What Price Honesty?

Last night I tried to put a dollar value on honesty. This issue came to mind not because of New Hampshire's extravaganza of presidential politics in which it is much easier to find dollars than honesty, but because of a situation at lunch yesterday.

After a pleasant discussion that included lip service, at least, to the importance of honesty, my companion paid for his lunch with a twenty dollar bill. The cashier returned to him about twenty-three dollars, having mistakenly handing over a twenty dollar bill instead of a ten. My friend immediately saw the mistake and said, "As much as I'd like to walk out of here with this [the twenty] I think you meant to give me a ten." The cashier gratefully made the correction. As we walked to the car my friend commented that most people are honest, at least for ten dollars.

I hope that at this stage in my life and under similar circumstances I would have behaved the same way for ten dollars. But what if the amount was different?

What if in purchasing a house I realized that the washer and dryer included were an unrequested upgrade for which I was not being charged the difference, let's say $200? Should I point this out at closing or save myself the money and save the builder the embarrassment of having the mistake make public?

If an insider told you that due to a programming glitch in a large city's parking fine payment system any fine would be wiped clean for a payment of one dollar, would you take advantage of the information? I learned about this from the programmer who created the glitch, someone I trusted, oddly enough, to be telling the truth. I never shared this with anyone who could have benefited, nor did I ever put myself to the test: after learning about this glitch I made sure never to get a parking ticket in that city. I guess I didn't trust myself.

One evening while buying gas in New Jersey about twenty-five years ago a pump jockey in a hurry gave me an extra dollar with my change then dashed off to take care of another customer. Already on my motorcycle and ready to go I took the windfall and zipped out of the station in a hurry, hoping to be gone by the time the mistake was discovered. For One Dollar! I still recall both the ecstasy at the gain and the dread of being discovered. For One Dollar!

On another occasion, years before that, I found fifty dollars on the sidewalk after a date. I did nothing to find the person who had lost the money. Merrily I blew the money on movies and popcorn – a lot of movies and popcorn back in the era of $4.50 tickets.

Then there was that late late night driving along University Boulevard in College Park when I noticed a little gym bag sitting in the middle of the right lane. "This might be interesting," I thought as I pulled to the side of the road. I retrieved the bag and motored on home.

Once home I discovered that the bag contained some loose marijuana and a couple of joints in a Baggie™, along with about thirty-five dollars in cash and some form of ID card. Now here was an interesting dilemma. Should I have called the person so that I could return the controlled substance and money? Should I have dropped the whole bag on the steps of the police station a couple of blocks from my apartment? This time I don't remember what I blew the cash on, and surely the statute of limitations has by now expired on the disposition of the dope.

As I write this I realize that all of my adventures in keeping other people's money have occurred after sundown. Had these events happened at lunch time, would I have behaved more like my friend did yesterday?

After dark, what would he have done with the ten spot?

Ooops!

Oh, boy. Here's a darned good reason for being late to the office.

The icy road got the better of my good intentions this morning. Fortunately the oncoming traffic on this little two lane road was far enough away to avoid any problem. The tree that creased the bumper, grill, radiator and hood will live to kill again.

Fully half of the people who drove past slowed down - some even stopped - to see if I needed help.

Then there were others who just walked over to take a look. These critters apparently live across the street from the accident site and are frequently treated to the sight of cars or trucks sliding into the woods. They seem very familiar with, and not at all timid about, accident victims.

As kind and gentle as the llamas were, they provided no real assistance. I was sort of hoping that they'd scamper back to the stable or manger or where ever they spend the night to fetch a thermos of coffee. No such luck.

Don't they look nice and warm in their Andes-capable furs? Not so well prepared, myself, I had started thinking about how to unzip one of these beasts from its coat.

Before too long Hiroko came along and chatted with the llamas. I don't know what they were saying, but I bet it had something to do with "man drivers." Eventually their little gabfest ended and Hiroko took me home.

Insurance Related Update: On the day after the crash the insurance claim adjuster called, telling me that the car was officially totaled. This was not surprising news.

There was no significant damage to the tree, nor was there any to me. So one less Explorer on the road is the only lasting outcome of this bit of off-roading.

