So & Well & Putacross

 Grey and overcast again, 43°F, wind N 6 mph, tide's out, another day of life, and Every Day Is A Beautiful Day.

So, is there a problem, do I have a problem, what's my problem? Well, yes, so let me see if I can express it understandably, the crossword puzzle clue for putacross.

Nobody appreciates being called out and called wrong, but is it morally obligatory in some situations. For instance, this morning I watched a television report that three children, spotting their mother and uncle among Capitol rioters last week, called the police and turned them in. Is there a moral imperative to call out evil when one sees it? More, is there a universally applicable, basic sense, upon which any reasonable person could agree, of what is evil, right v wrong, a timeless question of moral philosophy? And if so, could evil be perceived in terms of doing or advocating harm to other living beings?

My difficulty is in trying to see different sides of issues, the convictions of people I don't agree with. Not only an issue itself, but to understand people, why people align so fervently on sides that seem so diametric. Irreconcilable. 

An epiphany: my earliest recollection of consciously realizing that, in spite of the fact that every American thinks there is a solution to every problem, there are human issues that cannot be reconciled. Spring 1969, I was a student officer at Naval War College, Newport, RI. Our entire class of, I suppose several hundred, lieutenant commanders, commanders, and Navy captains, was bused down to New York City, put up in nearby hotels, and exposed to a week of lectures by the ambassadors of various nations, with later discussions among ourselves of what we heard and learned. It was more than half a century ago and I'm excusing that memories are too compacted in my brain to retrieve all the nations and people; but we had spellbinding hours with top UN officials; our American ambassador, the ambassador from the Soviet Union, the ambassador from Israel, ambassadors of several middle eastern countries, including the Palestinians. One realization I came away with, and that has stuck with me these decades since, is that there is no possible mutually agreeable peaceful solution to the Mideast issue of Palestine and Israel. Both sides are irrevocably, immovably entrenched in their certainties and will be until and unless one side violently obliterates the other. Preventing that catastrophic war is the ongoing, unending international focus.  

So, bringing that principle into the present day takes me to our "liberal" "conservative" divide in America. There are irreconcilable issues. Abortion is one, often the first thing mentioned when battle lines are drawn. Same-sex relationships and marriage is another. When I was a boy, and I list this one to remind myself that certainties evolve, interracial marriage was illegal and morally unthinkable. 

If we are to be peaceable, reasonable people (and it has become questionable whether we even desire peace much less reason), and specifically for those who are Christians who covenant to respect the dignity of every human being (which, and NOT "I believe", is the essence of our faith or unfaith) how are we to deal with our irreconcilable certainties? For sure, I don't know. Watching evil spew and burst into violent hatred on Fox News television last Wednesday, 1/6, I'm no longer convinced that we do not wish to destroy each other, red v blue, left v right, conservative v liberal, brother against brother, child against mother. But for those who do wish to live peaceably, and who realize that "unity" is not achievable, we must wish to understand each other. How do we do that? IDK. Read? Moderated discussion groups? IDK. 

IDK. I do know that I'd love to finish my life in a nation where there is mutual goodwill, where everyone is committed to respect the dignity of every human being. 

T+

Art: "Time" by Sergey Tyukanov, 2004