I received this from a friend today. It IS thought-provoking. The question is, "How do we preserve a nation AND preserve individuality and personal freedom?" I'm sure you've all read Huxley's book, "Brave New World," but have you read his recap on it: "Brave New World: Revisited?" The first was entertainment. The second is chilling. In and of itself, it's frightening. In view of our current social climate, it's terrifying.
We will ultimately have a choice to make:
1. Country
2. Self
Which do YOU love more?
I post the following to stimulate thought. I don't necessarily endorse or contend with the article.
My only other comment about it is that we live in a time when people desire divisiveness more than they desire unity. Keep that thought in mind as you read this.
--Wag--
---------------------
Food for THOUGHT?
We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of American's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, Mexifornia," explaining how immigration - both legal and illegal - was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.
Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, "If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.
Here is how they do it," Lamm said. "First, to destroy America, turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country." History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures.
It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: "The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy." Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans."
Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America, "Invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences, I would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.
Third, "We could make the United States an 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: "The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance, but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together." Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities."
"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."
"My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population."
"My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other -- that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. "E. Pluribus Unum" - (From many, one.) In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribus' instead of the 'Unum,' we will balkanize America as surely as Kosovo."
"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century -- that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion in and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."
In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally, he said, "Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis's book Mexifornia. His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."
There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World. America - take note of California and other states -- to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book "1984." In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," and "Ignorance is strength."
Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble! and worsening fast. If we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream.
---------------------
Some last comments: The greatest strength of any economy is it's people. The article above suggests that diversity and divisionism are evils to be avoided. That is partly true. However, it would be equally problematic to be isolationist and avoid diversity altogether. A balance of the two must be maintained.
Is our problem diversity and tolerance as the article above suggests or is it hatred of others? If your black/white/hispanic/Chinese/Muslim/Indian neighbor is attacked will you rise up to that person's defense? Will you let that neighbor fall prey instead of lending your strength to him? Would he do it for you? What if his attacker were of your race not his? His race, not yours?
What is your choice?
--Wag--
Monday, May 29, 2006
Friday, May 12, 2006
A couple of cool sites
As president of The Exmormon Foundation (http://www.exmormonfoundation.org) I get the privilege of having ideas passed along to me which are intriguing, to say the least.
Recently, I received an e-mail from a moderator at the Exmormon Forums. It's run by a host named Infymus who I don't know yet. I say, "yet," because I hope to get to know him at some point in the near future. As a matter of fact, there's a good possibility I already know who he is! Small electronic world out there.
But while Exmormon Forums is intriguing and worthwhile, his other site, The Mormon Curtain, is even more fascinating. I'd love to have my blogs be even a percent as comprehensive as his is.
Maybe Infymus is a her?
--Wag--
Recently, I received an e-mail from a moderator at the Exmormon Forums. It's run by a host named Infymus who I don't know yet. I say, "yet," because I hope to get to know him at some point in the near future. As a matter of fact, there's a good possibility I already know who he is! Small electronic world out there.
But while Exmormon Forums is intriguing and worthwhile, his other site, The Mormon Curtain, is even more fascinating. I'd love to have my blogs be even a percent as comprehensive as his is.
Maybe Infymus is a her?
--Wag--
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
The rights of religion
Many of you have seen this before. It was spread all over the internet just after the human tragedy at Columbine. It was posted yesterday on a board I frequent and it inspired some new thought, included after the text.
-----------------Begin-----------------
DARRELL SCOTT TESTIMONY
Guess our national leaders didn't expect this, hmm? On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful. They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well. It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness. The following is a portion of the transcript:
"Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.
"The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used.. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart.
"In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent.
I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy-it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. "I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best. This was written way before I knew I would be speaking here today:
Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You've stripped away our heritage,
You've outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question "Why?"
You regulate restrictive laws,
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need!
"Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, soul, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and reek havoc. Spiritual presence were present within our educational systems for most of our nation's history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs -- politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws.
"Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.
"As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes-He did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right!
I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA - I give to you a sincere challenge. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first
stone!
My daughter's death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!"
-----------------End-----------------
My comments:
I do not believe in prayer, of course. Anyone who reads below should be able to figure that out quite easily. However, I adamantly believe in people's right to take comfort in their own sanctuary, physical or mental. If that includes prayer to their respective deity, who am I to wish to deny it to them? Legislating morality is insane. Robbing people of their ability to pray in any place for any reason is insane. I may be an atheist but I don't understand atheists' mentality for denying people their religious freedom. Indeed, many atheists have become that which they vehemently criticize. It's divisive and destructive to the fibrous bonds which have held this country together for 220+ years. It's not at all about who, how, where or what you worship. It's about your freedom to do so. THAT is what brought our country together and has held it together for so long.
I find it nearly calamitous that there are those who believe we should create any law restricting religious practices in publicly-owned places. Religion does a LOT of good in this world, probably moreso than any other type of organization that exists. More than government, that's for sure. Church welfare programs kick the hell out of gov't instituted welfare systems and guess what? Nearly ZERO fraud or graft!
At the very least, religion has done so much good for this country they deserve the right to pray when and wherever they wish.
--Wag--
P.S. Don't think I sympathize with religious teachings. I do not. But I do subscribe to the idea that tolerance is a virtue and kindness to others a necessity.
-----------------Begin-----------------
DARRELL SCOTT TESTIMONY
Guess our national leaders didn't expect this, hmm? On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful. They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well. It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness. The following is a portion of the transcript:
"Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.
"The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used.. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart.
"In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent.
I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy-it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. "I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best. This was written way before I knew I would be speaking here today:
Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You've stripped away our heritage,
You've outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question "Why?"
You regulate restrictive laws,
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need!
"Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, soul, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and reek havoc. Spiritual presence were present within our educational systems for most of our nation's history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs -- politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws.
"Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.
"As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes-He did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right!
I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA - I give to you a sincere challenge. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first
stone!
My daughter's death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!"
-----------------End-----------------
My comments:
I do not believe in prayer, of course. Anyone who reads below should be able to figure that out quite easily. However, I adamantly believe in people's right to take comfort in their own sanctuary, physical or mental. If that includes prayer to their respective deity, who am I to wish to deny it to them? Legislating morality is insane. Robbing people of their ability to pray in any place for any reason is insane. I may be an atheist but I don't understand atheists' mentality for denying people their religious freedom. Indeed, many atheists have become that which they vehemently criticize. It's divisive and destructive to the fibrous bonds which have held this country together for 220+ years. It's not at all about who, how, where or what you worship. It's about your freedom to do so. THAT is what brought our country together and has held it together for so long.
I find it nearly calamitous that there are those who believe we should create any law restricting religious practices in publicly-owned places. Religion does a LOT of good in this world, probably moreso than any other type of organization that exists. More than government, that's for sure. Church welfare programs kick the hell out of gov't instituted welfare systems and guess what? Nearly ZERO fraud or graft!
At the very least, religion has done so much good for this country they deserve the right to pray when and wherever they wish.
--Wag--
P.S. Don't think I sympathize with religious teachings. I do not. But I do subscribe to the idea that tolerance is a virtue and kindness to others a necessity.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Punished by the Laws of Insanity!
Can you be punished for spelling it right?
What if you send an e-mail to someone very important? A top customer, a prospective employer, a potential business partner or venture capitalist. You take the time to look up various words in the dictionary to be sure they are spelled correctly.
However, the recipient, being a little less well-educated or less diligent than you, reads your e-mail and wrongly decides that you've spelled those words wrong. He deletes your e-mail, vowing never to associate with you again because you, "can't spell!" He moves on, ignorant of his error (and your diligence and care while writing) and you waste a few more contact attempts on the guy, never knowing why he is no longer interested in speaking with you.
Tough situation.
Remember David Howard? He was that guy in Washington, D.C. a few years ago who used the word, "niggardly" and was forced to resign because of it. Someone or several someones got bent out of shape because they thought he was uttering a racial epithet. Much ado was made and some called for his resignation which he eventually gave. Columnist Tony Snow said Howard had been forced to apologize for the ignorance of others.
Painfully true.
Of course, these particular uneducated idiots, by getting all up in arms about it, revealed their own ignorance and broadcast it all over creation. There have been all kinds of remarks made about how Howard, "should have known," that the word could be misconstrued by people who heard it and Howard himself actually apologized for it. Indeed, it's said in such a way as to assume that Howard is the one who was the imbecile for using the term. Kind of like attacking the rape victim for the assault.
Howard lost his job to fools. Maybe he shouldn't have given in but I suppose he didn't want to perpetuate his association with people too stupid to understand a simple word. On the other hand, something else was lost in the process: Ignorance, ineptitude and stupidity were validated as being okay. Ignorance was glorified and intelligence was vilified.
It's the same as the schoolyard bully who harasses the nerd on the playground in third through tenth grades because he got an 'A' in English class. Why is it that excellence is so often downplayed while stupidity is heralded? Ever hear of Outcome Based Education? It ranks (deliberate use of the term) right up there with another rank program called Affirmative Action.
I don't think the internet is to blame for the Howard fiasco, however, it has had a hand in perpetuating ignorance alongside education. Especially when it comes to things like spelling and other word craft. I'm sure many of you have encountered enough spelling and grammar errors in your daily web perusals to make you go half insane. I've even been in the middle of writing some diatribe or other and found myself typing "site" instead of "sight" and vice-versa. Someone I respect and admire once pointed out that I had used "their" when I should have used "they're." Maddening, of course.
For me, the problem is one of having seen the words misspelled so often that I've become acclimated to seeing them written incorrectly. When I see someone else's spelling and grammar errors, I know what the guy meant and castigating him for his goof just isn't a big deal in many cases. Too time consuming at the very least. Either that, or the error is on Yahoo or some other big name news service and who do you contact over there?
What if you send an e-mail to a major supplier overseas and their primary language is not English? I could, at this juncture, make a switch to suggesting that knowing your audience would be wise. If you use big words, long sentences and English slang and jargon, you're just begging for trouble. If your contact doesn't understand English very well and you know it, tone it down for them so you don't force them to go looking everything up in their English/native language dictionary, cursing you all the while!
Granted, we all drop the occasional typo here and there. There are plenty in my blog which I haven't caught. Hopefully, I'll get to them some day. In spite of the potential hypocrisy inherent in writing this little blurb, the fact remains: The language is getting slaughtered out there. And it's killing us.
--Wag--
What if you send an e-mail to someone very important? A top customer, a prospective employer, a potential business partner or venture capitalist. You take the time to look up various words in the dictionary to be sure they are spelled correctly.
However, the recipient, being a little less well-educated or less diligent than you, reads your e-mail and wrongly decides that you've spelled those words wrong. He deletes your e-mail, vowing never to associate with you again because you, "can't spell!" He moves on, ignorant of his error (and your diligence and care while writing) and you waste a few more contact attempts on the guy, never knowing why he is no longer interested in speaking with you.
Tough situation.
Remember David Howard? He was that guy in Washington, D.C. a few years ago who used the word, "niggardly" and was forced to resign because of it. Someone or several someones got bent out of shape because they thought he was uttering a racial epithet. Much ado was made and some called for his resignation which he eventually gave. Columnist Tony Snow said Howard had been forced to apologize for the ignorance of others.
Painfully true.
Of course, these particular uneducated idiots, by getting all up in arms about it, revealed their own ignorance and broadcast it all over creation. There have been all kinds of remarks made about how Howard, "should have known," that the word could be misconstrued by people who heard it and Howard himself actually apologized for it. Indeed, it's said in such a way as to assume that Howard is the one who was the imbecile for using the term. Kind of like attacking the rape victim for the assault.
Howard lost his job to fools. Maybe he shouldn't have given in but I suppose he didn't want to perpetuate his association with people too stupid to understand a simple word. On the other hand, something else was lost in the process: Ignorance, ineptitude and stupidity were validated as being okay. Ignorance was glorified and intelligence was vilified.
It's the same as the schoolyard bully who harasses the nerd on the playground in third through tenth grades because he got an 'A' in English class. Why is it that excellence is so often downplayed while stupidity is heralded? Ever hear of Outcome Based Education? It ranks (deliberate use of the term) right up there with another rank program called Affirmative Action.
I don't think the internet is to blame for the Howard fiasco, however, it has had a hand in perpetuating ignorance alongside education. Especially when it comes to things like spelling and other word craft. I'm sure many of you have encountered enough spelling and grammar errors in your daily web perusals to make you go half insane. I've even been in the middle of writing some diatribe or other and found myself typing "site" instead of "sight" and vice-versa. Someone I respect and admire once pointed out that I had used "their" when I should have used "they're." Maddening, of course.
For me, the problem is one of having seen the words misspelled so often that I've become acclimated to seeing them written incorrectly. When I see someone else's spelling and grammar errors, I know what the guy meant and castigating him for his goof just isn't a big deal in many cases. Too time consuming at the very least. Either that, or the error is on Yahoo or some other big name news service and who do you contact over there?
What if you send an e-mail to a major supplier overseas and their primary language is not English? I could, at this juncture, make a switch to suggesting that knowing your audience would be wise. If you use big words, long sentences and English slang and jargon, you're just begging for trouble. If your contact doesn't understand English very well and you know it, tone it down for them so you don't force them to go looking everything up in their English/native language dictionary, cursing you all the while!
Granted, we all drop the occasional typo here and there. There are plenty in my blog which I haven't caught. Hopefully, I'll get to them some day. In spite of the potential hypocrisy inherent in writing this little blurb, the fact remains: The language is getting slaughtered out there. And it's killing us.
--Wag--
Friday, March 10, 2006
A Soldier's Plea
I've made no secret of the fact that I'm an atheist so a plea for prayer is meaningless to me in and of itself. However, the trials and concerns of the soldiers in our military are very real, regardless of the religious focus of this e-mail. Some things really tear at your heart, just 'cause we're all human together.
Pray if you must but I suggest, rather, that if you have opportunity to do so, send care packages, "adopt" a military family here at home and take care of their daily needs. Regardless of any debate about whether or not prayer or religion have any power, there can be no doubt whatsoever that rolling up your sleeves and going to work actually DOES have power. It doesn't even always take money. Mostly just your time. You'll see what I mean if you read this e-mail below.
I submit it with no edits.
--Wag--
------------------Original e-mail----------------
Hello Everyone,
I miss you all! I am ALIVE AND WELL! I do have to say AGAIN, that God is Awesome. He offers so much Amazing Graze to us all. I don't know why we doubt.
Well, I am healthy and doing just fine. I do miss my wife and my boy.
The reason for this email is to ask for a PRAYER REQUEST in detail for every soldier in harms way. It will be a VERY long email. It's up to you now to stop or read on. If you read on, I want to make you think and to do just what I ask in the end.
I hope not to upset you with this email. I just wanted to give you something directly to be praying for when you do pray for the troops. I have sat down with my troops and jotted down all types of prayer requests and came up with all down to reality prayer requests.
If you don't believe in prayer or don't believe in God, then this email should shed some light on what soldiers deal with everyday for you.
It's not all about guns and killing, blood and gore.
I hear from everyone back home and they tell me that they have me and all the troops in their prayers. BUT do some actually mean it? Or do they just say it out of repetitiveness and saying the right thing to a soldier in a war? Do some really know how to pray? Or do you know what to pray for?
Well, I want to challenge you today to pray extra hard now for these soldiers and I. I am one, but their are many, many soldier's and civilian contractor's here in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and around the world serving our Great Country of the United States.
When you pray for the troops,...what do you pray for FOR THEM? Other than safety from harms way. It not all about killing and death here.
I see soldiers that are looking for something!
They walk around with sad faces and anger attitudes. They are lost people!
Soldiers are searching for God, but they don't know that.
Soldiers are suffering from boredom. The ever famous, "Hurry up and Wait".
Soldiers are suffering from loneliness, being away from home. Feeling like we are in prison on these camps. We can't just get up, jump in the car and drive down to the mall. We can't go to the park and play on the swings with our kids. We can't order pizza and have it delivered. It's like we are in prison. Locked up in jail. We can't go down town to the watch the NBA game or the NFL game in the stadium. And for me, I can't go to the NASCAR Races.
Soldiers are suffering from the addiction to pornography.
Soldiers are suffering from the addition of masturbation.
Soldiers talk constantly about the opposite sex.
Soldiers are influenced by music that sings about violence and killing.
Soldiers are spending too much money on nothing. Shopping the Internet and ordering stuff to satisfy their emptiness.
Soldiers have credit card bills, car payments, mortgage payment, and other bills that is hard to take care of just because soldiers are a half a world away.
Soldiers are wanting to stop smoking but the addiction and stress of war have got them locked in it's grasp.
Soldiers are having alcohol with drawls here. Pray that they become sober out of this. Having alcohol is prohibited for the soldier here in war. But the build up gets out of hand, a soldier returns home for leave or redeployment and dies from drunk driving. What a story that is.....a soldier survives war but dies right at home by a head on car accident.
Soldiers have bad swearing habits. The use of bad language is used in every other word of speech.
Soldiers have goals that they want to accomplish.
Soldiers are wanting to lose weight.
Soldiers want to break the addiction to drinking.
Soldiers battle the unspoken reality of prejudice.
Soldiers battle the unspoken thoughts of female leadership vs. male leadership.
Soldiers argue about religion.
I have a soldier who is reading a book on Satanic Verses. Pray for him!
Married Soldiers are in the middle of adultery.
Soldiers wondering if their husbands or wives are being faithful while they are away serving their country.
Single soldiers are looking for love.
Soldiers are going through divorce.
Soldiers are loosing their children in child custody battles because they are here in Iraq. The court Judges in the states see that soldiers are not at home supporting their kids and for that reason their kids are taken from them.
Most soldiers are young kids right out of high school, that haven't even experienced life as you know it in the adult world of America. Teenager soldiers, right now, all they know is war! These experiences could effect their out look on life when they return home.
Pray for our families back in the states.
I ask for prayers for the Iraqi people! Their families!
Pray for the Iraqi citizens who have stepped up and are becoming Iraqi police or Iraqi Army soldiers. They endure much also, trying to take over the roles of running their own country and bringing security to their own families.
Praying for our enemy, the insurgents.
Pray for our fear of I.E.D.'s.
Pray for the reality of incoming mortar rounds.
Worried about RPG's when flying in Helicopters.
Wondering about V.B.I.E.D.'s when in traffic in local towns and villages.
Thinking that the next insurgent with a B.B.I.E.D.'s doesn't get close to you.
Pray for every day missions of soldiers as they go outside the wire and into the view of the enemy. Pray for the troops that they continue to focus on the mission and not be distracted with all of these mentioned things in this email that I have addressed.
Pray for Commanders and high ranking leaders, that they are the ones making life threatening decisions. Having to send out the troops to carry out the mission.
Pray for the mechanics, so they may keep the trucks and tanks running good while out on missions or behind enemy lines.
Pray for the weather. Soldiers deal with extreme heat and cold. We work right through the rain and the dust storms.
Pray for the health of every soldier. Pray that sickness is not hindering the individual from doing his or her mission.
Pray for each soldier that carries a weapon. Friendly Fire! Friendly fire is something that happens when another U.S. soldier accidentally fires off a round and it hit another U.S. soldier. Either he or she is injured or in some cases, even killed by a stray bullet.
We work during the holidays and weekends when you all back home are enjoying the day off to be with family or go to the movies.
Pray for rest, for the soldier. He or she puts in long hours and keeps going.
Soldiers are up early again the next day exercising and getting ready for another day of business.
Pray for our Leader's in Washington. Pray for them even though you don't support their decisions.
We as soldiers do our jobs even when politicians fight among themselves.
We soldiers do our jobs even when U.S. citizens protest what we do here.
If you don't support this war or think that this war is worth being here, think about this,....with the Iraq war, it has draw terrorist to Iraq and away from the United States. This war keeps you safer even more there in the U.S. It draws the attention here and away from you.
