Iran: Let's Give Them Something to Talk About

America—the United States of—was founded on an awe-inspiring belief: “We the people.”  We—with no qualifiers.  All of us.  At our country’s inception, this was not true, but words have power, and that power compels many of us to continue to believe in our possibilities. I cling to Langston Hughes' poetic hopes--"Let America be America again, the land that never has been yet and yet must be."

There are those who proclaim American Exceptionalism, and they condemn anyone who discusses some of our historic failures as being less than patriotic.  Supposedly, we do not love America as much as they do.  Does our love of country need to be blind?   How then is any country to become all that it can be if its citizens are oblivious to its faults?  How can our country rectify historic wrongs if we pretend not to see them?

Let us then engage in some serious introspection about the consequences of Western actions in the Middle East. (The term Middle East was not widely used until after World War I to describe the area of Northern Africa and the Arab states, but at that time, it was to separate that area from the Far East and the rest of Africa.)  When we study the unintended consequences of Western actions in this area, we cannot be surprised that many in the Middle East regard Westerners—sometimes particularly the U. S.—as nations meddling where we don’t belong and/or as oppressors.  We do say that we want peace in the Middle East, but our words and actions often seem to contradict this.  There are exceptions, but in general, Western powers have done more harm than good whenever we/they took on a superior or paternalistic role in--or attitude about--this area.  After all, colonial powers did draw lines on a map after World War I to create new nations, but the cultures in these areas are ancient, not new.  Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon are among those nations created on paper, but Iran—formerly Persia—remains in essentially the same place as it has been for centuries. 

We need to remember that history, especially since the neo-Cons who started a war with Iraq by choice and on bogus intelligence are now telling us not to consider talking to Iran about their nuclear capabilities.  The Powers that Be took the neo-Con advice about Iraq.  That was disastrous.  Why are those people even talking now?  More importantly, why is anyone listening?  After we could not find the non-existent WMDs, the not-war, rather an "operation," became all about a democratically elected government in Iraq.  Rumsfeld was totally shocked that a Shiite majority won, even though he could have found out that Shiites--who had been oppressed by Hussein and the Sunni minority--have outnumbered Sunni in Iraq forever, had he checked.  Then Bremer disbanded Hussein’s Sunni army, and they became the insurgents.  There wasn't an al Qaeda in Iraq when we started the war, but there was an al Qaeda in Iraq during and after.  Petraeus, the general to end all generals, used the Sunni for a bit, and then that was over.  So now, they've morphed into ISIS/L.  This disaster is a direct result of our ill-informed, ill-considered actions when we marched into Iraq.  Yes, Saddam Hussein was a tyrant who “gassed his own people.”  (When the G. W. Bush administration said that, they hoped we’d forget that the gassing of his own people occurred while we were allied with Iraq against Iran.) 

And now Iran is a worry of ours, a worry that Iraq—with Hussein in charge—had kept in check.  Get a grip people.  We cannot magically wipe out the reality that Iranian scientists already know how to make nuclear weapons and, that in time, they can produce a nuke.  Given that, why is it a bad idea to negotiate to delay this as soon as possible?  McCane and his “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” gang seem determined not to talk to Iran.  Forty-seven GOP Senators even went so far as to write a letter to the Ayatollah of Iran, telling him not to trust any deal with us.  Why are they--and some Democrats--so intent on our not working with other nations alongside  the Obama administration in attempts to avoid war?  We finally have many of the globes’ powerful nations—Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany—working together to lessen the threat of increased nuclear proliferation.  And this is a non-starter?  Why?

Going to war with Iran is a very bad idea.  Lest you have any doubt about this, check out some of these facts.

Compare the areas--Iran: 636,400 sq. miles to Iraq: 168,754 sq. miles.  Compare the populations--Iran: 81 million people to Iraq: 36 million people. Look at the difference in percentages of Sunni and Shiite Muslims in each country.  Iran is 90 percent Shiite and about  9 percent Sunni.  Iraq is 60-65 percent Shiite with 15-20 percent Sunni. There are Christians and Jews in both areas, but other religions are a very small part in either country.

