IS IT FAIR?

On September 3^rd, Chris Walker took President Barack Obama to task for his recent sightseeing trip to Alaska. He was absolutely right!

While the President was renaming Mt. McKinley, lamenting the loss of salmon stocks, and projecting a huge rise in Alaska’s temperature by the end of the century, here in the lower forty-eight, violence and civic division have dominated the headlines. It’s been police against citizens and citizens against police. The culture wars have pitted many Americans against one another. Things are nasty and they’re about to get nastier.

The President has failed us. As Mr. Walker put it, “At no time in recent decades has there been this type of unrest in America. To date, the President has not shown any leadership to get these problems under control.”

Things in the Mediterranean are even worse.

Just a few days ago, the world witnessed the tragic scene of three year old Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body lying in the Turkish sand. He, his brother, and mother had drowned in their desperate attempt to flee the violence in the Syrian city of Kobani. The boys’ father survived the ordeal, only to compound the tragedy by having to return to Kobani to bury his family.

While the tragedy of Alyan Kurdi and his family has captured the world’s attention, thousands of desperate refugees have also died trying to escape Syria’s civil war. Millions more have been displaced - Kurds, Muslims, Druze, Yazidis, Christians. The crisis is so bad that news agencies are reporting that it rivals the refugee crisis that followed the end of World War II.

How has the world responded to this crisis? The Lebanese, whose population is 4 million, have taken in over a million. The Turks have taken 1.8 million. The Jordanians have taken 600,000. Germany has pledged to take 800,000.

Some within the private sector have also offered help. Egyptian billionaire Nagub Sawnis is willing to buy and island or two from Greece or Italy for 200,000 refugees.  “All I need is the permission to put these people on this island,” he said.  “After that I don't need anything anymore from them. I'll pay them for the island, I'll provide the jobs. I'll take care of all the logistics.”

Some politicians were critical of his offer. His response was perfect. “I sometimes think the politicians don’t have a heart.”

What has the United States, with its unmatched ability to respond to such a crisis, done? According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, between 2011 and 2014, 201 Syrian refugees were given asylum in the U.S. So far in 2015, we have taken in 651, with a pledge to take 1,150 more.

Have we done our fair share? What should our fair share be? The best response I can offer is, “To whom much is given, much is required.” (Luke 12:48)

Is it fair, then, to ask the President some questions? Is it fair to ask who drew the red line in Syria? Is it fair to ask who told Bashar al-Assad he had to go? Is it fair to ask who told al-Assad the chemical weapons had to be destroyed or who boldly declared that ISIS was the “junior varsity?” Why has the President dithered while the crisis he did a great deal to create has deepened? How can his State Department tell us they are “horrified by what they see, but insist they cannot be the ones to swoop in and make the situation better?” Why is there only $360 million to spare for Syrian refugee relief while the President is prepared to give the Iranian ayatollahs over $100 billion for their worthless signatures on a meaningless piece of paper?

Is it fair to remind the President of Colin Powell's warning about a leader's obligation to fix things he  breaks? Is it fair, then, to ask the President why he refuses to fix something (Syria) that he broke?

And, I do have one more question for the President. Is a salmon’s life really more worthy of America’s protection than Aylan Kurdi’s?

Yesterday I read an op-ed penned by author Robert Darwall, comparing Barack Obama’s response to Syria with Jimmy Carter’s response to the plight of the Vietnamese boat people. His words reinforce the well placed words of Chris Walker from a few days ago. I’ll close with them and let you, the reader, draw your own conclusions about whether or not the questions about the President’s leadership are fair.

“But where is the 44th president? He is in Alaska taking selfies. “Alaskans are on the frontline of one of the greatest challenges we face this century,” the president said in a White House video. The emergency of melting glaciers was a “wake-up call,” President Obama claimed. The president is wrong. Today’s emergency is not in Alaska. It is in the Mediterranean. Obama’s cold indifference surely marks the lowest point of his presidency - a moment which will be weighed in the balance and found wanting. The world is waiting for America to act. As Jimmy Carter demonstrated 36 years ago, only a president deploying American leadership can make good on the commitment, “I cannot let your people die.”

RIGGED!

My youngest son used to be a huge professional wrestling fan. He knew it was all rigged, but he often told me he didn’t mind. “I know it’s not real, Dad, but it’s fun to watch.”

I couldn’t argue with him. He was right. 

When I was young I went to a professional wrestling match one time. I still have vivid memories of the feature match between two overweight, middle-aged men. They threw each other around for about five minutes, till one of the wrestlers picked his opponent up and slammed him to the mat. The flimsy ring collapsed and folded on them like a giant sandwich. The crowd of about two hundred or so roared with delight as the two men tried, unsuccessfully, to escape.

Yes, professional wrestling is rigged, but it is fun to watch.

