Kentucky Kernel -- January 28, 1997

<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF LINK=#0066ff ALINK=#0066ff VLINK=#660000> <BLOCKQUOTE>    <CENTER> <FONT SIZE=6> <B>Like a little kid, I'm taking my democracy and going home</B><P> </FONT> </CENTER> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Will Geeslin</B><BR></FONT>Guest Opinion <HR> Most of us have been in a situation that parallels this one: A kid playing basketball gets a lot of his shots blocked, the other team calls him for traveling, and he or she always gets picked last.<P> Eventually, they start whining and say, "I'm taking my ball and going home." No one ever likes those people, whether they are your bosses of today or the person with whom you share your bed. <P> The reason that they aren't very likable, folks, is that they think by virtue of the power they hold over you they should be allowed to get their way, whether it is deserved or not. <P> You aren't supposed to respect them; you owe them and thus you should do their bidding. <P> Unfortunately, we Americans have collectively taken our ball and gone home regarding our United Nations dues. <P> It strikes me as funny (and then embarrassing) that we, the United States of America (insert "Onward Christian Soldiers" here), are convinced that we hold the light of democracy for the world. <P> However, it seems we only support democracy when it is in our best interest, i.e. when we have a majority. <P> The reason we owe $1.4 billion to the United Nations is that we don't like the democracy they have over there - we lose votes because the rest of the world doesn't like us. <P> The developing countries have a majority, and we can't strong-arm or buy them off like our poverty-challenged "representatives" in Washington D.C. Why? <P> Because we give the lowest amount of foreign aid of any country in the industrialized world; thus the U.N. delegates from Paraguay know that the United States has nothing to back up its threats. <P> When Jesse Helms et al. clamor for U.N. "reforms," what they really mean is that they want the voting body to toe the party line - i.e. do what the United States tells them to do. <P> God forbid that they vote with their countries' best interests in mind. What's good for the United States has to be what's good for the world, right? <P> Hasn't God herself picked the good ol' U.S. of A. to be the only bastion of liberty and goodness in today's increasingly non-white world? I think Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jesse Helms (shudder) would answer in the affirmative. <P> Since the United States ostensibly provides 25 percent of the U.N. budget, the new U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan (Koh-Fee, Anon), has recently been forced to come begging to D.C. in the hope that the United States will what it owes. <P> I am saddened by our hypocrisy and understand why most of the world holds us in contempt. When you don't like something that Congress does, what do you do? You register your protest, of course, by refusing to pay taxes, saying that you will pay what you owe when Congress passes reforms. Then the Internal Revenue Service comes to your house, promising to talk to Congress and make sure that Newt will keep his neo-fascist crusade off the public dole; further, the friendly IRS people ensure you that they will talk to the president and his cronies to get them to stop accepting foreign money for campaigns. Oh wait, I forgot - what really happens if you don't pay taxes is that you go to jail. <P> In the Real World, if you don't like what Congress does, you work within the system and try to bring the other side around through compromise. However, since the United States is the only remaining "superpower," no one can send in the troops (as we ourselves have done so many times before) to force us to do anything. <P> "We owe $1.4 billion?!" you might be saying. "That's a hell of a lot of money." <P> In short, no, it's not. In comparison, that figure is a mere four percent of New York City's annual budget; the budget for the New York State University system is $5 billion. <P> The United Nation's annual budget is $1.3 billion. We Americans spend $9 billion a year on pizza. <P> I think we can afford to pay what we owe. Write your representatives in Congress and tell them that you do not want to take your ball and go home. <P> A hypertext version of this column is available at http://sac.uky.edu/~wwgees0/sack/undues.htm <P> <P> <center><i>Will Geeslin is a second-year law student; his views do not necessarily represent those of the Kentucky Kernel.</i></center> <P>    <HR> <P> <CENTER> <FONT SIZE=5> [ <A HREF="welcome.html">Contents</A> | <a href="http://www.kykernel.com">Home</A> | <A HREF="/archive.html">Archives</A> | <A HREF="/feed.html">Feedback</A> ]<BR> </FONT> <P> <B>© Copyright 1997, Kernel Press Inc. All Rights Reserved</B><BR>  </BLOCKQUOTE> </BODY>