Correspondence
Correspondence So who is Mary Gordon? Seattle, Wash. To the Editors: Aw, c'mon, Commonweal ! Have you guys quit writing the good stuff so early in the year? So who is Mary Gordon and how...
...I believe my choice of the platonic phrase' 'philosopher-king'' in the case of Mr...
...To the Editors: J. M. Cameron's article, "The Idea of a Liberal Education'' [Apr...
...So who is Mary Gordon and how does she rate four pages of good space for an interview in your magazine [May 9...
...Letters of not more than 250 or 300 words naturally have a better chance of being published...
...The Renaissance in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands produced liberally educated individuals who were gentlemen, equally polished and equally worldly...
...Second, contrary to Mr...
...TOM FOLEY (on leave from Yale Law School, working for the Peace People) Community of the Peace People The author replies I am sorry Mr...
...Miss Corrigan gave all but $12,000 of that money away to a variety of needy cases...
...Thomas Farer, President Inter-American Human Rights Commission Organization of American States 19th and Constitution, NW Washington, DC 20006 SHELTON H. DAVIS Director, Anthropology Resource Center From the Peace People Belfast To the Editors: With regard to Michael McDowell and "Post-Nobel Decline" in Commonweal March 28, there are several serious and incorrect implications...
...To the Editors: I was very moved to read Robert Wasserstrom's article, (Continued on page 414) Commonweal: 386 (Continued front page 386) "Genocide in the Jungle," in the April 25 issue...
...Foley describes the Peace People as being alive and well...
...All higher formal education, in some sense, is class education...
...Father Drinan, an American Jesuit, sought as a Congressman to somewhat expiate clerical heinousnesses of the past by a peace-oriented, humanitarian legislative record, that showed itself conciliatory to other suasions and beliefs— whereupon the pope applauded (for a change) the role of certain priests in politics...
...The community politics idea, based on the Norwegian experience, is now espoused by at least one political party (Alliance) and considered a realistic alternative by most others...
...Having put the positive points of the Movement at the front of my piece, I was obliged also to adopt a critical approach which would be accepted by most objective observers...
...The point I was making was that their acceptance of the Nobel Prize money deeply affected their credibility in Northern Ireland...
...Wasserstrom notes, the systematic uprooting of the 10,000member Yanomamo Indian Nation is one of the most serious human-rights violations now taking place in the Brazilian Amazon...
...McDowell casting aspersions on what he calls "philosopher kings" for their attempt to change Northern Ireland society's structure, on the grounds that political parties and churches had as yet failed to do so...
...McLachlan's disappearance from the Peace Movement by saying the Peace People executive had a "unanimous lack of confidence in his leadership.'' I think that is a very sad and unfair comment on Mr...
...McDowell's assertion, Mr...
...McKeown to "compensate for an earlier call to ghetto dwellers to give information on terrorism to the police...
...And if the membership were not genuine peace persons to begin with, they should certainly learn to be in order to survive the post-mortems such as Mr...
...It seeks to advance certain individuals and groups, and it does so by setting arbitrary standards for those who are to become the leaders and professionals in society...
...These same gentlemen, of the fine schools in England, were in India, Egypt, all of Africa and Asia, in Ireland, China, Burma, Singapore, etal, evidencing their ability to run things, and at the same time exploiting these areas, and slaughtering when necessary, for the glory of the Empire, and for the increased riches and prestige of that nation, and their class...
...Father Josef Tiso, as President of the Fascist state of Slovakia, began to lay the groundwork for handing over tens of thousands of Jews to the Nazi extermination squads—whereupon the pope wondered publicly, out loud, whether after all the clergy should really be trusted with final solutions—and politics...
...The Peace People position regarding emergency legislation was not, as Mr...
...They doubtless provided the leaders...
...It says nothing, to me, about being a Catholic...
...One of the great difficulties of journalists and academics and others in deciphering and decoding what exactly was going on in the Peace People organization was Mr...
...With only two arguable exceptions it is a thoroughly grass-roots collection who believe, as housewife and mother of five Freda Lyness of Rathcoole put it, that they are "each equal parts of the Executive'' and no longer to be bartered back and forth by too many words or superior education...
...NORRIS MERCHANT Amazon genocide Boston, Mass...
...Last and most importantly, far from having "passed on" the Community of the Peace People is alive, well and still opposed to all purveyors of violence...
