At a State College hotel on last Wednesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, flanked by 40 supporters, including lawmakers, local businessmen, student leaders, and former Penn State football players, announced that he had filed a federal antitrust lawsuit to overturn the penalties imposed by the NCAA in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The NCAA sanctions, which were agreed to by Penn State’s president and board of trustees, came after former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh presented a 267 page report, which detailed the actions of not only Jerry Sandusky, but also the university’s hierarchy. Gov. Corbett though, has decided that the NCAA had no authority to punish Penn State in what was a “strictly criminal matter” and is seemingly concerned with the impact the sanctions will have on the State College business community. I would say he has forgotten what the impact was for the young victims of Penn State’s systemic treachery, but it is nearly time for him to begin campaigning and getting re-elected is what truly matters.
The Freeh report concluded that the “most senior leaders” at Penn State had known about allegations of child sexual abuse against Sandusky as far back as 1998, were complicit in failing to disclose them, showed a "total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims for 14 years” and "empowered" Sandusky to continue his abuse. When the NCAA announced sanctions, after the report was released, Corbett, who is a member of the university’s board of trustees, expressed relief that Penn State had escaped the "death penalty", while asserting that part of the "corrective process is to accept the serious penalties." He also wanted guarantees that no tax money would be part of the $60 million settlement. Since most of Corbett’s public proclamations on the scandal seem to be concerned with Penn State football, and the money it generates, it should not come as a surprise that he could file such a vicious, vile, repugnant lawsuit. To claim though, that he filed the suit because the NCAA seized on the publicity of the Sandusky case "to make a showing of aggressive discipline on the backs of the citizens of the commonwealth," is simply sociopathic and totally devoid of any measure of compassion for the children who suffered the worst possible fates for so long.
In the lawsuit, Corbett asserted that the $60 million fine and other sanctions levied against Penn State only harmed innocent people. Hell, we can’t have pubs and inns in and around State College going unfilled on game day is what he really meant to say. He seems to have forgotten that the only truly innocent people in all of this are the 8 children (at least) who were subjected to repeated violations at the hands of a serial pederast, Jerry Sandusky, who was then repeatedly protected by a) the head football coach, b) the school’s athletic director, c) the school’s vice president and d) the school’s president. All of whom were more concerned with the impact a scandal would have on the football program and the money it generates for the university, than they were for the lives of children. The Freeh report makes it explicitly clear that all four of these men engaged in “an active agreement of concealment.” Emails and confidential notes acquired by Freeh prove that. Corbett, in defending his lawsuit said “These sanctions did not punish Sandusky or the others who were criminally charged. They punished past, present and future students.” Guv’nah I beg to differ. The sanctions punished an institution that prized football, the second most lucrative national program by some accounts, more than it prized children. This was not just about Jerry Sandusky raping little boys, but that the entire hierarchy from head football coach to school president decided to cover it up rather than risk any public relations damage to the brand that is PSU.
Does anyone believe that if Joe Pa, the most powerful man in Pennsylvania before the scandal, had wanted something done about Sandusky that it wouldn’t have been done? Consider what the response by Penn State higher ups would have been if some first year head football coach had decided to cover up allegations of sexual abuse against one of his assistant coaches. They would have demanded he be tried criminally too, but instead, a coach who raked in tens of millions for the school and who won two national championships passed along allegations of child rape to his superiors and that’s supposed to be enough? The Freeh report makes clear that from 2001 on Paterno knew Sandusky was molesting children. If he passed that information upward, as he claimed and as he is mandated by law to do, than ALL of the hierarchy knew for a decade that Sandusky was molesting children and chose to do nothing about it. The only way to make certain that never happens again anywhere in the NCAA realm is to impose the sanctions they did. I am still of the belief that they did not go far enough. I would have shuttered the football program for a minimum of four years.
Gov. Corbett’s “innocent people” who were harmed by the NCAA penalties are the same ones that gave Paterno et al their power. By making Saturdays in the fall all about the Nittany Lions, they created a cult of personality around the football team and its head coach. Paterno could simply do no wrong. In this case though, Paterno not only did wrong, he allowed it to continue on his watch, as did Spanier, Schultz, and Curley. If the manager of a business conspired to fix prices, with the full knowledge of not only his immediate superior, but also the top two officers of the corporation, the business would be torn asunder by criminal proceedings and crippling fines for illegal activity. It would just be too bad that Dolores in the mail room, Todd the executive assistant and the other 2,000 employees now had to look for work Does the name Enron ring any bells in that cobwebbed head of yours governor? Because it was Division I football though, and a boon for the state tax coffers, and shhh… political contributions, we are supposed to consider the poor students who will be deprived of the chance to win a bowl game or compete for the national championship. If memory serves universities are institutions of learning of the highest level, and not vehicles for football teams, or does the win-loss record of your alma mater matter more than your GPA in job interviews? The hot dog bun may be the vehicle for the dog, chili, mustard, and onions, but it is still the thing that makes it a hot dog. Penn State is a university that has a football team, not a football team that happens to have a college or two.
The penalties were supposed to be a blueprint for suffering. They were designed to be a reminder to Penn State, and all big name football schools, that winning football games at all costs is not what a university, any university, is supposed to consider first. The sanctions were conceived to change the religious fervor and hero worship for the football program, at least as it was practiced under Paterno and Spanier, and to force a transformation of its identity. As part of the penalties, the NCAA vacated 111 of Joe Paterno victories costing him the record of winningest coach in NCAA history. Paterno’s image as an angel of steadfast honor and integrity was vacated too as an artist removed the halo from his head in the State College mural “Inspiration” and the university removed the statue of him outside Beaver Stadium. The pain was not intended to be solely for those who had stood silently as children were sacrificed on the altar of Big Ten Football. Those men should and will receive their legal due. The pain was intended to be of such a magnitude that no one would ever forget the lesson they imparted. They were designed as a reminder that future transgressions, of any nature, would be dealt with swiftly and severely.
The names have changed throughout the Administration of Penn State. Director of Athletics Dr. David Joyner pledged, “Penn State will become a national model for compliance, ethics, and embodiment of the student athlete credo.” New head football coach Bill O’Brien pledged similar designs and may very well deign to run the cleanest program in Division I football, but it is now, always has been, and apparently always will be, a cathedral to a football team that has a university program. Big Ten Football is God in many, many college towns, but in few places with more fervor than in State College, PA. Within days of finishing his first season honchoing the Nittany Lions, O’Brien’s agent was contacted by NFL teams and ESPN reported he interviewed with the Cleveland Browns. O’Brien had previously said, "I'm not a one-and-done guy. I made a commitment to these players at Penn State and that's what I am going to do. I'm not gonna cut and run after one year. That's for sure.” Billionaire booster Terrence Pegula decided to make sure by offering to add $1.3 million to O’Brien’s current $2.3 million dollar salary. That would have made O’Brien among the highest paid coaches in college football. This at a university which is banned for 4 years from bowl appearances, a reduction by half for football scholarships during those four years, the aforementioned vacated wins and a $60 million fine, which is roughly equivalent to the average annual revenue of the football program. The NCAA probably envisioned these punishments as a Samson type dis-tressing, but among the We Are Penn State crowd it is still apparently Football First.
The PSU website proclaims that 1 out of every 117 Americans with a college degree are Penn State grads. That's a lot of votes, and, as witnessed by the proposed $1.3 million gift above, a lot more money. Corbett, like all powerful politicians, CEOs and Wall Street traders is a sociopath when it comes to career advancement. Wondering how he can sleep at night after an action such as this mostly misses the point. It was a Machiavellian tactic of the purest kind by a man who desires a particular political power. The lawsuit plays to a demographic that feels itself wronged and is cunning in its simplicity. From the typical blue collar Penn State fan who feels the NCAA punished those who had committed no crime, Corbett stands to gain some traditional democrat party votes whether he wins the lawsuit or not. From big time alumni like Pegula who can drop $1.3 million without batting an eye, Corbett stands to receive an infusion of much needed cash for what is sure to be an expensive race for governor. All he has to do to tap into that powerful structure is stand up to an organization that no one likes anyway and play the downtrodden soul. Corbett raised around $28 million for his election in 2010. With the election ground game already afoot, money needs to enter his campaign coffers now if he is to continue sleeping in the Governor’s Mansion in Harrisburg. So what if this lawsuit Sandusky’s makes victims relive their abuse? So what that Penn State agreed to the NCAA sanctions? So what that his position as a university trustee makes his lawsuit a conflict of interest? No matter what you or I think, the sanctions were hugely unpopular with fans, students and those numerous alumni. Corbett knows that too and, by filing his lawsuit, has decided that his re-election is the true “moral” victory. In the Corbett camp, whatever has to be done to secure re-election simply must be done. Depravity has found a new home.
Monday, January 07, 2013
Thursday, January 03, 2013
Keystone Cops Wanted
Back in the old days of my elementary school attendance, which was a mix of parochial and public schools, Officer Friendly would make annual visits to foster a relationship between kids and cops. Later, the D.A.R.E. Program sought to do likewise. In fact, when I was a very young lad my uncle would frequently drop me off at school on his way to work as an officer with NOPD. Police, while not permanently stationed at any school I attended, were a fixture in the curriculum. Why then, in light of the horrific event at Sandy Hook Elementary, is the idea of an armed police officer at schools being so vigorously attacked? Why is this idea so inane and, therefore, completely off the table? What, exactly, am I missing?
Sidwell Friends Select in Washington, D.C., educates the children of D.C. area power brokers for an annual pittance of $38,000. Sasha and Malia Obama made news when they were initially enrolled there and we have once again seen them on front pages of newspapers because their school employs 11 armed guards as a matter of course. It should be noted that these are NOT guards hired since the two young ladies enrolled. Nope, Sasha and Malia have their own Secret Service detail, as they should. The 11 armed guards are there permanently to protect the students and staff.
The Friends Select website proudly states: Members of the Friends Select community believe in the Quaker values of respect for all, simplicity, “the peaceful resolution to conflict” (my emphasis), and a constant search for truth. Umm, peaceful resolution versus 11 armed guards? Doesn’t that seem excessive, even histrionic, despite the fact that these are the children of the rich and famous? I would suggest that it is even more than that. It is completely and utterly hypocritical for an organization that preaches “War Is Not the Answer,” while making money on t-shirts and bumper stickers emblazoned with that creed. Those bumper stickers mostly festoon Volvo station wagons and Subaru Outbacks and the t-shirts are most often worn by Birkenstock clad hippie re-enactors, but nonetheless that IS the Quakers publicly stated position, which is undeniably at odds with 11 armed guards roaming their hallowed halls.
I am completely comfortable suggesting that no matter what political view the parents of Sandy Hook Elementary previously held concerning guns, they now ALL wish there had been someone, anyone, armed and trained in the use of a firearm when evil incarnate broke a window and rained death and destruction onto the innocent boys and girls in school that day, as do I. I also have no doubt that more than a few of those parent’s cars had those blue and white, War Is Not the Answer bumper stickers. War may not ALWAYS be the answer, but when evil intrudes upon the safety of children it is, in my view, most definitely the answer. If you disagree with my assertion, then let me ask: if not war, what IS the answer? Please stick to real world solutions and pragmatic responses and not some juvenile, kumbaya version of how you wish life would shake out.
On a recent front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer is a story wherein our potty-mouthed mayor, Michael Nutter, went on national television last week, looked into the camera and said the NRA's proposal to staff schools with armed guards was "a completely dumbass idea from the start.” He has used various versions of ass profanity to hammer home points in the past. I am not against anyone cursing, including public servants, but our august mayor uses tame profanity to appear tougher and more inner city than his lily background would suggest. It is part of his “I’m a tough guy when it come to this stuff” persona, which, as any Philly resident will tell you, is absolutely ridiculous.
