A Short Memorial Day Message

I’ve been away for while.  The need to making some money and provide for my family outweighs the need to express my creative muse, so I’ve been spending more time in that realm of late.  But today, a day of remembrance, a day that we memorialize our fallen service-people, so I provide my tribute with the written word.

There is no doubt and can be no argument that war is the most ugly, treacherous, and deadly serious event in human existence, and human live will be lost.  It should never be taken frivolously, and the thoughts of war should receive critical consideration.   But war should neither be sensationalized, romanticized, nor glorified; it should be recognized for exactly what it is:  an unfortunate and sometimes necessary evil with which we must all live.

I will not discuss the merits of one view over another with regards to sending our troops into battle, that is NOT what today is about.  But, regardless of your particular view, it is the men and women of our Armed Services, who have and continue to provide you with your right to voice your opinions publicly.

The men and women of our Military deserve nothing less than our respect and admiration for their willingness to sacrifice their safety and wellbeing to protect and secure ours’.  And, while it is nice to have one day set aside to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, this is something that should be done daily by every citizen, not just who have lost, family, friends, or comrades.

Maybe if we thought of these selfless individuals daily, we might pay more attention to understanding and learning the history that caused us their loss.  Maybe then at some point we’ll arrive a point in human development, where losses caused by war will no longer exist.

I will leave you with a comment I made on a private board, which my friend Helen (Thanks) reminded me would make a good signature line:

“We honor our fallen warriors by not repeating mistakes that put them in harm's way in the first place, not by erecting monuments to them.”

Your comments or questions are always welcome.

Religion and the Constitution

As with the last piece, this one is an intermingling of religion and politics.  But hell, we are in a period in our history where the fundamental Christian communities are desperately trying to mix politics and religion, so this is probably somewhat appropriate.  And this one kind of feeds off of the last.

A current topic of discussion among many tea party proponents is the idea that the United State of America is in fact a Christian nation, and this was actually the intention of our Founding Fathers when they were developing the principles which govern this country to this day.  While Christianity was the majority interest religion of the period, our Founding Fathers were not interested in creating a theocracy in the United States.  The only mention of God in The Declaration of Independence is qualified as “Nature’s God”, even man’s inalienable rights are granted by his Creator.  Even when it was requested that Jesus Christ be identified as “Nature’s God” and the Creator, that request was rejected.  And, after we won our independence from England, these men did not adopt the Bible as foundation for their new nation, they wrote an independent document, The United States Constitution, describing how this government was going to work.  Again, not even a mention of God or religion in the original un-amended Constitution.

Even when one of the first items of business after adopting the Constitution was to create the first 10 amendments, also called the Bill of Rights, there is only one reference to religion:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

These first 10 amendments were proposed as a package on September 25, 1789, and ratified all at once with Virginia’s acceptance on December 15, 1791

The very first amendment of this Bill of Rights clearly defines the intention of the writers that The United State of America was not only, not intended to be a theocratic country, but also that it would not become one at some later date.  Unless, of course, someone can now convince 38 States that it would be a good idea to rescind or modify the First Amendment.  Interestingly, that very same 1^st Amendment gives you the right to pretty much say anything you want on the subject recognizes no responsibility in the exercise thereof, but, it also provides me the right to point out the truth, no matter how simple and obvious it may be…  So…  To all the people of America, who believe the United States is a Christian nation, and the politicians who pander and lie to them for their votes, guess again, you’re wrong, you’ve always been wrong.

As I pointed out earlier, if you believe you can get an amendment out of Congress and ratified by 38 states that changes the 1^st Amendment, you should go for it.  But be warned, the last amendment to be ratified, took over to 200 years to achieve ratifications, and the amendment before that was proposed and ratified 40 years ago, with several hundred proposals never making it out of committee.  A change as radical as establishing the USA as a Christian nation is going to be very difficult to pass, if not impossible.  This is now, and always has been a secular nation, with many belief systems, and has led to a world were theocratic nations are becoming more and more scarce.

Your comments or questions are always welcome. 

