Page 7B
-
ursday, November 2, 2000
-U.
j
THE BATTALIQN
ipear in
e,
i must
06 at
mplying foolishness
bre, Lieberman attempts at linking Bush, Cheney to hate issues hypocritical
| or most of
this election
te, te-ai cycle, both
--—-Major candidates
»ve made great
n shelter t |i ’orts to avoid be-
Portrayed as
ygative.
:s |M George W.
BBHush has consis-
:er for 2bdi
xJmV2bth h
id for. Cal
er m ,
ute. f
duplex, eta
Mntly stressed positive themes in his
■imp speeches, and A1 Gore has tried
2bdrrf h & as upbeat as a person with no
“"fnotion can be.
1 Now, as the race hits the final
Iretch, nice is out the win-
|pw. Gore, Lieberman and
ir supporters, however,
hve taken the lead in the con-
temptibility race with a series
pf hateful ads and statements
lat accuse the Bush-Cheney
Hfcket of, of all things, hate.
H It would be incorrect to say
,u ^ r^jfat the Bush campaign and
am) ssaKiorissupporters are without sin
Bank°iAi™#th e arena of poor conduct.
>ii7. sun Two commercials released by
supporters of the Texas gover-
startfreqwMraccuse Gore of willingly
3 confacu# 1 -' 11 ' 11 ? America to nuclear
com fstruction.
ousingioif r These two ads — one
ihich was a remake of Lyn
don B. Johnson’s 1964
“daisy” ad — were con-
oo-776-w!p' ine d by the Bush cam-
fiign, however, and never
mo ivif 11, d'he Gore campaign, on
j-4308. the other hand, has embraced
C7i3)294-fiads and comments that are
atrocious.
wahormarA' T The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
'NAACP) has long been a supporter
-Ipf Democratic causes. Under the new
n ' fl5m [leadership of Kwiese Mfume, the
my dad had been murdered all over
again.”
Mort Kondracke, the executive edi
tor of the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll
Call, called the ad outrageous and said
the Bush campaign should demand an
apology for such a “slanderous” ad.
Kondracke questioned the assertion
by Byrd’s daughter that her father’s
death and Bush’s refusal to sign a
piece of legislation were comparable
in terms of pain. Many other journal
ists have echoed his doubts.
Inspite of this, Gore-Lieberman
and the NAACP stand by the ad.
• crucified to a split-rail fence.” Gore’s
message was clear: “Do you want this
happening all over the country?”
Bill Sammon, a reporter who cov
ers the Gore campaign for The Wash
ington Times, was generous when he
said Gore’s comments “went a bit over
the line.”
Gore’s comments, truthfully, were
beneath contempt. Any description to
hold Bush and Cheney responsible for
these crimes is disgusting. So is
Gore’s attempt to scare the public by
saying Bush is pro-hate for opposing
legislation he supports.
3. call 9»»l
NAACP has become more aggressive
■ f/fi its backing of Democrats,
gggal Its latest ad attacks Bush for not
S Isjtpporting hate-crimes legislation.
^JJIltshows a chain tied to the bumper
^ 9 ci«ito*|of a pickup truck with a Texas li
cense plate. The voice-over, done
py the daughter of James Byrd, the
Ban murdered in Jasper, says that
Biish’s unwillingness to sign a
Shate-crimes bill in Texas “felt like
Perhaps Gore cannot disassociate
himself from such a disgusting piece
of work because his own mouth has
talked him into a corner. Among his
litany of complaints against Bush,
Gore has repeatedly brought up his
support of a federal hate-crimes law,
which Bush opposes.
On a recent West Coast swing.
Gore reminded voters that Bush was
the governor of Texas, “where James
Byrd was dragged three miles behind
a truck to his death.”
Further, Gore noted, Wyoming was
the home of Dick Cheney and the
place where “Mathew Shepard was
Hate-crime legislation, as Gore
seems to view it, makes a mockery of
the criminal justice system. Gore is
showing, through his words, that he
does not believe in the words etched
on the Supreme Court: “Equal Justice
Under Law.”
Instead, he believes in the Or
wellian ideal that all people are equal,
yet some are more equal than others.
The truth, which Gore has neglect
ed in mentioning these two cases,
shows that those who committed these
atrocities will not get a slap on the
wrist.
In the Texas Case, for example,
two of the three found guilty will be
put to death, and the third was given
life without parole after turning
state’s evidence.
As Bush said (after incorrectly stat
ing that all three would be executed)
in the second debate, “It doesn’t get
much tougher than that.”
Hate-crime laws that Gore support
add emphasis to crimes committed
against certain individuals. This is not
the answer, and is a form of soft-core
bigotry against those not covered un
der the legislation.
If a person harms another person,
he or she should be pun
ished to the maximum
extent of the law. The
race, color or sexual ori
entation of the victim
should not matter.
Gore’s ideas would
place added weight on
crimes committed
against some, while ig
noring others.
If the government
(both state and federal)
truly wants to do some
thing to help all citi
zens, it should set up a
board of oversight to
ensure that prosecutors
go for the maximum
sentences in all cases
and that judges stick to
the sentencing guide
lines. If they do not,
there should be ex
tremely harsh penalties.
