Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War document is up for sale. Dated April 19, 1861, he authorizes the blockade of all Southern ports which was, in fact, a declaration of war. One might say Lincoln fired the first shot initiating the Civil War. Let’s just say,  he called the shots. His signature, firm and resolute as  the man himself, constituted an act of bravery that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Indeed, it would ultimately end it in abrupt violence at Ford’s Theatre almost 4 years to the day, on April 14, 1865.
This important document, currently in private hands, will be sold to the first person offering the $900K price tag attached to what really belongs to all of us. How can a record of such historical significance be up for grabs? Shouldn’t it be protected and housed in a public place of exhibition and not part of someone’s personal trophy room? This is not an autograph of your favorite rock star – it’s ABRAHAM LINCOLN who, in his own words, triggers what was to become the single most terrible act of war this country has realized within its own borders resulting in tragic loss of life – for the sake of Freedom. My hero. And yours.
There is no price one can place on on such a document. $900K, a cool million, two – who’s to say? History, bought and sold. It does not belong to one person. It should be donated, whoever you are.

So……………..whadayathink? What do you think? Maybe you’re the guy with the cash who can buy it and give it back to its rightful owner(s). How ’bout it, Big Shot? Or, maybe no one should step forward and buy it in the first place, forcing Mr. (Mrs.)  Whoever You Are to donate it themselves.
No man resolved to make the most of himself has time to waste on personal contention. – Abraham Lincoln

I can’t believe it’s been 10 years. We had been living in our new home for

just a year. Taking the Long Island Railroad into Manhattan each day was still

a relatively new experience for me. Prior to then, I spent years riding the

subway into work. I guess you can say I’m a seasoned New Yorker. September

11th, 2001. It was the most beautiful September day. Noticeably so. I know it

sounds like a cliche but it was the kind of day that made you feel alive.

People still talk about how beautiful the day was. Picture the perfect day.

That was it.

I was sitting at my desk working (or about to. God, it was early) when I
got a phone call from my husband Michael. He said a plane had just crashed into

the World Trade Center. My initial

assumption was that a pilot of a small aircraft lost his bearings, making a

grave miscalculation in altitude. This was no accident, Michael replied. Call

it a gut feeling. Leave work, he said. Leave now. I didn’t. My office is in

midtown Manhattan. A few of us opened a window and if you leaned ever so

slightly in the direction of downtown, you could see it. A big gaping hole in

the tower. I remember thinking, “How are they ever going to fix

that?” Crowds began to gather outside. We walked up to the corner where a

clear cut view offered a broader perspective on the damage. There was billowing

smoke emanating from the hole. By the time we got back to the office, a second

plane had hit the other tower. By this time we knew the horror of it. We were

under attack. The city shut down. There was no way in. No way out. It was then

I realized that Manhattan is actually an island – that I was trapped – cut off

from the rest of the world. And all I wanted to do was get home. If only for

the last time.

One by one the towers collapsed. One minute they were there. We saw them.

Then they were gone. It seemed inconceivable. How could this happen? This was

the United States of America. New York City. Dangerous as it may seem at times,

things like this just didn’t happen. Oddly enough, I had always felt safe and

secure nestled within the cluster of tall buildings. Like familiar friends. My

home away from home. On the whole, New Yorkers are a tough bunch. You

inevitably become so. It’s fast paced. You need to keep up. But that day was

different. What struck me most about that day was experiencing the city as

never before. The city emptied its people out of every building, spilling them

out into the street. People everywhere, just standing. Enveloped in a kind of

shell shock. We were not so much individual persons, but a single living

organism brought together in solidarity. Were we scared? Very much so. Yet not

a syllable was spoken. What was heard was only the sound of sirens; scores of

fire trucks and police cars racing down 7th Avenue toward doom. Racing to their

deaths. I was witnessing their final frantic moments.

I made my way out of the city that day; several of us piling into a

co-worker’s brand new car. How he B&M’d (bitched and moaned) about it until

we all threatened to buy dripping ice cream cones. Finding levity even in the

face of disaster. A kind of balm. An equilibrium on our sanity. His was our

Army Jeep. Our ticket out. Intent on leaving war torn Manhattan behind.

Seemingly, incredibly, ours was the first vehicle to enter and leave the

Midtown Tunnel. There was absolutely no one on the road. Just us. Like

Armageddon. I turned to look back at the skyline behind us. At the empty sky

where the towers stood. There was billowing black smoke. Smoke that used to be

people. In the foreground was a huge billboard. The word P E A C E

spelled out in big block letters. That, the word “peace”, and the

eerie aftermath of silence, is most prevalent in my mind. That, and the empty

September sky.

