Free to Vote

I loved the traditional “going to the polls” routine. After moving to our small town in Washington state several years ago and registering as voters, my husband and I would cross the street to our precinct’s voting place on election day. We would mingle with friends, mark our paper ballots in a voting booth, then drop them in the official box.

You can understand my feelings the year my state announced the change to an all mail voting process. I certainly didn’t greet the change with joy. I would miss the local voting day camaraderie, the pride when I stuck the “I Voted. Have You?” sticker on my coat.

Now? I have come to bless that day when we went to all mail voting. Our presidential primary last spring, just as the virus began taking a toll, went off without a hitch.

For our current local primary and the coming November election, we have no fears of catching the virus in a long polling place line. We will not have to worry about enough poll workers or places to vote.

In an election, the mailed ballots in my county are received at the county offices and stored in a locked room, under camera surveillance, to be tabulated after “the polls” close on election day.

Before mailing my ballot, I wrote my required signature on the outside envelope. It will be compared with the signature on the registered voter list.

Should any question arise as to the validity of the final vote count, the paper ballots are available for reexamination.

I pray for a free and fair election this November. I pray for the ability to vote by mail for all who wish it. And I pray that our constitutionally mandated postal service will not be harmed by partisan politics.

Making the Most of This Time

Families, schools, worship services, work places—-these and other communal gatherings have been upended by Covid-19.

In some cases, the results are disastrous—death and sickness, overloaded hospitals, domestic violence, closed businesses, and silent music halls.

Yet despite all the trauma, a few serendipitous sprouts have poked their heads above the misery.

A few families are dealing with closed schools and remote learning for their offspring by banding together to share teaching and child care in small joinings, more easily controlled for the virus.

The number of multi generational households has grown. Not all households profit by coming together—some families have deeply-rooted problems. Nevertheless, more than a few have found unexpected joys as they embrace what was the norm until the past century or so.

New ways of worship emerge from lock downs. No longer tied to services at a particular place and a particular time, some have found they enjoy tuning in to a prerecorded service at a time of their choosing and in whatever casual dress they prefer. Zoom meetings, while not ideal, do allow small groups to share as well, again from the comfort of their homes.

Surveys find a significant number of those able to keep their jobs by working remotely would prefer not to return full time to an office when the pandemic passes. Most say they’d like to spend at least part of the week working at home. Less days at the office might mean less child care problems, not to mention less commuting costs and possibly less pollution.

As so often happens, a crisis is can be an opportunity for creative change. Maybe we’ll discover ways to heal a society whose members have become all too remote from each other.

My Lost Algeria

My assignment from the U.S. State Department to the North African nation of Algeria in 1993 was supposed to last two years. I was evacuated out within a few months of my arrival because of terrorism concerns for embassy personnel. I’ve always felt a sense of loss for not completing that assignment, something like one feels for a lost friend.

A few weeks before I left, I had accompanied the ambassador on a “show the flag” trip around the northern section of the country. I got to know our Algerian driver, a Berber from the mountainous Kabyle region. We visited several sights, including an ancient Islamic mosque. The stone walls around its well were scarred from more than a millenary of providing water for the faithful to wash before the call to prayer.

Just after my arrival to the capital, Algiers, I had visited a Christian church. It was open to the public, but the lay worker reading papers at a desk as we entered seemed nervous. I’ve often wondered what happened to him and his church when the country shut down because of the terrorism.

I thought about these people again when I read an article by Stephanie Saldana, “The Martyr in Street Clothes” in Plough (Spring 2020).

I left Algeria in December, 1993. A group of monks who had chosen to stay and serve in that country were kidnaped and killed in 1996 by extremists. Their story is told in the film Of Gods and Men.

Another incident occurred in August 1996, when a bishop, Pierre Claverie, and his Muslim driver, Mohamed Bouchikhi, were killed in a bomb blast. Mohamed, a Muslim, had grown up next to the bishop’s church and become a volunteer there. Pierre at one time, concerned for the death threats he was receiving, asked Mohamed to consider no longer helping so that he would not be in danger. Mohammed became upset that the bishop would consider such a thing. Thus, they were killed together.

