"What You've Never Had, You Never Miss"

An elderly couple from Canada gave away their $11.2 million lottery winnings to relatives and charities. Their justification: "What you've never had, you never miss."

Allen and Violet Large of Truro, Nova Scotia, have been married for 36 years. They are in their seventies and have everything they need in their retirement years. Violet was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and has been receiving chemotherapy at a hospital in Halifax.

Year ago when I lived in Halifax, I once drove through Truro. I still remember the sleepy town. The one thing that struck me about it was that not much happened there, and that's the way the few people I saw on the streets seemed to like it.

Allen & Violet distributed their money first to family and then to the local fire department, churches, cemeteries, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, hospitals in Truro and Halifax, organizations that fight cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes.

You read something like this and you sit still to absorb it. Amid all the daily news of bloodbath and greed and ruthlessness, this couple did what perhaps only one in ten million would do. They could have taken exotic trips, bought all the toys they could indulge in, and spend their last years in pampered care and luxury. But no, they just gave it all away.

They unconsciously followed the wisdom in these lines: "I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show - let me not defer it nor neglect it - for I shall not pass this way again."

Good and kind people live among us, in big cities and small towns. Next time we hear of cruelty and selfishness, let's remember Violet and Allen Large and others like them and be grateful for the human grace that is as much a part of us as its opposite.

Put Keith Olbermann Back Where He Belongs

MSNBC's suspension of the outspoken TV anchor Keith Olbermann is outrageous. The leading liberal voice of his time is the surest antidote to the toxic fumes that emanate nonstop from FOX and other right wing outlets.

What did Olbermann do to deserve this insult? He contributed a grand total of $2,400 to the campaigns of Representatives Rauj M. Grivalva and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and Attorney General Jack Conway of Kentucky!

For this sin, a sane voice has been stilled, at least for now.

MSNBC and its parent NBC News are answerable to NBC Universal. That's the problem with these corporations. The pompous idiots at the top think they know what's best for viewers, even though their only concern is money and profit. They will grab any chance to prove their moral superiority only because there is none. By suspending Olbermann they are trying to make the point that, for them, principles trump everything else. And what is the great principle they are trying to protect? That since a TV anchor's vision will be clouded if he we were to make political contributions, they must act as TV's virtuous gatekeepers. What anachronism! By the way, has anyone taught these geniuses the difference between causation and correlation?

All these honchos are now waiting for is a round of applause from coast to coast for their sanctimony.

Well, not only will no applause be forthcoming, these beacons of self-righteousness should brace for boos from every clear-thinking person in the country. The least they can do to salvage some honor from the situation is to immediately reinstate Keith Olbermann.

Obama Will Regain His Audacity

The midterm election was a rude wake-up call for President Obama but it's not the end of the story. We have perhaps read only the first few chapters in a book of many chapters. The death of the Democratic agenda is greatly exaggerated.

Barack Obama has received his dose of humility just in time. Any longer and he would have put himself beyond rescue. All this talk of elitism, detachment, arrogance, 'I am right, you just don't get it' attitude is mostly true.

But what most Americans tend to overlook is Obama's enormous ability to rediscover himself. Anyone who has read his two autobiographical books know it. Why pundits are not using this trait in their judgment is odd. Perhaps it means that they haven't really read the books. Superficial perusal maybe but no serious study for clues to the president's character.

Since his election to the highest office in the land, Obama tried too hard to please his critics while neglecting his support base. He failed in the first and lost big time because of the second. Candidate Obama that young independents flocked to two years ago began to wonder who they really voted for, because the occupant of the White House certainly didn't resemble their hero, their hope.

The enthusiasm gap widened when Obama lost his sense of purpose and began courting the fat cats who gave us the financial crisis that destroyed millions of American families. Although blessed with a gift for words, the president couldn't explain healthcare or the stimulus or the financial reform in a way that common Americans could understand. Obama's packages were too little, although not too late.

The ultimate irony: A man borne on the wings of audacity suffered a failure of imagination.

But here's the thing: Obama can, and will, regain his audacity in support of his principles and in opposition to his implacable foes. It's in his genes.

