#229 – Dick Bernard: Re-visiting "The Last Truck Out" and "Swords into Plowshares"

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Usually OutsideTheWalls is a sleepy blog hamlet in the blog universe. The two posts about the pullout of American combat troops from Iraq (here and here) excited an unusual amount of comment on my regular list* – over half of the many comments agreeing with me; the other half not. (I have disabled the comment feature on this blog solely because of serious spam problems some months ago. To date, I haven’t had the nerve to re-try the comment feature. The indomitable salespeople for exotic drugs need to find another venue.)
Two comments in the last several days stuck with me which both relate directly to the topic of U.S. policy in Iraq and elsewhere.
The first was the final comment received about the blog posts: “I consider Obama not as “a moderate” but as balanced, rational. I detest political labels and am glad that as [part of my religious belief] I don’t get involved in party politics…it’s just too divisive and is tearing this country apart!!! We need to overhaul our political system….IMHO and just vote on issues and individuals not parties.”
More on this comment in a moment.
The second comment came at a great conversation among strangers on Thursday night, from a lady I’d never met before, who was born and raised in the country of Ghana, and who, for a dozen or so years, lived in Australia, and only a couple of years ago came to live in this political and economic mess (my editorial) that is the current United States of America. I think I can fairly say that “Alyson”, a very bright and aware woman, was puzzled by us (U.S.). We didn’t quite match our news releases from her earlier years.
Among the handouts on Thursday night was my rendition of present day Iraq and region, on which I’d superimposed an outline of Minnesota Iraq environs ca 2005001
Alyson marveled that Minnesota had only 5 million population, contrasted with 24 million in her native Ghana (a country slightly larger than Minnesota in land area); and 22 million in Australia, a place as large in land area as the United States. Then there was the U.S. with over 300,000,000 people, and the assorted political behaviors observed in her time here in this immensely complicated country of ours**.
The next day came that comment from a very valued friend who (I think) mostly agrees with me on political kinds of questions.
“I don’t get involved in party politics…it’s just too divisive and is tearing this country apart!!! We need to overhaul our political system….IMHO and just vote on issues and individuals not parties.”
Unfortunately, I know too many people who “just vote on issues and individuals”, and, unfortunately, they very often vote against each other. You win or you lose. You are either in power or you’re nothing. And we complain.
In our country with over 300,000,000 people, roughly 200,000,000 are eligible to vote, a crucial number (or so it seems) either identify their one or two pet issues and vote accordingly…or can’t be bothered at all with even voting, much less voting in a reasonably informed way.
If our country collapses, it will not be because of political corruption (a feature of all political systems), or party politics that stink.
We will collapse because it is our will that it be so, as we stay stuck in our own ideological mindset; our absolute “truth”.
We need to seek out the individuals as leaders who seem to be capable of acting like adults, rather than children, and are able and willing to multi-task, seeking to build agreement amongst the endless factions in the crazy-quilt country of ours.
* – Persons interested in joining my own P&J (Peace and Justice) list serve can e-mail me at dick(underscore)bernardATmsnDOTcom.
** – An excellent and long commentary on contemporary U.S. politics is “Washington, We Have a Problem” in the September, 2010, issue of Vanity Fair (the one with Lady Gaga on the cover). It is well worth the time to read.