Pieces Missing

Ever had a day when you feel like there are pieces of yourself you cannot find?  This usually happens to me, when people are critical about something I have done or not done.  I wake up each morning and bounce out of bed, with my whole ego intact.  Usually by the end of the day, my ego has been shredded.  This is the exact moment when I need someone who loves me to help me restore my feelings of being a capable, intelligent and rational human being.

Each of us feels the pain of being ego battered for lack of a better terminology.  In an blog entitled Kreative Living Koncepts, in an article entitled, “How to Bypass the Pain of a Battered Ego,” written by Kat King, the author states,”…let’s face it in our society we need to develop strong egos and those egos get battered in the line of duty.” 

Oh, how true this rings for me! No matter how strong your ego may be, when a situations presents itself and you find you have the feeling someone just hit you in the face with a dead fish, your ego feels battered. When this happens, it is always a bit of a surprise. By the time I get home, I usually have soothed the raging beast and restored my battered ego…but sometimes, I need help. 

I think we all have an intimate other we speak with.  When I reach out to someone I know has the time to listen to my rant or maybe just  listen to my concerns, the problem suddenly seems much smaller and my ego perks up and repairs itself. Kat writes that we can easily resort to negative thinking at these times.  For example, we may feel an accusations has been made and it batters the ego, when we think we are doing a good job and everything we can to the best of our ability.  In today’s workplace, one is a bit more sensitive to this ego battering; because finding a job is not easy task in this economy.  

This reminds me of the situation that occurred where my husband was working.  He was being bullied in the workplace.  He did not report the situation, because the man was going to retire in a few months. He was treated like he was in high school where he was called names and pushed physically by the person involved. He has a history of being picked on in high school where instead of fighting he just withdrew to the attic of his parents home and listened to music. My husband is not a man that will not defend himself. If he were to get angry enough, he would do some big time damage. Luckily the military taught him self-control. But he does have ethics and felt the situation would correct itself given time. I may not have agreed with him; but I understood he felt he was doing the right thing in this situation.

Workplace bullying is something that is far more prevalent then we realize. In the case of my husband, since he was a temporary worker, he did not think complaining to the company was the right thing to do.  He believed he would not have been hired if he complained about the abuse he was experiencing.  I think I can totally understand the fear. A company may say it is a ” no tolerance” company, but when push comes to shove this may not be the case. The result was, he has been hired.

Working as a temporary quite a bit in the past, I have often wanted to speak out against an abuse.  I realized this is not the thing you want to do; because there are negative consequences. I am convinced that older workers see this more often then younger employees. If I could do a sociological study, I think I could prove a correlation between being over a certain age and how they are treated in comparison to younger workers. Unfortunately, that study will have to wait. 

As the boomers become a real force in the workplace maybe someone will do a study on how older workers are treated today, as part of the American workforce. Until then, one may feel the flight or fight instinct; but acting on it may be the last thing you should do. This dilemma is a growing concern for many people coping with these situations. I do not agree with everything Kat wrote on the blog. Being aware of mistreatment and knowing how to handle it takes a lot of moxie. When we get hurt, our instinct is to revert to anger and this can motivate people to do the right thing under the circumstances. On the job it is difficult to remember it is their needs not yours that matters and even more difficult to do the right thing under the circumstances.

Am I my brother’s keeper?

I have been closely watching the U.S. and how it is handling its relations with Iran.  I have known two Iranian men and one woman.  When I was in graduate school, my best friend in my international studies in political science was a young Iranian woman.  She was one of the most intelligent and self possessed women I have ever known.  I do not know what happened to her after I graduated; but I know she would have been killed by the Shah if she had returned to Iran at that time.

My next encounter was with a professor in West Virginia.  He quickly became a good friend.  He taught economics in a university in Salem, West Virginia. Granted his economics were socialist, and whether or not it was socialistic, I didn’t much care. I am a capitalist and can argue my point. We would get together and discuss the situation in his homeland. Once again, he could never go back to Iran, or at least not in the near future.

