A 5-minute photo-op leads to musing

I was going to be in bed by now, as it's 2am, but whatever. I started watching more news clips. Sometimes I think I'm addicted to news and political banter like a mid-western housewife needs her afternoon soap operas. I need my "stories" to survive, or something.

I have some questions in this entry that I'd like your help with. I know that the length is a little bit on the long side, but I'd like to know your ideas.

Anyway, I was watching the clip of President Bush today in one of those photo-op, 5- minute on-camera discussions. He was sitting next to the President of Iraq who's been visiting. (He's actually on a 3-week, lose-weight-quick trip. No. I'm serious.) Pres. Bush said something that really fascinated me more non-politically than anything, so don't worry this isn't gonna be a political rant. Hang on, I'm gonna transcribe what he said:
"Now, Mr. President, it is important that you succeed. Failure in Iraq would endanger the American citizens, because failure in Iraq would embolden the enemies of a free Iraq." Then the President continued, "We must not allow Al Qaeda to have a safe haven in Iraq. We must not retreat in the face of the unspeakable violence that they perpetuate on your citizens."

The thing that struck me when I hear our President talking was the line "Failure in Iraq would endanger the American citizens." The reason that I mused on this line for a while was because it reminded me of service. I started to think about something that Bishop Ogden once told me about his first date with Sister Ogden, which was BYU's Preference. He said that he didn't know her very well, but what he did made him respect her. He then told me that he wanted to make sure that everything he did on their date would ensure that she had a good time; he was thinking of her joy and happiness.
Then I thought of a story that G&K's dad told a couple of weekends ago about the time that he took to two oldest kids, Peter and Karl, to so-and-so widow's house "to do a random act of kindness and clean up her lawn a little." While they were out working, she came out with a broom--"I didn't know what she thought she could do with it"--and asked what the three of them thought they were doing. He replied, "Don't worry, we're just cleaning up your yard a little bit here." Well, she put down her broom and said, "Oh, okay. Thanks."
Why was I reminded of these two stories? Because they're stories of people doing things for others for the reason of doing things for others. The widow's first instinct was to suspect foul play, and was surprised when it wasn't--and that's 25 years ago in podunk Laramie, Wyoming.
We're all about the "what's-in-it-for-me" attitude. We've forgotten a lot of the helping others for the sake of their life being a little easier, or happier in the case of Bishop Ogden. Dating around here is all about "what can I get out of it" and not much anything else. We even talk about doing service so that we get that warm, fuzzy feeling.

So going back to President Bush's statement, maybe this is part of the problem in Iraq. We're telling the Iraqis and their highest official, "Look, failure is bad for us Americans. Get a move on and help us." Well, it's true, Al Qaeda having footholds all over the place is really bad for us here.
But instead we should be saying to the Iraqis, "Look, your lives will be markedly better if you push out the leaders of this sectarian violence and the perpetrators. You will be able to live in peace." These people are told to sacrifice for us, and not necessarily for them. Hmmmm. Maybe then they would begin to understand how vitally important all of this is to their own survival and joy, to say nothing of their own peace.


All of these things have me thinking tonight, "Venom, do you help people for the right reasons? Are you only looking out for Number 1? Are you even just looking to yourself first before you look to others to help them because they need help or some happiness in their lives? Maybe even just a brief respite from the difficulties of this mortal probation? Why do you serve? Do you serve? Are you a selfish nitwit?"

These are all my questions tonight. Now I'm going to try to be better. Hopefully I'll recognize people needing help and will want to help them so their life's a little easier and not whether or not it's very convenient for me.