Pray for the soldiers attending their fellow soldier's memorial services.
At home, a U.S. civilian will probably attend a memorial service for a family member or friend who had passed away of natural causes or an accident, maybe every three years.
Here, a soldier will attend more than he or she would want to, in his or her entire life time. The memorial service would be of a friend who became family, who became a close brother or sister during this war.
Pray for the families who have lost soldiers/love ones in this war. Many soldiers have died for the price of Freedom both past and present.
As a U.S. Army Reservist or a National Guard soldier, they wonder if they will still have their civilian jobs when they get home after their time is done serving their country.
You are not going to hear this type of detail information or a prayer request from the media or an average soldier. God has put this on my mind to send out a plea to all you believer's in prayer, to take time and LITERALLY PRAY to God the Father. Ask Jesus to intervene in the warfare of the mind of the soldier. Ask the Holy Spirit to carry your prayers across the world to every soldier fighting to defend the Freedom that we all enjoy in the United States.
There is also the prayer for the reunion of families when soldiers return home. I have been there once before from my last deployment, and I know what it is like to return home after the experiences that have come our way.
Soldiers going home are dealing with PTSD. It starts out as a normal response to an extremely abnormal experience such as being in a war zone. It can happen to any soldier. Soldiers who have served in war often experience PTSD and commonly develop other conditions such as alcohol use, depression and even consider suicide. Most soldiers don't understand what is happening in their lives. They experience dreams, horror and unwanted flashbacks of gun shots and mortar rounds. A sound at home may trigger these flashbacks. Another symptom of PTSD is the withdrawal of family member interaction. Many lose their self-esteem.
While being away from your family, you become independent. Your family has to also become independent. You have to survive with out them. They have live with out you until you return home. Families grow apart during times like this with year long deployments.
I have been there before and I have experienced that same thing. When I came home from my first deployment, those were some of the things I deal with. I couldn't really explain what was happening to me, but I know it effected my wife and my boy. They saw it in me. I felt normal, but normal to me was totally different than before I left home. I was diagnosed with P.T.S.D. and I was put on medication. And the funny part about that is, I am just in a support unit. I am a reservist but right in the middle with the regular active duty soldiers. The things we see and experience as soldiers is something you can't explain. It's not easy for someone to understand and feel unless you have experienced it for yourself.
The only thing soldiers know right now is how to survive in a war zone coming from Iraq and Afghanistan.
We deal with daily mortar rounds coming into our camps from the outside of the FOB. Explosions make crater in the ground or damage buildings. Soldiers have been badly hurt by mortars even from just exercising, doing a nice run around the camp and the shrapnel of a mortar injures the soldiers.
When on a convoy, we deal with the fact that our vehicle may blow up from an I.E.D., a road side bomb.
We are drilled with pre-meditated actions and rehearsals of being ambushed by the enemy.
If we fly on a helicopter, there is the fear of being blown out of the sky with a RPG.
This is war.
We are as safe as we can be. We are equipped with the best that the military can provide for us. All of our vehicles are armored now. We wear vest that have bullet proof plates and also have extra protection everywhere possible. A Helmet, eye wear/safely glasses and gloves is our normal uniform.
The world is worried about Iran and their bombs. We need to be concerned about our sin and the lost souls of our soldiers.
Soldiers talk about motorcycles and purchasing sports bikes or Harley's when they return home after this deployment. Military studies show that there have been more deaths of soldiers who have who died racing motorcycles at home after surviving the war in Afghanistan and Iraq since Sept. 11, 2001. The numbers keep rising.
Speed is something that gives a person a rush. After coming from this extreme rush of weapons and the fire power of tanks and bombs, that rush is gone. Soldiers look for a way to find that rush again. Motorcycles don't help.
I have attached a picture of my workers and I. This is my team I work with. I am their boss/their escort. These guys have become my friends. They are local Iraqi men from towns near by and come to work with us. They are paid for their services of $50.00 a week.
These men have families to provide for. I have gotten to know them. I know about their families.
I am 32 years old and the majority of these men are my age. You can see the effects of a war torn country in them and you can hear it in their voices. They have aged skin to look like old men but with the playfulness of young boys.
The guy in front holding the clear cup is 30 years old and has three kids, all boys. The oldest is 6 years old, the middle boy is 3 years old, the youngest is only a year old.....oh, and he has one on the way. His wife is pregnant. She's due here in a few months. He is a very nice down to earth person. He's just like us. They are not the enemy.
One thing about these men is that they need glasses. They don't have good eye sight and no eye doctors or eye specialist to go to, along with no money to buy glasses for themselves. Their money goes to support the family.
I usually have treats and snacks for them when we take breaks. They work hard for me. And I am right there working with them. We work together as men, as if we are working behind our very own houses. Not as a soldier and the Iraqi people, but as FRIENDS.
I talk to my guys/my workers and ask them what life is like with out Saddam, and they say (with the best that we can communicate, with the language barrier) that it is very good with out Saddam in power.
They use to live with fear and worked hard for nothing. Now they are FREE and have the opportunity to make money to support their families.
Due to OPSEC, I don't want to give out their names and put them in danger. Just know that they are just as human as we are. Don't think of them as the bad guys. I know all you hear on the news is that another soldier died and a bomb blew up this or that. Well, I want you to know the real stories of what's happening here. For people who have nothing, we provided Freedom for them. Freedom to provide for their future, for their country.
We do have a chapel here on our FOB. And we do have chapel services with the sounds of war right outside during our services. A helicopter flys over. Or a mortar round hits somewhere on the FOB and you'll feel the impact. Or a fighter jet will roar over the sky above. Or a tank squeaks by right out side the chapel.
I ask for you to pray for the chaplins. They endure so much from questions of soldiers asking why did my friend die. There are few Chaplins to go around. They are stretched thin. Pray for their strength to continue to do their jobs to assist the troops.
Pray for the Christians who are holding steadfast. It's a constant battle. We battle with the reality of life, the reality of war being in the combat zone and the war of the unseen world of the devil. When we try to serve God more, that's when the devil works harder with trials and tribulations.
Pray that we stay humble.
Pray for the Christians who are backsliding. Many soldiers claim to be Christian but their roots don't show anything at all. As children they once had that first love. That first love is gone.
Pray for all branches of service. Here in the war zone or on ships out on foreign waters.
For the soldiers serving Homeland Security.
There may be different branches, The U.S. Marines, The U.S. Air Force, The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army, but we are all fighting for the United States of America and defending our Freedom to live.
As for me, on a personal note...
I ask for prayer for my wife. I have left her with duties that I did on a normal basis when I was home. All because I had to leave for my call of duty. The house hold duties I took care of when I was home now have to be worked by my wife. Now she has to worry about them. With out me, she is a single parent, with my boy, working to keep my home together.
I ask for prayer for my house. The things inside my house. The washer and dryer, that they continue to run. For the plumbing and the water heater. For the electrical system and outlets. For the locks on the doors and the security of my home. For the smoke detectors and to keep the bugs out of my house, so my wife doesn't get scared of little spiders.
I ask for prayer for my trucks. The wear and tear of everyday driving. My job of changing of the oil and maintenance of the engine has to be done by someone else. My job of putting in gas and washing the truck. Pray for the safety of driving in traffic everyday for my family.
I ask for prayer for my leadership. That I lead my troops with the best of my ability and bring all my troops home to their families.
Pray that I don't take advantage of God's grace.
I ask for prayer in my spiritual life and in my prayer life.
I ask for prayer for my parents. They deal with the fact that their son is away at war. Pray for their health. Pray that stress does not take over their bodies. Pray that they know and acknowledge that I am in the hands of the Almighty God.
Pray for my future, that I survive this war. That I come home in one piece and that God has a long life planned for my family and I.
My BIGGEST PRAYER REQUEST though is, I ask for prayer of my boy. He is in his teenager years. He turned 14 this past December. Having a father figure physically there is needed, especially at this time of his life. I pray that he continues to understand why I must be away from him during these years of his life. I try to look at the bigger picture of why I am here.....but the father side of me keeps asking why I am away from my family....away from my boy when he needs me now the most.
I pray that he continues to help around the house with out question. For his school work, that his grades do not drop because I am away. I want prayer for his spiritual life. He is at an age that all his peers are pressuring him. The pressure of the world all around him. The music that is effecting his inner thoughts. The hormones of the opposite sex is upon him at this age. This is my most heart felt prayer request of all of Ssg Arviso's requests.
Again, I try to look at the big picture of why I am here, but I also fight the thoughts of why I shouldn't be here. I should be home with my family. I should be home with my boy teaching him, especially at his age.
"Lord, please...right now I ask that you touch the heart of my son and keep him close to you"....Amen!
To you, your world right now might be very hard, in your thoughts, but today I want to challenge you to think of others, in harms way. With the Grace of God, brave men and women do their jobs here to allow you to wake up with out the fear of mortar rounds falling from the sky. Wondering if you will be blown up today as you drive to work on the freeways. Wondering when the next memorial service you will be attending for your best friend.
You probably have read all the FORWARD emails of soldiers and our living conditions. Those emails are totally true for many soldiers. We endure the unthinkable for the common citizen of the United States.
You are probably thinking also that this stuff happens everywhere, all the details that I have described for you, happens even back in the States. And you are right, but we here have a bigger mission that we have to deal with on a daily basis. That's why I feel God has put this on my heart to cry out to my family and friends to give you in depth details of what you should be actually praying for when you do pray for the troops.
I am one, but with everyone's help, we can ask God to touch every individual soul in harms way through prayer. So, I challenge you to do something different about this email,...I challenge you to pray an extra prayer for that soldier who is offering his or her life for you and for our land. And not just today or tomorrow, but as long as we are at war with terrorism.
No, this is not one of them emails that something is gonna happen to you at this time or at that time. I am not asking you to forward this email to 5 people or 10. It's up to you what you think needs to be done with this email.
I want to say thank you though, for taking time out of your busy work schedule to read my plea.
I will leave you with this....it's from the Bible, the New King James Version. The verse is 2 Chronicles 7:14...."if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and PRAY and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land".
Thank you in advance. In silence, we look forward to your continued prayers.
From Baqubah, Iraq......
Staff Sgt Arviso, Oliver
United States Army Reserves
Operation: Iraqi Freedom IV 2005-2006
aka.........Ollie
Military Abbreviations Defined:
OPSEC = OPerational SECurity
FOB = Forward Operating Base
I.E.D. = Improvised Explosive Device
V.B.I.E.D. = Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device
B.B.I.E.D. = Bicycle Borne Improvised Explosive Device
R.P.G. = Rocket Propelled Gernade
P.T.S.D. = Post Tramatic Stress Disorder
Baqubah = 30 miles north of Baghdad
"I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me"
Pray if you must but I suggest, rather, that if you have opportunity to do so, send care packages, "adopt" a military family here at home and take care of their daily needs. Regardless of any debate about whether or not prayer or religion have any power, there can be no doubt whatsoever that rolling up your sleeves and going to work actually DOES have power. It doesn't even always take money. Mostly just your time. You'll see what I mean if you read this e-mail below.
I submit it with no edits.
--Wag--
------------------Original e-mail----------------
Hello Everyone,
I miss you all! I am ALIVE AND WELL! I do have to say AGAIN, that God is Awesome. He offers so much Amazing Graze to us all. I don't know why we doubt.
Well, I am healthy and doing just fine. I do miss my wife and my boy.
The reason for this email is to ask for a PRAYER REQUEST in detail for every soldier in harms way. It will be a VERY long email. It's up to you now to stop or read on. If you read on, I want to make you think and to do just what I ask in the end.
I hope not to upset you with this email. I just wanted to give you something directly to be praying for when you do pray for the troops. I have sat down with my troops and jotted down all types of prayer requests and came up with all down to reality prayer requests.
If you don't believe in prayer or don't believe in God, then this email should shed some light on what soldiers deal with everyday for you.
It's not all about guns and killing, blood and gore.
I hear from everyone back home and they tell me that they have me and all the troops in their prayers. BUT do some actually mean it? Or do they just say it out of repetitiveness and saying the right thing to a soldier in a war? Do some really know how to pray? Or do you know what to pray for?
Well, I want to challenge you today to pray extra hard now for these soldiers and I. I am one, but their are many, many soldier's and civilian contractor's here in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and around the world serving our Great Country of the United States.
When you pray for the troops,...what do you pray for FOR THEM? Other than safety from harms way. It not all about killing and death here.
I see soldiers that are looking for something!
They walk around with sad faces and anger attitudes. They are lost people!
Soldiers are searching for God, but they don't know that.
Soldiers are suffering from boredom. The ever famous, "Hurry up and Wait".
Soldiers are suffering from loneliness, being away from home. Feeling like we are in prison on these camps. We can't just get up, jump in the car and drive down to the mall. We can't go to the park and play on the swings with our kids. We can't order pizza and have it delivered. It's like we are in prison. Locked up in jail. We can't go down town to the watch the NBA game or the NFL game in the stadium. And for me, I can't go to the NASCAR Races.
Soldiers are suffering from the addiction to pornography.
Soldiers are suffering from the addition of masturbation.
Soldiers talk constantly about the opposite sex.
Soldiers are influenced by music that sings about violence and killing.
Soldiers are spending too much money on nothing. Shopping the Internet and ordering stuff to satisfy their emptiness.
Soldiers have credit card bills, car payments, mortgage payment, and other bills that is hard to take care of just because soldiers are a half a world away.
Soldiers are wanting to stop smoking but the addiction and stress of war have got them locked in it's grasp.
Soldiers are having alcohol with drawls here. Pray that they become sober out of this. Having alcohol is prohibited for the soldier here in war. But the build up gets out of hand, a soldier returns home for leave or redeployment and dies from drunk driving. What a story that is.....a soldier survives war but dies right at home by a head on car accident.
Soldiers have bad swearing habits. The use of bad language is used in every other word of speech.
Soldiers have goals that they want to accomplish.
Soldiers are wanting to lose weight.
Soldiers want to break the addiction to drinking.
Soldiers battle the unspoken reality of prejudice.
Soldiers battle the unspoken thoughts of female leadership vs. male leadership.
Soldiers argue about religion.
I have a soldier who is reading a book on Satanic Verses. Pray for him!
Married Soldiers are in the middle of adultery.
Soldiers wondering if their husbands or wives are being faithful while they are away serving their country.
Single soldiers are looking for love.
Soldiers are going through divorce.
Soldiers are loosing their children in child custody battles because they are here in Iraq. The court Judges in the states see that soldiers are not at home supporting their kids and for that reason their kids are taken from them.
Most soldiers are young kids right out of high school, that haven't even experienced life as you know it in the adult world of America. Teenager soldiers, right now, all they know is war! These experiences could effect their out look on life when they return home.
Pray for our families back in the states.
I ask for prayers for the Iraqi people! Their families!
Pray for the Iraqi citizens who have stepped up and are becoming Iraqi police or Iraqi Army soldiers. They endure much also, trying to take over the roles of running their own country and bringing security to their own families.
Praying for our enemy, the insurgents.
Pray for our fear of I.E.D.'s.
Pray for the reality of incoming mortar rounds.
Worried about RPG's when flying in Helicopters.
Wondering about V.B.I.E.D.'s when in traffic in local towns and villages.
Thinking that the next insurgent with a B.B.I.E.D.'s doesn't get close to you.
Pray for every day missions of soldiers as they go outside the wire and into the view of the enemy. Pray for the troops that they continue to focus on the mission and not be distracted with all of these mentioned things in this email that I have addressed.
Pray for Commanders and high ranking leaders, that they are the ones making life threatening decisions. Having to send out the troops to carry out the mission.
Pray for the mechanics, so they may keep the trucks and tanks running good while out on missions or behind enemy lines.
Pray for the weather. Soldiers deal with extreme heat and cold. We work right through the rain and the dust storms.
Pray for the health of every soldier. Pray that sickness is not hindering the individual from doing his or her mission.
Pray for each soldier that carries a weapon. Friendly Fire! Friendly fire is something that happens when another U.S. soldier accidentally fires off a round and it hit another U.S. soldier. Either he or she is injured or in some cases, even killed by a stray bullet.
We work during the holidays and weekends when you all back home are enjoying the day off to be with family or go to the movies.
Pray for rest, for the soldier. He or she puts in long hours and keeps going.
Soldiers are up early again the next day exercising and getting ready for another day of business.
Pray for our Leader's in Washington. Pray for them even though you don't support their decisions.
We as soldiers do our jobs even when politicians fight among themselves.
We soldiers do our jobs even when U.S. citizens protest what we do here.
If you don't support this war or think that this war is worth being here, think about this,....with the Iraq war, it has draw terrorist to Iraq and away from the United States. This war keeps you safer even more there in the U.S. It draws the attention here and away from you.
Pray for the soldiers attending their fellow soldier's memorial services.
At home, a U.S. civilian will probably attend a memorial service for a family member or friend who had passed away of natural causes or an accident, maybe every three years.
Here, a soldier will attend more than he or she would want to, in his or her entire life time. The memorial service would be of a friend who became family, who became a close brother or sister during this war.
Pray for the families who have lost soldiers/love ones in this war. Many soldiers have died for the price of Freedom both past and present.
As a U.S. Army Reservist or a National Guard soldier, they wonder if they will still have their civilian jobs when they get home after their time is done serving their country.
You are not going to hear this type of detail information or a prayer request from the media or an average soldier. God has put this on my mind to send out a plea to all you believer's in prayer, to take time and LITERALLY PRAY to God the Father. Ask Jesus to intervene in the warfare of the mind of the soldier. Ask the Holy Spirit to carry your prayers across the world to every soldier fighting to defend the Freedom that we all enjoy in the United States.
There is also the prayer for the reunion of families when soldiers return home. I have been there once before from my last deployment, and I know what it is like to return home after the experiences that have come our way.
Soldiers going home are dealing with PTSD. It starts out as a normal response to an extremely abnormal experience such as being in a war zone. It can happen to any soldier. Soldiers who have served in war often experience PTSD and commonly develop other conditions such as alcohol use, depression and even consider suicide. Most soldiers don't understand what is happening in their lives. They experience dreams, horror and unwanted flashbacks of gun shots and mortar rounds. A sound at home may trigger these flashbacks. Another symptom of PTSD is the withdrawal of family member interaction. Many lose their self-esteem.
While being away from your family, you become independent. Your family has to also become independent. You have to survive with out them. They have live with out you until you return home. Families grow apart during times like this with year long deployments.
I have been there before and I have experienced that same thing. When I came home from my first deployment, those were some of the things I deal with. I couldn't really explain what was happening to me, but I know it effected my wife and my boy. They saw it in me. I felt normal, but normal to me was totally different than before I left home. I was diagnosed with P.T.S.D. and I was put on medication. And the funny part about that is, I am just in a support unit. I am a reservist but right in the middle with the regular active duty soldiers. The things we see and experience as soldiers is something you can't explain. It's not easy for someone to understand and feel unless you have experienced it for yourself.
The only thing soldiers know right now is how to survive in a war zone coming from Iraq and Afghanistan.
We deal with daily mortar rounds coming into our camps from the outside of the FOB. Explosions make crater in the ground or damage buildings. Soldiers have been badly hurt by mortars even from just exercising, doing a nice run around the camp and the shrapnel of a mortar injures the soldiers.
When on a convoy, we deal with the fact that our vehicle may blow up from an I.E.D., a road side bomb.
We are drilled with pre-meditated actions and rehearsals of being ambushed by the enemy.
If we fly on a helicopter, there is the fear of being blown out of the sky with a RPG.
This is war.
We are as safe as we can be. We are equipped with the best that the military can provide for us. All of our vehicles are armored now. We wear vest that have bullet proof plates and also have extra protection everywhere possible. A Helmet, eye wear/safely glasses and gloves is our normal uniform.
