At the Center of the Global Vortex

I awoke earlier than normal this morning and realized it a wonderful time to sit quietly and pray even before I opened my computer to the array of very predictable helpings of bad, sad news. I listened to a sermon last night at our Summer Bible Conference to the heart of a grandfather, 73 years old, wrestling with the reality of a dying seven year old grandson. While I did not know I "needed" his words when the service began, my family heart was deeply touched in thinking of the reality of this life and how we, those left, deal with it.

As I opened my computer to my daily dose of news from six or eight news courses, unsurprisingly, I began to read of pressure being placed on Israel to basically lighten up on Hamas, a play we have seen too many curtain calls on in the last few years. Over a hundred rockets EACH DAY still rain down on Israel from Gaza and Israel, as Israel does best, is rooting out the scum adn thugs that use their own people for wrap-around protection, the world is now pleading with Israel to please stop hurting Hamas due to the casualties. Then I see where there is talk of adding anti missle hardware and software to commercial jetliners and I just scratch my head as how our world is spinning from a vortex into a full scale tornado with gale force winds. Then I went to the tears I shed, again, watching the Medal of Honor awarding to the Army sergeant and my faith in our men and women in uniform was rekindled while our political leadership seemingly grows weaker and more polarized. These shreds of "evidence" are picked as the foundation blocks to illustrate just how juxtaposed our world is with no improvement churning in in our direction from the horizon.

I wrote a blog a few days ago on being STUNNED and that term perfectly illustrates, I believe, how the inhabitants of our global village are feeling. When will this all stop? How can this be? Surely it is not really that bad? What does God have against us? What have we done to deserve this? Have you not asked yourself at least two of those questions in the last five days in the quietness of your heart? Certainly you have!

One of the reason humans, me for instance, detest the sense of being stunned is that you are temporarily out of control thus vulnerable to external forces which creates this innate sense of panic and desire for flight. But when you stop and realize that there really is no place to run nor can you hide from this tsunami of craziness that is seemingly engulfing our world, we either withdraw to this place of solitude to ignore the winds that smell horrible or we rise up and face the oncoming craziness. I choose option B which is to stand to, stand tall and lean into the winds that pelt us with fear and doubt. Anybody wish to join me in that small, elite, ever shrinking platoon?

From that hurting grandfather last night I was reminded that God did not create Man to hurt, to be sick nor to die as you can clearly read in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis. But then there is Chapter 3 which reality decries the dictates of the Creator when Adam and Even allowed Satan to slick-talk them into doing exactly what God told them not to do. So what we are seeing daily in our lives on this spinning rock began with that Satan-won victory over Man and thus sickeness, hurt and death were in the will that was written for Man's choice to go against God's masterplan. It really is just that simple and one can choose to believe I am just a simple man with white hair or you can go and read it for yourself; please do that!

This craziness and depravity are certainly hideous and that is the good news for the really bad news is that it will get worse. There are many Putins in this world all of which are witnessing the American inability to tamp down the bad guys through our abilty to project military force forward anywhere on this earth within twenty-four hours. We see just this week the emergence of the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa fundamentally confederating to project to the world that they are 40% of the world's population and 20% of the world's Gross Domestic Product. They are further providing institutional alternatives to the way it has been after WWII with a new single currency, a new lending instituion that will replace the IMF and the World Bank. All of this to show us even more clearly that America's posh position int he world is now more rapidly a thing of the past and thus becoming another empire relic of history. Never could I have imagined I would witness so much in so short a period of time in my lifetime but reality is what it is.

Our future, our children, are not being educated and you have teacher unions fighting any semblance of attempts to improve the methods and means to correct the trajectory of ill prepared students for this very new world they will face. Our societal norms have now far surpassed concern for in this Age of Toleration, homosexuality, drug use, same sex marriages, abortions, etc, etc are now the norm but being the norm does not mean norm is right in God's Eyes. Wrong is always Wrong and what we have allowed, yes, allowed, to become a societal norm is both sad and atrocious. My wife and I are reading the Bible beginning with Genesis 1:1 and are now finishing 1 Kings. In this page by page account recorded as prophetic for the coming of Jesus, it is blatanttly obvious that God corrects His People harshly when they choose to disobey, to worship idols and to know seek Him. Oh, is that not exactly what we are witnessing on a grand scale today in our world?

