European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 21, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday july 21, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 William f. Buckley or. Commentary what s wrong with an occasional dictator when at a television seminar in Berlin a year ago ambassador Vernon Walters said in passing that no democracy in this Century had initiated an aggressive War my memory churned in search of the exception. Unsuccessfully because the ambassador was right. Granted he was saved by the tolling of the 19th Century Bell. His figure was hallowed by Only a year or so Given the Spanish american War of 1898, which is difficult to View other than As an offensive War by the United states against the Spanish Empire never mind whether it was justified. So then that is certainly one up for democracy. But the enthusiasm for democracy seems i cautiously optimistic. Moreover it runs into its own difficulties because it requires of course the crystallization of acceptable boundaries. It is jarring to recall that As recently As during this Century Wales and even Scotland were discussing the kind of a a devolution that would have meant in effect self Rule. A few Miles to the West the disorder and the killings go on in Ulster and Ireland Over the dogged question of self Rule Ulster wants to retain its Independence As a part of Britain while substantial elements within Ireland want Irre dentist. At this particular moment the Odds that Canada will split open Are very Good Quebec appears Adamant in its insistence on Quebec Libre a movement abetted by Charles de Gaulle when he visited Canada 24 years ago. Ten years ago Chile and Argentina very nearly went to War Over the question of who should govern the Region around Tierra Del Fuego. India is continually rent on the question of Kashmir. And of course holding Center stage Are Yugoslavia and the soviet Union. These granted Are not democracies but the question to Ponder is if they gave everyone a vote tomorrow and the vote included the right to define boundaries How Many countries would evolve from that Fiss Parous mess five ten and on whose Side should the grown up nations be should we pull for Independence for the Baltic republics Ellen Goodman Tei Fra Emch is a amp Rygr jew Ocrant or a a surely the answer is yes. Though the official position in Washington is no. But How about Slovenia or Georgia the dogmatism so Assumption that democracy tends to Wash Avyay the exorbitant sins of its people is otherwise disturbed by a knowledge of history. India is in a state of High combustion and has assassinated two leaders in recent history. In a Way it is comparable to Portugal before world War i and immediately after until Antonio Salazar took charge. Salazar took charge but he was a dictator. That a right he was and a decade after that Spain All but fell apart suffering More than a million casualties in one of the Voriest civil wars in modern times. What then happened was that Francisco Franco took charge. Franco took charge but he was a dictator. That a right he was in Chile in 1970, Salvador Allende was elected president never mind that in a three part election he garnered Only 36 percent of the vote. What then happened was three years of ripening strife. In the summer of 1973, Chile a supreme court declared unconstitutional two of the actions of Allende and the country was headed for civil War and a gusto Pinochet took charge. Pinochet took charge but he was a dictator. But democracy does not have the Power to do anything effective to curb the terrorists and the army does not seem to have the strength or the resources that were finally mobilized by the filipinos to quell their terrorists in 1954. Meanwhile Colombia which is off and on again As a democracy but has been one now for 33 years seems to have two governments. The drug government lays Down the terms under which they will agree to Stop killing colombian candidates for the presidency and other Folk. And these terms include the Power to alter the Constitution so As to forbid for instance extraditing colombians to the United states. Which brings to mind the interesting metaphor is a democracy that exports a huge volume of drugs to another country not engaged in Quot aggressive action against that country if not what exactly do you Call it enthusiasts though we Are for self Rule it pays to scale Down our Faith in its magical properties. What we need to do is go much further in refining what it is that Marks civilized life and self Rule is Only one part of it. C Universal press Syndicate it s summertime a and the Reading is easy As a Bona fide member of the Reading Public or what might be called the pre Post literate generation the news from the Book world is not encouraging. Libraries Are getting the budget a. The paperback bestseller list is Replete with novels written from movie scripts. And the publishers talk at the recent booksellers convention Wasny to about censorship but about survival. In response to this dire forecast for Reading i have come up with a proposal. What we need is More summer. My entirely unscientific Survey shows that More people read lying in hammocks sitting on lounge chairs rocking on porches and spacing out on beaches than they do throughout the rest of the year. Books Are our summer furniture sort of like Wicker and our summer nourishment like bluefish and raspberries. They taste better in season. In this spirit i now offer goodies to extend the summer mind if not the Calendar. For your eyes Here is my annual Quirky entirely personal and idiosyncratic collection of books that i read enjoy and happily pass on to the next vacationer. First of All this was a Good year for memoirs. The most impressive was ethicist Yissela Bokus Book about her own Mother the writer ambassador wife and Nobel prize Winner of the title Alva Myrdal. All through her life Myrdal asked a How do i become myself a her daughters great gift a Clear eyed and kind knowing and familiar Ripe with knowledge about the conflicts in women a lives a is to describe How her Mother did become this theme of identity inevitably infuses Lorene Caryl a memoirs of her life As the second Black girl at the elite prep school St. Paul a. Cary is a member of the generation that was invited to walk through doors previously locked. In Black ice she writes intimately and thoughtfully about what its like to be female in a male world Black in a White world and to be whole in a world that subdivides her by race and gender. Such subjects Are also tackled in a wholly different Way by Shelby Steele whose Book the Content of our character has become part of the National debate about racial policies. Steele a beliefs in the destructive Power of affirmative action on minorities Are restricted by his life in Academia but the argument is far More layered More psychologically Complex than it appears in political debate. Its Worth Reading the unexpurgated version. Then turn to . Dionne a treatise on Why americans hate politics. Dionne has done a Fine Job describing the frustrations of the Public and the paralysis of government in what he Calls the a politics of false this is the last time Well have Harry Angstrom to kick around anymore. John Updike a famous Rabbit who peaked As a High school basketball player and prematurely aged As a Toyota Salesman meets his death wish in Rabbit at rest. Nobody writes As Well As Updike or with As sorry an insiders knowledge about his generation of american men their marriages and their father son relationships. From another coast and sensibility comes Alice Adams new novel Caroline s daughters. Its about one Mother and her five grown but not yes found themselves daughters from three husbands who form an interlocking directorate of Northern California angst. There is something real in this Caroline who de scribes her daughters in one blisteringly honest moment As Beautiful so it ish spoiled and greedy girls san Francisco girls perfect products of that spoiled and Lovely the families in Jane smileys novellas entitled Ordinary love and Good will Are stripped of West coast gloss. They stand Pristine and sad. In one Story the effects of one mothers split for Freedom Are seen in her five children 20 years later. In the other a fathers per Lection ism and his Back to the Carth attempts at control can to prevent his family from coming apart at the seams. First novels arc not something publishers Are eager to produce these Days but two of them made this list. 1 he music room by Dennis Mcfarland is a Strong and gracefully written entry about the journey of a Man trying to understand his brother a suicide and his own troubled life. The other is Only technically a a Pale View of Hills is the paperback reissue of the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro who wrote the remarkable remains of the Day. This elegiac tale takes place in postwar Japan. There is a surreal Quality to the tale of two women caught Between cultures East and West traditional and modern. Finally As part of an annual summer travel through books i should have but did no to read a despite having grown up at the height of the Quot Core curriculum a i bought a used version of the Complete works of George Eliot. In a Halfway into Middle March and can to think of a better place to spend july. C the Boston Globe
