Let’s go back and start at the beginning, with Cain and Able. No, that doesn’t lead anywhere. Let’s start in Ur of the Chaldees down in southern Babylon where Abraham came from. When he got to what we call Palestine he had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. The first was Isaac the favored son of Sarah, initial mother of the Hebrews. The second was Ishmael Hagar’s son, who’s people went south to the Sinai desert area. Abraham said that both would be blessed by God.
Abraham’s family came to Egypt only to be imprisoned there by the Egyptians. After having escaped from Egypt the Hebrews set out for and settled the “Promised Land” of Canaan. First, of course, they had to conquer and essentially irradicate the Canaanites and all other peoples living there. The Hebrews settled and ruled in Palestine for many centuries until the Babylonians took them captive. After escaping from Babylonian rule the Hebrews, along with some others, who became the Samaritans, worked the land until conquered by the Romans.
The Romans eventually banished the Hebrews who then were dispersed throughout Europe and other nearby lands. During the Crusades the European Christians sought to conquer the Muslims who now occupied the Holy Land, but they failed. The Muslims, mostly Arabs, occupied the Holy Land for centuries until the end of World War Two when the United Nations decided that the long-suffering Hebrews should be allowed to return to their previous homeland. Noone thought to ask the thousands of Arabs peoples living there what they thought about this plan.
Slowly the Hebrew peoples took over the entire area and developed it into a prosperous nation. The Arab peoples living there were largely forced to live on less and less land. Many of them were actually forced to live in fenced areas and were not allowed to intermingle with the Hebrew people. I witnessed these fenced in peoples myself when visiting the area in 1966. The Jewish nation of Israel has prospered greatly with worldwide support while the Arab peoples have been increasingly confined to certain less advantageous regions. Of course, there have been numerous battles between these two groups of people.
The latest of these at present appears to be the most volatile and horrific of all, threatening to tear apart not only the whole region, but the entire world as well. Who is to blame? Who started it all? Both peoples claim God is on their side. In recent decades most of the world has favored Israel but currently there is increased support for the Arabs. But now, since Hamas blatantly attacked Israel and killed many bye-standers and took hostages, etc., it is impossible to feel that the Muslims are without blame.
Most of the Western world tends to side with Israel, especially given the wanton nature of the current attacks. Both sides claim, tacitly or explicitly, that God is on their side. In my view, to a large degree Israel has brought this upon themselves by their war-like dominance of the Arab peoples. Several times they have forcefully taken land that had initially been designated for the Arab peoples and made it their own. The whole world still regards the Jewish people as victims of the Nazi regime and thus feels sorry for them. In my view this is naïve and dangerous. No one is in the right here, and no one will be the winner. God is grieved by all this, but God is not to be blamed. God does not control human actions, good or evil, humans do. And so it goes.

From the family point of view FDR was the “Cat’s Pajamas”. I was born in 1933 and so Roosevelt’s New Deal and I sort of came in together :O). My Grand Dad was elected City Tresure of our town (Bellingham, WA.) in 1932 and was re-elected three times. We sat around the radio listening to FDR’s “Fireside Chats” all through World War Two. In spite of all the political flack Roosevelt took, he did a great job pulling us through a very, if not impossible time.
When you think about it, to fight two world wars simultaneously in different parts of the world over four year period is an amazing thing. In addition, many people do not know that after the war we led the world in providing relief to both Germany and Japan so they could rebuild their countries. In addition, our veterans were given the opportunity to go to college on the GI Bill. Frankly, I do not really understand how all this was possible, but I know I was a recipient of many of these benefits.
To take this story one step further, we need to remember that Roosevelt did all this as a full-fledged cripple. Both legs were paralyzed and so he had to pull himself around in a wheelchair or arm crutches to get anywhere or do anything himself around in a wheelchair and/or arm crutches to get anywhere or do anything. If you watch the films from that time it is easy to see how difficult all this was for him. In addition, he partnered up with Churchill to save England from Hitler conquering Europe and then kept Russia somewhat at bay for several years.
To be sure, Roosevelt had his faults, both personal and political, but all-in-all in my view he was the free-world’s world’s greatest leader. Everyone was afraid that Roosevelt’s entire accomplishments might fade under the administration of Harry Truman, but happily this did not happen. It is still a marvel to me how he, and we, managed to rebuilt our own and the world’s economy after the financing a world war on two fronts. I well remember those years of the war and as well immediately thereafter when things were scarce and we were not sure we could pull through.
I guess I get a bit too impatient in our current times with those who cry and moan about how things are, and are not, going. “Suck it up and get back to positive attitudes and work” I find myself wanting to say. The great American Dream of brotherhood and freedom has withstood everything Hitler and his ilk could throw at it and although we are often struggling, our commitment to living together though of different opinions and histories is still strong and growing. I’m sorry, but the Statue of Liberty still proclaims our creed: the poor huddled masses can learn to live together. Indeed we can continue to learn to thrive together.
Of course it will take thought, effort, and mutual respect to keep this crazy experiment going, but in the past this dream has held its own against the powers and problems we have faced together. So let’s suck it up and grow up together.