Witchery

Atop Tabor's crown

I found evidence to prove

There is witchery up there

On that dead mountain.

A ring of round stones

A perfect circle forméd;

Broken boughs at such angles

Drew a pentagram.

The epic center

With four rounded stones was set;

Black charring at the nexus

Spoke of sacrifice.

Soft whispers betrayed

Fleeting shadows in the folds,
Witches with hidden faces...

I fled before dark.

President Obama on Libya

President Obama delivered remarks today to inform the American people about the situation in Libya.  (Video is below.) Although I haven't yet formed a firm opinion on the matter, my inclination is to oppose military involvement in that dangerous situation.   

So I was eager to hear the President's remarks.  A few thoughts about what he said:

For generations, the United States of America has played a unique role as an anchor of global security and advocate for human freedom. Mindful of the risks and costs of military action, we are naturally reluctant to use force to solve the world’s many challenges. But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act. That is what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks.

What thoughtful American can hear these words and not remember how shamelessly we were misled by the Bush administration in Iraq?

"Mindful of the risks and costs of military action, we are naturally reluctant to use force to solve the world's many challenges."  Iraq makes a mockery of these words.  Just as many of us foresaw, the consequences of Junior's corruption, ineptitude, and baseness of character continue to bear fruit.

But I digress.  The subject is Libya.

At this point, the United States and the world faced a choice. Gaddafi declared that he would show “no mercy” to his own people. He compared them to rats, and threatened to go door to door to inflict punishment. In the past, we had seen him hang civilians in the streets, and kill over a thousand people in a single day. Now, we saw regime forces on the outskirts of the city. We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi – a city nearly the size of Charlotte – could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.

For a bleeding-heart liberal like me, this is as close as one can come to a legitimate causus belli. Preventing massacres, stopping genocides, assisting people in disasters --these instances are when I am most proud of our military.

To summarize, then: in just one month, the United States has worked with our international partners to mobilize a broad coalition, secure an international mandate to protect civilians, stop an advancing army, prevent a massacre, and establish a No Fly Zone with our allies and partners. To lend some perspective on how rapidly this military and diplomatic response came together, when people were being brutalized in Bosnia in the 1990s, it took the international community more than a year to intervene with air power to protect civilians.

And it took Junior, Cheney, and Rummy a year and a half, from September 11, 2001 until March 19, 2003, to pull off their historic crime. It does seem rather impressive that the Obama administration was able to build a coalition and respond to events in a matter of weeks.

Our most effective alliance, NATO, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and No Fly Zone. Last night, NATO decided to take on the additional responsibility of protecting Libyan civilians. This transfer from the United States to NATO will take place on Wednesday. Going forward, the lead in enforcing the No Fly Zone and protecting civilians on the ground will transition to our allies and partners, and I am fully confident that our coalition will keep the pressure on Gaddafi’s remaining forces. In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role – including intelligence, logistical support, search and rescue assistance, and capabilities to jam regime communications. Because of this transition to a broader, NATO-based coalition, the risk and cost of this operation – to our military, and to American taxpayers – will be reduced significantly.

I wonder... What exactly does it mean that NATO will assume command of operations?  How is that different than the current state of affairs?  Will American military assets be deployed?  Is it just a matter of naming a Canadian or Brit as commander?

In fact, much of the debate in Washington has put forward a false choice when it comes to Libya. On the one hand, some question why America should intervene at all – even in limited ways – in this distant land. They argue that there are many places in the world where innocent civilians face brutal violence at the hands of their government, and America should not be expected to police the world, particularly when we have so many pressing concerns here at home.

It is true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs. And given the costs and risks of intervention, we must always measure our interests against the need for action. But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what’s right. In this particular country – Libya; at this particular moment, we were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale. We had a unique ability to stop that violence: an international mandate for action, a broad coalition prepared to join us, the support of Arab countries, and a plea for help from the Libyan people themselves. We also had the ability to stop Gaddafi’s forces in their tracks without putting American troops on the ground.

I find it hard to argue against this reasoning.  If the opportunity was there, if there really were calls from allies for us to act, I believe (again, as a bleeding-heart liberal) we had the moral obligation to prevent innocent people from being murdered.  Or, as the President put it:

To brush aside America’s responsibility as a leader and – more profoundly – our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.

Fair enough, Mr. President.  Would that we had acted in Rwanda or in Uganda or in Cambodia!

Of course, there is no question that Libya – and the world – will be better off with Gaddafi out of power. I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through non-military means. But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.

I find these words reassuring.  But again, the shadow of Iraq makes me leery.  Are we entering another quagmire?

There will be times, though, when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and values are. Sometimes, the course of history poses challenges that threaten our common humanity and common security – responding to natural disasters, for example; or preventing genocide and keeping the peace; ensuring regional security, and maintaining the flow of commerce. These may not be America’s problems alone, but they are important to us, and they are problems worth solving. And in these circumstances, we know that the United States, as the world’s most powerful nation, will often be called upon to help.

