Anger and Hope

For years I have been very angry at the Catholic Church, mainly for the handling of the sex abuse crisis by the Bishops and some Cardinals, and certainly the two Popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.  I have, however, been able to differentiate the stupidity along with a state of denial of some members of the hierarchy from the basic teachings of the Church as a whole.  Because this is not a religious forum, I will leave out the basic faith teachings and mention the vast and wonderful treasury of the church relative to social justice issues. 

Over the past 15-20 years with the hierarchy whooping and hollering about abortion, homosexuality, and contraception, demanding that people accept every little pronouncement about each of these subjects, my anger grew exponentially.  For example, the insistence that one could not be pro-life unless one advocated the overthrow of Roe v. Wade.  Nothing was ever discussed as to whether this would have any effect on the abortion rate at all, or whether the result would actually be women dying from having unsafe abortions, whether in back alley clinics, or self-induced.  Someone, and I really wish I could claim this, thought up the term “pelvic issues”. 

Regardless, what angered me as well as this emphasis on pelvic issues was that the world seemed to be going to hell in a hand basket.  And what were the hierarchs concentrated on?  Pelvic Issues!!  For those unacquainted with the Gospels recording some of the life of Jesus, He never ever mentioned abortion, homosexuality or contraception, so these issues were not really important to what His teachings were.

Our country was engaged in an illegal war – actually two.  Iraq and Afghanistan.  Bush and Cheney claimed we had to invade Afghanistan because of 9/11, but the planes weren’t flown by Afghanis; they were flown by Saudis.  Our invasion of Iraq, supposedly over non-existent WMDs, was obviously about oil and the huge amounts of dollars to be skimmed from our government by Halliburton and KBR contractors. Our government was engaged in gutting the federal services that people down on their luck depended on, or were actually entitled to, and I don’t refer to “entitlement” programs.  Federal annuities to retired employees took many hits.  Local and state government pensions were attacked as causing the economic problems the country was having.  The philosophies of Ayn Rand and Ivan Boesky (of Greed is Good fame) took over the thinking of the radical right, leading to the cutting of taxes on the very wealthy and big corporations, cutting regulations on big banks allowing them to virtually destroy the economy of this country and the world.  And the federal government was lying, lying and lying some more to the American people about how the economy was strong, the war was going splendidly, and all was right in Washington’s heaven.

At the same time, the radical religious right began their push to destroy government services to the poor under the guise that it was the “Christian” thing to do.  Why?  Because then people would learn to rely on God rather than on government.  This is one of the reasons the radical right both hates and is frightened of socialism, or anything that they believe is tainted by socialism, like the Affordable Care Act.  People will rely on this government program and not God.  I believe they are smart enough not mention God in their ranting against government, so they use all sorts of tortuous logic such as people will lose their self-reliance, will become dependent, will stop working, will become lazy, will stop relying on God.

So what does this have to do with my anger with the Catholic Church?  I believe, whether one is fond of it or not, that it is the only worldwide institution that has a banner big enough that people of good will, whether Catholic, Christian or not, can use to prop up their smaller banners.  The Church has a recognized established authority figure that can express positive assertions that people of good intent will listen to.  In the past few years, the Church has failed dismally in fulfilling this mission.  It is my belief that people need a banner to follow, not blindly, but that can perhaps help lead the way to a different mode of thinking.

Enter Pope Francis.  He has already begun, in just a few short months, to change the way people are reacting to what has been going on.  Sure, people had already begun to act before he came on the scene, and a goodly number of people had never stopped trying to promote the common good.  Occupy Wall Street is a great example.  But the other night Jim Wallis of Sojourners was quoting the Pope on the need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, find shelter for the homeless.  He recognized the need for this support. The Pope had a monumental prayer service in front of St. Peter’s for peace, and peace starts to break out.  I’m not sure if it was the result of the prayers, or just the fact that a recognized, established world authority figure was willing to get out in front of thousands and thousands of people and act for peace.  It let world leaders know that the people want peace, not war anymore.

I have hope that for a change the world has a leader who can talk about social justice issues that are universal longings in the hearts of most people and actually have world leaders listen.  What a novel concept.  Compassion and mercy taking the place of greed.  Hope springs eternal in the human heart.

Stupid News Items

This morning I attended a Services District Meeting in the town that is closest to where I live.  The subject was very important since it dealt with a severe water shortage in the town’s two aquifers from which it draws all of its water.  After 3 hours of deliberation, the district Board took a ten minute break so that people who had vehicles parked in the parking lot could move their vehicles so that the Farmers Market, scheduled every Friday afternoon, could set up for the afternoon.  What a wonderful community that immediately got up and moved their vehicles without a single grumble!!  We love our Farmers Market afternoon.

