Organizations get the professionals they deserve and vice versa. If people and their chosen leaders are willing to put up with each other’s narishkeit and never demand anything better from each other or themselves, then it’s a perfect match. They can complain about and mistreat each other and live unhappily ever after. One side gets stability and predictability, the other gets job security and a nice retirement. However, when one party decides that mediocrity and just doing the job won’t do anymore, then there can be real change. That change is rarely easy but the long-term benefits are beneficial for everyone involved. The same is true of the electorate and its government. We see gridlock and scandal and complain about it, but keep sending back the same people every two or four or six years. Do we really expect anything to change? Our elected officials will only be as good as we insist that they be, and will only know what we expect if we tell them. If we keep re-electing them after theyve proven themselves incompetent at best, then their failure is on us. We get the government we deserve. Once upon a time I was politically active, then I gave it up for religion. I still believe that religion and government are each at their best when they’re as far apart as possible. So my present discontent with our elected officials and their appointees has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with hypocrisy and irresponsibility. Our government is asking Israel to do things it would never do itself, and is promoting deals that destabilize our allies. Put most succinctly, I don’t think appeasing Hamas is a bad idea just because I’m a Jew, I think it’s a bad idea because I’m an American. I expect our elected officials to stand up against tyranny and do what is in the best interests of this country. Officials who believe that Hamas is going to change its tune when the firing ends, or that militant extremists will stop once they’re done with the one minority, would do well to turn on the TV to see what’s happening in Iraq and Syria. And maybe google Neville Chamberlain. The UN can be as reckless as it likes. It’s an un-elected sham anyway. But the US government should know better. If our leaders don’t represent what’s right, and we say nothing, we deserve what we get. Our silence is tacit acceptance that all is well, and all is far from well. I desperately want a better life for Israelis and Palestinians. I want Palestinians to learn that Israelis are not their natural enemy, and that Hamas is responsible for their ongoing shared nightmare. I want Palestinians to know that they can demand better from their leaders. Israelis arent shy at their ballot boxes, and Palestinians will have better lives when they have and make better choices at theirs. Meanwhile, we in the US should thank our leaders and officials who are doing what’s right, and hold accountable those who are making the world more dangerous than it already is.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 17:18:46 +0000
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