The Scottish boycott
Posted on August 24, 2009
Filed Under A Progressive Viewpoint | Leave a Comment
Good grief. Now this. In case anyone is seriously worried about the threat of a boycott of Scottish or British goods by Americans, the original website is this amateurish effort. I won’t be quaking in my boots just yet, thank you.
Why did MacAskill and the Scottish National Party desire so strongly to show compassion for al-Megrahi, but not for the American victims? Why have the concerns of the American families been so routinely dismissed and discarded? Why have we been shown such an incredible level of disrespect by the Scottish authorities?
Is it because we are Americans? Is it because America has so frequently been attacked and vilified in the United Kingdom and Europe and the Middle East? Is that what this all comes down to, the fact that we have not been shown compassion precisely because we are Americans?
Strangely enough, no it’s not. It’s because each jurisdiction makes its decisions according to its own laws and customs, and not on the basis of how loudly Americans are shouting. Revenge is not the sole basis on which to base a criminal justice system.
Perhaps the saddest part of that for all the bleating about compassion, you would expect the author of this site to know something about it. Americans by and large are a religious lot, especially compared with Europeans, regardless of the separation of Church and state. You would expect Americans to know something about mercy and compassion. As the writer in the Times said: it’s not about what Megrahi is, it’s about what we are. I’ve been clinging to the thought that perhaps we are better than he is – not much evidence of that though.
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