By David Randall
In the post 9/11, post-Afghanistan, post-Iraq, neo-conservative, Bush world we seemed so entrenched in these days, the whole concept of a United Nations seems to be in question.
The United States has basically disregarded the United Nations to keep the national security ball rolling in Middle East to stamp out threats to the homeland.
Here in Utah we have a lot of people with dissenting opinions on the United Nations. My coworker said his favorite day working at the legislature was watching people “with no teeth” get up and talk about how they hate the United Nations. The legislature was voting on whether or not to send a letter advising the United States to pull out of the United Nations. The measure was not approved.
LaVerkin, a small town near St. George, preempted the legislature by officially pulling out of the United Nations (although the action has since been rescinded) and labeling a sign outside town “U.N. Free Zone.”
People seem to have ample reasons to hate the United Nations. They see all the money that goes into the organization and seemingly little return. They may also feel the U.N. mission is unclear, or that it threatens to supersede national governments and take over the world.
But, I tend to side on the side of diplomacy. I tend to be on the side of working with the United Nations and other international groups and listening to their concerns even if we don”t have to, because it just feels like the right thing to do.
I”m a big fan of the founding fathers much the way the John Bircher, Anti-U.N. people are, but I particularly like the phrase that states “all men are created equal,” not just American men. I feel like as Americans, we who have been gifted with a lasting constitution, a strong government, and above all the most robust economy in the history of the world, we have a stewardship for all people.
Key to that stewardship I feel is a responsibility to listen and work with all nations and help them to deal with issues such as technology integration, disease management and economic stability that are commonplace in America.
I admit that the United Nations may not be the best format for diplomatic relations, but it is the best we have at the moment, and it”s worth working with.
I was in Germany this summer and I was amazed at all the international groups that the German government is involved in. Germans seem to not only be involved in every international group in existence (several I”d never even heard of) but they also made substantial financial contributions to the groups.
Granted they have more of a need for international alliances. They are economically dependent on neighbors and will have to unite with other European nations if they ever want to compete with North America. Still, I think we can learn for their example.
One day while I was in Germany, the group I was with had a lecture for a German diplomat involved with the United Nations. He talked about the U.S. involvement and how the United States had dropped out of the UN organization UNESCO, after they disagreed with the organization”s agenda. He said that Germany, on the other hand, while they tend to have disagreements with agendas, prefer to make changes from the inside.
We, the United States, need to work as much as possible with international organizations, including the United Nations, because we have an obligation as a citizen nation to help, even if we are the most powerful and do more giving than taking. If we wait around for the perfect international organization, we will wait forever as we build discontent and loose opportunities to improve the world around us.
