Tannishblog

Thanksgiving dinner wound down last night, and conversation resumed. A comment was made about cigarette smokers and soon we began discussing the ways various municipalities were using laws to curb smoking in public places. The overall tone was of acceptance. We are all non-smokers.

I piped up in my usual devil’s advocate, buck the trend style, that as a former puffer, I felt the trend was discriminatory. Americans are free to kill themselves if that’s what they want. The rebuttal (weak, I thought) was of the dangers second-hand smoke. Being the host, I felt unusual restraint and let the conversation turn. What I wanted to point out is how free non-smokers are to not frequent establishments that smokers prefer, to not associate with others who smoke if the habit is bothersome.

I wanted to point out that Americans need to get back to a culture of acceptance, inclusiveness and compassion of others. We’ve lost whatever meager gains we’ve made over the past fifty years toward a society modeled after a core belief in religious freedoms and the attendant mentality of acceptance of diversity. (Placeholder for deleted political dig.) As a Buddhist, I feel we need to remember the teachings of our founders during this weekend of National Pride.

Remember the "Great Melting Pot ™?" I’ve often quipped it’s more like a chunky stew, but lately it seems more like and oil-and-water mix. We need to get back to basics, get back to a compassionate, people-centric world of open minds, open hearts, and the understanding that others will do what we wish they wouldn’t - and that’s alright, too.

Life is like a maze. You know there’s a way through, but there’s no map. Not only that, but once your in, there’s only one way to go - forward. And at every corner, and there are many, there’s no telling what you’ll find.

As I have stumbled with trepidation through my personal maze, moments of clarity sometimes occur. Occasionally I turn the corner to find a whole new, unexpected path in front of me. These moments are forever imprinted on the mind. One such turning happened 16 years ago today. I had been preparing for it for months, so I thought, but one cannot prepare for an event outside one’s experience.

Sixteen years ago, I stood bewildered and nervous in a birthing ward while my wife delivered our daughter. No sleep for two days, high on caffeine and endorphins, holding my wife’s hand while watching her experiencing pain akin to organ failure, and now a red, mewling - something - clasped firmly to a breast. To see her and her new wet bundle literally sent me into a shock. I don’t know how I got home that evening.

My next semi-lucid moment came when I was busy assembling a crib with the help of a concerned cat, when the phone rang. She was - they were - ready to come home. I shot out the door and across town to retrieve them. Enough of the shock wore off by then that as the hospital elevator opened and glanced up, I noticed how different things were. I had turned the corner.

Gaining a child is not unlike loosing a hand. Both are life-altering events. Both force one to readjust to the entirety of life, not just a portion, and all future decisions are determined as viewed against this new criteria. This is an new maze, now.

To speak of the joys of parenting, or any other overworked cliche, just doesn’t convey the reality. Parenting - the act of being a parent - is literally the meaning of life. Life is purposeless otherwise. To nurture, love, guide a new spirit until they can take wing, is the essence of humanity. There is no greater challenge, no duty of higher importance than to allow your progeny to flourish by neither pushing nor holding back. And there is no higher reward than to see a child morph into a sensible, sensitive young adult.

The next corner, I assume, is when our daughter packs off to college. Her wings will get their workout then. I’ll know, when the shock wears off and I take note of the tiniest details, that the next segment of the maze will be revealed.

Only two years from now… She’ll be ready: that’s obvious. But will I?

So, North Korea has joined the nuclear club. No doubt they’ll sell to the highest bidder, just like any civilized nation. Weapons, after all, are just another commodity subject the the laws of supply and demand, the gravitational pull of shareholder greed. I bet the Kim guy is grinning. Now, the North Koreans can strut their stuff on the international stage.

A niggling thought: Nobody thought through the consequences of creating a super bomb with which to end WWII. So focused was the American government upon immediate concerns that any hint of ethical hand-wringing was stifled quick as a political smear campaign. Thanks to 20-20 hindsight, we can now see that the atomic bomb has much in common with Pandora’s box, where the contents, once exposed, cannot be contained again.

So, as a consequence of our opening the box of nuclear discontent, we have to deal with other nations with the same powers we have, leveling the political playing field. The A bomb was fine when America and her friends were the only ones playing. Now the other team has some, and our double standard starts to worry us. Too bad. Look whose getting the bomb: Pakistan - their only our friends for convenience and for the fact that they can blow a hole in India; Iran is not far behind, and all the whinging at NATO can’t stop it; Now Mr. Kim Jong Il is holding the fuse, and he’s just crazy enough to use it. The Axis of Evil is turning and we’re on the loosing end this time.

Score another point for the Law of Unintended Consequences.

As I read Time Magazine’s cover story about the current trends in genetic research, I hear an echo of my conservative workmate saying: "I don’t believe in evolution. It shouldn’t be taught in schools without also teaching alternative theories on the origin of man." This, a conditioned response of his Baptist college education, makes me think of how institutions can control young minds through selective application of knowledge.

