Healing America's Oldest Wound

 

The term “systemic racism” has come to prominence these last few years, as the crowning expression of “woke” ideology.  The term, and the concepts it represents are doomed to fail in the quest to right the wrongs of America's past, because they are a complete misdiagnosis of the basic problem.  In addition to being racist in its own right, it has the flaw that since it tries to cover so many things it becomes a meaningless mush; a sweeping indictment of everything everywhere.  As such, it ends up covering nothing. One begins to suspect it is desperate, if not cynical, attempt to make sense of a long and painful unsolved mystery.  Hence, it has devolved into little more than another of humanity's consensual paranoid delusions, totally incapable of healing the pain and frustration it pretends to offer as a cure. 

The pain and frustration seem to come from not just the years of  widespread and legal African American oppression, but more especially from the time since the civil rights movement.  Since that time no official racism has been allowed, and yet the African American community has not only not made great progress, but has in many ways regressed. Certainly, family breakdown, drug use, crime and violence have increased in the black community since the 1960’s.  What’s more, with the immigration of various African ethnic communities, and their subsequent rise in American culture, the comparison with the seemingly perpetual social malaise in the wider African American community has caused increasing frustration. 

It seems to many people as if something has been done, and continues to be done, to African Americans that is keeping them down.  No one can exactly define what is being done, but there is widespread sentiment that something bad was and is being done, and somehow White people are responsible for it.  Thus, the delusional concept of systemic racism to gain acceptance.  The strategy that has emerged from this concept is to try to chase down and exterminate said invisible bogeyman of systemic racism.  The tactic then becomes to confront and abuse random White people until they admit their hitherto unknown racism, and reinforce the credibility of the questionable concept. So the idea, and the tactics continue, with still no progress being made.

That strategy is doomed to failure because it is based on an inaccurate diagnosis of the problem.  Yes, many of the ongoing, multi generational problems in the African American community are the result of what White people did to Black people, but the abuse has almost all ended while the problems persist.  To end the problems and repair the damage (the real meaning of reparations) we must first accurately diagnose the problem.  Once we do that, we will see that naming the remedy is relatively easy.

Stating the diagnosis is the simple, albeit probably painful part much like ripping the dressing off an old wound.  Simply put, the great wound inflicted on African Americans is two-fold.  First, the mode of their importation and enslavement rendered them into what is essentially a new ethnic group.  Second, this new ethnic group, which was inadvertently formed as a side effect of the efficient yet inhumane machinery of mass enslavement, has, since its genesis, been deprived of the blessings and burdens of community self-determination.  These two aspects, which will be detailed shortly, have combined to induce a debilitating and continuing impairment in African American culture.

Let’s unpack the first aspect which is that African Americans were rendered into a new ethnic group at their birth. Consider the unprecedented depth of the cultural dismantling that took place during the great African enslavement in the United States.  Each individual African was stripped of almost all cultural accouterments and the psychological identity that came with them.  First, their clothes were taken and when they landed in the new world they were forced to accept European clothes.  Their language was brutally suppressed, along with any cultural forms or tribal associations. Any communication with family or friends back in Africa was totally impossible.  Since the number of slaves was relatively large compared to the number of Whites, fear of a slave uprising motivated the White slave owners to be intensely diligent in obliterating any expression of Black identity, unity, or self determination.

When, after enduring all this psychological trauma, the individual African American returned to social cohesion, it was in stilted English and as a member of the most abused and demeaned group in the new nation, permanently on the bottom of the social ladder. A new people, conceived in enslaved suffering and formed by the powers of greed and fear, were born anew on God’s earth. They carried forward virtually no shared memories of a previous existence, and there were no ethnic distinctions between the various enslaved African peoples that were recognized or meaningful.

            This experience is unique, certainly in America, and probably, given the size of the enslavement and the depth of the cultural dismantling, in the world.  Even the far greater number of African slaves brought to Latin America didn’t suffer anything like that total cultural dismantling.  They were arguably treated more brutally, often being worked to death, but they were left to speak and associate as they wished. The other ethnic groups that came to America, or that were already here, didn’t suffer any where near this degree of cultural obliteration. 

The Native Americans, although decimated on a large scale, were cheated and lied to but still retained their tribal councils and a degree of national self determination.  Happily, almost all of their cultural institutions are witnessing revival today. By way of comparison with enslaved African Americans, the Irish, the Chinese, and the Mexicans, who were probably the most ill treated of the various immigrant ethnic groups, still kept their clothes, their foods, their languages, and were still able to keep in touch with their families in the old country.  Even in the face of some opposition, they were allowed to associate with each other as they chose.  They congregated in their own neighborhoods and in their own towns.  After two or three generations they would start to move out into the larger culture, confidently moving forward from a position of strength because they had a political and economic power base since they been allowed to exercise a great degree of community self-determination.

