Jan. 17, 2003 - 19:05 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

The Usual

Day of the pop quiz. Friday Five

1. - Where do you currently work ?

A. - Nowhere that pays currency. I'm Retired and without an employees wheels, gears or apprehension of what management will probably do next.

2. - How many jobs have you had and where ?

A. - Last count ten zillion. Where ? Doing most anything to turn a buck. Have had some steady jobs over the years but eventually came the layoff, reduction in force or whatever euphemism was used at the time.

3. - I had one job I liked above all others. Demanding, dangerous if care wasn't taken. I worked with a group of like minded people who were more than any family or lodge or sport team could be. It was in a test facility wherein we all pitched in to do what was necessary on deadlined work when that happened. Our supervisor was a man who was a buffer for us from the stress and interference of other departments, who saw that we had the necessary tools and equipment to work with, handled the book work for the department and stayed out of our hair. I have seen him shed his coat, roll up his white sleeves, stick his necktie in his coat pocket and proceed to pitch in and help out doing the needed thing. We had good times together at work and good times together at other times. I never saw any backbiting, jealous actions or infighting. A beautiful memory.

3. - What do you like best about your job ?

A. - Any of my jobs that gave me adequate training for my work, let me work both amid people and remotely. A job without someone standing looking over my shoulder and picking, pecking and pestering. The job I had with the test department was the job I liked the most.

4. - What do you like least about your job ?

A. - Lying, harassment and dishonesty from any level of management.

5. - What is your dream job ?

A. - I have several, being God's librarian for one. Being a librarian of any kind. Being a degreed teacher who loves teaching the young. Being a doctor who cares about people and treats them expertly in such a way that they know he cares.

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Molly Ivins is a columnist of Creator's Syndicate who once was a rootin', shootin' gal working for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A lady who became quite familiar with Mr. Bush when he was in Texas and found no reason to change her mind when he became president.

She put a column in the Rocky Mountain News January 17, mulling over things as they are today. Her first paragraph, "We are in such a strange position here, preparing to attack a country that has neither attacked us nor threatened to attack us." I guess the new buzz words of the day are "premptive war." Molly defines preemptive war as, "Something similar to what Israel did in 1967, with the Egyptian army massing on its borders. They attacked under clear threat."

She quotes John Ikenberry, professor of international relations at Georgetown University saying to The Washington Post, "This administration has embarked on something quite extraordinary in Amerian history, a preventative war, and the threshold for justification should be extraordinarily high."

After discussing the lack of hard evidence that Saddam is making plans to attack us, Molly says this, "I assume we can defeat Saddam without great cost to our side. (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what happens after we win ? The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, "Horrble three-way civil war ?"

We went into Afghanistan and the opium poppy crop boomed. There are still warlords there. Have we helped much ? Oh yeah, the Taliban has shifted their operations elsewhere. Our soldiers and other military are over there doing what they are told to do the very best way they know how. But are we really accomplishing much in that country ? Are we installing Democracy there ? Would it be possible to establish Democracy in Iraq ? If we didn't what are the possibilities of peace lasting for any length of time ?

Molly ends her column with a few eloquent words, "You get more than a vote in this country. You get to speak up."

I was taught as a kid to fight only after I was struck first. Have we forgotten this ? Are we going to fight a war in Iraq for what was done to the twin towers by Al Qaeda ?

I speak out and am encouraged that many others feel the same and are speaking out. I guess once again, next week will come up with more of The Usual . . . . . . . .

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