Dear WWW Virtual Library Public Health User, you will be transferred to the web-page for Austria in 60 sec. I protest against the inclusion of neo-fascistic politicians into the Austrian Government. You may not agree with my decision, however, I do believe that it is the duty of a democrat to stand up against developments which may lead to the abandonment of democracy itself. For your further information, please check HaiderWatch, an Austrian web-site available in English. As a result of this action, I received a couple of mails in which I was told that this step was naive and not justifiable. To these and potentially other writers, let me state the following:
I am making a purely personal decison to take issue with Austria's political lurch to the right. I don't for a moment think for example that China trampling all over Tibet is okay. Of course atrocities are global and at times almost worryingly universal - - but two wrongs don't make a right - and there are specific historical precidents, and especially so for me, that make the present Austrian situation worth a private symbolic gesture. Are you suggesting that I can only privately protest about one political ill if I also post a litany of complaints about human frailties globally? When Ghandi took a quiet walk to the coast to collect a thimble full of salt, he was essentially minding his own business in a very non judgemental way but following his heart - that it happened to lead to the end of a particular tyranny, British rule in his country, was a whole other matter - he simply had to do what he had to do as, in my significantly more humble and less arduous way, do I.
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Copyright © by Eberhard Wenzel, 2000