The question always comes up, and the answer always irritates members of my family. 

 

Their question:  What do you want for Christmas?

My answer:  I dunno.  I haven’t thought about it.

Their response:  Why are you always so difficult?

 

My answer this year was different.  Let me explain.

 

Three years ago, as shared in a column at the time, my marriage came to a sudden and tragic end.  As I wrote, my wife’s announcement that she was filing for divorce and moving to Utah came “like an awful telephone call in the middle of the night with a voice on the other end of the line saying that your reckless child has died in a senseless automobile accident.  Shock followed by incomprehensible grief, emptiness, and despair.

 

“The causes for my wife's decision trail back to our childhoods. They stuffed themselves into our psychological bags and soiled three decades of our lives together. In the end, my internal dark demons became tangible to her. She could see them standing beside me, which frightened her into action she could have taken years ago.  The only way each of us will get better is for us to be apart, she reasoned. A clean break will allow us time and opportunity to heal our inner wounds, to discard our soiled baggage and maybe, years from now, remarry.”

 

She didn’t file, but moved to Salt Lake City anyway, because her company was there.  She had been working from the ranch here in Texas during her stint with 3M Health Information System and then with Ingenix, a division of United Healthcare, both of which had offices in SLC.  Telecommuting , which once sounded like a good idea, was taking its tolls on her health and on our relationship. 

 

About a year after she moved out there, she found a specialist who diagnosed her as having temporal lobe epilepsy, or TLE.  And, she may have had it since childhood.  Lots of folks have it, but don’t know they have it.  Two examples are Lewis Carroll and Joan of Arc.  Want to know what it’s like to have TLE?  Think of Carroll’s Alice and her journeys in Wonderland.  We now know Carroll was describing things he saw, not the things he imagined.  And Joan got burned at the stake, which surely must be some kind of metaphor for our pre-diagnosis relationship.

 

Among many things, TLE distorts reality, causes extreme head and body pains, and is just a nasty thing to have, especially if you and the people you live with don’t know you have it.  Now we know, and now we try to control it through various means that include medication, therapy, and rest. 

 

The corporate environment is not good for anyone with TLE, and life with her last employer finally got to the point that she consulted an attorney to see what legal remedies were possible to keep management from violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and triggering her TLE. 

 

Finally, after much discussion, she agreed it was time to quit her job, sell her condo, pack up her cats, and move back to Texas.  A major part of the discussion centered on the fact that we both knew we couldn’t live much longer without each other, and that this seemed like the time to be together again. 

 

Can we blame TLE, 3M, and Ingenix on our marital problems?  Not entirely, but a condition such as hers is diabolical and destructive to relationships unless those involved understand the importance of communication, patience, and physical limitations.  Some days are not as good as others, but knowing the reasons keeps both of us from misreading the signs and acting inappropriately, again.

 

As I told her three years ago, at the start of our unhappy separation, our chances for success are much greater if we stay together.  We survived events beyond the abilities of most individuals because we met those challenges together.  Two hands connected by intertwining fingers.  Or, two people connected by Velcro hearts, as I used to describe it.

 

And so, my answer this year to the question of what I want for Christmas is simply this:  My Sharon is home, and that’s all that I need.

 

To each of you, we send our best wishes for a wonderful Christmas and an even better new year.

 

 

Two unconnected events this week left no doubt of the failure of the people of the United States to hold our own in the arena of international public relations – in other words, the winning of hearts and minds in the Muslim world.  Those in the Muslim world, at least the ones with access to some form of medium, must have watched in amazed amusement and disgust at the civil-rights field trips to Jena, La., and at the over-the-top protestations against the speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a private university.

“You want us to be like you, the Land of the Free,” they must have said.  “Yet you falsely imprison your black children and you try to muzzle the freely elected leader of a great and ancient nation.”

Indeed.

We in this country, at least those of us with access to some form of medium, can explore the backstory to these front-page events, and then decide for ourselves what to believe and how to respond.  Others around the world, particularly folks in the Middle East, see the same pictures but hear a different narration.  They do not have the opportunity to decide what to believe or how to respond.

The New York Times ran a story in October 2001 with the prophetic headline: “U.S. appears to be losing public relations war so far.”  The inability of the Bush administration to convince doubters at the time that the war in Afghanistan was justified and that U.S. Middle East policy is evenhanded was the gist of the story.  A Western diplomat pointed out that talking heads cannot compete with the powerful images of wounded Afghan children and Israeli tanks rolling into Palestinian villages.

The war on terror, the story explained, has an image problem outside of these United States, in part because no sense of immediacy exists in those countries, not like here.  Stories of anthrax attacks and the hunt for Osama bin Laden led our newscasts, while Middle Eastern news outlets repeatedly aired images of bombed-out buildings and the funerals of children and grandparents.  Images provided by Western news agencies.

The message they receive, not necessarily the message we send, is that our righteous indignation over the death of innocent civilians does not extend beyond our borders, and particularly does not apply to Muslims.

And so it is with Jena and Mahmoud.

While we condemn the treatment of Muslim women and abhor the violence between members of different Islamic sects, the Muslim world sees images of massive protests in a small Louisiana town described by some as the example of the rampant racism that plagues our nation.

Middle Eastern media do not explain that well-intentioned souls and publicity-addicted agitators may have overplayed a debatably racial situation.  In fact, not until the buses unloaded their well-meaning passengers hoping to relive the heady days of Selma and Birmingham did the mainstream media report the backstory of this sordid affair:  white youths sent to an alternative school for almost a month and given in-school suspensions for two weeks, instead of the minor three-day suspension as earlier reported; an all-white jury that resulted from African-Americans refusing to report for jury duty and not from the machinations of a racist judicial system; nooses hung from an old shade tree that was not the exclusive shelter for white students as frequently described; and black students playing with the nooses instead of running from them in fear and trepidation.