The world is worried about Iran and their bombs. We need to be concerned about our sin and the lost souls of our soldiers.
Soldiers talk about motorcycles and purchasing sports bikes or Harley's when they return home after this deployment. Military studies show that there have been more deaths of soldiers who have who died racing motorcycles at home after surviving the war in Afghanistan and Iraq since Sept. 11, 2001. The numbers keep rising.
Speed is something that gives a person a rush. After coming from this extreme rush of weapons and the fire power of tanks and bombs, that rush is gone. Soldiers look for a way to find that rush again. Motorcycles don't help.
I have attached a picture of my workers and I. This is my team I work with. I am their boss/their escort. These guys have become my friends. They are local Iraqi men from towns near by and come to work with us. They are paid for their services of $50.00 a week.
These men have families to provide for. I have gotten to know them. I know about their families.
I am 32 years old and the majority of these men are my age. You can see the effects of a war torn country in them and you can hear it in their voices. They have aged skin to look like old men but with the playfulness of young boys.
The guy in front holding the clear cup is 30 years old and has three kids, all boys. The oldest is 6 years old, the middle boy is 3 years old, the youngest is only a year old.....oh, and he has one on the way. His wife is pregnant. She's due here in a few months. He is a very nice down to earth person. He's just like us. They are not the enemy.
One thing about these men is that they need glasses. They don't have good eye sight and no eye doctors or eye specialist to go to, along with no money to buy glasses for themselves. Their money goes to support the family.
I usually have treats and snacks for them when we take breaks. They work hard for me. And I am right there working with them. We work together as men, as if we are working behind our very own houses. Not as a soldier and the Iraqi people, but as FRIENDS.
I talk to my guys/my workers and ask them what life is like with out Saddam, and they say (with the best that we can communicate, with the language barrier) that it is very good with out Saddam in power.
They use to live with fear and worked hard for nothing. Now they are FREE and have the opportunity to make money to support their families.
Due to OPSEC, I don't want to give out their names and put them in danger. Just know that they are just as human as we are. Don't think of them as the bad guys. I know all you hear on the news is that another soldier died and a bomb blew up this or that. Well, I want you to know the real stories of what's happening here. For people who have nothing, we provided Freedom for them. Freedom to provide for their future, for their country.
We do have a chapel here on our FOB. And we do have chapel services with the sounds of war right outside during our services. A helicopter flys over. Or a mortar round hits somewhere on the FOB and you'll feel the impact. Or a fighter jet will roar over the sky above. Or a tank squeaks by right out side the chapel.
I ask for you to pray for the chaplins. They endure so much from questions of soldiers asking why did my friend die. There are few Chaplins to go around. They are stretched thin. Pray for their strength to continue to do their jobs to assist the troops.
Pray for the Christians who are holding steadfast. It's a constant battle. We battle with the reality of life, the reality of war being in the combat zone and the war of the unseen world of the devil. When we try to serve God more, that's when the devil works harder with trials and tribulations.
Pray that we stay humble.
Pray for the Christians who are backsliding. Many soldiers claim to be Christian but their roots don't show anything at all. As children they once had that first love. That first love is gone.
Pray for all branches of service. Here in the war zone or on ships out on foreign waters.
For the soldiers serving Homeland Security.
There may be different branches, The U.S. Marines, The U.S. Air Force, The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army, but we are all fighting for the United States of America and defending our Freedom to live.
As for me, on a personal note...
I ask for prayer for my wife. I have left her with duties that I did on a normal basis when I was home. All because I had to leave for my call of duty. The house hold duties I took care of when I was home now have to be worked by my wife. Now she has to worry about them. With out me, she is a single parent, with my boy, working to keep my home together.
I ask for prayer for my house. The things inside my house. The washer and dryer, that they continue to run. For the plumbing and the water heater. For the electrical system and outlets. For the locks on the doors and the security of my home. For the smoke detectors and to keep the bugs out of my house, so my wife doesn't get scared of little spiders.
I ask for prayer for my trucks. The wear and tear of everyday driving. My job of changing of the oil and maintenance of the engine has to be done by someone else. My job of putting in gas and washing the truck. Pray for the safety of driving in traffic everyday for my family.
I ask for prayer for my leadership. That I lead my troops with the best of my ability and bring all my troops home to their families.
Pray that I don't take advantage of God's grace.
I ask for prayer in my spiritual life and in my prayer life.
I ask for prayer for my parents. They deal with the fact that their son is away at war. Pray for their health. Pray that stress does not take over their bodies. Pray that they know and acknowledge that I am in the hands of the Almighty God.
Pray for my future, that I survive this war. That I come home in one piece and that God has a long life planned for my family and I.
My BIGGEST PRAYER REQUEST though is, I ask for prayer of my boy. He is in his teenager years. He turned 14 this past December. Having a father figure physically there is needed, especially at this time of his life. I pray that he continues to understand why I must be away from him during these years of his life. I try to look at the bigger picture of why I am here.....but the father side of me keeps asking why I am away from my family....away from my boy when he needs me now the most.
I pray that he continues to help around the house with out question. For his school work, that his grades do not drop because I am away. I want prayer for his spiritual life. He is at an age that all his peers are pressuring him. The pressure of the world all around him. The music that is effecting his inner thoughts. The hormones of the opposite sex is upon him at this age. This is my most heart felt prayer request of all of Ssg Arviso's requests.
Again, I try to look at the big picture of why I am here, but I also fight the thoughts of why I shouldn't be here. I should be home with my family. I should be home with my boy teaching him, especially at his age.
"Lord, please...right now I ask that you touch the heart of my son and keep him close to you"....Amen!
To you, your world right now might be very hard, in your thoughts, but today I want to challenge you to think of others, in harms way. With the Grace of God, brave men and women do their jobs here to allow you to wake up with out the fear of mortar rounds falling from the sky. Wondering if you will be blown up today as you drive to work on the freeways. Wondering when the next memorial service you will be attending for your best friend.
You probably have read all the FORWARD emails of soldiers and our living conditions. Those emails are totally true for many soldiers. We endure the unthinkable for the common citizen of the United States.
You are probably thinking also that this stuff happens everywhere, all the details that I have described for you, happens even back in the States. And you are right, but we here have a bigger mission that we have to deal with on a daily basis. That's why I feel God has put this on my heart to cry out to my family and friends to give you in depth details of what you should be actually praying for when you do pray for the troops.
I am one, but with everyone's help, we can ask God to touch every individual soul in harms way through prayer. So, I challenge you to do something different about this email,...I challenge you to pray an extra prayer for that soldier who is offering his or her life for you and for our land. And not just today or tomorrow, but as long as we are at war with terrorism.
No, this is not one of them emails that something is gonna happen to you at this time or at that time. I am not asking you to forward this email to 5 people or 10. It's up to you what you think needs to be done with this email.
I want to say thank you though, for taking time out of your busy work schedule to read my plea.
I will leave you with this....it's from the Bible, the New King James Version. The verse is 2 Chronicles 7:14...."if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and PRAY and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land".
Thank you in advance. In silence, we look forward to your continued prayers.
From Baqubah, Iraq......
Staff Sgt Arviso, Oliver
United States Army Reserves
Operation: Iraqi Freedom IV 2005-2006
aka.........Ollie
Military Abbreviations Defined:
OPSEC = OPerational SECurity
FOB = Forward Operating Base
I.E.D. = Improvised Explosive Device
V.B.I.E.D. = Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device
B.B.I.E.D. = Bicycle Borne Improvised Explosive Device
R.P.G. = Rocket Propelled Gernade
P.T.S.D. = Post Tramatic Stress Disorder
Baqubah = 30 miles north of Baghdad
"I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me"
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Why Atheism?
I got this e-mail today.
-----------------------------
Wag,
I am in the process of reading the site devoted to former members of the LDS church: http://www.exmormon.org/
Before proceeding, I should point out I am currently attending a Presbyterian Church locally but am not a member yet. I am not attempting to convince anyone to be saved, born again or join a particular church.
I am curious, however, why a former member of the LDS church would consider themself an atheist? It seems that much of the teaching of the LDS church is based on the conventional Bible so most serious ex-members of the church are better schooled in biblical teachings than the average Protestant or Catholic in mainline Christian churches.
If you are interested in pursuing this conversation further, email me back or drop me a line.
P
-----------------------------
My response:
-----------------------------
Dear P,
I'm certainly willing to engage in a conversation about this topic as it is one which is close to my heart. Likewise, however, I have no desire to convince people to believe as I do so in the process of our conversation, I will refrain from intentionally commenting in such a fashion.
Having said that, there was a time where I believed that those who adhere to the teachings of Christianity and Mormonism and various other religions were deluded and needed to have their heads examined. I should have had my own head examined for thinking such a thing! People are free to believe as they wish and deserve no disrespect for there beliefs.
I also believe people choose their beliefs. Sometimes at a subconscious level but they choose, nonetheless. Belief is not something which can be foisted upon someone and furthermore, it is mostly unproductive to attempt to convince another to change his beliefs. The saying goes, “The man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”
At best, people can converse about belief in such a way as to enhance the understanding they have of one another's choice of belief. By the same token, belief is highly individual and despite the desire of most religions, especially Christian sects, to have everyone believe the same things, it doesn't happen that way.
Consider a married couple. Both spouses are Presbyterian since birth and yet, when it comes to the details of their individual beliefs, there are vast differences between the two. Many of the beliefs of each stem from childhood upbringing. Again, both have chosen their beliefs at some point along the way and adhere to them because they wish to do so.
As a result of choice of belief, I observe that people have a vested interest in assuring themselves that they have made the right decision. Much like buying a car or other big ticket item. Why did a guy buy the Chevy and not the Honda? It hardly matters, really; he tells all his friends it's better and that they should choose as he did. It's an attempt, not to service the needs of his compatriots, but an effort to reassure himself that he made the "right" decision.
Choice of religion tends to follow a similar pattern. There is an added element, however. That is that many who choose a particular religion have the belief that they are now the agents of God in some fashion or other and that God supports what they do. Such a belief creates a sense of duty and to renege on that sense of duty calls for some serious reflection on whether or not they are making the right choice to do so. After all, their eternal souls are at stake!
On to Mormonism. Mormonism teaches its people some key concepts. First, they teach that Mormonism is the "most correct" religion of all. Actually, they teach that the Book of Mormon is the most correct of all books and by extension, therefore, Mormonism is the most correct of all religions. Leaving Mormonism is to choose a “second-tier” religion.
Second, Mormonism teaches its membership that it is the only religion which could possibly be true because all other religions have broken away from the original church which Jesus established. (Of course, this sets aside any discussion of Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, etc. etc.) The only exception, of course, is Catholicism (sp?) and the Book of Mormon shoots that church down in no uncertain terms as being the church of the devil. Most protestant churches, having broken away from that church are again, by extension, satanic in origin and can't possibly have any redeeming value beyond that of their antecedent. Leaving Mormonism is to choose a “false” religion.
Thirdly, there is a long list of other teachings which Mormonism uses to create a sense of uniqueness and exclusivity for their members and makes them feel that they are above all the rest. Three degrees of glory, possession of new revelation, ergo, the Book of Mormon, D&C, PoGP, etc. Teachings of redemption of the dead, a more or less unique "health code," family unity beyond the grave, priesthood authority to the lay person, etc. etc. Leaving Mormonism is to choose commonality.
Fourth, Mormonism traps many of its membership with burdensome responsibilities: Early marriage and child-rearing too early in life, extreme financial burdens, demands on time from leadership, indoctrination 24/7 from childhood on, etc. etc. Leaving Mormonism requires you to give up the martyr’s mantle.
As an example, recently, exclusivity and elitism was further enhanced by Mormonism's proclamation that only the best of the best of the best of missionary candidates would be accepted into the missionary program. Of course, this means that if you're accepted, you're pretty unique among others. They did the same thing 20 years ago when I was preparing for my own mission and when I was accepted, it was a source of pride for me. I’ve heard they did the same thing 20 years prior to that as well. Needless to say, those who are "rejected" (if, in fact, many of them really are) are saddled with a lifetime of guilt should they be unable to shake it off in later years.
That leads me to my last point about Mormonism before I answer your question directly. I should add, that my long-winded posting above is going to be added to my blog along with your question (personal information on you to be deleted, of course).
Mormonism does a wonderful job of saddling its people with the added burdens of fear and guilt. "You'll lose your testimony if you do [insert long list of sins here]" "You're worthless if you . . . ." "If you don't go on a mission, you will never succeed in life." "The 'natural man' is an enemy to God." "You could never have accomplished any good thing without God's divine help." Again, the list is long and burdensome.
A Mormon who discovers his religion is not based in truth, fact or reality has a very unsettling experience, at best, or a traumatic one at worst. Such a Mormon begins to read and research and study a great many things and searches diligently for answers to his concerns. This is a person in search of information needed to determine how best to choose his or her next set of beliefs. Generally speaking, the seeker encounters a great deal of information which, depending on chance, will either reinforce the idea that religion is bunk or will bring about a conclusion that religion is okay, it's just Mormonism which is problematic. A fork may appear in the road and a choice is ultimately made.
When I chose atheism, I did it because not only did I not receive any spiritual confirmation that Mormonism was God's church but I also had no confirmation about my inquiries about other religions. Finally, I received no confirmation that God existed. From that time on, god became a lower-case entity simply because I didn't receive any answers from his spiritual messaging system.
For an instant, I was angry at god, but moments later, realized that if god were not there, there was no reason to be angry; anger at a non-existent entity was a waste of energy. The sense of freedom was instantaneous and at that moment, I had the most spiritual experience I'd ever had in my life as the burdens of my childhood religion left me for good. No guilt or fear remained and I rose from my final prayer a changed man.
A couple of years later, I began to study other religions. Buddhism comes the closest to appealing to me but only from its philosophical implications, not because I believe it has any corner on the market of what happens to us when we die. Other religions seem to contain many of the holes of factuality that Mormonism has. Christian religions based on the Bible are not, in my personal opinion, founded in fact. There are those who believe Biblical teachings are metaphorical, not historical, and that they still have merit. Such a concept relegates those teachings to the realm of philosophy at best, though there are some atheists who will take the insulting approach and call those stories fables.
I don't believe such disrespect is necessary. It insults the serious seeker of truth who made his belief decisions in an intelligent fashion and came to his conclusions about religion with real intent. Such disrespect alienates those who still adhere to their dogmatic beliefs of childhood and who could otherwise benefit from a study and review of their belief system.
To answer your question with the greatest sincerity and integrity, I may run the risk of offending you and others who believe in Christianity. Regardless, it's honest and I'll adhere to it, regardless of future foxholes in which I may find myself!
Of course, not all are atheists for the same reasons but for many, the Bible simply does not withstand the scrutiny of close examination any more than the tomes of Mormonism. The Book of Mormon fails under the light of honest perusal and the Bible, in the opinion of many atheists, has its own share of failings. The question, of course, is this: "Is the Bible the word of a loving god? Or any god?" My study leads me to believe it is not. To date, challenges to it have gone unanswered by more than mere platitudes of belief. At least, that is to say that so far, rational discussion of it and discussion of beliefs in general have gone fruitless. Adherents to Christianity get too emotional for rationality and frankly, most atheists do too. Generally speaking, of course. They remain, therefore, ignorant of the positions of the opposite opinion. Atheists treat believers with disdain and believers look down their noses at atheists.
Not in all cases, to be sure! There are plenty of those who are honest at heart and finally realize that in the end, it doesn't matter what you believe. What matters is that you treat others in this world with the respect they deserve as human beings or as children of god, depending on your perspective.
I'm interested in your thoughts on my impromptu treatise above!
-----------------------------
--Wag--
-----------------------------
Wag,
I am in the process of reading the site devoted to former members of the LDS church: http://www.exmormon.org/
Before proceeding, I should point out I am currently attending a Presbyterian Church locally but am not a member yet. I am not attempting to convince anyone to be saved, born again or join a particular church.
I am curious, however, why a former member of the LDS church would consider themself an atheist? It seems that much of the teaching of the LDS church is based on the conventional Bible so most serious ex-members of the church are better schooled in biblical teachings than the average Protestant or Catholic in mainline Christian churches.
If you are interested in pursuing this conversation further, email me back or drop me a line.
P
-----------------------------
My response:
-----------------------------
Dear P,
I'm certainly willing to engage in a conversation about this topic as it is one which is close to my heart. Likewise, however, I have no desire to convince people to believe as I do so in the process of our conversation, I will refrain from intentionally commenting in such a fashion.
Having said that, there was a time where I believed that those who adhere to the teachings of Christianity and Mormonism and various other religions were deluded and needed to have their heads examined. I should have had my own head examined for thinking such a thing! People are free to believe as they wish and deserve no disrespect for there beliefs.
I also believe people choose their beliefs. Sometimes at a subconscious level but they choose, nonetheless. Belief is not something which can be foisted upon someone and furthermore, it is mostly unproductive to attempt to convince another to change his beliefs. The saying goes, “The man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”
At best, people can converse about belief in such a way as to enhance the understanding they have of one another's choice of belief. By the same token, belief is highly individual and despite the desire of most religions, especially Christian sects, to have everyone believe the same things, it doesn't happen that way.
Consider a married couple. Both spouses are Presbyterian since birth and yet, when it comes to the details of their individual beliefs, there are vast differences between the two. Many of the beliefs of each stem from childhood upbringing. Again, both have chosen their beliefs at some point along the way and adhere to them because they wish to do so.
As a result of choice of belief, I observe that people have a vested interest in assuring themselves that they have made the right decision. Much like buying a car or other big ticket item. Why did a guy buy the Chevy and not the Honda? It hardly matters, really; he tells all his friends it's better and that they should choose as he did. It's an attempt, not to service the needs of his compatriots, but an effort to reassure himself that he made the "right" decision.
Choice of religion tends to follow a similar pattern. There is an added element, however. That is that many who choose a particular religion have the belief that they are now the agents of God in some fashion or other and that God supports what they do. Such a belief creates a sense of duty and to renege on that sense of duty calls for some serious reflection on whether or not they are making the right choice to do so. After all, their eternal souls are at stake!
On to Mormonism. Mormonism teaches its people some key concepts. First, they teach that Mormonism is the "most correct" religion of all. Actually, they teach that the Book of Mormon is the most correct of all books and by extension, therefore, Mormonism is the most correct of all religions. Leaving Mormonism is to choose a “second-tier” religion.
Second, Mormonism teaches its membership that it is the only religion which could possibly be true because all other religions have broken away from the original church which Jesus established. (Of course, this sets aside any discussion of Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, etc. etc.) The only exception, of course, is Catholicism (sp?) and the Book of Mormon shoots that church down in no uncertain terms as being the church of the devil. Most protestant churches, having broken away from that church are again, by extension, satanic in origin and can't possibly have any redeeming value beyond that of their antecedent. Leaving Mormonism is to choose a “false” religion.
Thirdly, there is a long list of other teachings which Mormonism uses to create a sense of uniqueness and exclusivity for their members and makes them feel that they are above all the rest. Three degrees of glory, possession of new revelation, ergo, the Book of Mormon, D&C, PoGP, etc. Teachings of redemption of the dead, a more or less unique "health code," family unity beyond the grave, priesthood authority to the lay person, etc. etc. Leaving Mormonism is to choose commonality.
Fourth, Mormonism traps many of its membership with burdensome responsibilities: Early marriage and child-rearing too early in life, extreme financial burdens, demands on time from leadership, indoctrination 24/7 from childhood on, etc. etc. Leaving Mormonism requires you to give up the martyr’s mantle.
As an example, recently, exclusivity and elitism was further enhanced by Mormonism's proclamation that only the best of the best of the best of missionary candidates would be accepted into the missionary program. Of course, this means that if you're accepted, you're pretty unique among others. They did the same thing 20 years ago when I was preparing for my own mission and when I was accepted, it was a source of pride for me. I’ve heard they did the same thing 20 years prior to that as well. Needless to say, those who are "rejected" (if, in fact, many of them really are) are saddled with a lifetime of guilt should they be unable to shake it off in later years.
