Affirmative Action on Steroids

In the good old days one had to apply to a school, for a position, a contract or a promotion in order to take advantage of affirmative action. You had to do something! There was a national debate about qualifications, fairness, equal opportunity and constitutionality. As President Clinton famously equivocated in his usual way, “mend it, don’t end it.” But all that is far to complicated for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. To heck with qualifications and deeds. To win this juicy prize, one needs utter the appropriate vacuous platitudes about multilateralism, praise the morally corrupt U. N. and pander to despots. Apologizing for American strength and resolve is a plus. Patronize those who sidle up to terrorists is always a good idea. And agreeing to sit down with those who negotiate in bad faith just might be the final touch needed to be given serious consideration.

We know the fix was in because President Obama was nominated just days after taking office. That’s right, before he did a thing. So we can only conclude the award is given for the right speeches, unless of course the committee is clairvoyant. Like all affirmative action the most deserving candidate must lose to the politically correct candidate.

It’s kind of like international affirmative action on steroids. You “earn” (get) the Peace Prize by appealing to the European left, rather than having done anything to bring peace to anyone or any place. Our President walks away with a prize that he correctly observed he did not earn. Mind you, I don’t blame the President. But this process is very instructive about our President’s overseas support.

Envy of American power and resolve is at the core of this choice. Hence, a winner who criticizes America and downplays our use of power. Any intellectually honest observer, even those who support the President’s approach of weakness and accommodation, has to acknowledge that there is no evidence to suggest the President’s foreign policy has garnered any results. If anything North Korea is more petulant than ever. Iran has been working on what was a secret reactor. Afghanistan needs 40,000 more troops. The democrats in Honduras have been abandoned. The Iranian protestors were largely ignored. And we have acquiesced to Russia’s demands on missile defense having received nothing in return.

Of course if the prize is given for allowing some to feel good, totally unrelated to peace, then I am way off base. I just assume a peace prize should have something to do with achieving peace somewhere.

For those who cling to the notion that this is not a politically driven Prize, please consider the fact that over the last 40 years Bill Clinton is the only Democrat President not to receive the prize. The President who was most responsible for freeing Eastern Europe from the yoke of communism did not receive this Prize. The President who freed 50 million Moslems from despotic and theocratic persecution and provided billions in aid to Africa was reviled rather than nominated.

Least we forget Al Gore got the Prize for his global warming hysteria. Arafat received the Prize as a master illusionist. Speaking peace in English while fomenting Jihad in Arabic. Illusion on a grand scale. And of course we can’t forget the guy who unleashed the theocrats in Iran who have become the worlds number one financier of terror. You know the the guy. He is now an expert on racism in other peoples hearts. If he had only stuck the lust in his own heart, we would all be better off. But I digress.

The final elements that assured a win for Mr. Obama must have been a poll showing Israeli support for him of about 4% and words of praise from Venezuela’s Chavez and Libya's Kadafi. Sure makes you want to emulate Western Europe doesn’t it?

An America Unappreciated is an America Lost

It might be anecdotal but I suspect that my experience represents the tip of a very troubling American iceberg. On the surface I encounter many Americans who don't embrace the concept of an American culture and values that transcend the many ethnicities, races, religions and nationalities that fill the American landscape. People revel in their ethnic, racial, religious and hereditary roots. But far too often they overlook the role that American values play in their good fortune. They see themselves as hyphenated Americans, placing their race, religion or ethnicity in front of "American" as they describe themselves. They are Jewish-Americans, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans etc. American is secondary. The ordering of words is not coincidental. Our schools and most of the mainstream media reinforce this ordering as propagandized in diversity training courses.

But the glue that has held American together has been the concept of a quintessential American character. We are not merely the sum of our parts. We are not just a bunch of different cultures coexisting within common boarders. "Land of the free and home of the brave" are not merely lyrics. These lyrics describe a particular nation. The Judeo-Christian principals that informed our founders and provided the bedrock for our Constitution can be found nowhere else on this planet. A secular government established acknowledging a divine source of human rights and responsibilities is both precious and fragile. It is precious because of all the good it engenders. It is fragile because it requires that most of us understand our blessings and pass these concepts along to the next generation. This is where I detect a problem. When the emphasis is on our diversity, we tend to under-appreciate what binds us.

This came into clear view in a class I took called "Hot Topics" at a local synagogue. The topic on this particular evening was immigration. What disturbed me was the "mosaic" perspective of America that was expressed by a number of those in attendance. They see an America that turns our national motto, "e pluribus unum" upside down. The very essence of the core principal "out of many one" that has held America together is not embraced by these successful well educated Americans. Indeed the controlling word is "one" not "many". The existence of our republic as a viable force for good turns on this profound difference. The “one” must transcend the “many” or our experiment will fail.

My suspicions were further reinforced as I left class. A South African immigrant asked me, “what is this American culture?” For him the idea of a unique American culture seemed to be a mystery.

Far too many of us see America as the diversity educators have presented it over that last 3 or 4 decades. The melting pot I grew to love has been replaced for many by the concept of a mosaic. They teach that America is nothing more than the coming together of many different equally good cultures that share geographic proximity. They swim in the warmth of their rights and good feelings but are oblivious to the source of those rights, the history of those rights, the responsibilities required to preserve those rights and the tools required to pass our good fortune to the next generation. If this iceberg continues to grow, at some point we will reach a place where there will exist no life preserver big enough to sustain America as it was conceived. One symptom of this pending crisis is how cynical so many are about America while romanticizing other cultures.

Our strength as an American culture and nation can be sourced to a coming together around principals and values that distinguish us from and raise us above everyone else.

