quiltersmuse.com Blog

As I do everyday, I watch the news on TV. I’ve been keeping track of the earthquake in Haiti and the ensuing events via the Nightly News on NBC. Tonight’s page online offered images on 27 slides that provide an idea of what is happening. That page now appears to be updated. President Bush and President Clinton were on television today with President Obama. The two former presidents will lead a fundraising initiative and President Clinton stated that it is important to keep the “integrity” of this fund. Money is what is most needed to provide critical supplies, President Bush stated today.

Other people may say they are collecting money for this cause. As always, be sure that the party to whom you are giving money is honest. Schiesters can come out of the woodwork at times like this.
The American Red Cross is one good place to donate money.

The death toll continues to rise as corpses pile up on the streets in 95 degree weather. The odor is overwhelming. The one morgue in Port-Au-Prince is full. Some of the people are fighting over the supplies that are being dropped. I suppose the wish to survive is overwhelming. The country is without electricity, water, medical supplies and equipment, and people are still “clawing” their way through the rubble and/or listening for any signs of life. Aftershocks continue. Hope continues that additional living people will be located in the rubble.

From all accounts, this seems to be the worse natural disaster of the century, close to America. One moment, an entire country was filled with buildings, people, and normal activities. In an inordinately short amount of time, life changed for everyone, forever.

Tonight, my thoughts turn to the news crews who essentially risked their own lives and are enduring hardships in the line of duty. I think of the dedication of our Armed Services, always marching into perilous situations all over the world. I am thankful for the efforts of other countries: Ireland, Spain, and others who are assisting in the search and rescue efforts. My heart bleeds for those American citizens who have lost their lives in a country that they went to help.

We cannot understand. If there is a God, then why do bad things like this happen? There must be a reason. It is beyond human understanding, as is the purpose of all suffering. Many have died. Perhaps, they were the lucky ones. To heal Haiti now will take a miracle and more hard work to rebuild the country from scratch than we can even imagine. The best we can hope to do at the moment is to help to alleviate the hunger and thirst of the survivors, to do the necessary medical interventions, and to bury the deceased.

The images shown by NBC make me proud to be an American. Always ready to help others, a whole entourage of Americans: from news broadcasters to medical personnel to military members and others have rushed to the aid of a neighbor, at a time of supreme need. God bless these poor Haitians and God bless America!

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

The other night, I sat in amazement, watching the evening news. Seems that a teacher “had allowed” her young student to name a teddy bear, “Muhammed,” the name of the “last” prophet. On the face of it, I suppose that the action was tantamount to calling the same teddy bear, “Jesus.” Most Christians would object to that, with the reason being that the name is special and reserved for “the Holy One.”

The incident could have passed without notice, but it didn’t. Threats of violence against the teacher, Gillian Gibbons, were voiced. She will be deported from Sudan after serving jail time of fifteen days. That is a slight improvement over the 40 lashes first threatened. The sentence was meted out after Gibbons was found guilty of insulting Islam under Article 125 of a code.

To the western mind, the situation is bizarre. Perhaps the child could have been urged to chose a different name, and perhaps he could have been helped to select a more appropriate one. However, the angry faces of the irate men marching through the streets, calling for her death, and waving placards … is frightening and unbelievable.

Religion, when practiced in a fanatical sense, usually does more harm than good. Absolutism, the thought that either a person or a group of people are unequivocably right, is dangerous. The religion of Islam is one of the oldest belief systems and is worthy of respect as one of the world’s major religions. However, extremist Muslims who want to hurt other people and take over the world are only enacting a form of despotism and a form of 9-11 mentality.

We don’t have to look very far to read accounts of leaders who tried to ensure their own brand of religion. An example is the Christmas story itself, with Herod’s mandate of killing baby boys. We need not look very far, into supposedly religious lives, to find Popes who kept concubines and who could be “paid” to forgive sins or grant favors. In the workings of the Spanish Inquisition, we see “religion” at its worse, with the tortures, forced confessions, and burnings at the stake. In America, we can see some of these practices carried out against the “witches” of Salem, Massachusetts, and we acknowledge strict Puritanical thought, seated in intolerance.