This brings up the second aspect of the wound that has been inflicted on African Americans, which is that this new ethnic group, unlike any other group in human history, has never exercised meaningful community self-determination.  There is a consciousness that grows naturally in any group that has any degree of self-determination, and has developed since ancient times in every group in the world.  Even in a country as repressed as ancient China, the local warlord demanded tribute, but he left most problems, such as water, food, medical care, moral restraint, the consequences of immorality, and almost all the other cultural issues, to be worked out by the local villagers.  The same was true in Ireland, where the English rulers took the wheat as rent, and left the Irish to fend for themselves on rotting potatoes.  The same dynamic held true for immigrants from Latin America and the other areas of Europe and Asia. 

            When these villagers from the various areas in the world arrived in America, they had a history and a memory of how to run their own communities.  Even if they weren’t from the exact same villages, members of these ethnic groups shared the same or similar language, systems of taboos, personal responsibilities and expectations.  What’s more, they knew without even thinking about it how to pass these on to their children.

            In fact, the same thing was and is true throughout Africa.  The Africans who were forced on to the slave boats would, if they had been left to their own devices, have been more than capable of forming together in healthy, self governing communities, and would have achieved a strong power base just like every other group has.  A quick look at the modern experience of the Ethiopian, Somali, Nigerian, and other African immigrant communities confirms this truth.

            But African Americans back then weren’t left to their own devices.  They were enslaved and their culture destroyed.  Since they were someone else's property, their well being, in terms of drinkable water, medical care, food, and shelter, was under the responsibility and authority of their White owners.  We can thank God that since racism was so extreme, Blacks were left to study the Bible and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ on their own.  However, even in the area of sexual morality, Blacks were encouraged to be promiscuous, as it enabled slave owners to more easily sell family members for monetary gain, and to engage in selective breeding.

The point is that African Americans weren’t allowed to exercise the powers of self government, of self-determination, and therefore weren’t forced to respond to the challenges of self-government. They were to know their place, do their jobs, and any community problems that arose were to be dealt with by the master in the big house.  Usually, the leader of the local Black community was selected by the owner and was the one who might successfully persuade the master to meet some of the community’s needs.

            Things really didn’t change much after slavery.  There were many in the African American community who recognized the opportunities and responsibilities inherent in freedom, and worked with courage and enthusiasm to meet them.  However, even during Reconstruction, and certainly afterward in the era of Jim Crow, their efforts were thwarted with brutal oppression and terrorism. 

            Well into the 20^th Century, African Americans were kept in near slavery, with no seat at the table where decisions are made.  The worst aspect of this, far worse than the simple lack of self-determination, was the fact that the conditions that develop a healthy consciousness of self-government were still absent.  It must be acknowledged that there were some exceptions to this, like Mound Bayou, Mississippi and some few towns run by African Americans in Oklahoma and elsewhere, but they were too few to change the larger African American culture. 

Even without most of the powers of self government African America continued to rise.  A business class arose, when it wasn’t being bombed out as in Greenburg, Oklahoma.  The Black families were becoming stronger and more stable all the way through the 1950’s.  With the success of the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans demonstrated that they had achieved enough strength and influence to gain political equality with Whites.  Then the third crime perpetrated against African America. after slavery and Jim Crow, was the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson.

            Close on the heels of the equalizing Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (1964-65), Lyndon Johnson enacted a series of socialist programs, called the Great Society.  While seeming to have good intentions these programs continued the crime against the African American community because they once again denied to Blacks the powers and burdens of self determination.  There are some who might say that there is poetic justice in this because self-determination was also largely taken from the White community at the same time, but that should be small solace because the tragic wounding of the Black community continued unabated.

            Consider how many cultural decisions used to be made (by Whites) at the local level, and are now made at the federal level.  Health care, public relief, moral education of the young, control of pornography, and many other issues, ranging from how to provide clean water and sanitation to how to generate local jobs used to be made by local communities.  From 1933 to 1963, a nascent socialism (a topic for another day) took root and fully bloomed in the late 1960’s, removing almost all the powers and burdens of moral self government from all the people, even the white people, just shortly after African Americans gained a real measure of political equality.  Truly, the pie turned rotten just as they finally got a piece of it.

 

Truly, the pie turned rotten just as they finally got a piece of it.

 

            Look at the similar cultural effects of these three conditions.  In slavery, there was an alienation from the legal structure.  The master made the rules, and if one could get away with breaking them, very few of the fellow slaves would hold them to account.  As long as what was being done didn’t threaten to bring down the master’s wrath, it was of no concern to the community because the community hadn’t made the rules.  That same thinking held true during Jim Crow.  The “man” made the rules, so if you could get away with skirting them, more power to you.  That thinking was slowly losing ground until the 1960’s, but it has come back with a vengeance since then.

            “The Man” is back, and these days Whites, and everybody else, are in the same boat.  Look at how we all think today.  “We” don’t talk about what “we” are going to do to solve a problem.  “They” have to solve the problem, and “they” are expected to provide us with all our wants. 