That leads me to my last point about Mormonism before I answer your question directly. I should add, that my long-winded posting above is going to be added to my blog along with your question (personal information on you to be deleted, of course).
Mormonism does a wonderful job of saddling its people with the added burdens of fear and guilt. "You'll lose your testimony if you do [insert long list of sins here]" "You're worthless if you . . . ." "If you don't go on a mission, you will never succeed in life." "The 'natural man' is an enemy to God." "You could never have accomplished any good thing without God's divine help." Again, the list is long and burdensome.
A Mormon who discovers his religion is not based in truth, fact or reality has a very unsettling experience, at best, or a traumatic one at worst. Such a Mormon begins to read and research and study a great many things and searches diligently for answers to his concerns. This is a person in search of information needed to determine how best to choose his or her next set of beliefs. Generally speaking, the seeker encounters a great deal of information which, depending on chance, will either reinforce the idea that religion is bunk or will bring about a conclusion that religion is okay, it's just Mormonism which is problematic. A fork may appear in the road and a choice is ultimately made.
When I chose atheism, I did it because not only did I not receive any spiritual confirmation that Mormonism was God's church but I also had no confirmation about my inquiries about other religions. Finally, I received no confirmation that God existed. From that time on, god became a lower-case entity simply because I didn't receive any answers from his spiritual messaging system.
For an instant, I was angry at god, but moments later, realized that if god were not there, there was no reason to be angry; anger at a non-existent entity was a waste of energy. The sense of freedom was instantaneous and at that moment, I had the most spiritual experience I'd ever had in my life as the burdens of my childhood religion left me for good. No guilt or fear remained and I rose from my final prayer a changed man.
A couple of years later, I began to study other religions. Buddhism comes the closest to appealing to me but only from its philosophical implications, not because I believe it has any corner on the market of what happens to us when we die. Other religions seem to contain many of the holes of factuality that Mormonism has. Christian religions based on the Bible are not, in my personal opinion, founded in fact. There are those who believe Biblical teachings are metaphorical, not historical, and that they still have merit. Such a concept relegates those teachings to the realm of philosophy at best, though there are some atheists who will take the insulting approach and call those stories fables.
I don't believe such disrespect is necessary. It insults the serious seeker of truth who made his belief decisions in an intelligent fashion and came to his conclusions about religion with real intent. Such disrespect alienates those who still adhere to their dogmatic beliefs of childhood and who could otherwise benefit from a study and review of their belief system.
To answer your question with the greatest sincerity and integrity, I may run the risk of offending you and others who believe in Christianity. Regardless, it's honest and I'll adhere to it, regardless of future foxholes in which I may find myself!
Of course, not all are atheists for the same reasons but for many, the Bible simply does not withstand the scrutiny of close examination any more than the tomes of Mormonism. The Book of Mormon fails under the light of honest perusal and the Bible, in the opinion of many atheists, has its own share of failings. The question, of course, is this: "Is the Bible the word of a loving god? Or any god?" My study leads me to believe it is not. To date, challenges to it have gone unanswered by more than mere platitudes of belief. At least, that is to say that so far, rational discussion of it and discussion of beliefs in general have gone fruitless. Adherents to Christianity get too emotional for rationality and frankly, most atheists do too. Generally speaking, of course. They remain, therefore, ignorant of the positions of the opposite opinion. Atheists treat believers with disdain and believers look down their noses at atheists.
Not in all cases, to be sure! There are plenty of those who are honest at heart and finally realize that in the end, it doesn't matter what you believe. What matters is that you treat others in this world with the respect they deserve as human beings or as children of god, depending on your perspective.
I'm interested in your thoughts on my impromptu treatise above!
-----------------------------
--Wag--
Monday, December 19, 2005
Baby Stuff
My wife's cell phone rang one day a couple of years ago and this is what I heard on my end:
"Hello?"
Slight pause.
"SQUEEEEEEEAALLLLLL!!!!!"
My wife is about as even-tempered as they come. It took about half of our 16 years of marriage to get her trained that way and with the unfortunate help of some medical maladies, she's about as level-headed as a real woman can get. I count my lucky stars. So, when she squeals at someone on the phone at top volume, it gets my attention in a big way. In addition to scaring the ever-living hell outta me, it makes me wonder what on earth is so scary, thrilling or exciting as to get her to squeal like a banshee.
After scraping the shredded remains of myself off the wall, I looked over to see that it was a squeal of happy excitement and not one of pain and suffering. There have been other squeals from time to time during our marriage from either of us but this is not one of THOSE stories. Some other time, I promise.
The conversation continued, my wife dancing in place as she spoke. It looked like a version of the pee-pee dance on cocaine. Or what I would imagine such a dance to look like!
"That's SO INCREDIBELY AWESOME!! We're so happy for you!"
She already had my undivided attention but this really took the cake. She was telling someone how happy *I* was but I still had no clue as to what I should be so happy about. In an attempt to answer a bunch of questions, I gave her an ASL sign to ask, "Who the HELL is THAT?" (The nice thing about ASL is that you can communicate very effectively very quickly from across the room.) My wife fingerspelled back, "Godzilla." Well, that's what it looked like in the middle of the dance she was doing. (The bad thing about ASL is that it doesn't work well when someone has temporarily lost nearly all motor control.) I figured the, "Godzilla," interpretation of her signing was probably due to my own ineptitude with ASL. I'd just have to wait.
"Ohhhhh, you guys are so awesome! We can't believe you've actually decided to do it!"
I raised a questioning eyebrow and directed it at my wife, only be ignored. "Do it?" The first thing that came to mind was that someone was about to have sex. But out of the 1,000 or more people I know, all of them are already having sex on a regular basis, at least the ones who should be, and besides, that first squeal was not the kind of thing I would expect to hear when there is news of other people having sex. Only when *I'm* having sex. Again, I digress. I wondered if someone were buying a house, or a car or going on a trip. Nah, couldn't be. They don't merit that kind of squeal either. Getting married? Closer but still . . . . I felt like I was losing ground and sat there squirming, irritated that I couldn't figure out who was talking to my wife and what they were talking about that was so truly wonderful.
Girlish banter went back and forth for going on 30 minutes. I gave up listening intently after 4.736 seconds and went back to surfing the web, listening with half an ear at my wife's half of the conversation. An intermittent squeal would issue forth from time to time, twanging my already irritated nerves.
I perked up right away when I heard her say, "Goodbye." She squealed again as if she thought she needed to get more of my attention. This time, it hurt my ears. I suspect she just had some leftover squealing that had to wait until she was off the phone. This squeal was even more unnatural because she was trying to talk to me as she squealed. I waited for that long, painful ordeal to be over. A century went by in those few moments. I sprouted the first few gray hairs of my life. (They still haven't gone away.) My hearing ability declined by 25 decibels. My mind began to shiver and quake in it's bunker. Brain cells began to retreat by the millions. The spectre of a mental institution began to loom before me in a hazy vision of a future living amongst white-suited nurses and drooling, dopey-eyed cell mates.
(Hey, I had to suffer, you have to suffer!)
I told my dearly beloved to take a deep breath and try again. She did. FINALLY, I get the picture. "D. and J. have decided to try to have a baby!" (J. is my cousin and D. is her husband.)
"Oh, really?" I replied.
"Yes, isn't it GREAT?!!" She was getting close to squealing again. She took some more deep breaths while I coached her. I was nearly qualified to start teaching LaMaze classes by now.
"Wow!. That's cool." I turned to surf the web some more. A moment later, I was peeling myself off the wall again. This time, I had a bloody lip and a black eye.
"What the hell did you do THAT for?"
"Aren't you excited for them?" She glared at me.
"Of course I am, my dear. I just don't think I can get in a squeal like you did. Besides, you've kinda cornered the market on squeals for the day. Or the year."
This time, I was able to successfully duck. How is it that a man can take a perfectly happy wife and turn her into a raging troll in a microsecond? I've done it many times but damned if I could actually explain how it works to another man, assuming said man would WANT to do it. Somehow, it just happens on occasion and no clue as to how.
I grabbed my wife's flailing arms. "Honey, don't be mad. I'm happy for them. I look forward to having another little nephew or niece in my life. Best of all, they live close enough for us to spoil the crap outta the little tyke and give it back to terrorize his or her parents!"
"You're an ass," she said and tore herself away from my grasp.
"Yes, honey. That's why you married me," I said with the usual laugh. The joke usually made her smile. Not this time, however. Bummer. She must be really pissed.
After a couple of weeks, she finally cooled off. Things were good again. J. came and visited us one day. She hadn't gotten knocked up yet but she said they were trying. I offered to loan her my, "Loose Sorority Babes on Campus," video in case they needed suggestions. She declined. Strange. I would have thought that would be high on her list of educational material on how to make babies. Oh, well. Of course, my wife and I were jazzed to chat with her about the whole thing. She was excited. My wife was excited. I was excited. I assumed D. was excited, though he wasn't there that day. Excitement abounding everywhere. I swear, I could hear the harps and see the winged cherubs in the background.
At least the squealing was over. For the moment.
--Wag--
"Hello?"
Slight pause.
"SQUEEEEEEEAALLLLLL!!!!!"
My wife is about as even-tempered as they come. It took about half of our 16 years of marriage to get her trained that way and with the unfortunate help of some medical maladies, she's about as level-headed as a real woman can get. I count my lucky stars. So, when she squeals at someone on the phone at top volume, it gets my attention in a big way. In addition to scaring the ever-living hell outta me, it makes me wonder what on earth is so scary, thrilling or exciting as to get her to squeal like a banshee.
After scraping the shredded remains of myself off the wall, I looked over to see that it was a squeal of happy excitement and not one of pain and suffering. There have been other squeals from time to time during our marriage from either of us but this is not one of THOSE stories. Some other time, I promise.
The conversation continued, my wife dancing in place as she spoke. It looked like a version of the pee-pee dance on cocaine. Or what I would imagine such a dance to look like!
"That's SO INCREDIBELY AWESOME!! We're so happy for you!"
She already had my undivided attention but this really took the cake. She was telling someone how happy *I* was but I still had no clue as to what I should be so happy about. In an attempt to answer a bunch of questions, I gave her an ASL sign to ask, "Who the HELL is THAT?" (The nice thing about ASL is that you can communicate very effectively very quickly from across the room.) My wife fingerspelled back, "Godzilla." Well, that's what it looked like in the middle of the dance she was doing. (The bad thing about ASL is that it doesn't work well when someone has temporarily lost nearly all motor control.) I figured the, "Godzilla," interpretation of her signing was probably due to my own ineptitude with ASL. I'd just have to wait.
"Ohhhhh, you guys are so awesome! We can't believe you've actually decided to do it!"
I raised a questioning eyebrow and directed it at my wife, only be ignored. "Do it?" The first thing that came to mind was that someone was about to have sex. But out of the 1,000 or more people I know, all of them are already having sex on a regular basis, at least the ones who should be, and besides, that first squeal was not the kind of thing I would expect to hear when there is news of other people having sex. Only when *I'm* having sex. Again, I digress. I wondered if someone were buying a house, or a car or going on a trip. Nah, couldn't be. They don't merit that kind of squeal either. Getting married? Closer but still . . . . I felt like I was losing ground and sat there squirming, irritated that I couldn't figure out who was talking to my wife and what they were talking about that was so truly wonderful.
Girlish banter went back and forth for going on 30 minutes. I gave up listening intently after 4.736 seconds and went back to surfing the web, listening with half an ear at my wife's half of the conversation. An intermittent squeal would issue forth from time to time, twanging my already irritated nerves.
I perked up right away when I heard her say, "Goodbye." She squealed again as if she thought she needed to get more of my attention. This time, it hurt my ears. I suspect she just had some leftover squealing that had to wait until she was off the phone. This squeal was even more unnatural because she was trying to talk to me as she squealed. I waited for that long, painful ordeal to be over. A century went by in those few moments. I sprouted the first few gray hairs of my life. (They still haven't gone away.) My hearing ability declined by 25 decibels. My mind began to shiver and quake in it's bunker. Brain cells began to retreat by the millions. The spectre of a mental institution began to loom before me in a hazy vision of a future living amongst white-suited nurses and drooling, dopey-eyed cell mates.
(Hey, I had to suffer, you have to suffer!)
I told my dearly beloved to take a deep breath and try again. She did. FINALLY, I get the picture. "D. and J. have decided to try to have a baby!" (J. is my cousin and D. is her husband.)
"Oh, really?" I replied.
"Yes, isn't it GREAT?!!" She was getting close to squealing again. She took some more deep breaths while I coached her. I was nearly qualified to start teaching LaMaze classes by now.
"Wow!. That's cool." I turned to surf the web some more. A moment later, I was peeling myself off the wall again. This time, I had a bloody lip and a black eye.
"What the hell did you do THAT for?"
"Aren't you excited for them?" She glared at me.
"Of course I am, my dear. I just don't think I can get in a squeal like you did. Besides, you've kinda cornered the market on squeals for the day. Or the year."
This time, I was able to successfully duck. How is it that a man can take a perfectly happy wife and turn her into a raging troll in a microsecond? I've done it many times but damned if I could actually explain how it works to another man, assuming said man would WANT to do it. Somehow, it just happens on occasion and no clue as to how.
I grabbed my wife's flailing arms. "Honey, don't be mad. I'm happy for them. I look forward to having another little nephew or niece in my life. Best of all, they live close enough for us to spoil the crap outta the little tyke and give it back to terrorize his or her parents!"
"You're an ass," she said and tore herself away from my grasp.
"Yes, honey. That's why you married me," I said with the usual laugh. The joke usually made her smile. Not this time, however. Bummer. She must be really pissed.
After a couple of weeks, she finally cooled off. Things were good again. J. came and visited us one day. She hadn't gotten knocked up yet but she said they were trying. I offered to loan her my, "Loose Sorority Babes on Campus," video in case they needed suggestions. She declined. Strange. I would have thought that would be high on her list of educational material on how to make babies. Oh, well. Of course, my wife and I were jazzed to chat with her about the whole thing. She was excited. My wife was excited. I was excited. I assumed D. was excited, though he wasn't there that day. Excitement abounding everywhere. I swear, I could hear the harps and see the winged cherubs in the background.
At least the squealing was over. For the moment.
--Wag--
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Life's beginnings
"I need a favor from you." J. was confident, and rightly so, that I'd do anything for her. She's my beloved cousin, after all.
"What d'ya need, doll?" I asked her.
"Well, you remember that we didn't do the video of R's birth."
"Yup."
"I was wondering, could you do a write up of it? You know. The actual events. Just write what happened."
"Hmmmm." I was already thinking, How could I make that work? I loved the idea the instant she brought it up.
"Well, you know," I said, "I wrote a little about it on my blog."
"Yeah, but I was hoping for more of a play by play. I was really out of it and for all intents and purposes, I wasn't even really there."
"I do remember that. Of course, I'd love to do it. I'm flattered you would ask."
"That's right. I couldn't think of anyone better to do this project."
"Now I'm complimented, too!" I doubt I'll be able to get through the door and down the hallway to go to bed tonight! "I'll get started on and keep you posted, J. This should be a really cool project!"
We hung up and I reflected back.
I turned to my wife. "That was J. She wants me to write about the birth. All the gory details."
My wife says, "That should be fun. Why don't you go back to the very beginning and write about all the stuff that went on during the pregnancy and even before that?"
"That's a good idea. I think I can handle that. You'll have to help me fill in the details. J and D should put details into it too. It would be a thrill and a half." I continued, "I should start at the birth, however, and do the rest of the prelude story as flashbacks. That would be really cool."
"Yeah!" My wife gets excited rather easily when there's a great project in the works. Sometimes, I think she doesn't consider the amount of work that has to go into such a project. 'Specially when someone else is doing the work. I, on the other hand, focus ONLY on the amount of work which is why I never get anything done! But this. This is a project of worth. Of value. Of fun, even, despite the work.
I can hardly wait to get started.
It only takes me three hours to get it rolling. I can hardly wait to finish this one. The above will be the first section or chapter or introduction to this story. I know how it ends. I can't wait to tell it to you!
--Wag--
"What d'ya need, doll?" I asked her.
"Well, you remember that we didn't do the video of R's birth."
"Yup."
"I was wondering, could you do a write up of it? You know. The actual events. Just write what happened."
"Hmmmm." I was already thinking, How could I make that work? I loved the idea the instant she brought it up.
"Well, you know," I said, "I wrote a little about it on my blog."
"Yeah, but I was hoping for more of a play by play. I was really out of it and for all intents and purposes, I wasn't even really there."
"I do remember that. Of course, I'd love to do it. I'm flattered you would ask."
"That's right. I couldn't think of anyone better to do this project."
"Now I'm complimented, too!" I doubt I'll be able to get through the door and down the hallway to go to bed tonight! "I'll get started on and keep you posted, J. This should be a really cool project!"
We hung up and I reflected back.
I turned to my wife. "That was J. She wants me to write about the birth. All the gory details."
My wife says, "That should be fun. Why don't you go back to the very beginning and write about all the stuff that went on during the pregnancy and even before that?"
"That's a good idea. I think I can handle that. You'll have to help me fill in the details. J and D should put details into it too. It would be a thrill and a half." I continued, "I should start at the birth, however, and do the rest of the prelude story as flashbacks. That would be really cool."
"Yeah!" My wife gets excited rather easily when there's a great project in the works. Sometimes, I think she doesn't consider the amount of work that has to go into such a project. 'Specially when someone else is doing the work. I, on the other hand, focus ONLY on the amount of work which is why I never get anything done! But this. This is a project of worth. Of value. Of fun, even, despite the work.
I can hardly wait to get started.
It only takes me three hours to get it rolling. I can hardly wait to finish this one. The above will be the first section or chapter or introduction to this story. I know how it ends. I can't wait to tell it to you!
--Wag--
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Hayabusa
Go check out this picture:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051123/sc_nm/space_japan_dc
(It's the picture of the Itokawa asteroid taken from the Japanese Hayabusa space probe.
My opinion: It's fake.
I can't tell you why I think so but the photo gives me the impression of being "contrived."
--Wag--
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051123/sc_nm/space_japan_dc
(It's the picture of the Itokawa asteroid taken from the Japanese Hayabusa space probe.
My opinion: It's fake.
I can't tell you why I think so but the photo gives me the impression of being "contrived."
--Wag--
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Freedom and Responsibility
For some reason, I've had this essay simmering in my mind for quite a while now.
I'm not sure why but more and more frequently, it seems that people are overly concerned with what they can get from the next guy. Money, power, etc. Mostly money, however. The lottery makes tons of money, people will file lawsuits at the drop of a hat knowing it's very likely that the defendant will simply pay up rather than spend tons of money to defend himself and his property. Lawsuits of that nature don't get defended on principle nearly often enough. Judges don't throw frivolous suits out of court when they should because people have a god-given right to sue, dammit.
It's nauseating. It's sad to see a perfectly good human being waste his precious life and his time trying to get a big windfall in court. Even more sad is the human devastation which comes in the wake of such a suit. Don't get me wrong, if a person has been legitimately damaged by the action of another, the courts are well-suited to keeping us from duelling over the issue the next morning with guns or swords and lots of bloody mess to clean up afterward. There's a thought, though. Maybe if we did so, people would think a lot more seriously about whether or not their issue was all that serious! Something to consider, eh?!
What it all boils down to is this: With great freedom comes great responsibility. Such a very simplistic phrase, fraught with depth and great meaning and well worth any honest treatise.
