Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site charm.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!charm!grl
From: grl@charm.UUCP (George Lake)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.flame
Subject: Reconcilliation:  The right way
Message-ID: <648@charm.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-May-85 12:17:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: charm.648
Posted: Mon May  6 12:17:41 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 8-May-85 01:40:06 EDT
References: <3655@alice.UUCP> <396@enmasse.UUCP> <255@sbcs.UUCP>, <307@dolqci.UUCP>
Organization: Physics Research @ AT&T Bell Labs Murray Hill NJ
Lines: 20
Xref: watmath net.politics:8880 net.flame:9748

The issue with Bitburg is that it is a military cemetery and a site where
there are SS buried.  What does reconcilliation mean?

We don't reconcillitate with dead people, there are no "dead people",
only the dead.  We go to a cemetery to honor the dead.

When the Coventy cathedral was bombed, it was the first violation
of a "gentleman's agreement" between Churchill and Hitler that ancient
and hallowed sites would be spared.  There is a new garish cathedral
known as the Phoenix, but the most impressive things are the ruins.

A few years after the war a visiting group of German students collected
nails from the remains of the 14th century vault and built a cross.
It's crude and fashioned from equally crude malformed things.  But, it
was a true gesture of reconcilliation.  An acknowledgement of a deed
done, an honoring of a people and a place and a gesture of hope for the
future from an event that should surely have destroyed all hope.

The right place for an American president to go in a gesture of
reconcilliation is a Hiroshima or Dresden-- not a military cemetery.