Note to Impressionable Readers: If you read my profile all the way to the end you will see my tribute to the high-speed work of Mario Andretti. I truely respect his work on the track. And I understand that driving with Andretti-like speed is meant only for the track, not for snowy two-lane roads. Rather than excessive speed, a snow covered stretch of ice did me in this morning. No matter how fast you might wish you could drive, always keep road conditions (surface, weather, traffic, pedestrians, deer, and llamas) on your mind. In other words, don't speed on the public roads.

"Expelled" for a good reason

I just saw the "supertrailer" for "Expelled" (Ben Stein's soon-to-be-released documentary) and a followup presentation by Todd Norquist.  I did not find this impressive in the least.  Mr Norquist was a very engaging, entertaining speaker, but not convincing at all.  That he garnered applause as his presentation ended was a function of the bias and fundamentalist leaning of the audience rather than of the quality of his comments.

In his comments and the slide presentation (each slide was labeled "Discovery Institute", which is Mr. Norquist's employer) there was an implication that scientists who accept the general notions underlying evolutionary theory are related in some sympathetic way with German National Socialism and the Stalinist purges in Russia and the Ukraine.  As a Christian with a scientific approach to studying the natural world I find such innuendoes very insulting.

They're At It Again

The politics of fear has once again taken center stage in Loudoun and Prince William counties. Prince William's board's recent vote to withhold as many services as possible from those who cannot prove they are "legal" residents of the county reflects a growing willingness to put a mean face on Uncle Sam. However, a scared and cowering face would be more appropriate.

As our nation staggers across the world stage in a rampage of fury we claim the right to change governments and plant democracy where ever we wish. We assert that as the last superpower (an assertion I will dispute at a later time) it is our responsibility to lead the world into battle for the sake of making the world safe for the United States ~ and as an afterthought, for the rest of the freedom loving people of the world. We're a superpower that is afraid of littler countries.

Here at home, the biggest economic engine in the world - willing to squander 12 Billion dollars per month on the twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan according to Bush's most recent request - is frightened of the economic drain caused by about 12 million people who are here illegally (a distinction that I will dispute at a later time.) No one knows how many of this supposed 12 million are in Prince William County, but you'd think from the words of the politicians they are accountable for most of the problems in the county.

Here in Loudoun County one of the candidates for Sheriff in the upcoming election claims that illegal immigration is the biggest problem we face. Mr. Ahlermann, a former Loudoun County deputy, runs largely on an anti-immigrant platform. Ahlermann might protest that he is not against immigration as long as it is legal immigration. But can we really believe that if a sheriff runs on a platform of combatting illegal immigrants and all the problems they bring (poorly substantiated at best) his duputies will not treat anyone they encounter who has that south-of-the-border look as a potential illegal immigrant?

Immigration issues facing the Unites States cannot be solved by preventing non-citizens without visas from using our libraries. The issues are complex and largely the result of our generally selfish foreign and economic policies. When we citizens decide to look for true solutions instead of political slight of hand we will have to confront the degree to which this is a situation of our own making.

The only scary thing about solving our immigration issues is that manditory look in the mirror.

Two Plays

This weekend I saw two plays, each a mystery.

• Aurora Studio Theatre put on Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap".

• Wayside Theatre presented the world premier of "Shadow of the Raven".

Reviews should be coming out in the Purcellville Gazette on October 19.

Lee Deal
Today I learned that an acquaintance, a collaborator from long ago, died in May.

I met Lee Deal when we were both in a production of "Murder Among Friends" twenty-five years ago. At that time Lee was a young red haired exuberant. He would have been a difficult man to hide - large of body and loud of laugh. Perhaps if he didn't laugh so much you could have hidden him, but he probably would have found the idea laughable. He was not to be hidden. He belonged on stage.

Lee had been on stage many times before that production. It was my first. People in Huntsville knew him, and would come to see him in a play. No one knew me. Yet Lee helped me feel welcome on his stage, helped me feel that my lines were as important as his, helped me feel that the people sitting in the dark wanted to hear my voice as much as his.

In the twenty-five years since that show closed Lee has done many more turns on stage. I have done none. Lee became a fixture in the theatre life of Huntsville, and I have wandered widely. From time to time during my travels I have met others who have, like Lee, allowed me to feel welcome, important, and wanted.

