Sea Changes

Let me see…we were about to launch an attack on Syria, but now we’re talking to the Russians about their plan to secure and destroy Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons. And now the new president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, has ended the denial of the Holocaust and wants to negotiate over that country’s plans to become a nuclear power. What’s going on here? What triggered this? It’s not spring. But could it be an equinoctial thing?

Probably nothing so semi-metaphysical. I think it’s more about enlightened self-interest. The Russians have substantial military and economic interest in what happens in Syria. Putin & Co. would probably like to see the Assad regime stay in power for as long as possible. In Iran, maybe reality is setting in. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who interviewed Rouhani, says he wouldn’t be making nice unless he had authorization to do so from the religious leaders of his country, and why would they provide it? Could it be that economic sanctions are actually hurting, and the old men who run that country realize that the general population, which is much younger and less hateful of America, might be upset with them if they don’t change their attitudes? Is it a case of  “the devil knowing his time is short”?

Some Americans may have trouble trusting either the Russians or the Iranians, after our past history with their respective governments. But there are few more solid foundations for trust than an opposing party doing something that’s good, simply because circumstances are leaving no other choice.

So the next question is, if our worst enemies are finally doing something we want them to do because they have to do it, can the same principles work with forcing Congress to work through differences on Obamacare and the debt ceiling?

I think locking members of Congress in the Capitol and locking all the bathrooms there until they get this done would work just fine. There are few more powerful incentives than having to go because you have to go.

Habemus Papam

"...If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist,  if he wants everything clear and safe, he will find nothing...Those who always look for disciplinarian solutiions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal 'security,' those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists -- they have a static and inward-directed view of things. In this way, faith becomes an ideology among other ideologies."

It has bgeen crystal clear for years that the Catholic Church has needed an overhaul. Perhaps it will begin with the sea change that has occurred at the very top. The words above are from an interview given to a Jesuit journal by Pope Francis I -- a welcome breeze through the musty catacombs of an institution that needs it.

I am no longer Catholic, but I was raised that way in a time when things were different.The Mass was in Latin. Fridays, and quite a few other days, were meatless -- I had one of those calendars with the fish icons signifying when meat was off-limits. I kept close track of my sins, so much so that I was afraid to fly unless I had been to confession, in case the plane should crash and I should die with a blot on my soul and be sent to the place with eternal central heating. It was a scary time to be a child, much less an adolescent. The church has since lightened up, to a point.

There's something about religions. They start out with a simple mission and then turn into corporations with a hierarchy and sets of rules, regulations, and judgments -- often combined with the conviction that the world won't be quite right unless everyone is converted. Judaism had turned into one of these when Jesus came along. If he had a mission, it was to bring religion back to its original purpose. Would he approve of what has been done in his name since he left? For that matter, would the Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him) be happy with what's happened to Islam? I think we know the answers.

I am becoming less "religious" as I age, when I've always been told it should be the other way around. My problem with most religions is that they consider being human some kind of inferior status. When we screw up, we're told we're "only human." The phrase "human nature" usually refers to something negative. I often wonder what would become of art, music, and literature in a world where humanity is continually discounted. Would we all be singing hymns instead of love songs?

A worthy goal of religion would seem to be to put us into alignment with our "better angels." But it also has to let us breathe. I may be reading too much into the new pope's words, but I think this is one of the things he's trying to tell us. It will be enlightening to hear what else he has to say.

Russian Roulette

Let’s be clear about one thing. Russia doesn’t do anybody any favors. But sometimes, self-interest is the best motivator. By proposing a plan under which the chemical weapons Syria now has would be secured and destroyed under the auspices of the U.N., the Russians have persuaded President Obama to take his finger off the trigger for the time being. Hey, and didn’t the Syrian regime admit that it has chemical weapons? All-in-all, not as bad a day as it seems.

Syria – and in particular, the Assad regime — are very important to Moscow. Russia has a huge naval base in Syria. Under an unfriendly post-Assad government, they could lose it. Second, if the chemical weapons possessed by Syria fall into unfriendly hands, they could be used by Islamic activists in Russian republics. Finally, Syria is the tail and Russia is the dog. Assad will do what Moscow tells him to do.

All of this points to the chemical weapons being secured, or at least not used, which is sort of what we’re after, correct?

The only problem is, we have to listen to a useless debate in the U.N. about all this. We often hear it said that the United States is not the policeman of the world. That would be a great principle if the world had a police department – which theoretically is the U.N. We can see how well that’s working for us.

I wish the Obama administration would stop saying we will have no boots on the ground in Syria. The fact is, the boots are already there. They’re being worn by CIA operatives advising the rebels; can overt military advisors be far behind?

I also wish the President would stop talking about children, and asking us to watch the videos of children suffering and dying from Sarin gas poisoning. Like none of the 100,000-plus previous Syrian fatalities were children, and like they didn’t die equally horrible deaths. The current “crisis” is a concocted one, laid on top of the real one that’s been going on for more than two years, around which the world has danced.

But put me down for this: If Assad takes advantage of this muddled period to use chemical weapons again, I’d be very pleased if we re-aimed our missiles and blew him to the next dimension.

Just Do It

Relax! I’m not talking about attacking Syria or trying to sell you athletic equipment. This is about courage – not the kind that helps you rescue trapped people from burning buildings, but the everyday kind you need to function in life.

Example: In spite of many years experience as a broadcaster, I am not an expert in doing my own audio mixing with software. The job I’m contracted to do called for a very minor mixing operation, but I had been afraid to perform it with this software. Thanks to the Internet, I discovered that this was a wheel I did not have to re-invent – others had done it, and showed me how. So I did it, and experienced tremendous elation when the simple task was accomplished.

It’s like the time I first learned to replace light switches. There was no opportunity to call an electrician, so I figured it out myself by opening up the wall housing (with the power off!), looking at how it was wired, and using the same wiring on a new switch. Presto! I flipped the switch on an off a hundred times just to watch it work, and wanted to replace every other switch in the house immediately, but resisted it, choosing instead to wait until something was actually broken before I fixed it.

Depending on the complexity of the task, of course, you need more courage if you have to do it yourself. A good friend had to move to another state on the other side of the country with her three cats. Shipping them or finding hotels that would accommodate the “family” was out of the question. My friend decided on traveling by RV, which involved not only buying one, but learning how to drive this large vehicle and hook it up to utilities at RV parks. In the process, she successfully made the cross-country trip by herself, visited more than a dozen new states, and had a built-in inexpensive place to stay in her destination city while she spent weeks looking for the perfect house to buy. Brilliant solution, brought about by necessity.

Similarly, another friend was deathly afraid of flying some years ago, but a new job required her to make numerous business trips. She doesn’t really enjoy the trips these days (they’re work), but she has lost her fear of flying, and has amassed hundreds of thousands of frequent-flier miles to use on international travel at some point.

My wife found public speaking very daunting (unlike me!), but obtained a contract job which required her to do a lot of it. Like my frequent-flier friend, it’s still not her favorite thing, but she no longer loses a night’s sleep before she has to be “on stage.”

It’s a simple fact that since almost all of us put our pants on one leg at a time, we can learn to do what we need to do. When we admire people who have overcome small – or large -- personal hurdles, we should take a minute to realize that it can happen for us, too – we just have to do it.