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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
Alexander Graham Bell aimed high. In 1876 his first message over his new telephone was, “Mr. Watson. Come here. I want to see you.”
When Mr. Watson heard him, the 29 year-old Bell rushed to the correct government office with his phone patent, beating a competitor by only a few hours, and launching an invention that would change communication into the Twenty-First Century. The next year, Bell married Mabel and formed the Bell Telephone Company, thereby providing his family with a substantial income for the rest of their lives.
Blessed with an abiding intellectual curiosity, Alexander Graham Bell developed and tested ideas for kites, sheep-breeding, desalinization techniques, water distillation, and a metal breathing device, forerunner of the iron lung.
Bell invented a “photophone,” a device transmitting sound over a beam of light. He considered the photophone his most important invention, perhaps for good reason, for it became a precursor to modern laser and fiber optics technology. Bell spent the latter years of his life working on flight machines, and his hydrofoil set a water speed record in 1919 that remained unsurpassed until 1963.
Fame and fortune were not Alexander Graham Bell’s goals, yet he received and achieved them. Discovery and invention were his goals. He became a great American scientist and success story because he used all of his considerable talents. He took risks and he worked diligently. He developed and applied his vision for a different tomorrow. Through it all he remained a man of notable character.
Bell defined a particularly attractive kind of “success”—talent plus work ethic plus character. We have some “Alexander Graham Bell’s” among us today but not enough. When you add the character element the pool of worthies shrinks quickly.
It seems as if not a month goes by without hearing of some highly talented and “successful” individual whose character, or lack of it, has brought them low, tainting their reputation and legacy, e.g., Tiger Woods, Mel Gibson, authors of bestsellers later charged with plagiarism or lies, Lindsay Lohan, multiple affairs of numerous political leaders like former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Bernie Madoff. This list goes on.
Talent matters. Everyone’s been blessed with multi-talent potential. This we can choose to develop.
Character matters too. This we develop, intentionally or not, one decision at a time. Bell did both throughout his life. So can we.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
I meet people who love the Jewish people, their heritage and history, their culture, food, and religion. These people also tend to root for, support, defend, and otherwise embrace Israel as a nation state.
I meet people who love the Arab people, their heritage and history, their culture, food, and possibly their religion. These people also tend to root for, support, at times defend, and otherwise embrace Lebanon or Egypt or other Arab World nation states.
Mostly these two groups, those supporting Jews and those supporting Arabs, stand alongside one but not the other body of people. In other words, it’s like never the twain shall meet, an eternal juxtaposition. It’s assumed or sometimes stated in bold relief: “Love the Jews not the Arabs” or “Love the Arabs but never Jews.” It’s like Jews are North Pole and Arabs are South Pole, Jews are Water and Arabs are Oil, Jews are This and Arabs are That. Never, under any circumstances, are the two great bodies of people brought together. They’re invariably stated as “Versus” but never “And.”
But in the Scripture, God said, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
The Bible also says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” By “Greek” the Scripture means non-Jews. It means Gentiles. It means Arabs and Native Americans and Australian Aborigines. It means all who are not Jews. So the divine point is that “in Christ Jesus” no ethnic, racial, or gender barriers exist.
The Scripture reinforces this understanding of God and the human race, stating, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” No difference between Jew and Gentile. “Everyone” who calls…will be saved.
If you believe the Bible for what it claims that it is, the Word of God, and if you believe what it says in these verses, than you cannot join either the Pro-Jew or Pro-Arab group if it means you must therefore be at odds with or perhaps despise the other. No exclusive “this side only” position is presented or promoted in Scripture. A Christian worldview demands a Pro-Jew and a Pro-Arab mentality. We not only need not, we must not, take sides one against the other.
To say one supports Jews still leaves room to acknowledge that Israel is a secular nation state that acts in its own interest, and as such, should be subject to critique—just like the United States and all other countries of the world. To say one supports Arabs still leaves room to recognize that some Arabs give themselves to extremist religious views that in turn lead them toward violence. Loving a people is not the same as giving each individual or even a nation state a free pass to do as it wills without regard for human rights and civilized values.
Yet some Christians, including some Christian leaders, unwisely make comments suggesting or stating outright that “Israel can do no wrong” or “Palestinians should be banished from the Holy Land” or “Arabs are our enemies.” A few, though certainly fewer, unwisely make comments suggesting or stating outright that “Arab nations can do no wrong” or “Israel (and/or Israelis) should be banished from the Middle East,” or “Jews are our enemies.”
