Let Go Of Fear

I suppose everybody is frightened by something sometime. We have all sorts of phobias documented by science that give legitimacy to our fears. Acrophobia, thristadeckaphobia, hydrophobia and so on. Phobia is a Greek word meaning fear.

After 9/11 and rightfully so many of us developed terrorphobia. We are worried that some misfits who have no concept of the real world will again kill indiscriminately in order to disrupt, disorganize and punish.

In many ways these terrorists are a lot like the road rage guys. It’s their way or no way. The road "rager" will dart dangerously in and out of traffic creating fear and anger and counter rage.

This is where we have to be careful. If we let our counter rage, our anger, or the fear encouraged by government comment or actions to control our common sense then we give up our franchise of choice and many of the freedoms that come with that franchise.

President Roosevelt was right when he said: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. I think we’ve forgotten it lately.

Climate Change

Here's the story from Reuters News Agency:

"The United States will propose an emissions reduction target at U.N. climate change talks in Copenhagen in December with an eye toward winning support from U.S. lawmakers who must agree to put it into law."

Despite the fact that some individual and organizations are trying to convince us otherwise, there is scientific evidence that shows human influence has contributed substantially to global warming and that the earth will get a lot hotter than previously predicted. Wine growers in Spain are worried. Islanders in the South Pacific are worried. We ought to be worried.

What global warming means is beyond devastating. Possibly the melting of the polar ice caps thereby raising the oceans levels, flooding low lying areas like Florida, Holland and much of the world's coast lines. Very troubling possibilities. Crop failures, dust bowls, and species extinction.

Nearly forty years ago satellite and space technologies gave us a view of our planet never before seen by humankind. We saw a shimmering globe from deep in space without borders, without boundaries, without fences and walls. We began to see a whole living system, with all life interrelated and interdependent. We saw the effect of choice becoming the affect of life.

What can we do?

No longer can the individual look only to the corporate polluter and say, there is the source of my pain. It's part of it, but until we, as individuals, no longer tolerate pollution and pollutants in ourselves and in our work environments, and let our voices be heard in a clarion call to stop, we will continue to befoul our nest for future generations.

We forget, we are the nature we abuse and if we don't protect our environment, the earth will.

President Kennedy's Assassination

Some thoughts on the memory of JFK. He was killed 46 years ago yesterday.

The tributes are always many on the anniversary, but the Kennedy family does not participate. They understand and accept the honors paid to the fallen president, but they prefer the memory of JFK be focused on the day of his birth, May 29th, rather than November 22nd, the day of his death.

That may take a long time, for there are so many of us alive today who remember that tragic time 46 years ago. Our children's children may learn more of his life and philosophy than will recall the day he died. History bears that out.

We honor Lincoln on his birthday and not the day he died, April 15th.

Very few even remember the assassinated 20th president James Garfield and the September 19th he died.

William KcKinley's assassination day is now forgotten. He died on a September 14th.

It takes time to bury pain, but it must be done so the healing process can begin and memory can stand without sorrow. The Kennedy family has learned through many tragic experiences, that once you acknowledge the death, you must let it go and honor the life, for only the body dies.

Hard days

I've was fortunate enough in the past week to visit an old friend of mine confined to a long-term medical facility. He's in his seventies and he has Multiple Sclerosis. It's not a good disease for long-term thinking. He knows it and he makes the best of it by roving in his battery wheelchair through halls and rooms and being helpful to others. People there suffer from a myriad of afflictions including stroke, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

His smiling positive attitude is the antithesis of the general demeanor of most patients.

Granted, it is not an uplifting place to visit, but it should be. When one is approaching the end days of their productive lives because of a debilitating illness their surroundings should be filled with bright colors, music and art; easels of canvas and posterboard with trays of washable paints should be everywhere so when inspiration strikes anyone of the patients can express it.

I walked several hallways in which the infirm, the halt, the lame and the chair bound patients were starring into the narrow space of blank walls; boredom is killing them more quickly than disease.

What I'm suggesting is a change of internal scenery and sound in all long term facilities. Let comforting music echo through the halls of hope. Have a sound-proof room with a karaoke machine.  Let the brightness of color festoon the rooms and passageways. Let the drab garb of the dedicated caregivers reflect the lightness of life, instead of the medical seriousness with which they must contend every day. Why can't we make their uniforms in fuchsia, celadon and cerulean blue, decorate them with colored lights and flashy trinkets? Distraction is often better than medicine.

