Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Monday, March 7, 2016
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Why I wrote Pray for Peace as a Facebook Status the Other Day
Feeling pensive today. Probably going to get me into trouble.
This week, I've had fewer children at home, which gave me time to do something I don't often get to do. I read the news. And I posted "Pray for peace, pray for peace, pray for peace." Someone asked afterwards, why in particular.
Everything I read made me think of the quote. "War is upon us, whether we will it or not," as Aragon says. The world feels topsy-turvy when the paper and the internet news sites frame the officials of Iran as reasonable for stating the obvious danger of ISIS in Iraq, and seem more morally solid than the United States.
But when I read deeper into the news, it is the same fight over again. Iraq is ruled by Shi'te elite. Iran also is run and ruled by Shi'te also known as Shia and Shiites (from what I could research). The insurgence is Sunni. It is a vicious cruel new chapter in the civil war between the Sunni and the Shia, one which will destroy anything we've done over since March 20 of 2003, and reveals the true complexity of this situation.
The Shi'te cooperated with the US from the get go, ergo we deem them the good guys. The Sunni followers are the largest Islamic sect. Iran offering to help, is also Shi'te, Sunnis in Iran are not allowed to build mosques and has numerous restrictions on those who practice a Sunni as opposed to Shia form of Islam. Abuses and attacts on this minority in Iran (9%) are common place. So when Iran offers to help fend off the rising militancy of the Sunni in its neighbor Iraq, it's not exactly out of neighborly goodness or feeling shocked at the atrocities those engaged in ruthless rounding up and shooting of policemen, border troops, bombs of military buildings and government offices and public executions and beheadings. It's a both and situation. As the al Qaeda backed leader of the insurgency chillingly boasted, "I'll see you in New York."
These are terrorists, racing through Iraq, killing people and taking over cities. They are militarized and obviously organized and armed with bombs, guns and a fierce and calloused will.
And it is beginning again, as the United States is quietly sending Iraq and I love the term, "300 military advisors." according to the New York Times. There isn't a shining right answer, but like in math, there are an infinite number of wrong ones. One of which is doing nothing, another of which is thinking we know everything. I do not envy anyone in leadership right now. I'm praying for them.
We're going to have to decide how to act as a country, we know what is being done is wrong, rather than merely react to what happens. If past is prologue, we will ignore until we get hurt, and then it has to really hurt, at which point, we will overreact in response. I'm hoping we've learned something from history. Evil must always be opposed, or it spreads. The question is how to oppose evil.
That's why I wrote: Pray for peace. Pray for peace. Pray for Peace.
This week, I've had fewer children at home, which gave me time to do something I don't often get to do. I read the news. And I posted "Pray for peace, pray for peace, pray for peace." Someone asked afterwards, why in particular.
Everything I read made me think of the quote. "War is upon us, whether we will it or not," as Aragon says. The world feels topsy-turvy when the paper and the internet news sites frame the officials of Iran as reasonable for stating the obvious danger of ISIS in Iraq, and seem more morally solid than the United States.
But when I read deeper into the news, it is the same fight over again. Iraq is ruled by Shi'te elite. Iran also is run and ruled by Shi'te also known as Shia and Shiites (from what I could research). The insurgence is Sunni. It is a vicious cruel new chapter in the civil war between the Sunni and the Shia, one which will destroy anything we've done over since March 20 of 2003, and reveals the true complexity of this situation.
The Shi'te cooperated with the US from the get go, ergo we deem them the good guys. The Sunni followers are the largest Islamic sect. Iran offering to help, is also Shi'te, Sunnis in Iran are not allowed to build mosques and has numerous restrictions on those who practice a Sunni as opposed to Shia form of Islam. Abuses and attacts on this minority in Iran (9%) are common place. So when Iran offers to help fend off the rising militancy of the Sunni in its neighbor Iraq, it's not exactly out of neighborly goodness or feeling shocked at the atrocities those engaged in ruthless rounding up and shooting of policemen, border troops, bombs of military buildings and government offices and public executions and beheadings. It's a both and situation. As the al Qaeda backed leader of the insurgency chillingly boasted, "I'll see you in New York."
These are terrorists, racing through Iraq, killing people and taking over cities. They are militarized and obviously organized and armed with bombs, guns and a fierce and calloused will.
And it is beginning again, as the United States is quietly sending Iraq and I love the term, "300 military advisors." according to the New York Times. There isn't a shining right answer, but like in math, there are an infinite number of wrong ones. One of which is doing nothing, another of which is thinking we know everything. I do not envy anyone in leadership right now. I'm praying for them.
We're going to have to decide how to act as a country, we know what is being done is wrong, rather than merely react to what happens. If past is prologue, we will ignore until we get hurt, and then it has to really hurt, at which point, we will overreact in response. I'm hoping we've learned something from history. Evil must always be opposed, or it spreads. The question is how to oppose evil.
