Lost Generation

 

The New York Times columnist, David Brooks, wrote a piece titled “The Widening Opportunity Gap.” It dealt with the gulf that separates children who grow up to function successfully and those who don’t. Brooks discussed several reasons for this divide between children, but he pointed out that the amount of time parents spend with their children is a major factor in their success.

This gap between the parented and the unparented has increased since the famous baby boom following World War II. The boom gave way to other generations, born from the mid-1960’s onward. These groups are variously called Generation X, Generation Y (also known as the Millennials), and Generation Z. Until the economic recession that began around 2008, these children were born during an era of unprecedented economic growth, of the two-career family, of the housing boom.

Yet the good times knew a darker side: The high divorce rate of baby boom parents led to the fashion of their children forswearing marriage.  Why bother with marriage at all, since it so often ends in acrimonious breakups? they asked. Casual relationships developed a mainstream following. Babies born of them often appeared an afterthought.

Our emphasis on self fulfilment rather than on responsible membership in society, including parenting children instead of merely birthing them, may stunt an entire generation.

What’s a Sister? Or a Brother? Or a Cousin?

 

George Weigel (author of The Cube and The Cathedral, which describes the death of Christianity in Europe) was interviewed for Response magazine several years ago: He stated: ” . . . by 2050, on present trends, 60 percent of Italians will not know from personal experience what a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle or a cousin is.” This is, Weigel says, what happens when parents mostly have only one child, and only children marry only children.

Even couples in countries with traditionally large families, like Mexico, are choosing to have smaller families. If present trends continue, cheap labor from these countries may be a thing of the past, for good or ill.

What is happening is not a dastardly plot to kill families but has developed gradually. Birth control, the economic necessity of a paid career for all adults, and education that delays marriage and family all contribute.

Parenthood is not suitable for every adult. It’s good that we have a choice. However, many couples want to have children, but economic needs and the demands of career discourage parenting.

We are told that several jobs over the lifetime of an individual is the new normal. Perhaps we should consider new patterns that include parenting as one of those jobs for those who desire it.

 

 

Murdered, A Foreigner Working for the United States

 

Qassim Aklan, local employee of the U.S. embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, was recently murdered. Aklan, an employee of the embassy for eleven years, aided his American colleagues in investigations that the embassy carried out.

About 53,000 local employees help staff U.S. embassies and consulates  abroad. The mere fact that they work for the United States sometimes puts them in danger. Over the years, hundreds have been killed because of their employment.

Every American who has worked in a U.S. embassy or consulate and earned any accolades knows how much of the praise is due to the local staff who made their work possible. I especially remember the three Foreign Service Nationals (as we called them then) who shepherded me through my exhausting first tour. No way could I have survived that tour without them.

Perhaps in tribute, two of my novels feature locally hired staff who work in U.S. embassies where the American protagonists are assigned. Lavali, Farid, and Ramelon are the fictitious national employees from A Sense of Mission. They support newbie U.S. Foreign Service Officer Kaitlin Sadler. She depends on the trio as she struggles to master the interviews of a never ending line of applicants for U.S. visas, endures a Middle Eastern war, and falls in love.

Hatem Lakhdar, at another Middle Eastern embassy, provides Patrick Holtzman, ambitious U.S. political officer in Searching for Home, with the names of valuable contacts. One contact becomes a special friend. Later Hatem offers sympathy to Patrick when the contact is murdered.

The American officers come and go when their tours end. When posts become too dangerous, they are evacuated. The Foreign Service Nationals remain, sometimes with tragic consequences.

 

Attention, Mr. President!

 

Parade ran an article “Attention Mr. President!” in its November 4. 2012 news supplement. The article included suggestions from citizens involved with various organizations in the United States.

Suggestions included: reform the way Congress works; enact tough fiscal measures seen as fair to all segments of American society; build on proven ways to educate all American children; reform immigration laws to insure a pipeline of hard working, talented immigrants; reign in healthcare costs with more efficient billing methods; adopt measures to achieve energy independence; create training and jobs for veterans; strengthen infrastructure. (Examine the details here.)

We Americans have had a reputation as a practical people, able to seek the middle ground and  hammer out innovative solutions to problems. The point of the article was a wake up call to our leaders to conquer our present tendency toward paralyzing polarization.

