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Alarming Rhetoric
T
he nation of Israel was corn-
man.ded to be a model for the
rest of the world. That is a fine
ambition and a profound responsibility.
But because Jews total, at most, one
quarter of 1 percent of the world's pop-
ulation, we approach the task modestly.
We can and do share our ideas and val-
ues with the rest of the world, but we
could not and would not force them on
anyone.
President George W. Bush would do
well to heed our example in
his view of what is good for
the rest of the world. His sec-
ond inaugural speech a week
ago was profoundly unilateral-
ist and messianic, proof of his
failure to apply this simple
policy.
He spoke repeatedly of freedom, but
what he seemed to mean was America's
version of how society should be organ-
ized. As Jews, we accept many of those
values. Much of what Bush said was
drawn from The Case for Democracy a
book by conservative Israeli political and
human rights leader — and former
Soviet prisoner — Natan Sharansky.
Bush was wrong in some substance
and some rhetoric. He was triumphalist
when he has few legitimate triumphs to
claim. The world is clearly better off for
the American military action that over-
turned the Taliban in Afghanistan. But
the newly elected regime of Hamid
Karzai exists only by tolerating a vast
increase in opium trafficking and by
giving the revived warlords a free hand
in most of the country more than a few
miles from Kabul.
Next week's election is Iraq may
resolve some of the tensions in that war-
and faction-wracked nation, but it is
unlikely to bring diminished terrorism.
The heavy-handed display of American
military might — the shock
and awe approach — is not
something we would want
other countries to emulate.
Imagine what that would
mean if it were the nuclear-
armed India asserting a right
to strike preemptively against Pakistan
or vice versa.
While White House aides hurried the
day after the speech to argue that the
president was not announcing a policy
change toward an even more-active U.S.
willingness to impose its standards of
freedom on the rest of the world, the
plain language of his address was hard
to ignore.
If, as he said, "the survival of liberty in
our land increasingly depends on the
success of liberty in other lands," he is
duty bound to create that "liberty" in
EDIT ORIAL
Slice Of Life
I
dreamed of Boston cream pie. Usually I
remember very little of my dreams. But this
one was so vivid, not to mention weird, that I
recalled the details perfectly. The more I thought
about it, though, I understood that it wasn't about
pie at all.
My slumberous hankering for the dessert led me
to my grandparents' house in Detroit on
Broadstreet, a place I haven't set foot in since 1955.
I climbed the stairs to their upstairs flat in my
dream and entered the living room.
It was only then that I realized this was not going
to work because my grandparents have been dead
for several years. There was also the inconvenient
fact that it wasn't my grandmother but my Aunt
Rose who used to make the killer Boston creams.
Her daughter once promised me just such a treat
in return for Al Kaline's autograph. I was a baseball
writer then, so the request was not impossible. After
George Cantor's e mail address is
-
gcantor@thejewishnews.com
DECISIONS, DECISIONS...
"every nation and culture." If "America's
vital interests and our deepest beliefs are
now one," as he said, he must protect
those interests by spreading those
beliefs.
But it is painfully obvious that a lot of
the rest of the world does not and will
not soon subscribe to America's pre-
scription for an ideal society. In the
poorest countries, the need for freedom
from poverty and hunger and disease
trumps the demand for political choice.
The resistance in Iraq is based at least in
part on a belief that democracy is an
"evil principle" and a "wrong ideology.'
It is also spurred by a fear that a Shiite
government will end the freedoms and
possibly the lives of the Sunni resistors.
It would have been far better for Bush
to talk about the world's interdepend-
ence than to have him trumpet our
superiority in matters of morality and
democratic practice and his intent to
end tyranny "in every nation." Can we
truly deliver?
Precisely because America is now the
only superpower, it must be careful to
respect the right of others to determine
their societies within civilized parame-
ters and without our bullying. We think
we are the good guys. But if we really
want to transform the world, we need
to understand that there are other good
guys, too.
❑
amused him greatly.
I explained the situation to Al, he graciously
I had folded it up carefully and tucked it
signed a baseball for me. Not only that, he
away
many years ago. It was a funny poem,
didn't even ask for a piece of the pie in
but
as
I read it now my eyes filled with tears.
return. What a guy.
"So sad, so fresh," another poet has writ-
In my dream, I hastened from the old
ten, "the days that are no more."
house, which was now occupied- by strangers,
The last Thanksgiving we celebrated in
and woke up puzzled. What could have
the
house on Broadstreet was in my bar
brought that on?
mitzvah
year. I had received an 8-millimeter
I don't know how long it's been since I've
GEORGE
movie
camera
as a gift, and one of the first
had a slice of that recipe. My aunt has been
CANTOR
things
filmed
on
it was that holiday feast.
gone for almost 25 years, so I've had a while to
Reall ty
That
film
has
long
since been transferred to
work up a taste for it.
Che c k
tape, and I have watched it so many times
After some rumination, though, I figured
that I can screen it frame by frame in my
out what I was really dreaming of.
memory. So many at that table are gone. But
A few days before, while rummaging
in
the
theater
of my mind, we are all as we were then.
through a desk drawer, I came across a poem my
Aunt
Rose
baked
pies for these meals. Some of
grandfather had written. Harry Grossman was the
them,
I'm
sure,
must
have been her legendary
last of the versifying veterinarians. He composed
Boston
creams.
rhymes for all occasions, but this one was especially
I think that's what my dream was really about.
meaningful.
Holding fast to memories of family. Dining on
He wrote it when Sherry and I became
comfort food for the soul. And the older we get,
engaged. I was travel editor at the Detroit Free
don't we all need a slice of that?
Press at the time. The thought that I had roamed
So I thought once again of my dream, and the
around the world and then ended up marrying
mysterious
way that time passes, and how good the
the girl next door (well, that was poetic license,
but she was from the same general neighborhood) pie tasted all those years ago. ❑
1/27
2005
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