Why?

The theme of the February edition of The Monastic Way, Joan Chittister, is “Curiosity”.  The meditation for February, 20, reads, “What we do not ask ‘why’ about, learn more about—the US budget, for instance, the immigration issue, US foreign policy, the state of our prisons, the state of education in the country—anything and everything that affects the culture in which we live—makes us part of the reason that, as a country, we never get beyond the problem.  ‘Millions,’ Bernard Baruch reminds us, ‘saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.”

This little thought really struck me because it has seemed to me I never got over the “why” stage of childhood.   People generally get upset over things they don’t understand, but they never seem to get to the stage of asking “why” are things this way.  This was brought home to me with a Facebook comment made by one of the ‘friends’ that I have known slightly for years before Facebook.  The lament was that it was pretty difficult to find the truth in today’s news because one station would only present one side of an issue, while the other station presented the other side.  I ground my teeth, again, because although both sides of any issue needs to be understood, not all of both sides can be valid.  So, what is one to do?

One can do what I am doing at this exact moment, i.e., sit at the computer (or in a library) and look up the information oneself!  Of course, just because a piece of information is on the Internet doesn’t make it any more true than if it happens to be on TV news.  One needs to be selective about which sites one goes to, which basically leaves out Wikipedia for complete accuracy.  Generally, one can rely on Huffington Post for headlines to find out if the world has blown up or not.  The articles may or may not be accurate, but for the most part the headlines are informative in and of themselves.  For water news there is a great website, www.Aquafornia.com, that gathers water news from around the country and compiles it in one place.  www.network.org is a great place for what Congress is doing on the social justice front.  It is the website for Network, the organization known for Nuns on the Bus.  These women are tireless advocates for social justice.  

To keep tabs on what the right wing is doing, there is a great website called, what else, Right Wing Watch.  This site posts articles by the right wing people and/or organizations generally written by the people themselves.  Or if by someone else, there are extensive quotes, with citations as to where the quotes come from so one can check on them for accuracy.  This morning I learned that, according to Tom DeLay, God wrote the US Constitution.  Foolish me!  I always thought it was Thomas Jefferson, who did not ascribe to the established Christianity of his day, actually rewriting the New Testament to take out all of what he perceived to be Jesus’ miracles.  For an understanding of what the radical right-wing is thinking about, this is a great site.  Although I will have to admit, a tad mind-boggling.  With just a bit of effort, one can find other sites that are about as accurate as one can get to determine which TV news stations are the most accurate in their coverage. 

Which gets me back to my original point of “why”.  Why are news anchors saying what they are saying?  Is it to impart information or is to plant inaccurate statements for nefarious reasons.  One thing I have noticed is that if multiple news announcers and politicians start using the same words or phrases over and over, the intent is to plant inaccurate statements, generally for political reasons.  Instead of just brushing this off, we should be asking why they are doing this.  What idea is it they are trying to get us to believe? 

Being a sponge and just soaking up what is spoken to us or written for us is not helpful.  We should be a nation of “whyers”.  Sometimes the answers are really great, for the common good and to impart good information.  But with some others, listener or reader, beware!

 

Traffic!

Traffic!  Who can write on traffic?  After this past week, I can, believe me.  I’ll start close to home.  I had an appointment yesterday that I really needed to be on time for.  Leaving the house about on time, I was making my merry way down our canyon road when, lo, and behold, in the middle of the road with no room to go around on either side, was an SUV, parked.  Since there was a cow sort of on the road on one side, with her calf on the other, I assumed they were looking at them.  And looking at them.  And looking at them.  Their rear license plate cover indicated they were from Santa Monica.  After several minutes I started to get out of my vehicle to chase the cow off of the road, when I guess they must have seen me in their rear view mirror, because they finally got in gear (or whatever SUV’s do these days) and slowly moved on.  In the middle of the road all the way to the end where the canyon road meets the highway.  Apparently they never learned to move over and let the vehicle behind them go around.  Common courtesy, my Uncle Carl said, who basically taught me how to drive. 

