2009-19 GEORGETOWN

History (for those intrepid enough to study it without bias and spin) tells us that in time of national crisis governments tend to overreact. Just one comparison in my own backyard, that of WW-II and 911, shows us that in the former, the Roosevelt Administration indiscriminately jailed Japanese-American citizens and the Truman Administration firebombed civilians in Dresden and of course unleashed atomic terror on Japan. Though widely applauded at the time, history has come to question such extreme acts, and that is what history is designed to accomplish – dispassionate analysis from a distance, after the fervor of the moment has dissipated.

Conversely, the alleged overreactions of 911, including portions of the Patriot Act, NSA wiretaps, Guantanamo detentions, et al, have received widespread condemnation, with scant acknowledgement that to the extent they were overreactions, they were a predictable response to an unprecedented attack upon our homeland.

It is interesting to contemplate why liberal darlings FDR and Truman both then and now get a pass for their actions while Cheney and Bush are labeled war criminals and produce a blood lust for vengeance on the left.

If excesses motivated by Pearl Harbor can be explained by historical occurrence, why not similar reactions inspired by destruction of the Twin Towers? Might it be just another example of the left forever excusing its actions due to perceived moral superiority while condemning all actions from the right as brutish thuggery? Perhaps.

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As much of the nation bakes under an unrelenting sun, I continue to begin each slumber under 2 blankets, though by morning one (but never both) is often discarded. And this, absent the ubiquitous A/C, without which the planet would appear to shrivel and expire. Notwithstanding that the 2nd century Chinese inventor Ding Huan invented a rotary fan for air conditioning, modern A/C was virtually unknown a scant half-century ago, yet we somehow survived the centuries, if uncomfortably so. Are we tough, or what!

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Interesting though predictable that Judge Sotomayor has emerged with twin yet diametrically opposed personas – the first a dispassionate, letter-of-the-law, no nonsense, down-the-middle, respectful of precedent jurist, conversely the biased, emotionally disposed, liberally inclined, sentiment-trumping-Constitution adjudicator. We should know the truth in a few years. But it is interesting that her supporters on the left portray her as the former, while it is painfully obvious that they hunger for the latter. Similarly, Roberts and Alito said much and revealed nothing in their confirmation hearings, the rationale being not to tell the truth but to be confirmed. And so Advise and Consent becomes Much Ado About Nothing.

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One aspect of my struggle with religion (I find that as one ages there is a tendency to grapple with issues that escape the radar of the young) is the concept of using to the fullest one’s God given talent as opposed to subsuming reason in favor of belief. The twin theological juggernauts of “don’t question, just believe,” and “don’t ask, because we can’t tell,” are vexing restrictions in an atmosphere where we are admonished to “reach high and far”.

Reminds me a bit of the young woman from my former hometown away attending a Christian college. While strolling with a friend on a trail atop a steep hill, the ground gave way and she experienced a terrifying tumble of nearly one hundred feet that left her gravely injured. Upon her recovery while still in hospital she announced that Jesus was with her at the bottom and saved her life. Should one assume that as her fall commenced the Son of God was on a coffee break and therefore missed the opportunity to save her from this trauma?

And while on the subject, I note that religion, so mocked and derided during Republican days in Washington has found favor now that some other folks are in charge. I have never once seen nor heard a single slur against the Black Church (the flak over Obama’s minister was targeted solely at him and carefully avoided any slight against his institution), while snide smirks and spiteful smears against the Evangelical community are an enduring staple at toney gatherings of liberal sophisticates across the land.

Incidentally, lest cynics take heart or true believers umbrage, I find it the existence of a creator to be above debate. I have no clue as to what form he/she/it takes, but the idea that billions of neurons in each human brain firing in perfect sequence were created by random explosion is farcical.

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I was pressed, several evenings ago, into domestic service when a server on our special dinner train acquired a malady rendering him unfit to pursue his duties. Inching down aisles barely able to accommodate my modest girth (I had welts on both thighs the next morning) with red in the left hand and white in the right, it was amply reconfirmed that the dispensation of comestibles is trivial in comparison to the need to parry boorish and inane commentary from the assembled throng.

There was some comfort in the knowledge that truly excessive behavior could be dealt with by expulsion from the train, while such solutions are not available to those who dispense similar services in the skies. Although, perhaps…

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There appears occasionally in the press some report of a loyal employee feted upon retirement after 40+ years in a position acquired out of high school. Such consistency is judged commendable and it got me to thinking that in both métier and geography I have been a bit flighty. Without having given this much prior thought I now realize that for reasons not entirely apparent, such peripaticity has been an essential element of my passage on the planet.

While I have greatly enjoyed my time in many locations (Paris, Nairobi, Singapore, Hattiesburg, Georgetown) and languished in others (Taiwan, Tokyo (but not the rest of that glorious country), Galveston) and experienced similar emotional highs and lows in various positions I have held this past half-century, it occurs that the element of change has been crucial to the process. Running toward or away from, perhaps, a sort of wandering Gentile in pursuit of the unknown.

While working in Paris decades ago a friend from the rural south confided that his fiancée had never ventured from the South Carolina county into which she was born, had no desire to do so, and let it be known that she would resist any geographical shift. As he discovered the pleasures of new continents and cultures I could see his pain in the inevitable choice he would eventually be forced to make. I wonder what happened?

And that illuminates my own decisions yet to come. While I have quite enjoyed Clear Creek County and the front range of the Rockies, it will soon be time to skedaddle. So many possibilities to which the Adventure has yet to be exposed…
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