Unstoppable Democracy?

In the euphoric years following 1989, the year the Soviet Union began unraveling, many observers believed democracy was set on an unstoppable course. That view prevailed for many years.

According to a Washington Post article in 2013, however, more countries registered declines than gains in democratic practices over the course of 2012. It marked “the seventh consecutive year in which countries with declines outnumbered those with improvements.”

Among Arab countries, after the widely hailed “Arab Spring,” only Tunisia appears to have retained a democratic form of government. Others headed in that direction have now backtracked. Egypt got rid of a dictator, but its first elected government disappointed many. A military general took over, after shedding his uniform, which fooled no one.

Libya has fallen into warring militias. Syria is a brutal nightmare. The Gulf countries have kept their royals. Algeria and other countries in the region limp along with few changes.

How to revive the democratic movement? Since the United States prides itself on being Exhibit A for representative government, Americans might start there. How about campaign financing? After all, we can hardly berate other countries for their corrupt practices if our own politicians are bought by the highest bidder.

Where I Belong: a Novel About an Appalachian Non-Belonger

Yesterday I learned that my most recent novel, Where I Belong, is one of the 2016 finalists for the Selah Award.

Sometimes my stories begin in my head as a search for answers to questions. This novel began, as best I can remember, with the question: how does a young man from the southern Appalachians, raised by loving but imperfect parents, adjust to the outside world?

This age of refugees reminds us of the non-belonger. Refugees are those fleeing Syria’s brutal horror, but they are also the homeless in our cities.

Mark Pacer, the twenty-something young adult leaving tight-knit kinfolk behind to enter another era is, for a while, a non-belonger—to the older generation and sometimes to his new peers.

What do we owe our past tribes when we leave them, if anything?

What do we owe our families, if we are fortunate enough to have nurturing families? What do we not owe our families? What if we are drawn to different values?

When we leave one culture for another, whether as obvious refugees or less obvious ones, how do we handle our loneliness, the loneliness of the non-belonger? What values do we keep when entering a different culture, or when an alien culture threatens our own?

The Old Testament talks of the strangers and the aliens and calls us to treat them kindly.

Tell a Lie Long Enough

Dr. Rufus Fears, classics professor at the University of Oklahoma, gave a lecture on the German Nazi leader, Adolph Hitler. He explained why Hitler was so successful in peddling his racist policies against the Jews.

Hitler perfected the lie. He didn’t, Fears said, tell a partial truth—an allegation with a grain of truth. Instead, he told blatant lies, and he repeated them over and over. Eventually, enough people believed Hitler’s lies to either follow him or ignore those who did follow him as they began persecution of the Jews.

Democracy had come to Germany after World War I. Democracy did not save Germans from a demagogue if they chose to believe lies. They were angry at their humiliation in losing World War I. Hitler’s lies spoke to their anger. Too few people were willing to set aside their anger and examine what Hitler said.

What Are Fairy Tales For?

In the old fairy tales, the hero and heroine find each other after various complications, then marry and live happily ever after.

The movie I saw recently was a fairy tale. Not the old-fashioned kind but the modern kind with modern problems like drugs and abandoned children. The movie ended “right.” Problems were worked out, fathers got off drugs, and children found homes.

We know how often right doesn’t win in stories of drugs and parentless children. Nevertheless, the audience was satisfied when the problems in this movie were solved, even if the solutions bordered on the unrealistic, reminding us of the fairy godmother setting things right in the old fairy tales. But the acting was acceptable and the movie enjoyable. As my mother would say, it left you with a good taste in your mouth.

A cynical age demands realistic stories, not just fairy tales, but fairy tales have their purpose. They keep hope alive. We yearn for good to win in a world where it so often does not.

The old fairy tales were told in the unjust world of another era. Kings often were selfish, even evil. The average man or woman lived in survival mode.

