Why Young Americans Should Care About the Republic of Georgia

[Chuck Stromme]

What follows is my guest blog on UCLA professor Russell Burgos' blogsite Danger Close. You can read it and much more HERE. I learned a lot about tolerance for dissenting views from this experience. He is as kind and generous as he is sharp-tongued, witty and insightful. I hope you enjoy it.

Chuck

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Why Young Americans Should Care About the Republic of Georgia


The Republic of Georgia. Small, undistinguished by most measures, far from us by any. Why should anyone care? It’s a good question.

Early this year I taught a forgettable adult-ed class about Russia. First questioner out of the box: “Tell me why I should care about Russia.” Are you kidding me? Russia?

Another man said “Didn’t we beat those guys?” These were adults taking an opt-in paid class, not ninth-graders sitting in front of a 5-color map. It was enough to make an instructor weep.

I told the first guy “That’s like asking why you should read a book. Maybe you’ll learn something, maybe you’ll re-think something you thought you knew and maybe you’ll add depth or beauty to your life. You won’t know until you read one.” The second guy, why bother?

If Russia is barely in our national consciousness, why should Georgia be?

Rule out beauty. If beauty was a consideration Svaneti would already be a destination on par with Yosemite but we would have even less than our national yawn for Darfur. Besides, there’s the beholder angle and all. No, beauty isn’t it.

Rule out truth. Neocons and homo liberalis will first tell you what they think you want to hear, only later and grudgingly what they hope might be some semblance of their truth. No exceptions. Figure it out for yourself.

Rule out justice. As I once heard and still believe, “Come Judgment Day I’m hoping for mercy, not justice.” We, you and I, will not be dispensers of justice on any grand scale.

How about the irreducible minimum reason: It’s in your own best interest to care about Georgia.

You (this is me on the mountaintop, speaking to the throngs of young American readers of Danger Close) are going to be involved in the international game of titans all of your lives. BUT… you won’t have a say in the outcome unless you care enough to learn the names of the pieces (queen, rook, bishop, Russia, Georgia, Iran) and how and why they move (one square forward, diagonally, aggressively, defensively, timidly).

Maybe you don’t want a say in the outcome. That’s OK (so why get an education?) but there will be outcomes with or without your participation. At least learn the minimum for understanding conversations, sort of like your old Conversational Spanish class. If you read a blogger who says something that piques your interest, know enough to say “yeah, that’s right” or “no, I disagree”. Especially, “no I disagree”, and then speak your mind. Care about Georgia that much at least, enough for your own meaningful self-expression.

Money. Don’t overlook that it’s your billions, trillions, that are being spent in ill-defined attempts to rescue you from those who are spending it. I won’t have to pay for it nearly as long as you will so pay attention. The costly wars that recently were the only American political issues barely get page-3 notice most days. Shouldn’t you know the where and why of all this spending? The money supply is finite. GM or Georgia? AIG or Afghanistan? We really can’t buy it all, political promises to the contrary. Care about those choices enough to understand what your money is buying. There won’t be enough of it to go around. Care enough to influence the decision-makers. Care about your money.

Energy. Georgia isn’t an energy play but it is an energy lesson. You might have read “The interest is not democracy -- it is energy. Let's at least be honest about it.” Don’t be fooled. I don’t know how much the US relies on using, shipping or refining Georgian oil but my guess is zero. There aren’t any significant energy resources in Georgia. None. They don’t even have a strategic reserve outside of some rusting tank farms. There is the BTC pipeline, sure, moving someone else’s petro through someone else’s pipeline for someone else’s benefit. That’s it, that’s energy in Georgia.

Did you know there used to be two pipelines? The other one ran west to Poti. That irritated Russia because it didn’t control that one so they bombed it out of existence in August. They bombed the BTC too but they missed. Russia doesn’t want anyone else to control non-gulf petro. That would imply independence. That’s the energy lesson. Care enough to resist aggression. Care enough to support independence.

Outcomes. Money. Energy. What about freedom and democracy? It is popular to be cynical about those topics. In some circles it lends cred to people who disdain those motives and ideals.

You’ll read things like “as a matter of state we could give a rat's a** about democracy in Georgia.” Don’t believe it. I was there before, during and after the Rose Revolution. I knew some of the players and I was an advisor to the man who became prime minister after Zurab Zhvania died. We most certainly “as a matter of state” cared about democracy in Georgia. I don’t say that our motives were entirely pure (I don’t know otherwise either) but I do say we cared. It was better afterward than it had been before and better in 2008 than 2004. That’s the definition of progress, not whether it all got perfect overnight. It’s a matter of state.

