G
gilliam
Guest
Give Freedom a Chance
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By Clifford D. May Scripps Howard News Service December 2, 2004
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/doc_img/251236.jpg Readers of a certain age will recall the name Anatoli Sharansky. He was a Soviet dissident who in 1978 was tried by a kangaroo court, convicted of treason and shipped off to the Gulag.
As a young reporter, I covered that trial – or attempted to. The courtroom was closed to press and public. Sharansky’s supporters mingled with journalists behind barricades outside the courtroom until one day an armored vehicle drove up and took him away. He wasn’t allowed to say a word to us. We were not permitted even to see his face. I’ll never forget his friends and family shouting his nickname in a sad chorus as the vehicle disappeared into the distance: “Tolya! Tolya!” I wondered if he could hear them.
In 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev released Sharansky, who immigrated to Israel and changed his first name to Natan, He has just written a book: “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror.”
I haven’t checked how it’s doing on Amazon.com but I do know that President Bush is reading it – and recently had Sharansky stop by the White House for a long discussion. I have it on good authority that Vice President Dick Cheney has read it, too; also Sen. Joseph Lieberman and former CIA director R. James Woolsey.
Why has “The Case for Democracy” attracted this illustrious readership? Because it makes an impassioned case for the transforming power of freedom. It argues for supporting those who are fighting for human rights in parts of the world – not least the Middle East – where such concepts have not yet taken root.
more:
defenddemocracy.org/in_the_media/in_the_media_show.htm?doc_id=251236
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/img/dot_trans.gif
By Clifford D. May Scripps Howard News Service December 2, 2004
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/doc_img/251236.jpg Readers of a certain age will recall the name Anatoli Sharansky. He was a Soviet dissident who in 1978 was tried by a kangaroo court, convicted of treason and shipped off to the Gulag.
As a young reporter, I covered that trial – or attempted to. The courtroom was closed to press and public. Sharansky’s supporters mingled with journalists behind barricades outside the courtroom until one day an armored vehicle drove up and took him away. He wasn’t allowed to say a word to us. We were not permitted even to see his face. I’ll never forget his friends and family shouting his nickname in a sad chorus as the vehicle disappeared into the distance: “Tolya! Tolya!” I wondered if he could hear them.
In 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev released Sharansky, who immigrated to Israel and changed his first name to Natan, He has just written a book: “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror.”
I haven’t checked how it’s doing on Amazon.com but I do know that President Bush is reading it – and recently had Sharansky stop by the White House for a long discussion. I have it on good authority that Vice President Dick Cheney has read it, too; also Sen. Joseph Lieberman and former CIA director R. James Woolsey.
Why has “The Case for Democracy” attracted this illustrious readership? Because it makes an impassioned case for the transforming power of freedom. It argues for supporting those who are fighting for human rights in parts of the world – not least the Middle East – where such concepts have not yet taken root.
more:
defenddemocracy.org/in_the_media/in_the_media_show.htm?doc_id=251236