In such cases, we should not be afraid to act – but the burden of action should not be America’s alone. As we have in Libya, our task is instead to mobilize the international community for collective action. Because contrary to the claims of some, American leadership is not simply a matter of going it alone and bearing all of the burden ourselves. Real leadership creates the conditions and coalitions for others to step up as well; to work with allies and partners so that they bear their share of the burden and pay their share of the costs; and to see that the principles of justice and human dignity are upheld by all.

Again, we see the contrast between President Obama and Junior.  Remember Junior's version of leadership?  "My response to that is to say 'Bring 'em on!'"

My fellow Americans, I know that at a time of upheaval overseas – when the news is filled with conflict and change – it can be tempting to turn away from the world. And as I have said before, our strength abroad is anchored in our strength at home. That must always be our North Star – the ability of our people to reach their potential, to make wise choices with our resources, to enlarge the prosperity that serves as a wellspring of our power, and to live the values that we hold so dear.

But let us also remember that for generations, we have done the hard work of protecting our own people, as well as millions around the globe. We have done so because we know that our own future is safer and brighter if more of mankind can live with the bright light of freedom and dignity. Tonight, let us give thanks for the Americans who are serving through these trying times, and the coalition that is carrying our effort forward; and let us look to the future with confidence and hope not only for our own country, but for all those yearning for freedom around the world. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

These are fine words. Is there any chance we can live up to them?

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La Luz pronuncia las Escrituras

Yo estaba andando por el bulevar de Martin Luther King, Jr. esta tarde, y encontré un edificio llamada La Luz del Mundo.  En las paredes de la iglesia, yo leí que Isaías nos pide "¿Quien ha creído nuestro anuncio? y a quien se ha revelado el brazo del Señor?"

Como se proclama en la Iglesia de la Luz del Mundo, los efesios proporcionan la respuesta:  "Edificados sobre el fundamento de los apóstoles y los profetas, siendo Cristo Jesús mismo la piedra angular."

Mientras tantos, en el cielo, las nubes estuvieron en guerra, pero la luz estuvo más allá.  Más allá de las nubes y más allá de comprensión.  Nunca podemos comprenderla.  Pero, es bueno a tratar.  Debemos continuar probar.

EEUU: 50 millones de hispanos

Las data reveladas por el 2010 censo de EEUU confirman un hecho increíble, si ni sorprendente. La población de hispanos en el país ha crecido alguna 43% en los diez años pasados.  Actualmente, hispanos son 14%-15% de la población en total.  Completamente un sexto de los ciudadanos de EEUU es hispano.

Bien, como la población hispana sigue creciendo, ¿qué cambios se debe esperar?

No soy experto, pero hay tendencias que parecen obvios.

En el mundo político, los Republicanos se deben pensar con cuidado antes de continuar las políticas xenófobas.  La retórica que apela a los "nativistas" es venenoso en las orejas de la demográfica creciendo mas rápido.  Ya, esta charla les ha costado muy caro en las elecciones de 2006 y 2008. Si ellos siguen hablan así, el futuro parece sombrío para ellos.  ¡Que lastima!

En la cultura nacional, vemos muchos cambios.  Considera como la cuisina ha cambiado sobre los años.  Mi mamá, que creció en la Valle Willamette en los 50s, me dijo que ella no conocía lo que es un taco hasta ella tuvo 15 años.  Actualmente, tacos, burros, tamales, y muchas otras comidas hispanas son alimentos básicos en todo el país.  (¡De hecho en toda de la continenta!)

Y ha habido cambios a la "lengua estadounidense," también.  Ahora, casi todo el mundo saben muchas palabras españoles.  ¿Cual niño en los EEUU hoy en día no sabe palabras como "amigo," "gracias," "por favor", "lobo," "escuela," "hombre," o "muchacho?"  Están una parte del lexicón norteamericano.  

Los demógrafos predicen que en el año 2050, uno de cada tres estadounidenses se tendrá cuenta a sí mismo hispana.  Yo lo he dicho antes, y ahora lo digo otra vez, los EEUU se convierte a una nación hispana.

Hablando para mi familia mexicana (y otras razas, tambien), ¡bienvenido al futuro!

Pilgrimage

You can see Ross Island Bridge, back there.

Springtime sun was out and proud on the commute home.  Cumuli piled up in billows like blinding white glory.  The sky was so blue it brought a lump to my throat, the way it had all those years ago when I was on the beach with the Irish girl and I knew it wouldn't last.  She lay on the sand beside me and things were so perfect at that moment that I was afraid to fall in love with it --with the moment --because I knew it wouldn't last.  That was how blue the sky was as I was coming home.  It put me in a mood to go walking. 
Right on up Tabor's slopes.  The path is so familiar that I venture I might make it blindfold up to the summit and never stub nor stumble. When I'm pushing up the steeper slopes --like the potholed road that runs along the south shoulder, where it is always shady because of the lay of the hill and the big Dougs standing to either side, and where the blacktop is pitted and scarred and littered with fir needles, gold, orange, and yellow, and sword ferns look suckered onto the hillside like sea anemones in a tide pool --when I push up through there, I put my mind somewhere else; focus on something other than exertion.