Then there was the brilliantly played public-relations hand of Ahmadinejad.  U.S. media told their audiences that the president of Columbia University invited the Iranian president to speak during his visit to the United States in a move that appeared to be an ill-conceived attempt to capitalize on the moment.  The reality, however, as described after the fact by Newsweek magazine, is that Ahmadinejad was invited to speak last year by a former Columbia dean.  Security concerns prevented that appearance.

A few weeks ago, according to Newsweek, the new Iranian ambassador to the United Nations asked if Columbia still wanted Ahmadinejad to speak, under certain ground rules.

These things do not happen overnight, especially at a university.  The accusatorial and, as some would say, rude introduction of Ahmadinejad by Columbia president Lee Bollinger was worked out in advance, according to Newsweek.  Nothing was left to chance by Ahmadinejad and the Iranians, who used our righteous indignation against us by making Ahmadinejad appear to the folks back home as the innocent victim of another American outrage.

“How dare you invite someone to your house, then insult him and the people he represents,” they said.

Indeed, the chancellors of six Iranian universities and academic centers sent a protest letter to Bollinger.  The first of the ten questions they asked was why did the university and the U.S. media violate Ahmadinejad’s freedom of expression, a right guaranteed by the First Amendment of our Constitution.  We, in this country, know Ahmadinejad received more than his share of face time with the American public, but the folks back home saw only the poorly conceived attempts to restrict his message to the American people.

It boggles the mind that a nation that can sell millions of disposable diapers and bright, shiny diamonds, which do not contribute to the advancement of civilization or to peace in any region of the world, cannot sell the simple concept of a friendly and helpful Uncle Sam.

Mundus vult decipi

 

 

Most readers of the daily news, whether they find the news online or on the doorstep, do not have the time to compare and contrast the coverage of a particular subject.  E-readers may sample the coverage of, say, Kosovo, by using their favorite search engine to find all of the online stories about Kosovo for that day.  (On the day of this writing, a Google search returned twenty-four hits on the first page, although none linked to a U.S. news outlet.)  The really curious reader may open each of the links for a particular headline to see how different news organizations covered the story.

Every now and then, one has the opportunity to read the original story from one newspaper and the edited version carried by another newspaper.  This can lead to responses ranging from amusement to outrage.  Such was the case with a story that originally appeared in The New York Times (“Mexican Migrants Carry H.I.V. Home [www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/world/americas/17mexico.html?hp]) and which the Houston Chronicle (“Researchers fear AIDS crisis as migrants return to Mexico) extensively edited for its print edition.

Cutting a thousand words from a 1,300-word story is not easy if one tries to retain the original sense and credibility.  The Chronicle did poorly.  Here are some examples:

The Times story said, “As sweeping proposals for immigration-law changes founder in the United States, the expanding AIDS crisis among the migrants is largely overlooked on both sides of the border.”  The Chronicle edited the sentence to read, “As immigration reform founders, the expanding AIDS crisis among the migrants goes virtually unaddressed on both sides of the border.”

The terms “largely overlooked” and “virtually unaddressed” are not synonymous.  The Times piece tells us government and health officials have not given much thought to the significance of AIDS among Mexicans working illegally in the U.S., while the Chronicle’s edited version implies policy makers know about the situation and refuse to do anything about it.

The next sentences in the Times story point out that, “Particularly in Mexico, AIDS is still shrouded by stigma and denial.  In the United States, it is often assumed that immigrants bring diseases into the country, not take them away.”  The Chronicle story says simply, “In Mexico, AIDS is shrouded by denial.”  The paper cut the rest of the paragraph.

The word “particularly” in the Times story is of particular importance, as is the word “stigma” that the Chronicle editors deleted.  This is because the Times story refers later to studies that show one in ten Mexicans working illegally in Los Angeles and hanging around job-pickup sites are so desperate for money that they perform oral and anal sex for cash.  The Chronicle deliberately deleted all references to homosexuality and its “stigma” among Mexicans, thereby eliminating gay sex as one reason for the spread of AIDS in Mexico.  The Chronicle also removed the sentence regarding the assumption that “immigrants bring diseases” into the U.S.  By now, one suspects the Houston paper is pushing a political agenda.

The Times story goes on to note that a new study found the greatest risk of contracting AIDS faced by rural Mexican women having sex with their returning husbands is the refusal of their spouses to use condoms.  The Chronicle rewrite, however, placed the blame on “the women’s inability to insist that their husbands use condoms.”

The Times story points out that “AIDS has not yet exploded in Mexico and is focused mostly among prostitutes and their clients, and drug users and gay men.”  The Chronicle turned “prostitutes” into “sex workers” and edited out their customers.

The Chronicle also left out some additional relevant information, such as the percentage of Mexicans with HIV who used to live in the U.S. fluctuated between 41 percent and 79 percent in the 1980s and early 1990s; the percentage of illegal workers from Mexico in Los Angeles who take money to participate in gay sex; and that Mexico’s northern and southern borders are magnets for prostitutes and drug dealers drawn by migrating illegal workers entering and leaving the country.

The Times put its warm and fuzzy spin on the story by using the term “migrant workers” when referring to illegal immigrants.  It further attempted to evoke sympathy for these individuals by telling us they are “displaced” from their homes.  Victims of natural disasters or wars are displaced from their homes; these folks left of their own volition.

Probably the most tortured phrases came when the Times quoted a researcher who tried to explain why these workers do who they do.  According to the researcher, they are vulnerable, isolated, exposed to different sexual practices, hampered by language barriers, depressed, lonely, and abused.

But the worst aspect of both articles is the subtle implication that illegal immigrants come to the U.S. disease free and return to Mexico with AIDS and HIV without infecting anyone in this country.  It is ludicrous to believe they have sex only with prostitutes who give them AIDS or, in some cases, become prostitutes for men who give them AIDS.

In the end, a story giving the sad and disturbing truth about the spread of HIV/AIDS among the returning illegal immigrants and their families turned into a justification for their philandering and an indictment against our nation for not having the programs in place to make them less vulnerable, less isolated, and less likely to hook up with a hooker or to bend over for a buck.

