Dear Friends:
Most of you know me as a relentlessly upbeat person. There's almost always some kind of sunny side when I'm around, and even when there's not, I've got some kind of reason to keep slogging. Hope, faith and love: I come back to those when it's hard to put one foot in front of another.
But I gotta tell you: I'm bugging.
This morning, Mrs Pastor flipped on the Today show, to catch the weather, I suppose. But instead of Al Roker, there was Newt Gingrich, all but climaxing on Matt Lauer at the thought of getting his war on against Iran. He spoke confidently of a "Munich moment" to an incredulous Lauer, who couldn't quite seem to wrap his head around Mahmoud Ahmedinejad as the next Hitler. No reason he should: this smells suspiciously more like the
start of World War I than II.
Mrs P turned the television off after a minute or two. I'd like to think it was because I'd threatened to put my fist through Gingrich's fat, smarmy face. More likely, she was just done with it.
But it got me no relief. The local headlines carried news of a rally in support of Israel held in Harrisburg yesterday. An Israeli Army officer talked about of Hezbollah terrorists being found in the US, and declared that it was time for America to stand up to Iranian aggression. The beagle had to look up at me with his sad beagle eyes to convince me not to drop the radio in the toilet. You'll be late for work, he seemed to be saying.
Even that didn't help. I get to work, and there's Max Boot in my inbox, pleading to Let Israel Take Off the Gloves.
What fresh hell is this? Have we all gone mad - again?
I wouldn't be so bothered, except that if the last runup to war taught us nothing else, it taught us that democracy doesn't work. Not with this Administration. We could send hundreds of thousands - millions - into the streets without response. We could clog up the internets with fearsome, fire-breathing letters to the editor - and be greeted with silence. We could pray day and night, but the one thing the Lord can't change is a hardened heart. It looks like, it feels like, oh God I hope it isn't true that the decision to take out Syria and Iran - that long-cherished dream that rocked a thousand neo-cons to sleep at night - has been made, and nothing - nothing - will stop it.
And I look around for leadership on the issue, and I see none. Where are the members of Congress with their hair on fire? Where are the churches? Where are the bloggers? Where the hell am I?
We don't know what to do, in large part because we don't believe jack squat is going to work.
Did I mention that I'm bugging?
I honestly don't know what else to do but cast the question to the four winds: what do we do? Can we stop this madness before it's too late? If so, how?
Please, tell me something. Anything. It would be a comfort.
In the meantime, I'm praying and trying not to bug.
Thanks, Dan