...That situation exists today to a lesser degree...
...I regret he sees my view of the Peace People as negative...
...and it excludes others, generally the lower classes and the poor, from becoming leaders or professionals, except in egregious cases and through genius, chance, or extraordinary effort...
...McDowell's...
...McKeown's talent for obfuscating and complicating issues in a verbiage of sociologese-like rhetoric...
...Please, Commonweal staff, don't go to sleep on your faithful readers...
...McDowell implies, a reason for McLachlan's dismissal or for Mrs...
...Finally, 1 emphasized that the Peace People are only one organization working for reconciliation in Northern Ireland—one of many...
...McKeown, at great personal risk, spoke for the delegation to the several hundred R.A.C...
...As Mr...
...I believe any financial dealings encountered were entirely above board...
...Liberal education in England at that time was class education, in exclusive schools, based upon wealth, and using the classics, an acquired accent, manners and deportment to perpetuate and to solidify a class society...
...In response to this critical situation, several organizations have petitioned the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States to conduct hearings on the need for the proposed Indian Park...
...McKeown's discussion of community politics is one that is simply not clearly understood, or which seems not understandable or feasible...
...He explained the Peace People view that both emergency legislation in its present form and the dirty protest on the H-Block are acts of violence for which the Movement would continue to seek resolution...
...Your readers Commonweal welcomes letters on subjects treated in its pages...
...But in the 19th century, not enough to make him free of anti-Catholic bias...
...You can come up with something better than that...
...I did not find her interview very interesting or enlightening either...
...Perhaps their failure to date is exactly the reason why there is room for the community politics and democratic nonviolence approaches which are the theory and backbone of the Peace Movement...
...JOHN BRANIGAN Pope & politics New York, N.Y...
...can assist this effort by writing to the president of the commission expressing concern for the future of the Yanomamo Nation and calling for a thorough investigation of Indian policy in Brazil...
...As for emergency legislation not being an issue in this fiasco, that simply is not true...
...Foley attempts to correct my explanation of Mr...
...Six months ago however, seven members of the Peace People Executive, including McKeown, Corrigan, and McLachlan, accepted an invitation to attend an assembly organized by the Relatives' Action Committee (who are the parents and friends of men doing time on H-Block...
...Actions speak louder than words, seems to be the emerging motto...
...McKeown's appearance on the Relatives' Action Committee platform—an organization highly equivocal about the role of the I.R...
...The pope said it was about time the damning shame of the clerical monster was going to be publicly balanced by an image of clerical compassion...
...McLachlan stemming from the in-fighting which I described in the article...
...It is true that Miss Corrigan retained some of the Nobel Prize money, entirely as a concession to Mrs...
...It produced two nations, which differences could not be bridged except through acquiring money, and by sending one's children to these schools, to be educated to another class...
...11 ], using Newman's The Idea of a University , as a vade mecum, has the English gentleman as the ideal product of that education...
...It has prompted the unions and many of the working class to try to modify and to mitigate what they believe are the pernicious effects of this system, by doing away with the exclusive public schools which they feel perpetuate a class society...
...The prelate who headed the Catholic chaplaincy in Hitler's army, abetted by several distinguished clerics, gave Hitler's war aims the plash of baptismal grace, and implied un-Christian traitorousness in those who might oppose them—whereupon the pope insisted that priests have no business in politics...
...The Spanish hierarchy insisted, in a public pronouncement, in seeing Franco's revolt, unleashing the Spanish Civil War, as more or less a Christian crusade—whereupon the pope forbade the clergy to take part in politics...
...supporters...
...But these notions, never actually identified in Mr...
...For the past year, a campaign has been underway to convince the Brazilian government to create a 16-million acre land area for the Yanomamo...
...But there are no allies or enemies in a real Peace Movement, and the Peace People are now more than ever dedicated to their first principle of' 'working with our neighbors near and far, day in and day out, to building that peaceful society in which the tragedies we have known are a bad memory and a continuing warning...
...Fourth, and for sure, money money money seems always to be an issue...
...Their place of wealth and privilege in the nation, and their education, gave many of them the opportunity for leadership...
...Reliable sources in Brazil write that some action will be taken on this proposal by the government within the next two months...
...McKeown is wholly fair...