Being at the center of the vortex of human endeavor in this twenty-first century is both frightening and numbing. Numbing, like a root canal, does not correct the decay but facilitates a few minutes of no pain which the decay is removed; it is an escape but again, only temporary. What the world village is feeling is this sense that the novocaine has worn off too quickly yet the pain is increasing! Yep, that is about right isn't it?

As I close, please know that God has purpose for each of us and one of those is to be encouraging to others that are hurting. I have so many friends that are experiencing horrific physical and emotional hurts this very day, this moment. All I can do to acknowledge the plight and lift them in prayer for God's calming, soothing hand of mercy. Further, I realize that my whole world could turn upside down this very day and it would be my hope and belief that some would surround me and my family in love, in care and in compassion. We need each other more fervently that we most times realize. This day, reach out and be a friend, an encourager for so many are scared, worried and downtrodden. Our jails and prison are bursting with hurt and disappointment as are our hospitals and nursing and assisted living homes. Visit one and just sit and chat for a few minutes and guess who will be blessed and lifted? That would be you!

I do not know how much more this world can take but I know that this world will be called on to take much more, much worse that what we have seen thus far. In other words, it is not just going to grow calm and evaporate into the air of the world. Our world is fundamentally flawed and mandates leadership to come together to find course corrections and strategy to turn the rudder of this mess. I fail to see that happening at least in the near term. That is truly sad!

Stunned

I think Stunned is a great descriptor for how much of the world is feeling in light of the latest catastrophic event, the downing of the Malaysian jet liner; actually the second one. I just saw a wife of a victim of the still missing Malysian jet liner theorizing that perhaps it is Malysian Airlines that is being targeted so the conspiracies begin.  I am not making light of that for last night I watched a documentary on the explosion in 1986 of TWA 800 outbound from JFK in New York and you could see that to this very day families do not believe a word of the government investigation reports and  findings.  The photos this morning from the crash site are simply wrenching in trying to imagine and that is the point, a normal human cannot imagine what happened, how it could happen, could it happen again, etc, etc.

 

With all the chaos of questions and desire to blame whoever to comfort our angst, I believe at the 30,000 foot view we are, as a global people, a new, frightening sensation deep in our psyche which is that the world as we know it is imploding politically, diplomatically, economically and societally.  I watched an interview yesterday where the person being interviewed, I believe her name was Hillary Clinton, yes, that is it, spoke about a BRICS conference designed to develop the architecture for the "de-Americanization of the global economy.  Brazil, Russian, India, China and South Africa; BRICS, see the horizon and they do not see the Stars and Stripes atop Suribachi any longer; it that simple.  Debt,  national leadership inepitude, broken alliances, worry about America defaulting on our debts, etc, etc are all part and parcel of this growing cloud of suspicion and fear about the United States very existence as a republic.  How could you not be concerned about that if you are and American or regardless of your national flag?  We are not the America in which I grew up, careered, was educated; it is that simple.

 

Stunned is a horrific sensation for if you have ever been hit in the chest or fell on a playground on your back and had the breath knocked out of your lungs, you can recall vividly that sense of panic that consumed you for a few staggering moments. I think the world has had the breath knocked from our lungs as we are trying through a sense of quiet panic to bring meaning to all of the angst blazing around us.  Every where you turn, Chicago murders, increasing fuel prices, scandals, Middle Eastern debacle on a grand scale, BRICS taking more and broader control initiatives, America being ignored thus becoming more targetable; all of this and many more are a collage of a transforming world; not just America.

 

As Ms Clinton rightly stated yesterday, "America cannot solve all the problems of the world but there are no world problems that can be solved without the United States .."  So in essence what she is stating is that our sheer presence and projectionable power is no long what distinguishes America but our size, reach and influence is still sought almost as a last resort I think it fair to posit.  America is moving headlong into a more French or German model for I have worked and lived extensively in those regions and I see clearly how this Administration seems committed to moving America societally in that direction. I find that sad!

