Friday, February 04, 2005

THIS is what I'm talking about

Da Goddess had a terrific rant the other day directed at the anti-American crowd:

You and the other protesters claim to be interested in the basic needs of people around the world. Yet, I have seen you do little more than stand around yelling angry slogans. I have seen no one reaching out a helping hand.


She asked for TANGIBLE example of what the left is doing besides protesting. She's still waiting for an answer, btw. Today,I came across this today in the Opinion Journal:

By the time the Berlin Wall fell, Andrei Sakharov, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel and others were already household names in the world. In 1968 the New York Times had published Sakharov's essay, "Reflection on Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom." These were the years in which the word "dissident" entered the lexicon. What has the West--governments or media--done for the dissidents of the Middle East? Very little.

Not one of them is a household name. The closest is Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago. When these dissidents get into trouble, the free world needs to shine a light on them, so that it's harder for their governments to make them vanish.

When this happened during the Cold War, with a Sakharov or Sharansky, the media was often in the lead, elevating their plight. In the wake of Iraq's election, the editors of the U.S. and Europe might consider getting off their anti-Bush fixation and getting on the cause of Middle Eastern dissidents.


A mighty YES screamed in my head. EXACTLY. This is how the media is doing what Da Goddess was talking about. The names (or very existence) of dissidents are unknown to anyone that doesn't seek this information out. They are too obsessed with hating Bush.