God and Tucson

Many of the conversations, quotes, and writings about the Tucson disaster have mentioned God. It appears that God is to be thanked for the saving of the lives that were spared, especially for the "miraculous" survival of Congresswoman Giffords - who made extraordinary progress following her brain injury. Perhaps he did have a hand in these "miracles."

But did he, then, also have a hand in the actions leading to the six who were killed? Obviously they were not selected for "saving." It seems that we are always ready to thank God for rescuing us from a disaster, but never "blaming" God for the disaster in the first place! Are we implying that God had nothing to do with causing the problem, but only showed up to mitigate it?

Believers "understand" this dichotomy. After all, "who are we to question the ways of the Lord." But should this entire catastrophe be an act of God, must we not also accept the fact that Jared Loughner took these steps as an "agent of the Lord?" If, on the other hand, it was an act that God did not dictate, but could have prevented, he obviously saw no reason to intervene.

I believe I am correct when I paraphrase the Bishop of Tucson who, in his eulogy of Christina-Taylor Green, stated that "God wanted her to be with him." God works in mysterious ways. If he, indeed, did wish Christina to join him, it seems a rather cruel way to get her there. He had the option of having Christina die peacefully in her sleep, but instead chose to have her die violently with a bullet.

Who are we to question the actions of God. We are only human beings - we are not, and never will be privy to God's reasons. His actions are always beyond our comprehension.

Abortion and Viability

Life begins at some point. But when? The answer used to be easy - at birth. This interpretation, of course, is no longer accepted by most Americans. Now life is considered to begin at the point of "viability"- that time of intrauterine development at which a fetus can reasonably be expected to survive ex utero. The termination of fetal development prior to viability is permitted by law. The termination of fetal development after viability may be restricted. Roe v. Wade permits abortion only during the first trimester of a pregnancy - before the point of viability.

Now if one defines viability as the time when a fetus can reasonably be expected to survive, one must seriously consider the argument that the "viability age" may at some future date, be moved back into the first trimester. This is especially true, given ongoing advancements in neonatology, as well as more basic research in methods of extra uterine conception and maturation. It is quite imaginable that viability will be possible for a "product of conception" conceived and subsequently "developed" in some form of "test tube" environment from the very onset of fertilization.

Assuming the validity of the above theses, we may be faced with a new ethical dilemma - the fact of viability at the time of conception - the Roman Catholic definition of when life begins.

Will those in favor of abortion under the rules of Roe v. Wade, and opposed to abortion after a fetus has reached viability, now rethink their positions, given this new certainty?

Should all fetuses (or "products of conception") be potentially viable, it logically follows that viability as the benchmark for the "right to be born" is present at conception, and therefore can no longer serve as the criterion for termination at any age. A fetus aged 1 day can be no different from one 8 or 9 months old. Viability can no longer be considered an issue in this matter. I am not discounting the possibility that there may be other criteria to consider - but viability no longer qualifies.

This discourse is not meant to serve as an argument for or against abortion, but is submitted for your reflections as a potential future ethical issue that may require new considerations in the coming decades.

Guns and Killing in 2011

"Guns don't kill people. People kill people." So the argument goes.

However, one has to accept the logical conclusion that people can't use guns to kill people if there were no guns. For people to kill people using guns, both guns and people have to be present! Now we can't eliminate the people side of the equation, but we can eliminate the guns side of the equation!

Using a similar argument one could say "Cigarettes don't kill people. People kill people." A dormant cigarette kills no one. It is when a person lights one that death may occur. Both cigarettes and people have to be present! Now we can't eliminate the people side of the equation, but we can eliminate the cigarette side of the equation.

Of course any instrument involved in the killing of a person involves not only the instrument, but a person. But it is the presence of the instrument that aggravates a person's ability to cause a death.

Many, if not most, of these "instruments involved in killing" such as planes, cars, swimming pools, etc. cannot reasonably be eliminated if people are to continue to exist contentedly in today's world. The incredibly easy availability of cigarettes and guns, however, can be controlled or eliminated and , arguably, not significantly affect a reasonably contented society.

Though cigarettes, planes, cars, and swimming pools, and the like are potential instruments of death, they are hardly ever used to deliberately kill. They are not instruments specifically designed to cause severe injury or death. They are not "weapons." Guns, on the other hand, are. Guns were invented specifically to inflict injury or death. They are "weapons!" Though they may be used for alternative activities such as target practice, etc. their invention was to inflict injury or death.

