Americans abroad
McCarthy, Abigail
workboots, women's pumps, shoes that ing or lesson to be gleaned from the arguable that a sparse nomadic popula- made your feet ache terribly after an en- tragedy of the...
...Worse, our military aid which may take the form of a scholarly or critical essay or a personal narra- and military interventions in the intertive, should appeal to the interests of the general educated reader...
...It is at least ways in Latin America, doing so in codeterred the Serbs...
...Thereafter, very substantial help polarization was not as extreme...
...And then In addition, millions of Americans gave Wiesel said that the museum does not pro- God said, "Remove your sandals from your to church- and charity-sponsored food asvide any answers...
...He might not have been pushed to the leading Christian Democrat of South lost...
...Chile (including the assassination of in slightly different guise...
...But it is equally Seererh' irained hr Arraeric ans...
...not have helped at all...
...feet, for the place on which you stand is sistance programs...
...The by the recent UN report...
...If we had acted more decisive- A rise in population and new food de- developing the copper mines...
...God called we were sending food abroad at some sacIn his remarks at the dedication cere- out to Moses and, albeit with some hesi- rifice, and the majority of them approved...
...We cannot shift abruptly think every columnist must share forts...
...as the satisfactions, the personal as well as the theological dimensions of ecu- Almost twenty years and the probmenical work...
...In Chile this was shaping up as true that Americans saw good in our ef- -jiennr, so were we...
...Think of Original and unpublished essays of approximately 2,500-4,000 words should Grenada, Panama, Libya and, finally Iraq be submitted to the editors of COMMONWEAL who will make the final decision where the problems we sought to end go following consultation with a panel of experts...
...11 12: 4 June 1993 Commonweal...
...a three-way struggle among Eduardo Frei Commonweal 4 June 1993: 11 or Radomiro Tomic of the Christian Dem- conference arranged just for that pur- take their course...
...Irmgard, dedication, President Bill Clinton cited the In the past most Americans thought that I cannot imagine being in your shoes...
...the opposition was not as inStates...
...in Iraq do more harm than good...
...We of the developed nations sank of another seemed at any given point...
...Announcement of Prize: December 17, 1993...
...cy and independence in Latin America...
...The events can be summarized quick- up with the Senate Foreign Relations The Chileans had a right to choose him...
...Suppose Allende had ocrats and Salvador Allende...
...ly: Observers at the world conference of Committee, interested journalists, and fi- Things might have developed very difChristian Democrats in Santiago were nally, very quietly, with the president ferently in his administration at that time...
...Did our intervention operation with the local economic elite...
...A sadder thought is this: Eduardo Frei might very well have won on his own (that was his own conviction...
...This essay will become the property of the Graymoor Ecumenical ed administration as it faces the terror in Institute...
...Frei won, Allende tense...
...Now we have come to Reluctant to proclaim any universal mean- holy ground...
...In his speech at the museum been compounded by our pattern of aid...
...All other essays will be returned to their authors after January 1. Bosnia, the human rights violations in countries important to us-China, Turkey, COMMONWEAL 15 Dutch Street, New York, NY 10038 Mexico, among others-and starvation in Sudan...
...We have today...
...At every international for Progress that the United States should conference we face bitter accusations from cooperate with every effort for democrathird-world delegates...
...Powerful international forces were helping his opponents of the Right and Left...
...workboots, women's pumps, shoes that ing or lesson to be gleaned from the arguable that a sparse nomadic populamade your feet ache terribly after an en- tragedy of the Holocaust, Wiesel said that tion would have adapted to the long tire day of uselessly carrying heavy at least we must learn not to remain in- drought and had a much higher rate of surstones up a hill, shoes that marched you different when people suffer...
...The prize is intended to encourage and support new ecumeni- lems with material aid and political incal and interreligious ideas and perspectives...
...It is a question mark...
...Should we have refrained from helping Frei, from insuring his success...
...The most hor$1,000 and will be published in COMMONWEAL...
...We are almost incurably mission- to technical assistance now...
...From the euphonious Anthea Dove torical process is wrenched askew...
...At the same time, meetings were set won...
...pose...
...interwoven with ours, and still not inOur previous winners have reported from England, Wales, Jerusalem, Eisenach, trude in such a way that natural and hisGermany, and Chicago, among other places...
...D the decidedly uncomfortable knowledge that we were disposing of our surpluses and helping our own economy in the procOF SEVERAL MINDS Abigail McCarthy ess...
