LET THERE BE LIGHT NOT DARKNESS

  Monday should have been little bit of domestic quiet. My grand-son-in- Law and 16-year-old great grandson have gone back to Ohio after a pleasant weekend. I now can catch up on the world. That is after I finished clearing the mess that is my computer room.

  Once again hatred and bigotry and fanaticism hog the news Politically there was the mail pipe bomber caught in Florida. His target was Democrats; anyone who spoke out publicly against Trump.  Last year it was a fanatic who targeted Republican Congressmen.

  Perhaps even more serious is the 67% increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the past year climaxed by the Pittsburg Synagogue massacre.  It could be a coincident that Nov. 10 marks the 80^th anniversary of “” Kristallnacht” when the Nazis destroyed over 1500 synagogues in Germany, Austria, and parts of Czechoslovakia; as well as many Jewish business and homes.  That some 30000 Jews were sent to concentration camps then; the start of the holocaust, which there are now active deniers, should be a warning.

   In the last few years there has been church killings of blacks by a white man; mass shootings of gays in Florida.  America has become a nation of hatred and violence in flamed by rhetoric of political leaders including our President as well as prominent religious leaders both white and black.

  Last year after Charlottesville, Trump stated that there were good men among the torch bearer righters led by a known black/jew hater, as well as those who opposed them. De facto condoning bigotry and violence. He ignored the fact that one had deliberately driven his car into a group of defenseless protesters, killing one.

  The day after the Pittsburg massacre, Vice President Pence was at a campaign rally in Michigan where Loren Jacobs, a Messianic rabbi who is affiliated with the group “Jews for Jesus” offered a prayer for and Pence as an invocation for the event.; at best insensitivity or perhaps an insult.

  Locally we have both anti-black and anti-white factions as well as anti-Semites; a very recent graffiti episode in Fanwood/Scotch Plains is an example.

  Gone are the days when no one in Plainfield locked their doors, and youths of different religions or races played together. 

  Today instead PONTUS would have us have armed security in places of worship and by extension any place where people congregate.  In other words, he advocates a police state as the solution, not correcting the causes.

  Hatred and bigotry are learned, not a genetically natural. Each one should not encourage youngsters by actions or verbally to hate. Instead at home in places of worship and above all in the schools where there should be active attempts to educate and discourage. 

   Our School system could take advantage of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s materials for schools.

 One week left before elections. We will be bombarded by negative propaganda. That should not discourage one from voting. Being a good citizen could reduce the wave of hate.    

 However, vote for the best possible candidate even if he/she is not of your party. 

FOLLOWUP ON YESTERDAY'S BLOG

The fallout from the Khashoggi assassination continues to dominate the news. Turkey’s President calls for the return of the suspected Saudis to stand trial since it occurred on Turkish soil although inside the Saudi Consulate. The Saudis story keeps changing and PONTUS seems to have accepted the Crown Prince’s lack of involvement a fact rather than give up a potential military deal which he considers more morally important than disregard for human life.

Yesterday I had written:” If facts were acknowledged at no time has our support of a dictator produce a “democracy”, instead when we stopped supporting some form of a democratic society gradually emerged.”  And referred to a Washington Post opinion article on 10/22 by Robert Kagan.

Anonymous had sent a response:” Doc... If some sort of Democratic Society emerged from abandoned Dictatorships your comment would be valid. Sadly, many populations that emerge become victims of a less desirable subsequent Dictatorships. or, fragment into diverse competing groups which results in internecine conflict. Sometime that conflict is exported around the world. Not every population is ready for democracy. Look at what happened when our CIA was complicit in toppling the Shah of Iran. The Saudis area bulwark against the expansive objectives of Iran the sponsor of turmoil and terrorism. These are not black and white situations.”

I felt that his example was not accurate. True the Shah had a repressive dictatorship that was modernism his country. I was in Iran the year before he fell and outwardly life was good. The USA had several military establishments there to support the equipment the Shah had bought.

Our relationship was unfortunately in supporting a dictator against Soviet influence. But there was no physical intervention.  Nor were we “complicit” in the Shah’s overthrow Indeed when the Shah fell he was succeeded by a more restrictive religious autocracy dominated by the Ayatollah, dictatorship. That of course led to the siege of the US Embassy.

As to my contention that love of and support of “progressive” dictatorships is counter-productive to the production of democratism in those countries I refer to the following from Kagan’s article: “During the 1920s and 1930s, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin and even Adolf Hitler looked to many Americans like just what their countries needed to get them into shape. During the Cold War, leaders including the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos, Iran’s Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, South Korea’s Park Chung-hee and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet took turns as the United States’ favorite “modernizing” dictators. In the post-Cold War era, the Chinese dictatorship has gained many Americans’ admiration for its smooth handling of the country’s economy

Justifying all this sympathy for the dictator have been variations on what used to be called “modernization theory.” Developing societies, the argument ran, had to move through an authoritarian stage before they could become democracies, for both economic and political reasons. Only authoritarian governments could be trusted to make the right economic decisions, unhampered by popular pressures for inflationary and deficit-raising spending.

Communist governments were the ones that undertook reforms that led to their unraveling and a turn to democracy, however feeble. Meanwhile, authoritarianism persisted in the Middle East and elsewhere, except where the United States did withdraw support, as in the Philippines, South Korea and Chile; only at that point did they become democracies.”

The point is that authoritarian governments will eventually fail on their own and be succeeded by some form of democracy when the country is ready. Democracy cannot be forced on anybody.

  

ITS COLD

  Fall is here; 30 degrees cooler than last week.  The "Hoos" won a football game beating favorite Duke. 

  The one status quo is that autocrats do not change, and even so-called liberal ones revert to the sigma of repressive dictators. Face facts; their one agenda is to stay in power

  There is no question that Trump admires “strong men” irrespective of their respect for human rights. He still will not concede that the Saudi Crown Prince was not involved. Instead he states that the Saudi’s potential military investment in US companies is more important than one man’s life.

   If facts were acknowledged at no time has our support of a dictator produce a “democracy”, instead when we stopped supporting some form of a democratic society gradually emerged. An October 22 Washington Post opinion goes into detail.

  Local governments are not immune from all the falsehoods and fake news of autocratism. Our Mayor has written: “There can be no disputing that our City is resurging and growing in leaps and bounds. From new development projects to burgeoning arts and culture movement, to new recreational spaces and state of the art early education facilities; Plainfield is on the move.

In the midst of this exciting growth we in the administration have never lost sight of the fact that our customers are the taxpayers in this great city; Residents, business owners and investors who contribute to the upkeep and wellbeing of our city, and we strive to provide the highest level of customer service to these customers at all times.----

We take our mandate as caretakers very seriously and place service to our residents as our top priority. Today, tomorrow and as long as we keep the well being of our city and our residents in mind, Plainfield will continue to progress, to grow and evolve into a spotlight city of the future. We will emerge from our renaissance as an example of transformation and re-invention.”.

   Can he show what advancements and redevelopments’ have benefitted Plainfield’s economy, tax base or attractiveness’ to area residents. Yes, there has been a new facility for the Second Street Youth Center but what has been done for Plainfield’s tweens/teens to keep them off the streets or out of gangs? Have the business areas been made competitive to Westfield’s or Cranford’s?  

  Please,  Mr. Mayor give us specifics, not goby talk.