With that, you see the purpose of this essay. Would that my words could more easily convey my thoughts. Starting with the idea that great freedom brings great responsibility, let's start with my experiences as a MOrmon, growing up in an environment wherein we were told what to think and when. Our responsibility for our thoughts was supplanted quite effectively. The result, of course, was that we could do only whatever we were told to do or not do it. That was the extent of our responsibility. Either do it or don't and if you don't, you're punished for it. Rewards were to come in a future existence.
Of course, we didn't have any real freedom as a result. We only had the choice of A or B. A was to be "good." B was to be "bad." End of story. My father used to tell me, "Yes, you have a choice. You can choose to go to church or you can choose to stay home and clean the house, the yard, the cars, the dogs and then if the rest of the family isn't home yet, you can start all over again." Some choice, eh? Of course, responsibility was limited to getting a whupping if you chose to stay home and sit around reading a favorite stack of comic books instead. Once we learned to fake sick from time to time, we could avoid both at will.
Needless to say, this particular lazy bastard went to church and suffered, probably more, actually.
Look at people who do not attemp to provide for their own retirement. What do you do with such a person? Do you judge them as having been one who "should have known" and should have started working on their retirement at age 21 so they would be financially ready when age 67 1/2 rolled around? I don't know the answer to that question. What I DO know is that if they don't take responsibility for themselves, government steps in with social security to pay the bills. So why should we care? The government will take care of everything! Or so it is said.
In short, the guy doesn't have to be responsible for himself. And guess what? He loses a small amount of freedom. Could he have done better than the government in providing for his retirement? Without a doubt. His level of freedom is reduced by the amount of financial freedom he loses by relying solely on the government to provide. In other words, by giving his responsibility over to the government social security program.
Remember, if you give up responsibility, you give up freedom. Every time you allow the government, religion, your spouse, your parents or teachers to take over responsibility for your existence, you give up some degree of your personal freedom. Ever hear of the guy who's 45 years old and lives at home? Do you think he has freedom for any of the time during which his parents are paying his bills for him? Freedom is lost as responsibility is abdicated and shrivels from disuse. Those who do not willingly take responsibility for their actions amd themselves are a curse to society.
I think this may be one of the reasons gun owners are upset about gun control laws. It's a clear-cut case of the government telling people, "You're not competent enough to take care of the responsibilities of this device so we're going to disallow you this freedom and this responsibility."
Same thing with drug usage. Alcohol consumption. Property rights. Etc. etc. Any time the government tells you you can or cannot do something innocuous, it's a denail of freedom, pure and simple. It's as if government would prefer to take away your freedoms than hold you appropriately responsible for your actions. I wonder why that is.
Always remember, it is not possible to give up responsibility for yourself and retain your freedom. Likewise, if you wish to have great freedom, you must accept great responsibility. Remember that concept when you go to the polls and elect officials who wish to limit your freedoms and your responsibilities. Can you handle the responsibility of putting a roof over your head without the government stepping in with a minimum wage requirement? Or do you believe it's more important to have a job guarantee based on your high-school diploma because you were too lackadaisical about your education and decided to party instead?
Every time you allow someone to make a decision for you, you give up your freedom and responsibility for the action. Those who take your freedom in such a fashion are the most likely to claim that you have the most freedom. Beware this delusion. If you abdicate your responsibility and hand it to another, you run the risk of finding yourself incabable of exercising any particular freedom in your future if for no other reason than simply because you're completely incompetent. Those who allow such things to occur do not understand the connection between freedom and responsibility. Those who would perpetuate the loss of freedoms or responsibilities also may not understand the connection. Think carefully any time you say, "I'll take care of that for you," to another person. You may do them more harm than good.
A valuable note: If you use your freedom irresponsibly, you will lose it. Think about it. If you commit a crime and end up in jail, your freedom is gone. If you fail to go to school, you may find yourself stuck in a desk job and wondering, at age 40, what the hell happened? Wondering why you have no financial freedom and are living from paycheck to paycheck. How depressing. Once lost, your freedoms become difficult to regain. Look forward with clear eyes and protect your future freedoms with your present responsibility.
If you give up your responsibility and freedom willingly, it is a slap in the face to those who gave you your freedom. Think of the veterans who fought for your freedoms. Think of the immigrants who battled their way through obstacles and hardships to get their butts to this country, because it was free, to give their children, your ancestors, the freedom to build a life better than that which was left behind in the old countries.
Those who take responsibility for their actions are the purveyors of freedom for all. Those who seek to blame others for their ills are, in some fashion or another, slaves in their own minds, having given up their freedoms and responsibilities.
Often people seek to get monetary compensation for natural calamities. These people are not free either, though they seem to believe they are. They are slaves to their own "handout" mentality. Such illicitly-gotten money will soon be gone simply because the value of a handout cannot be perceived because of it's ill-gotten nature. People laud the paychecks of sports figures. Baseball, Basketball, Football, etc. etc. Jo DiMaggio once said, "There are no rich men's sons in baseball." Now why do you think that is? Simple: They have no stomach for the effort required to be in baseball. I suspect that also answers the question of why so many of the best baseballers are immigrants from third-world countries.
"Life responds to deserve, not to need." --Jim Rohn. Those who receive without deserving to will soon lose that which they received. The freedom to deserve things carries with it the responsibility to act with care for that which was received. Fortunately, such deserving also carries with it an equivalent sense of responsibility for that which was received. The guy who makes his own chit will take good care of it. Ever give your kid a toy for Christmas and find out it's destroyed an hour or two later and forgotten in a pile of wreckage? How dispappointing is that? Do you have any doubt that if continued, that kind of behavior will continue throughout the child's life? Is there some damage that will occur to the child if they pay for their own car as opposed to you buying it for him?
All too often, people in a free society are deluded into believing that freedom and entitlement are the same thing. This mindset causes a fast erosion of freedoms. There is nothing in the law of nature or of this country which says that healthcare should be given to every person. Every person should be able to work for it, sure. There is no law that says that every person in this country should have a higher education. Only that they should be able to work for it. Does that sound harsh? Again, what's to stop a person from getting an education necessary to command the kind of job which comes with a health benefit? Only his lack of a sense of responsibility.
The American populace in their own free society, has a delusion that Freedom and Entitlement both mean the same thing. They do not. In order for freedom to work, entitlement has to be eliminated. Once again, life responds to deserve, not need. And certainly not to a vaporous concept such as entitlement.
I suppose it could be said, the more responsibility which is accepted by a person, the more free that person will be.
--Wag--
I'm not sure why but more and more frequently, it seems that people are overly concerned with what they can get from the next guy. Money, power, etc. Mostly money, however. The lottery makes tons of money, people will file lawsuits at the drop of a hat knowing it's very likely that the defendant will simply pay up rather than spend tons of money to defend himself and his property. Lawsuits of that nature don't get defended on principle nearly often enough. Judges don't throw frivolous suits out of court when they should because people have a god-given right to sue, dammit.
It's nauseating. It's sad to see a perfectly good human being waste his precious life and his time trying to get a big windfall in court. Even more sad is the human devastation which comes in the wake of such a suit. Don't get me wrong, if a person has been legitimately damaged by the action of another, the courts are well-suited to keeping us from duelling over the issue the next morning with guns or swords and lots of bloody mess to clean up afterward. There's a thought, though. Maybe if we did so, people would think a lot more seriously about whether or not their issue was all that serious! Something to consider, eh?!
What it all boils down to is this: With great freedom comes great responsibility. Such a very simplistic phrase, fraught with depth and great meaning and well worth any honest treatise.
With that, you see the purpose of this essay. Would that my words could more easily convey my thoughts. Starting with the idea that great freedom brings great responsibility, let's start with my experiences as a MOrmon, growing up in an environment wherein we were told what to think and when. Our responsibility for our thoughts was supplanted quite effectively. The result, of course, was that we could do only whatever we were told to do or not do it. That was the extent of our responsibility. Either do it or don't and if you don't, you're punished for it. Rewards were to come in a future existence.
Of course, we didn't have any real freedom as a result. We only had the choice of A or B. A was to be "good." B was to be "bad." End of story. My father used to tell me, "Yes, you have a choice. You can choose to go to church or you can choose to stay home and clean the house, the yard, the cars, the dogs and then if the rest of the family isn't home yet, you can start all over again." Some choice, eh? Of course, responsibility was limited to getting a whupping if you chose to stay home and sit around reading a favorite stack of comic books instead. Once we learned to fake sick from time to time, we could avoid both at will.
Needless to say, this particular lazy bastard went to church and suffered, probably more, actually.
Look at people who do not attemp to provide for their own retirement. What do you do with such a person? Do you judge them as having been one who "should have known" and should have started working on their retirement at age 21 so they would be financially ready when age 67 1/2 rolled around? I don't know the answer to that question. What I DO know is that if they don't take responsibility for themselves, government steps in with social security to pay the bills. So why should we care? The government will take care of everything! Or so it is said.
In short, the guy doesn't have to be responsible for himself. And guess what? He loses a small amount of freedom. Could he have done better than the government in providing for his retirement? Without a doubt. His level of freedom is reduced by the amount of financial freedom he loses by relying solely on the government to provide. In other words, by giving his responsibility over to the government social security program.
Remember, if you give up responsibility, you give up freedom. Every time you allow the government, religion, your spouse, your parents or teachers to take over responsibility for your existence, you give up some degree of your personal freedom. Ever hear of the guy who's 45 years old and lives at home? Do you think he has freedom for any of the time during which his parents are paying his bills for him? Freedom is lost as responsibility is abdicated and shrivels from disuse. Those who do not willingly take responsibility for their actions amd themselves are a curse to society.
I think this may be one of the reasons gun owners are upset about gun control laws. It's a clear-cut case of the government telling people, "You're not competent enough to take care of the responsibilities of this device so we're going to disallow you this freedom and this responsibility."
Same thing with drug usage. Alcohol consumption. Property rights. Etc. etc. Any time the government tells you you can or cannot do something innocuous, it's a denail of freedom, pure and simple. It's as if government would prefer to take away your freedoms than hold you appropriately responsible for your actions. I wonder why that is.
Always remember, it is not possible to give up responsibility for yourself and retain your freedom. Likewise, if you wish to have great freedom, you must accept great responsibility. Remember that concept when you go to the polls and elect officials who wish to limit your freedoms and your responsibilities. Can you handle the responsibility of putting a roof over your head without the government stepping in with a minimum wage requirement? Or do you believe it's more important to have a job guarantee based on your high-school diploma because you were too lackadaisical about your education and decided to party instead?
Every time you allow someone to make a decision for you, you give up your freedom and responsibility for the action. Those who take your freedom in such a fashion are the most likely to claim that you have the most freedom. Beware this delusion. If you abdicate your responsibility and hand it to another, you run the risk of finding yourself incabable of exercising any particular freedom in your future if for no other reason than simply because you're completely incompetent. Those who allow such things to occur do not understand the connection between freedom and responsibility. Those who would perpetuate the loss of freedoms or responsibilities also may not understand the connection. Think carefully any time you say, "I'll take care of that for you," to another person. You may do them more harm than good.
A valuable note: If you use your freedom irresponsibly, you will lose it. Think about it. If you commit a crime and end up in jail, your freedom is gone. If you fail to go to school, you may find yourself stuck in a desk job and wondering, at age 40, what the hell happened? Wondering why you have no financial freedom and are living from paycheck to paycheck. How depressing. Once lost, your freedoms become difficult to regain. Look forward with clear eyes and protect your future freedoms with your present responsibility.
If you give up your responsibility and freedom willingly, it is a slap in the face to those who gave you your freedom. Think of the veterans who fought for your freedoms. Think of the immigrants who battled their way through obstacles and hardships to get their butts to this country, because it was free, to give their children, your ancestors, the freedom to build a life better than that which was left behind in the old countries.
Those who take responsibility for their actions are the purveyors of freedom for all. Those who seek to blame others for their ills are, in some fashion or another, slaves in their own minds, having given up their freedoms and responsibilities.
Often people seek to get monetary compensation for natural calamities. These people are not free either, though they seem to believe they are. They are slaves to their own "handout" mentality. Such illicitly-gotten money will soon be gone simply because the value of a handout cannot be perceived because of it's ill-gotten nature. People laud the paychecks of sports figures. Baseball, Basketball, Football, etc. etc. Jo DiMaggio once said, "There are no rich men's sons in baseball." Now why do you think that is? Simple: They have no stomach for the effort required to be in baseball. I suspect that also answers the question of why so many of the best baseballers are immigrants from third-world countries.
"Life responds to deserve, not to need." --Jim Rohn. Those who receive without deserving to will soon lose that which they received. The freedom to deserve things carries with it the responsibility to act with care for that which was received. Fortunately, such deserving also carries with it an equivalent sense of responsibility for that which was received. The guy who makes his own chit will take good care of it. Ever give your kid a toy for Christmas and find out it's destroyed an hour or two later and forgotten in a pile of wreckage? How dispappointing is that? Do you have any doubt that if continued, that kind of behavior will continue throughout the child's life? Is there some damage that will occur to the child if they pay for their own car as opposed to you buying it for him?
All too often, people in a free society are deluded into believing that freedom and entitlement are the same thing. This mindset causes a fast erosion of freedoms. There is nothing in the law of nature or of this country which says that healthcare should be given to every person. Every person should be able to work for it, sure. There is no law that says that every person in this country should have a higher education. Only that they should be able to work for it. Does that sound harsh? Again, what's to stop a person from getting an education necessary to command the kind of job which comes with a health benefit? Only his lack of a sense of responsibility.
The American populace in their own free society, has a delusion that Freedom and Entitlement both mean the same thing. They do not. In order for freedom to work, entitlement has to be eliminated. Once again, life responds to deserve, not need. And certainly not to a vaporous concept such as entitlement.
I suppose it could be said, the more responsibility which is accepted by a person, the more free that person will be.
--Wag--
Monday, October 31, 2005
Turning a new leaf
Exactly 9 days ago, an extraordinary event occurred in my life. One which will NEVER happen again.
I turned 40.
You may think to yourself, “Uh, oh. He’s going to talk about the tragedy of it all. The black balloons are coming out!” Well, YOU may not say it but I hear people say it all the time. Rest assured, it’s no tragedy to turn 40.
At first glance, given the assumption that people generally expect to live to about 72 years old, my life could be seen as being more than half over. But I don’t look at it that way. I look at it as just being on the cusp, the very beginning of some wonderful things.
For starters, I didn’t even begin to be more than marginally productive in my life until about the age of 20. After that, I spent the next 10 or 12 years LEARNING how to live life. That brought me to about 32 years old. It was only then I realized I was really starting to get a grip on what life is all about. It was only then I began to be a productive member of society.
And the point?
I feel that now is the first time in my life I might know what I’m doing. The first time I feel, without reservation, that if I put my hand to a project or a task I can accomplish it.
But what about turning 40? Well, my friends, I haven’t turned 40. I’ve turned 8. For the last 8 years, I’ve been preparing for this moment in my life where I can look ahead and see I have 4 more “eights” of years ahead of me. If my personal and professional growth continues as it has in the past “eight” of years, having four more of those “eights” will bring about an extraordinary life for me.
Well, then, what brought about so much change during the past eight years?
I discovered a mentor. This is a man who holds me responsible for myself and my commitments. Many have been the times when I’ve made statements of marvelous plans for my future and my friends have not held me responsible for those plans and neither did I. My newfound mentor has begun to hold me responsible for not only reaching my goals but also for setting worthwhile objectives in the first place. Granted, these are all things which I should have been doing on my own all along, however, I simply did not know how. He taught me how, as well.
By the same token, my mentor sent me to a leadership training seminar at the very beginning of my eight-year emergence from my darkened cocoon. It opened the door to fantastic possibilities and I immediately began to capitalize on those ideas and to learn many more things about human nature, the nature of true leadership and the abilities I have within myself.
But it was more than mere leadership. It was a complete study of how human beings interact and how I interact with others. The value of such lessons can never be understated.
The most key component of my personal growth for the past eight years has been my focused, intentional study of people and relationships between people. I’ve done very well in this particular project of personal development. But as many things as I’ve learned, I’ve also come to realize it’s going to be a lifelong pursuit. I doubt I’ll ever know ALL of the things I could know but I do believe the improvement is ongoing and without end. I expect that if I get the 32 more years I’m hoping to get, I’ll have learned quite a lot.
When I completed the leadership training program, I asked myself, “What’s next?” The answer, of course, was, “Put this all into practice.”
I’m a recluse. A hermit. A loner. More than anything else, I’d rather be at home, sprawled out in ten directions with a book planted firmly on my chest. But that isn’t the kind of thing which builds skill in working with people.
I decided to go to college again. I hadn’t finished much more than three semesters of school and my decision was intended to kill two birds with one stone. One, I’d get a little closer to a degree. Two, and much more importantly, I’d have ample opportunity to relate to other people in an environment which fosters teamwork and interpersonal relationships. Indeed, one of the first classes I took was focused entirely on developing interpersonal relationship and communications skills.
It dovetailed perfectly with the things I had learned in my leadership training class and I did exceptionally well. One of the key things I learned is that where you sit in the classroom has a lot to do with how you focus yourself in the class. Although, I didn’t do a comprehensive study of it, I found that sitting in the exact center of the classroom was ideal for that class. It put me in the middle of every conversation and dialogue and directly in the center of the instructor’s gaze.
It scared me to death! Y’see, I was used to sitting in the very back of the class so nobody would know I was there. The teacher couldn’t see me and I could learn and study and test and never let anyone else be the wiser. Sitting in the middle of a communications skills class was an adventure!
On the other hand, when I took Economics, I sat in the front right corner of the class, and discovered that it gave me my sole option about whether or not to participate in class discussions. If I raised my hand, the teacher would notice. If I sat silently, the teacher would direct her attention to the center of the class and I could pay attention and hear everything which went on in the room. For such a subject matter, it was perfect because I could control the direction of my instruction.
Those are merely a couple of minor observations about the several classes I took. The most important thing I learned, however, was this: being in a social situation such as a classroom presents golden opportunities for personal growth and learning. We learn a lot from books, to be sure, but we learn the most when we are in the middle of a group of people, listening to them, testing ideas with them and discussing our ideas and thoughts with them.
It’s no wonder I’ve learned so much in the last eight years. During this precious period of my life, I’ve spent more time in the company of other people than I ever did in the prior 32 years. No kidding; that’s how much of a hermit I was!
So, as a 40-year old man, I’m poised on the boundary of wonderful things. I have plans, goals and visions which extend far beyond any which have ever been in my life before. I have opportunities which I’ve never encountered before. My confidence is greater than ever before. I’ve searched and found the vision of a life ahead which can be readily accomplished and which will be a reward unto itself.
Indeed, I’m thoroughly excited about my next 4 “eights” of years.
Forty? Hah! It’s a mere beginning!
--Wag--
I turned 40.
You may think to yourself, “Uh, oh. He’s going to talk about the tragedy of it all. The black balloons are coming out!” Well, YOU may not say it but I hear people say it all the time. Rest assured, it’s no tragedy to turn 40.
At first glance, given the assumption that people generally expect to live to about 72 years old, my life could be seen as being more than half over. But I don’t look at it that way. I look at it as just being on the cusp, the very beginning of some wonderful things.
For starters, I didn’t even begin to be more than marginally productive in my life until about the age of 20. After that, I spent the next 10 or 12 years LEARNING how to live life. That brought me to about 32 years old. It was only then I realized I was really starting to get a grip on what life is all about. It was only then I began to be a productive member of society.
And the point?
I feel that now is the first time in my life I might know what I’m doing. The first time I feel, without reservation, that if I put my hand to a project or a task I can accomplish it.
But what about turning 40? Well, my friends, I haven’t turned 40. I’ve turned 8. For the last 8 years, I’ve been preparing for this moment in my life where I can look ahead and see I have 4 more “eights” of years ahead of me. If my personal and professional growth continues as it has in the past “eight” of years, having four more of those “eights” will bring about an extraordinary life for me.
