Sobering Realities Showcasing The Complexity and Imperfection of Man, While Calling On Us to Live Our Better Natures

Subject:  Sobering Articles Revealing the Frailty of Man, the Challenge of Making Decisions

                                    To do What’s Right, and the Case for Humility

 

Seldom, in a single day, have I read so many articles that show the perplexity and perversity of life: 

 

·         From the New York Times Page One:  “The Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood..the CIA air war in Pakistan began with quid pro quo killing of rebel Nek Muhammad.”

·         From the New York Times Page One:  “Tax Lobby Builds Ties to Chairman of Finance Panel..former aides are hired..pushing interests of business’s changes to the Code.”

·         From the New York Times:  Page One:  “Grave robbers and more steal serious history from Syria.”

·         From the Boston Globe:  Some believe, “It may be in the interest of the United States to see the savage civil war in Syria continue.”

·         From the New York Times Book Review:  “Fear Itself:  The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time.”  The book makes the case, among others, that in order to pass its programs, the New Dealers “sell their souls to the segregated South.”

·         From the New York Times Book Review:  “FDR and the Jews,” it posits that “to fight World War II, Roosevelt needed support from legislators who wanted to keep out Europe’s Jews” from immigrating to the United States.

 

I read all these articles in juxtaposition with the glorious day and evening I spent at Yale, celebrating the tenure of Rick Levin as President of Yale and the values which he and Yale espouse in the pursuit of truth, human rights, etc.  And yet, as these articles (and life in general) showcase, that pursuit is not an easy one to chart, and it is not always or perhaps even usually pure.  But yet, this sobering reality cannot stop us from pursuing what is right and just and fair as best we can see the light to do that as well as we possibly can.

 

These articles are a call for us to do what we can in our own limited time and in our own limited space, in the name of integrity and doing what we can to make the world around us a better place, starting with those closest to us.