‘A Ballad for Nicaragua’

With all the fury of finger-pointing, nay-saying, accusation and counter accusation, fear-mongering, posturing and deal making that went on over the Contra aid vote, I fear that life’s reality has been shuffled off into some obscure corner.

Throughout the hours of debate, an American Catholic priest sat in the Public Gallery above the floor of the House of Representatives praying for an end to the aid and an end to the fighting. In the district in Nicaragua where he ministers, while not one of the major zones of conflict, 32 children have died in recent months in rebel attacks.

In El Salvador on Jan. 17, the army attacked the San Jose Calle Real refugee camp, seriously wounding at least one unarmed man, while death squads have claimed 13 lives in the last month.

The geopolitical game being played out on the fields of Central America cannot continue to ignore the rising toll of innocent human lives without dire consequences to the players. Political rhetoric only compounds the problem.

MIKE FARRELL

Sherman Oaks