            We are to do our jobs and get away with what we can.  Whether it’s cheating the welfare system, cheating on our taxes, or cheating in traffic, it’s only wrong if you get caught because we have no social obligation to each other.  If there is any problem, “they” have to solve it.  Our leaders are those who can get the master…er the man… er, I mean the federal government, to come up with the money to solve our problems for us.  This really is the mindset of almost the entire country and some of our leading thinkers are correct in calling this a plantation mentality.

So, what is the solution? How do we go about healing this almost 400-year-old wound in the African American community?  The great wounding of African America will end and the healing begin when African Americans are free and equal citizens of self-governing communities.  That can only happen when most of the powers of self government are devolved from the federal government and revert back into the hands of state and local governments.

 

The great wounding of African America will end and the healing begin when African Americans are free and equal citizens of self-governing communities.

 

“Hold on there,” one can hear the roar of protest. “Isn’t this just advocating a return to states rights?”  Yes and no, mostly no.  First of all, only people have rights, and according to Jefferson, we delegate certain powers to government to secure those rights.  This is merely saying we should delegate far fewer powers to the federal government and return them to the states and localities. 

“States rights” as advocated by those who called for them, were always about the states being able to deny rights that had already been established, and it was therefore a total lie.  Both the states and the federal government dropped the ball and didn’t honestly enforce the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments for nearly 100 years.  This situation has been used in the last 60 years since the Civil Right Acts to completely discredit local self-government, but that is a misreading of history because the federal government was complicit and contributed to Jim Crow just as much as the states.  Here, at this point of seeing the equivocation of the federal courts and how they cynically did not use an originalist, strict construction of the Constitution, especially when ruling on the post Civil War amendments, is where one might find the invisible bogeyman ghost of systemic racism.  However, it won’t be found by attacking the innocent or even well meaning words of some random White folks in the 2020’s.

            So if the cure is to establish true self-determination for the African American community, the struggle promises to be difficult because some powerful forces want to deny self-determination to all Americans, and to all humans for that matter.  There might be some ready allies in the (conservative) White community who are concerned about the same issues if the two groups can find their way to each other.  Perhaps a revival of the efforts at reconciliation can be ignited within the (mostly conservative) Christian community. Such an effort promises to bear beautiful fruit.  Further, by all means, the voices in the African American community calling for moral revival, self initiative, economic self sufficiency, and all the other civic and personal virtues should be welcomed and amplified because of such ideals are all healthy communities built.   

Nonetheless, the burden of self determination must be sought and borne if the great wound is to be healed.  Some might complain that absorbing all the changes this path entails is not fair.  Why must the victims endure even more pain?  Such objections are valid, because this is not fair, just as it’s not fair that the victim of a brutal assault must generate the self discipline and endure the pain of rehabilitation in order to recover from the assault.  Sure, the assault victim and the victims of racism and slavery could just blame the perpetrators (White people in this case) for their problems, and remain wounded.  Or they could demand, and maybe even receive some financial reparations, a court settlement from the criminals, feel good for a while, but if they continue to dodge the pain of rehabilitation they will remain wounded. 

Or they could, like a victim choosing painful rehabilitation, find their own healing. (Here the analogy slightly breaks down, because the African American community would be gaining something they were deprived of since their genesis, not regaining something they previously had.)  In the courageous spirit of their forebears, they can seek the finish line of community self-determination, meet the difficult challenges of moral self-government when it is gained, and thereby begin to heal the centuries old wound.  Such a strategy, while it will be challenging, is the only way to heal and is guaranteed to bear much sweeter and much more abundant fruit than the angry quest to root out the mythical bogeyman of “systemic racism” ever can.

Slavery and Racism, America's Glory and Shame

 

The biggest single issue hamstringing the growth of American political thought is the confusion surrounding the twin issues of slavery and racism.  While it is undeniable that racism is an indelible stain on the American past, and will be addressed in a bit, the new assertion here is that it is time we moved from thinking slavery is a stain on our past to instead realizing that the issue of slavery redounds to the eternal glory of the United States of America. There are two reasons for this.

First, it is beyond dispute that our founding document, the Declaration of  Independence, was THE spark which ignited a worldwide movement to abolish slavery.  1776 was followed by Vermont, in 1777, becoming the first governmental body in modern times to abolish slavery.  They were followed by Pennsylvania in 1780, Massachusetts in 1783, and then many other states and countries.  Spain, France, Great Britain, Mexico and many others. Yes, America was a little late to the party, as a nation, but that only brings up the second reason slavery redounds to America's glory.

