)t (&uiltortrian
6
The forgotten version of America
Mike Livingston
Staff Writer _
Before we begin, let's establish
one ground rule: note and remem
ber that I am not endorsing any
presidential candidates today. I'm
writing about an "alternative" ticket
that's been widely ignored by the
media: Libertarian Party candidates
Andre Marrou for President and
Nancy Lord for Vice-President are
on the ballot in every state and in
D.C.
I don't particularly care for
them, but I'm going to try to present
them as fairly as I can primarily
because nobody else is even ac
knowledging their existence, but
also because they offer some
unique and theoretically sound (if
risky and naive) solutions to long
term problems of economic de
cline, militarism, and environmen
tal degradation.
The essence of Libertarian ide
ology is "live and let live," or at
least "leave me alone." In political
terms, this means that government
is too big and powerful, and is
always forcing you to do stuff you
don't want to do (e.g., pay taxes) or
to refrain from doing stuff you
want to do (e.g., 90 mph on Holden
Road).
The ideal Libertarian govern
ment would serve only to protect
the rights to private property, free
AIDS blanket brings tragedy home
By Headier Cwnrelro
Staff Writer
Cleve Jones founded the Names
Project and started the quilt as a
way for people everywhere, moved
by their grief, anger and frustra
tion, to tell the story of those who
were lost to AIDS by making quilt
panels. Near 12,000 people have
created panels measuring three by
six feet, the size of a human grave.
The panels are sewn onto squares
containing eight panels. Now, the
quilt, with over 15,000 panels, is
growing too large to be shown, and
will be cut and separated, with
pieces given to each state.
But these are just statistics. Af
ter seeing the quilt, I believe that
the true enormity and horror of the
AIDS epidemic cannot be fully
realized through statistics alone.
Walking on the quilt for two hours,
and still not getting to every square;
hearing the names of people who
have died from AIDS this year
read for over fotir. hours; hearing -
people speak of knowing five of
expression, and free conduct, and
to enforce the judgements of civil
courts; human behavior would be
restrained by litigation rather than
by regulation a pound of cure,
when necessary, being preferable
to an ounce of unwanted preven
tion.
This belief is well-grounded in
American political philosophy;
simply put, it is pervasive freedom
in the extreme. Yes, it naturally
appeals to big corporate slime—if
adopted for slimy reasons. But to
those who have a durable faith in
essential human goodness, who
believe that the forbidden fruit is
the most delectable and that people
unspoiled by artificial prohibitions
will tend naturally toward charity
and goodness, Libertarianism of
fers the political structure that least
corrupts people and society.
As a practical matter, the extent
to which the Marrou platform seeks
to implement this vision is: broad
deregulation of domestic and in
ternational trade; massive tax cuts
and the introduction of itemized or
voluntary taxes; removal of such
controversies as abortion, guns,
pornography, and nuclear power
from the purview of law; and
privatization of all services and
natural resources.
That's asking for trouble. Radi
cal deregulation may, in the long
term, provide a society of trusting
IM
six people who
have died from
AIDS; seeing
children, teen
agers, parents,
and grandpar
ents weeping at
the panel of a
loved one—all
of this drives
the tragedy of
the AIDS virus
home.
When I ar
rived beside the
Washington
Monument, I
was over-
A portion of the AIDs blanket in Washington, D.C.
whelmed by the sheer number and
diversity of the people. Tens of
thousands of people swamped the
area. And for anyone who thinks
AIDS is just a gay disease, I have
news for you: the people were of
every sexual, teligious, economic,
racial and age denomination you
can imagine." - - "
And everyone was there for th'e' '
same reason—theyhad lost some- •
one to the AIDS virus, or were "
Perspectives
Issues
and sharing people contributing
voluntarily to the common good;
indeed, A.S. Neill, Bertrand
Russell, and others in the British
education reform movement of the
early 1900's proved this phenom
enon at least on a small scale
in boarding schools. They also
showed, however, that this healthy
state of affairs is attained only after
a period of chaotic indulgence in
greed and exploitative power.
On the social scale, the analogy
conjures images of unchecked pol
lution, waste, oppression, and cor
ruption lasting for generations,
until people "get it out of their
systems," i.e., until We The People
outgrow greed. (The catch-22 is
that we might never do that unless
everyone has access to, and chooses
to pursue, high-quality education;
in a Libertarian state, that might
never happen.)
