Yesterday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) took to the floor of the United States Senate to stage a filibuster against President Obama’s nominee for the Director of Central Intelligence, John Brennan. He protested the president’s drone policies at home and abroad. He’s concerned about the targeting of American citizens on foreign and domestic soil. He spoke about his problems with targeting terrorists via “signature” or behavioral analysis, and without knowing the names of the targets.
Generally speaking terrorists don’t live on streets with their surnames hung on decorative door plaques on delightful homes with adorable yards bordered by white picket fences that house adorable puppies and bunnies and happy little families. Terrorists have aliases. They hide. They disappear. They reappear. They rarely advertise their location, identity, and intended targets and methods of destruction in advance.
I share concerns about executive power when it comes to the use of drones on American soil. I don’t like the idea of Joe Arpaio or some small-minded police captain having the power to send a drone out into any neighborhood to conduct surveillance or target American citizens. I am concerned about Posse Comitatus and extra-Constitutional, extra-Judicial acts. Serious matters require serious people, maturity, and an acknowledged desire to uphold the Constitution and honor the oath they took to serve the American people. Hysteria rarely advances thoughtful dialogue.
It wasn’t long before Paul’s “endless war” diatribe came, and Senator Dick Durbin stood firmly to Rand Paul’s political right. Paul proved he was his father’s son. If he wants to run for president in 2016, then he can expect to see many of the ignorant things he said last night on the floor reappear in ads during the Republican primary.
Republican primary. Hmmm. Conservatives are quick to shout at moderates, declaring they are Republicans In Name Only, RINOs. Translation: RINOs are not “conservative” enough. Here’s the thing, I am a Republican. I’ve never claimed to be a conservative. I am not. Conservative and Republican aren’t interchangeable, they are not synonyms. To those same folks, let me give you a hint: you are the ones embracing Jane Fonda-esque anti-war radicalism. You’re the RINOs. You’re the ones embracing people who called former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney war criminals. You’re the ones embracing Code Pink – who harass and denigrate the service of our Armed Forces. You’re the ones breaking bread with anti-War, anti-military lunatics who don’t understand reality. You’re the ones who are chewing the Paulian Tin Foil.
You are the RINOs. And hypocrites to boot.
Leadership is about intellect, experience, courage, and a moral center. Not ignorance. It is terrific there was a debate. It would be better if the participants were informed about the issues and policies before taking to the floor of the United States Senate to complain about un-returned phone calls from the president and Attorney General. There are real issues with President Obama’s Executive style. Theatrics won’t solve them.
Recently, I was honored to write on behalf of Act for Sudan. This introductory piece appeared on Enough Said, the blog of the Enough Project. A colleague and mentor once told me the importance in advocacy for Africa and national security lies in the moral force of the arguments we make and how the facts support our position.
Being blind to injustice, or choosing to look away as genocide continues unabated because of domestic partisan loyalties is unconscionable to me. If you are so blinded by your partisan affiliation that you cannot join with others to do the right thing, then you are a part of the problem. My conscience compels action, a lifting of my voice and encouraging others to do the same.
Without further ado, here is my piece as it originally appeared here.
In Sudan, the rainy season has drawn to a close and the Khartoum regime has not wasted a moment expanding Omar al Bashir’s relentless campaigns of violence and forced starvation. Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Blue Nile and South Kordofan brace themselves for more violence as Khartoum forces continue to mount relentless aerial and ground attacks responsible for violent and forcible displacement of innocent civilians. The government is also obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid. The Enough Project’s Omer Ismail and Amanda Hsiao’s reporting from the Sherkole refugee camp contained horrific tales of systemic rape and slaughter of innocents.
To address the deepening crisis, Act for Sudan, a bipartisan alliance of 45 organizations across the country, coordinated an open letter to President Barack Obama. Co-signed by 66 organizations, the letter asked the president to take swift action to protect the safety of Blue Nile, Nuba, and Darfuri populations. They make the recommendations, as Sudanese civilians have also made, to consider the implementation of a No Fly Zone and/or the destruction of Khartoum’s aerial assets utilized to target innocent civilians.
In the letter the groups note:
We are deeply concerned and distressed by the Obama Administration’s current Sudan policy in the face of ongoing government-sponsored genocide that has spanned more than two decades and resulted in the death and displacement of millions of people.
The eradication of slavery also is addressed in Act for Sudan’s letter to the president. Tens of thousands people remain enslaved in Darfur, Kordofan, and across Sudan.