The truth of the matter is that, in the long run, it matters not what a little boy calls a teddy bear. Love, understanding, forbearance: these are what matter in life. How can someone espouse to love God when he cannot and does not love his fellow man? For, we are told, we are all made in the likeness of the Creator. Anyone who would seek to BE a religious leader must first act like one, in word, thought, and deed. The old saying stands: “You can get more flies with honey than with vinegar.” So, to persuade anyone else that your particular brand of religion is best, try playing “nice.”

Patricia Cummings

Update on December 3, 2007:  The President of Sudan has granted a presidential pardon to the British school teacher and she is now back in Great Britain. She reports feeling sorry to have been asked to leave the country. We are happy to see this tense situation come to a peaceful end.

I am sitting here weeping, after just having viewed some of the photos and reports coming out of Peru. The devastation is total, and the United States, Canada, and Japan, have already stepped up to the plate to offer millions of dollars in aid.

This has been a “bad week,” on the news front. The suicide-bombers/genocide in northern Iraq, the trapped coal miners and the loss and injury of would-be rescuers, and the severe decline of the stock market – (a harbinger of another recession?)

With all of those horrible things happening, even the most avid needleworker has to sit up and take notice, and perhaps, ponder the totality of LIFE, not just our own little interests. Of course, quilting and embroidery are huge preoccupations, but as we scramble to find “just the right color,” or to sign up for “just the right class,” we all need to stop for a moment and think about what I call “The Big Picture.”

If you spend some time alone with yourself, without the intrusion of a cell phone, interruptions, and demands of other people, you will have the chance to begin to listen to your soul. You will have the opportunity to try to make sense of your time on earth, and what it means, and what might or might not be in store for you, “after.”

Now, I’m not a preacher, nor ever make the pretense of being one. However, I do have the time to be alone, quite a lot, and looking beyond the sadness of life, I have come to believe that we have to attempt to overcome and transcend all that is so consummately painful that it is unfathomable, like loss, and like death.

In Peru, hundreds of people were killed when the roof of a church fell in. Amazingly, a statue of Christ stands unscathed among the rubble, and a painting of Him is complete, in another spot. To me, a believer, this seems to be a sign. To others, it would be just a fluke of fate. Whatever you believe, no tragedy on earth will make sense to you, until you couch it within the terms of faith, whichever faith that may be.

I am frightened that something could have happened to my friend in Peru. No doubt, all the lines of communication are out, as he lives in the area that was discombobulated by the earthquake. I pray that Pedro is safe. In the meantime, tears continue to stream from my eyes, thinking of all the tiny coffins lined up, the homeless people sleeping on the street, and the dogs searching for people. The thought of all of this is overwhelming. To save my own sanity, I think I’ll go find something creative to work on.

Pat

At the present time, the Iraq problem is demanding the attention and resources of the American people and leaders. I prefer to call it a “problem,” rather than a war. Most certainly, it is the most unconventional war I have ever seen.

After September 11, 2001, the American people, still mourning the loss of many of its own citizens, were more than willing to support entry into Afghanistan to wipe out the camps that were training Jihadist terrorists. Dubbed “evil-doers,” these extremists reportedly had vowed to erase from the earth anyone who does not share their beliefs. They call us, you and I, and anyone who is not of their religious persuasion, “infidels.”

Citizens of the U.S., still feeling in danger, and threatened because of the recent heavy loss of human life, agreed, for the most part, that an invasion into Afghanistan was necessary, as was the later trek into Iraq. The allegation that weapons of mass destruction were stored in Iraq turned out to be untrue. The American public thought that the invasion seemed justified, at the time it had occurred.

While we were there, why not topple the despotic leader, Saddam Hussein? After all, he has given orders for mass killings of his fellow countrymen. We succeeded in removing him from power. He was found, cowering in an underground hole, and was tried in a court of law, and hanged.

Since that time, the picture has changed considerably. Images on the nightly news show combat troops poking their guns through holes in brick walls, and running around the streets of Baghdad. This is URBAN guerrilla warfare. It is no wonder so many of our brave soldiers are being wiped off the map. With fighting done in the streets, there are more casualties to civilian populations and soldiers alike. The occupation of “suicide bomber” seems to be a recently invented one.

