"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expediency's sake."
President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009
I love words, especially well crafted words that set forth an idea with cadence and convincing clarity. I love the poetry of William Carlos Williams and Edna St. Vincent Millay. I love the novels of William Faulkner and John Barth. I love the humor of H. L. Mencken and Walt Kelly. I collect the words of all of these people in the many books I have difficulty storing with the proper care which is their due.
I also love a great speech: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural speech in 1933; Martin Luther King's 1963 "I Have A Dream" speech delivered on the Washington DC mall; Edward R. Murrow's broadcast on the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. I am not certain where President Obama's speech ranks with these, but I can say that it improves with each new listening due to its thread of logic, its common sense and the spirit with which it is imbued. I like it much better this morning after my third hearing than I did while it was being given live.
Notwithstanding my love of well crafted words, I am always far more impressed with the actions that people take than what they say they will do. Ultimately, my judgment of others is determined by what they do rather than what they say. Words are often used as smokescreens, especially by politicians; words are often the politician's sleight of hand, used either to mask inaction and indecision or actively used as a form of misdirection. Especially when judging politicians, one must carefully measure their words against their actions to arrive at some measure of a politician's true worth.
Yesterday's rhetoric was profound. The new President's inaugural speech promises much and reads well in text format. But more impressive to me is the fact that the new administration, within a matter of two or three hours from the moment of its inception, took its first baby steps in making good on President Obama's promise quoted above. He refers in the above statement, of course, to our Constitution and its Bill of Rights, and his subsequent action shows him to be a man of his words as well as a man who is good with words. I am referring to his direction yesterday to government prosecutors to file motions with the Guantanamo military tribunals to halt their proceedings.
This action, coming as it did on his first day in office within mere hours of his taking the oath of office, is the strongest indication yet that President Obama may not be just another politician. It is too soon to know if he will earn and deserve the accolade of "statesman," but it is not too soon to understand that he is a man with the courage of his convictions and that we might trust his word. During his campaign, he promised that he would act swiftly to end these trials and his actions yesterday speak far louder than the words with which he made that promise. Now, we can await the follow through with hope and the beginnings of belief.
It is clear to me that President Obama has a basic understanding of something I have labored hard to teach my sons and my mentees: trust is never conferred, it must be earned; and while it is always earned slowly, it can be lost quickly by means of a single mistake. President Obama said as much in his own way when he said: "In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned." To be seen as a great nation by the rest of the world, we must first earn their trust.
One of the two great failings of the previous administration was its almost total dissipation, in 8 short years, of the trust which Americans had painstakingly earned from the rest of the world through the efforts of so many over the long generations of our forebears. President Obama's election has given me the hope that perhaps not all of the world's good will toward us has been squandered. His reception overseas in the Fall of last year gave hope that some reservoir of good will remained; that the world retained a nascent faith in our goodness and that trust in us might thereby be rekindled. If so, it will be by the actions of our new government and not by its words. Yesterday's order to the government prosecutors may prove to be the initial spark of ignition.
The second great failing of the previous administration was to fall prey to the notion that basic values are disposable in the face of fear and attack. Tossing aside our values at the first hint of fear was a denial of the greatness of our nation; tossing aside our values at the first hint of fear sent a message to the world that our then-leaders had no sense of our history or the forces that caused so many immigrants from so many parts of the world to come together on our shores as one people - as Americans; tossing aside our values at the first hint of fear was an act of profound moral cowardice when measured against the teachings of our Bill of Rights.
By his action in issuing yesterday's order on the Guantanamo military trials, President Obama announced to the world that he understands not only that the United States cannot be true unto itself while denying its basic values, but that it can only do so by always acting in complete accordance with the strictures contained within those values. He understands that a government cannot mouth ideals while simultaneously acting differently than their teachings would allow without causing serious, lasting damage to the nation's heart and soul. He understands that the contribution made by our Founders to the concept of "civilization" - our magnificent Bill of Rights - means nothing if it is honored only in the easiest of times and is quickly cast aside at the first hint of difficulty.
The false patriots who populated the previous administration were not the only persons appalled and alarmed at the events of September 11, 2001, yet they acted as if theirs was the only right and true response. Their reaction was contrary to the spirit of 1776; the spirit that is imbued in our Bill of Rights. While it is right and proper to fight back when attacked, it is profoundly unpatriotic to do so with actions that are manifestly improper when measured against our most basic statement of values. To act in contravention of those values while wrapping yourself in the folds of the American flag is not only the worst form of hypocrisy, it is, most simply, unpatriotic.
