What’s this?
A fair message from the UN?
“WE WERE shocked and horrified by what happened,” concluded Anastasia Crickley, chairwoman of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a part of the UN that for once was living up to its name.
She was speaking of the late unpleasantness at Charlottesville, Va., in what was once known as the land of the free and home of the brave. Her shock and horror were understandable. For here was the spectacle of a great nation accustomed to leading worldwide protests against injustice elsewhere caught committing it at home. It wasn’t the first time in our history that the United States of America betrayed the principles of our own Declaration of Independence, but it was surely one of the most flagrant examples of American hypocrisy in undeniable action. As anyone who lived through the Little Rock Crisis of 1957 (Orval E. Faubus, governor and instigator-in-chief) should be able to testify.
“I was horrified as well,” Chairlady Crickley added, “by the way leaders of that movement were able to state afterwards that they felt secure in their support.” This kind of warning from the UN is issued when incidents could “spiral into terrible events” that require action later, not just words of condemnation. The UN sent out a similar warning last year when it took judicial and judicious notice of “reports of killings, summary executions, disappearances and torture, many of which appear to have an ethnic character” in Burundi. Which is scarcely good company for a freedom-loving, law-abiding country to keep. If hypocrisy is still the tribute that virtue pays to vice, this republic could scarcely have come up with a higher one than the spectacle at Charlottesville.
This committee of the United Nations said it was “alarmed by the racist demonstrations, with overtly racist slogans, chants and salutes by individuals belonging to groups of white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan, promoting white supremacy and inciting racial discrimination and hatred.” As all people of good will or just good manners should have been. What’s more, the UN committee named names, specifically those of two victims of the violence: 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who lost her life when a driver roared through the crowd, and 20-year-old Deandre Harris who was beaten by white demonstrators using poles. And the committee demanded that “all human-rights violations which took place in Charlottesville, in particular with regards to the death of Ms. Heyer, are thoroughly investigated, alleged perpetrators prosecuted and if convicted, punished with sanctions commensurate with the gravity of the crime.” In short, let justice run its course without fear, favor or fanaticism. Allow us inky wretches at Arkansas’ Newspaper to second the motion.
In addition, this international committee called on this country to address the basic reasons for racism in general within its borders, in particular the prejudice against “people of African descent, ethnic or ethno-religious minorities, and migrants.” Lest we forget, this country signed on to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination back in 1994. But poetry may say more than any legalistic language about the need to crack down on dangerous disturbers of the peace. Still only half awake the other morning, unsure whether he was still asleep or having a daymare, an aging editor turned to a poem by the talented David Solway titled “The dreams.”
They assemble in throngs
demanding to be heard like demonstrators waving placards, sometimes peaceful, usually violent, shouting slogans into the wind or hurling rocks through
the windows of embassies. The dreams are insistent
and omnivorous. They know the world exists only to provide material for their disruptive cause, to light the candles of a silent vigil. More often to ignite the rags and kerosene of their
flaming cocktails. They storm into the atrium
of the mind smashing furniture and taking
hostages, shaking up the order of the day. And even when they are quelled by the force of customary things and packed into the vans
of the morning so that life somehow goes on, there is no relenting, no reprieve, there is always a lone wolf left behind intent on mayhem, casting his shadow on the parquet, there is always another dream still waiting to be dreamt.
And another editorial waiting to be written. Pleasant dreams, Gentle Reader, or at least visions that’ll remind all that eternal vigilance is still the price of liberty.