Morals, Money and a "Meaningful Philosophy of Life"

Morals, Money and a "Meaningful Philosophy of Life"


What am I doing here, balanced on my soapbox once a week, while the mob rushes by? Refugees swarm on one side, holiday shoppers on the other. Do my words encourage moral behavior, or do I merely bloviate moralistically? I wonder.



This past week I collected some of my previous columns on a blog named http://americanmuslimadems.blogspot.com. While doing so, I noticed many of my articles had to do with the human rights crisis, with official secrecy and the fog of war. The nightmare we all wish to wake from. Tedious, perhaps, but still relevant, no?



At the risk of redundancy, I will bang the drum of human rights once again this week. You will hear me out in the night like a pre-dawn drummer in Ramadan; wake up! Wake up! Wake up!



“To protect human rights, do we need a broader vision than human rights alone?” asks Rabbi Arthur Wascow, of the Shalom Center; “Can rights be protected when power is being exercised from the top down without public accountability or challenge, when the society – Israeli or American – is defined by the culture and institutions of permanent war?”



Good questions. Now that the permanent war planners are tweaking the War on Terror into the “Long War against Insurgency,” we see the shadowy powers clearly resist reform and resolve to send more troops to Iraq—at least 20 thousand more. To paraphrase a colonial era poem, the Charge of the Light Brigade, “Into the valley of Death rode the 20,000!”



However, according to the New York Times, severe equipment shortages explain why Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander in the Middle East, recently told lawmakers that the U.S. couldn't maintain even a relatively small increase of 20,000 soldiers in Iraq for more than a few months.



As if to address this, the White House has approved a $468.9 billion budget for the Pentagon in fiscal year 2008, a six-percent increase over last year's request. Using strange accounting however, they will pass on the expenses to the incoming Democrats. No one wants taxes, and therefore social services and education will suffer, affecting you and your children’s future.



But Iraqi civilians may suffer far more than that. And yet President Bush, and President wannabe Senator John McCain, can’t let go of the notion of American victory. They both urge troop increases.



There are signs of dissent, however. Last week, another presidential hopeful, Sen. John Kerry, went with a small congressional delegation to talks with President Bashar Assad in Damascus. Kerry said that the administration's rejection of dialogue with Syria and Iran was a mistake.



And, after appearing only seven weeks ago on the Internet, a petition to “cut and walk” has been signed by nearly 1,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, including dozens of officers - most on active duty. Not since 1969 has there been such a dramatic sign of military dissent. As one serviceman writes, “So far in three years we have succeeded in toppling a dictator and replacing him with puppets… with an unreliable and poorly trained crew of paycheck collectors. The well is so poisoned by what we have done here that nothing can fix it.” For many more testimonies, please see: www.appealforredress.org.



In a dramatic speech on the Senate floor last Thursday night, Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, said the U.S. military's "tactics have failed." Known as a moderate Republican who has been a supporter of the war in Iraq, Smith said he is at, "the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up the same bombs, day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal."



As her last act as Congresswoman, Rep. McKinney has called for the impeachment of President Bush. Criminal charges appear unlikely. However, according to a November Newsweek poll, 51 percent of Americans expressed support for impeachment of the president. In that poll, 47 percent of Democrats said that impeachment should be a "top priority" of their party if it took control of the House, as did 5 percent of Republicans. We should not hold our breath for immediate action; but let us listen to the truth as it emerges from the dark and the fog of Republican control.



New testimonies of injustice emerge. This last summer, Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor, was detained and treated just like the Iraqis and Muslims detained after 9/11. "What?" you say; "a Caucasian Christian male"? Well, he had made the “mistake” of becoming a whistleblower, identifying a corrupt contractor. The New York Times reports this latest glimmer to emerge from the darkness of war: “The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.”



Shame! Morally, economically, and in so many ways our nation is in decline. From 2000 to 2005 manufacturing jobs declined nearly 18 percent. Virtually every job category decreased except pharmaceuticals. Employment in textile mills fell 42 percent. At the same time, feeding on the rest of the world, American materialism grows more and more greedy—or desperate. In 1970, 79 percent of college freshmen said their goal was developing a "meaningful philosophy of life." But by 2005, 75 percent said their primary objective was to be financially well off. Quite a change! And what sort of models are our nation’s leaders, with their ever-closer ties to Big Oil and other interests? Leaders manipulating religion for political ends!



Power clearly corrupts people regardless of culture. It is deeply troubling that new Islamist leaders in Somalia call for beheading anyone who does not pray five times a day. It is deeply troubling to hear of the cynical and misguided “Holocaust Conference” held in Iran. No wonder that King Abdullah of Jordan calls the whole Middle East region a “powder keg” ready to explode.



But here in the USA Congresswoman MacKinney warns: “We have a President who has misgoverned and a Congress that has refused to hold him accountable. It is a grave situation and I believe the stakes for our country are high." But she also encourages us: “To my fellow Americans, as I leave this Congress, it is in your hands to hold your representatives accountable, and to show those with the courage to stand for what is right, that they do not stand alone.” Reader! How about you? Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!