 

Is there hope? Am I wrong? How wrong or how right am I? Yes there is hope but it begins, I believe in my heart, for a better America beginning at the values level. Our value systems in this nation are abyssmal and worsening daily it seems. I see it all the time laced in the many jail inmates I work with weekly.   Am I wrong? Me thinks not but then, I am very biased on that aren't I?

 

Change and transformation begins at the top; always!  Leaders lead and lead by example. We are lacking positive, illustrative, driven leadership that inspires and causes people to want to be better and stronger than they themselves feel they can be.  As I have said too many times, this Administration and this Congress certainly do not fit the needs of this nation where we are now as I describe above. But I do not point fingers at them for it is we that put them there so it is we that must replace what is there in the republic system the Greeks and the Romans had trouble making work but we, America, are still trying!

 

My fundamental posit!  Yes, it is bad and will worsen.  Is it fixable? Only if we as a People turn back to our values and foundational principles upon which this nation was founded; a God and his Scriptures that define clearly how we are to act with God and how we are to act with each other.  In this time of supposedly having to tolerate all religions, all societal values in the name of equality is simply not correct. If you do not stand for something, you will fall for anything is one of my principles of live. So, really, what do you stand for? I stand for rights according to Scripture. I stand for the Bible. I stand for Jesus that gave His life for my salvation and assurance of a home in Heaven with Him when this crazy life is over. THAT IS WHAT I STAND FOR!

A World with no America

Yesterday I went to a movie and the context of the movie was that very point. I did not care for the movie for it was very biased and inflammatory with a blatant political agenda threaded through it but the context of the movie has stayed with me.  I have never not known America as you will agree with in your own lives. I have, however, seen much of the world outside of American geography but never too far from American influence and respect I might add.  Working in over forty nations on three continents gives you a sense of perspective about being an American I believe so to try and envision our world, today, with not America is, frankly, impossible.

 

There was a brief snippet in the movie showing Bono speaking to the fact that America was and is and idea and an experiment much more than just a nation. He stated that his own country, Ireland, is a country but not an idea.  That concept has probed deeply into my brain in realize just how true that really is today.  There is so immeasurably too much hostile, negative, biased "toleration" rhetoric on the airwaves and wireless pathways of our American lives each of which seem to be chipping away at the foundation of the "idea" of America.  I have been watching the great author, David McCullough, talking about the Founding Fathers, Washington, the rag tag Army against the largest and best equipped and trained army on earth at that time, the British Army.  Even through horrific, costly defeats, no money, no gunpowder, not international coalitions, Washington's Army met victory providing the tactical grounding to make the Declaration of our Independence a realty. There is a great parallel to the Battle of Antietem and the Northern victory in 1862 providing Lincoln with that same grounding to enact the Emancipation Proclamation that was, thus, forged in blood. The America as an Idea is intriguing to me the more deeply I ponder it through the prism of hate and angst of the twenty-first century.

 

When you read the papers, the Great Papers, of our founding and about the framers and writers of those papers, God and His Countenance loom foremost in their words and deeds.  How then in 2014 have we evolved so far from those principles one must ask?  The Bible was central to the logic and sentiments of our nation's Founders and there is abundant evidence in writings to affirm that.  But today, through political activism, court decisions, misguided legislation and unchristian leadership, we have moved to a position of being told we are a nation of "toleration." We as Americans must be tolerant of every and any lifestyle and action even thought that action and lifestyle run directly against the clear principles stated in the Bible and as well written in the founding papers of our nation, the Idea.  The real problem is that when you hear wrong so many times and in so many ways, it begins to feel less wrong doesn't it?

 

America, the Idea, has been the search engine for more innovation than any nation every in the history of Man. America has generated more wealth than any nation every conceived and educated more people that almost all nations combined. American management style and systems are still sought globally due to its effectiveness.  America's military might and projectionablity has not equal. So given all of that very short list of Americanisms, how and why has America lost not only its footing but its spirit of being the glowing Idea people for generations to this very day yearn to come here and to be part of the Idea or the Dream many call it?

