2/18/15 Chatterbox
Betty Kaiser
Getting the picture
We all like good news. It makes us happy and hopeful. No one likes bad news. It would be nice if we could just
ignore the barrage of negative stuff coming across the airwaves. Nice but not
realistic. Currently, a respected television anchorman is under fire and in
danger of losing his job for not being completely truthful. Here in Ore. our
governor has been under fire for ethics violations and resigned under pressure.
On the International scene we have constant, overwhelmingly
bad news of undeclared warfare: kidnappings, mass killings, property
destruction and starvation. Like you, I have many questions but no answers
about these power plays and atrocities. We can’t ignore this stuff nor can we
solve the problems. What do we do?
Shortly after the Brian Williams hubbub broke loose, a
“Blondie” cartoon caught my eye. It gave me a little perspective on human
nature. The scene: It’s a snowy day. Dagwood and his friend Herb are briskly
walking to work. Their conversation goes like this:
Dagwood: “Days like this remind me of being on
the veranda at The Grand Hotel in Fiji.”
Herb: “When was
that?” (Silence)
Dagwood: “Well,
technically, this reminds me of a photo I saw in a travel magazine a long time
ago…but you get the picture.”
Well, I get the picture about Williams. All of us from time
to time tend to embellish the facts. Maybe it’s shaving a few years off our
age. Making our job description sound more important than it is. Coloring our
hair. Upping our school GPA. Making our children sound like brainiac angels or
whatever. You get the idea. We all do it.
NBC anchorman Brian Williams belatedly confessed that he
embellished being in a helicopter hit by a grenade in 2003. Actually, it was
the helicopter ahead of his that was hit. Oops! Now Williams has been suspended
for 6 months without pay and it remains to be seen if he will come back as
anchorman. I doubt it.
Frankly, I did not lose any respect for him over this. I
believe that initially he was caught up in the moment and that it may have felt
like his chopper was hit. Unfortunately, he never clarified his initial
statement with the truth. Millions of viewers will not calculate that the
majority of his career has been honest and straight arrow. They have lost
complete trust in him due to this falsehood (and possibly others).
Oregon’s Gov. John Kitzhaber’s personal and political life
has been under fire for months. His fiancé, Cylvia Hayes served as the state’s first
lady. As a paid consultant outside government, it was alleged that her
relationship with the governor was helping her land contracts for her business.
This, among other things, chipped away at his credibility. At first the
governor refused all calls to resign, saying, “I have broken no laws.” He
abruptly resigned Feb. 13, stating he had become a liability to the office. No
doubt there is more to come.
The above battles are mostly political. They are sad
situations but not hopeless. All concerned will emerge with their egos bruised
and battered but live to work again. There are solutions. The following
scenarios are real life and death battles. Wanton killing and power grabs
characterize many areas of the world.
The so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a
huge topic of concern all around the world. This barbaric terrorist group is
trying to establish a conservative Islamic state to encompass the Arab world.
An empire. They financed their war against Infidels by taking over Mosul, the third
largest city in Iraq and seizing more than $400 million from city banks to
bankroll their evil empire.
How evil are they? Well, women and children who did not fit
the mold were their first victims. The United Nations reported ISIS
systematically killing, torturing and raping the families and children of
minority groups in Iraq. Their methods included mass executions of boys,
reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and burying children
alive.
ISIS’ goal is to rule the entire world by fear. Their horrific
beheading of hostages from the United States was followed by the gruesome
beheadings of Japanese hostages and immolation of a Jordanian pilot captive.
ISIS loves publicity and toys with the captives’ family emotions. The young
American woman who was evidently ‘given’ to their leader was still killed. The
end is always death. That’s evil.
And what is really going on in the Ukraine? I get it but I
don’t get it. Thanks to Vladimir Putin and Russia’s land grab history, Russian
troops and tanks are pulverizing buildings in the Ukraine. Helpless citizens
are living underground in rubble and starvation. Why is Putin doing this? Because he can. He’s power hungry. Can
anyone stop the madness? Nope. No one wants to start a war with nuclear-armed
Russia. That’s the way it looks to me. What do you think?
“The world is going to hell in a hand basket” (i.e.
deteriorating rapidly) was one of my dad’s frequent comments during times of
war and economic hardship. Looking at the events of this era I can only agree
that things don’t look good. The hope is that future generations will serve and
not destroy their fellow humans.
In that spirit, I offer this perspective from the comic
“Beetle Bailey”:
Beetle: “I don’t
get it…mankind has been at war since the beginning of time. What’s wrong with
mankind? Why can’t we get smart and figure it out?”
Soldier: “Because
every 30 years there’s a new mankind.”
Now I get the picture.
Betty Kaiser’s Chatterbox is about people,
places, family, and other matters of the heart.
