This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.
(Now that I’m getting into some of the episodes that involve the character John Munch, I’m going to ignore most of his political statements)
“Wrong is Right” Season 2. I can’t find a summary to link to or copy so here’s my summary: It’s about a teenager who kills the man who adopted him because the man and his boss were molesting him.
The thing is, the man who adopted the boy is an expert on missile guidance systems that the military use and during the Persian Gulf War his legal status as a sex offender was turned off so that he could easily cross international borders to work on missile guidance systems (I’m not sure it makes sense that someone with that speciality would be needed in multiple countries during the war, but that’s what the writers came up with). His legal status was never turned back on and he adopted a boy. We also learn that the man’s boss at a defense contractor also attacked the boy. I don’t think that the show is claiming there’s a connection between the defense industry and the sexual abuse of minors the way they might or probably would claim that there’s at least some racial profiling by the police- I don’t like the defense industry and I don’t believe there’s such a connection. But I still liked the idea of that industry looking bad in this episode.
“Honor” Season 2. Wikipedia summary is: “A woman found in the park shows signs of being viciously assaulted. She is identified as Nafeesa Amir, the daughter of Afghan diplomat Saleh Amir (Marshall Manesh). During the investigation, the detectives learn that Nafeesa and her brother Jaleel (Anil Kumar) were raised according to Taliban traditions in which an "honor killing" is the punishment for disobedience. Although her individuality has been suppressed for her entire life, the SVU squad turns to Aziza Amir (Susham Bedi) for help, hoping that the love she feels for her daughter is stronger.”
This is a pretty good look at the political Islam of Afghanistan’s Taliban. It does a pretty good job of suggesting that the Taliban are in conflict with most Muslims and with the Koran.
I’m going to keep this pretty brief. Sometime around 2000 I signed at least one if not two email petitions criticizing the Taliban BEFORE 9/11. The first two years of the US invasion of Afghanistan I supported it, partly because of how offensive the Taliban are. I got the impression that Afghan women didn’t support the invasion, but I also supported it because of 9/11 (Al-Qaeda was based there), so it wasn’t just the misogyny of the Taliban (which, by itself wouldn’t justify an invasion considering the opposition of the Afghan feminists). After two years I realized that under George W. Bush’s leadership the War on Terror was a disaster and in that context the war in Afghanistan was not going to help and was just going to make things worse. But I also can’t imagine a successful War on Terror that doesn’t include defeating Al-Qaeda. I’ll take that thought a little further in another post that I’ll work on soon and publish soon. (UPDATE 3/32/22 That post is here)
“Baby Killer” Season 2. Wikipedia summary is: “The tragic shooting death of a young girl leads investigators to a little boy Elias (Nicolas Martí Salgado). Elliot and Olivia interview him with his parents (Sara Ramirez and Robert Montano) as he is one of the youngest murder suspects they have ever questioned. Meanwhile, Alex argues with her co-workers over what punishment would be ethical. Ballistic evidence reveals that Elias picked up the gun after a gang related murder which he must have witnessed. In addition to providing a mitigating circumstance for Elias' case, this allows the detectives to apprehend a wanted criminal (Carlos Leon).”
There are a few minor things worth mentioning:
1) The killer’s teacher says that officially classes should have no more than 32 kids and hers has 40 and one of the detectives says “it must make it kind of hard to give each student the attention they need.” The teacher shows the detectives a violent picture the killer drew in class but says that she didn’t act on it because she wasn’t shocked by such things coming from children. Although the picture wasn’t a sign the boy was going to kill the girl, I think that violence among young students might decline if teachers had more time for students who need it, and that’s one more reason for there to be more teachers and smaller classes.
2) When discussing what lead to the shooting members of the SVU team point out that because the HMO of the killer’s parents wouldn’t cover their daughter’s medical condition they had to work more than normal to pay the medical bills but couldn’t afford regular child care so they sent their son to an illegal, cheap and sub-standard child care operation. We need universal health insurance or something close to it (like Obamacare with a public option) and we need, for multiple reasons, free or heavily subsidized child care.
