Reagan's Visit to Bitburg, Elie Wiesel and Today

NMB, Florida February 7, 2002 A.H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.

REAGAN'S VISIT TO BITBURG, ELIE WIESEL AND TODAY

I am sure that Ronald Reagan would not remember the incident today. It was
quite a sight - clearly the opposite of Sammy Davis Jr. hugging an
embarrassed Richard Nixon. Do you remember when Elie Wiesel pleaded with the
then President not to rehabilitate Nazi SS officers by paying a respectful
visit to their graveyard?

What I am picturing here are the Right Wing Conservatives who run our
country through OUR elected leaders. We may have the votes - all of us who
have not shared the huge tax cuts enjoyed by the privileged class of
millionaires and billionaires. But the power of the pocketbook is never so
clear as when the Right Wing Conservatives influence a President to do their
bidding. The outrage of the "The Right, in charge of Rectitude" still
reacting to the personal excesses of Bill Clinton, continues unabated. The
future is manipulated by the choice of judges today. Scalia is one of those
poor choices of yesteryear when Republican Conservatism held our two-house
legislature hostage.

A President nominates judges and the Senate confirms them. At the behest
of Right Wing Conservatives he will recommend as a judge at least one who
has credentials as a racist and enemy of women and the poor in his home
state. Where is there an Elie Wiesel today who will go up to President
George Bush and tell him not to do this thing? Mr. Wiesel, a Holocaust
survivor, works on a larger exhibit of the evil men do - the aftermath of
war, murder, and genocide. Mr. Bush is only (in the context of American
soil) curator of the economy, security and wellbeing of ALL Americans.
Someone should point out anew the outrage of the Reagan gesture of
reconciliation in a wrong place at the wrong time and for the wrong dead.
At that time, despite the desperate pleading by a living legend, the protest
was ignored and the forces of fundamentalist conservatism won out in
advising the President.

President Bush in nominating Right Wing Conservative Pickering for our court
system is in the same place as the foggy world of Ronald Reagan before he
completely surrendered to the Alzheimer's plaque in his brain.
Mr. President Bush is not listening to the voices of Americans who while
scattered are in larger numbers than those who did vote for him. He is
listening to the Moral Majority and the Christian Fundamentalists who seem
to have the loudest voices, the only voices that he can hear.

Have I gone too far? Have I made a comparison that is not there to make?
I think not. I think we need someone of the reasonable Center to speak up
loud and often when these execrable things happen. Where is the voice of
reason and authenticity here at home such as the voice of Elie Wiesel? His
is a voice that is heard in the world at large. Bob Herbert called our
attention to Mr. Bush poised to do this wrong thing in todays' NY Times. His
voice is unheard. It remains only in print and is smothered by the
Conservative tilt of all the talk shows that constantly attack Democrats and
Liberalism. Bob Herbert's voice is a good strong one but it isn't enough.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.