This is a great day for the U.S.A. and for the rest of the world –Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind 9/11, has finally been killed by our best – the elite Navy Seals Special Forces.  Wouldn’t it be great if we had the ability to take out all the “monsters” in the world without resorting to full-scale modern warfare?
There is great unrest in the Middle East, Africa and around the world because ordinary civilians want a better life. For hundreds of years average citizens have been brainwashed and oppressed by dictatorial and very often (but not always; some tyrants are secular) religious fanatics. Women have especially been victims of mistreatment in the Middle East; being forced to wear burkas and not allowed to show any flesh in public – not to mention the plethora of other indignities through which they have had to suffer; too numerous to cite here.
It took more than 10 years to kill Osama Bin Laden despite what the republicans assert about Bill Clinton not trying to get him. The very same republicans, who were clamoring about how Clinton was spending so much time on killing Bin Laden, are the ones now claiming Clinton did not do enough. That is politics – whatever one does, the opposing party will come up with something to complain about.  Nevertheless, never mind that now, the bottom line is Osama Bin Laden, whose name is as horrifyingly synonymous with Adolph Hitler, is dead.
Someone suggested that it was too bad that we did not bring him in alive and had we done so, we might learn more about Al-Qaeda and its operations. I, personally think it would be a waste of time and money; he would not talk (unless we tortured him and we cannot do that) and besides we now have access to the compound in which he was residing. In the coming days I am certain we will retrieve reams of information from that compound.
I will be writing more about this unbelievable story but for now we know little except that Osama Bin Laden is dead!
Now it is your turn WHADAWETHINK ? Do you think Al-Qaeda is likely to strike soon as a result of killing it’s leader? Was Bin Laden just a symbol or was he actually involved in orchestrating the terrorists attacks? I, personally believe this is a big win for everyone and the world can feel a little bit safer now that our worst enemy is dead. Furthermore, this just goes to show that NO ONE attacks our country and gets away with it. We will learn so much more over the next few days and weeks but open this up. There is so much to talk about.
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How can we as a species even conceive of ourselves as a civilized animal when there is a thing that still exists and in which we partake called warfare?  George Carlin summed it up best when he stated, “we Homo sapiens like to think of ourselves as civilized, yet we’re barely out of the jungle folks (the primordial side of humans still triumphs) all we are is animals with computers, machine guns and baseball caps.”

War has always been with us (even when we were ape-like toolmakers some 2.5 million years ago to the 1^st so-called civilization, the Sumerians 8000 years ago to the Civil War (Carlin has a funny bit re: the term civil – “Pardon me sir please allow me to  – boom ! you’re dead; to the front page of the New York Times today 3/21/2011.

Even when it seems perhaps we are  more than amply justified when for example today, we see the allies intensifying air assaults in Libya as we attempt to depose the brutal dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi who has been brutalizing and killing his own civilians for decades. There just seems something wrong with resolving something unspeakably horrible by dropping bombs. I was struck by the incisive remarks made by the former chairman of the Arab league, Amr Moussa, when he said we’re trying to protect the civilians of Libya by dropping more bombs on parts of Libya where we think Qaddafi is and in the process killing more civilians. Just think of the absolute insanity of this!

As I am writing this, I’m glancing at the front page of The New York Times (the so snobby and refined paper that only prints the news that’s fit to print) with a an image of a massive fireball in color, covering half of the front page. It’s such a harrowing picture that I can practically smell the gasoline and the corpses of civilians and soldiers burning flesh. Furthermore, does it really matter anyway in terms of human life – a human being is a human being; so it makes it okay to burn to a crisp a young man who happens to be wearing a military uniform and who happens to be on the wrong side. I also cringe at the armchair generals who declare that we are only targeting the military and we are careful not to put civilians in harm’s way but collateral damage (nice euphemism for innocent men, women, and children) is a sad fact of war.

I know that war is unavoidable because there are very bad people in the world who are sadistic and have an unquenchable thirst for power. They take advantage of a weak nation or a country in trouble (like Hitler did after WWI; the 2^nd world war was partially our fault because of the Treaty of Versailles – another blog) they rise to power and wreak havoc.

I would hope that someday we would, I am not going to be Pollyannaish, and say someday there will be no war, but just pray that we resort to military action only if necessary and only if all other non-military tactics and negotiations have failed.

Now it’s your turn WHADAWETHINK ? There is military conflict all over the world – we are ensnared in two wars, the Middle East and Africa are always killing each other and it is a hive for dictators. What are your thoughts on the wars we’re fighting (the U.S.)? Is there a way out? In fact, we have been in Iraq and Afghanistan longer than we fought in Vietnam – astounding but true. Hey George Carlin I love you, I miss you and yes you were right – we are animals with computers, machine guns and baseball caps.

I am interested in what people have to say about this Op-ed blog. I hate war and it’s the sickest thing we humans do. Open this up and create substantive dialogue.

Now I am asking you to hover over the Amazon widget and make a purchase if you wish. Sure, it takes resources to run this blog but I actually enjoy more when people read the blog and contribute with thoughtful comments. Keep in mind, if you make a purchase at Amazon from here, you can buy whatever you want, and WHADAWETHINK still gets credit. Enjoy and Keep coming back.

The actual full Quotation is “Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” By Thomas Hobbes – 1651 from perhaps the most profound philosophical book ever written – ‘Leviathan’. 