New laws that take
the blinders off lady jus
tice are not the answer; sharpening her
sword is.
Still, the Gore-Lieberman campaign
goes into this last week of the cam
paign spewing rhetoric at its opponents
that can be considered obscene.
Through a political stunt aimed to
preserve his base. Gore has shown a
very hateful side of himself.
Ironically, he has done so by trying
to show how his opponent espouses
the disdain for others that he himself
has shown.
Mark Passioaters is a senior
electrical engineering major.
rial of error
D n April 3, Edmond Pope, a
54-year-old American
businessman, was arrested
)y the Russian Federal Security
Service (FSB) on espionage
barges.
His trial began two weeks
igo, and there are doubts that he
being given a fair trial. The
Jnited States has protested the
barges, maintaining that Pope is innocent.
President Bill Clinton should listen to the House
)fRepresentatives’ advice and stop financial aid to
Russia until the event is handled to the satisfaction
tfthe United States.
Pope, a former U.S. intelligence officer, had
3een in Russia for six months prior to his arrest,
during that time, he compiled data on Russian
naritime technology for his company, Tech-Source
vlarine Group. The FSB claims that he tried to ille-
ally obtain secret design plans for the Russian
khval torpedo.
Since his arrest, Pope has maintained that the
nformation was obtained legally from Moscow’s
lauman University with the full cooperation of
he staff, who knew where the documents were
leaded.
Pope’s trial, which is expected to last three or
note weeks, has been closed to all outsiders, includ-
ng American diplomats, based on rulings that the
rial deals with Russian defense policy and plans.
Because of this exclusion, Pope has been given a
Espionage charges against American questionable
government translator rather than an independent or
American translator.
Rep. John Peterson (D-Maryland) asked, “How
do you defend yourself adequately when the inter
pretation of the charges doesn’t make sense in
English?”
The secret status of the documents is also in
question. Last Thursday, defense witness Arsenty
Myandin testified that, as an expert on the Skhval
toipedo, he had spoken openly about its design for
15 years.
Since his arrest, Pope has main
tained that the information was
legally obtained from Moscow's
Bauman University with the full
cooperation of the staff.
The status of one of the defense’s main witnesses,
Anatoly Babkin, is also in limbo. Babkin was first
excluded as a witness because he was not listed as a
witness when the pretrial began. A professor at Bau
man University, Babkin worked with Pope to get
documents.
It is hoped that he could confirm that Pope had no
idea the documents were secret.
Fortunately, the court reversed its decision
last week and chose to let Babkin enter written
testimony.
Pope’s wife, Cheri, said, “I’m not optimistic
about the outcome of the trial, but I’m hoping there
will be a humanitarian release of my husband.”
To further complicate the situation, Pope has a
rare form of bone cancer. Although his cancer is in
remission, his family fears that the stress of jail
and the trial might cause Pope, his family and
many people in the international community, in
cluding Clinton, have asked that Russia allow him
to be able to see an independent doctor from a
nearby Russian hospital. The requests have all
been denied.
The U.S. undersecretary of state, Thomas Picker
ing, said, “We’ve explained very clearly that on
health grounds alone, Mr. Pope, who has a rare form
of cancer, in our view has not been adequately seen,
much less treated, in Russia for what has a tendency
to be a continuing problem in this case.”
If Pope is convicted, he will face a 20-year sen
tence in a Russian jail, a term that his wife feels is
the same as the death sentence.
Cheri Pope said, “He is 54 years old, and he is
not in good health, and he will die (if not released).”
To prevent the unjust jailing of Pope, th^ United
States must intervene. The House of Representa
tives’ recommendation to Clinton to cease finjancial
aid to Russia must be carried out immediate!}! to en
sure this. f
These sanctions will signal to Russia that die
United States will stand up and protect its citizens.
^ !
Reid Bader is a junior political science major.
oto
dent
:ooo
3on-
> oks,
Mail
Alaska externalities missed
i In response to Andy Hancock’s Nov. 1
Column.
J Hancock does a reasonable job of
Palancing both sides of the decriminal
ization debate, but misses in his reason-
- ing about the externalities created by the
legalization of marijuana in Alaska,
i The decriminalization of the herb is
lot likely to start an exodus of addicts
r, (othe state. Marijuana is widely avail-
, £ble, relatively cheap, carries little to no
social stigma and few criminal penal-
. ies for the average user in the rest of
fhe country.
! Users would have little incentive to
J »iove for a legal supply of pot, and,
without more users, Alaska’s current
Call
dealers could probably adequately
serve the local user base.
Legal Alaskan weed is unlikely to
flow into the continental states as it
would first have to pass through British
Columbia, Canada, where marijuana is
the No. 1 cash crop and some esti
mate that it is the third largest industry
.in terms of GDP
It would be difficult to convince the
local growers to give up hard-won sup
ply routes into the United States in fa
vor of Alaskan weed, not to mention
the sheer difficulty in trucking or ship
ping an economically viable quantity of
weed from Alaska to Washington.
