Compare and Contrast

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Brooklyn, New York. This morning, my neighbor and I saved the backyard of a third neighbor's house by scaling the high fence between our properties to turn off the raging water hose which she forgot to turn off before leaving for the weekend. She still isn't home this evening, and by now her house might well have been flooded. In Park Slope, neighbors try to look out for each other. I well remember when our boys were little and the school bus used to drop them off at a nearby corner every afternoon. On more than one occasion, my wife or I were late arriving due to a slow subway train. We never worried, however, because one neighbor or another picking up her own child would notice our absence and simply take our son home for a playdate with her kids, followed by dinner. Eventually our boy would get home.

This afternoon, I rode my bike the eight miles or so from our house to Sheepshead Bay, one of the places on Brooklyn's south shore where the City meets the Atlantic Ocean. I met my wife there and we walked along the beach where hundreds were enjoying summer weather by swimming, sun-bathing, and grilling food. Later we looked at fishing boats moored at their piers and hundreds more people enjoying food and drinks at seaside restaurants.

While all this was going on, President Obama was in Aurora, Colorado consoling the families and surviving victims of Friday's senseless massacre. The war in Syria to oust President Assad continued unabated. Several more American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. Experts warned that American cities, counties, and states had nowhere near enough money to satisfy their obligations to citizens, creditors, and retirees, separate and apart from the daunting financial problems facing the Federal Government.

It is tempting to tune everything out and simply enjoy a balmy summer day. This evening, my wife and I had a dinner consisting of ice cold beer, a hot chicken cutlet hero takeout from our favorite local pizza store, and chilled watermelon for dessert, but the calm presently prevailing in parts of Brooklyn is obviously not representative of the state of affairs in our nation or world today. If only it were as easy as pitching in and turning off a neighbor's hose gushing water in every direction. The rich and powerful should wake up and recognize that the rest of the nation is not living as they are in their huge estates and sprawling mansions, or even in less spectacular but still pleasant places like Park Slope. There is turmoil everywhere, and there will be no long-term peace for anyone until things change for the better.