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Mark Boehler, editor
4 • Thursday, July 31, 2014
Corinth, Miss.
‘A hell of a foray’ If an Israeli high-level official were caught on a hot mic candidly commenting on Secretary of State John Kerry’s ill-fated act of Israel-Hamas peacemaking, he might call it “a hell of a diplomatic foray.” Rich Kerry was caught sarcastiLowry cally describing the Israeli offensive into Gaza as “a hell National of a pinpoint operation” durReview ing his round of Sunday-show interviews two weeks ago, before telling his aide over the phone, “We’ve got to get over there,” and “It’s crazy to be sitting around.” Kerry’s belief in himself as the Indispensable Man is touchingly quaint. His conception of the U.S. secretary of state is apparently frozen in a time when it was a position of unparalleled power and respect. Those days are gone. Or as President Barack Obama might quip, to paraphrase his put-down of Mitt Romney’s foreign-policy views during one of the 2012 presidential debates, “John, the 1980s want their secretary of state back.” After six years of resetting, leading from behind, ending wars, nation building at home and pivoting to Asia, the U.S. has reduced itself to a husk of its former influence. When Kerry showed up in Cairo to meet with the president of Egypt, he was wanded by the guards, as if he had just wandered in from the airport security line. Kerry underlined his dubious relevance by his inability to secure a cease-fire, and his dubious wisdom by making it his overarching goal. At this point, the U.S. should be seeking to give it the time it needs to do as much damage as possible to Hamas’ military infrastructure, instead of effectively bailing out the terror group. Kerry held an ill-advised confab in Paris with Qatar and Turkey, the patrons of Hamas. Even the Palestinian Authority blasted this as the “friends of Hamas” meeting. With the Egyptians, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Jordanians and the Palestinian Authority all functionally on Israel’s side in the Gaza War, it should be in a superior diplomatic position, but its superpower patron evidently didn’t get the memo. By the time Kerry returned home, he had been showered with so much criticism by the Israelis that the U.S. government was saying it could endanger our relationship. The question raised by Obama administration foreign policy again and again is, How can self-styled Smart Power be so dumb and toothless? For all of Kerry’s failings, he is a relative giant among a foreign-policy team composed largely of political hacks and post-American declinists. At least Kerry retains some of the old Democratic Party belief in America’s importance in the world. His condemnation of Syria’s use of chemical weapons last year was a stirring moral indictment of the Assad regime -- although President Obama immediately undercut him when he abandoned his own “red lines.” So far, Kerry’s tenure as secretary of state is making Hillary Clinton’s undistinguished stint look impressive by comparison. But that’s mostly a matter of timing. It is his misfortune to be present at the unraveling, as crisis after crisis unfolds, with the administration lacking the interest or the toughmindedness to effectively respond. It is impossible to find anywhere in the world where our position or alliances are stronger than they were six years ago. Incredibly enough, President Obama once called Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Islamist prime minister of Turkey, more than any foreign leader other than British Prime Minister David Cameron. Now, Obama hasn’t even talked to Erdogan in five months, and his erstwhile buddy condemns Israel as a “terror state.” One hopeful theory about Obama foreign policy was that, after serial humiliations and failures, it would recalibrate toward more assertiveness, like Jimmy Carter did after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. But he seems content with America’s new status in the world. John Kerry will just have to get used to it. (Daily Corinthian columnist Rich Lowry can be reached via e-mail: comments.lowry@nationalreview.com)
Prayer for today Merciful and just God, I pray that I may regulate my life by thy standards and conform my life to thy laws, that thy goodness and mercy may not be wasted on me. Help me to bear in mind, that willingness is the power that starts the hands to work. May I have thy presence while I wait in quietness, that I may be helped through the anxious moments. Amen.