On to more serious subjects, however.  After my three older daughters had grown up and left to begin their own lives, I had time on my hands with just one nearly grown chick still at home, so I decided to take a couple of courses at the nearby state college.  I poured over the class schedule to find out what I could take on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  One class looked really intriguing – Beginning Greek Logic.  I signed up for that, figuring a beginning course would be a breeze.  What a false assumption that was.  Never in my college career had I worked so hard.  That class turned out to be one of the very best courses I had anytime, anywhere.  Because of that class in which I learned to identify faulty arguments, two issues in the news this week really had me aggravated.

The first was a streamer across the bottom of the screen, and I paraphrase, that the fire that destroyed the boardwalk and adjacent buildings in Jersey City was the result of electrical wires that were damaged during Hurricane Sandy.  Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey is always touting the fact that New Jersey is a business-friendly state.  New Jersey doesn’t have all of those nasty regulations on business that states like California, for example, have.  New Jersey is very pro-business.  Well, California has a Uniform Fire Code, and if New Jersey had that code, each and every electrical wire in those buildings would have been inspected, and if damaged, would have been repaired prior to rebuilding.  Further, in between each business there would be a firewall to prevent what happened in Jersey City with the fire going from business to business with nothing between each and every business to prevent a fire from traveling.  Now, you tell me how pro-business it is to allow a city’s businesses to be placed in such danger from faulty construction that a significant number of them burn down, and burn down because of lax inspection.  I bet those business owners would prefer that New Jersey have a Uniform Fire Code.

The second item had to do with the shenanigans in Congress over the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, which, by the way, is the law and is securely funded so that it cannot be de-funded by Congress.  So, what do the radical right Republicans try to do?  They attached an amendment to defund the ACA to the Continuing Resolution to authorize funding for federal agencies until the official budget is passed.  It is a pretty good bet that the Senate won’t pass this bill, nor will the President sign it.  But the kicker for me was when the Tea Party types started stating as a matter of fact that the President wanted to shut down the government, and that is why he wouldn’t sign the bill!!  No, no, no!!!  For one thing, the ACA has separate funding that would not have been impacted by this particular bill, and the President is not the one who attached the amendment to the Continuing Resolution in the first place – it was the Tea Partiers.  Therefore, to accuse the President of wanting to shut down the government because of some stupid action the Tea Partiers had taken is ludicrous in the extreme.

I have long wanted to have Greek logic taught in our public schools, K – 12.  In the primary grades it could just be word puzzles for fun, then getting more difficult through the grades.  These logic skills would certainly make for a better informed electorate, and for a better informed bunch of elected officials.

 

 

Random Thoughts

There have been so many thoughts swirling around in my head this week that I couldn’t pick just one, so decided to write about them all.  Each of the following paragraphs has its own thought, starting with the national and working down to the personal. 

After having been in public office I know how constant battering can adversely affect someone’s thinking, if allowed to do so.  (I didn’t allow it, by the way.)  For this reason, I really admire President Obama’s decision regarding the tragic situation in Syria.  I understood, and semi-agreed with his decision to use a military strike against Syria for using toxic Sarin, but on the other hand, I know that if some other country didn’t like what we did, and decided to hit us with a military strike, we would consider it an act of war.  I’m sure the Syrians would have retaliated in some manner, which we would have considered a hostile act, etc., etc.  Thus, when President Obama immediately accepted and changed his policy to pursue the diplomatic path, I didn’t consider him weak at all.  It takes a strong character to see a method for achieving one’s goal other than what one had been advocating, and take the more peaceful path, regardless of where the idea for the peaceful path came from.  From my perspective, kudos to Obama for choosing peace over war. 

California has long been bashed by businesses for being against business because of its regulations.  Since North Carolina, I believe it was, passed that anti-abortion law at 11:30 PM on the last night of the legislative session, without any public knowledge of it, and therefore no public input, with the governor signing it instantly, I am deeply grateful that can’t happen in California.  The reason?  California has what is called the Bagley-Keene Act that requires prior notice on the part of the state legislature that prevents that sort of action from happening here.  And for cities, counties and special districts there is the Ralph M. Brown Act that prevents the same thing.  But the more recent event that occurred back east was the fire that burned down 40 businesses on the Jersey Shore.  These were some of the same businesses that were devastated by Hurricane Sandy just last year.  Apparently the fire started in one small stand/shop, and then roared through the other 40.  That couldn’t happen in California because of our fire laws.  Individual shops in a row must have a firewall between them, and newer ones sprinkler systems in them.  New Jersey claims that because of its lack of regulations it is business friendly.  It doesn’t seem to me to be particularly business friendly when the lack of regulations allows 40 businesses in a row to burn down.   