Well, then, what brought about so much change during the past eight years?
I discovered a mentor. This is a man who holds me responsible for myself and my commitments. Many have been the times when I’ve made statements of marvelous plans for my future and my friends have not held me responsible for those plans and neither did I. My newfound mentor has begun to hold me responsible for not only reaching my goals but also for setting worthwhile objectives in the first place. Granted, these are all things which I should have been doing on my own all along, however, I simply did not know how. He taught me how, as well.
By the same token, my mentor sent me to a leadership training seminar at the very beginning of my eight-year emergence from my darkened cocoon. It opened the door to fantastic possibilities and I immediately began to capitalize on those ideas and to learn many more things about human nature, the nature of true leadership and the abilities I have within myself.
But it was more than mere leadership. It was a complete study of how human beings interact and how I interact with others. The value of such lessons can never be understated.
The most key component of my personal growth for the past eight years has been my focused, intentional study of people and relationships between people. I’ve done very well in this particular project of personal development. But as many things as I’ve learned, I’ve also come to realize it’s going to be a lifelong pursuit. I doubt I’ll ever know ALL of the things I could know but I do believe the improvement is ongoing and without end. I expect that if I get the 32 more years I’m hoping to get, I’ll have learned quite a lot.
When I completed the leadership training program, I asked myself, “What’s next?” The answer, of course, was, “Put this all into practice.”
I’m a recluse. A hermit. A loner. More than anything else, I’d rather be at home, sprawled out in ten directions with a book planted firmly on my chest. But that isn’t the kind of thing which builds skill in working with people.
I decided to go to college again. I hadn’t finished much more than three semesters of school and my decision was intended to kill two birds with one stone. One, I’d get a little closer to a degree. Two, and much more importantly, I’d have ample opportunity to relate to other people in an environment which fosters teamwork and interpersonal relationships. Indeed, one of the first classes I took was focused entirely on developing interpersonal relationship and communications skills.
It dovetailed perfectly with the things I had learned in my leadership training class and I did exceptionally well. One of the key things I learned is that where you sit in the classroom has a lot to do with how you focus yourself in the class. Although, I didn’t do a comprehensive study of it, I found that sitting in the exact center of the classroom was ideal for that class. It put me in the middle of every conversation and dialogue and directly in the center of the instructor’s gaze.
It scared me to death! Y’see, I was used to sitting in the very back of the class so nobody would know I was there. The teacher couldn’t see me and I could learn and study and test and never let anyone else be the wiser. Sitting in the middle of a communications skills class was an adventure!
On the other hand, when I took Economics, I sat in the front right corner of the class, and discovered that it gave me my sole option about whether or not to participate in class discussions. If I raised my hand, the teacher would notice. If I sat silently, the teacher would direct her attention to the center of the class and I could pay attention and hear everything which went on in the room. For such a subject matter, it was perfect because I could control the direction of my instruction.
Those are merely a couple of minor observations about the several classes I took. The most important thing I learned, however, was this: being in a social situation such as a classroom presents golden opportunities for personal growth and learning. We learn a lot from books, to be sure, but we learn the most when we are in the middle of a group of people, listening to them, testing ideas with them and discussing our ideas and thoughts with them.
It’s no wonder I’ve learned so much in the last eight years. During this precious period of my life, I’ve spent more time in the company of other people than I ever did in the prior 32 years. No kidding; that’s how much of a hermit I was!
So, as a 40-year old man, I’m poised on the boundary of wonderful things. I have plans, goals and visions which extend far beyond any which have ever been in my life before. I have opportunities which I’ve never encountered before. My confidence is greater than ever before. I’ve searched and found the vision of a life ahead which can be readily accomplished and which will be a reward unto itself.
Indeed, I’m thoroughly excited about my next 4 “eights” of years.
Forty? Hah! It’s a mere beginning!
--Wag--
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Radio interview
I did a radio interview this past Sunday. First time in my life I've ever done a real media "event." Kinda cool, actually.
The link to the media is here: Interview
I thought it went better than expected. For some reason, I had a fear that the interview might turn a little antagonistic but both the host and myself kept our cool in spite of our differences of opinion.
Rather enjoyable experience.
--Wag--
The link to the media is here: Interview
I thought it went better than expected. For some reason, I had a fear that the interview might turn a little antagonistic but both the host and myself kept our cool in spite of our differences of opinion.
Rather enjoyable experience.
--Wag--
Monday, September 26, 2005
". . . Not that there's anything wrong with that."
As you know, I'm an atheist and don't believe in God. However, that doesn't mean I'm entirely opposed to religion, though I don't believe in religion either. If someone wants to believe in a supreme being, more power to them. However, sometimes, people take it to the realm of asinie stupidity, too. I know why: they are being told what to believe from the pulpit and they don't consider for themselves whether or not what they are told has merit in the real world.
I'm not gay but I have gay friends, "not that there's anything wrong with that." (New cliche in the straight world, friends.) I think we're trying not to offend gays for some reason. Maybe they've had enough offense. I'm sure they have, frankly. Some of my gay friends have horrendous stories of their mistreatment at the hands of really macho men who, in some cases, happen to be religious, as well.
That said, I don't oppose the "gay movement" but I don't support it, either except from a viewpoint of treating human beings like, well, like human beings. I'm pretty neutral on the actual subject of "gayness" frankly.
This morning, a very good Christian friend sent me some letters to the editor. Here are some of my thoughts on those letters. The letters are prefaced with "LTE" and my comments are prefaced by "--Wag--".
--Wag--
---------------Begin-----------------
> Three great Letters to the Editor
LTE The American cesspool
As far as I am concerned, there is no mystery at all why the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to get the Ten Commandments removed from all public places. They don't want future generations growing up to have any idea of God's moral code.
The pagan liberals in our society are unwilling to alter their behavior for the sake of anyone, including God and his truth. Their demand for the "freedom" to do anything one darn well pleases regardless of whether it is right or wrong has multiplied the pain in our society so greatly.
--Wag-- Clearly, "right" and "wrong" have not been defined to everyone's satisfaction. That's why we have the wars we do. Also, Pagans are a "to each his own" and "harm no other" kind of people, regardless of the bad press they've received from various religions over the past few millenia. To lump them with liberals does them a disservice and gives liberals more credit than they deserve! (Yes, I still love my liberal friends, too!)
LTE I used to wonder how a society could have become so bad at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah that homosexual bands would go through the streets demanding that strangers in town be released to them for the purpose of homosexual rape. I can see now how a society could decline into that kind of cesspool. I think it's possible that it could happen again in our world.
Marilyn Brenden
--Wag-- Sodom and Gomorrah. Personally, I don't believe the story as being factual, but supposing it were, it was 4,000 years ago or thereabouts, right? Since then, no other cities have been similarly condemned. Also, I'm not seeing a pattern here which would lead me to believe that any such city on earth is in jeopardy of having "homosexual bands" roving the streets demanding sex from anyone. And don't use the gay pride parades as an example of said implied "roving." Those parades are of gays wanting sexual expression with each other, not everyone else.
LTE Agree ... or else!
The homosexual agenda is not equal rights - it's special rights, pure and simple. There is nothing equal to it. Equality allows equal members to disagree. Dictatorship says some people are more special than others.
--Wag-- Affirmative Action is "special rights." The only special rights gays have had over the years is their rights to be tread upon and treated as less than human. In other words, they've had less rights than anyone else for a very long time now.
Anyone who believes that gays are NOT human, raise their hand. Anyone who believes that Jesus' love does not extend to gays, raise your hand. Anyone who believes Buddha or Allah hates gays and thinks of them as nothing more than animals, raise your hand. Get the idea? God isn't hating gays, insofar as I can tell. But certain other people are.
LTE For instance, my relationship with my husband allows me to disagree with him, and him me. I can reject certain of his beliefs, and he won't divorce me for it.
Ask Rolf Szabo how equal he feels to homosexuals now after getting fired from Kodak just because he refused to agree.
The homosexual agenda says, "Agree with our views or else."
Dorothy McGrath
--Wag-- This is the epitome of hypocrisy. I'm amazed that any Christian could even write such a thing and thereby admit that they are blinded by their own absurdity. For as long as I can remember, Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. have all said, "Believe as we do, or else you're going to burn in hell." It's tantamount to saying, "If you don't believe as we do, god is going to torture you for the rest of forever." I think I can rest my case with Ms. McGrath.
LTE Don't support them
I think the article Joe Kovacs wrote about companies supporting immoral practices was overdue. (I realize you have been reporting on the subject for years.)
I think the best way to fight these policies is to not buy products from companies that support immorality, to not work directly as an employee of such a company, and to invest in companies that only support traditional marriage by their policies.
Brian Wood
--Wag-- Go ahead!!! My prices will go down and though unemployment will go up for a while, it will decrease when self-righteous people have to go to work for evil companies in order to feed and shelter their families.
--Wag-- An anecdote you may appreciate: A friend of mine went to her employer to ask if they had domestic partner benefits, ie., health insurance coverage for her boyfriend. The company said, "Yes, but only if the couple is same-sex." How's that for "reverse discrimination?"
I'm not gay but I have gay friends, "not that there's anything wrong with that." (New cliche in the straight world, friends.) I think we're trying not to offend gays for some reason. Maybe they've had enough offense. I'm sure they have, frankly. Some of my gay friends have horrendous stories of their mistreatment at the hands of really macho men who, in some cases, happen to be religious, as well.
That said, I don't oppose the "gay movement" but I don't support it, either except from a viewpoint of treating human beings like, well, like human beings. I'm pretty neutral on the actual subject of "gayness" frankly.
This morning, a very good Christian friend sent me some letters to the editor. Here are some of my thoughts on those letters. The letters are prefaced with "LTE" and my comments are prefaced by "--Wag--".
--Wag--
---------------Begin-----------------
> Three great Letters to the Editor
LTE The American cesspool
As far as I am concerned, there is no mystery at all why the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to get the Ten Commandments removed from all public places. They don't want future generations growing up to have any idea of God's moral code.
The pagan liberals in our society are unwilling to alter their behavior for the sake of anyone, including God and his truth. Their demand for the "freedom" to do anything one darn well pleases regardless of whether it is right or wrong has multiplied the pain in our society so greatly.
--Wag-- Clearly, "right" and "wrong" have not been defined to everyone's satisfaction. That's why we have the wars we do. Also, Pagans are a "to each his own" and "harm no other" kind of people, regardless of the bad press they've received from various religions over the past few millenia. To lump them with liberals does them a disservice and gives liberals more credit than they deserve! (Yes, I still love my liberal friends, too!)
LTE I used to wonder how a society could have become so bad at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah that homosexual bands would go through the streets demanding that strangers in town be released to them for the purpose of homosexual rape. I can see now how a society could decline into that kind of cesspool. I think it's possible that it could happen again in our world.
Marilyn Brenden
--Wag-- Sodom and Gomorrah. Personally, I don't believe the story as being factual, but supposing it were, it was 4,000 years ago or thereabouts, right? Since then, no other cities have been similarly condemned. Also, I'm not seeing a pattern here which would lead me to believe that any such city on earth is in jeopardy of having "homosexual bands" roving the streets demanding sex from anyone. And don't use the gay pride parades as an example of said implied "roving." Those parades are of gays wanting sexual expression with each other, not everyone else.
LTE Agree ... or else!
The homosexual agenda is not equal rights - it's special rights, pure and simple. There is nothing equal to it. Equality allows equal members to disagree. Dictatorship says some people are more special than others.
--Wag-- Affirmative Action is "special rights." The only special rights gays have had over the years is their rights to be tread upon and treated as less than human. In other words, they've had less rights than anyone else for a very long time now.
Anyone who believes that gays are NOT human, raise their hand. Anyone who believes that Jesus' love does not extend to gays, raise your hand. Anyone who believes Buddha or Allah hates gays and thinks of them as nothing more than animals, raise your hand. Get the idea? God isn't hating gays, insofar as I can tell. But certain other people are.
LTE For instance, my relationship with my husband allows me to disagree with him, and him me. I can reject certain of his beliefs, and he won't divorce me for it.
Ask Rolf Szabo how equal he feels to homosexuals now after getting fired from Kodak just because he refused to agree.
The homosexual agenda says, "Agree with our views or else."
Dorothy McGrath
--Wag-- This is the epitome of hypocrisy. I'm amazed that any Christian could even write such a thing and thereby admit that they are blinded by their own absurdity. For as long as I can remember, Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. have all said, "Believe as we do, or else you're going to burn in hell." It's tantamount to saying, "If you don't believe as we do, god is going to torture you for the rest of forever." I think I can rest my case with Ms. McGrath.
LTE Don't support them
I think the article Joe Kovacs wrote about companies supporting immoral practices was overdue. (I realize you have been reporting on the subject for years.)
I think the best way to fight these policies is to not buy products from companies that support immorality, to not work directly as an employee of such a company, and to invest in companies that only support traditional marriage by their policies.
Brian Wood
--Wag-- Go ahead!!! My prices will go down and though unemployment will go up for a while, it will decrease when self-righteous people have to go to work for evil companies in order to feed and shelter their families.
--Wag-- An anecdote you may appreciate: A friend of mine went to her employer to ask if they had domestic partner benefits, ie., health insurance coverage for her boyfriend. The company said, "Yes, but only if the couple is same-sex." How's that for "reverse discrimination?"
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Stories of a former Mormon missionary
I posted this on another forum a couple of days ago and it got a good response. Thought y'all might like to read it here.
--Wag--
----------------------------------
I wasn't going to respond to this thread but something M. said suggests that this story might be appropriate here.
My companion and I (I had been on my mission about three months) were teaching a referral. The man was referred by his Mormon wife. She had been inactive for many years but showed up at church one day, at the wrong ward and asked to have the missionaries come and teach her disabled husband. She was white, he was black.
So, we show up a few days later and she invites us in. She was on her way to work and left with a smile and a wave. We sat down with Bob. Yup, that was his name. The house reeked. It was filthy dirty from top to bottom, end to end. Very sad. Bob was, in fact, disabled. We sat there and tried to have a conversation with him. It was impossible, really, but we were able to make him smile a couple of times.
What was his problem, you ask? Bob was an alcoholic. The most extreme case I've ever even heard of, much less seen and I hope to never see it again. I suspect his wife wanted him to get off the booze and figured the Mormon Boys would be especially able to make it happen.
Bob was so badly incapacitated by his alcoholism he couldn't move from his bed. Ever. He had a walker by the bed but he couldn't even use that. Many was the time, we had to sit there and watch Bob sit on the edge of his bed and relieve himself into a bed pan. Frequently, he would miss. He was embarrassed just as much as we were. Bob was never NOT drunk. And I mean, slobbering on himself drunk. 24/7. I kid you not. Seemed to have a good heart but he was difficult to understand for the most part.
My companion, however, was a good guy. Misguided, but a good guy. He felt we could help and he insisted that we go over there every other day. I should confess, we taught a lot of "discussions" to Bob in order to make the mission number counters happy. He would sit there and listen but since we were virtually incapable of talking about anything else anyway, we just ran discussions through his addled brain. Just as well. We generally didn't have much else to do during the day anyway. My companion was constantly trying to figure out how to get Bob to be able to go to church with us. The bedpan was a permanent blockade to that effort, thankfully. Can you imagine him whipping it out during Sacrament Meeting?
One day as we were "teaching" Bob he seemed a little more lucid than usual. My companion, good-hearted fellow that he was, felt "inspired" to give Bob a blessing of healing. We offered but Bob wanted to pray first so we did. My companion prayed, then I prayed, then Bob prayed. Halfway through, he was crying hard and totally emotional. We started to cry with him. We all had a very powerful emotional experience which we promptly labelled "the spirit" for Bob's edification, we being the wisest of the three of us.
Then we gave him a blessing of healing. I annointed and my companion did the honors. Among other things, he pronounced him "healed."
Afterward, Bob, though still fairly sauced, said he didn't want any more booze ever again. We were internally in celebration mode. Bob told us to dump all the booze into the sink which we promptly did while he watched. Being a virgin to booze, the smell was nearly enough to get me drunk! Maybe I was just giddy over the most "spiritual" experience I had ever had in my life. Who knows. We cleaned out the fridge, the cupboards; everything. No booze was left in the house when we were done. Bob even dug out a couple of bottles from under his pillow and said there was one under the mattress he couldn't get. To his credit, there were no other bottles in the bed. We checked.
We left after a couple more hours and made sure Bob had water and juice close at hand. Food as well. He was elated. We were elated. I have little doubt that I wrote about this in my mission journal. I'll have to look when I get home.
The next day, we went over there and for cryin' out loud, Bob was sober still! His wife was there. She was in tears and thanked us and praised god. We all prayed. We started over with the discussions with Bob. His wife went to work. We stayed for a couple of hours. Turns out, Bob was a pretty cool guy and we actually carried on a great conversation with him.
For the next few days, we were at Bob's house, guaranteed, every day. Bob's health improved dramatically and he hadn't used the bed pan in a couple days, at least, not while we were there. We were looking forward to the holy grail of taking him to church. Bob committed to baptism. All was going according to plan. Couldn't have had a more picture-perfect story. He was managing to get around with his walker by himself a little bit for the first time in years. The miracle couldn't be denied. I was convinced that the Mormon church MUST have been true. It was the reason I had gone on a mission.
For several days in a row, we hadn't run into his wife. Her work schedule had changed or we were just getting there later and kept missing her. I don't recall for certain.
One day, after about 10 days, we showed up at the house and Bob was pi$$-drunk. We were astounded. What could possibly have gone wrong? It was the most depressing thing I had seen in my life. From the highest hill on the roller coaster of emotion to the very bottom of the most bottomless pit of depression. We couldn't get anything out of Bob and it was useless to talk to him. He was toasted.
Later, the next Sunday, I believe, the bishop was able to find out what had happened. His wife, for whatever reason, couldn't bear to lose control of her husband in this fashion. For some reason, we think she liked being his boss and making sure she kept him in prison in his bed, unable to move on his own. The previous evening, she had come home with two or three cheap bottles of rot gut whiskey and proceeded to not only get Bob all liquored up but got hammered herself. Then, she took away all his juice and water and food from off the bedstand and left him with nothing but a couple of bottles of booze. Since we hadn't showed up until later in the afternoon, he had had all day to do nothing but be thirsty and hungry with nothing to drink but the bottles by the bed while his wife went to work. I suspect it's a wonder he hadn't died by the time we got there.
The bishop asked us not to go back and that he would send people to do what they could for Bob. We were devastated. To this day, whenever I think of Bob, I wonder if he would have become a Mormon to the end of his days because of "us boys."
A miracle happened in that house. Not from god, I have no doubt. But a lost man found comfort in the friendship of a couple of wet-behind-the-ears Mormon kids and saw a chance at a better life. He had healed himself, I have no doubt.
He was then soundly and decisively destroyed by his evil wife. I have little doubt that Bob didn't survive long after that. His poor liver couldn't have stood the strain. But we never found out.
Do I regret my mission? In some ways, yes. Even if we had been able to get Bob completely off the booze and made him Mormon in the process, I have to believe I would be happy if he were still Mormon these 20 years later. I'd be happy that he had found a means to get his life back from the bottle that stole it from him. I'm sad now that such was not to be. He's probably the only contact we ever made which I still think about with a touch of fondness and sadness at the same time.
There were others who changed their lives, patched up their marriages, began to live more productive lives because we were there to touch them and make them feel like someone cared.
Y'know what, though? I think I've done MORE good for people now that I've gotten out of Mormonism. I've been instrumental in guiding people to the help they have needed for their various problems and in getting out of Mormonism. We all have. We just need to remember that.
Recently, I heard a quote which goes something like, "People without direction in their lives are very susceptible to cults." I think back on my mission and I fealize that is very likely true. We seldom converted or even spoke to people unless they were truly floating along without direction in the stream of life. Every one of them. I don't feel too bad about that now. At least they have SOMEthing, assuming they're still active. I've lost touch with many of them. I hope that if they are still active they are still happy.