Add to these facts that Iran is one of the globes’ oldest civilizations (Persia—224 AD).  Iraq was carved from Mesopotamia and drawn on a map by the League of Nations in 1920 after the demise of the Ottoman Empire.  It only became independent in 1932.  The geographic identity of Iranians is centuries old; Iraq is a much newer nation.  Think about these facts, and you can see that fighting with a much larger country with more people might deserve some critical thinking before rash acting.

Just touting American Exceptionalism and saying USA!  USA! does not excuse us from being rational when we make decisions that have far reaching, life or death consequences.  Before we barge headlong into a war we might just be able to avoid, think détente, all you Reagan lovers.  And do study your history and the facts as well as recall the events of the Second Gulf War—as we now call Operation Whatever.  (Congress will not and has not declared war since World War II.  Our police actions or conflicts or operations are only called war after we finish them.)  War with Iraq was far from a promised cake walk, and that mission is far from accomplished.  The tragic deaths and life-long repercussions for the men and women who fought for us there deserve our best.  They deserve to believe that we do not ask so much of them without considering the cost to them and their families. Now Iran?  Dear Congress: Please think before you shoot off either your mouths or the guns.

I've Already Been There. Why Are We Going Back?

I came of age as the image of June Cleaver collided with the voice of Gloria Steinem, when the country basked in our goodness--“One nation, under God”--while enforcing Jim Crow laws with water hoses and snarling dogs.  Lake Erie caught fire, and young men I knew were fighting—some dying—in a civil war in the jungles of Vietnam.  We’d ignored humankind’s ongoing damage to our environment and slipped and slid into a civil war in South East Asia.  “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” (George Santayana, 1863)   Read history.  What have we learned?

We marched and spoke out and wrote letters and joined political campaigns, believing that we could make a difference.  We wanted equal civil rights and voting rights for people of color and for women, a sane foreign policy, and a safer environment.  And change did come.

Because of the courage of so many, Congress passed laws to make the 14^th and 15^th Amendments a reality.  The war ended.  We vowed to better the environment and lessen our dependency of Middle Eastern oil.  The 26^th Amendment gave 18-year-old citizens the right to vote, a right they’d certainly earned since they’d been deemed old enough to go to war.  The birth control pill and Roe v. Wade gave women the power to control their own reproduction.  Then, in 2008, the U. S. elected a Black president.

I naively became certain that my children and their children would see a world of equality, of fairness, of thoughtful actions.  That they would live in a world of safe food and drink; of clean water and air.  The idealist in me hoped politicians would have learned the lessons of history when sabers once again began to rattle.  I was so certain……..then.

Not now.  Howard Nemerov did warn us: “We know that we know better than they knew/ And history will not blame us if once again/The light at the end of the tunnel is the train.”  Looks like a big Kaboom may be right in front of us.

While racism has never been extinguished, very few felt comfortable being overt about it.  And then Tea Party members proudly carried protest signs depicting President Obama with a bone through his nose.  Talking heads convinced a gullible segment of the population that Obama wasn’t even born in the U. S, that he was a secret Muslim intent upon destroying the country.  Uber capitalists fought to weaken the EPA and regulations that protect the consumer.  On Meet the Press, Vice-President Cheney talked of “preemptive strikes” to begin a needless war with Iraq, a war that has unloosed chaos throughout the Middle East and strengthened Iran.  Women’s rights have been assaulted.  The Supreme Court has allowed a few billionaires to buy political power through Citizens United, something that unites only the power of money and the weakening of ordinary citizens.

I look at my grandchildren and worry about their futures unless everyone--in and out of government--awakens, reads, looks at the big picture, thinks long term, and realizes that the “Good Old Days” were only good for prosperous white men, not for most everyone else.  I so long for a day when America becomes a country intent to do what it takes to become what it promised to be.  Langston Hughes pleads, “O, let America be America, again/The land that never has been yet/And yet must be.”  Please, America, let us not go back to the past.  I’ve been there, done that, and I want to move beyond all that.  The past was not all that great for far too many in this country.

Corporations as People? No. Money Is Speech? I Don't Think So!

