Passover is the anniversary of our emancipation from Egypt and our birth as a nation. It is also a new year of sorts as Nissan is the first month in the Hebrew calendar. It is a time of renewal with the start of springtime and the ecosystem's life cycle. For me, it marks a personal renewal.
As of April 1, I am working at Zion Oil & Gas as an operations engineer. It is my first full-time position in seven years and I feel fortunate for the opportunity to work with some great people on a project to help make Israel energy independent. Because of my job-hunting, I have not been able to dedicate very much time to Shelanu. At this point, I hope to be able to better structure my time in order to give a fresh push to Shelanu's cause, which is so vital to the wellbeing of our nation and our country.
I am looking for individuals willing to take on the leadership of this cause, or at least take an active role in sharing the leadership. We have a great message and a great potential, but it takes a great deal of attention and coordination. And so, I'm looking for someone with experience in non-profit organizing and someone who truly understands and believes in our cause. If I'm talking to you, please talk to me.
Lately, I've been watching another renewal in America, the renewal of "We the People" as embodied in the April 15th "tea parties" all across the U.S., regional protests against the runaway spending that characterizes the current congress and executive administration. Fox News's Glen Beck has brought in an actor to dramatize one of the key writers of the American Revolutionary period, Thomas Paine, as he might have felt about the tea parties. It made me curious to go back and read Paine's classic work, "Common Sense," specifically the chapters relating to representative government.
"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer."
I cannot think of anything more cogent that better captures the problem with Israeli politics and Israeli political media. Quite simply, the pundits and the reporters are constantly, misleadingly, and falsely emphasizing the political cliques as if they truly characterize Israeli society. And, conversely, the proportional parliamentary government, rather than limit itself to providing essential governing services, tries to pry its way into every aspect of Israeli society and, in so doing, become a bloated, encroaching albatross on our shoulders.
I'll be applying the words of Thomas Paine in future blog entries as well.
