I have a question about these three reports: (i) Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, is leaving the state of Washington and retiring to Florida. (ii) Author and activist Naomi Wolf wrote a piece relating how uncomfortable she was in a hot tub when a man labeling himself as a woman sat down close to her. (iii) Former police officer, Brandon Tatum, who writes conservative commentary as The Officer Tatum said about those living under Mayor Mamdani’s policies for NYC, “The average person living in New York didn’t ask for any of this.”
Before posing my question about these stories, I should mention that I admire Howard Schultz’ business acumen. Imagine the daring needed to propose a business based on highly priced mediocre coffee along with welcoming people to sit in your cafe for as long as they like! I disagree with more than one of Naomi Wolf’s beliefs, but I think that she is an upright and honest person dedicated to growth and telling the truth as she sees it. As for Officer Tatum, I respect his boldness and willingness to speak about issues many would rather cover up. His politics and mine tend to align.
The question I am going to ask is not intended to criticize the three above-named people. I am simply commenting on their actions and experiences in specific matters, or in the case of Officer Tatum, one sentence that he wrote.
Here is my question: What is common to all three accounts? What is the one thing I would say to Howard Schultz, Naomi Wolf, and Officer Tatum?
In all three of these cases, a bit of ancient Jewish wisdom comes in handy. A two -thousand-year-old sentence reads, “Who is wise? He who sees what is born.” Unfortunately, the original Hebrew is sometimes translated as “sees the future.” That mistranslation suggests that to be wise one needs to be a prophet—a job description that fits almost no one. Seeing what is born is entirely different. It means being able to look down the road, see shadowy blurs, and discern what they will look like when they come into focus.
I understand why Howard Schultz is retiring to Florida instead of staying in Washington State. Big cities in Florida have lower taxes, safer streets, and better living conditions than are found in Seattle today. Unfortunately, Mr. Schultz helped further the destruction of Seattle as he encouraged its move Left. He personally might have preferred that migration to stop before it reached the current level of destructive craziness. But Seattle’s insanity is directly downstream of the policies he and Starbucks promoted and supported for many years.
I suspect that if Ms. Wolf read what I am about to write, she would violently disagree with me. But I argue that the circumstance of Naomi Wolf sitting next to a man in a hot tub that made her feel so uncomfortable follow a trajectory that can be traced directly back to laws such as Obergfell that legalized homosexual marriage. Even in the blog where she, quite emotionally, explains why the hot tub experience was traumatic for her she apologizes for her feelings, over and over again reiterating that she supports varieties of sexuality as well as trans people.
I don’t know if the American Psychiatric Association’s meeting minutes of how homosexuality stopped being labeled as a psychiatric problem (to be replaced by homophobia as the problem in the DSM) are still available or if they have been scrubbed, but the decision made by that august body was social and political, not scientific. Personally, I think it was wrong to call it a psychiatric disorder in the first place. In my eyes, homosexual behavior (not thoughts, not inclinations, but behavior) is a sin. Just like adultery or incest. And once a civilization that was built on Judeo-Christian ethics transforms into one that derides, insults, and legally objects to the idea of sin, a dam is breached that cannot be strengthened when the next tsunami smashes ashore.
As for Officer Tatum’s words, I left the following comment on his blog:
“I appreciate your calling attention to this, Officer Tatum, but I question this sentence:
“The average person living in New York didn’t ask for any of this.”
If they voted for Democrats, they did ask for this. They were just too naive, or too full of hatred for Republicans, or too lazy to pay attention, or didn’t understand that votes have results.
And those wealthy folks leaving? I have little confidence that they will change their voting patterns and not destroy those places they are moving to.”
With hindsight, can the people these three instances represent see that an egg waiting to hatch was lying there in plain sight? In each of these three cases, recognizing what lies in the future might have changed past behavior. The threat of the ‘camel’s nose under the tent’ can be used to stop progress and retard development. It is frequently also a true and serious warning. Each of us needs to assess situations, study history and, yes, pray, to have the wisdom to see what is being born.
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