...They and their descendants, with the British, would soon divide the world, manifesting their leadership, and satisfying their avarice among lesser educated people...
...Williams's resignation...
...The Alliance Party—whose leaders would be, I would venture, just as constructively critical as I have been of the Peace People's progress—do believe in community politics, but in a rather more practical form...
...An ambitious program of work has been designed and executed by this group, including a variety of prison welfare schemes, a resettlement program, numerous sporting ventures for young persons^ continuing sponsorship of seminars for various political groupings, the administration of five summer camps abroad for the most troubled fifteen- to nineteen-year-old age group, publication of a much respected peace fortnightly and numerous other tracts on philosophical and practical approaches to the everyday problems of violence...
...Both policies spring from the concern for nonviolence and a ' 'justice that is seen to be just" which have been the hallmarks of this movement...
...Meanwhile, the Brazilian National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) has done nothing to protect Indian lands...
...I had no intention of slurring the Peace leaders in discussing the financial affairs of the Movement...
...His address is: Mr...
...A proposal now rests with FUNAI to establish a welldemarcated and protected Yanomamo Indian Park...
...McKeown and Miss Corrigan have never journeyed abroad except at the expense of their hosts and only for Peace People or Nobel business...
...She is now living off the interest on the remaining funds, having given up her well paying job long ago to concentrate totally on the Peace Movement...
...I read her book Final Payments and was not impressed...
...There is much that is positive about the Peace People these days—from the determination, pace, and patience of new Chairperson Mairead Corrigan to the commitment displayed by this new and working Executive...
...Both have long and vocal records in opposition to the emergency laws, a position which has been ratified by the membership at three successive assemblies...
...McDowell would prefer that the Movement had in fact passed on, as they fail even to enquire about or compare its past and present programs...
...CAROL McHUGH High class education Staten Island, N.Y...
...First, the dismissal of Peter McLachlan as chairman was a decision made by the Peace People Executive, reflecting what became for them a unanimous lack of confidence in his leadership...
...How much the liberal education, in itself, adduced to this quality, and how much it can be separated from their wealth and privilege, and class, is not known...
...They fear, however, that the government will reduce the size of the proposed land area and authorize the exploration of minerals on Yanomamo lands...
...Peace 4 July 1980: 415...
...Foley regards my article as carping and negative...
...McDowell's piece, shouldn't be discarded simply because they are espoused by the Peace People...
...McKeown has at no time appeared on a pro-IRA platform in Dublin...
...michael McDowell Senior Fellow Carnegie Endowment for Intl...
...Foley working for peace in Northern Ireland...
...Williams's personal need to do so...
...Briefly, I endeavored to be positive about the Peace People's early days, but there is no escaping objective and rigorous criticism of its later development...
...It matters not who puts these new structures into effect if they will work...
...He also again called on people to give information on terrorism to the police...
...The leaders of the British nation, of all parties, Labor as well as Tory and Liberal, have been drawn overwhelmingly, with few exceptions, from the exclusive public schools, and most Parliamentarians come from the same selective club and class...
...It is positive indeed to see a young American such as Mr...
...The Movement has removed its Chairman and lost the support of some of his "allies" as it were...
...Thirdly, it was disturbing to find Mr...
...A. I might point out—certainly raised eyebrows within and without the Peace People...
...Alas, for unreal visions in a world still very much the same...
...Let me quote my last paragraph: "The Peace People were rightly acknowledged abroad at their beginning and even now, and their work lives on...
...To the Editors: I have a vision of history that has recently given me no rest: Cardinal Richelieu succeeded, after exacting labors, in curbing and destroying the political power of the French Huguenots—whereupon the pope averred that the clergy must free themselves from politics...
...McDowell is very welcome to review the certified annual accounts which detail the over 150 business, youth and community ventures to which funds were granted or loaned...
...Nor was this view architected by Mr...
...He agrees that the gentleman, "is not the highest product of the Christian culture," but that this education produced, "a certain grace and polish and flexibility of mind...
...Nearly 1,000 Indians have died from diseases carried by highway workers and from uncontrolled contacts with miners and settlers during the past five years...
...I begin to think that journalists like Mr...
...A positive outgrowth of all the media war dancing over recent difficulties has been the composition of the fifteen-person Commonweal: 414 Executive...
Vol. 107 • July 1980 • No. 13