Yes, it is a horrible problem, but it is not our fault.

Mundus vult decipi

Have you ever thought about the criteria that make a “holy city” holy?  And while you’re contemplating this, come up with the answer to the question of why western journalists believe Christianity doesn’t have holy cities. 

You would be hard-pressed to find news stories referring to the birthplace of Jesus Christ, THE SON OF GOD, as “the holy city of Bethlehem.”  Journalists would never describe as Christian holy cities the ancient patriarchates of Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria.

Constantinople is now Istanbul, but at one time, it was the seat of the Byzantine Empire and the ecumenical center of the Christian world.  Rome, Jerusalem Antioch, and Alexandria are still around, but journalists and their editors back home go out of their way to avoid the hint of Judeo-Christian bias.

This is why you won’t read about the 22-year-old man arrested for swimming nekked in the “historic” Baraccia fountain in the holy city of Rome, as happened this week and reported by Reuters.

Nor will you read about responses from the holy city of Vatican City about a proposal for Roman Catholic pope Benedict XVI and Russian Orthodox patriarch Alexy II to chew the holy fat in Cyprus sometime during the year, as reported this week by the Associated Press.

Anglicans won’t read about controversial housing development plans accepted by the holy city of Canterbury’s city council this week, as reported in The Times of London.

Folks in Japan and China never see their capital cities referred to as holy cities or former holy cities, even though the emperors of both countries claimed divine status.  Maybe the lack of a recognized holy city led the Chinese to take control of Tibet, home to the holy city of Lhasa.

Latter-Day Saints never hear the Mormon mecca called the holy city of Salt Lake City.

Gays, however, can read the Agence France Presse story about an ultra-Orthodox Jew arrested last week for trying to blow up a Gay Pride parade route in the holy city of Jerusalem.  In case the reader starts feeling distressed about the use of the term, and experiences an overriding desire to apologize for religious insensitivity, the writer included the following disclaimer:  “Jerusalem (is) revered as a holy city by millions of Christians, Jews, and Muslims all over the world.”

Maybe the title of holy city doesn’t mean what it used to mean.  Think of a holy city and you may think of a peaceful place populated by people filled with some kind of holy spirit.  The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines holy city as a city that is the center of religious worship and traditions.

These days, though, a holy city may find itself as the center of a story about a natural or political upheaval.  “Another quake jolts holy city of Qom in Iran,” read a Payvand News headline on the last day of spring.  Historians of the twentieth century know the Punjab holy city of Amritsar for the martyrdom of 206 Sikhs in 1984.  In February, officers from Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice set out to protect the rectitude of the holy city of Mecca by arresting more than 200 Saint Valentine’s Day observers from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Even though western journalists try hard to play up the religion-of-peace aspect of Islam, they find themselves writing stories of gunmen killing six people riding a minibus near the holy city of Karbala, or of soldiers guarding the funeral of a police officer in the holy city of Najaf.

Samarra, also in Iraq, may not be a holy city, but it has a revered mosque bombed by al-Qaeda earlier this month.  (Please note that western journalists only use the word revered with Islamic places of worship.  God forbid, so to speak, that the reporter for an Irish newspaper describe the “ancient” Basilica of Saint John and Saint Paul in the [holy city] of Rome as revered, even though it is the administrative headquarters for the Passionist order to which the newly canonized Charles of Mount Argus belonged.)

Pity the poor United States.  We’re not old enough to have anything that’s ancient.  We reserve revered for really old actors or professors who just died.

But we do have Charleston, S.C., named after King Charles II of England, and a self-proclaimed Holy City, because of the abundances of places of worship.

Charleston also is the home to Sammie Smalls, the inspiration for the Porgy character in “Porgy and Bess” and a guy who used to ride around James Island on a goat cart.  Charleston will be a mecca this weekend for people attending the “Comin’ Home to Porgy” celebration, a Lowcountry version of a haj.

Others can have their holy cities and revered places.  We have our own holy city, complete with a revered goat cart rider.

We’re doomed.

 

 

 

 

A recent column about the Fort Dix Six and the historic involvement of Albanians in the commission and funding of terrorism caused quite a stir among the Albanian population in the United States and abroad.  One could characterize most of the Albanian response as hate mail or something pretty close to that.  A few Albanian responses were thoughtful and expressed dismay at what they believed was a continuation of a false belief that Albanians hate America.  Then, of course, readers of Serbian descent and those with interests in Kosovo had entirely different views. 

As I explained to those who wrote, the column did not say all Albanians are terrorists.  In past columns, I compared today’s war with terrorists with our war with Germany and Japan.  Not all Germans and Japanese were evil during the Second World War; only those who tried to kill us.  The same is true in this instance.  Not all Albanians are terrorists, and not all Muslims are terrorists; just those who maintain ties with terrorists, and who try to kill us. 

I also pointed out that it was gratifying to see the quick response from leaders within the Albanian community in this country who condemned the alleged plans of the Fort Dix Six.  The actions of those arrested damaged their families, friends, and community; however, I find it difficult to believe that no one in their families and in their Albanian community knew about their plans.  The question becomes then: Why did those who knew remain silent?

In the spirit of fairness, I’ve included excerpts from some of the email.

 “Shame on you, shame on your false career, constructed by lies.  Albanian are the most friendly people toward USA, and your disastrous article is not capable to show anything, except increasing Serbians hopes for nothing.”

“The whole story is a big propaganda!  Nothing in there is really true, most of the story is taken or written by some Serbian and reposted by you.  Shame on YOU! "

“You are so disgusting, when you write so much bulls**t against Albanian.  Who has paid you to write those lies . . . Come in Albania, have a visit here, and than you will learn that we have more real Christians that serbs (sic) have, we have more tolerance that serbs (sic) have.  We are proud to be Albanian, and we can not let are (sic) more bulls**t emitted in internet, without saying to you, F**k you, your family and all your paying contributors.”