Finally working for Bellevue College, one of my teammates was Iranian.  We had long discussions on politics and just about everything political or scientific.  One comment he made sticks with me, “…who suffers when governments fight?”  It seems to me the victims are the people of the country we are not on good terms with. I totally understand why our government takes the political foreign policy position it does.  Nevertheless, many of the young Iranian people do not want bad relations with the United States and wish they could change their government.  As my Iranian professor friend said, “…you can divide material possessions; but you cannot divide mores, norms and/or personal or political ethics.”

In an article written in the New York Times, authors Thomas Erdbrink and David E. Sanger stated, “… oil exports from Iran have dropped by a million barrels a day, and that the free fall in the currency has caused huge inflation — a result of American- and European-led sanctions as well as economic mismanagement by the Iranian government.”  The article was dated February 6, 2013 and entitled,” U.S. increases pressure of economic war on Tehran. ” With all this in mind, I wonder how we can be our brother’s keeper when we are seemingly forced by our government to watch people suffer because of the foreign policy of said government. We can write Congress; but often that does little good. We can march and protest; but more often than not, we have to be the majority to change policy.

I cannot help fearing that this will fuel the fire for the Iranian people to revolt.  Unlike the United States they have no constitutional protects if they do.  On the other hand, there are elements in that society who relish the thought of promoting terrorist behaviors against the American government. It seems to be a sad situation either way.

I suppose I could try to analyze the politics of this situation; but I am more interested in the ethical aspects of the situation.  I wish they had a leader who could compromise and lessen the hardship on the Iranian people; but even our own Congress can’t do that.  While I am not fond of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he is the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran and must be treated as such, whether we approve of his politics or not. As for any opinion on this Iranian president, I will let the Iranian people decide and reserve any comments.

I would like to add that he is a well educated person.  He was educated in the Iran University of Science and Technology.  Our universities are not any better than other countries universities.  Maybe to some degree they are even better. The pressures on this man must be horrendous and he does seem to invite more pressure by more of less kicking the U.S. in its knee caps. Or he loves to posture. I would have to say this behavior is counterproductive and doesn’t show the world how smart he is.

It has been said he is out of touch with the rank and file of the Iranian people.  I would think most leaders are.  For example, we could easily say this about our own Congress whose pensions and benefits are far beyond what the American people are experiencing at this time.  So maybe, before we throw stones toward Iran, we might want to look into our own back yard and fix what is wrong there. In the mean time, my thoughts and best wishes are with the Iranian people.

Eyes in the Sky: Big brother?

There seems to be a lot of unanswered questions as to whether drones are going to be used for the public good or against the public.  What it really comes down to is whether or not Congress has the proper legislation in place to protect the public’s constitution rights.  Maybe the question is to trust in authority with one eye open and question what it is doing when one sees a read flag.

I am confident Jessie Ventura and other conspiracy theorists have already begun to jump on the “band wagon” with all kinds of words of wisdom for the general public that will scare the %$@^#* out of them. I for one like to stand on the concept of innocent until guilt. Nevertheless, these people scare me!  One of the comments Jessie made to Piers Morgan in an interview was, he was glad Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana, thus ending the war on drugs. Okay, there are a lot more drugs on that schedule.  How many are going to be legalized without the government agencies stepping in?  Where is the logic here?

On March 6, 2013 in an article, Barrack Obama has the authority to use drone strikes to kill Americans on US soil, by Jon Swaine, he states the Attorney General has stated Obama has the power to authorize the killing of Americans by drones on US soil. As the old commercial (young people may not remember) stated, I ask, “where’s the beef?” If my country is attacked by American terrorist groups or militia, I think this capability may be highly useful.  I think there should be legislation in place to stop the misuse of this type of weapon against the American people, on the other hand.  If Congress wants to listen to its constituency, this is the place to address this whole issue of drone usage. I may not always believe in the government; but I most assuredly believe in the American people, and not the big political interests who hope to benefit from all of this.