Americans told him through their votes that they don't like his style and even the substance he has shown so far. They don't like the sense of superiority he exudes. They want a doer in these tough times but find in him an ivory-tower thinker with little or no appreciation of the difficulties they are facing. They want democrats to shed their timidity and boldly take on the Tea Party.

Obama will absorb these lessons in the days ahead and become candidate Obama again. He will recapture the magic by sheer force of will and reconnect with his constituency. He knows that this is the biggest challenge of his career. He will rise to it, not because of the prospect of a second term, but because he knows in his guts it is the right thing to do.

Waiting for Super Teachers

Education is among America’s most urgent concerns now. For decades pressure has been building to reform the nation’s deplorable public schools, from kindergarten through the twelfth grade (K-12). In spite of the billions that have been poured into the system by the government and by wealthy entrepreneurs, there has been no noticeable improvement in the quality of K-12 education in the U.S. for the last four decades.

In 1971, for instance, the average score for 17-year-olds in reading test was 285; in 2008, it was 286. In 1973, 17-year-olds averaged 304 in math tests; in 2008, the average was 306. Forty years ago, the United States had the highest high school completion rate in the world. Today, it ranks 18th out of 24 industrialized nations. Among 30 developed countries, fifteen-year-old U.S. students rank 25th in math and 21st in science In just 10 years, there is expected to be more than 120 million high-paying, high-skill jobs in the U.S., but only 50 million Americans qualified for these positions.

In the global knowledge economy, an educated citizenry is the key to a nation’s success, its true source of power. All signs, however, suggest that America’s current generation will, for the first time in its history, be less educated than the previous generation. Wars and financial meltdowns do not threaten America’s national interest as much as a broken public school system that churns out large numbers of clueless adults unable to cope with the demands of the 21^st century.

The recently-released educational documentary by Oscar-winning (An Inconvenient Truth) filmmaker Davis Guggenheim called “Waiting for Superman” highlights what plagues the system. The Superman in the title refers to a student’s childhood belief that the ghetto in which he lived might one day be rescued by the Man of Steel. The movie follows the wrenching stories of 5 students and their families as they face a terrifying future. Who will rescue them from the “dropout factories” in which so many are trapped? What can be done when one despairing student after another says, “I am going nowhere and I have no interest in living?” How can incompetent teachers be purged who inform students with sadistic glee that “I get paid whether you learn or not?”

On the opening night of this somber film (not your typical Hollywood action flick) in California’s Silicon Valley, I found the theatre packed with moviegoers trying to understand the seriousness of the issue and their responsibility to change the status quo.

In the movie, “Superman” comes in the form of charter schools. These schools use public money but are independent of district bureaucracy. They have the freedom to do whatever is necessary to improve the quality of education, including firing failing teachers, a near-impossibility in regular public schools. There are two intertwined “villains”: Teachers’ unions and tenure. The main function of the first seems to be to protect teachers at any cost, particularly the incompetent ones. The second often translates into lifelong employment for bad teachers with no accountability for non-performance.

The reality is more nuanced. Teachers’ unions have become easy scapegoats although there is no doubt that they are a major contributor to perpetuating an obsolete, tenure-based system. Achievement gains in charter schools are also not uniform. While there are many high-performing charter schools among the nearly 5,000 that have sprung up in all 50 states, there are also as that are no better than problem-ridden inner-city schools. Besides, of the 56 million children in the nation’s 133,000 elementary and secondary schools, charter schools account for only 3% of the K-12 population. It is not at all clear how they can scale their success to include a larger percentage of students. The movie shows in heartbreaking detail how getting admitted to a charter school for those who need it most – the poor and the disenfranchised – depends on, believe it or not, lotteries!

However, charter schools such as the “Knowledge is Power Program” (KIPP) have achieved two feats. First, they have proven that it is possible to teach students from all ethnic and economic backgrounds for high levels of scholarly success. Second, they have introduced innovation into a public school system whose classroom format - one person lecturing captive students - has not changed since Laura Ingalls of “The Little House on the Prairie” sat in one a century ago.

So how does one go about transforming America’s K-12 public education? Given the stakes, there is no shortage of ideas: student-centered system, rigorous accountability, online classes, Web technology, abolishing tenure and teachers’ unions, common core standards, 21^st-century curricula, and so on.