Act for Sudan is an alliance of Sudanese and American activists with a common purpose—to end mass atrocities and genocide in Sudan. Its guiding values include a commitment to elevate the voices of Sudanese inside and outside of Sudan by viewing expert policy recommendations through the lens of the diaspora and the displaced, and to approach advocacy in a holistic manner, taking into account all relevant issues and regions in both the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan. The alliance identifies the policies of the National Congress Party as the root cause of Sudan’s problems and is committed to advocate for what is necessary rather than what is politically correct or expedient. Together the alliance will advocate for the civil, political, social, and economic rights of the Sudanese people, including the opportunity for democratic transformation.
The time for U.S. leadership, working with our allies and the international community, to stand with the peoples of Sudan has long since passed. Sudan’s genocidal regime must be finally held accountable or “never again” will become “just one more time.”
Hypocrisy. There is little so distasteful, or so common, in modern political discourse as the politician who espouses one idea publicly while holding the opposite view privately.
Disingenuous. Another behavior that continues to find it’s way to Center Stage. In many ways, it is the spokesperson for Hypocrisy.
While both of those qualities are available in abundance, that does not mean they should be. Nor that we should tolerate or accept this behavior.
I don’t expect to agree with any candidate on every issue. I don’t care to. Ideological purity tests do not interest me. Demonstrate competence, intelligence, compassion and more than a passing affinity for the Constitution – and you’ve got my attention.
If concern for the environment is your big issue, fine. Let’s go there. (Ahem, Jon Huntsman and Gore supporters.) Let’s take care of our water. Our air. Recycle. Recognize that family farmers are often the best stewards of the land, what practices do they employ that can be translated elsewhere? As technology advances, so should we. Responsibly.
If you want me to drive a “green” car, that’s fine. Let’s agree at the outset that any electric vehicle should contain cobalt from ethically sourced mines. For that matter, any of the circuitry or other components should come from conflict-free sources. I am not going to jump into an electric car simply because you say it’s great for the environment. Maybe HERE in the United States it is – but not if the minerals come from Congo. Not if the minerals are the product of slave labor, systemic mass rapes and labor driven by a fear of auto-cannibalism or murder. Not if the minerals are strip mined in the heart of Congo, where the second largest rain forest in the world is compromised by China and other speculators.
Ethanol, then? Fine. Let’s talk about ethanol. I do not support fuel-grade corn subsidies. I do not support the production of fuel-grade corn at the expense of FOOD grade corn. I refuse to hop behind the wheel of an ethanol powered vehicle until the production of corn ethanol, or any bio-fuel, does not disrupt the food supply in Latin America where food grade maize shortages over the last few years are on the rise. Much like the cassava in Africa, maize is a primary food source for many people in Latin America. Unless the ethanol can be produced ethically, I am not getting behind the wheel of the car.
Natural gas? Perfect. Sign me up, as long as it comes from predominately domestic sources.
This brings me to oil. We have rich natural domestic resources. We should be intellectually honest here. Preserving our perfect little Stepford world at the expense of others, for “green” marketing schemes is anathema to the American Dream. We can be both green and ethical. Republicans need to work with Democrats. Engineers and innovators should look at resources available here, and how ethical investments abroad, will advance production.
If you want to beat China, get them where it hurts: on the wholesale side of their business. In the back of the house. Beat them at every turn. Resource exploration. Providing local jobs – under ethical circumstances. If you are a miner in Congo, do you want to be a slave or become a successful artisan miner with personal, financial and physical security. Do you want to have lots of folks buying your wares? Or just genocidal warlords that sell to China? Think about it.
President Obama has avoided any tangible success in the anti-genocide or human dignity arena. Corporate minded folks, like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, fought divestment – or worse – were utterly indifferent to it. In Huntsman’s case, he implemented policies for both George W. Bush and Obama that appeased China. Wholesale and retail, Huntsman helped. Yes, he understands the Chinese very well. Goodie for him. That makes him all the more responsible for the acts China profits from. Conflict minerals. And petrol wealth from Sudan’s genocidal regime.
The door is wide open on this key aspect of foreign policy. We live in a world transformed, almost daily, by advances in technology. This is a time when America should be on the leading edge of developing whatever comes next. Ethically. Our policy should come from a place that evokes Emma Lazarus as much as it does Ben Franklin.
Richard Grenell, longest serving American spokesman at the United Nations, penned a profile of me and my hunger strike for The Huffington Post today. His words are exceedingly kind and I am deeply grateful for his assistance in bringing awareness to the plight of our Sisters in Congo.