 

I believe that America has moreorless turned its collective back on the very principle of God that was so central to our founding and the bloodsoaked pathway through the 300 years.  I believe we have chosen as a nation and through the legislative and judicial systems been led to believe that anything and pretty much everything is tolerable when it is clearly stated in the Bible what marriage is, that aberrant sexual activity is damnable and will b punished by God with much evidence in the books of the Bible for proof. I could go on and on listing the things that I believe people in America that love this nation find detestable but fall into that wonderful peaceful place of quiet surrender; a cauldron of the uncaring will lead to the forging of absolute wrong in the society that has grown cancerous and defunct.

 

Has America been good for the world? Absolutely for many hard fought, measurable reasons.  But the America in which I was reared, schooled, careered, wore the warrior cloth, taught the next generation, see in orange jumpsuits as prisons by the hundreds of thousands all tell me something is badly adrift in our America today and I am not sure it is reversable for the tides of toleration are drowning out the silented sense of what is truly right in God's eyes.  I have written many times that right is right and wrong is wrong and no amount of wrong will ever make a wrong, right!  I fear as a nation we have lost sight, frankly of what is Right in the eyes and writings of our God for He is OUR GOD.  God has to be so displeased with His people and we see in the Bible how God dealt with His people when he became displeased.  I cannot imagine, frankly, why God has not brought great tribulation to this earth with the depth and breadth of decay that is so evident in this nation. 

 

When I look at my five grandchildren, I find myself cringing at the world in which they will grow up in and work and live and have families.  The bad part of bad is that it continues grow worse. Each day I am reminded of the depravity of man's ability to inflicted anguish on others be they children, family or friends or complete strangers.  I watch thousands of prisoners each year incarcerated for vast numbers of reasons shed tears and plead for forgiveness for their acts in a church setting and then realize it is not only they that are in the prison but their children, their families, their capabilities; all by and for poor choice.  Then I come of the prison and realize the world in which we live today is exactly the same in poor choices and with poor choices comes bad consequence.  Bigger government is not the salve to fix the ills of society by any stretch. More food stamps, hoards of social worker and therapists are not the answer as numerical evidence will affirm. Our world, the Idea of America, is sick from self incrimination and losing sight of that very Idea that made us great I am convinced.

 

America, in my humble opinion, needs a great Awakening to what God would have us do and be which is quite different than what politicians, pundits, polls, media, movements by any name or set of letters might try to convince us to be.  Our nation needs to return to the God of our nation that is so evident in the writings and in the very papers that made us who and what we were, past tense. Can we be that nation again? Only you can answer but as the Bible clearly states ..."as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"  And like the great song says, there's room at the cross for you! Join me, please!

The Worth of a College Degree

I am glad, frankly, that there is a current national debate on the skyrocketing student loan debt now about $1.3 trillion.  It is my credential to put this together in teaching over 7,000 students over a decade at a university level from entering freshmen to senior capstone level to MBA courses.  I have seen much and thought deeply on the matter of worth of that "piece of paper" and what resides behind the journey. There will be those, no doubt, that will disagree or perhaps be surprised but my heart will reside in my words on this incendiary topic.

 

The use or application of the borrowed money is what is of great concern to me meaning that there is far too much of borrowed funds that get fire hosed at new cars, new clothes, drugs, etc. etc.  That, to me, is worse than criminal. But a great parallel is our nation for we have become addicted to living beyond our means in great part due to money being too easy to get and too cheaply. Our nation is now, like too many students and their families, floating in a red sea of debt.

 

Let me put a principle in here many have heard me state loudly and firmly: Whoever owns your debt owns your future!  Let that sink is for a few minutes! So the debt discussion I am speaking to in student loan debt is a metaphor for our nation. The day will come and come soon when those that loan the money plus interest to be paid, will call the debt and that comes when confidence is lost in the borrower. NEVER forget that! One's credit credential is lasting and vital for the journey ahead and I have witnessed far too many students blatantly not living to that standard. Get the money, enjoy the short term "hit" and worry about paying later. Worse ... my parents will take care of it when I move back in!

