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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!ihuxm!berman
From: berman@ihuxm.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Race, Jackson, Reagan and Goodman
Message-ID: <799@ihuxm.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Jan-84 14:44:07 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxm.799
Posted: Wed Jan 11 14:44:07 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Jan-84 04:24:25 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 66

>> "
>> ""Do you think Reagan would have done more to free Goodman had the
>> "latter been white?"
>> "   
>> "                     -Andrew W. Rogers
>> "
>> "Mr. Rogers:
>> "    
>> "     Your remark seems to wreak of racial overtones.  I don't know
>> "what you really meant by that remark, but the first thing that came
>> "to my mind was, "Do you think Jackson would have tried to free Goodman
>> "had the latter not been black?"
>> "
>> "
>> "Russell Pierce
>> "
>> "


On the Contrary!  To raise the issue of race in the Jackson/Goodman/Reagan
case is perfectly legitimate!  Was the policians' and media
blitz about our Vietnam POWs
and Iran Embassy hostages that long ago?  Have people forgotten the
phenomenal amount of rhetoric and whipping up of nationalistic fervor
in this country when it came to the Vietnam POWs and the Iran Hostages?
Was not Reagan himself one of the loudest politicians on behalf of
POWs, MIAs and the hostages?

Is it not legitimate to ask why Reagan (and the media too) was so damn
QUIET about Goodman when he was in Syrian hands?  
(Gosh, could it POSSIBLY be because he was Black?)

Two explanations come to mind:

1) The loud campaigns of the past had little to do with sympathy
    for the plight of the captives. They were more aimed at gathering
    public support for specific political policies: e.g. more bombing
    of Vietnam, justification for the fiasco of supporting the Shah,
   and later: to avoid normalization of relations with Vietnam.
2) Goodman, inconveniently, turned out to be Black, and thus somewhat 
   harder for Reagan to whip up the rhetoric over. 
   Alas, racism remains quite pervasive in the American psyche.
   A Black prisoner, just doesn't quite fit the media image
   in these campaigns.

    A blitz about our POW in the hands of the evil enemy might
    not work so well in it's real aim: gathering support for
    policies that were becoming increasingly unpopular.
   Reagan hesitated launching the campaign due to the terrible
   inconvenience of Goodman being Black.

I think Jackson recognized this fact, but also understood that when
Reagan saw his Lebanon policies being criticized in this country, he could
eventually try to initiate a campaign of using Goodman's imprisonment
to justify his failed policies. 
Goodman in prison provided Reagan with an option to wait on.

Goodman undoubtedly would have spent much longer in Syria had not Jackson
intervened.


For Jackson's efforts, we should all be thankful!
For Reagan's fiasco in Lebanon, we should all be angry!

               -Andy Berman
               "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace!"