I studied the picture of the painting along with the article in Plough. All these martyrs are depicted, including Mohamed, in his street clothes, beside a small depiction of a mosque.

I have loved other assignments—in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia and Canada—but I will always grieve for the one in Algeria.

That US/Ukraine Deal

The Ukraine fiasco, leading to President Donald Trump’s impeachment, convinced many corrupt foreign leaders that the United States is just as corrupt as they are.

“It looks like the whole of U.S. politics is for sale . . . It turned out everything depended on money, and all these [Western] values were pure hypocrisy.”

The quote is from “The Rise of Strategic Corruption; How States Weaponize Graft.” (Zelikow, Philip; Edelman, Eric; Harrison, Kristofer; Gventer, Celeste Ward; Foreign Affairs; July/August 2020)

In 2018, two naturalized Americans with ties to Ukraine, plus former New York mayor Rudy Giulani and two Ukrainian officials, began a campaign to smear Marie Yavanovitch, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. The ambassador was attempting to warn the U.S. about corruption in Ukraine.

President Trump’s administration apparently did not care about the corruption uncovered by the ambassador. Indeed, the president tried to use taxpayer money slated to help Ukraine fight off Russian aggression as a bribe to help his 2020 reelection bid.

Perhaps, he hinted to the Ukrainian president, perhaps the Ukrainian leader could find something to damage Joe Biden, possible rival in the election. He hinted that the money for Ukraine would be given only if this were done.

Thanks to a whistle blower and several courageous public servants, the facts became public. Unfortunately, the careers of Yavanovitch and several others who testified were damaged. The damage to the reputation of the United States is far greater.

Palestinian Christians and Ethnic Cleansing

A new plan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deals with annexing parts of the West Bank to be part of Israel. To the surprise of many Americans, a large number of Palestinians in this area are Christians. They are forgotten in the assumption that all Palestinians are Muslim.

Two Christian ministers in Palestine write: “The plan mentions Jews and Christians on one side and Muslims on the other, as if to communicate that this is a religious conflict between the Judeo-Christian tradition and Islam. While this may serve the partisan domestic purposes of Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu, this is not our lived reality as Palestinian Christians.” (Munther Isaac and Jamal Khader, “A Different Kind of Ethnic Cleansing,” Sojourners, July 2020)

Isaac is pastor of a Christian church in Bethlehem. Khader is a Roman Catholic priest in Ramallah.

Netanyahu’s plan, according to Isaac and Khader, recognizes the “civil rights” of Palestinians in the area, but not necessary their political rights, “opening the door to strip them of citizenship through Netanyahu’s alleged request for forced ‘population swaps.’”

Jewish people have been victims of horrible human rights atrocities. Surely, they among all people, should know the dangers of drifting into “ethnic cleansing.”

Choose A Stable Genius

John Bolton’s book The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir has been available for pre order for some time. Reviews are prominent.

I don’t plan to read it. Bolton has been accused of holding back for a money-making book what he should have shared during the impeachment hearings for President Trump.

Instead, I recommend A Very Stable Genius, Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig. Both are Pulitzer Prize winning journalists from The Washington Post and have extensive experience in covering American politics.

The book is detailed and frank, full of expletives and failed characters and a few courageous ones. Reading it during the Covid-19 lock down was not the most joyous activity I could have chosen. The insight I gained was worth the journey.

According to the book, Trump’s decision to plunge into a government shutdown just before Christmas in 2018 exemplifies the president’s style: Said one of his advisers: “It was done based on impulse and emotion and dogmatism and a visceral reaction rather than a strategic calculation. That’s indicative of a lot of the presidency and who he is.”

Another telling comment: “He was a president entirely unrestrained, free from the shackles of seasoned advisers who sought to teach him to put duty to country above self and to follow protocols. He concluded he was above the law . . .. He had grown so confident of his own power and cocksure that Republicans in Congress would have never dare break with him, that he thought he could do almost anything.”

