Disturbing Questions: Has God Stopped Blessing America?

I've worked as a consultant helping organizations improve performance for a number of years. One of the things I have learned is that the right questions are often more powerful than the answers!

In problem solving situations, one of the most difficult endeavors is to get people to properly define the problem. In fact, a properly defined problem is often nearly solved. Too often, we are so eager to solve it and get beyond it; we solve the wrong problem or address a symptom.

I call it trial and error management;  "Try this; if it doesn't work; we'll try that."  It can be a very exciting management system. Sometimes we have no idea what we'll be doing a few hours from now, but we keep trying, and few things ever get any better.

Perhaps most pitiable is the organization or culture that is afraid to raise questions to which they do not already have answers. When such is the case, learning is very difficult, if not impossible.

No doubt it takes courage to raise some questions, espe­cially those that may be controversial or to which we do not have answers. Sometimes the answers have been generally accepted for years or even centuries, but they are no longer adequate. Challenging long held beliefs can be particularly uncomfortable.

How long did we think the earth was flat or that the sun revolved around it? That kind of thinking limited exploration and a host of other things. People like Galileo and Columbus, who began to ask disturbing questions, suddenly found them­selves in a lot of trouble. Some persisted, while others gave in, but there is little progress without disturbing questions.

On the other hand, some truths are enduring and timeless, as true today as they were thousands of years ago. Like it or not, some things just don't change.

This book asks a number of disturbing questions, and I confess quite readily that I do not have all the answers, but I dare ask the questions nonetheless. Indeed, the idea for this book occurred years ago, but it took a while to build the cour­age. As events in our country and in our world progressed, the questions persisted and became even more disturbing.

In the ancient Book of Jeremiah, we learn that Jeremiah felt his Lord urging him to question the behavior of his fellow countrymen and of their leaders. That sort of thing was as unpopular several thousand years ago as it is today. In Chapter 20:7-9 we read,

You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
The word of the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all the day.
I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.

Jeremiah didn't want to do it, nor do I, but at some point, enough is enough. Sometimes the most important things we need to learn are the things we'd least like to hear.

Many of us are quite unaware that our country is in a lot of trouble. Indeed, I think our very survival is in question, and many of our current policies are only making matters worse. It's like we're in what airplane pilots call a graveyard spiral, and continuing what we're doing is only making things worse and worse.

Graveyard spirals do not have happy endings. Someone has to break the cycle. Please understand that I may quote Jeremiah and a number of others, but I don't pretend to be a prophet of any kind. Jeremiah had more than just questions; he had the Word of God coming through him!

All I've done is use some of the problem solving tools that work so well in industry to do an analysis of our country in a few respects. This is a limited treatment of just several issues; there are many more. Our economy is very complicated, but some basics still apply.

We belong to many different religions, and most of us believe in some sort of Superior Being or Creator. Our Judeo-Christian traditions believe this Being cares about what we do, and in Jeremiah's day, He provided feedback to help us under­stand His preferences. Is He doing that sort of thing today? How do we know? What would He want us to change?

I believe many of the questions in this book are already on people's minds in one form or another. Some of us are satisfied with whatever answers we may have, while others are feeling a greater and greater feeling of inadequacy in their answers. We know something is terribly wrong, but we're too busy trying to survive. We hope somebody somewhere is taking care of these things, but we don't have time to go look, and we certainly don't want to be the first to ask.

My fondest hope is that this book enkindles the fire of which Jeremiah spoke burning in each of our hearts and encourages us to ask these questions of each other and of our leaders. We need far more discussion of these topics, so we can learn from each other. That is how the best solutions are found and the better decisions are made.

Some questions have answers, but research may be required. Much of the existing research is often tainted to support one view or another. Objective truth is increasingly more and more difficult to find in our society.

But many of these questions can only be answered in our hearts, and the answer you feel is right for you may be quite different than what is right for me. However, many of our right answers are merely superficial, and if we take the trouble to examine them more deeply and more carefully, we often discover our really right answers are quite different from what we had thought they might have been.

I've been fortunate to work in 12 foreign countries in addi­tion to all over the U.S. Despite all the differences in cultures, religions and traditions, I've discovered the really right answers are surprisingly the same for many of us.