In the most optimistic projec
tion, though, deregulation offers
the key to sustainability and social
justice. It is, by now, incontrovert
ible that a pro-business govern
ment ruins everything, including
business; the alternatives are to
regulate business more or not at
all. While regulation may be all
that currently stands between Cor
porate America and runaway rac
ism, sexism, and environmental
destruction, its economic effects
are no more desirable.
concerned enough to lend their
support. I wish that George Bush,
who has not increased funds for
programs to prevent AIDS, allowed
funds for existing prevention pro
grams to drop sl7 million since
1991 and knocked down severed
AIDS bills-, -had been there. He
would have seen that this country'
is' iti tertible' trdilble 'AIDSj"
arid that people*car& enough todo
■ something abotoit." '•
The key, according to Libertar
ian thought, is to remove regula
tion and make social injustice and
environmental irresponsibility eco
nomically impossible through con
sumer incentive —in other words,
let Coors and G.E. do as they wish,
but don't buy their products, and
see how long they keep wishing
irresponsibly.
I have publicly condemned the
Reaganbushquayle Administration
for its free-trade gadgets (GATT,
NAFTA, and the Council on Com
petitiveness), and these are Liber
tarian at heart; the difference be
tween Bush and Marrou, however,
is that Bush is trying to remove all
protection of people and the envi
ronment — including access to the
courts from our economic poli
cies, while Marrou would rely upon
individuals and interest groups (the
same entities Bush wants to shut
out) to defend the public and the
planet.
The problem is that market
based regulation depends on the
universality of social conscience,
which in turn depends on the uni
versality of education and social
awareness. Marrou offers nothing
to encourage that, apart from'the
hope that increased competition in
the absence of regulation would
increase incomes and decrease the
cost of education. It's a big gamble.
But many voters this year would
As the opening
ceremonies be
gan, and the
names of those
dead due to AIDS
started coming
over the micro
phone, I saw
people around me
looking through
their name books,
trying to find the
location of their
loved ones.
Soon after the
opening ceremo
nies, the crowd
was let out on the
tioto by Heather Carrelro
quilL Walking along the rows of
squares, reading some of the pan
els, I began to cry. To me, who has
never lost anyone to AIDS, the
disease had just been some terrible
specter. But suddenly, it became
real. I saw panels for children, par- J
ents, and lovers. I kept thinking of
' 'my 'brothers; and the terrifying
1 th6dght "hit'me th'af I cduld have
beseri hwe looking for their-'
K pariels". i felt'likfc'l had been wa!k-'
October 16, 1992
prefer to gamble (by voting for
Perot, for instance) than to support
either Bill Clinton, who promises
to be painfully slow about convert
ing our economy from a waste
oriented military-industrial base to
a growth-oriented sustainability
base, or George Bush, who prom
ises to redouble his efforts to dedi
cate our economy to short-term,
high-waste, unsustainable profit for
the most privileged echelon of our
society ateveryone else's expense.
Granted, none of these choices is
acceptable, and the votership is
near unanimity in its frustration;
but some may view the most dan
gerous social experiment ever pro
posed still less dangerous than the
"dominant paradigm" politics of
the two-party establishment.
That's why the media are reluc
tant to cover those third-party
freaks they're scary and their
adherents aren't what Archie Bun
ker would call "regular Ameri
cans." I would not sleep soundly
in a Libertarian state; but then, I
haven't slept soundly in 12 years
So, I present Marrou and Lord
not as good people to vote for, but
as examples of the fact that there
are a lot of non-traditional ideas
out there, most of which have some
merit and most of which you'll
never know about unless you pay
careful and constant attention to
the world around you.
ing along the quilt for days, and I
hadn't even seen half of it yet
I walked past married couples,
gay lovers, and groups of teenag
ers kneel ing at panels, holding each
other, crying. I saw a panel which
had in childish writing, "I miss
you, Daddy." The tears kept fall
ing as I passed a boy who looked
no more than nine, kneeling at a
panel, silently, running his hands
over it. Ten minutes later, he was
still there. The tears fell harder,
and I realized that AIDS affects us
all, and that not one of us can
afford not to do something to help
prevent the spread of this horrible
disease.
So, at the risk of sounding like a
Public Service Announcement
practice safe sex, get the facts
about AIDS, and educate others.
George Bush is not going to do it,
so it's up to us. You don't want to
: * have to look for sotoeone you know
on the quilt, and you don't want
someone to be'looking for you.
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