Frustration of Not Knowing Answers

I get frustrated by not knowing the answers. I find myself increasingly not knowing the answers.

Like so many people I’ve watched the events in Baltimore unfold with horror. It appears there was police brutality and/or gross incompetence. Baltimore has long been known as a rough city and this is a part of it. While there are racial elements to this I suspect, down deep, there are also socio-economic factors that have loomed large. The city has a very racially mixed leadership and they have taken racism seriously. While I understand people having a right, perhaps even a need to protest, the rioting and the violence is repulsive to me.

I do not know the answers in the Middle East. Last Sunday the show “Madame Secretary” was about signing a nuclear arms deal with Iran against the backdrop of people in Iran stoning a young gay man to death. The arms deal was signed and the young man was stoned to death. The question loomed big-----did we make a deal with the devil or not? If we don’t make a deal will this leave them the ability to run amuck and do whatever they so desire? If we do make the deal will this allow them to do research leading down a path that we will no longer have control of? These are large, difficult questions.

President George W. Bush made the decision to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein. I thought it was a bad idea and many other people did. Many still do. The fear I had was that the region would become destabilized. But having said that, we did the invasion and a lot of young Americans died for their country. The region is now destabilized and instead of lamenting what we did or shouldn’t have done or done, we need to find answers that are applicable right here and right now.

If you’re looking for a spiffy answer or observation, I don’t have one. I find so many of these questions difficult to ponder. I do not know the answer.

I guess that’s why I pray.