One Night He Heard Screams ? Wickersham's Conscience

Back in college, WC was required to read Whitaker Chambers? 1952 autobiography,?Witness. WC came to the book reluctantly. WC was a distant relative of Helen Gahagan Douglas, U.S. Representative from California, smeared by Richard Nixon as ?The Pink Lady.? Whitaker Chambers contributed to that effort, and afterwards to the Pumpkin Papers political theater that made Nixon (in)famous. But as a window into the mindset of the Cold War, Witness is pretty good, even if it is on The Heritage Foundation?s recommended reading list.

There?s one passage in the autobiography in which Whitaker is describing how he came to renounce Communism and the Soviets in particular. ?He tells this story of a European girl whose father had defected from the Communist ranks.

It was hard for her because, as an enlightened modern girl, she shared the Communist vision without being a Communist. But she loved her father and the irrationality of his defection embarrassed her. ?He was immensely pro-Soviet,? she said, ?and then ? you will laugh at me ? but you must not laugh at my father ? and then ? one night ? in Moscow ? he heard screams. That?s all. Simply one night he heard screams? . . . She did not know that she had swept away the logic of the mind, the logic of history, the logic of politics, the myth of the twentieth century, with five annihilating words: one night he heard screams.

The metaphor is vivid, forceful and unsettling, as any really powerful metaphor should be.

WC, many years ago, was staying with acquaintances in Anchorage, crashing at their place overnight on the way to a backpacking trip on the Kenai Peninsula. And that night he heard screams coming from his host and hostess?s bedroom. The next morning, WC?s hostess had obvious bruises, and refused to make eye contact with WC. That event, and the chance to really reflect on it over the course of the backpacking trip, marked the moment at which WC really understood marriage could be a prison, a trap and literal torture. Since then, WC has learned enough about the cycle of domestic violence to develop deep suspicion of those who uncritically defend marriage.

Which is why the National Organization for Marriage had earned WC?s distrust long before NOM was forced in litigation to disclose its National Strategy for Winning the Marriage Battle. WC wouldn?t want to have to decide what part of the Strategy is the most unsettling. Its defense of marriage at all costs is appalling, and its virulent anti-gay ambitions remind WC of the worst of the 1960?s Klu Klux Klan screeds.

For pure outrageousness, it?s hard to decide between NOM?s ?Catholic Clergy Project? and its ?Behind Enemy Lines? campaign. The former is described:

All clergy are key influencers on gay marriage, but Catholics are a key swing vote and Catholic clergy are notoriously difficult to personally reach. The Catholic Clergy Project aims to use NOM?s close relationships with Catholic bishops to equip, energize and moralize Catholic priests on the marriage issue.

Strategy, p. 22

We know a bit about Catholic clergy here in Alaska. The hundreds of children those Catholic clergy sexually abused know still more. If NOM wants to use them as role models here, then NOM is even sicker than WC had supposed. And, by the way, exactly what is it that those male, celibate priests ? the ones who don?t abuse children ? know about marriage?

The ?Behind Enemy Lines? project, in comparison, offers a $200,000 budget for ?a special effort to focus on the consequences of gay marriage for parental rights,? including a $120,000 item for ?Children of same-sex couples and their concerns ? an outreach coordinator to identify children of gay parents wiling to speak on camera.? Strategy, p. 24-25. A rebellious teenage kid never had more power.

WC invites his patient readers to decide which ?strategy? is more offensive.

Or, perhaps, the most offensive element is the refusal to recognize that abusive relationships and domestic violence in the relationship that they are defending is orders of magnitude worse than their perceived ?enemy,? gay marriage. NOM refuses to listen to ? refuses to admit the existence of ? the screams in the night.

One final note. WC is no fan of Governor Sean Parnell. But on this issue, the Governor ? or perhaps the First Lady pressuring the Governor ? deserves some modest praise. His campaign?to ?Choose Respect? is a good start at addressing Alaska?s shocking levels of domestic violence.

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