How, though, can they justify these negative, nasty, ill advised, and wrong perspectives based upon Scripture? The answer is: they cannot. Scripture doesn’t teach or even fairly lend itself to this kind of simplistic and harmful binary thinking.
Put simply, God loves all people in his creation and calls all to himself. He doesn’t write some of them off as if they are lesser humans. Remember how Blacks were viewed as sub-human or not human by many in the 19th Century and well into the 20th Century? It wasn't biblically justifiable toward Blacks, and such an attitude isn't biblically justifiable toward Jews or Arabs.
In a truly Christian worldview it is both commanded by God and possible to love all humankind, even as we “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” We are divinely commissioned to love all people, even as Christ first loved us, and even as we recognize that not all members of any group will always behave properly or do what is right—the same as all people. Arguing for attitudes or perspectives a Christian worldview demands is not pollyanna thinking. What the world does is one thing; what Christians do or say must often be another.
It’s simple, but it’s good theology: "Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, All are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world." For Christians, it’s Jews and Arabs.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
Years ago, I mean really early in our marriage, The Good Wife and I went out to eat at a restaurant serving Chinese. At the time I was still a “meat and potatoes” kid not too far from Smalltown, USA with its nearby farm. Beef, mashed potatoes, or hamburgers and fries, or Midwest “normal food.”
I didn’t grow up eating Chinese, so oriental fare wasn’t on my list of culinary delights. Consequently, I wasn’t sure what I was doing in a foreign restaurant. Parochial, I know, but that was me.
This was also about the time other professionals began to invite me to various places for lunch or dinner as part of my work. Invariably I’d end up in some restaurant serving food I thought was suspicious at best. What could I order and eat if I didn’t like anything in the restaurant?
Then The Good Wife rescued me. When we went out to eat that time, someplace she wanted to go that made me uncomfortable—but of course I went to please her—she said, “You should identify one type of meal you like in each kind of restaurant. Then, if you get invited to that kind of restaurant you’ll always know there’s one thing you can order that you like and you’ll enjoy yourself.”
Man, why didn’t I think of that? But I didn’t. Which goes to show you why the Lord said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Since that day long ago I have learned to like many different kinds of food. I even like Chinese. Though I am still not an adventurous eater, much less a “foody.”
But whatever, no matter where I go I know by now that there’s at least one type of meal in that restaurant that I can order, eat, and like.
This may not seem like much. But it protected me from something else I’ve seen: being inflexible and possibly rude in terms of food and eating.
I’ve been in groups where most people suggested going to a certain kind of restaurant, only to have one person announce they won’t go there—because they “don’t like” that restaurant or “won’t go in” that restaurant. To which I am tempted to say, “So what? What about all the others who want to go there?”
This is not a big deal and adults can generally handle the situation. But I’m still amazed sometimes when I hear people weigh-in with their exclusive preference, seemingly utterly oblivious of everyone else. Oh well, that’s their problem.
The Good Wife taught me how to avoid at least one potential and unnecessary problem in my life, for which I salute her. My manners and etiquette are the better for her advice.
Want to go out for Chinese?
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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- Written by Rex M. Rogers
The day begins with The Good Wife taking me to the GRR airport for what I thought would be two quick flights to Philadelphia by way of Cincinnati. This included a two-hour layover in Cinti, enough time to get a paper from the Delta Sky Club, eat lunch, and finish a new “Good News From the Middle East” column for SAT-7 USA. Alas, none of this was to be.
--When I approach the Delta counter at my home airport, which I’ve done about a million times, I notice there’s no sign or line for Sky Club Gold members, so I get in the busier primary line. And wait.
--Agent says, “Any Silver Elite, Gold Sky Club Members? Go around the other side of the luggage security check-in for new lines. No waiting.” So I do. I hadn’t seen this new desk, hidden as it was behind the behemoth luggage scanner.
--I get in the front of this new line, but still, I wait. Then I notice there are new check-in kiosks, so I get out of line to go to the kiosks, thus losing my place to another person, and of course the computer doesn’t allow me to check-in.
--I get back in the line and wait again and finally get to an agent, who I ask, “Is there something odd about my ticket, because this is the third trip in a row for which the Delta kiosks won’t let me sign in.” “No, looks OK to me,” she says, which doesn’t comfort me much, but I get my bag checked.
--TSA check-in is slow as usual, but it and my Delta flight to Cinti are uneventful. On the flight, drink but no snacks, another “cut back” no doubt saving Delta $millions per year. Actually, it’s what economists call a “petty economy.” On my cheap AirTran flight to Baltimore earlier this week I at least got cookies.