 

Roughly speaking and I cannot be close measurably, I would anticipate at least twenty per cent of the students I taught and feel I can extrapolate that to the aggregate population, should never embark on a college degree. Far too many come ill prepared from high school with fundamental writing skills and have no concept of team operations to accomplish work which is all exacerbated the the cultural norm of no absolutely nor boundaries so the concept of delivering an accountability is, well, "oh well, there is tomorrow mentality."

 

Those students that experienced me know I have my entirity of energy and drive focused at their success IF they invest themselves into the journey. Those that choose to float along sink and sink quickly and not without pain and confrontation.  Why? For the 20% choosing to not invest in the process impedes the 80% of the students that come to the classroom seeking to learn, to invest themselves, to give their all for the course, for the team and for the learning. It is that portion of the class that find me user-friendly and always on-station for them and that extends far beyond the end of the semester or graduation.  In other words, I believe fundamentally that if you invest in the course, the course will invest in you and I can given you myriad testimonials to support that.

 

Generally speaking, I do not feel traditional academia holds the students to a high enough standard of performance. There are probably many reasons but taking easy road to getting the semester over is probably high on the list.   Many things I have learned about young college students for I have sought to understand their hearts, their minds, their values and their hearts.  That 80% I speak of will make a positive mark on this world and I know they are well armed for the battles across the horizon.

 

Just this week I experienced a harsh reality that left me really taken aback. A business leader and great friend asked my help in trying to find some good hourly manufacturing workers for his business for he could not find any that could pass a drug test. I sent job information in wage rates, benefits, job description, etc to 100 "good" students I had.  Would you like to know how many I have heard from? ONE!  That speaks volumes to the general attitude today I believe as well as witness to the stigma manufacturing now carries with it as America is fully into the Service / Information Age and all but out of the Manufacturing Age.  I almost laugh when I see or hear politicians or pundits banging the drum that we need to go back to manufacturing, bring the jobs home China stole from us, etc, etc.  That, for me, is a joke for if the jobs came back, they would probably not be able to fill them nor to retain the worker very long for it is, well, WORK!

 

I read today that it is a one million dollar question meaning that the lifetime difference in earnings of an employee with a high school degree versus a college BA is one million dollars.  That sort of comparison really tells me nothing but what it does do for me is speak to the fact that we are not producing students from high school prepared for college for the students are not pressed, pushed and held accountable for producing work via skills application. Then they come into college borrowing thousands of dollars because parents have not allocated funds to pay for the education unprepared and in too many cased unwilling to buckle down and fight the battle to win / succeed. Thus why so many change majors, try to skate through college by finding "easy" professors, miss classes regularly by hanging out at Starbucks with their Iphones wasting valuable opportunity to differentiate themselves from the competition. Yes, it is all about competition.

 

There is much blame to this complex matter of student loan debt and our politicians will find a way for We the Taxpayers to pay off this debt before it is over but that will come will additionally borrowed much from foreign nations so the problem escalates the nation debt.  I believe it well past time for a national debate on the matter of why a college degree, why and what do colleges really need to be focusing on and last but not least, if they do not pursue a degree, then what skills do they seek to develop???

 

I bounce from frustrated to angry to exasperated on this whole matter of student loan debt because for far too many it is self induced future-suicide. Credit ratings are impacted for years to come but I also realize that many college students come to the classroom fully ignorant of how to manage finances in their lives. So they get flushed with credit cards and easy money so it is all good until the realty bus parks at the door!

 

This matter is a nation plague on the future of our students and our nation! I welcome the debate but never forget, it begins AT HOME with parents teaching, guiding, directing and supporting. If the parents are not home, and they are not in most cases as society shows us clearly, where do these great young people learn the fundamentals of our society?  Working in prison ministry over ten years has given me a PhD in answering that question! If you do not learn it at home, many on the street will gladly "assist" in that teaching.  My heart hurts!

The Anvil of Student Loans

This week it was announced that student loan debt in America was at $1.2 trillion and climbing and debt default rates are skyrocketing. I have watched and listened to the squawking and anguish about the politicians not "fixing" this cancer in America, etc, etc.  I will create some skeptics with my thoughts on this topic but factor in having taught 7,000 college students in the last ten years so I feel that a viable factor for coloration of reality more than rhetoric and violins playing.