That remark encapsulates the whole tragedy: American voters and politicians allowed Trump to believe he could copy the style of a dictator and do anything he wanted without restraint.

Where Have All the Visiting Students Gone?

“For at least 50 years, the U.S. has been the leader in international education, welcoming first a trickle, then a stream, then a broad river of undergraduate and graduate students from all over the world. That river has dried up now.”

—Phyllis Pomerantz; “Another COVID-19 victim: International education.” The Hill, 22June 20

In all my stints as a U.S. consular officer in foreign countries, one mainstay of my work were the student visas. Loads of young people wanted to study in American colleges and universities. This country’s schools were among the world’s best and offered the most varied curriculum for any subject you wanted to study.

Some of the world’s leaders today are graduates of U.S. higher education.

In addition, foreign students, usually paying full tuition, played a major part in financing the education of American young people, who often paid less.

However, the Covid-19 virus has halted much travel, including student travel, to the U.S. As virus cases grow in the U.S., they are going down in other countries.

And, of course, Canada, Britain, Europe, Australia and others also offer first class advanced education. So why not seek an education in these countries, which now seem much safer, as well more welcoming to foreigners?

Why Are the Inspectors Being Fired?

Steve Linick, an inspector general for the U.S. State Department, was recently fired by President Donald Trump, apparently as requested by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

It seems Linick was investigating allegations against Pompeo. One related to Pompeo’s use of staff for personal errands.

However, the more serious investigation apparently related to Trump’s overriding the vote of Congress to deny selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. In the past, Saudi Arabia has used such weapons to bomb civilians in its war against Yemen.

Pompeo apparently persuaded Trump to use emergency powers to sell the weapons anyway. Linick was investigating whether this was, in fact, justified.

The larger question is why the inspector was fired when he was attempting to do his job. Pompeo has said he lost confidence in Linick.

Since Pompeo provided no evidence of why he lost confidence, it’s tempting to assume that the firing was political to protect Pompeo’s job.

Inspectors are set up in government departments to keep the departments accountable. They promote integrity and efficiency.

In fact, Linick is only one of several inspectors fired in recent months by the Trump administration.

Why this war on those who would keep the government accountable and honest?

Murder and Pilgrimage in Montreal

Probably the most enjoyable of several locales to which I was assigned in the U.S. Foreign Service was Montreal, Canada.

Montreal is a vibrant city in the French speaking province of Quebec. The St. Lawrence River flows past it on its way from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

My husband and I biked several times along the river. We also hiked up Mount Royal, overlooking the city.

We ate in Montreal’s many restaurants, sampling the cuisine of numerous countries from which its migrant populations have come.

We rented a condo in one of the renovated buildings in the older section of the city, a locale reminiscent of French towns known by many of the early settlers.

The old town features prominently in my newest novel, A Second Grieving. Indeed, Mark Pacer, the main character of Grieving, is drawn into the aftermath of a murder in the lobby of an old Montreal building.

A fiction, of course. No murder occurred anywhere near us while we lived in the old city, but it made a stunning locale for the book.

Featured in Grieving is the new swell of displaced people disturbing settled democracies. Though the story takes place in the late 1980’s, the movements which would roil the world in later decades are a part of this story.

Countless immigrants have found new beginnings in both Canada and the United States. But what of native cultures overwhelmed from the beginning by these new cultures?

No easy answers exist. The story frames questions in a fictional format.

Along the way, Mark continues his spiritual pilgrimage, some of it while sitting in a chapel of the Notre-Dame Basilica in old Montreal.

Listening to Elders

Retired U.S. military officers as well as diplomats have recently voiced alarm over Donald Trump’s presidency.

General James Mattis, Trump’s former secretary of defense, finally broke a long silence and wrote in an article for The Atlantic:

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mattis wrote. “Instead he tries to divide us.”

Further, he wrote: “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort,”

Mattis is one of several retired officers who have spoken of their alarm at what they see as Trump’s damage to American democracy.

