Et cetera: 'Charity fraud alert'
Many of the Hutu rebel fighters have become mere bandits and are no longer under the control of any political authority. Mandela is not naive about the difficulties. His apparent strategy is to...
...the Sermon on the Mount may be replaced by Ayn Rand insights that will surprise you, such as: "The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing...
...His apparent strategy is to promote an African-mediated cease fire while looking to the international community for humanitarian aid and constructive diplomatic and economic pressure...
...Building a public consensus for such intervention even to stop genocide--is not easy, and neither elected officials nor humanitarian agencies have done nearly enough to convince the public of the moral imperative justifying such action...
...My parents hadn't the slightest interest in, or even much knowledge of, Westport's literary heritage...
...The takeover will presumably indude biblical studies...
...You get the picture...
...Westport has always had something of a literary and artistic reputation...
...The Institute bases its philosophy, called Objectivism, on the principles laid down in the works of the late novelist Ayn Rand, author of Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged...
...In reality, "you don't owe your life to anyone...
...I grew up in Westport, Connecticut, which is now notorious for being a pretentious suburb--the average house sells for something like $800,00(Obut was a middle-class community forty years ago...
...To reach the "eager young minds" in the nation's colleges and high schools, the Institute runs yearly contests in which students write essays based on the novels, thereby grasping Rand's view of "man": "A heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute...
...OUR MAN IN WESTPORT Finding Michael Williams's grave othing in our lives is preordained, yet in looking back at the decisions one makes and the surprising places those decisions take you, the guiding hand of something more than rational choice and circumstance seems at work...
...The hoax is based on "the phony idea that you have a moral duty to serve others...
...He plans to return to the peace table in Tanzania this month, bringing with him the weight of a galvanized and concerted international community, including possibly President Bill Clinton...
...This is "a bold-faced lie...
...And yet, "[I]f these guilt-mongers get their way, everything America stands for--independence, self-reliance, self-confidence--will go up in smoke...
...For, "[o]nce they've established a 'moral obligation' to help others, they'll have made it 'moral' for government to take everything you own for 'the good of society.' That's a one-way ticket to tyranny...
...But if the tragic lessons of Rwanda and Bosnia continue to be learned, and if Mandela's leadership and enormous prestige can be put to good use, history need not repeat itself in Burundi...
...The letter is from Richard E. Ralston, managing director of the Ayn Rand Institute...
...This suggests that ways can be found to avert the worst of such killings...
...It's time to "stand up and fight back for our liberty...
...The genocide was planned and carefully promoted by the Hutu government for months in advance...
...In the meantime, the potential for mass slaughter remains a daily worry...
...You'll know you're a victim if anybody has ever tried to "get your money by making you feel guilty about the plight of others," or if you've been "forced to pay taxes to fund government welfare programs...
...Since the battle for sanity and capitalism must be funded, recipients of the letter are asked to send the Institute a taxdeductible contribution of from $20 to $1,000, or "other ." Our friend is sending the " ." She, too, wishes to prevent charity frauds...
...Ralston wishes to warn Americans against a gigantic fraud, a "hoax perpetrated by the media, charities, politicians, and academics...
...Obviously these are hopeful signs...
...Second, it is now widely believed that early, forceful action by the UN, or the international community acting through some other venue, could have forestalled the Rwanda genocide...
...6Charity fraud a l e r t ' [] A friend reports receiving a promotional letter that has given her a whole new outlook on promotional letters...
...Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward are long-time residents...
...What was missing at the time, of course, was the political will to act, and the United States was among the most derelict, as President Clinton himself has admitted...
...Lessons drawn from Rwanda tell us that the genocide was not the result of any spontaneous uprising or longstanding and intractable ethnic hatreds...
...It's accompanied by a questionnaire bearing the same title as this piece...
...Once imbued with Objectivism, the students will eventually "put that philosophy into action as they take control of our country's institutions of government and the private sector...
...First, observers on the ground should be able to keep track of the government's more malign initiatives and thus alert the world...
...Real morality means pursuing your own happiness and interests...
...In retrospect, signs of the impending calamity are easily recognized...
...The UN has frankly admitted its manifold failures in this regard...
...Peter DeVries, the novelist and New Yorker writer, set a number of his stories in barely disguised versions of the town...
...As I grew up, my academic and literary interests Commonweal 6 February 11, 2000...
...F. Scott Fitzgerald briefly lived there, and the geography of The Great Gatsby, with its expansive views of Long Island Sound, is said to be modeled on Westport...
...The schools were good, my father's commute to New York tolerable, and the taxes low...
...My family moved there in 1956 into a small three-bedroom split-level (my father paid $19,000 for it) in one of the town's new developments...
Vol. 127 • February 2000 • No. 3