But not the world.  Not Libya.  Not Japan.

Aunt Jenifer, Lucy, and me

So I thought about Aunt Jenifer, and how she broke the news to Mom about her cancer.  She called Mom from her cell phone driving home to San Pedro on some LA freeway.  "The good news is that I don't have to go back to work," she said.  "The bad news is I have 6 to 9 months to live."  She passed in 2003.  At the age of fifty-nine.

There is so much beauty that can never be captured even by memory.  It's hard, but you just have to let those things go.

When I made Tabor's summit, I looked around for photo opportunities, but nothing suited.  I spent a good while walking from vantage to vantage.  I was sure I would see something.   

The sun played on the city over across the river.  A springtime haze cast a phantom veil between my eyes and the spear tip glares coming off the glass towers of downtown.  Lovers sat on benches admiring the view.  A solitary figure stood by the Julija Laenen bench, paying silent homage to the Old Man.

The sun felt good on my face, I can tell you.  But though I sought intently, I sensed no cosmic wink, no conspiratorial nudge from the Great Whatever.

After a while, I set on my way back down, homeward to my honey bee.  And naturally, that's when I finally did see it.  It was right there in front of me, plain as day.  The hopeful omen, the simple proof, the irrefutable validation.

And I got a picture of it! 

What more proof does one need?

There it is!

Do you see it?

Do you see?

Libyan quagmire

War in Libya

What a mess!  The situation in Libya, spawned from the so-called "Jasmine Revolution" erupting throughout the Arab world, has turned into a dangerous quagmire.

Synopsis of developments

Prospects seemed bright, at first.  Libyan rebels, no doubt encouraged by the success of their neighbors in Egypt, arose in revolt against Muammar Gaddafhi and his regime.  The rebels seized Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city relatively quickly, and high-level government officials and military commanders defected from Gaddafhi's regime to join the rebellion.

But then Gaddafhi, crafty, ruthless desert fox that he is, went to work.  Using his well-armed military, an indeterminate proportion of which is foreign mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa, he has gone about brutally crushing the rebellion.  There are reports of indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas and barbaric acts of desecration.  With his troops poised on the outskirts of Benghazi, Gaddafhi vowed that there would be "No mercy, no pity."

Just as he was about to drop the hammer, the United Nations, led by France, and with the supposed blessings of the Arab League, passed a resolution calling for a "No Fly Zone" over all of Libya.  Within a day of the resolution, French, British, American, and other NATO air forces struck, destroying much of Gaddafhi's anti-aircraft defenses and effectively grounding Gaddafhi's air force.  (At least, that's what the reports from NATO military commanders suggest.  Who can know the truth of it?)

Now, it looks like both sides are digging in for an extended conflict.

Is there a moral position?

As a conscientious humanist, I'm struggling to find a moral position for this situation.  It's not easy.

On the one hand, Gaddafhi has demonstrated many times in his 40+ year dictatorship, that he is not at all averse to getting innocent blood on his hands.  And, to the extent that NATO or anyone else can prevent him from doing that, I'm all for it.

On the other hand, only a country bumpkin fresh off the turnip truck might imagine that NATO and the Arab League aren't motivated by their own selfish interests.  France, especially, has a long history of heavy-handed interventionism in Africa and the Mediterranean, which French governments have long viewed as part of their hegemony.

President Obama, for his part, seems reluctant to involve the United States.  The last thing he wants is to destroy the inroads he has made into the Muslim world.  And yet, as a NATO ally, there is an obligation. 

But, aren't we already involved in enough wars?  And will military intervention really solve anything?  If the ineptitude and corruption of the Bush administration taught us anything, it is that while US military power can dominate nearly any battlefield, it can do little or nothing to create stable, peaceful environments, let alone establish democracies.

Libya is a quagmire, pure and simple.  I don't have a clue how to find a moral solution.  If there is anybody out there who does, I'm listening...

El primer día de la primavera, 2011

Hoy día es el primer día de la primavera en este año del Señor, 2011. Ayer, una otra guerra comenzó. A veces la desesperación amenaza abrumarnos, los quienes que tendrían la paz.  Hay muchos vientos viniendo con la primavera. Vientos de la guerra, vientos de la derrota, de la ignorancia.

No tengo palabras elegantes; no tengo consuelos.  Pero, tomé algunos fotos bonitos de flores en Parque Laurelhirst.  Los vientos estaban cantando en los brazos de los arboles.

"¡Primavera, la primavera! La primavera viene. La primavera siempre viene.  Alégrate!" ellos cantaron. Esos vientos cantaron con furia.