Paying Our Dues
A Sermon Given
by Rev. Roger Fritts
May 17, 1998
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
One of the issues we are constantly confronted with in life is when to
compromise. When we have differences with our children or our
parents or our spouse, or at work should we try to settle our differences by making concessions or by sticking to what we believe is
right? Should we lose rather then compromise or should we try to
negociate something intermediate, so that we get at least part of what
we want? This morning I want to explore this aspect of human life
through two examples. The first occurred 79 years ago.
The President of the United States stepped out onto the speaker's
platform of the Memorial Auditorium in Pueblo, Colorado. Thousands of people had crowded into the auditorium that afternoon to see
and listen to him. When he appeared, they rose to their feet cheering,
clapping and whistling.
When the President began to speak, his voice was weak and hoarse.
The plea he made was the same plea he had made in speech after
speech in town after town for three weeks. The date was September
25, 1919.
You will ask [said Woodrow Wilson] "Is the League
of Nations an absolute guarantee against war?" No;
I do not know any absolute guarantee against the
errors of human judgement or of the violence of
human passion, but I tell you this: with a cooling
space for human passion, not much of it will keep hot.
I had a couple of friends who were in the habit of
losing their tempers, and when they lost their tempers
they were in the habit of using unparliamentary
language. Some of their friends induced them to
make a promise that they never would swear inside
the town limits. When the impulse next came on
them, they took a streetcar to go out of town to swear,
and by the time they got out of town, they did not
want to swear. They came back convinced that they
were just what they were, a couple of unspeakable
fools. Now, illustrating the great by the small, that is
true of the passions of nations. Give them space to
cool off.
Wilson talked about his visits to the graves of American soldiers in
France. He described the process of negotiating the Treaty of
Versailles that set up the League of Nations.
Then, as he was speaking about the fate of the conquered German
nation, Wilson suddenly trembled and halted in mid-sentence:
"Germany must never be allowed . . . A lesson must be taught to
Germany . . . The world will not allow Germany . . . " He stood
looking puzzled, gazing at the faces turned toward him. His expression was distant but pained. He appeared to have forgotten not only
what he was supposed to say next, but what he had just been saying
as well. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Woodrow
Wilson never stumbled over his words.
He stood there before the crowd looking dazed. The seconds ticked
on. The others on the platform could not decide what to do. They
could not let the President stand there speechless, but no one could
bring himself to approach Wilson and lead him from the podium.
Then the President drew a deep breath, straightened up and tried
again. This time the words began to come and the speech went on.
I believe [he concluded] that men will see the truth, eye to eye
and face to face. There is one thing that the American people
always rise to and extend their hand to, and that is the truth of
justice and of liberty and of peace. We have accepted that
truth and we are going to be led by it, and it is going to lead
us, and through us the world, out into pastures of quietness
and peace such as the world never dreamed of before.
As the speech ended the President of the United States, standing
before an audience of several thousand people, was crying. Within
twenty-four hours of the speech, Wilson collapsed completely,
suffering from headaches and paralysis. When he returned to
Washington his wife and doctor refused to let him be disturbed for
any reason. The country waited to see if the President would live or
die.
In the Senate the fight over the League of Nations continued. Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, powerful Chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had serious reservations about
the treaty. Lodge announced that unless certain changes were made,
he would not support ratification. The President opposed the changes
and felt that the Senate should support the League without amendments.
In November, during a good spell, Wilson insisted on getting a report
on the debate in the Senate. Democratic Senate Minority Leader
Gilbert Hitchcock of Nebraska was admitted to Wilson's bedroom at
the White House. Senator Hitchcock was startled by the President's
appearance. Wilson had a thriving white beard. His doctors had
decided that he should not be bothered with shaving during his
illness. Hitchcock told the President the news: Unless the Lodge
amendments were introduced into the treaty, America would not be
able to enter the League of Nations. Without Lodge's support it
would be impossible to get enough senators to vote for ratification.