 

There are some questions that I believe must finally be asked as we look across the horizon as this cancer metastasizes along with the entire debt picture of our nation.  Keep this in mind for perspective, America's Gross Domestic Product is now less than the amount of money we owe. By any accounting definition, that is telling us clearly two things: our nation is bankrupt and worse, whomever controls your debt controls your future. So who is really controlling America's future? Yep, the nations like Japan, China, South Korea, etc that continue to buy our debt but that will soon slow and we will find ourselves in deflationary times again I believe. So the questions:

 

1. What is the value of a college degree?
2. Does everyone in college or wishing to really need to go to college?
3. BIGGIE; what do college students borrowing the student loans actually do with the money?
4. Does defaulting on a loan today affect students as it did their parents?

Four questions that I believe corral the real issues of student loan debt.  I can speak only for myself in what I observed far too many times in my decade of college teaching. Far too many students are in college that really do not need to be there emotionally nor from capability perspective. Many are there because someone said that must go but with no financial planning; that was my case so you can know. I was told by my parents I had to go to college but nothing was done to provide family assistance to met that challenge.  I saw young men and women in college when I attended that were there because they wanted to and felt they needed to be there. There was also the incentive of the Vietnam War as incentive to stay in college and work for young man of my era.  I see much less of that in my decade of teaching today.

 

I am convinced many are in college for some reason other than seeking a degree. Perhaps it is social, perhaps hoped for status, perhaps, etc, etc.  But many are certainly not there to invest themselves in the course work thus the course drop rates escalate at the first reality that a course actually requires work and focus and energy.  Classes are scheduled based too many times on how "easy" the professor is or how loose the attendance policy is assuming there is one to begin with which usually there is not for professors certainly do not want to push too hard or hurt some one's feelings!

 

When I see student loan monies too easily gotten invested in nicer cars, computers, clothes, socializing, drug use, etc, I cringe knowing that is what I call a disinvestment and that the probability of the student defaulting on those borrowed "fun" monies is great and predictable. Now mind you there are some great students that sincerely need to get a degree and certainly need the funding and are responsible enough to find a way to pay back the loans. But I believe that slice of the student population today is rapidly going in a wrong direction.

 

For me the most disconcerting facet of students I personally experienced is a blaring lack of focus, finding ways to not do the work and too, far too distracted with electronic gadgets, Facebooking in classes, watching porn on laptops during classes; see my point?  That is why we hear the hair raising stories of students getting their degree but cannot read it once it is handed to them. They have not been educated for they have chosen to "enjoy" the experience of college on someone else's dime with no intention of ever repaying the money back. That perfectly captures the entitlement mentality that abounds today; they are owed this because they were born; THAT is sad but oh so real.

 

My students reading this will attest to a person that I was a demanding, frank, encouraging, always pushing them type professor and I led by example and never minced words on expectations, demands and accountability. I had a zero policy on absenteeism and tardiness and failed students every semester for doing just that meaning not coming to class and routinely late and not investing in the course work. Those students that embraced my process were lifted in their own minds that this work is of value, my professor leads by example and he really cares about me now and my future. I challenge anyone to test this paragraph. 

 

Far too many professors are too focused on non-student education  and papers and writings and research to gain and maintain tenure. I personally believe tenure and protecting poor performers in academia is a worse cancer than student loan debt. Our students will get better when our professors and teachers get better and demand by example more from the student.

 

In closing, yes, the student loan issue is of mega proportion but it is always in far too many cases self induced financial suicide as students find readily available government or private loans to indulge in "stuff" and not paying for the sacrifice to get their education.  It is possible to go to college to get a degree and borrow not a dime and many do and those that do perform better than those there to simply float through college for five or six years changing major several times each time costing thousands more dollars.  Far too many times, of course, are single parent or no parent families from which these students come thus the student is not used to accountability nor a sense of worth / value of the cost of college.

 

I must put in here as well that the textbook industry is one of the most sickening components of the educational process.  Charging $300 plus for a single textbook is beyond atrocious which angers me only to watch this and then have the book revised in a year with minor changes and cost then $350 should be worthy of Congressional review. 

