Artboretum

Earlier this year, my father and I visited the arboretum at Palomar College. We traveled about 50 miles from south San Diego County to see it, after reading their web site and thinking we’d found a gem.

To put it bluntly, we were appalled. The arboretum appears to have been completely neglected for some years; dead and dying specimens are everywhere. Only the weeds were thriving. Labels and signs — a key part of any arboretum — were largely missing.

And in the middle of this aboretum disaster was the … thing … shown in the photo at right. It looked as beat up and defeated as the rest of the arboretum to us. A sign identified it as a work of art, and it’s a good thing there was a sign — otherwise we’d have been hard put to figure out just what it was. I know I’m displaying my primitive sense of art here, but … I can’t help but associate art with beauty. And beautiful this thing ain’t. It’s beyond me why anyone would want such a thing in the middle of what could be a beautiful arboretum.

But now I read that the “Friends of the Palomar College Arboretum” actually moved this piece of “art” into the arboretum they are in charge of. And they’re out there raising money through donations to have the original artist (a local, James Hubbel) design the surrounding display area and help with refurbishing the sculpture. They’re trying to raise $40,000 to $50,000 dollars to accomplish this. And they’re trying to bring more “art” into the arboretum.

I have a modest suggestion for the Friends of Palomar College Arboretum: figure out what your mission is, make your name reflect it, and then concentrate on that. If you really want to be the “Friends of Palomar College Home for Orphaned Outdoor 'Art'", then change your name and quit pretending to be an arboretum — put your dying specimens out of their misery and put in some gravel and silk plants. On the other hand, if you really want to be Friends of the Palomar College Arboretum", perhaps you should consider addressing the 50,000 or so things about the arboretum that should be a higher priority for you than salvaging pieces of art. Things like, say, keeping your specimen plants alive! You might even get a couple of hundred bucks together and label the four or five specimens that are still surviving!

Sheesh.

The North County Times has an article about this.

Title

Israel’s war with Hezbollah is acting as a kind of flashlight, illuminating the dark corners of politics all over the world.

A few things seem to be uncontroverted by any serious observer:

— Hezbollah’s goal is to eliminate Israel, preferably killing all the Jews in the process.

— Hezbollah deliberately targets civilians in Israel, and deliberately makes targets of civilians in Lebanon, all because of the high propaganda value of dead and maimed civilians of any nationality.

— Hezbollah is lavishly armed and trained, and occupies a large fraction of Lebanon, in defiance of UN proclamations and the Lebanese government.

— Hezbollah is actively supported by the governments of Syria and Iran, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support, plus millions of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, and tens of thousands of various kinds of missiles.

— Hezbollah has been fighting a guerilla war against Israel for over 10 years, sending suicide bombers, missiles, and artillery over the border from Lebanon to target Israeli civilians. Hundreds of Israelis have been killed and maimed in these cruel and barbaric attacks.

— The stated goal of Iran’s government is to “wipe Israel from the map”.

Then a few weeks ago, Hezbollah made a very provocative escalating attack against Israel (invading Israel with a military force, killing several soldiers and capturing two alive), and accelerated their missile bombardment. Israel said “Enough!” and basically declared open war on Hezbollah, with the explicit objective of eliminating Hezbollah’s capability to wage war against Israel (especially its ability to fire missiles into Israel).

My own take on this is, apparently, a distinctly minority view in the world’s community. I think it’s absolutely marvelous that the Israelis are taking on Hezbollah, and I wish them well in their war. I hope they don’t stop until every Hezbollah fighter is dead or surrendered. I hope they eliminate Hezbollah as a credible player on the Middle Eastern stage. I hope that all this chatter about “ceasefires” (as if you could have a ceasefire with terrorists!) and “disproportionate response” (as if that was a bad thing!) is ignored by Israel and the U.S., and doesn’t impede their efforts in the slightest. In the end, I’d like to see a democratic, secular Lebanese government that can be a stabilizing force in the heart of the Middle East — a partner to the U.S., Israel, Turkey, and Iraq, and a shining example to the masses living under autocrats in places like Iran, Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

None of this will ever happen while Hezbollah occupies Lebanon and wages war on Israel.

But the most of the world (including the American left) doesn’t agree with me. There are varying positions, but the general consensus is that we must have an immediate ceasefire. I think it’s fair to say that most people in the world believe that Israel’s response is somehow unfair, or has ulterior motivations. The majority would like to see pressure put on the Israelis to stop fighting Hezbollah, and to withdraw from Lebanon.

In an article at the National Review, Victor Davis Hanson writes:

Our present generation too is on the brink of moral insanity. That has never been more evident than in the last three weeks, as the West has proven utterly unable to distinguish between an attacked democracy that seeks to strike back at terrorist combatants, and terrorist aggressors who seek to kill civilians.

I think Mr. Hanson is exactly right, and this war is acting like a flashlight to illuminate those morally insane people he’s talking about. Like Rep. John Dingell (D, Michigan) who said “I don’t take sides for or against Hezbollah.” Or John Kerry (D, Massachussets), maneuvering for political points, declaring that the Israel-Hezbollah war “would never have happened” had he been elected. Or any of dozens of other morally bankrupt statements and essays we’ve been treated to over the past few weeks, from both domestic and foreign wackos.

What to do? The best lesson I can take away from this flashlight’s revelations is to remember — remember which people said what, and (especially with respect to the U.S. politicians) take that into account the next time there’s an election. If enough morally sane people can do that, maybe we’ll have enough to make a difference.

I sure hope so, 'cause what I’m hearing now is downright dispiriting…