Editorial continued from page I
And be aware, it is not just about Freedom, it
is certainly about responsibility and that day to day
dignity that one tries to maintain as a free person. I
would like to share with you a story from St. Liz, who
is a ‘forest ranger’ or something, and who sends us
jokes and stories. This story made my heart soar like
an eagle.
So, why are we ‘wasting’ our votes, me and
the other 4 to 10%? Well, I’m voting for Mr. Nader
because I have met the man and have seen the
difference he has made as a private citizen.
Recently he disclosed his financial statement,
something he had refused to do for years. He had
always said that as a private citizen it’s nobody’s
business how much money he makes, as long as he
pays his taxes. A lot of people were surprised that
Nader is worth around $3 million dollars, and he
was called a hypocrite for investing in high tech
stocks. Excuse me? The man is no fool, he is a
responsible adult who has husbanded his resources
wisely, and he donates the majority of his income to
the various environmental and consumer groups that
he has helped create. He lives on $25,CKX) dollars a
year.
Much has been made of Mr. Nader’s
‘rumpled suit’ as though it were his hair shirt of
saint-hood. No, it’s just that unlike the other two
candidates, who are dressed by professionals, Mr.
Nader dresses himself. He also thinks for himself,
another obvious difference. It has been said that
anyone who has gathered enough power to be
nominated for president has by definition been
corrupted by and compromised by the process.
And yet, here is Mr. Nader. There are no sex or
drug rumors floating around, no questions about his
fund-raising practices. He has spent his life trying
to improve the lot of the common people, and he is
a tireless worker. He is not a saint but he comes
pretty close to being what used to be called an
honest man. And we are reminded that you can’t
cheat an honest man.
So, can an honest man be elected President
of the United States of America? Some would say
it hasn’t ever happened before, but they are cynics.
If we do as we are told to do, and accept the choices
given us, things will go along pretty much as they
have -- no matter which of the major party
candidates wins. But if we exercise our freedom
and accept the responsibility to vote for someone
who could really make a difference, we might be
able to begin to change things for the majority of
this country. Only half of the people voted in the
last presidential election, and most of them held
their noses while they did it.
I’ve decided to vote for Mr. Nader because I
think he can win. Oh, it won’t be easy. He’ll have
to convince millions of people that they have a
choice and that they have a responsibility. So, I’m
voting for Ralph Nader because it’s a free country,
and I can. So can you.
On a British Airways flight from
Johannesburg, a middle-aged, well-off white South
African Lady had found herself sitting next to a black
man. She called the cabin crew attendant over to
complain about her seating. "What seems to be the
problem Madam?" asked the attendant. "Can't you
see?" she said, "You've sat me next to a kaffir. I can't
possibly sit next to this disgusting human. Find me
another seat!"
"Please calm down Madam." the stewardess
replied. "The flight is very full today, but I'll tell you
what I'll do - I'll go and check to see if we have any
seats available in club or first class."
The woman cocks a snooty look at the
outraged black man beside her (not to mention many
of the surrounding passengers).
A few minutes later the stewardess returns
with the good news, which she delivers to the lady,
who cannot help but look at the people around her
with a smug and self-satisfied grin: "Madam,
unfortunately, as I suspected, economy is full. I've
spoken to the cabin services director, and club is also
full. However, we do have one seat in first class."
Before the lady has a chance to answer, the
stewardess continues... "It is most extraordinary to
make this kind of upgrade, however, and I have had
to get special permission from the captain. But, given
the circumstances, the captain felt that it was
outrageous that someone be forced to sit next to such
an obnoxious person." With which, she turned to the
black man sitting next to the woman, and said: "So if
you'd like to get your things, sir, I have your seat
ready for you..."
At which point, apparently the surrounding
passengers stood and gave a standing ovation while
the black guy walked up to the front of the plane.
... people will forget what you said ...
... people will forget what you did ...
... but people will never forget how you made them feel ...
I was so moved by that simple story. I replied:
Dear St. Liz,
Thank you for yet another smile that you have brought
to this old face. And even some hope to this battered old heart.
It's important that we hear these things from each other since the
media will rarely tell us any 'good' news. It is the best kept
secret in the world, that the good guys are actually winning more
than the bad guys; well, because the bad guys have better press
agents. In just my lifetime the changes brought about by
common people seeking common decency and sense are beyond
belief, and thus seldom mentioned.
When I left High School, black people could not vote in
most Southern States, and lynchings went unpunished. Women
could not vote in Switzerland, and were legally subject to rape
by their husbands in most states. There was no such thing as an
environmental movement, a women's rights movement, and gays
were regularly beaten up by cops as well as by ‘regular citizens’
who claimed they were ‘propositioned.’ Farm workers had no
rights, DDT was sprayed on everything including people to kill
parasites. Day care and Head Start programs were still years
away, land use planning and parental leave hadn't even been
thought of. The government officials accepted cash in paper
bags for their services. No one talked about child abuse, or
domestic violence. Sexist and racist humor were the order of the
day on television as well as in private.