Gavin Brown
Class of ‘99
Middle East 101
Few Americans understand the
story behind current conflict
A s Americans watch the continuing
violence in the Middle East, it is
difficult to understand how so
much blood can be shed on a daily basis.
Every night, it seems, the news shows
countless images of another protest turned
to violence, as more young Israelis and
Palestinians exchange rocks and bullets in
the streets of Jerusalem, Hebron and the
Gaza Strip.
Americans have watched the violence from a distance for
decades. Each week, they hear new claims made by Palestinian
leader Yassir Arafat or Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Americans spend a lot of time watching the events in Israel,
but few even have a working knowledge of why the conflict
rages on.
On its most basic level, the conflict is between two groups
of people who want the same land. In reality, discord is found
on multiple levels between the Israelis and the Arabs. Reli
gious, social, and ethnic differences create animosity unparal
leled on Earth.
The Holy Land, center of the world’s three foremost reli
gions, has always been a hotly contested piece of real estate.
The city of Jerusalem, now the capital of Israel, has changed
hands many times.
The region was originally settled nearly 4,000 years ago by
a group of Semitic people known as the Hebrews. They settled
in Canaan, where they became known as the Israelites. In the
millennia that followed, the Israelites were displaced, their
homeland taken over by Assyrians, Persians, Romans, Muslim
Arabs, Christian Crusaders, Egyptian Mamelukes and Ot
toman Turks.
The oppression of Jews in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s
instigated a mass migration back to Palestine, as the region
was then known. Some of these immigrants formed a move
ment called Zionism with the goal of creating of an indepen
dent Jewish nation. As the Jewish population of Palestine
slowly increased, the Arab population outpaced it, growing
rapidly. The seeds of discontent were being sown.
Americans spend a lot of time watch
ing the events in Israel, but few even
have a working knowledge of why
the conflict rages on.
British attempts to stabilize the region resulted in bloody ri
ots in 1920 and 1929 and an Arab revolution in 1936. After
World War II, the newly-formed United Nations adopted a
plan calling for the partitioning of Jerusalem in 1947. It grant
ed the Jews, displaced for millennia, a homeland of about
5,500 square miles within Palestine. The population in the des
ignated areas was little more than half Jewish, and many
Arabs, not wanting to Jose their homes, took up arms. Bloody
fighting tore the nation apart, and Great Britain surrendered its
claim on Palestine. By May 1948, four-fifths of all Arabs in the
disputed areas had abandoned their homes.
Proclaiming the new state of Israel and receiving recogni
tion from the United States and the Soviet Union, the Jews
continued to push Arabs out of their territory. Other Arab na
tions, including Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq and
Saudi Arabia entered the war on the side of their fellow Arabs.
Israel ultimately emerged triumphant, but additional wars in
1956, 1967 and 1973 kept tempers flaring in the region.
The crux of the conflict now is that Palestinians, Arabs liv
ing in Israel, have no home of their own. Arab-strong commu
nities have emerged in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, unit
ed under the banner of the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO), a group dedicated to the re-establishment of a Palestin
ian state.
But the rift between Palestinians and Israelis runs far deeper
than mere land. The groups practice different religions, have
different histories and resent one another. They are uncomfort
able bedfellows forced to share the same country.
It is easy to look at the situation in Israel and write it off as
mere savagery fueled by years of blind hatred. In doing so,
many Americans deny the very human emotions that make a
true Middle East peace settlement difficult to attain.
Both groups believe they have a right to live freely in their
homeland. Both groups want to practice their religions and
their customs. Both groups want a national identity.
Many Americans have criticized the parties involved for
their actions. The violence that has become commonplace is
deplorable, but, for the participants, the struggle means noth
ing less than the life or death of their nation. It was not so long
ago that America itself was torn down the middle by two op
posing groups: one fighting to secure its rights, the other fight
ing to maintain its dominance.-
Is the West Bank any different than Birmingham, Ala., was in
1963? Has it been so long that Americans have forgotten the im
ages of white firefighters spraying black children with high-
pressure fire hoses and marching them by the hundreds into jails
for protesting? When the nation expresses disgust when three
men are killed in a West Bank market, does it not remember the
four innocent girls who died in the bombing of the Sixteenth
Street Baptist Church?
The two groups fighting in the Middle East are no more
savages than Americans were. They are humans with human
emotions and human flaws. It is not the job of the United
States to judge the Israelis and the Palestinians. Peace cannot
be found by labeling a criminal and a victim.
Last week, as the bullets and rocks flew in Hebron and
Gaza, a flood swept through the streets of Jerusalem. As the
waters rose, Jewish and Arab families worked together to save
their loved ones. For the time being, they were no longer Jews
and Arabs, separate in every conceivable way — they were hu
mans, united in a struggle to preserve one another.
That notion of common humanity must be fostered if peace
is to occur in the Middle East. It no longer matters who lived
there first or who fired the first shots in the daily uprising. As
long as Israelis and Palestinians focus their efforts on creating
division, their people will continue to pay the price.
Nicholas Roznovsky is a senior political science major.