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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2005)
BY MARY O’BRIEN What Sort of Freedom? Abstractions vs. reality G eorge Bush banged the word “Freedom” into his Jan. 20 in- augural speech 27 times. It reminded me a little of how my father, a minister, would repeatedly use the term Love. Dad was principled, religious, and a decent person. But his oft-used word Love was at times uncomfortably abstract. I remember one evening around 1984, sitting at the dinner table in my parents’ home. Dad was giving a theological explanation of love to my 12-year-old son. (Dad rarely con- fined his sermons to Sunday mornings.) When my sister Sara and her 10-year-old son Sena walked in late for the dinner from my nephew’s soccer practice, Dad was irritated. Sena mentioned that his foot hurt. Sara headed for the refrigerator to get some ice. “Sit down for dinner. You’re late,” Dad demanded. Sara retreated to the table. This was ridiculous. I glared at Dad, got up from the table, and got Sena some ice for his foot. “And now, to continue,” I said as I sat down, “you were talking about Love?” The irony escaped him, and he continued. The fate of the world, I believe, hangs on people recognizing the differences between Freedom and freedom; Love and love; National Security and national security; and Democracy and democracy. W hat does our president mean by Freedom? Does he mean freedom to torture? The day before the inaugural address, Amnesty International delivered a long letter to Bush, entitled “Human Rights, Not Hollow Words.” The letter describes re- cent U.S. involvement in torture and provides more than 60 recommendations that would make the U.S. an international leader against, rather than a proponent of, torture. Does he mean freedom to own life? Two days after Bush talked in his inaugural address of the “ownership society” (one of his campaign phrases) as an example of America’s ideal of freedom, I was reading a sci- ence article describing the critical importance of informal seed exchanges among farm- ers following wars, for recovery of their locally adapted crops and retention of genetic seed variation. But in Iraq during 2004, the U.S. administrator Paul Bremer installed U.S.- style rules that outlaw farmers exchanging patented seeds. Does he mean freedom to pollute? Bush promised the glories of everyone for himself in his address: “By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater free- dom from want and fear.” Three days later I read of new research showing that most childhood cancers are initiated while those children are developing inside mothers who live near heavy traffic flows, industrial facilities, and other users of volatile organic com- pounds (VOCs). Is a child with brain cancer from industrial pollution the agent of his or her own destiny? Does he mean freedom from community-established rules (also known as laws)? “In America’s ideal of freedom,” Bush explained to his nation, “the public interest de- pends on private character.” Pharmaceutical drug prices will depend on the private char- acter of pharmaceutical company CEOs? Women will have to depend on the private char- acter of their husbands for freedom from domestic abuse? Our national forests will de- pend for their care on the private character of mining company managers, cattle and sheep ranchers, and off-road vehicle drivers? Is Freedom eternally right? “We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation,” Bush warned: “The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right.” Ah, flashbacks to Minister Dad: Access to eternal Love as long as you believe in God. President Bush: Access to being eternally right if your crusade is Freedom. Maybe it’s the word “eternal” that helps people enter into the abstract and leave behind a child’s sore foot, 100,000 war-killed Iraqis, children with brain tumors, and ravaged national forests. This month Seymour Hersh, the journalist who uncovered the My Lai massacre of women, children, and old men by a group of U.S. soldiers 35 years ago; the journalist who uncovered torture in Abu Ghraib prison by a group of U.S. soldiers last year; the journalist whom Army officers and soldiers, and CIA and State Department professionals talk to be- cause they respect his accuracy, said the following to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!: “Every four-star general I know is saying, ‘Who is going to tell them [i.e., Congress and the press] we have no clothes?’ Nobody is going to do it. Everybody is afraid to tell Rumsfeld anything. That’s just the way it is. It’s a system built on fear. It’s not lack of in- tegrity, it’s more profound than that. Because there is individual integrity. It’s a system that’s completely been taken over by cultists.” It looks like freedom is going to depend on your dissent. Mary O’Brien of Eugene has worked as a public interest scientist since 1981. She can be reached at mob@efn.org Taste of India Buffet Lunch Special Sunday Dinner Buffet Special $6.99 all you can eat. 7 days a week. $9.99 all you can eat (children’s prices vary). ✪ Voted Best Buffet -Eugene Weekly Readers 2003-2004 Free soft drinks, tea, coffee. (With lunch buffet) ✪ Voted Best Indian Restaurant -Eugene Weekly Readers 1998-2001 Host: Palwinder Singh Special thanks Eugene for your continued support! Student Lunch Buffet (to go only) Middle/High School $2.99 per box w/FREE 12 oz. drink College $3.99 per box w/FREE 12 oz. drink Catering available • Full menu available to go Delivery through Pony Express 2495 Hilyard St. • Eugene, OR 97405 ph & fax (541) 485-9698 • ph only (541) 485-9560 FEBRUARY 3, 2005 9
