The Garden of the Blind

Thursday, on my way home from work, I passed by the Mrs. Cavanaugh’s Chocolate store on 5th South in Bountiful. To my surprise, the marquee read, “Oppose the New World Order World Government. Help get America out of the United Nations.” The west facing side offered the less clear, “Save our independence. Expose CAFTA and FTAA. Call your congressmen.”

The UN thing is standard John Birch paranoia. I commend this sign for correctly identifying America (presumably the USA) as a member of the UN, unlike LaVerkin, the southern Utah town that tried to remove itself from the UN, in spite of not belonging to it (except as a part of the US) in the first place. The CAFTA/FTAA thing isn’t as clear. CAFTA is a free trade treaty with several nations in Central America that, according to some sources, is being secretly pushed by the Bush administration. It is a part of a broader concept of free trade throughout the western hemisphere, which is embodied in the FTAA concept. Free trade is a difficult subject, and it is difficult to classify as inherently good or inherently bad. If I get around to it, maybe I’ll look into this further.