'We Ourselves'. . . Alone?
Karen Lyden Cox
23/02/2002I heard the man say with passionate, unshakable conviction "Our leaders will never betray us. They would never do that. We know them, they are our people, they are of us." His remarks were met at once with astonishment, protest, and guffaws of wry laughter. Following that, polite arguments urged him to remember that a series of compromises leading to betrayal was the theme of most worn-out revolutions, warning him that since it happened to us it could surely happen to him. He dismissed our counsel as emphatically as we scorned his gullibility. Probably destined to meet him only once in my lifetime, I carry with me the impression of a thoughtful, intelligent man dedicated enough to his cause to be a hero among his own people. I should have asked him if his blind faith rests solely on trust in the good faith his leaders' words promise, or if his leaders have embellished the impact of their directives with the powerful memory of the death-sacrifice of our own Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Patsy O'Hara, Raymond McCreesh, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Thomas McElwee, and Michael Devine. I hope that his honorable resolve will not be sold for a trumped-up forgery of the justice he is dying for.
Comments: 7:13:26 AM 
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