A Shrill Moral Pitch

The kids came over with their kids and Lizzy is just so cute it is amazing. Alex was in a sour mood because she visited her cousin today and he threw something—a potato I think— hitting her and leaving a bruise on her cheek. She was embarrassed. She was likely mad at him but that is hard for a child to grasp and know how to handle. I said little, but now I think I should have said something about how she felt. The hope is that would increase her insight, acceptance of her feelings and with that, acceptance of herself.

Mark talked a lot about politics. I did not disagree but sometimes political talk in a fervent one-sided style is not enjoyable to me. Earlier I listened to Rocky Anderson at church and he talked about Human Rights, the people that were killed en mass in WWII, Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, and are now being killed in Darfur, enslaved or made to be sexual slaves. It is horrific stuff, and it is true that more should be done about it. But Rocky is an evangelical moralist that leaves one feeling one could never do enough to fight the evildoers. Somehow, even if it is all true (and I think it mostly is true), it does not captivate or motivate me. It is the absolute moralistic tone of it. I am left thinking: Who are the evil doers? What motivates them? Do they have a sense of the harm they do? Is it a part of the war experience, or do they simply take an opportunity at hand to act like animals? If so, why do they make that choice?

So I guess I’m not much of a crusader against evil, even when I think it is evil.

In the coming week I am hoping to finish the taxes, make a plan to finish the pledge drive and set some new directions. I’d like to start work on the presentation on ethics for the U of U. So far my idea is to pull out my old work and update it.

Another thing I could get involved in is an explication in these pages of some root beliefs about abortion—when life starts and why choice is better than no choice. I could even go into why I am a liberal rather than a conservative. These would not be diatribes, but, I hope, reasoned positions that lay out the beliefs and values involved, along with facts and personal preferences. The lead would be abortion as there are so many bogus notions about it and vague but strongly held beliefs. That would be my lead subject next time.