The commercials of Mayor Nutter and his daughter Olivia are credited with swaying the electorate in his first run for mayor. I admit that I found those commercials heart-warming, but did not vote for him for reasons that matter not here. There was much fanfare when Mayor Nutter and his security entourage, (two cars and three uniformed cops according toPhilly.com) dropped Olivia off at Masterman School, which is the top ranked public school in Philadelphia. There is, of course, a uniformed member of the Philadelphia School Police stationed there now. Unlike when Olivia attended though, the officer at Masterman, like all other Philadelphia school cops, is unarmed. Why Sasha and Malia Obama and Olivia Nutter are possible targets I understand. Why they are more precious than my princess I do not know.
At the beginning of this school year I noticed my daughter’s school officer was not on duty. When I questioned the principal, an educator par excellence whom I absolutely adore, I was told, “City Council removed the officers from ‘some’ schools due to budget cuts.” A subsequent call to a councilman found me hearing that my daughter’s school was deemed less at risk than others, so another school would have the protection afforded by an unarmed cop. An unarmed cop is better than no cop, but not by a huge amount. An unarmed cop breaks up a schoolyard fracas. An “armed” cop is a deterrent, which says to any, would be evil doer, “at this school you WILL be met with force and you WILL have to take a defensive posture. The loathsome bastard at Sandy Hook had to contend with neither of those things, as we all too well know.
The School District of Philadelphia’s Office of School Safety oversees the school police who, according to the district website, must complete 4 weeks of initial training and 24 hours of staff development annually, but they carry no firearms. For that, each school in Philadelphia has a Law Enforcement Liaison with the Philadelphia Police Department. This provides for 2-3 uniformed PPD who are tasked with responding to emergencies at assigned schools. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, when seconds count those assigned cops are only minutes away.
All of this leads me back to my thesis statement. Why is the idea of schools having armed officers, private or public, uniformed or not, so abhorrent to the same people who consistently make use of such guards? The day after the Newtown shooting, I offered to teach the principal I so adamantly support, to shoot and was told no thanks. She was concerned about the” message” it would send to her kids if she was packing, even though she stated unequivocally that she would have done as the principal in Sandy Hook did and run to the guns. I also unequivocally believe that she would seek to protect all her kids, but unfortunately an unarmed Good Samaritan versus a maniac intent on mayhem rarely winds up with a W in the good guy’s column.
What I simply do not understand is why this is an either or proposition. Why CAN’T someone trained to shoot dead any threat to our children be part of our school’s operations? All we very smart people can find a way to make him/her unobtrusive and indeed un-noticed by the children if we wish, or part of the larger program like Officer Friendly if we prefer. Even if we were to completely outlaw ALL firearms tomorrow, something I do not support, there would still be hundreds of millions of weapons available to those bent on evil. Were it a utopian society where none of our children need fear any harm in their day to day lives, this would all be moot. It’s not a utopian society, though it is an exceptional one, and evil men (it’s mostly men who do these vile things) will commit evil acts. Shouldn’t the angel on the shoulder have 15 rounds of S&W .40 or 10 rounds of .45 ACP with which to defend the position of spirit and light? Or is that just not worth the cost to the world view of those wherein Peace Is the Answer?
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Of Cliffs and Cartoons
My email inbox is a mix of electronic versions of newspapers, newsletters (Drudge and Huffington), and amalgamations of news stories such as The Daily Beast’s “Cheat Sheet”, as well as The Atlantic’s “Long Reads”. With no exceptions, each one of those email’s lead story was something concerning how we as a country have managed to avoid the looming “fiscal cliff”. Apparently, enough of our lawmakers cut short their ridiculously long Christmas breaks in order to prevent taxes from rising on every single American who takes home a paycheck. As it stands now, only individuals making more than $400,000 and couples making more than $450,000 will see their tax rates rise from 35% to 39.6%. The rest of us have dodged the label of nouveau pauvre once again, or have we? I would submit that the “Fiscal Cliff” debate is nonsense of the sort only Wile E. Coyote and the Acme Corporation can provide. The problem with government is spending beyond its means, and that is as it always has been.
The federal government has almost always spent more than it took in. In 1914, the first full year after ratification of the 16th Amendment, (which authorized Congress to tax both individuals and businesses), government revenue was $725,000,000 and spending was $726,000,000. There was a period from 1920 through 1930 during which we actually spent less than we took in, but that is decidedly not the norm. Other than the surplus years 1998 through 2001, there has never been more than a year here and a year there where the government spent less money than it actually had in the coffers. If you or I spent more than 50% above our income for years on end we would have been arrested, tried and convicted for fraud by now. In Washington, D.C. that’s just called deficit spending.
I may be in the minority here, but I don’t want taxes to be raised on anyone. A check of the White House website http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals shows tables relating to what the government takes in and what it lays out. In a preposterously government-ese link named SUMMARY OF RECEIPTS, OUTLAYS, AND SURPLUSES OR DEFICITS the money which comes in, and almost immediately goes out, is broken down from 1789 through projections for 2017. In 2009 we took in $2,104,900,000,000 and spent $3,517,600,000,000. In 2010 the numbers were $2,162,700,000,000 and $3,456,200,000,000 respectively and the numbers for 2011 are $2,303,500,000,000 and $3,603,100,000,000. Once the final numbers for the just ended 2012 are released, there is simply no reason to believe we will not continue the trend of ever higher spending, no matter what revenue is generated. In fact, we should all expect the deficits to continue their historical march onward and upwards.
A couple of the lesser mentioned aspects of the deal are that the debt ceiling will not be addressed and the federal payroll tax holiday will be allowed to expire. The former is attached to the $110,000,000,000 in automatic spending cuts which have been delayed for two months. As for the latter, well you didn’t actually think that the only tax which truly affects everyone who works could be rescinded did you? After all, that pesky 47% of people that Mitt Romney referenced can’t be allowed to get off scott free, not now that the election is done. Somehow our government has become addicted to spending and, even with Scrooge McDuck-like buckets of money in play nothing appears to be able to stem the tide of red ink. No matter how much money the politicians in Washington have in which to swim, they will always find ways to spend that and lots more.
Government has always been too big and just keeps getting bigger. Check out any two subsequent years of the federal budget and you will see that it never goes down. Each and every year someone else in Congress adds a pet project or 6 into the document and we get bridges to nowhere, swine odor and manure management research, water taxi service to places with zero residents, and multiple millions of dollars for an indoor rain forest in Iowa. Therein lays the actual problem. As long as the august men and women in Congress are allowed to add earmarks, without repercussion, they will, because it benefits them come election time. How else can a body politic with single digit approval ratings see 90% of incumbents re-elected? I have personally seen and heard politicians of both parties say things like, “Well, Congress may only have an 18% approval rating, but polls show my ratings are 45% favorable.” Why the seeming disconnect? Because millions of dollars for the World Toilet Summit benefit the voters in his or her district of course and jobs back home equal votes.
The theatrical façade of doomsday predictions concerning this cliff or that precipice will continue unabated until we quite literally break the bank and riots of the current Greek variety consume the streets of American cities. As long as politicians can write bigger checks for pet projects than their checking account would seem to allow, they will. That’s where true leadership and legislation should be found. Instead of squabbling over how much the wealthy will, or should pay, we should all be discussing how to stop spending money we simply do not have. It should be the type of discussion that goes on over my coffee table or your couch. How many of us have had the conversation with the spouse concerning just what we won’t buy this month? All of you reading this I would bet.
So, what to do you ask? Should we all become doomsday preppers and stock up on food, water and ammunition for our self sustaining bunkers? That’s one idea I guess, but I am of the belief that if enough of us make time to let our Senators and representatives know what we want, we can change the course of the nation and right the ship. We need an immediate freeze on discretionary spending, actual reform on entitlement spending, some sort of balanced budget spending legislation, the termination of redundant and/or un-necessary programs, and serious, grown up talk on the privatization of other programs.
But wait! I can hear you yelling. That means talks about the sacred cows of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, as well as the political death knells of unemployment compensation, food stamps and agricultural price support programs. Any politician who even suggests cuts to these third rail programs is assured of a landslide defeat in his next election. Unfortunately for whomever that may be, that is precisely what some brave politicians, who never saw Congress as a lifetime gig anyway, need to do. Serious discussions on allowing me and those behind me in the retirement queue to have some say in our retirement need to take place. At roughly 21% of the federal budget, Social Security is the single largest slice in the budget pie. Since there is not now, nor has there ever been a “lock box” for Social Security, funding that slice takes actual money, but the Social Security trust fund only consists of Treasury securities. This means that the taxes collected under the Social Security payroll tax, which since 1969 have been designated as part of the unified budget, are in effect being lent to the federal government to be expended for whatever present purposes the government requires
It is in those “present purposes” wherein the problem exists. Since, by law, monies collected through taxes cannot be separated from the budget, Social Security is only adequately funded through 2026. What happens after that? Nobody actually knows for certain. It just depends upon what Congress is doing concerning the red and black ink of outlays and revenues. What is for certain is that kicking the can down the road continuously will eventually yield unpleasant results. Whether that is the emergence of a third political party, some form of isolationism, outright anarchy in the streets, some combination of all three, or none of them remains to be seen. All that is for certain is that the results will eventually be, at the least, unpleasant for many and, at the worst, painful for us all.
I am fairly certain that, after 1,200 words give or take, my thesis statement for this piece is sound. I am also fairly certain that most of you believe government spends too much money on frivolous and inane things. The sticking point lies in what each of us consider frivolous and/or inane and what we think should be done. I am most fond of my Super Genius tattoo, which resides directly beneath an image of old Wile E. Coyote falling through space. I am that type of Super Genius. The Rube Goldberg complex contraptions which I construct, usually in my mind, never seem to work as well in practice as they did in theory. Being that old Wile E. and I are kindred souls, I do not truly have a cut and dried answer to what needs to be eliminated and what should stay, but some projects and even departments need to go.
Unfortunately, Congress is currently awash in Acme mail order contraptions like Bat Suits, exploding tennis balls, Do-it-Yourself Tornado kits, rocket skates and the ubiquitous Acme American Anvil. While Wile E. can drop an order form into a mailbox, or enter an order into a website, and have the requested items delivered from Acme’s headquarters in Fairfield, NJ in seconds, Congress cannot expect any such miracles in unraveling the Gordian Knot of their own making. They can however, employ an Alexander the Great type solution and cut through it now. If history is any indicator though, that will not happen.
I am more expectant that one by one our elected officials will don the Acme Bat Suit, leap from the cliff and, after one or two swipes of the outfit’s wings, plummet straight into the ground, after which, as they unsteadily regain their feet, an anvil will promptly appear from the heavens and squash them into the dirt. The failures of the Acme products always leave old Wile E. more humiliated than harmed. Failures in Congress, as we all know though, leave the politicians neither humiliated, nor harmed and the Coyote’s greatest enemy, gravity, seems to have no effect on politicians at all. Congress is a body of true fanatics with whom only Wile E. can compare because both continue to, in the words of George Santayana, redouble their efforts when they have forgotten their aim.
That attitude has gotten us where we are now and one of these public servants needs to put on their big boy or girl panties, throw off the Acme Corporation livery and read the fine print on the order forms. For there, as any Looney Tunes aficionado can tell you, are the words that could finally cause our friend the Coyote to expire: Acme is A Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Roadrunner Corporation and a more apt analogy for the current financial morass one simply will not find.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
They Say Locks Only Keep Honest People Honest
"Anything you lose automatically doubles in value."
