February 25, 2011

Disagreeing without being Disagreeable

With the reason tragic shooting in Arizona there’s been a lot of talk of the need to change the tone in Washington.

In politics I do believe you should make no apologies for the way you feel and you should fight to win. On the other hand, it’s vital that you remember that your opponents on a given issue are still human beings – and even if you disagree on most issues there may be some areas of commonality. I’d like to give a few examples of this, both in my own life and in recent politics.

Towards the end of the 2008 presidential campaign you may recall an event where Senator McCain was asked about the dangers of electing a Muslim candiate. Senator McCain responded that then-Senator Obama was not a Muslim but a Christian, refusing to dive into the mud of lies. (Mind you per our Constitution there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim candidate for any office but McCain did dispel a lie.)

Several years ago I was watching (well listening to a podcast of) one of the Sunday political shows. Ted Kennedy was on and was talking about No Child Left Behind. He indicated his support for the measure. When the host asked why he was working with George Bush he said that it was vital to work together with your political opponents in areas that you had commonality.

In my own life my political views have been shaped by my life experiences. My wife worked for three years in a high school whose students were primarily from an urban setting, most of them being immigrants or first generation Americans. Witnessing the difficult lives of many of those children has contributed to my already fairly liberal view of the world. I was talking with a Facebook friend who I was debating with whether receivers of government aid should be drug tested. I felt it denied them dignity. Her views were quite different. She explained how being in the medical profession she had been robbed multiple times by people seeking drugs. Is either of us wrong? I don’t think so – nor do I think there is a magical answer to many complicated problems that fits into a brief sound-bite.

So when I make a political post that you disagree with please don’t take it as an attack on you. But do tell me and tell me why you disagree. Believe it or not, I have been persuaded away from some of my positions. Never by a “you are an idiot and should die” comment mind you…

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February 25, 2011

What Made George Washington Great

If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.

- King George III, upon hearing in 1783 that General Washington planned to return to life at his farm

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.

- Henry Lee, Eulogizing George Washington after his death in 1799

Earlier this week was the President’s Day Holiday in the United States. Like many who have opined so in editorials, I am not a fan of the combining of holidays honoring Abraham Lincoln and George Washington into a holiday honoring all presidents. I’ll avoid partisanship in mentioning any modern president but even with that caveat there have been some simply horrible presidents. President Buchanan who sat idly as the Union was rent asunder. President Harding who had quite possibly the most corrupt administration imaginable. I have no difficulty at all in ranking Washington and Lincoln as our two greatest presidents. One could argue which should rank higher.

In this posting I’d like to discuss George Washington a bit. I’ll not say he was a perfect man. He bumbled into starting the French and Indian War (as the American portion of the Seven Years War is known in the United States). His track record as a military leader is not particularly impressive. He bears the stain of the Original Sin of the United States, being a slaveholder.

That said I think you’d be hard pressed to find any president to whom you could not tear apart were you to desire to do so. After all, they have all been human beings, not demigods. John Adams, unique among the Founders for never having owned a slave or wanting anything to do with it, signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts, laws which could easily be used to silence his opponents. Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus to prevent Maryland from seceding from the Union.

Keeping things focused on George Washington… One thing which is impressive is seeing the growth in him. Today we are quick to label any politician – or person for that matter – who changes his or her views a “flip-flopper”. While I’d not want someone who casually changes views in a position of authority, someone who allows his preconceived notions to be shaped by new experiences is something quite different and very valuable.

Consider Washington militarily. As mentioned before, he did not have the most impressive record if you count just wins and losses. But as leader of the Continental Army he realized his primary purpose was not to win but to exist. As long as that army existed the American Revolution was not a bunch of miltias fighting against its king but a nation struggling to be born. It wasn’t just an army, it was an idea integral to the existence of the United States of America.

His views on slavery, even judging by the standards of his day, were far removed from those of Franklin or Adams. Franklin became an abolitionist and Adams refused to have anything to do with slavery in his entire life. However it is worthwhile to note that his views on slavery did change in his lifetime. He began refusing to break up families and freed the slaves he had a legal right to free upon his death and made provisions for them in his will. I’m sure they’d have preferred to never have been slaves in the first place but Washington was the only slave-owning Founder to go that far. Jefferson made a talk about detesting slavery but his slaves were sold to cover his debts upon his death.

