A Citizen In Search Of Her Nation

Spring has sprung and I've been busy this past week working in the yard.  I thought the warm breeze and sunshine would boost my spirits, but alas, I'd come in at days end and turn on the news.  So much for my mood.

I listened to the interviews with George W. Bush with interest.  I was rather taken with his view on the Presidency.  That his goal was to keep the nation safe, promote freedom around the world and make the best judgements he could for the country given the information he had at any particular time. To move forward as best he could the things that mattered knowing the job would be left to those following.  Not change the nation to his own image of what it should be.  Regardless of party and the way of doing things, that's what President's used to do  - up until now.

I know what's happened so I'm not going to harp on it.  I know it's going to be a long slog back if ever. I know that no amount of sunshine will take away the sadness that at times overwhelms me.

Here's what I think. When the department of Homeland Security has more ammunition than the army, there is something wrong.  When the Administration lies about the circumstances leading to the death of four Americans in the service of their country there is something wrong.  When the Secretary of State lies about signing a denial for extra security which might have saved those particular four there is something wrong.

When our agencies got it so wrong on the people involved in the Boston Marathon bombing there is something wrong.

When the Attorney General says a path to citizenship for people in this country illegally there is a civil right something wrong.

When Congress is scrambling to opt out of Obamacare for themselves and their staff yet the rest of us will have to live with it there is something wrong.

Maybe the worst is when the President continually draws lines in the sand for unacceptable behavior yet allows those who challenge it get away with it time after time there is something wrong.

When the press is more interested in seeing who can bring the most outrageous guests to the Correspondents dinner rather than report the news there is something wrong.

No wonder people want their guns.

You see, this isn't the nation I grew up in and never expected to grow old in. Elections have become popularity contests, the candidates less and less experienced or qualified.  I daresay so are the voters.

As one gets older there are many things you miss about your youth. With me it's the nation that had been mine.

Confusion Reigns

As a country we are certainly in a quandry.  We find ourselves in mess after mess all because those who govern, of both parties, try to be too cute by half.  What follows is confusion.

Take the bills Congress is passing.  Thousands of pages with regulations to follow.  So quick with those regulations without the resources to enforce them nor the insight as to what the unintended consequences may be.  Have you ever heard of an unintended consequence for the good?

We had it with health care.  We're facing it with immigration reform. How do you reconcile a path to citizenship for people who have entered the country illegally or over stayed their legal permission therefore becoming criminal?  Where is the line between right and wrong?  How convoluted will this become?  Will it be enforceable at all?

Take the recently failed gun legislation.  They couldn't pass enhanced background checks. Of all of it that should have been the most elementary.  Yet there is reason for legitimate debate on the type of weapons allowed and their capacities.  What's so wrong with recognizing the founding fathers never dreamed some of these weapons would even be developed what's more in so many hands? Did they intend citizen militia members should be allowed any weapon carte blanche? I'd like a drone and a flame thrower.

Both last night and today I've heard pundits suggest we should deny all Muslim students from entering the country. I suppose Congress has the power to do so but what about those already here?  Are we going to deport them because they're Muslim?  And what about those who are citizens?  I don't think we could or should.  It's a quandry, though.  That "M" word.

To escape the 'whys' of situations that are either embarrassing or difficult to sort out seems to be leaning toward, "What difference does it make?"  Hillary started it during the Benghazi hearings.  It worked up to now.  What difference does it make?  We'd like to know who was responsible for murdering four Americans and bring them to justice, that's what.

Sandy Hook?  The killer was disturbed so let's restrict guns.  He's dead so it's now moot, but if he and his mother were both what we'd consider abnormal, why did so few people know?  Have we taken privacy too far?  Isn't a lot of the information available on Facebook contradictory to HIPPA?

Boston.  With all the evidence at hand Chris Matthews wonders if it's really important to know why they did it?  If this is what passes for reasoned thought these days, no wonder everyone is so confused.

Mike Bloomberg, who I disagree with on a lot, is right when he says the country has changed and it's not going to go back to the good old days.  Nor is the world. But let's focus on the country.

Of all the western nations that are hated by extremists, the U.S. is the most pervasive.  Think about it.  Movies.  Where in the world can you not find a McDonalds?  Our music.  Our dress. Our personalities and the public, often tawdry, display of their private lives.  It's an assualt on the sensibilities of those who find such in your face exposure beyond acceptability.  Our intrusion into places we're not wanted.

They react by challenging our standards.  When they find there are no consequences, not even a slap on the wrist, they become more and more bold.  Then we get a Boston and are all aghast.

None of that is confusing.  What is confusing is that by looking in a mirror we see victims looking back at us. Clueless as to what's brought it all about. Does it make a difference?  You bet it does.

It's Time To Get Serious

If the war on terror is in fact global and without a battle field, it's time Congress put aside their petty differences and figure out just how we're going to handle cases that land on our doorstep.

The current argument is whether or not the Boston bombings were jihad or not.  The answer is still out, but considering what is known at the moment there is a pretty good case for it.

Then comes the argument as to whether the survivor should be tried as an enemy combatant or not.  The government has opted to try him as a citizen, not a jihadist.

Due to our current laws they had to make the decision.  There will be a lot of opposition to this move even though the end for the bomber will be the same.  Unless the Justice Department opts not to seek the death penalty.  With this administration one never knows.

So therein is the problem.  How does this country handle cases such as these with consistency.  It will take a comprehensive look at the laws now on the books and changes that are made from insightful analysis rather than a rush to 'justice'.

Of this we can be sure. There is an ongoing war against the west by Islamic radicals.  They come in all colors and from a variety of countries.  I'd be willing to bet that any country that has a large Muslim presence has it's share of jihadists and whether or not they're organized matters little.  The one thing they have in common is contempt for all things western.

