Babble

    -I have not written here in a couple months and really do not have much new to say, but feel an obligation to say something to the three or four or fourteen people who actually read this blog. Like most Americans, Beth and I have been absorbing the news..."shooting up the evening news" ... as Jackson Browne once said, but it is not a healthy habit and generally serves to frustrate us. At such moments it is best to remember the essential advice of Buddhism  to not "grasp for opinion", for there is no changing human nature. Some people believe the earth is flat regardless of the facts, and the polarized nature of the country today simply exposes the wide diversity of perspective that human beings are capable of.  If the outright lies and delusions and moral depravity of  power hungry people force America into a violent civil confrontation, then this is just one more repeat of the historical record when people were forced into wars against slavery, or Nazism, or-more recently-against Mr. Putin. It is apparent that many people do not share my moral sense of justice and fair play, nor my respect for the science and facts and holistic thinking that I use to define truth, and I see clearly how and why societies and nations fall into wars.                           -In hindsight the overall death rate of Covid 19 was about 1.1% in the United States, ( John Hopkins University data) and more or less than that worldwide. Most of the dead were the elderly and those with comorbidity s -meaning everything from asthma to being obese. Did that mortality rate justify closing down the economy, or should the correct response have been to isolate the most vulnerable and allow things to progress normally? If the latter, many of today's supply chain problems might have been avoided and the present worldwide inflation may have been lessened. Of course, in April 2020 hospitals were being overwhelmed and much of the information about the disease was unknown, so the response was an attempt to minimize deaths while at least keeping the necessities of the economy functioning.  Those who were confined to their homes emerged with new perspectives on what was meaningful in life, while schoolchildren seem to have been negatively affected in their academics; covid affected everyone differently.                                                                                                                                                              -The war in Ukraine seems to encapsulate and expose all of the rhetoric that Americans claim to value regarding freedom and right and wrong:  A nation (Russia)with an egotistical leader(Putin) used specious excuses of nationalism and threats to its existence to invade its neighbor and reabsorb them by force into their 'empire'.  There was an alternative choice to coexist to the benefit of both nations, but Mr. Putin-being one of those aforementioned power hungry morally depraved leaders- chose instead to invade. After 8 months of war some American politicians are questioning their commitment by threatening to withhold economic support-despite the clear moral justification of the Ukrainians in defending their freedom against a despot. As of this writing the United States has spent about $60 billion? in Ukraine.                            By contrast we spent over $2 trillion in Afghanistan with almost 2,550 American soldiers lost and many wounded, and over $2 trillion in Iraq with at least 4,500 soldiers killed. In both of the latter conflicts the reasons for the fighting and the outcomes became questionable, if not totally wasted blood and money.  The core reasons for the Ukraine war appear to be similar to the reasons we fought for independence in the 1700's-freedom from what we considered a tyrannical power. No doubt threats of nuclear escalation may advise caution in Ukraine, but when forced into this war the Ukrainians have shown the courage and moral clarity that Americans should respect.                             That's my babble for today...top of my head thoughts that may or may not reflect the full truth of the world, but which I trust sound reasonable.       POSTSCRIPT: The American people-for the most part-rejected the election deniers in the mid term elections. That is encouraging to me. Here in Pennsylvania we elected a reasonable, intelligent governor over a January 6th participant and for senator we elected a  reasonable local man over a television star millionaire who does not even live here.