That's why I wrote: Pray for peace. Pray for peace. Pray for Peace.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Truth, Blogging and Stories
We have a world filled now with stories, opinions, agendas and myths and it is getting harder to get at true information or hard facts and hard news despite the plethora of new media venues. What is, is not what gets repeated or represented; and so an irate mentally unhinged man becomes a poster child for a political movement that some who have power and prestige despise; people who march for life are not covered or are proclaimed to be overwhelmingly old when the vast majority of those who attend are in fact quite young. Nuance has been abandoned for ideology in our modern story telling venues except when it makes an opponent more unpleasant. So we can never know if the story we hear is true True, or myth, revealing truth but being itself untrue; or just a fable, flat out piece of propaganda or absolute lie.
Today, the President's policies and positions are defined by negative space using the theory that if we could see the alternate universe where what he did was not done, we'd understand how good we have it now; and the New York Times posits that part of the reason for all the disbelief and disconnect with the intellectual elites is the greater transparency of the world these days. Sarah Palin becomes a saint to some on the right and the personification of the very worst of all possible worlds to some on the left. President Bush is portrayed as the ultimate village idiot and anyone who doesn't froth at the very mention of his name is deemed a dupe, a rube or too blinded by personal or political loyalty. The very same level of love slavishly lavished on the current commander in Chief is considered pure patriotism and the result of clear thinking about policy.
But Truth is always much more interesting and messy than any of the popular narratives or spins being put through today. All of these people, Sarah, George, Barrack, all of them are possibly greater individuals than their enemies believe, and more flawed than their press releases would reveal. The same is true of all of us. Because the mainstream and alternative medias all wear biases, some with more transparencies than others; we have no sources of pure truth, only story. We get the White House Spin, the Republican's Counter point, the MSM’s angle, the take by Rush Limbaugh, John Stewart, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, Chris Matthews and George Stephanopoulos. We get the Times and the Post and the Standard and the Examiner and Newsweek and News busters, the Drudge Report, Politico and Real Clear Politics and twitters and bloggers. It's like we're the cop at the accident and we get all the eye witness accounts and even the television footage from the traffic camera and still, we cannot know what actually happened because none of them know or can tell or would tell the whole story. We know incompletely but we forget that we know incompletely because we have so much information. So do all the people who report the stories in their zeal to be the ones telling the stories.
We still are telling stories rather than facing the hard messy truth in the media and politics. Part of our problem is we’ve decided we can’t know truth. Epistemologists posit that there are multiple ways of perceiving and understanding the world that are culture/time/gender/politically dependent. As such, no one is necessarily lying when they give their spin; it's their way of knowing. The problem remains, that some think truth exists but is unknowable and some think truth does not exist and some think truth is, and can be known and some think truth is, but we can only know partly. All camps claim to be correct despite the readily apparent irony of that sentence. Everyone claims to have a deeper understanding of the world, or that others have a deeper understanding of the world; Rush's "I'm always right." Keith Olberman's "Worst Person of the Week," are two versions of the very same problem. Everyone thinks they know better, but very very few spend any time discerning anything but that which validates their own opinion.
Ultimately, these multiple arguments about truth, its relevance and its reality matter in politics and life because they determine what we think and how we will act. If all the ways of knowing together make up the composite sketch of the actual reality; then we must perpetually amass as much info as possible looking for patterns from which we can draw conclusions that reveal more truth than otherwise. If reality is ultimately unknowable because we can't understand that which extends beyond our own personal cultural template's standard deviations; if there is no actual truth, then we should only be able to recognize our own echoes; everything else is background chatter or white noise. If such is the case, we are doomed to a perpetual tower of Babel. If we believe that truth actually exists and is knowable in whole or in part; then it becomes our personal obligation to recognize when our own bias is coloring our judgment and when we are seeing things clearly.
How can we know truth? We can know only if we are awake and fully cognizant of why we write and read and think and say certain things. Truth is hard like a diamond. Life or death. Honesty or not. Yes or no. Truth has actions which echo it. "By their fruits you shall know them." A school that values excellence will show by the books in the library, the papers on the wall and the quality of instruction. A school that has lost heart is easy to spot. The same holds for an institution or an athlete or a book. You can see when there is blood in the bricks, sweat and grit on the face, heart in the words that is the art of the piece. The reasons why something happens or someone acts may be myriad, but the truth is still visible and can be seen if we seek. Truth will out, it reveals dedication, intent, process and time. Ultimately, if we hold that truth exists, we ought to pursue it ruthlessly as the rare edifying jewel that it is, even if it means we get a less instant gratification and happily ever after style gratification ending.
Lives, all lives are messy even if they are lived simply; and thus we should be merciful to the foolish, the greedy, the poor spirited, the angry, the proud, the rich, the righteous and the self serving even as we discover them being foolish, greedy, poor spirited, angry, proud, hoarding, righteous and self serving. All of us need that measure with which we measure to be larger than our lives, because all of us can see everyone else's splinters but none of our own planks. We need God to be unfair in our favor and so we should be with each other and with our hearts and words towards even those who anger or disappoint us. We ought to recognize that God sees all our messy stories for the messy stories that they are, and still sees through them for the distilled truth that they reveal; how much or how little we believe; how much or how little we seek truth and pursue wisdom, and how much or how little we love.
