THE SAN DIEGO RIVER in Mission Valley below the hill where I live is a good example of redemption in nature. Builders have routinely ignored the fact that the river runs through a flood plain before it empties into the Pacific Ocean between the communities of Ocean Beach and Mission Beach. Occasionally a storm sweeps in and dumps more rain than the river can handle all at once, and roads flood; and, if the water rises too much, buildings get water in them. But a few months from now few people will remember the discomfort and ugliness of late December, 2010. Buildings and roads will be clean. Building will resume in the flood plain. We will set ourselves up for another round of ugliness and discomfort. It seems to be the way we are. But occasionally people learn from their mistakes. Things improve. They get better.

An announcement came a couple of days ago that Captain Owen Honors, a sometime citizen of San Diego, is being relieved as commander of the USS Enterprise. He made big times news. All over the country Americans were talking about him. As most of you reading my BLOG might expect, I think what he did was wrong, wrong, wrong; but you may be surprised to know that I believe relieving him of his command is also wrong, wrong, wrong... if he is willing to acknowledge his mistake in allowing an outrageous, homophobic, and lewd home-made film to be shown on board his ship, he may be on the road to being a better person; and if he is a better person, he will be a better commander of his aircraft carrier. He will disappear from the news. With his firing, the nation is being deprived of an opportunity to demonstrate that we are people who believe in redemption.

Here we are in the middle of a great change in attitudes and practices in all branches of the American military. I know almost nothing about Captain Honors... only what I have read and heard in the news over the past couple of days. I would like to believe he has come face to face with an ugly part of himself that he would like to change. Perhaps the best "reprimand" would be to have Captain Honors continue to be in front of his crew and the whole nation with a spotlight on him changing the way homophobes in the military and in all public service must change. If he could learn to live up to his sir-name with dignity, it would be a great lesson for everybody. Firing him pokes a stick in his eye and stirs up the nest of snakes who are looking for a reason to remain homophobic and stupid.