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Show "He art dedicated to the public interest, to faintest to innovation mad growth, and to the restless pursuit of excellence. Pulitzer missioa statement and accuracy, EDITOR: DONALD open I0NS ' W. MEYERS THE DAILY HERALD (www.heraldextra.com) 344-25- ummm! DAN RATHER REPORTING Utah County residents came through again. United Way of Utah County reports that all the families enrolled in its program were sponsoread, giving these needy folks a happy holiday. To those of you who helped out, either by sponsoring a family or donating money to a worthwhile charity, we say thank you and take a pat on the back out of petty cash. Now, to borrow a management cliche, what have you done for us lately? It's easy to remember the poor among us in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There's something about the holidays that turns our attention to those less Sub-for-San- rather Dan Democracy messy, but still best way to shape world Democracy is a messy business. Opeirtebate can lead to dissent, to fractionalization. To political maneuvering and posturing. To inefficiency. Wouldn't it be easier to resolve sensitive matters behind closed doors, among experts and diplomats? If we could find a way to shut out the aggrieved voices whose short-terinterests are threatened, might we not smooth the way to what could ultimately be a better society for us all? Your reporter has been looking back to last month's World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle and ahead to a new year, century and millennium in which the WTO's core agenda will probably prevail. With or without the WTO setting the rules, the wave of globalism will continue eroding the sea walls of tariffs and regulations that divide one nation from another economically. THE QUESTION is not "if globalization or "whether or not" globalization ... but "how" globalization. News footage of Seattle gave rank-and-fil- e Americans a lot to digest. Were the mass demonstrations there . just a clash of special interests organized labor and the environmental lobby vs. big business? What do we make of the violence committed by a few? Of the problems at issue? And should we view the dismay of foreign trade ministers over the meeting's ultimate failure as an embarrassment or as a badge of honor? Now that the light of public scrutiny has begun to shine on the often shadowy world of the WTO, one thing fcems clear: There are a lot of everyday American citizens, folks who aren't labor organizers or who can't Je easily classified as "radical" environmentalists, who nonetheless have fery real concerns about the organi-jatioConcerns about the power of a roup that they did not elect, concerns about how this power is exercised in closed meetings. And oncerns about the WTO's lack of direct accountability to the interests and concerns special and parochial of Chough they might be at times democracy. n. " MANY AMERICANS, displeased as we are sometimes with our elected officials, are all the more uncomfortable with unelected officials from ta fortunate. If A, t sDD wish? HERALD EDITORIAL BUT AS soon as New Year's Eve is over, we somehow seem to put them back in the closet like the Christmas decorations and the outdoor lights on the house. But they're still. out there, and they still need your help. As the Bible points out, the poor we will have always. Food bank operators will say that they are almost swamped with victuals during the holiday season, even to the point where they have to say no to donations. But the rest of the year, some of these places find themselves scrambling to keep food on the shelves. And those families you helped during Christmas still have to struggle for the next . 11 months. We suggest that the spirit of giving doesn't need to end when the NFL playoffs begin. MAKE IT your resolution for the new yearcenturymillennium to help the less fortu- nate throughout the entire year, and not just at Christmas time when your conscience is especially prone to pricking. Don't know where to start? We've got a few suggestions. Contact the Food and Care Coalition and find out what they need in the way of food and clothing throughout the year. United Way of Utah County has a database full of organizations that could use volun- - teer help throughout the yea,rV and not just at the holidays. Local churches can also show you how to do good acts throughout the year, either j ' through service projects in " your neighborhood, assembling aid packages to be sent overseas or funds to further" humanitarian projects. Put out some canned goods,,. when the Boy Scouts and mail carriers do their annual-drive- s J thi for the poor. The possibilities are endless So let's spread that charity H-- J throughout the whole year and.' not just confine it to Christmas' Members of The Daily Herald editorial board are Publisher Kirk Parkinson Editor .Mike Patrick, Opinions Page Editor Donald W. Meyers, City Editpe Sharon Gholdstoji, Spanish Fork residenf Johanna Flynn and Provo resident Lindq Young. w. Spirituality toppled Berlin Wall By LYNN R. ELIASON Media accounts of major world events are too often influenced by national prejudices and ideological perceptions. This tendency easily distorts the public's understanding of things as they actually are, were and will be. A case in point is the 10th anniversary celebration heralding the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Those of us in the "free world" delight in the metaphorical possibilities of a "fallen Wall" where bricks and mortar no longer in place come to signify the end of an ' and the triumph of evil. over good What brought about the fall of the Berlin Wall or, in other words, the collapse of communism? In most Western minds, it was the overwhelming superiority of the capitalist system versus the inherent flaws of its communist antagonist. We have been conditioned to think that without NATO and Star Wars (including the West's superstars: Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, Francois Mitterrand and perhaps a few others), it wouldn't have happened. alien-syste- m anti-commuhi- st Evening News." r SUNDAY. JANUARY 2. 