Today, African
women are fighting the tradition of sexual mutilation in
countries where they were chattel a decade ago, the world
conference on Women's Rights celebrated it's fifth anniversary
recently, openly gay people have Network television shows, and
the most successful golfer in the world has a racial profile that
defies definition. A woman was on the ticket of the Democratic
party as a vice presidential candidate, and a woman made a
serious run for the Republican nomination for president, and a
black man has been courted by the Republican party to seek the
office. We've banned DDT and saved the Bald Eagle from
extinction. The Grey Whale is rebounding, and we are
discussing breaching dams to save Salmon.
I could go on and on about just the changes 1 have seen
and am proud to say I fought for, often in the streets, but always
in the voting booth. But your simple story about the people at
British Airways dealing with the 'bad guys' is so very important,
not just because they had to wisdom to recognize who the
obnoxious person was, but because the rest of the passengers in
the plane stood up and applauded. We, the people, know what is
right and what is wrong, and never doubt for a minute that we
will ever give up trying to make this a better place for our
children and grandchildren. We leam perhaps a little too slowly
some times and we will forget every once in a while, but all in
all we are winning.
Thanks for reminding me.
Things have never been more like they are now, and
all in all it seems quite possible that freedom, that
word over-used in July, might just rear its silly head
once again on the planet. I offer as evidence the
words of a 90 year old woman who calls herself
Grannie D.; who, having walked from the west to east
coast in a personal plea for, of all things, campaign
finance reform, spoke at the Lincoln Memorial:
“The beauty of this memorial we take from
the ancient Greeks. Inside this temple of democracy,
however, is no god of Olympus, but a man of Illinois
- a country lawyer with a talent for self-government
which we all must share if a government of the people
and by the people and for the people is to not perish
from the earth.
“We all have our own religions to guide us,
but we share a common civic belief, and this is one of
the temples of that shared belief. It is the belief in our
ability and the responsibility to manage our own
government as a great people. It is the belief in the
human scale of things. We have sculpted Mr. Lincoln
large in stone, but only so that this solitary man is not
dwarfed by the columns of our institutions; only so
that we might remind ourselves that those who would
overwhelm any of our individual voices in matters of
our self-governance with their money or with powers
we have granted them, are the enemies of all good
things represented in this place.
“If our experiment in self-government is to
survive in reality as well as in name, we must defend
the position of the individual. That is what we march
for today, and Mr Lincoln's great smile of enduring
optimism for his people encourages us onward So let
us now go to our own Capitol, just up the hill from
here.”
S'
Since 1965,11 million Americans have been
arrested for possession of Marijuana. As one of
the 11 million, I feel free to comment on the
situation. It’s stupid.
I'-U P P E R -L E F T E D G E_a|
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J
“Da Nang Saturday Night” continued from page 1
Mac’s book begins with an episode in the rice
paddies. His partner on patrol gets picked off by a
VC sniper and the commanding officer called for an
air-strike against the nearby village. After the strike
the platoon went in to mop up. Suddenly Mac and a
buddy stopped in their tracks. In the center of the
village was a circle, and in the middle of the circle
was a pile three feet high of the charred bodies of the
village children, burned to oblivion by napalm. In
their last moments before fleeing to certain death in
the paddies, the survivors had collected the bodies to
confront their tormentors.
Mac’s buddy just stared into the pile. “Mac, I
can’t take this shit anymore. It’s no good, Mac.”
That’s all he said. They had to forcibly pull Mac
away from the circle. He couldn’t take his eyes away.
The commanding lieutenant, freshly arrived
from district headquarters, tried to put out the story
that the Viet Cong had murdered the village children.
The grunts just stared at him. That episode, Mac
says, was the turning point. He was never the same
again. In the paddies of the South, the marines were
used as bait to flush out the Viet Cone so air-strikes
could be directed against their strongholds. But most
of the highly touted body counts of the military were
Vietnamese villagers, like the children he had seen.
Mac’s book talks about the experiences of
men put into a hell-hole of our civilization, their
attempt to comprehend how they got there and the
costly effort of trying to tell someone else about it.
We did your dirty work, he says, and you hated us for
it. It’s no wonder then that the media portraits of
Vietnam vets only see deranged rapists, murderers
and crazies. We project our own guilt upon them.
What we have failed to see is the incredible humanity,
humor and sense of responsibility that emerged from
many of these men who survived one of the most
awesome horrors ever created by Western
Civilization.
Now Da Nang has fallen, and they’re taking
some of the orphans out of the war zone. Fine. But
over a million lives were obliterated in Vietnam
during the last 12 years. The Government of the
United States has decided, after all, that the
unification of Vietnam does not constitute a vital
threat to its empire. Fine. But if anybody ever gets
the idea again of imposing American will on a people
with its own mind and aspirations, let’s hope that Mac
and his friends are around to set them straight. Let’s
hope that nobody ever has to do our dirty work again.
By the end of spring, there will be a united People’s
Republic of Vietnam.
(This story originally appeared in the Portland State University
Vanguard, Friday, April 4, 1975. It is reprinted by permission of
the author, David Horowitz, who is now a Professor of History
at Portland State University, and should not be confused with
David Horowitz, the conservative columnist for Salon.com.)
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It is by the goodness o f God that in
our country we have those three
unspeakably precious things; freedom
of speech, freedom o f conscience, and
the prudence never to practice either
of them.
~ Mark Twain