6192: Tom Driver's letter published in The New York Times (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "Tom F. Driver" <tfd3@columbia.edu>

Aristide the Populist 
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/06/opinion/L06HAI.html 

December 6, 2000 

To the Editor: 

 In "Give Aristide a Chance" (Op- Ed, Nov. 30), Tracy Kidder 
observes that "America's foreign-policy bureaucracy has long 
disliked" Jean- Bertrand Aristide, the former president of Haiti, 
who won the election on Nov. 26.  

 Washington dislikes Mr. Aristide because he aims to bring Haiti's 
poor, the vast majority of its people, into a fair participation in 
the country's political and economic life. This runs counter to the 
United States' habit of supporting those governments in the 
Americas that try to maintain "stability" by opposing efforts to 
bring about long-overdue social change. 

 Such change is nowhere more needed than in Haiti, and Mr. Aristide 
is the only major figure there who holds out any promise of its 
happening. 

TOM F. DRIVER 
New York, Nov. 30, 2000 
The writer is professor emeritus of theology and culture at Union 
Theological Seminary. 

The New York Times on the Web 
http://www.nytimes.com 

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company 


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Tom F. Driver
New York City
<tfd3@columbia.edu>