Fairy tales encouraged the imagining of a more just world. The slighted sister with the good heart wins out over the selfish step sisters. Jack kills the evil giant and brings riches to his widowed mother. An orphan boy finds a sword in a stone, pulls it out, and becomes a leader of his people.

Most of us believe that good SHOULD win. A fairy tale keeps alive this deepest belief in good. Stories are told during times of hardship. They keep hope alive until that moment when hardship can be overcome. We need realism, then, to make the victory work.

If We Can’t Have Peace, Conflict Beats War

History shows us few times of real peace. We may need to pass through protracted conflict on the way to peace. If we can avoid a killing war in a world of competing interests, we may be holding the line for peace the best way possible.

The Cold War was a time of protracted conflict, but it never became a global hot war. No nuclear weapons were fired, no armies massed over continents, no navies engaged in large battles.

Winston Churchill is credited with favoring jaw-jaw over war-war. In the past few years, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry seems to have been jaw-jawing forever. With Middle Easterners, with Europeans, with Russian foreign minister Lavrov, with Chinese leaders and scores more, he is constantly speaking to reporters after some conference or meeting.

Dropping bombs, especially if you are a superpower, is more exciting than weary negotiations for the one thousandth time. But dead men, women, and children cannot be brought back to life. You can always hold one more talk, give a little here, dig your heels in there, perhaps inch your way toward resolution of those competing interests.

War is final, talking is forever.

Sometimes a Glimpse: Humankind Touched with Greatness

The championship performance of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillame Cizeron in the 2016 European skating event demonstrated a heart stopping moment of supreme beauty.

I was touched with the couple’s discipline and dedication and reminded of the God given potential of human ability. Watching the duo, I forgot a world where too many deliberately harm others or waste lives in a false seeking after pleasure. I wished all could be brought to understand the goodness and beauty of which we are capable.

Here’s the video of their performance.

Why Do We Save Reminders of Past Events?

In cleaning out some shelves the other day, I found a copy of Newsweek, December 2, 1963. The issue was dedicated to articles about John F. Kennedy’s assassination the previous November.

Next I found a relative’s high school annual, published in 1918, the last year of World War I. The annual was dedicated to the first of the high school’s alumni to die in that war, on September 15, 1917, in France. His picture stares hopefully from the dedication page.

In my own files, I’ve saved clippings about the terrorism attacks of September 11, 2001. What might they mean to later generations? How close will they come to knowing the horror I felt as I watched the buildings fall?

How do we pass down our meaningful experiences? How do we help those who come after us to know, if only for an instant, what we feel now? For what reason? To learn from them? To ponder the results of our choices, wise and unwise?

We engage with our current communities. We also are a part of past communities. We make decisions that impact future communities. If we live only in the present, we may be swayed by current emotions to forget the lessons of the past. Studying the past, we may decide more wisely for the future.

“They who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”

Hey, Hon: the Advantages of a Southern Accent

My Southern accent often calmed emotion-wracked Americans asking for assistance at U.S. embassies and consulates overseas where I worked. Americans living in one of Saudi Arabia’s oil hubs in Dhahran, many from Texas and Oklahoma, seemed especially to appreciate the accent.

Callers knew right off that they were speaking to an American, perhaps reminded of folksy icons like Gomer Pyle or Sheriff Andy from Mayberry.

The problems of Americans living overseas often landed on our doorstep. Americans became ill, were arrested, or lost passports. We performed notary duties, visited prisons and hospitals, and explained why we couldn’t issue a particular visa to an unqualified foreign relative or friend. I have counseled Americans in all sorts of conditions, from abused wives to those busted for alcohol in strict Muslim majority countries.

Through it all—the calls to stateside relatives, the emergencies at one a.m., the terrorist attacks—my colleagues and I strove to remain calm and unflappable. No matter how I may have felt inwardly, my Southern accent was a definite aid.

Americans No Longer Talk Only to Americans

After the invention to cheaply print words on paper more than half a millennium ago, written ideas transformed the world. For the first few centuries, such exchange of ideas benefited the European world, where the printing began. Literacy became widespread.

