Punching bags

Once upon a time, years ago, I was up at dawn and sitting on the eastern coastline of little Dutch island named Terschelling, not all that far, I think, from the farm where my great-grandparents lived before they decided to pick up their lives and fortunes and immigrate to America.  They left the island in 1868 because, family lore has it, Terschelling didn't have the right kind of church, a church conservative enough for their theological tastes.  You might say they left for reasons that had to do with religious freedom.  To say the least, they weren't alone.

In the harbor of the town of West Terschelling, things were just beginning to roll that morning, I remember, and I was struck with an odd sort of "what if" feeling--what if those Schaap great-grandparents had not decided to leave, what if they'd stayed, what if their progeny were Dutch instead of American?  What if Holland wasn't simply the land of my origin, but the land of my birth, my native land?

I'd lived in the Netherlands for almost a month back then, and the answer wasn't particularly difficult.  I'd come to believe that Holland was a sweet place, that I could make my home there quite comfortably.  There's no doubt that this particular Schaap would have become something other than I had become had C. C.  and Neetlje stayed on Terschelling, but I determined, that morning, that growing up on the island of Terschelling, the Netherlands, wouldn't have been half bad.  

Sometimes it seems that politicians in this country make a really convenient punching bag out of Europe in general and the Netherlands in particular.  I mean, what on earth could be worse than socialized medicine?  Sometimes you wonder how it is we can even live peaceably with our neighbor to the north, so evil a system they perpetuate on the populace.  It's a wonder there's grace at all in Canada.

And then there's euthanasia.  Listen to Rick Santorum, who is, without a doubt, the most righteous of the candidates running for President.  Here he is,  speaking at the Heartland Forum in Columbia, Missouri, on February 3:  

In the Netherlands, people wear different bracelets if they are elderly.  And the bracelet is:  "Do not euthanize me."  Because they have voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands but half of the people who are euthanized--ten percent of all deaths in the Netherlands--half of those people are euthanized involuntarily at hospitals because they are older and sick.  And so elderly people in the Netherlands don't go to the hospital.  They go to another country, because they are afraid, because of budget purposes, they will not come out of that hospital if they go in there with sickness.

Yesterday, in the Washington Post's "Fact Checker" column, Glenn Kessler, whose parents emigrated from Holland and who still has abundant family there, made very clear that what Santorum said was simply not true.  Euthanasia is accountable for 2.3 percent of the 136,000 deaths in the Netherlands in 2010.  Of the 2667 euthanasia notifications, required by the government, 80 percent grew from terminal cancer, and 80% of those victims actually died at home.  

Only .08 percent of those deaths did not have the conscious approval of the deceased, but the Netherlands has created a stiff protocol for euthanasia, a complicated system requiring the consent of several physicians; people are not randomly euthanized.  Santorum either doesn't know or he is not telling the truth--call it what you want.  And according to Kessler--and Dutch authorities--nobody ever heard of those "Do-not-euthanize me" bracelets.  They don't exist.

They do make effective campaign grist, however, and Santorum should be commended for the effective ways he's created to stoke his audience's fears.  

Today, there's no doubt that Santorum would win Sioux County should the election be held tomorrow.  He is fearless in his crusade against abortion, unflinching when it comes to the state meddling in the church's business.  He dislikes public schools.  He truly believes that President Obama has a "phony theology."  He is convinced that global warming is a ruse created by radical environmentalists, people like my colleagues at Dordt College.  

Sen. Santorum has a right to say what he wants about whatever subject he'd like, but I'd rather he not impugn the country of my origin for campaign fodder.  I like the Netherlands.  Oh, sure, if you stand outside more than a few coffee shops, you can whiff your way into other worlds; and an innocent stroll into a section of Amsterdam will send you past shop windows where you'll see, up close and personal, more than a few young, underclad women whose flesh is very much on sale.  

There's sin in the Netherlands all right, but then there's sin in Pennsylvania too, in what once was Sen. Santorum's own district.  Satan himself really wants America, Santorum said lately, and I suppose that if you share his views of things, that makes sense.  After all, he already has the Netherlands.  

But I like Holland, and I wish the holiest of our presidential candidates wouldn't lie.  Maybe, just maybe, Satan's got him too.  
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My thanks to a friend for pointing out Kessler's "Fact Checker" column yesterday.