it’s going to be a long political season

I get a lot of emails from friend and aquaintences with a political or religious bent. Some I respond to, mostly I just read ‘em and forget ‘em. But one I got this morning hit a nerve. Perhaps it’s because, after years of living in Blue States and Blue Cities, I now live in the heart of the conservative South and Sebastian is as Red a town in as Red a State as you can get and therefore I am just sourrounded by Christian conservatives. Also, I have been deeply concerned of late, by the news reports of the inappropriate attitudes of Evangelical Christian officers in the U.S. military and recent scathing and unfounded comments by Evangelicals like James Dobson about Barak Obama which seek to divide people on solely religious grounds. So, when I received this email today I decided that I would have to respond even at the risk of alienating a friend.

The world we live in has problems and America is in a very difficult period. If we do not pull together as a nation we could be in for a lot of pain and suffering, not just in the immediate future, but for several generations to come. I have written about changes in technology and how it is bringing our world closer together. Now I think it is time for me to speak up for advancement in the way we think about our problems.

We are never going to decide the serious and dangerous problems of our world, whether the topic is immigration, global warming, terrorism, education or the fact that a great portion of the world we live in is at war, until we stop pointing fingers at the bad guys and start looking to ourselves to see what we can do to make a difference. The road to peace and harmony is within, not without.

We are a nation of immigrants. My family came from Russia and Germany. Where did your come from? I do know a few Native Americans but otherwise, everyone came from somewhere. If we want to solve the problem of illegal immigration, it won’t happen because we build a wall or stiffen the penalties. It will happen when the need for people to escape to this country is no longer there. That means eliminating poverty, spreading the wealth and opposing oppression and injustice. It’s an overwhelming task when you think of it… I mean it’s hard to find a spot on the globe that is not screwed up… but the process starts within each of us.

I have posted both the email that was sent to me and my response below, in case someone chooses to add to the dialog. Also, please understand that I share many of my friends concerns. I just don’t think that the email in circulation is going to help anything.

Email to me:

Dear Barry,

There is certainly a growing dread of where our “land of the free and home of the brave” is going.  Between the oil situation, immigration, and the deterioration of Christianity and moral standards, we are facing a scary future.  The presidential candidates, I fear, are merely puppets on a string, controlled by big business, powerful political players and their own agendas.  Where are the candidates that stand for freedom, Americanism, and the moral ethics that this great country was founded on?  I DON’T SEE ANY!  If they are out there, the press has so skewed it’s news, you can’t tell who stands for what!

 Please read this chilling article below.  I’m also including the site of a video on the Oil Crisis that will “knock your socks off”!!! 

(http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147)

Can any of you enlighten me with a positive outlook for America’s future?  I’d love to hear it!!!  These are scary times.  I remember my father saying these words when I was a child, but now I quote them:  “I’m not so concerned for my generation, but I fear for my grandchildren and their children.”

 What can we, the average American Christian, do to help prevent the tradegy that this country faces if things continue to escalate as they are?

 Sally (name changed)

 p.s. I’m not usually a “doomsdayer”, but I’m honestly very concerned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forward attachment:

Subject: FW: This is a must to read.

Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 6:20 AM

Subject: Fw: Gov Lamm Colorado

 I checked this out on snopes.com and it is true.  Wherever you stand, please take the time to read this; it ought to scare the pants off you!

We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado . In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington , DC , filled to capacity by many of America ’s finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, ‘Mexifornia,’ explaining how immigration – both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California . He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.

Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America . The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States . He said, ‘If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let’s destroy America . It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that ‘An autopsy of history wo uld show that all great nations commit suicide.”

‘Here is how they do it,’ Lamm said: ‘First, to destroy America , turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country.’ History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: ‘The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy.’ Canada , Belgium , Malaysia , and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficult times with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans.’

Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America , ‘Invent ‘multiculturalism’ and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. Make it an article of be lief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. Make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.

Third, to destroy America , ‘We could make the United States an ‘Hispanic Quebec ‘ without much effort The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Ben jam in Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: ‘The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.’ Lamm said, ‘I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities.’

‘Fourth, to destroy America , I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school.’

‘My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of ‘Victimology.’ I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population.’

‘My sixth plan for America ’s downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I wou ld stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other- that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common Language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia , threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. ‘E. Pluribus Unum’ — from many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the ‘Pluribus’ instead of the ‘Unum,’ we will balkanize America as surely as Kosovo.’

Also, to destroy America , I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of ‘diversity.’ I would find a word similar to ‘heretic’ in the 16th c entury – that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like ‘racist’ or ‘xenophobe’ halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of ‘victimology,’ I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America , it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them.’

