neoconservatism as betrayal of every honest conservative principle I was raised with and respect. Yet, I too, will be marginalized as an object of ridicule. This resembles what the Nazis did to the Republic of Germany before and during World War 2. How could a civHized people have elected an arrogant, self-righteous power-mad lunatic like George W Bush? Though we realize the man is a spiritually unhinged crusader, we should not underestimate shrewd ineptitude and self-assured fecklessness. A salient hope is that Bush will bite off one more country that he is able to chew, resulting in Congressional censure and impeachment. Leslie Miller lives in Gearhart and is a periodic contributor to the Times Eagle Roger Hayes is an Astoria artist originally from Michigan. Examples o f his art inspired by 9/11 are on Pages 10 & 11.