I'm an avid sailor! Put me on a sailboat with the wind and the waves, and I can be quite happy whether alone or with others. When I'm having trouble putting a problem into perspective, time on the boat can be a big help.

One of the things I like most about sailing is it is pure truth, uncolored by politics. You see, when I'm out on the water, it makes no difference whether I'm Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim or any other faith, whether I'm a Democrat or a Repub­lican, whether I'm male or female, black or white or even which nationality I am.

If the wind shifts or something else changes, and I respond correctly, the boat sails well. If I do not respond correctly, or I don't know what to do or how to do it, we can get into a lot of trouble. Affirmative Action will not help us out there. Excuses will not help (Try feeding excuses to the wind and the waves sometime, and see if it makes any difference.).

Political correctness will not help. Indeed, sailors have developed their own language, and those who don't know the terms can't understand what we're talking about. Novices often ask why we can't simply use normal terminology like everyone else, so they don't have to learn the language. They quickly realize how inadequate "that thing over there" is as a term to ask someone to do something.

Even terms like "left" or "right" are dependent on which way we're facing, and we can easily be facing in different directions. On the other hand, terms like "starboard" and "port" are very specific and unique. The starboard side is always the same, as is the port side or the bow or the stern. Large sailboats can have hundreds of lines, and it's important that each has a specific name. "That one over there" just doesn't make it, espe­cially in emergency situations.

The English language has hundreds of thousands of words, and I don't know them all, but I seldom have difficulty finding the right words to express myself. Unfortunately, some of our activists have been mutilating the language, using words for other purposes than their original meanings. Words like "choice" and "gay" immediately come to mind.

It's catching on, and it causes as much confusion in our society as would renaming sailing terms. That's part of their strategy; as such groups are often trying to advance prac­tices for which gaining acceptance would be far more difficult using the correct terminologies.

Let me apologize now for using the correct terms, not the politically popular permutations. Discussing and solving prob­lems is difficult enough without making it even more confusing.

In all the troubleshooting I've done, I've learned it's impossible to solve problems until we address the causes and the root causes. Identifying these may take some digging, but it's the only way to actually solve the problem(s) and improve the situation. Applying Band-Aids just doesn't work; we have too many of those already.

I've solved many problems, but I have to admit I haven't solved many of them accidentally. I know some of the infor­ma­tion on the following pages can be quite disheartening. Continuing to ignore our plight or sweeping it under the table is only allowing things to get worse. We really need to face these problems and begin discussing them and focusing on them, if we're ever going to regain our country, and make it again the great nation it once was.

I am a Roman Catholic, and that is the perspective from which I write. Even so, I have tried to write in a way that will appeal to people of all faiths. Other Christian churches will certainly find familiar arguments, which I hope they accept and support. Some of the examples and quotes come from the Old Testament, which we share in common with our Jewish brothers and sisters. I believe many Muslims would also share many of our views and beliefs.

These disturbing questions cannot continue to go unasked. If these issues fail to come to the forefront of our national agenda, we may indeed fail as a country.

And finally, perhaps I should apologize for telling the truth, as I understand it! This can be so uncommon nowadays.

For many, it will be the first time they are exposed to this information. Our politicians and media are not always objective in their reporting. They may have ulterior motives. No doubt many of us have heard of the problems discussed in the follow­ing pages, but we have probably never been exposed to the complete picture in all this detail.

Again, as an engineer and manager, I've solved many problems, but none accidentally. Some of these facts are disheartening, but we cannot address them until we face them. We have to admit there's a problem before we can fix it.

I'm sorry if this book does not make you feel good, but I'm hopeful the understanding you and others gain may enable us to regain control of our country and get it back on the right track. I've always found the unvarnished truth, as ugly as it may be, to be far more helpful than the politically expedient half-truths, which have become so prevalent.

Read reviews by Paige Lovitt Posted on Amazon and Richard Blake at richard330@yahoo.com.

Customer Reviews:

Ron Bourque hits the nail on the head. Straight forward and clearly explained, he presents the facts that every American should read.