Letters
Editors: Richard Wolin's excellent review of Will Kymlicka's Multicultural Citizenship (Winter 1997) surprisingly leaves one stone unturned. In referring to the case of the Pennsylvania Amish...
...The Amish and Native American instances differ radically from the Jewish-Muslim exemption, which only makes it possible for those who wish to do so to affirm group membership and take advantage of the waiver...
...Speaking only for myself, I believe that different American governments sometimes act in ways that promote democracy and human rights, and sometimes don't...
...The arrogance of Michael Walzer's editorial, especially its ending ("So we need to know how they are faring, and whether and how we can help") was simply breathtaking...
...The other two are far more complex...
...My country has struggled, against enormous odds, to maintain itself as a democracy, but U.S...
...SUMMER • 1997 • 127...
...The point of the China symposium, which I was introducing, was to ask whether American pressure on behalf of democratic and labor union dissidents in China would have that effect, or not...
...In Wisconsin v. Yoder (the Amish case) the rights of children are not regarded, though many who leave the Amish as adults testify to their childhood defenselessness against the power of the elders and the governing structures...
...Editors: The recent symposium on the United States and China (Spring 1997) recalled for this reader the comment of the British newspaper the Guardian that the Gulf War was prosecuted to "protect the American way of driving...
...Venice, Calif...
...Letters must be kept to about 500 words, typed, double-spaced, and carry the full address and name of the sender...
...symposium started, as I said, from a well-warranted leftist suspicion about the uses of American power, but, very sensibly, it didn't end there...
...Letters will not be returned to senders unless they are accompanied by stamped, selfaddressed envelopes...
...But because we have a long "lead time" for each issue, you have to send us your letter within three weeks after getting an issue of Dissent in order to get it into the next issue...
...Similarly, dissenters and social/tribal critics in certain Native American groups have no rights in the face of the excuse of tradition...
...In referring to the case of the Pennsylvania Amish exemption from mandatory education laws, native American tribal protections, and the absolution of Jews and Muslims in some countries from Sunday closing laws, and other examples, he says, "of course, most of these examples are uncontroversial," without indicating which he thinks are controversial...
...To Letter Writers • We welcome succinct letters from our readers...
...In some instances they have been exiled from tribal lands and denied significant tribal rights for sedition and treason, because they have spoken out against governmental practices...
...Berkeley, Calif...
...We reserve the right to edit letters down to fit our space and to choose which shall be printed...
...Indians are used to the gap between precept and practice as regards American foreign policy, but I was certainly unprepared for the blindness of American intellectuals, as manifest in your symposium...
...For Washington, economic interests will always come first...
...foreign policy has consistently discriminated against India and in favor of its neighbors, which have been, and in some cases still are, ruled by theocrats, absolutists, generals, or commissars...
...In these two instances, children and dissenters, there is only the choice of abandonment of what is maintained as a static culture, without opportunity of participation in it as legitimate members...
...We are unable to acknowledge letters...
...So if you want to write about something that you like, or dislike, in or about Dissent, please do it quickly...
...While I agree that some cultural protection is needed, it should be recalled that the cultures involved are privileged without consideration for dissenters, minorities, spokesmen for social change, and the powerless...
...Do the editors of Dissent believe the fiction that the American government is, even in theory, interested in promoting democracy and human rights...
Vol. 44 • July 1997 • No. 3