 

When founded, the most idealistic hope the best of our founders intended was to be like the small, local city states of ancient Greece and Rome.  This was because those forms of government  were noted for tending to produce the best citizens, the populace with those powerful republican virtues that make any government work well.  At its' best it was hoped this architecture of government might induce an elevated moral awareness in the hearts and minds of the citizenry, an elevated moral consciousness.  Yet because those local communities are bound in a federal system of checks and balances, they could live peacefully with each other.  Hence, that positive social dynamic symbiotically generated in local small republics could remain peaceful and growing on a continental scale and over the long term.  That, in a nutshell, was the idealistic intent of the American experiment in self government.

In 1776, the day before the Declaration was published, slavery was accepted in this country with little opposition or criticism.  By 1861, eighty-five years later, just a long lifetime, America had become a nation which produced millions of us who were willing to fight, die, and indeed even kill to end the institution of legal slavery.

The question must be asked.  What other nation, in the entirety of human history, has brought themselves through such a huge cultural elevation, affecting so many lives, and done it in such a short period of time?

The answer is obviously none, since no other people has ever experienced a comparable change.  Ought we not therefore give ourselves a little more credit, and declare the American experiment in self government a raging success?  I say we should.  We should give ourselves a hearty pat on the back. The fact that our raised social consciousness grows organically from our system of government, our architecture of government if you will, when we use our system the way it was designed to be used, is a strong reason to return to an originalist, strict interpretation of the Constitution, as written.  Only then will that most important blessing of liberty, the fact that being free and self governing causes the normal human to want to be a more moral person, begin to get strong purchase.  Honestly taking on even just some of the duties of self government induces in the individual a recognition of the importance of moral behavior in the people.  This in turn causes many individuals to seek to lead more moral lives, to be consistent in public and private life.

When a people seeks to regain moral continence, then the Gospel can be heard most clearly.  It's like you know you're in love when love songs start making sense.  It is only when a person is seriously wrestling with the power sin has over us all that said person is primed to hear the hope of forgiveness in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The normal person is most likely to start wrestling with those issues of personal morality when they are given some real part in the powers of their own self governance, when they start thinking like a governor.

  That, I think is the long term connection between America and Christ.  Liberty on the American plan is both enabled by the Christian mind, and it greatly encourages that same Christian mind to grow in her citizens.

 

Now let us, while in the glow of feeling a little good about America again, face the shame of racism, and the damage it has done to all of us.  What's more, we should realize the reason American racism has been so toxic is tied directly into that same Declaration of Independence.

Those representatives traveling from the 1776 congress for their homes must have had some very interesting conversations.  On the one hand, any of them honest and free in their analysis would have instantly seen that a government dedicated to all men having equal liberty could not be reconciled with the existence of legal slavery, especially hereditary slavery.  No person can honestly say they would like to have been born into slavery.  So it is probably accurate that the seeds of many anti slavery initiatives were planted in some of those conversations.

For the congressmen returning to states which conceived themselves as being dependent on slavery, it can be, again probably accurately, imagined that the conversations went in a different direction.  For them, the easy and evil solution which presented itself was simply to consider that the African slaves were not really men.  They had merely to officially dehumanize their African family.

Then they could proudly join in the effort to establish liberty and justice for all men, and yet still maintain their wicked slavery.    All they had to do was pretend that people they interacted with daily on deep, intimate levels, with whom they shared both traumatic and joyful experiences, people with whom they often fell in love, are not really people at all, but instead some kind of intelligent animal.

All it took for us to believe, and to continue to believe, these obviously wicked lies was calling down on ourselves, on all of us actually because us Northerners were happy to join in, an immense cloud of delusional demonic forces. It is such a huge cloud that it amounts to a spiritual principality. That is why the only way we can get rid of it is to have some kind of national exorcism.  More on that in a bit.

Before looking for possible remedies, let us linger for a moment on just exactly how bad American racism has been.  For a variety of reasons white American racism towards African America has been the most virulent and destructive strain of racism this world has ever seen, which is saying a lot because this sorry planet has seen some terribly vicious and destructive outbreaks of the viral spiritual disease known as racism.  The way we treated Africans in this country is arguably worse than how the Nazis treated the Jews.  It has lasted longer and has caused much more damage.  There is so much more that I can, should and will say on this, but time constrains this discussion to focus on remedies for the spiritual virus of racism.

I term racism a spiritual virus because like the common cold, it is always around in some mild form or the other.  Everyone is susceptible to it's logic that the more like me a person is, the more truly human they are.  There are, what's more, a lot of different degrees of virility in the various strains of racism around the world.  Nonetheless, the American strain does seem to be the absolute worst, probably because we so consciously called these delusional spirits down on our own heads to gain that wicked power.

However, the fact of our having consciously chosen this path in our forgotten past leads one to hope that this principality we invited to deceive us will be highly susceptible to our consciously casting it off us in the name of Jesus.  So let's get to it.

Oops, sorry, forgot to mention.  Everybody has to be with us all together, casting this demonic power off as the united American people.  That is because this spiritual disease, like all spiritual diseases, has always been highly contagious. This repentance has to be universal because everybody in this nation has some share in carrying this disease, and some role in casting it off us.  All of us have some of the virus of racism in us, even if dormant.