While all these ideas have merit, the one constant in the calculus of school reform is teacher quality. Good teachers make good schools. They are the reason why students flourish. In unveiling his “Race to the Top” school reform agenda, President Barack Obama said as much, that the single most important factor determining whether students succeed in school is not the color of their skin or their ZIP code or even their parents' income; it is the quality of their teacher.

Given this, ‘what makes a great teacher’ has become a dominant theme in the current education debate, particularly in the context of the Internet and the changing nature of how students acquire knowledge in the 21^st century. Here are a few characteristics of life-changing teachers, in no particular order.

Good teachers are passionate about their students and subjects. They demand more and get more. They know how to use textbook facts (most of it available via Internet search anyway) – be it algebra or English or biology – to inspire independent and critical thinking. Every child starts out as an intellectual explorer. It is the rare teacher who can demonstrate that knowing why - an idea - is more important than learning what - a fact.

Good teachers know that learning occurs when they treat students not as empty vessels but as self-creators seeking expert help. Students are diamonds in the rough. As an award-winning teacher has observed, they have a certain need, an insight, a capacity, an unformed thought. If they are lucky enough to meet a teacher who can respond with a skill, a technique, a body of knowledge, a habit of mind, a sense of humor, learning grows by leaps and bounds.

Uncommon teachers keep the goals of teaching in mind. They ask themselves: what effect will we have on our students in ten or twenty years? A science teacher knows that only a small fraction of them may become scientists. An English teacher knows that only a few, if any, will become professors of literature. But they believe that science or art, if properly taught, will remain a source of pleasure in their lives. Uncommon teachers believe in the fundamental importance of what they teach, no matter what the current fads are and how uninterested some students may appear. They strive to earn their wings everyday, year after year.

Good teachers do not “teach to the test.” Testing is one tool among many to assess student progress but teaching only with the purpose of helping students pass tests is a folly, a delusional approach to education that degrades the profession. Good teachers (one reason why they are so rare) know that critical and independent thinking are traits that require infinite patience to nurture. They are able to strike a balance between the conflicting demands of short-term assessment and long-term creativity.

There is, of course, no best way to teach. If we study superstar teachers, we find that each is distinctive in her or his own way. What is common among them, however, is that they have an intuitive understanding of their students that, when combined with their passion for the subject, enable them to sow the seeds of wonder in them, the source of all insights and discoveries. Perhaps the most encouraging fact to emerge from recent studies is that committed teachers can evolve in their profession as they master the subtleties of their art. In other words, most great teachers are made, not born.

We do not need to wait for Superman to lift our public schools from mediocrity to excellence. All we need are super teachers.

The Generous Spirit of a Car Dealer

Normally we treat car dealers with suspicion. Aren't they the people who will resort to lying and exaggerating to extract the last dime from our wallet when we go shopping for a car? Most of us are no match for the fast-talking car salesman, which is why we dread running into one when buying a car becomes an imperative.

But now comes the news of a car dealer from New Jersey named Brad Benson who promised a new automobile to Florida Pastor Terry Jones if he would not burn a copy of the Quran. You may recall that Jones threatened to burn the Muslim holy book on the ninth-anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York if the construction of the proposed Islamic Community Center near the World Trade Center was not scuttled.

Jones did not burn the Quran on 9/11 and we breathed a sigh of relief. It is true that winning a new car was not the reason why the pastor chose the more peaceful path. Facing criticism from President Obama, General David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and hundreds and thousands of ordinary Americans had undoubtedly something to do with it. But now that this story is out, we should salute Brad Benson, probably the only American in this spectacle who put his money ($14, 200 for a 2011 Huyndai Accent) where his mouth was.

Why did Benson make his offer? "I just didn't think that was (burning the Quran) a good thing for our country." There you have it, as simple and straightforward a reason on a volatile issue as you can get. The pastor is holding Benson to his word and has said that he will donate the car to an organization that helps abused Muslim women. Could anyone have predicted this magnificent turn of events?

Besides smashing stereotypes about car dealers, Benson has shown that the strength and generosity of America is to be found among its ordinary citizens, something we tend to forget in our celebrity-soaked culture. The former New York Giants offensive lineman turned car dealer is known for his radio ads that focus more on current events than on cars. This fact alone should tell us that money is not the only goal of every American businessman, that contrary to popular perception, many of them are driven by higher ideals, such as peace between peoples and nations.