Retired diplomats also have spoken out against politicizing the U.S. Foreign Service. Writes a former assistant secretary of state with over three decades of diplomatic experience:

“By using his public office for personal gain, Trump has affirmed Putin’s long-held conviction—shared by autocrats the world over—that Americans are just as venal and self-absorbed as they are, just more hypocritical about it. For dictators, Trump is the gift that keeps on giving, a non-stop advertisement for Western self-dealing.” (William J. Burns, “Demolition of U.S. Diplomacy,” Foreign Affairs, 14 October 2019.)

What are we to make of this unprecedented outpouring?

Pointing to a way out, Mattis. writing after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, said, “We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”

Dense Living and the Pandemic

City streets are deserted. Every day is like a macabre holiday, with everyone staying home or fleeing to less densely inhabited areas except—

When citizens wanted to express outrage at the death of George Floyd, what did they do?

They flocked to city streets to express that outrage. They needed each other and a public space.

We may argue about the judgement of those who gather in dense crowds during a time of pandemic. Nevertheless, even this pandemic could not stop the gathering. The people demanded a public expression, so they flocked to the public spaces of cities of all sizes.

Writes Jennifer Keesmaat, a former city planner, “Cities will remain vibrant and dynamic centers of economic and cultural activity. The density that supposedly made them vulnerable to the pandemic does not have to be their undoing. “

Instead, she says, planners must work to make cities dense in the right ways. These include: “avoiding overcrowding, minimizing car use, and building inclusive communities with affordable housing.” (“The Pandemic Does Not Spell the End for Cities,” Foreign Affairs, May 28 2020.)

She points to the lower coronarius infection rates of dense cities like Seoul and Singapore. “Rates of infection have more to do with factors such as public health preparedness than with the sheer number of people per square kilometer.”

Zoom has been a blessing as a cyber meeting place during this time. But physical gathering is as instinctive as—well, as breathing.

Protester to Voter

From these days of pandemic and protest, the story touching me the most was that of a man, a black American, and his walks around his neighborhood. He always brings his dog with him, as well as one of his daughters. This way, he hopes, people will see him as a pet owner and as a father first rather than as a black man.

To me, it was amazing what a black man must do simply to walk safely out of his home.

As a white person, I thank the protesters for underlining how much I need to repent of my blindness toward the suffering of black men, women, and children since the first slaves were brought to this country.

Unfortunately, protests alone won’t solve the problem of racism. Also unfortunately, anarchists sometimes take advantage of peaceful protests to hurt us all.

Maybe it’s time to turn protests into voter registration drives. Protesters turned workers could register every American of color they could find.

They could also turn their attention to the voting process itself—checking where polling places will be as well as hours and what it takes to bring every one of their friends and acquaintances to vote.

They could work for voting by mail for those who wish to do so, especially if the coronavirus remains active.

Yes, we need awareness, but change will come sooner if compassionate, honest candidates are elected come this November.

The time is short.

Church and Pandemic and Evolution

“The virus is accelerating a trend away from organized religion.” (“Dechurching; The Sunday Slump,” The Economist, May 23, 2020)

This article chronicles the financial problems of some churches due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Like theaters and other public places, church gatherings have halted because of the risk of spreading the virus. Weekly collections, the main source of funds for many churches, have plummeted for some, creating financial crises for them. A significant number of churches, the article predicted, might close for good.

Church attendance in the United States already was declining. The article predicted that the pandemic’s effects may accelerate this trend.

Interestingly, on the same page in this issue of The Economist is a short article about the scientist Francis Collins, the man who worked on the sequencing of the human genome (“Jesus is not his vaccine.”)

Dr. Collins was born into a secular family but became a Christian at the age of 27 after reading C.S. Lewis and discovering in other writers “a rich vein of philosophical and theological thinking.”

Dr. Collins suggests science answers the “how?” questions while Christianity answers the “why?” questions.

Back in the 1800’s, the church suffered a crisis due to the new theory of evolution and other scientific discoveries. It seemed that the church, many of whose members clung to a literal seven day theory of creation, would eventually die out.

The church did not die but eventually found new life when such theories as evolution actually indicated a magnificent creator, far more complex and awesome than previously imagined.

