A Better Future

I had the honor of addressing a wonderful group of Republican Women in San Francisico last night. They are a vanguard of clarity and sanity in a city known for "interesting" politics.

These women were not right-wing fanatics or narrow-minded bigots. These were professional, successful, and thoughtful leaders who are willing to join hands, roll up their sleeves and get to work solving the real social challenges of our day.

The group includes business owners and executives, nationally-known leaders in the arts and many who know what it is to lead voter registration drives and be insulted for their Republican identity. These are courageous and insightful people and it was a joy to interact together.

I mention this meeting in order to give my readers a window into the best that politics has to offer. In all of the egoistic polemics we see in the media from Left and Right, we forget the moral strength and hard work of so many who deeply care about their communities and our nation.

Take time soon and thank someone who volunteers in the community - whether it is at your local hospital or school or in some other field. These are the real heroes.

I shared four keys to a transformed personal and social future that I want to encapsulate here and expand upon in coming columns:

• Key # 1: Humility calls us to never lose the wonder of the "starry heavens above and the moral law within." (Immanuel Kant) We are beckoned to remember that we are not the center of the universe and that others really matter.
• Key # 2: Honesty with ourselves and others is not bluntness or crassness, but clarity and integrity in our words and commitments. Why do we need spin doctors explaining press secretaries' interpretations?
• Key # 3: Helpfulness reminds us that we find much greater joy seeing others encouraged and help than in selfishly pursuing our own success withoutr regard for those who help us! Who are we helping to move ahead today?
• Key # 4: Hope is not wishful utopianism, but the belief that our future can be better when today's choices are rooted in lasting values and an enduring vision.

Humility, honesty, helpfulness and hope - whay not demand that every public servant, whether appointed or elected, ascribe to this "foursquare" set of values?

A better future begins today!

The "Kingdom of Heaven" - History Rewritten

Ridley Scott's movie, "the Kingdom of Heaven" was filmed in consultation with Muslim scholars and has received praise from Islamic leaders for its fair portrayal of Islamic beliefs and personalities during the Crusades, especially Saladin the Great.

There has been no mention of any consultation with Catholic scholars - after all, we all "know" how evil the Latin Crusaders were.

There is, however, a problem with this simplistic scenario. From middle school to graduate school, from "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" to current Hollywood attempts to have terrorists be anyone but a Muslim, we are fed a diet of anti-Christian propoganda that fails to tell the whole story.

I am not going to historically or theologically defend one of the darkest chapters of church history. The Crusading spirit is antithetical to most Christian's understanding of the message of the Bible and the progress made since the 12th-14th centuries is welcome. Using violence to promote faith is contrary to the noble teachings of Jesus and even the early chapters of the Koran.

With this caveat, however, it is helpful to understand the historical forces at work prior to 1099, when the Latin armies conquered Jerusalem.

From 632 to 732 a variety of Islamic armies conquered vast territiories in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain. Were it not for the efforts of Charles Martel at Tours, the crescent might have been the dominant symbol of much of Western Europe rather than the cross.

As Islamic empires consolidated control, Christians and Jews were tolerated as dhimmi, inferiors fit for menial tasks and higher taxes. Treatment of non-Muslims varied from location to location. In some cases, there was considerable cooperation, especially in the fields of philosophical scholarship in Spain.

The Catholic Church and the emerging nation-states of the West were coming out of a long season of civilizational decline as the year 1100 approached. The Byzantine Empire was continuing to shrink under the pressure of the new Ottoman power. In 1054 the Latin and Greek branches of Christendom severed ties over political and theological differences spanning five centuries.

The First Crusade was preached in 1096 as a call to restore the holy sites of Palestine to Church control, or at least allow Christian pilgrims free access. By 1099, it had degenerated into a bloodbath during the conquest of Jerusalem. In the succeeding two centuries God, glory, gold and outlets for an excess of petty nobility would darken the chronicles of world history. The last Latin presence in the Holy Land ended in 1291.

The Crusades were not simply about religion and war. Complex geopolitical and economic interests created shifting alliances, pragmatic partnerships and provided the foundations for the emergence of the modern world. Byzantine intrigues, the national aspriations of western monarchs, Italian trading centers, and competing Islamic forces make these centuries rich with events that defy simplistic analysis. Add to these facts the gradual Reconquista of Spain, the Catholic crusades against heretics and the emergence of proto-Protestant dissent and the years 1100 to 1300 emerge as the dawn of modern history.

