Beyond Moral Certainty

We seem to have fallen into a rut. Our nation has become so afraid that someone might shirk their responsibility that we have come to the point of micromanaging every aspect of life. The work places of respected professionals have become havens for bureaucrats and mid-level managers. Teachers for instance are not allowed to do their jobs without detailed lesson plans and co-curricular guides, reminding them of salient points that must be made when covering their material. This may help unqualified people keep from being discovered, but it unduly restricts good teachers from staying in the zone and exploiting teachable moments. I once saw a flow chart designed for lawyers to follow that would have allowed the most uneducated person to defend a client. Like training wheels, it might help in the short run, but over time intelligent practitioners might be retarded in their growth by such aids. Even our judges have sentencing guidelines and are overruled if their decisions reach a just outcome without following the absolute letter of the law. Frequently we are assuaged by those who hold sway within our government, our schools and corporations who claim to know what is best for us. I, for one, seriously question the lengths to which we will go trying to make the world "safe" for democracy. We are paralyzed by a fear that someone would make a mistake, so teachers can no longer hug their students, we need to be on guard against offending anyone and slowly but surely overseers are beginning to outnumber actual workers.

We do still respect those who stick their necks out to "do the right thing", but we certainly don't expect anyone to stand up in the face of public opinion. In fact, we often penalize those who come down on the side of right as opposed to the majority opinion.It has been a disorienting trip into the new century, but it seems that we are clinging to all the wrong traditions. In addition, we are heaping urban legend on top of fictional accounts of imaginary threats. The tiny percentage of teachers who wanted to sexually abuse children certainly did not warrant an end to the supportive hug. Fear of offending people certainly isn't worth all the time and effort expended changing to his/her language or nomenclature that hermetically seals in our prejudices. The lack of trust that we have in our fellow humans is exacerbated by the way we cover the news. We all recognize the lengths that newscasters will go to in finding the most heinous news of the day. Within each and every city across the nation there are wonderful things going on all the time, but that news is rarely covered and so, seems novel when we do hear about it. When folks that we deem heroes are recognized they often say the same few words, "I didn't have a choice." or "I acted without thinking." which I contend is the best way to make a positive difference in the world around us. As we shrink the world with our technologies, and reduce further the window of opportunity for action, we must learn to act without filtering our behavior through filters not of our making. As with any art, making the right decisions requires practice and due diligence, learning from our mistakes and trusting in our own abilities.

Treating the whole herd because one animal gets sick is not a good idea for livestock and it is not a good idea for humans either. Mandating behavior only reduces our reliance on our own skills of decision-making. We are currently experiencing the fallout from these bizarre restrictions on the teaching profession, the military and politics. The best and brightest, when confronted with a system that disallows individual differences, lose interest and the motivation to find a better way. When we lose the ability to grow and change, we can no longer serve humanity and the wisest among us know this better than the back of their hands. The way we treat one another is more about what we think of ourselves than what we think about the other. Without trusting one another to make good decisions, there seem to be no other options than to spell out in painful detail what is expected. Not knowing whether we can operate without this sort of oversight disgusts the people of good will and interferes not with those who have nefarious intent. Capable people worldwide seem to be victimized by these restrictions, but the greedy or deceitful seem to go on without being restricted in the least.

We all make mistakes. Learning from them and problem solving itself is a skill that we need to teach. Falling back on regulations is fine for those who cannot think for themselves, but for the vast majority of us that remain sentient, they both hem in our adaptive responses to difficult situations and undermine the trust we may have developed in our ability to make decisions that reflect the common good and our own unique solutions to evolving problems in every field. The perfect person remains an illusion, if we learn to accept that, it will help to bring out the best in everyone. The hardest thing for us to deal with might just be the illusion that we can write flow charts and regulations that have the power to guide us through times that we have never experienced before.

Community Center As Close to Ground Zero As Strip Club

This issue was seen as a lightening rod by such political savants as Newt Gingrich. The trumped up public vehemence comes not out of logic or proportion, but of their frustration with the plans for what will happen on those specific 16 acres(Ground Zero.) Before the pile of rubble and body parts had cooled, I voiced the opinion that we should reforest the site. Ten acres would accommodate 3,000 trees, one tree per person would create a massive statement in lower Manhattan. This sort of memorial would leave enough space for 3,000 park benches commemorating the dead. The trees would be the most awesome negation of the efforts of the terrorists. A living testament to those innocent lives that would recreate a woodland in the heart of the city. Nature heals, that is the whole idea of National Parks, we are nurtured by nature in ways that cannot be duplicated any other way.

It figures that rather than keeping discussion about this on a very high level, we use hatred and distrust of our own system to lash out at others who can establish plans and make effective change in the general area. Having been a resident of NYC, I can tell you, there is nowhere in Manhattan that I have found few places that bear any relationship with the community around it. Imagine being able to go underground every ten blocks or so and being magically transported to any other sector. Everything is virtually a subway, and/or bus ride away from every other place. The best way I can describe it is the largest neighborhood in the world. What is really needed in that city is the open space that parkland provides. This too reduces necessary services, while providing space, which is so badly needed, especially in that part of town.

