The May 2010 Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter can now be found at: http://www.euthanasiaprevention.on.ca/Newsletters/Newsletter108(May2010)(RGB).pdf Bill C-384 was soundly defeated by a vote of 228 to 59. Check how the Members of Parliament voted at: http://www.euthanasiaprevention.on.ca/HowTheyVoted.pdf On June 5, 2010, we are co-hosting the US/Canda Push-Back Seminar at the Radisson Gateway Hotel at the Seattle/Tacoma Airport. The overwhelming defeat of Bill C-384 proved that we can Push-Back the euthanasia lobby in the US and Canada and convince people that euthanasia and assisted suicide are a dangerous public policy. Register for the Seminar at: http://www.euthanasiaprevention.on.ca/2010SeminarFlyer(RGB)(LetterFormat).pdf The Schindler family are being attacked by a Florida television station and Michael Schiavo. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is standing in solidarity with the Schindler family. My blog comments: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2010/05/att...
Reflections from the pastoral ministry of an Evangelical Catholic Priest.
Mr. Pavone writes:
ReplyDelete"But we can rejoice nevertheless, because the war on these radical terrorists is real, and it is a war we must win, period. Together, we must protect our nation, and removing bin Laden from the scene brings us closer to that goal."
As usual, Mr. Pavone misses the real point. While we must thwart terrorism, I don't believe that sinking to the same level as terrorists is a very effective way of combatting it.
What I find very disturbing is that bin Laden may have been assinated. The inconsistent stories now coming out of the US military and the White House suggest that there was no serious attempt to capture him and to actually try bin Laden in a court of law for his crimes.
Even more troubling is that most Americans seem to have absolutely no problem with the possibility of assination - even if it proves to be true. Indeed, what I have seen suggests that Americans are overwhelmingly motivated by vengence as a way to address their sense of wounded national pride.
I would argue that it would have been a far better example to show terrorists that western democracies honour the rule of law - not just pay lip service to it. I would argue that the west lost an opportunity to expose bin Laden's crimes in public and to clearly demonstrate his evil. I would argue that a lynching is never "justice" - no matter how guilty you believe the perpetrator to be.
I certainly understand that capture attempts sometimes go wrong, and that the hunted are sometimes unintentionally killed, however, I am getting the distinct impression that this was not really a serious attempt to arrest bin Laden. If I am correct, this is just one more strand of evidence demonstrating that the terrorists have already won the war - not through superior tactics and cunning, but because we become just like them. We suspended civil rights, we imprisoned people without habeus corpus, we sanctioned or participated in torture, we illegally and pre-emptively declared war on sovereign countries on the thinnest of pre-texts, and now we may have also murdered a man (a very bad man) in cold blood. Some victory...and precious little cause for rejoicing.
Cheers...Martin
Correction: assinate = assassinate.
ReplyDeleteI rely too much on spell check and your comments box does not have it. There are other typos too...just hope folks can read through them.
Cheers...Martin