“I read your analysis ‘Albanian Terror and the Fort Dix Six’ and have to tell you that I am impressed by your knowledge of the Balkan situation.  Your knowledge and arguments are a great surprise for me, since I have been following what others have been writing about the area for years now.  The lack of knowledge and twisting of facts in many of the commentaries I read brought me, at times, to the point of desperation.”

“He does not know or pretends not to know the long drawn-out struggle of the Albanians in Kosova against their suppressors, the Serbs who seized Albanian land when they came to the Balkans in the 6th-7th centuries, destroyed the Albanian Catholic churches and other religious sites and on their foundations built their own Orthodox churches and monasteries, turning Kosova into ‘their cradle of Serb civilization’ . . . The author has the audacity to accuse the Clinton administration of ‘turning a blind eye to the activities’ of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) ‘designed to lure the Serbian government into armed conflict, thereby forcing the West to jump in under the pretext of preventing the slaughter of Muslims by Serbian Christians.’ With this statement, the author questions the real mission of the West headed by the United States, which was to save the Albanian civilians from the atrocities of the Serbian army . . . By supporting Miloshevic’s Serbia, he also becomes a champion of Panslavism, which has been used to justify and motivate the suppression of the Albanians in the Balkans . . . With his accusations against Albanians in general, the author of the article joins the anti-Albanian chorus of the most rabid anti-Americans in Europe, who are the Serbs, the Greeks and the Russians.”

“Thank you for your excellent article.  It is time that we recognize that the Serbs are Christian just like you and I.  The trio that led the attack in 1998 against the Serbs (our alley in both World Wars) were Albright, Cohen and Sandy Berger--none of whom are Christian.”

“I see in that region, an ethnic group such as Albanians, out of whom more than 90% supports U.S.A. and not just because of the war in Kosovo . . . I see in that region, a group of people trying so hard to survive and make it to the path of a civilized society . . . I see in that region a group of people with a lot of religious differences, whom still tried at various parts of history to live in peace, and will always . . . I see in that region a group of people who see a brighter future ahead  . . . It is the time Europe plays a role on that.”

“Of course, the US media is apologetic about this pointing out that these simply some odd and misguided group.  One report had interviews with their Albanian family and friends explaining how grateful and pro-America they are in order to soften the image of Kosovo Albanians.”

 “As you know in Kosovo where I come from there are three different religions and they are all getting along with each other.  To tell you the truth Albanians are one of the most non believers in religions.  Most of us say that Albanian religon is Albanism . . . I love this country so do my people.  We stand by USA in good and worst day.  Please do not let people think that Albanians are terrorists.”

As of this writing, we know that on May 7, federal authorities busted the so-called Fort Dix Six before the alleged Muslim terrorists launched their murderous attack on the military installation.  Four of the six are ethnic Albanians.  Three of the four are brothers.

And the fourth, according to authorities, was a sniper in Kosovo.

The arrests came after several months of surveillance, according to FBI director Robert Mueller.  The feds became interested in the men after viewing a video of ten men shooting rifles at a remote Pennsylvania firing range while shouting about jihad.  The FBI knows the identity of the other four, but doesn’t believe they pose a threat.

Mueller told reporters the FBI chose to arrest the six after they bragged about buying more weapons, including a Yugoslavian SKS assault rifle.

Geometry teaches that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  If the charges against the Fort Dix Six stick, then that line leads from ethnic Albanians in the U.S. directly to their terrorist counterparts in Albania and Kosovo.

One does not need a stretch of the imagination to draw the line.  Law enforcement agencies in this country and in Europe have known for decades about the Albanian contributions to international terrorism.  And sometimes, the good guys used the bad guys to promote shared political agendas, as happened in Serbia and Kosovo.

Nearly twenty years ago, The New York Times ran a story about the rising ethnic strife in Yugoslavia.  The Nov. 1, 1987, story recounted how an ethnic Albanian soldier in the Yugoslav army killed four Slavic soldiers as they slept in their bunks.  The army later found hundreds of ethnic Albanian cells within its ranks, according to the story.

The story also told of ethnic Albanians attacking Orthodox churches, poisoning wells, and burning crops.

The Kosovo Liberation Army, which the U.S. State Department no longer lists among the world’s terrorist organizations, was an ethnic Albanian guerilla group that led the battle for Kosovo’s secession from Yugoslavia in the late 1990s.  The Clinton administration turned a blind eye to their activities designed to lure the Serbian government into armed conflict, thereby forcing the West to jump in under the pretext of preventing the slaughter of Muslims by Serbian Christians.

In early April of 1999, American officials and KLA leaders held secret talks about supplying the terrorists with heavy weapons and other support, according to the April 26, 1999, issue of U.S. News & World Report.  Defense Secretary William Cohen later told Republican senators the KLA was no “choirboy circle,” according to the magazine.

Stories about the Balkan Connection have been around for more than twenty years.  The Wall Street Journal reported on September 9, 1985, on heroin trafficking by a loosely organized group of ethnic Albanians centered in New York.  U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials claimed the Balkan Connection moved as much as forty percent of the U.S. heroin supply, according to the WSJ.

The Observatire Geopolitique Des Drogues, a Paris-based narcotics-monitoring group, released a report in June 1994 that claimed Albanian groups in Kosovo were trading heroin for weapons for use in a brewing conflict.  On June 9, 1998, Agence France-Presse reported that Italian police staged a nation-wide anti-drug operation and arrested a group of ethnic Albanians smuggling arms back to Kosovo to use in their battle against the Serbs.

Independence was not the only goal of the KLA and the drug traffickers, according to an unnamed Italian Special Operations Section source quoted in the Oct. 15, 1998, edition of Milan’s Corriere della Sera.  “On the basis of phone calls that we have intercepted, we have discovered that the drugs are not only a source of wealth, but also a tool in the struggle to weaken Christendom,”  the source said.     