My First Real Conservative Challenge

We are entering an area in my life where I began to truly understand how intermingled my political and religious view had become, and how one clouded the view of the other.  In the early 90’s I had begun to explore topics I had been avoiding.  One of the vehicles of that exploration was a local news talk radio station which provided a great breath of various topics, and current news and commentary on those topics.  I did really understand it at the time, but this station also had a truly balanced cast of commentators across the spectrum of political and religious views.  While individual commentators presented their segments quite pointedly from their perspective, there was a balance of views presented throughout the day’s programming.  As I was working a second job at the time, which had me behind the wheel of a delivery van every Friday evening and most of every Saturday, and a commute to and from my regular job of a couple hours a day, I was afforded the opportunity to listen to a variety of this radio station’s programming.

One of the frequent topics of the time was homosexuality, a subject that I had strong opinions against, and could often be heard deriding the practice, with burgeoning HIV/AID crisis the really hot subject.  In the late 80’s into the early 90’s, AIDS was touted by the media and most of the fundamentalist Christian community, as the gay disease, and I went along blithely agreeing.  I was, of course, still a devout conservative, a struggling to find God.  These people were going against God’s will with their homosexual lifestyle and HIV/AIDS was their punishment, right?  Well, long about the early 90’s, reports started appearing in the mainstream media that a genetic link had been found to a predisposition to homosexually.  Religious communities had been claiming for years that homosexually was a choice and a sin, and here was proof on a biological link.

Being still challenged in my views of what God is, and steeped in the religious dogmatic training of my youth, here presents my first real challenge to my conservative views.  If you believe that God created everything in the universe, then God created homosexuals, and how could God create something that he viewed was a sin.  Of course, there is the classic argument that it is a homosexual’s individual choice, by free will, to be homosexual.  First it occurred to me to question, after witnessing how homosexual are treat in our society, why someone would freely chose to live a life which draws such serious ridicule, contempt, and disrespect, not to mention potential physical harm if discovered?  Along comes this information that the choice may well have been made for them biologically, not of their own free will.  I finally had to acquiesce that to call this a choice, one would then have to agree that one could chose to being one race over another, to have blue eyes instead of brown, be a blond over a redhead, to be 6’2” versus 5’9”.  Most importantly, my young daughter born with the genetic abnormalities could or did somehow choose her fate.  RIDICULOUS!!! As far as I have been able learn, these are not choices we can make for ourselves, they are part of our genetic makeup.  With the exception of choosing a racial ethnicity, or a genetic anomaly, yes most of these things can be changed to a degree; colored contact lenses, hair coloring, or lifts would counter some issues.  But, without constant attention and maintenance, we will revert back to our genetic programming.  So why then assume that a homosexual person could change what is at his or her core?  I had to accept that this too was ridiculous!

Some of the religious communities claim that mankind is the only species on the planet the practices homosexuality, that the laws of nature prohibit this practice for survival of the species.  No true.  There is a great deal of information available, more today than when I was first struggling with my views, that there are quite a few other species here on earth where homosexuality is practiced, around 1500 species by some accounts.  A simple Google search will reveal almost 3 million hits on the topic of animal homosexuality.  I will probably discuss genetics again in other pieces, but for now, the basic conflict for me at the time was; if you believe in God, and that he created the universe and all things in it – he created homosexuality.  I was left with the conclusion that, like many things I had been taught, the negative views of homosexuality were a man-made creation, not that of some omnipresent divinity.  More on this later as well.

As my research and self-assessment progressed, I found my views on this topic softening.  The really turning point came in the mid 90’s.  I was working at a company in the valley that had, for some time, been what was viewed as “gay friendly.”  One of the gentlemen I worked with would often take smoke breaks together, and a work friendship began to develop.  About two month into this friendship he told me one day, I am to this day not sure why, that he was gay.  I hate to think what my response might have been a few years earlier, but, on this day I responded with, “That’s nice, I’m not.  But, that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.” Needless to say, I was rather surprised at my answer, and consider this, as I look back, probably the turning point for my transformation into the person I’ve becoming today.

While we are on the topic of homosexuality, I think this is an appropriate time to touch on a current issue that bears discussion.  Gay Marriage…

I’ll go along with the idea that marriage is a religious concept.  However, it is my opinion that “the church” gave up claims to the religious sanctity of marriage when it allowed secular societies, like our own, to legalize these unions thru licensing, and to perform civil unions as marriages not sanctified under one religion or another.  It is my contention that, much like Coke is view as the generic term of most soda pop, marriage too has become the generic term for a religious or civil union.  I feel that unless and until the churches get a secular society to agree that any civil union performed outside of a church is not a marriage, they have not claim to the sanctity issue.  Add to this, the issue that some churches, in states where it is currently legal, willingly perform gay marriages.  So, if we cannot discriminate against anyone because of their race (genetics), sex (genetics), or religion (free will), why then is it okay to discriminate again homosexuals (genetic or choice)?