Indeed, the church has suffered growth, decline, then rebirth over the centuries ever since the Christian missionary preacher Paul began spreading the radical belief that the religion of Jesus was something entirely new, for Gentiles, too, not just another school of Judaic thought.

Who knows what a revived and reborn Christianity might arise out of Zoom meetings and long-distance learning, no longer subject to enclosure by physical buildings?

A New Age for Immigrants

It seems those immigrants we tried to keep out are needed after all.

A moratorium of sorts has been decided against “sending back” some unregistered immigrants. We need them to pick the crops being planted and later to be harvested.

Immigrant labor also has been a mainstay in health care and elder care. We just didn’t realize it, assuming those refugees were only after our welfare benefits.

Now in this pandemic, we realize we need their contributions to our society.

We are reminded of the “Black Death” of the Middle ages, the bubonic plagues that devastated much of Europe at different times. So many people died, that wage earners were scarce. For a time, wages were pushed up.

As time passed and population grew again, things returned to normal. The rich got richer and the others settled into subsistence living.

Perhaps, with better understanding this time, we can develop an ongoing appreciation for the immigrants who enrich our lives and country and culture. Perhaps we can better care for all our workers in those lower echelon jobs, so necessary for our life.

Abortion Babies and War Babies

The issue of abortion is often cited as a reason for Trump’s support by some evangelicals. To be sure, many evangelicals are turned off by Trump’s self-centered governing. They justify their support by a hope that his policies will lead to stricter laws against abortion.

Yet the Trump administration is a strong supporter of the country of Saudi Arabia. That country has used American weapons to bomb hospitals and schools in a war in Yemen, killing innocent men, women, and children.

Wrote Marcia Robiou (Frontline, July 16, 2019): “Trump’s first official foreign visit was to the royal kingdom – an early sign that he would place a high value on his relationship with the House of Saud. As a candidate, he made Saudi weapons deals a campaign issue, promising they would generate American jobs and boost the U.S. economy.

‘Saudi Arabia is a big buyer of America product,’ Trump said when NBC’s Chuck Todd asked him about the decision to override Congress and push through the weapons deal.”

Thus, for the sake of money made by American arms dealers, the sale of weapons to a country who uses them to kill innocent civilians, including babies, is justified.

Are babies killed by American weapons less valuable than babies killed by abortion?

Information—New Game Changer

“. . . rival states compete in the twenty-first century as much over information as in any other terrain.”  (Laura Rosenberger, director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy. “Making Cyberspace Safe for Democracy,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2020.)

Democracies see the free flow of information as a right of the people. Authoritarian regimes view information as a weapon to control.

Rosenberger believes the United States and other democracies lack a proper understanding of this difference. Thus the U.S. was vulnerable to Russia’s attempt to influence U.S. elections in 2016.

In another example, a manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted support of Hong Kong democracy protests. The National Basketball Association had to apologize to the Chinese government. Otherwise, they would have been refused access to the Chinese market.

While U.S. newspapers are folding at unprecedented rates, Russia and China invest in media outlets in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

The United States must wrestle with tradeoffs: “maintaining the country’s technological competitiveness, and keeping data flows relatively open while preventing that information from falling into authoritarian hands.”

Above all, the American people must guard against the “weaponization” of politics by nondemocratic hard left and hard right forces in our own country.

Rosenberger ends her article by ominously warning: “Democratic leaders who weaponize information and disregard the principles of democratic governance will make their societies less resilient, fail to demonstrate an alternative to the authoritarian model, and accelerate the very degradation of the information space that authoritarians seek. In the information contest, the United States cannot advance a democratic vison if its leaders do not embody it.”

Home Work Plus and Minus

For most of recorded history, economic activity centered in the home or in nearby shops. The industrial revolution changed that. Men left wives and children to work in factories.

Then came the office age, increasingly in city centers. Homes moved to the suburbs, taking women and children away from economic activity, as well as further from male breadwinners.

Schools began preparing children for a more complex world. Over time they added to basic education many tasks once the exclusive duty of parents: social skills, citizenship, and so on.

