Politics have been absent
from this blog for about a month now. I really didn't want to talk
about the lack of progress on so many fronts. I still don't.
Instead, this post will lay out 10 good things that have happened in
the past couple of months or so.
1. On April 2, the UN
General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to approve "the first
treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70
billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the
hands of human rights abusers." [Reuters] There were 22
abstentions but only three nations voted "no" - Iran,
Syria and North Korea. The massive and poorly regulated global trade
in arms feeds conflicts like those in Mali, Syria, and the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
Also see: Oxfam America Webpage
2. On March 15, Maryland
became the 18th state to abolish the death penalty since it was
reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. The repeal was proposed by
Governor O'Malley. The NAACP and the Catholic Church were among the
groups that organized to end executions in the state. Nationwide,
death sentences have declined by 75% and executions by 60% since the
1990s, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. [Mansfield News Journal]
3. On April 4, Gov. Malloy
of Connecticut signed what many are calling the strongest and most
comprehensive gun legislation in the nation. Connecticut joins New
York and Colorado to become the 3rd state to pass tough gun control
legislation in the wake of the Newton shootings.
4. On March 21, President
Obama delivered a speech in Jerusalem to Israeli students. In
addition to stating his support for Israel, he appealed to the
students to consider the plight of the Palestinians and emphasized
the need for a just peace and for a Palestinian state: "Put
yourself in their shoes. Look at the world through their eyes. It
is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of
their own. Living their entire lives with the presence of a foreign
army that controls the movements not just of those young people but
their parents, their grandparents, every single day. It’s not just
when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. It’s
not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; or
restricting a student’s ability to move around the West Bank; or
displace Palestinian families from their homes. Neither occupation
nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in
their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in
their own land." The students burst into applause 5 times during this brief portion of Obama's speech.
5. On April 2, the Dow
Jones industrial average hit two new records: an intraday high of
about 14,684, and a record close at 14,662. Also, in spite of the
"sequester", 88,000 jobs were added in the US in March and
unemployment inched down to 7.6%.
6. Anything that increases
our understanding of the universe is a good thing. In March after
extensive data analysis, CERN scientists announced that they were
increasingly certain that they had indeed discovered the elusive
Higgs boson in July of 2012. The Higgs boson was the only particle
in the Standard Model that had not yet been discovered. The Standard
Model of Physics (aka the "Big Bang Theory") is the
prevailing theory of the creation of our universe. About a week
after that announcement, the European Space Agency Planck Mission
fine-tuned the date of the Big Bang. It is now considered to have
occurred about 13.82 billion years ago, making the universe about 100
million years older than the last estimate.
See also: The Left Bank Cafe Post of March 18
[Higgs boson] and Slate post of March 21 [age of the universe]
7. On March 13, the College
of Cardinals elected Pope Francis. His humility (he asked that the
two hundred thousand or so that had gathered at St. Peter's first
pray for him before delivering the traditional blessing of a new
Pope), his pastoral bent (his riding public transport in Argentina
and his active concern for the poor), and his openness towards the
role of women in the Church are good things. In his first Easter
Sunday message, Pope Francis "passionately called for 'peace in
all the world,' urging Israelis and Palestinians to 'resume
negotiations to end a conflict that has lasted all too long,' calling
for an end to the civil war in Syria, and promoting a 'renewed spirit
of reconciliation' on the Korean Peninsula." [New York Times]
8. On March 22, as
President Obama was leaving for home, Israeli Prime Minister
Netanyahu voiced regret for the loss of life in the 2010 Mavi Marmara
incident, apologizing for any mistakes that led to the death of eight
Turkish nationals and one American national. (For those of you who
have forgotten, on May 31, 2010, Israeli commandoes boarded a
flotilla of six Turkish ships trying to bypass the Israeli blockade
and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. Nine civilians were killed by
the commandoes.)
9. Jim Wallis has authored a
new book. I like Jim Wallis - he's one of the designated "Essential Links" for this website [look to the right of this post]Taking its title from Lincoln's quote, On God's Side
is subtitled "What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't
Learned About Serving the Common Good". I haven't read it yet
but Wallis wrote this during the 2012 election cycle - fed up, I
imagine, by the incivility of the country's politicial debate. "A
commitment to the common good could bring us together and solve the
deepest problems this country and the world now face: How do we work
together? How do we treat each other, especially the poorest and most
vulnerable? How do we take care of not just ourselves but also one
another?" [Time.com]
10. Finally, click on this link to a video of an act of kindness caught on tape. Sort of reaffirms
your belief in the basic goodness of people. The young man in this video and the students in Obama's Jerusalem audience are a couple of reasons to be hopeful for the future.
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