Word: confronting
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Oates uses madness as a symbol for a peculiar kind of corruption in the soul. Her characters are not hateful because of anything that they do; they are not even guilty of the usual existentialist sins of cowardice and self-deception. On the contrary, they bravely confront problems which most of us prefer not to think about. Their only fault is the morbid quality of their fascination with these problems. Their ugliness is not a failure of character, but a rottenness of essence that can only be observed by an omniscient narrator...
Those improvements alone would cost $36.5 million. The Bureau of Reclamation has petitioned for funding, and the OMB is expected to act on the request later this month. But it is up to Congress, not the Executive Branch, to provide the money to confront the problem adequately. With another disaster to spur his colleagues to action, Idaho's Senator James McClure plans to resubmit two dam-safety bills that were introduced, unsuccessfully, after the Teton Dam collapse. Said McClure's home-state Senate partner Frank Church: "We have got to move urgently to watch over these dams, rebuild...
Unions seeking to organize at hospitals run up against special obstacles--they must confront the public's reluctance to see any kind of agitation become connected with the places where it seeks calm, well-ordered care. It is one thing to seek to join workers together in steel mills or auto factories, which deal with heavy technology and machinery. In these industries, unions fighting for more employee rights are working squarely on the side of humanity. They try to improve the place of the individual in a monolithic business that usually resembles a large, impersonal machine more than it does...
...large parts of the occupied territories and, more important, accept direct representation of the Palestinian refugees in any Geneva peace negotiations, and that the Arabs and Palestinians, for their part, must be willing to recognize and guarantee Israel's right to exist. This insistence reflects a commendable willingness to confront the most basic--and hence controversial--issues involved in the Middle East dispute. Indeed, as all the parties involved have pointed out, a failure to reach an understanding on these questions and establish a mutually acceptable framework within which to negotiate a permanent agreement will only ensure the futility...
...make the same error, the movie ends with the damaged and deserted Pomme staring accusingly at the audience. It is a devastating denouement?the kind we expect from heartbreak movies ?but it is not pity for the proverbial jilted heroine that is disturbing. What Goretta forces us to confront at the end of The Lacemaker is the potential for inhumanity within ourselves. ? Frank Rich