A verse to share “Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.” -- Hosea 12:6
‘The Giver’ a portent of what might be? With his approval numbers sinking to 39 percent a week ago, according to the Gallup tracking poll, President Obama isn’t alone in having a bad summer. So is Hollywood. Entertainment Weekly calls gross receipts for what should have been a blockbuster July 4-6 weekend “downright terrifying.” Writes EW, “Not only were grosses down 45 percent from last year’s holiday, according to Boxofficemojo. com, but it was Hollywood’s worst July 4 weekend since 1999. (And that’s not taking into account inflation. In fact, this was the worst July-holiday weekend for ticket sales since the summer of ‘Dragnet’ in 1987.)” Arriving in theaters next week is a film that could reverse the trend. It’s called “The Giver,” based on the best-selling novel by Lois Lowry, which won the 1994 Newbery Medal. The film has an A-list cast, comprised of Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift. For those unfamiliar with the book, the storyline depicts what occurs when a society deliberately destroys its social and moral
foundations for a “higher purpose.” It is “Brave New World” meets “The Matrix” with Cal a dash of Thomas “The Stepford Wives” Columnist thrown in. In the film, a teenage boy named Jonas (Hollywood aged the main characters for dramatic effect, they were younger in Lowry’s book) is the main character through whom the story is told. Jonas lives in a futuristic society in which all war, hatred and pain have been expunged. Even prejudice has been eliminated. So has love. There is no competition and everyone looks and acts alike. Apologies abound (as do acceptances of apologies) to the point of insincerity. When a child reaches age 16, he or she is assigned a job. Spouses are assigned and couples are allowed just two children. They are born to “Birthmothers” who never see them, and spend their first year in something called a Nurturing Center with other babies, or “new-
children.” The website Sparknotes expands on the plot: “When their children are grown, family units dissolve and adults live together with Childless Adults until they are too old to function in the society. Then they spend their last years being cared for in the House of the Old until they are finally ‘released’ from the society.” Released is a euphemism for euthanasia. The “Giver,” played by Jeff Bridges, is the keeper of memories. He remembers a time when people loved, were ambitious and enjoyed personal freedom. He passes along those memories to Jonas, who bravely rediscovers his humanity with all its flaws and joys. All movies have a “message.” “The Giver” has a message for contemporary American culture. As we have thrown off all restraint, individualized morality and considered every idea as having equal value, “The Giver” shows where this could ultimately lead. I was skeptical when I first heard about the film because it is distributed by The Weinstein Company, run by brothers Bob and
Harvey (Harvey is a big Obama supporter), but became less so when I learned that Walden Media produced it. Walden Media, an entertainment company that specializes in familyoriented material, gave us the Oscar-winning “Ray” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” series. At the end of “The Matrix,” Neo says: “I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how this is going to begin. Now, I’m going to hang up this phone, and I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you ... a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible.” “The Giver” echoes a similar theme. It is entertaining, but also instructive. It’s time to seriously think about where we’re headed. “The Giver” shows us in ways few movies do. (Daily Corinthian columnist Cal Thomas’ latest book is available in bookstores now. Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@ tribune.com.)
Showing bushels of love for Peck MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. — Imagine if your life were highlighted in a short, moving ceremony and condensed to its essence. What would they say about you? Edwin “Peck” Rowell of Loachapoka, Ala., recently found out. As Peck waited for the Alabama Music Hall of Fame to unveil an “Achiever’s Display” of his lifetime of work, curator George Lair summed it up nicely: “Anything involving music, seems like Peck’s been involved.” Peck, 91, sat in a wheelchair, a Pied Piper’s throng of family, friends and musicians around him. A gregarious and funny man not shy with his stories, Peck has been a singer, a songwriter, a band leader, radio disc jockey and, for more than two decades, owned and ran one of the most popular country dance clubs in the Southeast. “A friend phoned from California and told me he had put my name into something called Google on
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the computer and found 273 ‘Peck’ Rowells,” the guest of honor joked. Only one Rheta of those Johnson Pecks was being honColumnist ored, however, by the prestigious Alabama Hall of Fame that includes in its membership no less than Hank Williams, Nat King Cole and Emmylou Harris. Peck Rowell played and brought good music to the masses. Steamy Saturday nights on the edge of Lake Martin near the Alabama town of Dadeville, a skating rink with its pecan wood floors would morph into something else. The Blue Creek Dance Hall would light up, crank up and attract like ants to Loachapoka syrup those who loved to hear real country. Beginning in 1959, Peck and his dance band, the
Covered Wagon Boys, introduced, each in his turn, Ray Price, Porter Wagoner, Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Connie Smith and Charlie Louvin, to name but a few visiting stars. Peck’s “ read like another hall of fame -the country music one. One of the first big names Peck hired to draw a crowd was bluegrass legend Bill Monroe, who agreed to show up for $350. Monroe arrived at Blue Creek with laryngitis, willing to play but unable to sing. Instead, one of Monroe’s guitar players replaced him on lead vocals. The substitute: Del McCoury. As I listened to Peck’s rich ruminations, I remembered the old raspy Jimmy Durante line: “I’ve got a million of ’em.” I knew him briefly as a good neighbor in the late 1970s, when I lived in Loachapoka. I once took a picture of Peck’s triplet kid goats for the local newspaper.
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I eagerly read his recent memoir, “A Place I Couldn’t Leave,” remembering my year of bucolic fun in peaceful little Loachapoka. I rented a house just across from the antebellum Rowell home place where Peck grew up as one of nine children. “I love country music better than anything,” he admitted, an emotional catch in his voice. “It’s been my life.” He began playing “Redwing” on the harmonica at age 7, went on to know stars like Hank Williams and Kitty Wells, kept on entertaining at church functions after a heart attack forced him to give up the club at Blue Creek. Unlike Peck, I left Loachapoka. But I envy a man who knows his heart and his home. (To find out more about Daily Corinthian columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson and her books, visit www. rhetagrimsleyjohnsonbooks.com.)
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