To all of those, and especially to Lee, I tender my gratitude for the generous way in which you have shared your stage with a stranger.

Perhaps there is yet another stage we may share. Until then, Goodbye, Lee.

Missed Opportunity At Virginia Tech

I cannot fathom how news delivery is any more meaningful when the overpaid anchor of a network news program leaves the well equipped studio in New York to do a remote broadcast. I know for a fact that there are lots of able field reporters already mobile, ready to cover any story anywhere in the world.

Our only hope is that a great number of the news people would register for a journalism refresher course while they are on campus. Those hopes will be dashed, I'm sure.

Quick and to the Point

A lot of people were killed at Virginia Tech today. They weren't killed with pornography. They weren't killed by the Quran. They weren't killed with condoms. They weren't killed by an open and free exchange of ideas. They were not killed by hearing a dissenting voice. They weren't killed by hiphop music.

They were killed by guns.

When will we learn that freedom and guns do not play well together?

On a Warmer Day
Because it is so darned cold out today I was wandering through my scrapbook of warmer days and found this scene from along life's highway.
It was one of those days when you don't get a chance to open up the old V-8.
But at least it was warmer.

Whooeeee! It's Super-Bowl Sunday!

In truth I don't get quite that excited about Super-Bowl Sunday. I like watching the game, even when it is not a good game. The commercials almost always have my attention.

But the all-day hoopla is way over the top. Does anyone have any real need to know how the players slept? Or where they slept? I don't think so.

We have a lot of things going on in the world besides football. There is a lot of healing and cleaning up that we need to get busy with where the big storms hit Friday just a short distance from where the Super-Bowl players either slept or didn't sleep. We still have lots of trouble to straighten out in the mid-east.

And I still have to figure out how to review "Gem of the Ocean."

More Web Wackiness

How can I thank the people at Blogger.com, or Google - whichever outfit runs this thing now - for giving me another way to compose and publish my Round Hill View posts.
This particular post, for instance, will get to the Round Hill View by way of email.
The brevity of the post derives from the fact that I'm about to leave the computer to join Hiroko in the enjoyment of a late snack.
Ciao!

A Bit of Relief

Our friend, His Excellency William Clarke, has been in hospitals or treatment facilities of one sort or another for almost one continuous month. He was home for about five days a week or so after having back surgery. For most of this time he has been looking pretty sick - pale, listless, drowsy.

When we visited him today at the Kerner Orthopeadic Hospital he looked much better and had much more energy than previously. To our untrained eyes it seems as though he has turned a corner and will be recovering swiftly now.

Allah be praised.

Not Much of a January
I am aghast that here it is nearly the end of January and I've posted not a word!
Where did the month go? At least there is no record here of a New Years Resolution committing me to daily posts.
Will next month find me more prolific? No doubt I'll begin to lose my loyal readers if I don't pick up the pace. That alone will spur me on to greater production.
Don't give up on me. Check back again in a few days - maybe Friday night.

Annan Targets Bush, and Hits the Mark

Kofi Annan spoke pointedly against the policies of the Bush administration today. Already many of our countrymen are railing against the outgoing Secretary General and renewing calls to expel the UN from New York City. No-Child-Left-Behind is supposed to make us smarter, but I guess it hasn't kicked in yet.

Regardless of whether I like or dislike the messenger does not detract from the truth in Annan's remarks. President Bush has led the world further into dangerous waters and has precipitated the deaths of 40,000 or more human beings.

Sec. Annan, given a platform, made a speech that upsets some in our country. Some of us have invested too much of our identity in this president. When someone lays out the truth that our idol has feet of clay it hurts very personally, deeply. If faults can be found in the critic we jump all over that, in this case by launching personal attacks against Annan.

Is it ever dangerous to disregard the harsh words of one we don't like?

I am not equating Annan to the Christ by any means, but let us keep in mind that many people whose lives were rebuked by the words of the Christ had nothing but animosity for him. Just because they didn't like what they heard didn't make it any less true.

Perhaps Annan is guilty of mistakes of judgment, greed, or outright theft. I don't know.

I do know that the charges he leveled against our current administration are valid. To the extent that we continue to embrace the president and his policies his crimes are also ours.

