tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47921582293009636992024-03-19T01:47:24.590-07:00John Pepper - PepperspectivesJohn Pepper - PepperspectivesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger399125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-44791410960170503452024-03-15T06:24:00.000-07:002024-03-15T13:05:58.746-07:00What the Partition of India and Pakistan of Almost 80 Years Ago May Teach About Healing the Wounds of Israel and Pakistan<p> <span style="color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;"> </span></p><div class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none;"><div id="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875" style="outline: none;"><div class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yahoo_quoted" id="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yahoo_quoted_1384200902" style="outline: none;"><div style="color: #26282a; outline: none;"><div style="outline: none;"><div id="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510" style="outline: none;"><div class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510yahoo-style-wrap" style="outline: none;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none;"><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">I finished reading the bloodcurdling, mesmerizing, <i style="outline: none;">The Great Partition:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The Making of India and Pakistan</i> by Yasmin Khan.<span style="outline: none;"> </span><span style="outline: none;"> I find </span> many dimensions of this agonizing story which suggest lessons for today, especially for the chasm and carnage coming in the relationship between Israel and Palestine.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></div><p class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510ydp97dafab8MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">In retrospect, I accept the argument of Khan, that the partition of India and Pakistan and what, 25 years later, would become Bangladesh was not foreordained.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>In the beginning, Pakistan “wasn’t even seen as a defined geographical unit, but as a way of expressing freedom for the Muslim population of India.”</div><p class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510ydp97dafab8MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510ydp97dafab8MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">The incompetence and irresponsibility with which Britain ditched India, taking no responsibility for the transition, were monstrous.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>They just “walked away from the problem,” leaving unformed governments and seething tensions to find their way to what became violence and extreme nationalism growing from differences in religious belief.</p><p class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510ydp97dafab8MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">The primary leaders--Jinnah, Nehru and Ghandi did not foresee anything like the horror that flowed from the partition: the loss of over a million of lives, the uprooting and transfer of tens of millions of people from the north to south (Hindus) and from the south to the north (muslims). <span style="outline: none;"> Ghandi's policy of non-violence had already been punctured by violence and antagonism and fear between members of the Congress party and the Muslim League even before the Partition. Pakistan was being seen and presented not only as a question of territory but as a "total and sweeping threat which risked the whole of Mother India". </span></div><p class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510ydp97dafab8MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">People who had lived together, worked together, in relative peace became enemies.<span style="outline: none;"> People who had "lived cheek to jowl </span>for so long fell upon each other in 1947 and its aftermath with a ferocity that has few parallels in history", writes one historian. It reminds me of what happened in the Balkans in the 1990s. </div><p class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510ydp97dafab8MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">I read this history with a constant eye on its possible relevance to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its resolution. <span style="outline: none;"> </span>What can be learned to inform how to resolve that conflict?<span style="outline: none;"> </span>What are the barriers that are going to have to be overcome?<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Several shout out at me:</p><p class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510ydp97dafab8MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">1.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span>It’s vital that the rights of citizenship (equal and premised on dignity for all) be clearly defined for both the majority populations and the minority populations including where Jews and Muslims live together.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">The boundaries of the two states, while nominally already established, need to be confirmed and firmly written into an enforceable covenant.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">Travel between the nations needs to be transparent and not bogged down in discrimination or undue bureaucracy. </span></div><p class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydpf4ee89f1yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510ydp97dafab8MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;">The Indian-Pakistan history underscores the particular challenge posed by enclaves of the kind that I understand exist on the borders of Bangladesh and that exist now for Hindus in the Western Bank and Muslims in Jerusalem.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>(I’m assuming from this experience that it would be impractical and wrong to try to transfer these populations that have already established their homes.)<span style="outline: none;"> </span></div><div class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944yqt2908386276" id="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944yqtfd30431" style="outline: none;"><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: black;"> </span></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><div style="outline: none;"><div class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydp5b00caa9yiv9740793875yqt3067829294" dir="ltr" id="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydp5b00caa9yiv9740793875yqtfd01567" style="color: black; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span>Vital that relationships be established between Israel and Palestine that optimize trade, cultural transfers and transportation. Establishing linkages like this between India and Pakistan have taken decades and from what I read are just beginning. Hopefully, we can learn from this experience. </div><div style="font-family: arial; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div></div><span style="font-family: arial; outline: none;">This will take a great deal of time to build the trust on which such relationships must be based. The fissures are great and will be greater than ever following the humanitarian disaster that has impacted the people of both nations.</span><span style="font-family: arial; outline: none;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial; outline: none;">But I believe the journey needs to begin with the endpoint in mind.</span><span style="font-family: arial; outline: none;"> And there are several inspiring examples of cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis led by organizations supported by Mehra and David Rimer that give firm credence to the possibility of progress. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">3. But what about the present situation, now and tomorrow? Reading the history of the Partition makes one deeply aware of the lasting deep personal impact--physical and psychological--of the millions of displaced people. There are as many as 1.5 million people in Gaza who have had to flee their homes; perhaps half of these have been destroyed. (And tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced too though there homes have not been similarly destroyed). How will these families be helped to move back, how will they be treated medically, how will homes and schools and hospitals be rebuilt? Who will pay for this? What can we learn from post WW II in the decimated cities of Europe? What we do know is that it took years. </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">4.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span>Accomplishing this and more will obviously depend above all on strong leadership in Israel and Palestine committed to the goal of peaceful coexistence and mutual collaboration to make the most of the relationship between Palestine and Israel. </div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">that leadership painfully does not now exist. </div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">It will require the acceptance of a new narrative---namely that peace and a stable, fruitful life for the people of this region will ONLY be possible if Palestine and Israel accept the NEED to live together with mutual respect. </div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> All of this I believe will need to be supported in its purpose and financially be an organized consortium (Commission) of leaders from leading Arab countries, the West, the U.S., China, etc. This has to be approached much as the recovery of Europe was after WWII. It is a matter all of the world has a stake in. </div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">I ask myself Is there anything to be learned on HOW to organize to do this from the history of fusing Northern Ireland and Ireland, or the Switzerland or perhaps the creation of Tanzania? Or anything else?</div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">In conclusion, I wonder if lessons growing from the pain and loss of human capacity suffered by the people of India and Pakistan resulting from the Partition can be leveraged to improve the prospects of defining and implementing a positive, peaceful future for the long suffering peoples of Israel and Palestine.<div class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944yqt2908386276" id="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944yqtfd22072" style="outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944yqt2908386276" id="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944yqtfd03192" style="outline: none;"><div class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydp5b00caa9yiv9740793875yqt3067829294" id="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydp5b00caa9yiv9740793875yqtfd29630" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline: none;"><p class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydp5b00caa9yiv9740793875ydp101094e3yiv4628062510ydp97dafab8MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"> </p></div><div class="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydp5b00caa9yiv9740793875yqt3067829294" dir="ltr" id="ydp99f0f5f5yiv1581752618ydpa3618ec0yiv8115279944ydp5b00caa9yiv9740793875yqtfd01567" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div></div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-56136724928296213482024-03-14T03:01:00.000-07:002024-03-14T03:01:12.437-07:00"Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes"--Personal Reflections<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">Yale Professor Steven B. Smith’s book,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;"> </span><i style="color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;">Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">, was heavy going in the beginning. There was for me an over-</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;"> abundance of references to ancient philosophers and political thinkers.</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">However, page by page, chapter by chapter, I became more and more impressed.</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">In the end, I am filled with admiration for this book as Smith convincingly defines the essence of "Patriotism", which embraces the best values in America without claiming perfection or denying the worth of Cosmopolitanism, which can become too utopian and unrealistic.</span></p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I was also reminded how the feeling of patriotism which Professor Smith describes can attach not only to our nation but also to an institution or company where one spends much of their life and career, like Yale and Procter & Gamble.</p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Smith, not entirely correctly in my opinion, argues that America was the first, and perhaps still is the <i style="outline: none !important;">only nation </i>founded on a <i style="outline: none !important;">creed</i>.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>We are a <i style="outline: none !important;">creedal</i> people, he asserts.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>We keep referring back to our Founding Fathers, to our Constitution and to our Bill of Rights to a degree the citizens of no other country do—even if we argue intensely as to what is the right interpretation of the Constitution.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>(I write “not entirely correctly” because while the frequency of our referring to our Constitution is probably unique, the leadership and the citizens of other nations say, and to varying degrees believe, they are pursuing a “creed-“ based vision.)</p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br /></p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> Professor Smith writes correctly that Patriotism requires “not only an understanding and appreciation of a set of abstract ideas, but also their embodiment in a particular history and tradition.”<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>“The ethos of a society embodies those traits of character that are normative for the community,” he writes.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>They embrace the “kinds of persons and personality traits (who) are deemed desirable (andf) or kinds of actions and policies that are worthy of respect.”</p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><div style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Of course, there isn’t universal agreement on what are the policies and actions which are "worthy of respect" in our nation’s history.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>However, I believe there will be broad agreement, for example, that Abraham Lincoln’s principles and his determined and courageous leadership were what the nation needed at the time he was President; that Martin Luther King pursued a correct and admirable commitment to non-violent protest in order to advance the rights of minorities; that men and women sacrificing their lives in World War II to preserve the democracy of this country—these were irreplaceable, admirable deeds.</div><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">There would also be broad agreement on things that have been carried out by our Nation that are not <i style="outline: none !important;">admirable</i>:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>lynching, Jim Crow, the appropriation of Native American lands in violation of treaties and the internment of the Japanese in WW II.</div><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><div style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">My observation: the only way to preserve and build on our <i style="outline: none !important;">creed</i>, our Purpose—and the only way to make the ethos of the place real, is by:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>1) Results—demonstrating the ability to take actions needed to progress to achieving our Purpose; 2) Transparency—describing the bases for our actions explicitly in terms of the values they embody and 3) Sharing learning and history—by telling memorable stories of how the Purpose has been fulfilled in ways we admire or in ways that fail to measure up to fulfilling our Purpose.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>That’s how we can continue to learn, thereby sustaining the Purpose and continuing to improve in achieving it.</div><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Every institution, whether it be our Nation, a company like P&G, a university like Yale or a cultural center like the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, needs to be clear on its Creed or its Purpose.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>It needs to understand the ethos it has and which it seeks to build and what are the actions and values and the storytelling that will make that not just a bunch of abstract thoughts but descriptive of an entity to which one wants to commit his or her very best effort and a good part of their lives. <span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>This is what produces <i style="outline: none !important;">Loyalty</i> and <i style="outline: none !important;">Patriotism</i>.</p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">In other words, loyalty and a spirit of Patriotism have to be earned by what the institution is setting out to do, by how well and consistently it is doing it, by living its values in practice, and by how successful it is in continuing to do better tomorrow than it is today, despite inevitable setbacks.</p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Professor Smith provides an excellent service by defining the nature of the “Patriotism” we should seek.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>What he does not address—nor do I believe it was his intent—is to <i style="outline: none !important;">what degree</i> our Nation today is earning the loyalty and the Patriotism he so well describes or, even more to the point, what can be done to strengthen it.</p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">The foundation of Patriotism have been dangerously weakened.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Citizens’ trust in the government has plummeted.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Pew reports that the percentage of Americans saying they “trust the federal government’s decisions most of the time” plummeted from 73 percent in 1958 to just 19 percent in 2019.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Trust in other major institutions, including religion and schools (onl the military has been immune), has also declined precipitously.</p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Respect for “truth” and the commitment to a common, shared cause which are so necessary to support Patriotism have been shattered by a lack of value-based leadership, particularly embodied by Donald Trump.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Now, following the first year of the Biden Administration, beset with the overhanging pall of COVID, the impact of climate change and the competitive threat of China and other geo-political challenges, we are shaken by concerns about the sheer competence of our government, i.e., is it being led by people able to get done what they have promised and are expected and need to do? Too often the answer is "no". </p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I don’t have a confident answer to what can be done to “Reclaim Patriotism,” returning to the title of Professor Smith’s book—other than to say it depends on leadership<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>There’s nothing new about that.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>We have always depended on strong leadership at times of crisis.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Leaders able and brave enough to face reality, frame a uniting vision, marshal a clear and compelling stratgegy and take actions which, even if imperfectly, lead to substantive progress toward that vision.</p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2582912010ydpb7e25239yiv0896776742ydp87e00a3dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I also know that I (indeed all of us) have a personal responsibility to work to the best of our abilities to make the life and the lives of people we touch better because we are where we are.</p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-46010076255099162152024-03-12T03:43:00.000-07:002024-03-12T05:22:53.930-07:00Reflections from a Master Historian--C. Vann Woodward<p> </p><div class="I_ZkbNhI D_FY W_6D6F" data-test-id="message-view-body" style="background-color: white; display: table; outline: none; width: 713.688px;"><div class="msg-body P_wpofO mq_AS" data-test-id="message-view-body-content" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 2px 0px 0px; position: relative; word-break: break-word;"><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="outline: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div style="outline: none;"><div id="yiv2845095372" style="outline: none;"><div style="outline: none;"><div class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yahoo_quoted" id="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yahoo_quoted_0350034271" style="outline: none;"><div style="color: #26282a; font-size: 13px; outline: none;"><div style="outline: none;"><div id="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566" style="outline: none;"><div class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp30beab6eyahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none;"><div style="outline: none;"><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />I completed my reading of C. Vann Woodward’s marvelous book, <i style="outline: none;">Thinking Back:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The Perils of Writing History</i>.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>I’ve long been an admirer of Woodward.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>He stands alongside David Potter, David Blight and David Brion Davis in my regard.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>It’s an elegant book, a retrospective view of Woodward’s experiences as a historian.