Big World Keeps On Turnin’

Secretary of State Clinton is in Japan, touring Asia  on her first trip in the office rather than visiting the Middle East or Europe.  With a special envoy already appointed and journeyed to the Middle East, talking to China and Japan and Korea exemplifies the Obama Administration’s ability to walk and chew gum at the same time.  There was much speculation about whether President Obama’s team of rivals would work out.  While none of us can tell the future, it is apparent that they are all working from the same playbook, and they are in full court press from the first quarter.

If Kobe and Shaq can quell their differences enough to lead the West to a devastating defeat of the East (no metaphor intended, but you can read one in if you want to) and win Co-MVP’s of the 2009 All-Star Game, then I think Secretary Clinton and the rest can learn to work with and for President Obama to help us help the world.

 

Clinton visits Asia to send key message

Kobe, Shaq turn back the clock

Angels and Demons

Pope Benedict is smoking something.  Part of the reason I left the Church after high school was I couldn’t reconcile the attitude that the pontiff displayed in his celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth yesterday.  And I look to the continued vitriol dripping from the purpose-driven pastor, and the legislation by the former special prosecutor, and the actions of my country in the United Nations, and I fear for humanity.

With all the threats to the human species: the destruction of the planet by technological deterioration; the destruction of the planet by military excess; the decimation of the ecosystem by apathy; the depopulation through greed, causing starvation, rampant disease, and the execution of millions which repeats each decade when a new oppressed group seizes weapons and power and takes out their grievances on their oppressors, the head of the Catholic Church decides that he needs to attack those whom the Almighty has blessed with sexuality.

With a smarmy, poorly-written play on words making homosexuality equal to deforestation, Benedict further rode down the path of intolerance, ignorance, hate and division.  Merry Christmas.  Had global warming been a greater issue fifty years ago, I’m certain that he would have equated saving the rainforest with keeping the races segregated; the same way the Vatican spoke so eloquently about helping persecuted Jews during World War II; and the Holy See spoke up during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which saw Africa pillaged and Africans enslaved and scattered across the globe in a diaspora which still hasn’t been rectified.  Why does The Roman Catholic Church, THE institution of God’s love on planet earth, miss the larger points in favor of banning women from preaching the gospel, and forbidding priests to marry?

I believe in God.  And I believe in the possibility of people.  What I have trouble with, and this is where mega pastors who preach hate, from Farrakhan to Warren, catch hell is that they preach to the small mind, they pick and choose which words of God they want to listen to, they fail to grasp the message and instead cling to the syllables that were written by men just like them.

The Pope is preaching hate, no matter what language and no matter what context.  He is preaching division and intolerance.  The celebration of Jesus’ birth (“He’s the reason for the season,” as my aunt likes to say) is supposed to be a time of love, understanding, renewal, companionship, and awe at the miracles that each of us as an individual is, and who we have to thank for that gift.  It’s not about the toys we can accumulate, or the flat screens we can acquire.  And it’s definitely not about raising ourselves up by stepping on and keeping others down.  It’s about celebrating the angels, in ourselves and each other, not demonizing others.

Why do people forget that?

Jesus would stand with oppressed

California Attorney General Jerry Brown Asks Court To Overturn Prop 8

U.S. balks at decriminalizing homosexuality

Pope’s message angers lots of people

(Re)Establishing Honor

There is a famous American fairy tale about the first President of the United States and a cherry tree.  When asked, a very young George Washington allegedly stepped up and confessed to chopping it down.  In much the same vein, there is a true story about a young green sash at the West Coast Hwa Rang Do Academy who, having dropped his weapon while practicing alone on the floor, simply picked it up, walked over to the wood, and did his thirty knuckle push-ups without another student in sight.  Both children, the real martial artist and the fictional young president, were practicing self-control, discipline, and accountability.  They had been taught, and they were practicing, honor.

What do these tales tell us today?  They tell us that honor must be taught, must be shaped, must be nurtured, and must be practiced.  Constantly.  Our government for the last eight years has been in free fall, spurred no doubt by the horror of a terrorist attack on our shores, but inexcusable nonetheless. The Hwarang were scholar-warriors during and after the Three-Kingdoms period in Korea.  They were the template and the harbingers for the more widely known samurai of Japanese history.  What both groups have in common, though, is what the United States needs to reestablish in the world community:  a reputation for fierce and unyielding honorable conduct. Whether within our confines, or in distant lands, the insane notion that “we’ve got to act like the terrorists to beat the terrorists” is a morally bankrupt, naïve notion (like Ronald Reagan’s economic ideas) that peace through superior firepower works. One of the most important aspects of CHANGE and the incoming Obama administration is the retreat from dishonor and the reinstitution of honorable practice by the United States around the world.

I know I am stretching to say that the United States has deserved that reputation, contrary to Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s ridiculous assertions, but like that fictitious tale that purports to establish the United States as an honorable nation, that is part of what we should strive for.  And like that young yuk kub who knew the consequences of making a mistake, and carried them out without reminder or immediate instruction because it was the correct thing to do, we as a nation must begin to act in accordance with the ideals we espouse.

Bush must navigate a treacherous post-presidency

Retired officers Meet with Obama aides on Interrogation Policy

The Road Ahead

Americans back Obama redeployment plan

Obama team considers changes to interrogation policy