It wasn’t always so about freedom and democracy, either. Once they were rallying cries that united Americans and gave hope to the rest of the world that they, too, might someday break the chains of their tyrants. Don’t think so? Everyone of age in Georgia knows the difference between life today and life from Lenin to Gorbachev. No, it’s not always easy today but it is freer. Freedom is good. Freedom is to die for. There are way too many people who want to take freedom away from Georgians… and from you.

In another format I wrote this:

1. America's doctrine regarding the invasion of allies and the suppression of liberty is known and it is this:

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

2. Another president said this:

"Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom--freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection."

Would that I could write and speak as well. Will we turn our backs on our giants in favor of hiding in dark rooms and hoping that no one finds us and hurts us? Will no one say "Stop! Not on my watch."

As long as I've indulged in quotes already I'll end with this one:

"Better to die on your feet than live on your knees."

Maybe you really don’t care about Georgia or freedom or progress or where your money’s going. Not caring is allowed in America. But if you are a concerned American citizen who wants, who demands a say in how this country is run and in what state it and its world will be left to your children, then care about Georgia and what it symbolizes. Care enough to say “Stop! Not on my watch” when Georgia is imperiled. It’s in your own best interest.

[Chuck Stromme]

Thank you Lisa. Being basic isn't necessarily being dumbed down, y'know. Sometimes all we need is a reminder. Speaking of reminders, there are two responses to my blog so far and I hope you'll read them. I've only had time to respond to one of them and I'm going to print that response -- it's really just a reminder -- here. The other deserves a response too but I don't have time right now. I'm on my way to Eugene. Here it is:

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What a terrific post, Anonymous. I wish I knew your name to thank you. Just as I was despairing that no one would read this.

Why Georgia? For the purpose at hand, I was invited to write a blog with the title “Why Should Young Americans Care About the Republic of Georgia”. This after several exchanges with Prof B regarding his blog “Magic 8-Ball: Our New Ally.” It would have been rude to write about something else and besides, I don’t know much about anything else.

But “Why Georgia?’ really wasn’t why you wrote, was it? What I get from your post is your frustration, anger and pain that there is so much injustice, rape and murder – in the DRC and elsewhere – and so little you can do about it and so little evidence that anyone in government or anywhere else is willing to do anything about it on your behalf. I am completely on board with you there. You care and you want to do something and you want it now. Good onya.

Do you know the starfish story? After a huge storm an old man (coulda been me) went to the beach. Thousands of starfish had been washed ashore and were drying out and dying. He saw a little boy walking down the beach throwing starfish back into the ocean, one by one. He approached the boy and said “You’ll never save all those starfish. There are just too many.” The little boy picked up another one, threw it back in and said “Saved that one.”

You mention in passing “… we have to pick our battles… ”. If I may be so bold, if you’re not already in a battle that’s only because you haven’t picked one yet. You write “Perhaps… we need to start…”. No, Anonymous, perhaps you need to start. That’s how movements start. One person does one thing for someone else. Please forgive my immodesty for what I’m about to write.

Almost by accident I visited a Georgian orphanage late in 2002. I was appalled. It was, for me, the definition of cruel injustice playing out before my eyes. For weeks I thought about it and I visited again and again. “How could this happen in 2002?” I asked myself. “Why doesn’t somebody DO something?” Then, finally, “What am I going to do about this?”

When I came home to Oregon my wife and I started a charity, Caucasus Children’s Relief Fund, Inc. You can check it out at www(dot)ccrfund(dot)org if you’d like. We’re really small but we’re legitimate. We support two Georgian orphanages, total 200 kids, maybe fewer. I had never before been involved in humanitarian work, charities or anything similar. I never WANTED to be involved. More correctly, I wanted NOT to be involved. “You’ll never save all those starfish. There are just too many.”

There’s a link to our winter newsletter in the article at the top right of our home page. I wrote the story that begins on page 2 and I hope you’ll read it. Two of “our” kids began attending the Georgian State University this fall. I doubt you can appreciate the magnitude of their accomplishment. It would be far too arrogant of me to say “Saved those two”. But I think it now and then.