Elections, Laws, and Lives

 

“There are not enough jails, not enough policemen, not enough law courts, to enforce a law not supported by the people.” So said Hubert Humphrey, one time candidate for the U.S. presidency.

Such was the case with the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ratified in 1919, it prohibited intoxicating beverages. A backlash against it, however, led to its repeal in 1933. Too many people made “bathtub” gin or bought bootleg liquor (leading to an increase in organized crime) for the amendment to work.

Elections are important, but more for incremental change than sweeping mandates. The direction of a nation changes dramatically only if a broad consensus of citizens wants to go in that direction. We may suppose that an election will perform miracles, but it rarely does.

The day-to-day lives that we lead, the persuasion we bring to bear in civil discussions, and the proofs we are able to offer that one way is better than another count more than any election. Our nation is, after all, a republic. Before lasting change comes, not just the hoopla of an election, a significant percentage of the citizens must be committed to it.

Nones and the Rest

 

Recent polls cite the growing “nones” in American society, those who profess to have no religious preference. Judging by the declining numbers in established churches in much of Europe, religion appears less and less important in all Western countries. At the same time, recent revolutions in the Middle East have led to religiously affiliated governments. In some sense, the “nones’ of the West are balanced against the “rest” in a new array.

The current movie Argo pinpoints a beginning to this sea change. The movie is set in 1979 during the Iranian revolution. The revolution removed power from Iran’s secular leaders, including the Shah, and bestowed it on religious ones. The United States had supported the Shah and allowed him into the United States for medical treatment. In protest, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy and took hostages.

Few at that time took seriously the notion of a revolution propelled by religion. Gary Sick, in his detailed book about that time, All Fall Down, includes a section on “Religion and Revolution.” He states: “We are all prisoners of our own cultural assumptions, more than we care to admit . . . the notion of a theocratic state seemed so unlikely as to be absurd.”

Since that time, religious movements have expanded in Africa and South America. They have increased in Asia, even in Communist China. In Russia, straddling the divide between Europe and Asia, the Orthodox Church realizes growing influence . The fiery conflicts in the Middle East, so prevalent in news reports, are part of this worldwide rethinking of secular and religious.

We are not seeing a clash so often between religions in the world today (though that certainly happens) as much as we are seeing a clash between the religious and the not religious, the rest and the nones.

When Losers Become Prophets

 

I had forgotten about former Senator George McGovern until his death was announced last week at the age of 90.

My memory of his brief appearance in American history as the candidate against Richard Nixon mostly concerned  his stunning defeat. McGovern took the electoral votes only of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

Now I wish I had known more of him. He was the son of a Methodist minister and briefly considered the ministry for himself. According to reports, he remained a deeply committed Christian all of his life.

Many thought of him as a radical, joined in their minds with hippies who burned the American flag. Though McGovern fared poorly because of his opposition to the Vietnam conflict, he was not a pacifist. Like George H.W. Bush, he was a decorated veteran of World War II.

Richard Nixon became the president remembered for his resignation because of the Watergate scandal. McGovern, the loser, had spoken out against our military involvement in a small nation in Asia because he did not believe the country threatened us. Only later did so many others agree with him that Vietnam became a code word for failure.

Today, it is spoken when questions are raised about a proposed American military entry into a foreign country. Will it become another Vietnam? we ask. Perhaps that is George McGovern’s legacy.

 

Risk

 

Linked to the end of this blog is a short story, “Risk,” that I wrote several years ago and never published. The part that risk-taking plays in faith intrigues me, especially during times of change.

Stories in the Bible touch on risk as a first step of faith: the Hebrews had to step into the Jordan River before the waters stopped flowing so they could cross. Jesus told the man with the withered hand to stretch out that hand to begin the healing process. Four unnamed men took the risk of bringing their friend to Christ for healing. Why is faith involved?

As a society becomes less religious, we tend to leave religion behind, almost without realizing it, or only give it lip service. To choose a faith as the polestar of our lives during such a time requires a definite commitment, a taking of a risk.

I used “Risk” to explore these ideas.

Unfortunate Choices and Their Consequences

 

Past choices bring consequences, for individuals and for nations. Our past choices, for example, limit us in the help we can offer the uprising against the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Thousands of men, women, and children have died in brutal circumstances. Tens of thousands more have fled and become refugees.