As I watch American politics these days, I see that it’s somewhat like professional wrestling. It’s rigged. But, unlike wrestling, it isn’t a bit of fun to watch. In fact, it’s a sorry spectacle.

A lot of us see this. Progressives like Elizabeth Warren see it. Socialists like Bernie Sanders see it. Libertarians like Rand Paul see it. Many of my fellow conservatives see it. A recent Pew Research survey found that 69% of young conservatives believe the system is rigged in favor of the powerful and connected.

Sadly, we see the effects of the rigged game almost everywhere. A few years ago, General Motors was on the verge of collapse. In a fit of generosity, Congress gave them $60 billion of our money. When the final totals were registered, G.M. profited to the tune of about $12 billion. We, the taxpayers, lost about $10 billion. How did G.M. repay us for our generosity? They gave us faulty ignition switches. It would have cost less than a buck apiece to fix them, but G.M. ignored the problem and it cost over 50 people their lives!

We see the effects in the way the federal bureaucracies treat honest citizens. The N.S.A. spies on us. The I.R.S. confiscates the earnings of average Americans and then refuses to give it back. Federal agencies, accountable to no one but themselves, hound farmers and ranchers under the guise of environmental safety while they, themselves, pollute rivers, with nothing more than a lame apology when they get caught.

The game is even rigged at the state and local levels. Uber, the ride sharing service, is fighting with state and local bureaucracies for the right to serve their customer base. What have they done to incur the wrath of politicians? They provide a ride that costs less than half, on average, than a consumer would pay for a taxicab. Uber’s drivers make a much better living than the average cab driver. In New York City, they go into neighborhoods the cab companies refuse to serve. But, that doesn’t seem to matter. They’ve had to fight powerful lobbying interests. In a recent skirmish, the cab companies donated $500 million to New York mayor Bill DeBlasio in his crusade against Uber.

Here in Kansas, our legislators, including our local crop, decided that Uber wasn’t regulated enough to suit their tastes. So, instead of fixing our budget problems, they set about needlessly hassling Uber’s drivers over an imaginary issue of public safety. They damned near got it done. I wish that were the end of it, but I don’t think so. Our legislators will be back.

Locally, the City of Emporia, is going through a visioning process. Public input to this point seems to indicate that people want local, home-grown businesses to thrive. We want good jobs, jobs that will keep our college graduates here. We want to fix our poverty problems.

That’s what we want. What are we getting? Developers are romancing our political leaders. The siren song is palpable. “Give us the T.I.F. or we’ll take our big box stores and go.”

The public is asking for Betty Grable, but it looks like we might get Frankenstein. Is there a bit of skulduggery and bullying going on? We’re not sure, but our trust levels are low.

I could go on and on with the examples, but I think you get the point.

About the only people who refuse to see that the game is rigged are those sitting in the seats of power and privilege.

How can this be? Don’t those who’ve been elected come from our communities? Aren’t they our neighbors? Weren’t we once able to rub elbows with them in public?

What has changed? It’s simple. Those who were once outsiders have become insiders. They’re the experts. They pull the strings.  They had to listen to us before the elections. They don’t now. They tell us they’re on our side, but we know better. It’s not our imaginations. The game is rigged.

It’s no wonder so many people are clamoring for a clown in wrestling tights like Donald Trump.

XENOPHOBES NOT WANTED

“The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again”

“Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane, 
All they will call you will be “deportees”

 “Deportees” (Woody Guthrie – 1961)

I read the synopsis of Donald Trump’s immigration plan last night. Only a demagogue/crook/billionaire like him could dream it up. It was a xenophobe’s delight.

Some elements of the plan are patently foolish. If Donald Trump thinks he can build a wall at the border and make Mexico pay for it, he’s even dumber than I thought he was. If he believes that Mexicans are solely responsible for our unemployment problems, he’s got a screw loose. If he thinks that restricting or eliminating green card applications is a stroke of genius, he’s delusional. 

 Unfortunately, that’s the type of rhetoric we get when the populace is angry and a filthy rich blowhard runs for President.

Trump’s position would be merely laughable if it weren’t so laden with evil intent, as evidenced by the centerpiece of his plan. If he’s elected, he’ll deport all illegal immigrants, men, women, and children. Included in the children are those who were born in the United States. For those who aren’t well acquainted with our Constitution, those born here are American citizens and, as such, they entitled to “protections and immunities” that cannot be abridged by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment to said Constitution.

Apparently, the Constitution means little to Donald Trump. He’ll just rule like an emperor. As he said the other day, “They gotta’ go.” Then, at the appropriate time, he’ll decide who comes back. Oh, the milk of human kindness!

I think you can see by now that I have strong feelings about all of this. It’s very, very personal to me.

My mother was an immigrant, like the parents of many of you who are reading this essay. She was uneducated. But, she was also a woman imbued with enormous courage and a desire to see that her children worked hard and succeeded in life.