If you find yourself in South Brunswick, New Jersey, stop by to say hello to Brad Benson. I know I will. Heck, if I have the money, I will also buy a car from him. A dream of mine when I came to America over three decades ago was to take a cross-country car trip. It's beginning to look like a distinct possibility now.

Jerry Brown Will be Elected Governor of California

Come November, Californians will elect Jerry Brown as the new governor of California. Why? Not because his Republican opponent, the former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, has blown it with her callous treatment of her Latino housekeeper of nine years, although that certainly is a factor, but because Brown is simply the better choice.

On every single issue, Brown has come across as the more pragmatic as well as the visionary candidate, from school reform and treatment of immigrants to putting people back to work and rebuilding the infrastructure of the Golden State undermined by fiscal mismanagement.

Whitman seems determined to buy her way into the governorship, having spent $120 million on her campaign so far. (In contrast, Brown has spent a total of $4 million, or about 3% of Whitman’s total.) This is the most any political candidate has ever spent in the United States, including presidential candidates. By November, she is expected to have spent $150 million dollars on her campaign, a monstrously arrogant proposition in a time of sky-high foreclosures and mass layoffs.

Americans are fed up with candidates who think money can substitute for ideas and action. They are sick and tired of the super-rich who use manipulative media consultants and slick technology to influence the electorate. Meg Whitman fits these labels and more. She is a political novice who hardly distinguished herself as a CEO. She amassed her wealth only because she was lucky to be at the right place at the right time, riding the fortunes of eBay during the dot-com boom to enormous personal gains. When she left eBay, shareholders were already disenchanted with her performance and the future of eBay appeared bleak. Her questionable acquisition of Skype was one of many bad judgments she displayed throughout her tenure at eBay.

Whitman targeted California’s Hispanic population with coy messages of support and sympathy but her hypocrisy was revealed when she claimed that she did not know the immigration status of her longtime housekeeper Nicandra Diaz Santillan before firing her. This turned out be an outright lie. It is now clear that Whitman knew that Santillan was an undocumented worker. (“You have never seen me and I’ve never seen you,” Whitman told Santillan at the time of firing her, after the former CEO decided that she was going to run for governor.)

Two aspects of this issue are deeply disturbing.

First, Whitman refused to appoint an immigration attorney (it would have cost her a few hundred dollars) when Santillan asked her for help. Santillan’s attorney has also accused Whitman of cheating Diaz out of years’ worth of wages. Originally hired at $28 an hour for 15 hours per week to clean her home, Whitman kept adding more duties to her job without compensating her or increasing her hours.

What is it with some billionaires that they count their pennies when it comes to paying their maids and servants, even going to the extent of cheating them?

Second, Whitman claimed that Brown and his “surrogates” were behind breaking the Santillan story, without offering a shred of evidence to support the claim. Jerry Brown denied the allegation, telling Whitman in their second gubernatorial debate: “Don’t run for governor if you can’t stand up on your own two feet and say, ‘Hey, I made a mistake.’”

Why is it that lack of character is often the hallmark of the entitled?

Whitman’s disdain for the democratic process is well-known. She did not register to vote until 2002. Her reason? She was too busy building a career and focusing on her family for 28 years to bother with voting. To which one may ask, “What about the rest of us? Don't we have careers? Don't we have families to focus on?”

Jerry Brown may not be the ideal candidate to lift California out of its present predicament but undoubtedly he is the better candidate of the two. Most Californians see it this way and that’s why Jerry Brown will be elected the Golden State’s governor in November.

Time and the Seasons

Sunrise in San Jose, California, today was at 6:58 AM and sunset at 6:58 PM. Exactly 12 hours of day and night, although the autumnal equinox occurred 3 days earlier, on September 23. On that night, the big harvest moon had flooded the hills and the valleys with light while Jupiter sparkled under it as well. The dynamic duos were a sight to behold.

I woke up an hour before dawn. Orion was overhead and the stars were out for a celestial party. The brightest "star" was Old Jove yet again in the Western sky. Last night I saw him rise in the east. He made his majestic march across the sky during the night, outshining every other party-goer. The Big Dipper had turned "upside down" but, of course, was pointing to the Polaris as it had done for eons.

