EDITORIALS : Giggles and Applause
Posted on Thursday, September 21, 2006
Every community has its share of nincompoops and ne'er-do-wells - along with a few folks whose elevators, for whatever reason, don't go all the way to the top floor. In some places, the people in this last group are referred to as village idiots. Some communities drop the "village," feeling that "idiot"alone will suffice. Many people see the world itself as a big community. Certainly, that was one of the basic principles behind the founding of the United Nations. It only makes sense, then, that the United Nations on Wednesday provided the stage on which it became apparent just who this big community's village idiot really is. Granted, many of us already had a good idea which elevators were stalling somewhere short of the penthouse. But a little added clarity never hurts.
"The devil came here yesterday," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in the speech before the United Nations that helped cement his unenviable status. "He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world."
Anyone who's ever been involved in community government - as an observer or a participant - knows that every once in a while, a village idiot takes center stage in a public forum. He makes his way to a lectern, dials the idiocy up past 10, all the way to 11, and rips the knob off.
There are always people who find some place else to look. That was U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, who left the assembly hall as Chavez spoke. Others in attendance, like rubberneckers driving past an accident, couldn't get enough.
Count us among those who've had our fill of Chavez. His flights of paranoid and belligerent fancy grew tiresome long ago. The fact that he was granted an audience of this size and exposure of this magnitude will no doubt feed his tendency to rant. But it will also convince many around the world - people who tuned in Wednesday - that he's not worth taking seriously.
That being said, while there were some giggles as Chavez popped off, there was also some applause when he called Bush "the devil. "That leads us to believe there may be journalists elsewhere in the world, right now, penning editorials much like this one - but with Bush in the role of village idiot.
We suppose that goes to show that the world community, like any community, rarely achieves unanimity. It's one of those truths that leaves us less than encouraged.
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