Moving the Blog

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Compromise vs. Obstinacy

Isn't compromise more powerful than obstinacy? Isn't showing that you're willing to engage in give-and-take, to sacrifice a little of your position for clear overall progress and gain, a sign of wisdom? Isn't cooperation a sign of strength?

(As an aside: wouldn't it make sense to completely dock the pay of California's legislators and Governor each day that the budget is late? Dock, as in they forfeit for good.)

If we'd had today's politicians "leading" the country in the latter part of the 18th century, the country would never have gotten off the ground.

Thoughts on Renewed Beginnings

During his inaugural address, President Obama said:

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals…

Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.

There was only the one terrorist attack during the Bush administration, in 2001. The Bush supporters claim victory: there were no other attacks. Despite numerous other discovered plots, the Bush administration prevented any further direct attacks. No argument: there were no other attacks.

Is this a victory?

I'd say that the terrorist organizations won not just Round One, but Round Two and Round Three.

In Round One, they successfully hijacked four airliners, and successfully crashed three of them into specific targets. In Round One, despite evidence we now understand, America did not prevent the attack. Round One involved a specific set of events on a specific day with specific targets. Did it succeed? Certainly. Did it succeed beyond the attackers' expectations? Quite probably: the collapse of both towers of the World Trade Center was, most likely, an outcome well beyond their expectations.

Round Two began on September 12, 2001. Round Two did not entail a direct attack, thwarted or otherwise. Round Two did not have so specific and obvious a target (a set of targets) as Round One: its target was the U.S. economy. The economy had a pretty rough time in the aftermath of those attacks. The terrorists won Round Two—even though the economy recovered, it's easy to argue that the recovery was delayed and attenuated.

Round Three has an even less obvious, less specific, more general target—yes, has. Round Three began almost concurrently with Round Two. Round Three began when our government—our government—began to choose the illusion of safety over our ideals. Round Three continued as we, the people, accepted that choice, applauded that choice, demanded that choice. Round Three entailed the violation of civil liberties, the violation of principles in our Constitution, the violation of our own long-held national moral codes. It was not the enemy who violated our civil liberties, our Constitution, our moral codes: it was we who violated them.

Of late, we have begun to awaken to what we have accepted. We have begun to demand that our principles, our ideals not be exchanged for an illusion of safety. We have begun to understand that it is not our buildings nor our money nor even our lives that have been attacked. We have begun to understand that it is our way of life that is at risk.

The terrorist organizations cannot attack our way of life directly. No enemy can take our way of life from us, unless we help it do so. And this we have done, by acceding to more than just needless expense and needless inconvenience: by acceding to needless sacrifice of a foundation built through the decades and the centuries, by acceding to torture in our names, to abdication of responsibility on the part of our leaders, to the dismantling of important safeguards, to the separation of "the other" from "us."

Has Round Four begun?

Will we, the people, be willing ourselves to accept a decrease in the illusion of security, of safety to return to our ideals? Can President Obama lead us to reclaim those ideals that still light the world? Will we, as people, as the people, and as a nation "pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America"?

On Heroes

From the December 23rd edition of the New York Times:

"In elevating to a level of demiworship people with big bucks, we have been destroying the values of our future generation. We need a total rethinking of who the heroes are, who the role models are, who we should be honoring."

Rabbi Benjamin Blech, professor of philosophy of law at Yeshiva University, on the downfall of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff.

Who are our heroes? What does our choice of heroes say about us?

When I was a kid, like many other kids growing up somewhere in New York State, Mickey Mantle was one of my heroes. Others included Bobby Richardson, A.J. Foyt, Don Garlits, and Richard Petty (yes, there's a pattern there). There were John Glenn, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman, Neal Armstrong, Gus Grissom. After the Apollo 1 fire, certainly add Ed White and Roger Chaffee, though White was on the list during his Gemini 4 flight, years before. JFK was a hero, but I certainly didn't understand: I was just shy of my seventh birthday when he was assassinated. Over time, Martin Luther King became a hero.

Big U—Jack Yudell—was one of my heroes when I was a boy: my Scoutmaster, exhibiting everything I wanted to be if I ever became one. Ted Levy, too: my rabbi, always with gentle, sage wisdom, a smile, a nod, a greeting.

My grandparents were my heroes; so were my parents, and my Aunt Nina. Still are.

And now? First to mind is Al Haynes (captain of United 232, the DC-10 whose tail engine blew up roughly near Sioux City, Iowa). Al is a real-life hero, whose cool thinking saved over a hundred lives, and who understands enough of what happened to be able to pass on his lessons to others. I'll take a 70 year old greybeard like Al in the left front seat of my airplane any day, any time, any flight. Jim Lovell's still on the list, as is Neal Armstrong. Neal's a bit different: I've met Al, heard him speak a few times; heard Jim speak, too; never Neal, live and in person. But, his accomplishments, his cool head in some of the most stressful situations one can encounter are historic.

Essentially every current professional athelete is off the list, though. And as to those financiers and others who simply have "big bucks": no. But, I certainly have a sense that I understand what R. Blech means.

Antonia's a hero: struggling financially, loving, giving, trying to raise her family and keep her kids on the right track, living in a tough situation.

Chuck's a hero: staying involved in the lives of our youth through Scouting, helping our boys grow into men with a strong sense of positive values and self-esteem, with no direct personal gain (well, except for what we who volunteer with our youth all gain).

I don't know what my choice of heroes says about me: I haven't a sufficiently removed, objective perspective. I still wonder, though, at the plethora of magazines, blogs, Web sites, tabloids dedicated to so-called celebrities and their continue foibles and antics. Why such a widespread interest in whether this supposed film star is or isn't pregnant, is or isn't getting a divorce, is or isn't gaining or losing weight? Haven't we better things to do with our time? (Haven't I better things to do with mine than write these musings? Hmm…)

The Setting Crescent Moon

Sunsets while flying westbound can be memorable: at 20,000', they seem to last for an hour, all awash and afire with color.

Last night's moonset was gorgeous, a sight I'd not seen before. And I wasn't even flying west!

The moon was about three days old: more than the slip of a crescent, but not much. Just above the moon were Venus (magnitude -4) and Jupiter (mag. -1.8). The conjunction itself is something to see, but didn't hold a candle to the moonset.

As the moon dropped to the horizon, it changed. I wasn't watching it: I was flying the airplane, monitoring as one of my passengers took her first shot at the controls of an airplane. Someone else in the plane (Joshua?) spotted it.

The moon had become, well, maroon in color. A deep, dark red, reminiscent of its color during a total lunar eclipse, but much less orange and deeper.

We gazed for a while.

Wow! What a Picture!

Today's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) is stunning.

Endeavour's launch, silhouetted by a nearly full moon.

Endeavour- ISS

It was a lovely site.

It was so bright, I thought at first it must be an airplane.

It was like Venus moving briskly across the sky.

Space Shuttle Endeavour is docked with the International Space Station. They passed overhead shortly after a quarter past six this evening, magnitude -1.9 (predicted, 18:19 PST maximum elevation), shining brightly against the background of the stars. I only wish I'd been in a truly dark location, rather than here in the city.