If we heed not criticism because we don't like the source, we are doomed.

Poor Ted

Today USAToday ran a story about Ted Haggard going under the healing hand of his recovery team. I wish him well.

Many people commented on Haggard's situation, his history, his prospects. Most posts in the USAToday OnDeadline discussion fall into a couple of categories. One group would be those saying, "Oh, here we go again! A hypocrite still clinging to the trappings of ministry will redeem himself and get back into preaching and judging people again." Another big group basically say, "Oh, here we go again! Liberal hypocrates will tell us we can't judge people, but they sure will judge a Christian when he proves to be human." A third group wonder why we are reading last month's news. There were some posts that refer to the immutabililty of sexuality, and others that suggest it is somehow subject to "correction."

Without getting into anything about Haggard himself I will take this opportunity to put forward my own two cents about sexuality.

I think that heterosexuality and homosexuality together describe a continuum. At any point in our lives we occupy a place on that continuum, and where we are can change over time. Most people are generally more heterosexual than they are homosexual. Some people, I think, change rather dramatically during certain phases of their lives. To my way of thinking it doesn't make much sense to ask people to put themselves into a gay box or a straight box. We are people and therefore we can't be boxed quite that directly, definitively.

Why do we even care? Sure, some will say they care because their religious tradition dictates that one must be straight to have spiritual integrity. Okay, but still, why would we care? Sexuality is not the only stumbling block, if indeed it is one, on the road to spiritual integrity. I don't know of anyone who has not found his or her own stumbling blocks. And most of us never get over them, thus leaving the longer part of that road untraveled.

So, to all of you, whether you cling to straightness or gayness as an identity, or whether you wake up every day and have to decide whether you'll try for a date with Brenda or Bob, to all of you I say: Love yourself and find someone you can love today. If today is a day you need to try loving someone new, do that. The main thing is love and recognition that tomorrow is promised to no one.

Some you win, some you lose

The election of 2006 is over. For the most part the outcome pleases me -- the Congress will no longer be a rubber stamp for our president. On the otherhand, what used to be called the Virginia Bill of Rights now excludes some people from certain rights. I am glad that out in Cousin Dale's new home they had the wisdom to reject a similar measure. Way To Go, Arizona!

Impeachment of George W. Bush? Hmmm. A tastey prospect, I must say. But I hope the newly Democratic Congress will get some nutritious work done first -- realigning the tax code with the real world in which most Americans live, raising the minimum wage, making sure that senior citizens rather than drug manufacturers receive the MediCare Prescription Benefit, and of course, get the US troops out of Iraq. Once we take care of our nutritional needs, maybe then we could have impeachment for dessert.

Dilemma Over

My attempts to find a local group working to vote down the anti-gay marriage amendment in Virginia did not bear fruit, so there will be no story by me about the PHC students efforts to keep gay Virginians from being married. The amendment also says the state "shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effects of marriage."

I did write a decidedly opion-based piece for the Gazette in which I voice my disapproval of the amendment and the thinking behind it. I don't know yet whether the piece will be published.

A Dilemma

I received a press release from the Patrick Henry College regarding the efforts of some PHC students to promote what I call the Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment that Virginia voters will deal with on November 7. Mike Farris, the founder, former president and current chancellor of PHC, participated in drafting the amendment, according to the press release. Therefore, it's not really surprising that some students at the small college are actively engaged in propagandizing on its behalf.

As a writer for the Purcellville Gazette I should do something with this press release. My options are:

1. Sit on it.
2. Write an article about it.
3. Find a group with the opposing view and write an article about the two groups.
4. Forward it to my editor and let her decide what to do.

If I sit on it and do nothing I will disappoint myself as a journalist. It is not my responsibility to provide press coverage to everyone with a cause to promote or story to tell. Yet I believe that doing nothing in this case is inappropriate.

I could write an article about the contents of the press release. One approach would be to try straight reportage -- contact the students involved, clarify any questions in the press release, etc. Another angle might be to editorialize on one of several topics: Young people taking an interest in political action; Out of state students trying to affect Virginia's constitution; Shameful attempt to exclude homosexual citizens from the pleasures (and pains) of marriage.

