On Veteran's Day …

My family is light, when it comes to veterans… and perhaps this isn't all that unique — but I can't name a single ancestor who's been a veteran. My great-grandfathers on both sides weren't alive during a war … and both grandfathers were too young for WWI and too old for WWII. Dad was too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam. So it shouldn't be surprising that I never really thought to much about veterans, as a kid.

That is, until junior high… the junior high I attended used the ASVAB test (a standardized military aptitude test) to gauge school successes on a number of fronts. For their generosity in providing the test, the military was given access to our scores. I scored in the 99th percentile. Unsurprisingly, I was soon barraged with all sorts of recruiting proposals. I wasn't hip to the idea, so I registered as a conscientious objector. The proposals stopped almost immediately.

It was also around this time that I became politically aware… and fell in love with a number of more liberal causes (no nukes, the Dukakis campaign, and the like), and any appreciation for our veterans was sidetracked by a certain level of distrust.

Fast forward a few years, and today I can't help but tear-up when I think of the sacrifices asked of our armed services — and the invaluable part they play in our enduring freedom. Don't misunderstand: I'm still very leery of the military-industrial complex, and an ardent opponent to our current military engagements. But I learned somewhere in the intervening years that I could hate a war without hating our soldiers.

So today, on Veterans Day, I'm thinking of our men and women in uniform. And I'm grateful. Thank you.

NB: Yes; I re-wrote the post completely. I can only think that maybe I was tired or hungry when I posted the original.

A Cycle of Violence

Over the years, I've had the… um… opportunity to interact with police in a variety of situations. Traffic violations, calls for support when kids were trespassing in our condo's pool, city functions, and just out on the beat. And while a few have sported "tough guy" attitudes (lamentable for any civil servant), they've all been professional. A few, even, have even been spectacular. So when I hear stories of police brutality I am immediately of two minds: "the story's being blown out of proportion" and "authority breeds unrighteous dominion".

But some times — on rare occasions — I'm of only one mind. Take a look at this footage:



Now read the follow-up story in the New York Post (not known for an even-handed approach). Here's more about the Pogan assault at the Smoking Gun. If you're not familiar with Critical Mass, they're an amazing grassroots cyclist empowerment organization. There's even a small Salt Lake City chapter.

Last Year I Killed a Man

From the Guardian…

At 9.45am on Saturday, June 23 2007, I killed a man. A perfectly ordinary man, on a perfectly ordinary summer's day. CCTV pictures show him entering the station, unremarkable among all the passengers going to the West End. He waited at the front of the platform until he could hear my train approaching, then he calmly stepped down on to the tracks and looked directly at me as he waited for the impact.

Please read the entire article

Again I am reminded: suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Heartwrenching

A gift — painful and heartfelt — from Smurf Yourself.

Please read…

On to Weightier Matters

I'm a little disgusted with myself.

You see, when I started this blog, I had a mind to use it as a place for me to opine on some of the larger issues our society faces... and, if all went well, I hoped that my posts might foster some dialog. But I've only tackled a couple of larger issues ( being gay and Mormon, gay marriage ) in any depth — and off-site, no less! And the couple of times that I've discussed issues of import here ( Israel's opportunistic attacks on Lebanon, and America's lack of moral authority on the matter ), it's only been in passing.

I want to change that. So here goes: I'm going to raise a couple issues here that I'll address in the weeks to come — hoping that having this post out there will prod me to overcome my inertia.

• National Security: This will likely be a several-part series... as it's a topic I've thought about for some time.
• Gay & Mormon: This is the essay I promised several months back that would revisit and fine-tune the ideas I put forward during my first guest blogging stint over at Nine Moons.
• Re-engaging the Electorate: This is an issue that's dear to my heart, and I'd like to chat about it, at length.
• The Power Matrix: I have a pet theory about how nation's operate that I've been noodling for nearly 15 years... I think it's time to let it see the light of day.

So there you go. Wish me luck.

Lord Have Mercy on Qana: They Have No Wine.

Another amazing post at The Scrivener... this time, on the awful plight of Lebanon.

See also my post, "Will We Watch as Paris Burns?"

Will We Watch as Paris Burns?

Beirut, the "Paris of the Middle-east" only recently crawled out of the rubble of an awful civil war... and now, unprovoked, Israel threatens to send Lebanon back into chaos. They watched as the US launched an unprovoked attack against Iraq, and knew that we didn't have the moral authority to object...

It's shameful: Israel's action and our inaction.

It makes my heart sink.

I'm not alone, of course... even our nation's most conservative are shaking their heads at American hubris and swaggering stupidity in the face of events that will certainly color our choices for decades to come...

Check-out Pat Buchanan's stinging condemnation, here:



UPDATE: Political cartoonist Pat Bagley has a wonderful piece on the newest Israeli conflict.

Iraq War Coalition Fatalities

McWetboy posts a link in his Map Room to a Flash-powered representation of Iraq war casualties among coalition forces that has to be seen to be believed.

Sacrifice? Yeah. Blood sacrifice.

Anyway, “...the animation runs at ten frames per second — one frame for each day — and a single black dot indicates the geographic location that a coalition military fatality occurred. Each dot starts as a white flash and a larger red dot which fades to black over the span of 30 frames/days, and then slowly fades to gray over the span of the entire war...”.

Pray for Our Brother in Christ

Inspired by a post over at Times and Seasons, which also asks us to pray for our brother in Christ, I pass the invitation to you: please keep this Abdul Rahman and his beleaguered country in your prayers.