You Never Ask Questions When God’s On Your Side
By MICHAEL SCHENKLER
Do you think your religion is better, holier, more just or more righteous than the other religions of the world?
Do you think following your religion makes you holier, safer, healthier, more at peace now, tomorrow or in some after life, than those who follow another religion or no religion at all?
Is your god (or is it God?) The God? The supreme deity only answerable to the name you call him or her? Or is he, or she, or whatever, a god by any other name?
Religion may be helping you personally. One’s faith often provides the motivation in difficulty and the solace in bad times. But is religion really helping the world?
Nope, I’m not going to do the history thing. I’m not going to cite the Crusades, the Holocaust, the religious war the IRA fought with England or the 60-plus year war fought in the Middle East since one religion got a tiny corner of land surrounded by another religion. There are more, plenty of others, and they are not my topic today.
As a matter of fact, I don’t really have a topic. I’m just tired of the Muslim bashing, the threatened Koran burning, the mosque moving, and the blaming of Islam for all that is wrong with the Western World.
Now, before you think I’m taking sides, I understand recent history. Today is 9-11. And no, I can’t forget either.
But do the fanatics represent the mainstream? Must the masses in downtrodden lands rise up against the fanatics in order to prove they are not extremists themselves?
Need Muslims here pray to Allah and then curse the acts of terror done in his name in order to purify their religion in your eyes?
Do you really believe the religion is out to get you? Us?
The written word of perhaps every religion has gone too far. Perhaps times or values change or perhaps interpretations do.
I remember my son Lee’s Bar Mitzvah in 1992. Rabbi Donna Berman stopped Lee’s reading of the Torah and told those assembled, “We will skip this portion; it speaks of stoning the gays.”
You mean my religion advocated (or god forbid, practiced) violence against people because of their sexual orientation?
| With God On Our Side by Bob Dylan Selected stanzas |
| Oh my name it is nothin’ My age it means less The country I come from Is called the Midwest I’s taught and brought up there The laws to abide And that land that I live in Has God on its side. |
| But now we got weapons Of the chemical dust If fire them we’re forced to Then fire them we must One push of the button And a shot the world wide And you never ask questions When God’s on your side. |
| So now as I’m leavin’ I’m weary as Hell The confusion I’m feelin’ Ain’t no tongue can tell The words fill my head And fall to the floor If God’s on our side He’ll stop the next war. |
Do you think other religions may have writings, prayers, or history which could make men and women of good will cringe?
Does the sexual abuse scandal of the Catholic Church make all Catholics bad, sex abusers or evil?
Those who have failed to condemn their priests who sexually abused underage boys, are they evil?
God, are we all evil?
Do we ever forgive?
Do we ever forget?
My in-laws and my religion survived the concentration camps and yet one of my cars is German. Am I wrong? Is it ever over?
Yup. On this occasion of the 9th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, perhaps it’s not a Muslim moment to shine. But we’ve all had our moments and history is littered with the bodies of victims of misguided religious leaders and fanatics.
You don’t really believe that anyone’s god (or is it God) is responsible, do you?
Do you think your religion is better, holier, more just or more righteous than the other religions of the world?
Do you think following your religion makes you holier, safer, healthier, more at peace now, tomorrow or in some after life, than those who follow another religion or no religion at all?
What lesson do you think your God would want mankind to learn from that horrendous day nine years ago?
Peace.
MSchenkler@QueensTribune.comRattner Credits Harry Wilson With Saving GM
By HENRY STERN
A surprising article on the Internet — Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice wrote a column on “Runnin’ Scared,” the Voice’s political blog. That title was used in the 1960’s for a Voice column written by Mary Perot Nichols (1926-96), a scourge of corrupt politicians.
The article was headed: “Harry Wilson’s War; Steve Rattner Credits Much of GM’s Rescue To Obscure Comptroller Candidate.”
It is a fascinating account by Rattner, the former car czar now under fire for paying the tribute required by the disgraced Alan Hevesi to do business with the New York State pension funds. In his new book, “Overhaul,” Rattner describes the Federal intervention which not only saved General Motors from bankruptcy and possible liquidation, but rescued thousands of suppliers to GM from the prospect of substantial losses. This would have led to escalating unemployment, primarily in middle America. He gives Harry Wilson credit for the government strategy and for persuading/threatening creditors, bondholders, unions and the company into accepting it.
Wilson, at this point practically a complete unknown, is the Republican candidate for State Comptroller, opposing incumbent Thomas P. DiNapoli, who was installed by Assembly Democrats, led by Speaker Sheldon Silver, when Hevesi was forced to resign from the position to which he had just been re-elected. DiNapoli has now been Comptroller for three and one half years, and is running for what would in fact be a second term.
Meanwhile, the state has plunged further into financial disaster, with the Comptroller issuing periodic warnings against overspending. It is said in politics that the Comptroller must be more fiscally responsible than the Governor (or the Mayor), but how much more responsible he should be is debatable. There is a great difference between pious statements and using the powers of the office to restrain spending. However, considering: “Do not bite the hand that feeds you,” it is understandable that an unelected official not tangle too fiercely with the legislative leaders who gave him the honored position that he holds, an office that will benefit him for the rest of his life as his pension will be computed on his highest three years in salary, and the job pays $151,500, which really isn’t much for the sole trustee of funds that have exceeded $120 billion.
The salary suggests: “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” The theme in both adages, evokes: “Whose bread I eat, his song I sing.” When Hevesi was Comptroller, he received two pensions, one for his legislative service for 20 years, and the other for his professorship at the City University of New York. Hevesi was a triple dipper.
No one knows for sure what a person will do once elected, and we have been both pleased and disappointed over the years by the action and inaction of public officials. More often than not, their performance falls short of their promises.
We have deliberately not gone into the details of what Wilson did with GM. They are laid out in Barrett’s article, and are relatively complicated for readers who are not that financially sophisticated. The plan, however, seems to have worked out well so far with the company showing multi-billion dollar profits midway through 2010. The success so far of the GM intervention reflects credit on the Obama administration and the people who put the plan together.
The difference between financial brilliance and political success, however, is wide and deep. Before there is any kind of a contest for State Comptroller, people will have to learn who the candidates are. If they know, they can make their choice, applying whatever standards they see fit. If they do not, the election is likely to be a formality. Races for lesser offices tend to attract minimum attention, and in this case there was no primary in either party which would have provided opportunity for exposure by the candidates. That has a disproportionate negative effect on the less well-known candidate, in this case Wilson.
The next eight weeks will show us whether the Republican candidate can ignite widespread feelings against incumbency and the public demand for fiscal responsibility and truth in budgeting into support for himself. The more people who find out about Harry Wilson, the more likely that possibility will become. But the odds are against Wilson because of the predicted Democratic blowout for governor and the two Senate seats, and because the public is even less aware of the Comptroller race than the primary for Attorney General, where five candidates are competing to oppose Daniel Donovan, District Attorney of Staten Island, the Republican nominee. The current AG is Andrew Cuomo, who is, as you know, seeking higher office.
The Republican ticket this year is stronger at the bottom than at the top. Their task is to identify themselves to the voters and present their case. But in a state with 19 million people, spread over different media markets, that is far easier said than done, unless the candidate approaches Bloombergian resources.
StarQuest@NYCivic.org