September 11, 2020

I recall visiting ground zero before the debris was removed and the memorial park and museum were created. 911 was a horrible act of terror which horrified, greatly angered, wounded and killed many people. A group of men, radical believers trained in the United States to fly planes took control of three planes and crashed them into the twin towers in New York City, the Pentagon, and ground in Pennsylvania (due to brave passengers in that plane). Rescuers and people in these structures died, Bin Laden and his supporters rejoiced, and our nation was in shock. Subsequently we were at war in the middle east and Afghanistan with history judging our military and national security acts with very mixed reviews. Like today, those of us who supported these international moves including the Iraq war and Guantanamo incarcerations had opposing citizens cautioning against these actions. International spying changed to include national (we have a long history of distrust of our citizens i.e. McCarthyism). Going somewhat back in history to Watergate, deep throat, and the tapes led to the fall of Nixon who did finally end the Vietnam war a terrible misadventure. His visit and efforts to have dialogue with China was historic. Gerald Ford pardoned draft dodges for the Vietnam war and former President Nixon. Jimmy Carter our elder statesman president helped Israel and Egypt make peace with Sadat and Begin shaking hands in Israel. Now a Nobel prize winner for peace, unfortunately he was consumed with problems associated with the Ayatollah returning to Iran and then our embassy occupants becoming prisoners. We should thank him for the Department of Education and Energy. Then Ronald Reagan was a leader for the republicans to shine. Reagan’s policies stressed conservative economic values, starting with the implementation of supply-side economics policies, dubbed as “Reaganomics” by both supporters and detractors. His policies included the then largest tax cut in American history as well as increased defense spending as part of his Soviet strategy. Glasnost was a big deal then. His war on drugs supported by his wife was a failure associated with increased incarceration of minor drug offenders, unfortunately majority of them were of color. George H. Bush had four years during which we invaded Panama, Iraq while freeing Kuwait, and assisted with the reunification of Germany. His leadership in the first Iraq war was more focused with a short war with early withdrawal. Then Clinton to get elected endorses a draconian crime bill mainly against people of color. I am not sure his financial deregulation measures contributed to our bank and financial institution crisis later. His presidency was associated with a budget surplus. The republican congressional strategy was conflict with the presidency with Newt Gingrich leading the charge. Afterwards Clinton survives an impeachment trial though his crime was blow jobs in the bathroom of the White House which he lied about (which seems like nothing these days). Then Bush presidency under the influence of Cheney pushed the lie of weapons of mass destruction becoming the pseudoevent (Boorstin) of those times later found to be manufactured by politicians and secret service operatives. So Bush is reelected through propaganda against Dukakis, who had misjudged and furloughed convicted felon Willie Horton who then killed Mr. Barnes in his home and raped his wife. After Bush we have Obama with eight years of a presidency highlighted by an opposing congress hell bent on preventing him from accomplishing anything that benefited the democrats. His presidency is remembered by me as without serious scandal except for Ambassador Stevens murder in Tripoli, our continued use of drone attacks on "terrorists" in other countries, and Hillary Clinton's use of a private email account. By and large, Rebecca and I recall his presidency having decency, attempts at writing injustices, a signature now more well accepted health care act, coordinated international non nuclear proliferation agreement with Iran and the location and killing of Bin Laden. Oh! that's right, he entered his presidency after eight years of republican rule with an economy in shambles due to legislated relaxing of financial laws and regulations preventing banks and others from gambling with other people money creating complicated and eventually worthless loan vehicles. This was a very bad financial crisis. During his presidency we managed to right our economic ship with coordinated approaches by our government agencies led by very competent people. His wife did an outstanding job as the first lady and their marriage seems healthy and vibrant to this day. America was at war with itself during his presidency. As an aside, pundits agree that our best president so far remains Lincoln. My brief review from Nixon on shows that all our presidents were human with accomplishments and controversies that may fuel some of our debates together.

So today we have Trump, whose administration is characterized by many pundits. Even truly conservative advocates report abuse of federal agencies such as the justice department, the F.D.A., the homeland security department, ISIS, the Education Department, the E.P.A., and the postal service (to name a few) so that these agencies now are partially politicized and biased to serve the president not the public.

Our current crises include the pandemic of Covid-19, street demonstrations against racial injustice with our local police and government police, climate change with now wildfires ravaging the western United States, unemployment and poverty, problems with our food supply, and housing insecurity. There is high unemployment, increasing poverty, increasing homelessness, malnutrition, failing health system with increasing uninsured and overtaxed health services, rogue nations poisoning and imprisoning their opponents (Russian government involvement in the poisoning of Alexander Livinenko, Sergio Skripal, and Alexi Navnay, Belarussia arrest of opposition leader Maria Kalesnakova, North Korea poisoning of Kim Jong-nam brother of Kim Jong-il head of north Korea, etc) and increased conflicts between nations and within with border wars brewing between India and China and incarceration of millions of Chinese citizens due to ethnic and religious differences (Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other ethnic Turkic Muslims), genocide of Rohingya, proliferation of nuclear weapons, climate change causing increased ferocity of storms, ice cap melting, increased temperature, loss of habitat for forest and animals, pandemic viral threats, air quality sicknesses, etc). I suppose I could go on or you can add your favorite stress and conflict to the mix.