I have thousands of great books in my library, one of which is the aforementioned – ‘Leviathan’. I remember reading this in my 20’s and being astonished at how penetrating, profound and insightful and apropos the themes regarding the human condition were stated regardless of the fact that the book was written 325 years ago. There are eternal truths and there is an old adage that proclaims that Plato has written everything there is to know about life and the human condition and any other thing written or said is merely a footnote. So if you believe in this then even this masterpiece, ‘Leviathan’, is just another footnote to the great works of Plato. 

One can argue that ‘Leviathan’ is a treatise on political theory and Hobbes was writing about the state of affairs in England, circa 1588-1679 during the English Civil War. Hobbes believed in a powerful monarch and an absolute authority and therefore he supported King Charles I and was against the forces led by Oliver Cromwell.

 To put Hobbes’ convictions and conclusions into a neat nutshell it goes as follows: He believed that life was a constant struggle and there would always be war inasmuch as man was continually at odds with each other because we are all pursuing the same things – food, shelter, wealth, safety and security. (It’s the old argument that there are too many people and not enough natural resources; I personally think this is not in fact the case, I believe there is enough to go around for everyone and it’s really just an issue of greed. People think that they are special and therefore are entitled to more than their share. Go ahead call me a Socialist.) So not unlike Darwin’s ‘Survival of the Fittest’ (Darwin actually stated it was not so much the strongest who survived but one who was the best at adapting to one’s environment) and of course Karl Marx, Hobbes believed in the Common wealth.   

So if you accept the premise that man is a greedy, primal species, Hobbes viewed Commonwealth as a social contract analogous to a giant social organism. He concluded that if we didn’t have this contract and if we didn’t have an absolute authority and a powerful monarch we would have total chaos and individuals would not attain the shared goals of safety and security. The human species would be no different from any other animal. 

I’ve attempted to give a synopsis of this very complex concept of Thomas Hobbes and it’s impossible to not to sound somewhat facile but I strongly recommend everyone to read ‘Leviathan’ and just read the classics period. I love current events and I read the newspaper, magazines, surf the net, read other blogs (btw – if you’re not familiar with  Arts and Letters Daily you should check it out, it is probably one the best sites on the Web  http://www.aldaily.com/   but don’t forget to come back here) However I do read the classics as well and I go back to the original source. So read Plato and instead of reading a book about Charles Darwin, why not just read Darwin – read ‘The Origin of Species’. There is nothing wrong with criticism and I love Harold Bloom and Clifton Fadiman but there is nothing like reading the real thing; it’s like going back in time and getting into the mind of the greatest thinkers who ever lived. 

So WHADAWETHINK ? Have you read Leviathan ? Do you read the classics? Have you read Plato ? What are your favorite books of all time? Do you prefer modern literature? This blog could be 1000 pages long.

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On the front page of the New York Times yesterday there was an article stating that Ehud Olmert, the former Prime Minister of Israel, and Mahmoud Aabbas, the Palestinian president, almost reached a peace deal in 2008 as per new memoirs published earlier this week in an Israeli newspaper.

Some novel and interesting details about the agreement such as an American-Led international security force being stationed on its border and a multi-national committee; handling tough issues regarding perhaps one being the number of Palestinian refugees allowed to work in Israel, another being perhaps redressing the mistreatment of Palestinians and a plethora of other contentious matters were outlined.

I didn’t finish reading the whole article because well I’ve been reading and hearing about peace in the Middle East ever since I was old enough to read and understand that there was an immense and complex world out there; billions of people in fact and a colossal number of diverse cultures outside of Bloomingdale NJ, the town in which I was raised, just like me pursuing life, liberty and happiness.

I came to the conclusion many years ago that there would never be peace between Israel and Palestine, Jew and Arab. Both are referred to as Semites (I learned this back in high school, much to my great surprise, when I believe I said someone was  anti-Semitic and a pal of mine said oh yeah he’s prejudiced against Jews and Arabs; look Semite up in the dictionary) but both could not be more different in terms of RELIGION.

How can there be peace when one’s holy book and guide to living come from two very different texts – the Bible and the Koran. If you eliminated religion from the equation one would expect that reasonable people would be able to come up with a peaceful way of living together. Unfortunately religion is their culture and the dogmatism that goes along with it could not be more rigid and inflexible. Individuals are gladly obligingly willing to kill themselves for God; the sickening action of strapping makeshift bombs to one’s person and killing oneself along with extraordinarily sadly innocent people who have absolutely nothing to do with shaping and determining policy is a painful example of how strong the dogma is.

Millions of pints of ink have been spilled on the chance of a possible peace agreement between Israel and Palestine (and of course the Arabic countries surrounding Israel come into play) that in my opinion will never come. 500 years from now (if the human species has not destroyed itself) there will still be Israeli – Palestinian negotiations. How can there be peaceful coexistence when one side’s motif and mandate is ‘Push’ the Jews into the sea, dead or alive.’

Princess Ave, Jerusalem - 1947

Now WHADAWETHINK ? Is it possible to have peace in the Middle East? Can Jew and Arab get along with one another? Is religion the cause of all this hatred between the two Semites? Let’s open this up; comment with examples and create discussion. Maybe WHADAWETHINK can resolve this most thorny issue (note: tongue firmly placed in cheek)

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