Anonymous, you say that I convinced you to care. That overwhelms even my outsized ego. You’ve made my entire year and on its last day, too. You’re not sure that Georgia is the most deserving of your attention? Who am I to question that?

Pick something, anything, that moves you. Do you have insight into problems that cry out to you from the DRC? Pick one of them, think about it for an hour, no more than an hour at first, then go do something about it. Do you have problems in your hood? Ring a bell for Salvation Army. Is there a message that you want others to hear? Spread it yourself. It’s not drama, it’s life and you get to pick your own role.

Don’t wait! People are dying while you’re waiting. And for God’s sake don’t wait for your government, your professors or your neighbors to do something first. If they were going to do something you’d know it by now.

Beyond one vote and one voice I have no say in national policy. What I do have is complete say in Chuck S. policy, subject only to the needs of my darlin’ wife. I can decide to watch TV and fade away gently. There’s no shame in that, I suppose, but no thank you. I prefer to find something or someone (and you should just see those kids) that needs my attention and try to do something. It’s my piece of the action. Neither of us has any right to complain if we don’t have some skin in the game. You can still complain, of course, but you’ll be trying to pretend that caring words without action still have meaning. They don’t.

Good luck, Anonymous. Tell me where I can send the first ten bucks. You know what to do.

[Chuck Stromme]

This blog conversation continues. You can read it is its entirety HERE. In other words, you can read what people are saying to me in addition to what I'm saying to them. Makes a lot more sense that way. The blog that started it all, including a rather heated exchange, is HERE. Yes, TEGO (The Eyes Glaze Over) plays a big part in deciding just what and whom we will read. Nevertheless, since this website is supposed to be about sharing OUR writing, herewith my latest response at Danger Close. If you have actually read this far you are more than a friend... and perhaps a little obsessive.

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Hello Gabe

I might believe anything you say except the part about the good, cheap local haircut by a politically savvy woman. In Eugene that woman could name her own price.

Since my topic was why young Americans should care about Georgia I intentionally avoided an analysis of the August invasion. I still have much to learn about it and I expect to do just that while I’m there in Jan.-Feb. Misha’s entire decision-making process may give new meaning to the term “political miscalculation”. There seems to be nothing defensible about his actions in Tskhinvali just as there was nothing defensible about former MinDef (and current fugitive) Irakli Okruashvili’s decision to do the same thing a few years ago. What gets into those guys?

Having said that, there is also some important context that is often conveniently ignored. If I pursue that here I risk being called, and maybe even thinking of myself as, an apologist for Misha. A Georgia booster, even. I’ll not go there.

I think the Olympics angle is something of a red herring but I concede the possibility that it may have played a part in Misha’s planning. Aside from press speculation I simply don’t know and neither does the press.

Putin? I think he’s an irredeemably bad guy who, like some of his international cronies, is stealing a great nation. On the other hand, I need to remember to stay in areas that I know at least something about. Russia interests me and I study its history and current events but I have no more than an average layman’s opinion, one which you should ignore in favor of forming your own based on better sources than me.

With all due and kind respect to your parents, it isn’t true that no one in the USSR thought that South Ossetia and Abkhazia were parts of Georgia. Most Georgians always thought so, even if they were reluctant to speak their minds, and they still do. We’re talking about Georgian territorial integrity here. Asking Georgia’s invaders and conquerors (no, not your parents) what constitutes territorial or political Georgia might not elicit a completely objective or fully informed answer, history being written by the winners and all.

I’m pretty sure that I didn’t say that you should think Georgia is important. I did say there are good reasons why you should care about Georgia. Consider them, and then decide for yourself if Georgia is important. Don’t write off an American ally just because someone tells you they don’t matter. Allies do matter. I know there are views contrary to mine. One of them sparked my initial response.

Don’t be swayed by trendy angry arguments like “it’s all about energy” or “there’s no democracy there” or even “rat’s a**es”. Paraphrases, I admit, but when you hear them, ask the speaker if s/he can support the position. It seems that you and I may agree about the energy angle. As to Georgia democracy, it is imperfect and subject to manipulation. Have you noticed those traits in any other democracies? Winston Churchill did, and so has Russell Burgos, and in democracies much older than democratic Georgia’s five years.

Please keep probing and asking and analyzing and writing. Demand of anyone, any time, put up or shut up about their opinions if those opinions are important to you. Don’t meekly accept the pompous meanderings of old men. Um, that would be me, not Prof B. Thank you for writing, questioning and making me think.