Our presence in Iraq seems to have worsened sectarian violence. We seem to be making little headway in improving diplomatic relations with Iran, a key player in being able to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the war. We should pay more attention to history. Our threats to Iran have not worked in the past. Why should we expect them to succeed now? The role of “Enforcer” does facilitate long term solutions.

Our military is courageous, in the face of adversity, and soldiers are holding up their end of the bargain. However, about a dozen soldiers appeared on television recently, out of uniform, to state that they didn’t sign up for this kind of jeopardy. They are disillusioned with the mission and its unclear goals.

When I wrote to my Senator a few weeks ago, I suggested that LOGIC should be used to end the war. My letter was met with silence. It has taken years to bring troops, guns, tanks, Humvees, and supplies there, so it would be illogical to think we could pull out quickly. However, we should be scaling back, not escalating, and we should be making plans for a major withdrawal of troops, as soon as possible.

I call this “Bush’s war,” not out of a lack of respect for the man, or for the office he presently holds. Right now, he does not seem to be listening to the polls, or to the will of Americans who have stated, in no uncertain terms, that we want an end to the INSANITY that is this war.

That stance does not qualify one as being unpatriotic. It is being self-protective of our troops, who are, after all, our fellow Americans. If they see no meaning in the mission, except the risk of their own lives, this situation is just unacceptable.

The most frightening statistic (ratio) that I have heard since the war began is that for sixteen soldiers who are severely maimed or injured, there is one soldier who is killed. Back home, the wounded are facing what seem to be insurmountable problems concerning their survival and quality of life.

Peaceful solutions must be reached soon. The writing is on the wall. I just hope that politicians are smart enough to read the message.

Patricia

In Three Guineas (1938), English novelist Virginia Woolf, said the following:

Therefore if you insist upon fighting to protect me, or “our” country, let it be understood, soberly and rationally between us, that you are fighting to gratify a sex instinct which I cannot share; to procure benefits which I have not shared and probably will not share; but not to gratify my instincts, or to protect myself or my country. For…in fact, as a woman, I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.

Like Virginia Woolf, I echo her last sentiment. My country is the whole world. The idea that all of us belong to one country speaks to the universality of the human experience. We are more alike than not.

Never before has man had more ways to communicate, in more languages, and at a faster rate of speed. Yet, much of what is said, and done, is counterproductive in securing peace, happiness, and prosperity for all of the world’s people.

Today, I was continuing to read a book that contains first person accounts of the lives of various people who live in Afghanistan, a place called the “poorest country on earth.”

One story tells of an ordinary citizen there who possesses a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Germany. Due to his ostentatious appearance of wealth (an old Mercedes in the yard that he drove back from the Soviet Union), he and his family were targeted to be pushed around, and stripped of all of their valuable earthly possessions.

The only thing they were able to take with them, when they were thrown out of their home, was the gold jewelry that his wife hid under her burqa. Luckily, upon selling the booty, he was able to buy an ax and some wood that he could whittle into bundles of firewood or stove wood. In that manner, the family survived, while he essentially donated his teaching skills, mornings, as he did not often get paid, and when he did, the pay was little.

There has been violation after violation of basic human rights in that country, first under the Soviet occupation, then under the U.S. backed mujahedin, and later the Taliban. The riveting stories in the book, Love and War in Afghanistan, mention such horrific ugliness toward fellow human beings, it is a wonder that Allah could allow the perpetrators of such criminal activity to continue to exist.

Why is there such a dark side to people? Perhaps that is the basic question that is at the very root of all of the troubles of humankind, barring floods, hurricanes, and other weather-related activities.

I am sure that I have more questions than answers. Somehow, deep in my heart, I pray that our legislators in Washington will search their hearts very carefully. We seem to be more entrenched in the business of war, every day.

We should know 1) who we are fighting, 2) why we are fighting with them, and 3) what could be the terms of agreement for the fight to end.

I wrote to my Senator, urging that Logic be applied to seeing that the war end promptly. The response of silence has been deafening.

Peace,

Patricia Cummings

If you are at all interested in learning about what is going on in the greater world, then you will not want to miss this week’s upcoming program on “Meet the Press.” Former President Bill Clinton will be interviewed, along with Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, and Fmr. Senator John Danforth (R-MO). The scheduled time is 1:00 eastern standard time, a variation from its usual 10:30-11:30 a.m. time slot.