THE WANDERER, APRIL 19, 2007
JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH
Thought Experiment
We are constantly warned about the great menaces
that now threaten us: terrorism, global warming, illegal
immigration, and overpopulation. Led by the news media,
we all automatically look to government to save us. What
would St. Paul have to say about this?
To him, as to our Lord, the urgent and imminent
danger is damnation. And time is running out.
This is not a peril the government takes any
cognizance of. It not only tolerates but actively
promotes moral and spiritual evils. What was once
Christendom -- Europe and all the Americas -- has fallen
into a worse condition than Africa, where, for all the
afflictions and miseries people endure, the word of God
is still taken seriously.
God wants to save us much more than we want to be
saved. This is the season to remind ourselves of that, to
rejoice, and to keep a sense of proportion about the far
lesser (but more highly publicized) evils we face. The
Devil wants us to worry and despair.
Brave Enemies
As I listen to the news from Iraq, I'm struck by the
way our news media almost reflexively adopt the
perspective of our government propaganda. Our soldiers
are brave and patriotic, they are defending our freedom,
and they deserve our support. By implication, the
opposite is true of the enemy, who are presumed to be
savage terrorists.
Well, on the principle that "nihil humanum a me
alienum est" I have to wonder: Is there no courage or
patriotism on the other side? Are these qualities
possessed only by the invaders? May not our enemies at
times have their own share of them, even if they
sometimes commit horrors? (After all, who created, and
dropped on cities, the first atomic bombs?)
These questions are prompted not by sympathy, or by
my own opposition to this war, but by the simple realism
that recoils from melodramatic patriotism. If we love our
country, we have to assume that others love theirs too.
An inability to imagine the enemy's point of view is
a serious practical handicap in war, like the inability
to anticipate your opponent's reaction to your attack
when you play chess. And it's downright childish to
suppose that, because you call him a terrorist, he sees
himself that way.
To listen to President Bush, you'd think that the
members of the "axis of evil," in a diabolical parody of
the "international community," had said to each other,
"Hey! Why don't we evil guys all get together and make
trouble for the good guys?"
Hostages, Bombs, et Cetera
Which brings us, naturally, to the latest hostage
crisis in the Middle East, where 15 British sailors were
detained for several days by the government of Iran.
Apparently they were in Iraqi not Iranian waters, which
is all right, since as our ally, Britain is entitled to
be in Iraqi territory if we don't object, since if we
broke it, we own it, and.... Do I make myself clear?
Meanwhile, the Iranians announced that they are now
producing, for peaceful purposes of course, that
radioactive stuff you make nuclear weapons out of
(plutonium, if I'm not mistaken), which only we and our
allies are supposed to have, especially in the volatile
Middle East, where we are trying to maintain the peace,
and.... I think you follow my train of thought.
Now It Can Be Told
Two years ago, I flew to my hometown in the Midwest
and passed up the chance to make national news. Despite
the heavy security measures at the airports and on the
plane, a stewardess (or flight attendant, as we now say)
made a shocking remark.
She was a pleasant, comely young woman, from whom
one wouldn't expect controversial comment. As she served
us beverages, I said casually to her and the passenger
next to me that I wasn't crazy about Mr. Bush's war. I
can't recall why I said this; I think I was reading, and
reacting to, an article about Bush's plunging approval
ratings.
To my surprise, she muttered passionately, "I'd like
to off him myself!" I let it pass, with a friendly wink
to suggest I took it as a joke. But I saw that she wasn't
joking. She was really angry at Bush. So was I, even if I
expressed myself more mildly.
Quite unprofessional of her, no doubt, not to say
totally indiscreet. If it had gotten back to her boss, or
Homeland Security, there would have been the devil to
pay. It shook me up. She'd put herself at the mercy of a
total stranger (she had no idea I was a journalist!).
If I'd reported her, I could see the headlines in
THE WASHINGTON POST and on CNN: "Flight Attendant Held
for Threatening Bush." It would have blown over quickly,
just another five-minute seizure of hysteria, but it
could have ruined her life.
But I'd learned a lesson or two from this incident.
I learned how deep the rage at Bush had gotten, even
among ordinarily apolitical people, not just liberal
types; and I felt the utter absurdity of supposing that
the "war on terror" was making us freer, or even
preserving the freedom we used to take for granted.
Imus in the Morning -- and All Day
Don Imus of MSNBC, by now the mildest and most
respectable of "shock jocks," made an unexpected
sensation with a mildly vulgar joke about the
predominantly black Rutgers University women's basketball
team, and two days later various outraged black activists
were demanding that he be fired. Such was the furor that
the normally sassy Imus was soon abasing himself all over
the place, begging forgiveness of such dignitaries as Al
Sharpton. As I write, the network has suspended him for a
fortnight.
O world, thy slippery turns! The "Reverend" Al
Sharpton! "Civil rights leader," forsooth! Am I the only
one who still remembers that he achieved his national
stature by swearing by the lurid lies of Tawana Brawley,
not to be confused with Rosa Parks? And that he was
successfully sued for slander by the policeman she'd
accused of raping her? His august reverence, the jive
artist! Still riding his high horse, two decades later!
All I can say in his favor is that he has generally
avoided theological controversy.
Was Imus's poor joke as offensive as treating this
clown as the representative of his race? All Sharpton
really represents is the degraded and degrading (to both
women and blacks) rap culture that joke echoed. Imus
didn't learn those words from the Ku Klux Klan.
Why was this "news"? I guess because it forced the
cable networks to divert their attention, briefly, from
the latest developments concerning Anna Nicole Smith.
Such is journalism in the 21st century. Take note, ye
historians.
+ + +
"I've been a journalist for nearly 35 years now. In
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haven't gotten any richer." REGIME CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME
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