"It would be wise to compromise," Senator Hitchcock told the
President.
"Let Lodge compromise!" replied Wilson.
The President's doctor ushered the Senator out. Two days before the
Senate was to put the treaty to a vote, Hitchcock returned to the White
House to plead again with the President to compromise.
This time the First Lady carried Hitchcock's message to the President.
"For my sake," Mrs. Wilson said to her husband, "won't you accept
these amendments and get this awful thing settled?"
Wilson said to his wife ". . . don't you desert me; that I cannot stand.
Can't you see I have no moral right to accept any change in a paper
I have already signed? It is not I who will not accept; it is the nation's
honor that is at stake. Better a thousand times to go down fighting
than to dip your colors to dishonorable compromise."
November 19, 1919, the treaty was presented to the Senate for
ratification. A vote was taken on the treaty in exactly the form that
had been signed at Versailles. Thirty-eight senators voted for
ratification, fifty-three voted against it.
The United States of America thus rejected the Treaty of Peace that
would end the Great War, and refused membership in the council
known as the League of Nations. Of course, the League went ahead
without America. But, the League without the United States was an
ineffective instrument for peace-keeping. Soon after it was established, the nations of Europe began forming new military alliances
outside the League structure.
We will never know what would have happened if the United States
had joined the League of Nations, but we do know what happened
when we did not. World War came again within 20 years. When it
came, it turned out to be a war more horrifying than any other in
human history.
April 25, 1945 four-hundred delegates from fifty countries met in the
San Francisco Opera House and began to write the Charter of the
United Nations. On June 26, 1945, the chief delegates signed the
Charter. Within a month the Charter was approved by the Senate of
the United States. On the day the vote was taken by the Senate the
first atomic bomb was exploded in a test over a desert in New
Mexico.
Since 1945 the UN has proved its worth. For example:
In 1974, only 5 percent of children in developing countries were
immunized against polio, tetanus, measles, whooping cough,
diphtheria and tuberculosis. By 1995, as a result of the efforts of the
United Nations Children Fund and the World Health Organization,
80% of children were immunized, saving the lives of more than three
million children each year.
A 13-year effort by UN's World Health Organization succeeded in
eradicating smallpox by 1980.
Today, through international treaties, the UN leads efforts to protect
the ozone layer and curb global warming.
The world community is managed through the United Nations. When
we send a letter to another country we are able to do so because of a
UN agency called the Universal Postal Union. When we make a
phone call to another country using a satellite connection we are able
to do so because of a UN agency called the International Telecommunications Union. When we fly from one nation to another, our pilot
follows rules established by a UN agency called the International
Civil Aviation Organization.
Yet in spite of the many good works that are done by the United
Nations, there are some in the United States who still fear that an
international organization limits our national freedom. They repeat
the same arguments that were made against the League of Nations in
1919.
Starting in the 1980s, the United States Congress has failed to
authorized funds to pay all of our dues that, by treaty, we legally owe
to the United Nations. Based on our share of the world gross national
product, we are expected to pay 25 percent of the UN budget. Our
share of the world gross national product is actually higher then 25
percent, but UN rules state that no single nation should pay more than
25 percent of the total UN budget. The 15 individual countries of the
European Union collectively pay 35 percent of the budget. Unlike the
United States, these countries have always honored their financial
obligations by paying dues promptly, fully and unconditionally. In
contrast, today the United States owes the UN about one and a half
billion dollars. This is about seven dollars for every person in the
United States. We spend about 900 dollars a year per person for our
military.
In response to our failure to pay our dues, the UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan went on the road in April appealing for the help of the
American people, in the same way President Wilson asked for
support 79 years ago. Surveys of Americans show that there is broad
support for the United Nations. Kofi Annan hope to mobilize this
support. He spoke to packed halls in San Francisco, Berkeley, Los
Angeles, and Houston. He received support for his cause from many
people, including basketball star Magic Johnson, actor Jacqueline
Bisset, former president George Bush, and Former Secretary of
Defense William Perry.