Mignon McLaughlin
I have always had a particular fascination with that quote, while not truly having any specific information on its author. So when I stumbled across a bargain e-book on Barnes & Noble’s site titled, “Sober Is My New Drunk,” with a lead in quote by Ms McLaughlin I decided to take a chance on it. That led me down the rabbit hole of self immolation from which I can, hopefully, arise like the Phoenix, or at least not like Brandon Lee’s Crow.
Some of you have, no doubt, ascertained where this is going and some of you are already clued into my new path, as it were. I took much longer than I needed to make this public pronouncement. I didn’t hesitate because I was afraid of the responses some might give, nor that any of you would think the less of me. I hesitated because I just didn’t want to have it be over. I just harbored the ridiculous notion that someday I would be able to do things differently, the grown up way. Unfortunately for me that just isn’t the case.
If you’re still reading this I trust the light bulb has gone on, but in case it hasn’t, or more correctly, because I decided to make this public declaration, here goes: I have not had a drop of alcohol, the sweet elixir that sustained me for too many years, since 6 October, 2012 and intend to keep it that way permanently.
I truly wish I could say I came to this place in life because I realized that I was hurting those that love me, or that I recognized I have a problem and wanted to do something about it, or that some major epiphany befell me, but the truth is much more plebian, pedestrian and all too embarrassing. I had a run in with the Philadelphia Police Department, after which I decided to go to rehab for the second time in two years.
I can no longer lie to myself. I have a problem with alcohol, and have for a very long time. Unlike most of you reading this, I cannot simply have 1 or 2, or even 10 or 12. Once I start drinking I will not, and cannot stop until I simply cannot drink anymore due to unconsciousness or some minor to major catastrophe stops me against my will.
That is the long and short of it. I have had multiple debacles while drinking, but didn’t want to face life without it. I adore bar rooms. Whether it is a gin mill, biker bar, honky-tonk, or upscale smoker’s lounge matters not. I love the sights and sounds of them; the way the glass tinkles as the bartender lifts the bottle from its place in front of the ubiquitous mirror; the too loud conviviality of strangers; the tv always turned to sports and the bartender remembering my drink choice.
See the real truth of the matter is I didn’t want to give up drinking. It has been the major part of my life’s jigsaw puzzle for as long as I can remember. It allowed me to act up and have an excuse, even though drunken excuses wear a lot thinner at 44 than they did 20 years earlier. As much as I might protest otherwise, I never wanted to drink like a gentleman. I never cared for a polite buzz, but rather, always preferred the blotto state up against brain damage territory. There are a number of reasons for that, but I will not bother to list them here. Truthfully, they don’t really matter.
What matters most is that alcohol has become a crutch I must abandon if I am to heal in any meaningful way. I have never needed booze to give me a jolt of confidence, nor do I need it in order to do things that are truly, stupendously ill conceived. Those things just come naturally to me. I’ve tried for a couple of years now to quit drinking, with various lengths of success, but what I have never done is what I am doing now.
The purpose of this monologue is not that any of you will coddle me, or hold my hand, but rather that I will have to face my words. I will have to admit that I simply cannot drink with any reasonable measure of success and the only way to prevent bad things from happening when I do drink is to abstain completely. So there you have it. The legendary, many would say infamous, days of wine and song, or in my case Heineken, Jameson’s and juke boxes are done. I was never overly embarrassed by my drunken antics, nor cared that people knew I tended to over imbibe, so why should I care now that the world knows I am officially On the Wagon? As you can all see, apparently I don’t.
While I am not as renowned as the author of the book that started this journey, I fully intend to let you all know what life is like from this side of the divide. To Your Health.
Mignon McLaughlin
I have always had a particular fascination with that quote, while not truly having any specific information on its author. So when I stumbled across a bargain e-book on Barnes & Noble’s site titled, “Sober Is My New Drunk,” with a lead in quote by Ms McLaughlin I decided to take a chance on it. That led me down the rabbit hole of self immolation from which I can, hopefully, arise like the Phoenix, or at least not like Brandon Lee’s Crow.
Some of you have, no doubt, ascertained where this is going and some of you are already clued into my new path, as it were. I took much longer than I needed to make this public pronouncement. I didn’t hesitate because I was afraid of the responses some might give, nor that any of you would think the less of me. I hesitated because I just didn’t want to have it be over. I just harbored the ridiculous notion that someday I would be able to do things differently, the grown up way. Unfortunately for me that just isn’t the case.
If you’re still reading this I trust the light bulb has gone on, but in case it hasn’t, or more correctly, because I decided to make this public declaration, here goes: I have not had a drop of alcohol, the sweet elixir that sustained me for too many years, since 6 October, 2012 and intend to keep it that way permanently.
I truly wish I could say I came to this place in life because I realized that I was hurting those that love me, or that I recognized I have a problem and wanted to do something about it, or that some major epiphany befell me, but the truth is much more plebian, pedestrian and all too embarrassing. I had a run in with the Philadelphia Police Department, after which I decided to go to rehab for the second time in two years.
I can no longer lie to myself. I have a problem with alcohol, and have for a very long time. Unlike most of you reading this, I cannot simply have 1 or 2, or even 10 or 12. Once I start drinking I will not, and cannot stop until I simply cannot drink anymore due to unconsciousness or some minor to major catastrophe stops me against my will.
That is the long and short of it. I have had multiple debacles while drinking, but didn’t want to face life without it. I adore bar rooms. Whether it is a gin mill, biker bar, honky-tonk, or upscale smoker’s lounge matters not. I love the sights and sounds of them; the way the glass tinkles as the bartender lifts the bottle from its place in front of the ubiquitous mirror; the too loud conviviality of strangers; the tv always turned to sports and the bartender remembering my drink choice.
See the real truth of the matter is I didn’t want to give up drinking. It has been the major part of my life’s jigsaw puzzle for as long as I can remember. It allowed me to act up and have an excuse, even though drunken excuses wear a lot thinner at 44 than they did 20 years earlier. As much as I might protest otherwise, I never wanted to drink like a gentleman. I never cared for a polite buzz, but rather, always preferred the blotto state up against brain damage territory. There are a number of reasons for that, but I will not bother to list them here. Truthfully, they don’t really matter.
What matters most is that alcohol has become a crutch I must abandon if I am to heal in any meaningful way. I have never needed booze to give me a jolt of confidence, nor do I need it in order to do things that are truly, stupendously ill conceived. Those things just come naturally to me. I’ve tried for a couple of years now to quit drinking, with various lengths of success, but what I have never done is what I am doing now.
The purpose of this monologue is not that any of you will coddle me, or hold my hand, but rather that I will have to face my words. I will have to admit that I simply cannot drink with any reasonable measure of success and the only way to prevent bad things from happening when I do drink is to abstain completely. So there you have it. The legendary, many would say infamous, days of wine and song, or in my case Heineken, Jameson’s and juke boxes are done. I was never overly embarrassed by my drunken antics, nor cared that people knew I tended to over imbibe, so why should I care now that the world knows I am officially On the Wagon? As you can all see, apparently I don’t.
While I am not as renowned as the author of the book that started this journey, I fully intend to let you all know what life is like from this side of the divide. To Your Health.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Making Sense of Tragedy
As the father of an 8 year old daughter, I was horrified when I heard the very first reports of the mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. My horror and abject sadness only deepened as the picture of what happened emerged. I cannot fathom the evil or degree of mental aberration that would be needed to execute 6 and 7 year old children one after the other, pausing only to kill teachers and staff who attempted to come to their rescue. Nor can I imagine how someone deranged enough to commit such acts was allowed to walk in public amongst the rest of us. I honestly don’t care to know anything about him, nor will I endeavor to remember his name and I certainly won’t use it here. A despicable piece of humanity snuffed out the life of 20 children for some reason that died with him when he took the coward’s way out and killed himself so as not to face accountability for his actions. We as a nation now have to address the issue not only of Gun Control, but also Mental Illness and what to do about both.
Juxtaposed against the madness of the gunmen is the utter heroism of the school staff. The school’s principal Dawn Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach, the school’s psychologist, ran towards the first sounds of gunfire, confronting the gunman in an attempt to protect their students and were murdered in cold blood. First grade teacher Victoria Soto rushed her students into a closet as the first gunshots rang out and then shielded her students with her body when the madman entered her classroom, as did Special Education teacher Anne Marie Murphy. Both teachers died doing their best to protect the children they desperately loved. Other teachers saved dozens of lives, while risking their own. The school’s music teacher Maryrose Kristopik barricaded a door with instruments, holding the knob as the maniac beat on it, and first-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig rushed her 15 students into a bathroom and barricaded the door with an old bookshelf, using her body weight to keep it in place. There are dozens more stories of teachers and staff taking similarly heroic measures to protect their charges. Nowhere among those stories though is the elephant in the room: one teacher, armed with a handgun of their own, and trained to use it, could have ended the tragedy before it truly started.
I know, I know what some of you are saying already, “We have to ban guns, not give them to teachers”. While that might seem as an answer to the problem it doesn’t begin to address it in any substantive way. It is a juvenile response to an adult problem. Don’t believe me? Well how about we just start with the desire to BAN guns, all guns. How EXACTLY would you go about that? Would you just tell the firearms industry that they can no longer sell weapons to anyone other than the government or the military? Okay. That stops future weapons from entering the community, while throwing hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work I might add, but does less than nothing about the guns already in private hands. Less than nothing you say? Why that’s preposterous! Really? What’s the quickest way to assure that something becomes more valuable? Have a finite number of it. The weapons currently owned, legally or illegally, just became more precious and people on both sides of the law will stop at little to acquire and hold onto them. Previously law abiding citizens will hide their weapons and criminals will attempt to acquire more through the normal illegal channels. Both sides will do this as a hedge against the future. Let’s ignore that pesky little fact though.
So, now we’ve banned all future gun sales. Now what? “Well we start taking them away from EVERYONE except cops! That’s what”, you say. Umm… okay, but how EXACTLY do you propose to do that? Are you going to demand that people turn them in voluntarily by a date picked by you and then send the local constabulary house to house to collect the rest? House to house in every city, town, village and farm? Huh, good luck with that strategy. Some of the bad guys will choose the moment when Officer Friendly knocks on the door to collect his weapons to begin his final shoot-out, which just ties up the other cops busy making their allotted confiscations of weapons. Yep, bullets will be flying then for sure, but that’s okay because eventually the cops will outgun the bad guy and he’ll commit suicide by cop. Some places, ala Ruby Ridge or Waco will require a larger law enforcement presence to affect the ban, and it won’t be just one place, nor will there be many peaceful resolutions. That’s okay too though because after a decade, or so, of dogged determination by our local LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) all the guns and ammo will have been collected and we’ll have thinned the national herd of some disagreeable sorts. Of course, along the way all manner of well meaning, but draconian, rights infringing, legislation will have been enacted to combat the gun problem, which won’t be used to limit any other personal freedoms I am sure. Wink, wink.
What would a utopian view of a gun-free America look like? What will the national landscape resemble then? I know what it won’t resemble. It won’t resemble a representative democracy anymore. It would be nothing more than another despotic regime paying lip service to its citizens concerns and rubber stamping elections. “Nahh”, you say, “life will be better and more kumbaya for all of us”. Unfortunately, nothing in history suggests that. The United States came into being because of guns. The Continental Army was a collection of citizen soldiers who brought their own hardware to the fight and, once established as a country, those same individuals expanded the nascent country’s borders with the Colt Peacemaker and the Winchester Model 1873, “The gun that won the West”. We are a nation of gun owners and just as the American Motorcycle Assc. famously remarked about the Hollister riot in 1947, 99% of those owners are law abiding. Just because you’ve never owned, or even fired a weapon, nor know anyone who has, doesn’t mean they are not part of the literal fabric of the country. Millions of men, women and, yes, children eagerly look forward to various hunting seasons and that many more engage in some form of target shooting. Others own one that they haven’t touched in eons, but know exactly where it is just in case. None of those people have done anything that deserves having their personal liberties expunged, but, hey, so what? They’re not Upper East Side or Rodeo Dr friendly anyway.