One of the families I remember is a complex issue. The bad news is, one girl got married in the temple and had eight kids before she caught her RM husband having an affair with her best friend. THAT is a tragedy I wish I could have prevented by not baptizing her.
Sometimes, I wish I hadn't done the mission. But looking back, I have to say that I'm not going to worry too much about it. It's in the past and I can't go back and live the lives for people that they could have lived. All I can do is make sure that from this point forward, I can assist others in getting over their issues, assuming they want it. I just won't be cramming it self-righteously down their throats.
--Wag--
--Wag--
----------------------------------
I wasn't going to respond to this thread but something M. said suggests that this story might be appropriate here.
My companion and I (I had been on my mission about three months) were teaching a referral. The man was referred by his Mormon wife. She had been inactive for many years but showed up at church one day, at the wrong ward and asked to have the missionaries come and teach her disabled husband. She was white, he was black.
So, we show up a few days later and she invites us in. She was on her way to work and left with a smile and a wave. We sat down with Bob. Yup, that was his name. The house reeked. It was filthy dirty from top to bottom, end to end. Very sad. Bob was, in fact, disabled. We sat there and tried to have a conversation with him. It was impossible, really, but we were able to make him smile a couple of times.
What was his problem, you ask? Bob was an alcoholic. The most extreme case I've ever even heard of, much less seen and I hope to never see it again. I suspect his wife wanted him to get off the booze and figured the Mormon Boys would be especially able to make it happen.
Bob was so badly incapacitated by his alcoholism he couldn't move from his bed. Ever. He had a walker by the bed but he couldn't even use that. Many was the time, we had to sit there and watch Bob sit on the edge of his bed and relieve himself into a bed pan. Frequently, he would miss. He was embarrassed just as much as we were. Bob was never NOT drunk. And I mean, slobbering on himself drunk. 24/7. I kid you not. Seemed to have a good heart but he was difficult to understand for the most part.
My companion, however, was a good guy. Misguided, but a good guy. He felt we could help and he insisted that we go over there every other day. I should confess, we taught a lot of "discussions" to Bob in order to make the mission number counters happy. He would sit there and listen but since we were virtually incapable of talking about anything else anyway, we just ran discussions through his addled brain. Just as well. We generally didn't have much else to do during the day anyway. My companion was constantly trying to figure out how to get Bob to be able to go to church with us. The bedpan was a permanent blockade to that effort, thankfully. Can you imagine him whipping it out during Sacrament Meeting?
One day as we were "teaching" Bob he seemed a little more lucid than usual. My companion, good-hearted fellow that he was, felt "inspired" to give Bob a blessing of healing. We offered but Bob wanted to pray first so we did. My companion prayed, then I prayed, then Bob prayed. Halfway through, he was crying hard and totally emotional. We started to cry with him. We all had a very powerful emotional experience which we promptly labelled "the spirit" for Bob's edification, we being the wisest of the three of us.
Then we gave him a blessing of healing. I annointed and my companion did the honors. Among other things, he pronounced him "healed."
Afterward, Bob, though still fairly sauced, said he didn't want any more booze ever again. We were internally in celebration mode. Bob told us to dump all the booze into the sink which we promptly did while he watched. Being a virgin to booze, the smell was nearly enough to get me drunk! Maybe I was just giddy over the most "spiritual" experience I had ever had in my life. Who knows. We cleaned out the fridge, the cupboards; everything. No booze was left in the house when we were done. Bob even dug out a couple of bottles from under his pillow and said there was one under the mattress he couldn't get. To his credit, there were no other bottles in the bed. We checked.
We left after a couple more hours and made sure Bob had water and juice close at hand. Food as well. He was elated. We were elated. I have little doubt that I wrote about this in my mission journal. I'll have to look when I get home.
The next day, we went over there and for cryin' out loud, Bob was sober still! His wife was there. She was in tears and thanked us and praised god. We all prayed. We started over with the discussions with Bob. His wife went to work. We stayed for a couple of hours. Turns out, Bob was a pretty cool guy and we actually carried on a great conversation with him.
For the next few days, we were at Bob's house, guaranteed, every day. Bob's health improved dramatically and he hadn't used the bed pan in a couple days, at least, not while we were there. We were looking forward to the holy grail of taking him to church. Bob committed to baptism. All was going according to plan. Couldn't have had a more picture-perfect story. He was managing to get around with his walker by himself a little bit for the first time in years. The miracle couldn't be denied. I was convinced that the Mormon church MUST have been true. It was the reason I had gone on a mission.
For several days in a row, we hadn't run into his wife. Her work schedule had changed or we were just getting there later and kept missing her. I don't recall for certain.
One day, after about 10 days, we showed up at the house and Bob was pi$$-drunk. We were astounded. What could possibly have gone wrong? It was the most depressing thing I had seen in my life. From the highest hill on the roller coaster of emotion to the very bottom of the most bottomless pit of depression. We couldn't get anything out of Bob and it was useless to talk to him. He was toasted.
Later, the next Sunday, I believe, the bishop was able to find out what had happened. His wife, for whatever reason, couldn't bear to lose control of her husband in this fashion. For some reason, we think she liked being his boss and making sure she kept him in prison in his bed, unable to move on his own. The previous evening, she had come home with two or three cheap bottles of rot gut whiskey and proceeded to not only get Bob all liquored up but got hammered herself. Then, she took away all his juice and water and food from off the bedstand and left him with nothing but a couple of bottles of booze. Since we hadn't showed up until later in the afternoon, he had had all day to do nothing but be thirsty and hungry with nothing to drink but the bottles by the bed while his wife went to work. I suspect it's a wonder he hadn't died by the time we got there.
The bishop asked us not to go back and that he would send people to do what they could for Bob. We were devastated. To this day, whenever I think of Bob, I wonder if he would have become a Mormon to the end of his days because of "us boys."
A miracle happened in that house. Not from god, I have no doubt. But a lost man found comfort in the friendship of a couple of wet-behind-the-ears Mormon kids and saw a chance at a better life. He had healed himself, I have no doubt.
He was then soundly and decisively destroyed by his evil wife. I have little doubt that Bob didn't survive long after that. His poor liver couldn't have stood the strain. But we never found out.
Do I regret my mission? In some ways, yes. Even if we had been able to get Bob completely off the booze and made him Mormon in the process, I have to believe I would be happy if he were still Mormon these 20 years later. I'd be happy that he had found a means to get his life back from the bottle that stole it from him. I'm sad now that such was not to be. He's probably the only contact we ever made which I still think about with a touch of fondness and sadness at the same time.
There were others who changed their lives, patched up their marriages, began to live more productive lives because we were there to touch them and make them feel like someone cared.
Y'know what, though? I think I've done MORE good for people now that I've gotten out of Mormonism. I've been instrumental in guiding people to the help they have needed for their various problems and in getting out of Mormonism. We all have. We just need to remember that.
Recently, I heard a quote which goes something like, "People without direction in their lives are very susceptible to cults." I think back on my mission and I fealize that is very likely true. We seldom converted or even spoke to people unless they were truly floating along without direction in the stream of life. Every one of them. I don't feel too bad about that now. At least they have SOMEthing, assuming they're still active. I've lost touch with many of them. I hope that if they are still active they are still happy.
One of the families I remember is a complex issue. The bad news is, one girl got married in the temple and had eight kids before she caught her RM husband having an affair with her best friend. THAT is a tragedy I wish I could have prevented by not baptizing her.
Sometimes, I wish I hadn't done the mission. But looking back, I have to say that I'm not going to worry too much about it. It's in the past and I can't go back and live the lives for people that they could have lived. All I can do is make sure that from this point forward, I can assist others in getting over their issues, assuming they want it. I just won't be cramming it self-righteously down their throats.
--Wag--
Monday, September 19, 2005
Preachings of an atheist
Okay, you Christian hypocrites, listen up: (If you're not a true hypocrite, this will prove to be merely entertaining. Enjoy!)
Start by reading Matthew Chapter 6, verses 1 through 6.
Basically, for those of you who don't care enough to look it up and read it, it says, and I paraphrase, "don't do good things to be seen of men, do it in secret." Period. End of story.
So why, oh, why do we see so many people from Christian groups spending so much time on T.V. seeking their 5 minutes of fame for all of their generosity with disaster victims? Happens every time there's a disaster. Why don't they follow the advice of Jesus and keep it to themselves and do some good?
Don't get me wrong, I believe they need to publicize the good they do but do they have to say just how wonderfully Christian they are while they're doing it? Bear in mind that every hypocritical thing that Christians do just makes them all that much more suspect.
Shut up, already! It's getting nauseating!
(To those of you Christians who are NOT hypocrites, this article should just be a conviction to you that you're doing the right thing already. YOU people have my respect for your decency and your integrity. Carry on and keep doing the good for which you are NOT getting credit. Except for the promise in Matt 6:1-6, of course! ;-) )
What brought about this diatribe, you ask? I got this next piece in an e-mail from a friend this morning. My friend is a great guy and I appreciate him sending me these things. You decide if I'm over reacting:
This morning's e-mail in its entirety ----------------
This was written by a man who is a survivor of the hurricane. A little different twist on what we have been hearing in the media.
To my friends and family:
What I have seen since Katrina:
The poor and the wealthy hurt by the storm.
Black, White, Hispanic, Oriental and Indian all hurt by the storm.
Christian people giving, giving, giving.
Churches going all out to minister in Jesus' name.
Neighbors going door to door helping one another.
Thugs and hoodlums going door to door looking for someone vunerable.
Ice and water being fought over as police tried to keep the peace.
People coming up from New Orleans taking over empty houses because shelters are full.
Out of town volunteers coming with food and staying for now a week still serving it.
The Churches all over this part of the country doing what people do in a crisis.
FEMA doing a wonderful job in getting help to us.
The Red Cross doing a great job in the shelters.
The Salvation Army doing a great job in the community.
Four hundred crewmen from everywhere bring back the power to our homes, churches and businesses.
Lines at service stations a block to a mile long.
National Guardsman patroling the streets of McComb along with Kentucky policemen protecting us from the hoodlums and thugs of McComb, Pike County and New Orleans (the most dangerous city in the world before Katrina.)
Drug dealers working outside shelters.
Doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel working tirelessly, even sleepingin the hospital to do the job God called them to do.
WHAT I HAVE NOT SEEN
The ACLU setting up a feeding line.
People for the American Way helping in the shelters.
The NAACP doing any work whatsover.
The American Atheist organization serving meals in the shelters.
Jesse Jackson directing traffic at the gas stations.
I could go on but you get my message. It's the people with love and compassion who do the work.
The gripers in Congress should come on down and get in line to pass the water and the ice. Are you listening Hillary, Chuck, Teddy and all the sorry loafers we call Senators and Congressmen? They don't have a clue as to what this life is all about here on the Gulf Coast.
Boy I feel better now.
end of e-mail ---------
Now, read this next bit. From an atheist friend of mine, no less. (Strangely, I never knew he was an atheist until this very exchange.) Background: he and one of his friends rounded up all their friends and collected a bunch of contributions of goods and money. They they loaded it into their their R.V. and drove down toward New Orleans to donate it to people who need it. This story is their report back to those of us who contributed. It deserves to be told everywhere which is why I put it up here for starters.
(Identifying comments have been removed, obvious typos fixed.)
Trip log from C.
Where do I even begin... There are so many little stories from the trip, trying to formulate them into semi-interesting reading is proving difficult. I'll start with some snippets.
We set out to meet T. of the World Youth Federation in Baton Rouge, LA.
You cannot stuff as much into a 31' RV as you can a 25' travel trailer, no matter how hard you try. It IS possible to load an RV with so much weight the rear bumper drags the ground. We had so much stuff to take, we had to leave stuff behind!
Driving 1,900 miles with barely an hour's sleep is never a good idea! When you start "seeing things" in the shadows, while driving through the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, it's time to stop! Speaking of Texas, the speed limit is 75mph, unless it's after dark, then it's 65mph. Just to make sure no good deed goes unpunished, I got a ticket at 1:37am for 81mph in an (after dark) 65 zone.
Aside from many long hours and miles, the drive to Baton Rouge was an easy one. We arrived noon-ish Tuesday.
New Orleans: We were not able to get into N.O. due to being under National Guard lockdown. Baton Rouge is on the outskirts and is now the base of operations for the area.
We saw huge parks filled with tent and canopy cities of law enforcment from around the country. Another park filled with the military and national guard headquarters, and landing pads for the daily missions of blackhawk helicopters. Other parks had been filled with utility workers from all over, representing power, gas, telephone and construction to get the city back on it's feet. Hundreds of thousands of people all working on rebuilding the city.
We also saw the tent cities of the now homeless. It sounds cliche' and you hear it on the news everyday, but until you sit and talk with someone, the words never sink in.
"Lost everything" or "The clothes on their backs"
How many times have you heard these things and never thought twice about it. We talked to people, families, and those with extended familes who managed to survive by loading up the family in the car and heading for safety. The storm or subsequent flooding destroyed these people's belongings. Literally the only thing they have left is the clothes on their backs. In some cases, their place of employment is gone, the banks are in shambles, and the pharmacy system is in chaos. These people have not only lost everything but can not GET anything because of the disaster. The bigger chain stores that survived are now empty unless you're looking for plastic flowers and picture frames.
We met people too proud to "take a handout" but also those moved to tears at our generosity. I could never imagine a grown man crying at receiving some old clothes I'll never wear again or over military rations that don't even taste that good. But if you have nothing, ANYTHING is something!
I listened to one man tell me how one wall of his house was found six blocks away and another wall was four blocks away in the other direction. Everything was lost and he agreed replaceable, except for some of his tools that had been handed down for three generations. "Those are irreplaceable"
The System:
The Good: I witnessed convoys of mobile (pre-fabricated) housing sometimes dozens in a row, rolling down highways and streets in Baton Rouge. Also convoys of travel trailers all heading to one staging point. There is an area that contained thousands of temporary homes for the residents now displaced because of the hurricane. We saw some (out of perhaps hundreds) of the shelters set up to aid people now homeless.
We saw FEMA, Red Cross, Salvation Army, E.P.A. (Environmental Protection Agency) National Guard, military, police from around the nation, insurance agencies, all the major utility companies and way too many other organizations to list. Suffice it to say: The gang's all there.
The Bad: I won't name organizations, but I will share some of their shortcomings: this info does not come from the media, or heresay, but things I saw for myself, or was told directly from the people who experienced it.
If you do not register and occupy certain shelters, you may not recieve goods, services or handouts of any kind from that organization. Many of the shelters do not have a "come and go" policy, so once inside, you may not leave.
We spoke to a woman who has two children and tried to get a few clothing items for her kids. Because she was not staying at the shelter, they physically removed the clothing from her hand.
Another organization was kind enough to dump a huge load of clothing into a parking lot. Unfortunately it rained and the clothes became muddy, dirty and moldy. I will post pictures of a bulldozer pushing the mound of clothes to the curb along with the rubble of buildings, as the clothes are now unuseable.
Organizations and shelters only help a small segment of the population. There are still hundreds of thousands who cannot reach the shelters or refuse to live in them.
I can hardly blame them, with the muggings, rapes, murders and molestations it hardly sounds appealing to stay confined with hundreds of people in a small space. This is not the case for every shelter, but the stories I've heard of some . . . . How do you choose where it's safe, rovided you have the means to get there?
There are no major organizations offering aid to the people living in tent cities, at camp grounds, hotels, or are in parking lots.
I am speaking of the large, well-known organizations that everybody donates money or goods to.
Our problem:
We had an RV stuffed to the seams with food, clothing, books & toys, toiletries etc. But alot of it was unsorted and stuffed in boxes and plastic bags. After seeing the horrors of the so called "disaster relief organizations" delivering our donations to them was NOT an option. We wanted to make sure our goods did some good. That they'd go to the people that needed them. That we could reach those overlooked.
The bigger problem was we had not the time or space to unload, sort and hand deliver everything we had. Wednesday we went to one place that helps the elderly and delivered some military rations (food) and water. We went to a tent city, and later returned with some food and clothes. We also went to a hotel that had a banquet room set up for people to come in and get what they needed.
We also took things to different locations. (ie. if one place had too many men's clothes, we'd take it to a place that had none. Or if there were no infants at one location, yet they had clothing, we'd deliver it to places with kids.)
Thursday morning we had hardly touched the RV packed with stuff. As we sat at breakfast T. (from the World Youth Federation) got a phone call.
Pascagoula, Mississippi was severly hit by the hurricane. Yet they have had no outside assitance whatsoever. "LET'S GO!"
It took about two and a half hours to drive there and along the way we witnessed the hurricane's devastation. Not the flooding like New Orleans had received, but the damage caused by gale force winds. Metal billboards and street signs twisted like pretzels, buildings demolished, a Lowes missing a front and a Home Depot without a roof. A yacht sitting in a tree hundreds of yards from water. Trees snapped like pretzels and those that had fallen on homes and cars. On and on for miles and miles.
We were beaming at the thought of being "first in" to offer assitance. No Red Cross, No FEMA. US! On the way we were passed by Airforce One. Bush was surveying the area, and was expected to be on the ground when we got there. (Never saw him though) OK, so Bush beat us there... but only 'cause he had a plane.
Arriving into town we hit heavy traffic and non-working traffic lights.
The city of Pascagoula, Miss. was so excited about "the folks from California, with an RV filled with stuff" we were bringing they gave us A LIGHTS AND SIRENS ESCORT!
If there were ever any question of "why" in my mind, this ended all doubt. These people were so appreciative of our efforts, they parted the sea of traffic, and ran us through intersections so we could get there and deliver our donations!!!
This was a perfect win/win for us and Pascagoula. We unloaded the RV at the fire/EMS station. In talking to the crew, all but one had lost everything and there were several not there at the time that had nothing left as well.
Many of them were now living at the station. They were going to take just what they needed, then load up the ambulances and go into the area's hardest hit and deliver food, water and clothing to those who needed them.
We saw the fire chief shed a tear at our generosity and the smiles on the young kids faces as we gave them toys to play with. We have life long friends at the Acadian EMS station.
In following with the trend and hearing how we've been taking things to those in need, they loaded us up with pallets of MRE's (rations) and water. They had enough and wanted us to take them where needed.
I was really getting tired of loading and unloading the RV but it's for the cause.
We left Baton Rouge Friday morning for the long trek back and got home around 9pm last night. Exhausted!
Would I go back? Yes. There are still so many people who need help, and so many things that need to be done, I feel like I've abandoned them.
Who's going to fix old man so-n-so's holes in the floor of the trailer someone gave him to live in? Who's going to get the medication for the elderly woman? Who's going to help the single mother with two kids get to family living in another state?
For anyone who wonders "What good can I do" or "Why make all the effort" read these stories carefully. Know that my words can in no way explain the gratitude given, or the elation of helping. Know that there were many other stories I haven't written yet.
Ride'on,
Signed,
C. (made a difference)
----------------------------
Comment from M:
Someone told him (C.) that he was earning his wings. We concluded we had just gotten started on filing down his horns!!!
It was an amazing trip and I wish we could have stayed longer as there is so much more "we" could have done. Just a couple of people who want to help out.
I know C. won't say it but I will.
If you are still looking to donate PLEASE look at the organization carefully and realize when that when that crimson colored addition sign says help now, they mean you donate now and they will help weeks from now when they get their act together and are done "sorting".
It is amazing and sad how many people are still in need and overlooked by many of these organizations. We have heard in a disaster who is there to help; they have a lot of short comings. I am amazed they have gone this long. People across the nation are hearing about how they are letting the people down time and time again.
I am glad we went. I wish we could have stayed longer. It is an awesome feeling to know that you made a difference.