There is now a deep anxiety among Americans about jobs, homes, kids, the future. Democrats and Republicans are unnaturally polarized and public discourse has sunk to a level of meanness not seen in decades. Surely this state will pass but not before having taken its human toll. The harvest of bitterness is upon us.

That's why it is so important to surrender once in a while to what transcend us, this night sky, this ancient moon, the stars that not too long ago used to steer us to safety. We have technology to do that now but for calming the mind and regaining a perspective on life, there's nothing like looking up at the starry sky, to recognize that we are not alone, that we belong, that what troubles us today will not last forever, that they will be swept away by forces beyond our imagination, and that we will have become stronger for the experience.

Daytime temperature is expected to reach into the 90s this Sunday. But the signs of a mellower season coming our way are all there. Soon nights will grow longer and the weather will cool and we will be buttoning up against the chill. Let this, then, be our winter of content. It will be if we make it so, if we shun the superfluous and begin to cherish what gives meaning to our lives.

The Mystery of Memory

Some nights ago, I received a frantic call from the daughter of a friend. "Daddy has lost his memory," she sobbed. "What?" I stammered into the phone. "Daddy has lost his memory," she repeated.

As I rushed my friend to the hospital, he seemed normal. "How was your day" he asked. A minute later, he asked, "How was your day?" I had a good day, I said. He nodded, then repeated the question. After the fifth time, I gave up counting and focused on getting to the emergency ward safely. The streetlights were getting blurry.

It was close to midnight but the waiting room was full. Afflictions know no time. A doctor - an elderly man with an assuring smile - took my friend's hand and led him through a double door into the machine-infested beyond.

I began my tense wait. My friend was in his mid-fifties, a widower. Apparently he had started talking incoherently several hours earlier. His high-school daughter thought it would pass but when he stared at her as if she were a stranger, she became frightened and called me, the nearest neighbor.

I looked around. A woman sat dejected in a corner, her shoulders slumped, her eyes without light. A baby slept in her lap. A boy and a girl - siblings - kept their eyes locked on the double door, expecting someone to walk out at any moment and relieve them of their pain. A family of four held hands and mumbled silent prayers. There were whisperings and hushed tones, broken by the impersonal voice of someone announcing over the sound system that the prescription was ready for number 322.

I wondered what it was like to lose memory, even if temporarily. Was the slate wiped clean? Where did those bits go, the ones that held life's snapshot in the mysterious folds of billions of neurons, to be summoned when needed? Could the archive be restored if it once vanished? Would it be possible to live without memory, to live only in the present, to know only the flux of now and never be burdened with the imprint of yesterday and the inkling of tomorrow?

About two hours later, the kind physician informed me that my friend would make a full recovery in a week or so. By then, another neighbor had arrived with my friend's daughter, as well as my friend's sister who lived in another city, a physician herself. We hugged. The sister gave me warm tea. They would keep vigil for the rest of the night and would take my friend home in the morning.

The streets were deserted but I drove slowly. Once home, I looked at my sleeping wife and son. What if I didn't recognize them tomorrow? What if a stray cosmic ray zapped a critical cell in my brain and my world became a mystery, my loved ones no different to me from strangers I see in malls and theaters? Would I still be me, or would I be someone else looking in from outside, seeing nothing but a jumbled mess of half-formed thoughts and a fierce yearning fighting to break free?

Outside, stars were shining with abandon and not a thing seemed out of place in the universe.

Nicholas Kristof's Big-Hearted Apology

In today's New York Times, the columnist Nicholas Kristof offers an apology to Muslims "for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has already been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs."

It takes guts to write a column like this. Muslims today are going through what Japanese Americans did during the Second World War. A vast number of Americans seem to think that Muslims are driven by sinister motives to overturn all those values they hold dear - freedom, equality, rule of law.

It is, of course, not true. What is true is that in challenging times it is often convenient for people to find scapegoats on whom to vent their fury.

At the same time, I will request my co-religionists - the Muslims - not to play victim and to have the self-assurance to acknowledge that we also need to put our own house in order. There are fanatics among us - it simply will not do to say that they are not Muslims - who are driven only by blood lust and by their obscene certitude. We moderates must do everything we can to convince them to mend their ways, or report them to authorities if we cannot.

