May 1, 2008
 
COMMENTARY: Some Things I Can't Help Wondering About
 
By Joseph J. Honick
 
Bainbridge Island, WA (HNN) --There are things I can’t help wondering about, and fear some of my questions might also offend a few people, for which I apologize in advance…..though I can’t understand the problems.
 
In recent weeks, two powerful gentlemen of faith visited the United States as just one stop in a series of other engagements in other countries. I used the word ‘engagement’ because, although there were no contracted fees involved, so far as I know, an awful lot of money had to be laid out just to get within distant shouting distance for each of these men.
 
In just one case -- the visit of the Dalai Lama to Seattle, Washington -- tickets sought and bought by tens of thousands of eager seekers of the man’s words and blessings…these ducats went for as much as $150 each. In the case of the other gentleman, a head of state and a leader of a religious faith, there likewise were swarms of expenditures to see the Pope in his first visit to America.
 
Both men spoke of peace and compassion, certainly laudable goals at any time. But I have long memories of years ago when lesser personalities like entertainers, so called peaceniks and generally unorganized groups across the United States called for the same thing, even singing what eventually became a popular tune: “Give Peace A Chance.”
 
In fact, there were massive demonstrations selling the same messages.
 
Significantly, though a conservative United States President zoomed out to Andrews Air Force Base to meet the Pope, an unprecedented action, and the Dalai Lama was similarly heralded by liberals and conservatives alike, those other generational peace folks were jeered as causing problems for America, and that is the soft description of what occurred.
 
On the other hand, no one in the media or elsewhere has raised any public question about all the hoopla surrounding the hugely popular and expensively executed tours of the two gentlemen mentioned earlier and where the money came from to get the stuff going and where the money went from the flood of ticket sales across the nation.
 
In fact, I keep wondering how on earth we can have our administration demanding fiscal discipline and an economy in recession as all this money seems to flow so readily into the two acclaimed visits of two prominent men, not to mention the approximately $1 billion for the current political burlesque….yet there is some problem in government figuring out how to feed the hungry here and elsewhere, build a school or two and do other things all the politicos of all parties swore are urgently needed.
 
The real question is why no one seems to ask about all this in the first place.
 
So let me raise these questions:
 
1. Who put together an obviously expensive and carefully executed tour of a man representing Tibet and the Buddhist faith? Given the unrest and internationally problematic situation in Tibet, should the Dalei Lama not be with his people as a symbol of strength against the Communist China regime? Where will the revenues of those tickets and other income be put to use? Why don’t we already know these answers, among others?
 
2. In the case of the Pope as leader of the Catholic faith and head of the Vatican, it is quite understandable someone of his stature would be expected to visit his flock in various countries. The questions arise as to the immense costs related to such events when there are millions of his flock in need of food, housing and other necessities, commitments that are fundamental to all leaders of major faiths.
 
3. Now, I know this is sensitive ground, but I also wonder how many others have quietly asked themselves the same questions but feared to voice them. Add to these huge expenditures for what might seem to be good reasons we have the close a billion dollars invested in the current presidential campaigns months even before the formal nominating conventions and even farther from the actual general election.
 
While all this is going on, we have political leaders talking about something called “values” but seldom defined the same ways by those at opposite ends of the political spectrum.
 
To many of us inquiring minds, much of this has a name that is too vulgar for these pages but is more sensitively termed hypocrisy. So I wonder about all this and some other stuff and also wonder how many of you gentle readers might wonder as well, given the conspicuous repetition of the wonderment.
 
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Joe Honick is president of Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based GMA International Ltd, the consulting and public relations firm he formed in 1975 to help companies broaden their business abroad especially in China and Japan. He also contributes to a variety of publications on public policy issues.