My friend told me of one elderly woman who had not left her room for two years. She has no family and few friends. A condition that seems to be a curse of old age when you outlive most of your generation.

This is America. We can correct this. All it takes is "intention" and action will follow.

Terrorists Trial

The Attorney General has determined that the 9/11 terrorists and the alleged mastermind of the attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are to be tried in Federal Court in New York.

There are so many logical reasons to do so and so many emotional reasons not to that it is mind-boggling.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who loves publicity, is worried about security. He requested and got at least a 75-million dollar stipend to cover enhanced security for the Big Apple during the trial.

The arguments are valid on all sides. Some family members of the victims of the 9/11 attacks want one thing and others want another; some choices are based on vengeance and some on fear.

Some legal experts and governmental leaders want the terrorists tried in a military court somewhere other than New York. The Attorney General thinks a civilian court would have a better chance of getting a clearer guilty verdict.

A clear guilty verdict is probably a spin for the rest of the world for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has already admitted planning the attack; that admission is good enough for an emotional conviction, but not for the law.

Law professors have said a trial without the presumption of innocence and a chance of freedom is a problem. We all know that some scoundrels have been released on technicalities even though they were not innocent; that is the nature of proof.

America's criminal justice system has a problem. These are all legitimate concerns and need to be addressed for AMERICAN JUSTICE is based on a system of laws and proof, not what we think should be the result.

We don’t have the option of changing the law to suit the crime or our collective desire. We have a responsibility to be fair even though, as Harry Truman would say, “the SOB is guilty”.

Based upon the evidence and admissions as publicly known, I think the terrorists will be found guilty. They will be sentenced to death and the other terrorists of the world will cry foul and unfair and continue their attacks on anything American and anything western because thought and reason are not part of their modern culture.

Why do we go through the difficulties of a public trial? Because that’s America and that’s what we do. Let the terrorist world try even one iota of our judicial system and see how many minutes it lasts.

Recount

There are a number of vote recounts going on around the country for local and county positions as well as a Congressional Race in New York State and, as usual in any close race, there are suggestions of improprieties.

There are specific words that are important as we go through the arduous process of finding out who will lead us locally or regionally.

“Patience” is the first. Let us let the electoral and legal process work without accusation, without innuendo, and without suggestions of impropriety coming from those whose political loyalties may cloud their judgment and form their words.

"Courage,” Let us have the courage of our democratic convictions and have faith in the people whose responsibility it is to sort out the various contentions. Let them do this without pressure from the media for quick and instant results and let them do this without pressure from the campaigns.

If we, as a collective people, fail to have courage we will fail the republic.

We must also have "integrity". If there are deliberate polling irregularities or political skullduggery that demeans and falsifies the electoral process of any part of this land then let those responsible be identified and prosecuted under the rule of law, not rule of rumor.

The inner dimension of all elections should be honor. Without honor, we as a people, we as Americans, demean every document we hold sacred. A great truth once written said: "It is better to fail with honor than to win by deceit."

Palin's Prophecy and Politics

I have not read her book (since it comes out today) and I may not, but I’ll think about it and eventually when somebody loans me a copy I will peruse it. But as yet, I’m not ready to fork over the dough to buy a copy of a "tell some, spin some and hold some back, as told to book".

Very few politicians of the past were able to write their memoirs without the help of a skilled writer. It is the way of the 20^th and 21^st century of casting a spin on what you want people to think and to believe and what you want to correct, in your opinion, as an inaccuracy.

Governor Palin has the right to engage a storyteller to tell her story.

Christie Whitman, former governor of New Jersey did it. President Jerry Ford did it. Many other leaders have done it before and will do it in the future and that’s fine.

But here's my “but”.

If this were truly her thoughts, her concession speech to America that she was not allowed to make; if these are her words, her feelings and emotions, her right of passage to a presidential candidacy, then I have to ask, why did she not write much of the book herself?  An as told "to" book is not the same as writing it yourself and having an accomplished editor clarify, punctuate and spell your words correctly.

If you are astute, aware, and intelligent enough to be the President of these United States, then you ought not need a ghostwriter to codify your hopes, your wishes, answer your critics and refute allegations of what was and then offer your expectations for a future America.

OK, I guess that pretty much puts me in the arena of not supporting Ms. Palin for President. That does not mean I don’t like her or her politics. It means I have a lot of questions to ask and she has a lot of answers to give me before I think she is qualified to by my leader.