 

There is much the world can do about this escalating issue but there is just as much the student or potential student can do to help themselves.  Determining if a college education is a worthwhile investment is core and objectively assessing is the potential student is capable of college level work? Many are not.  Therefore, finding a skill and pursuing training for that skill should be  a first priority for there is nothing wrong about pursuing and perfecting a skill. Mechanics, for example, are a dying breed as cars grow more complex.  We need skilled workers and always will but we need fewer debt laden people in college not investing themselves into an academic process that more iand more are asking the question of people, was it worth it?

 

I think it time America stops and stop looking at college as a paradigm far too many can ill afford and ask some tough questions before the journey begins. The general population and We the Taxpayers who will soon be getting the opportunity to pay for these unpaid debts floating a high standard of living, in the short term, will be most happy. Wait, that sounds like America doesn't it ... living beyond our means, borrowing to keep it up, not worrying about repayment, wait, guess I better hush!

"U.S. Caught Off Guard ..."

When I read that in this morning's Wall Street Journal about the debacle unfolding in Iraq, Boka Haram routing Africa unabated, Syria in open civil war, etc, etc and yes our POTUS is "calming" our future military leaders with language that all is good; I just find myself rubbing my forehead in angst at this Administration.  We read much today, a whole industry has evolved, about bullying. I have always detested bullying but learned in this life that to counter act a bully, you must yield strength and courage in the midst of the abusive nature.

 

Thinking of the thousands of men and women we have sacrificed and the untold trillions of dollars in these places to protect and defend and to rebuild their nations based on safety, democracy and freedom and then to see Iraq implode completely is simply sickening and inexcusable. We, America, has the largest and most well used intelligence gathering apparatus ever assembled and we love to tout that fact. So to read, "caught off guard" by the events in Iraq is hideous and unforgivable. But then we watch the other militant aggression in Africa and the Middle East and I seek to understand how this could happen but then I back up one more step and ask myself the more complex question, who really cares? That is cold I realize but honestly I think that question pierces the heart of the issue; do we as Americans in 2014 even care about an entire region that is being consumed in fundamentalist radicals SEEKING TO DESTROY AMERICA?

 

This is all more tangible to me in having taught so many returning Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers over the last ten years and thus seeing the ever present ghosts that will linger a life time manifesting their presence in myriad ways.  I still feel the volunteer military concept is flawed on many fronts. I cannot escape trying to understand the parallel of history in the 1940s to the 2000s from a national, citizenry view.  I pose that for I have long felt the landscape of America in the lead up to WWII versus today rests as core to where we are in this great "surprise" unfolding in Iraq. Some will say I am anti-Obama, again, but what I am is anti-wasting our lives and treasure for nothing in return. THAT is what I am seeing with Iraq and these other places.  In WWII, the entire American public was involved in the conflict both at home and abroad. That has never happened since and we see where that has led us I believe.  Nobody wants war but war, once initiated, must be fought with overwhelming power and force by the entire nation. Only a very 1% of America's population are in any way engaged in protecting the 99%. The numbers staggeringly speak for themselves. 

 

In almost every class I taught for ten years, 142 of them, I would find a way to ask the question about the students thoughts on a volunteer versus a conscription system to protect America.  Somewhere in the range of 100% of young people have no intention or desire to serve this nation in any capacity but especially in the military. We love our nation and its many opportunities and freedom yet will push against service to that nation to protect it from aggression; that always made my gut hurt in listening to the comments. That is not throwing a rock at the students of the new century but it reflects a complete lack of patriotism by their parents, the post Baby Boomers. That yields a sense of entitlement and expectation of being owed by this generation. NOBODY IS OWED ANYTHING in a democracy but the Liberal political machine would certainly paint a different picture.

 

America has not lost its scepter of power and strength. America has just chosen to lay that scepter of strength and respect on the altar hoping peace will reside; but it does not and it never has. Peace comes from freedom and freedom IS NOT FREE. What we sadly see unfolding in Iraq and soon to be Afghanistan is testament to America pushing back from our global, history responsibility.  The great analogy of Nero fiddling while Rome burned is so unbelievably applicable today and that hurts me at the heart.