The second amendment of the Constitution of the United States gives citizens the "right to bear arms." No one can argue the fact that this amendment relates this "right" to the maintenance of a citizen militia. Whether the "militia" or the "arms" is the prime subject of this amendment remains unclear. Is it not reasonable to assume that, were "the right to bear arms" the major subject of this amendment, the founders would have not felt it necessary to include any reference to a militia therein? Agreeing that the founders were intelligent men, why wouldn't they just have said "The right of citizens to bear arms shall not be infringed" - and end it there?

The Constitution was designed to be amended. That is why the founders initiated the process of amendment in the first place. The "right to bear arms" is not an original article of the Constitution, but is a amendment! Remember, our founders when constructing our Constitution, decided it was "right" to count certain "citizens" as "3/5" of a person in determining the population of a district for representation in the House of Representatives. Yes, this provision was eventually eliminated by a post-Civil War amendment.

There is nothing "absolutely" sacred about our Constitution. There are times when "updating" and "modernizing" are necessary.

Realizing that the Founding Fathers were not absolutely correct in everything they composed (Consider the phrase regarding "savage Indians" in our Declaration of Independence), we should not feel constrained to change what clearly should be changed. A set of principles and laws written in 1787, surely demands occasional reconsideration 214 years later! Does anyone truly believe that Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, etc. would have included a "right to bear arms/militia" clause were they writing in 2011?

The Problem of Physician-Monopoly and Health Care

What about the ever-present concern regarding the unavailability of physicians to handle the increasing number of people seeking primary medical care. The time has come to realize that the acceptance of non-physician practitioners to fill this gap in care, is long overdue. The vast majority of clinical situations can easily be taken care of by auxiliary personnel such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners. As a matter of fact, the New York Times recently reviewed a TV documentary which describes how nurses in Mozambique are successfully performing Cesarean sections because of a severe shortage of physicians(July 15, 2008). When we call 911, it is not a physician who responds, but an emergency medical technician. Our lives are in their very capable hands.

Similarly, properly trained non-physician practitioners can provide much needed primary as well as specialty care, more efficiently and less expensively. Having worked and trained such personnel, I can testify to their competence. Physicians hold an unnecessary monopoly on health care; a monopoly that needs to be analyzed and subsequently, I would hope, eliminated.

Jews, Israel and Dual Loyalty

It has been suggested by some that American Jews harbor competing loyalties to Israel and the United States. Jewish spokespeople have consistently, and possibly correctly, denied this concept. In doing so they always ask the question as to why other groups such as Italians or Irish, for example, are not similarly singled-out as having potential conflicting loyalties to their ethnic homelands.

To me the answer is rather clear. Whereas Italians and Irish have a longing for a homeland where their language is spoken, their foods are eaten, where they have memories of their ancestors, this does not apply to the American Jew and Israel.

The Jewish relationship to Israel is not one of an emigrant to his homeland. We American Jews are not emigrants from the Middle East with an immediate ancestral tie to Israel. Our forbears are from Europe, not Israel. Our foods are those of Europe, not Israel, our language is that of Europe, not Israel. Our customs are those of Europe, not Israel.

The relationship of American Jews to Israel is something very different and far deeper. It is not related to culture, to cuisine or language or homeland. Israel is a part of Judaism. Judaism and Israel are not easily separated. The land of Israel is central to Jewish festivals. Biblically Israel is synonymous with the Jews. Jerusalem and Israel are a constant presence in Jewish daily prayers; are in effect, an integral part of the Judaism. Judaism without Israel or Jerusalem is inconceivable. Whether Jews are in Israel or not in Israel, whether they are for Israel or against Israel politically, they can never deny the central position of Israel and Jerusalem in Jewish tradition, and even more importantly in Judaism. Italy or Ireland is not central to Catholicism.

The Jewish-Israel relationship, then, is unique. The question of dual loyalties is therefore not so easily answered.

Is Cardinal Lustiger a Jew?

The New York Times of August 6, 2007 includes the obituary of Jean-Marie Lustiger, former Cardinal Archbishop of Paris and Primate of France. Cardinal Lustiger was born to Polish Jews residing in Paris, and converted to Roman Catholicism as a child. His mother was murdered in Auschwitz.

Aaron Lustiger was born in Paris in 1926 and, in 1940, following the German occupation of France, was sent by his parents to live with a Catholic woman in Orleans. At age 13 he converted to Catholicism, adding Jean-Marie to his name. He always insisted and asserted that he remained a Jew despite his conversion. “I believe he saw himself as a Jewish Christian, like the first disciples,” said a close friend, the conductor Gilbert Levine.

“I was born Jewish, and so I remain, even if that is unacceptable for many,” said Lustiger.