This is nothing new, of course, societies have edited information flow for centuries. Ignorance is the second best method of keeping a populace docile. Fear is the first. Let’s not forget that organized religion as an institution, regardless of flavor, has as a foremost reason of being the goal of controlling the masses. So it’s not surprising that my friend, as result of his upbringing, would utter such a narrow-minded statement.

As I read the article, I can’t help but to point out to myself the assertions and assumptions that would raise the hackles of religious conservatives. Again, I hear my friend, and again I mentally respond: "That is the sound of One Mind Closing." But, to be fair, the scientific view of evolution must also close its mind to creationism. According to TIME:

Scientists didn’t need to wait for the chimp genome to begin speculating about the essential differences between humans and apes, of course. They didn’t even need to know about DNA. Much of the vitriol directed at Charles Darwin a century and a half ago came not from his ideas about evolution in general but from his insulting but logical implication that humans and the African apes are descended from a common ancestor.

Reading the above paragraph, I recall my feeling that creationism as a theory is an application of human arrogance. To assert that, because we have dominated this world as a species, we are superior to all creations is absurd. Maybe whales think the same thing of themselves; they, too, are at the top of their food chain.

Meanwhile I recall my response to my Baptist friend. "I never understood the antipathy between viewpoints," I said. "One says that God created us, the other dhows us some of His methods. To me, they compliment each other, not contradict" I’ve said this whenever I encounter a Creationist. Invariably, the conversation shifts and I never get a straight answer to my statement.

I bounce back to pondering closed minds: What benefit does a creationist position bring to the discussion? Perhaps my bias is showing, but I cannot think of any. Darwinian thinking, however, has formed a foundation of modern medical advances, spawned new schools of scientific inquiry, genetics being the latest. Whether or not the theory is true, mankind has benefited by its exploration. Closing one’s mind to the possibility that Darwin was into something only foments division, creates animosity and hostility. I’m of the opinion that the world does not need more of that.

Mainly, though, I remain ambivalent. Who Cares? Like much of the religious realm of thinking, we should all have our freedom to pursue whatever dogma we chose to embrace. Yet, the controlling aspect of religious culture won’t allow this. We see this played out on a grand scale in current affairs: "Think as I think, or suffer." is the Theistic mandate. I project this thinking to imagine a world that shuns "secular" inquiry. The resulting model is much like Medieval Europe or 18th Century middle East, full of disease and hardship, hatred and persecution, needless suffering by today’s standards. The "Who Cares" attitude that has prevailed in our world, as  regards scientific advances allows for the lifestyle our modern militant theists enjoy. Do they realize this?

…Why isn’t America doing stuff like this? From Washington Post:

MERIGNAC, France – Braving queasy stomachs, a five-man team of French physicians took to the skies for the first surgical procedure on a human in zero-gravity conditions, as the aircraft soared and dived to create weightlessness.

The operation, more than three years in the making and part of a three-phase exploration of weightless surgery, is a step toward one day having surgery performed in space, either by a surgeon or a remotely controlled robot. It also is an experiment that may be instructive for a future medical emergency on the international space station.

The flight lasted three hours, but the operation to remove a cyst from a patient’s arm took just about the same amount of time it would have taken in a hospital, physicians said.

While America is concerned with small thinking concepts like Global Hegemony, Europe is quietly eyeing the solar system. One must ask: What is the future of mankind? Where can we go after all the wars resolve themselves into a single global powerhouse? What then?

Humans are curious beasts, ever pondering the unknown. We are explorers, conquerors who have run out of places to annex in the name of "God and Country." When the dust of looming global warfare settles, the remnants will find themselves with a damaged, nearly depleted planet. Small prize for all the bloodshed and sorrow. Meanwhile forward-thinking institutions are planning long term toward what may be the inevitable expansion of the human race. It is, at least, a hope in dark times, one that should be explored until evidence piles up on the futility of hope itself.

What have we, as a nation, to lose that we don’t already risk in global conflict? More importantly: What do we have to gain? To pursue space science, to give the average grunt a vision and hope for future generations (something that is slipping from us,) is to breath life into what is rapidly becoming an untenable condition - the combined effect of climate change, global ideological strife, depleted resources and the consolidation of wealth.

It may seem wacky, now, but our future is up.

(Below, an existential description of my state of mind - an attempt at poetic art. A failed meditation session is not always a failure, if one is aware of it. Whenever my mind travels back into my unpleasant  past, whenever I lose the present moment, equilibrium escapes me. Sometimes that is the lesson for the day.)

Darkened room slowly lightening.
Another gray dawn.
I stumble into a favorite chair,
clinging to a vapor of leftover dreams.
Night dreams turn to day dreams,
turning into memories:
Ancient angers, lost loves,
missed opportunities.

It’s the weather. Three days of rain,
flooding, hail, wind.
Autumn rushes back in force
losing no time.
I breathe, knowing I cannot focus.
Don’t fight, acknowledge,
this is today’s practice.
Tomorrow, the sun.

As a Liberal, I’m supposed to toe the line and get upset over the NSA’s domestic eavesdropping program. I just can’t. I have nothing to hide. Let them listen.