They face the worst, most barbaric sexual and gender based violence in recorded human history. The truth is the truth, whether we like it or not. They find hope and grace in each day. As a mother, as a woman, I am inspired by them. Every moment of every day.
Elizabeth Blackney is on her 38th day of a hunger strike to get President Barack Obama to pay attention to the plight of the women of the Congo. So far, the White House hasn’t noticed. But Blackney is hoping her final few days of the 40-day campaign will catch the attention of someone at 1600 Pennsylvania. Blackney says, “Approximately 1152 women and girls, aged 15-49, are raped every day in the Congo.” And the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) needs help combating the problem. “The president should do something about it.”
“For hundreds, even thousands of years, beautiful women have been held to impossible standards. Average women have too. But alone in the dark, in the comfort of our beds…next to our beloved, or alone in the quiet – real beauty can not be seen. In the darkness we are all the same. Beauty emanates from within.”
I penned those words in May 2009. The sentiment stands today. Beauty of the human soul, particularly when it shines through someone’s features creating an aesthetic beauty, must sustain itself. The ‘beautiful’ must learn to self-comfort, be the wellspring of love and light for themselves and those they love, respect. Unfair perhaps, but true. To some degree this is true for all of us. Why?
Beauty does emanate from within. Unfortunately, so does cruelty. Jealousy. Hate. Ugliness. And extreme vanity. Human history is littered with the discarded carcasses of those who lived their lives through vice. Sloth, gluttony, greed, lust… the seven deadly sins have long accommodated mankind’s penchant for self-loathing. For some, the vice is wrath, envy and pride – expressed as hate or jealousy. They craft an entire personae or career based on vitriol and tearing others down – sometimes disingenuously saying they only want to ‘extract the truth’ from whatever entity they view as an oppressor. Men. A beautiful woman. Corporations. Pick a poison.
Much like my column Beautiful, Successful and Hated, this one comes with a warning right at the outset. The impolitic discussion of character and aesthetics will certainly draw ire. To the ladies and gentlemen who read further, if you reflexively defend the Left or Right, expect to be angry. This is about culture, more than politics. This is a love letter and a Dear John letter, take away what you will. Stand for what you believe.
The most beautiful soul is one steeped in truth, fairness, forgiveness and humility. We see it in the faces of a wanted child, of parents welcoming this new soul they created in love – together. In the faces of those same children as they grow towards adulthood unafraid because love has been their constant companion. We see it in elderly couples whose lined faces and enlaced fingers reveal a lifetime spent with love,in love. We see a glimpse of it when two people finally discover each other and set aside vanity or expectation to embrace love, and fashion a new life with and through each other. The kindness of a teacher, a firefighter. The placid face of an experienced Marine Sniper, encouraging a new enlistee – giving him strength even though Death is both their companion and enemy.
What is beautiful, while subjective, is also universal. I submit where you find kindness you also find unblemished beauty.
Feminism and feminists aren’t specifically in my crosshairs today. Women like them, and so many others that came before the Sexual Revolution, transformed the professional landscape. For the suffragettes, trailblazers and the men who made the impossible possible, a debt of gratitude will never be repaid. Inspirational figures like Cleopatra or Eleanor of Acquitane are often forgotten to modern feminists. As is Anne Boleyn’s devotion to both ambition and her husband, King Henry VIII, because the “witch” and “homewrecker” stigma fluffs the pillows of those who have an axe to grind. Feminists, like fiction writer Philippa Gregory, continue to excoriate her even though Boleyn’s tenacity brought about England’s break with the Vatican, the Reformation, and a feminine icon – Queen Elizabeth I – who ruled without a man at her side for decades. No serious person, who has read extensively from contemporaneous accounts of those years, honestly believes Martin Luther’s work inspired Henry VIII to spiritual conversion to the exclusion of Anne Boleyn as a factor in the decision.
Boleyn, Helen of Troy, Scheherazade, Nefertiti are but a few names from antiquity that are precursors to modern feminism. In patriarchal societies, they charted success and continue to inspire. The Borgias were famously depraved but some women still found a way to thrive. The Hellenic era is replete with stories of power plays, beautiful versus ugly, ethics, spiritual questions. Persephone and Demeter’s complicated relationship is a prism for every mother and daughter to gaze through, if they are smart.
Some feminists who rose to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as their younger devotees, effect a much less altruistic streak. Reproductive choice, female competition, deriding men, and anti-tradition histrionics dominate. While many claim to want equality with men, they don’t seem to value it among their feminine counterparts.