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>He considers his own books and the critical dialogue they engendered and how the history of the South was viewed and written about during the early years of the century and how those views have changed over the decades.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>He describes his university years at Emory and Chapel Hill, at Columbia and then, Yale.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>He arrived on campus two years after I graduated.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>How I would have loved to take courses from him.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="outline: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div style="outline: none;"><div style="outline: none;"><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 8px;"><div class="yiv2845095372yqt6610322695" id="yiv2845095372yqtfd56802" style="outline: none;"><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">There were many nuggets of wisdom in the book.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>I’ll cite just a few:</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">Woodward tackles the controversy of history’s having a “purpose.”<span style="outline: none;"> </span>He writes, “If the implied alternative be writing history without a purpose or an unacknowledged or unconscious purpose, then the indictment (that I write with a purpose) will have to stand.”<span style="outline: none;"> </span>As one historian noted:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>“Unless there is some emotional tie, some elective affinity linking the student to his subject, the results will be pedantic and perfunctory.”<span style="outline: none;"> </span>And this, “The man who does not feel issues deeply cannot write great history about them.”</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> I like what Carl Degler, one of my favorite historians, once wrote: “All questions of continuity are relative. All history is a combination of varying degrees of continuity and change.” That has certainly been true of the history of Russia and China as I’ve experienced it over the last 30 years. </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> I identify closely with this from Woodward:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>“If foresight had been enriched by hindsight (thinking of how he wrote history), I admit that I might have done it differently—and I am sure, more correctly.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>But I am more disturbed to admit that if hindsight had preceded foresight, I might not have done it at all.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>And that would have been to miss an experience, an adventure, that I perversely continue to cherish.”</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">I think about the Freedom Center.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>If I had the foresight to see the financial challenges we have had, I’m sure we would not have built the building we did.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>And, yet, looking back, it’s probably good that we did.</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">Or, if I had had the foresight to see what would happen in Russia, I probably would not have brought the degree of enthusiastic commitment to it which I did, persuaded as I was then that Russia was on the path to some form of democratization.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>But seeing it the way I did, however incompletely and incorrectly it has turned out, underpinned our actions to become the clear-cut leader.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>I am glad I had that perception.</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">In capturing a motivation that had animated my writing, I cite these words from Woodward:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>“No matter how parochial its bounds, the historian is tempted to feel that his findings have meaning and value for a larger public than his fellow specialists and that he should share his arcane insights more widely.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>It is a critical moment, a temptation best resisted, until wisdom ripens.”</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">Wise or not, these were my instincts as I’ve written the books which I have written.</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">It’s striking to read what characterized the attitude of Americans in the 1950s:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>“Unified, confident, and powerful, Americans prided themselves on their military prowess, their economic productivity, their diplomatic triumphs, and their vindication of their high ideals.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>In this mood, America presented herself to the world as a model for how democracy, power, opulence and virtue could be combined under one flag.”</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">We no longer carry such an unvarnished view of our exceptionalism or the inevitability of our winning.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The Vietnam War, Watergate, Afghanistan, Iraq, the polarization of the body politic, have put a dark cloud over any naïve view of life.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Yet, we cannot allow this to darken the appreciation and pursuit of those values which characterize us at our best.</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">Woodward rejected this notion that we had “unparalleled power and unprecedented wealth” which led to “unbridled self-righteousness and the illusion of national innocence.”</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">That risk no longer prevails.</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">Reinhold Niebuhr, my favorite philosopher, balances it right.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>He understands that America’s ironic plight rests in the midst of seeming innocence.</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">In the 1960s and ‘70s, as a result of Vietnam and Watergate, Woodward writes, “It did seem as if history was at last about to catch up with Americans, and it was doubtful that they could much longer find refuge in their peculiar legends and myths.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>A malaise seemed to sap national self-righteousness, self-confidence, and complacency.”</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">But as history was quickly to show, that did not last.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The 1980s witnessed another shift in the national mood under President Reagan that assured Americans that they were making a miraculous recovery.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Not only were all American wars righteous, but they all ended in victory.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Yet, that attitude turned again with Iraq and Afghanistan and Donald Trump.</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">As always, we see reversion and retreat.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>We’re seeing it now in the pushback against what is described as identity politics and a waning in some quarters in the commitment to DE&I training.</p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="yiv2845095372ydp934f1ec7yiv3844834566ydp8b7879f1MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">We have to keep the few most important values in front of us and not retreat:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Everyone counts, love trumps hate, continuous improvement is possible, but not inevitable.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>We’ll always have to contest pushback and recognize the force of continuity in embedded cultures.</p></div></div><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); 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position: relative; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><span class="r_P D_F M_oRiNT" style="cursor: pointer; display: flex; margin: 0px 10px 0px 8px; outline: none;"><div class="D_F cdPFi_Z1oI2WW cdPFi4_Z29WjXl" data-test-id="popover-container" style="display: flex; fill: rgba(39, 41, 43, 0.8); outline: none;"><button aria-label="More" class="c27KHO0_n b_0 M_0 i_0 I_T y_Z1Focr A_6EqO c1AVi73_6FsP r_P C_q cvhIH6_T P_0" data-test-id="more-card-trigger" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; appearance: none; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: "YahooSans VF", YahooSans, "OpenSans VF", "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0" title="" type="button"><span class="D_F ab_C gl_C W_6D6F" style="align-items: center; display: flex; justify-content: center; outline: none; width: 20px;"><svg class="D_X W_6LEV H_6LEV cdPFi_q cZW7ROP_n en_0 cvhIH6_T" viewbox="0 0 20 20"><g><circle cx="3" cy="10" r="2"></circle><circle cx="10" cy="10" r="2"></circle><circle cx="17" cy="10" r="2"></circle></g></svg></span></button></div></span></li></ul></div></div></div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-30119831012679542972024-03-03T08:33:00.000-08:002024-03-03T08:58:19.900-08:00"There's Nothing New Under the Sun"...But There Can Be and Must Be<p>"There's nothing new under the sun:. It's a familiar bromide. </p><p>It captures enormous truth, of course. I am reminded of this again this week as I see how the words of ex-President Trump, angrily and contemptuously denouncing immigrants as "venomous poison", mirror almost word for word assertions by George Wallace and the leader of the Second Klu Klux Klan decades ago. This reminds me-there have always been leaders and there will always be leaders who are willing to fuel and live off the inveterate human tendency of people to see ourselves as victims...to elevate their view of their self worth by comparing themselves to a declared undeserving "other". </p><p><br /></p><p>Yet, with determined and principled leadership it does not have to be this way. In fact, we cannot allow it to be this way. To be sure, we do have to understand the source of people's grievances. We need to understand what corrective action can and should be taken to address them. But we need to stand up for the best in human nature..the recognition we are all on this journey of life together and should recognize each other, indeed recognize all people as deserving our respect for their dignity and right to freedom. </p><p>People did eventually stand up to reject the hateful rhetoric and views of George Wallace and the Klan. But not before they had gained broad public support. Wallace received almost 10 million votes and won five southern states in the 1968 Presidential election. The Second Klan claimed membership by numerous mayors of cities and state governors. But ultimately, their divisive rhetoric and unsubstantiated accusations and claims brought them down.</p><p>Sadly, we have not yet had unified Republican and other political voices (including from men and women who know better) rejecting the hateful rhetoric and views of Trump as they ultimately did those of Wallace and the Klan and Senator Joe McCarthy. The day will come when I feel certain historians, social commentators and the public at large will look back almost with a sense of wonder at how circumstances arose which allowed the emergence of a man of such feckless character and mean spirit as Donald Trump to capture the heart and mind of the Republican party. I hope we will learn from this experience. </p><p><br /></p><p>Stepping back, I am affirmed how much of the best in civilization has "been new under the sun". A reading from Exodus in my church today referred to "slaves" as a normal expected segment in society. In fact. as late as the beginning of the 18th Century slavery was legal in every country throughout the Americas. Median span of life has nearly doubled over this same period. At the turn of the 20th century, women did not have the right to vote in most western nations, including the US. As late as the 1970's and even beyond LGBQT members in this country were ostracized and had to live under cover. </p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, progress is possible--though there will always be push back which if we fail to confront will result in retreat. And yes, I have also come to recognize there are irreducible human instincts, instincts I share: of fear and the elevation and preservation of our egos; a coveting for power and control which demand that we seek, always., to embrace and live through our actions and treatment of others the "better angels of our nature". That will never happen on "automatic pilot". It will take constant effort and commitment. At least that is what I have found </p><p><br /></p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-57578618014753196192024-02-13T10:41:00.000-08:002024-02-13T10:41:47.217-08:00"Freedom's Dominion:A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power" by Jefferson Cowie<p> </p><div class="MyReviewCardCarousel__header" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.6rem;"><h3 class="Text Text__title3" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--color-text-heading-base); font-family: Copernicus, "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 2.8rem; margin: 0px;">My Review</h3></div><article class="MyReviewCard" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: grid !important; gap: 3.2rem !important; grid-template-columns: repeat(8, minmax(0px, 1fr)); position: relative;"><div class="MyReviewCard__profile" style="box-sizing: border-box; grid-column: span 2;"><div class="ReviewerProfile ReviewerProfile--medium" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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margin-bottom: 0.8rem; overflow: hidden;"><span class="Text Text__title4" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--color-text-heading-base); font-family: Copernicus, "Libre Baskerville", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.4rem; font-weight: 600; line-height: 2rem;"><div class="ReviewerProfile__name" data-testid="name" style="-webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-line-clamp: 2; box-sizing: border-box; display: -webkit-box; margin-bottom: 0.4rem; overflow-wrap: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/59320811-john-pepper" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">John Pepper</a></div></span><span class="Text Text__body3 Text__subdued" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--color-text-subdued); font-family: "Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 1.8rem;"><div class="ReviewerProfile__meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; text-wrap: nowrap;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">31 reviews</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">5 followers</span></span></div></span></section><div class="ReviewerProfile__follow" data-testid="follow" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.8rem;"></div></div></div><section class="MyReviewCard__content" style="box-sizing: border-box; grid-column: span 6; padding-bottom: 1.6rem;"><section class="MyReviewCard__row" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; margin-bottom: 1.2rem;"><div class="ShelfStatus" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span aria-label="Rating 5 out of 5" class="RatingStars RatingStars__small" role="img" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-flex; margin-left: -0.2rem;"><span class="baseClass RatingStar--small" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 2.2rem; padding: 0.2rem; width: 2.2rem;"><svg role="presentation" viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path class="RatingStar__fill" d="M24 9.63469C24 9.35683 23.7747 9.13158 23.4969 9.13158H15.0892L12.477 1.34327C12.4269 1.19375 12.3095 1.0764 12.16 1.02625C11.8966 0.937894 11.6114 1.07983 11.523 1.34327L8.91088 9.13158H0.503157C0.33975 9.13158 0.186521 9.21094 0.0922364 9.3444C-0.0680877 9.57134 -0.0140806 9.88529 0.212865 10.0456L7.00408 14.8432L4.40172 22.6166C4.35092 22.7683 4.37534 22.9352 4.46749 23.066C4.6275 23.2932 4.94137 23.3476 5.16853 23.1876L12 18.3758L18.8317 23.183C18.9625 23.2751 19.1293 23.2994 19.281 23.2486C19.5445 23.1604 19.6865 22.8752 19.5983 22.6117L16.996 14.8432L23.7872 10.0456C23.9206 9.95133 24 9.7981 24 9.63469Z"></path></svg></span><span class="baseClass RatingStar--small" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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color: var(--color-text-subdued); font-family: "Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4rem; line-height: 1.8rem;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6259598043" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">February 13, 2024</a></span></section><section class="ReviewText" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.6rem; position: relative;"><section class="ReviewText__content" dir="auto" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="TruncatedContent" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;" tabindex="-1"><div class="TruncatedContent__text TruncatedContent__text--large TruncatedContent__text--expanded" data-testid="contentContainer" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-height: none; overflow: hidden visible; word-break: break-word;" tabindex="-1"><span class="Formatted" style="box-sizing: border-box;">I can't overstate my admiration for this outstanding history. It illuminates the tension, indeed the fight for the true meaning of "freedom" between the poles of ensuring and supporting the freedom of every person and the freedom claimed and that asserted by individuals to essentially do what they choose even as and if it deprives the rights of others. As Cowie writes, "By. recognizing discrimination, white supremacy, economic power, and the capacity for violence as dimensions of what 'freedom' has always meant, we gain a fresh perspective on central problems of American ideology and practice. A core dimension of freedom is an expression of power".<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" />Cowie develops this timeless history while never failing to engage the reader with fluent and often inspiring prose and individual stories capturing broadly applicable themes thorough the lens one area of the country--southeastern Alabaman, Barbour County over the course of two centuries. He frames the history in the context of America's being born at "a unique confluence of two streams of global history: settler colonialism and chattel slavery". He describes our experience as being even more unique because our nation was founded "on a premise so deeply wedded to the combined ancient republican values of freedom and democratic governance".<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" />Cowie shows how the oppression of individual rights, beginning with the Creek Indians, to African Americans has been waged at the local level and contested and thwarted only by Federal Action which has all too often proved insufficient and temporary and indeed used by its opponents as a further reason to demand a locally imposed definition of "freedom" which entitles the denial of "freedom" to others. Again, Cowie writes: "we learn that federal power has proven itself, quite consistently, by design and practice, to be inadequate to the basic claims of citizenship by the people" Cowie goes on to lament that "one of the great ironies of American history is that federal power has a far better record of breeding anti-statists than it does disciplining them.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" />This commitment to "anti-statism" has too often been a cover for discrimination against blacks, immigrants and other minorities. It has been turned into "anti-elites" as well by politicians from Governor George Wallace to Nixon to Trump.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" />It is striking to read how Wallace's platform and very words mirror those followed by Trump. It fed off "victimization" at the hands of the Federal government and intellectual elites and indulged in outlandish untruths and the aura employed by "strongmen" through all time.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" />As Cowie cogently writes, "Freedom has always been a contested, messy, and ill defined concept..but it is crucial to recognize that the anti-statist, white power version of it is not an aberration but a virulent part of the American idiom".<br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" />He concludes, To confront this saga of freedom is to confront the fundamentals of the American narrative. "We ought not embrace the cruelty of the past, but neither should we continue the malignant idea that this story of oppression was never the 'real' American story. The solution is to commit to a bright, sharp, militant defense of the one single, unambiguous thing that the federal government should do defend. the civil and political rights on the local level for all people--cries of freedom to the contrary be damned".