Thinking back to the words of Hitler and Jim Jones, those who have not learned from the past are doomed to repeat it (paraphrase). As Americans we do have rights under our constitution; but only the rights we are willing to fight for and defend. It takes all of us to get the powerful to do the right thing at times. We were given that right by our founding fathers. If we are willing to stand idly by and watch our rights taken from us, then shame on us.

 

Politics and Religion: Catholic Church & Vatican City

By now the whole world knows the head of the Catholic church has decided to step down from his position as pope. After 600 years, this is a monumental move by the head of both the Catholic church and Vatican City.  The city is a nation-state and signatory to many international conventions. The Catholic church has come a long way in 2000 years. It went from being a baby housed in a humble stable to a rich  country with precious art, paintings, jewels and elaborate furnishings. In spite of the riches they believe they are the spiritual leader of the world, via the reigning pope.

Much of the what the church stands for are the ideals we as people need to strive for if catholic or christian. Plato’s ideals are very similar. These ideals are so difficult to reach, that even the church’s own priests and hierarchy cannot live up to them. However, the ideals make sense if one is a christian or claims to be. Then there is the idea of the infallibility of the pope. This is the hardest concept to accept. I am, however, according to the last pope a cafeteria catholic who picks and chooses what I want to accept as God’s teachings. I believe in free will. Now where do you suppose I got that notion?

I was raised both catholic on my mother’s side and protestant on my step-father’s side of the family.  Needless to say I am a very confused Christian! I am critical of the church and have decided I do not want to give money to a church that is paying for the human failings of priests who abused children for probably many hundreds of years. I guess you could say, I have watched too many Ancient Aliens programs and read too much Dan Brown. I wonder if maybe the church is hiding a lot of things in the Vatican Library that would shed light on the questions of the day. The church certainly is well known for the secrets they keep, including those of hiding perpetrators in the halls of the hallowed city and around the world.

I have to temper my comments on the subject of abusing children, because the church saved my life and that of my children. If it were not for the priests that helped me when I needed it, I would never have gone to the universities and gotten my education. I was in a program of study when the church was hiding draft dodgers during the Vietnam War era. Although, I am familiar with the Catholic left, I remained a conservative catholic, until I found the Liberal Priests organization in the 1970’s. I met many good and holy men who would have never hurt anyone much less a child. But hurting children is the scandal the church is dealing with today.

It seems odd to me that from that humble stable came a church that is mixing politics with religion. One cannot ignore the politics of the Catholic hierarchy in Rome and the effects of their politics around the world. My experiences are with the humble men who I met in the parish I once belonged to. Their gentle ways and forgiving attitudes have left a lasting impression on this person. They were intellectuals that were extremely kind, understanding and helpful.  My hero was a priest left the parish to become a missionary and work in the barrios of South America in Chimbote, Peru. He was and is my best friend, and always will be. I cannot imagine him breaking his vows or hurting anyone. If there was a person who could model the behavior of the man called Jesus, he is one of them.

However, I cannot condone the abuse of children by the clergy, even if they are the minority. The fact that they forgave and then protected these law breakers, makes me angry. Their conduct embarrasses me and as a result, I cannot walk into a catholic church and feel comfortable. Nor will I give them one penny of my money to pay for the law suits that have occurred. I truly believe one cannot mix politics and religion without tasting a form of power that is corrupting. Therefore, I am glad this pope has stepped down. Unfortunately, the possibility of the corruption of power still remains. Since the church is a very conservative institution, nothing much will change.

As for me, I am beginning to wonder if it isn’t better to search for scientific answers; and I will continue to watch Ancient Aliens on the television.  I have never been able to put down the ideas and arguments raised since reading the “Chariots of the Gods” by Erich Von Daniken, circa in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. My scientific mind will not allow me to accept the theory completely and need the proof all scientists need to convince me of the reality of it all. On the other hand, I have the same problem with the Catholic church.