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| A Larger View |
| Applying Trans-Religious Values to Current Events |
| Volume XI Edition 6 |
November/December |
2006 |
In this issue:
Learning From The Amish: At What Point Forgiveness?
Choosing Boys Over Girls: Call It Karma?
Closing the Theater; An Example?
Cooperatives In Venezuela: Chavez's Boon or Bane?
Website of Interest: A Handy Reading List
To Ponder On
Learning From The Amish:
At What Point Forgiveness?
Elfriede Lina Rinkel had a secret, one she kept to herself for decades, not sharing it with her Jewish husband of many years, nor putting it on her 1959 application for immigration to the United States. Finally after being in the United States for decades, a representative from the U.S. Justice Department knocked at her door to tell her what she already knew: She had lied on her immigration papers. From 1944 until the end of WWII about a year later, as a young girl, she had been a guard at Ravensbruck Women's concentration camp. Her job was to handle the dogs and she patrolled the outside of the camp with them. The job paid more than others. Regardless she had been too ashamed to put it on the form, and for that reason she also never filed for citizenship.
At 83, a widow, the petite soft spoken woman who had given to Jewish charities and who would have been buried next to her husband in a Jewish Cemetery was being deported.
Since 1979 when the Office of Special Investigations was opened, there have been over 100 completed cases of former Nazis who lied on their application to enter the United States. The Office has studied over 10,000 names and though Elfriede was not a Nazi, that is how her name, then Elfriede Huth, was matched and found and subsequently traced.
She's back in Germany now, living with distant relatives. It is up to the German government whether she will be prosecuted, but many doubt it not only because of her age, but also because her role was so far from pivotal.
Are we better off now that she is gone? Is the United States a safer country? Undeniably she hid the truth. Undeniably she served as an SS Guard in a camp where more than 10,000 women died. Undeniably she handled a trained attack dog. But doesn't her life since mean anything? Do the forty some years of being a constructive immigrant to the United States not count? Is there no difference between her role and that of an Eichman? And what about the role of forgiveness? Undeniably she made mistakes. Nevertheless, can we not discover what the Amish call the freedom to forgive? As readers hopefully recall, early last October a milkman entered an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, took several young girls hostage and then shot them, killing five of them. The Amish, whose religion emphasizes forgiveness, forgave the killer, attended his funeral and prayed for him and his family.
Let's assume that most will either not feel right nor be able to go as far as the Amish, can we still not learn from their example and practice what we can of forgiveness?
Choosing Boys Over Girls:
Call It Karma?
If you were a young woman and were told there was an oversupply of men you'd be glad, thinking you can now have your pick. That is if you lived in the West where women are free to make such choices. But in many countries not only do women not have as much freedom as they do in the developed world, they are not valued. As a result sex selection has been practiced, mainly through available abortions, and has created a shortage of women estimated to be 80 million in both China and India.
The implications of gender imbalance can be far reaching and it does look like young men will not be able to enjoy their quantitative majority. A growing number of them now have dim prospects for having a family. The fact that these young people come mainly from lower socioeconomic layers of society is a concern. The fear is not only their lack of outlet for sexual energy, but also their consequent marginalization and the possibilities that this would lead to antisocial behavior including violence. If past observation is correct, when these young men find each other as those in urban centers are bound to do, the potential for crime and other aggressive behavior escalates.
One can't avoid speculating that now that women are scarce due to prejudice and archaic societal norms, how long will it be before their scarcity makes them valuable and worthy? Call it Karma, or a twist of fate, sex selection is nevertheless something to learn from and hopefully eschew.
Closing The Theater:
An Example?
Many of us are frequently less than satisfied with the choice of movies offered to us in theaters. We may resign ourselves and go see what's there. We may complain to each other, or go to the video store and search a long while for a title that stirs us in some way. Graig Boardman of Hoopestown, Ill., however, did something else. As the owner of the 84 year- old two-screens Lorraine theater, he closed it, "because" he explained, "such poor film choices were available". He said he would rather the theater be dark rather than show movies like "Jackass 2" or "Beerfest". There was no formal or coordinated campaign, there was no crusade. Boardman who runs his business from Northern California, and who had no objection to showing "Brokeback Mountain" or even "Miami Vice", just does not want to show "drivel". He gave his workers paid vacation and closed for two weeks as his way to protest and make a statement.