Finally, there is Washington’s view on power. I’ve heard many historians describe his version of greatness as being the rejection of power. This is something he did again and again in his lifetime. As the Continental Congress proved to be ill-suited to managing the birth of a nation against the most powerful empire in the world, Washington was granted vast dictatorial powers – powers which he proved willing to step away from. After the Revolution, he prevented his officers, angry that the Continental Army had not been paid as promised, from seizing power. And after the war he simply returned to his civilian life. When called upon to serve as President of the United States he was constantly mindful of the precedents he was setting. He avoiding the trappings of a monarch – the President would not have a lofty title like “his excellency” but would simply be addressed as a gentleman – “Mr. President”. And he knew how important it was that he not die in office. After his second term he chose not to seek a third term despite the fact he was all but guaranteed to win one had he sought it. History is filled with examples to this day of leaders who refuse to step away from ultimate power.

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January 28, 2011

Challenger’s 25th Anniversary

In one of life’s unfortunate coincidences, the greatest disasters in the American space program occurred, though over several years, within a one week period at the end of January and the start of February.

  • January 27, 1967 – During a pad-test, afire broke out within the Apollo capsule, taking the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.
  • January 28, 1986 – Shortly after launch the shuttle Challenger exploded, taking the lives of Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Michael J. Smith, Francis “Dick” Scobee, and Ronald McNair.
  • February 1, 2004 – The shuttle Columbia burned up during reentry, taking the lives of  David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, Ilan Ramon, Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, and William McCool.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the loss of Challenger. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. I was a freshman in high school. Though the shuttle flights had begun to seem “routine” by this time this flight was notable as it was carrying Christa McAuliffe, intending her to be the first teacher into space. As a result, many students watched this tragedy live at school  (though for me it was a snow day).

In the aftermath of the Columbia loss, the shuttle program is winding down. It was intended to be replaced by the Constellation space program but that program was canceled by President Obama, to be replaced by a combination of commercial spaceflights and use of Soyuz spacecraft. Though there is legitimate criticism of the cost of our manned space program and there is legitimate reason to pursue commercial space flight – indeed commercial space flight is in many ways a good thing – it seems unfortunate that our nation will soon be without its own spacecraft. It seems akin to the idea of keeping the navy but eliminating our own ships.

Regardless, I do believe we have a destiny beyond our own world. I was once a die-hard Trekkie but physics is not friendly to that vision of the future with other stars reachable before the end of a commercial break. However, that is not to say that the universe beyond our own planet is boring. Just the act of humans living and being born on other worlds would be an amazing feat, a step towards humanity’s destiny not being wrapped up on one tiny planet.

Mike Okuda, involved with both Star Trek and NASA, has set up a mini-film festival in his blog dedicated to reminding us why we explore beyond our own world. It’s well worth checking out.

 

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January 17, 2011

Reflections on Martin Luther King Day

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

 

- From Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, 1964 (text quoted from http://www.mlkonline.net/acceptance.html)

 

Today our nation celebrated Martin Luther King Day. I felt it would be appropriate to quote one of his lesser known speeches, the one he gave upon his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. In that speech Reverend King linked the struggle for civil rights to the struggle for peace. While the role of Rev. King as a crusader for civil rights is rightfully what he is best known for, he was also passionate about international matters  and of attaining world peace. He spoke on things ranging from the founding of modern Ghana to the war in Vietnam. As a Catholic I was always taught that the Kingdom of God is not something we go to after we die, it is something we are called to build on Earth. In that same speech, Rev. King said:

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

 

To be honest, I don’t think its fair to say that he viewed justice on the world stage and civil rights as separate things. He always crusaded for the rights of all people to have lives of dignity. But naturally he saw and experienced how far African-Americans in the United States had to travel to obtain those lives of dignity. In 2008 the United States elected its first African-American president. In 1958 the act of a black man even casting a vote for president was unthinkable in the South.

There are those who feel the dream of Martin Luther King has been realized. I think we’ve made steps toward that dream, but we have far to go. There are still great gaps in education, prison population, children born out of wedlock, income levels, etc. Even were those gaps to be closed and absolute equality be reached, I believe he’d still be fighting for a just society where everyone had the opportunity of gainful, meaningful employment, where no one feared going to bed hungry or providing for their families, where the nations stood at peace with one another. It may seem an unobtainable dream, but the best dreams are.

[Note - my favorite collection of Rev. King's speeches is A Call to Conscience. It is especially inspiring to actually listen to him give those speeches, something the included CDs (or audio file) allow you to do.]