Dealing with racism as a disease has a lot of advantages.  Instead of focusing on the past, trying to assign relative blame for ancient crimes, we can unite in calling us all to come together to heal ourselves of a disease, thereby ending the disease and eliminating the breeding ground of division with one wise change of focus.

Now before I go any further, let me add this.  I have lived in the heart of the Black community (17^th and San Pablo in downtown Oakland, 85-89, McMillen in Nashville 2010-) more than seven years of my seventy year long life, and I must testify that I was received in the hood with more tolerance and welcome than I have usually seen black guys receive in white neighborhoods.  So even though the disease is rampant in all of America, it seems to be far more deeply rooted and virulent in whites, especially in some select white areas, than in black, or other minority neighborhoods. 

Exorcising this demonic principality will take all of us working and praying together, but it can be done.  I am certainly not the guy to conduct such a national event, but I do think that the right leaders, as God will select them, could come together, and bring us all together, as a nationally connected mind, and thereby nationally connected heart.  Together we must pray mercy of our Creator, that He would pull this hideous spiritual virus off us, because we can't seem to get it off  by ourselves. Nonetheless, I believe the vast majority of us are ready for this change because we totally and for all time renounce racism.  So help us God.  Pray for such an event.

I think we will be nicely surprised how much this national exorcism, as we are sincere, if we seek God for it and follow His guidance to achieve it, could greatly unburden our lives.

At any rate, I hope that at the least, this essay helps to clear up some of our thinking about slavery, racism and America.

 

Tyranny words

 

I am about fed up with the events of January 6, 2021 still being framed as an insurrection.  The charge is laughable on its face, but the lock step media, and those that suffer its' enthralling abuses, continue to cling to that word, and try to use the word itself, in lieu of any legal charges, as a way to influence legal and political events.

After years of trying to convince folks of how dire the misuses of that word are, the legal ramifications that misuse triggers, and having precious little success, I think it is time for a different tack.

Instead of trying to simply awaken the zombified consciences of folks who joyfully countenance the years long incommunicado incarceration of fellow citizens (most of whom, if guilty, are guilty of nothing more than misdemeanor trespassing), it might be constructive to look at why those Patriot Act measures were enacted in the first place.

The Patriot Act was passed in the immediate aftermath of 9-11.  The reason behind its' sweeping powers to deny due process, Habeas Corpus, and most other constitutional rights to people detained during a terrorist attack or some kind of serious insurrection is so that the detainees will not, since they are denied normal rights, be able to get released on bail and go to their superiors to inform them about what all they were questioned about.  Allowing our enemies to receive normal judicial process would enable them to use our legal system against us, not only returning captured combatants back to almost immediate combat, but also giving the enemy a serious advantage in the realm of military intelligence.  While the Patriot Act has some real problems, the idea of neutralizing and silencing enemy combatants during the heat of either invasion or insurrection makes a lot of sense.

Now let's take another look at January 6^th.  It is possible that some actually feared some kind of insurrection might be taking place that day.  Destruction and violence were in the air that afternoon.  By the next day, however, no honest person could say that an insurrection was underway.  Remember the purpose of the Patriot Act, which is to thwart any ongoing violent attempt to overthrow the government of the United States.

By noon on January 7, no one could say that they saw some kind of insurrection happening.  No government buildings were being stormed, anywhere in the country, no bullets were being fired, no demands were issuing from some hidden headquarters of the insurrection.  All of that is because there never was an insurrection, but there was a silly rally, followed by an extremely foolish call for a spontaneous, un-permitted parade followed by a stupid riot which might very well have been incited by government agents.

Insurrection is still being hurled as a political weapon though, and the liberal public that supports that call are the ones being as stupid as the rioters on J6.  They just chortle with glee at this charge, clinging bitterly to this means of punishing fellow citizens for their political opinions.  They don't seem to realize that those constitutional protections they rejoice at withholding from MAGAs, or whoever, are actually being taken from all of us, themselves included.  What stops the authorities, maybe folks like Dick Cheney in office next time, from declaring the latest Antifa action an insurrection?  Or more likely right now, the latest pro-Palestine blocking of a road, or storming of a building, or violent attack on some Jewish owned business.  All of those and many other political actions of the last few years are as much or more insurrections as the riot of January 6 was.

Nothing stops those in power from misusing language and the law in this way except the resolve of the people.  If we can't find the conscience and courage to stand up, as one people, and demand that our constitutional rights be honored, those in power will not be deterred from taking even more rights from us.  In other words, all you on the left, and those on the right too, had better wake up and smell the encroaching tyranny.

Let's Start Making Sense

 

The way we communicate these days is a big problem, and something needs to be done, or at least said, about it.  Seemingly every instance of group discussion or free speech these days almost instantly devolves into a disordered cacophony.  Usually sound bite words like, racist, nazi, commie, fascist, oppressor or some such language triggers a flood of visceral reactions, followed by some kind of hysteria dominating the discussion, and nothing constructive or informative ever being said or written.