We don't often do what we can to make our preferences known in the marketplace. If we were willing to do what Craig Boardman did, forego some aspect of a benefit to make a point, we would perhaps end up with better movies-and a world that's a tad better too.
Cooperatives In Venezuela:
Chavez's Boon or Bane?
Hugo Chavez, the same head of state who stood at the United Nation's Security Council's podium and called President George Bush a devil, is a hero in Venezuela. That is because he's not only taking land from the rich and giving it to the poor, he's embarked on a system of cooperatives as a thrust to bringing most out of poverty, using millions in oil and tax revenues.
Hotels, steel and textile factories, fisheries, cocoa plants are all examples of cooperatives turning poor workers into part owners, or at least into people who feel they have a stake in their work and future.
Wherever they've been tried cooperatives in the past weren't able to continue sustaining themselves. In the former Soviet Union, in Israel's famous kibbutzims, even with the spiritually based Findhorn Community, cooperatives, each for their own set of reasons weren't able to live up to their own-or others' expectations. More importantly, perhaps cooperatives weren't able to make it in the world of harsh economic realities.
Ideally, the Venezuelan cooperatives are meant to become profit-making ventures. But critics say that something like a drop in the price of oil which would reduce revenues and in turn interfere with the subsidies, would also jeopardizes the chances for success.
It is easy to make a case for cooperatives being a spiritual idea, and easier still to make one for the weaknesses of humanity as it currently stands. Those weaknesses alone can create formidable, or at least difficult to overcome obstacles. Still at some point somewhere, sometime, as long as experiments keep being tried, one is bound to show us the way. There are no strong indicators, however, that it will be in Venezuela.
It remains to be seen how the people will then feel about Mr. Chavez, when their hopes for a more secure future have been dashed and they are back in the poverty they thought they had left. It's entirely possible that at that point they may feel justified calling him a devil.
Website of Interest: www.time.com/time/2005/100books
A Handy Reading List
The editors of Time Magazine have compiled a list of the 100 most important novels published since 1923, and this web listing is simply the list of those 100 books. It is interesting to note what books they thought worthy. But more than that it is fun to gauge one's knowledge, see how many one has read, how many inclusions one disagrees with, or even to speculate why a given book may have made the list. Some authors have more than one book. Muriel Spark's "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is included, so is Robert Penn Warren's "All The king's Men". Thornton Wilder's "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is there and so is Salman Rushdie's "Midnight Children". But besides the sheer interest it holds, the list doubles as a handy reading list.
To Ponder On
It's The Holiday Season!
In the U.S. Christmas items begin to appear in stores in October, and everywhere else the idea of Christmas is spreading-that is artificial Christmas trees, cards, presents, chocolates and candies, in short all that makes up its commercialization. In Japan, for example, where the percentage of Christians is rather low, Christmas is gaining ground: Not the spirit of Christmas, not the idea of goodwill and peace, but its material side.
Every year there are those who call for simplicity, for a more subdued celebration. And those are welcome, but in addition it may be useful to work toward making Christmas truly an example of goodwill. Let's give to those charities that speak to us. Let's reduce our worldly spending. Let's let people know what they mean to us. Let's practice peace and goodwill. Let's be examples for those around us. And let's see the little seed we shall sow grow as we keep on refining and applying our understanding of Christmas as a time to share and to give.
The Values of Islam
In that spirit of goodwill, we underline the values of Islam and offer this quote to link with those for whom Christmas has no religious significance, our Muslim brothers and sisters.
The Prophet Mohammed's cousin and son in law, Hazrat Ali, was the first Imam of the Shiites. He was quoted by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, himself regarded as a Shiite Imam, in an October 12, 2006 interview with Spiegel Online. The Aga Khan was talking about the values of Islam and his belief that there is no inherent conflict between Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The quote was part of his argument.
"No honor is like knowledge, no power is like forbearance, and no support is more reliable than consultation."
A joyful time to all of you from those of us who work on this bulletin, Susan, Tom and Danielle.
A Larger View is published by the Inner\Outer Partnership, a tax-exempt educational organization probing how trans-religious spiritual principles can be agents of individual and societal change. We are funded through donations. Please send any - as well as any comments - to P.O.Box 1293, Pac. Pal. CA 90272-1293. Also contact us by email at alargerview@earthlink.net or call 310-836-7710 or visit our web site at www.innerouterpartnership.org
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