5 Rules for Diplomats in a Culture War

The press releases, the advocacy and the lobbying from all sides are intense around what is being called 'the Ground Zero Mosque'.  This Islamic Center is actually blocks away from the Ground Zero site but that doesn't ease my Inbox situation.  I can only imagine what went on at the White House.   First there was an apparent presidential endorsement, then a presidential smoke-and-mirror moment questioning the wisdom of building this Islamic center.  The reality is that our culture wars just spiked and we're at the mercy of good intentions, political jockeying, deep emotions and religious diversity amateurs.

Fascinating debate on CNN about race and politics in America.  I was transfixed by the topic whether there should still be a ‘Black National Anthem.’  Does the song, written around 1900, add to the Black experience and express African American history as the Rev. Jesse Jackson asserts? Jackson noted that many cultures in America keep traditions and historical markers through the generations.  Why is there even a debate?

The connection between looking beautiful and looking youthful and visibly sexy for as long as possible is a pain in the butt.  I happen to be a 'health nut' in exercise and nutrition so it's not that I disagree with eating well and staying in shape.  My quarrel is with the current view of beauty as plastic youthfulness.  The result is liposuction, face lifts, tummy tucks, breast and lip augmentation and botox injections.  Then there are the pricey anti-aging creams, lotions and hundreds of dollars of make-up products.  And let’s not forget the expensive, and often age-inappropriate, clothing with deep cleavage, peak-a-boo fabrics and color combinations worthy of a visiting circus.  

I hate writing about immigration.  It gives me a worse headache than writing about the economy. Will someone please show me the nearest hole in the ground where I can bury my head 'til this over? Diversity is a scary, loud, in-your-face, take-no-prisoners mess in the immigration arena. Could some humor help here?  Did you catch Stephen Colbert speech  highlighting the stupidity of the current immigration debate by complaining immigrants come 'even though we put our 'crappiest' states at the border'?

While the eyes of the nation are on the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast and the Southern states that border the coast, there was another regional disaster of the watery variety. Southerners are glued to the site of Nashville flooding.  The drive from my home in Chattanooga to Nashville is about 2 hours up and down mountains. It’s a beautiful drive from the smallest of Tennessee’s four main cities to one of its largest. Nashville is not only the Country Music capital; it is a hub of Southern culture with  its airports, highways, buses and railroads.  Nashville is the site of many state’s government agencies and a popular symbol of the country's regional diversity.  Tourism is a huge part of the city's economics.  Nashville offers a great Southern Culture experience: food, drink, museums and, of course, Nashville music row.

I was called a ‘Southern Belle’ yesterday and it was downright entertaining. First of all, I live in the South but I’m ‘not from around here’. I’ve lived in Tennessee for more than 12 years, but that doesn’t qualify me as a Southerner. I have friends who have lived in the South for 50 years and they’re still ‘not from around here.’   The South is passionate about its history and while I appreciate being adopted, I know my limits.  I was an early member of the women's movement and that puts me at odds with the traditional gender roles often found here.

Are we so jaded about the sexual gaffes of famous people that our eyelids barely flicker at the news anymore?  Take politics, Please.  There was no public frenzy when Senator Brown from Massachusetts was found  naked in Playgirl Magazine.  Why aren’t gender-related stumbles treated with the same passion as racial ones?  Senator Harry Reid was raked over the coals for his awkward remarks about the color of Obama’s skin.  Yet, Scott Brown just got laughs when he announced to the country that his daughters were available.  Why does sex and power add up to cultural stupidity so often?