DEAR EDITOR:
Thank you, Dispatch for printing my letter, and to you, Mr.
Allen, for your response.
DEAR EDITOR:
Thank you, Dispatch for printing my letter, and to you, Mr. Allen, for your response.
You are right. I am a proud bona fide liberal who finds herself “not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas. (I try to be) free from bigotry (and favor) proposals for reform, am open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others” (yourDictionary.com), as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others to live their lives as they see fit.
I see these qualities as positives and not as pejoratives. With that said, I, too, am often amazed when conservatives show an understanding of the finer points of the Constitution or history and can engage in a dialogue that is civil and mannered. Unfortunately, from what I have seen most conservatives lack this facility and pale when compared to giants like the late Barry Goldwater, who has been regarded as one of the most intellectually honest politicians in American history, a politician I often disagreed with, but have admired. I am also a big fan of Herbert Hoover, again for the same reason.
“Nation: A relatively large group of people organized under a single, usually independent government; a country.”
“War: A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties.”
Mr. Allen, you correctly chastised me in making errors as I attempted to be brief in my last letter. However, part of our difference was that you had initially written, “Nations were born in war and exist in a permanent state of covert and/or overt conflict.” I did not take issue with your use of born. I took issue with your use of the term war and its application to the creation of nations.
I agree that throughout most of history “war” has been at the heart of building states, whether they were the early city-states of Sumer and Babylon, the first empires of ancient China, India, Egypt, Rome, and Greece, or the spasms of the first “modern nation-states” beginning with the evolution of England and France. As you and hopefully everyone educated in America knows the 13 colonies that would become the United States of America suffered through a painful labor as they became the first European colonies to break away from their mother and become independent.
Sadly war seems to be innate. Marvin Harris, in Wars, Cows, Pigs, and Witches, and Jane Goodall’s research with the chimps at Gombe seem to bear this out.
However, since World War II, a movement, which some might argue is really not so new, has taken hold. That movement is non-violence, a movement breed in the east by the teachings of Gautama Buddha and the west by Jesus, who taught his followers to “Love your enemy” and “Forgive those who trespass against you,” and admonished Simon Peter to “Put up thy sword.” It is this movement that has been at the heart of nation-building since the end of World War II. This does not mean that war as a nation-building tool has disappeared, but in the terms of the “modern” nation-state, the philosophy and actions of non-violence has played an increasing role.
Now don’t equate non-violence with peaceful. Many non-violent movements are often met with extreme violence, such as Great Britain’s response to Gandhi’s non-violent hunger strikes and marches, which began in the 1920s, prior to the “demise” of the British Empire and its break up into “shards” or Soviet power countering the demonstrations of those in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
Canada began this process as early as 1867 with Parliament’s passage of The Constitution Act, 1867 (also known as The British North America Act, 1867). This act made Canada a self-governing dominion. By the turn of the last century, Australia, Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and South Africa had also achieved dominion status. In 1931, Great Britain granted almost complete independence in the Statute of Westminster to all her dominions and in 1982, Parliament passed legislation ending its legislative authority in Canada. The same was made true for Australia in 1986.
So as you can see, Britain did not simply collapse. The larger colonies evolved without war to become independent nations, each holding a seat in the United Nations, as well as remaining a part of the British Commonwealth, this includes India.
I, like my colleagues, like to think of myself as a good, caring teacher. I currently have a former student graduate who had me for history and government serving in the Bush administration as an advisor on Islam. Former students also include magazine editors, a photojournalist for National Geographic, attorneys, teachers, lawyers, business entrepreneurs, computer scientists, engineers, librarians, artists, writers, actors, a former newscaster, and the whole range of professionals, plus mommies and daddies, who happily email me pictures of their children.
Just today, while I waited to pick up my second MA, a former student of mine came over from the line where she was waiting to go into Spartan Stadium to receive her BA in Psychology and gave me a hug. My former student currently is serving in the Bush administration. He returned to where I taught before coming to Gilroy and told students that I had inspired him to get his law degree and go into political administration. A couple of summers ago I had dinner with the student who is a photojournalist with National Geographic, another who is now a landscape architect and contracts to Disney projects world-wide, a businessman now working in Korea, and a host of others. I am so proud of all my students and the small role I had in helping them understand the world and develop the skills needed to go out and follow their dreams.
Conservative or liberal, it doesn’t really matter. All that matters in the end are the people, serving one another with a sense of justice, truth, and honor, and leaving this life, after all we take, somehow better for the generations of today and those who will follow.
Karen Hockemeyer, Gilroy
Submitted Monday, May 26