In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence foll owed. Finally he said, ‘Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis’s book ‘Mexifornia.’ His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America . If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don’t read that book.’

There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate ‘diversity.’ American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America – take note of California and other states – to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell’s book ‘1984.’ In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: ‘War is peace,’ ‘Freedom is slavery,’ and ‘Ignorance is strength.’

Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don’t get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path especially The American Dream.

If you care for and love our country as I do, take the time to pass this on just as I did for you.

______________________________________________________________________________

My response:

Sally,

I read the speech by former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm, and the thing about it which most frightens me is not the “facts” in his speech, which I believe to be completely skewed, but the idea that our paranoia is clouding the issues (such as the economy and immigration) and are leading to a lack of thoughtful dialog and polarizing the nation. I can only think that the silence at the end of Mr. Lamms speech wasn’t form concern for our nation but rather concern about Mr. Lamm’s frightening outlook.

Mr. Lamm was a bit of a maverick politician who left the Democratic Party and spurned the Republicans as well. He challenged Ross Perot for control of the Reform Party and has written several works of fiction. This speech may be influenced by his desire to be accepted as a fiction writer.

The fact is, America is the land of the free and home of the brave, which is why so many people want to be here in the first place. Though it may seem to many Christians that the United States is a Christian, religious society, the true fact is that the Founding Fathers intentionally set up the concept of separation of Church and State so that no one religious group could hold sway over the fortunes of the people.

As a Jew by heritage, and a Buddhist by education, I have to say, and I hope I do not offend you when I say this but, I am somewhat confused by the term “Christian moral standards”. I do not see Christians in general as a group having any higher standards than any other religious sect. In fact, historically, Christians have been known to enforce their “moral standards” on the rest of society quite brutally and without compassion. I have had the privilege of knowing many devout and highly ethical Christian leaders, including the late Father M. Basil Pennington, who I considered a friend and an inspiration in my life (you can Google him up). Father Basil would have deplored the sentiments in Mr. Lamm’s speech. I know that Reverend Nancy Behr, the minister of the Methodist Church of Warren, RI, one of my oldest and dearest friends, and someone who deals with the issues of immigration, education and poverty every day, would also be alarmed.

In fact, there seems to be more than one form of Christianity and many views about what Christianity means, so I cannot say that I know what the term “Average American Christian” means with certainty.

Furthermore, what are these Christian standards you speak of? I thought that Jesus taught compassion and love of our fellow man (and woman) and not isolationism and contempt for those who are different. Hey, Radical Islam scares the shit out of me but I have to look into myself and see what it is they are screaming about. I have to have as much compassion for the plight of the Palestinian as for the Israeli who is getting blown to pieces every day if I want a solution to the never-ending dilemma in the Middle East.

I agree with your father -  the people I worry for are the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren; the generations to come. They are going to have to deal with our mess and that is a shame. And by the way, not to rub it in, but it is an Evangelical Christian President who has helped make this mess beyond repair. In 7 years of George W. Bush we have created the greatest deficit we’ve ever faced, one that our grandchildren will be paying for, initiated a terrible war in Iraq that cannot be won, severely damaged our stature as a nation in the world and polarized the nation in ways no one would have believed even 10 years ago. In the military there is an acronym for it: FUBAR. He (Bush) has established FEAR as the method of political messaging and FEAR as our daily standard of life (just try getting on a plane to anywhere).

I do agree wholeheartedly that the issue of illegal immigration is a serious one not to be taken lightly. I do not believe that it is as serious a threat to our nation’s stability as espoused by the likes of Mr. Lamm and Lou Dobbs. I believe that the problems are complex and will require serious and thoughtful consideration and bold action to solve them. Sadly, we tend to lump all immigrants into one pile – illegal and legal and that is wrong. People who come to this country legally, abide by the law of the land and respect the American way of life, should by all means have every right to live free and participate fully in the process without having to give up any part of their culture that is important to them.

There are two arguments for multi-culturalism that I can think of. One is New York City, the most diverse and fascinating city on the planet. The fact is that every single day, millions of people from all over the world go to work, shop, play, recreate, worship and learn while rubbing up against one another in subways, elevators, taxis and ballparks and, with rare exceptions, everyone seems to get along just fine. In fact, people rejoice in the fact that there is so much diversity. It’s enlightening to walk down the streets of the city on a Wednesday afternoon and hear people speak in Arabic, French, Spanish, Swahili, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian and, yes, even English. It is amazing to taste foods from all different cultures and see fashions from every part of the planet. It is somewhat freeing to know that there is a United Nations, even as impotent as it may be, as a forum for International discussion.

