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Bush should improve his 'parenting' skills by
Sarah Littman
published June 14, 2005
If I had to pick the most important thing I've learned about parenting, it's
that children emulate what their parents do more than what they say. So modeling
good manners is critical to the maintenance of a functional society.
Recently, I hit the curb while driving into school, ripping a huge hole in my
right front tire. It left the car inoperable, riding on the rim. It couldn't
have happened at a worse time or left me stuck in a worse place.
After phoning for assistance, I switched on the hazard lights and burst into
tears. It'd already been a stressful day, and I had to get my daughter to an
important doctor's appointment. What made an already difficult situation worse?
Not a single person pulled up to ask if I needed help. The only parents who did
stop (five of them) did so for the sole purpose of shouting abuse -- from the
merely snotty ("You can't stop there!") to the just plain rude ("That's a really
stupid place to park!").
What ever happened to "The Good Samaritan"? What were the kids in those cars
learning about compassion and empathy, about being a good citizen? I hope if
these five abusive ladies ever have car trouble, they don't the misfortune of
meeting people like ... themselves.
But the "do as I say, not as I do" principle is not just a local problem. As the
reigning world superpower, espousing the spread of freedom, democracy and human
rights, our country could be considered as acting in loco parentis. This is why
the president's disingenuous reaction to a recent Amnesty International report
is so reprehensible
In a speech accompanying the report's release, Amnesty International's secretary
general, Irene Khan, said: "Guantanamo has become the gulag of our times,
entrenching the notion that people can be detained without any recourse to the
law." She called on the United States to close the detention facility and either
release or charge its prisoners. She was joined in this by courageous Democratic
Sen. Joe Biden, who said, on the ABC News program "This Week": "This has become
the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the
world." Oh, you noticed that too, senator?
Yet what was the president's response to the Amnesty International report?
"It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that ... promotes
freedom around the world. Š When there's accusations made about certain actions
by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way. ...It seemed
like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of ... people who were
held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained ... to
disassemble -- that means not tell the truth."
Isn't it funny how when Saddam Hussein was criticized by Amnesty International,
this administration found the organization credible? And actually, Mr.
President, disassemble means to take something apart. Methinks you
meant dissemble or to put on a false appearance in order to conceal
facts or intentions.
On the other hand, maybe it was a Freudian slip, which means the
mistaken use of the wrong word in a sentence that is thought to betray
somebody's subconscious preoccupations. Because it's clear that this
administration has a preoccupation with taking apart the system of checks and
balances upon which our country was founded, using the "war on terror" as an
excuse to mess with our civil liberties.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld called the Amnesty International claims
"reprehensible," and said the military goes to "great lengths" to accommodate
the religious practices of detainees.
A few days later, the Pentagon admitted that several of the incidents of Quran
desecration indeed had occurred. The administration is trying to fob us off with
the "few bad apples" defense it tried after Abu Ghraib. But Donald Rumsfeld
personally approved the December 2002 memorandum permitting such unlawful
interrogation techniques as stress positions, prolonged isolation, stripping and
the use of dogs at Guantanamo Bay. It's well past time to look up "accountability,"
Mr. President. Oh yes, how about "transparent," while you're at it,
because the investigations clearly weren't.
If this administration's goal is really as stated, to spread freedom and
democracy, and if it expects other countries to respect human rights and live by
international rules of conduct, we should not be violating these rights
ourselves. Flying prisoners to other countries for "torture by proxy" shows the
frightening moral relativism of this administration. America needs to be "a
light unto the nations" instead of showing the world "the dark side of the
force."
Sarah Littman, who lives in Greenwich, is author of "Confessions of a Closet
Catholic," published by Dutton Children's Books.
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