Dear Blog Reader.
I hope this finds you doing well. It leaves my computer doing just fine. I am in the middle of a beer and Oreos weekend as the lovely Miss Beverly has traveled to Austin, Texas to further hone her superhuman teaching skills. What is a beer and Oreos weekend? A previous post in this blog provided a complete treatise of the topic a few years ago. Look through the archives; March 31, 2012 to be exact. It does give you pause to think that you have been entertaining yourselves by reading these missives for more that 5 years.
The lovely Miss Beverly’s absence marks a perfect storm. A political event has happened this past week that makes me want to explode and low and behold there is no moderating influence from Bev.
So be forewarned. I am getting ready to let it rip about a political topic. If this is not your cup of tea, or you are tired about the constant political polarization, you may want to tune out.
While the rest of the world was worried about Trump’s vulgar characterization of many 3rd world countries, our fellow Americans in the 50th state were running for their lives after a hapless employee of the state of Hawaii was pushing the “Kiss your a#@ goodbye” button multiple times.
When did we become a failed superpower? Whether or not N. Korea has the missile and nuclear technology to reach Hawaii or even California, we believe that they can. The state government of Hawaii believed that they could. By definition, if you have an early warning system, you believe that it is a probability. You could argue that they were monitoring the Russians or the Chinese. However, everyone I know thought that those missiles had the N. Korean flag stenciled on their side.
Sure, there is outrage over the mistake that was made. The lovely Miss Beverly and I were retreating to an inn on the shores of Lake Indiana (very romantic). We were watching a Sunday morning news show. The talking head told us that the idiot felt “terrible” because of his actions. The written word cannot do justice to the inflection given to the word terrible. It was the same inflection that I used early in our marriage when I felt “terrible” about forgetting the lovely Miss Beverly’s birthday. But really is feeling “terrible” adequate, when you have sent 1.5 million people heading for the exits. Once again government providing evidence that they have no aptitude for competence.
A brief aside here. I know that I have been temped from time to time to think that Israel overreacts just a bit. Her enemies would never want to use a nuclear device against her. Right? We know now that we believe our enemies would use one against us. The Israelis wouldn’t have to wait 30 minutes for the warning to be withdrawn. In 30 minutes, their shooting war would be over. New policy; if Israel doesn’t want to allow her enemies to have nuclear weapons, more power to them.
If we would have had the same policy, North Korea would not have menaced our population on a January Saturday morning. It is clear that we let them have nuclear missiles. You could argue that with your logic Roger we could have kept Russia, or the Chinese from the nuclear club. You would be wrong but there is nothing lost in the argument. We were not powerful enough to stop their development at the time. It takes inordinate power to stop that kind of development. We were not in position to stop near equals from developing powerful weapons. But North Korea was not our near equal. They still aren’t but they can bloody our nose with a terribly powerful weapon.
But our leaders, opened the door. Through a lack of wisdom and will, we said go ahead and develop nuclear capabilities for peaceful purposes. I know who these leaders were. I would name them but I choose to teach you to fish instead of giving you a fish. Look it up. Besides, it wouldn’t matter if I told you who it was. If you believe something different, you would blame it on the other side. Whatever. It really doesn’t matter. But you and I both know that the situation has crystallized for our Hawaiian friends. And it should crystallize for all of us.
While my fellow Americans were putting their children into sewers, I was on a walk through the woods receiving an epiphany. There was a young boy who had trouble focusing walking with the group. He was all over the place. Just a little disruptive but not too bad. Certainly, no restraint was being exerted on the child. Who knows why? He’s inquisitive. It is a big area. Show a little forbearance, he’s not really hurting any thing. After a while, he picked up a stick. Sure enough a few minutes later, someone was crying with a bloody lip. The boy felt “terrible”. It was an accident. “I just picked up the stick and held it over my head and it fell into his face.”
You know what? Some people should never be allowed to have a stick. And society needs to be wise enough and strong enough to say put the damned thing down.
Take care.
Roger
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