3) A psychiatrist who used to be a recurring character on Law and Order when she worked with the authorities says that her heroes are “not those who started wars but those who brought about peace.”
4) Since the little boy is Latino and the little girl he killed was Black, there is talk of racial tensions. On one hand, the girl’s mom tries to stop this talk, but the little boy ends up killed by a Black little boy.
“Asunder” Season 2. Wikipedia summary is here: “The truth behind the alleged rape of a woman (Amy Carlson) by her police officer husband (Nestor Serrano) comes to light when a history of domestic abuse is uncovered. Monique Jeffries leaves the squad and files a discrimination suit against the NYPD.”
This is one of the episodes where they go after a cop.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Law and Order: SVU Reviews O
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Affirmative Action and the Working-Class
(the addendum links to a Gallup poll which found that in 2018 72% of Blacks supported AA for poeple of color and 66% of Hispanics supported it for people of color (that figure for Hispanics might be higher if white Hispanics were excluded) (the first paragraph of a report here indicates strong support for race-based AA among Asian-Americans around 2000, and says nothing about more recent surveys which are apparently uncommon) (I haven’t heard anything about American Indians being unsupportive of race-based AA and about 1/3 of my major in college was American Indian Studies) (according to the first poll I link to, in 2018 69% of women supported AA for women)) (I’m willing to be bet that about 1/3 of those people of color who don’t support AA are middle-class Republicans, and something similar might be true about women)
(UPDATE 4/16/20 I think the frequent exclusion of Asian-Americans from polls about Affirmative Action might be because of the Model Minority Myth (and to enhance that myth) and because people like implying that Asian-Americans don’t support Affirmative Action and because they want to give as many Asian-Americans as possible the idea that their community doesn’t support it and create a wedge between Asian-Americans and other people of color) (UPDATE 11/4/20 A 2020 opinion survey of voters found that 35% of Asians in CA supported a ballot issue to legalize AA in CA and 42% opposed it, and 23% weren't sure (in the same survey, Blacks were 53% in favor, 17% against and 30% not sure; Hispanics were 42% in favor, 18% against, and 40% not sure))
I can imagine a lot of the more extreme white progressives, and maybe some of the ones that aren’t white, saying that Affirmative Action is just for the benefit of the middle-class and it’s placing a bandage on Capitalism when we should let it bleed. To one degree or another, that’s largely untrue and AA shouldn’t be seen as obstructing the revolution.
In general AA negates institutional tendencies to replicate themselves- companies where all the people involved with hiring and/or promotions are white and/or male might only hire or promote people who are white and/or male. There’s also the fact that, often (not always of course, but often) people who are female and/or persons of color “bring something different to the table.” Even in a non-professional job that’s sort of relevant. I wouldn’t be surprised if (for example), when, in a moderately diverse area, a person of color finds themselves dining in a restaurant and all the viewable staff people are white, it would be a less enjoyable experience for them than if there were some people of color working outside the kitchen. And such a workforce in such an area could be evidence of discrimination and it also raises the question, what are the racial attitudes of these white employees working at a restaurant where the only people of color are in the kitchen? (I’d say something similar about gender)
There are three kinds of AA:
1. Outreach. Making sure that job openings are well known to those who are female and/or persons of color.
2. Preferences. This is where, for example, if there is a man and a woman who meet the minimum qualifications and the workforce is mostly male, the woman gets the job, even if in some ways the man is better qualified.
3. Quotas for Universities and Colleges, which I’ll get to soon.
Government contracts to companies owned by women and/or people of color
A lot of extreme progressives would say this is just for the middle-class. But working-class people benefit from it as well. As far as people of color go, such employers are (to put it mildly) less likely to discriminate in hiring, pay, and promotions. Some would say the promotions part is bourgeois, but consider this- although it’s a band-aid treatment for poverty among people of color, we want everyone have a middle-class standard of living (or at least lower middle-class, when there is a redistribution of wealth and no one gets more than about 20 times the minimum wage (I’ll go into more detail about my vision for socialism some other time)), and this is a good start. Also, every institution should involve equality- I’m not a fan of the military, but I believe there should be equality in it for people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and women. Also, today (and after the revolution) there is (might still be) discrimination in the public sector and possibly the employee-owned sector in promotions and maybe hiring as well. Also, a company owned by a person of color is less likely (to put it mildly) to tolerate a racially hostile atmosphere for people of color.