For some sane accounts of the Crusades that consider all sides, I recommend Geoffry Hindley's, The Crusades: Islam and Christianity in the Struggle for World Supremacy (Carroll and Graf, 2003). Jonathan Ridley-Scott has written a concise narrative, The Crusades: A Short History, that is worth reading. James Reston's Warriors of God: Richard the Lionhearted and Saladin in the third Crusade (Anchor Books, 2001) is another fine work. Duncan Baird's editing of The Illustrated History of the Crusades (University of Michigan, 2004) is balances and contains amazing maps, plates and original art form the period.

As we face a post-9/11 world we confront radical Islamic movements with long (and selective) memories and a Western culture that has abandoned its Christian principles. The road ahead is not found in a revival of pious militarism, but in moral renewal, military restraint and wisdom and a recognition that freedom requires sacrifice and virtue.

An Open Letter to the President

Dear President Bush,

As one of the millions who pray for you and share many of your views, I recognize that your job is a near-impossible one at times. You must fend off political factions, deal with domentic issues, stand tall for our nation in foreign affairs and manage to retain some sense of personal integrity. It is a tall order that is never filled perfectly, but occasionally admirably.

Your courage in the face of September 11, 2001 remains an inspiration. Your steadfast stance for life is another cause for celebration. Your deep love for our country and desire to see the seeds of democracy peaceably planted around the world are outstanding.

Yes sir, there are some qualifying ststements to follow. I do not write as an uncritical partisan of the Left or Right, nor do I state these assertions for the public without careful consideration. There are three critical areas that you must correct if our nation is going to be well-served and your Presidency remembered as great rather than fair. These are complex issues, but like your own inner rectitude, there are simple principles, trancendent truths that can guide you to wise conclusions.

The first issue in Immigration Reform. As a historian, I know that America is at her best when she welcomes people from all lands and opens doors of opportunity. There is no room for xenophobia in our hearts or policies. We must, however, establish the rule of law again and recognize the problem with a system that actually discriminates against those who legally pursue a better life here in the USA.

Mr. President, let me be candid. Huge business concerns that support you do not want to rock the boat. Cheap labor and undocumented millions serve well many Republican supporters, even as they open the door to terrorists and garnish billions of taxpayer's dollars. The Democrats want cheap votes, so it is easy for them to side with the "oppressed" and create euphemisms that try to rectify a century and an half of difficulty with Mexico.

The second issue is you and the Party's inability to control government spending. Even with the War on Terror, we have out-of-control COLAS, excessive pork, and a failure - going back to the Reagan administrations - to really reform the federal government. I challenge you to really examine how to streamline structures. Invite innovative and progressive young business minds into a dialogue that could be the key to preserving our democracy for another two centuries. By the way, your gut instinct to abolish the IRS and simplify taxes is great! Now that you are a second term President, will you DO something?

The third area that needs attention is a bit more general. The current Social Security fracas reveals a nation that is unable to cut the umbilical cord established by FDR. Medical Savings Plans, Social Security, and the role of government in our personal financial futures must be confronted. What would happen if we re-empowered the local and state governments to manage much of what is now a federal task? What about new private-public partnerships to rebuild our infrastructure of dams, road and sewers?

We have created three generations of Americans who are addicted to the federal "trough." Reversing this will not be easy, but you have the opportunity in the first two issues I have mentioned to make a start. Federal powers and resources need to be better focused on issues of infrastructure, foreign affairs and national security rather than funding obscure artists or even doling out welfare.

Mr President, I will continue to pray and wish you well, but I urge you to consider the good of our nation and the world and show courage in these matters. Courage is the Golden Mean between fear and foolhardiness. Use your geniality and build consensus. If you do not, we will continue to erode at our foundations and someone quite dangerous and disingenuous may be elected in 2008.

Two Deaths, One Choice

The recent deaths of Mrs. Schiavo and Pope John Paul II challenge us to consider our moment in time very carefully. I commented that these deaths constitute one of the great "hinges of history" in my lifetime. Barring a nuclear blast or the Second Advent, it is my conviction that historians a generation from now will look back on this moment and see the Western world moving in one of two directions.