Sounding like President Wilson, Kofi Annan said: "I hope by
engaging the public, by talking to you, you will agree with me that the
UN is much more important today than ever. The United States
indebtedness to the United Nations is poisoning international
relations. By withholding the payments the US is provoking friends
and foe alike. US behavior is destroying trust among nations. Have
we not seen enough coffins, from Rwanda to Bosnia to Cambodia, to
pay for the price of prevention?"
On April 28, Shortly after the Secretary General returned to New
York, by a vote of 51 to 49, the Senate joined the House in approving
a bill that will pay nearly one billion dollars in back UN dues.
However, this bill includes several conditions, including one that
denies aid to international family planning organizations that support
abortion. Because of this provision President Clinton says he will
veto the bill.
Just as in 1919, neither the president nor the Congress appears willing
to compromise. The test of wills is similar. Under the UN rules, if
the United States does not pay its dues by the end of this year, we will
lose our vote in the General Assembly.
Speaking anonymously, some UN officials have said they fear that
President Clinton's refusal to seek a compromise with Republican
legislators over the bill to pay dues will cause an irreparable rift in US
relations with the United Nations. UN officials complain that
Republicans have tried to compromise by agreeing to narrower anti
abortion language, but Clinton continues to promise a veto. UN
officials fear that just like the League of Nations, without the support
of the world's richest and most powerful country, the United Nations
will lose credibility as a force in world affairs.
What should the President do? Should he stick to his principles,
knowing that this might be the only chance he has this year of getting
money for the United Nations? Or should he sign the bill, even
though it contains conditions that embarrass the United States and
disgust even our allies at the United Nations?
I urge the President and the Congress to reach a compromise. To
members of Congress I write encouraging them to work with the
President develop a funding bill that the President can support. I
write against the spirit of isolation that lead to the defeat of the
League of Nations, and that still remains strong in Congress today.
Just as in 1919 when Wilson was weakened with a physical illness
and could not effectively negociate, today President Clinton is
weakened by the investigations into his personal life. Nevertheless,
I write to the President encouraging him to go beyond his general
declarations of support. I encourage him to investing his personal
political skills in reaching an agreement with Congress that will result
in UN funding.
I believe that support of the United Nations is a logical consequence
of my Unitarian Universalist beliefs. Ours is one of the few religions
in the world which refuses to demand ethnic, racial, and national
exclusiveness. Furthermore, our Unitarian Universalist propensity for
discussion, toleration and democracy provides a perfect model for a
world organization.
A few years ago Leslie and I visited New York City over a weekend,
staying at a Hotel on Forty-second Street a few blocks from the
United Nations. One morning we walked down to the United Nations
and took a tour of the building. There are certain places I have been
that I associate with a feeling of spiritual power. It is a strong
emotional feeling of renewal and wholeness that comes over me. I
feel it sometimes when I go hiking in the woods. I feel it when I see
the Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol. And I feel it also when I visit
the United Nations Building in New York. To be in a place where
people come together from different parts of the earth and try to work
together refreshes my spirit and renews my desire to make the world
a better place. The flags of the member states along the UN plaza;
the Japanese Peace Bell, cast from coins and metal donated by people
of 60 nations; a chunk of moon rock from the United States; the
statue of Poseidon from Greece; and the statue depicting the beating
of swords into plowshares, a gift from the Soviet Union: these things
touch my soul and renew my spirit.
Seventy-nine years ago Woodrow Wilson spoke in Pueblo, Colorado.
I believe [he said] that men will see the truth, eye to
eye and face to face. There is one thing that the
American people always rise to and extend their hand
to, and that is the truth of justice and of liberty and of
peace. We have accepted that truth and we are going
to be led by it, and it is going to lead us, and through
us the world, out into pastures of quietness and peace
such as the world never dreamed of before.
Wilson's vision was the right one. I hope that our national leaders
will share it.
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