Pubdate: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Fresno Bee Contact: http://www.fresnobee.com/ Author: Jerry Goodwin CURIOUS 'FREEDOM' It's too bad the title "Barbarians at the Gate" has already been taken, because it's an apt description of the recent GOP Convention in Sacramento. "Ban abortion!" is the hue and cry of the far right. And we had luminaries such as former Vice President Dan Quayle giving an exposition on freedom. Of course, when the far right cries "freedom" you need a translator. Freedom means government interference in reproductive decisions. It means finding convenient groups to stigmatize, such as gays, lesbians, immigrants and other minorities. It means keeping wages low because businesses have to be "competitive." It means millions have to go without health insurance because we don't want "big government." It means more pollution of the air and water because, once again, business has to be "competitive." It means throwing programs like Social Security to the sharks on Wall Street. It means censorship of any books, movies, records or Internet sites deemed offensive by the far right. It means prisons and executions and throwing people into prison for minor drug offenses. It means destroying public education and replacing it with a system of vouchers to pay for religious instruction, whether we believe it or not. It means countless deaths from handguns because the gun lobby is such an upright American institution. I don't know your definition of freedom, but the far right's version doesn't quite fill the bill. Jerry Goodwin Fresno - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck