THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504220391
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
THIS IS WHERE WE STARTED...
PRESENTED APRIL 9TH: Republicans are fighting among themselves over the fitness of U.S. Sen. John W. Warner for renomination by the party in 1996. Warner sparekd the fight in 1994 when he refused to back Oliver L. North, the party's nominee, against Sen. Charles S. Robb, a Democrat. Warner supported an alternative candidate, and he defended his action on grounds of conscience. Warner's detractors say he cost North the election and betrayed the GOP.
THIS IS WHAT WE LEARNED...
Two weeks ago we started talking with you about Sen. John Warner, and whether the Republicans ought to nominate him for re-election to the U.S. Senate.
Now here I am today, stammering and stumbling through an attempt to get back to you on this once more.
Your 200-plus letters, calls and e-mail were challenging, thoughtful and awfully wise.
We didn't know what to expect. The idea was to start a ``conversation.'' Maybe that's not a very good word; conversations should be face-to-face, spontaneous. But it's the best word we have for what we wanted to start.
You boiled the Warner issues down to conscience, values and citizenship. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you said conscience is what helps us balance our values when we make decisions. If my friend is stealing from his employer, does my distaste for theft outweigh my feelings of friendship? You could apply the same type of question at the national level.
In the case at hand, should Warner have opposed the Virginia GOP when it nominated Oliver North for the Senate?
Some took it a step beyond that. Just because a politician claims to be acting out of conscience, you said, that's not enough. It has to be genuine; you have to be convinced.
``If Warner did in fact feel this a matter of conscience then it would have been OK to go with what he genuinely felt was the greater good,'' said Randy Everette of Norfolk. But then he said, ``I still don't buy (Warner's) story .
This is where citizens like Everette understand where the other side is coming from. They can disagree, as the saying goes, without being disagreeable. They wrestle openly with the difficult decisions.
This brings us to citizenship. You brought the whole question back to that, as a building block of democracy. If we understood citizenship better, you said, political leaders would know better how to act.
Raymond L. Fields of Norfolk wrote us twice. The first time, he said elected officials must be allowed to think, not just follow an ideology. In his next letter, Fields related this to citizenship. When he grew up, he said, he was taught loyalty to God, country and family. Now, he said, individual rights have overwhelmed everything else.
``Loyalty has been reduced to what is `good for me' without real concern of the consequences to the rest of the people,'' Fields said.
Finally, Fields issued a challenge: to actively work at and teach the lessons of citizenship.
He puts it as well as anyone I've heard. You'll find his letter, and Everette's, reprinted on this page.
That may be the last word we publish for now in this particular conversation. That doesn't mean it has to be the end. As long as we continue talking about these questions of politics, democracy and citizenship in our homes, our churches - wherever we gather with others - then we'll begin to meet Fields' challenge.
CITIZENS WHO SAID SOMETHING WORTH THINKING ABOUT...
[The two segments by Raymond L. Fields and Randy Everette are not available electronically. For complete text, please see microfilm.]
WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT NEXT...
``WE WERE WRONG.'' That stark admission about the Vietnam War from Robert McNamara, one of its chief architects, has reopened a deep well of emotion among Americans. The war challenged our assumptions of citizenship like few other periods in our history. Next Sunday, the 20th anniversary of the U.S. pullout from Saigon, Hampton Roads residents whose lives were changed by the war sound off on the former defense secretary's memoirs. A Vietnam veteran and a conscientious objector tell their stories. And Hampton Roads residents will have an opportunity to engage in new conversations as we explore our role in Democracy and Citizenship. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
RAYMOND L. FIELDS
RANDY EVERETTE
by CNB