Extremists of all faiths are uncannily similar but while Christians and Jews are often quick to condemn theirs, some of us are sometimes reluctant to, thinking that as a minority we must band together, no matter what. We must banish this mentality.

The majority of Muslims are dedicated to doing good for others, and are kind and generous, as are the majority of people of everywhere. Let's have the wisdom to use our innate altruism for the good of all, instead of looking down on those different from ourselves. I really hope Americans will travel to Muslim countries more frequently and see for themselves how much we are alike in our aspirations and in our humanity. Misgivings vanish when we share meals and laugh together.

'Fahrenheit 451' and the Quran Burning Issue

Ray Bradbury’s famous 1951 novel uses ‘451’ in the title to denote the temperature at which book paper burns. Who would have guessed that fateful number would compel worldwide attention in the early 21st-century?

The pastor from Florida (he will remain nameless, for he has had far more than his fifteen minutes of fame already) who threatened to burn the Quran seems to have had a change of heart. He and his flock of fifty will not burn copies of the Quran after all on the ninth anniversary of 9/11.

The pastor is claiming that his decision is based on a quid pro quo: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has agreed to move the Not-At-Ground-Zero mosque farther away from Ground Zero, and therefore, he will not go ahead with his planned bonfire.

Imam Rauf has denied any agreement with the pastor. It now appears that this was yet another attempt by the former hotel manager from Gainesville, Florida, to focus media attention on him.

There are two points worth noting about this Quran burning issue.

One is that the pastor and his likes do not represent America and its values, a point emphasized by both President Barack Obama and secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This includes the few thousands who befriended the pastor on Facebook and who mailed him copies of the Quran to create a bonfire.

The other, the more significant point, is that the threat by the pastor to burn Islam’s divine text should motivate Muslims to reflect on their own relationship with the Quran.

Lunatics and extremists have in the past burned, and will no doubt burn again, sacred texts to draw attention to their delusional and psychopathic mindsets. We shouldn’t really get worked up over this.

But where do we Muslims stand with respect to the Quran? Do we not dishonor the Book through negligence and indifference? How many of us dust it off only when a loved one departs the earth? Do we set aside time to read and understand it every day, even if for a few minutes? Does the Quran speak to us equally when we experience both joy and sorrow? And what about those Muslims who, responding to the pastor's threat, incline to violence? Do they not read in the Quran that "Nor can goodness and evil be equal. Respond to evil with doing good deeds to the evil doer. Then will he, between whom and thyself was hatred, become as though he was thy friend and intimate!" (41:34)

The Quran is a guide for the living and not a trope for the dead. The power and the beauty of the Quran becomes manifest only when it becomes an intimate companion to the living.

Some of us have a habit of acquiring multiple copies and translations of the Quran. We proudly display our “collection” on the shelves in our personal libraries or on our smartphones. But when it comes to actually studying the Book with seriousness and concentration, on or off Internet-enabled gadgets, suddenly time becomes scarce.

In contrast, there are Muslims who can afford only one copy, and a tattered one at that from overuse, that they study with awe and reverence every day. They read and they ponder and they give thanks for all the blessings they enjoy from the Creator, even if these blessing are not apparent to their affluent co-religionists.

In these challenging times, Muslims must remain patient, respond to what is bad with what is good, and rely on God for help and guidance. That is the surest way to defeat fanatics and extremists.

Moving Away from Ground Zero

The proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero has polarized America. Feisal Abdul Rauf, the would-be Imam of the center, has been demonized by Republicans, Fox News stalwarts and their supporters as a terrorist sympathizer, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Most of them have probably not read the Imam’s book, “What’s Right with Islam is What’s Right with America.” If they had, and were honest about it, the wind would go out of their sails. When the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was killed by fanatics claiming to be Muslims, Abdul Rauf delivered a moving eulogy in a synagogue in Manhattan in 2003 in which he declared, “I am a Jew.” It was his way of condemning the killers and identifying with the victim.

But now the country is divided and emotions are high. To calm nerves and close wounds, what is needed is for a central figure in this drama to take the moral high ground. I hope Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will soon give a speech along these lines:

(Disclaimer: I do not personally know the Imam. I only know him through his writings).