This could be the place where I could lay out the stats on other types of deaths versus gun deaths. Like the 48,000-98,000 deaths each year attributed to medical errors, or the 33,000 deaths due to a motor vehicle accident that occurred last year on the nation’s highways; a number that continues to go down despite the dire predictions of various agencies when the speed limits were raised. There’s also the unintentional poisoning deaths, 31,758 or unintentional falls, 24,792, or the intentional self harm (suicide) 36,909 to which we must make mention. We should probably throw heart disease, 599,413 cancer, 567,628 and diabetes, 68,705 deaths in her too because there are all manner of lifestyle choices which cause a large portion of those diseases. It has become cliché to say, people don’t kill people, guns do, but, unfortunately that is true. Guns are no more inherently evil than cars or doctors are and no one is considering a ban on those. The idea of banning guns is just more chic because those who argue most vociferously for it are the ones who don’t own any anyway, nor understand why you would want to. When an event such as the Sandy Hook massacre occurs all of us are shaken to our core and just want to do something, anything, to seem to be responding to the tragedy. That is nothing more than posturing for the sake of posturing so that we can all feel better about the ugliness of humanity.
Humans are not inherently evil, nor good in my estimation. We are just that, human. There is no aggressive gene or singular trait that makes us war on ourselves. According to Dr. Agustin Fuentes, writing in the popular accepted journal “Psychology Today”,
“In the human fossil and archeological record there is no good evidence of intense aggression and warfare until very recently, and it is associated with the advent of permanent settlements, agriculture, and social stratification. Increased social inequality and more complex political and economic systems seem to correlate with more types of aggression and violence in human societies. Interestingly, these scenarios also correlate with larger and more complex peaceful relationships amongst and between peoples.”
What that seems to suggest to me is that the more people there are the more aggressive, hostile acts there will be, but they will always be out-numbered by acts of kindness and those of a peaceful nature. Simply put, our biology is not to blame.
All right, so play along with me a while longer. Let’s accept that neither guns, nor humans are inherently evil. What to do then, pragmatically, to make sure that those among us who have the propensity for evil, or violent mental instability, never acquire the firearm means to inflict casualties. A good place to start is to enforce common sense concerning firearms. The Sandy Hook murderer should never have had unfettered access to the weapons legally acquired by his mother. She, unfortunately, paid for her life for that error, along with dozens of innocents. Apparently she was aware of his mental imbalance, but was at a loss to address it. From the news reporting on such shootings, most of the shooters didn’t acquire their weapons through due process, but rather stole them from others. That’s as true of an 18 year old kid who fires a pistol at a person on the subway in Philly because he had the temerity to wear the team jersey of some organization from somewhere else, as it is for more headline making shootings such as Sandy Hook . That doesn’t make it any less true though. The penalties for gun violence, indeed any illegality involving a firearm, need to be stiff and consistently enforced. Legally owned firearms need to be stored safely and securely, with stiff penalties for those who allow them to fall into others hands through carelessness too.
It’s true that mass shootings occur in the United States more often than anywhere else. At least it is true for the sake of this discussion. A resident of Tel Aviv killed with a dozen of his fellows on a bus blown up by terrorists would make no distinction between being dead, with someone shot down protecting children. Dead is dead. Around 50 people were killed in Syria today as fighting between rebels and the government has intensified. The death toll there thus far is somewhere around 40,000, with no end in sight. There are many such places in the world where 26 dead in a day would be an improvement. That’s part of the reason this event shocks the national consciousness. No matter what you may believe, these types of events are still rare. We, quite rightly, are horrified by this one because it involved our children, the innocents among us. In trying to make sense of a senseless act we seek to solve the wrong problem and assuage our collective guilt and sorrow. Banning weapons as a knee jerk reaction to an heinous crime is punishing the wrong actor, while not even preventing the next gruesome event.
When James Brady was wounded by John Hinckley Jr. during his attempted assassination of President Reagan, the outcry for Gun Control was instantaneous. The legislation that resulted, The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act sought to prevent just such an unhinged character as Hinckley from doing just what he did; buy a .22 caliber handgun in a pawnshop with no background check. To that end, it was effective in stopping the sales of firearms to illegal or unlawful owners, but prosecution and convictions of violators of the Brady Bill are rare. Federal oversight, the biggest Big Brother of them all can seldom be bothered to enforce the law, unless there is a splashy news story to spur them. What we get then are a hodge podge of local and state laws that criminalize otherwise legal gun owners. In a rush to extract vengeance from someone for a despicable act we punish people who bore no ill will in some cases, and let others off the hook. What is needed is straight forward enforcement of the federal firearms legislation already in place and zero tolerance policy of punishment for those who commit gun violence, anywhere and anytime. The 18 year old in Philly who fired into a crowded SEPTA train last week should be aggressively punished for his actions and serve a severe sentence for it. His actions are no more mundane for the lack of deaths. In fact, one could argue that since he is still, as of this writing, on the loose that he is more terrifying than a random school shooter is. A school shooter has a soft target in mind. A place where he can go about his gruesome business without fear of retaliation, at least until law enforcement arrives. The SEPTA shooter didn’t care on whom his bullets landed and didn’t seem to care about the number of deaths he could have caused. Nothing, save capture and imprisonment, will stop him from doing that again and again. That shooter believes his action was justifiable for some inane reason, but probably isn’t deranged in the manner of the scumbag in Connecticut. How many more like each shooter exist?
More likely than not, the SEPTA shooter belongs to a class of people who believe that spraying bullets into a train is something that is acceptable in his world. That is truly alarming because a mass murderer is an aberration, but more picayune shootings like this are just that, commonplace to the point where they make only the local news. We may never be able to stop an unsettled maniac from committing a crime of a magnitude that shocks us all, but we can address why it is that a shooting on public transportation, in front of hundreds of witnesses, doesn’t. Sensible solutions to gun violence need to be considered by all of us in civilized society. That means the duck hunter in Tuscaloosa, AL and the gun collector in Lost Creek, WV have to be accepted as equals by the urbane jet set. Both sides need to recognize that while guns are not inherently evil, they are part of the problem and all of us have a responsibility to see to it that we are all as safe in our homes and schools as we can be. Instead of hysteria, blustering and finger pointing we need a grown up discussion replete with both side’s viewpoints on what constitutes gun safety. No one can get all of what he or she wants all the time, and this discussion would be no different. What we could get though is something none of us would ever recognize: we might stop someone else from shocking our consciences with an act like this and isn’t that truly what we all want?
Juxtaposed against the madness of the gunmen is the utter heroism of the school staff. The school’s principal Dawn Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach, the school’s psychologist, ran towards the first sounds of gunfire, confronting the gunman in an attempt to protect their students and were murdered in cold blood. First grade teacher Victoria Soto rushed her students into a closet as the first gunshots rang out and then shielded her students with her body when the madman entered her classroom, as did Special Education teacher Anne Marie Murphy. Both teachers died doing their best to protect the children they desperately loved. Other teachers saved dozens of lives, while risking their own. The school’s music teacher Maryrose Kristopik barricaded a door with instruments, holding the knob as the maniac beat on it, and first-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig rushed her 15 students into a bathroom and barricaded the door with an old bookshelf, using her body weight to keep it in place. There are dozens more stories of teachers and staff taking similarly heroic measures to protect their charges. Nowhere among those stories though is the elephant in the room: one teacher, armed with a handgun of their own, and trained to use it, could have ended the tragedy before it truly started.
I know, I know what some of you are saying already, “We have to ban guns, not give them to teachers”. While that might seem as an answer to the problem it doesn’t begin to address it in any substantive way. It is a juvenile response to an adult problem. Don’t believe me? Well how about we just start with the desire to BAN guns, all guns. How EXACTLY would you go about that? Would you just tell the firearms industry that they can no longer sell weapons to anyone other than the government or the military? Okay. That stops future weapons from entering the community, while throwing hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work I might add, but does less than nothing about the guns already in private hands. Less than nothing you say? Why that’s preposterous! Really? What’s the quickest way to assure that something becomes more valuable? Have a finite number of it. The weapons currently owned, legally or illegally, just became more precious and people on both sides of the law will stop at little to acquire and hold onto them. Previously law abiding citizens will hide their weapons and criminals will attempt to acquire more through the normal illegal channels. Both sides will do this as a hedge against the future. Let’s ignore that pesky little fact though.
So, now we’ve banned all future gun sales. Now what? “Well we start taking them away from EVERYONE except cops! That’s what”, you say. Umm… okay, but how EXACTLY do you propose to do that? Are you going to demand that people turn them in voluntarily by a date picked by you and then send the local constabulary house to house to collect the rest? House to house in every city, town, village and farm? Huh, good luck with that strategy. Some of the bad guys will choose the moment when Officer Friendly knocks on the door to collect his weapons to begin his final shoot-out, which just ties up the other cops busy making their allotted confiscations of weapons. Yep, bullets will be flying then for sure, but that’s okay because eventually the cops will outgun the bad guy and he’ll commit suicide by cop. Some places, ala Ruby Ridge or Waco will require a larger law enforcement presence to affect the ban, and it won’t be just one place, nor will there be many peaceful resolutions. That’s okay too though because after a decade, or so, of dogged determination by our local LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) all the guns and ammo will have been collected and we’ll have thinned the national herd of some disagreeable sorts. Of course, along the way all manner of well meaning, but draconian, rights infringing, legislation will have been enacted to combat the gun problem, which won’t be used to limit any other personal freedoms I am sure. Wink, wink.
What would a utopian view of a gun-free America look like? What will the national landscape resemble then? I know what it won’t resemble. It won’t resemble a representative democracy anymore. It would be nothing more than another despotic regime paying lip service to its citizens concerns and rubber stamping elections. “Nahh”, you say, “life will be better and more kumbaya for all of us”. Unfortunately, nothing in history suggests that. The United States came into being because of guns. The Continental Army was a collection of citizen soldiers who brought their own hardware to the fight and, once established as a country, those same individuals expanded the nascent country’s borders with the Colt Peacemaker and the Winchester Model 1873, “The gun that won the West”. We are a nation of gun owners and just as the American Motorcycle Assc. famously remarked about the Hollister riot in 1947, 99% of those owners are law abiding. Just because you’ve never owned, or even fired a weapon, nor know anyone who has, doesn’t mean they are not part of the literal fabric of the country. Millions of men, women and, yes, children eagerly look forward to various hunting seasons and that many more engage in some form of target shooting. Others own one that they haven’t touched in eons, but know exactly where it is just in case. None of those people have done anything that deserves having their personal liberties expunged, but, hey, so what? They’re not Upper East Side or Rodeo Dr friendly anyway.
This could be the place where I could lay out the stats on other types of deaths versus gun deaths. Like the 48,000-98,000 deaths each year attributed to medical errors, or the 33,000 deaths due to a motor vehicle accident that occurred last year on the nation’s highways; a number that continues to go down despite the dire predictions of various agencies when the speed limits were raised. There’s also the unintentional poisoning deaths, 31,758 or unintentional falls, 24,792, or the intentional self harm (suicide) 36,909 to which we must make mention. We should probably throw heart disease, 599,413 cancer, 567,628 and diabetes, 68,705 deaths in her too because there are all manner of lifestyle choices which cause a large portion of those diseases. It has become cliché to say, people don’t kill people, guns do, but, unfortunately that is true. Guns are no more inherently evil than cars or doctors are and no one is considering a ban on those. The idea of banning guns is just more chic because those who argue most vociferously for it are the ones who don’t own any anyway, nor understand why you would want to. When an event such as the Sandy Hook massacre occurs all of us are shaken to our core and just want to do something, anything, to seem to be responding to the tragedy. That is nothing more than posturing for the sake of posturing so that we can all feel better about the ugliness of humanity.
