Is Uniontown project noble?
Thanks to Ms. Stacey Batovsky for suggesting Pohaski Plumbing become one of those firms providing construction services for Hardy’s vision of revitalizing downtown Uniontown. I thank her for her confidence, but must, for the present, maintain a “watchful vigilance” over the plotting minds involved in this most recent scheme.
This mind is not unsympathetic to joining noble causes. But how do we define noble cause?
Suppose each morning we arise and go down to the “River of Life” to draw forth our sustenance. In our hands we all hold containers of various size and shape – one has a thimble, another a shot glass, another a cup, a jar, a barrel, a million-gallon storage tank – another only his hands with which to carry home this most precious water.
It is the nature of water to be pliable, taking the shape of whatever container we may bring down to the riverbank. So it is with a sage’s mind, which is sympathetic to the anxiety of those who are desperate for some kind of positive action, no matter how vain or self-serving.
I endeavor to make my mind conform to the shape of everyone’s ego needs and desires. So while I am equal to Hardy’s myopic vision to assist the “haves” advance their personal ambitions, I am at the same instant equal to all the other minds residing in Uniontown; minds whose fears and anxiety will not prosper in any way, shape or form if we allow a big ego to dominate the smaller egos that make up our pluralistic community.
Stepping back or maybe walking up to Pine Knob, above Hopwood, you can see a bigger vision. You do not need to bother with worrying over the quality or size of your containers – your ego. You just surrender back to God this gift of transient human identity, toss your cup, bucket, or barrel aside seeing it as a vain, pointless, fearful, anxious trick of the brain, too selfish, too self-limited, and you just bravely plunge head first into the river of life and become one with the source of life.
You relax, you exhale, you heal, you soothe, you bask in the sunshine, you thrill to the thunder and rain – you relax your awareness in freedom. Luminous and cool, that’s the way enlightened souls drift back, back… all the way back home to our source.
S. Raymond Pohaski
Uniontown
No room for arrogance
It is ironic that Brian Lutes’ May 12 Letter to the Editor would be next to a letter about bigotry. Mr. Lutes’ letter entitled “No rules in war” seemed so fraught with ignorance and arrogance I felt I had to respond.
I’m sorry Mr. Lutes doesn’t care how POWs are treated. I would imagine if you asked someone who survived the Batan Death March or any other prisoner experience they would agree that rules of conduct are necessary. Why does Mr. Lutes think that the Geneva Convention was created? (Although Secretary Rumsfeld has attacked this as well.) This belief within our administration has me wondering if the perpetrators of abuse were indeed just “following orders.”
This whole issue is an embarrassment to our country and will only serve to fuel an already difficult situation, further endangering our servicemen and women, not to mention you and me. We cannot speak of liberating a people from a tyrant in public and mistreat these same people in private.
Yes, I’m sure we could crush the resistance in Iraq in ways that we don’t even want to imagine. However, I think things are more complicated than that. As for the reasons that we went to war…hmm. The world and I know why we went into Afghanistan. I’m not so sure why we went into Iraq. If I recall, it was initially over one thing. WMD. Period. When this proved faulty, a link to al-Qaeda was intimated. When this too proved faulty, suddenly we were liberators. Anyone looking for WMD or people who need liberated doesn’t have to look much further than North Korea. So is the reason we are in Iraq really about human rights and dignity?
I take particular offense with Mr. Lutes’ comments about “Arabs, or whatever you want to call them” and “the only thing the followers of ‘Allah’ seem to understand is total brute force.” This ignorance serves no one.
The Middle East is made up of more than Arabs and the true Muslim religion is not pro-violence. I have met many wonderful Muslim people and to categorize them as Mr. Lutes did is racism, pure and simple.
Mr. Lutes’ assertion that the president of the United States should never apologize to any foreign nation for anything is ludicrous and arrogant. The buck stops somewhere. Someone is accountable. President Bush, not long ago, urged responsibility for CEO scandals. In my estimation, this administration could define the word arrogance. This arrogance and arrogant thinking is precisely why people in other nations, including our allies, find it difficult to like us.
A country that sidesteps integrity to foreign nations risks sidestepping integrity to its own people. I, for one, want to live in an America where our leaders are interested in human rights, both global environmental and good neighbor policies and accountability; none of which leaves room for ignorance or arrogance.
Cerenna Mace
McClellandtown