So while I loved President Obama's inaugural words, I was far more impressed with his actions. He could have waited until today or tomorrow to act without significant loss of face, but he didn't do so. He sent the strongest possible message that America is reasserting its values by taking this action within the merest fraction of time from the moment when he actually became our 44th President.
And in that one small action is the seed for the restoration of our greatness on the world stage; in that one small action is the seed of the restoration of our self respect. If we can regain our self respect, we can once again look at life clearly and not through the fog of induced fear. We will then be able to see the world through our own eyes and not through clouded glasses, color-coded by governmental decree. We can, as President Obama adjured us to do, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the work of remaking America.
I would always prefer for us to fail while trying to do the right thing in accordance with the strictures of our values, than for us to seek the cocoon of safety while denying our birthright. The former is the true American spirit; the latter only dooms us to the dustbin of former nations. Only by constantly striving to do what is right can we proudly wear the title of "Americans." Only by constantly striving to do what is right can we continue to meet the ongoing challenge of the standards created for us by our Founders.
I am proud that we are once again honoring our values. They have been too long missing from the decision making processes of our government, and their return to prominence in so short a time under the new administration is grounds for great celebration. Their return is cause for each of us to look forward in hope, instead of backwards in despair. This small action spoke more thunderously than President Obama's own words, and it was most welcome.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
The Theory and Practice of Rainbows
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day, right there in Alabama, little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls as sisters and brothers.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today was our local Bar Association's annual Martin Luther King luncheon. The luncheon itself was very well run with a wonderful speaker, Dr. Henry Louis Gates of Harvard University, who kept the audience in laughter while teaching them humility and coexistence. His was a fine balance not easy of maintenance, and Dr. Gates maintained the balance well from his opening words until the end of his talk. A truly masterful performance.
As masterful as his performance was, something else which occurred struck me more forcefully. On two occasions, a local school choir got up to sing. The student members were male and female and ranged from in apparent age from 7 or 8 to 17 or 18. More importantly, they represented all of humanity's imaginable colors - each one standing there next to another, each one arranged by size without any regard for his or her neighbor's color. The most joyous thing for me about this array was my impression that none of the students had any concern for the fact that his or her neighbor might be of a different hue and, most significantly, my conviction that not a single one of these students would understand that had such a mixed choir been tried in 1960, the result in most parts of America would not have been the beautiful music they produced.
In point of fact, almost no one would have tried such a thing in 1960, nor would most have seen the point of trying - other than those few visionaries who led us out of that black and white wasteland.
In other words, I was struck by their apparent ignorance of their novelty when compared to the remembered school choirs of my childhood. I am not naive enough to think that there weren't tensions of some sort up on the choir's portable stage, but, whatever the tensions may have been, they weren't those nurtured by apartheid, segregation, separate-but-equalism or any other title mankind has given to its various philosophies and acts of conscious racism. It appeared that these children know those philosophies only from study and classwork and not from first-hand experience.
What a wonderful thing, if so. If true, it seems to me that an even more important part of Dr. King's dream is coming true than that portion of his dreams embodied in Barrack Obama's impending inauguration as President. As powerful a symbol as Mr Obama's inauguration is to us and to the world at large, imagine the long term implications for the human race when children truly see their friends as friends, regardless of their friends' color, race or any other imaginable external categorization. Imagine a world where we can like or dislike someone solely because of their personal qualities, and not because of patent, but meaningless, external differences. Imagine a world where we simply accept one another as equal members of the human race.
I am not stupid enough to think we have already achieved such a world or that its achievement is imminent or even likely. But I am creative enough to dream and to imagine a world where such mutual respect reigns, and I saw that possible world in the eyes of those children and I listened to the power of its possibility in the magic of their voices. The comparison of that choir with those of my memories was truly inspiring.
Dr. Gates saw it too. This man, who walks with a cane and who obviously tires when too long on his feet, got up from his chair on the dais, grabbed his cane, and walked slowly down the choir's front row shaking each child's hand and giving each a word of praise. He gave them his ear, his time, his energy, and his respect. As enjoyable as his subsequent speech was, this will remain my my fondest memory of this remarkable man. As powerful as his message was, this small act spoke more loudly about the man and the size and quality of his heart.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today was our local Bar Association's annual Martin Luther King luncheon. The luncheon itself was very well run with a wonderful speaker, Dr. Henry Louis Gates of Harvard University, who kept the audience in laughter while teaching them humility and coexistence. His was a fine balance not easy of maintenance, and Dr. Gates maintained the balance well from his opening words until the end of his talk. A truly masterful performance.