</span></div><div><span class="Formatted" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></div><div class="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div></div></section></section><div class="MyReviewCard__row" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; margin-bottom: 1.2rem;"><a class="Button Button--secondary Button--small" href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/60568518" style="align-items: center; border-color: var(--color-border-secondary-base); border-image: initial; border-radius: 3rem; border-style: solid; border-width: 0.2rem; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-flex; font-size: 1.4rem; font-weight: 600; height: 3.6rem; justify-content: center; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 1.2rem; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;"><span class="Button__labelItem" style="-webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-line-clamp: 1; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(39, 28, 20, 0.88); display: -webkit-box; font-family: "Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; overflow: hidden; word-break: break-all;"><i class="Icon PencilIcon" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-flex; height: 2.4rem; justify-content: center; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 2.4rem;"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M15.5115349,3.2704653 L4.83002247,13.8642153 C4.73634481,13.9571233 4.66883362,14.0730991 4.63430284,14.2004373 L3.03529771,20.0970438 C2.88364936,20.6562732 3.39640087,21.168917 3.95559842,21.0171513 L9.51845853,19.5073957 C9.64453607,19.4731784 9.75948935,19.4066226 9.85193588,19.3143187 L20.688734,8.49424033 C20.9809777,8.20244749 20.9823427,7.7293023 20.6917875,7.43582808 L16.5726469,3.27530562 C16.2810413,2.98077049 15.8058154,2.97860272 15.5115349,3.2704653 Z M16.034,4.864 L19.099,7.96 L8.933,18.111 L4.826,19.226 L6.029,14.787 L16.034,4.864 Z"></path><polygon points="13.2645351 7.42163086 14.3251953 6.36097069 17.6638153 9.69959068 16.6031551 10.7602509"></polygon><rect height="2.35390081" transform="translate(5.369675, 18.698100) rotate(-45.000000) translate(-5.369675, -18.698100) " width="1.5" x="4.61967468" y="17.5211501"></rect></svg></i></span></a></div></section></article>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-21696065015552434932024-02-09T13:01:00.000-08:002024-02-09T13:01:07.304-08:00Shades From US History on What Israel Has Perpetrated on the Palestinians<p> </p><div class="I_ZkbNhI D_FY W_6D6F" data-test-id="message-view-body" style="background-color: white; display: table; outline: none !important; width: 574px;"><div class="msg-body P_wpofO mq_AS" data-test-id="message-view-body-content" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; outline: none !important; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 2px 0px 0px; position: relative; word-break: break-word;"><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="outline: none !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv3781690846" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3781690846yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><br style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><p align="center" class="yiv3781690846ydp83a43027yiv9595728588ydp2f44c74dMsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: center;"><u style="outline: none !important;">Shades of What Israel Has Perpetrated on the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank over a Period of More than 70 Years</u></p><p align="center" class="yiv3781690846ydp83a43027yiv9595728588ydp2f44c74dMsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: center;"><u style="outline: none !important;"><span style="outline: none !important; text-decoration-line: none;"> </span></u></p><div style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">In the spring of 1832, the United States War Department gave a difficult task to the United States Marshall Robert L. Crawford to remove white settlers who had illegally encroached on land that had been given to the Creek people under the Treaty of Cusseta, which had been signed just weeks before Crawford received his orders as part of President Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830. That act allowed the government to exchange land west of the Mississippi for native lands in the east. The terms of the Treaty of Cusseta essentially privatized five million acres located in southeast Alabama, premised on giving individual plots of land to the Creek people. It provided Federal protection for the Native American rights for a period of five years. The hope in Washington was that the Creeks would sell their lands during this period and move west of the Mississippi. Yet, for the indigenous population, this was not the “opportunity” to move west but the right, which the government pledged to enforce for five years, to hold their land. </div><p class="yiv3781690846ydp83a43027yiv9595728588ydp2f44c74dMsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv3781690846ydp83a43027yiv9595728588ydp2f44c74dMsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Again and again, the Indians and Marshall Crawford turned to the federal government, Secretary of War Cass and the President for help. And they received some, but in the end not nearly enough to deter the white intruders who “refused to tolerate the federal government’s curtailing of what they militantly regarded as their rights and freedom.”</p><p class="yiv3781690846ydp83a43027yiv9595728588ydp2f44c74dMsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv3781690846ydp83a43027yiv9595728588ydp2f44c74dMsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I can’t read this history without being soberly reminded that this in so many ways is exactly what we have seen as Israeli settlers have moved into land granted by the United Nations to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. They have had fingers wagged at them from time to time by the Israel government, but not decisively, and indeed there are members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cabinet who openly advocate displacing Palestinians to other countries to make room for Israelis, just as U.S. leaders almost a century ago looked to displace the Native American population to the west to make room for white settlers east of the Mississippi. And, of course, those treaties establishing defined land for Native Americans west of the Mississippi were also soon to be abrogated, making way for the expansion of white settlers.</p><p class="yiv3781690846ydp83a43027yiv9595728588ydp2f44c74dMsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv3781690846ydp83a43027yiv9595728588ydp2f44c74dMsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">This is a fair reminder of what the Palestinians are up against and what those in the world, like me, who believe they have every right to their own state need to do to force upon the Israeli government the commitment to do what is right to recognize and support what Palestinians deserve—dignity and freedom—just as Israeli citizens do.</p><p class="yiv3781690846ydp83a43027yiv9595728588ydp2f44c74dMsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; 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position: relative; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><span class="r_P D_F M_oRiNT" style="cursor: pointer; display: flex; margin: 0px 10px 0px 8px; outline: none !important;"><div class="D_F cdPFi_Z1oI2WW cdPFi4_Z29WjXl" data-test-id="popover-container" style="display: flex; fill: rgba(39, 41, 43, 0.8); outline: none !important;"><button aria-label="More" class="c27KHO0_n b_0 M_0 i_0 I_T y_jyw3a A_6EqO c1AVi73_6FsP r_P C_q cvhIH6_T P_0" data-test-id="more-card-trigger" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; appearance: none; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: "YahooSans VF", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0" title="More" type="button"><span class="D_F ab_C gl_C W_6D6F" style="align-items: center; display: flex; justify-content: center; outline: none !important; width: 20px;"><svg class="D_X W_6LEV H_6LEV cdPFi_q cZW7ROP_n en_0 cvhIH6_T" viewbox="0 0 20 20"><g><circle cx="3" cy="10" r="2"></circle><circle cx="10" cy="10" r="2"></circle><circle cx="17" cy="10" r="2"></circle></g></svg></span></button></div></span></li></ul><span class="em_N en_N" style="flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 1; outline: none !important;"></span><hr class="M_0 P_0 cn_0" style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 0px;" /><br /></div></div></div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-79402129797313972402024-02-05T13:53:00.000-08:002024-02-05T13:53:30.839-08:00An Historic Decision That SCOTUS Dare Not Duck<p><br /></p><div class="I_ZkbNhI D_FY W_6D6F" data-test-id="message-view-body" style="background-color: white; display: table; outline: none !important; width: 574px;"><div class="msg-body P_wpofO mq_AS" data-test-id="message-view-body-content" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; outline: none !important; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 2px 0px 0px; position: relative; word-break: break-word;"><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="outline: none !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv7098579343" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yahoo_quoted" id="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yahoo_quoted_8068662874" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="color: #26282a; font-size: 13px; outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yiv5731627329" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yiv5731627329yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><p class="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yiv5731627329ydpd14ffe54MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">We will hear oral arguments on Thursday, February 8, on one of the most important cases ever brought before the Supreme Court of the United States as it rules on the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to exclude former President Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yiv5731627329ydpd14ffe54MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yiv5731627329ydpd14ffe54MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I have read two of the amicus briefs on this case, including one joined by historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat among others and another joined by historians David Blight, Jill Lepore and Drew Gilpin Faust among others.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>These briefs summarily and persuasively dismiss the objections which have been made to the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision. They make it clear that Section III of the 14<sup style="outline: none !important;">th</sup> Amendment was indeed written looking not only back to the Civil War but forward to other efforts that might be undertaken in the future to overthrow our democracy.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>They also convincingly debunk the argument that Trump is not an “officer” of the United States and the other argument that what he was involved in was not an “insurrection.”<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="outline: none !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div class="" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;"><div class="yiv7098579343yqt5016796742" id="yiv7098579343yqtfd17957" style="outline: none !important;"><p class="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yiv5731627329ydpd14ffe54MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> I AM convinced that an honest review of what the writers of Article 14 intended will result in Trump’s being disqualified.</p></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>This will admittedly be a hugely controversial decision; it will be said by some to be too political for the Court to decide and therefore should be decided by Congress. Yet, as Conservative Judge Brett Ludwig has argued in his amicus brief, this is clearly a Constitutional matter that should be decided by our Courts. </div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">The reality that this decision will be politically controversial should not lead the Court to "duck..to try to find a way out" or "kick the can down the road" Disqualifying Trump will be acting in accord with the intent of the authors of the 14th Amendment to protect our nation from a leader who sought to overturn it. It will be a decision marked forever as a stand for integrity, for doing the right thing. It will also, incidentally, save the Republican Party from not only a grievous threat to our democracy but it will stop its being co-opted by an individual who does not stand for what the Republican Party has stood for at its best.</div><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;"><div class="yiv7098579343yqt5016796742" id="yiv7098579343yqtfd31825" style="outline: none !important;"><p class="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yiv5731627329ydpd14ffe54MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv7098579343ydp2d64d4f3yiv5731627329ydpd14ffe54MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p></div></div><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;"><div class="yiv7098579343yqt5016796742" id="yiv7098579343yqtfd74896" style="outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div></div><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); 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position: relative; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><span class="r_P D_F M_oRiNT" style="cursor: pointer; display: flex; margin: 0px 10px 0px 8px; outline: none !important;"><div class="D_F cdPFi_Z1oI2WW cdPFi4_Z29WjXl" data-test-id="popover-container" style="display: flex; fill: rgba(39, 41, 43, 0.8); outline: none !important;"><button aria-label="More" class="c27KHO0_n b_0 M_0 i_0 I_T y_jyw3a A_6EqO c1AVi73_6FsP r_P C_q cvhIH6_T P_0" data-test-id="more-card-trigger" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; appearance: none; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-family: "YahooSans VF", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0" title="More" type="button"><span class="D_F ab_C gl_C W_6D6F" style="align-items: center; display: flex; justify-content: center; outline: none !important; width: 20px;"><svg class="D_X W_6LEV H_6LEV cdPFi_q cZW7ROP_n en_0 cvhIH6_T" viewbox="0 0 20 20"><g><circle cx="3" cy="10" r="2"></circle><circle cx="10" cy="10" r="2"></circle><circle cx="17" cy="10" r="2"></circle></g></svg></span></button></div></span></li></ul></div></div></div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-48196165100214980782024-01-17T06:07:00.000-08:002024-01-17T06:07:28.092-08:00Make Haste to Be Kind--A Story Carrying a Message to Guide Our Lives<p> Friends, </p><p><br /></p><p>You may have read this story before. I read it for the first time yesterday. I will return to it often. It is too important not to share.</p><p><br /></p><p>John</p><p><br /></p><p>As she stood in front of her 5th-grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.</p><p>Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy, and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant.</p><p>It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's, and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.</p><p>At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.</p><p>Teddy's first-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around.."</p><p>His second-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well-liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness, and life at home must be a struggle."</p><p>His third-grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."</p><p>Teddy's fourth-grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class."</p><p>By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper That he got from a grocery bag Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume.. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to." After the children left, she cried for at least an hour.</p><p>On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets.."</p><p>A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling* her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.</p><p>Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in life.</p><p>Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.</p><p>Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer.... The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.</p><p>The story does not end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the place that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom.</p><p>Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.</p><p>They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for* believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."</p><p>Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."</p><p>(For you that don't know, Teddy Stoddard is the Dr. at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines that has the Stoddard Cancer Wing.)</p><p>Warm someone's heart today. . . pass this along. I love this story so very much, I cry every time I read it. Just try to make a difference in someone's life today? tomorrow? Just "do it".</p><p>Random acts of kindness, I think they call it?</p><p>"Believe in Angels, then return the favor." Sent from my iPhone</p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-85216006127577339382024-01-09T02:51:00.000-08:002024-01-09T02:51:42.761-08:00A Clear and Present Danger--Former President Trump<div class="D_F ek_BB H_6D6F aw_2941hk ba_10I1Qt az_oOItw ay_Z1nkUQx I_kt4zd" style="background-color: white; background-image: var(--bg-repeat-img); background-position: var(--bg-repeat-img-position); background-repeat: var(--bg-repeat); background-size: var(--bg-repeat-img-size); color: #1d2228; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; height: 652px; outline: none !important;"><div class="D_F ek_BB H_6D6F cZ1RN91d_n s_1HCsWR aw_Z22yhkg I_kt4zd az_DW ba_Z2gmOa3 ay_Z1cYiMT c2hBT4u_Zm6i39 cZTwBjO_Zdogtk" data-test-id="mail-app" id="app" style="background-color: var(--bg-color); background-image: var(--bg-img); background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: var(--bg-size); display: flex; flex-direction: column; height: 652px; min-width: 1024px; outline: none !important; user-select: none;" tabindex="-1"><div class="I_ZnwrMC D_F em_N o_h W_6D6F H_6D6F" data-test-id="content-area" style="background-color: #f4f4f7; display: flex; flex-grow: 1; height: 580px; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden; width: 1280px;"><div class="D_F em_N o_h s_1HLnlu" data-test-id="content-below-tabs" style="display: flex; flex-grow: 1; min-width: 1280px; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden;"><div class="D_F em_N ej_eUh o_h" id="mail-app-component-container" style="display: flex; flex-basis: 86%; flex-grow: 1; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden;"><div class="em_N ek_BB gl_C j_ZUs0f0 o_h p_R D_F s_e5X x_Z14vXdP" data-test-id="mail-app-component" data-yaft-module="norrin_main" id="mail-app-component" style="border-right: 1px solid rgb(224, 228, 233); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3) 0px 0px 3px; display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; min-width: 50%; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><div class="F_N gl_C o_h D_F p_R U_0 I_ZkbNhI" data-test-id="mail-app-main-content" style="background-color: white; display: flex; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 0px; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><div aria-label="Message list. 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Use arrow keys to navigate, or tab to the next group." data-test-id="focus-group" style="outline: none !important;"><ul class="hd_n M_0 X_0" data-test-id="cards" style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding-left: 0px;"><li class="m_Z12nDQf D_F ek_BB ir_0" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(241, 241, 245); display: flex; flex-direction: column; outline: 0px;"><div class="p_R b_2w4lU5 I_ZkbNhI em_N it_689y X_fq7 N_6LEV iu_FJ is_Z2bg7IA iv_0 iv3_dRA cZdTOHS_28Otf4 j_ZUs0f0 message-view" data-iskeynav="true" data-test-expanded="true" data-test-id="message-view" style="border: 1px solid rgb(151, 158, 168); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3) 0px 0px 3px; flex-grow: 1; outline-color: var(--bold-outline-color); outline-offset: -2px; outline-style: solid; outline-width: 2px !important; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;" tabindex="40"><div data-test-id="message-body-container" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="I_ZkbNhI D_FY W_6D6F" data-test-id="message-view-body" style="display: table; outline: none !important; width: 574px;"><div class="msg-body P_wpofO mq_AS" data-test-id="message-view-body-content" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; outline: none !important; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 2px 0px 0px; position: relative; word-break: break-word;"><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="outline: none !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv9833892903" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yahoo_quoted" id="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yahoo_quoted_4797033829" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="color: #26282a; outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yiv1018718680" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yiv1018718680yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><p class="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yiv1018718680ydpff0c7082MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">It is all too easy to view Trump’s campaign to regain the presidency as <i style="outline: none !important;">political theatre</i>.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Outlandish.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>So exaggerated, so filled with hyperbole to be almost humorous.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>But it’s much more than that I see at this moment.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>It’s a <i style="outline: none !important;">clear and present danger</i> to the future of our nation and to the future of the world.</p><p class="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yiv1018718680ydpff0c7082MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yiv1018718680ydpff0c7082MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I write this today as I would not have even a week or two weeks ago.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>I believe Trump has crossed a line mentally.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>He is no longer rational.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>His comments leap all over the place, disconnected.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>The latest on Saturday had him asserting that the Civil War could have been negotiated, did not need to have been fought.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>He has described the people who pled guilty, some of whom are in jail, for participating in the uprising of January 6, 2021 as “hostages” who should be released.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yiv1018718680ydpff0c7082MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yiv1018718680ydpff0c7082MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Former Vice-President Pence came out yesterday recommending to fellow Republicans that they support Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis for President, not Donald Trump.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>If only a phalanx of fellow Republicans would stand up in unison publicly to say the same thing.