Humans are not inherently evil, nor good in my estimation. We are just that, human. There is no aggressive gene or singular trait that makes us war on ourselves. According to Dr. Agustin Fuentes, writing in the popular accepted journal “Psychology Today”,
“In the human fossil and archeological record there is no good evidence of intense aggression and warfare until very recently, and it is associated with the advent of permanent settlements, agriculture, and social stratification. Increased social inequality and more complex political and economic systems seem to correlate with more types of aggression and violence in human societies. Interestingly, these scenarios also correlate with larger and more complex peaceful relationships amongst and between peoples.”
What that seems to suggest to me is that the more people there are the more aggressive, hostile acts there will be, but they will always be out-numbered by acts of kindness and those of a peaceful nature. Simply put, our biology is not to blame.
All right, so play along with me a while longer. Let’s accept that neither guns, nor humans are inherently evil. What to do then, pragmatically, to make sure that those among us who have the propensity for evil, or violent mental instability, never acquire the firearm means to inflict casualties. A good place to start is to enforce common sense concerning firearms. The Sandy Hook murderer should never have had unfettered access to the weapons legally acquired by his mother. She, unfortunately, paid for her life for that error, along with dozens of innocents. Apparently she was aware of his mental imbalance, but was at a loss to address it. From the news reporting on such shootings, most of the shooters didn’t acquire their weapons through due process, but rather stole them from others. That’s as true of an 18 year old kid who fires a pistol at a person on the subway in Philly because he had the temerity to wear the team jersey of some organization from somewhere else, as it is for more headline making shootings such as Sandy Hook . That doesn’t make it any less true though. The penalties for gun violence, indeed any illegality involving a firearm, need to be stiff and consistently enforced. Legally owned firearms need to be stored safely and securely, with stiff penalties for those who allow them to fall into others hands through carelessness too.
It’s true that mass shootings occur in the United States more often than anywhere else. At least it is true for the sake of this discussion. A resident of Tel Aviv killed with a dozen of his fellows on a bus blown up by terrorists would make no distinction between being dead, with someone shot down protecting children. Dead is dead. Around 50 people were killed in Syria today as fighting between rebels and the government has intensified. The death toll there thus far is somewhere around 40,000, with no end in sight. There are many such places in the world where 26 dead in a day would be an improvement. That’s part of the reason this event shocks the national consciousness. No matter what you may believe, these types of events are still rare. We, quite rightly, are horrified by this one because it involved our children, the innocents among us. In trying to make sense of a senseless act we seek to solve the wrong problem and assuage our collective guilt and sorrow. Banning weapons as a knee jerk reaction to an heinous crime is punishing the wrong actor, while not even preventing the next gruesome event.
When James Brady was wounded by John Hinckley Jr. during his attempted assassination of President Reagan, the outcry for Gun Control was instantaneous. The legislation that resulted, The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act sought to prevent just such an unhinged character as Hinckley from doing just what he did; buy a .22 caliber handgun in a pawnshop with no background check. To that end, it was effective in stopping the sales of firearms to illegal or unlawful owners, but prosecution and convictions of violators of the Brady Bill are rare. Federal oversight, the biggest Big Brother of them all can seldom be bothered to enforce the law, unless there is a splashy news story to spur them. What we get then are a hodge podge of local and state laws that criminalize otherwise legal gun owners. In a rush to extract vengeance from someone for a despicable act we punish people who bore no ill will in some cases, and let others off the hook. What is needed is straight forward enforcement of the federal firearms legislation already in place and zero tolerance policy of punishment for those who commit gun violence, anywhere and anytime. The 18 year old in Philly who fired into a crowded SEPTA train last week should be aggressively punished for his actions and serve a severe sentence for it. His actions are no more mundane for the lack of deaths. In fact, one could argue that since he is still, as of this writing, on the loose that he is more terrifying than a random school shooter is. A school shooter has a soft target in mind. A place where he can go about his gruesome business without fear of retaliation, at least until law enforcement arrives. The SEPTA shooter didn’t care on whom his bullets landed and didn’t seem to care about the number of deaths he could have caused. Nothing, save capture and imprisonment, will stop him from doing that again and again. That shooter believes his action was justifiable for some inane reason, but probably isn’t deranged in the manner of the scumbag in Connecticut. How many more like each shooter exist?
More likely than not, the SEPTA shooter belongs to a class of people who believe that spraying bullets into a train is something that is acceptable in his world. That is truly alarming because a mass murderer is an aberration, but more picayune shootings like this are just that, commonplace to the point where they make only the local news. We may never be able to stop an unsettled maniac from committing a crime of a magnitude that shocks us all, but we can address why it is that a shooting on public transportation, in front of hundreds of witnesses, doesn’t. Sensible solutions to gun violence need to be considered by all of us in civilized society. That means the duck hunter in Tuscaloosa, AL and the gun collector in Lost Creek, WV have to be accepted as equals by the urbane jet set. Both sides need to recognize that while guns are not inherently evil, they are part of the problem and all of us have a responsibility to see to it that we are all as safe in our homes and schools as we can be. Instead of hysteria, blustering and finger pointing we need a grown up discussion replete with both side’s viewpoints on what constitutes gun safety. No one can get all of what he or she wants all the time, and this discussion would be no different. What we could get though is something none of us would ever recognize: we might stop someone else from shocking our consciences with an act like this and isn’t that truly what we all want?
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
19,605 to Nothing
In the aftermath of the Presidential Election, an uproar from the right side of the political aisle has erupted here in Philadelphia. The culprit is a news story, which appeared in the “Philadelphia Inquirer” http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-12/news/35069785_1_romney-supporters-mitt-romney-sasha-issenberg#.UKJI014h1fA.email Since its publication yesterday the local talk radio outlets, and a number of national ones too, have begun trumpeting the call for an investigation into how it is possible that in 59 voting divisions not one voter voted for Mitt Romney. Republicans in all strata of government are decrying the numerical improbability of such an event. The venerated Larry Sabato, political scientist from the University of Virginia, and go-to guy for all manner of election nuance is quoted in the article as saying,
"I'd be surprised if there weren't a handful of precincts that didn't cast a vote for Romney". But the number of zero precincts in Philadelphia deserves examination. Not a single vote for Romney or even an error? That's worth looking into”.
Well, far be it for me to differ with the august Mr. Sabato, but I’m at a loss as to why anyone is incredulous about these numbers. The problem is not Democrat Party chicanery, or malfeasance, or party politics. No. The problem is the Republican Party generally nationwide, but particularly in the feckless, counterproductive, ineffectual version that resides here in Philly.
The City of Philadelphia has 66 political wards, each ostensibly governed by a Ward Leader from each party. My understanding is that it is the Ward Leader’s job to turn out his or her ward’s registered voters for the party on Election Day. Each one of those wards has not less than 10, nor more than 50 divisions, according to the self styled watchdog group The Committee of Seventy. So, in the city’s 66 wards there are a total of 1,687 divisions. In 59 of those divisions not one vote was cast for Mitt Romney. The statistical implausibility of 19,605 to 0 is the rallying point for those who have had their ire raised by this seeming travesty. If my math is correct, that means in roughly 3% of the city’s divisions, the voters unanimously voted for President Obama. Out of the total 656,263 votes cast in Philly, President Obama received 559,180. If anything, I am surprised there weren’t 100 divisions that voted unanimously for the President’s re-election.
Various sources have the total number of voters in Philadelphia at about 1 million, with roughly 811,000 of them registered as Democrats, 129,000 as Republicans and 99,000 from all the other parties combined. Of the 656,263 votes cast and counted on Election Day, Obama received 559,180, Romney got 91,953 and Libertarian, Green Party and write-ins accounted for 5,130. Instead of concerning themselves with the 19,605 votes from the 59 divisions that went all in for President Obama, I would suggest the Republican Party concern itself with the 467,227 vote difference between the candidates and how to collect some of them. Or, even better, how about the 37,416 supposedly registered republicans who did NOT cast a vote for Romney, but either a) voted for Obama, b) didn’t vote at all, or c) don’t live and vote in the city anymore. Those numbers are much more important than the 19,605 votes, which works out to about 332 votes per each of the 59 divisions.
It is worth noting that according to the City of Philadelphia, minorities make up about 94% of the population in the disputed 59 divisions. Now I am personally acquainted with some minorities who voted for Mitt Romney, but none of them live in divisions that have that sort of ethnic make-up and that’s the actual crux of the problem, as far as I am concerned. As someone who is actively involved in a number of volunteer efforts including homeless veteran issues and women’s reproductive rights, I have witnessed the dumbfounded looks I receive when people first become aware that I am a lifelong, registered Republican. They are flummoxed that I even “have” a social conscience, because the media, entertainers and their own coterie of folks have told them forever that we are all evil, $1,500 suit wearing bastards with horns and tails that revel in dirty air and water and enjoy nothing more than stealing candy right from the mouths of children. There is no recollection of Rockefeller Republicans or knowledge of Teddy Roosevelt’s protection of the environment for future generations. Nope, we’re all Dick Cheney, have stock in Halliburton, and care not for anything except the bottom line. I don’t blame the uninformed masses, nor the Democrat party for those misnomers. Those characterizations are the fault of those of us in the Republican Party who allow them to define us as a whole.
In a decidedly unscientific, anecdotal means of buttressing my argument just consider your more liberal friend’s stories of voting. While standing in line last week to cast my vote, I overheard a woman explaining to a man standing with her that you just need to hit the “big button” and you’ll vote for all the Democrat Party candidates. In my experience, that’s the way the Dems vote most often. Whether or not they know anything about the person running for Auditor General they choose the one with the D behind his or her name. I have never personally hit the “big button” to elect all the R candidates on any given ticket, nor will I. I take my voting responsibilities seriously and make it my business to find out what I need to know about a candidate to make an informed decision. Two cases in point, I did not approve of Tom Smith’s self avowed positions on abortion and gay marriage, so I held my nose and voted for Bob Casey for Senate. With one R from Pennsylvania already embedded in the Senate I did not feel the need to make it a monolith. As I didn’t know enough about the candidates for Auditor General though, I defaulted to the Libertarian candidate. I cannot imagine any of the Chinese immigrants in my neighborhood doing likewise, especially when the toothless, Chinese grandmother four people ahead of me kept asking people their party affiliation and smiling her toothless grin ecstatically when she was assured that they were Democrats. My wife described a similar scene so I’m uncertain if the woman actually voted, voted twice or was just cheerleading for her brand, but there it is.
When I was called to testify in front of the US Civil Rights Commission after the last Presidential Election, I was asked by one blue blooded member of the panel why the Republican poll worker who first alerted us to the appearance of Black Panthers was not with us. Apparently this woman of, I am sure, impeccable breeding could not fathom the amount of ostracism or even outright threats of violence a black man would have to endure in his 94% black neighborhood had he done so. Just being registered as a republican in the lower socioeconomic strata of neighborhoods in most major cities would be enough to cause you a ton of grief with your neighbors. That’s because the Democrats have done a stellar job branding Republicans as the enemy of ALL people of color. Don’t think so? Why then would blacks, who in poll after poll disagree with gay marriage and abortion, continue to vote for the party that endorses those issues in their platform? I am not suggesting the Republican Party needs to endorse abortion and/or gay marriage in our platform. We don’t need two parties to do that, but we could certainly remove the stringent, religion based aspects of it and recognize that a not unsizeable number of registered Republicans are both Pro Choice and in favor of marriage being extended to homosexuals. It’s no secret that I’m one of those Republicans in favor of both, but still I pushed the button for Romney.