As masterful as his performance was, something else which occurred struck me more forcefully. On two occasions, a local school choir got up to sing. The student members were male and female and ranged from in apparent age from 7 or 8 to 17 or 18. More importantly, they represented all of humanity's imaginable colors - each one standing there next to another, each one arranged by size without any regard for his or her neighbor's color. The most joyous thing for me about this array was my impression that none of the students had any concern for the fact that his or her neighbor might be of a different hue and, most significantly, my conviction that not a single one of these students would understand that had such a mixed choir been tried in 1960, the result in most parts of America would not have been the beautiful music they produced.
In point of fact, almost no one would have tried such a thing in 1960, nor would most have seen the point of trying - other than those few visionaries who led us out of that black and white wasteland.
In other words, I was struck by their apparent ignorance of their novelty when compared to the remembered school choirs of my childhood. I am not naive enough to think that there weren't tensions of some sort up on the choir's portable stage, but, whatever the tensions may have been, they weren't those nurtured by apartheid, segregation, separate-but-equalism or any other title mankind has given to its various philosophies and acts of conscious racism. It appeared that these children know those philosophies only from study and classwork and not from first-hand experience.
What a wonderful thing, if so. If true, it seems to me that an even more important part of Dr. King's dream is coming true than that portion of his dreams embodied in Barrack Obama's impending inauguration as President. As powerful a symbol as Mr Obama's inauguration is to us and to the world at large, imagine the long term implications for the human race when children truly see their friends as friends, regardless of their friends' color, race or any other imaginable external categorization. Imagine a world where we can like or dislike someone solely because of their personal qualities, and not because of patent, but meaningless, external differences. Imagine a world where we simply accept one another as equal members of the human race.
I am not stupid enough to think we have already achieved such a world or that its achievement is imminent or even likely. But I am creative enough to dream and to imagine a world where such mutual respect reigns, and I saw that possible world in the eyes of those children and I listened to the power of its possibility in the magic of their voices. The comparison of that choir with those of my memories was truly inspiring.
Dr. Gates saw it too. This man, who walks with a cane and who obviously tires when too long on his feet, got up from his chair on the dais, grabbed his cane, and walked slowly down the choir's front row shaking each child's hand and giving each a word of praise. He gave them his ear, his time, his energy, and his respect. As enjoyable as his subsequent speech was, this will remain my my fondest memory of this remarkable man. As powerful as his message was, this small act spoke more loudly about the man and the size and quality of his heart.
The wonderful thing about Dr. King's dream was its power to inform and inspire. I don't believe that one can inspire without convincingly informing others of the reasons why change is needed. His was a powerful voice; a voice rich in the cadence of joy, firm in its presentation of the case for change, loud in its demands for equality and justice, and enchanting in the presentation of his vision.
Dr. King was both of his time and a prophet for a richly imagined future. I was fortunate today to receive an inspiring glimpse of our possible future, and I will be fortunate next Tuesday to witness a major step on the journey to that possibility.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Where Do These People Come From?
Police Captain Rick Myers said it's unusual for a masked robber to wait in line at a bank.
CBSnews.com, Strange Stories, January 10, 2009
The above quote comes from an on-line story about a bank robber in Stow, Ohio who got into a teller's line wearing a ski mask and waited patiently for his turn at the teller's window. He then pulled a toy gun and robbed the bank. What was the robber thinking? Was he thinking? For that matter, I wonder where the bank guard was while the robber was patiently waiting for his turn at a stick-up? Did his fellow line-mates notice the robber's mask and, if so, did any of them ask him to remove his mask because wearing one indoors is improper? Why didn't the teller hit the alarm button when the robber was five persons back from the window? Why does Chief Myers compound matters by making such a "duh" statement? Is everyone in Stow, Ohio completely without brains? What goes on in Stow, Ohio on the weekends, anyway?
The only sillier thing I remember was a story from a few years back about a bank robber who wrote his stick-up note on the back of one of his own withdrawal slips and then handed the note to the teller. The teller, in turn, handed the robber the money in his till, waited until the robber left, and then called the police and gave them the robber's name and address. The police promptly drove to the robber's home without lights or sirens and arrested him when he subsequently arrived home carrying the loot.
It is stories like this that make me fear at times for the future of humanity. Where do they find these people? I certainly hope that none of them are my neighbors here in Humptulips County. I have a hunch, however, that many of them are found either in the upper echelons of management in some of our Fortune 500 companies or firmly embedded in our political structure. For example:
1. American car company executives flying by individual corporate jet to Washington DC to ask for a bail out of the auto industry. For God's sake, they could have least gone in one private jet instead of three.
2. Governor Elliot Spitzer's low-life after hours habits in contrast to his on-the-job persona of grizzled, tough prosecutor with an intolerance for criminals. You have to wonder why it didn't occur to him that others might be startled by the contrast between his public and private behavior. You have to wonder if he thought at all or, if he did, what he used to think with.