 

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January 16, 2011

Monique Colver Article on Her Husband’s Mental Illness

When I was doing some research on my previous post, I came upon this interesting article at Salon by Monique Colver: My husband brought a knife to a political rally. She talks about her own experiences with her husband’s mental illness. I’d strongly recommend reading it to get an insight as to what life is like for those suffering from serious mental illness – and for their loved ones.

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January 16, 2011

What to Do with Our Mentally Ill?

The horrific shootings in Tuscon, Arizona by alleged gunman Jared Lee Loughner has triggered a number of debates here in the United States. Nothing can bring back our dead nor make that event good. But most of us need to find some meaning, try to make some good out of this awful event. So I think that some of the soul-searching many, myself included,  find themselves going through is a good thing, though I’d not attempt to say it is worth the lives of those we have lost. Not one of them.

In my last blog entry I talked about the state of our civic debate. Here I’d like to talk about mental health in the United States. Examining the public statements of Jared Lee Loughner presents us with what certainly appears to be a deeply disturbed individual. Most obviously, that leads to the classic debate about the insanity defense. At what point does an individual have control over his or her actions? If you were driving and were to out of the blue have a stoke or seizure that caused you to lose control of your car, it would be difficult to find you responsible for what happened after you lost consciouses, assuming you were unaware of your condition.

The case of Loughner isn’t so simple and is one that will be decided in our court system.From my own experience I believe with every fiber of my being that it is absolutely possible to be mentally ill to the point where horrific thoughts make perfect sense. Someone with an anxiety disorder often knows they are worrying over nothing. But they can’t help themselves. They have to check that the door is locked for the 14th time, that the stove has been turned off. Someone with depression knows they have a good life, they shouldn’t feel this down, that life is worth living. But knowing that does not change all of the input going into your brain that life isn’t worth living, that there is no point getting out of bed.

My own personal experience does not thankfully go to the point of schizophrenia or psychosis. But my readings of those who have as well as those of professional psychiatrists indicate much the same. You may know there are voices in your head, but which are real and which aren’t.

To be honest, the knowledge that something is wrong is a difficult one to reach. It took months, probably years, of my wife’s depression getting worse and worse until we realized just how bad it had become. Thankfully, I have excellent mental health insurance. (Not perfect, we are involved in a dispute with our carrier over part of her treatment.) With major treatment she has gotten much better. I don’t know if she’ll ever be “cured”.

You might be reading this and thinking you’d be able to ignore these voices. To ignore the input of hopelessness. To ignore the worry, the panic.  And to be honest, you might on some days. The mentally ill have good days and bad days. But day after day, it is like the ocean wearing away at the rock. As strong as the rock is, the ocean will win in the end.

 

I’m not making a judgement on Loughner’s mental state or if he knew his actions were wrong. Again, the courts will decide that. But as I’ve testified in this blog many times, mental illness is quite real. And I firmly believe that it must be treated with the same seriousness as physical illnesses. I also happen to think of health care as a right. No one should have to be unable to dismiss the voices in his head due to financial status. There’s many unfortunate people for him treatment does not help. Mental health is in infancy compared to other areas of medicine. At my wife’s day program one of the doctors explained that to diagnose a tumor or a heart condition we can use tumors, x-rays, etc. to get an exact picture of what is going on. But our tools for diagnosing mental health conditions are akin to our abilities to diagnose a tumor a century ago. The tools for precision just aren’t there yet. Even so, there are people who can be treated, whose lives can be made better.

 

This brings us to a second problem. Often the illness interferes with the seeking of treatment. If Loughner was and is mentally ill, even if he were to have access to the proper medical care (which I do not know if this were to be the case), it is very difficult to force someone to receive treatment. However, mental illnesses are often more apparent to people around the person who is suffering than the person him or herself. As I said, it took months or years for my wife and I to realize just how bad her depression had gotten, though those close to us nearly universally said they sensed something was wrong, they just weren’t sure what. But when you live with it day in and day out, it grows to seem normal.

In the case of Loughner it is clear there were signs of mental illness. His college was frightened of his behavior. He was unable to join the military. He mad a series of nonsensical postings on youtube. But with all of this if a person has committed no actual act or threat to himself or others it is nearly impossible to force him to seek treatment.

