There are a couple of small points on which I do agree with
Mr. Bush, to be fair, though always with caveats. I do believe the world is a
better and safer place without Saddam in it. But I'm not sure we should have gone
in there and I am very sure we shouldn't have done it the way we did. Going in
without an exit plan is some thing no decent program manager in any corporation
would do. I expect better than that from our Commander in Chief, a an with access
to the best minds in the country, in a situation where many lives are involved.
Maybe I am turning into a manager because that appalls me from a pure planning and
risk management viewpoint.
Also, I'm though in most cases I'm stron
on separation of church and state, I'm ambivalent about faith-based organizations.
It honestly wouldn't outrage me if we gave federal funding to, say,
href="http://www.habitat.org//">Habitat for Humanity or
href="http://www.heifer.org"the Heifer Project. Those are organizations that
help others for reasons based in the faith of their founders and members. But
they're not tied to a specific denomination, they decide who to help based on need
rather than on a religous litmus test, and they'll help you without trying to
convert you. Maybe religion belongs in public life when it is inclusive and when
it helps its adherents to act for the good of others. But anything divisive or
that belongs to a particular creed or that teaches or implies that others are
inferior, should not be funded on the public dollar or espoused by public
organizations. I'm a bit extreme there; I don't even like the White House
Christmas tree. Though I suspect it might not be publically finded, which
mitigates that a bit. There is nothing like growing up as a minority to let you
see just how much majority religions continue to dominate this supposedly-secular
country. I think it's very hard for people in the majority to see even when they
honestly try; so many things just seem like the right and natural things to think
and do, when they're what you're used to.