Consequences

Truth and consequences. Action and consequences. Beliefs and consequences.

Do, say, believe anything you want; consequences will follow like night after day.

Start a war? Suffer the death, disability, horror, destruction, and cost. Do not forget ending the war; that is a consequence as well. Most wars end poorly. Check history textbooks. Google the history to make it easier. Someone always loses in a war. In fact, most times both sides in the war lose. How disastrously is the only unknown. Even ‘winners’ pay the price. The price is weirdly like the loser. Especially in modern times. These are complicated eras intersecting other eras with poor prologues but definitive contexts. Just ask the participants. Everyone has an investment in the action and the outcome.

The primary trouble is most do not clearly define desired outcomes. This allows the objective to shift shape, value, and content continually. No outcome is definable in such an environment.

Civil rights are like war. At any given time, someone wants to be treated better than before, or at least equally. When that happens, discrimination is the consequence. Those in power/majority usually seek the benefit; the rest of us suffer the consequence. A better seat on a bus or train? How about a better school, highway, public transportation, or landscape? Spend public money on community improvements and one neighborhood looks better than another, maybe even elite versus slum? Think about it.     

Don’t know anything about gay and lesbian issues? Build a defense against hearing about such things. until someone in the family speaks up and admits to being gay. Then it is personal. Then the struggle to truly understand happens. The consequence of ignorance leads to shock, reality and enlightenment. Often late and tragic in the lives of many families, sexual orientation issues are finally getting their due. The consequence is yet to be known and fully appreciated, but the future beckons brighter.

Terrorism? Future of Afghanistan? Terrorism was not centered in Afghanistan. It is where Al Qaeda was located to train for the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Yes, that is a fact. But they dispersed to many regions of the globe, not just the Middle East. Al Qaeda has groups in many countries including Afghanistan, but that is not their central headquarters. Consequences of our ‘war’ in Afghanistan is this: pushed Osama bin Laden out of Afghanistan to Pakistan where we found him and killed him. We also dispersed terrorist cells to many lands. Terror is and always has been a global issue, not America as target, nor Middle East as birthplace. We have learned to take our campaign against terror anywhere it is active – in quiet cells or explosive sites. Afghanistan will be whatever it will be, like Libya, Syria, Lebanon, and others. Their histories are yet to be fully written.

COVID Eviction Aid Program? Congress allocated upwards of $46 billion to help tenants during the pandemic. The objective was to avoid mass evictions for nonpayment of rent. It was also the objective to keep funds moving into the hands of landlords, so they didn’t lose their properties due to tenants not paying their rent. These payments were not loans in need of repayment. But guess what? States did not figure out how to disperse the funds to tenants. So, most of the $46 billion remains in state treasuries unspent. The consequence? Mass evictions, homelessness, poverty, chaos in schools, stores and communities throughout the nation. Everyone has the resources to fix this; they just don’t have the will or smarts to make it happen. Shame on the states!

Consequences are nondiscriminatory. They happen intended or not. Beware.

August 30, 2021