To one very large degree or another, everything I say above applies to AA for women.
Hiring and promotions by businesses owned by white men
Pretty much what I say above, more or less. For Blacks, “Hispanics,” and American Indians it would lessen the unemployment their communities disproportionately experience, and result in the non-white under-class getting better paying jobs (who will do the low-paying jobs? Ideally they would pay better, but that workforce should reflect the nation’s demographics).
(UPDATE 4/23/20 I just remembered that there is greater poverty among women and there's unequal pay for women, so what I said sort of applies to them as well)
Quotas for universities and colleges
This and the contracts and hiring stuff, involve a few more things I haven’t said yet. Diversity. There’s not a bad chance that if it weren’t for AA for people of color, our society would be even more (informally) segregated than it is, and there would be more white people with little or no contact with people of color. And as far as the middle-class nature of most of the third level educated population, A) they’re not all middle-class when they go to college, and B) as far as those who are, they might, in one way or another, interact with working-class people in a significant way. When it’s white working-class people, they might, to one degree or another, discourage the racism that probably a large majority of such people are afflicted by. If it’s working-class people of color, they’re more likely to treat them with respect than they would if they went to a college or university with very few people of color.
I’m not sure to what degree this applies to AA for women, but there’s probably a fair number of white people out there who need to be convinced that people of color can graduate from institutions above the level of community colleges and can do jobs that require a lot of intelligence and/or skill, and/or business skills, etc. (I can imagine a lot of racists dismissing degrees received form Historically Black Colleges and Universities- they shouldn’t, but they do, and without quotas at the rest of the universities and colleges, more Black people would go to them)
(Universities and colleges also do outreach and preferences)
Some of what I say above applies to AA for women.
In general, I think that white extreme progressives who oppose AA are saying that people of color and women are just fucked until the revolution happens, and don’t understand that AFTER the revolution, there will probably still be racist and sexist tendencies in our society. According to this, although Castro was incredibly anti-racist and outlawed racist discrimination, he admitted that racism continued in revolutionary Cuba. And for those anarchists who say that their alternative to capitalism will be racism-free, I say “what about the existence of ORGANIZED National Anarchists, who seem to be tolerated by the rest of the anarchists?” (I have read twice about anarchist book fairs (a popular and major event for anarchists) including a table for National Anarchists). What about the fact that most anarchists think that Federal intervention in the Civil Rights conflict in the American South was a bad thing? What about anarchists who are much less than enthusiastic when they talk about the Union cause in the American Civil War?
I am sort of a Marxist in the sense that about 1/2 of the political books I’ve read are by Marxists and I have a weak grasp of Marxist theory. But I’m also a left-wing social-democrat and I believe that 99% of the time reforms are good. First, I used to nominate myself as the least intellectual socialist by using a term I invented: “building blocks socialism.” I don’t put it that way anymore, but I believe that the accumulation of reforms, especially if they include relatively revolutionary reforms (i.e. empowering unions or shortening the work week with the same amount of pay, or reversing partial or local gov't privitization or a public health insurance option available to anyone who wants it (there was some talk about including that in Obamacare)) would add up to something approaching socialism and then it would be a small step to actual socialism. I believe that AA is one of those blocks.
Here is why I believe in most reforms:
1. As I said, they can be “building blocks” towards socialism.
2. They can alleviate suffering, etc.
3. Sometimes they are empowering.
4. Oppressed people can get a sense of the power they have when they successfully demand reforms, and that will possibly or likely encourage them to demand more.
On a related note, when I think about how we will rid this society of racism, I think one thing that will help is when vocally anti-racist progressives achieve more and more reforms or “revolutionary reforms” that benefit the working-class. Also, unionization will help with that (union households are more likely to vote Democratic than non-union households, and many of the organizers and staff in the labor movement are people of color and most of the whites are anti-racist and most union supporters are people of color or anti-racist whites).