The Republican Party needs to realize that we have always been the Big Tent guys. We need to purge our vernacular of the RINO tag and remember the words of Ronald Reagan, “My 80% friend is not my 20% enemy”. We need to begin reaching out to minorities and women and show them with actions that we are not all Rick Santorum or evangelical Christians. In a day and age when everyone is suited up for elections in their best game day uniform, we have to realize that a party that caters to the view of an ever diminishing segment of society will itself one day disappear. That does not mean we should become the Democrat-Lite Party. We can still be the party of fiscal conservatism and pragmatic responses to national security without watering down the brand. We cannot, however, keep being seen as the party of old, rich, white men. As that demographic continues to shrink in all the major cities we risk turning Pennsylvania into a perennial blue state. It does no good to decry the facts that as goes Philadelphia, so goes Pennsylvania all too often. We have to instead convince more Philadelphians, and those in major cities elsewhere, that the policies of the Democrat party, which have been in effect in those cities for decades, have not only failed them, but have continued to foster a caste system.
Republicans are the party of school choice, wanting all kids to have an equal footing. We are the party of less government infringement, by which I can make cases that we should be the pro-Gay/Choice party, but for these purposes I mean the party that will least likely stop your forward progress. Recent studies have shown that minorities are more likely than their white counterparts to start their own businesses. Some of that is, no doubt, a response to the glass ceiling, perceived or otherwise that exists in corporate America, but so what? We need to make the effort to reach out to minorities and say we’re the party that will help you grow your business by limiting taxes, government intrusion and onerous workplace regulations. We further need to assure minorities that we fully intend to cut back the number of government officials who can interfere in their lives. A wary regard for the government has always been a part of the minority community, but they continue to vote for the party that increases both the number and the scope of bureaucratic intrusion. If we can promote the ideal, and then pay the dividend on it, that we fully intend to make life easier, we can win voters. Portability of health insurance, a reliance on entrepreneurial spirit, a simplified tax system and the reining in of government spending and regulation is the way to get new voters onboard with our ideas.
So, back to the 19,605 voters in the 59 divisions in Philadelphia. Maybe there was some fraud at play. I don’t honestly know, but my knowledge of the city and how things work in the neighborhoods forgotten by the power elites of both parties tells me one thing: if there was fraud the neighborhood was complicit in it because they believe, truly believe, that is the only way to get their piece of the pie. And you know what? They might be right. For too long we in the Republican Party have decried the way cities operate and have voiced a longing for the good old days, which weren’t all that good to begin with. A maxim of the Army has always been, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy”. That’s because the enemy gets a vote too and in 59 voting divisions in Philadelphia voters saw Romney as the threat, as opposed to the way out. If we don’t change that notion the number of divisions reporting likewise will only increase as the years go on and Republicans will become the Whigs of the 21st Century. I, for one, am more interested in being a vehicle for change, than an historical footnote, but I may be in the minority there. It seems that the current Republican Party leadership in Philadelphia has written off any chance of competitiveness here and is instead trying to stack as many slices of the pie as they can before the party itself ebbs away. No plan may survive first contact with the enemy, but first contact requires action and it has simply been too long since the Republicans in Philadelphia actually saw some.
Friday, November 09, 2012
Veteran's Day / Holiday Needs
As most of you know, I am on the board of the Philadelphia Veterans Comfort House here in Philly. Our mission is to provide refuge for veterans who have found themselves homeless, but more than that, we take in veterans undergoing treatments at the local VA. At last night's board meeting, we accepted another aspect of our mission. We have joined the Missing in Action Project http://www.miap.us/ This program is designed to locate, identify and inter the unclaimed cremated remains of American veterans. At the Comfort House our guests will now be actively involved in this mission. My hope is that we can coordinate efforts with the local mc/rider groups/Warriors Watch to provide escort and attendance for these remains.
Also, it is the holiday time of the year. At the Comfort House, we open the doors on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, accepting all comers. We typically feed at least 80-100 men and women a FULL holiday dinner with all the trimmings and we need help to get it done. You can donate at the link below, drop off one or more of the items on the list below or show up and volunteer on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day.
http://vetscomforthouse.org/
Thanksgiving supply list
16 turkeys
10 pounds roast pork
6 whole chickens
20 cans of corn
14 boxes of stuffing
14 14 oz cans of turkey broth
10 cans of cranberry sauce
10 bags of salad
20 cans of green beans
10 boxes of mashed potatoes
4 pounds of butter
100 dinner rolls
8 cans of yams
3 x 2 liter Sprite
3 x 2 liter Coke
4 x 2 liter Iced tea
4 apple pies
3 cherry pies
3 pumpkin pies
6 containers of cool whip
4 large containers of coffee
Christmas food supply list
10 eye beef round roasts
6 Hams
6 whole chickens
20 cans of green beans
10 boxes of mashed potatoes
10 boxes of Mac and cheese
10 bags of salad
4 pounds of butter
5 pounds rice pilaf
100 dinner rolls
5 bags Brussels sprouts
40 sweet potatoes
3 x 2 liter Sprite
3 x 2 liter Coke
4 x 2 liter Iced tea
5 cheesecakes
6 cherry pies
6 containers of cool whip
4 large containers of coffee
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
The Day After
After nearly two years, the Presidential Election is finally done. No, I am not devastated by the result. Nor do I believe it spells the end of the republic. I do believe a major political shift has occurred and I do believe the Republican Party is growing closer to irrelevancy. The shift, in my opinion, is that a majority of people, regardless of race, economics, and/or gender, believe that there is class warfare. Us against Them is the new mantra, even if a number of the Us are incredibly wealthy themselves. Forgive me for not feeling sorry for the George Clooney type liberal, nor the Warren Buffets of the world. If that class of liberal feels guilty for how well they have done, so be it, but do not begrudge me an opportunity to do likewise. Apparently though, a majority of my fellow Americans have come to believe that those who have done well for themselves are the enemy of the state; unless of course you are part of the aforementioned limousine liberal class who are “down with the struggle”. I did not believe that yesterday and I do not believe it now. The election defined all voters as either part of the President’s victimized class or one of the Romney-like oppressors.
For the record, I am neither victim, nor oppressor and I am not heart broken by the election. That’s mainly because I saw the result coming. I was hoping I was wrong and that living in a major city in the northeast had skewed my cognition on the subject of national politics. As we now know, that was not the case. To my thinking, what has come to pass is that we are no longer a nation that wants to help those who need help. We have now become one that is intent on doing for those who won’t do for themselves. The United States has always been the place where anyone can make it, if they are prepared to hustle for it. As proof of that, consider that the last two Democrat Party candidates elected President of the United States were both sons of single mothers, with mostly, if not completely absentee fathers. President Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas, population 8,000 and possessed a Southern drawl. President Obama overcame an alien sounding name and race. Both had grandparents who played pivotal roles in their lives and both were admonished to better themselves. Obviously, both did.
The question now though is would either of those future presidents receive the same advice today? Maybe they would be counseled instead to remain in school until they neared 40, taking advantage of “free” healthcare, birth control, education and state sponsored monetary beneficence until they could find a job with 5 weeks of annual vacation. After all, that PhD in Philosophy or Renaissance Poetry is just as valuable as an MFA in Elementary Education or an orthopaedic surgeon’s MD. Why take the taxing job route of the two latter disciplines, even if the rewards are greater, when the former course leads to a vocation that allows plenty of time for stopping to smell the roses? I have seen the satisfaction on the faces of my daughter’s elementary school teachers and I know the joy of a reconstructed should that allows me to throw a baseball with my daughter. Never mind those pesky details though. After all, the country “owes” us those benefits and weeks of relaxation, right? JFK’s famous line, “Ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country,” has become meaningless. We are now being excoriated for wanting to do better than our neighbors and the country is to do for us what we don’t want to do for ourselves.
The Marlboro Man is a uniquely American concept and I would argue, political correctness aside, that both Presidents Clinton and Obama fit that Marlboro Man mold. Both are self made men. They may have had help along the way and Ivy League educations, but in 95% of the world two men from such humble backgrounds would have no chance of attaining their country’s highest elected office. Even in the 5% of the world where it “might” be possible to achieve such status, the odds against it would make it almost prohibitively risky to even try. Only here in the United States can every child dream of being whatever they want when they grow up and truly have a chance of achieving that dream, if they are prepared to bust their ass tirelessly to get it. Every one of us wrote numerous essays in elementary school titled, “What I Want to Be When I Grow Up”. No doubt what we wanted to be when we grew up changed as we did, and few of us actually became ballerinas, astronauts or fire fighters, but the opportunity was always there.
So, I did not shake my fist at the heavens and curse mightily when I awoke to the election results this morning; mainly because as an, at best, agnostic it would have seemed ridiculous. I did not immediately send out dozens of scathing texts decrying the demise of the republic. Nor did I forward the multiple emails with images of a tombstone showing t
If this sounds as if I am maddened or filled with ire, know that is not the case. I am resigned to the notion that more Americans believe in a way that I do not, than believe as I do. I likewise do not harbor any anger towards President Obama. He may believe, as is said by many, that he is only the President of the progressives, and the rest be damned. I, however, feel as I have always felt about the office of the President of the United States: whomever occupies it is MY President, whether I voted for them or not. I did not believe the Hope and Change rhetoric, and do not believe the rhetoric now which promises to reach across the aisle. Like my prognostication of the election though, I truly hope I am wrong. After all, President Obama and I are both the Marlboro Man. I just see the range as a promise and a place to satisfy my peripatetic urges and the President sees it as a place fenced off by the J.R. Ewing's of the world. I'm okay with hopping a fence here or there and leaving J.R. to his pursuits. The President seems to think the J.R.'s of the world stole the land at the expense of "the little people" and it deserves to be distributed more "equitably" amongst them. Since millions of my fellow Americans decided they wanted four more years of what has come before, I guess I'll have to accept that my time has come and gone. The cowboy born in the middle of the 19th century, but who lived to see the horseless carriage in the early 20th no doubt felt somewhat as I do. I guess that's why the President is called a progressive.
Monday, November 05, 2012
A Tale of Two American Heroes
Last Tuesday the President, while speaking about Hurricane Sandy, said:
This is a tough time for a lot of people, millions of folks all across the eastern seaboard, but America is tougher, and we’re tougher because we pull together, and we leave nobody behind. We make sure that we respond as a nation, and remind ourselves that whenever an American is in need, all of us stand together to make sure that we’re providing the help that’s necessary.
And on Wednesday:
We are not going to tolerate red tape. We’re not going to tolerate bureaucracy. And I’ve instituted a 15 minute rule, essentially, on my team. You return everybody’s phone called in 15 minutes, whether it’s the mayors, the governors, county officials. If they need something, we figure out a way to say yes.
We leave nobody behind. Whenever an American is in need, all of us stand together to make sure we’re providing the help that’s necessary. I’ve instituted a 15 minute rule. You return everybody’s phone call in 15 minutes. The president was speaking about a hurricane, but could just as easily have his words compared to the details of the Benghazi assault. Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods repeatedly called and called for military assistance. Hours went by with no help and eventually both were killed. We leave nobody behind. That is a military phrase with specific meaning to those of us who have served. The government of the United States abandoned the staff of its consulate in Benghazi. The only reason we lost four Americans killed in action and not as many as twenty, is because Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods, without orders to do so, took up positions and fought the attackers, knowing that the odds were against them, but believing in themselves and their country.