I don’t have a magic answer for this. Like many things, I believe it to involve a difficult balancing act. On one hand, it is to the benefit of both society and the individual for people who are mentally ill to be treated. On the other hand, people have a right to their own live their own lives so long as they do not hurt others. The side-effects of medication for mental illnesses are often unpleasant. They don’t always work and when they do work they don’t always keep working. But at the very least we as a society need to realize these are real issues to consider.

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January 8, 2011

First Thoughts on the Representative Giffords Shooting and Our Toxic Civil Discourse

As I write this, the facts about the shooting of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords (among several others) are somewhat scant. The shooter seems to have been apprehended but the motivation behind the shooting is unknown.

To be honest, my first thought, once I heard the basic facts, was “oh my God a nine-year old was killed”. I’m the father of two girls, currently eight and five. I’m usually the one who does the grocery shopping in the family and I’ll often take one or both of them with me. So that’s the thing I’m thinking most about. Imagine just doing your normal thing. “Oh hey look there’s our Representative”. And then, in a moment, your life is horrifically forever changed.

I also didn’t know the party of Representative Giffords off the top of my head. I was heading out the door to take the kids to a birthday party and saw mention of a shooting on Facebook. I later heard on the BBC World Service over satellite radio some of the details, including the fact that many bystanders were killed.

 

At this point I’m going to be talking politics. Like I said we don’t know all the facts. But what I’m reflecting on is the toxic environment in which these injuries and deaths took place. It is an environment which may not have contributed to this shooting.

I don’t know what motivations this killer might have. He might be an extreme right-wing nut-job who felt he was protecting the country from a descent into communism. He might be an extreme left-wing nut-job who was incensed at Representative Giffords centrist “blue dog” positions. He might be a John Hinkley-type assassin, mentally ill and trying to impress some celebrity.

I’ve seen comments out there on social media sites and blogs that this was definitively the result of Tea Party/Sarah Palin/etc. rhetoric. It is obviously too early to judge whatever motives this individual might have had and what, if anything, directly inspired him.

However, I do worry about the fact that the tone of our civil discourse has descended to the point where it is easy to conceive of the possibility that this rhetoric may have inspired him.

When President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, it was unthinkable that Walter Mondale, the defeated vice-presidential candidate in 1980, could have been behind any of the possible motivations for such an assassination attempt. Fast-forward to today and witness the rhetoric of 2008 Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Do I think for a moment that Sarah Palin wanted this to happen? No. Nor do I think she was the start of this. In an environment where advertisements morphed pictures of President Bush into Adolph Hitler it is also not possible to blame her or others like her on the right or left, for creating this environment. But Sarah Palin deserves special attention as she was a serious candidate for an office one heartbeat removed from the presidency. She has had a public mouthpiece as a result of this, one she has continued to use, as is certainly her right. But I believe we all have a moral obligation to choose our words with caution. President Bush explicitly condemned any demonization of Muslims in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However former Governor Palin has consistently engaged in a rhetoric filled with extreme demonization of President Obama and the Democratic party. It is definitely appropriate for her to voice her disagreement with their policies. But a campaign of portraying President Obama of deliberately trying to weaken America and singling out several Democratic Representatives with crosshairs and instructing her followers to not retreat but “reload” is irresponsible and unbecoming of the office she sought and the one she is presumably seeking.

Is it fair to single just her out? Not completely, but she is in my opinion the most egregious example. MoveOn.org is an organization that makes even people that support its objectives uncomfortable and is certainly one that has helped poison our civil discourse. Comparing Bush to Hitler was inappropriate and toxic as was referring to General Patraeus as “Betray-Us”. S0 I’m not letting them off the hook either.

Presidents Bush and Obama have both been compared to Adolph Hitler. That does the evil of Hitler a disservice. And it removes any chance of reasonable debate and discussion of their policies. Our elected officials in Congress are not seeking to destroy our union. They might be seeking a nation that we don’t like. And if so we should work to defeat them. But our system allows for that. The House of Representatives has just changed majorities. President Obama will have to stand for election in 2012. Representative Giffords had just won re-election in a difficult year for Democrats.

Just a few days ago Representative Giffords participated in the House Reading of the Constitution. In a painful irony she read the First Amendment, which, among other things, provides for the right of the people to petition their government. And she was giving her constituents just that opportunity when she was shot.

I’d like to close with my thoughts and prayers for all those affected by this horrible shooting. I talk a lot about politics both because it interests me and because I think it is of vital importance. This shooting seemed to showcase where we our in our political discourse – and its not a good place. But it is important not to forget those whose lives have been forever changed by this act of violence.

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