My Toddler and North Korea

I've been thinking about the situation with North Korea having nuclear weapons, the flow of diplomacy with them, and how it may impact my little boy.

When I was a kid in the 60s and 70s, we actually did practice "duck and cover" drills in school. We lived with the threat of nuclear annihilation, and followed the progress of various negotiations with the old Soviet Union to try to avoid MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). Apart from all that, it was a pretty great time to be a kid.

Then, of course, in the 80s and 90s, we saw the beginnings of détente and the eventual end of the Soviet Union, and all of us who had images in our heads of "The Day After" breathed a sigh of relief.

Moving on a bit, as my wife and I try to be good parents to our son, we have learned that one of the best ways to discipline him is calmly. It's not always easy, but it is most effective when giving him a time out to say something like, "Aw, Andrew, it's really too bad that you chose to do that. Now it's time for a time out." The lessons seem to be learned a lot faster than when we allow our upset to show, and he's much calmer in experiencing discipline.

So now I wonder if it would make sense to communicate to our friends in North Korea something along the lines of, "Aw, Kim Jong-il, it's really to bad that you chose to build nuclear weapons, after agreeing to not do that. Now it's time to go to your room for a time out." (Meaning that you can live with the stick of Mutually Assured Destruction, not the carrot of lots of trade and goodies.)

Yep, toddlers of all ages learn much faster when you set clear boundaries and stick to them. I wonder if we have any adults in the room in our State Department.

Nick

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Freedom Cheese

I know it’s been ages since I’ve put anything here. And this doesn’t seem like much after such a gap. But I thought I’d share my latest bit of political incorrectness, and let you know that, in the wake of the Danish Mohammed cartoons, I decided to show my support the other day with a pointed serving of Danish cheese. (Not a cheese Danish, as a point of clarification.) It wasn’t anything terribly deep, but it was a nice helping of the stuff.

The way I see it, and I’m probably not saying anything new, I am very privileged to live here in the United States, where people have struggled, fought, lived, and died to protect my freedom of speech, among other freedoms. Having peeked at the cartoons, I’m not really very impressed by them, (I confess I didn’t actually “get” a couple of them) but I absolutely support the right to put them out there.

And before someone accuses me of being religiously insensitive, I’ll support the “punishment” of the cartoonists and editors, the moment I see some punishment, or apologies or any other acknowledgement from our offended friends around the world for the offenses in cartoons, on the TV, in the press, and art galleries toward Christians and Jews that have occurred over a much longer duration and with far greater frequency, not to mention a mea culpa or two for 9/11.

Here’s a really basic example of how this all strikes me. Many years ago, I was joining a line of passengers about to board an airplane. A man near me and I were approaching the line about the same time, and to get along, and in a gesture of friendly courtesy, I waved him ahead of me and said, “After you.” What has stayed with me, for more than 20 years, was the way that person looked down his nose at me, and said, “Of course.” He communicated in two words and a glance a remarkable arrogance, a complete expectation that moving ahead of me was his absolute privilege, and that it was foolish of me to consider the possibility of things being any other way. In short, he made me completely regret my courtesy that day.

Live has moved on, but until I see a little courteous reciprocity from all those offended people burning, rioting, and killing in their outrage over some cartoons, here’s to the Danes.