They also bred vanity to competition, and have spent the last 40 years raising vicious, vacuous and blatant hypocrisy as their children. They embrace hyper-sexualization as ‘liberation.’ They attempt to eviscerate women of real worth, real accomplishment – particularly if they embody more traditional female archetypes – “wife” or “mother” with success. If the target happens to be beautiful, the rhetoric becomes a conflagration of pettiness and envy. I don’t believe such women exist only on the political Left. There are certainly some Right-leaning females who use sexual availability, wrapped in a wink and nod, as a weapon to destroy any other females who challenge their intellect, preparedness or mothering capability. Embracing the Kardashian model as the Left has done, or vaguely more respectable reality-TV shows like Dancing with the Stars, is really demonstrative that there is an alliance among some “feminists” (Left or Right) to hurt other, more morally stable and yes, beautiful, women.
As a woman, a lover, a friend and especially as a mother…the inauthentic, superficial, agenda-driven and wholesale embrace of negative stereotypes disgusts me. There is no need to sacrifice one’s dignity to succeed. Or maybe, that depends on your definition of success.
If success means you have as much fame, money, or as much sex as the least of men – then ding, ding, ding women like Gloria Steinem are a success. If the Hillary, “I paid my dues and now I’ve got The Honorable before my name” model makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, then goodie for you. My take: you’re damn right she paid her dues. But she didn’t have to stay with, or even be with Bill Clinton in the first place to achieve success. Hillary is brilliant and could be Secretary of State, or President, without selling her soul to Bill all those years. I am certain their affection and respect for one another is genuine but, she’s the one who chose to mock women for “standing by their man.” She did just that, and built a career on being the victim of his libido – but not the sexually satisfied wife who was there because she chose to be for the RIGHT reasons.
Consequences are a bitch.
Examples are legion. Lesser knowns are perhaps more indicative of the insidious, pervasive female competition that continues to plague our societal discourse. Someone recently forwarded an article in The Atlantic to me, Why Do Smart Men Date Less Intelligent Women?Predictably, a cursory look at the Twitter feed offered lots of opportunities to see what my fellow females were saying. Journalists were passing it along, dry and without comment. Some others were straight snark in a so what, who cares tone. But a few, none of which I will be linking to – because it’s not my style to offer traffic to someone who clearly hates other women – were spouting vituperations. It was funny, instead of attacking the intellect, most who were incensed by the article went straight for the beauty mark. Pretty women are stupid and therefore have all that extra time to primp and be hot for men. All those pretty girls are taking all the good men. With a healthy helping of “well, I’m thin and I can get all the hot guys too. But I want the smart ones.” That is an argument so insipid and nonsensical even Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter could not read the tea leaves.
Here’s a newsflash: if you’re that consumed with hate for other women and are angry at men for not choosing you over someone with better looks, or stronger morals, or just plain more self-confidence, then stupid women aren’t your problem. You are.
It isn’t your waist size, it is all about attitude. And discernment. There are a lot of aesthetically beautiful – and inwardly beautiful – people who find love, happiness and gratification.
Furthermore, being hateful to beautiful women you deem ‘less intelligent’ because they lack your pedigree or skill set is absurd. If a beautiful woman conducts her life in an equally vicious manner, it doesn’t matter how symmetrical her features are or how brilliant, she loses her beauty. The ugliness shines through, manifests itself just as surely as inner beauty does. Ugly is as ugly does.
There is little more beautiful than a woman, ripe with self-confidence. Perhaps only the most feminine, most sacred of tasks and roles makes us more beautiful: motherhood. The female form blooms when pregnant, particularly in a loving and committed relationship. I wrote earlier about the “wanted child.” A baby conceived in love is beautiful. To her mate, what honors him more? Nothing…between a man and woman, unconditional love comes after surviving conditional love and chemistry. It comes with time. With patience.
We cannot “have it all” at the same time. But to have it all is a worthy goal. It is a goal we can accomplish. There are many beautiful moments in our lives but alone in the dark, the most ancient and primal urges still ring in our souls. Trust me, I am not romanticizing the realities of relationships, marriage, pregnancy and child-rearing. Quite the contrary. Recognizing the magnitude of the choices and accepting the blessings is critical. Finding peace with our bodies, as perfect or imperfect, whether Titian or wraith-like, lies within the mirror we hold ourselves. Take the good when it comes, revel in it. Breathe in the warmth it provides and be not afraid. The harsh light and judgment of others awaits.
Nobody expects women to stop competing with each other, not professionally or personally. Certainly not for a mate. It is natural to pursue excellence, to preen, to want a worthy man to share a life with. To bear children by. To age with, gracefully and naturally. To laugh with. To touch and be touched by. To honor. Our wants and needs are universal. We all crave stability and acceptance. Safety.