“My fellow Americans,

“My colleagues and I wanted to transform a shuttered store near ground zero into a symbol of America’s religious freedom, inclusivity and openness. The planned Islamic cultural center would include a community center open to all New Yorkers, an auditorium, a fitness center, a restaurant, a swimming pool, a basketball court, a Sept. 11 memorial and reflection space, and yes, a prayer room that would function as a mosque.

“Through this center, I wanted to let Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations know that they have failed – and will always fail - in their attempt to portray America as the enemy of Islam and Muslims. I hoped to remove your fear of my faith and to build a vibrant interfaith community of reason, reverence and reconciliation. I wanted to show that we are united as Americans in defeating those who use violence in the name of Islam. To reflect this unity, I made it a condition that our board includes Christians and Jews.

“But now it is clear that the location of the center has become a source of division, anguish and anger in America. While there are some Americans I could never placate, I recognize that there are many of you, with nothing against Islam and Muslims, who still feel that building an Islamic center at this location will be needlessly provocative and hurtful.

“I particularly recognize with humility such emotions coming from the families of the 9/11 victims. Although the loved ones of many of those who perished in the attacks support us, I believe that if the center at this location brings anguish to the family of a single 9/11 victim, it is one family too many.

“I, therefore, have decided not to build the center at 45-51 Park Place, two blocks north of ground zero. My associates and I are confident we can work something out with the city of New York to move it farther away from ground zero.

“Of the many Americans who have defended our right, even the necessity, of building this Islamic cultural center, no one has been more persuasive and passionate than mayor Bloomberg of New York City. His ringing endorsement of our center in the context of American history and the constitution will inspire us for years.

“The mayor asked us ‘not to cave to popular sentiment because that would be to hand a victory to the terrorists, and we should not stand for that.’ But I also believe that removing resentments and uniting Americans transcend any other consideration, particularly as we fight the malignant militancy of terrorists.

"Besides, my vision for the center is unchanged. Wherever it is built in this freest of cities, it will stand as a monument to religious freedom, inclusivity and openness. Those enduring American values are independent of geographical coordinates. They are what have traditionally made America a light among nations. They are what make America worth defending.”

Sharing Earth's Produce with Neighbors

Returning late from work one day, I found a bag of apricots at my door. I immediately knew where it came from. My neighbors have been growing apricots, lemons and tomatoes in their backyard for two decades, and unfailingly they have been sharing their harvests with us year after year.

The apricots are sweeter than any in grocery stores and farmers markets. Perhaps the mellow and golden rays of the California sun have something to do with it but I also know that the love that Don and Sandra pour into their garden make their harvest unique and inimitable.

I do not have a green thumb. In fact, mine is as anti-green as you can imagine. I tried to emulate my neighbors and being the selfless type, they shared their expertise with me in the many hours they spent helping me to reap what they hoped would be bountiful produce from my patch of the earth.

Since our homes are adjacent to each other, the soil is identical, and it would seem logical that what sprouts from their backyard would also sprout from ours. This expectation, however, never materialized. I used the same fertilizer, the same amount of water, the same zeal in pulling out weeds at their merest appearance, yet my produce was meager and tasteless. It slowly dawned on my neighbors that the rogue element in the equation was probably me.

In the beginning they were polite and speculated on some subterranean conspiracy that was thwarting my efforts, but it wasn't convincing. "Well," sighed Don one day, "I guess you will just have to get used to facts on the ground." The pun wasn't comforting.

Then one day, out of the blue, I decided that I was just going to buy some cherry and pear trees and plant them without any burden of expectations. Salvador Marquez, a gentle gardener with a mysterious knack for coaxing fruits and vegetables from even the most reluctant patch of earth, helped me bring the plants from a local nursery in his beat-up truck.

I soon realized that Salvador's only response to any query directed at him was, "Oh yeah?" "I think we should alternate the pears and the cherries," I said to him as we dug deep holes along the fences. "Oh yeah?" he asked. I took this as an yes but wondered if the arrangement would hinder pollination. "You think the bees will be confused?" This time Salvador didn't question me. "Oh yeah," he said.

