Every Guyanese should read David Cole in the NYRB – Kaieteur News

Every Guyanese should read David Cole at the NYRB


Kaieteur News – As I was about to drive away, Mrs. Dawn Holder-Cush (DHC) said to me, “Freddie, you are the most forgiving person in the world.” I was speechless. who betrayed a small spark of cynicism. See my column for the meeting with DHC – Monday, March 22, 2021, “Mrs. Holder-Cush and thousands like her must put country first.”
Obviously, I asked her to explain. Still with the small smile and occult cynicism, he said that the PPP has thrown dirt at me yet I have forgiven them with my support during the election saga. The exchange with DHC happened last month, and I will go to my grave without understanding the connection between the oppression that I and my family faced in the Jagdeo / Ramotar era with my rejection of a rigid election in my country.
My email is [email protected] If you think what I did between March and July in 2020 is a forgiving attitude towards the PPP, let’s have a discussion. My cell is 614-5927 but I don’t think you should call me for such a discussion. Your argument must be well laid out so that a telephone discussion is out. Email me and offer your analysis. I want to see the polemical points that are convincing.
I do not think your argument will be efficient but I kindly ask you to show your decoration. For now, until I hear from you, I’ll justify my stance on the March 2020 election by citing the philosophical thinking of David Cole, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the April 2 Issue of ‘ r New York Review of Books (NYRB).
If any two organizations in the world are counter-critical in how they view American society, it is the ACLU and the NRA. The ACLU is one of the most formidable human rights defenses in the world. The NRA is a right-wing body whose insensitivity to human suffering through gun violence is intolerable. But Cole takes a unique stance on legal actions currently taken against the NRA by the New York Attorney General.
AG New York is seeking to abolish the NRA as a not-for-profit organization saying it is run by corrupt people who milk it using its legal not-for-profit status. Here is a long quote from Cole on the matter; “I, and the ACLU, believe that the First Amendment protects everyone, including those we disagree with. If speech and social rights are to be meaningful, they must be given to everyone, not just to those we like their views. The ACLU has long defended groups whose views are at odds, because the First Amendment is the lifeblood of our democracy. If the Attorney General of New York can try to shut down the NRA because of the wrongdoing of some of its leaders, what is preventing governors in red states from using the same power to shut down organizations that fight for racial or economic justice if some their leaders corrupt? ”
Now here’s a view on Donald Trump that some readers will be screaming out, “Freddie are you real?” One day in the kitchen with my wife, I told her that I don’t think the words Trump used to the protesters who subsequently attacked Capitol Hill amounted to violent motive.
I read those words over and over again and there were subliminal commitments but the real words were not loaded with violent descriptions. Democrats wanted to impeach Trump for those words and they did. But who knows one day in the future, when a Republican-controlled Congress will not do the same for a Democratic president.
You cannot apply laws and policies based on political vendettas. They will come back to disable you one day. DHC was not the first person to see a connection with my denial of rigid election and support for the PPP. Read the Chronicle during the five-month election saga.
I was gripped by letters and the same theme ran through them all – “Freddie, the PPP did terrible things to you, now you’re in bed with them.” So what’s the other side of the coin? What do DHC and these people actually say? Here she is – “Freddie, support us to stay in power because the PPP did bad things to Guyana. But by “staying in power,” they mean controlling Guyana forever. If my memory serves me properly, the PPP lost two national elections. Permanent governors like Burnham and the PNC do not lose elections. They rig them.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)



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