National Sanctity Of Life Day
by John Chuckman
Dissident Voice
January 21, 2003
President Bush
has declared January 20 National Sanctity of Human Life Day.
I should be
forgiven for greeting the news with cynicism, but at least they included the
word "national" in the title.
The list of
examples demonstrating how life is regarded by Americans with considerably less
than sanctity outside their national borders is painfully long. There is
eloquent testimony in the flesh of tens of thousands of innocent peasants
ripped by metal shards of American landmines and cluster bombs in a dozen
far-off lands.
There is
America's wanton disregard of Israel's brutal rule over the Palestinians; its
years of wanton disregard of South Africa's brutal apartheid government; and
its years of wanton disregard of official murder and torture in Chile, in Iran,
and in a dozen other lands with governments bestowed by America's hysterical,
witch-hunting interventions.
But even that
word "national" must be qualified. Within the sacred precincts of the
temple to freedom and human rights itself, there seems to be some elasticity in
the definition of sanctity of life. I'm sure the fetuses no one wants --
including the anti-abortion fanatics whose motto might well be, "We jus'
helps 'em get born, what happens after is private 'n' personal!" -- are
covered by the joyous national celebration. I think likely, too, sperm hurt by
condoms and stem cells are included, but just what else is being celebrated
remains mysterious.
The governor of
Illinois seemed to understand the meaning of the words "sanctity of
life" when he commuted the sentences of more than a hundred and fifty
people agonizingly awaiting execution. His decision came after overwhelming
evidence that the death penalty was administered with about the predictability
of a flip of a coin.
The President
never suffered qualms like that during his term as governor of Texas. The Texas
lethal-injection assembly line rattled right along with the highest recorded
productivity in the nation, and Mr. Bush was so sure justice was being served
that he was moved on more than one occasion to joke about those waiting to die.
I wonder how
America's love affair with guns fits in with the sanctity of life? There's
supposed to be about two hundred million of them, many of them handguns whose
only purpose is killing people. Obtaining a handgun in many parts of America is
far easier than getting a pair of eyeglasses.
There's the
little matter of the murder rate in America, the highest in the advanced world,
and then there's the infant mortality rate, also the highest in the advanced
world. If there is some way of interpreting the documented brutality of
American police forces as life embracing, it escapes me.
Now we learn
from a UPI story that, for the first time in its murderous history, Israel's
intelligence agency Mossad has been granted permission by an American
government to use the land of the free as one of its human hunting grounds.
Potential victims must qualify for that elusive category, "terrorists."
As determined by whom? I guess it's petty of me to ask such a question when
Americans are busy celebrating the sanctity of life.
Just a few days
ago, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Russian officials announcing a new
approach to the Chechens described as "the Israeli way," meaning they
intend to start cold-bloodedly assassinating Chechens who are deemed
terrorists. No objections were heard from the sanctity-of-life President.
Bush's CIA
recently blew up a car filled with people in Yemen after its arbitrary determination
they were terrorists. It's wonderful the way these humanistic values are
spreading around the planet. As I've remarked before, that word
"terrorist" is taking on exactly the meaning of Stalin's
"wreckers," a word he uttered each time he wanted to signal comrades
that it was time to round up a new batch of victims. Only now the vicious game
is going global.
I wonder if
Israel's new hunting privileges in America might be extended to other groups?
Perhaps licenses could be sold for hefty fees or auctioned to the highest
bidders. Americans could watch Russians and Chechens, Spaniards and Basques,
Irish and English, Mexicans and aboriginal people, Pakistanis and Indians,
Turks and Kurds, various Afghan tribes, or Muslim and non-Muslim Nigerians all
hunting each other down in their streets. Now there's an idea for celebrating
the second anniversary of National Sanctity of Life Day.
Americans should
be proud of the inspiring example they set for the world. Happy National
Sanctity of Human Life Day, America!
(You can read the UPI report here: www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030115-035849-6156r)
John
Chuckman lives in Canada and is former chief economist for a large
Canadian oil company. He is
a columnist for Yellow Times.org, where this article first appeared.