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Cover
story Criticism of U.S. leaders muted now
Another byproduct of the patriotic fervor sweeping the nation has
been a kind of muting of criticism against the U.S. leadership and a seemingly
remarkable conversion experience undergone by many who just a few months ago
were crying for an end to big government.
- Oxfam, the British humanitarian organization, for example, was
circulating a petition before the attacks calling on the United States to
put health before wealth by supporting relaxation of international
patent policies that Oxfam says make vital medicines too expensive for
developing countries. Immediately after the Sept. 11 events, the language
singling out the United States had been dropped. The group also canceled a news
conference at which it had planned to denounce the United States for its patent
stance.
- The Sierra Club, the nations largest environmental
organization, removed the W Watch column from its Web site because
it could be perceived as critical of President Bush. Another group, Friends of
the Earth, let the one-year anniversary of its discovery of unauthorized
genetically modified corn in the food supply pass without even a news release.
No ones interested in gene-altered corn right now, Mark Helm,
a spokesperson for the organization, told reporters.
- At Brown University in Providence, R.I., a curriculum guide was
recently issued on how to discuss the attacks in the classroom, a document that
called for understanding why people resent the United States and for a measured
military response. It was promptly attacked by conservative critics, as
shortchanging patriotism while subtly blaming the victim.
- Two columnists for daily newspapers in Oregon and Texas were
fired after writing opinion pieces critical of President Bushs leadership
immediately after the attacks. Both papers apologized for the criticism,
according to Editor & Publisher, a weekly magazine for the newspaper
industry.
I do not relinquish, nor should any of you, the right to
criticize, even as we support, our government, Bill Maher, host of the
ABC-TV show Politically Incorrect, said on his Sept. 17 program.
This is still a democracy, and theyre still politicians.
Maher was skewered by a critical public after he agreed with guest Dinesh
DSouza that we have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from
2,000 miles away. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building -- say what
you want about it -- its not cowardly.
Many ask: While trying to avoid being perceived as unpatriotic,
isnt this self-censorship and restraint on criticism dangerous in a
democratic society?
There will be those who will try to tell us that criticizing
national policies in time of crisis is unpatriotic, Tom Cordaro, Pax
Christi USA national council chairperson, told NCR. We have to
keep in mind, that statement William Fulbright, Democratic senator from
Arkansas, made in the days of the civil rights marches and anti-Vietnam war
demonstrations: Criticism is more than just a right; it is an act of
patriotism -- a higher form, I believe, than the familiar ritual of national
adulation. Cordaro said Christians must act upon the higher
patriotism, which is to love our country less for what it is than for
what we would like it to be.
Others are pointing to the overnight disappearance of that
widespread distrust of big government that permeated politics and national life
prior to Sept. 11. Suddenly no one, it seems, wants big government off our
backs, but we are showing renewed interest in having federal institutions watch
our backs.
After 20 years of exulting in the power of the private
sector, in deregulation, tax cuts and reining in the Washington bureaucrats,
Republicans and Democrats alike are talking about a muscular new role for
government in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, wrote Robin Toner in
The New York Times last week. Now government is being seen as the
solution, not the problem.
The spirit of bipartisan accord on display in the halls of
Congress, not seen since the Gulf War in 1991, has drawn favorable attention as
well. Judy Woodruff on CNN last week, in a report on bipartisanship in
government after the attacks, said: Americans see this new spirit of
unity and are thinking government will work just fine without
politics.
Yet many would argue that debate and honoring dissent are the
strengths of democracy.
--Rich Heffern
National Catholic Reporter, October 12,
2001
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