On March 24, 1999, just before the start of NATO’s air campaign against Serbia, The Times of London reported that Europol, the European police authority, was preparing a report for interior and justice ministers on a connection between the KLA and Albanian drug gangs.     

According to The Washington Times of June 4, 1999, a secret intelligence report by NATO’s Office of Security said the KLA had received smuggled weapons paid for by money raised through the sale of drugs and sex.  The 24-page report apparently included the United States among five countries that believed the KLA participated with an organized crime network to smuggle heroin into Western Europe and the U.S.

Jump now to Dec. 9, 2006.  Serbian television reported that the director of the government’s media relations office asked the UN special envoy to Kosovo to condemn ethnic Albanian separatists and their bombing of the Zvecan-Kosovo Polje rail line.  A week later, a Montenegrin newspaper reported that the FBI and the Albanian special prosecutor’s office issued wanted circulars for a terrorist group suspected of transporting 170 kilograms of radioactive material, enough to make a dirty bomb, to Albania from Montenegro.

On Jan. 12 of this year, a Greek terrorist group called the Revolutionary Struggle launched a rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Athens.  An embassy spokesperson said the war in Iraq and other conflicts, such as those in Kosovo, served as catalysts for the attack.  And, the rocket launcher, according to investigators, almost certainly came from the Balkans or Albania.

Inter Pres Service reported in February on a study published by the International Strategic Studies Association that suggests a link between the KLA and the Revolutionary Struggle.  It also predicts an increase in anti-U.S. activity in Greece led by proponents of an independent Kosovo.

The Fort Dix Six may be home-grown terrorists with no connection to any organized group, as the FBI says.  It just may be a coincidence that four of them are ethnic Albanians and that one of them was a sniper in Kosovo.  But then, a line comes to mind from the movie “Guys and Dolls,” the one where Sky Masterson says:

“One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to show you a brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken.  Then this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear.  But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you're going to wind up with an ear full of cider.”

The appearance on the Internet this week of a video showing the stoning to death of a teenage Kirdish girl in Iraq underscores this writer’s long-held contention that “they are not like us.”  

Here’s what happened as reported by London’s Daily Mail.  Hardline relious leaders and male family members of Du’a Khalil Aswad condemned the 17-year-old girl to death by stoning because of her relationship with a Sunni Muslim boy.  Aswad’s family belongs to Yezidi, a Kurdish religious group in Iraq.  The religious leaders and family members claimed she dishonored the family by failing to return home one night.  Other reports suggest the “honor killing” had a lot to do with her apparent conversion to Islam.

Regardless of the reason, on or about April 7 of this year, eight or nine men dragged the girl into the street and stoned her for half an hour until she died, as a large crowd stood around and watched in the predominately Kurdish town near Mosul.

Reports say the boyfriend is in hiding for fear he will meet the same cold, hard fate.

The British arm of Amnesty International condemned the murder and called for the arrest of those responsible (http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17351).

This is not the first time someone filmed or videotaped a stoning.  Below is an excerpt from a column from this writer carried by various online sites in June of 2003.

 + + +

The May 5 edition of New Zealand's Timaru Herald carried a story of the stoning to death of four ducks by four boys the previous weekend.  The newspaper quoted an unidentified man who said that when he tried to stop the boys, one of them responded, “But we're only killing them with rocks.”

These boys are not like the boys I knew while growing up in a small Illinois town where the worst thing one did with stones was to toss them through greenhouse windows or at streetlights . . .

Nigeria is one of seven countries, all Muslim, that either engages in state-sponsored stoning or allows it as part of shariah law.  The others include Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Sudan.  As late as February of this year, a 13-year-old Pakistani girl was mutilated and stoned for dancing at a wedding (www.pakistanlink.com/Opinion/2003/Jan/03/11.html).  

U.S. lawmakers agree that these people are not like us.  The House of Representatives in March, by a 416-0 vote, passed a resolution sponsored by Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn, that denounces stoning as a gross violation of human rights.  
 
This issue is not new to Capitol Hill.  On Feb. 25, 1998, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-NY, showed a smuggled video of a public stoning in Iran (www.house.gov/ackerman/press/iran2.html).  A copy of the 15-minute tape is online at www.apostatesofislam.com/media/stoning.htm.  It is a gruesome account, and should not be viewed by the merely curious or those easily sickened by terrifying images of torture.  

About five minutes into the tape we see a group of men carrying an individual in a sheet to the center of the plaza, and we watch as they transform the sheet into a death shroud.  They carefully place the mummy-like figure into a hole as if transplanting a tree in someone’s yard.  

At about seven minutes into the tape, handlers place a second person into another hole. This raw video shows us the backs of people as the photographer walks around looking for a clear view of the gruesome scene of death.  About 30 seconds later, hundreds of men, mostly members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, crowd into a circle around the condemned.  Then the stoning begins, seemingly spontaneously.  

We watch the eerie site of two white figures writhing as stones hit them.  A man walks up to one shroud and pelts it with rocks.  The camera zooms in on the bloodied lump surrounded by stones.  The camera pans to the other individual.  The cover is knocked off, he is face down, his head is bathed in blood.  

The tape jumps to the scene of a third person brought in, shrouded.  He stands stock still as ghastly gardeners plant him in the hole.  

Dirt is shoveled into the hole around the fourth individual, who bends at the waist. Feet tamp the dirt around him, making sure all is snug.  

The circle of death reforms as the man with the shovel makes his final tamps.  The crowd chants in agitated anticipation.  

The stoning begins with lusty yells.  It is a frenzied scene devoid of humanity.  Scores of stones fly quickly and strike horribly.  The shroud around one head explodes into red.  The two ghostly figures totter.  One falls forward only to be pelted backward.  

The camera zooms in.  The man on the right writhes as his shroud comes loose.  We see his bloody torso struck by stones.  We see him struggle as the pile of stones grows around him. We see the circle contract slowly until fewer than five feet separate the murderous men from the objects of their execution.  

