An Incongruent World

Recently, the city of Buffalo, New York had a 7ft snowfall.  Things that were taken for granted suddenly became impossible to do.  Schools were closed as well as many businesses.  It was reported that stores could not get their deliveries and the population started to stockpile necessities. Transportation was almost non-existent.  What began as a happy white holiday season ended with an unprecedented amount of snow turning the holiday cheer into misery.

Rochester, a sister city, experienced the very opposite problem.  They hardly had any snow.  For them it was a major problem.  They had planned their winter activities around snow and lo and behold they had no snow.  Strangely, the cities are so close and yet so far.   The citizens of Rochester wondered what were they going to do.

The Rochester city officials contacted Buffalo requesting snow.  Buffalo's Street Commissioner, Paul Sullivan, was very happy to meet the request.  "Send the trucks to Buffalo and we'll load them up," was the Commissioner's answer.  I guess all Buffalo needed was a guarantee that they would not return the snow.

 " One man's bad luck may be another's good fortune."

On the other side of the world the holidays have been a sad time.  Afghanistan is torn apart by war and internal strife.  India is claiming new aggression from terrorists living in Pakistan.  Now each country is busy planning reprisals.  Tension is mounting and a war may break out at any moment.  Kashmir is a pressure cooker ready to explode in civil war.

Food is so scarce in the bombed out country that people are eating their pets.  Even animals found in the zoo are eaten.  Warlords are busy dividing up parts of the country.  What can be done?

For one thing, I have been informed that here in the U.S.A. there is a society busy collecting money to help the starving animals left from the zoo population.  True, it's a good idea but it leaves me wondering if the animals are more important to them than the starving population.  How incongruent we have become.

In the Middle East too there is inconsistency.  Yasser Arafat and his henchmen are still called freedom fighters while Bin Laden and company are branded terrorists.  The Al-Qaida must be stopped at any cost.  But Israel must show restraint.

With more of our boys abroad getting killed I wonder if we really know what we are doing.  On one side of the coin we bomb the country back to the stone ages and think that we will be considered as heroes and liberators and on the other side of the coin we give the innocent people no choice but to live in poverty.

Our demonstrations of force have destroyed the extremists and at the same given opportunity for other government officials - warlords - to cash in.  Once again we see how the loss of a countrys wicked leadership opens the door for other wicked terrorists.   Shocking is the fact that most Arab countries are yet to hold public demonstrations against the Bin Laden thugs.

As the war continues casualties rise so do the profits of weapons.  It is interesting to note that former President Bush and former Secretary of State James A Baker III, members of the Carlyle Group, are making millions of dollars in the defense-spending boom.

It seems that the war against terrorism is profitable for those who know where the government's spending is going.  For them there is no recession in sight.

Since the World Trade Center catastrophe there have been settlements of millions to some families while less to others.  This too has shown us that we cannot really estimate the worth of a life. 

In the business world we find major financial scandals. The U.S. Justice Department is now conducting a criminal investigation into why Enron went into bankruptcy. It has been reported that records are missing or destroyed and this has been going on for years.  Thousands of families have been financially dependent on this company and are now on the brink of personal bankruptcy.  I am worried about our moral business ethics.

What we see here is a complete disparity of wealth, power and needs.  What should be done?  How do we find solutions to the ongoing problems of equality and needs?  It's been a problem since the creation. 

For many, the answer may be the return of the 7 Universal Noachide Laws.

The Almighty Creator gave the children of Noah seven divine laws to live by: the prohibitions against adultery, idolatry, blasphemy, theft, murder, sexual impurity, and acts of cruelty, and the obligation of courts of justice for mankind. Education is a must for all.  The need for respect for all religious feelings and consciousness, to be felt by all.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, world leader of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, searched for an intrinsic human quality that binds all mankind.  He found it by reviewing the roots of all mankind as the children of Noah.

If we are truly one family, we must be compassionate.  We must care about sharing our world with our fellow family members.  Together we can work on making this world a safe and wonderful place to live.

Family members look for similarities not differences, between siblings.  They work together building a healthy present, securing a peaceful optimistic future, and having a proud past.

The Noachide laws cut through religions, races, and nations, not differentiating between  governments that are aligned with the West or the East.  Laws, so universal, that are recognized by all. 

What is now needed is a return to the observance of the Noachide Laws and what a wonderful world we would have!