Now, with the Covid-19 pandemic, those parents fortunate enough to have higher skilled jobs are working increasingly from home. They may add the oversight of their children’s education, lessons now taught over the internet.

Stories abound of frustration as the new order continues (or perhaps a return to the old?)

Parents find it difficult to work and raise children all day and evening. Single parents are increasingly challenged. Grandparents, once part of chores and child raising, now may live in distant places, unable to visit or help out because of their vulnerability to the virus.

A few people, particularly introverts and/or those who want more time with their families, find some aspects of their new work life pleasant.

Nevertheless, no sane individual wishes the situation to continue, forced by a deadly sickness. But perhaps from all the horror, we may learn to better balance our lives and our society.

The times call for the more fortunate to examine attitudes toward career. Too many have seen work’s main purpose as an accumulation of wealth.

Thus, we lost our recent years of plenty as a chance to build up our society and prepare if for the years of famine. We could have increased healthcare and modest housing and a surplus for unemployment programs. We ended up with a society divided between haves and have nots, the have nots strained to the breaking point. Now many are falling into an abyss of desperation.

Well, if nothing else, we can use the lessons learned to change.

We Wait

We wait for return to a job and a paycheck.
We wait for a normal workday at our healthcare jobs.
We wait for the library to open.
We wait for food.
We wait for worship with our friends singing and praying beside us.
We wait for help with our mortgage payment.
We wait for a haircut.
We wait to have our teeth fixed.
We wait for the surgery that keeps being delayed.
We wait for schools to start.

Who knew we have been taking so much for granted?

Lord, please help us learn from this waiting, so that we will take better care of the things that really matter.

That Road to Emmaus

Two disciples of Jesus had business in Emmaus, a town out a little ways from Jerusalem. They were in deep despair,—no deepest despair.

Their teacher Jesus now was dead, crucified by the Romans. Wonderful, shining hope that Jesus was the Messiah, sent to set up the kingdom of God, were dashed. And for three days, continuing despair.

True, some women claimed the tomb where Jesus’ body had been placed was empty. Something also about angels around the tomb. But they were just women, no doubt in some kind of hysteria over all that had happened.

Well, life had to go on. They had business in the town of Emmaus, out from Jerusalem.

Then this stranger suddenly showed up and started talking to them as they walked.
Even then, they were slow to understand.

When they stopped at Emmaus, the stranger made as though to keep going. When they suggested he stop and eat with them, he agreed.

God, after all, doesn’t force himself on us. We have to invite him in.

Jesus had to break bread with them, before a—what—quiet gesture of bread breaking, life breaking—startled them. Suddenly, like that—finally—they knew.

And they were never the same again and neither was the world.

Your Money or Your Life

Governors of various states are faced with a stark choice: Lock down the economic activities of their states or watch hundreds, sometimes thousands, of their citizens die in a pandemic.

Social distancing is the term for greatly reducing human contact to avoid spreading the Covid-19 virus, the main way it is spread. Since buying and selling products and services require much personal contact, economic activities are greatly curtailed by social distancing.

This painful social distancing, including lock downs is, however, slowly decreasing the number of new Covid-19 cases.

People hurting from job and income loss are understandably impatient for their jobs and incomes to resume. We can entertain differences of opinion about how long and how strictly we enforce social distancing.

What is dangerous, as well as absurd, is using the social distancing as evidence of some wild plot.

No governor wants to use social distancing. Every governor wants a strong economy for their state. It is absurd to encourage wild calls for “taking back your government” when social distancing is reluctantly taken to protect citizens.

We don’t need to make it harder for those on the front lines to stem the pandemic. State governors are on the front lines.

This past Sunday, I listened to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo address the people of New York about the Covid-19 situation in his state.

He didn’t gloss over the horror still happening: lots of people still sickening, some dying, loved ones in mourning. But he gave hope because he was feeling what his people were going through.

How different from those who knock down governors and health experts and others fighting to heal and overcome and find the right path.

Governor Cuomo did not use the address to pander for political gain. He wanted his people safe and free from the horrible sickness.

The man in the White House could take some lessons.