Last night, Ehren Watada’s story caught my attention, and brought me back to this long neglected blog. Well, here is an update from someone who appears to be right there at the trial. I share the writer’s pessimism that Watada will likely be found guilty but also the hope that something might turn in his favor at the appeal.

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Our family had a lively discussion at dinner time today about the court martial trial of Ehren Watada which begins today in Fort Lewis, Washington.

Watada is the Army officer who decided, after spending months researching his anticipated assignment to Iraq, that the war was a morally indefensible war. He offered to go fight somewhere else, and he even offered to resign. But, he is a soldier, and a soldier is supposed to obey his superiors without question.

Therefore, the Army had to do what it is doing, court martial him. He is being charged on one count of failure to deploy and two counts (reduced from the original four) of “conduct unbecoming of an officer” for making statements against the war and against the Bush administration. While there are many who support him, there are also those who label him un-American, and “a weasel”.

I asked my children what they thought of Ehren, and their comments were interesting. If he is right, my daughter, opined, then they should let him go. She was referring to Watada’s contention that the war is illegal. Unfortunately, that is not the basis of the trial. Read the rest of this entry »

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Now, that’s a novel idea! As Rosa Brooks points out in this op-ed piece in the LA Times, the Department of Homeland Security’s office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has designed a new citizenship test that aims to ensure that aspiring immigrants have at least minimal knowledge of American civics, history and political system.

As one of those who are “standing in line” to take the test one day, I am painfully aware of my need to cram for this test. This reminds me of my experience of getting a driver’s license. I came here with a good driving record and a valid driving license from an English speaking developed country, and already was legally able to drive in this country. Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s time to talk, says Dr. Bob Cornwall, Pastor of the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Lompoc, and columnist of the Lompoc Record. This well articulated post, in the SOMA blog is a rewrite of an equally well-thought out reflective op-ed piece on the Lompoc Record.

I resonate with Dr Cornwall’s call to talk - for those of us who call ourselves evangelicals - to no longer hide behind our discomfort of those who are different from us. There is so much we can talk about. For instance, I often wonder why is it that we find it so hard to forgive sexual sin.

Why is it that respectable leaders can be hot-tempered, or haughty, or even arrogant, and yet they can continue to capture society’s respect and hold positions of leadership and power even in the church. Yet, if someone is entangled in sexual impropriety, we have a completely different view of such people?

Why the double standard?

For instance, as I have pointed out elsewhere, Read the rest of this entry »

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This is very sad news indeed. The world has lost one of its exemplary members, and Australia one of its archetypal Aussie battler who makes good. In spite of his eccentric antics and sometimes audacious behavior, there are at least five things that I like about this great Aussie bloke:

(1) His Passion. This man absolutely oozes passion for what he believes in. If only everyone of us have half his enthusiasm and passion for what we believe and if only we pursue it half as fiercely as he seems to do, then this world would be a much better place. Heck, if I have pursued my blogging half as passionately as Irwin did his love for animals, then this blog would be a much better blog! Heh!

(2) His Humility. This guy was willing to ham it up for the audience just to make a point. But for all the cantankerous silliness he projected, he achieved his goal of instructing the world about nature, our environment and the need to look after this world of ours. He was also instrumental for exposing illegal trades in wildlife products, endearing himself (not) to thousands of opportunists who prey on people’s love for exotic items. He was also a very worthy Aussie ambassador although his incessant use of ’strine and Aussieisms (such as the ubiquitous “Crickey!”) can be irritating at times, especially to us Aussies who live away from our homeland - my kids sometimes had to tell their friends, “But we do not all speak like that!” - yet, he has helped to raise awareness of Australia’s beautiful nature, people and culture. Read the rest of this entry »

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Technorati Tags: steve irwin

Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz talks about the unhelpfulness of using war metaphors in many aspects of life. I have already previously opined that it is a mistake to uncritically take an ancient Chinese military treatise as a business manual. No matter how competitive business environments can be, business just is not war! Neither are so many other areas of life that we so often associate with it through the use of militaristic metaphors.

I find it curious that Americans have such fondness to use battlefield imagery in our daily talk. For instance, we call those who risk lives to come over the borders seeking jobs and new opportunities “invaders“. The funny thing is that when the same thing happened just a couple of hundred years ago, that really was an invasion, for they came with cannon, guns, swords, and real soldiers. I think the word was “conquistadors” then. That is a far cry from those who now cross the borders seeking jobs and a better life for their families. Note so far I have not said anything about whether it is right or wrong for them to do so. I am only saying that the war metaphors are not helping the current debate. Read the rest of this entry »

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Technorati Tags: war, metaphor, Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, business, politics, George Bush, iraq, illegal immigration

In the classic scene in A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson, playing Colonel Jessep shouted, “You can’t handle the truth!” when grilled about the extent of military coverups, secrets and leadership knowledge about wrongdoings in a military base. The unspoken understanding, apparently, is that leaders have privileged access to the truth, so they have a responsibility to guard it, to act (or not act) upon it and only they are appropriately situated to appreciate it.

Leaving aside the questionability of this seemingly widespread assumption, I would like to ask a related question: what happens when leaders do not know the whole truth? What happens, that is, when the system fails them and they have lack of access to the information, or when those “in the know” hide the truth from them? Read the rest of this entry »

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Technorati Tags: truth, misrepresentation, leaders, knowledge, enron, awb, corruption, food-for-oil iraq, alexander downer, transparency, accountability

While battling on BlogExplosion today, I visited Imago Dei and read this post on Social Justice and Christianity. I have been working on my next post in the series on Fear of the LORD which is on the same topic, so I read it with interest. Her post linked to this one from The Library Lady Rants. I really resonated with this post. I recommend that you go check it out.

There are so many unsaid emotions in the midst of the kerfuffle that is the “illegal immigration” debacle. As I said before, it will not resolve the problem by making those who cross borders without proper documentation felons and it is simply impractical attempting to round up all 12 million and deporting every single one of them. Read the rest of this entry »

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Technorati Tags: immigration, justice, compassion, law, illegal immigration