1. In 2000 in a discussion on the email list of the Young Democratic Socialists (now YDSA) a member who was organizing workers in Indiana said that his competition was the Klan (UPDATE 1/26/22 That is, competition for the hearts and minds of the workers).
2. Eammon McCann is a socialist and anti-Unionist activist in Northern Ireland. He was one of the main leaders of the N. Ireland Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s (he was one of the speakers at the rally/march that was attacked by the British Army on Bloody Sunday in 1972, and he was an organizer of the second Civil Rights march, the one in Derry in Oct. of 1968). He has held several different senior and very senior positions in the Northern Irish TRADE-union movement in the last 40 years. In 2016 he was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly and in 2017 he would have been but they reduced the number of seats returned from each constituency form 6 to 5 so he was basically runner-up. As far as I can tell, in the last 40 years at any given time two mainstream or professional news publication have been publishing his columns. In a column written in the 1980s or 1990s and included in the 1998 anthology of his columns “McCann: War and Peace in Northern Ireland” he wrote:
The trade union movement is better placed than any other to purge the politics of this island of sectarianism. No other institution brings Catholic and Protestant workers together on a regular basis in pursuit of a common purpose which is antipathetic to sectarianism
I think you could easily say the same thing about racism in this country.
Two more thoughts about AA and the working-class
1. In the mid-1990s when I did a lot of activity and writing about AA, I often said that I thought attacks on AA are conservative and right-wing capitalists blaming AA and liberals and people of color for the economic problems their policies cause for working-class white people. It’s scapegoating.
2. It’s true that anti-discrimination measures in a capitalist society mean fewer jobs for white people. Which is why when we defend AA we need to simultaneously advocate for polices that create full employment.
In conclusion, AA is a good thing.
(I was not consistent in acknowledging this above, but I know that there are women of color)
(I sometimes think that sexual inequality of the sort this post addresses is a fraction of what it was decades ago, but (among other evidence that I’m wrong) in 2016 close to a majority of voters voted in such a way that the Electoral College placed in the White House a man who made several sexist comments, including one that could be interpreted as bragging about sexually assaulting women)
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Irish History, Today's World, and Our Education System
Anyway, there's a great article here.
Tom
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Anti-Sectarian
Immediately below is a poem I’ve “written.” For more information on my poetry, see this. It’s about anti-sectarianism in the North of Ireland, against both the anti-Catholic kind of bigotry and the anti-Protestant kind of bigotry. Below IT are some notes on that subject.
For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).
“Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter” based on “Tearing Down the Red Flags” (or something like that) by Razor’s Edge. Original lyrics are here.
1. At first I thought of doing a small alteration of this- making it about the Union Jack and unionism and/or British imperialism. But then I decided to go a bit further and in a slightly different direction, and make it about sectarianism in the North.
2. The Union Jack is the British flag.
3. There are six counties in N. Ireland and Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Irish-British context.
4. Fermanagh is in the south-west of N. Ireland, Belfast is in the east and mid-way between north and south of N. Ireland (so, it's not perfect, but I think it works pretty well).
5. For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this.
6. The BA is the British Army.
7. This is set somewhere around 2000. From what I remember, it was around then that Sinn Fein (I'm not sure if that means this is about SF, and is that appropriate???) stepped up their effort to reach out to Protestant Unionists, and the BA were usually still involved with forcing Orange marches through Catholic areas. (SF is very anti-sectarian with both kinds of sectarianism)
9. The red, white and black are the colors of the Nazi flag. Once again, what the Union Jack stands for in the Irish-British relationship isn’t as bad as what the Nazi flag stands for, but there are many points in Irish history when it was close.
10. As far as republican sectarianism towards Protestants, see the second half of this post, beginning with the paragraph "a lot of people..."
11. As far as “republican revolution” this is the second poem which requires me to explain why I believe that Sinn Fein (and most of the rest of the republican family) can be called revolutionaries. I’ll do that soon, for now just take my word for it : ).
12. I give this poem five stars out of five.
13. **57% of this version is me, 43% is the original.