So enough of my brief review of our recent history and current crises. We have a friend Rebecca's loving best who lives in Talent, Oregon. A few days ago she and her housemate had to leave in an emergency to travel north to a motel and then shortly afterwards leave to sleep in a parking lot overnight with the fires approaching. She's O.K now back in Ashland which has fires nearby. Last night we watched PBS news and saw the pictures of the fires and destruction. Another friend just told me that 10% of the population of Oregon had to move. Our Talent displaced friend is trying to get information about her risks of harm where she is now and she is having a hard time finding reliable sources of information. Her trust of civil authority information is suspect. She just returned to Talent from Ashland and the house she was living in is intact. There are some neighbors camping out near their property to prevent looters from entering the homes. A short distance away was a trailer park whose occupants were not told of the danger. They escaped with their lives as far as we know but their trailers and belongings went up in flames. Rebecca thinks that the occupants of the park had some undocumented immigrants. Currently our tax money supports ISIS police rounding up undocumented immigrants and attempting to deport them. I'd rather have our tax dollars going to assist the poor and displaced have a better life. Recently in the island of Lesbos Greece a fire destroyed most of the structures of the refugee camp. The government spokesman there declared on TV that the refugees set the fire so they should suffer the consequences. Since those alleged facts of the fire so far are not verified, all I know is that many there have suffered. France and Germany offered to house the displaced children of this fire. So fire tragedy in our country never seen such devastation with many rescuers struggling to help. Climate change is one of the causes as well as reported mismanagement of our forests. There are some reports of human caused fires started purposely. Some people are listening to far right conspiracy theories (Antifa) that downplay the risk of fire claiming some conspiracy reasoning behind alleged misinformation, such as left wing radicals are purposely setting fires. So people now are not trusting our official emergency services. The fires create severe crises of living. Our friend is safe.

What about our national responses. So far I have that we do have federal disaster response agencies involved and assisting. With all the problems, coordinated efforts are underway. What about the rest of my list of woes. My friend just told me that he is more optimistic. He thinks that the super rich are more willing to give up some of their wealth, technology innovation are on the way to improve our lives, and the future is not so bleak. I admire his optimistic assessment but I have severe misgivings about the good will of those in privilege to give up their wealth and influence.

So my next subject in this blog has to do with forgiveness and resolution of hurt feelings. Rebecca shared this morning her history of some issues with her father's last wife who was two faced. In words the wife was supportive and approachable but in fact she was selfish and vindictive. Rebecca is more forgiving and interested in reconciliation so I'm learning to appreciate her approaches to problem resolution. More religious practicing people think and behave so that forgiveness and acceptance is needed in our lives and then we do not harbor resentment and hatred. Given our current political polarization as example reconciliation and forgiveness seem not to be part of the vocabulary. Today I read three articles:

David Brooks https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/opinion/trump-coronavirus-military-comments.html?referringSource=articleShare

Ed Yong https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/pandemic-confusing-uncertainty/610819/

and another by Greg Weiner

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/opinion/sunday/trump-woodward-coronavirus-vaccine.html?referringSource=articleShare

Brooks describes the author Emmanual Carrere memoir Lives Other Than My Own

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250013774
how he was changed from a more selfish self centered person to a more caring,
emphatic, and supportive partner due to a terrible tragedy of loss of life due to a
tsunami. These events and his involvement in participating with the victims and
rescuers changed him for the better. Brooks contrasts this with what we know about
President Trump who seems to lack empathy but seems only interested in his
reelection and status so he lies and manipulates to support those goals. Brooks is
upset so declares our president as emotionally and morally stupid in his handling and statements
about the pandemics. His statements recorded live by Bob Woodward in his book Hate show a
lack of empathy and love as described by Carrere for the potential harm and suffering of others.
this pandemic would cause but lied and did little to keep us from harm. He also shows us that
Woodward points out that in his interviews he recorded Trump was enamored with his relationship with autocrats such as Kim-jong il and others.
I recall that he seemed to defend Mohamad Bin Salman Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
who is reported by many sources such as the C.I.A. in U.S.A. and countries such as Turkey

He points out that Trump knew the seriousness and harm through illness and death

to have ordered the murder of Jaml Khoshogi a Saudi journalist. He spoke with Putin and declared his admiration for him. Trump's attempts to implicate the Ukraine in election interference and his attempts to have Biden's son charged with corporate crimes is well reported in his impeachment trial by the House of Representative. The Mueller report catalogs his administration misadventures. Yong gives a thorough analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic and our sorry responses so far. He is a very thorough reporter and his video last evening on PBS is well worth viewing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VgTni4iAQQ.

Weiner takes up this refrain pointing out many real life instances of Machiavelli type lies and manipulations in this vein by him. Our recent news reports gives me another example. Attorney General Barr announced that the justice department will be the defendant in a rape charge against the president which then essentially prevents the alleged rape victim have her day in court since the justice department is immune from such suits. Machaivellian moves are present in this justice department example.

I am of the group that is convinced that this man, our president, is not suited for the job of

managing crisis such as I listed above. Rather than debating whether these opinions about him are
correct I'd rather attempt to find solutions to the crises and work toward better leadership in the future. As I started this blog 9/11 brings up the brief history I mentioned showing me that our political responses to crises and the often flawed responses our government has taken. But I'll continue to think and discuss with

others these issues with future writing.