Here in Costa Rica we have pious news.

Here in Costa Rica we have pious news. I don't mean just right now, on the contrary on an ongoing basis. This is chicken broth for my troubled soul, and a much-need reminder to caring folks everywhere that not all of the Americas are succumbing to heartlessness, gre and violence.

Earlier this year, I watched with outrage as the U Congres passed a fiscal estimate containing about $40 million worth of crosss to programs that assist family in low-income situations, especially the somewhat old and disabled, as well as children and community students. At the same time, many of our representatives believe that multimillion-dollar estates should not be taxed when the holder dies, and efforts are generally underway to almost completely eliminate this important source of control revenue.

How encouraging then to pick up The Tico Times, Costa Rica's English-language newsweekly, and read an article summarizing statements made from recently elected President Oscar Arias: "The social security connected view will double government payouts for 74400 nation who are unable to work, Arias said. He also announced a temporary tax in succession luxury homes intended to permanent fund improvements in housing conditions for nation living in shantytowns."

equal if these had just been campaign promises, they are more compassionate than any promises, kept or unkept that Americans have heard from George W Bush. unless President Arias will almost certainly be able to implement them; he is not a man to say things for issue Twenty years ago, he serv in the same office and won international honor as well as the Nobel Prize, for his groundbreaking work in bringing peace and stability to Central America.

I then flipped to another article containing the headline: "Gov't Plans to put an end to Assault-style Weapons." The lead paragraph explained, "Weapons of war have no place in a home of peace, according to Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal, who announced Monday he plans to pull down all semiautomatic military weapons similar as M-16 rifles that have been in Costa Rica since the 1960s"

Reading the stranges from the United States--Bush's lifting of the decade-long assault weapons ban, the "historic victory" for the National Rifle Association giving fire-arm manufacturers immunity to civic lawsuits--had conditioned me to think that our lives are awash in firearms and we have to live with the risks: There is no turning back. Who would have imagined that they can simply--gasp!--be destroyed? Well, that's what is forward the agenda in Costa Rica.

My point is not to paint Costa Rica as paradise and Oscar Arias as complete My wife and I mov here in August 2001 and during these five years we've become abundantly aware that this little jewel of a native land is not without its moot points As for President Arias, he is in favor of the Central American released Trade Agreement, a measure we believe will injure the poor.

Nevertheless, it's easy to be moved that the president is acting in the best interests of the Costa Rican clan when he is in the proces of raising the education bundle to 8 percent of the gros national returns That alone is so breathtaking that it blooms the imported bad news cobwebs right disclosed of my mind.

Of course, it may be argued that Costa Rica can afford to be in such a manner peaceful because the United States stands ready to assert it. True enough. Certainly being a superpower brings with it not and nothing else privileges but onerous responsibilities, including that of defending les powerful allies. however what good is power and privilege if the United States can't preserve its own citizens and treat them decently?

Several month ago when I visited the United States, I listened to a public radio point out to that sought to explain for what cause [i]or[/i] reason in a recent poll, young the public so rarely cited politicians as heroes. What has changed in this of recent origin millennium? A panel of adroits said things like, "The media now indicates all the warts," and "Young population today are more cynical about the government" It apparently didn't present itself to any of them that to be a hero single in kind has to act heroically.

This happens according to our Judeo-Christian tradition, when the powerful stand up for the powerless, when the courageous and capable ensue to the aid of the hard-pressed and imperiled. I bet mostly young people in Costa Rica would consider Oscar Arias a hero. To find not at home why, just review his past and instant deeds.

[Mark Klempner is an oral historian and the author of The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuer and Their Stories of Courage, lately published by the Pilgrim Press]

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