Another couple of notes: C. pulls off the redneck look really WELL (it is scary). Somewhere in AZ someone thinks i am C.'s MOM (cuz he told them that). I can relate a Christmas song to almost anything. We have an official name for our disaster relief team.
pictures and more to follow.
------------------------------
And now, a follow-up that I wrote back to C. and the group:
Holy smoke, you guys. Me too. I'm also proud beyond pride's ultimate size to be able to say I know who you are.
When was the last time you saw a 6'4" 260lb man brought to tears in his office in the middle of the day? I had to close my office door just to make sure I didn't spoil my image. You moved me to tears, C.! I consider it an honor that you were able to make that trip and take a part of us with you. I can't remember the last time I was touched so deeply.
If you make another trip, let me know. I don't think I have any more clothing or anything to send but as they say, Cash is King. We'll put something together for you somehow.
Thanks, most of all, for the tip on the big "charitable" organizations and their dismal failure to do any good whatsoever. I read an article earlier today suggesting that many many many good Christian churches were helping and doing so much good for the people in the devastated areas. The guy complained that the atheists and various others weren't doing diddly-squat.
I hope that guy doesn't benefit from this atheist's contribution or those of his atheist friends, whoever they may be. Well, not really, but I'm blown away by the blatant manipulative demeanor of that kind of utter misguided arrogance. Give him some food and tell him to go and fu . . . . Well, better not.
What's good is good and will care for itself. Prayers don't help, wishful thinking doesn't help, radio ads don't help; nothing helps but the people doing what YOU did. What WE did as a club.
Damm. More tears. Damm you C.! for being so generous and eloquent and bringing me into this with you.
It's tough to say but I'll say it anyway, I love ya, you bastard!
--Wag--
C.'s comments back to me:
Wag...
It's very humbling to bring a grown man to tears. Whether it's from recanting of stories, or by merely handing him a pair of Nike's. I have always helped people, but never anything near this magnitude. It's one thing to help someone with some loose change and get a thanks, another to give a man who has nothing something, and get a tear filled hug.
In all honesty I didn't do much. Gathered up some stuff we (a collective "we") no longer needed, loaded it up and drove back East. It required very little sacrifice or energy on my part. Yet to some people it meant the world, it meant life.
Anyway, I am also an atheist but kindly returned the "god bless you's" with Thank you's. I will not scoff at the belief's of others, no matter my personal beliefs. One night I was talking to The Mrs., telling her of the day's events and happened to say "She said god bless you, er some shit"... Now M. overheard this, and she's Catholic. So the rest of the trip we recited "God bless you... er some shit" and couldn't help but chuckle whenever someone else "blessed" me.
Thank you for the kind words and allowing me to help others. I couldn't have done it with out the charity of you and everyone else who helped the cause. I felt partly ashamed at being able to receive the gratitude for something I only played part in. Know that I made mention of the club that backed me to make it possible, and that everyone wished I would extend the thank you's to everyone involved. Yet I could never do the sentiment justice.
Thank you.
and quit yer blabberin ya big cry baby!!! heh heh To quote an old Irish saying... "A tear is a smile we've all lost"... er some shit like that.
C.
And my reply back to him.
For some reason, people think atheists are evil. So be it. The funny thing is, Christians have a tendency to be the more hypocritical of all people if only because they don't care to read Matthew 6:1-6 which says, in a nutshell, "if you do charity, don't do it for the view of men." Yeah, I was raised in a cult religion and used to know this shit inside out and backwards.
Enough of that, however. I was going to send you a big huge diatribe from someone claiming that he didn't see any atheists helping out down there but why waste the time? The atheists are simply the only ones not advertising their presence and trying to accrue to themselves a whole bunch of recognition for their "wonderfulness."
Now I'm laughing myself to tears! :D
In any case, I'm glad I could help. If you get a wild hair to go back with another load, hit me up for some gas money at least. I'd be more than happy to help. I think I have a couple more boxes of MRE's somewhere that I'll part with.
You're a credit to the human race. I suppose I have to start believing in humanity again instead of being so cynical about everyone! heheheh.
Cheers!
--Wag--
Start by reading Matthew Chapter 6, verses 1 through 6.
Basically, for those of you who don't care enough to look it up and read it, it says, and I paraphrase, "don't do good things to be seen of men, do it in secret." Period. End of story.
So why, oh, why do we see so many people from Christian groups spending so much time on T.V. seeking their 5 minutes of fame for all of their generosity with disaster victims? Happens every time there's a disaster. Why don't they follow the advice of Jesus and keep it to themselves and do some good?
Don't get me wrong, I believe they need to publicize the good they do but do they have to say just how wonderfully Christian they are while they're doing it? Bear in mind that every hypocritical thing that Christians do just makes them all that much more suspect.
Shut up, already! It's getting nauseating!
(To those of you Christians who are NOT hypocrites, this article should just be a conviction to you that you're doing the right thing already. YOU people have my respect for your decency and your integrity. Carry on and keep doing the good for which you are NOT getting credit. Except for the promise in Matt 6:1-6, of course! ;-) )
What brought about this diatribe, you ask? I got this next piece in an e-mail from a friend this morning. My friend is a great guy and I appreciate him sending me these things. You decide if I'm over reacting:
This morning's e-mail in its entirety ----------------
This was written by a man who is a survivor of the hurricane. A little different twist on what we have been hearing in the media.
To my friends and family:
What I have seen since Katrina:
The poor and the wealthy hurt by the storm.
Black, White, Hispanic, Oriental and Indian all hurt by the storm.
Christian people giving, giving, giving.
Churches going all out to minister in Jesus' name.
Neighbors going door to door helping one another.
Thugs and hoodlums going door to door looking for someone vunerable.
Ice and water being fought over as police tried to keep the peace.
People coming up from New Orleans taking over empty houses because shelters are full.
Out of town volunteers coming with food and staying for now a week still serving it.
The Churches all over this part of the country doing what people do in a crisis.
FEMA doing a wonderful job in getting help to us.
The Red Cross doing a great job in the shelters.
The Salvation Army doing a great job in the community.
Four hundred crewmen from everywhere bring back the power to our homes, churches and businesses.
Lines at service stations a block to a mile long.
National Guardsman patroling the streets of McComb along with Kentucky policemen protecting us from the hoodlums and thugs of McComb, Pike County and New Orleans (the most dangerous city in the world before Katrina.)
Drug dealers working outside shelters.
Doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel working tirelessly, even sleepingin the hospital to do the job God called them to do.
WHAT I HAVE NOT SEEN
The ACLU setting up a feeding line.
People for the American Way helping in the shelters.
The NAACP doing any work whatsover.
The American Atheist organization serving meals in the shelters.
Jesse Jackson directing traffic at the gas stations.
I could go on but you get my message. It's the people with love and compassion who do the work.
The gripers in Congress should come on down and get in line to pass the water and the ice. Are you listening Hillary, Chuck, Teddy and all the sorry loafers we call Senators and Congressmen? They don't have a clue as to what this life is all about here on the Gulf Coast.
Boy I feel better now.
end of e-mail ---------
Now, read this next bit. From an atheist friend of mine, no less. (Strangely, I never knew he was an atheist until this very exchange.) Background: he and one of his friends rounded up all their friends and collected a bunch of contributions of goods and money. They they loaded it into their their R.V. and drove down toward New Orleans to donate it to people who need it. This story is their report back to those of us who contributed. It deserves to be told everywhere which is why I put it up here for starters.
(Identifying comments have been removed, obvious typos fixed.)
Trip log from C.
Where do I even begin... There are so many little stories from the trip, trying to formulate them into semi-interesting reading is proving difficult. I'll start with some snippets.
We set out to meet T. of the World Youth Federation in Baton Rouge, LA.
You cannot stuff as much into a 31' RV as you can a 25' travel trailer, no matter how hard you try. It IS possible to load an RV with so much weight the rear bumper drags the ground. We had so much stuff to take, we had to leave stuff behind!
Driving 1,900 miles with barely an hour's sleep is never a good idea! When you start "seeing things" in the shadows, while driving through the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, it's time to stop! Speaking of Texas, the speed limit is 75mph, unless it's after dark, then it's 65mph. Just to make sure no good deed goes unpunished, I got a ticket at 1:37am for 81mph in an (after dark) 65 zone.
Aside from many long hours and miles, the drive to Baton Rouge was an easy one. We arrived noon-ish Tuesday.
New Orleans: We were not able to get into N.O. due to being under National Guard lockdown. Baton Rouge is on the outskirts and is now the base of operations for the area.
We saw huge parks filled with tent and canopy cities of law enforcment from around the country. Another park filled with the military and national guard headquarters, and landing pads for the daily missions of blackhawk helicopters. Other parks had been filled with utility workers from all over, representing power, gas, telephone and construction to get the city back on it's feet. Hundreds of thousands of people all working on rebuilding the city.
We also saw the tent cities of the now homeless. It sounds cliche' and you hear it on the news everyday, but until you sit and talk with someone, the words never sink in.
"Lost everything" or "The clothes on their backs"
How many times have you heard these things and never thought twice about it. We talked to people, families, and those with extended familes who managed to survive by loading up the family in the car and heading for safety. The storm or subsequent flooding destroyed these people's belongings. Literally the only thing they have left is the clothes on their backs. In some cases, their place of employment is gone, the banks are in shambles, and the pharmacy system is in chaos. These people have not only lost everything but can not GET anything because of the disaster. The bigger chain stores that survived are now empty unless you're looking for plastic flowers and picture frames.
We met people too proud to "take a handout" but also those moved to tears at our generosity. I could never imagine a grown man crying at receiving some old clothes I'll never wear again or over military rations that don't even taste that good. But if you have nothing, ANYTHING is something!
I listened to one man tell me how one wall of his house was found six blocks away and another wall was four blocks away in the other direction. Everything was lost and he agreed replaceable, except for some of his tools that had been handed down for three generations. "Those are irreplaceable"
The System:
The Good: I witnessed convoys of mobile (pre-fabricated) housing sometimes dozens in a row, rolling down highways and streets in Baton Rouge. Also convoys of travel trailers all heading to one staging point. There is an area that contained thousands of temporary homes for the residents now displaced because of the hurricane. We saw some (out of perhaps hundreds) of the shelters set up to aid people now homeless.
We saw FEMA, Red Cross, Salvation Army, E.P.A. (Environmental Protection Agency) National Guard, military, police from around the nation, insurance agencies, all the major utility companies and way too many other organizations to list. Suffice it to say: The gang's all there.
The Bad: I won't name organizations, but I will share some of their shortcomings: this info does not come from the media, or heresay, but things I saw for myself, or was told directly from the people who experienced it.
If you do not register and occupy certain shelters, you may not recieve goods, services or handouts of any kind from that organization. Many of the shelters do not have a "come and go" policy, so once inside, you may not leave.
We spoke to a woman who has two children and tried to get a few clothing items for her kids. Because she was not staying at the shelter, they physically removed the clothing from her hand.
Another organization was kind enough to dump a huge load of clothing into a parking lot. Unfortunately it rained and the clothes became muddy, dirty and moldy. I will post pictures of a bulldozer pushing the mound of clothes to the curb along with the rubble of buildings, as the clothes are now unuseable.
Organizations and shelters only help a small segment of the population. There are still hundreds of thousands who cannot reach the shelters or refuse to live in them.
I can hardly blame them, with the muggings, rapes, murders and molestations it hardly sounds appealing to stay confined with hundreds of people in a small space. This is not the case for every shelter, but the stories I've heard of some . . . . How do you choose where it's safe, rovided you have the means to get there?
There are no major organizations offering aid to the people living in tent cities, at camp grounds, hotels, or are in parking lots.
I am speaking of the large, well-known organizations that everybody donates money or goods to.
Our problem:
We had an RV stuffed to the seams with food, clothing, books & toys, toiletries etc. But alot of it was unsorted and stuffed in boxes and plastic bags. After seeing the horrors of the so called "disaster relief organizations" delivering our donations to them was NOT an option. We wanted to make sure our goods did some good. That they'd go to the people that needed them. That we could reach those overlooked.
The bigger problem was we had not the time or space to unload, sort and hand deliver everything we had. Wednesday we went to one place that helps the elderly and delivered some military rations (food) and water. We went to a tent city, and later returned with some food and clothes. We also went to a hotel that had a banquet room set up for people to come in and get what they needed.
We also took things to different locations. (ie. if one place had too many men's clothes, we'd take it to a place that had none. Or if there were no infants at one location, yet they had clothing, we'd deliver it to places with kids.)
Thursday morning we had hardly touched the RV packed with stuff. As we sat at breakfast T. (from the World Youth Federation) got a phone call.
Pascagoula, Mississippi was severly hit by the hurricane. Yet they have had no outside assitance whatsoever. "LET'S GO!"
It took about two and a half hours to drive there and along the way we witnessed the hurricane's devastation. Not the flooding like New Orleans had received, but the damage caused by gale force winds. Metal billboards and street signs twisted like pretzels, buildings demolished, a Lowes missing a front and a Home Depot without a roof. A yacht sitting in a tree hundreds of yards from water. Trees snapped like pretzels and those that had fallen on homes and cars. On and on for miles and miles.
We were beaming at the thought of being "first in" to offer assitance. No Red Cross, No FEMA. US! On the way we were passed by Airforce One. Bush was surveying the area, and was expected to be on the ground when we got there. (Never saw him though) OK, so Bush beat us there... but only 'cause he had a plane.
Arriving into town we hit heavy traffic and non-working traffic lights.
The city of Pascagoula, Miss. was so excited about "the folks from California, with an RV filled with stuff" we were bringing they gave us A LIGHTS AND SIRENS ESCORT!
If there were ever any question of "why" in my mind, this ended all doubt. These people were so appreciative of our efforts, they parted the sea of traffic, and ran us through intersections so we could get there and deliver our donations!!!
This was a perfect win/win for us and Pascagoula. We unloaded the RV at the fire/EMS station. In talking to the crew, all but one had lost everything and there were several not there at the time that had nothing left as well.
Many of them were now living at the station. They were going to take just what they needed, then load up the ambulances and go into the area's hardest hit and deliver food, water and clothing to those who needed them.
We saw the fire chief shed a tear at our generosity and the smiles on the young kids faces as we gave them toys to play with. We have life long friends at the Acadian EMS station.
In following with the trend and hearing how we've been taking things to those in need, they loaded us up with pallets of MRE's (rations) and water. They had enough and wanted us to take them where needed.
I was really getting tired of loading and unloading the RV but it's for the cause.
We left Baton Rouge Friday morning for the long trek back and got home around 9pm last night. Exhausted!
Would I go back? Yes. There are still so many people who need help, and so many things that need to be done, I feel like I've abandoned them.
Who's going to fix old man so-n-so's holes in the floor of the trailer someone gave him to live in? Who's going to get the medication for the elderly woman? Who's going to help the single mother with two kids get to family living in another state?
For anyone who wonders "What good can I do" or "Why make all the effort" read these stories carefully. Know that my words can in no way explain the gratitude given, or the elation of helping. Know that there were many other stories I haven't written yet.
Ride'on,
Signed,
C. (made a difference)
----------------------------
Comment from M:
Someone told him (C.) that he was earning his wings. We concluded we had just gotten started on filing down his horns!!!
It was an amazing trip and I wish we could have stayed longer as there is so much more "we" could have done. Just a couple of people who want to help out.
I know C. won't say it but I will.
If you are still looking to donate PLEASE look at the organization carefully and realize when that when that crimson colored addition sign says help now, they mean you donate now and they will help weeks from now when they get their act together and are done "sorting".
It is amazing and sad how many people are still in need and overlooked by many of these organizations. We have heard in a disaster who is there to help; they have a lot of short comings. I am amazed they have gone this long. People across the nation are hearing about how they are letting the people down time and time again.
I am glad we went. I wish we could have stayed longer. It is an awesome feeling to know that you made a difference.
Another couple of notes: C. pulls off the redneck look really WELL (it is scary). Somewhere in AZ someone thinks i am C.'s MOM (cuz he told them that). I can relate a Christmas song to almost anything. We have an official name for our disaster relief team.
pictures and more to follow.
------------------------------
And now, a follow-up that I wrote back to C. and the group:
Holy smoke, you guys. Me too. I'm also proud beyond pride's ultimate size to be able to say I know who you are.
When was the last time you saw a 6'4" 260lb man brought to tears in his office in the middle of the day? I had to close my office door just to make sure I didn't spoil my image. You moved me to tears, C.! I consider it an honor that you were able to make that trip and take a part of us with you. I can't remember the last time I was touched so deeply.
If you make another trip, let me know. I don't think I have any more clothing or anything to send but as they say, Cash is King. We'll put something together for you somehow.
Thanks, most of all, for the tip on the big "charitable" organizations and their dismal failure to do any good whatsoever. I read an article earlier today suggesting that many many many good Christian churches were helping and doing so much good for the people in the devastated areas. The guy complained that the atheists and various others weren't doing diddly-squat.
I hope that guy doesn't benefit from this atheist's contribution or those of his atheist friends, whoever they may be. Well, not really, but I'm blown away by the blatant manipulative demeanor of that kind of utter misguided arrogance. Give him some food and tell him to go and fu . . . . Well, better not.
What's good is good and will care for itself. Prayers don't help, wishful thinking doesn't help, radio ads don't help; nothing helps but the people doing what YOU did. What WE did as a club.
Damm. More tears. Damm you C.! for being so generous and eloquent and bringing me into this with you.
It's tough to say but I'll say it anyway, I love ya, you bastard!
--Wag--
C.'s comments back to me:
Wag...
It's very humbling to bring a grown man to tears. Whether it's from recanting of stories, or by merely handing him a pair of Nike's. I have always helped people, but never anything near this magnitude. It's one thing to help someone with some loose change and get a thanks, another to give a man who has nothing something, and get a tear filled hug.
In all honesty I didn't do much. Gathered up some stuff we (a collective "we") no longer needed, loaded it up and drove back East. It required very little sacrifice or energy on my part. Yet to some people it meant the world, it meant life.
Anyway, I am also an atheist but kindly returned the "god bless you's" with Thank you's. I will not scoff at the belief's of others, no matter my personal beliefs. One night I was talking to The Mrs., telling her of the day's events and happened to say "She said god bless you, er some shit"... Now M. overheard this, and she's Catholic. So the rest of the trip we recited "God bless you... er some shit" and couldn't help but chuckle whenever someone else "blessed" me.
Thank you for the kind words and allowing me to help others. I couldn't have done it with out the charity of you and everyone else who helped the cause. I felt partly ashamed at being able to receive the gratitude for something I only played part in. Know that I made mention of the club that backed me to make it possible, and that everyone wished I would extend the thank you's to everyone involved. Yet I could never do the sentiment justice.
Thank you.
and quit yer blabberin ya big cry baby!!! heh heh To quote an old Irish saying... "A tear is a smile we've all lost"... er some shit like that.
C.
And my reply back to him.
For some reason, people think atheists are evil. So be it. The funny thing is, Christians have a tendency to be the more hypocritical of all people if only because they don't care to read Matthew 6:1-6 which says, in a nutshell, "if you do charity, don't do it for the view of men." Yeah, I was raised in a cult religion and used to know this shit inside out and backwards.
Enough of that, however. I was going to send you a big huge diatribe from someone claiming that he didn't see any atheists helping out down there but why waste the time? The atheists are simply the only ones not advertising their presence and trying to accrue to themselves a whole bunch of recognition for their "wonderfulness."
Now I'm laughing myself to tears! :D
In any case, I'm glad I could help. If you get a wild hair to go back with another load, hit me up for some gas money at least. I'd be more than happy to help. I think I have a couple more boxes of MRE's somewhere that I'll part with.
You're a credit to the human race. I suppose I have to start believing in humanity again instead of being so cynical about everyone! heheheh.
Cheers!
--Wag--
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