In 1995, while the prelate was visiting Israel, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau, the Ashkenazic chief rabbi said Cardinal Lustiger “betrayed his people and his faith during the most difficult and darkest of periods.” The rabbi dismissed the assertion that the cardinal had remained a Jew. In response, the cardinal said: “To say that I am no longer a Jew is like denying my father and mother, my grandfathers and grandmothers. I am as Jewish as all the other members of my family who were butchered in Auschwitz or in the other camps.”

After the death of Pope John Paul II, there was speculation about Lustiger being a possible successor. “From your mouth to God’s ear” he responded in Yiddish, with his characteristic humor.

Again, the subject of “Who is a Jew” is raised. If there is, indeed, a Jewish ethnic identity, then an individual, once a member of this ethnic group, can never separate from it, no matter how he/she may try. If it is agreed that the concept of a Jewish People exists – this is genetic, not philosophical or religious. It cannot be otherwise.

So here are some clarifying concepts, as I see them:

1. The Jewish People – Individuals with a historic, genetic link to the original Israelites.
2. The Jewish Religion – Individuals who identify with Judaism, i.e. the religion founded by the ancient Israelites.
3. The Jewish Nation (or simply “Jews”) – Includes individuals in categories 1 and/or 2.
4. Israel – the present-day nation-state comprised of members of the Jewish Nation as well as other ethnic groups.

Rabbi Lau, the respected and revered Grand Rabbi, accepts the Holocaust as being God’s justifiable punishment of the Jewish people for believing in the Enlightenment, and founding Reform. I presume that he, then, considers Hitler an agent of God. This intolerant man with an overwhelming capacity to condemn and hate, and very little, if any, capacity to love and forgive, labels Lustiger as “a betrayer of his people.”

A change in philosophy or ideas is hardly a “betrayal.” “Betrayal” implies treason and dishonesty, with a determination to misrepresent or injure the “betrayed” party. If one leaves the Republican Party and becomes a Democrat – he has not betrayed the Republicans. If one decides to become a Reform Jew, rather than remain a Conservative Jew, he has not betrayed Conservative Judaism – merely changed his religious philosophy – as did Cardinal Lustiger.


All Jews, however they are defined, should exercise inclusiveness, not exclusiveness. Lets put an end to the concept of “two Jews, three synagogues!”

What do Polls Really Tell Us

When using polls as a guideline for action, it is imperative to be aware of some important issues in poll taking.

First – how is the question phrased? As example, consider the two questions below, both of which are attempting to evaluate the popularity of chocolate ice cream.

1. Do you like chocolate ice cream?
2. Do you prefer chocolate or vanilla ice cream?

Lets look at the results of the polls and let us assume they were carried out in an accurate and reproducible statistical manner.

Result of Question 1: 95% yes, 5% no.
Result of Question 2: Chocolate 50%, Vanilla 50%

Now lets change Question 2:

Do you prefer chocolate, vanilla, or some other flavor?

Result: Chocolate 50%, vanilla 20%, other flavor 30%

In this simple example it is easy to see how one may interpret the data differently depending on how a question is posed.

Now two more questions on a topic of national interest in our leadership:

1. Do you think President Bush is doing a good job? Yes or no?
2. Had Al Gore of John Kerry been elected instead of President Bush, do you believe that Gore or Kerry would have performed better than President Bush? Yes or No?

Results to Question 1. Yes 30%, No 70%
Results to Question 2. Yes 50%, No 50%

Interpretation of results to Question 1 appear quite clear-cut, but when the question is asked in another way, the results are open to a different interpretation. Take care before reaching conclusions. Consider in your own mind what may or may not have been actually polled!

Second issue – who is aware of all the facts needed for decision-making?

If a poll were taken among high school students regarding whether it is worthwhile to remain in school until graduation, it may show that there is a significant number of students who would rather leave school than stay. Have the students have answered with an awareness of all the facts regarding the pluses and minuses of such a decision?

A poll asking whether we should raise taxes, or leave Iraq, or invade Darfur, etc, asks for decisions to be made by people who most likely have very limited information. The vast majority of the polled public probably has not fully researched all the relative facts required to make an intelligent decision. Many of the answers are given based on “gut” feelings or because of media presentations. For example:

Presentation by Media 1: “2000 individuals lost their lives today.”
Presentation by Media 2: “2000 individuals were slaughtered today.”

In both instances 2,000 individuals are reported to have died, but how one regards the method of dying is quite different.

Individuals who are empowered to make decisions - parents, teachers, lawmakers, jurors, presidents, should make judgments not just on polls, but on the facts and all the facts, needed to make the proper decision – facts of which frequently only the decision-makers are fully aware.