At this point I don't have much opportunity to locate and access a person or group opposed to the amendment, so the third option is going to be difficult. As a journalist, this is my preferred choice. Although I have very strong feelings about this amendment -- I am strenuously opposed to it -- I wish that I had time to write a good profile of people on both sides of the issue. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen.

If I send the press release on to my editor it is likely that it would appear in the paper without much modification. This would not be satisfying to me, as it lets the college call the tune.

I will post here when I reach a decision on my course of action.

A Good Weekend Amidst a Good Life

This weekend Hiroko and I enjoyed the company of my cousin Jeff and his wife Meg. The picture is of Jeff, Meg, and me. As is usually the case when I get together with Jeff or one of his brothers there were a lot of laughs and heated political discussion – but since Jeff and I agree on most things political the heat was warming, not scorching.

The cousin relationship carries a very special attribute: we are close enough to be family and at the same time far enough apart that we aren’t in each other’s stuff. My interest in his life and his in mine are genuine. We each care enough to listen to whatever the other has to say about problems, achievements, beliefs, doubts. And wonderfully, there is no expectation that my responses to him will change his life or the way he does anything at all. Similarly, if I completely ignore some advice or opinion he gives me it seems not to hurt him in the slightest. And to make things even better, Meg and Hiroko fit right into this pairing of cousins.

We had a very good weekend.

If it turns out the economy will ever let us join Jeff and Meg in the retired life they enjoy, we look forward to making our times together more frequent.

Anti-War Success Is Not Failure

Thank goodness Charles Krauthammer is willing to share his wisdom with the Democrats, particularly to show those from Connecticut the error of their way. In Friday’s commentary he wrote that voters who tried to apply the lessons of the Vietnam War to the military orgy in Iraq and Afghanistan were dooming the Democratic party to another forty years in the political wilderness, not laying the groundwork for long term success.

Krauthammer suggests that it was the anti-war left wing of the Democratic party that ruined the Johnson presidency, spoiled the presidential chances of Humphrey, and put the party far outside the mainstream on foreign policy, ultimately preventing any national success (except the “idiosyncratic post-Watergate” accidental election of Jimmy Carter) until the Cold War had been won.

First, the Johnson presidency. The anti-war wing of the Democratic party did not make Johnson continue waging war. Perhaps if LBJ had succumbed more quickly to the anti-war members of his own party he would have been reelected, leaving behind a far different legacy. Johnson, like no president since, expressed a desire that the government actively better the lives of its citizens, especially those who had been least touched by the benefits of a Great Society. Johnson’s personal tragedy, his inability to get out of Vietnam, ruined his presidency, not the heart felt beliefs of many sincere Democrats that war in general must be avoided and the one in Vietnam must be ended.

Hubert Humphrey’s candidacy faced two major problems which when combined resulted in Nixon’s incredibly narrow victory. His first problem, of his own making, was his failure to say, “The war policy is Lyndon’s, not mine.” This cost him support from many people who liked his plans for America, but could see nothing but disaster in the war. Nixon’s “secret plan to end the war” was Humphrey’s other problem. If Nixon had a plan, it certainly was a secret – so secret that he couldn’t locate it after the election. If Nixon’s so-called plan to end the war wasn’t pandering to the anti-war sentiments of middle-America, I don’t know what it could be. Mr. Krauthammer seems to have forgotten that it was Nixon’s Republicans that benefited from its own anti-war electioneering – as unscrupulous as it was.

Unscrupulous? Perhaps I should have saved that word for the next Nixon campaign. The 1972 campaign proved to be, based on the indictments, resignations, and pardons that ensued, the most crooked of the modern era – up to that point. Nixonian tampering with the campaigns of the Democrats during the primary phase and then in the election itself leave wide open the question of who would have been inaugurated in 1973 had the election been honestly pursued. Krauthammer writes of a “newly reshaped McGovernite party” unable to deal with the post-Vietnam Cold War. Well, isn’t that something? The war Nixon had said he had a plan to end still had two and a half tragic years to go, strong Democratic candidates had been sabotaged, and Krauthammer puts the blame on anti-war Democrats.

The problem with Democrats lay not with an anti-war conscience, but with a Republican party led by a man without a conscience.

That seems familiar.