Today, the President's policies and positions are defined by negative space using the theory that if we could see the alternate universe where what he did was not done, we'd understand how good we have it now; and the New York Times posits that part of the reason for all the disbelief and disconnect with the intellectual elites is the greater transparency of the world these days. Sarah Palin becomes a saint to some on the right and the personification of the very worst of all possible worlds to some on the left. President Bush is portrayed as the ultimate village idiot and anyone who doesn't froth at the very mention of his name is deemed a dupe, a rube or too blinded by personal or political loyalty. The very same level of love slavishly lavished on the current commander in Chief is considered pure patriotism and the result of clear thinking about policy.
But Truth is always much more interesting and messy than any of the popular narratives or spins being put through today. All of these people, Sarah, George, Barrack, all of them are possibly greater individuals than their enemies believe, and more flawed than their press releases would reveal. The same is true of all of us. Because the mainstream and alternative medias all wear biases, some with more transparencies than others; we have no sources of pure truth, only story. We get the White House Spin, the Republican's Counter point, the MSM’s angle, the take by Rush Limbaugh, John Stewart, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, Chris Matthews and George Stephanopoulos. We get the Times and the Post and the Standard and the Examiner and Newsweek and News busters, the Drudge Report, Politico and Real Clear Politics and twitters and bloggers. It's like we're the cop at the accident and we get all the eye witness accounts and even the television footage from the traffic camera and still, we cannot know what actually happened because none of them know or can tell or would tell the whole story. We know incompletely but we forget that we know incompletely because we have so much information. So do all the people who report the stories in their zeal to be the ones telling the stories.
We still are telling stories rather than facing the hard messy truth in the media and politics. Part of our problem is we’ve decided we can’t know truth. Epistemologists posit that there are multiple ways of perceiving and understanding the world that are culture/time/gender/politically dependent. As such, no one is necessarily lying when they give their spin; it's their way of knowing. The problem remains, that some think truth exists but is unknowable and some think truth does not exist and some think truth is, and can be known and some think truth is, but we can only know partly. All camps claim to be correct despite the readily apparent irony of that sentence. Everyone claims to have a deeper understanding of the world, or that others have a deeper understanding of the world; Rush's "I'm always right." Keith Olberman's "Worst Person of the Week," are two versions of the very same problem. Everyone thinks they know better, but very very few spend any time discerning anything but that which validates their own opinion.
Ultimately, these multiple arguments about truth, its relevance and its reality matter in politics and life because they determine what we think and how we will act. If all the ways of knowing together make up the composite sketch of the actual reality; then we must perpetually amass as much info as possible looking for patterns from which we can draw conclusions that reveal more truth than otherwise. If reality is ultimately unknowable because we can't understand that which extends beyond our own personal cultural template's standard deviations; if there is no actual truth, then we should only be able to recognize our own echoes; everything else is background chatter or white noise. If such is the case, we are doomed to a perpetual tower of Babel. If we believe that truth actually exists and is knowable in whole or in part; then it becomes our personal obligation to recognize when our own bias is coloring our judgment and when we are seeing things clearly.
How can we know truth? We can know only if we are awake and fully cognizant of why we write and read and think and say certain things. Truth is hard like a diamond. Life or death. Honesty or not. Yes or no. Truth has actions which echo it. "By their fruits you shall know them." A school that values excellence will show by the books in the library, the papers on the wall and the quality of instruction. A school that has lost heart is easy to spot. The same holds for an institution or an athlete or a book. You can see when there is blood in the bricks, sweat and grit on the face, heart in the words that is the art of the piece. The reasons why something happens or someone acts may be myriad, but the truth is still visible and can be seen if we seek. Truth will out, it reveals dedication, intent, process and time. Ultimately, if we hold that truth exists, we ought to pursue it ruthlessly as the rare edifying jewel that it is, even if it means we get a less instant gratification and happily ever after style gratification ending.
Lives, all lives are messy even if they are lived simply; and thus we should be merciful to the foolish, the greedy, the poor spirited, the angry, the proud, the rich, the righteous and the self serving even as we discover them being foolish, greedy, poor spirited, angry, proud, hoarding, righteous and self serving. All of us need that measure with which we measure to be larger than our lives, because all of us can see everyone else's splinters but none of our own planks. We need God to be unfair in our favor and so we should be with each other and with our hearts and words towards even those who anger or disappoint us. We ought to recognize that God sees all our messy stories for the messy stories that they are, and still sees through them for the distilled truth that they reveal; how much or how little we believe; how much or how little we seek truth and pursue wisdom, and how much or how little we love.
Monday, August 4, 2008
I'm in the Washington Post today!
This is the second time I've made it! Yes I'm proud. Yes I'm bragging. Click the link anyway. Yes the photo is really from our backyard. I've been taking off pruning duty since I killed a squash.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/03/AR2008080301672.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/03/AR2008080301672.html
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