14. As far as the second line of the first verse, I believe that the Orange nature of the statelet was slowly, more or less decreasing, although it has certainly been a slow process and there is still a lot of room for improvement. As far as the end of the statelet itself, even today I’m not sure if we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
15. The last line is about tearing down the structures of Orangeism, unionism and British imperialism (reforming the police, more movement towards a United Ireland, a ban on Orange marches through Catholic areas without the consent of the residents, starting an international and independent process of looking at the past that will make it clear to everyone what the nationalist and Catholic communities went through during the Troubles, and the decades before that, etc.).
16. Definitely about non-violence with the possible exception of sort of violent rioting in response to OO marches forced through Catholic areas.
17. UPDATE 5/4/11 I just realized there is a small conflict between the 3rd line of 2nd verse and the 3rd line of the last verse. I might change that soon.
18. UPDATE 5/3/12 I put Orange in the 2nd line of the 2nd verse; it used to say Northern. As I mentioned in another post, I don’t think the Orange Order is 100% as bad as the KKK, but even today they’re close and in the recent past, they were definitely close.
19. Razor's Edge were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.
You fly your Union Jacks and your symbols full of hate
Don't you see the end of your six-county Orange state?
We're tearing down sectarian divisions from Fermanagh to Belfast
and in their place we create solidarity of the working-class
Chorus:
We're tearing down sectarianism - we'll banish the North’s shame!
We're tearing down sectarianism - we’ll all oppose the British claim
We're tearing down sectarianism - we're never giving in!
We're tearing down sectarianism - and we're gonna fucking win!
Orangemen still marching on our streets, supported by the BA
Don't they fucking realise, we won’t surrender to the Orange KKK
They're just a bunch of wankers, with nothing new to say.
Well here's some headlines for ya- “republican revolution’s on its way.”
Chorus
You display your orange bunting and your union jacks
In the North it’s almost as bad as flying the red, white and black
We're tearing down sectarian divisions and we'll talk with you as well.
So you can join us in tearing down this Orange capitalist hell
Chorus
******
If you look at figures for unemployment and income, and sectarian murders, homes attacked, and Orange marches through Catholic areas, in recent decades (and certainly before that) it’s clear that Catholics have been targets of the overwhelmingly vast bulk of sectarianism in the North.
And here are some things I want to mention about sectarianism going the other way, and about sectarian DIVISIONS. Some of the stuff below I wrote partly as a pre-emptive response to people who might say that as a republican I can't be against anti-Protestant bigotry. (my attitude about sectarianism is completely compatible with republicanism, or at least the republicanism of the overwhelmingly vast majority of republicans- SF is VERY good at trying to break-down divisions and have dialogue with Protestant unionists)
1) The Speedwell Trust is a great organization in the North. They bring Catholic and Protestant kids together through environmental education and community relations programs. It’s doing very important work. In late 2002 I read an article in the Irish News about how they needed funding from the government immediately or they might have to close down. At the time the group I organized on the CU-Boulder campus, Students for Justice in N. Ireland, was active, and we tried to help Speedwell by contacting the N. Ireland Office and getting others (largely via environmentalist groups on campus) to do the same.
The Speedwell Trust’s web-site is here.
2) In 2002 I made two trips to Ireland. The second one was during the marching season (when anti-Catholic organizations have marches , including some in Catholic areas with the police and/or Army forcing the march through (For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this)). Often the ones through Catholic areas result in riots. I was at two such protests and (at both) at one point a small number of the kids rioting threw some rocks over the Peace Line fence into a Protestant area. Several people, (including myself, the second time this happened), yelled at them to stop. Although I was fine with them throwing stuff at the police and Army, throwing rocks into Protestant areas is very unhelpful and just increases tension and hate and I'm pretty sure is almost never a good idea (the one possible exception in recent years I can think of is when an isolated nationalist enclave in east Belfast was under siege for weeks in 2002).