2000 GUEST COLUMN other countries setting rules that can trump the actions of our own lawmakers, local as well as national. President Clinton, love him or hate him, keeps his finger on the national fmlse. His address to the WTO recogON NOV. 17, former Soviet nized American worries over foreign leader Mikhail Gorbachev and labor practices undermining Thatcher, Bush, Kohl, the wife of American jobs and over the fate of the environment in a global economy. the late French President Mitterrand and former Polish Many WTO delegates huffed about President Lech Walesa were all the meeting falling prey to the poliawarded high state honors in a littics of the American presidential A weeks tle publicized ceremony in Prague couple of campaign. ago, the WTO had a closed meeting in its hosted by Czech President Vaclav home city of Geneva, Switzerland, "", Havel. and that refrain was heard again. As reported by Jeremy Bransten, Those who say it are exactly right. a correspondent for Radio Free Politics were there in Seattle, sure. EuropeRadio Liberty based in And they were pulling the levers of Prague, the ceremonial aspect of democracy. President Clinton is a the meeting took a back seat to a great proponent of global free trade, panel discussion where participants just as the United States has been a "sharply disagreed" over just who like WTO. of the architect key group's and what was responsible for the But his words in Seattle show that revolutions. he was moved as only a leader accountable to the people can be. He's not up for election, but his, vice' president is.,', The thing is, democracy is messy. If the race to globalization hit a few . The Daily Herald welcomes your speed bumps in Seattle, it's because letters to the editor. , .Americans feel entitled to look at Please remember to include your what we are doing and say, "Not so full name, address and phone numlet s take a good look at this fast first." And if the world wants us ber where you can be reached. Only along, they'll just have to wait until your name and the city in which you ' we sort it all out. In the open. jive will be published. All other information will be kept confidential. Dan Rather is the anchorman of "CBS ; A6 Calling the fall of communism a triumph of the freedom and capitalism practiced by Britain and the U.S., Thatcher took a large measure of credit for its collapse. The best thing the two countries could do would be to continue exporting their values and way of life abroad. Gorbachev responded, accusing her of communist-stylrhetoric in the service of a narrow ideology. After 10 difficult years in transition, the countries of Eastern Europe needed something on the 'order of a synthesis between capitalism and communism. Gorbachev resented the conqueror flaunting the spoils of war. Like Thatcher, Bush called attention to his own leadership and that of Britain in ending the Cold War, but spoke of Washington's "initially cautious approach to the momentous events of 1989." Walesa chastised the West for congratulating itself over the end of communism, then abandoning the peoples to the east. , Finally, Havel, the Czech Republic's champion of democracy, reminded all those pres-- ; ent that November 1989, though a "magic moment," was not the end of history. The revolutions of Eastern Europe, he said, marked a victory fof human dignity and unfversal human values, not any particular ideology. Havel's comments make good sense to me. I doubt that any of the Western leaders honored on that day had much to do with the destruction of the Berlin Wall, certainly no more so than Ronald Reagan with his dramatic plea, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" e level-heade- d TIE THAT BRINGS us back to the question: Who or what brought down the Berlin Wall? It certainly wasn't Bush, Kohl, Margaret Thatcher or even Ronald Reagan and his Star Wars defense threats. Nor can it be attributed to economic stagnation in the communist countries or Soviet bankruptcy due to military spending. No leader on either side of the Wall understood the social climate in the East as did Mikhail Gorbachev. Of even greater consequence than the economic restructuring of his perestroika policy was his commitment to truth through the tandem strategy of glasnost, Long before the Wall came down and more democratic forms had begun to set in, Gorbachev saw "writing on the wall" both in the Soviet Union and the satellite nations. In Poland, a committed Catholic population wouldn't be denied its pursuit of religious and political justice. In his own country, DAILY HERALD LETTEtlS Anonymous letters will be discarded. Letters that are typed, double spaced and contain 250 or fewer words are more likely to be published. Your letter will be better read if it concerns one central theme or idea. All letters will be edited for length, accuracy and clarity. (988-1988- ), THE WILL of the people in the' German Democratic Republic found expression in the form of peace demonstrators pouring from the country's churcnes. Hordes of unde' terred East Berliners appealed to"11, the visiting Soviet leader in rhythm mic chants of "Gorby, Gorby, Gorby."' The GDR's Erich Honecker the Russian's warning to get in step with the prevailing mood ofJ be swept aside. And thus he and the Wall came tumbling down. It waas an enlightened communist "rffi who deliberately stepped aside ana' let it happen. . Yes, President Havel got it right! The Berlin Wall came down because' of the spiritual values of the PEO,-,,PLE and not for reasons of ideology,' political, economic or otherwise No, this wasn't the end of history. One can only hope that world leaders catch the vision of the greatest-statesmaof our time, Mikhail n .1 Sergeevich Gorbachev, while there'j still time. disre-garde- d ' V Lynn R. Eliason is a professor of German and Russian at Utah State University in 1 '! nann FOUCY The Herald encourages community discussion of issues in a responsible manner. Please send your letters to: Editor, The Daily Herald P.O. Box 717 1555 N. Freedom Blvd. Provo, a ground swell of Russian Orthodox believers exulted in the millennial celebration of Russia's baptism leaving little doubt as,.-- ; to the religious renaissance under vm way there. UT84603 Letters may also be faxed or The fax number is The address is: ldeanher-aldextra.co373-54- 8 TSfr If you have questions, call ; Opinions Pace Editor Donald W. or Editor Miko Meyers at Patrick at 344-254- 4 344-254- |