Newtown did not change us

After the massacre of several dozen school children and others in Newtown, CT, there was plenty of talk Newtown “changed us,” it didn’t. Within a few days, Americans were back to their usual pantomime political tribalism..

It’s like I said the day after Newtown. If we’re not willing to change something about our society, then nothing will change. Not exactly high philosophy but it means if we’re not willing to change something significant, we simply have to accept that there will be lots of needless deaths in our country, whether by children or by mall denizens, whether via guns or via other means. If we’re not willing to change something about our too frequent use of violence as a means of first resort, then all the sorrow and hand-wringing will be continue to be as hollow as it’s been. America has been a violent society from the beginning. Far greater massacres have done little to curb these impulses, so I have no expectation that Newtown will make any significant dent in how we act.

There was a (presumably) pro-gun control graphic that made the rounds after Newtown. It pointed out the rate of gun deaths in various western countries, the US of course being the highest. I was struck by it but in a different way the the authors likely intended. I was struck the fact that the two countries with the lowest per capita death by gun rates on the list were the UK and Switzerland. 

Britain has virtually banned private handgun ownership and has very strict gun control laws. Switzerland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world and, if I understand correctly, has very little in the way of gun control laws. These two extremes of these supposedly “causational” factors have both resulted in far lower gun-related deaths than our own country.

Focusing solely on gun control is taking the easy way out, because even if the gun control makes a positive impact, that impact will be too small to make any significant difference by itself. We need to look deeper.

The problem is greater than what guns or ammunition is available or whether every school janitor has an AK47.  So changing gun laws or creating national registries of gun owners or the mentally ill or arming every special ed aid and bus driver in schools may or may not help a small amount but will not fundamentally change the situation because it doesn’t address its broader problem. We have to look deeper and that’s not something we’re not nearly as good at as we are invoking the Nazis in every argument and then going back to American Idol.

Disgrace

I saw a headline this morning about President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Instinctively, I assumed it was from the satirical Onion but was dumbfounded to find out it was true. Even leaving aside the near certainty that he'll escalate us deeper into the morass in Afghanistan, what the hell has he done to advance peace?! I mean besides not being George W. Bush or Dick Cheney. Jimmy Carter deserved the award for his tireless efforts of peacemaking over several decades, both during his presidency and after.

Maybe it's a psychological ploy by the Nobel committee. Maybe they hope that Obama will be so embarrassed by this completely undeserved accolade that he'll actually try to live up to it. A long shot, I know...


Update: I've read that nominations had to be in by February 1 of this year. So he was nominated and "won" the award based on the first 12 days of his presidency?! His inaugural speech was nice... but not THAT good.

Give peace a... break?

Last week, I wrote of my cautious optimism for the new Obama administration. I was criticized for this by people who pointed out that he was just another ruling class politician. I responded that they were not wrong but that my hope rested less on the person of Obama himself and more on the possibility of building bridges with the millions of progressives who, for whatever reasons, voted for him. For example, millions of Obama voters support single-payer health care, even though the president himself does not. Instead of denouncing the president in week one of his term, why not engage these self-described progressives to put pressure on Obama to implement elements of the progressive agenda?

I also felt that being cynical (or whatever euphemism one wants to use), especially before he even took office, serves no purpose. In fact, it risks backfiring. If you convince someone that both Obama in particular and the system in general are irredeemably corrupt, then that person will instead go home and watch American Idol because they will view any action as pointless. They will see the situation as irredeemable. Hopeless people do not get into activism.

One of my fears all along is that an Obama presidency would neuter liberals and progressives. That they would give him a free pass for things for which that they would excoriate Bush. This is why I proposed that non-Obama voting progressives should engage those who did vote for the Democrat, rather than mocking them. Challenge them to make sure Obama lives up to whatever was their perception of what he stood for.

Unfortunately, my fear of neutering appears to have been well-founded. Already, a anti-war group in Potsdam , NY (the village in which I went to college) has decided to suspend its peace vigils after six years of having one every Saturday morning.

Somehow I missed the memo that either peace (or even the end of war) had come to Afghanistan and Iraq . In fact, last thing I read was that President Obama had promised to ESCALATE the war in Afghanistan , hoping to mimic the success the Soviet occupiers had in the same country.

Now, I understand from personal experience that Potsdam in the winter is frigid. When it's below zero outside with a bitter wind, the only place you want to be is inside under a blanket. But I have no doubt the last six winters in Potsdam have been bitter too and they continued to protest these moral monstrosities. The weather hasn't changed. The policies haven't changed.

I understand giving Obama a chance to do the right thing. I understand not calling for him to face a war crimes' trial. I understand not denouncing him. But how is the right thing going to happen, absent public pressure?

