Unsettled Saturday

As I perused the headlines this morning I continued to see some pretty dramatic, devastating and heart wrenching events. No, I’m not talking about in Washington or the Grand Jury room. I know that was what you were thinking. I’m talking about the earthquakes in India, Pakistan and Kashmir that made me want to cry. Yeah Sergeant Majors cry too. That quake really serves as a reminder and helps put things back in perspective for me. I have certainly seen devastation in my life but I'm not sure it's ever been on such a scale. Such and event opens your heart and certainly makes you want to open your pocket book. Hint!!

I believe that this catastrophe is where a large part of our focus and energy should be right now. Unfortunately I don’t believe that is where it is for many if not most of us. We Americans are blessed beyond the wildest dreams of most of the people on this planet but I must say that as I look around I fear that a huge number of Americans have no clue. I have noticed over the last week as this tragedy has unfolded that I have heard very few people even mention India, Pakistan or Kashmir. In fact let me put the count right here (_ _). Yeah, that's it. In case you missed it let me repeat it here (_ _). I would say that the response that I have seen is about 1/100,000th of that which occurred after hurricane Katrina in this country. Don't get me wrong, I believe that our national "private" response should have been as grand and benevolent as it was or even bigger for Katrina. It certainly needed to be after the "public" response it was given, but I would have wished that we (as a nation and as individuals) would have been a little more openly caring and generous with the earthquake victims of India, Pakistan and Kashmir. A little more publicly, fiscally, openly giving. I say this for two reasons; one because I really do care a great deal and the second is a selfish one. The second reason is that it would have been a public display to the Islamic people of the world that we Americans are not so self-absorbed and we really do care about other nations and peoples. That would have been a very important statement going into the future. Let me clarify here that I believe that this is all evidence not, of our not caring, but of our not knowing. It is more evidence of our not being in tune with the rest of the people on this planet. You might say here and I can hear it coming, why should we do something like that. Why should we care if the rest of the people on this planet don’t think we care? We don’t owe them anything. Well here is the rub. We are currently fighting a pestilence (not a war) called terrorism that is coming out of the Islamic world in the form of a number of militants. The number is miniscule in relation to the total Islamic population of the world. If and just if we convinced the rest of the Islamic world that we were good guys that really care about them it just might help stem the tide of brainwashed young Islamic walking bombs and other weapons. This of course is not the final solution but should be part of an over all national policy for dealing with terrorism.

So let me sum this up. If we just showed how much we really do care about the rest of the world and as a nation acted responsibly in concert with the rest of the world we could actually win our fight against the pestilence called terrorism and we could simultaneously fulfill the Christian, Islamic, Jewish etc. etc.... belief in charity, love and forgiveness. What a novel concept. Quick someone call Jerry and that Dobson guy we’ve got a great idea.

Those are The Sergeant Majors thoughts on that.