--I land in Cincinnati—really, it’s Northern Kentucky—and read an Orbitz alert email announcing my Delta connection to Philly has been cancelled.
--So I go immediately to the Delta Sky Club and discover Delta has rebooked me on a US Air flight, which leaves in 35 minutes in a different terminal from the one I’m in. I think, “No way I can get there” and say so. Agent says, “Oh, just take the tram. You can make it. No problem.” Yeah right, that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee. But who knows, maybe?
--I find the tram and ride it two terminals over, then have to walk a long, long way, only to discover I must go outside the secured area into a public entrance and back in again, meaning I must go through another checkpoint the agent hadn’t told me about.
--At the TSA checkpoint the new, “faster” scanners require me to empty my pockets of everything: Excedrin—which I popped in my mouth because by now I have a headache—papers, pen, wallet, everything, plus belt and shoes off, laptop out and in a tray, phone in bag, and watch off and in bag.
--Here’s where it gets good: after placing my hands over my head and enduring the scanner for “just 7 seconds” taking an X-ray nudey picture, I wait and wait and wait, all the while listening to an agent call for people to board my jet to Philly—now. Why am I standing here so long? Finally, a male agent says, “Do you have a watch on?” and pushes back my sleeve. No, I don’t; it’s in my bag in the bin setting over there waiting for me. Apparently the scanner agent confused tan lines on my wrist for a watch. Now I feel especially safe.
--So now I think I’m a goner, but I have no choice, so I put on my shoes, don’t bother to put on my belt or re-bag my laptop, grab my assorted stuff, and run/jog to Gate 7, the last gate, of course, at the very end of a concourse a couple hundred yards long.
--When I arrive at Gate 7 panting and perspiring and thinking wonderful things about Delta, I hear what I knew I would hear: “I’m sorry; the plane has pushed back from the gate.”
--I know it’s not this agent’s fault, so I don’t get angry, but I do tell her that Delta put me on this flight, that it’s not my fault I’m late, and that they knew I was coming on a short connection and should have waited. This results only in the agent saying, “I can’t bring the plane back.”
--Now I have to rebook again. To get Delta to do this and to ask them why they booked me on a flight I couldn’t possibly make, I’d have to retread two concourses and tram back to the original terminal. No way. So I rebook with the US Air agent, who puts me on a US Air flight in one hour to Charlotte.
--US Air flight to Charlotte is OK if not where I want to go. No snacks. When I arrive I discover the entire airport is under internal construction, a major mess, no monitors. So I walk the length of a concourse just to find out where I should be going, which thankfully was a gate nearby.
--I grab a coffee and sit down to wait for a half hour, than hear the agent say, “Our flight to Philly has mechanical problems. We’ll give you an update shortly.” A few minutes later: “We’re sorry, this plane has been taken out of service, so you will need to go from D1 to B2 to catch your flight there.” B2 is a long way away.
--At B2 I board and we have an uneventful US Air flight to Philly, though no snacks, arriving 45 minutes later than when I thought I would land at day’s beginning.
--Now more fun: I suspected all along that my bag wouldn’t make it. Two airlines, changed flights, short connections, it’s inevitable. Sure enough, got to Philly and no bag. US Air doesn’t know if my bag’s in Cincinnati or Charlotte and doesn’t know if Delta or US Air has it. But they’re going to deliver it, right?
--After this I go out to await the rental car shuttle bus and I stand beside the appropriate sign and pick-up point at Station 2. The Thrifty bus shows up, guy looks right at me, and drives on by with an empty bus. I look at the nearby Philly policeman and say, “What does that guy think we’re here for?” Policeman only smiles.
--So I wait another 10 minutes and here comes the Thrifty bus. This time, to get him to stop, I have to go out in three lanes of traffic and flag him down. When I get on I ask him why he doesn’t stop at the established pick-up point and he says, “Are you sure it was me?" Yes I am because he was going to do it a second time.
--I get to the Thrifty rental car lot, supposed to find the car in the #30 parking place. Signs up for all ranges of numbers except a range including 30. Why? Have no idea. So I have to go back and ask for directions to #30, which I finally find, only to discover my rental car is a Canary Yellow Chevy Aveo. Works fine, but I look like a teenage girl driving it.
So, will my bag arrive tonight? I doubt it. Tomorrow? I hope so, because I depart the next morning for home, which if it’s another travel day like today may see me getting home who knows when?
This stuff happens everyday, but generally not to the same person. I know, because it usually doesn’t happen to me. Today was my turn.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.