I cannot understand some of the recent Supreme Court decisions.  Some of the justices seem to have read another constitution than the one I have studied and treasured throughout my academic life.  The interpretations about the political process beginning with the Citizens decision seem to negate my ideas about equal rights.  How can a corporation be a person?  When people are ill, they seek medical help; they don’t get government bailouts.  When people miss mortgage payments, they lose their houses.  When big banks lost money on mortgage gambling, tax payers came to their rescue.  They are too big to fail.  People are too small to be saved?

According to the first definition of person in Miriam Webster, a person is a human being.  A corporation is not a living human being and therefore, cannot be a person.  A corporation cannot vote, even after it has given all the money it wants to skew the political process.  Nonetheless, even though it cannot literally vote, it can buy votes.

How can money be speech?  First of all, money is not free, and not everyone has the same amount.  Does that mean that a full-time minimum wage earner making a little over $15,000 a year can talk as loudly, metaphorically speaking, as Bank of America’s CEO whose yearly compensation is $24.8 million?  When these figures are seen, even saying that money is speech is absurd.  Mitch McConnell is the Senator of Kentucky, and every time I’ve heard him equate money and speech, I am astounded as he should know the reality of poverty’s hardships well.  Kentucky is in the top five states in terms of poverty.  How can a representative of my home state say, “Money is speech,” as he is wont to do, when he should know what the out-of-work coal miner makes? 

And finally, how could SCOTUS so weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1968 by declaring that it is no longer as needed?  At this point, over 20 Red States have enacted new voting laws that make it difficult for inner-city residents to vote, even if they have voted numerous times in the past.  They have no need of a driver’s license, which is required for voting in many states, even though they may have numerous, verifiable photo ID’s. Some of the elderly either have never had a birth certificate either because they were born at home or have long ago misplaced the one that they had.  Not in the least surprising is that most of those for whom voting has been made more difficult lean toward the Democrats.  It is absolutely loathsome when Republican governors like Florida’s Gov. Scott shorten voting days and polling areas in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods, especially after evidence of long waiting lines and vote times in the last elections.  Florida’s ballot is often pages long, stuffed with amendments from the sublime to the ridiculous, and it takes the conscientious voter more than a moment to cast a vote. Additionally, his and other GOP governors’ moves to cut Sunday voting directly impacts the African-American community who have long made voting the Sunday before election day—Souls to the Polls--a tradition of long standing.  And Sunday voting also aids those who work six days a week and don’t get leisurely lunch breaks to do with as they please.  To deliberately make it difficult for certain voters and not others is discriminatory without a doubt.

When I watched John Lewis and others beaten and gassed as they peacefully walked across the Pettus Bridge in 1968, I wept.  And then, when they and many, many others completed that march all the way to Selma, I was so very hopeful that equal rights was going to become a reality.   And then followed the passage of the Voting Rights Act thereafter; it made me believe that the US had finally become what it could be, what it was meant to be.  I now feel very naïve because I really believed that was that; all could vote.  It never occurred to me that this could be undone!

What can you and I do about it?  Register to vote, no matter how inconvenient they make it for you.  Start early and find people to help you if you run into obstacles.  Lobby your elected officials to extend voting times and dates.  Shame them on social media if you must, but do make your views known.  Money is loud but so is persistence, especially if you organize others to make noise with you.  Do vote in all local and state elections.  The Democratic base turns out in presidential elections but is less faithful in off-year and local elections.  When we don’t vote, we cede our voice to others who don’t have our concerns for the environment, health care, the social safety net, women’s choice, etc.  Our failure to vote in 2010 state elections allowed Republicans to take more gubernatorial races than ever before in history.  That not only resulted in giving them power to gerrymander to their party’s advantage as well as to redo voting rights’ laws.

And so here is the take-away: SCOTUS rulings have made the rich and powerful more rich and powerful.  SCOTUS has made it more difficult for some to vote.   We, the people not rich and powerful in money but in voice, need to vote and vote and vote and to make our voices heard whenever and wherever.  Tweet, Facebook, e-mail, blog, write op-ed pieces.  Old school or new, do what it takes to reclaim your place in the political spectrum.