The day after Christmas and all through the house, Breanna and Alyssa were stirring, so was a beagle-pitbull-catahoula pup named Jack. I don't know Jack's official birthday, but I know that I got him around the first or second week of February when he was already six weeks old. So I am declaring today, Jack is one year old (or seven in dog years)! Last night I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with the Iannone family, the wonderful people I've been staying with. We had a beautiful array of salad, meatballs, eggplant parm, lasagna, orange cold drinks, and pumpkin pie for dessert. After dinner, Jon, Mr. Cici, and I engaged in a fairly intense intellectual discussion spanning religion and politics. Breanna and Alyssa were desperately wrestling for our attention. They already had the pretty princess board game set up. Jon kept saying how this was the first adult conversation he had had in the house for months and they needed to be patient. We were a regular multicultural melting pot, the three of us. Jon is a Christian from Connecticut, Mr. Cici is a Muslim from Mali, Africa, and I am the Jew from Dirty Jersey. Too often, when the big discussions of faith and politics arise, people want to run for the hills. So I always appreciate when people of different cultures and faiths can get down to it. Throughout the discussion, Jon would preempt his comments with "I don't want to offend you, but..." then he would throw out an honest question. He's very endearing in that way. He demerits his own intelligence, and doesn't allow himself enough credit for his own thinking. The most fascinating part of the conversation revolved around the Iraq war. Mr.Cici and I banded around our belief that the war was not necessary. We realized that our main point of contention with Jon was the claim of the existence of WMD in the desert. We all understood that we did not know for sure one way or the other, but my inclination was that there were not WMDs, and he believed that they were possibly buried somewhere before we could find them. We skittered around the United States involvement in forgein affairs. I explained how I thought that we should stop meddling and acting as the world police. I think that should be the responsibility of the United Nations. Then Jon alluded to a brilliant analogy between world politics and a regular school. I jumped on his analogy and used it to iron out my own view of how world politics should be run. Let me try to articulate:
Imagine a public school as a microchosm of the world. The United Nations would serve as the Principal. Their responsibility would be to make sure that the world run smoothly facilitating in "classrooms" where problems were arising that effected the entire "school." They would intervene and provide support, and if necessary provide a blue print for successful management. Each country could be seen as a teacher and their citizens be students. The teachers would manage their students and if a few bad students were found to be negatively effecting the entire school and it was beyond the teacher's control, the principal would aid in reprimanding and handling the student. Now, in terms of the Iraqi war, imagine that I am a the teacher representing Iraq, and I choose to run my classroom in a way that other teachers frown upon. I use corporal punishment on my students excessively. I am having difficulty managing my students, so another teacherfrom the other side of the school, we'll call him "Mr. Sam" decides that it is his responsibility to enter my classroom without my permission and tell me how to run my class. Not only am I offended by his presumptuous actions, but I feel that the Principal should be the one to help me, whether or not I ask for her help, not another teacher...especially one that I hate. Now, I realize the analogy has holes in it. But I feel that it still works fundamentally. One of the breakdowns is that the "principal" or United Nations needs to gain more power over the school with the support of all the teachers. Countries need to restrain their own infringement and rely of the judgement of the principal. Now the United States has too much pride to accept the judgements of the United Nations. We have to accept that there will be times when we disagree with their judgements. But that's part of democracy. I disagree with the President Bush, but I understand that the majority of my country voted for him and so I must accept the public's and the president's decisions. I won't necessarily silence my opinions, but that is how democracy works. Until our country accepts the decisions of the United Nations we will not be truly serving democracy. Looking back on my argument I am aware that it is full of errors based on my lack of knowledge in the realm of political science. I'd appreciate any help in understanding the faults of the argument. And I have plenty more to say that was discussed, but for now I will say that the conversation I had last night was quite enjoyable and I will now return to my preparations for the second half of the school year.
With the free time I have...I will probably revisit the blog again today.