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has designated the county in which I live to be in extreme drought.  Small communities all over the county are dealing with little or no water in their aquifers.  Some of the aquifers are quite large, and some fairly small.  People in these communities are angry with local governments that they didn’t “do something” about this problem.  Actually the people should be angry at the real estate and development community (re&d) for advocating “growth at any cost”.  Well, the cost is not being borne by the re&d, but by the people who bought homes or farms without being made aware that there was a great deal of concern by a lot of people that there simply was not enough water available to be used by so many people and activities.  Be angry with re&d.  They deserve it.  That is, if the more greedy members haven’t packed up, taken their profits and left town already. 

Years ago, before the rise of feminism, there was a whole heck of a lot wrong with the society.  One thing that was not even, at the time, questioned was that when a woman got married she changed her name to that of her husband.  It was neat and tidy.  With the rise of feminism, however, many women chose not to change their names.  On Christmas cards it became necessary to write two names on the envelopes.  That wasn’t too difficult, and independence was worth it.  But now with the advent of same-sex marriages, life is getting even more complicated.  When our daughter and her partner got married recently, the marriage vows read, “Do you, A, take B to be your lawful wedded spouse?”  Then vice-versa.  Ok, that sounds great since they are both women.  But, does that make our daughter’s new spouse our spouse-in-law instead of daughter-in-law?  Introducing them isn’t too difficult because that can be just, “I’d like to introduce you to our daughter’s spouse”.  Ah, complications.  And as happens infrequently, someone will start complaining about the man or woman their heterosexual child married, and then they will look expectantly to see what we have to complain about.  Since we have nothing, we have always said, “We love our sons-in-law”.  But, thanks to one of our other daughters who thought this one up, we now say, “We love all of the men and the woman our daughters married”.  It does keep stretching our minds, to say the least!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Will The Neighbors Think?

During the past week we have all been bombarded, and rightly so, with discussion after discussion on what to do about the dictator of Syria, Assad, using toxic gas on his own people.  One of my earliest memories is of a man who lived in what was then the relatively small community of Chatsworth in the northeast end of the San Fernando Valley in California.  This man was neurologically damaged, couldn’t work, and he and his family had been the recipient of charity until Franklin Roosevelt got Social Security benefits, and veteran benefits through congress.  I remember the discussions in the house about how he and his family really did deserve help because he had been in the army and was gassed in WW I, but that the world had passed treaties saying countries would never do that again.

And here we are again.  I keep thinking that my life is on a merry-go-round.  I came in to this world amid turmoil, and I’m getting closer to the end with the same turmoils, which I foolishly assumed in mid-life had been solved.  Foolish me!!

Regardless of that, last week I stated on this blog that I was glad that I didn’t have to make this decision because I didn’t have enough information to do so.  And I still don’t, but I have had time to reflect on some things.  For starters, Pope Francis, who I am liking better every day, doesn’t think we should bomb Syria; that countries need to stop the violence which threatens to involve other countries, and to ultimately have unintended consequences.  There was much more to his letter, of course, but that is what I took from it for this blog.

It has long seemed to me that when the United States deals with countries, or peoples, of the middle-east, we simply do not take into account their culture, and their way of dealing with problems.  I do not mean to imply that we are right and they are wrong.  It is simply that we approach things from different perspectives.  Since I am not a student of the Arabic or Persian countries, I certainly do not pretend to know how we should.  I have learned over the years, however, how we shouldn’t!

I listened to some of the Senate Committee hearing the other day, and people there talked a lot about whether this was a war, a military intervention or strike, a limited action, and so on.  But it generally meant that air strikes would take place in some manner to degrade the ability of Syria to use these toxic gasses.  I thought about that a lot, and I came to the conclusion that if I were a Syrian, and I were being “bombed” by drones, rockets, or whatever, I would not care two figs whether this was a war, a military strike, a limited action or whatever.  I would know that my family and I were being placed in danger by that big country over there, and heaven forbid that one of them was killed, I would be a permanent enemy of theirs.  Would I know why I was seemingly being targeted?  Would my government explain it all to me from the perspective of that big country over there, or would my government put their own spin on why I was being targeted?

And when enough of us were angry enough, would we then take out our anger on the country that we believed to be closest to them – Israel?  After all, Israel shares a common border with Syria.  What would prevent the Syrians from lobbing a couple of rockets loaded with toxic gasses, probably Sarin, over into Israel?  That would be the most likely target because we are too far away.  And since the Syrians know that we are planning something, the bet is that so are they. 

Using the excuse that me must take some action in Syria because what will other countries think of us if we don’t is puerile in the extreme.  It harkens back to “what will the neighbors think” if we don’t go to church on Sundays, or if we don’t mow the lawn, or if our kids aren’t spotless.  So what does it matter what the neighbors think? What do we think when we look in the mirror every morning?  Do we cringe when we see that craven face, or are our hearts content, knowing we have done the right thing in our own eyes, and we would hope, in God’s eyes, regardless of what the neighbors might think.