Commentary on Issues

Russian Airliner Crash: Everyone has been cautioned not to draw premature conclusions surrounding the Russian airliner crash in the Sinai Desert. Yet already, without scientific analysis concluded, an executive of the airline has stated that the plane’s crash was caused by external factors. This was not weather related, pilot error, or aircraft operating condition. No, he claims an external factor was to blame. Of course he has not named that factor. The only logical conclusion is that the factor was devilish use of a bomb or missile. An unfriendly act by people unnamed. Of course. Cast blame where unsettled political ramifications can prosper. Thus also cast blame away from you and your organization.

For all intents and purposes the flight was routine and normal. The plane was in excellent condition and expertly crewed. Yet the plane broke up and crashed 23 minutes into its flight. In a hostile environment of arid sands stretching for hundreds of miles in every direction. What could have possibly gone wrong?

Well, of course. An evil hand took the flight. I wonder who that could be? Perhaps we should give experts time to analyze the data and then arrive at a helpful conclusion.

Tarantino Controversy: This issue perplexes me somewhat. Tarantino is an outspoken and creative artist lauded broadly. But he is a native New Yorker who feels compelled to speak out on police power and possible brutality. He feels recent deaths involved in police action are actually murders. Well, now; that is most likely an overstatement of the facts, but still, people died involved in police action. Was the action warranted? Was the action invited by the ‘public’? Were trouble makers at fault for their own demise? Or were police too willing to escalate violence with horrible results?

In my mind trouble makers need to own their actions. If they are provocateurs, then they must know that an unpleasant result could await them. On the other hand we law abiding citizens expect police to manage themselves to protect the innocent and control the law breakers. The balance is hard to maintain. It can change in an instant and allow unwanted results to occur. It is as simple as that.

I think Tarantino’s statement is a warning to authorities to be sure their house is in order and to be certain that citizens remain free to voice their complaints loudly and clearly.

I appreciate what police and fire staff put up with in their routine duties. The perils they face daily are not on view by the public. Yet the public holds these same people to an impossibly high standard of performance. Their lack of appreciation hurts, too.

The police and the policed owe a duty to each other. We are to keep one another safe and healthy. If strife is at hand we owe it to each other to work tirelessly to avoid the strife and find peace. If we can’t we cannot expect the same from others either here at home or abroad.  There is too much to lose to not trust one another in these matters.  Tarantino is asking us to consider all of that!

Large Hadron Collider: Argonne in Illinois, Fermilab in Illinois, both atom smashers and particle physics research tools extraordinaire. Both funded by federal dollars and managed by sterling universities dedicated to research and discovery of new frontiers.

Then the super-collider was brainstormed and planned; however,politicians directed it to be built in Texas, home of the then US President, George H.W. Bush. Although $1 billion was budgeted, $4 billion was spent before giving up the project due to fire ants and sandy soil that would make building the collider in Texas impossible. Illinois sites were considered and favored. After all the two preceding colliders of old technology operated successfully there. And land was available. Soil conditions were perfect. Large and successful universities were available and willing to continue their administrative oversight of a truly international research tool.

But no. Politics spoiled everything. And America was blamed for delaying the start of this deeply needed research tool. International leaders took the reins and decided on a European site. The Large Hadron Super Collider is the result. And Argonne and Fermilab colliders are shut down, probably for good.

Research goes on in those locations. Just not super collider experiments.  Too bad; politics made another decision that was bad for the nation. One wonders if congress can be trusted to do even its most basic of duties?

Israel, Rabin, No Peace: Yitzhak Rabin has been dead now 20 years. A man of vision and peace who took risks to move progress forward an inch or a foot. He knew the trek was difficult and slow. But he waged the effort nonetheless. His reward was to be assassinated by a gunshot to the back by an Israeli extremist unhappy with Rabin’s work in peace building with the PLO and Yasser Arafat.

Rabin labored to put in place tools for peace. Negotiations would last for years, maybe even generations, but his lasting hope was to capture peace eventually so the Palestinians and Israelis could live in peace with one another.

Netanyahu has been elected now two times, maybe three, and continues to spread his brand of fear and suspicion of all things non-Israeli. That garners him votes. But it loses everyone their peace. The promise of Rabin, and the hope, has been dashed by Netanyahu over and over again.

Thus no peace is gained. Only death, suspicion and military strikes. When, O Israel, will you turn your face and cheek toward sunshine and peace? When?

November 3, 2015