Newspaper Article

A CRY FROM THE HEART: ONE MOTHER'S PLEA BRINGS HOME THE AGONY OF SARAJEVO

Louise Erdrich. Louise Erdrich is the author of four novels and two books of poetry. Her next book, "The Bingo Palace," will be published in January

1993

Overview

With a shot of adrenaline and an I.V., she was home in two hours. But there will be no such solution for the woman and child in the news story. She will have to pound her boy's back and chest night and day hoping to dislodge mucous. She will have to watch him claw the air for breath. She will have to hold him, sleepless, night after night, and wait for his body to either succumb to or overcome its own allergic response. I am an enrolled Turtle Mountain Chippewa, and I am also German-American. Perhaps what is happening in Bosnia has a special resonance for me. I do feel, simply, that there is a darkness in the soul of every German, second generation, third, however removed. There is a shadow, a self-questioner who asks: What would I have done, given the set of circumstances, the dangers, the persuasions, the choices in the years 1939-45? Would I, for instance, have done the equivalent of denouncing Slobodan Milosevic as a tyrant of bitter and tearless cruelty if it meant my life? Or of calling, as I have done this week, the White House line repeatedly and saying, \"Please ask President Clinton to show leadership on this issue. Please ask him to lift the arms embargo, gather support, prosecute these war criminals. Please ask him to consider a plan of strategic bombing to break the siege of Sarajevo.\" Inwardly I add, \"Do this so that the woman on the news program can obtain a shot of adrenaline for her son.\"

• Publisher: Tribune Publishing Company, LLC