If these actions sound familiar it is because most of us know the story of Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart, both Delta Force Operators, who died after unhesitatingly volunteering, repeatedly, to be inserted to protect four critically wounded personnel of a downed Black Hawk helicopter during actions on 3 October, 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia. They did this despite being well aware of the literally hundreds of enemy personnel closing in on the site. Both were fatally wounded and later received the Medal of Honor for their actions and their heroism is known to us all because of Mark Bowden, the author of Black Hawk Down.
Much has changed in war fighting since 1993. Most noticeably, commanders can now watch, in real time, exactly what is happening on the ground. We have all seen the still photos of the Obama administration released after SEAL Team VI killed bin Laden. The photo of the President and his Cabinet all staring intently, with looks of concern etched into their faces, as the SEALs closed in on bin Laden’s lair was in every newspaper and on every news program for days after the daring raid. We were told repeatedly that they all stay glued to the action watching in real time as the SEALs extracted some “get back” for us all. Why then did something similar not happen in Benghazi? Why have there been no photos of the cabinet in the War Room during this emergency? I cannot, or maybe will not is a better term, believe that any American President and his administration would ignore pleas for urgent assistance and then, having given the order to stand down, which would be tantamount to ordering them to die, watch as Americans were slaughtered by attackers on the sovereign soil of our consulate.
I know many people have stated that the order to stand down can from high up in the administration. I take that with the same grain of salt that I took from those screaming that W cared not for Americans being killed on his watch. I simply don’t believe any president could be that callus or uncaring. Instead, what I believe is that the administration was too tied up in campaigning and the calls for help simply weren’t answered due to bureaucracy. Remember Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign ads when she was running for President? Remember the phone ringing in the middle of the night? Well, the phone rang and no one was there to answer it is my best guess. That is a failure of leadership. The President of the United States has the world’s best technology with him, no matter where he may be. If he didn’t know of the dire straits Americans were in, it was because no one outside the region knew in time and those that did know couldn’t respond without guidance. That failure belongs to the Secretaries of State, Defense and the President himself.
A better question though would be, why, in a world rife with Islamic terrorism, weren’t there military assets closer to Benghazi? Why wasn’t a Spooky II or Spectre gunship available? One of the SEALs apparently thought there was air support nearby, or he wouldn’t have given away his position painting the attackers with a visible laser. He must have believed support was in the air, whether it be an armed drone or some other version of American airborne death dealing. Neither Doherty nor Woods would make that kind of mistake. Not with their training and combat experience. Someone up the food chain somehow led them to believe, whether intentionally or not, that help was imminent and these brave SEALs paid with their lives for that error. I don’t pretend to have all the answers to this debacle. Hell, some of the questions are certainly eluding me, but I do know this: once the American consulate came under attack, the President, and his key Cabinet officials should have known of it within minutes, not hours.
For days the administration parroted the bovine excrement that the attack was spontaneous and caused by an internet video that defamed the Prophet Mohammad, even though that video had been available for as long as a year. That smells of cover up to me and, has been proven time and time again, the cover up is invariably worse than the crime when politics are involved. I’ve stated before that I did not vote for President Obama, but I was proud of my country when he was elected. Unlike the First Lady, it wasn’t the first time nor, the last time I have been proud of my country, but proud nonetheless I was. President Obama has been concerned about his liberal legacy, to the exclusion of all else for too long now and Benghazi just solidifies that thought to me. We can all argue whether individually, or even collectively, if we are better off than we were four years ago, but for the families of the four Americans killed because the phone went unanswered the answer can only be no. On Election Day this year, I will stand with them.
This is a tough time for a lot of people, millions of folks all across the eastern seaboard, but America is tougher, and we’re tougher because we pull together, and we leave nobody behind. We make sure that we respond as a nation, and remind ourselves that whenever an American is in need, all of us stand together to make sure that we’re providing the help that’s necessary.
And on Wednesday:
We are not going to tolerate red tape. We’re not going to tolerate bureaucracy. And I’ve instituted a 15 minute rule, essentially, on my team. You return everybody’s phone called in 15 minutes, whether it’s the mayors, the governors, county officials. If they need something, we figure out a way to say yes.
We leave nobody behind. Whenever an American is in need, all of us stand together to make sure we’re providing the help that’s necessary. I’ve instituted a 15 minute rule. You return everybody’s phone call in 15 minutes. The president was speaking about a hurricane, but could just as easily have his words compared to the details of the Benghazi assault. Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods repeatedly called and called for military assistance. Hours went by with no help and eventually both were killed. We leave nobody behind. That is a military phrase with specific meaning to those of us who have served. The government of the United States abandoned the staff of its consulate in Benghazi. The only reason we lost four Americans killed in action and not as many as twenty, is because Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods, without orders to do so, took up positions and fought the attackers, knowing that the odds were against them, but believing in themselves and their country.
If these actions sound familiar it is because most of us know the story of Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart, both Delta Force Operators, who died after unhesitatingly volunteering, repeatedly, to be inserted to protect four critically wounded personnel of a downed Black Hawk helicopter during actions on 3 October, 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia. They did this despite being well aware of the literally hundreds of enemy personnel closing in on the site. Both were fatally wounded and later received the Medal of Honor for their actions and their heroism is known to us all because of Mark Bowden, the author of Black Hawk Down.
Much has changed in war fighting since 1993. Most noticeably, commanders can now watch, in real time, exactly what is happening on the ground. We have all seen the still photos of the Obama administration released after SEAL Team VI killed bin Laden. The photo of the President and his Cabinet all staring intently, with looks of concern etched into their faces, as the SEALs closed in on bin Laden’s lair was in every newspaper and on every news program for days after the daring raid. We were told repeatedly that they all stay glued to the action watching in real time as the SEALs extracted some “get back” for us all. Why then did something similar not happen in Benghazi? Why have there been no photos of the cabinet in the War Room during this emergency? I cannot, or maybe will not is a better term, believe that any American President and his administration would ignore pleas for urgent assistance and then, having given the order to stand down, which would be tantamount to ordering them to die, watch as Americans were slaughtered by attackers on the sovereign soil of our consulate.
I know many people have stated that the order to stand down can from high up in the administration. I take that with the same grain of salt that I took from those screaming that W cared not for Americans being killed on his watch. I simply don’t believe any president could be that callus or uncaring. Instead, what I believe is that the administration was too tied up in campaigning and the calls for help simply weren’t answered due to bureaucracy. Remember Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign ads when she was running for President? Remember the phone ringing in the middle of the night? Well, the phone rang and no one was there to answer it is my best guess. That is a failure of leadership. The President of the United States has the world’s best technology with him, no matter where he may be. If he didn’t know of the dire straits Americans were in, it was because no one outside the region knew in time and those that did know couldn’t respond without guidance. That failure belongs to the Secretaries of State, Defense and the President himself.
A better question though would be, why, in a world rife with Islamic terrorism, weren’t there military assets closer to Benghazi? Why wasn’t a Spooky II or Spectre gunship available? One of the SEALs apparently thought there was air support nearby, or he wouldn’t have given away his position painting the attackers with a visible laser. He must have believed support was in the air, whether it be an armed drone or some other version of American airborne death dealing. Neither Doherty nor Woods would make that kind of mistake. Not with their training and combat experience. Someone up the food chain somehow led them to believe, whether intentionally or not, that help was imminent and these brave SEALs paid with their lives for that error. I don’t pretend to have all the answers to this debacle. Hell, some of the questions are certainly eluding me, but I do know this: once the American consulate came under attack, the President, and his key Cabinet officials should have known of it within minutes, not hours.
For days the administration parroted the bovine excrement that the attack was spontaneous and caused by an internet video that defamed the Prophet Mohammad, even though that video had been available for as long as a year. That smells of cover up to me and, has been proven time and time again, the cover up is invariably worse than the crime when politics are involved. I’ve stated before that I did not vote for President Obama, but I was proud of my country when he was elected. Unlike the First Lady, it wasn’t the first time nor, the last time I have been proud of my country, but proud nonetheless I was. President Obama has been concerned about his liberal legacy, to the exclusion of all else for too long now and Benghazi just solidifies that thought to me. We can all argue whether individually, or even collectively, if we are better off than we were four years ago, but for the families of the four Americans killed because the phone went unanswered the answer can only be no. On Election Day this year, I will stand with them.
Friday, November 02, 2012
What Benghazi Truly Represents
THINGS I KNOW
1. On Sept. 11, 2012, the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya was attacked by a force armed with RPGs, machine guns and mortars. Initially, spokesmen for the White House said the attack was an “opportunistic result of earlier protests outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo” concerning an internet film, which Islamists claim defamed the Prophet Muhammad.
2. Even in a part of the world where heavy weapons are commonplace, the attack was both coordinated and a sustained night-long siege of the consulate, casting doubts as to its spontaneity.
3. As the attack on the consulate commenced, an urgent request for military back-up went out from the ambassador, and others on the ground in Benghazi, but none arrived in time.
4. Four Americans, including the ambassador, were killed during the assault, which breached the consulate’s perimeter defenses.
5. As the consulate was attacked, the chain of command from the Departments of State and Defense, the C.I.A., the National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and, eventually, President Obama were made aware of it.
THINGS I BELIEVE
1. Since the 1979 Iranian Embassy attack, and subsequent hostage crisis, plans have been in effect in the event of just such an attack.
2. Military assets “should” have been both immediately available and self contained in order to overwhelmingly repel just such an assault, with little or no assistance from indigenous forces.
3. Since senior intelligence officials have now stated, “within 25 minutes of the compound coming under attack the C.I.A. rushed security operatives to the area, but were delayed while attempting to secure heavy weapons, transportation and an armed escort”, whomever is responsible for this type of mission and the security of that consulate should be publicly pilloried and fired immediately for gross incompetence.
4. No one, including President Obama, specifically refused to send military aid to the compound that might have arrived in time to save the four Americans killed in the attack, but rather, that the response, or lack thereof, was more an institutional breakdown brought on by some misguided sense that our support for the Arab Spring in general, and the overthrow of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi specifically, assured the security of our Middle East embassies/consulates.
Okay, so presupposing that anyone reading this agrees with my summation and observations, what does it all mean? It is my belief that the current administration has always been ready and, indeed willing, to kill Islamic terrorists anywhere and anytime they can be killed. One need not reference the SEALs death dealing to Osama bin Laden, but should instead look to the death of American born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, by C.I.A. led Predator drone strike in Yemen earlier this year. Killing al-Awlaki had potentially serious political complications for the President and his party, while killing bin Laden obviously had none. Once it was determined that al-Awlaki had become an integral player in the Yemeni affiliate of Al Qaeda and that he was planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans, the president did not hesitate to place him on the “kill or capture” list. That doesn’t impress me as someone who would balk at raining hell down on a force attacking an American embassy.
That only seems to bolster the point I made in point 4 of THINGS I BELIEVE. Had there been a Spooky II gunship, (Puff the Magic Dragon to you old timers), nearby I believe we would have seen pink mist aplenty in that consulate compound as 25mm rounds rained down from the GAU-12, 5 barreled, rotary cannon, while the Bofors 40mm auto-cannon and the M102 105mm howitzer punched big holes into any fortified, enemy positions. I just don’t think anyone in the political side of the chain of command believed there was any threat. All the reports, including those made by “senior intelligence officials” earlier today, cite the need for assistance from Libyan forces and/or the distance from Benghazi of any Special Operations-type forces who could have put down the terrorist assault.