We began around ten on a Saturday morning and after about four hours, with much rest in between for snacks, we planted all of them, six cherries (four bing and two rainier) and six Asian pears. A sense of elation swept over me. It was as if I had conquered Mount Everest.

Well, as they say, the rest is history. I didn't shower much love on the trees, treating them as casual acquaintances who needed some tender loving care now and then but otherwise were best left to their own devices. And that was the wisest decision I ever made in my life, nature-wise.

The trees grew rapidly. In the third year we were blessed (I can think of no other appropriate word) with so many cherries and pears that my wife was convinced this would be the one and only time we would see the fruits. "They have used up everything they have," she explained, "to produce this bumper crop. It will be a sin for us to expect the same next year." I had to agree. Eating a pear with relish, Salvador thought for a while and said, "Oh yeah."

We shared our harvest with our neighbors in the block - ten families - and also with friends and a few relatives across town. This, after robins, sparrows, jays, swallows, sparrows and crows had their fill of the cherries. The fruits are almost as sweet as my neighbor's apricots. Finally, some parity!

It turned out that my wife was wrong about subsequent harvests. The trees just keep giving, year after year. All I do is a little bit of pruning in January. That's all the loving care I can muster. The scandalously riotous produce has shown no sign of abating in the fifteen years since Salvador and I planted the trees. Our neighbors have come to regard our cherries and pears as part of their summer! Can anything ever beat this?

America's Enduring Values

War in Iraq. War in Afghanistan. Over 14 million Americans out of work. Gulf oil spill. Widening gap between the wealthy and the debt-ridden, paycheck-to-paycheck families. The bitter polarization between blue and red states. The simmering summer of discontent.

It is easy to give in to cynicism, to lose hope, to become despondent in this time of doom and gloom. Yet it is when we think we have hit the bottom that something happens to lift our spirits, to remind us of the enduring values that make America great.

The Cordoba House planned near Ground Zero in New York would include a mosque and an interfaith cultural and community center. The plan was attacked by Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and other conservatives and political opportunists who considered it an insult to the 9/11 victims. After all, didn't Muslims kill almost 3000 Americans on that fateful day in September?

Many politicians, columnists and commentators came to the defense of the Cordoba House but none more forcefully and eloquently than the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg. With the Statue of Liberty in the background and flanked by religious leaders, the mayor summarized what America was about and why the mosque could become a beacon of hope in a nation troubled by deep division and discontent. His speech reminds us why, in spite of the difficulties we are now facing as a nation, America will (to paraphrase William Faulkner) not only survive but endure. Excerpts:

“Our doors are open to everyone. Everyone with a dream and a willingness to work hard and play by the rules. New York City was built by immigrants, and it's sustained by immigrants -- by people from more than 100 different countries speaking more than 200 different languages and professing every faith. And whether your parents were born here or you came here yesterday, you are a New Yorker ..."

“On that day (9/11), 3,000 people were killed because some murderous fanatics didn't want us to enjoy the freedoms to profess our own faiths, to speak our own minds, to follow our own dreams, and to live our own lives. Of all our precious freedoms, the most important may be the freedom to worship as we wish ..."

"Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here."

“This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions or favor one over another. The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan."

“Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11, and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values and play into our enemies' hands if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists, and we should not stand for that."

"For that reason, I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetimes, as important a test. And it is critically important that we get it right ..."

"On Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of first responders heroically rushed to the scene and saved tens of thousands of lives. More than 400 of those first responders did not make it out alive. In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, 'What God do you pray to?' 'What beliefs do you hold?'"

"Muslims are as much a part of our city and our country as the people of any faith. And they are as welcome to worship in lower Manhattan as any other group. In fact, they have been worshipping at the site for better, the better part of a year, as is their right. The local community board in lower Manhattan voted overwhelmingly to support the proposal. And if it moves forward, I expect the community center and mosque will add to the life and vitality of the neighborhood and the entire city."

"Political controversies come and go, but our values and our traditions endure, and there is no neighborhood in this city that is off-limits to God's love and mercy, as the religious leaders here with us can attest."

The Cordoba House may or may not materialize but the enduring values of America that mayor Bloomberg touched on in his stirring speech will continue to challenge and inspire us for years to come.