The first direction - and the one we are currently heading in - is rather ominous. We disregard the ethical distinctions brought out by these two deaths and continue to cultivate a culture of euthanasia, where life becomes more and more disposable. Who decides someone's "quality of life" apart from the individual? Withdrawing a feeding tube is NOT the same as ending certain life-support machinery! The Pope died with a feeding tube; Mrs. Schiavo was slowly starved to death by an adulterous husband. Where does this end? Will the USA go in Holland's direction, with children as young as sixteen allowed to choose assisted suicide? What about families of the future strapped for funds - does it become an aged relative's duty to die?

There is a second direction - one that requires courage and sacrifice. We can once again affirm that life is a gift to be received at conception and released for coronation at the proper end. We must resist all modes of active euthansia and rediscover the lessons we learn from the infirm and vulnerable among us. In recent weeks is has been appalling to hear that Mrs. Schiavo should "be allowed to die in dignity." Dignity had no part in this melodrama. All Michael Schiavo had to do was divorce his wife and move on, but he refused, for no other reason that financial gain; which, ironically, will prove to be quite small (unless he sells the rights to a Hemlock Society sponsored film).

Two deaths, once choice confront us. It is a death or life decision - will we support the transcendent value of human life or continue on a pathway that make some people disposable?

The Marxist Deception

The recent furor over the public display of the Ten Commandments would be comical were it not for the earnestness of the proponents of a secular public square. The notion that displaying these historic foundations of our legal and social tradition is an endorsement of an "establishment of religion" or a "prohibition of the free exercise thereof" is ludicrous.

Our Western legal tradtion contains elements from several streams: Judeo-Christian civil and moral codes in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, Greco-Roman classical philosophy and case law, German Salic Laws, English Common Law and even insights fron the Iroquois Confederation. Shall we ban all references to any sources that contain whiffs of deities or spiritualities that posit authority outside of our modern and post-modern humanistic constructs?

The attempts by the ACLU and other agencies to prohibit any references to religion are not rooted in an appreciation of the letter and spirit of our Constitution and First Amendment. The real agenda is more blatant and insidious: it is Marxism imposed through the judicial organs of our republic.

Marx and Engel's 19th century philosophy is an atheistic substitution for Christianity and Judaism, both of which they heartily despised. Here is a partial list of the parallels:

• Instead of relgious conversion, there will be the rise of proletarian consciousness and the evolution of a "new man" in the communist mold.
• Instead of a millennium or heaven, there will be a classless society.
• Instead of compassionate action freely undertaken by the community, there will be government-imposed leveling.
• Instead of the "opiate of religion", there will be Party rallies to generate loyalty and solidarity - of course "deviation" from the Party means banishment or worse.
• Instead of the threat of divine judgment in the future, misconduct means alienation and elimination today - after all, any deviation is stalling the rise of the "new consciousness."

Frustrated Marxists excuse or ignore the historical record of ruthlessness in the 20th century with the lame refrain, "Marxism hasn't been given a real chance." Even more insidious, modern Marxists claim that the forces of capitalism undermined the great revolutions.

Any honest reading of history exposes the paucity of such claims. I am not writing an apologetic of global capitalism when I assert that Marxiswm is an abject failure that deserves to be on the ash-heap of history. In its mild forms - Scandanavian socialsm - it produces generations dependent upon government and families unwilling to raise children with a moral compass. In its intense forms - China, the former USSR, Cuba and North Korea - Marxism is a cover for a small elite to rule with an iron fist and for tyrants to carry our socioeconomic experiements costing the lives of millions.

The failure of Communism to penetrate the USA - even during the Great Depression - is a tribute to the American spirit which celebrates individual liberty, personal initiative and spiritual diversity.

The ACLU began as a left-wing agency devoted to personal liberty. But the Marxism of its founders and generations of law-school grads from Harvard and Columbia have produced an elitist and incestuous mentality that sees religion as the enemy of freedom rather than (as our Founders understood) the gurantor of personal responsibility that underlies any democracy.

The Supreme Court should dismiss any attempts to rewrite history and impose a Marxist agenda. Hopefully, the sincerely deceived devotees of secularism will read some history and choose not to follow the totalitarian pathways of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro and Kim Il Jong II.

Our future depends upon an honest assessment of the past.