The issue of chemical weapons hovers over the conflict. Bashar al-Assad has chemical weapons and has threatened to use them. No one doubts the brutality of the al-Assad famly. The father of Bashar massacred and obliterated the village of Hama in 1982 because of its opposition to his rule.

We can choose to send weapons to the Syrian opposition, but the opposition is fractured. It includes extremists like al-Qaeda. How can we be sure who is receiving the weapons? The opposition is fluid: groups frequently change alliances.

Our entry into Afghanistan and then Iraq after 9/11 wearied us and taught us the limitations and the costs of military involvement. Our actions in Iraq lost us good will among the Arab nations when no weapons of mass destruction were found there, which we gave as our reason for entry to that country. Whether true or not, other nations now assume that any move we make in the area is because we want the oil and has nothing to do with compassion for the Syrians or anyone else.

Our support for dictators in the Middle East haunts us. We supported them because they kept a lid on Islamist regimes, at the same time becoming both corrupt and brutal to their own people. Now that dictators in Tunisia and Egypt have been overthrown, the new government leaders remember our support for the dictators who sometimes tortured them.

Decades ago, in 1973, oil producing nations began an oil embargo against the United States because of our support for Israel. Gas prices soared. U.S. President Richard Nixon led the nation in measures to reduce our oil consumption. We talked glibly of loosening our dependence on oil in the Middle East. Once the crisis passed, we chose to return to business as usual, willing to pay a higher price at the pump. Eventually we paid on 9/ll and in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

Our desire for the oil of the Middle East has driven much of our foreign policy in the region since the Second World War. We are reaping the results of those policies.

Avoid Flaming Up

 

Our small island recently was invaded by a hate group, inflaming passions. Like the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, several people attempted to pass out hate literature to the public in several of our communities.

The literature wasn’t an intelligent discussion of a point of view, but epithet hurling diatribes.

Some citizens were incensed and called the police. The police came and watched but said no laws were broken. The group operated within their rights of free speech.

Those who ignored them appeared to offer the best response, in some cases silently walking around them on the sidewalk. It seemed the best response was indeed a refusal to engage, thus depriving the group of the attention they craved.

Such episodes illustrate the necessity for  exercising wisdom in our encounters in this deeply divided country. Blessed is a discussion between two citizens of differing opinions ruled by common courtesy. Each may learn something. They may even be able to compromise on a few issues or at least retain respect for the beliefs of the other.

Brouhaha Over Benghazi

 

The investigation over security in Benghazi, Libya, where the U.S. ambassador and three others were tragically killed, continues within election year furor. As James Risen has written in The New York Times, however, the security of U.S. embassies and diplomats today is complex.

During the Arabian/Persian Gulf war in 1991, I began my first tour with the State Department at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Once the war was over, my colleagues and I enjoyed weekend trips to ancient ruins, group runs in the desert outside Jeddah, and evenings out in the city’s restaurants. In 2004, long after my assignment ended, al-Qaeda forces attacked the consulate and killed four employees and four of the consulate’s guard force.

When I served in Algiers in 1993, I probably acted foolishly in walking to a church on the weekend down narrow streets of the city. Hints of the extremist insurgency against the Algerian government surfaced, but we hadn’t yet been forbidden to walk around, and I wanted exercise. Besides, as a diplomat, I was supposed to know the people and country where I served. A few months later, as the insurgency increased, all but essential staff were evacuated back to the U.S.

In Tunisia in the late 1990’s, the U.S. embassy where I was posted occupied an old building near the center of town. The location was ideal for a quick lunch in one of the local restaurants. I often walked to work or rode the bus. Sometimes on weekends I parked my car at the embassy, then finished the journey by foot to a church in the old souk. I passed both a Jewish synagogue and a Muslim mosque on the way. (Jews have been in Tunisia since ancient times.)

Today, the U.S. embassy has been moved to a suburban location. Mobs recently attacked and damaged it, but did not gain entry. They destroyed the American school next door.

In short, security for overseas U.S. missions is more demanding and expensive today. Congress has not always been forthcoming with money for security programs.  Diplomats also chafe, as Risen pointed out in his article, at being stuck in buildings when they want to meet ordinary people outside.