 She fulfilled those duties admirably.

As I was growing up, there were many times that a letter would come from immigration. They terrified her. For some reason, she wasn’t sure whether or not she was in the United States legally. Any time that dreaded letter came, she would panic. “Let’s pack up. We’ve got to leave so Immigration won’t catch up with us.” The fear that registered in her face was palpable. She was panic stricken by the thought of being deported. That fear, in turn, transmitted to me, my brother, and sister. It was very real.

 My mother has gone on to her reward. She no longer has to worry about that dreaded letter from Immigration. My brother, sister, and I have also moved on. We’ve contributed to the welfare of this country. We’ve gotten educated, worked hard, served in our military. We’ve mastered disciplines like chemical engineering, linguistics, theology, and business.

We’ve taught our children well. We count among them a Rhodes Scholar and practicing attorney, an I.T. specialist, an author, a labor negotiator, a sheriff, a Social Security Administration analyst, a nurse, an investment broker.

We’re proud of our contributions to this country and we’re sure that succeeding generations of Dillons will continue to contribute to America’s principles and ideals.

I believe there are millions of Mexicans and others from south of our border who want to nothing more than my mother wanted for her family.

But, you say, we’ve got a problem with illegal immigration. I agree. But, there is an American way to solve the problem. Deporting 11 million is not the way. Blaming Mexicans is not the American way, nor is it the Conservative way.

I’ve got one more bone to pick before I’m done. According to a recent Washington Post poll, 25% of white Christians support Donald Trump. I hope and pray that the poll is wrong, but if it isn’t, I have question for that 25% percent. What in God’s name is wrong with you? Have you never read the story of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 2)? Don’t you know that Jesus, our Lord, spent part of his childhood living as a refugee in Egypt (Matthew 2)? Don’t you know that God has great affinity for the alien and the stranger (Matthew 25)? Haven’t you read that there will be a day when a “multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language” will gather around the throne of heaven (Revelation 7)?

If you’re in that 25%, you need to wake up. There is no place for xenophobia on earth….or in heaven! In fact, if you’re not careful you could become the deportees when that great day of reckoning dawns.

FERAL CREATURES

Albert Schweitzer has been credited with once saying, “The only escape from the miseries of life is music and cats.” I’m not sure if he actually said it, but if it wasn’t him, it must have been someone with a deep sense of appreciation for things that bring balance and beauty to this often chaotic world.

I’d never spent much time around cats until I fell in love with Nancy. Once I got to that point, I realized that love meant Nancy…..and her cats. In our thirty years together, there have been many cats who generously shared their home with an interloper like me. There was Parker, then Stormy, followed by Tiddles and Beau. Corky took up residence with us about the time we left Memphis. Since we’ve lived in Emporia, we’ve had Emma, Brudder, Turkel, Felix, Mia, Chee Chee, Gracie, and, most recently a little Himalayan kitten we’ve named Kitsi.

We weren’t really in the market for another cat, but Kitsi came to us as the only reward thus far for what has become a frustrating exercise in what I thought was good citizenship.

Permit me to explain.

About a month ago, a friend made us aware of a feral cat problem at a rental property near the corner of 8^th and Rural. There were at least twenty-five of them roaming around. Our friend, who is very kind to animals, convinced us to help her trap some of them and get them to the animal shelter. So, we went and set two traps. In the process, Nancy noticed that there was one little kitten that wasn’t afraid of people. That was Kitsi. She was covered with fleas. Her eyes were clouded over with gunk of some kind. Nancy decided to bring her home that night and then get her to our vet, Floyd Dorsey, as soon as possible.

The next morning, we found that we’d actually caught two of the feral cats in the traps. We took them to the shelter, thinking they’d be glad to see us. We were wrong. One of the staff told us that what we’d done was illegal. After a brief, but mutually combative encounter, they reluctantly agreed to take the cats.

Later that day I called the police department to see if Nancy and I were, indeed, criminals. We were reassured that we were still citizens in good standing.

I wanted to do more, but didn’t see much point in pursuing things further until the city clarified its relationship with the shelter’s management. That’s what I’m still waiting on. As things stand, city management is waiting on the city attorney, who has recently had surgery and is still recuperating. Ain’t politics grand? You’d think that common sense wouldn’t necessitate a lawyer, but politics isn’t generally about doing what makes good sense, is it?

So, the feral cats are still squatting, doing what feral cats usually do – breeding, passing disease to the pets of other homeowners in the area, and being a nuisance.

The cats, of course, aren’t to blame. They’re just doing what comes naturally. The root of the problem lies elsewhere.

In case you haven’t noticed, feral cats almost always find the feral abode of some feral property owner (think slum lord) to take up residence. It’s a mutually satisfying arrangement. The feral cats seem to like it and the feral property owners profit from it by taking advantage of the city’s poor. They also get the added benefit of low property taxes, which are based on the low value of the hovels they profit from.