About a week before that, I went to Ardoyne in north Belfast. I had been there 1-2 days earlier and the local nationalist kids surrounded me with questions- I was pretty popular. So the next time I was there a couple of boys, probably 10-12 years old, talked with me when I was waiting for a bus back to the city center. The street we were on was one of the main roads in north Belfast and was one of the boundaries for the nationalist Ardoyne area. At one point a taxi drives by and one of the boys says he wished he had a rock to throw at it. It was a taxi from a business with links to a loyalist paramilitary. I could understand wanting to throw a rock at such a taxi, but realized that there would very likely be passengers who did not deserve to be attacked like that. I explained that to the boys and they sort of understood.
3) The Pat Finucane Centre for Human Rights and Truth Recovery is a very important organization in N. Ireland. For some number of years they organized what you might call "official" events around the annual commemoration of Bloody Sunday (as far as I can tell there was little or no competition with other political forces hostile to the PFC). Another thing they do is facilitate dialogue between the two communities (I’m sure overwhelmingly at the working-class level) in different ways. They’re generally very progressive. Although it ended up being only slightly successful, I worked with some others to organize a benefit show for the PFC, I think we got them about $50 (the two groups that organized it together were Students for Justice in N. Ireland (my group) and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center).
Their web-site is here.
4) There is, of course the issue of integrated education. For most of my thoughts on that, see this review of Star Trek episodes, when I discuss the episode “In the Hands of the Prophets” (the relevant part is about half-way down from the top of that episode review).
5) About two and a half years ago I found a fan-made music video on YouTube for the song “There Were Roses (Cara Dillon version)” There’s two crucial facts about the lyrics that I couldn’t find, and in general I don’t agree with all of it. But there’s one thing it’s about that I like- celebrating friendships that cross the sectarian divide (there are some other elements I like, such as the description of Catholic fear about loyalist retaliation).
The missing facts are, who killed the Protestant, and why (I found something saying that it’s based on a true story but I couldn’t find their names in a data-base of all the people killed during the conflict). Also I’m not crazy about the last verse. But the anti-sectarianism of most of the lyrics is great. The YouTube music video is here. (the fan-made video is not viewable in America, but the song can be heard here).
6) There's some info about Irish Republicans and sectarianism towards Protestant about 2/3 down this post, starting with the paragraph "a lot of people..."
7) Lastly, in case someone thinks there is no anti-Protestant bigotry in the North, I have absolutely no doubt- you could almost say I experienced it myself. On the night July 11th/12th 2002 I was walking in a republican part of west Belfast. Each year that night sees some large degree of tension and fear in nationalist areas that there will be loyalist attacks. That doesn’t justify what happened, but I think it might partly explain it. So, what happened was that I passed a bar as two guys came out of it and they asked me if I was Catholic (I think I stood out like a sore thumb with the haircut I had then). I said yes. But I can only imagine what would have happened if I were a N. Ireland Protestant and had admitted it.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Reviews E
I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)
Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).
“The Forsaken” See this for a plot summary.
A very non-political episode, but an okay one. I hate to say this considering the role of the actor in the world of ST, but I’ve never been a fan of the Lwaxana Troi character which might be a small part of why I’m close to giving this episode one star instead of two. I’m not too interested in the awkwardness of Odo trying to fend off Troi who doesn’t take no for an answer. The other part of the episode, about the computer, is good, but I’m still tempted to go with one star. Having said that, I give it two stars out of five.
“Dramatis Personae” See this for a plot summary.
Another very non-political episode, but a good one. The way the crew start acting differently is interesting. I give it two stars out of five.
“Duet” See this for a plot summary.
This is one of my favorite episodes, I’ll say right away it gets five out of five stars.
It’s about a Cardassian who served as a military file clerk at a notorious forced labor camp where Bajorans mined for the Cardassians. He creates a situation where he is identified on DS9 as the notorious senior officer in charge of the camp. He does this so that his war-crimes trial at the hands of Bajorans will force Cardassia to confront the truth of what it did to Bajor.
When Kira figures out that he was only the file clerk and he describes how horrible he felt about what was done at the camp, they have the following exchange:
Kira: You didn’t commit those crimes and you couldn’t stop them. You were only one man.
Marritza: oh no, don’t you see, I have to be punished, we all have to be punished. Major you have to go out and tell them I’m Gul Darhe’el. It’s the only way
Kira: Why are you doing this?