Such complex sea changes had best be dealt with away from election hyperbole. All of us knew, even in the years I served, that security and diplomacy may contradict each other. We never supposed that all danger could be avoided.

 

Serendipity in Marseille

 

A serendipity can be defined as an unexpected happiness. During a low time in my life that seemed endless, the playing of the Pachelbel Cannon on a Sunday afternoon charged my inner being with the certainty that, eventually, all would be well.

Years later on an afternoon in Marseille, France, my husband and I searched for a place to eat. We had arrived in the French coastal city to spend one night before heading out early the next day on a ferry. It would take us across the Mediterranean to the historic city of Algiers.

We wanted only to eat and collapse in bed back in our hotel. I was a newly assigned junior economic officer at the U.S. Embassy in Algiers. I wandered in the anxious space one inhabits before entering unknown territory. Could I handle this assignment? What about the threatened insurgency in Algeria? The Embassy had recently evacuated all minor dependents because of terrorist threats.

This being Europe, not many restaurants were open in the afternoon. We stumbled onto a McDonald’s that, like its prototypes everywhere, was open all day.

We went in, bought our food, and settled upstairs in the almost empty restaurant. Then we heard the sounds of classical music. The McDonald’s may have been American-franchised, but this was France. A classical pianist played below. We enjoyed our Big Macs within the pleasant atmosphere of Mozart and Beethoven.

Yes, in a couple of days we would climb the hill out of Algiers’ Casbah and follow the narrow streets into an uncertain future in that troubled land. But for the moment, the music calmed my anxieties and prepared me to cope with what lay ahead.

Our Right To Say Outrageous Things

 

Members of Westboro Baptist Church picket the funerals of soldiers killed in the line of duty.

Their message is offensive to those who mourn loved ones. Courts in the U.S. have judged that the picketers have the right to protest even if their actions are scorned by the majority of Americans.

Some of our election campaigns trumpet messages demeaning to various candidates. Atheists and evangelical Christians routinely trade barbs.

Our ideals of free speech, which allow for the expression of sometimes unpopular views, remain difficult for those in the non-Western world to fathom. We see this in the protests over the video trailer demeaning the Muslim prophet Mohamed. Some press for “blasphemy” laws against such acts. Christians and other minority religions in countries like Egypt and Pakistan fear these laws, which have been used to persecute them.

In our current political campaigns in this country, we have passed the level of civility. Some ads resemble pitched battles rather than a discussion of the issues between intelligent citizens. Nevertheless, our freedom of speech remains precious. I can only encourage public revulsion against that which destroys rather than enlightens. In this country, corrections to excesses are always possible.

I have found my Christian faith strengthened by listening to those who don’t believe as I do. I develop reasons for my faith that allow an honest dialog with those of differing beliefs. A faith protected by laws can become a tepid faith.

They Also Serve

 

Recently, after my airline flight touched down, the attendant deviated from the normal landing remarks to thank our armed forces, both active and retired, for their sacrifices in the service of our country.

Since my husband is a retired army veteran, I appreciated her remarks. However, I did wonder about our ignorance of others who serve and sacrifice for our country. The week before, one of our ambassadors and three of his colleagues were killed in an uprising in a foreign country, yet this was not mentioned. Many of our diplomats serve today in countries where mob violence breaks out against the embassies and consulates where they are stationed. They send reports to our government in Washington that aid us in our foreign relations. They provide language skills, local knowledge, and other support when U.S. officials visit foreign countries.  They serve American citizens with mundane tasks such as passport renewals but also carry out tasks like visiting Americans imprisoned in foreign jails.

Other Americans serve in less dramatic ways that we overlook: border patrol agents; scientists who test medicines to determine if they are safe to place on the market; air traffic controllers; forest rangers; customs agents who check shipments for dangerous material; clerks who check and file documents needed for evaluation of potential immigrants; those who process social security payments to senior citizens, to name a few. We forget about them, but they make our lives safer and more pleasant.

I have lived in and known countries where governments were not so sympathetic to their citizens’ needs, countries run by corrupt and sometimes dangerous leaders. Their jails are filled with prisoners who are guilty of no more than peaceful disagreement with their government. Others are imprisoned because they are of the wrong religion or ethnic group.

