The irony of today is as succulent as a cactus, whose spines sting us so hard even the next generation will feel it. With the Ashcrofts and Enrons of the world, we are encouraged to turn our backs and hide our faces in the sand. We promote progress as creating multi-national companies but not criticizing the driving mentality that puts profit over people, except for the CEOs such as Enron's Kenneth Lay.
Sometime today, or tomorrow, think about how we eagerly forgive and compensate companies when they lose money, while we are relentlessly starving the funds of so-called third world countries with incredible debt. Sometime today, or tomorrow think about how it seems just as righteous to demand that we also tape conversations between Enron-like companies and their political contacts, just as we easily slap phone taps between attorneys and their clients for reasons yet to be described?
It is interesting how fear and irony waltz in between the many lines of written policies and in the shadows of our actions, or lack thereof. Isn't it ironic how "harboring terrorists," does not become the same music that our morality hums to when the nation that harbors terrorists becomes us?
Just as we destroy the al Qaeda training camps, we must destroy our recently renamed School of the Americas, which have trained countless terrorists throughout Latin America, without the same "collateral damage" of course. This is not about pointing fingers or comparing belt buckles, or any other playground games. This is about a reality that needs to wake up to itself for the sake of our children. Let us be responsible for our own words, and be able to see through the walls of contradictions toward the other side that is always green.
Bush's appointment of Otto J. Reich as assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere was yet another sour statement of what we have to deal with. It is well known that under Reich's leadership, Orlando Bosch, the known mastermind of the 1976 bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner killing 73 people and many other terrorist attacks, is able to live a free life in Miami.
We continue to openly declare that we are a nation that respects rules and laws, meanwhile we continue to break international laws on civil and political rights such as those created at the Geneva conventions?
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I must have been absent or sick in bed when the U.S. government finally decided to respect the enumerable treaties between the Indigenous people of North America and the U.S. government, which have all been broken. What types of legacies are we passing on to our children when we continue to accept a mentality that allows only certain sectors of the community access to good educational resources, health care or financial repair?
Do you think repairing Enron is just as important as helping repair the social dignity and mutual respect shattered by slavery and its waves of isms? Or is it that the contradictions of an entire century, or entire millennia, would start pouring out like water from a broken dam? I am sure that one-half of congress and three-fourths of the senate that received Enron money can agree, or agree not to agree, that we have some serious issues that we are not addressing.
I am also sure that Bush can agree that even if Enron was one of his largest patrons during the 2000 presidential campaign, we still should start putting more energy toward sustainable ways of living. Even if Bush did enjoy the cushioned toilet seats on Enron's corporate jets, we still should be regulating and bringing to the public's attention companies' actions in other countries and the health of our ecosystems.
These contradictions are like alligator's teeth just below the surface of our view. It is a shame when we believe and teach our children that what we don't know won't hurt us. What we don't know is exactly what we need to know in order to regain our balance and better our future.
by Maceo Carrillo Martinet
Daily Lobo Columnist
Questions, comments or suggestions can be sent to Maceo Carrillo Martinet at cunoco8@unm.edu.