Marritza: For Cardassia. Cardassia will only survive if it stands in front of Bajor and admits the truth. My trial will force Cardassia to acknowledge it’s guilt. And we’re guilty, all of us. My death is necessary.
Kira: What you’re asking for is another murder. Enough good people have already died. I won’t help kill another.
Later, when Kira is walking with Marritza on the Promenade, she says to him: “what you tried to do was very honorable. If Cardassia is going to change, it’s going to need people like you.” Right after she says that, a Bajoran fatally stabs him and says that he did it simply because he was a Cardassian, a justification Kira rejects.
Kira’s first and last lines and Marritza’s second line in the exchange are very good lines, as is Kira’s line right before Marritza is killed. Although it’s not a big surprise with Kira, it’s still noteworthy that she tried to make him feel better, recognizing that even though he was in the military at the camp, he was just a file clerk and he felt horrible about what happened.
What Marritza says in his second line, which is complemented by what Kira says right before he dies, is great. When one nation occupies or otherwise hurts another in a way comparable to what Cardassia did to Bajor (or worse), they also damage themselves. It invites an erosion of democracy, and also invites corruption and bigotry; and it harms that nation’s reputation with others. Once that has happened, the best way to deal with it is to be brutally honest. You can’t get rid of a problem until you admit that you have a problem- being honest about it will make it less likely that it will happen again in the future. The nation cannot regain the full respect of others until it is honest and does what can be done to right the wrongs they committed.
As far as something very comparable in the real world, it would be nice if more Germans with knowledge of the Holocaust had been honest about it- although some were, it wasn’t as many as we would have liked. But many did come forward with information about it. This also reminds me of how at the end of the war one American officer who liberated a camp forced the people of the local town to come to the camp to see what it was like, something which apparently shocked the townspeople.
Another good example of course is England/the UK and Ireland. I’m not too sure how much of the ancient part of that history Britain has acknowledged and apologized for. I know that in 1997 Tony Blair was the first British Prime Minister to apologize for British policy during the Famine. I also know that when that happened, republicans suggested that he should also apologize for London introducing sectarianism to Ireland as a way to oppress the indigenous population.
More recently, there’s been a lot of activity around looking into the past events in the conflict over the partition of Ireland. There’s the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, an investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombing (and allegations of British collusion in those bombings) and a lot of other deaths where the role of the security forces is an issue- either because it was the security forces who killed people, or they’re suspected of colluding with the loyalist paramilitaries. Although I’m not familiar with the details, various human rights groups have expressed concern about how the British government is setting up inquires and such into past events- it is setting them up in such a way that the government has a lot of control over the final product. There have been calls for an internationally organized inquiry into the past, comparable to S. Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation but organized by some international organization like the United Nations. There’s also a need to be more honest about the discrimination Catholic have faced, and about the conditions facing Catholics before the reforms of 1968-70. By the time the British government becomes honest about this, they’ll probably be politically ready to withdraw from Ireland, but in the meantime they can and should be pressured to go with an internationally organized look at the past as described above. Also, when the truth is more officially established or reinforced by new reports and statements by politicians, this will have an important effect on opinion among the Protestant population in N. Ireland. It will almost definitely nudge people towards being anti-sectarian if they have more reason to accept that Catholics have been treated very badly in N. Ireland. The ant-sectarian minority among Protestants will go from small to large (I’m defining anti-sectarian in the sense that they will take a stand and say something whenever inappropriate comments are made, that sort of thing). So, it’s not just the British that would benefit from someone like Marritza, but also the Protestants who are unionists in the North- if more of them would speak out against how Catholics have been treated and to a small degree still are being treated, that would be very beneficial. One part of why it would be beneficial is that eroding sectarianism would strengthen the broad working-class in N. Ireland, through the labor movement and other organizations that are pro- working-class.
Are there people more or less like Marritza in Britain or N. Ireland? Yes. there’s the Troops Out Movement in Britain, and lots of Labour, left, and some other politicians who say and do the right things. In the North, there are left politicians who more or less fill the role. One of Sinn Fein’s District Councilors is a Protestant who used to be a cop, Billy Leonard. In the late 1970s the chief of staff of the Irish National Liberation Army was Ronnie Bunting Jr. whose father was a notorious sectarian bigot. There are others who more or less fit the mold, in the sense that they are Protestants who have broken from Unionism and are part of and/or support the nationalist population.
