WorldNews Guest Writer Beverly Darling

WorldNews Guest Writer Beverly Darling.

'The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.' -- Thomas Jefferson

By now, everyone has heard and read about the twelve political cartoons published in the Danish paper denigrating the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam. In one of the cartoons, a bomb animates from the Prophet’s head, while other drawings mock and belittle Islamic beliefs. Here in the U.S., numerous derogatory cartoons have also appeared in the press, such as the one likening the leader of Iran to Hitler wrapped in a Nazi Swastika and ready to push the ’nuke’ button. Another drawing shows an Arab dressed in a suicide-bomber’s belt ready to press a trigger with the caption, ’Who says the Muslim World doesn’t produce anything?’ Of course, the demeaning and stereotypical inferences are legion. It is therefore little wonder that the West is facing difficulty in spreading its concept of liberty to the Middle Eastern Region, let alone the rest of the world. As Muslims protest in the streets and attempt to defend their beliefs-possibly the only thing the West has NOT stolen from them or devalued, as Western media outlets defend their decisions to publish the cartoons on the basis of freedom of the press, and as the U.S. continues to lecture societies around the world about the lofty ideals of rights, maybe it is time Western Civilization re-examine their own skewed democratic experiments. The results and direction of Western Liberty may be surprising and even disturbing. But first, liberty is not…

Liberty is not power. In the West, liberty has often masqueraded itself with self-absorbed authoritarianism. Whether it be the Church and its doctrines that excommunicated or burned heretics for hundreds of years, or the Sacred State and its laws that now executes or binds dissenters, liberty has always belonged to, and is currently defined by, those who wield the most power. In the 2004 Presidential election, as George Bush campaigned, numerous citizens were arrested for expressing their opinions and objections to the war. Yet, on extreme right-wing talk-radio shows and in other public spheres throughout the U.S., one can continually hear individuals exclaim that Cindy Sheehan, the mother who lost her son in Iraq, should be ’shot,’ ’beaten over the head with a shovel,’ ‘commit suicide and do the world good,‘ and even ’be eliminated.’ Unfortunately, Western power-by-the-few defiles and leaves others nameless. It has prevented the West from realizing that no one person or single state has a monopoly on absolute liberty. .

Liberty is neither permissiveness. The destructive and selfish thoughts that ‘we will do whatever we want to,’ and with ’little or no regard for our neighbors,’ leads to cultural decay and a valueless society. In idolizing the individual or the unitary nation, and thinking that the western concept of liberty is an end in itself, Western Democracies have neglected the liberties and ideals of other peoples faiths and traditions. Western permissiveness and the ‘anything goes’ belief results in the devastation of the sacred and absolute. There are no truths, especially in other faiths or traditions. Life is no longer hallowed. Permissiveness breeds self-justification and faulty excuses, instead of accountability and responsibility for one‘s behavior. As a result of hyper-permissiveness, the West rationalizes invading and destroying other countries. Aggression, killing, and murder is defended as spreading liberty. Obscenities are validated and even encouraged. Freedom of the press is an end in itself and often controlled by the corporate-state to belittle other people or the less powerful-originally freedom of the press was always used in opposition to the Nation State. Although ‘fighting words,’ obscenities, defamation, hate-speech, and racial slurs are outlawed in the West, it is allowable and expected to use these same injurious and slanderous concepts against the rest of the world or anyone that disagrees. How would the U.S. have reacted if Christ would have been shown molesting a child? What if George Bush was pictured raping an Iraqi female prisoner? What if there were political cartoons about the Holocaust? Selfishness and permissiveness always produces double standards and insincerity.

Liberty is always limited to one’s perception. All humans are bound by a past, bias’, mistaken ways of thinking, and positive-negative cultural norms. Therefore, one’s perception concerning liberty is always partially faulty. An example of this is a recent political cartoon in the Western press revealing Hamas, the Palestinian political group that just won the election by a majority vote, as another suicide bomber ready to explode. Written beside Hamas is the word, ‘Democracy.‘ Why does the West automatically question Hamas’ democratic experience, but not its own? Other nations and groups may perceive liberty differently than the West or mainstream America. As the West attempts to ‘starve’ Hamas and destroy them, I personally know several people who left the U.S. and moved to other countries in order to live in other political systems because they felt oppressed and subjugated in the U.S. Secretary of State Ms. Rice recently said that the protests over the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed could ‘spin out of control’ and that the Arab League and other Middle Eastern countries should act responsibly. I am not sure if Ms. Rice has noticed, but our country and concept of liberty has already ‘spun out of control’ as churches are being burned, a VA Nurse is charged with sedition for writing about the horrors of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, America perceives the right to invade and threaten other nations, whole villages-where suspected terrorists are thought to be-are massacred, innocent women and children are brutalized, and human beings are denied their liberties.

Western liberty is not profiteering. Mistaking consumerism and the accumulation of products for liberty, corporations and competition have replaced communities and cooperation. Goods have replaced God. In gaining the world and its resources, the West has lost its soul. Religion is bought and sold like a service. War is driven by profit and purchased by the highest bidder. Liberty and freedom is something to be bought and peddled. Human life is a commodity to be used and then thrown away. Alexis de Tocqueville observed this when he witnessed the mistreatment and removal of the Native Americans, while the U.S. mistakenly claimed to be the torch-bearers of liberty. He wrote, ’The Indians’ misfortune has been to come into contact with the most civilized (sic) nation in the world, and I also would add, the greediest.’ Peoples of the Middle East see this usury and are sickened. No wonder they protest and resist Western liberty. Perhaps these political cartoons will lead to introspection and a new political catalyst for the West.

This new catalyst would be love-understanding, goodness, forgiveness, and charity towards others. In other words, liberty never means the freedom to hate, demean, or injure another person physically or emotionally. Instead, liberty consists in the freedom and ability to nurture and always act on behalf of, and for, humanity. When God asked Cain where Abel was, already knowing that Cain had murdered Abel, Cain answered, ’Am I my brothers keeper?’ Yes, we are responsible and accountable to one another. Both Jesus Christ and Mohammed founded communities and political movements that were first built on love. Franklin Roosevelt put it this way, ‘Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.’ Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘I cannot be what I ought to be, until you are what you ought to be. This is the way of true liberty!’ As President Bush threatens and invades the world claiming to spread freedom, as Saddam Hussein rants and raves about his lack of rights, as Osama bin Laden speaks of liberty while he pens poison, and as cartoonists continue to draw and defile sacred images, their words and images will fail. However, love will never fail. Even though you do not hear politicians and statesmen speak of love, it is the highest law. Without love, there can never be true liberty.

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