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What You Should Not Ignore
North Miami Beach, Florida 2-4-2000 Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.
WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT IGNORE
The major issues of the day are the following: Gun Control, Gender Rights,
Abortion, Elian Gonzalez, Campaign Spending, advances of Right Wing parties
in Austria, negotiations between Jews and Arabs, the death penalty, war
within impoverished nations and the reality of entertainment and sports on
screen as opposed to living in this world.
What you should not ignore about gun control is that it has to do with
property. Ownership of weapons is not guaranteed by the Constitution. The
right to bear arms is. You therefore can own as many guns as you wish as
long as you don't use them as they were intended to be used. This is the
same argument employed when Slavery was an issue. Slaves were property. It
is the same issue when applied to the rights of women over their own bodies
and the rights of parents over the futures of their children. Elian
Gonzalez either belongs to his father or belongs in the United States as a
citizen because of the wishes of his deceased mother. Can women decide for
themselves if a child is to be aborted? Men who think they own women say no
for reasons other than property rights. They also interject religious
issues, which brings up God as property. Who owns God and who can speak for
(It, Him, Her, the Force) God? You cannot ignore these points.
You should not ignore, I further think, the danger of Conservative thought.
Campaign spending in the United States is obscene. A cartoon in the
newspaper today shows the bag of money possessed by George W. being used as
a wrecking ball to knock down the house of John McCain who had built up
impressive walls against his chief opponent through the ballot box.
Conservatives are not bad. However, the right wing conservatives in
Austria are frightening. They are frightening Europeans who are closest to
and remember well the conditions that allowed the madman, Hitler, to rise to
power. Conservatives on both sides of the property issue in Israel have come
up to the point where they must reach a settlement. If they can delay a
little longer, then maybe they will be able to extract a little more for
each side. Delay like this is much like the delay a convicted murderer
wants to enjoy in order to put off execution as long as possible. Time may
also be gained to show innocence. You cannot ignore impossible situations.
A time must come when you must do something or accept the inevitable.
There is civil war going on in places whose names are unfamiliar and
unpronounceable. Minority populations have called for attention to their
problems and have made demands. The rulers of shaky governments are putting
them in their places. How can you ignore the plight of people who are being
beaten, driven from their homes and killed by advocates of ethnic cleansing?
Finally, you should not ignore the reality of millions of Americans glued
to their television screens who cannot see the reality of what I have
described above. Immersed in pictures scrolling across ever larger screens,
they see what has been selected from a universe of discourse cut to size
rather than allowing us to see all sides and issues encouraging us to make
up our own minds. You should not and you must not continue to ignore what
is going on in the world. It also helps to read between the lines, to see
beyond the confines of the television screen, and not believe everything you
are told by those of us who explain the news.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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