The other argument is the Internet. The world is getting smaller every day and it is technology that is making it so. The Internet is a tsunami of information that floods our society every minute and allows a sneeze in Cancun to be broadcast to India in a matter of moments. Globalization is very real and nations that resist it are only going to lose that game. Even a mega force like China will eventually succumb to the power of the global community.

There are no simple answers to the illegal immigration problem. Farmers around the country cannot seem to get by without the labor of the thousands of illegals who lead transient lives and travel with the seasons, picking fruit, harvesting avocados, and pruning grape vines. There is just not enough cheap, legal American labor to get the job done, or so they tell us. The next administration is going to have their hands full sorting this out.

One thing I do agree with Mr. Lamm about is that if we do not educate these people, we are going to have nothing but bigger problems down the road. In fact, if we don’t do a much better job of educating ALL our young people, the future of the nation is in jeopardy. Our educational system is bankrupt and failing.

The problem, as I see it, is not that we have an immigration problem. It is that we have a fear problem. If we are afraid of what we do not know or understand, and that includes people, we will never be able to overcome our problems because we will never attack them head on. We will always be fighting our fear.

I find it ironic that Lamm uses Canada as an example of how multiculturalism doesn’t work. Has that guy been to Canada? Maybe he has since he gave that speech in 2003, but possibly not before. Canada has it’s own issues to be sure, but by in large they look at their good neighbor to the south and scratch their heads trying to figure out how we got so screwed up. He probably has never been to the Cuban neighborhoods of Vancouver or the French speaking city of Montreal. The Canadians get along just fine and they have universal health care to boot!

I know many people with dual citizenship. It hasn’t seemed to affect their loyalty to our nation nor has it corrupted their outlook on national events. If anything, these people seem to have a greater perspective and an even greater sense of the wonderfulness that is America. What’s the big deal? Has Mr. Lamm ever been to a Navajo reservation? The fact is, America is bi-lingual and multi-cultural and it has been since the Spanish, French, English and Dutch explorers came here to exploit the natives.

I had seen the video about the oil situation before. It only goes to reinforce the idea that the oil crisis a manufactured one; it is not one of lack of oil but one of greed, politics and lack of education. Most of our problems have these same core issues.

The price of oil is going to go up (remember that I said a year ago it would be $5 within 2 years – well, it’s getting closer) and until we educate ourselves and put our national interest over our own comfort, and until we start to develop real, reliable alternative energy solutions, we’ll keep paying through the nose.

As far as the presidential candidates go, I agree that neither one is a knockout slam dunk. Both are flawed. As for me, I am withholding judgment until I see the VP candidates they select. That will speak volumes.

So, after that long winded spiel, here are my thoughts; my solutions for saving America:

1. Vote only for politician’s who promise to not take money from special interests and will pass strict voting laws that return the power of the vote to the people and hold them accountable. We need election reform if we are going to stop the madness.

2. Don’t vote for any incumbent candidate unless he/she has shown a strict adherence to solution  #1

3. Stop accepting tearful apologies from politicians who “make mistakes’ and want a second chance – just get rid of them. They can have their second chance cleaning toilets at the day care center.

4. Stop corporate greed – pass strict environmental laws and put an end to ridiculous executive compensation packages in publicly traded companies.

5. Put a computer in the hands of every child in this country and make everyone computer literate.

6. Increase educational standards, especially in math and reading but also in the arts, because it is proven that the right side of the brain does not get enough stimulation in our current educational system which leads to dominant left-brained thinking and a limited ability to conceptualize.

7. Work on our selves – whether you are religious or not, if people would attend to their own spirituality and worry less about what their neighbors think, we’d live in a better place.

8. Watch less television. It’s mind numbing and manipulative.

9. Make sure every child eats a healthy meal at least once a day. Big Macs do not count as a healthy meal.

10. Have universal healthcare. Take the fear and worry out of our day to day lives.

And finally – don’t give in to fear. This is the greatest country on the planet because it is free and it is diverse and we will prevail. It just might not look exactly as we think it should but it will work because the Framers set it up magnificently. It’s like George Carlin used to say about people who want to save the planet: “The planet doesn’t need saving! The planet is just fine. It’s been here for millions of years and will be here for millions of years after we’ve made it uninhabitable for us to live here!” Well, it is kind of the same thing. America is fine. It’s just us people who keep screwing it up.

Sorry this has been long and pointed, but when I read things like that in an email, I feel I must respond. It’s just my Jewish, Buddhist, New York way.

love and peace,