Stone throwers stand close enough to caress their victims.  But they do not.  Instead, they pick up more stones and fling them with all their might.  
 
The condemned continue to writhe, to fall over, to sit back up, to fall back over.  One goes suddenly still. The other rises, almost defiantly in the face of hard death.  

Now the crowd stands within inches.  Men pick up rocks as quickly as they can, in some macabre competition to see who will cast the last stone in the deliverance of Allah's justice.  

Both figures are still.  The crowd disperses.  I recall the New Zealand boys who justified their actions by saying they only killed them with rocks.  These Muslim men would appreciate the sentiments, because they are not like us.  

Mundus vult decipi

Several years ago, a fellow proclaimed in a best-selling book that he learned in kindergarten all there is to know about life. I wonder if he had daughters, because life with daughters can teach lessons much darker than any found in kindergarten.

The news out of Iraq over Thanksgiving reminded me of a column I’ve wanted to write for a few months. Sectarian violence there resulted in the fiery murders of more than 200 Shiite and Sunni Muslims. A radical legislator declared that the United States was to blame for the killings and called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces or the setting of a timetable for their withdrawal.

Never mind that Shiites and Sunnis have engaged in acts of barbarism against each other (and others) since Mohammed died and winged his way to heaven They will continue to slaughter each other until one group attains total domination over the other and over their religion of peace. These murderous Muslims, along with the chronically dissatisfied, the lower achievers, and all of the other whiners of the world, find convenience in blaming someone else for their ills and for their failures.

It is easy to point a finger than to engage in introspection, to take no responsibility for one’s situation. And there are those evil individuals who know the truth, but use the tools of victimization and scapegoating to fool and to recruit their feckless followers.

Back in the days of middle school and early years of high school, my younger daughter had a problem with girls. Or more correctly, girls had a problem with my daughter. As long as she had a steady boyfriend, girls her age treated her the way any teenage girl treats another human being. In other words, with minor disrespect and minimal cattiness. Whenever she was “in play”, (without a boyfriend), however, girls once friends turned into cruel and vicious enemies wary of her every laugh and possessive of every guy deemed boyfriend material.

Life was much better here at the ranch whenever my daughter was not in play. Here is what I mean. My daughter had spent one summer afternoon between seventh and eighth grades with friends, hanging around the neighborhood boat docks. At one point, some girls in the group chased her down the street. One of them punched her a few times.

I met my daughter at the home of the girl who threw the punches, and we went inside to discuss the situation with her mother and the other girls. The meeting was not confrontational; I wanted to find out everything that happened and about the events that led up to the attack. The girl admitted punching my daughter, and, incredibly, justified her actions by blaming my daughter for taking a cell phone call from a boy that one of the other girls liked.

All the girls agreed they did not appreciate their boyfriends, or boys they wanted as boyfriends, talking with my daughter. It upset them, and it wasn’t fair that my daughter should try to take them away.

My daughter told the group she didn’t have any interests in the boy who called, nor in any of their boyfriends. In fact, she didn’t want a boyfriend at the time. She was having too much fun not worrying about whether some guy was happy.

The mother was no help. She didn’t understand why I was there, particularly because she and her husband didn’t condone violence; therefore, she found it hard to believe her daughter’s confession. She also refused to admit that whoever threw the phantom punch was wrong in doing so. In her mind, and in the minds of the other girls, my daughter brought it upon herself for taking the phone call and talking with a boy that was not her boyfriend.

Pubescent female logic is not the exclusive domain of thirteen-year-old girls.

At the time of the incident, we thought we were moving to another state because of my wife’s job. I explained that to the group, and suggested the girls and the mother listen closely to what they were saying. “We’re not to blame. She’s to blame. It’s her fault that our boyfriends want to talk with her and not to us. She needed to be taught a lesson.”

At that point, I wrote a question on a napkin, folded it, and handed it to the mother, telling her to put it away until after we moved. Then, the next time the girls have problems with their boyfriends, she was to take out the napkin and answer the question I had written:

Who do you blame now?

Sometimes the most difficult problems distill to the most simple questions. U.S. forces will leave Iraq, but the kidnappings, the beheadings, the car bombs, and the sectarian insanity will not abate. When that happens, who then will they blame?

Mundus vult decipi

On April 9, 2006, Internet sites that carry my column ran the following piece.  Events of recent days, and last night's debate against Bush by Democrat presidential candidates, made me consider reprising the column here.

No easy solutions to immigration’s Gordian Knot:
Just ask the Chinese

Before things get more out of hand, it is time for folks to take some deep breaths and think rationally about the next steps in undoing immigration’s Gordian Knot before it becomes our undoing.  This will not be easy (that’s why it’s a Gordian Knot!), and empty political rhetoric from Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, and political pot stirrers will just add to the confusion and delay reasonable resolutions. 

A sane and productive debate does not use the fates and fortunes of people as opportunities for political head knocking.  Not to pick on Democratic Party jeffe Howard Dean, but he just happens to be the latest high-profile politician to unleash another contender for the Mother of All Ironies. 

During a visit last week to California’s Alameda County Central Labor Council offices, Dean accused the president and the Republicans of scapegoating illegal aliens for political gain.  Dean’s audience included labor, community, and interfaith leaders who have their own reasons for exploiting illegal aliens; reasons that include increasing sagging union membership and assuring the future employment of individuals who make their living by taking public and private dollars to perpetuate poverty and the idea of victimhood.  There is no need to go into the hopes for political hay on the parts of Dean and the Democrats.

And others are out there.  

Like the Spanish-language DJs who used their airtime to promote and encourage the first marches by Mexicans and other Spanish-speaking immigrants.  Did they do it out of the goodness of their hearts, or out of the desire to increase ratings, considering they were just coming out of the winter ratings period and entering the spring sweeps?

Like the people passing out large, new Mexican flags.  Sure, many Mexican families own their country’s flag and proudly wave it on Cinco de Mayo; but, no rational person would doubt the existence of Mexican flag foisters hanging out of the back of trucks.

