srparedon – editorials (archive)

December 2001

What is to become of Afghanistan? Can the bombing give way to a freer, more representative government? Might the country shed the oppressive Taliban while avoiding becoming a client state? Will the US have the sense to fight this “different kind of war” with desperately needed food and relief supplies? Will Washington recognize that lasting economic justice is a more potent weapon in fighting terrorism’s roots than any military action?

We can hope so, even though the US track record of toppling and installing governments in foreign lands is checkered at best. Latin America, southeast… Continue reading →

November 2001

When suicide bombers kill thousands of civilians, what is the appropriate response? How is life best protected from future similar attacks? Can we create a world in which no one feels compelled to such wanton violence?

In the wake of the horror of September 11, it is easy to understand many people’s impatience with such questions; the desire for vengeance is an instinctual reaction. But our own self-interest demands that we look beyond revenge to ask instead how best to prevent future violence.

President Bush would have us dismiss last month’s attacks as simply… Continue reading →

October 2001

Why is Michael Cuesta’s film L.I.E. rated NC-17 (“X” in the old system)? It has no frontal nudity, little explicit sexuality, and less violence than is routinely seen on daytime television. So why the adults-only rating?

L.I.E. (an acronym for the Long Island Expressway, where the movie is set) was slapped with an NC-17 rating because of its political content. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the industry’s censorship board, decided that the ideas contained in L.I.E. were sufficiently offensive that even kids accompanied by their parents would not be allowed to see the… Continue reading →

September 2001

Should police have the right to ransack your house, seize your privately-kept diaries, and send you to jail if they deem what you’ve written to be sufficiently offensive?

Of course not, any sensible person would answer. A cornerstone of civilized jurisprudence is that lawmakers may concern themselves with action, but cannot police thought. Freedom of conscience and expression is enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Only in a totalitarian state would the contents of your diary subject you to incarceration.

But Brian Dalton is in prison now because police went through his Columbus, Ohio,… Continue reading →

August 2001

In the last 20 years Stalinistic legislation has tremendously eroded Americans’ civil liberties. “Child pornography” is now so broadly defined that no children (nor even any nudity) need be involved. Possessing images that state experts think evoke a sexual response by the owner is a crime. And thousands are now incarcerated in “treatment” gulags, not serving time for anything they did, but rather jailed for crimes bureaucrats imagine they might commit.

Anyone who thinks that such violations of civil rights are visited only on the monstrous should consider the case of Al Baker. Baker is… Continue reading →

July 2001

Vermont made history last year by enacting legislation allowing for civil unions between homosexual couples. All the rights the Green Mountain state made available to heterosexuals through marriage were to become accessible to homosexuals entering a state-sanctioned civil union.

Last month, Vermont legislators revisited the civil unions issue, and gay marriage activists warned of “an anti-gay initiative designed to demean gay and lesbian relationships.” Gay people across the country were urged to contact Vermont officials to demand defeat of this “anti-gay” legislation. Indeed, state legislators noted how opposition from “gay families” was “profound.”

Just… Continue reading →