There are undoubtedly a number of good ideas for how to restore us to some kind of reasonable, constructive and unifying national dialogue, but one thing cries out to be said.  That is for us to realize that some ideas are big and complex and don't lend themselves to the sound bite logic this national cacophony forces us into.  So let us consider, in the hopes that we might somehow regain some sanity, how some ideas can resemble a certain form of architecture.

The architectural concept being referred to is the form known as a Roman arch.  This is a way of building arches; for doors in buildings, bridges, aqueducts and similar structures.  The stones or bricks that form the arch are mortared into place in a way that resembles a rainbow, or a semi circle.  Each stone is placed so that when all of them are in place the weight of the stones presses them against each other.  Over the course of time, as other kinds of door openings or bridge structures fall apart due to the force of gravity, the Roman arch becomes ever stronger due to that same force of gravity.

So even though the Roman arch takes a lot more effort to put together than other forms of doors or bridges, the complex, time involved effort is more than worth it in the long run.  Some Roman built arches, more than two thousand years old, are still standing.

The way this analogy applies to our current national cacophony is this.  While building some doorway or bridge, if the more conventional techniques of just starting with two columns of stone and laying one strong stone between them to form a door or bridge is used, it can probably be accomplished even if some opponents are trying to stop the construction.  After all, it just takes three steps, set up one column, set up another column in proper relation to the first, and then slam the head stone into place.  One, two, three, job done.

On the other hand, setting up a Roman arch takes a lot more steps than that, so if someone is harping on and working to prevent its' construction, they probably can.   First, the first column has to be set up, and then the second column set up in precisely the proper location and height related to the first column. Then the truly complex part begins, because a wooden form must be set up, in the shape of the arch being constructed.  Then the stones of the arch must be fitted and mortared into place.  The the mortar must be given time to set properly.  Then the forms can be removed.  The arch is made.

This glimpse into the world of architecture might aid us in restoring order and meaning to our national dialogue in the following way.  Just as a conventional bridge, with its three part construction, is easy to understand and execute, the only “solutions” that make it through our national cacophony are the simplistic, easy to understand and easy to execute kind.  Build a wall on the border, forgive all student debt, provide guaranteed national income, or prohibit / legalize all drugs.  We don't need or want no stinking nuance or wisdom.  We want instant, easy solutions (or more precisely, that is the only kind of  “solution” that gets a full presentation amid our deafening national cacophony.)  Thus we are attracted to simplistic, emotion laden solutions that, like the easily built bridges will be easily understood (difficult to ridicule unlike a Roman arch which looks unworkable and foolish when it is half built), easy to execute and are likely to fall apart quicker than a poorly constructed bridge.

To find the complex, lasting solutions that our complex national problems need, we have to change modes of communication.  We have to allow truly nuanced, complex solutions to be voiced, in full.

While it might be nice to seek a simplistic solution to even this problem, some kind of government edict allowing only experts to express large ideas, the real solution lies within each of us.  Try letting other people express complete ideas, even if you don't agree with the first thing they say.  We all must start actually listening to learn what the other is saying, and not just listening to respond, tuning them out while composing a rebuttal to their first thought.  Who knows, if we improve out own personal way of communicating in this way, the whole nation might get smarter and more unified.  We might start making sense again.

 

Use Laptops at Hearings

 

I saw something during one of the seemingly endless string of congressional committee hearings the other day.  The testifying witness, some mid level functionary in some government bureaucracy, was asked by, I think, one of the Senators, when his office was going to receive the documents from a FOIA request his office had submitted a month ago.  He added that one of his colleagues on the other side of the aisle had received his copy of the same documents within a few days of requesting them.  The functionary replied with seeming concern that they would get right on that, and get back to the Senator's office.

What in the actual heck?  Are we not in the year 2023, and in the middle of an information revolution.  How is it that these office holders are allowed to delay like that?  Where is the laptop, which everyone uses these days.  Lawyers use them in court, teachers use them in class. Preachers use them at the pulpit.

Why don't these bureaucrats show up to hearings with laptops in front of them, and given the importance of congress people being informed and getting timely information, why isn't there a full staff on the other end of that laptop to give almost instantaneous response to a congressional request? 

Or does this question answer itself?  Is the real agenda to be able to slow walk anything that doesn't conform to the political agenda of the deep state?  Using our high tech capabilities in a non-partisan way to facilitate the nation's business doesn't, apparently, fit that deep state agenda, so congress allows its business to be done in a way reminiscent of the late 1700's.  At the same time, we can rest assured that the latest technology will be used to unconstitutionally spy on Americans in their homes, and track their every movement.

