mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (01/12/84)
Obviously Jackson accomplished what some critics have accused him of --
political visibility. But why should there have been an argument? Private
citizens of democracies and dictatorships have often taken international
action into their own hands, and usually been criticized or rejected
by their own governments. The International Brigade (Division?) in
the Spanish Civil War tried to stop Franco's Fascist dictatorship,
against the wishes of the Western Democracies who were at that time
appeasing Hitler. Many US citizens visited North Viet-Nam during
the Viet-Nam war. Some saw them as heros, but the Government didn't.
Hess flew to England as a private citizen to try to stop WWII (at
least the public was led to believe it was a private venture, which
comes to the same thing). Lots of people write to the Soviet
Authorities for clemency on behalf of political prisoners. The list
goes on and on.
It is good that private people don't leave diplomacy to the Governments.
The vested interests of the Government are not always the same as those
of the people in either country. Even though we vote for the politicians
in power, should we leave them ALL power? Don't we still want to do
things for ourselves?
Sure, there are lots of touchy issues as to when private initiatives
are seriously damaging. Private behaviour of this kind ranges all the
way from spying for ideological reasons to "private" sounding missions
secretly sponsored by a Government that can't talk officially to the
other side. Jackson's "mission" was in between, but I'd say a good
deal closer to the latter than to the former.
Why all the fuss, if it isn't either racist or because of worry that
a candidate some people don't like might become popular?
--
Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmtemjej@uokvax.UUCP (01/21/84)
#R:dciem:-61400:uokvax:5000058:000:350 uokvax!emjej Jan 19 22:05:00 1984 Sigh. My hopes that not favoring Jesse Jackson for the presidency wouldn't necessarily be taken as evidence of racism are in vain. The reason I'm concerned about Mr. Jackson's trip to Syria is that I don't know what it was he did or said to get Mr. Goodman out. (If that is a matter of public record, I'd appreciate a reference.) James Jones