Don't Hold Your Breath for Human Rights

What does it mean to witness if you’re an artist? IN the 1980’s the poet Carolyn Forche associated the craft of poetry with the political act of becoming a moral witness. Forche’s work in the arts of poetry and political witnessing lead her to edit an important anthology of political poetry which remains the standard volume on the matter.

I remain troubled by the absence of moral conversation in our current presidential campaign. IN fact it’s possible I think to view the antics of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a kind of anti-witnessing. She has recently been attacking Senator Barack Obama for having raised the issue of our military’s frequent involvement in incidents that have led to civilian deaths in Afghanistan. Obama was citing the U.S. military’s own findings that suggest that a lack of troops on the ground in Afghanistan has caused the U.S. to rely on air strikes against suspected Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds. In turn more civilians are killed than might otherwise be the case.

Senator Obama’s assertion was not unpatriotic or "anti-military" as Sarah Palin has loudly claimed, but rather an assessment drawn from our own top military leaders. It is fair I think to remind ourselves that in general terms the U.S. military does not like to kill innocent people. If you are on the left you may well laugh at my assertion; if you’re on the right you will quite possibly sneer at anything the military has to say—after all, that’s what the past 8 years have been about eh bien?

And so in this instance I am a witness to a mealy mouthed and unethical attack by Sarah Palin on the decency of our own military. And as seems to be the case so often, she is willing to confuse the messenger and the message for political gain while ignoring the real human rights issues.

And that’s my point of course: there have been no human rights issues in this campaign. I’m not holding my breath that we’ll hear about human dignity and freedom tonight.

S.K.

Comments

[bibliochef]

Well, there was (ok, I am still listening) a minor issue about abortion, which in some ways is a human right and their difference on this is substantial. But Palin, of course, does not think women's rights are human rights. . . . . and . . . I agree with you.

[william Peace]

I agree human rights have not been discussed. In my estimation this lack of discussion is tied to rampant anti-intellectualism that has blossomed since Bush was elected. McCain and Palin nasty rhetoric assumes most voters are unfamiliar and uninterested in any serious or detailed discussion of the issues that confront us today. Thus they mock Obama for being eloquent and rely on prompting an emotional response devoid of substance. For instance, Palin keeps saying she is a friend of "special needs children" but has not in any way stated how she will improve the quality of life for these people and the adults they will become.