Now when I was learning to drive, and I will admit it was some time ago, he taught that before one pulled out in front of another vehicle, you looked past that one to see if anyone else was coming right behind.  If not, then it was only polite not to pull out.  Out of simple courtesy one waited for that vehicle to pass by.  And definitely not OK to pull out in front of someone and then go slower than the vehicle you had pulled in front of.  Again, common courtesy.  This week, several times vehicles would come from side roads onto the highway, pulling right in front of me when there was no one behind me.  The idiot who made the U-turn right in front of me, having to waste gasoline as he punched it to get through with the U before I T-boned him, could have waited some 5 seconds for me to pass since there was no one behind me.

Although as anyone who knows me knows, I believe the bicyclists are the worst offenders.  Of course they have the right to ride in their lanes, but to insist on a two-lane highway that the vehicles must swerve around them to keep the 3 feet of separation, when the bicyclist is riding right next to the line while looking down at the road, is courting disaster.  There has been many a time when there is no way that 3 feet could have been maintained when a good-sized truck was coming in the other direction.  One simply has to slow down, let the truck get by before passing the bicyclist, or multiple bicyclists abreast.  They may have the right, but they also need to learn that common courtesy, with a touch of common sense, is that if they tangle with a vehicle going 55 miles an hour or more, they will not win.  They must have a death wish. 

My Uncle Carl was right.  Common sense and common courtesy are just as essential as knowing the answers to all of the questions on the driving test for a driver’s license.  I’m very grateful I don’t have to go anywhere today that involves getting into my vehicle and dealing with thoughtless and rude drivers and/or bicyclists. 

War and Abortion

Twelve years ago, now, when Dick Cheney and George W. Bush decided to invade Afghanistan on the basis that it was a haven for the terrorists that had attacked the World Trade Center, killing at least 3,000 civilians, not all Americans, they ignored completely the fact that the terrorists had actually come from Saudi Arabia!  This was well known long before the invasion of Afghanistan occurred.  According to Yahoo News, in the past five years civilian deaths and wounded in Afghanistan totaled 14,064.

During the terrible years of the Bush II presidency, when almost all of the media became virtually the PR firm for that presidency, it became apparent to those of us who are basically cynical and paranoid that young men and women were being led into believing that if they joined the armed forces they would be meting out justice to those who had caused the World Trade Center attack, and keeping other countries such as Iraq from being the training grounds for the terrorist organization, Al-Qaida.  These young men and women must be lauded for their selfless dedication to their country regardless of whether we believe that the leaders of our country then were using them for their own aggrandizement. 

During this year’s State of the Union address by President Barack Obama when he introduced Master Sergeant Cory Remsburg, then told the heart-rending story of this young man who was on his 10^th deployment in Afghanistan when he was so horribly wounded, and of the long and hard work Remsburg has put into his own rehabilitation.  Cory Remsburg is to be commended for his dedication to his country, his unit and to his family in the hard work of his rehabilitation. 

But in watching that young man my mind began one of its really weird journeys that it tends to take.  Not one word was said then, before or after the speech about how gravely wrong it had been to take this and thousands of others like him from their mothers and fathers and either kill them or tear their bodies to pieces for “American interests abroad”.  Mainly oil.  I remember a roadside sign before the invasion of Afghanistan that read, “How many males to the gallon”.

Cory Remsburg’s father who apparently is Cory’s main caregiver was beside him during this speech.  His pride in his son was almost palpable, as it should have been.  But I began thinking of all of the parents whose sons and daughters will not be coming back with their hearts beating, and wondering why no one is in an uproar about the mainly men who had sent those young people to their deaths – torn them away from their mothers who had given them life, nurtured, educated and led them into adulthood.  And then refused to greet the coffins returning to these shores of those who had died from their decisions.

Why was it alright for men in power, as they have done for millennia, to kill our children, on either side of any conflict by their decisions.  Which then brought me to why are men allowed to make decisions directly impacting the very lives of our children, but women are not?  Why is it gravely wrong for a woman whose life is threatened by something wrong with her pregnancy not be allowed to take the life of the fetus within her, but if, by some insane reason she survives the pregnancy, her child may be taken from her because of decisions made elsewhere by a bunch of men drunk with power.  In short, why are men allowed to make these decisions regarding the lives of our children, but mothers are not.  Cardinal Bernadin and his Seamless Garment of Life proposal was absolutely correct.  We cannot make decisions to take lives in war, capital punishment, decisions to deprive children and adults of an adequate quantity of food and water, and also abortion.  To pick out abortion and blame it on women indicates a certain lack of understanding on what causes pregnancy.  If men are going to outlaw abortion in every instance, then the man who got the woman pregnant should have to undergo a vasectomy to insure that his future actions will not negatively impact her. 