Like the people who work behind the scenes to encourage middle- and high-school students to cut classes and march on city hall.  These political puppet masters are no dummies.  They know kids are safe and make great front-page photos and tv news video.  They also know kids are safe because no city official wants to see images of tear gas and attack dogs unleashed on children.

History has an uncanny ability to shake off the dust and smack us up the side of the head.  Look closely and you will see a dust cloud coming, and that rushing sound you will hear shortly will be the prelude to a mighty reminder that we have been down this ugly road before.

Just ask the Chinese.

(Disclaimer: My grandfather was an illegal immigrant who left China in the early twentieth century and crossed into the U.S. from Canada.)

Immigrants from southern China started showing up along the Pacific coast about the middle of the nineteenth century, because of natural and manmade disasters and China’s collapsing rural economy.  Most of them were men who left their families, hoping to make some money and return home.  The first Chinese included professionals and merchants; laborers followed. 

Everyone got along until Chinese gold miners started making money from digs abandoned as worthless by American miners.  Then folks started looking around and saw that Chinese were working as cooks, launderers, and domestic servants.  By the depression of the 1870s, a few years after the completion of the Chinese-built transcontinental railroad, Americans saw Chinese as serious competition for the limited job opportunities.  Violence against the “Oriental Menace” spread from California to Wyoming, led by an Irish immigrant in San Francisco.

Not everyone saw the Chinese as a threat.  In 1876, David Phillips, in his “Letters from California” (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbhome.html), wrote that to take the Chinese out of California, “its industries would be ruined, and the lands, now so productive, would be cultivated without remunerative results.  They supply, by their toil, nearly all the vegetables and much of the poultry.  They are doing a large share of the farm-work, and build all the railroads and irrigating canals and ditches.  They do much of the cooking, and nearly all of the washing and ironing.”

Mark Twain wrote in “Roughing It”, published in 1872 (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/timeline/riseind/chinimms/twain.html), that “No Californian gentleman or lady ever abuses or oppresses a Chinaman, under any circumstances . . .  Only the scum of the population do it – they and their children; they, and naturally and consistently, the policemen and politicians, likewise, for these are the dust-licking pimps and slaves of the scum, there as well as elsewhere in America.”

By 1876, a Republican Congress decided to investigate the Chinese immigration problem, which resulted in the Report of the Joint Special Committee to Investigate Chinese Immigration, Senate Report No. 689, 44th Congress, 2d Session, issued Feb. 27, 1877 (http://cprr.org/Museum/Chinese_Immigration.html).

The committee found that California and the Pacific coast developed rapidly thanks to cheap Chinese labor.  The committee also found, however, that “laboring men and artisans” opposed Chinese immigration because the Chinese worked for less money and, therefore, took many of the available jobs.  This attitude, according to the report, led to widely held fears that low wages would turn the white working class into a servant class. 

The future of the Pacific coast was clear to the committee:  It would become either “American or Mongolian.”

“There is a vast hive from which Chinese immigrants may swarm, and circumstances may send them in enormous numbers to this country . . .The Chinese do not come to make their home in this country; their only purpose is to acquire what would be a competence in China and return there to enjoy it . . . It further appears from the evidence that the Chinese do not desire to become citizens of this country, and have no knowledge of or appreciation for our institutions.  Very few of them learn to speak our language . . .”

The committee believed Congress had to act before the West Coast became a province of China instead of the United States.  The American population of the region was patiently waiting for Congress to act, the committee said.

Congress passed The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the nation’s first law banning immigration by race or nationality.  The law barred all Chinese except for travelers, merchants, teachers, students, and those born in the United States.  Congress repealed the law in 1943, when China became an ally in the war against Japan.

It is time for responsible people to replace rhetoric with reason and to learn from the well-meaning mistakes of the past.  Our nation’s current predicament did not spring forth fully formed like a border-crossing Athena of immigration.  It will not be resolved by political knee jerking.  Just ask the Chinese.

Imused (I-must) verb –  To lose one’s job, or to be pilloried, for lack of racial sensitivity or political correctness. 

Unless one is of Chinese ancestry or has a great interest in the racial hypocrisy that holds hostage our politically correct society, the indefinite suspension this week of the two nitwits who host “The Dog House with JV and Elvis” on WFNY-FM in New York City (www.923freefm.com/pages/13527.php) probably went unnoticed.  The pair aired a six-minute prank phone call to a New York Chinese restaurant on April 5, which the station replayed on April 19.  The call was filled with language that would make a (fill in the blank, or risk offending members of any occupation whose place of business may range from a street corner to the open seas) blush. 

The New York Times (www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/business/media/24radiocnd.htm) and Radio Online (http://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/$rol.exe/headline_id=n16465) are two of several news and information sites that carried stories of the suspensions that followed protests from the Chinese community.

As an American of Chinese ancestry (my grandfather was an illegal immigrant who later owned a restaurant in Chicago and who became the treasurer for one of the city’s triads), I find myself torn between feeling 1) outrage toward cavalier attitudes regarding racial slurs and 2) disgust regarding selective political correctness vis-à-vis humor.

Last year, it was encouraging to see a challenge to Rosie O’Donnell’s Chinese insults, even if her comments did not garner much attention from her sycophants in the mainstream media.  Given the lack of public outrage, one would surmise it is never okay to use the N word, but it is open season for the C word, especially if said on national television.

Here is what happened.  Rosie did not appreciate the media obsession regarding actor Danny DeVito’s apparent on-air inebriety, and she voiced her displeasure on “The View.”

“The fact is that it's news all over the world.  That you know, you can imagine in China it's like: 'Ching chong … ching chong. Danny DeVito, ching chong, chong, chong, chong. Drunk.  'The View.' Ching chong."

When confronted, she said she was doing it to be funny.  In other words, Rosie’s cool, so shut up and get over it.

