CHANGE IS IN THE WIND

The just completed American elections beg a comment about the impact on the Middle East. If you didn’t notice, the presidential election signaled a highly significant shift in the United States mentality. The times they are a-changing!

Growing up as a boy in the southwest, I never paid attention to the folks who lived on the other side of the tracks – except that they were called negros. In high school going from house to house, I sold goods to these people. I got to know them. By the time Martin Luther King came on the scene, I was ready to fight for the blacks. Looking back, I now realize how significant the shift was in American society in the 50’s even though it didn’t explode until a decade later.

I would suggest the same is true today. Consider how the public responded on November 6.

Women are no longer going to be sent to the back of the bus or be talked down to.  Contraception and the care of their bodies won’t be left to men to decide. Equal pay for equal work is demanded. Like it or not, both abortion and homosexuality are now seen differently by citizens under 40. Homosexual bashing is dead. Oh, and by the way, Whites are becoming a minority. In this election, the Hispanic, Asians, and black populations swung the vote. Romney simply wasn’t one of them. Obama was. The re-election of the first black American president tells you just how dead racism against Blacks now is.

I am not espousing either a Republican or Democrat view of the current social landscape. As is consistent with what I attempt to blog, my perspective is neither biblical, prophetic, or political, but stating “what is.” Both parties must engage this new social reality. If you listen to the Glen Becks, Ann Colters, Rush Limbaughs, and Fox Networks alone, you won’t get it because they don’t either. (Because they talk only to themselves and don’t know how to listen). The same is true if you only listen to NBC, Chris Matthews, and Rachel Maddox. Your view must broaden.

What does this mean for the Middle East? In the third debate, Obama obviously ran rings around Romney and his views will now continue. Negotiations are waiting, and Iran has run into a wall of American sanctions and must negotiate or continue to slide downhill at an accelerating rate of speed. We have announced we are leaving Afghanistan and tomorrow morning is not too early. We can’t allow American soldiers to be shot in the back by Islamic fundamentalist looking for martyrdom. Egypt is now firmly in the hands of the Moslem Brotherhood and President Marsi is in control. The American State Department knows we are looking down a gun barrel in Egypt. Difficult decisions are ahead.

Syria remains a keg of dynamite with new changes exploding everyday. Now the Palestinians have entered the deadly civil war and are both fighting against and with the government. A shell hit Israel and got an immediate response, warning that Israel won’t allow Syria’s war to land on their side of the border. The continuing Obama administration finds all options on the table to be difficult and undesirable.

My point? Change is in the air. Many will ignore it or be resistant. Others will attempt to refute the obvious. Those who stay out of touch will be continually shocked by the shifts. I am not suggesting that you take any particular point of view, but do stay in touch with the facts. You don’t have to like the shifts, but don’t disregard them. They signal the new day that is emerging. Change isn’t going to stop.