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv9833892903ydpd6014015yiv1018718680ydpff0c7082MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I move to the Supreme Court decision which is pending on the question of whether the State of Colorado (or any other state) can bar Trump from the primary or general election because of the article in the 14<sup style="outline: none !important;">th</sup> Amendment barring the election of any person who has participated in or supported an insurrection.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Trump clearly has done that.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="outline: none !important;"></span>As has been pointed out, the Supreme Court has several avenues they could pursue to overturn Colorado’s decision and, as they would say, <i style="outline: none !important;">let the voters decide</i>.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>And it is my belief that even with the electoral challenges Biden faces, Trump will be rejected.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>But the brave decision on the part of the Supreme Court will be to accept the political outcry that would accompany its supporting the State of Colorado, a decision which I believe would be judicially correct. Doing this would also have the enormous benefit of eliminating even the <i style="outline: none !important;">possibility</i> of the clear and present danger which Trump represents to our Nation and the world.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="outline: none !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div class="" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;"><div class="yiv9833892903yqt8011587680" id="yiv9833892903yqtfd43119" style="outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div></div><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;"><div class="yiv9833892903yqt8011587680" id="yiv9833892903yqtfd83646" style="outline: none !important;"></div></div><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); 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display: flex; justify-content: center; outline: none !important; width: 20px;"><svg class="D_X W_6LEV H_6LEV cdPFi_Z1oI2WW cZW7ROP_n en_0 cvhIH6_T" viewbox="0 0 20 20"><g><path d="M18.787 3.226C18.69 3.128 18.496 3 18.301 3H1.767C1.341 3 1 3.396 1 3.813v13.405a.76.76 0 00.767.782h16.534c.486 0 .699-.235.699-.783V3.715a.756.756 0 00-.213-.489zM17.5 16.5h-15v-12h15v12z"></path><path d="M13 11h2.5v-1H13V9h3V8h-4v5h1zM10.002 8H11v5h-.998zM6.488 13.067c.434 0 .799-.085 1.097-.255.173-.097.368-.265.585-.503l.113.691H9v-2.753H7v.836h1.031a1.291 1.291 0 01-.446.797c-.241.203-.551.304-.928.304a1.55 1.55 0 01-1.031-.384c-.302-.256-.453-.692-.453-1.308 0-.612.14-1.07.419-1.374s.634-.458 1.068-.458c.227 0 .432.037.618.112.331.136.561.386.646.728H9a1.778 1.778 0 00-.704-1.218c-.416-.323-.966-.485-1.651-.485-.79 0-1.424.245-1.904.734-.48.49-.741 1.14-.741 1.95 0 .802.258 1.434.734 1.896.455.46 1.04.69 1.754.69z"></path></g></svg></span></button></div></div><div style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div data-test-id="popover-container" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><button aria-label="Stationery" class="c27KHO0_n b_0 M_0 i_0 I_T y_jyw3a A_6EqO c1AVi73_6FsP r_P C_Z1oI2WW cvhIH6_T P_Z1otAne C4_Z2chSgW H_6TFj e_dRA u_e69 I4_Z1gjdjJ" data-iskeynav="true" data-test-id="stationery-button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; appearance: none; border-color: initial; border-radius: 2px; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; color: rgba(39, 41, 43, 0.8); cursor: pointer; font-family: "YahooSans VF", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 500; height: 30px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 5px 8px;" tabindex="-1" title="Stationery" type="button"><span class="D_F ab_C gl_C W_6D6F" style="align-items: center; display: flex; justify-content: center; outline: none !important; width: 20px;"><svg class="D_X W_6LEV H_6LEV cdPFi_Z1oI2WW cZW7ROP_n en_0 cvhIH6_T rtlR_h_2gl0WC" viewbox="0 0 20 20"><g><path d="M17.007 3H16V.78c0-.562-.43-.922-.961-.78L2 3v14c0 .548.451 1 1 1h14.007A1 1 0 0018 17V4a1 1 0 00-.993-1zM14.5 1.5V3H8l6.5-1.5zm2 15h-13v-12h13v12z"></path><path d="M10 14.5l3.397-3.426a2.11 2.11 0 000-2.954 2.07 2.07 0 00-1.482-.62c-.594 0-1.112.154-1.915 1.058C9.187 7.643 8.67 7.5 8.086 7.5c-.561 0-1.087.22-1.482.62a2.109 2.109 0 000 2.955L10 14.5z"></path></g></svg></span></button></div></div></div></div><span style="outline: none !important;"><div data-test-id="compose-toolbar.more-btn" style="outline: none !important;"><button aria-label="More options" class="c27KHO0_n b_0 M_0 i_0 I_T y_jyw3a A_6EqO c1AVi73_6FsP r_P C_Z1oI2WW cvhIH6_T P_Z1otAne C4_Z2chSgW H_6TFj e_dRA u_e69 I4_Z1gjdjJ" data-iskeynav="true" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; appearance: none; border-color: initial; border-radius: 2px; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; color: rgba(39, 41, 43, 0.8); cursor: pointer; font-family: "YahooSans VF", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 500; height: 30px; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 5px 8px;" tabindex="-1" title="More options" type="button"><span class="D_F ab_C gl_C W_6D6F" style="align-items: center; display: flex; justify-content: center; outline: none !important; width: 20px;"><svg class="D_X W_6LEV H_6LEV cdPFi_Z1oI2WW cZW7ROP_n en_0 cvhIH6_T" viewbox="0 0 20 20"><g><circle cx="3" cy="10" r="2"></circle><circle cx="10" cy="10" r="2"></circle><circle cx="17" cy="10" r="2"></circle></g></svg></span></button></div></span></div><span class="em_N" style="flex-grow: 1; outline: none !important;"></span><div class="D_F" style="display: flex; outline: none !important;"><button class="P_1EudUu C_Z29WjXl r_A y_jyw3a A_6EqO c1AVi73_6FsP cvhIH6_T k_w e_dRA D_F M_ZmsKgw o_v p_R V_M t_C cZ1RN91d_n u_e69 i_3qGKe H_6TFj cn_dBP cg_FJ l_Z29WjXl j_n S_n S4_n I_ZkbNhI I4_ZkbNhI C4_Z2dyg2z l4_Z2dyg2z I3_ZpQYvz C3_Z2dyg2z l3_Z2dyg2z I0_ZpQYvz C0_Z2dyg2z l0_Z2dyg2z O_cMq ab_C" data-test-id="compose-toolbar-save-now" disabled="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; align-items: center; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(15, 105, 255); border-radius: 2px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: none; color: #0f69ff; cursor: auto; display: flex; font-family: "YahooSans VF", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 500; height: 30px; line-height: 2.461; margin: 0px 0px 0px 8px; opacity: 0.4; outline: none !important; overflow: visible; padding: 0px 20px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;" tabindex="-1" type="button"><span style="outline: none !important;">Save</span></button><button class="P_1EudUu C_ZnTFMv r_P y_jyw3a A_6EqO c1AVi73_6FsP cvhIH6_T k_w e_dRA D_F M_ZmsKgw o_v p_R V_M t_C cZ1RN91d_n u_e69 i_3qGKe H_6TFj cn_dBP cg_FJ l_ZnTFMv j_n S_n S4_n I_ZkbNhI I4_v5hft I3_v5hft I0_v5hft ab_C" data-test-id="compose-toolbar-delete-btn" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; align-items: center; background-color: white; border-color: rgb(240, 22, 47); border-radius: 2px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; box-shadow: none; color: #f0162f; cursor: pointer; display: flex; font-family: "YahooSans VF", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 500; height: 30px; line-height: 2.461; margin: 0px 0px 0px 8px; outline: none !important; overflow: visible; padding: 0px 20px; position: relative; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;" tabindex="-1" type="button"><span style="outline: none !important;">Delete</span></button></div></div></div></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="B_0 Z_d48 p_f L_3o4BO K_3DpOq D_F cZW7ROP_n eo_HB ek_FB ab_CH" data-test-id="compact-compose-container" style="align-items: flex-end; bottom: 0px; display: flex; flex-flow: row-reverse wrap; height: calc(100% - 163px); left: 192px; max-height: 520px; outline: none !important; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; right: 332px; z-index: 100;"></div></div><div class="D_F o_v p_R I_ZnwrMC" data-test-id="mail-right-rail" style="display: flex; outline: none !important; overflow: visible; position: relative;"><div class="x_Z14vXdP W_6LEV H_6D6F X_eTB D_F ab_C o_h p_a T_0 Q_36SPr L_67SN cZW7ROP_n" style="align-items: center; border-right: 1px solid rgb(224, 228, 233); display: flex; height: 580px; left: -1px; margin-left: -26px; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden; padding-left: 6px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 20px;"><div class="c27KHO0_n I_ZkbNhI O_cMp b_0 D_F cdPFi_Z281SGl r_P s_6NIX H_6NIX j_Z197UJe e_VHH8F ab_C X_dRA cZW7ROP_A O4_N aw4_n cdPFi4_ZkbNhI Z_O I4_ZkbNhI" data-test-id="right-rail-hidead-btn" style="align-items: center; appearance: none; background-color: white; border-radius: 50% 0px 0px 50%; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.24) -2px 0px 4px 0px; cursor: pointer; display: flex; fill: rgb(29, 34, 40); height: 28px; min-width: 28px; opacity: 0.3; outline: none !important; padding-left: 2px; pointer-events: auto; z-index: 2;" title="Hide Advertisement"><svg class="D_X W_6LEV H_6LEV cdPFi_q cZW7ROP_n en_0 cvhIH6_T h_22ufi4" viewbox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M13.5 12.75a.748.748 0 01-.53-.22L10 9.56l-2.97 2.97a.75.75 0 11-1.06-1.06L10 7.44l4.03 4.03a.75.75 0 01-.53 1.28z"></path></svg></div></div><div class="D_F ek_BB" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; outline: none !important;"><div class="Z_qc" style="outline: none !important; z-index: 20;"><div aria-label="Keyboard navigation group. Use arrow keys to navigate, or tab to the next group." class="D_F en_0 gl_FM je_6Fd5 jb_6Fd5 N_6Fd5 X_6Fd5 k_w I_ZkbNhI m_Z14vXdP U_67SN ab_C" data-test-id="comms-properties-bar" style="align-items: center; background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(224, 228, 233); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-shrink: 0; height: 52px; justify-content: space-between; margin-bottom: -1px; outline: none !important; padding: 16px;"><div aria-label="Navigate to other AOL properties like Calendar, Contacts, and Notepad" class="D_F W_A" data-test-id="comms-properties" role="navigation" style="display: flex; outline: none !important; width: auto;"><button aria-label="Contacts" class="D_F r_P M_Z1kd4S1 q_n b_n P_0 C_ZkbNhI cdPFi_Z1TsNbA cdPFi4_Z29WjXl" data-iskeynav="true" data-test-id="contacts-pane-icon" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; 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border: none; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: flex; fill: rgb(151, 158, 168); margin: 0px 14px 0px 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 0px;"><button class="b_n P_0 p_R C_q H_6LEV r_P I_T" data-iskeynav="true" data-test-id="calendar-right-rail-clickable-btn" style="border-color: initial; border-style: none; border-width: initial; cursor: pointer; font-family: var(--yahoo-web-font-stack,"Helvetica Neue","Segoe UI",Helvetica,Arial,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif); height: 20px; outline: none !important; padding: 0px; position: relative;" tabindex="-1" title="Calendar"><svg class="D_X W_6LEV H_6LEV cdPFi_q cZW7ROP_n en_0 cvhIH6_T" viewbox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M18 3.496h-3.001v-.46a1 1 0 10-2 0v.46h-6v-.46a1 1 0 10-1.999 0v.46H2c-.633 0-1 .359-1 1v11.5c0 .641.367 1 1 1h16c.633 0 1-.359 1-1v-11.5c0-.641-.367-1-1-1z"></path></svg><div aria-labelledby="calendar-day-month" class="p_a A_pG c1AVi73_6EGz C_q u_e69 T_e5X L_e5X h_16Wm1O" data-test-id="calendar-day-text" style="color: inherit; font-size: 10px; left: 10px; outline: none !important; position: absolute; top: 10px; transform: translate(-50%, -48%);">9</div></button></div><a aria-label="Notepad" class="D_F r_P M_Z1kd4S1 q_n b_n P_0 C_ZkbNhI cdPFi_Z1TsNbA cdPFi4_Z29WjXl " data-iskeynav="true" data-test-id="right-rail-notepad-icon" href="https://calendar.aol.com/?view=notepad" rel="noopener" style="background: none; border: none; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: flex; fill: rgb(151, 158, 168); margin: 0px 14px 0px 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" tabindex="-1" target="_blank" title="Notepad"><svg class="D_X W_6LEV H_6LEV cdPFi_q cZW7ROP_n en_0 cvhIH6_T" viewbox="0 0 20 20"><g><path d="M13 14.73V18l4-4h-3.111c-.66 0-.889.063-.889.73z"></path><path d="M16 2H4c-.667 0-1 .333-1 1v14c0 .626.305.946.892.985.053.01.096.015.108.015h7.51v-4.231c.018-.831.438-1.25 1.266-1.255H17V3c-.007-.667-.34-1-1-1zM9 14H6.889a.764.764 0 01-.778-.75c0-.415.348-.75.778-.75H9c.43 0 .778.335.778.75S9.429 14 9 14zm4.111-3.5H6.89a.764.764 0 01-.778-.75c0-.415.348-.75.778-.75h6.222c.43-.01.778.335.778.75s-.349.75-.778.75zm0-3.5H6.89a.764.764 0 01-.778-.75c0-.415.348-.75.778-.75h6.222c.43 0 .778.335.778.75S13.54 7 13.11 7z"></path></g></svg></a><span style="outline: none !important;"><button class="D_F r_P M_Z1kd4S1 q_n b_n P_0 C_ZkbNhI cdPFi_Z1TsNbA cdPFi4_Z29WjXl" data-iskeynav="true" data-test-id="right-rail-help-icon" style="background-attachment: initial; 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border-style: none; border-width: initial; height: 600px; outline: none !important; width: 160px;"></iframe></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="outline: none !important;"></div><div aria-live="assertive" role="alertdialog" style="outline: none !important;"></div><div aria-live="polite" role="status" style="outline: none !important;"></div><div aria-live="assertive" role="alert" style="outline: none !important;"></div></div></div><p> </p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-37644081725790716712024-01-09T02:32:00.000-08:002024-01-09T02:32:29.375-08:00How Has the US Mangaged to Survive As Well as It Has?<p> Reading <i style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">The History of the Republic</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">by Alan Taylor, I’m confronted with the reality that the United States was on the edge of its very existence right from the beginning.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Not only during the Revolutionary War, which could have gone either way, but then the competition between the Federalists and the Republicans, between states’ rights and the central government, between rural America and urban America (witness the Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts and the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania in the late 1700s) and the animus between Jefferson and Adams and in the acceptance and rejection of immigrants.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We talk about polarization today as if we had not experienced it before.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Listening to a documentary on Mike Wallace underscores how much we have witnessed polarization before, no more than over the Vietnam War.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The protests made those we see today seem almost calm in comparison.</span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">Let’s face it, like all human beings we’re contentious; we seek advantage; the rich tend to focus on preserving what they have; the poor on what they don’t have.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">In many ways, looking at our history, the question comes down to how, with all this inner turmoil, have we managed to survive as <i style="outline: none !important;">well</i> as we have.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>With all our frailties, how have we managed to make a good degree of progress, not uniquely, other countries have, too, but in a very special way.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">I think the reasons come back to a few characteristics of our nation, some of which we are endowed with, others that have grown through the make-up that our expansive land invited and made possible.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">Clearly, for the first centuries of our republic, we benefited from the opportunity to expand across the continent by our diplomatic adroitness and luck (Louisiana Purchase) and, yes, avaricious quest for land (Mexican and Spanish American Wars).<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>We were able to move across this continent with all the opportunities it provided and with all the resources that came from it.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">Then there is our Constitution:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>engineered to foster debate, now more than ever, vitriolic debate because of gerrymandering and the polarization of news (everybody hearing what they want through segmented channels).<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Then there is our diversity.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>We fought against it at every step:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>enslaving African-Americans and then throttling by Jim Crow.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Keeping immigrants out and belittling them for generations when they come.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Still, they have come because our country offered <i style="outline: none !important;">comparative freedom</i> if not total freedom and the opportunity to prosper.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>This diversity has provided an engine of innovation, of new ideas, that I don’t think any other nation has.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>If it weren’t for the expanse of our land and the opportunity provided, we wouldn’t have had this diversity.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>In an ironic and perverse way, we mightn’t have it either if we hadn’t had slavery, at least not with our African-American population, which is contributing so much today.</span></p><p class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="yiv0227265871ydpf70eac59MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">*****</span></p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-39746942302841809742024-01-03T01:26:00.000-08:002024-01-03T01:26:18.793-08:00The Path to Sustained Peace in Israel and Palestine: Reflections on the Best Book I Have Read on This Burning Issue<p> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span></p><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;" type="cite"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv2329668250yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><p class="yiv2329668250ydpe7e0b105MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157523969-sinking-into-the-honey-trap" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" style="color: #196ad4; outline: none !important;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; outline: none !important;"></span></a></p><p class="yiv2329668250ydpe7e0b105MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157523969-sinking-into-the-honey-trap" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" style="color: #196ad4; outline: none !important;" target="_blank"><b style="outline: none !important;">Sinking into the Honey Trap: The Case of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict</b></a><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />by </p><p class="yiv2329668250ydpe7e0b105MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/296174.Daniel_Bar_Tal" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" style="color: #196ad4; outline: none !important;" target="_blank">Daniel Bar-Tal</a>,</p><p class="yiv2329668250ydpe7e0b105MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2329668250ydpe7e0b105MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/59320811-john-pepper" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" style="color: #196ad4; outline: none !important;" target="_blank">John Pepper</a>'s review</p><p class="yiv2329668250ydpe7e0b105MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Jul 22, 2023 </p><p class="yiv2329668250ydpe7e0b105MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2329668250ydpe7e0b105MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I’ve read four books now on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, each with their own strengths. However, the freshest, and in many ways the most insightful for me, has been Daniel Bar-Tal’s, Sinking into the Honey Trap: The Case of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Bar-Tal is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Education at Tel Aviv University. His research interest lies in political and social psychology. He approaches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by tracking its social-psychological foundations. He does so in the context of other intractable conflicts (Northern Ireland, Algeria, Guatemala, etc.).<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Professor Bar-Tal believes that resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—that peace—will eventually occur, even as it may well take decades, which it already has. Professor Bar-Tal’s belief is based on two realities and one conviction. The two realities lie in the demographics: the number of Palestinians is about the same number of Israelis, and the Palestinians are not simply going to move away. The other reality as Professor Bar-Tal sees it is that conflicts of this horrible dimension and long-standing character have been resolved in the past. Northern Ireland is a classic example. South Africa probably another.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />As Bar-Tal views history over the long term (centuries), he sees, as I do, a movement-- albeit with fits and starts-- to a greater respect for individual human dignity and freedom. He believes this will eventually happen in Israel.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Basic to Bar-Tal’s thesis is that the current state of the conflict has been created by competing narratives which, through most of history of this conflict, have asserted that the other side has no right to even exist. Each side declares its legitimacy and it is legitimacy that cannot be shared.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />This narrative and mindset, has been expressed in different ways. At a few points it as has been altered by a short commitment to peace. But not today.