One of the hard lessons I’ve learned in my nearly half century is to "Pick your fights." One simply cannot go about angry and shrill over every little infraction real or imagined. Believe me; I’ve tried. The end result is that no one will listen at all so, when a really important issue comes along, you’re tuned out before you even begin.

Another lesson learned is, as my inner geek would say, it so "Improve your signal-to-noise ratio." This would involve thinking before speaking, remaining calm and rational, and actually having something of value to offer.

So because of these lessons and because the program just might save lives, I cannot get too excited about the whole thing. Besides, it is humanly impossible, and technologically infeasible to mine every word and inflection in the vast landscape of voice transmissions. What the NSA can find is patterns over time. So if your patterns show that you have a regular connection to your cocaine trafficker in Kenya, or some such, then you might want to be concerned. Whether that particular information was or was not gathered legally might be irrelevant in such an instance.

What might concern me - and the fight I would chose - is if the NSA or anyone else crashed my door down without a warrant in the dark of night. Regardless of how our government gets its data, it is more important how it reacts to the knowledge gained. Spy, if you must. As I said; I have nothing to hide. But when the time comes to act upon that information, do so legally.

As I troll the web looking for inspiration on Patriot Day, the fifth anniversary of the demolition of the World Trade Towers. While reading all the pablum and politics the papers are spewing, one thing occurs to me:

Al Qaida succeeded in its mission to disrupt America.

And we’ve helped them do it. From conspiracy theorists to antiwar activists, from spying governments to circuit judge rulings, our nation has fractured. The debate whether ABC is libeling Democrats or just exercising author’s licence in its portrayal of event leading up to the tragedy, its political fallout for both parties, is just the latest example of how the attacks at the pentagon and in New York were victorious.

Notwithstanding anyone’s feelings about our incumbents, the Grand Canyon of our political discontent has never been as wide or as deep as it has grown since that fateful day five years ago. And it’s still growing. I’m sure our discomfort is a pleasure to watch for those who dreamed up the attacks: their understanding of American cultural psychology must be keen. And our understanding of ourselves must be non-existent.

Well done, Osama: good job.

While our Great Democratic Empire is bankrupting itself buying munitions, plumbing the depths of corruption and exploring the permutations of profiteering, the European Space Agency is investing in humanity’s future. For a mere $140 Million, they designed and tested a new space drive in their tiny craft SMART-1, operated it for almost two years by remote, and finally impacted the craft into the surface of the moon to gain data on the mineral composition of a crater aptly named Lake of Excellence.

For the price of The War Against Terrorism (aka TWAT) America could have launched thousands of similar probes, hired an army of remote operators and invented a new industry. Doing so would advance scientific knowledge, scoured our solar system for resources and put to good use money that is otherwise wasted on destruction. It could bring in a new era of exploration, help design systems that could mine planets by remote control, thereby easing the strain on Earth’s diminishing stores.

But no. Our leaders are not so daring. They pretend to herald in a New American Century through failed military tactics of the last century while lining their stock portfolios with paper from the same defense contractors whom are grafting the government dole to benefit shareholders. Mass Murder for Immediate Gains v. Risky Expenditure for Future Profit.

Hmm…Is there such a word as Nationcide?

These days such a title could mean anything, from US-Iraq "relations" to Arab-Jew hostility, from Chinese-American economic tussles to German cyber attacks on neo-Nazi sites. This post deals with a hidden culture within the US, and it’s history of repression and ostracism by our protestant underpinnings of denied prurience.

In Salt Lake City, children of stable, polygamist families speak out in favor of their upbringing. while only a tiny minority of Utah’s - some 250 supporters came to City Hall - they have the right to speak out against a history of human rights abuses, losses of freedoms, and intolerance. They suffer these indignities at the hands of a Christian majority pathologically incapable of a healthy respect for human procreation. They can’t talk to their children about it; they deny their teenagers to explore their sexuality; they refuse to let others choose a lifestyle that differs from the perceived norm; they can’t even talk to their spouses about their own desires. Christian attitudes toward sexuality is an illness in itself.

Today’s youth, expressing themselves in a truly Democratic fashion, are challenging authority unlike anything seen since the 1960’s. This is perhaps as replay of the upheaval of the Boomers, a continuation on a smaller scale of social progression and cultural maturity, kick-started then abandoned by the teens of the sixties in favor of profits and creature comforts.

What is wrong with Polygamy? I neither endorse nor condemn the practice. If consenting adults agree to such an arrangement, so be it. A stable family is a happy family. Any resulting children, if raised in openness and awareness of its surroundings, will thrive and be capable of making healthy lifestyle choices of their own.

Have there been unbecoming behavior associated with polygamy? Yes, but any other lifestyle can claim its own collection of tyrants. What the Christian majority has proselytized against is no more evil than bouts of ethnic cleansing that allowed Mormons to settle in Utah in the first place. Didn’t Jesus say: "He without sin may cast the first stone"? Something like that.

Just a few of many word spoken by the man most revered by Christians worldwide that are ignored in modern life.