Tears and More Tears!

Glued to the television, I went from moments of great tears to other moments of great tears! It was impossible for me to not share the joy and excitement of so many throughout the country and the world.

While joy was expressed by many, the factors inducing those tears were as varied as the people. While I cannot identify all the factors influencing me, I am sure that one of the causes of my joy is my experience with justice, prejudice or otherwise.

I grew up in a city without many minorities. I knew of only one black family in a city of more than 50,000 people. Racial injustice was never an issue, not because it was not real, but because the existence of racial injustice seemed to be ingrained into the culture.

It was during the my years in the seminary when racial injustice surfaced as a major issue, thanks to Dr. Martin Luther King. It was somewhat of a momentous occasion in my life! My prior existence of ignorance was blown away and with the new insight, I started to see myself as one who would support racial justice as a priority for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which at that time was religious. How could one be called a Christian without equal love for everyone. It became a cause!

And from that beginning, I then saw that religion can best be understood as rooted in justice. If God were the God of all, then how could anyone be less than equal before him and, of course, each other.

All sorts of injustice evolved into a common cause of promoting equality. In turn, the injustice supported by the de facto actions of the Church became noticeable. And eventually, it has become a cause of great sorrow.

So today I am very tearful because I lived long enough to see some resolution to this tragic history in our nation.

Thoughts About Dying

In a way, I have been a student of death since my young years. My mother's death when I was 13 was sad, but it also freed her from a tough existence. As I saw it then, I saw her death as positive for her. Death, admittedly, is often a two-edged sword. Even in the best of circumstances, someone usually is beset by grief when a loved one dies.

At any rate, I have often reported that I will not go down the route of treatment if treatment only extends my life my months. There are certain types of treatment that are done not to extend life but to ameliorate the pain associated with the disease's attack on the system, e.g., certain cancers will cause excruciating pain because they impinge on certain other organs etc.

I contrast this stance with my willingness to accept treatment if a cure is the goal, e.g., prostectomy if I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

I was totally sympathetic with the physician who described the horrendous situation where elderly people were being treated for diseases that would have caused their death in years past without any appreciable benefit to the quality of their lives.

Without advocating euthanasia, it would be important for me not to extend life just to breathe!

Ignorance of Economists

It was somewhat refreshing to read that economists do not know how best to package a stimulus plan that will result in desired goals. They agree that there is a need for a stimulus, a big one in fact, but they have not delved deeply enough into how such a stimulus would be constructed.

Many of us struggling to make sense of our nation's fiscal situation know that they don't know how to fix it! We may have thought that the economic gurus knew. Now we know differently.

I admit that the reduction in taxes does not make much sense to me, as a stimulus to economic growth. I never understood how a relatively small increment in available funds would change a person's consumption habits. $500 does not let you buy a plasma TV, far less an automobile. I see a need to change the tax structure out a sense of fairness but to think that small increments of money will change help us out of economic plight does not seem to make sense.

I easily support the idea of putting money into situation where jobs and necessary projects are married. We can all agree that infrastructure has to be renovated and repaired. No one travels anywhere without noticing bridges and roads in need of repair. In spite of the costs of such tasks, it has to be done. So, this is a good way to get onto the future.

Same can be said about his intention to invest in industries that our future will need, e.g., alternative energy sources. Other nations subsidize such efforts. It makes sense because private investors are wary to invest in projects with unknown return on investment and surely, a long time before such a return would occur. This is a good role for the government.

But, having said this, I don't see how even these targeted improvements will help so many others who will not be working in the construction industry or technology. Our service industry is also hurting. Our manufacturing and retail industry is hurting. Our housing industry is still sinking. I am not sure that the economic package will do more than stabilize the situation until the other parts start to improve over time. Everything tends to get better with time, but as they say, with time we also all die!

Thankfully, Paul Krugman brings some insight to my specualtions. His mathematics suggest that the stimulus plan is too weak to compensate for the horrendous hole we are in which is getting deeper as we go forth into the year. Until something else comes to light, I will side with Paul.

New Year

We emerged into the New Year after dealing with a virus for several days between the holidays. Few escaped the virus and the course of illness was quite consistent. It was less than the ideal way to celebrate the holidays with the family.

But, here we are facing another year that is filled with perilous situations demanding the sophistication and expertise seldom found in public servants. Who could expect any public leader to deal with so many serious problems successfully? And yet, we do hope (not much else positive to hold onto).

Regardless of the size of the stimulus package, it is hard to foresee that the economic situation will be any better than "stabilized". The housing market is destined to experienced many, many foreclosures this year as the interest rates reset. Until the housing market stabilizes, there is little reason to think that the economy will start an upward trend.

Of all the foreign affair problems that beset Obama, none offers more opportunities for failure than Afghanistan. It is hard to see any path that will address the ills that pervade this "nation". The lack of centralized government, the degree of corruption, the dependency on drug trafficking, and the rule of the Warlords and Taliban are obstacles that military might cannot conquer. And, in addition, whatever happens in Afghanistan adds greater chance for increased instability in Pakistan. I would consider opportune to reconsider our strategy to enable us to consider our job done sooner than later with the option always to attack pockets of terrorists where they exist.

The creation of Israel made sense in light of the holocaust, but its creation in Palestine was surely an act that seems destined to be a decision without a positive outcome. While most rationale people consider a two-state nation as the best possible outcome, there are extremists who are programmed to oppose any outcome short of annihilation of the opponent. Cease fire agreements seem to be short-lived signs of expediency since nothing positive ever comes at the other end. All those who write about methods to achieve peace are thwarted by the extremists that seem to have an ongoing supply of disciples. The bottom line is terrible, per Andrew Bacevich.

Poor Obama! the problems are overwhelming if the above were all they were! There are so many others, ranging from decisions to close Quantanamo to restoring the rule of law in our government, from reestablishing leadership on global issues (carbon emissions) to enabling our government to work for the people rather than special interests.