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Bar-Tal rightly points to mutual trust as the key determining foundation for progress. As we have always seen in every venue, trust must flow from people coming to know one another and learning they can work together to a better end. This is what makes the "Combatants for Peace" movement so very important to my mind.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Another key part of Bar-Tal’s thesis is that the resolution of this conflict will need to be led by the stronger party, i.e., Israel. At the same time, he recognizes the imperative, so long un-obtained, that Palestine establish a unified leadership credible to the Palestinians, the Israelis and the world at large. He believes the Arab nations and Israel and probably Europe need to help make that happen.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />However, the most important premise in Bar-Tal’s thesis on what it will take to resolve this conflict is that it will have to come from the recognition that the failure to do this carries a greater cost to both parties, including the Israelis, than continuing with the situation as it exists today.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />A clear challenge on this point is that today the majority of Israelis not only feel the current situation is right, but they’re comfortable with it. The PLO, while objecting to the current situation, also to some degree finds that the conflict gives them its right to exist. Bar-Tal’s conviction on the importance of both parties discovering it is in their interest to change necessarily means, I fear, that there is likely to be more carnage before the mindset is created to establish a new narrative.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />I find enormous encouragement in the history of the last 75+ years that there have been instances that show such a shift can occur. I won’t go through nor am I even aware of all the examples. Preeminent among them for me was the impact of Anwar Sadat’s coming to Israel to make peace. Sadat saw through the conflict supporting narratives and recognized the psychological barriers which prevented a peace process between his country and Israel.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />In a luminous and brave speech to the Israeli Parliament in November 1977, Sadat reflected on the factors that prevent societies involved in conflict to reach an agreement: “There remained..a wall (which) constitutes a psychological barrier between us. A barrier of suspicion. A barrier of rejection. A barrier of hallucinations around any action, deed or decision. Today, through my visit to you, I ask you: Why don’t we stretch our hands with faith and sincerity so that, together, we might destroy this barrier? Why shouldn’t ours and yours meet with faith and sincerity, so that together we might remove all suspicion of fear, betrayal and ill intentions? Why don’t we stand together with the bravery of men and the boldness of heroes who dedicate themselves to a sublime objective?”<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Tragically, as we all know, several years later, Sadat was assassinated by a far-right citizen of his own nation.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />It’s often claimed that the Palestinians have never acknowledged the right of Israel to exist. That is not true. It’s been that way often, but not always. At about the time of the Oslo Accords, Yasser Arafat in November 1988 proclaimed the establishment of a Palestinian state (PLO) and also recognized the state of Israel within its 1967 borders, paving the way for division of the area into two states.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Of course, that never occurred. Blame exists on both sides.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />The change in mindset called for by Sadat was more than skin deep. It took place importantly in the education area. Until the 1980s, the Israeli educational system had taught an uncompromising story of Israeli victimhood and Palestinian perfidy. That changed in 1984. New instruction material published by the Ministry of Education proclaimed the “existential need” for the educational system to deal with relations between Jews and Arabs and Israel. It established that the history of the Arab nations, their culture, their art, their language and their religion would “be taught in schools and the subject of relations between Israelis and Arabs would be integrated into the educational system from Kindergarten until the end of high school.”<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />In 1994, the Director General of the Ministry of Education wrote that: “We should present the achievement of peace between us and our neighbors, the Palestinians and the Arab nations, as an agreed-upon goal and to explain its essential importance, its contribution to the security, the strength and the prosperity of Israel.”<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Yitzhak Rabin, then Prime Minister, said this in May 1994 during the signing of the Cairo Agreement regarding the Gaza Strip and Jericho: “We are convinced that our two people can live on the same patch of territory, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, as the Prophets foretold, and bring to this country, a land of rocks and of tombstones—the taste of milk and honey that it deserves. On this day, I turn to you, the Palestinian people and say: Our Palestinian neighbors, a century of bloodshed has forged in us a core of mutual enmity…today we are both extending a hand in peace. Today, we are inaugurating a new age.”<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />That was about to change as the 21st century was born. There were a number of factors, perhaps most importantly the lethal Second Intifada. The narrative shifted again and it has not changed fundamentally to today. There is encouragingly a growing, stronger minority group in Israel and Palestine that sees the resolution of the conflict as the only ultimate safety ground for Israel as well as what is right for and owed to the Palestinians. While still a minority, the world must build on this. It is the only peaceful and righteous path to the future.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />I am struck by how the conflict of competing narratives is reinforced by the media and by the lack of factual understanding by the public. An example. Research conducted in 2008 indicates that about 22% of Israelis thought the Arabs had been a minority in the country before the beginning of accelerated Jewish immigration. Thirty-seven percent thought they were a majority and only 23% said they were a large majority. In reality, 95% of the population were Arabs.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />About 70% of Israelis did not know that the division of the country, according to the United Nations resolution in 1947, gave the Jews, who were a minority, a larger, expanse of territory than that given to the Arabs. (About 1.2 million Arabs received 43% of the country, while about 600,000 Jews received 56% of the territory.)<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Looking forward, Professor Bar-Tal underscores that achieving an ultimately peaceful solution will require two fundamentally different narratives than exist today. An eventual lasting peace agreement will involve painful compromises and will need to be based on the conviction that it is better than the alternative and, from an Israeli standpoint, would not harm the security--indeed it would improve the security of the Israeli people. Needless to say, it must grant equal justice and rights to the Palestinian people.<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Professor Bar-Tal summarizes his examination of other examples of conflict resolution. He repeats his thesis that they were resolved peacefully "when at least a significant part of society change the narratives they held during the conflict. This happened when a large portion of society realized that the price of the conflict was extremely detrimental to society: in human lives, in its development, in its attempt to achieve prosperity.”<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />“When this understanding spreads and becomes legitimate, the insight that one can speak with the opponent arises, the same opponent who has been perceived as violent, with whom one does not negotiate. In other words, in order to enable the end of the conflict, it is important to change the way one looks at the opponent in the conflict.”<br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" />Professor Bar-Tal concludes with this: “Every major societal change must begin with the construction of new narratives. Societies that wish to set their direction toward democracy, humanizing the ‘other,’ peace, morality and justice must socialize their citizens with these values from a very early age. It is our responsibility and duty to show this road to the nations.”</p><p class="yiv2329668250ydpe7e0b105MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p></div></div></div></div></blockquote>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-75761691633371490452023-12-31T08:52:00.000-08:002023-12-31T08:52:03.656-08:00My Resolution for 2024<p> Never to forget; always to honor these words of Henri Amiel:</p><p><br /></p><p>"Life is short, and we do not have much time</p><p>to gladden the hearts of those who make the journey with us.</p><p>So, be swift to love, and make haste to be kind. </p><p>And may the blessing of God who made us, </p><p>who loves us and travels with us</p><p>be with me and with you now and forever"</p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-17991967129968610612023-12-26T03:37:00.000-08:002023-12-26T03:37:13.579-08:00The Centrality of LOVE<p> We hear its all importance celebrated simply and singularly from two different eras:</p><p><br /></p><p>"Love, and do as you will"--Saint Augustine.</p><p><br /></p><p>"All you need is love"--John Lennon and Paul McCartney</p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-34754886846798235532023-12-26T03:12:00.000-08:002023-12-26T03:12:18.982-08:00War Is Hell--Let Us Never Forget. It<p> This from Tolstoy's "War and Peace"</p><p><br /></p><div align="center" class="yiv2466200278MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; outline: none !important; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="yiv2466200278MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; outline: none !important;">“War isn’t courtesy, it’s the vilest thing in the world, and we must understand that and not play at war. We must take this terrible necessity sternly and seriously. That’s the whole point: to cast off the lie, and if it’s war, it’s war, not a game.”</div><div class="yiv2466200278MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; outline: none !important;"><br /></div><div class="yiv2466200278MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.3333px; outline: none !important;">We are being reminded of this yet again, in the carnage suffered by people in the Holy Land and Ukraine. Both conflicts must be stopped and a basis for lasting peace put in place. That's what the people want. Leaders must step up and face reality and do what is right to achieve peace. </div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-74989452819631170692023-12-18T07:14:00.000-08:002023-12-18T07:14:36.936-08:00Don't Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater<p> That proverbial cliche comes to mind as I read the deluge of over-the top criticism of so called "elite universities" following the misbegotten testimony before congress by three presidents of Ivy League schools. </p><p>Yes, it is true that the faculty of most of these schools follows a liberal political bent. </p><p>Yes, it is true, that many students and faculty members holding "conservative" views may feel uncomfortable in expressing them. </p><p>Yes, it is true that group identify has taken on a greater significance than individual identity in recent years, in some cases excessively so in my opinion. </p><p>Yes, there are always reasons to ask if we have the balance right between seeking truth and respecting our most important personal convictions born of learning and one's life experiences.</p><p>But lets please keep this in perspective. </p><p>Peggy Noonan in her WSJ column of 12/16-17 captures the shrieking exaggeration we are seeing all too broadly. Universities "have gone from being centers of excellence to institutions pushing political agendas". </p><p>Noonan writes that the idea of a historian attempting to "find the honest truth seems inapplicable to the current moment". She asserts, with absolutely no evidence, that "the good faith of the scholar is sacrificed to political fashion". </p><p>Tell that to the Professor of History I have known at Yale for decades. Neither he nor I will know what you are talking about. He is seeking truth with all its complexity. So will the many other historian I have known. </p><p>The same drive to find the truth, mine new knowledge, motivates every professor I have known no matter what their field. I have agreed with some of them; I have disagreed with others. But I do not see their orientation to continue to learn in the search for truth to have changed.</p><p>Let's calm down. Improve where we should, keep an open mind, listen to and respect different points of view. But don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. </p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-79326729280060871472023-12-14T01:33:00.000-08:002023-12-14T01:33:14.362-08:00We Are at a Moment of Crisis: President Biden Needs to Address the Reality of the Moment<p> </p><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;" type="cite"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byahoo_quoted" id="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byahoo_quoted_2640905716" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="color: #26282a; outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />For a couple of months now, it has become clear to me that unless President Biden is <i style="outline: none !important;">willing and able</i> to change the way he is communicating with the American public and what he is actually proposing and accomplishing, he’s going to lose big-time to Donald Trump or to whomever takes his place in the unlikely event that the criminal cases become so appropriately overpowering someone else does take his place.</p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">The latest poll numbers this morning shout even louder that this is the truth.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>He’s down in all the key states versus Trump; and if Haley would displace Trump (and she is the most likely candidate to do so) the gaps would be even higher.</p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">It is clear that the 91 indictments against Trump and his outrageous self-revealing assertion that he’ll be a “dictator on Day One” aren’t moving the needle.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>They will to some degree when voters are confronted with this reality in the voting booth, but not enough.</p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Biden’s challenges are two-fold as I see it:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>1) Personal.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>He is not seen as sharp enough; he is “too old for the job.”<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>2)<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>There are the policy issues, above all immigration; he and the administration have to take a decisive stand on this now.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>The feeling that the economy is not going well is out there, too.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Time is going to have to take care of that.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>I think the message that the economy is better will come through over the next year.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">However, the age and policy issues, particularly around immigration, won’t go away unless Biden does something differently.</p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I don’t know if he’s up to it, but he has to change the way he presents himself to and communicates with the American public.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>I believe he needs to adopt informal fireside chats.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Perhaps with an interviewer; perhaps with a small group.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>I’m not talking about town halls.</p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">He needs to address head-on the issues that are on voters’ minds:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>his age, his quickness, why he feels he is uniquely able to carry out the role of the presidency at this point in time.</p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I for one believe he is, above all because of the global challenges we face in Israel and Palestine, in Ukraine and Russia and in many other places, too.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>We must hold NATO together.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>We must have good relationships with our allies.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>We must seek a relationship with China that doesn’t blink at the reality of competition but sees the opportunity and the need for collaboration.</p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Joe Biden is far more equipped by experience and temperament to carry out this critical function at this moment in history than any other candidate, Democrat or Republican.</p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">He needs to make that clear.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Concretely.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I wish I knew how to share this message with someone who might be able to make a difference in how Biden approaches this.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>In fact, I don’t think what I’m saying here would be new to the inner circles of the White House or the Democratic Party.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>What I don’t understand is why it’s not getting through. Or, perhaps if it is, why Biden isn’t acting on it.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>I just hope he is up to it.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>I truly believe the country’s future depends on it.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>We are at a perilous moment.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Liz Cheney understands this.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Not enough other leaders do. The time to act differently is now. We can't just pretend that it will all work out. Life does not work that way. </p><p class="yiv1876138595ydp6263a41byiv3453467890ydp8c436ae7MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-21371481577823850162023-12-09T01:58:00.000-08:002023-12-09T01:58:36.868-08:00My Meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu Fourteen Years Ago--A Sobering Look Into His Uncompromising Mind<p> </p><div data-reactroot="" id="mail-app-container" style="height: 652px; outline: none !important;"><div class="pointer-mode H_6D6F" style="height: 652px; outline: none !important;"><div class="D_F ek_BB H_6D6F aw_2941hk ba_10I1Qt az_oOItw ay_Z1nkUQx I_kt4zd" style="background-image: var(--bg-repeat-img); background-position: var(--bg-repeat-img-position); background-repeat: var(--bg-repeat); background-size: var(--bg-repeat-img-size); display: flex; flex-direction: column; height: 652px; outline: none !important;"><div class="D_F ek_BB H_6D6F cZ1RN91d_n s_1HCsWR aw_Z22yhkg I_kt4zd az_DW ba_Z2gmOa3 ay_Z1cYiMT c2hBT4u_Zm6i39 cZTwBjO_Zdogtk" data-test-id="mail-app" id="app" style="background-image: var(--bg-img); background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: var(--bg-size); display: flex; flex-direction: column; height: 652px; min-width: 1024px; outline: none !important; user-select: none;" tabindex="-1"><div class="I_ZnwrMC D_F em_N o_h W_6D6F H_6D6F" data-test-id="content-area" style="background-color: #f4f4f7; display: flex; flex-grow: 1; height: 580px; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden; width: 1280px;"><div class="D_F em_N o_h s_1HLnlu" data-test-id="content-below-tabs" style="display: flex; flex-grow: 1; min-width: 1280px; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden;"><div class="D_F em_N ej_eUh o_h" id="mail-app-component-container" style="display: flex; flex-basis: 86%; flex-grow: 1; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden;"><div class="em_N ek_BB gl_C j_ZUs0f0 o_h p_R D_F s_e5X x_Z14vXdP" data-test-id="mail-app-component" data-yaft-module="norrin_main" id="mail-app-component" style="border-right: 1px solid rgb(224, 228, 233); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3) 0px 0px 3px; display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; min-width: 50%; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><div class="F_N gl_C o_h D_F p_R U_0 I_ZkbNhI" data-test-id="mail-app-main-content" style="background-color: white; display: flex; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 0px; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><div aria-label="Message list. 