Where does that leave the rest of us? Our property taxes skyrocket as we try to make improvement to our property. But, even our attempts at improvement have marginal benefit, thanks to the drag on property values that feral property owners inflict on us.

I could go on and on about city governing codes that were designed to deal with problems like this, but that would be pointless. Common sense tells us that this city’s homes should be structurally sound and that our properties and neighborhoods should be “protected from blighting influences (the City of Emporia’s property codes, section 5b).”

Unfortunately, getting the city to respond is a major undertaking. I’m trying not to be cynical, but I’m losing the battle. It appears to me that we’ve got a real feral problem in this city. We’ve got feral cats, feral property, feral property owners, and feral politicians trying their best to ignore the problem.

So, the problems continue to fester. The feral cats suffer needlessly. The feral property owners profit handsomely. The feral properties keep falling apart at the seams. The feral politicians keep hoping the problems will magically disappear. And, the rest of us pay the high price of neglect. It’s what horse racing fans call the exacta, with the public getting the short end of the stick.

A ZERO SUM GAME?

“Can it be that evil is a zero sum game? That each generation is allotted its quota of evil, and must express it – discharge it in any way it can?”

-          Lance Morrow – “Evil – An Investigation” (Basic Books – 2003)

The reactions from both sides of America’s abortion issue after the release of videos by the Center for Medical Progress have been swift. This morning I read in the Topeka Capitol Journal that Sam Brownback is calling for an investigation of Planned Parenthood facilities in Kansas. It won’t be long till pro-abortion supporters accuse the Governor of playing politics. Pro-life supporters will claim he’s acting out of principle.

Will the accusations and counter charges bring any resolution to heated debate? I don’t know.

Me? I’m pro-life. I don’t consider myself to be an activist, although I have engaged in some activities on behalf of the movement. Back in the 80’s I once carried a pro-life sign that read “ABORTION STOPS A BEATING HEART” to a rally near downtown Kansas City. I chose the sign carefully. I could have carried one with photos of aborted children, but decided on something less incendiary. I didn’t seem to make much difference in the way some counter demonstrators reacted to me. I was spit on once and got whacked a couple of times. One demonstrator screamed at me about Ronald Reagan and our government’s support for the counter-insurgency in Nicaragua. I had no idea what Nicaragua had to do with abortion, but felt it would be best to bite my tongue.

When Nancy and I moved to New Jersey, we took one trip to Washington, D.C. with a large contingent of pro-life Roman Catholics. We spent some time praying near the capitol building and stopped by Senator Bill Bradley’s office to leave notes expressing our views. That was as provocative as it got.

Since that time, Nancy and I haven’t been particularly visible in the pro-life movement. We could best be termed “quiet” pro-lifers.

This brings me to what I think of the current heated rhetoric.

Is what Planned Parenthood doing illegal? I don’t know enough about the law to say. I do know that Chief Justice John Roberts has said that Roe v. Wade is “settled law.” I do know that Planned Parenthood claims that they follow all federal statutes covering human fetal tissue research; particularly those concerning the logistics of the movement of the “tissue” from the abortion clinics to research facilities wanting said “tissue.” Planned Parenthood is also making the claim that the tissue is being used to help medical science find cures for Alzheimer’s and other scourges that plague humanity.

Some commentators have said it’s like Soylent Green in reverse.

Is what Planned Parenthood doing based on altruism? Are they acts of kindness?   Are they moral?

I don’t believe so.

I think the problem here is that too many pro-abortion supporters are confusing legality with morality. They’re two different things. While the law can have moral roots, law can also be used to make something immoral seem like a perfectly moral course of action. Our own history makes this clear. In 1857, for example, a majority of Supreme Court justices ruled that Dred Scott was nothing more than a piece of chattel property. In 1927, justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote on behalf of the seven other justices who supported the idea that forced sterilization was legal in Buck v. Bell. His words were chilling – “It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. . . . Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

As I read the recent op-eds about this issue I get a queasy feeling in my gut. Pro-abortion supporters are saying things like “Yawn,” which is another way of saying this is not a big deal. They apparently find the videos boring. Some are claiming that pro-lifers are letting their emotions override their logic, as if logic should be the only proper way to measure what’s happening.

Well, I have to admit it. I find what’s going on emotionally disturbing. And, like the Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby, I think pro-abortion supporters should also be emotionally troubled by what they’re seeing and hearing. Like him, I find it morally repugnant to hear a Planned Parenthood official like Deborah Nucatola say over a salad and red wine, “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”

While the law may say that the things we’re hearing and seeing are legal, I’d like to think that our consciences aren’t so seared that we can’t see evil when it’s staring right at us. If we can’t, God help us. We’re doomed.