This Tuesday, it's that time again

The eleventh day of the eleventh month, the laws of both this country and the one just north of us have decreed, is set aside each year for the honoring of those who choose to serve wearing, and those who have died wearing, the uniform of their country. (This country honors veterans on two days; Memorial Day in May specifically honors the dead, while Veterans' Day is meant to encompass all who have served.) In the north, it has become widespread custom to call for two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour on this day, to remind everyone of the solemn occasion.

Nine years ago on this day, a blind singer/songwriter named Terry Kelly was in a drugstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia when he heard one churlish fellow customer refusing to honor the two-minute silence, demanding that a cashier break the silence to serve him. Terry's own desire to not be as crass as this person kept him from saying anything at the moment...but his anger and indignation led him to write a song about the incident that became an anthem for people throughout his nation. Many in this nation as well have discovered the beauty and power of this song, and the magnificent music video that was made for it.

Every year at this time, I have made it my own custom to provide a link to the YouTube posting of the video so that others who may not have heard this moving song can experience it...and be reminded not only of the need to honor our veterans who have died, but also of the obligation to do better by the ones who are still alive and in need. As always, I thank my dear friend wcg for hipping me to this video two years ago...and now, once again I offer it to you with the suggestion that two days from now, we all try to observe this small but important ritual wherever we are, whatever we are doing, if at all possible, and encourage others to join us. And if it is not possible at that precise moment, to set aside some time somewhere in the day to honor those who have earned much more honor than this...some with limbs or even their lives.
Terry Kelly's "A Pittance of Time"

QtaHbogh qachDaq Suv qoH neH

After my rather incendiary post of two days ago, reading the responses, talking with others and watching the news reports and chat-show discussions of the problems the incoming administration faces has caused me to reflect on it. It has been made clear to me that, while prosecution of the outgoing officials for their crimes is still important, it may not necessarily be the thing that should sit atop the agenda. Little things like an ongoing and destructive occupation of Iraq, a rapidly imploding financial sector and the continuing hemorrhaging of jobs by domestic firms need more immediate attention.

In addition, I have been moved by the response around the world not only to the prospect of finally being rid of the most globally and domestically divisive US President ever, but also to the proof that a nation with a long and notorious history of oppressing racial/ethnic minorities can finally get past that to elect a member of the single most maltreated minority as its new President. This Yahoo! News story, linked to by a friend of filkertom, makes me wonder if the Bradley effect has finally been replaced by a much wider, more powerful and beneficial phenomenon: the Obama effect.

It's inspiring to see, and it makes me more conscious of the conflict within myself, between my better nature—the part of me that hopes and dreams, and wants to work for, a better world, and to see the nation and human race united in common cause, even those who oppose me politically—and the angry, partisan part of me that still seethes at eight years of being made to feel alien in my own country, of watching abuses committed against my own fellow citizens and peoples abroad in my name, and lusts for some serious payback.

Make no mistake: I am not backing down in the slightest from my insistence that the guilty in the deposed régime must pay, and be seen to pay, for their misdeeds. And I will expect to see this done sometime within the new administration's first term. But it has been pointed out to me that witch-hunts against the other side would, beyond being reprehensible, only serve to insure our new President not only does not get a second term, but actually might not be allowed to live through his first. Nearly half of the people in this nation who voted—and many millions more who did not—are still utterly certain that the wrong man won last Tuesday, and that we are headed at best for a socialist government that confiscates money from those who worked hard to earn it and gives it to those who didn't, and at worst for the actual physical destruction of our country by its enemies due to misguided diplomacy and defense policy. We do need to find some way to bring those people out of fear and panic about the new government, and into working together against our real and immediate threats.

With this in mind, I promise to work harder at restraining my excesses of rhetoric and try to be more positive about suggestions for the new government in the months ahead as the transition completes and it finds its way forward. I do not agree to abandon my liberal views or priorities about what should be done, or my right to speak out about them...but I will try to strike a better balance between advocating for things I feel should be done and acknowledging the humanity and rights of those with whom I disagree. I and millions of others voted hope over fear this last week; let us build on that and do all we can to facilitate the Obama effect, here and abroad, and the wonders it will make possible in the world.

And by the way, in case you're wondering, the above headline is the Arabic-alphabet phonetic translation of an old Klingon proverb I and a lot of my friends know very well: "Only a fool fights in a burning house."