The conquest of much of the non-European world by Europeans carried their languages to other regions. With the growth of the British empire in the nineteenth century and of American influence in the twentieth, English became a global language. Educated speakers of other languages often learned it as a second language.

Books and magazines circulated around the world, but the shipping of printed material increased the costs of purchase. The digital age overcame that cost. The inexpensive exchange of ideas opened up more interaction between Americans and the rest of the world, regardless of social class.

More Americans are reading international authors. Some works are translated. In other cases, the non-Americans write in English. Americans now read books and articles by Afghans, Australians, Indians, Iranians, Nigerians, Swedes, and scores more.

Americans may not realize how widely their ideas, their successes, and their failures are broadcast to the rest of the world. The political rhetoric of our politicians is instantly known all over the world. Any arrogance is scorned, any threat resented, and any hatred returned.

Who Do You Want With A Hand on the Nuclear Trigger?

Forget news headlines featuring the childish squabbles of our current presidential candidates. How do they differ on important issues? What do we know, for example, about how a candidate might handle the next world crisis? The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has listed on their website each U.S. presidential candidate’s views on the rest of the world.

Example: a few quotes on the Islamic State (ISIS):

Hilary Clinton: “Our strategy should have three main elements. One, defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq, and across the Middle East. Two, disrupt and dismantle the growing terrorist infrastructure that facilitates the flow of fighters, financing, arms, and propaganda around the world. Three, harden our defenses and those of our allies against external and homegrown threats.”

Ted Cruz: Following the November 2015 attacks in Paris, Cruz said the United States should step up its fight against the Islamic State by supplying advanced weapons directly to Kurdish forces.

John Kasich, July 26, 2015: “We should have a coalition. We should be there, including boots on the ground. And we need to degrade and destroy ISIS.”

Bernie Sanders: At the Democratic presidential debate in October 2015, Sanders characterized the violence in Syria as “a quagmire in a quagmire,” and while he said he supports U.S. airstrikes in that country, he advised against an effort to establish a no-fly zone. “I will do everything that I can to make sure that the United States does not get involved in another quagmire like we did in Iraq, the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this country.”

Donald Trump: After the November 2015 Paris attacks, Trump said he would intensify military attacks on the Islamic State and restrict the group’s ability to use the Internet as a recruiting tool.

These are snippets from detailed presentations. Try the website yourself.

Leaders Who Don’t Listen

Leaders, or elites, as some call them, handle the day-to-day operations of most organizations. The average American actively participates in only one or two groups—including professional, religious, and recreational organizations.

Americans may vote and possibly donate to a political party before an important election, but few consistently participate in a party’s actual functioning. At the state and national level, a majority often do not even vote. Those who do vote normally limit their actions to a choice of candidates from the slates put forth by the major parties. The leaders have the responsibility to present suitable candidates for the electorate to consider.

Apparently, the leaders have failed to listen to their base voters. Outside contenders have roiled both major political parties in the runup to political conventions and the November elections.

If nothing else, the turmoil indicates that representative government is not exclusively for the big contributors or the lobbyists or the wealthy. Eventually, the average Janes and Joes will revolt if their leaders don’t listen to them.

Our Hopes Versus the Hopes of ISIS

One reason some young people are attracted to radical Islam is the promise of hope for those who lack it. For years in too many Middle Eastern countries, corrupt elites have run governments like personal fiefdoms. They became rich while throwing crumbs to their citizens, imprisoning and torturing any who disagreed with their policies.

While the actions of ISIS repulse civilized people, ISIS has a reputation for cleaning up corruption. (They could hardly do worse.) It also offers a sense of purpose through the ISIS-inspired belief in a spiritual kingdom, bizarre though its practices may be.

Why are youth from Europe and North America attracted to ISIS, despite the greater freedoms, chances of material success, and more open governments of those countries?