Most of us are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants from places and cultures all over the world. And yes America is richer and stronger because of elements of these cultures that have been transplanted in America. But, and this is a very big “but”, Americans share an entirely unique and exceptional set of values and traditions that have created the most generous, prosperous, free and tolerant nation in human history. Whatever admirable qualities other cultures and nationalities have brought to America, the fact is that one nation stands out among all others.

Our Constitution is not merely a legal document. It is a reflection of Judeo-Christian values that sources our rights to a Creator. Unless the thread of that unique oneness is appreciated by most Americans, we will be doomed to lose our greatness. Until the 1960’s this essential cornerstone of American values was widely understood by most Americans. It was taught in the schools and to new immigrants. It was this concept that created the national conscience that ended slavery, defeated fascism and then communism. It is not by coincidence that America is the worlds magnet. A secular government established on Judeo-Christian principals exists nowhere else in the world. We are or have been people coming from everywhere who come together around American values. Some go to Church, some to Temple, some to the Mosque and some go to no religious institution. But traditionally we have understood the essence of our national roots and the culture that has emerged. America has a collective conscience like no other nation. Americans liberated Europe, saved South Korea, suffered a half million casualties in a civil war to end slavery, freed millions of Moslems and we are the world’s leader in private charitable work. We may not be as schooled in art as the French or music as the Germans but we have know the meaning of liberty and have in the past known how to preserve it.

If we fall into the trap of becoming a country of hyphenated Americans, we travel down the road to the dilution of the greatest force for good in world history. I am not a Jewish-American. I am an American of the Jewish faith. I practice my Judaism at home and in the synagogue. I share it with those who have interest. I embrace Jewish values knowing that at their core they are also American values. But I also wake up every day knowing, as Larry Elder has said many times, to paraphrase “Being born or immigrating to America is like winning the lottery.”

Response to CAIR and "Islamophobia" at San Diego Library

On July 11, 2009 Mr. Edgar Hopida of the San Diego Council on American Islamic Affairs gave a presentation on "Islamophobia" at the Central San Diego Library. On Saturday August 15, 2009 San Diego citizens gathered at the same venue to listen to my presentation on "radical Islam" in defense of free speech and in response to CAIR. I attended Mr. Hopida's talk and was very disappointed that this young man could be so misdirected. The upshot of his lecture was that fear and/or hatred of Moslems was a serious problem in America. Here was a young devout Moslem convert, free to express himself, hosted by a public institution and living free, yet complaining about discrimination. His presentation struck me as a particularly unappreciative display by a free American who could not criticize in a similar manner in any country dominated by Islamic law.

I was further disturbed by a slide he presented that afternoon. On the slide he pictures books written by Brigitte Gabriel, Noni Darwish, Hirsi Ali, Robert Spencer, Steven Emerson among others. He questioned their expertise, the validity of their experiences with radical Islam and worst yet their motivation. In a library, the implication was to avoid certain books. I don't need to get into the details. You can look up these authors and make your judgements based on their resumes, experience and the content of their books. Suffice to say that among those in this group of authors you will find a scholarly exposition of radical Islam and witnesses who painfully tell of their personal victimization at the hands of radical Islam.

Woman in particular should be alert to the clarion call of the brave witnesses listed above. Hopida claimed they were "exploiting" 9/11. The female authors listed above live with a contiuning threat to their safety because they have the audacity to tell the truth. All were dedicated to their cause prior to 9/11. In a capitalist economy one gets published when a publisher perceives an audience. Common sense tell us that more Americans were interested in reading about radical Islam after September 11, 2001. Hence the publication of their books.

So as San Diego Chapter Leader for Act! For America I felt an obligation to respond to Mr. Hopida. Act! For America is a grass roots national security organization founded by Brigitte Gabriel dedicated to protecting America from radical Islam (actforamerica.org).

To the great credit of the San Diego Public Library and it's director Deborah Barrow, I was given a chance to respond in the same venue hosted by the library.

CAIR had a bit of a hissy fit when they found out I was allowed to respond. They demanded that a Moslem expert on Islam accompany me on the podium. Mr. Hopida had the podium to himself. CAIR pumled the media with a press release containing accusations directed at Act! and by implication me. But Ms. Barrow, in the American spirit of fair play, held her ground. Under an email, phone and Internet assault using words like 'Islampphobic', 'bigotry', 'racism' and 'anti-semitism' she held her ground. CAIR traveled down the low road.

I need to thank Mr. Hopida and CAIR. On July 11 he spoke to a crowd of about 30 people in a room that holds about 180. It was a rather dry pseudo academic presentation by a young man oblivious to his good fortune.

On August 15th I was the beneficiary of a rousing group of about 200 (standing room only) enthusiastic Americans. Jews, Christians and Moslems gathered to listen. A wonderful representation of veterans took the time to attend as well.

It was civil. I will let others decide if my presentation was enlightening, inspirational and effective or not But what it did say was that Americans want balance. They understand that in America liberty and fairness reigns supreme. If only Mr. Hopida understood how unique America is in this area. As scared as I was, I have never spoken to such a crowd under such circumstances, I was buoyed by the support I received.

My message involves spreading an awareness of the "transcendent challenge of the 21st century." Radical Islam (note not Islam as a whole) over the last 50 years has become a virulent cancer metastasizing within Islam. As I told the audience, since 1948 11 million Moslems have died violently. Ninety percent at the hands of other Moslems. We all know of the 1000's of incidents of non-Moslems murdered by Islamic terrorists. So the challenge is both to protect the liberty of the west and for the majority of Moslems to purge their faith of it's murderers.

I have much more to say but that will await future blogs. Please support the cause of the preservation of liberty, religious freedom, gender equality, gay rights and fair play by checking out Act! For America. Help me get the word out by providing me with additional venues to make my pitch for America and freedom.