...But Chile was a country of sound demoIt is almost twenty years since I pon- cratic institutions and our interdependence dered problems like these in a Common- grew in many ways...
...syndrome...
...cooperation with the murderous government forces in El Salvador-confirmed Deadline: October 1, 1993...
...THE GRAYMOOR PRIZE We are left to ask: How can we exercise our moral obligations to our neighThe Friars of Atonement announce the fourth annual Graymoor Prize, to be bors of the globe whose future is awarded to the best essay on any aspect of ecumenical or interreligious affairs...
...Why have our ef- Take only one example...
...The award-winning submission, tervention persist...
...And, as ally a year-and-a-half ago, would we have pendence patterns followed...
...Frei, succeeded by Tomic, who was more committed to radical change and more a man of the workers, might have managed apace of change which would have satisfied the most desperate...
...He was a Chilean of the Chileans...
...The winning essay will receive on in convoluted fashion...
...Th al'.cthe other...
...to your death, shoes that may have once place to start, as Moses did, is to take off The whole problem of world hunger has grounded you and supported you which our shoes...
...climate shift alone (they are in dispute come, no matter how needed or well-inDo the unintended consequences of our about whether there is indeed a climate tentioned our intrusion into the affairs efforts to "help" suggest that we should shift...
...With the bitter wisdom of hindsight Frei came to the conclusion that we should have refrained...
...Yet the dilemma is real...
...Perhaps the vival...
...And doing long-range harm: "Over the years developing nations became extremely dependent on food assistance...
...As the years pass some word missionary today...
...ary in spirit, no matter how suspect the Political aid is even more questionable...
...asked to meet with Frei and Tomic (who himself...
...1993) to the exotic Ty Mam Duw Community (1992) to the formidable Ed Surely not by turning our backs or shirkMarciniak (1991), Graymoor winners have written about the difficulties as well ing responsibility...
...Was the problem deeper wells and taught the agricultural Granted, our first presence in Chile was solving itself in Somalia without our help arts to the nomadic people of the region...
...that of American business exploiting and anyway...
...Castroism was to oppose Allende in a later election was poured into Frei's campaign-pos- and terrorism were not so strong on the after serving as ambassador to the United sibly through the channels of the CIA and continent...
...passage from Exodus (3:4-5...
...This is mere speculation, but to come to Washington as speakers at a that it might have been better to let eventslegitimate to consider...
...Since between the repressive and the exploitaall human effort is mixed in motive, there tion on one hand, and the Communists on is truth in the allegation...
...had become nothing but a curse...
...Climatologists tell us that derous oppression under Pinochet) shows and the op-ed pages are taking second looks the conditions there did not result from a how very complex the problem can beat American foreign policy initiatives...
...The tragedy in topics resurface again and again forts gone so "aft agley...
...Just The sub-Sahara is one current and very Allende and the ensuing years of murnow experts and pundits on the talk shows painful example...
...the "Isn't-this-where-I-came in...
...Such surely are prize-winning essay will be published in COMMONWEAL's January 14, 1994, the considerations of a Vietnam-educatissue...
...the choices he made in his own adminisAmerica, Rafael Caldera of Venezuela, Certainly, one can hazard the thought tration later...
...Between 1954 and 1969," Dan AMERICANS ABROAD Morgan reported in the Washington Post, "free food or commodities received on easy WHEN GOOD INTENTIONS GO AWRY credit terms accounted for more than 30 percent of total food imports of developing countries...
...Then it was arranged for Frei and international labor...
...So it was that our first weal column and I think what I wrote then anti-Allende effort took a form that might has relevance today: seem acceptable to many Americans even "How will we ever sort it out...
...The editors reserve the right to rible example, of course, is that of our select more than one winner or not to award the prize at all...
...so often done harm by doing what we It was an avowed purpose of the Alliance thought was good...
...Also present are Americans darkly sus- Advisers to the administration in the early picious of all our efforts at aid in the 1960s thought they saw in the rise of the past-disposed to see in them only dis- Christian Democratic party a third force guises for "economic imperialism...
...mony for the Holocaust museum, Elie tation, Moses said "Here I am...
...As it was, both were made vulnerable to the charge of being tools of the Colossus to the North...
...vening years have escalated the patterns of international violence...
Vol. 120 • June 1993 • No. 11
