Reflections: Conversations, Essays, and Other Writings

More Important Than Boxing: 2008

The 2008 presidential election was remarkable and gratifying. More Important Than Boxing: 2008 In 1977, I left my job as a litigator for aWall Street law firm to write. My first book served as the basis for a feature film starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. Missing told the true-life story of anAmerican named Charles Horman, who was killed by the Chilean military in the aftermath of the 1973 coup that toppled Chilean president Salvador Allende.The book and film presented evidence that Horman was executed with the foreknowledge of United States government officials because he’d stumbled upon evidence linking US military personnel to implementation of the coup. One night, I asked Charles’s mother what she thought was the most important message I could convey in the book. Her answer has always stayed with me. “Charles’s death,” Elizabeth Horman told me,“taught me the lesson of political responsibility. I used to think that I could till the soil on my own little plot of land and let the rest of the world care for its own problems .What our country did inVietnam, what happened to people overseas , was no concern of mine. I was wrong. I know now that each of us is obligated to fight for what is right and take responsibility for what our government does. If we don’t, sooner or later, it will affect us all.” I’ve quoted Elizabeth Horman here because her words are the best and most heartfelt expression I know in support of a proposition that goes to the heart of life in a democracy:The rights and privileges we enjoy as citizens are accompanied by responsibilities. As an American who feels that his country has been tarnished and badly damaged during the past eight years, I feel a responsibility to add my thoughts to the dialogue regarding the upcoming presidential election . In January 2005, I wrote,“Nothing is more appalling to those of us who oppose George Bush than the fact that millions of Americans voted for him in the belief that he somehow epitomizes good moral values. 220 THOMAS HAUSER Moral values are about more than the lavish profession of a belief in Christ.We believe that there is no sense of decency or honor in the Bush administration and that it’s morally rotten to the core.” John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate has galvanized “the religious right” in support of his candidacy and put the issue of moral values back in the electoral spotlight. So let’s talk about moral values. America’s Founding Fathers believed it was essential that the War of Independence against England be conducted with respect for human rights.The nation they’d founded was at risk and the British were engaging in atrocities against American civilians and soldiers. But George Washington, as commander in chief of the Continental Army, deemed it essential that the revolution remain faithful to its ideals.With regard to the detention of enemy combatants, he decreed,“Treat them with humanity and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren.” During the Civil War,Abraham Lincoln forbade any form of torture and put into place the first formal code of conduct for the humane treatment of prisoners of war. Dwight Eisenhower followed that example in WorldWar II. The Bush administration has systematically undermined more than two centuries of American values in the conduct of war.The same people who designed and supported these excesses are in the vanguard of John McCain’s presidential campaign. John McCain’s backers also take perverse pride in attacks on the environment . One of the applause lines that whipped this year’s Republican National Convention into a frenzy was “Drill, baby, drill.”There it was. Get some pipelines in that wilderness. Spill some oil on those beaches. We’ll show those tree-huggers. Preservation of the environment for future generations is a moral issue.The people who are telling us now that there’s no need to worry about global warming are the same people who told us a month ago that the American economy was sound. The Bush administration and John McCain have consistently opposed greater regulation of financial institutions.They told us that multi-milliondollar Christmas bonuses on Wall Street and $140,000,000 executive REFLECTIONS 221 [3.131.13.37] Project MUSE (2024-04-19 22:50...