Learning Stories
by
Mario deSantis
mariodesantis@hotmail.com
“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, and free to choose those who shall govern my country.” - -The Rt. Hon. John Diefenbaker, Canadian Bill of Rights, 1960
“The whole judicial system is at issue, it's worth more than one person.”--Serge Kujawa, Saskatchewan Crown Prosecutor, 1991
“The system is not more worth than one person's rights.”--Mario deSantis, 2002
Ensign Stories © Mario deSantis and Ensign
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First of all I subscribe to our societal understanding to have ordinary people accomplish extraordinary feats. And if we are all able to be leaders as ordinary people and therefore accomplish extraordinary feats then the closer our societal organization would be to the vision of a better democracy. I don't subscribe to the notion that leaders are the chosen people of a deteriorating ever unequal society as we are experiencing it today. And I don't subscribe to the notion that people should do the thinking for other people as I found natural the notion to teach my students to think for themselves when I was a teacher, and I found natural the notion to teach my own children to think for themselves at home. We have a civil war in the Middle East, people are killing each other and blaming each other for these killings. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accuses Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of being a terrorist and charges that Arafat is an ineffectual and irrelevant leader who is not capable to negotiate a peace solution in the Middle East. And as a consequence, for many months the Israeli army has curtailed Arafat's ability to govern the Palestine territories with the hope to negotiate with a friendlier Palestinian leader. My understanding is that Prime Minister Sharon has no right for choosing a friendlier Palestinian leader other than Yasser Arafat. And as Yasser Arafat is concerned he has shown to be the leader of the Palestinian people as expressed today by the international community with the exception of the Israeli government and the Bush administration. Today, Yasser Arafat is isolated and under the guns of Israeli tanks, but equally so the Israeli government and the Bush administration are isolated within the voices of the international community. References The Arrogance of Occupation, by Lev Grinberg, Director of the Humphrey Institute for Social Research at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. December 14, 2001 http://www.fpif.org/outside/commentary/0112arrogance.html Europe insists on Arafat's status as a legitimate authority, Brian Whitaker, March 30, 2002 The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,676296,00.html Security Council calls on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities, urges sides to move to ceasefire, UN, March 30, 2002 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=3248&Cr=palestin&Cr1=annan World leaders warn Israel against harming Arafat by Jocelyn Gecker, Associated Press Writer March 31, 2002 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020331/ap_wo_en_ge/mideast_world_ |
