Catching Up on the Comments

Last Saturday's post, titled "The Greatest Moral Issue," elicited a good number of comments from my readers who partially agreed and partially disagreed with me. For those of you who didn't read the original post, I'll wait a minute for you to go back and read it before I continue.

My original post, briefly, disagreed with the statement in a Washington Post opinion piece which asserted that the economic inequality between the US/Europe and the developing world was "the greatest moral issue" facing the world today. On reading some of the comments I received, I realized that my point may not have been made as well as I had hoped.

My point was not that America and Europe bear no responsibility for the ills of the developing world. Sadly, we do. As my daughter pointed out in her comment, many of the problems of Africa, for instance, derive from the arbitrarily-drawn boundaries of the colonial era, and as Anonymous Katherine pointed out, we have often had a hand in placing corrupt leaders in power and keeping them there. So yes, clearly we are not blameless for the ills of the world, and we are not absolved from having to try to rectify them. Nevertheless, I stand by my original contention that it has become easier to dump all the blame for all the problems on the US and Europe than to take positive local action to address those problems. We bear much responsibility for the economic and political shape of the world...but why is it that discredited Communist doctrines and their patron, the former Soviet Union, that brought such misery to many developing countries seem seldom to be blamed as well?

I'd like to know.

Yesterday's post elicited some commentary, too, including this one from reader Mike, who eloquently asked: "What's, on Gods' green earth (my God not yours (if different or not)) (standard (American standard) green) (and this earth (our solar system) not another), your point?"

Mike, I hardly know how to respond, other than to ask you to send me a bottle of whatever you were drinking when you wrote that comment!

If I didn't specifically mention your comment, it doesn't mean I didn't read and appreciate it. I particularly enjoy it when people don't agree with me. As my profile says, I'm opinionated, but not (I hope) close-minded...so if you think I'm off-base, let me know. We may simply end up agreeing to disagree, but if we've gotten each other to think, I've done my job.

So I'll keep writing, you keep reading and commenting, and we'll all grow together. Sometimes it'll be fun, sometimes it'll be serious, but I hope that all the time it'll be entertaining and thought-provoking. Stick with me for the long ride!

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo