Is Ignorance Bliss?

Yesterday, just before the news at noon, I caught the tail end of the Ellen DeGeneres show. It was a quiz segment for a stack of hidden prizes. Three young ladies were called from the audience. They were, I'd say, at the very least in their mid-twenties if not early thirties. When you get to be my age everyone looks like a child so this is just a guess. They were not in their teens.

Dressed in what I suppose is considered casual chic these days, they ran squealing to the stage, jumped up and down and hugged one another knowing full well they were in competition. Okay, it was fun and games. Why not show some enthusiasm.

The questions were pure silliness, which is perfectly fine for such a segment. What holiday falls on December 25th. Really tough stuff. You can be sure they all knew the answer as to whom Katie Holmes was married. But wait. Oh my. Ellen threw in a couple of real tough ones. The first that sent the contestant through the floor to the depths of despair was "Who is our Vice President?"

The look of shock before becoming totally blank was fascinating. Ellen gave her longer than I suspect was usual. Nothing. The contestant hadn't a clue. The next to fall victim had another toughie, "Who was our second President?" Okay, maybe U.S. history wasn't foremost in the young lady's mind. But our Vice President?

I won't single out those who visit the Ellen Show in particular. You hear far too many young people drawing blanks at such questions be it a man on the street quiz for print or on air. One wonders if these people vote!

If so, it isn't the Democrats or Republicans we need fear. It's those who walk among us. If every vote counts I have to wonder just what they are voting for!

The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same

I wrote recently about the difficulty the women activists of Afghanistan are having in making women's rights part of the negotiations their government is having with the Taliban and how there is really nothing we can do about it. It's not an Afghan problem in particular, it's the problem of every woman living in a country that follows Muslim law. Forget the movement afoot in the country to have that double standard!

In Iran a mother of two sits in prison awaiting her fate for allegedly committing adultery. She's been there since 2006 and has already suffered through a 99 stroke lashing. If the court has it's way she will be wrapped in a white shroud, buried up to her chest in a dirt pit and pelted with rocks large enough to hurt but not kill her instantly. It may take a half hour or so. Efforts by her now adult children have gotten the sentence put on hold due to intervention from the West. Hanging may be the alternative - if there is one. There are at least ten others, seven women and three men, awaiting the same fate for their "crime against God." Who's' merciful God might this be?

Intervention from the West. Hillary is off to Afghanistan to refine our goals. According to the press, and that's the only resource available to me, the agenda is to include plans from the Afghan government "to improve security, reintegrate militants into society and crack down on corruption." She is to reaffirm our commitment to Karzai, while pressuring him to follow through on pledges already made. No small task to be sure. Nine years and we're still cajoling him.

The one thing missing from all the talks? Women's issues. The Muslim women cannot do it alone. We cannot do it for them but as with China and North Korea, why are not human rights on every agenda? Of course we're not going to change any minds. Their religion and their laws are one and for better or for worse they abide by them. At least we should be on the record as objecting to the inhumaneness of them.

In the meantime one woman awaits a decision on her fate. Ten others know theirs. We need to remember that being "stoned" in a Muslim country is not getting high on drugs!

I Should Have Voted For McCain

Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia expressed my sentiments exactly when he said, having appointed the man who will be the youngest in the Senate replacing the oldest, "We passed this torch to another generation." That's how I felt about Obama. He was young, well educated and energetic. Traits McCain lacked. He was sharp where McCain was often fuzzy around the edges.

There were two things I put on the back burner for which I am now sorry. Policy and experience. I neglected to research beyond the broad brush strokes of hope and change into the substance. Had I done so, or been able to since little was actually put forth, I'd not have voted for Obama. As for experience, well, that speaks for itself. One area where he has shown no progress is in curing his tin ear. His current vacationing in Maine while exhorting the rest of us to vacation on the Gulf coast is but one example.

Is it enough that I'd have actually voted for McCain? He was the alternative choice so I'd say yes. Knowing the Democrats were likely to hold the House and Senate, as they have, he'd at least have been a counter balance with the power of the veto. While there is little the far right proposes that I agree with, there is even less from the far left. I'd have looked for some issues to lean toward the middle, something we don't have now.

