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Opinion
S.C.
congressman targets coarse society in scandal
May
17, 2004
Disappointment!
Devastating! Shocked! These are some of the descriptions of
pictures that led to the publicizing of the prisoner abuse
scandal in Iraq.
They came from some of South Carolina’s
congressional contingent, and many others concur. One, though,
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S. C., put it all in a better perspective.
His appraisal is worth noting.
Clyburn, chairman of the
Black Caucus in Congress, said he wasn’t shocked by what he
saw. Why he wasn’t should touch a responsive chord among the
rest of us.
“These sort of pictures and this sort of
episode is something the country is pretty much immune to.
It’s sort of ho-hum. It’s what we have seen in this country of
late. This kind of decadence is something the country sees
every day.”
THE CONGRESSMAN MADE
another pertinent point, something that has been mentioned
many times. However, it bears repeating. People should not be
as upset at the (abuse) pictures as they are about the
coarsening of American culture that emboldened the soldiers to
break the rules of decent conduct, Clyburn concluded.
To
emphasize that point, Clyburn quoted Alexis de Tocqueville,
French historian and political philosopher who toured America
in the early part of the 19th century: “if America ever ceases
to be good, America will cease to be great.”
That should be
our focus now more than ever. We have been good people, and
continue to be.
History testifies that when any nation in
the world needs aid, whether friend or foe, it has been the
United States that has always – always – rushed to lend a
hand. When food, medicine, clothing and other necessities are
needed, we have always been there, and there’s no telling how
much of everything we have shared with the world.
IT’S STRANGE, TOO. Although some
people have nothing but scorn for the U. S., they never turn
us down when we can be of help.
There is a downside to it
all, to be sure. As Clyburn noted, the coarsening of American
society is evident every day. It’s obvious in Greenwood and
indeed coast to coast. Language, liberal attitudes on sex,
drugs ….. you name it, and we have it. Most of all, though, we
witness every day the weaning of religion from society as
churches struggle with social issues that confound us and
detract from the goodness of America.
Unless we come to our
collective senses and reverse the trend, we will continue to
slide down the slippery slope de Tocqueville warned against
long ago.
Editorial expression in this feature represents
our own views.
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