Saturday, October 18, 2014 THE NEW MEXICAN
OPINIONS
The West’s oldest newspaper, founded 1849
Chaos is taking its toll worldwide T he Middle East may not define the world, but it certainly monopolizes our attention. The civil war in Syria continues, as does the war against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, where the Kurdish city of Kobani on the Turkish border continues to hold out against the ruthless and Bill Stewart relentless forces of Understanding the Islamic Your World State. In the meantime, Turkey sits on its hands over the war on its border, preferring to attack its own Kurdish citizens rather than unleash its powerful armed forces against ISIS. Car bombs, presumably those of ISIS, wrack the city of Baghdad, where some 40 people were killed in a single day this week. In Libya, the government, such as it is, is holed up in a remote resort hotel, unable to govern in the face of radical opposition. In Egypt, the “Arab Spring” might just as well have never happened, as the country has returned to the military rule it endured for decades before hundreds of thousands of people rose in revolt in Cairo and elsewhere. Israel and the Palestinian Authority show little sign of moving toward a settlement of any kind. Russia behaves as if it were still the late, unlamented Soviet Union. As if that were not enough, a vicious virus has emerged from the African jungle, killing thousands of people in West Africa and spreading to both Europe and the U.S., where CNN’s nonstop coverage makes it sound as if we were in the end of days. In short, the world is not in good shape, though whether it is in any worse shape than in
Robin M. Martin Owner Robert M. McKinney Owner, 1949-2001 Inez Russell Gomez Editorial Page Editor
Ray Rivera Editor
ANOTHER VIEW
Church begins to echo pope Bloomberg View
previous unhappy periods of history is an interesting point. In this era of 24-hour news, it may seem the world is spinning out of control. Or, if it isn’t spinning out of control, it certainly seems less stable. Why can’t we control events in the Middle East? Why can’t we make the Russians behave? Why can’t we stop the spread of the Ebola virus? Where is American leadership? In fact, where is there leadership of any kind? Part of the problem, of course, is that we live in a multipolar world, not the bipolar world of the Cold War, in which the West, led by the U.S., faced off against the Soviet Union. Moscow was the enemy, no question about it, and America was the undisputed leader of the West. There was also Communist China, as we then called it, but the world was less certain about Beijing as an enemy. The U.S. had an undisputed role to play, and we played it, a role we inherited from our victory in World War II. Besides, who else was going to do it? The collapse of the Soviet Union brought us a unipolar world for a brief few years, in which the U.S. was indeed supreme. But common sense could have told us that
could not possibly last forever. The rise of China to become the world’s second-biggest economy put paid to that idea. The success of the European Union as an economic, if not political, power was another factor in edging the U.S. aside as the world’s dominant. The acquisition of nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan, with Iran close behind them, meant that another great swath of the world was less inclined to listen to us. There were also great cultural changes around the world, such as the startling growth in gay rights, to include same-sex marriage, which many conservatives in America believe will undermine the country’s moral fiber. It has been President Barack Obama’s unpleasant fate to preside over such challenges and changes. No wonder he is so unpopular. But so was Abraham Lincoln throughout most of the Civil War, when so many Americans who remained in the Union at first doubted the wisdom of the war and were deeply unhappy over the appalling loss of life (more than 600,000 as it turned out) as well as initial Union losses. Lincoln himself did not expect to be elected to a
second term. But Lincoln, compared to Obama, had the advantage of having a cause — the preservation of the Union. If Obama had a foreign policy cause, it was to get us out of two wars that he did not create. Now he finds that he must return to at least one, Iraq. Where is the nobility of purpose in the Middle East? I doubt if Americans see one. Perhaps Obama doesn’t see one either. But he is stuck with the problem. He needs to reset our goals by saying once again that it is essential to get rid of Syria’s President Bashar Assad, and that openly arming the free Syrian forces is the best way to do this. There will be opposition, but so be it. In doing this, he critically undermines ISIS, thereby strengthening Iraq, where the U.S. has invested so much blood and treasure. By way of a bonus, by mobilizing our medical resources, we might just find a way out of the Ebola crisis. Will any of this happen? Possibly not. But we need to set our sights high, and that is the president’s job. Bill Stewart writes about current affairs from Santa Fe. He is a former U.S. Foreign Service officer and was a Time magazine correspondent.