We need to have more women in decision making bodies, both secular and religious, in order to bring women’s perspectives into our governing bodies, everywhere. 

 

 

Stuff and Christie

There is so much to write about today I’m not sure where to start.  For one, it has rained in Central California, contrary to all of the hotshot computer prognostications that indicated no rain at all this winter.  We didn’t have much, but it did clear the air, wash off the plants and trees, and lessened the fire danger for a few days.  The drought certainly is not over for California, but blessed be rain!

Then there is the fact that with a miniscule tax on the wealthy in California, our economic system is much healthier this year than last.  And the state legislature and governor are using fiscal restraint in their budgeting.  Education, in all of its ramifications, is taking a deep breath and enjoying the fact that they no longer have to look at even more cuts in vital educational enterprises.  We might even get a really responsible pre-K system going, one that teaches English to children whose parents don’t speak it, thereby letting them enter kindergarten more able to learn.  A fallout from this is that children’s programs of all types are receiving more funding than they have in the past.  Particularly those that deal with children with special needs.

Another good thing that has happened is that because of the Affordable Care Act, our mental health services can expand somewhat.  Not as completely as they should, but every little bit helps.  Ronald Reagan, when Governor of California, closed our state hospitals for the mentally ill (those for the mentally retarded were cut way back), with the promise that the state would open community centers that would provide mental health services in order to allow people suffering from mental illness to live closer to friends and family.  Of course, those centers were never opened, thereby causing our county jails to become mental health facilities.  People who receive MediCal (California’s MedicAid) will now be able to receive some mental health services.

We journeyed over the Coastal Range hills yesterday to our daughter’s house to watch the Super Bowl.  We left at half-time, came home and watched the rest of it.  The best part really was the commercials.  Since we were all 49er fans we weren’t caught up at all in cheering for either the Seahawks or Broncos, so weren’t particularly disappointed in the outcome, only that it was a lousy game.  If the 49er’s hadn’t been robbed of a win the week before by some rotten officiating, it would have been a much closer game, and more fun to watch.  The refreshments, however, were outstanding, as usual.  And there were pool winners in the crowd, which is always good. 

So far I have refrained from writing about what I am beginning to call “my soap”.  That is the ‘ongoing story of Trenton place’.  Trenton, New Jersey, that is.  I was 69 years old when I was elected, live in a very isolated part of California, and after I was elected I was very careful to monitor every letter and every e-mail to make sure there was nothing in any written word that could be construed as damaging.  I never talked to anyone who was unknown to me without someone else there as a witness.  My legislative assistant even insisted that I turn off my computer whenever I left the office, even for a very short period of time, to prevent anyone from coming into my office and sending out a damaging e-mail from my computer.  I don’t believe there was anyone in our Supervisor’s chambers who would have sent out such damaging e-mails. 

Although there is a plethora of things I could write about the Christie mess, the very fact that as the top dog in his office, he allowed his staff to write such stuff in e-mails, in my opinion, prevents him from ever considering higher office.  My God, imagine him in the White House surrounded by such a selection of idiots.  If he couldn’t find anyone any better qualified as Governor to be his staff, what makes anyone think he would be any better at selecting staff as President?  I think the thing in BridgeGate that I find the most reprehensible, other than what he caused the citizens of Fort Lee, is the fact that his closest associate, David Samson, wasn’t as upset over the closure as he was with the Port Authority Commissioner, Foye, from New York for talking about it so that the press would hear what had happened!! 

Perhaps there is a God, and our country has just missed having a misogynistic, bullying, lying, conniving, New Jersey politician as President of the United States.  Or are those terms redundant?

 

Weather

My regular blog will be here, I would hope, tomorrow.  I was all set to write it this morning, a tad late, but it is raining here in Central California.  So, of course, the power went out, and now we are due at our daughter's house to watch the Super Bowl commercials.  We all are 49ers fans, so today is more of a family affair.  Hope to write tomorrow.