What has instead been allowed to creep back onto the site is a smaller version of what it had been, a place for us to return to business as usual and the politics of greed that made us a target in the first place. The audacity of our corporate keepers is unparalleled in human history. I wish only the best for New Yorkers, but in their hurry to abolish the "free establishment clause within the Bill of Rights because of their unresolved feelings over 9-11 make the rest of us pretty upset.

Fraud, Neglect & Crisis Management

Isn't this what we do best in America? By now, I'm sure that most folks know, that there is a mosque proposed for the good people of New York. It happens to be near "Ground Zero". Those that want to bomb it should look the other way, at least until it is finished. When they prove to us that their hate is as strong as the terrorists, we can find them and put them away for a long time. The fraud that the tiny fraction of uneducated New Yorkers are relying on is that the American people, in their urge to look patriotic, will forget that there are as many types and styles of Islam as there are Jewish sects, Christian flavors and Hindu deities. We have nothing against the vast majority of Muslims, in fact we are the country that was founded on free expression of faith. That means "theirs" as well as "ours". Faith is the antithesis of hate but perhaps I will discuss that in another post. Perhaps, in this case, it cuts a little too close to the bone.

Have we forgotten the very premise that our country was founded on? I believe we have and it makes me sick. I cannot abide an educational system that allows bigots to get up in front of children each day and spout hatred and lies, nor one that allows their own self-fulfilling prophesy to keep millions of minorities from getting a leg up on the American Dream. It disgusts me that the Texas Board of "Education" has the power to determine what truths are ignored, glossed over and twisted in textbooks for the entire nation. For far too long, rich white men made all the decisions. As the tables turn, and they become a minority, change will come one way or another. By neglecting our birthright as Americans, or fraudulently claiming it has something to do with "Christian Values", which it most certainly does not, we endanger democracy worldwide. If we can't find our way clear to make our system work in our own country, we better not foist it on another.

Our founding fathers were inspired. They valued Truth, Compassion and the strength that comes from standing together. They knew too well, the problems that would arise if the church gained too much power. Now the Baptists and "Moral Majority" crowd (which by the way are neither moral or a majority) want to stop the "dissolution" of our nation's character, saving it for the saved and returning to fundamental beliefs. Have we not learned anything? Fundament, the root of fundamentalism, means shit. The same fundamentalist beliefs are the basis of tribal law that we hear about in Afghanistan and Pakistan, referred to, I might add, to obfuscate the truth and fuel the fires of hatred for all Muslims. A tiny fraction of the Islamic adherents believe in stoning being the punishment for adultery, just as in our country a tiny fraction believe in an eye for an eye, or vigilante justice. Lies, hate and deception, as far as I can see, are pretty much all that religious leaders have been spewing for millennia. Fraudulent claims about the "end times" are as eternal as the procession of the equinoxes. The more things change, the more they remain the same... Even the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus was plagiarized from earlier cultures, so whatever faith tradition you subscribe to requires belief in one myth or another.

Expecting different outcomes from the same actions is one of the definitions of insanity. In Merry Olde England, the punishment for pickpockets was hanging. Oddly enough, the most likely place to be relieved of one's purse was at the square on hanging day. Redistribution of wealth and the slow rise in standards of living have been the only things that reduced the rate of this sort of theft. With the terrible burden of our current economic hardship falling especially hard on the middle classes, we need to start thinking more pro-actively about where we want to be in the next decade. Waiting for the fundament to hit the fan is unlikely to work out well for anyone. The lower classes have found ways to survive, no matter how harsh the conditions. Now that taxpayers have spent their fair share in funding our nation's recovery, it is time for the non-financial S&P 500 companies to invest their cash on hand in the recovery as well. The amount of cash and liquid assets that they hold is equal to the government's recent bailout, but we are told that even business is having a hard time. Now that is patently untrue. They are holding about $10,000 for every man, woman and child in America, for what, to create jobs after the next election? Are they waiting for the commercial real estate bubble to burst? Do they forget that without jobs or money flowing into the economy, they have nothing to skim for their own profit? I swear, these folks who like to tell us that they are smarter, better educated and more deserving of their positions seem to be the dumbest and most ignorant among us.

Without something to trump up, they are lost. As long as they can afford Harvard for their own children, they could care less about school funding. As long as there is something to get the public whipped into a frenzy about, as long as it doesn't require them to change, they are fine with it. I ask you, when was the last time you confronted truth on the airwaves, or in print? Why do you think the smart money is on continued deception? Where did everyone go who heard John F. Kennedy say, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."? They can't all be dead or suffering from Alzheimer's. We need to put a lot more thought into what we are for than what we are against. We need to work for the common good. If that means standing shoulder to shoulder with people who are different, then we must do it. Truth stands alone and needs no support while lies need constant propping up. Caring for another is often the first step toward caring for oneself and being pro-active rather than anti-active is the only way to head off crises before they grow out of control.