FINALLY! WE JOIN 21st CENTURY

Listening to President Obama's speech at the United Nations today made me feel as though our country was emerging from the dark ages into the 21st Century. The President asked individuals and nations to move beyond their comfort zones of belief, doctrine, culture and religion toward respecting those differences,even as he acknowledged this would not be an easy task.

He renewed Treaties and Agreements made in good faith between ourselves and other nations with whom we share this planet and its resources. Treaties and Agreements that were tossed to the wind by an arrogant belief that this country needed no other country to secure its future. He spoke truth to power when he said just as we have been disliked as a nation because of our posture, so too must the United Nations now find its voice in helping to find solutions to complex problems which it may have avoided in the past.

Today our country regained its balance and a place of importance as we meet the challenges of the 21st Century.

SPECKLED BEAUTY?

She flew in quickly and alighted just a few inches from my feet. She was a European Starling, a bird of little beauty and one often considered an ugly nuisance. This one caught my attention. She stood on one limb, the other withered and hanging under her, as she pecked on crumbs dropped by people at the outdoor tables.

She remained long enough for me to study her and marvel at her ability to hop beneath empty tables and chairs that stood in her way. When she was finished, she took off strong and quick, withered limb or not.

I had to admire this speckled, ugly bird for her perseverance and her ability to come to terms with life, handicap or not, bothersome as she might be.

HORSE RADISH

This time of the year, my mother and grandmother traveled "downtown" to Marshall Street in Philadelphia. The Street was small and lined with stores and push carts that sold everything from food to clothing. Their mission was to find horse radish roots which they ground, added beet juice and sugar and served with the New Year meal.

All this came to mind as I sorted through an old file and came across a brochure describing the International Horse Radish Festival held in Collinsville, Illinois. The brochure said the Festival attracted people "from around the Midwest and the country to eat this perilous herb." An exaggeration? I don't think so. Had a jet been available, I know my mother and grandmother would have headed to Collinsville in their search.

I don't know how they could tell one radish from another or which would produced the hottest sauce. But their horse radish reduced strong men to tears and cleared every one's sinuses.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

On this day, eight years ago, we remember the innocent lives lost at the World Trade Center. To retaliate we sent, and still send others in pursuit of questionable enemies. Before that day, bombings and shootings in public or private places were thought to be deviations, not necessarily having an impact on all of us. In one day, all that changed. We were forced to recognize our vulnerability as individuals and as a nation. The wound had been to all of us.

For many years, we have lived safe and secure in our country. We have been protected from the rest of the world by two magnificent oceans. We were blessed to have good neighbors at each border, north and south of us. We were invincible! Can we still afford the luxury of thinking we are not vulnerable? If we are vulnerable, how do we protect ourselves from calloused manipulation of institutions and false information?

Just as we remember innocent lives lost eight years ago, so too do we need to recognize and respect our vulnerability as individuals and as a nation. Let this be our tribute to those no longer here.

PATROLLING THE INTERNET

The concern about misinformation on the Internet, radio and television is real. I admit to being a nervous Nelly about "official" judgement to determine the worth of any content. Standards to weigh the honesty of information that comes to us via the Internet, in print, television or even in conversation are not always workable. The question is what if anything do we do about it?

The answer is we are our own censors. We choose not to accept anonymous or offensive messages on the Internet. We push the delete button. We choose not to hear or watch information which is less than reliable. We push the off button . We choose to read something that is less then honest. We line the kitty litter with it.

Neither law nor official decree can do for us what we can do for ourselves or like Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy and they are us."

WATER, A TEMPTRESS?

Whether ocean, river, lake or pond, the allure of water has called to us down through the ages. It matters not that rivers over flow. We want to be as near to river banks as possible. It matters not that bays and inland waterways parameters are temporary, we build marinas on them. Winds rant their fury on the ocean. The ocean rants its fury on coastal homes and communities, but live there we must.

When water becomes too unruly, we try to put this temptress in her place. We build barriers of sand bags. We build jetties made out of tires, cars,and buses that look like a Rube Goldberg contraption. We defy her, returning, rebuilding, always challenging her, never admitting our own limitations in the face of her strength.

Poets sing to her charms. Adventurers sail her. Children build sand castles near her even as they hope that she does not come too close. Nations have fought over her even as she has destroyed life and land. Still, we fight to be by her side and never seem to learn that water is one temptress that cannot be calmed once provoked.