WISE UP FOR PRESIDENTS VISIT
Wise up for President's visit
THE President of the greatest nation on earth is to visit us here in Northern Ireland, and because of the way we are there is a great swathe of opinion which says he should stay at home.
It is not the simple fact that Mr Clinton is visiting, it is that he is visiting amid a set of circumstances the like of which the God-fearing, democratic citizens of this little splinter of land are in the habit of getting hot under the collar about. There is no straight up and down here, if there had been we would have had peace years and years ago.
No, Northern Ireland people need suspicions, they need to identify ulterior motives, they need to be faced with sinners to feel comfortable, they need the reassurance of their own piety. What they are faced with now is a set of facts which gives full rein to their prejudices.
First, they are still feeling the blast from the Omagh atrocity; then they have two Prime Ministers, Blair and Ahern, huffing and blowing to blow the terrorist house down, and thinkng, "We will believe it when we see it"; they are faced with two sides of local politics, one saying it is too little too late, the other saying how dare you infringe a terrorist's rights.
Then there is Mr Clinton, then there is Miss Lewinsky, and to top it all there is the little matter of Mr Clinton bombing Sudan and Afghanistan, and probably killing a few civilians who happened to be where chemical weapons were supposed to be being made but weren't.
As is usual in Northern Ireland, the main issue gets pushed off the mainline and up a side track. The question is not what President Clinton can do for the suffering grieving people of Omagh.
It is, should a man who ordered the bombing of civilians in Sudan and Afghanistan be commiserating with other civilians who were bombed by the spawn of people who were nurtured and financed by American citizens, albeit unwittingly, probably?
The question is also should we walk on the same side of the street as a President who was "inappropriate" with a young lady.
Our trouble is we don't live in the real world. It is time we wised up. Things happen out there that we can only dream about. Governments get up to dirty tricks, politicians see truth as something which can be handy on some occasions, not on others.
Public figures, some of them, get "inappropriate" often, especially if they have power and money, as it is very hard to be "inappropriate" if you are a scruffy down-and-out.
Powerful people can and do cause powerful distress to their wives and families, and to other husbands. Sometimes they deny it, sometimes they are caught out like President Clinton and have to admit it.
Does it make them any worse at their job? Not a bit, whether we like it or not. Everyone has his or her own standards of behaviour, the norm having been set by ethics, by religion, by standards which are good for society as a whole. But who is to say that so-called "proper" standards are right, and the others wrong?
It is a matter of individual conscience. If you can live with it, don't let me stop you. I can disagree, but that is all.
Bill Clinton is a powerful man who has done a great job for his country. He is an excellent President, and as long as he stays that way his private life is his own affair, excusing the pun. He should be received with warmth and enthusiasm when he comes to Northern Ireland.
He has a lot of clout and has used it to help get a form of peace here. He has a lot of clout left, and can use it to bring investment to the province. If we are prepared to take his money, we should be prepared to take him as we find him.
THE President of the greatest nation on earth is to visit us here in Northern Ireland, and because of the way we are there is a great swathe of opinion which says he should stay at home.
It is not the simple fact that Mr Clinton is visiting, it is that he is visiting amid a set of circumstances the like of which the God-fearing, democratic citizens of this little splinter of land are in the habit of getting hot under the collar about. There is no straight up and down here, if there had been we would have had peace years and years ago.
No, Northern Ireland people need suspicions, they need to identify ulterior motives, they need to be faced with sinners to feel comfortable, they need the reassurance of their own piety. What they are faced with now is a set of facts which gives full rein to their prejudices.
First, they are still feeling the blast from the Omagh atrocity; then they have two Prime Ministers, Blair and Ahern, huffing and blowing to blow the terrorist house down, and thinkng, "We will believe it when we see it"; they are faced with two sides of local politics, one saying it is too little too late, the other saying how dare you infringe a terrorist's rights.
Then there is Mr Clinton, then there is Miss Lewinsky, and to top it all there is the little matter of Mr Clinton bombing Sudan and Afghanistan, and probably killing a few civilians who happened to be where chemical weapons were supposed to be being made but weren't.
As is usual in Northern Ireland, the main issue gets pushed off the mainline and up a side track. The question is not what President Clinton can do for the suffering grieving people of Omagh.
It is, should a man who ordered the bombing of civilians in Sudan and Afghanistan be commiserating with other civilians who were bombed by the spawn of people who were nurtured and financed by American citizens, albeit unwittingly, probably?
The question is also should we walk on the same side of the street as a President who was "inappropriate" with a young lady.
Our trouble is we don't live in the real world. It is time we wised up. Things happen out there that we can only dream about. Governments get up to dirty tricks, politicians see truth as something which can be handy on some occasions, not on others.
Public figures, some of them, get "inappropriate" often, especially if they have power and money, as it is very hard to be "inappropriate" if you are a scruffy down-and-out.
Powerful people can and do cause powerful distress to their wives and families, and to other husbands. Sometimes they deny it, sometimes they are caught out like President Clinton and have to admit it.
Does it make them any worse at their job? Not a bit, whether we like it or not. Everyone has his or her own standards of behaviour, the norm having been set by ethics, by religion, by standards which are good for society as a whole. But who is to say that so-called "proper" standards are right, and the others wrong?
It is a matter of individual conscience. If you can live with it, don't let me stop you. I can disagree, but that is all.
Bill Clinton is a powerful man who has done a great job for his country. He is an excellent President, and as long as he stays that way his private life is his own affair, excusing the pun. He should be received with warmth and enthusiasm when he comes to Northern Ireland.
He has a lot of clout and has used it to help get a form of peace here. He has a lot of clout left, and can use it to bring investment to the province. If we are prepared to take his money, we should be prepared to take him as we find him.
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0330
Published Date: 31-Aug-98
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