The Citizen, 1987-07-15, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1987.
Opinion
Who needs heros
like Ollie North?
The frightening thing about living beside a super power like
the United States is not seeing presidents with all their power
make mistakes, but see a person like Col. Oliver North, despite
his admittance of breaking the law, become a hero.
That apparently is what has happened after a week of Col.
North testifying to a committee of the U.S. congress
investigating the Iran-Contra illegal arms deal. Col. North
hasn’t denied much except that what he was doing was wrong.
He termed such ideas as using the proceeds of illegal arms
deals to support other illegal activities around the world by a
kind of secret government as “a neat idea”. He has said that the
President of the United States should be able to do just about
anything hewants in the name ofU.S. foreign policy, even if the
elected members of the House of Representatives and Senate
have used their powers to make those activities illegal.
Sowhat happens? Letters, telegrams and donations flood in.
People say he should run for president. The man becomes a
hero of a large portion of the right wing of American politics.
The bad guys to these people are the Congressmen and the
Senators (most hated Democrats) who would tie the hand of the
president and prevent him from being a4 ‘ Rambo’ ’ dashing in to
rescue countries he feels are in danger of falling to the
communists: Nicaragua being the most visible example.
What is frightening about these people is that in their
blinkered view of the world that sees all problems related to
communists or socialists, they fail to see that to fight
communist dictatorships, they’re willing to make their own
country a dictatorship. If Ollie North and his group which
apparently included CIA director William Casey and Admiral
John Poindexter of the National Security Council had their way,
the president and his advisors would have a free hand to pursue
whatever they thought was best for their country regardless of
whether the people or the elected congress approved. As one
committee member said there would be a virtual junta running
the government’s foreign policy.
What is frightening is that so many Americans seem willing
to give them that power. What president as firmly commited to
a moral crusade as Ronald Reagan, wouldn’t accept that
support as justification for continuing to tamper in the internal
affairs of countries around the world if they feel U.S. security or
U.S. interests justify it?
Others than Turner
have long
memories
Speaking about party dissidents Sunday night on television
federal Liberal leader John Turner said that he had a ‘‘long
memory”: a veiled threat that anyone who opposed his
positions would not find much opportunity for advancement if
he ever became Prime Minister again. He didn’t stop to think
that maybe the problem with the dissidents is that they too have
long memories.
Maybe Donald Johnston, David Berger and Sergio Marchi
and others have memories long enough to remember when the
Liberal party stood for policies nearly opposite to many of the
positions, Mr. Turner now advocates: particularly involving
constitutional reform as embodied in the Meech Lake accord.
What Mr. Turner seems to be asking is that our elected
politicians should be without conscience, should be ready to
change their views instantaneously the moment the word
comes down from their leader as to what he feels party policy
should be.
What he seems to be promoting is the same kind of situation
that was witnessed in China when the government would send
out the word of the latest ideologically proper policy and many
people would rush to comply but in the next years or months,
the government would decide on a different, often opposite
policy and all those who had followed the party line before were
now purged or sent to jail or to ‘‘re-education” camps.
The questions Canadian voters must ask is if they want to
elect a government filled with “yes-men” of the kind Mr.
Turner apparently wants in his party. Do they want to elect a
party that’s ready to grasp at what is the latest twist of public
opinion and change all its policies rather than set firm
principles and work toward them. Those Canadians who are
tired of the leadership of Brian Mulroney are unlikely to turn to
Mr. Turner’s wishy-washy policies as an alternative. Is it any
wonder that Canadians, in desperation, seem to be turning in
record numbers to the New Democratic Party which seems to
stand for something?
In the long run, not only must Mr. Turner have a long
memory. The voters do too.
Letter from the editor
BYKEITH ROULSTON
I’ve had a lot of occasion lately to
consider what is success in this
world and come to the conclusion
that, as in a lot of things, our society
preaches one thing and does
another.
The thoughts came on thinking
back over 70 years of a man’s life:
my father’s. After four years of
battling cancer he finally lost last
week.
By the standards that seem to
apply in the 1980’s, my father was
not a success. In this yuppie world
he never accumulated much afflu
ence. He never dressed in fashion
able clothes and wouldn’t know the
“right” restaurant from the
wrong. He never held positions of
great power and influence. He
didn’t have a driving desire to
change the world. In fact, to some
people he might have deserved
some of those uncomplimentary
names that seem to be applied
these days to nice, ordinary
people.
Yet, if you judged people in the
terms that we profess to appre
ciate, he was a great success. He
was the kind of man who put the
word “gentle” in gentleman. It
was a rare occurrence when one
heard his voice raised in anger. I
can remember, as aboy growing up
on the farm, hearing him use harsh
words to a stubborn piece of
machinery but seldom to a human
being.
Probably by today’s standards
he would be judged a sucker
because he probably was taken
advantage of more than a few times
because of his gentleness and his
desire to stay out of arguments. To
him turning the other cheek was
the answer. It was better to avoid
an argument than to win by
bullying.
And yet this gentle man was one
of the first to sign up for the army
when war broke out. He said he had
always known that if it came to war
he would be there. It’s hard to
imagine him being in the middle of
the slaughter but he was there in
Italy and in Holland, Belgium and
France.
When the war was over, how
ever, it was over. He had done his
duty. He seldom talked about it.
His service medals lay in a box in
the drawer in his dresser. He didn’t
join the Legion to relive old times.
The past was past. About the only
continuing connection he kept was
He went back to a quiet life and
probably would have happily spent
the rest of his life working on his
farm if the economics of farming
hadn’t forced him to seek off-farm
employment. Farm life suited him.
He was sociable but he liked being
alone. He loved animals and he
loved kids.
There was something about him
that attracted kids. They seemed to
sense that gentleness. His grand
children were among those who
mourned him most.
He was special without being a
“special” person. There are mil
lions like him and yet he was one of
a kind. The big wide world won’t
miss his passing. He didn’t leave
an indelible mark on the course of
human events, just on the lives of
5Continued on pagewhen he went to an annual reunion
of those he had served with.
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