As for Sarah Palin as Vice President? She'd have not been my choice and it surely made me wonder what McCain was thinking when he chose her. One of his fuzzy areas. Had she been in office, howeve, seeing what she has become, she would surely be out there rallying the constituency. Anything in governmentese that needed translated so everyman and everywoman could understand it, Sarah would have been the one to explain it. She has an uncanny ability to state the obvious and have it become a rallying point.

Youth and inexperience are not synonymous any more than age and tired ideas are. Our next President, be it Obama or someone new, will be a younger man than McCain. The torch has been passed, that's for sure. I'm going to have to get used to ideas and thinking that often leave me befuddled. On the same hand, however, I don't have to buy into personality over substance.

I Wonder How Hillary Would Handle It - Or Sarah

I hate war! That's not new information. What makes them even worse than we see on the news is what goes on behind the scenes. I'm referring to the coziness between Hamid Karzai and the Taliban. Supposedly to get lower level members to switch sides and join the fight against al Qaeda. I figure it's little more than a pact with the devil.

There's an evil, sordid side to it. When one chooses to deal with the devil they know versus the one they don't, it's sometimes forgotten both are devils. Such is the case, according to The Wall Street Journal, with the Taliban when it comes to women. While they are no longer throwing acid in the faces of schoolgirls, women are still facing peril. In what are being called "night letters" because they are delivered at night, women who have jobs are being told to stop working or die. Those who have resisted the bullying have indeed been killed.

Activists are trying to get explicit guarantees for women's rights into the negotiations but even if successful it's doubtful anyone will abide by them. Such is the nature of the culture. We can no more do anything for the rights of women than we can make Islamic extremists like us. Yet we continue to try as our young men die.

I find it interesting that even technically savvy and civilized Japan is but beginning to level the playing field when it comes to women. Just recently they have appointed the first branch manager of a bank and announced the first female pilot! They have been hovering with Malaysia and Cambodia when it comes to gender equality. Two you'd expect to be near the bottom of the barrel. But Japan? With truths like this how are we going to help Afghan women? Realistically.

One the bright side, those with the highest ranking are Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Cold. Tough climate. If a woman were up to the task as President I'd have to give the nod to Hillary. Cold. Tough. Warm and fuzzies won't cut it.

Seriously though, I don't think a woman, no matter how able in our culture, could sway the likes of these people who feel just as strongly about their stand as we do ours. It's perhaps better left to the men. They seem to like tilting at windmills. Where, however, are we going to find one who is cold? And tough. And will actually fight for the issue.

What A Future!

Recently the Nethercutt Foundation sent students from six colleges to Washington D.C. to visit everyone from lobbyists to think tanks to members of Congress to get a grasp of how it works and why the tone is such as it is.

What they came away with should give them pause for the task of "fixing" it will be in their hands. We're all aware that the approval rating of both the President and Congress is less than desirable. So what happens. The blame game. The blame game perpetuates partisanship. No one will budge.

What must are these young people think when a Democrat actually admits to them that the current stand off with the Republicans is no more than payback for when the Republicans held the power?

They had the opportunity to visit sources that are but dreams to the rest of us with an interest. They found how lacking they were in American history as well as current events. They found the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not going to have a quick fix. They found how serious the threats are to security within our borders. They got a good idea of how ill prepared we are to respond. All one needs to do is look at how the oil spill is being handled and the Arizona immigration flap. The government will not be able to sue it's way out of a terrorist attack.

The times are interesting and the stakes are high. Should the Democrats hold both houses of Congress after the mid-terms they will own everything that comes to pass good, bad or indifferent. There will come the day the people will no longer accept that Bush is to blame for everything gone wrong.

Probably most sobering to these young people is the idea that not so far down the road the governance of the country will be in their hands. One would hope they've something positive to take away from their experience. I certainly hope it won't be the constant of "getting even"!