CURIOUS 'FREEDOM'

It's too bad the title "Barbarians at the Gate" has already been taken,
because it's an apt description of the recent GOP Convention in Sacramento.
"Ban abortion!" is the hue and cry of the far right. And we had luminaries
such as former Vice President Dan Quayle giving an exposition on freedom.

Of course, when the far right cries "freedom" you need a translator. Freedom
means government interference in reproductive decisions. It means finding
convenient groups to stigmatize, such as gays, lesbians, immigrants and
other minorities. It means keeping wages low because businesses have to be
"competitive." It means millions have to go without health insurance because
we don't want "big government." It means more pollution of the air and water
because, once again, business has to be "competitive."

It means throwing programs like Social Security to the sharks on Wall
Street. It means censorship of any books, movies, records or Internet sites
deemed offensive by the far right. It means prisons and executions and
throwing people into prison for minor drug offenses.

It means destroying public education and replacing it with a system of
vouchers to pay for religious instruction, whether we believe it or not. It
means countless deaths from handguns because the gun lobby is such an
upright American institution.

I don't know your definition of freedom, but the far right's version doesn't
quite fill the bill.

Jerry Goodwin Fresno