Following up on these people is no easy task.  Tightening up the sharing of information between agencies would help.  Like Congress, they need to get over their territorial jealousies.  On the other hand, there isn't the manpower to follow each and every suspect 24/7.

It's time to get serious though.  While the potheads in Denver are taking potshots at one another and the administration is redefining our vocabulary again, the plotting continues. This news was just breaking when I came to my office to skim the headlines. Canada foils major terrorist attack possibly on New York City...

It won't be the last to make headlines and it's something Mayor Bloomberg can't ban. And yes, the bad guys will have guns without permits and American civilians will be killed on American soil.  At the very least let's be able to deal with the aftermath without our usual bickering.  That's something I would applaud.

What We No Longer Recognize In Ourselves

Now that the Boston bombers are off the streets criticisms are in full bluster.  My, we are an intolerant, impatient people.

To see people cheering law enforcement after the last of the two young men was apprehended was both understandable and disturbing.  One, because the horror and the accompanying anxiety was at an end.  Then there was what was left of a very young life being carted away to an uncertain but predictably unpleasant fate.  That I cannot cheer.  I'd rather breath a sigh of relief.

Criticisms of how the FBI handled the situation are going full bore.  I think the combined units responsible for public safety did an excellent job.  Should the FBI be blamed in retrospect because even though cautioned by the Russians they couldn't unearth anything damning about the older of the two suspects?  I think not.  We don't yet arrest people for crimes uncommitted.  We do, however, have a problem as to how to classify certain crimes but that is not the fault of the FBI.

I moved on to skimming various articles about the men, their families and friends.  Then came the comments.  First was criticism of how the various media outlets handled the events as they unfolded. No one did it right and the criticisms were scathing depending on political persuasion. Understand, the media puts out false information not knowing for sure if it is in fact false in the mad rush to get the scoop.  It's insane and of no use.  Twitter is even worse.  Yet we eat it up.  Ill informed it seems is better than uninformed.  Forget properly informed.

All this segways into current discussions on bullying and cyber bullying. It's who we are anymore.  No one can have a different opinion from my own.  The idiots! And that's tame to say the least.  Look at Congress and the President.  The bickering goes on, the name calling, the disparaging.  Isn't it all bullying and doesn't it stem from hate?  Hate used to be a strong and seldom called for term but this day and age it seems to be part of the 'new normal'.

Even in our local papers we've lost ourselves in the confusion over bullying and criticism.  In a conversation about bullying a reader questioned how youngsters were to know the difference when so many of the comments on local blogs were so nasty.  The administrator of one of those blogs suggested she didn't know that difference.

I suggest she does.  Criticism can be leveled without nastiness.  My own readers take me to task quite often, we just don't agree, but my regulars are never nasty.  The comments on the blogs she alluded to often are.  There is nothing constructive about nasty criticism unless it tells the character of the nameless that level it.

Do any of us see ourselves in that light anymore?  Can we just skew semantics and expect it to be found acceptable?  Or all we all deluding ourselves thinking everything is fine and dandy when in fact we don't really like one another very much. On any level. Unless we are in total sync. Which of course we never are.

I liked the 'old normal' better but I fear it has been permantly replaced. I often feel like Don Quixote tilting at windmills that will never again function as they once did. Well oiled, running smoothly, contributing to the overall well being of the community.  I wonder if there are any Sancho Panzas left to  with whom to pair?

Culture Of Hate

If anything points to the truth that merely doing background checks on those who want to purchase a gun or limiting the types that can be purchased or the number of bullets a clip can hold will do anything to prevent horror wrought by hatred, the Boston situation should be it. It isn't the case for or against guns  that needs to be studied, but our minds.  What in the world is going on?

We have been witness to what seems an inordinate amount of violence and death lately and it has all stemmed from hatred.  Even the comments on the news sites and blogs are filled with it. Wishing equally horrible ends to the perpetrators as had been the fate of their victims.  It too is hate.  A continuation of it. And really, no less frightening.

Other than trying to fill too much air time with "experts" analyzing the young men, I've seen no one seriously asking what is going on in our collective heads.  If we kill them as they have others it will do nothing but perpetuate the violence without giving us answers.  Just what those answers might be is beyond me, but you see the animosity everywhere.

Look at the world where the religions hate one another.  Many even hate various branches of their own. Shiia and Sunni. It makes believing in a loving, forgiving entity difficult. Countries hate one another.  Pakistan and India.  North Korea and South.

Take it down another level to politics.  There is no love lost between the Democrats and Republicans and lately you've seen more and more division among the ranks of each.  What core flaw in we humans is coming unraveled?

I look at the local blogs and find as much venom as on the national level.  No one can have an opinion without being disparaged by someone with an opposing view.  I take my share of lumps and it can get pretty tiresome.

I think part of the blame, at least, is because of the widespread use of anonymity.  My, we get so brave - and nasty - when our real names aren't attached to our thoughts. The language you often find is an insult.  Just as I don't think one needs to be sexually explicit or gross or mean to be funny, I don't think commenters need to use filth and profanity to make a point though too many obviously don't agree.

I look at these most recent young men along with the one from Sandy Hook and Aurora and so many others with the utmost despair. Not hatred. Despair. What drives these young people to hate their lives so much they are willing to lose them while taking as many as possible with them?  These are only the ones we've put names and faces to.  Think of the gang activity in places like Chicago where the carnage continues on a daily basis where there are no names and faces, just casualties.

Were it only Chicago it might be more easily studied, but what we're witnessing today is world wide. If it isn't a gang it's likely to be a lone wolf. Wanting to make their mark.  Well, they're making it, that's for sure.

Why, though, what has driven them to choose mayhem and death?  There isn't a registry or a deprivation of goods in the world that can answer that question.  Especially when no one is looking for one.