Saturday, December 24, 2011

An unpublished letter/ a published letter

Max Obuszewski

Sent 12-23-11 to NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday in response to Scott Simon’s commentary:

Scott Simon’s maudlin “Christopher Hitchens' Legacy Of Defying Labels” promoted inconsistency as a virtue.  I thought the commentary was actually about Simon.  The one-time Quaker espoused pro-war sentiments and became an embedded reporter with the U.S. military.  Remarkably, he was allowed to remain a host, yet Lisa Simeone's anti-war perspective cost her a public radio job. 

Hitchens does a brilliant take on the crimes of Henry Kissinger and then loses his focus by doing an anti-Mother Theresa film.  Hitchens was once a believer in supporting the 99%, but then became an elitist and a drumbeater for war.  No, the inconsistency is not a value to admire.  This comment by Simon is a copout: "Compromise is difficult when changing your beliefs is taken to be a moral cave-in instead of the sign of a curious, lively mind."  To once favor pacifism, but later to support empire is selling out. 

I would rather believe in a person of good principles who remains consistent.  I have little respect for someone, whether it is Hitchens or Simon, whose political perspective is like a weather vane.  The NPR commentator who promotes inconsistency in thought is looking in a mirror:

In my circles, I praise the person who recognizes that military spending is an affront to the poor and income inequality must be challenged.  Give me a writer such as Howard Zinn any day, whose political perspective remained consistent after his life experiences confirmed the madness of war.

Scott Simon’s maudlin “Christopher Hitchens' Legacy Of Defying Labels” promoted inconsistency as a virtue.  I thought the commentary was actually about Simon.  The one-time Quaker espoused pro-war sentiments and became an embedded reporter with the U.S. military.  Remarkably, he was allowed to remain a host, yet Lisa Simeone's anti-war perspective cost her a public radio job. 

Hitchens does a brilliant take on the crimes of Henry Kissinger and then loses his focus by doing an anti-Mother Theresa film.  Hitchens was once a believer in supporting the 99%, but then became an elitist and a drumbeater for war.  No, this inconsistency is not a value to admire.  This comment by Simon is a copout: "Compromise is difficult when changing your beliefs is taken to be a moral cave-in instead of the sign of a curious, lively mind."  To once favor pacifism, but later to support empire is selling out. 

I would rather believe in a person of good principles who remains consistent.  I have little respect for someone, whether it is Hitchens or Simon, whose political perspective is like a weather vane.  The NPR commentator who promotes inconsistency in thought is looking in a mirror:

In my circles, I praise the person who recognizes that military spending is an affront to the poor and that income inequality must be challenged.  Give me a writer such as Howard Zinn any day, whose political perspective remained consistent once his life experiences confirmed the madness of war. ####

Christopher Hitchens' Legacy Of Defying Labels

Christian Witkin

 

baltimoresun.com

The U.S. shouldn't prop up tyrants, even if they're on 'our' side

10:30 AM EST, December 21, 2011

I awoke Monday to news that North Korea's tyrant, Kim Jong Il, is dead ("Kim Jong Il, 1942-2011: Enigmatic leader," Dec. 19). The article in The Sun was part of a confluence of events that include the military hearing at Fort Meade for accused Pentagon whistleblower Bradley Manning and a recent Parade magazine report about the World's Worst Dictators in 2011.

The latter article obviously included Mr. Kim as well as Syrian dictator Bashir Assad. It also noted that a number of other autocrats — Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Libya's Muammar Gadhafi and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia — were banished from their thrones.

I noticed, however, that the U.S. government was very friendly to many of these autocrats. For example, our government through its rendition policy sent prisoners to be tortured in Syria. And Mr. Mubarak was receiving U.S. tax dollars second only to what Israel gets.

If the revelations in Mr. Manning's hearing are true, he leaked information about the U.S. consorting with dictators like Ben Ali. I would argue those revelations helped ignite the Arab Spring and that Mr. Manning obeyed the oath he took to report government malfeasance, corruption and illegal acts. And he is now suffering the consequences.

Instead of wasting time prosecuting Mr. Manning, our government should pledge never again to give our support to countries engaged in rampant human rights violations. And after taking the pledge, our government should close down its naval base in Bahrain, where doctors and nurses are being tortured and imprisoned for obeying their Hippocratic oaths.

Max Obuszewski, Baltimore

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

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