The freedom to complain about aspects of our government that we do not agree with is a precious gift. May we not take lightly that gift, and may we be ever thankful for those who provide the services that we depend on every day.

 

The Deaths of 23,000 Americans in a Single Day

 

September 17th  of this year marked the 150th anniversary of the date when more Americans lost their lives in a single day than ever before or since. At least 23,000 Americans were killed in the Civil War battle of Antietam, near Sharpsburg, Maryland in 1862. At the end of the day, the lines of battle were hardly changed.

Why was the Civil War fought? Why did two peoples, sharing a common heritage, end up fighting eyeball to eyeball in the sunken road at Antietam?

Otherwise reasonable people became too angry to discuss differences. Southerners cared more for their cotton economy and its slave labor than in justice. The North knew its own exploitation of immigrant labor, yet often saw itself as superior and worked from a position of  self-righteousness in dealing with the slavery issue.

Yes, slavery was abolished, but segregation took its place because war did not change people’s minds. Wars seldom do. The excesses of the gilded age in the North continued well into the twentieth century, with its exploitation of cheap immigrant labor.

Unfortunately, the angry Antietams remain with us: the world wars of the twentieth century; 9/ll; mass killings in schools, workplaces, and houses of worships in this country; the bloody riots of the last few weeks in the Middle East, and our own political attack ads.

A fitting tribute to those who died would be our dedication to civil discussion in our own communities and politics, then our support of groups who seek to bring opposing sides together in the flashpoints of the world.

Diplomacy by Tweets

 

During recent attacks by mobs on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, the American staff passed warnings to American citizens in Egypt through the embassy’s Twitter network. American embassies lead the diplomatic world in their use of Twitter, Facebook and other digital tools.

Contrast this communication system with the one used during the first conflict in the Arabian peninsula against Saddam Hussein of Iraq in the early 1990’s. I served at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during that time. We set up telephone networks to pass information to American citizens in the region. No one owned a cell phone.

By the time of the second war with Iraq in the early 2000’s, I had returned for another tour in Saudi Arabia. We had graduated to emails for notification of events to our American citizen community. Only a few years later, our communication tools have advanced light years even from those times.

Besides using tweets to notify their citizens, U.S. officials abroad also monitor the tweets of foreign governments and political parties. These includes tweets in the native language as well as any English language tweets. During the Egyptian attacks, the U.S. Embassy noticed differing messages by governing Egyptians, depending on the language. A message in Arabic called on Egyptians to support the demonstrations against the Americans. A message in English offered sympathy and support to the Embassy.

The Embassy responded with its own tweet: “Thanks. By the way, have you checked out your own Arabic feeds? I hope you know we read those, too.”

Leaving Home: Scribblings From Exile

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian pastor executed by the Nazis in World II, wrote: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.” (from The Cost of Discipleship)

The reason I title my blogs, “Scribblings from Exile,” is that I believe Christians, even in America, are in exile. The blessings of democracy compel us to perform earthly citizenship duties, but we are, as the apostle Paul called us in one of his letters, ambassadors from another kingdom. Jesus rebuked his disciples for supposing he intended to be a political king.

A theme of my story Singing in Babylon is the understanding of this calling into exile. Kate and Philip, American Christians, feel themselves in exile when they journey to work in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim majority country. On returning home to the United States, they realize they are still exiles. They do not belong to the consumer culture of the West any more than they belong to the Muslim-majority Middle East.

If we Christians in Western countries understood the call to die to our culture, as we might if we understand Bonhoeffer, would our message be listened to rather than ignored or ridiculed?

What Is Global Fiction?

 

I fancy I still hear the call to prayer from the mosque beside the U.S. embassy compound, though I’m a grown woman now.

In the opening scene to my novel A Sense of Mission, the young protagonist, Kaitlin, the daughter of U.S. diplomats in a Muslim majority country, is wakened by the Islamic call to prayer. Her family is Christian. Her mother points out that the faithfulness of Muslims to their prayers might shame some Christians who rarely pray. She suggests that Kaitlin be reminded to pray to Jesus by the call to prayer.