You see, this fits into what I think is one of the overriding questions of our times, which is:  Is our high technology going to be used to liberate the people by informing them and allowing us to reach deeper understanding with each other, or is that same technology going to be used against the people, to oppress, isolate, indoctrinate, divide and eventually enslave us?

In this regard, I think at the very least congress should demand, that's right DEMAND, under penalty of a contempt of congress charge, that any administration official called to testify before any committee show up with a laptop, and the ability to respond to any congressional request or question on the spot.  And don't give me any bull about cyber-security issues.  That might be an objection the first hour, but if our high tech experts can't resolve any security issues about testifying at the capitol within the first day the issue is presented to them, maybe we should get new cyber-security people. 

Or am I the only getting completely fed up with the constant diet of BS coming out of DC? I don't think so.

We All Must Demand Hamas Surrender

 

The world, all the world together, must demand that Hamas surrender.  It is beyond doubt that the suffering of the people of Gaza will begin to end only after the terrorist group Hamas surrenders, and not a moment sooner.  

Even the billions of people calling for Israel to cease its military activities in Gaza, must, at least simultaneously if not prior to making that call, also demand Hamas surrender.  This demand must be made in the name of compassion for the people of Gaza.

Not only would the fighting stop, (I would join in demanding an immediate ceasefire as soon as the white flag goes up) but most of the long term suffering endured by the people of Gaza will begin to diminish the moment Hamas surrenders.

The solid truth is that the terrorist group Hamas is not synonymous with the people of Gaza.  In fact, it seems to me like that group of thugs have ruled over the people of Gaza as a criminal enterprise for decades, and by constantly provoking Israel with violence, caused the lives of Gazans to be limited because of understandable Israeli security measures.  Without Hamas in charge of Gaza, and the constant rocket barrage ended, Gazans would soon enjoy much more freedom.

The ugly reality is that Hamas causes, with their criminal and terrorist activities, most of the suffering in Gaza, and then this criminal cartel exploits that suffering by deceiving Gazans into blaming Israel for their pain.  They take a mildly valid land grievance of a kind rather common on this planet, and (using their control of media and education) gin it into a never ending existential crisis in the minds of this captive people.  The Gazan people live in constant fear of genocide, yet their numbers have grown by the millions since the advent of modern Israel. Thus the people of Gaza are held in thrall, their hearts hating and their minds obsessed with Jew hatred to the point their children remain perpetually a field ripe for terrorist recruitment.

It turns out that none of the Arab nations around Israel want anything to do with the Gazans.  When they have been given places of refuge in those nations, they proved to be such a hotbed of rebellion that each of those nations,including Jordan which actually has the moral duty toward them, rejected them.  And all the while Hamas, or their terrorist group ancestors, has had cultural control of the people.  That is what must end, which means that Hamas must surrender.

When we look closer however, we realize that none of those nations actually tried very hard to end the reign of criminals over the refugees, even when they could have.  So one has to consider the possibility that this is all driven (and financed) by the same interests who have been trying to conduct a multi millennial genocide of the Jewish people.

That being the case, it is understandable that Israel has been driven to the extreme of flooding the tunnels under Gaza with seawater, and I deeply hate this. We can not let this long term harm to the land come about, so we all must unite in demanding that Hamas surrender.  That is the way to end all this damage and suffering.  The way the surrender is conducted could be very constructive and beneficial to the people of Gaza. 

First of all, the fighters of Hamas must know that if the tunnels are flooded, their ability to resist the IDF will collapse and they will have to surrender anyway.  So surrender now and avoid permanent damage coming to your homeland or fight on, allow your actual homeLAND to be ruined and surrender anyway.  The choice is yours.  Please, let sanity and the future well being of your people guide you, get together, and bitter as it might be, agree to raise the white flag of surrender.

As soon as that flag appears, Israel must stop firing for at least five minutes.  If no firing comes from the other side, a cease fire will be in place.  We must all also agree to this demand.

Next, the Hamas forces must come out into the open, waving that white flag.  They will be met by the IDF, who will require arms be laid down, and security of the captives be established.

The primary thing that we can collectively demand be different about this surrender is that every step any IDF Soldier makes will be accompanied by an unarmed citizen witness wearing light armor and two go pro (front and back) cameras with live uplinks.  These witnesses will be volunteers who are there to ensure prisoners are well treated, and to ensure transparency prevails throughout the entire process of transition from Hamas rule to Gazan self rule.  Given the billions who care about the fate of the people of Gaza enough to riot, it should be easy to find some volunteers brave enough to accompany those soldiers on point as they enter the supposedly surrendered tunnels. This approach would help ensure Israeli good behavior, and prevent Hamas treachery by making such treachery apparent and hence counter-productive

As Hamas fighters are processed, those identified as possible war criminals will be held for criminal trial.  In fact, any war criminal from either side must be prosecuted.  Those who fought as warriors,however, must be treated as prisoners of war and released as soon as practical.  Even some Hamas fighter who manged to hit a tank with an RPG, or any battle action like that, is not a criminal, but instead an honorable soldier and must be treated as such.

