NYPost
VIEQUES VANITY PALES
COMPARED TO REAL
SACRIFICE
By ROD DREHER
June 3, 2001 -- THE Rev. Al Sharpton and his three
co-bellyachers are giving civil disobedience a bad name.
They knew when they trespassed onto U.S. government
property on the island of Vieques that they were breaking
the law. Imagine their surprise when a federal judge agreed,
and threw the book at them.
Powerful friends saw to it that they were transferred to
Brooklyn, where they don't have to rub shoulders with felons
and have had generous access to celebrity friends, family
and the media.
Rather than serve their puffball sentences with dignity, the
celebrity convicts are howling about the injustice of having to
be in jail at all.
Sharpton and his gang want credit for going to jail - and hey,
that's more than Jesse "Wall Street" Jackson has done lately
- but God forbid they should have to suffer for their
convictions.
Amateurs!
By way of contrast, think of Sister Dorothy Hennessey, an
88-year-old Iowa nun arrested last fall for trespassing during
an anti-military protest.
Two weeks ago, when a federal judge sentenced 25 others
arrested in the same protest to six months in prison, he
offered Sister Dorothy the option of serving her time under
house arrest at her convent.
"I'm not an invalid!" the elderly nun told the judge. She
demanded to serve out her sentence in prison with the
others. And to prison the gutsy nun will soon go, without
complaint.
"In my case, it was an obligation," she told me in a frail
voice. "I've never been to prison. They say it's like the old
days in the novitiate."
Or consider the case of Joan Andrews Bell, a Jersey City
woman who has spent a total of 51/2 years behind bars,
some of it under maximum-security conditions, for her
nonviolent civil disobedience on behalf of the unborn.
In 1998, when a Pennsylvania judge offered her probation in
exchange for a promise not to engage in further civil
disobedience at abortion clinics, Bell told him to get lost.
"To accept probation demands that I sign my name to a
piece of paper which says that I will obey unjust laws," she
said in a court affidavit.
Today, Bell, 53, is raising her children in Jersey City with
husband Chris. As a Catholic pacifist, she is proud of
Sharpton for standing up for the anti-military protesters on
Vieques.
But she believes those who choose to break the law to make
a statement should serve their time "without animosity or
anger."
"I think God gives very special graces when one's willing to
suffer, even a little bit. He magnifies the witness," she said.
The key, she explained, is seeing suffering for the sake of
justice and righteousness as a privilege, something it is an
honor to bear.
Suffering as a privilege, something to be accepted stoically
and with humility? There doesn't seem to be much humble
stoicism coming out of Sharpton's cell.
Rose Berger, a Washington-based veteran of the nonviolent
peace-protest movement, points out that Martin Luther King
Jr. believed that a nonviolent protester who chose to defy an
unjust law should be brave enough to take the lawful
consequences.
This, King wrote from a Birmingham jail, shows that the
protester "is in reality expressing the highest respect for
law."
By King's standard, what are we to make of the Vieques
Four's reaction to their own sentencing?
Well, what's the difference between sainthood and
self-dramatizing silliness?
E-mail: dreher@nypost.com
-- Anonymous, June 03, 2001
Cindy Adams
HUNGER-STRIKING REV. AL
ON RISE AS HE SLIMS DOWN
WE'RE doing it by the numbers.
The Vieques Four, the Gracie
Mansion Three, Pamela
Anderson's Two and now we
discuss Al Sharpton Number One.
Timothy McVeigh's coverage in
prison I understand. We all have
interest in his extermination.
FBI
spy Hanssen who ratted out his
country? Let there be light on
his
case so we're all sure he's
getting
his. But hourly jail-side press
conferences with Rev. Al who never saw a photo op
he
didn't like? ... who never gave a Vieques before
this clump
of ground became hot?
And wet tears from eyes staring straight into a
zoom lens?
Trust me, if that camera broke down, sharp Sharpton
would
not.
Mind, I like this guy. If there weren't an Al
Sharpton,
somebody would have to invent him. He's smart, he's
fun.
I've been with him socially, done shows with him.
He has a
great sense of humor. Knows exactly what he's
about. He's
sure not fooling himself, so why should he fool us?
Clinton's sitting in a Starbucks trying to get an
iced mocha
frappucino latte with skimmed milk, juicy Jesse
Jackson the
savior of womankind is posing for anyone with a
Polaroid,
and this cute overstuffed teddybear, who's on a
hunger
strike knowing he'll secretly thank God if he drops
50
pounds, has stolen the spotlight from everyone.
I mean, this man who votes with Hillary on matters
like
"hair matters" and still has his perfect page boy
even in the
can - for president?
He's already prep'd his inaugural speech. It opens
with:
"Thanks to our founding fathers, every child born
in the
U.S.A. today is endowed with life, liberty, and a
share of
the national debt ... Back when the Native
Americans were
running this country, there was no national debt.
And there
were no taxes, no foreign entanglements, and the
women
did all the work. What I don't understand is how
Caucasians thought they could improve on a system
like
that."
Listen, every American has a chance to become
president.
It's one of the risks we take when we live in the
land of the
free, home of the craven.
I suggest for Al's press secretary, maybe the one
who
definitely knew how to get him on Page 1 - Tawana
Brawley. Secretary of state has to be that ultimate
diplomat, Louis Farrakhan.
For drug czar, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion
Barry.
Nobody could know how to get the stuff better than
he.
Remember, it was Mayor Marion who once said: "Abe
Lincoln is known for his Gettysburg Address, which
is very
surprising since it didn't have a ZIP code."
For Secretary of the treasury? Who knows how to
coin
money better than Don King. And remember it was Don
King who said of Lincoln: "He lived in a log cabin.
No
lights, no heat, no running water. The man had a
New York
landlord."
Maybe he'll do good. Let's face it, if Congress
gets ornery,
he'll picket them. If the Senate gives him
attitude, he'll
organize demonstrations. Sit-ins. Lay-downs.
Move-nears.
And never forget, a vote for Al Sharpton is a vote
for Al
Sharpton.
-- Anonymous, June 03, 2001