That idea was one I carried out when I lived in the Middle East and heard the Muslim call to prayer five times each day. I decided to use it as a reminder to practice my Christian devotions. It was a reminder that an effective Christian life requires an active prayer life.

Many of us grew up in a country greatly influenced by the teachings of Christianity. We are only now understanding that those of us who call ourselves Christians actually are a minority in the world, about a third according to most counts. Lives immersed in the Internet and virtual communities remind us that we do indeed live in a global village. The increasing presence of other religions, or of no religion, jolts us.

The years I spent in foreign countries influenced me to write what I call “fiction for the global Christian,” to suggest the examination of life from a global viewpoint. Characters in such fiction struggle with personal faith issues, they fall in love, and they deal with family problems as in other fiction. In the midst of these conflicts, however, they understand Christianity as Jesus-centered for the whole world rather than centered exclusively on domestic American issues.

Other examples of global fiction include: When the Lion Roars by DiAnn Mills; Allah’s Fire by Chuck Holton and Gayle Roper; and Lion of Babylon by Davis Bunn.

 

That Human Trait: To Demand Meaning

 

From all indications, U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens dedicated his intellect and talents to serving his country and the cause of peace. Yet he died, asphyxiated in a burning building set on fire by citizens of a nation he tried to help. Three other Americans died in Libya as well, victims of riots caused by an obscure video none of them had any connection with.

News stories interrupt our days with other reports of rampages by sick people who kill and maim innocent strangers. In the Middle East. In our own neighborhoods. How do we respond? How do we find direction?

Viktor Frankl in his classic Man’s Search for Meaning did not believe one should seek suffering. A survivor of Nazi concentration camps, Frankl did believe that when suffering was unavoidable, we could find meaning in it. His book is a witness to his beliefs.

When we face times of suffering, Frankl indicates, we are better able to bear them if we have purpose, a reason for living. During such times as these, those of us who are Christians renew our commitment to our faith in a purposeful God. We do not worship suffering—Christ teaches us to love life—but suffering is a part of our story. Our salvation came through suffering. We may be lost in confusion for a time, like the disciples who stumbled through an awful Friday and Saturday. As author Tony Campolo’s book title states, however: It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Comin’.

It’s Friday.

Anger in a Connected World

 

The U.S. State Department has just confirmed that the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed yesterday in Benghazi, Libya. A mob, angered by a movie supposedly made in the U.S. that they considered offensive to Islam, attacked the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city.

As a retired Foreign Service officer for the U.S. State Department, I can’t help but feel a personal involvement in this tragedy, though I didn’t know the victims. The ambassador apparently was an able diplomat, serving his country previously in Libya and other Middle Eastern posts.

I thought back to a sudden demonstration before another U.S. consulate in an Arab country, one where I served. I remember the chants of demonstrators against some perceived wrong that the U.S. government had done. I remember the prickle of fear as we listened to those chants on the other side of our consulate walls and scurried to secure documents and prepare as we had been taught to do in such a situation, should consulate security be breached.

Fortunately, the government of the country where I served was intact, not like the Libyan one, still struggling to form after the overthrow of a dictator. In our case, government troops appeared, and the demonstrators scattered and left.

Another reason for our more fortunate ending, I believe, was that the demonstrators were not organized.  Though the Internet was rapidly expanding, Facebook and Twitter did not yet exist to fan flames of anger and to pinpoint a place to release that anger. The Internet and social media bring us the usual double-edged sword of blessings and curses.

Any people can be incited to commit acts of violence. African-Americans have been murdered by mobs in the not too distant past in our own country. Recently, worshipers have been killed in religious gatherings.

One news article focused on anger points in political campaigns. The purpose is to arouse citizens to such anger that they will vote certain ways. Yet anger, once incited, sometimes catches fire in the minds of deranged or immature individuals, leading to the taking of lives.

In a previous blog I pointed out that the anger and frustration of the German middle class after World War I led them to choose Hitler and the Nazis. They had reasons for their anger, but they were wrong to accept Nazism as a solution. Angry people have, at best, made stupid decisions and at worst, committed murders and terrorist actions against innocents.

We carry grave responsibilities for the handling of our anger, especially in this age of connectedness. In this case, both the mob that killed in Benghazi and the maker of the movie that incited them need to ask if they handled their anger in a responsible manner.