Bush's words must be heard

How is it that these mortal eyes look upon George W. Bush and see a president whose words and vision inspire the children of Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe, while others see a frightening grandiosity that they are certain will result in calamity?

How is it that these ears hear and this soul stirs to words with the enduring nobility that should mark the reach of a new generation, words for fathers and mothers to instruct their children, while others hear the same words defensively and dismissively as the store-bought rhetoric clever wordsmiths have drafted to deceive?

The reality is that for the remainder of his presidency, George W. Bush will lead a divided nation. He will not win over the largest segment of an embittered opposition grown to adulthood and influence over decades of angst and doubt about the values America projected at home and abroad.

These are the victims of the '60s rebellions, who see the worst in our motives and methods — in Iraq, in the projection of American power and influence abroad, and in domestic institutions, especially corporations.

There is no conversion opportunity, or little at best. The entrenched opposition is prisoner of an ideology formed a generation ago and now encased in decades of comfort. The critics who predict — sometimes, one thinks, hopefully — that the second term will prove a disaster, are beyond reach.

This is a dividing line in history. The president's message in his second inaugural acknowledges that reality — and moves on. He begins a new conversation with the next generation, and those to follow, a conversation of seriousness and purpose directed to those who will transform the world.

Imagine sitting in Iran and hearing these words: "Eventually the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it.

"All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."

That is not a commitment of military intervention. It is, instead, a pledge that we will not embrace oppressors and ignore their treatment of their citizens. If, as with Iraq, the threats reach a threshold that endangers our security, a nation confident in ourselves, and in our values and in our military may very well act decisively.

"Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill, and would be dishonorable to abandon," Bush said.

A new generation will demonstrate to dictators and those who yearn for freedom that, as a people, we will accept obligations and will fulfill them honorably, and that message becomes as powerful a deterrent as a nuclear weapon.

Imagine a young person sitting in this country, idealistic but uninspired by challenges lacking in majesty; a young person whose idealism is limited to pedestrian sloganeering that "War is Not the Answer."

Bush instead points a new generation to a nobler and more productive call, citing those who have "accepted the hardest duties in this cause" of advancing freedom.

"All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time. I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real, and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself — and in your days you will add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character."

This conversation he has begun presents grand ideas and challenges that frighten those whose ideas were once radical, but who now cling with death's grip to the status quo. Social Security, education, health care — all big ideas for the next generation.

***....We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty.

Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty - though this time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen, is an odd time for doubt. Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals. Eventually, the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it.

Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world:

All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.

The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."

The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side. ....***

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050120-1.html#

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***…Back in the Reagan years, Jeane Kirkpatrick became a heroine in the Soviet Union for the simple act of naming names on the floor of the U.N.: naming the names of prisoners, citing their cases, inquiring after their fates. Later, in Moscow, she met Andrei Sakharov, who exclaimed, "Kirkpatski, Kirkpatski! I have so wanted to meet you and thank you in person. Your name is known in all the Gulag." And why was that? Because she had named those names, giving men and women in the cells a measure of hope. Kirkpatrick says now, "This much I have learned: It is very, very important to say the names, to speak them. It's important to go on taking account as one becomes aware of the prisoners and the torture they undergo. It's terribly important to talk about it, write about it, go on TV about it." A tyrannical regime depends on silence, darkness. "One of their goals is to make their opponents vanish. They want not only to imprison them, they want no one to have heard of them, no one to know who or where they are. So to just that extent, it's tremendously important that we pay attention." …***

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