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Use arrow keys to navigate, or tab to the next group." data-test-id="focus-group" style="outline: none !important;"><ul class="hd_n M_0 X_0" data-test-id="cards" style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding-left: 0px;"><li class="m_Z12nDQf D_F ek_BB ir_0" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(241, 241, 245); display: flex; flex-direction: column; outline: 0px;"><div class="D_F ek_BB gl_C d_3vFsb b_2w4lU5 e_dRA I_ZkbNhI j_ZUs0f0" style="border-radius: 2px; border: 1px solid rgb(151, 158, 168); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3) 0px 0px 3px; display: flex; flex-direction: column; justify-content: center; min-height: 350px; outline: none !important;"><div aria-label="Compose view" class="I_ZkbNhI j_n k_w W_6D6F D_F ek_BB em_N P_ZzJed p_R " data-test-id="compose" role="main" style="box-shadow: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; outline: none !important; padding: 12px 36px 0px; position: relative; width: 602px;"><div class="em_N D_F ek_BB p_R o_h" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; outline: none !important; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><div class="em_N D_F ek_BB iz_A d_6VdP" data-test-id="compose-editor-container" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; min-height: 36px; outline: none !important; overflow-y: auto;"><div class="p_R em_N D_F ek_BB en_0 d_eik" data-test-id="editorWrapper" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; flex-shrink: 0; min-height: 4em; outline: none !important; position: relative;" tabindex="-1"><div class="D_F ek_BB em_N" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; outline: none !important;"><div class="p_R cZ1RN91d_GG k_w W_6D6F em_N D_F" id="editor-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-grow: 1; outline: none !important; position: relative; user-select: text; width: 530px;"><div aria-label="Message body" aria-multiline="true" autocorrect="off" class="rte em_N ir_0 iy_A iz_h N_6Fd5" data-test-id="rte" role="textbox" spellcheck="true" style="flex-grow: 1; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: auto hidden; padding-right: 16px; padding-top: 24px;"><div class="ydp44ce49b2yahoo-style-wrap" style="outline: none !important;"><div id="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yahoo_quoted" id="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yahoo_quoted_2199295323" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102yqt2187880582" id="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102yqt24860" style="outline: none !important;"><blockquote class="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102iosymail" style="margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;"><div id="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102yqt4763553968" id="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102yqtfd49829" style="outline: none !important;"><blockquote style="margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;" type="cite"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><blockquote class="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102iosymail" style="margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;"><div id="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpef55841cyahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />I recently returned to notes I made about my first and only trip to Israel in 2009. As part of the trip, we had a private session with Netanyahu. It was a chilling meeting. Netanyahu displayed not an iota of appreciation for the Palestinian predicament. Fourteen years later, the tragedy continues. While condemning without qualification Hamas' horrific murder of over a thousand Israelis and capturing hundreds of innocent hostages, Netanyahu has continued now for decades to work thwart a two-state or other solution that would respect the rights of Palestinians. Doing so, he has thwarted peace and incited violence and death to this very day.</div><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpff0fa3c7post ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpff0fa3c7hentry" style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; min-height: 0px; outline: none !important; position: relative;"><h3 class="ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpff0fa3c7post-title ydp44ce49b2yiv3332559334ydpff0fa3c7entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #222d66; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; outline: none !important; position: relative;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></h3></div></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;">Israel was the last stop on my trip to the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel) in October, 2009. I wrote about it in my journal at the time, “How sad that these religions (Jewish, Christian and Muslim), all committed to one God, all beholden to the same basic values—whether those expressed by Jesus in the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount, or the Jews in the six points of its star, or the precepts of the Koran, have spent so much blood and lives in fighting against one another. What horrible evidence of man’s propensity to defile the ‘other’ in order to justify one’s self worth. And it continues today,” I wrote in 2009 and as I write now in 2023. </div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334yqt7040930963" id="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334yqtfd45835" style="outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div class="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334yqt7040930963" id="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334yqtfd88410" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpe0ad9631yahoo_quoted" id="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpe0ad9631yahoo_quoted_2994263044" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpe0ad9631yiv0416289093" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpe0ad9631yiv0416289093yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><p class="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpe0ad9631yiv0416289093ydpc1ec000eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">On October 15, thanks to Eason Jordan, who had been leading CNN International News, we had a private meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>I wrote this after the meeting:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>“This was more than a little interesting because, at this moment, there is a huge debate about the so-called Gladstone Report which accuses Israeli soldiers of human rights violations in the attack on the Gaza Strip a year ago.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Also, fierce debate about his policy urging the expansion of more Jewish settlements in the Palestinian-held West Bank, an action that makes peace talk discussions a non-starter.” </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">And so in 2023, it continues.</div><p class="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpe0ad9631yiv0416289093ydpc1ec000eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpe0ad9631yiv0416289093ydpc1ec000eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I asked Netanyahu about this being a roadblock to negotiations.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>He responded immediately (almost angrily) saying he did not feel they were the real issue—that he said was the Palestinians’ unwillingness to agree to a sovereign Jewish nation on agreed borders.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>He went on to make the case that the land had really belonged to both religions over time (conveniently ignoring the reality that this area had been consigned to the Palestinians by the United Nations). He asserted that the Jewish settlements occupied only about 3% of the land area, conveniently side-stepping the fact that these are choice areas and non-contiguous sections of the West Bank, making a unified Palestinian state virtually “impossible.”</p><p class="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpe0ad9631yiv0416289093ydpc1ec000eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="ydpe0f772afyiv3332559334ydpefe090a7yiv3794755102ydpe0ad9631yiv0416289093ydpc1ec000eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">The steely, unyielding character of Netanyahu was revealed to me in striking and stunning fashion in this meeting.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>Little idea did I have at the time of the human trauma and death it was causing and would be causing today as I write this in December 2023.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></li></ul></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-13721399989942662982023-11-27T13:56:00.000-08:002023-11-27T13:56:35.593-08:00A Memoir That Speaks to Me on Many Levels--"Free" by Lea Ypi<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span></p><p><i class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp9b056db0yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp9b056db0yiv3679063932sh-color" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;">Free</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> is a great memoir. It takes its place for me next to those of my other two favorites: James Reston's "Deadline" and Katherine Graham's "Personal History". Each of these memoirs tells a unique human story in unforgettable, candid prose. But each does something else: they cause me to reflect on aspects of my own life.</span></p><div class="I_ZkbNhI D_FY W_6D6F" data-test-id="message-view-body" style="background-color: white; display: table; outline: none !important; width: 525px;"><div class="msg-body P_wpofO mq_AS" data-test-id="message-view-body-content" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; outline: none !important; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 2px 0px 0px; position: relative; word-break: break-word;"><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="outline: none !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div class="" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;"><div class="yiv3421906584yqt7063638333" id="yiv3421906584yqtfd80737" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyahoo_quoted" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyahoo_quoted_1669215689" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="color: #26282a; font-size: 13px; outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yahoo_quoted" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yahoo_quoted_1485136416" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600yqt7248644882" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600yqtfd92339" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402yqt3435357262" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402yqtfd04436" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayahoo_quoted" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayahoo_quoted_1182896210" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yahoo_quoted" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yahoo_quoted_1731269548" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yahoo_quoted" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yahoo_quoted_1211234646" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932yqt1874733570" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932yqt48244" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote" style="outline: none !important;"><blockquote class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; outline: none !important; padding: 8px 8px 8px 1ex;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_extra" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932yahoo-style-wrap yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div></div><div style="outline: none !important;">Lea Ypi's horrific portrayal of the civil war going on in Albania in 1997 feeds in a macabre horrific all -too human way to the humanitarian disaster going on now in Ukraine, the cataclysmic turn to the past in Russia, and the infernal continuing deadly repression of the Palestinians quest for independence by Israel.</div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; outline: none !important; padding: 8px 8px 8px 1ex;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_extra" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932yahoo-style-wrap yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><p style="outline: none !important;"></p><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">The author writes: “Nobody understands anything. It’s like a whole country committing suicide. Just when it looked like things were getting better, it all went downhill. Now that we are all falling from a precipice, there is no way back. It’s so much worse than 1990. At least there was hope and democracy then. Now there is nothing, just a curse.”</div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; outline: none !important; padding: 8px 8px 8px 1ex;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_extra" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932yahoo-style-wrap yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Yet Ypi does not leave us off the hook. She goes on to recall what she tells her students teaching Marxism at the London School of Economics. It is, she describes, “a theory of human freedom, of how to think about progress and history, of how we adapt to circumstances but also try to rise above them. Freedom is not sacrificed only when others tell us what to say, where to go, how to behave. A society that claims to enable people to realize their potential but fails to change the structures that prevent everyone from flourishing is also oppressive. And yet, despite all the constraints, we never lose our inner freedom: the freedom to do what is right.”</div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">A call to the ultimate duty: trying to do what is right. Giving all people the opportunity to succeed as best we can.</div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">She talks to friends at school about her growing up in Albania, first a communist, then a socialist country. They reject the socialism which she had. It wasn’t <i class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;">real</i>. “There was only one thing to do,” they said. “Forget it.” She was reluctant to forget it, not out of nostalgia, not because the concepts she had grown up with were so deeply rooted that it was impossible to disentangle herself but because, “If there was one history, if there was one lesson to be taken from the history of my family, and of my country, it was that people never make history under circumstances they choose. It is easy to say ‘what you had was not the real thing,’ applying that to both socialism and liberalism, to any complex hybrid of ideas and reality. It releases us from the burden of responsibility. We are no longer complicit in moral tragedies created in the name of great ideas, and we don’t have to reflect, apologize and learn.”</p><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">So it is with the circumstances in which I have lived we all live. Life is not perfect; it’s never been perfect; it never will be perfect. We just have to make the most out of it that we can. I return as I often have to what I hope my grandchildren will be able to say about me and my wife, Francie. “They did the best they could under the circumstances.” To be clear, I’m not sure we always do; sometimes we’re too ready to give up, feel sorry for ourselves, retreat into gloom. But usually we do pull back, try to see our better selves and follow our better instincts. </p><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">In the book’s Epilogue, the author turns very personal. She reveals that her mother wondered, even if silently, how she (Lea) could be teaching socialism and Marxism. Only once did she draw attention to a cousin’s remark that my grandfather did not spend 15 years locked up in prison so that I would leave Albania to defend socialism. “I knew this is what she thought. I always wanted to clarify, didn’t know where to start. I thought it would take a book to answer. This is that book. </div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; outline: none !important; padding: 8px 8px 8px 1ex;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_extra" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932yahoo-style-wrap yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">At first, it was going to be a philosophical book about the overlapping ideas of freedom and the Liberal and Socialist traditions, but when I started writing, ideas turned into people—the people who made me who I am. They loved and fought each other; they had different conceptions of themselves, and of their obligations. They were, as Marx writes, the product of social relations for which they were not responsible. Still, they tried to rise above them. They thought they had succeeded, but when their aspirations became reality, their dreams turned into my disillusionment.”</div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">“My family equated socialism with denial: the denial of who they wanted to be, the right to make mistakes and learn from them, to explore the world on one’s own terms. I equated liberalism with broken promises, the destruction of solidarity, the right to inherit privilege, selfish enrichment, cultivating illusions or turning a blind eye toward justice. In some ways, I have gone full circle. When you see a system change once, you start believing that it can change again. Fighting cynicism and political apathy turns into what some might call a moral duty; to me it is more of a debt that I feel I owe to all people of the past who sacrificed everything because they were not apathetic, they were not cynical, they did not believe that things fall into place if you just let them take their course. If I do nothing, their efforts will have been wasted, their lives will have been meaningless.”</p></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; outline: none !important; padding: 8px 8px 8px 1ex;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_extra" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932gmail_quote yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932yahoo-style-wrap yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="outline: none !important;"><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Lea writes with deep feeling. “My world is as far from freedom as the one my parents tried to escape. Both fall short of that ideal. But their failures took distinctive forms, and without being able to understand them, we will remain divided. I wrote my story to explain, to reconcile and to continue the struggle.”</div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">Yes, continue the struggle. That is our responsibility. That is our opportunity.</div><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqt0337716992" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqtfd32902" style="outline: none !important;"><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932ydp1d8cc90bMsoNormal yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color-black yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095ydp5ce3ef73yiv3679063932sh-color" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I would conclude these excerpts and perspectives with a short endorsement for this luminous memoir another writer offered and which I echo: “A lyrical memoir of deep and affecting power, the sweet smell of humanity mingled with flesh, blood and hope.”</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqt0337716992" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqtfd97001" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095yqt9229192980" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095yqtfd59272" style="outline: none !important;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div></div></div></div><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqt0337716992" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqtfd45704" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095yqt9229192980" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095yqtfd41292" style="outline: none !important;"></div></div></div><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqt0337716992" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqtfd66907" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095yqt9229192980" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124ydp33ebad9yiv3832281095yqtfd47908" style="outline: none !important;"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqt0337716992" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqtfd39965" style="outline: none !important;"></div></div><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqt0337716992" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600ydp8cd18083yiv7586623402ydp90017d8ayiv9612482124yqtfd88879" style="outline: none !important;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600yqt7248644882" id="yiv3421906584ydp99caecdfyiv5417693600yqtfd56512" style="outline: none !important;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="outline: none !important; 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flex-shrink: 1; outline: none !important;"></span><hr class="M_0 P_0 cn_0" style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 0px;" /><br /></div></div></div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-53207768849414606882023-11-27T02:55:00.000-08:002023-11-27T02:55:30.774-08:00Geo-Political Hopes Dashed--Family Relationships Keep Hope Alive<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;"> </span></p><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline: none !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv2898441395" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yahoo_quoted" id="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yahoo_quoted_1280369857" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="color: #26282a; outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div id="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;"><div dir="ltr" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><p align="center" class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: center;"><u style="outline: none !important;">Geo-Political Hopes Dashed – Family Relationships Keep Hope Alive</u></p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">As I reflect here today, Monday, November 20, with the world aflame around me in so many places, I lament the crushing of two of my greatest geo-political hopes of the last 30+ years:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>the recovery and rise of Russia integrated and at peace with the West and the continued growth and rise of China as a member of the world community with underlying positive, if sometimes competitive, relations with the U.S. and West.</p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I hardly need say that those visions have been dashed.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>I’m not going to take the time to rehearse the underlying irresistible historical and cultural elements that have led to this, nor the errors of human agency on all sides which contributed to it.