Perhaps we have too often stressed freedom but have forgotten to emphasize the discipline and servanthood that partner with any successful freedom. Freedom has become a means to power and wealth, not an opportunity for meaning through service and community and an inner life of the spirit.

Showing Up on Easter

(Repeated from a post on April 19, 2014)

Jesus is crucified, his body taken away.

The religious rulers are satisfied. They’ve won. They’ve handled this challenge to their authority by hinting to the Romans that they could have an insurrection on their hands if they didn’t take care of this peasant leader. Their plan worked well, with the Romans handling matters in their usual efficient way.

The Romans are satisfied, too, with the possible exception of their man, Pilate, who expressed misgivings. He went along, however, understanding that it was in his interest not to upset the ones on whom his job depends, so no problem.

The disciples, all men, have fled, taking refuge in some out-of-the-way bolt hole.

Only a few women stay with Jesus, and they follow to see where his body is taken. They spend the next day, the day of rest, preparing for his burial. He must be taken care of, even if all they can do is carry out a proper burial. They’re only women, and no one pays them much attention.

So they come to the tomb on Sunday morning. They find it empty. They are the first to know and the first to tell. What no one else did, they did. They came. They showed up.

Escaping with Georgette Heyer

Regency romance is the quintessential formulaic genre. Yet, for escape reading, Georgette Heyer’s
stories prove that even formulaic genre can delight. The reader knows from the first few pages who the hero and heroine are and knows they’re going to end up committed to marrying each other by the end of the book.

I read it, not for its plot, but to enjoy Heyer’s use of dialog and ironic wit to draw us in. A good book is defined by its writing, not by its genre.

I don’t encourage a steady diet of escape reading, but a bit of comfort food sweetens life once in a while.

There’s escapism and there’s escapism. What’s wrong with using a book for escape? Call it an affordable vacation.

Short as the Watch That Ends the Night

My father introduced me to history. For him, it wasn’t a collection of boring dates. History was people.

He enthralled me with fascinating tales of hillbilly ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War in lesser known battles like Kings Mountain. He told me stories of Winston Churchill and the Battle of Britain, when England stood firm against the Nazis after they conquered most of Europe.

With that upbringing, of course the stories I write now are rooted in time and place. The space that spoke to me and that I have put into my novels is the gray area that begins with the end of World War II. A schizophrenic time period—not historical fiction, but not contemporary either in its first decades.

I examine the times, asking why my country and the world changed so drastically during that time.

The Cold War with the Soviet Union descended almost immediately following World War II, when the United States accepted the mantle of world leadership.

Americans chose to enter the Vietnamese conflict, and it has haunted us ever since. Eventually, the world saw the miraculous end of the Cold War without a nuclear holocaust.

Spiritual changes were no less profound. The age of city-wide revivals passed into today’s age of the nones, the ones with no religious affiliation.

What did we do to the times and what did the times do to us? That’s what the characters in my novels seek to find out.

Why Write a Story?

In my “inspiration” folder, I keep articles by or about famous writers whom I admire.
Once in a while I review the obituary for Madeleine L’Engle, the author of the children’s classic A Wrinkle in Time, from The New York Times, September 8, 2007.

“Her writing transcended genre and generation,” Douglas Martin wrote in the obituary.

The series that included A Wrinkle in Time “combines elements of science fiction with insights into love and moral purpose . . .”

I ponder the concept of moral purpose.

L’Engle said of her most famous work: “It was only after it was written that I realized what some of it meant.”

I often write a story for no other reason than because the story is there. After I’ve written a draft or two, it dawns on me what are its reasons for being. It answers, I suppose, some question in my subconscious. The story is there, and I write it first.

In answer to the question, “Why does anybody tell a story?” L’Engle replied, “It does indeed have something to do with faith . . . faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”

We divide into two camps: Life has meaning or it doesn’t. L’Engle came down on the side of purpose and blessed us with her insights.

