Suzanne's Take: A Social Commentary

CLINTON & KARLA FAYE
January 29, 1998

The bottom line on the Clinton situation seems obvious to me. He is doing something that he wouldn't want the people to know -- and we're not talking national security. He is absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt guilty of something. The question isn't whether or not he did anything, but how much he did. We understand what a joke this looks like in France, but we are in America. Our president upholds our standards. Do we want to change our standards? Can we make a new agreement, and because we like Bill Clinton and he's doing a good job, use that to let him off the hook? I don't think so. We would still have the issue of him standing in radical violation. A violator. That's more than a sexually active person in a permissive society. (I wonder how the action of French husbands comes down with French wives. Seems to me we've already adopted something more evolved in our attention on equalizing men and women.) As far as I can see, we don't get past the scuzzy image of the violator and how wrong that is in the White House. It's too wrong already. Whatever the details, he has undermined his power to lead.

I also see the value of all the conversation that's going on. In our couch potato society, everyone is thinking now. There are so many points of view and so much emotion that we are getting a mental workout. The media is a great council hall right now.

I wish, that we had good means for even more world-wide conversation when I think about Karla Faye Tucker, who presents us with a dramatic opportunity for re-identifying who we are. This woman, here and now, is an angel. No one wins when somebody is put to death. The crimes already have produced the results that matter; what happens to the criminals is another issue. Looking at reality now, and grappling humanely with Karla Faye, might start all sorts of flows of loving energy in this country, which has lost its heroic way.

With the UN asking for Karla Faye's pardon, how undeserving of world-leadership we are if we put her to death. And if this Christian country won't let the spirit of Christ live, and abides instead by a set of rules that were not fashioned for Christ-likeness, we inflict great hurt on ourselves. We all need to awaken to love, as Karla Faye has. Pat Robertson had the best comment (what a coalition Karla Faye has) when he said, "Mercy trumps justice!" Here, at the eleventh hour, I am praying for what she describes as "God's intervention."

[Read this most intelligent piece written by David Theis, "Maybe Karla's Death Will Prompt our Shame."]