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>All I can say is that if we have been surprised by these turn of events, we can be surprised again and probably will be as a result of changing circumstances and changed leadership, hopefully for the better, closer to my original vision, which I believe is essential for the peace and safety of China and Russia and the entire world.</p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">If my hopes have been dashed on the geo-political front, they have been lifted and nurtured by the growth and wonder of my family:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>my children, their spouses and ten grandchildren.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>And I’ve been lifted, too, by the courage and aspiration of countless other individuals whom I’ve known, most recently nursing aides who have helped me through the night as I recovered from my knee surgery.</p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">There is so much kindness in this world.<span style="outline: none !important;"> My wife, </span>Francie and I experienced it recently in the airport as people helped us trundle along in our two wheelchairs, looking after us personally, always with a caring smile.</p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">There is much good in this world.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>It was manifested in a beautiful sermon I heard yesterday from Christ Church’s Owen Thompson.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>All any of us can do, what I can do, is make the most of every situation by trying to do something helpful for those around us. In short, to be kind.</p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;">I return to what I hope my grandchildren will say of Francie and me:<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span>they tried to do their best. They tried to make the most of what they had and do good for others.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="jb_0 X_6MGW N_6Fd5" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline: none !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 24px; padding-right: 16px;"><div class="" style="outline: none !important;"><div style="outline: none !important;"><div class="qtd-body" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;"><div class="yiv2898441395yqt4687807410" id="yiv2898441395yqtfd56180" style="outline: none !important;"><p class="yiv2898441395ydp976e0b00yiv8682407703ydpcd142511MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p></div></div></div></div></div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-33335374141886475752023-11-25T01:49:00.000-08:002023-11-25T02:02:56.413-08:00What Means the Most to Our Nation and to Our Lives -Reflections on Ben Rhodes' "After the Fall"<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I finished reading Ben Rhodes’</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;">After the Fall, </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">with increased respect for the author and for the insights he offers.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Let me capture these overall perspectives:</span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none;"><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">1.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span><span style="outline: none;">Rhodes is extraordinarily honest in assessing his own perceptions of the role of the faults and some of the strengths of America.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>He is deeply introspective and transparent.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;">However, I believe that he looks at the failures to live up to the founding principles of the country (freedom, liberty, opportunity for all) without adequatley recognizing that the outages he cites have been common to our history and, indeed, to every nation’s history.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>He says it well when he writes, “There was nothing inherent in America that made us immune to the viruses that had consumed all manners of societies in the past, and that we were capable of spreading those viruses to other countries.”<span style="outline: none;"> </span>He refers here to the seeking of unbridled wealth, a grandiose sense of superiority and exceptionalism, taking strength from comparison to some inferior “other.”<span style="outline: none;"> </span></span></div><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;">I believe he’s right, though it’s risky territory in saying that, “You have to look squarely at the darkest aspects of what America is in order to fully, truly love what America is supposed to be.”<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The challenge here is to make sure that we not lose sight of the many times and in many ways we have achieved new dimensions of “what America is supposed to be.”</span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">2.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span><span style="outline: none;">I believe this:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>“Even if flawed, America still offers the world a unique opportunity, an example of citizens of now a multi-ethnic, multi-racial democracy can change things for the better.”<span style="outline: none;"> </span>At our best, we have done that many times, often drifting, but more often than not—and may this be one of those times—reorienting our course and doubling down on doing our best.</span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">3.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span><span style="outline: none;">What is it in the end that makes “America special,” even if not uniquely privileged?</span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;">Personally, I believe it is our diversity.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Our openness to innovation, our curiosity, our founding principles which, even if not achieved, provide a constant compass as to where we should head and where we need to improve.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;">Our central challenge lies in giving everyone a greater chance for the opportunity to participate in the dynamics and life of the country, through the foundations of good health, education and the eradication of prejudice, including, but not solely, racism.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>These are what can stand in the way of an individual being all they can be.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">4.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span><span style="outline: none;">We face a constant challenge of assessing how much weight should be given to addressing our failure to provide equal opportunity in the past to African-Americans and Native Americans, as a rationale for taking action to provide equal opportunity today. I believe that weight is a large one.</span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">5.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span><span style="outline: none;">Rhodes identifies a central challenge we face today and that is the denial of what are true facts.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>People have always lived in separate realities but today, due to social media in particular I believe, and to fragmented media, it is greater than ever.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Rhodes says it well:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>“Once people choose to exist in an entirely separate reality, it is no easy task to bring them back, especially when every turn of national events can be framed as a validation of their grievances.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>We will be living with the residue of the radicalization for a long time.”<span style="outline: none;"> </span></span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="outline: none;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">Still, we must be sober about this.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>It’s not the first time we’ve faced this.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The country lived for decades with very different understandings of what the Civil War was all about, states’ rights or the protection of slavery.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>We lived for a long time with different beliefs in the extent to which Communists had penetrated our government.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Senator Joe McCarthy carried that flag.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;">What’s the answer here:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Stay at it, recognize that progress takes time and overcome reversals along the way.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Be as sure as we can that the education which young people receive reflects the <i style="outline: none;">truth</i> as we can best define it.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>We have a challenge on that front right now in the battle going on over how we teach the history of this country.</span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">6.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span><span style="outline: none;">Rhodes recounts a conversation with Obama.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Obama observes that he has recently been asking his close friends a simple question:<span style="outline: none;"> </span>“What gives you a sense of joy and meaning in life and at what moments do you feel that?”<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Here is a truly and profoundly important question.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The answer is one which I believe will have a great deal in common between the men and women in every country on earth.</span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;">When I think of that question, here is what comes to my mind:</span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 78.05pt; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">·<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span><span style="outline: none;">Being with my wife Francie or one or more of our children and their children in some quiet and beautiful place.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>On the deck of the cottage at Pointe au Baril, Canada. Or in a forest in North Carolina with my daaughter, Susan. <span style="outline: none;"> Or t</span>alking to my son,. David at his farm.<span style="outline: none;"> Or w</span>alking with my son, Douglas at Fort Funston or with him and his family at Half Moon Bay, California. </span></p><p class="ydpc0f72cafyiv5033946404ydp7ddd288eMsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 78.05pt; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">·<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span><span style="outline: none;">Walking the beach in the early morning at Vero Beach, Florida with my son, John.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Sitting on a chair at home, looking at the expanse of our backyard, trees in full bloom, leaves rustling in the breeze.</span></p><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 78.05pt; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">·<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span><span style="outline: none;">Sitting together with Francie, just the two of us, at our favorite table on the patio at Murphin Ridge Inn outside Cincinnati, with the breeze blowing, and birds chirping, surrounded by members of the staff who have become like family.</span></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 78.05pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><br style="outline: none;" /></span></div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 78.05pt; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; outline: none;">Yes, the simple things with our family are the most meaningful just as they are the most memorable.</span></div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-78879641763834840532023-11-23T02:52:00.000-08:002023-11-23T02:52:42.743-08:00The Uphill But Essential Continued Battle for Rational Gun Regualation--The Story of the AR-15<p> I found McWhirter's and Elinson's "American Gun: The Trues Story of the AR-15" to be a gripping, informing and mind-opening, mind-chilling study of the development of this killing machine in this country. It is enlivened by the authors’ embedding the statistics and facts of the many massacres (Sandy Hook; Parkland; Las Vegas casino; etc., etc.) in personal stories.</p><p><br /></p><p>The authors provide meaningful international context for the out-of-bounds growth of guns and particularly the AR-15 in our country. It tracks the futile legislative efforts to control the damage being done.</p><p><br /></p><p>Many new insights emerged:</p><p><br /></p><p>· Every time there was even the threat of gun legislation being passed, sales of the AR-15 catapulted.</p><p><br /></p><p>· The 1994 gun control legislation, which had been so strongly fought for, was supposed to stop all manufacture and sales of the AR-15s in the United States. Nineteen different guns were identified and magazines of over ten shells prohibited. It didn’t work. It was easy to get around the definition that had been provided of automatic weapons. The definition had been characterized by military features which manufacturers quickly changed. Instead of controlling gun sales, it created a sustained unprecedented demand for civilian versions of the rifle which had never caught on with the buying public before. More than 62,000 AR-15s were built for sale in the U.S. in 1993, double the previous year, and in the next year, that number climbed to 103,000. </p><p><br /></p><p>· The sales of the AR-15 took another jump forward as private equity moved in, bought up a lot of manufacturers and figured out how to market it. They created a “Buckmaster Man Card.” Advertised it in Maxim, a very popular magazine for young males 18-34. This came at a time when the male physique had been deteriorating. The average weight of the male in 1960 was 166 lbs. By 2010, it had increased to 196 lbs. The “Mancard" became a badge of masculinity. They cynically described the AR-15 as a “modern sporting rifle.” </p><p><br /></p><p>· The Parkland shootings did result in meaningful state legislation, thanks to aggressive work by young people and organizations like "Moms Against Guns". Twenty-four states across the country enacted new gun control laws. Many passed red-flag laws. New Jersey and Vermont passed restrictions on high-capacity magazines. </p><p><br /></p><p>· Research conducted by several reputed professors have found two policies in particular showed promise. First, laws requiring a permit to purchase or possess a gun could reduce the number of mass shootings. The second policy that showed promise was restricting large-capacity magazines. That didn’t reduce the number of mass shootings, but it reduced the number of people killed. </p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p>There are obvious solutions to this continued carnage that sadly won’t be touched with a ten-foot pole. For example, regulations for years have required anyone acquiring a machine gun to register it, be fingerprinted, etc. There have been no mass shootings with machine guns. In Japan, anyone getting a gun must have a doctor certificate and register it. Similar controls are in place in Australia and New Zealand. They acted at the same time as we were passing the ineffectual gun control legislation in the mid-1990s. </p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p>There is no question we are a country of guns. It is estimated that there are now close to 25 million AR-15's in circulation. We have to be practical in seeking control and there are practical answers. Fingerprints to activate the gun only primed by the owner (just like a cell phone). Registration of all automatic weapons. Limit to magazine sizes. Full background checks, including gun shows. The majority of American people would agree to all of these provisions. What’s lacking is the political will to make them happen. Those organizations like Moms against Guns must keep up the fight. And they will. We’re not going to limit the disasters that exist simply because of the already omni-presence of guns. But we can limit the disaster for the future for our grandchildren and their grandchildren if we act on what is right and we know to be true. That is our responsibility. </p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-39266666217697715112023-11-22T02:33:00.000-08:002023-11-22T02:33:51.243-08:00The Depths of Unvarnished Prejudice Against Blacks by Educated Northerners On the Verge of the Civil War<p>A chilling, eye-opening reminder:</p><p><br /></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /> The speech of Francis P. Blair, Jr. (a congressman and Senator of the United States and graduate of Princeton and Yale) to the Mercantile Library in Missouri in January 1859, presents a telling picture of the attitude of many well-educated men and women of the time toward African-Americans.</span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">His lengthy talk boiled down to the strong pronouncement that the enslaved people should be set free and re-located to a tropical climate suited to their<i style="outline: none !important;"> nature</i>. His opposition to slavery rested in part in the Declaration of Independence’s assertion that all men are created equal, but also on the belief that slavery threatened the expansion of free White labor, an expansion which Blair felt essential to the health of this still developing country.</span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">His position was based on an uncompromising conviction that the White race was superior to all other races, including Native American and African. He writes that, “The White man is stronger in endurance than the African. Our country is in the temperate, not the torrid, zone; and we find that, even in…Texas, the emigrant Germans produced the best and highest-priced cotton, and more of it to the acre, than unslaved plantations. When the cloud (of slavery) passes over Virginia, and its renovation is proscribed in the adjoining Carolinas, it will pass, too, from their worn-out lands and White freeholders will renew them, and make more cotton from their 100-acre fields than will be obtained from plantations of 1,000 devastated by slave culture.”</span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">He concludes, “How grandly our nation would loom up, in the eyes of the world, if abandoning the policy which makes it the taskmaster of slaves, it should lay its hands to the work, not only of our freedom to the race which has so long and so faithfully served us and our fathers, but to recompense them for their long servitude, by giving them all homes in regions congenial to their natures, and guaranteeing to them a free government of their own in which, without ceasing to be a part of this country, they should be to themselves and escape the presence of that social subordination and inferiority inseparable from the contact of different races in the same community. The moral power and grandeur of the act would challenge the admiration of the world, and make our later fame surpass the glory of the great struggle which gives us a place among nations.”</span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">I find it surprising that a man as well-educated as Blair, and so well-connected politically, could in 1859 harbor the notion that Blacks could be “exported” to a tropical land. This had been pursued by the American Colonization Society for decades. It had been resisted, vociferously, by Black leaders and, from my perspective, had lost traction with political leadership.</span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;">The overriding conviction by Blair that there were qualities of the African-American race that led them to forever be inferior to Whites is, sadly, a sentiment that still exists among too many 150 years after Blair recorded this unvarnished conviction.<span style="outline: none !important;"> </span></span></p><p class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "New serif"; font-size: 12pt; outline: none !important;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="ydp256355f2yiv6022726804ydpdf97ae5dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: center;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; outline: none !important;" /></p><p> </p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-13572872525152940582023-11-07T05:08:00.001-08:002023-11-07T13:30:23.415-08:00The Role of Human Agency--The Difference Individuals Can Make<p><br /></p><p align="center" class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none; text-align: center;"><u style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"> </span></u></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">During a conversation during a recent P&G Alumni Reunion, I was asked for my perspective on the developments that have occurred in Russia and China over the past three decades.</p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">My answer was that my reaction was one of great disappointment.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>I had never expected Russia to mirror Western culture or way of life.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>It was equally clear that this would not happen in China, though I did believe that as China continued to open up economically, it would gravitate to a more open society with more individual rights to choose.<span style="outline: none;"> How wrong I was.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"></span>The two most surprising geo-political events in my lifetime have both involved Russia:</div><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">1.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span>The peaceful dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1989-90, and</p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">2.<span style="font-family: New; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none;"> </span></span></span>The reversion of Russia to a position of outright antagonism to the West, once again feeling surrounded, now proclaiming its own way of life, radically different from what President Putin cites as the corrosive evolution of Western culture.