MY VIEW: SUSAN C. MARTIN
Vote in November to protect environment
I
A-11
t’s Jan. 20, 2015, and Gov. Susana Martinez is ecstatic because she now has a House of Representatives led by her own party. As payback to her campaign contributors, her party is eager to rid the state of laws that keep them from polluting our air and water. This anti-environment House leadership would have been prevented with different results in just a couple of races decided by a few dozen votes. Did you vote? Control of the House of Representatives is very close to switching parties in this election, removing the last line of defense against attacks on clean air and water in New Mexico. What would Gov. Martinez’s re-election combined with a House controlled by her own party mean? On 1/1/11, Gov. Martinez’s first act in office was to issue an executive order to block publication of three state rules — one protecting our drinking water from waste produced by New Mexico dairies, another enacting energy-efficient building codes and a third that would have reduced greenhouse pollution. It was later revealed that a lobbyist for the powerful dairy industry had written the executive order for Martinez. The state Supreme Court overturned Martinez’s illegal act and ordered publication of these common-sense safeguards, but the governor simply fired all members of the commissions that passed them. Her hand-picked new commissioners revoked the energy-efficiency
and climate-protecting rules, and her Environment Department simply refused to enforce the dairy rule. Martinez’s Environment Department is now working with the dairy industry to gut that rule — and clean-water advocates are being barred from the discussions. Martinez and her adviser, shadow governor Jay McCleskey, have already done a lot of favors for polluting campaign contributors at the expense of New Mexicans’ health. But a state House of Representatives controlled by their own party would give them free reign to dismantle good laws, not just rules and regulations. A few examples: u The Renewable Energy Act, which requires utilities to provide 20 percent renewable energy by 2020, would likely be watered down and compliance pushed out for years — years we don’t have to address climate change. u Recent bills allowing the state to take over federal public lands and sell them off to private interests has been blocked under Democratic leadership but would likely sail through to the Governor’s Office if control changes hands. u Republican leadership also would give new life to legislation prohibiting legal action by employees or visitors who record or photograph anything at an agricultural facility. Recent videos taken by Mercy for Animals of employees of a Winchester dairy driving cows with chains and cables demonstrate the importance of public watchdogs. With 57 percent of New Mexico dairies pollut-
MALLARD FILLMORE
Section editor: Inez Russell Gomez, 986-3053, igomez@sfnewmexican.com, Twitter @inezrussell
ing groundwater in excess of health standards, the last thing these million-dollar operations need is less oversight. That’s the tip of this dangerous iceberg, but it doesn’t have to happen. In 2012, two House races were decided by less than 70 votes. One was decided by eight votes. Your participation — maybe even just your vote — can stop a disastrous scenario for New Mexico’s air, climate and water. The Sierra Club’s Rio Grande Chapter has endorsed the following candidates in Northern New Mexico to protect our air, water, land and wildlife: u Governor and lieutenant governor: Gary King and Deb Haaland. u Attorney general: Hector Balderas. u Land commissioner: Ray Powell. u Secretary of state: Maggie Toulouse Oliver. u Auditor: Timothy Keller. u And in the Santa Fe area’s two contested races for the all-important state House: Stephanie Garcia Richard and Matthew McQueen. To protect our families’ right to drink clean water, breathe fresh air and have a livable climate, please vote for these candidates. And if you’d like to join our efforts to help them win, please contact me at smartin31@comcast.net. Susan C. Martin is the political chairwoman of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club.
T
he world’s Roman Catholic bishops issued a report this week that contained little that was new in church teachings and is unlikely to affect church policies anytime soon. Yet it was variously described as heralding a “revolutionary change,” “a new era” and a “pastoral earthquake.” What explains the stunned response? Partly it’s a matter of tone: The report, from an assembly discussing the church’s teachings on family life, is suffused in the language of acceptance and mercy. In its approach to issues such as divorce, homosexuality and contraception, it also echoes the public statements of Pope Francis. And that suggests the greater significance of this document: Quite aside from its doctrinal effect, Francis’ papacy is showing how a tradition-minded institution can confront the relentless flux of the modern world. One way is through an openness to change and dialogue. This is no small thing for a 2,000-year-old faith with a billion adherents. Francis has made it a priority, and he urged that the bishops at this assembly meet in a spirit of free inquiry. It shows. Throughout the report, the bishops acknowledge that modern family life is evolving in complex ways that require new thinking on their part. They deserve credit for responding to such changes openly — for confronting the moral dilemmas they present with a candor that hasn’t always come naturally at the Vatican. Another way to respond to the turmoil of modernity is by focusing insistently on the dignity of individuals. That’s a theme that has shaped much of Catholic social and economic thought in the past century, and which Francis has endowed with renewed vigor and urgency. In the report, the concept finds expression in the bishops’ unusually vivid support for gays and the divorced. This emphasis on individual dignity has ramifications beyond family life. The intricate networks that define the information age — social, financial, technological — are in many ways a great boon to society, but they also risk marginalizing the individuals who compose them. Automation and artificial intelligence are likely to ease many of life’s burdens, but they also risk alienating the workers who are left behind. Responding morally to these changes means that, as the report puts it, “it is necessary to accept people in their concrete being” — in other words, to meet people where they are. That’s a challenge for politicians as much as for religious leaders, and how they talk is as important as what they say. The bishops clearly realize this: The report avoids the reproving phrases that some at the Vatican have used to describe gays, and it calls instead for “accepting and valuing their sexual orientation.” In the past, such subtle shifts in language have often signaled that changes are coming to the church. What exactly they portend this time isn’t clear, of course, and the fierce response of some bishops to this report suggests that they’re taking Francis’ call for frank debate quite seriously. Yet the pope’s overriding message — that the church should be open to change while also being attuned to the individual dislocation and suffering that it can often bring — appears to be having its intended effect. It’s a message that has relevance well beyond the Vatican.
The past 100 years From The Santa Fe New Mexican: Oct. 18, 1914: For the benefit of the splendid work being carried on in Santa Fe by the Woman’s Board of Trade, the Hann Jubilee Singers, one of the finest attractions of its kind possible to secure, will appear here on Nov. 4. The amusement seeker has the privilege of hearing one of the most really entertaining entertainments on the road and the duty of giving to the Board of Trade the support it so richly deserves.
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