Simply put, let the Gay community have the same rights and legal protections as anyone else in this country.

Your comments or questions are always welcome.  Though I may ignore them.

Osama Bin Laden, A Chapter Closes

This day after the announced that Bin Laden has been killed, I felt it appropriate to reflect on this historic event.

First let me say, I will not mourn the dead of this man, but, I will never celebrate the taking of a human life, no matter how evil the soul attached to that life.  Celebrating the taking of human life is the purview of; the ignorant, unaware of the profound effect that event can have on a moral soul…  the morally or spiritually numb, locked into the narrowly defined moralities of religion…  or the immoral, who relish in such detestable activity.  Unless you have experience directly the taking of another human life, and I hope you never have to experience such an atrocity, you cannot and will not understand the toll extracted from the just soul for such actions.  I have such experiences, and even I did not understand, at the time, the intense effect they would ultimately have on my life.  Given similar circumstances, I would do it again without hesitation.  However, I will never again rejoice in the taking of a human life, no matter how deserving the individual.

I remember vividly the events of September 11, 2001.  I awoke at my normal 6:30 AM, padded out to the kitchen for my morning coffee, and turned on the TV to get my morning news update.  As I stood there looking at the burning WTC Tower on the screen, desperately grasping to understand the picture was viewing, I almost dropped my cup of coffee as I moved to set it on a nearby table.  Just as stock was beginning to wear off, and my mind was beginning to grasp the meaning of what it was witnessing, my horror re-emerged as I watched a second plane slammed into the second tower.  As much as my mind wanted my body to freeze on that couch in utter terror, I rose to get dress for work knowing that we had personnel all around the country who were going to need assistance from the home office to weather this event.  At work, we set up a TV in main conference room to get updates throughout the day.  It was there that I witnessed the event that I had suspected would be coming as I watched the earlier coverage from home.  First one, then the second tower of the World Trade Center came crashing to earth.  It was at work that I learned that all air traffic into and out of the United States was being grounded, and U.S. airspace close to all traffic.  GREAT, one more worry to add to a growing list.  My wife’s parents were flying back from a trip to Europe, and we had no way to check in with them.  Yeah, GREAT!!  It was three days before we learned that their flight had been diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, and they were safe, if not somewhat scared and confused.

Well, as days progressed, things began to normalize, as much as can be expected considering the environment at the time.  We checked in with all our employees and made arrangements for their safety and upkeep.  For, you see, on any given day of the week, we could have dozens of people flying around the country and staying on hotel away from home, with air traffic shut down, many of these people were stranded in places far from home.  Thankful, that the needs of my people were addressed, I turned my attention to those who were not so fortunate.  While it took time to get the an accurate count, there is one thing I am grateful for, given the large numbers of individuals working in and close to the WTC, the loss of life, while still unacceptable, was rather small given the potential.  I will always remain sorrowful for the lives lost on that day, let us not forgot all the lives wantonly ended in the name of God, and religious zealously.  And, let us not forget the thousands of U.S. Troops who have given their lives in the last 9 years, in the defense of and search for justice the American people and victims of the 9/11 atrocities.

But, we also should not forget that the events of this weekend change nothing.  Yes, we got one important figurehead, financier, and organizer of terror, but, as long as there are zealots, religious or otherwise, willing to carry out the terrorist acts of these people, these events will not stop.  And remember, there are zealots and fanatics in all religious beliefs.  Whether they perpetrate acts of violence and terror, or merely insight it among their flock, with their rhetoric and vitriolic bile, they are a danger to society at large, and should not be taken lightly.  Those on the radical fringes of your belief systems are just as dangerous, as those on the fringes of belief system with which you disagree.  All must be condemned and diligently discouraged, if are ever to evolve beyond our current selves.

So, while I am thankful that one less fanatic exists today to insight others to violence, I will not celebrate his passing, as there too many others waiting to take his place.  I’ll will try to remain diligent in my choice to speak out these individuals wherever I encounter them.

Your comments or questions are always welcome.