New York city council member John Liu told reporters O’Donnell’s remarks hit a raw nerve for many Chinese and Chinese Americans who grew up hearing those kinds of taunts.  “We all know that it never ends at the taunts,” he said.

Rosie got away with her comments because they were pre-Imus.  JV and Elvis took their hit, because the Organization of Chinese Americans (www.ocanational.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=207&Itemid=94)  promised to follow Al Sharpton’s lead and stage protests of CBS Radio and boycotts of the station’s advertisers until the station “Imused” them.

“It is apparent that not only did JV and Elvis not learn anything from the Don Imus scandal, but CBS and CBS Radio decided that Asian Americans are easy prey for racist radio broadcasts,” said Vicki Shu Smolin, president of the OCA New York City chapter.

And that brings me to the second point: disgust regarding selective political correctness vis-à-vis humor.

No one was safe on the Imus program.  The folks on the show referred disparagingly to the sports guy’s girth.  The producer donned a FedEx envelope to pretend to be a Catholic archbishop as he unleashed a string of dirty jokes about paedophile priests.  Imus referred to politicians and entertainers as morons and idiots.  A comedian who regularly appeared on the show made fun of Imus’ age and called into question the I-Man’s sexual preferences.  In short, they went out of their way to be politically incorrect in the name of humor.

Same is true for JV and Elvis.  Don’t think that their Chinese act was their first on-air humor at someone’s expense.  On March 27, the duo brought on a local, unsigned band, then “directed numerous vulgar anti-gay slurs at the band’s bassist,” as detailed in an alert put out by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (www.glaad.org/action/alerts_detail.php?id=3997).  According to GLAAD, the station’s program director defended the comments as comedy, and refused to apologize.

Did the Big Apple’s Chinese chuckle over the gay remarks?  Did the city’s gays giggle at the Chinese jokes?  And throughout these and other incidents, where was Sharpton, the self-appointed chief of the politically correct police?  Or, are Asian Americans easy prey for racist broadcasts, as the OCA’s Vicki Shu Smolin asked?

One part of me says “Right on, Vicki!” while another part of me asks, “Who has not told at joke at someone else’s expense?”  If you have not, then you’re a better person than I am.

There is a fine line between jokes and taunts, between comedy and cruelty.  And everyone of us, except possibly for the righteous and reverend Mr. Sharpton, has crossed that line.  It is good, therefore, to hold a national discussion about humor, mankind’s true sixth sense.
 

And that reminds me of my wife’s favorite joke that begins, “Two Yankees walk into a bar . . .”

 

This will not be popular, but it must be said:  Thirty-three people lost their lives last week in those horrible minutes on the Virginia Tech campus.  The official count sets the number at 32.  An addendum to the accounting tells us the killer took his own life and brought the number of dead to 33.  But, we all know by now, just as we knew within hours, that the person who committed the largest single act of murder on a U.S. university campus was also a student. 

Thirty- three dead in Virginia. 

Each day and each night the purveyors of news and information help us relive the events of April 16.  We see the scenes of carnage, we gaze at the innocent faces of those now forever young, and we reach into our hearts for prayers to comfort their families and ourselves.

This will not be popular, but it must be asked:  Who mourns for the family of Cho Seung-Hui?  Who mourns for parents who lost their child to a killer, for a sister who lost her brother to a person now forever known as a monster?  When we watch the seemingly endless loops of video, when we stare into the eyes of evil, do we reach into ourselves to find comfort for his family?

There is no sympathy for the Devil, it seems.

During Eastern Orthodox services on the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before Easter, there is a passage that gives me cold chills.  It implores God to “heap more evils” on his servants.  The chanter repeats the plea many times.  The prayer serves as a reminder that God strengthens our faith through trials and tribulations.  I, for one, could do without more of the bad stuff.           

God, as usual, did not consult me, and so we find evil where we least expect it, such as the presumed sanctuary of the academy.           

I believe demons wander around looking for temporary places to dwell, individuals in whom they can hide and bide their time until they strike with malice and terror.  In time, after working their malevolence, they move on to other unsuspecting souls.           

My wife’s stepfather was such a victim.  I truly believe God and Satan waged a war within him.           

Ben was a preacher, a minister by calling and by trade.  He had a dark and evil side, though, seen only by those closest to him.  He finally sought psychiatric help, but not before my mother-in-law divorced him and he lost his family.           

After a few years, Ben got another church and a third wife.  But, the demons had not finished with him.  He almost tried to kill his new wife not long after he separated from her.  He stopped himself before his hands could do the murderous bidding of whatever dwelt inside.  A few hours later, he hanged himself to keep the evil within from coming out.           

“I feel worthless and no good,” he wrote that night.  “I'm tired of coping and struggling.  My patience has worn thin, my mind is nearly broken, my self-love and self-esteem is nil.”           

That night I lost a friend, children lost a father, and evil moved on to another unwary victim.           

Ben left Scriptures to be read at his memorial service.  One was the story of Christ and the man with unclean spirits called Legion because they were so many, which Christ cast into swine.           

The existence of evil is as old as time, but our sophisticated society refuses to see evil for what it is.  The first two listings for evil in my thesaurus show affliction and ailment.  Evil is simply evil.           

Anthony of Egypt, a fourth-century saint wrote: "When the soul ... separates itself from God, evil demons enter its thought processes and suggest unholy acts to it: adultery, murder, robbery, sacrilege and other such demonic acts . . . Evil clings closely to one's nature, just as verdigris to copper and dirt to the body.  But the coppersmith does not create the verdigris, nor do parents create the dirt.  Likewise, it is not God who has created evil.  He has given man knowledge and discrimination so that he may avoid evil."           

This will not be popular, but it must be said:  The parents of Cho Seung-Hui did not create the evil that took the children of 33 sets of parents, just as they did not create the dirt upon which the killer walked to commit his acts.  But, God has given us knowledge and discrimination so that we may reach into our souls and find one more seed of sympathy to sow to assuage the sorrow of the parents of the killer’s final victim.