Going back to the episode, I want to highlight Marritza’s powerful statement: “Cardassia will only survive if it stands in front of Bajor and admits the truth.”
Basically every aspect of the episode is great. Five stars out of five.
“In The Hands Of The Prophets” See this for a plot summary.
This episode introduces the character who, although I can’t stand her, is nonetheless a welcome part of the series. She’s vedek Winn, basically a priest, who is campaigning to be Kai, basically Pope.
In order to increase her profile and create a situation where her rival will be asassinated, she picks a fight with Keiko O’Brien who is teaching the children of the station. Winn objects that Bajoran religious beliefs are not being taught since some of the students are Bajoran.
I should say at this point that although I am mildly religious and fairly spiritual, I believe strongly in secular education with people of all religious beliefs and none learning together. Thus I agree with Keiko’s position that she won’t teach Bajoran religious beliefs and with Sisko’s opposition to creating a second school for the Bajoran kids. Keiko told Winn “I don’t teach Bajoran spiritual beliefs, that’s your job.” Later, Winn suggests that Keiko shouldn’t teach anything that conflicts with Bajoran beliefs. I can tell you that I was taught many things which contradicted the Bible, but it didn’t erode my religious faith. It is possible to learn scientific theories and facts that contradict your religion and still have faith in that religion.
UPDATE 12/27/15 I may have mentioned this elsewhere but I think it also needs to be mentioned here. I basically believe in Intelligent Design, but I don't believe it should be taught or even mentioned alongside evolution in science classes and probably no ore than slightly mentioned in school in general.
The idea of religious segregation in education reminds me, of course, about N. Ireland. According to Eamonn McCann, in April 1997, the Chancellor of the University of Ulster, rabbi Julia Neuberger, labeled the single-religion schools for Catholics and Protestants “sectarian” when she was speaking at the opening of an integrated school. Her statement caused an uproar, at least among large parts of the Catholic population. I think people should be careful using the term sectarian- it has two meanings in relation to N. Ireland and religion. First, a reference to DIVISIONS, and second, a reference to BIGOTRY. To suggest that the schools maintained by the Catholic Church are anti-Protestant is not accurate, but they do represent sectarian divisions. In the mid-1970s Seamus Costello of the Irish Republican Socialist Party said that he supported the continuation of separate education for Catholic children because in a united system, Catholic children would be taught the wrong things as far as Irish history and Irish politics (it would be Unionist). Costello made it clear that he didn’t like the Catholic Church controlling education but he felt that the alternative would be worse. That was before the development of integrated education in the early 1980s, years after Costello was killed. Today, especially with the Assembly set up so that education cannot be dominated by Unionism, I’d say that at this point, and for the last 11 years at least, integrated education is a good idea. It will erode sectarian divisions, has the potential to see some of the Protestant students won over to the Irish nationalism of some of their peers, and will weaken the political power of the Catholic Church, which is good for a lot of reasons (the social conservatism they promote and their support for the Social Democratic and Labour Party).
UPDATE 10/21/16 (my thoughts on the IRSP and Costello are found here (my high opinion of Costello is not reflected in my opinion of the Republican Socialist Movement since 1982) )
UPDATE 4/26/11 In early 2002, the then leader of the Irish Labour Party, Ruari Quinn, praised Martin McGuiness of SF for the work he was doing promoting integrated education as the N. Ireland Minister of Education.
Going back to the episode, it’s made very clear that Winn’s extremist, fundamentalist and conservative combination of politics and religion is a minority tendency in the Bajoran faith. The other side of Bajor’s religion, represented by vedek Bareil is very popular, both with the clergy and with the people. Which is more or less (in some ways less) how it is, in general, with religion.
Overall it’s a good story, although I have to take off a few points for how Winn annoys me, which brings it down to three stars out of five (without Winn I’d say three but almost four).