Return of the Smoke-Filled Political Backrooms?

Political parties aren’t mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. Political parties developed in the first years of the republic, however, and soon drove elections. Only recently have the party candidates been chosen largely by primary voting.

Traditionally, the choice of a party’s candidate wasn’t certain until the party convention itself. Deals were made in those smoke-filled back rooms. Not until after the 1960’s did the convention become a boring pep rally that merely rubber stamped primary elections.

The earlier method sounds undemocratic. However, some are calling for a return of true political conventions, where the delegates are not pledged to any candidate. Decisions are made at the convention.

A return to the earlier system means the political party leaders consider more than the wishes of their base voters. They take the longer view, considering how likely a candidate is to be chosen by the larger electorate. They search for a candidate who appeals to the independents and perhaps a few of the other party who might consider voting for an especially qualified candidate.

Listening to the anger-filled, even violent emotions of the current campaign, the return to those backrooms is appealing.

Who Eats Together Anymore?

Family therapists used to ask patients about their family meals in helping them understand their relationships. Apparently those questions are less relevant now because families don’t eat together enough to draw conclusions in many cases. This is how Les and Leslie Parott introduced their book The Hour That Matters Most.

Parents may consider meals a challenge: children crying, refusing to eat, or generally acting ornery. Apparently it’s worth the effort.

Studies have shown, the Parotts say, that dining together decreases the likelihood that the children will do drugs, become involved in promiscuous sexuality, or suffer serious depression.

Not every meal has to be a seven-course banquet. Simple meals may even be healthier: a salad thrown together, tuna sandwiches, and fruit for dessert.

Frankly, I’ve never found cooking as much fun as some do. Neither did my mother. We often had hastily prepared meals—canned corned beef hash or pork chops with mushroom soup and canned green beans, but we ate at least one meal together each day, more on weekends.

I’m glad she made the effort. I remember how pleasurable the talk was at the table (once we children grew into a more civilized state). Our discussions were civil, on just about anything and everything: politics, community, church activities, school activities, world events, and so on. We conversed, in other words.

Dining together promises a relatively easy way to promote healthy families. We all have to eat.

Finding the Best Bad Candidate

I know better than to look for a perfect candidate for U.S. president. Forget swallowing any candidate’s campaign rhetoric with worshipful awe.

Better that I coldly examine a candidate’s ability to lead (not coerce) a complex country in a complex world. They will be the leader not only of those who voted for them but also of those who voted against them.

Better that I ask how wisely they will react to unforeseen events, because the next few years will certainly bring them. Can they admit and learn from their mistakes? Because they will surely make them.

I should understand the limits on a president’s power. The president is bound not only by other branches of the U.S. government but by circumstances elsewhere in the world over which he or she has little control. Better a president who can react to sudden changes with creativity and the willingness to consider different opinions.

In addition, I judge them beyond domestic issues. Fairly or unfairly, the United States is expected to play a leading role on the world stage. How well do they understand that a reputation for decency and honesty and fair play is as important for the carrying out of our policies as the ability to shock and awe our enemies?

When Whole Populations Flee

We can understand why Syrians are leaving their country. Were we living there, the anarchy would tempt most of us to leave also. We can see why Afghans flee, too, a country split into corrupt, warring factions. Iraq? Not much better.

Others flee Libya, just as broken as the rest. Still others leave corrupt governments and economic hardships in Yemen and Somalia and Nigeria and a dozen or more other places.

Though neighbors to Syria—Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey—absorb the most refugees per person, masses flee toward the more diverse European countries. Why do so many refugees seek these culturally different countries?

Economic opportunity, of course, and relief from overcrowded refugee camps. Still, we might be surprised that so many flee toward Europe’s secular culture.

European countries uphold freedom of religion, impartial judicial systems, and representative government. Such policies create the societies toward which refugees flee. Do they understand what creates those societies? Can they, someday, replicate policies in their own countries?