After the military situation is stabilized, we should continue to demand that Israel allow citizen witnesses to every phase of their pacification and rebuilding of Gaza.  If all the people who want the best for the people of Gaza would follow through and insist everything be done right, this path could lead to a much brighter future for the entire region.

In the past the world has insisted and Israel has complied with seeking an easy peace, a peace which has proven unstable at best.  This proposal offers a much more difficult peace, a peace which will require real effort on the part of that supposedly caring world; all of us.  But this more difficult path does offer a future with more stability, more prosperity, indeed, a more real and lasting peace.

The first step to real peace is that we all, together, must demand Hamas surrender.

Aloha Lahaina

 

Many of my most important memories, at least those from my short time in Lahaina, came rushing in like the wind that brought the horrible Maui fires.

As soon as I hiked out of the airport at Kahalui in May of 1976, the first information I got from any folks was to go to Lahaina.  So that was where I commenced my life as a homeless vagabond, and life was good.

A lot of us slept out in the fields, the vacant lots, with three foot high weeds to cover the lights.  Wake up and be about a block from one of the beach parks, which means a bathroom, which is important when homeless.  So no problem in Lahaina.

Better than no problem, breakfast on the street in Lahaina was the best.  Many of the homes in the area featured small mango trees with really big mangoes.  Most of the mangoes would be harvested by hand and sold for a dollar each down at the market.  However, in almost every yard one or two of the fruit had fallen on the ground over night.  Since it had hit the ground it was considered unsalable so the locals put the nightfall mangoes up on their property line fence every morning for the homeless.  They are simply delicious.  A great way to start the morning.  Or rather I should say they were.

Probably more than half the nights out of the six weeks I (age 23) spent on Maui in '76 were spent in Lahaina, with the others at Seven Sacred Pools or Makenna Beach.  But Lahaina, with the mangoes, and the people, always drew me back.

It was more than just mangoes in the morning too.  You could get mangoes all day long, during the season, at the site of the old prison yard.  It was just an old open stone structure, with the gate long gone.  We would go in and just sit around, waiting for one of the small types of mangoes to fall from one of the two huge mango trees growing in the yard.  Usually, you only had to wait five or less minutes.  After a few days of eating too many mangoes, most learned that there were limits, but it was great for a few weeks.

I remember a lot of the people.  Folks at the natural market.  George of the Jungle,

I preferred to move around town without being stuck with a pack on my back, so instead of hiding my pack someplace (where I feared it might get stolen) I would leave it in the middle of the promenade on the waterfront, in public view of everything.  Then, after I had walked away, I reasoned that a thief would hesitate to abscond with my large pack, not knowing if I was watching it or not.  Shaky theory I guess, but it worked there in Lahaina in '76.

The water front park in Lahaina, the one with the promenade, right next to the Pioneer Inn, was always the place to be at sunset.  It seemed half the town gathered to spark up together every sunset.  I would wager good money that particular tradition was still going strong until this last week.

After the nightly gathering broke up, most the folks probably went to their homes. I went to hang out under this huge tree, the banyan tree, that covered a whole city block.  It always felt nice, cool, and peaceful, under the limbs of that welcoming tree.  There were usually other folks around, singing or whatever.  I would retreat from there to find a spot to sleep about ten o'clock or so.

One night, just after nightfall, I was sitting in the Banyan Tree park, and there's only this one other guy, sitting one bench away, strumming on a guitar.

He was pretty good so I listened for a while.  Then he stopped and gave me some good advice.  I realized later that he was Stephen Stills, who used to keep a boat in the harbor.  I haven't heard, I hope he is alright. And the banyan tree?

I could go on and on recounting lessons learned in Lahaina.  I worked one night at a restaurant and another night was spent on an intense tutorial about entrepreneurial culture.  But this is not really about me, or my self indulgence of eating life's dessert first, or my precious memories of Lahaina.

No, this is about Lahaina. The town.

Where any number of young adventurers might find themselves.  It was a magical place where so many paths and cultures could intermingle. Or at least they used to be able to.

This is to mourn the loss of that Lahaina.  The wonderful people of Hawaii, our entire nation, and indeed the whole planet have lost a greater treasure than most of us really know.  The generosity of heart and hand of the community of Lahaina will be remembered, and hopefully restored along with homes and orchards, but even there the loss to fire is devastating.  The large-scale loss of human life reported in the fire, and rebuilding the culture of Lahaina looks much more problematic.  Still possible but problematic.  

Be that as it may, with whatever the future holds, for now Lahaina is completely gone.  Her loss deserves our tears and our prayers.  That bright generous throwback to the best of a bygone era is extinguished, at least for a time.  It is the loss not just of a cultural memory, but of a real cultural mechanism.  Something has been taken from us that we might not ever get back.  Prayer and mourning are in order.