3. Sarah Palin's willingness to be interviewed by Katie Couric. Of course, if, as I suspect, she really doesn't have a clue about much of anything, agreeing to be interviewed was probably a no brainer - in every sense of the phrase.
4. John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate in an attempt to pick up the Hilary Clinton vote. Let's just say that Mr. McCain's decision seems Hilarious in retrospect, but it must not have seemed that funny as he was about to give his concession speech.
5. John McCain's declarations of trust and support for Sarah Palin as a running mate subsequent to his defeat at the polls. It just goes to show that you can be too old to learn.
6. Congressman Tim Mahoney of Florida who, after succeeding former Congressman Mark Foley who was forced to resign in the face of a sex scandal involving Congressional pages, is facing investigation for hiring his mistress and then paying her $121,000 to stay silent after he fired her. I am uncertain exactly how many extremely stupid things were committed by Congressman Mahoney in the litany of events described in that last sentence, but I am absolutely certain he has learned nothing from his or his predecessor's experiences since he is clearly learning impaired.
7. The Congress of the United States and several miscellaneous Presidents who all concluded that, left to their own devices and without the benefit of even minimal oversight, people with access to enormous amounts of other people's money would always act in the best interest of the public and not engage in self interested transactions (much less theft, embezzlement, fraud and what-have-you).
And then there is George W. Bush ... but having come to this point in my discourse, words fail me.
CBSnews.com, Strange Stories, January 10, 2009
The above quote comes from an on-line story about a bank robber in Stow, Ohio who got into a teller's line wearing a ski mask and waited patiently for his turn at the teller's window. He then pulled a toy gun and robbed the bank. What was the robber thinking? Was he thinking? For that matter, I wonder where the bank guard was while the robber was patiently waiting for his turn at a stick-up? Did his fellow line-mates notice the robber's mask and, if so, did any of them ask him to remove his mask because wearing one indoors is improper? Why didn't the teller hit the alarm button when the robber was five persons back from the window? Why does Chief Myers compound matters by making such a "duh" statement? Is everyone in Stow, Ohio completely without brains? What goes on in Stow, Ohio on the weekends, anyway?
The only sillier thing I remember was a story from a few years back about a bank robber who wrote his stick-up note on the back of one of his own withdrawal slips and then handed the note to the teller. The teller, in turn, handed the robber the money in his till, waited until the robber left, and then called the police and gave them the robber's name and address. The police promptly drove to the robber's home without lights or sirens and arrested him when he subsequently arrived home carrying the loot.
It is stories like this that make me fear at times for the future of humanity. Where do they find these people? I certainly hope that none of them are my neighbors here in Humptulips County. I have a hunch, however, that many of them are found either in the upper echelons of management in some of our Fortune 500 companies or firmly embedded in our political structure. For example:
1. American car company executives flying by individual corporate jet to Washington DC to ask for a bail out of the auto industry. For God's sake, they could have least gone in one private jet instead of three.
2. Governor Elliot Spitzer's low-life after hours habits in contrast to his on-the-job persona of grizzled, tough prosecutor with an intolerance for criminals. You have to wonder why it didn't occur to him that others might be startled by the contrast between his public and private behavior. You have to wonder if he thought at all or, if he did, what he used to think with.
3. Sarah Palin's willingness to be interviewed by Katie Couric. Of course, if, as I suspect, she really doesn't have a clue about much of anything, agreeing to be interviewed was probably a no brainer - in every sense of the phrase.
4. John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate in an attempt to pick up the Hilary Clinton vote. Let's just say that Mr. McCain's decision seems Hilarious in retrospect, but it must not have seemed that funny as he was about to give his concession speech.
5. John McCain's declarations of trust and support for Sarah Palin as a running mate subsequent to his defeat at the polls. It just goes to show that you can be too old to learn.
6. Congressman Tim Mahoney of Florida who, after succeeding former Congressman Mark Foley who was forced to resign in the face of a sex scandal involving Congressional pages, is facing investigation for hiring his mistress and then paying her $121,000 to stay silent after he fired her. I am uncertain exactly how many extremely stupid things were committed by Congressman Mahoney in the litany of events described in that last sentence, but I am absolutely certain he has learned nothing from his or his predecessor's experiences since he is clearly learning impaired.
7. The Congress of the United States and several miscellaneous Presidents who all concluded that, left to their own devices and without the benefit of even minimal oversight, people with access to enormous amounts of other people's money would always act in the best interest of the public and not engage in self interested transactions (much less theft, embezzlement, fraud and what-have-you).
And then there is George W. Bush ... but having come to this point in my discourse, words fail me.
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