 

America and the treasured American experiment of our Fore Fathers has been placed in a closet and I think never to see the light of day. And the bullies of the world are watching and moving and moving toward America.  The Wilson Era doves that wanted to just pull up the walls on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and let the world just go ahead with whatever while we enjoyed peace led to WWI, the II then Korea, then .. see my point?  Nobody no long fears thus nobody respects America is the blast signal beaming throughout the world. THAT is dangerous beyond measure!

D-Day Plus 70

Normandy is a beautiful area famed for its apples, scenery and battle space.  This day I have intentionally taken the time to watch many of the array of programs all focused on the invasion, honoring of veterans and their stories, assessment of the battle from both sides. It still grasps my heart when I see the terrible business of war and I have never been able to watch Saving Private Ryan since the first time due to the carnage of war.  Knowing men in my childhood that came ashore, some wounded with lifelong limps, all with stories yet never told; that is what brings this sense of choking to me as I try so hard not to be moved to tears; but I always lose that battle. Knowing so many that went to Vietnam during my teenage years and seeing them return, if they returned, different! Really different and I could not understand why.

 

It is all made much more panoramic and real in having walked those beaches, walked Pointe du Hoc and can still enter the 88 mm German gun emplacements, see the pocked earth from shells from battleships trying to quell the German defenses and held rock from the cliffs our Rangers had to scale. Walking through the American Military Cemetery at Omaha Beach just yards from still existing machine gun bunkers that easily scanned the beaches with our soldiers trying to get ashore. I have held in my hands fists of the hallowed sand upon which so many never got to leave from and have stood behind the breech of a German artillery piece near Saint Mere Elgise implaced for firing at our landing ships. It is all so real like the infamous paratrooper that got stranded atop the chapel in Saint Mere Eglise with a dummy parachutist still dangling from the top of the chapel.  I stayed in a hotel in the town but could not sleep for thinking about what had happened there, so close, so real, so amazing, so wrenching still!

 

One of the markers of my adult life is having the opportunity to walk many major battlefields and seeing many, too many, international military cemeteries. Gettysburg, Sharpsburg, Verdun, Bastogne, Metz, Amiens, Casablanca, etc, etc and with each one my whole brain is transformed back to the carnage, smoke, noise, death! It is really strange for me to feel like it is all happening again and I am there in the midst of it all.  Sleep goes away for a day or two after the experience and I will dream about the battle due to consuming books and research on the strategy and the tactics and the political situation that led to the conflict and yes, the devastating loss of life for generations of scars and anguish. It is all just so real!

 

On this night where much has been celebrated about this great battle, all deserved, and seeing the veterans for the last time, and they know it as well, I am reminded of the simple true of it all; FREEDOM IS NOT FREE!  When I see the world today that these men and women fought so hard to protect, I am, frankly, pained and sickened in many cases.  Alcoholism, drug addictions, crimes, divorce, wrecked families, emotional scars that never erase, heinous acts during the campaign triggered many times by experiencing deaths of close friends in combat and retribution ensues; all these and more are part of the cost of war but the price of Freedom.

 

As this day ends and the clocks of destiny prepare to chime, my heart is warmed by being an American, by having worn the warrior cloth, by knowing so many, young and old, that paid such a dear and lasting price for our freedom.  When conducting chapel services in the prisons, I will always ask if there are any veterans there and invariably there are. I ask them to stand, what branch they were in, hand salute them, shake their hand and hug them close in thanking them for what they did for our country; our Freedom.  I am a patriotic person and still cry at the National Anthem, my heart rate always increases when I see a Veteran with his or her hat on indicating their service and love to walk up to them, hand salute them, shake their hand as well as the hands of their family members that always beam and tear up with me.  When I have my grandsons, I love knowing they are watching their Poppy render that level of respect for I get to explain it all to them. They will now do the same thing as will their children due to the stories of watching their Poppy; a generational hope for me!

 

I close by saying thank you to every person reading this that gave something for my freedom and for the freedoms of my family.  I am so honored to have met so many on this journey. I have seen the physical and emotional scarring and the impact on families for years and generations to come.  And yes, FREEDOM IN NOT FREE .. nor should it be, ever! So the question; what have you done to pay for that Freedom?

 

Be blessed!