Freedom from fear. I wonder if the competitiveness between Western women stems from boredom, in addition to a lack of self-esteem. The women of Congo look to us for help, as inspiring, free figures. They hail from a place that is arguably the most violent and dangerous place in the world. If you are a woman, rape will likely be your destiny. Obstetric fistula is something you pray to avoid. Auto-cannibalism is the norm. Grotesque wounds are a weapon. An effective weapon of psychological warfare and a tool of genocide. Atrocities are commonplace. As I read through research, I was reminded of The General’s Daughter, penned in the early 1990s by Nelson Demille. (The movie version starred Leslie Stafanson, Madeleine Stowe and John Travolta.)
An exquisitely beautiful young woman attends West Point, following in her father’s footsteps. She is brilliant, quick witted and outshines her classmates. During her sophomore year, there is a night exercise. She is separated from her squad and finds herself surrounded by a group of classmates who strip her, spread eagle her, tie her to the ground with tent pegs, put her panties around her neck, and brutally gang rape her all night long. Beaten, bruised and left to die. When dawn broke, she was discovered and transported to a hospital where she was treated for disease and pregnancy. Instead of supporting her, her father silenced her. She survived by pursuing a career in PsyOps. Psychological Operations. Before a tragic and untimely death, she tells a Warrant Officer what her profession is: “Mostly, we fuck with people’s minds.”
After her death, a rape investigator, notes the stains on the corpse’s cheeks are tears. This beautiful, promising woman was tormented by her demons. Demons that possessed her without consent. Demons that were content to stand idly by as she suffered. Yes, it’s fiction. But truth is reflected there. As women, we must be strong for ourselves and each other. For the men in our lives, for the sons and daughters – born and unborn. Strength means seeking justice, forgiveness and freedom for others and ourselves with equal fervor.
Beauty emanates from within. The beautiful within us should govern our choices, passions, our hunger for knowledge and our ambitions. The beauty of equality, of forgiveness is the honor is a second chance at life. One does not have to be young, or wealthy to find rebirth. It is a gift we give ourselves and share with those we love.
Yes, the obligatory 2010 roundup will be posted this week. Winners, losers, surprises, expectations met and exceeded… Yes, there will be the wrap-up where I praise a few and decry others for their misbehavior or politically malevolent acts.
Before I put 2010 in the books, I want to share this following sentiment. 2011 will be different. Better. More interesting. There will be unfathomable challenges for our leaders, and we will expect President Obama and Speaker Boehner to resolve their differences, stop sniping, and do the jobs they were elected to do. We won’t care if they are prolix-rife or in 140 characters or less, we’ll just want results.
The world we live in will change, beyond what you might expect. The referendum for South Sudan’s independence is only a couple of weeks away. The crisis in the Ivory Coast will deepen. Israel, Iran, the Palestinians and their neighbors will discuss the terms for peace – again. And the world will be disappointed but heartened. Again. The cholera outbreak in Haiti will eventually be contained, though we do not know how many will die and suffer. Our border with Mexico will be plagued by violence, all the while activists will raise and spend thousands in a nonsensical play to control the uncontrollable – until our Leaders LEAD.
America’s children will be influenced by the people in their lives, by pop culture’s evangelical narcissism and hypersexual excesses. Not enough parents will have a real discussion about sex, intimacy and its appropriate place in our lives. They’ll blame promiscuity on pop culture, dismissing their culpability. The tragedy, of course, is that if we valued one another- as men and women – we could have a richer subtext to share with our children. A healthy, passionate, abundant and gratifying intimate relationship with the man or woman we love… is beautiful. To be embraced. To be heralded as a hallmark of a healthy commitment, or marriage. Share that with your children – and waiting for Mr. or Ms. Right doesn’t seem such a bad idea after all. Fear of love is not healthy, filling the void with self-loathing or doubt should not be the byproduct of silence on the subject. Embrace honesty, talking with our children about finding love, dedicating ourself to it — this should be a pleasure. To give our children all the tools for emotional, personal, intellectual and professional success begins in our homes. Spend as much time on love as you do math, sports and entertainment. Watch them bloom with promise. Love should be like sunlight, encouraging growth while being a gentle antiseptic for the prickly bits we need to examine more carefully.
With that, I shall share a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne. Known best as the beloved author of the first great American novel, The Scarlet Letter, his examinations of the human heart throughout all of his writings define insight to the human soul. Below is my favorite sentiment and one that defines my approach to 2011.
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