</p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">In the cases of both Russia and China, it’s clear to me looking back, I underestimated the determinative impact of history, culture, political dynamics, geography, and economic development.</p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">Over the course of history, there have been on-going debates among historians, social scientists and philosophers about the relative importance of individual action compared to structural forces, cultural factors and other determinative factors in shaping the course of human history.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">Some have argued for what is called be the “Great Man Theory.”--<span style="outline: none;"> t</span>hat history is driven significantly by influential leaders and thinkers who shape events and drive historical progress.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></div><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">Other schools fostering a historical perspective driven by“determinism” argue that human history is primarily shaped by external forces and by history.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>They believe that individuals have limited agency and that it is broader structural forces which drive change.</p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">Going back to my reflections on Russia and China, there is no doubt that the deterministic factors of history, environment and culture have provided a defined scope with which individuals can operate.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>But there is also no doubt in my mind that individual agency has been massively at play in the development of the history of those two countries over the course of the last half-century.</p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">I would argue that the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet empire never would have happened if it were not for the vision, courage and determination of Mikhail Gorbachev.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>And his vision and determination were enabled and amplified on an individual basis by the wisdom of George H.W. Bush and James Baker.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">I would go on to argue that, while it was certain that Russia was going to redefine its place in the world as a major power, having been brought to its knees in the 1990s, the turn it has taken has been highly influenced by the person of Vladimir Putin.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>And also by the complex of political decisions that contributed to the current divide, most importantly in my view the decision to expand NATO to the borders of Russia. </div><div data-setdir="false" dir="ltr" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">That, too, was a function of human agency. </div><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">In China’s case, the speed and direction of the evolution of China was greatly influenced by the person of <span style="outline: none;">Deng Xiaoping and Zhu Rongji, with whom I worked personally.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>They had a distinct vision of working together with the West, albeit certainly with the goal of maximizing China’s economic development and the strength that would come from it.</span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">President Xi comes from a different school. He has set out to establish China as a unique power in the world. He would claim China is only seeking coexistence with the United States , but clearly China today is laying claim to be the the dominant power in Southeast Asia, much as they see the United States having done in the Caribbean.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>This has produced a conflict with the United States which has led to our increasing viewing each other as existential enemies, which we need not and should not be.</span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none; text-align: center;"><span style="outline: none;">*****</span></p><p align="center" class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none; text-align: center;"><span style="outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">This question of <i style="outline: none;">human agency</i> goes beyond geo-political issues.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The role of human agency comes down to the relationships within our families; it comes down to the impact we have on those organizations we are part of. <span style="outline: none;"> </span>Organizations, too, are affected by structural and cultural forces that will shape their future. However, within that determined framework, the individual can and does make an enormous difference.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>To be sure, it’s often an individual working with other individuals.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>But the individual makes the difference.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">How else do you explain that some companies, a very few like Procter & Gamble, can exist and succeed for over 180 years while maintaining leadership, while others, once leaders, fall by the wayside.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>There were common forces affecting all these companies.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Some made it through successfully.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Some didn’t.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Individual agency at different point of history made the difference.</span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"><span style="outline: none;">Closer to home, there is the role of <i style="outline: none;">individual agency</i> in one’s family.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The impact one has in ones family is also influenced by certain constraints, historical roots, the economic exigencies of the moment But they still leave all life-determining room for the <i style="outline: none;">agency</i> of a parent.<span style="outline: none;"> </span><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /><br clear="none" style="outline: none;" /></span>Take my own life.<span style="outline: none;"> My </span> mother made an irrepaceable difference in my life.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>Her belief in me, the confidence she bred in me, her willingness to make every personal sacrifice for my success, had everything to do with my success.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>It was not inevitable that I’d have a parent like my mother, not at all.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">And when I read about the success stories of individuals who have risen from challenging circumstances to achieve success, there is always the influence provided by <i style="outline: none;">individual agency</i>.<span style="outline: none;"> </span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">For me, this reality provides enormous encouragement to do our best in positively impacting the lives of other people whom we meet and taking proactive steps to meet more people whose lives we can in some way benefit.<span style="outline: none;"> And it also gives me hope that the brutal and seemingly hopeless situations currently prevailing in Russia and Ukraine and in Israel and Palestine will some day turn for the better as a result of wise and courageous human agency. We have seen it happen before.</span></p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;">When you reach the age of 85, as I have, you realize even more that we have been placed on this earth for a very small amount of time.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>The scope of our opportunities will be more or less limited.<span style="outline: none;"> </span>But whatever they are, each of us has the opportunity to play a role of positive <i style="outline: none;">human agency</i> in contributing to the lives of others. I will continue to try to make the most of it.</p><div class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294yqt7164468161" id="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294yqtfd32034" style="outline: none;"><p class="ydpaf896d9eyiv7729926294ydpc8791159yiv1354185019ydp81ae441dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none;"> </p><div><br /></div></div>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-50943186754172436552023-10-23T12:22:00.000-07:002023-10-23T12:22:01.838-07:00Israel and Palestine--A History Offering a Ray of Hope<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I’ve read four books now on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, each with their own strengths. However, the freshest, and in many ways the most insightful for me, has been Daniel Bar-Tal’s, Sinking into the Honey Trap: The Case of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Bar-Tal is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Education at Tel Aviv University. His research interest lies in political and social psychology. He approaches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by tracking its social-psychological foundations. He does so in the context of other intractable conflicts (Northern Ireland, Algeria, Guatemala, etc.).</span></p><p class="yiv3985275180ydpe44d865dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"><br style="outline: none !important;" />Professor Bar-Tal believes that resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—that peace—will eventually occur, even as it may well take decades, which it already has. Professor Bar-Tal’s belief is based on two realities and one conviction. The two realities lie in the demographics: the number of Palestinians is about the same number of Israelis, and the Palestinians are not simply going to move away. The other reality as Professor Bar-Tal sees it is that conflicts of this horrible dimension and long-standing character have been resolved in the past. Northern Ireland is a classic example. South Africa probably another.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />As Bar-Tal views history over the long term (centuries), he sees, as I do, a movement-- albeit with fits and starts-- to a greater respect for individual human dignity and freedom. He believes this will eventually happen in Israel.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />Basic to Bar-Tal’s thesis is that the current state of the conflict has been created by competing narratives which, through most of history of this conflict, have asserted that the other side has no right to even exist. Each side declares its legitimacy and it is legitimacy that cannot be shared.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />This narrative and mindset, has been expressed in different ways. At a few points it as has been altered by a short commitment to peace. But not today.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />Bar-Tal rightly points to mutual trust as the key determining foundation for progress. As we have always seen in every venue, trust must flow from people coming to know one another and learning they can work together to a better end. This is what makes the "Combatants for Peace" movement so very important to my mind.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />Another key part of Bar-Tal’s thesis is that the resolution of this conflict will need to be led by the stronger party, i.e., Israel. At the same time, he recognizes the imperative, so long un-obtained, that Palestine establish a unified leadership credible to the Palestinians, the Israelis and the world at large. He believes the Arab nations and Israel and probably Europe need to help make that happen.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />However, the most important premise in Bar-Tal’s thesis on what it will take to resolve this conflict is that it will have to come from the recognition that the failure to do this carries a greater cost to both parties, including the Israelis, than continuing with the situation as it exists today.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />A clear challenge on this point is that today the majority of Israelis not only feel the current situation is right, but they’re comfortable with it. The PLO, while objecting to the current situation, also to some degree finds that the conflict gives them its right to exist. Bar-Tal’s conviction on the importance of both parties discovering it is in their interest to change necessarily means, I fear, that there is likely to be more carnage before the mindset is created to establish a new narrative.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />I find enormous encouragement in the history of the last 75+ years that there have been instances that show such a shift can occur. I won’t go through nor am I even aware of all the examples. Preeminent among them for me was the impact of Anwar Sadat’s coming to Israel to make peace. Sadat saw through the conflict supporting narratives and recognized the psychological barriers which prevented a peace process between his country and Israel.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />In a luminous and brave speech to the Israeli Parliament in November 1977, Sadat reflected on the factors that prevent societies involved in conflict to reach an agreement: “There remained..a wall (which) constitutes a psychological barrier between us. A barrier of suspicion. A barrier of rejection. A barrier of hallucinations around any action, deed or decision. Today, through my visit to you, I ask you: Why don’t we stretch our hands with faith and sincerity so that, together, we might destroy this barrier? Why shouldn’t ours and yours meet with faith and sincerity, so that together we might remove all suspicion of fear, betrayal and ill intentions? Why don’t we stand together with the bravery of men and the boldness of heroes who dedicate themselves to a sublime objective?”<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />Tragically, as we all know, several years later, Sadat was assassinated by a far-right citizen of his own nation.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />It’s often claimed that the Palestinians have never acknowledged the right of Israel to exist. That is not true. It’s been that way often, but not always. At about the time of the Oslo Accords, Yasser Arafat in November 1988 proclaimed the establishment of a Palestinian state (PLO) and also recognized the state of Israel within its 1967 borders, paving the way for division of the area into two states.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />Of course, that never occurred. Blame exists on both sides.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />The change in mindset called for by Sadat was more than skin deep. It took place importantly in the education area. Until the 1980s, the Israeli educational system had taught an uncompromising story of Israeli victimhood and Palestinian perfidy. That changed in 1984. New instruction material published by the Ministry of Education proclaimed the “existential need” for the educational system to deal with relations between Jews and Arabs and Israel. It established that the history of the Arab nations, their culture, their art, their language and their religion would “be taught in schools and the subject of relations between Israelis and Arabs would be integrated into the educational system from Kindergarten until the end of high school.”<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />In 1994, the Director General of the Ministry of Education wrote that: “We should present the achievement of peace between us and our neighbors, the Palestinians and the Arab nations, as an agreed-upon goal and to explain its essential importance, its contribution to the security, the strength and the prosperity of Israel.”<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />Yitzhak Rabin, then Prime Minister, said this in May 1994 during the signing of the Cairo Agreement regarding the Gaza Strip and Jericho: “We are convinced that our two people can live on the same patch of territory, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, as the Prophets foretold, and bring to this country, a land of rocks and of tombstones—the taste of milk and honey that it deserves. On this day, I turn to you, the Palestinian people and say: Our Palestinian neighbors, a century of bloodshed has forged in us a core of mutual enmity…today we are both extending a hand in peace. Today, we are inaugurating a new age.”<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />That was about to change as the 21st century was born. There were a number of factors, perhaps most importantly the lethal Second Intifada. The narrative shifted again and it has not changed fundamentally to today. There is encouragingly a growing, stronger minority group in Israel and Palestine that sees the resolution of the conflict as the only ultimate safety ground for Israel as well as what is right for and owed to the Palestinians. While still a minority, the world must build on this. It is the only peaceful and righteous path to the future.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />I am struck by how the conflict of competing narratives is reinforced by the media and by the lack of factual understanding by the public. An example. Research conducted in 2008 indicates that about 22% of Israelis thought the Arabs had been a minority in the country before the beginning of accelerated Jewish immigration. Thirty-seven percent thought they were a majority and only 23% said they were a large majority. In reality, 95% of the population were Arabs.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />About 70% of Israelis did not know that the division of the country, according to the United Nations resolution in 1947, gave the Jews, who were a minority, a larger, expanse of territory than that given to the Arabs. (About 1.2 million Arabs received 43% of the country, while about 600,000 Jews received 56% of the territory.)<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />Looking forward, Professor Bar-Tal underscores that achieving an ultimately peaceful solution will require two fundamentally different narratives than exist today. An eventual lasting peace agreement will involve painful compromises and will need to be based on the conviction that it is better than the alternative and, from an Israeli standpoint, would not harm the security--indeed it would improve the security of the Israeli people. Needless to say, it must grant equal justice and rights to the Palestinian people.<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />Professor Bar-Tal summarizes his examination of other examples of conflict resolution. He repeats his thesis that they were resolved peacefully "when at least a significant part of society change the narratives they held during the conflict. This happened when a large portion of society realized that the price of the conflict was extremely detrimental to society: in human lives, in its development, in its attempt to achieve prosperity.”<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />“When this understanding spreads and becomes legitimate, the insight that one can speak with the opponent arises, the same opponent who has been perceived as violent, with whom one does not negotiate. In other words, in order to enable the end of the conflict, it is important to change the way one looks at the opponent in the conflict.”<br style="outline: none !important;" /><br style="outline: none !important;" />Professor Bar-Tal concludes with this: “Every major societal change must begin with the construction of new narratives. Societies that wish to set their direction toward democracy, humanizing the ‘other,’ peace, morality and justice must socialize their citizens with these values from a very early age. It is our responsibility and duty to show this road to the nations.”</p><p class="yiv3985275180ydpe44d865dMsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; outline: none !important;"> </p>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4792158229300963699.post-17964441388626579592023-10-15T07:16:00.000-07:002023-10-15T07:16:10.789-07:00The Source of Anger for Others--Often, Anger for Ourselves<p> </p><blockquote class="yiv6379821540" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: none !important; padding: 8px;" type="cite"><div class="yiv6379821540" style="outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv6379821540" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; outline: none !important;"><div class="yiv6379821540" style="outline: none !important;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />I have come to believe that a good part, maybe even the biggest past of the anger and disrespect people show for other people flows from anger and dissatisfaction they feel with THEMSELVES. They are failing in their own self perception to do all they should, to accomplish all they should, to fulfill all they should, to be as good as they should--again in their self perception, often (usually?) mistaken. </div><div class="yiv6379821540" style="outline: none !important;"><br class="yiv6379821540" clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div class="yiv6379821540" style="outline: none !important;">We are own worst enemies when we are not humble enough to recognize our limitations, the fact that we cannot and need not do it all, that we are far from perfect. I plead guilty to this. I feel guilty if I am not "busy". Nonsense. That is a signal of pride, isn't it. </div><div class="yiv6379821540" style="outline: none !important;"><br class="yiv6379821540" clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div class="yiv6379821540" style="outline: none !important;">Said another way, we do not LOVE ourselves enough and hence do not LOVE other people enough. Does that sound odd to you? Self serving? It could. I am not talking about exclusive love, but inclusive love. In loving ourselves, we love others. I find religion helpful here. The belief that there is a supreme power that supports if not loves (in a human sense) all of us.</div><div class="yiv6379821540" style="outline: none !important;"><br class="yiv6379821540" clear="none" style="outline: none !important;" /></div><div class="yiv6379821540" style="outline: none !important;"><br /></div></div></div></blockquote>John Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398604964256942134noreply@blogger.com0