It really boils down to these questions. Were the Potsdam activists protesting Bush or protesting the wars? Was their number one objective to end the Bush presidency or to end the wars of aggression, the devastation and the killing funded by their and our tax dollars? The Bush presidency is history. The carnage he initiated continues.

The Potsdam group may be well-intentioned but do they actually believe Obama is going to magically buck the military-industrial complex if peace activists sit on their butt and hope for the best? You know very well that those who have a vested interest in endless war aren't going to sit on their butts and hope. They are going to be lobbying the heck out of the White House and the Democratic Party, including with their 'contributions.' If there's no counter pressure to the Boeings and the Blackwaters, how's anything going to improve?

Simply put: will progressives hope for the future or will we try to shape it?

The Potsdam group made the wrong choice.

Politicians will do whatever they're allowed to get away with, especially by their own supporters. It should be no more acceptable to give Obama a blank check than it was to give Bush one.

If Obama is really is the Messiah so many of his supporters seem to think, then now is the time to push the progressive agenda now, to strike while the iron's hot. Now's the time for his supporters to make sure he keeps whatever they think his promises were. Far from resting on laurels and patting oneself on the back, the Obama presidency should herald a Surge in progressive activism if we are to reverse the damage of the Bush-Clinton years.

Electing a black president does little good if he acts the same as the white presidents before him.

God Bless everyone... no exceptions

If you support a progressive agenda, then support a progressive candidate.

Today is the seventh anniversary of the attacks on Manhattan and Washington. Well over 100,000 civilian deaths have been documented as a result of the 9/11 attacks (sources: a, b plus c). Many believe thatthe actual death toll is several times higher.

On the anniversary of this tragedy and its resultant tragedies waged in its name, please take a moment to remember civilian victims of war and the destruction war inevitable causes on the lives, families and homes of innocent people who simply want to live their lives in peace. ALL civilian victims of war.

As an acquaintance of mine says, "God bless Humanity... no exceptions." She says it's the Christian thing to do.

Favorite quotes

"It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them." -Alfred Adler

"Anyone can handle adversity. If you really want to test someone's character, give him power." -Abraham Lincoln

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living." - Gen. Omar Bradley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff


"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and a cross." -Sinclair Lewis

"You know what's worse than a soldier dying in vain? More soldiers dying in vain. -Former Sen. Mike Gravel
"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." -Malcolm X

"At times it feels as if American politics consists largely of candidates without ideas hiring consultants without convictions to stage campaigns without content. Increasingly the result is elections without voters." –Gerald Ford

"What is it to serve God and to do His will? Nothing else than to show mercy to our neighbor. For it is our neighbor who needs our service; God in heaven needs it not." -Martin Luther


"Nothing good ever comes of violence." -Martin Luther

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." - George Washington

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official..." -Theodore Roosevelt

"The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all." -Tacitus

"Peace is constructed, not fought for." -Brent Davis

"Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded." -James Madison

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." -George Orwell (the American equivalent of a nationalist is called a patriot).

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?" -Gandhi

“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.” -Hermann Goering, Hitler's second-in-command.

"Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery. " -Albert Camus

"Sports may build character, but more often, it reveals it." -Ken Dryden

"Power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is peculiarly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations -- to make them richer and happier and wiser, to remake them, that is, in its own shining image. Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence." -Sen. J. William Fulbright, from The Arrogance of Power.

"There are a lot of people out there who'd rather fight fire with fire than fight fire with water. Doesn't make sense to me." --Simon St. Laurent

"The only people I fear are those who never have doubts." --Billy Joel

"A spirit of moderation in a state of overbearing power is a phenomenon which has not yet appeared, and which no wise man will expect ever to see." --Alexander Hamilton.

"When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist." --Brazilian Archbishop Helder Camara.

"I can train a monkey to wave an American flag. That does not make the monkey patriotic." --Scott Ritter.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." -Voltaire

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." -Voltaire

"Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable." -John F. Kennedy

"The worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being." -Ellen Key

Norway most peaceful country; 'liberated' Iraq least

"It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them." -Alfred Adler

A new study ranked 121 countries based on 24 factors to determine how peaceful each nation was. Norway is the most peaceful country in the world, according to the study. Followed by New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland and Japan. Interestingly, none of the top five peaceful countries has ever been targeted by an Islamist terrorist attack.

The US is ranked as the 96th most peaceful country of 121 and is judged to have the same 'state of peace' as Yemen, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Iran; and below Libya, Egypt and China.

'Liberated' Iraq is at the bottom just below genocidal Sudan. Israel (whose long-term occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was supposed to make things so much more peaceful) and 'democratic' Russia and Nigeria filled out the bottom five.

On a related note, the BBC World Service is running a good new documentary series called Winning the Peace. As is fairly well known, winning peace is much harder than, but just as important as, winning war.

"When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."



Update: The Accra Daily Mail boasts that Ghana was ranked as the most peaceful democratic country in Africa.