CBS News is reporting that the CSG (Counter-terrorism Security Group) was not even convened during the attack on the Benghazi consulate. The CSG is tasked with knowing what counter-terrorism resources are available, where they are and has the authority to coordinate these assets across all agencies. Since CBS is in no way an active arm of the Republican Party, as is often claimed of Fox News, we probably can all agree that there is something to the report. Why then was the CSG not convened? It can only be that a) the attack wasn’t seen as particularly noteworthy, b) the sophistication of the attack wasn’t recognized or c) no one gave a shit about the Americans or the consulate.
I’ve already stated I don’t believe c) is a reasonable answer, and a) seems somewhat of a stretch too, especially once the urgent requests for assistance began making their way to the top of the political food chain. That, to me, leaves b) as the most likely reason why the consulate was destroyed and 4 Americans were killed. Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed in a mortar attack at least 6 hours after the initial attack on the embassy. As an 11-C type infantryman, I can attest that plotting mortar targets takes time and requires calculations, map skills and knowledge of trajectory. No report I have read thus far makes note of the “lucky shot” by the terrorists which killed Woods and Doherty. It appears that once the mortar attack commenced that they enemy mortar men put their rounds on target. That means they had to have been plotted on a map and probably paced off for accuracy at some earlier time. Doesn’t sound very “opportunistic” to me.
All this leads me to something I have always believed; a lack of executive experience is a crushing blow for anyone wishing to occupy the White House as Commander-in-Chief. The arrogance necessary to believe you should be the President of the United States has to be tempered by the knowledge that some things, especially military things, have to be managed by those who wear the uniform and only over seen by their civilian masters. I am fairly certain that had AFRICOM’s commanding officer been made aware of the security lapses in Benghazi, which were detailed in emails that predate the Benghazi attacks by weeks, then the consulate’s defenses would have been beefed up to ensure if not its impregnability, than at least its defensibility. Whether that meant additional security forces on site, assets like Spooky and/or QRTs (Quick Response Teams) manned by counter-terrorism experts such as Delta Force, hardened architectural defenses or some combination of them all is something we will never know.
I’m not now, nor have I ever been one of the vitriolic Obama haters that have appeared all too regularly. I detested that amongst the liberals when it was directed at “W” and I don’t like it any better when it comes from my side of the political aisle. I have applauded the president when I believed him to be right and purposely made a point to pen a piece congratulating him for his historic victory. Furthermore, his little girls seem to like him a great deal. That alone is no small feat, as any father of female progeny can attest. I just don’t believe President Obama has ever been prepared for the scope of the job responsibilities and his arrogance has only made that worse. He has behaved from the start as if he were only the president of those by whom he was elected and the rest of us are mere dolts too moronic to recognize how visionary he is. The “seas parting” line from his acceptance speech assured me that he saw himself as visionary from Day 1, and the battle over Obamacare solidified it.
Does all this mean I hold President Obama personally responsible for the deaths of 4 brave American patriots who saw public service as a calling? No. Does it mean I see President Obama as an evil man? Again the answer is no. What I do see though is a man who had four years to learn multiple lessons, but was too concerned with his lasting liberal legacy to give a damn. At the much publicized memorial service at Andrews Air Force Base, the father of one of the SEALs killed in the attack compared the President’s handshake to that of a dead fish and his apology as “totally insincere” and without eye contact. That is NOT the comportment I expect from the President of the United States.
When I was an 18 year old infantryman, I was drinking a cup of coffee in the field one morning with my then grizzled, 35 year old 1st Sgt. We were discussing combat and the respective responsibilities. 1st Sgt Gates said something to me than that I have never forgotten. He told me, “The only true responsibility your country has to you is to not waste your life needlessly and to make sure we bring you home if you die in battle.” It seems to me that the first of those responsibilities was not met, when it comes to those killed in the Benghazi attacks and, as Harry Truman so eloquently said, The Buck Stops Here, when it comes to the presidency. I am sure President Obama was saddened by their deaths, but that does not absolve him of the Buck Stopping with him. I didn’t vote for him last time and I won’t this time either, but even though I hope he is not re-elected I truly wish him well, just not as my president any longer.
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Drawn to the Dark Side of True Religion
For the better part of 10 years I have worn Lucky Brand jeans exclusively. As a tall, wiry guy they fit me without making me seem stick-figurish. I recently read an article in "The Wall Street Journal" about True Religion brand jeans and, since the stores are in the same block, I decided to drop in and try on a pair of American made jeans that retail for between $240-320.00.
I admit to being somewhat high maintenance and possessing more than a bit of metrosexual DNA. It's an interesting dichotomy for the members of my veteran's motorcycle club that I ride a Harley, have been in my share of street fights, and revel in transitioning from shanty Irish to Lace Curtain, (only difference is that Lace Curtain Irish take the dishes "out" of the sink "before" they pee in it) but still care about designer jeans and hair care 'product'.
While lunching outside on pate and salad Nicoise I decided that I HAD to have a couple pairs of True Religion jeans. Of course spending $569.00 on two pairs of jeans may seem outrageous to more than a few people, but who am I to argue with the price of American made products? After all, I can wave the flag with the best of them. God bless America I always say.
Okay, so by now you've all figured out a few things about me, so it will probably come as no surprise that I am a city kid born and bred. I don't like nature, windy country roads, dirt, fresh air or trees. In fact, if I never saw another tree unencumbered by concrete I'd be perfectly content. So, lest someone decide to comment that $300 jeans are worthless as work wear, please note that I do not intend to wear them anywhere but out on the town. I am an urban, rather urbane sort and True Religion and I are well matched for a lasting relationship. After all, my penchant for black coffee (the same as I like my women, hot and bitter) and Marlboro Red cigarettes needs some refinement. I am Truly Lucky to have found jeans that completely fill that niche.
But what about the Lucky Brand you say? Well allow me to assure you that they will not be relegated to Goodwill or engine repair. Thank goodness because I truly don't like getting dirty. My Lucky jeans will remain in the rotation. So, if you see me ambling about town or roaring around on my bike you could wager that I'd "probably" be clad in Lucky Brand. That is, unless I hit the lottery which will find a new mistress, 7 for All Mankind jeans to mesh with the others. Just think of me as a crazy "Big Love" kind of Mormon and designer jeans as my wives. For now though, True Religion will become the expensive girlfriend to my Lucky Brand wife. Ah, it is good to be so free.
I admit to being somewhat high maintenance and possessing more than a bit of metrosexual DNA. It's an interesting dichotomy for the members of my veteran's motorcycle club that I ride a Harley, have been in my share of street fights, and revel in transitioning from shanty Irish to Lace Curtain, (only difference is that Lace Curtain Irish take the dishes "out" of the sink "before" they pee in it) but still care about designer jeans and hair care 'product'.
While lunching outside on pate and salad Nicoise I decided that I HAD to have a couple pairs of True Religion jeans. Of course spending $569.00 on two pairs of jeans may seem outrageous to more than a few people, but who am I to argue with the price of American made products? After all, I can wave the flag with the best of them. God bless America I always say.
Okay, so by now you've all figured out a few things about me, so it will probably come as no surprise that I am a city kid born and bred. I don't like nature, windy country roads, dirt, fresh air or trees. In fact, if I never saw another tree unencumbered by concrete I'd be perfectly content. So, lest someone decide to comment that $300 jeans are worthless as work wear, please note that I do not intend to wear them anywhere but out on the town. I am an urban, rather urbane sort and True Religion and I are well matched for a lasting relationship. After all, my penchant for black coffee (the same as I like my women, hot and bitter) and Marlboro Red cigarettes needs some refinement. I am Truly Lucky to have found jeans that completely fill that niche.
But what about the Lucky Brand you say? Well allow me to assure you that they will not be relegated to Goodwill or engine repair. Thank goodness because I truly don't like getting dirty. My Lucky jeans will remain in the rotation. So, if you see me ambling about town or roaring around on my bike you could wager that I'd "probably" be clad in Lucky Brand. That is, unless I hit the lottery which will find a new mistress, 7 for All Mankind jeans to mesh with the others. Just think of me as a crazy "Big Love" kind of Mormon and designer jeans as my wives. For now though, True Religion will become the expensive girlfriend to my Lucky Brand wife. Ah, it is good to be so free.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Fare Well My Brother-in-Arms
Back in early February 2007, before GoE was even remotely what it has become, I received a phone call from a Vietnam veteran who had somehow gotten one of my emails about the impending A.N.S.W.E.R./ Code Pink, et al announcement that they had plans to "occupy" the Vietnam Wall. In one of the last sentences of that email I said something to the effect of I have always thought of The Wall as mine too because my father took me there over the Christmas break of my senior year in high school. I remember my old man pointing at The Wall and saying, "You wanted to be in the infantry. That's the infantry. Do not f@#k this up." Immediately after that I bought the POW/MIA bracelet I still wear today. Coincidentally, the date Curtis R. Smoot was reported missing is March 10, 1971. Well, yesterday March 10, 2011, that Vietnam veteran who accidentally got into my email string, Sal Lanzetta, 4th ID US Army, Vietnam, passed away do to complications from A.L.S.
In the email that Sal had gotten I also said something to the effect of, "If I have to stand at The Wall all by myself to keep these bastards from desecrating the memorial marker to our dead, I will, but I know I won't be alone." Sal called to say, "Well Chris I guess if it turns out to be just you and me we'll go down fighting." As you all know, it didn't turn out to be just us. Literally tens of thousands of veterans and troop supporters turned out that bitterly cold St. Patrick's Day in 2007. We stood as one and reversed the 40 year trend of the anti-American forces being the only ones yelling in the streets, and Sal stood within an arms length of me nearly all day.
Since then Sal has been at every event GoE has undertaken from the counters of Code Pink at Walter Reed to the support of the Coast Guard Academy to the defense of the A.E.C. He was never far off my six and told me once, "Don't worry brother. I won't ever let charlie creep up on you. You just worry about what's in front of you. The Ivy's on station." All of you know of my deep respect and unmitigated love for my 'Namies. As much as I love the men and women serving now, the 'Nam vets will always be my Gold Standard for warriors. Sal Lanzetta was the embodiment of the true American spirit and patriotism of the Vietnam veteran. He told me once that he volunteered to serve in Vietnam, "because the country has given me so much. How could I not give back to her?"
When I received the call of his passing, and as I write these words, I find my self getting more than a bit misty eyed. No GoE action will be quite the same without Sal just off my left shoulder and several paces to the rear. I shall miss him terribly, but have to believe he will be greeted on the other side with a hearty WELCOME HOME from our brothers and sisters who have gone before. Second Brigade MC will be riding escort for Sal on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, and we welcome anyone who would like to ride with us. If any of you are in the neighborhood, please stop by and say goodbye to one of our own. I believe his family will appreciate it and know that I will. All the details are below and, as I said back in 2007, if I have to stand alone to wish Sal fare well I will, but I know I won't be alone. Good bye Sal. Thank you for your service, both in Vietnam and after, and, as always, WELCOME HOME. Manchu
Relatives and friends are invited to his Funeral Mass on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 10:30 AM at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 259 Forest Avenue, Ambler, PA 19002. The viewing will be held on Monday evening from 6:30-9 PM and Tuesday from 8:30 – 10 AM at the Emil J. Ciavarelli Family Funeral Home, 951 E. Butler Pike, Ambler. Interment will be in Rose Hill Cemetery, Ambler. Donations in Sal’s name may be made to The ALS Association of Greater Philadelphia Chapter, 321 Norristown Road, Suite 260, Ambler, PA 19002. Condolences may be made at www.ciavarellifuneralhomes.com
In the email that Sal had gotten I also said something to the effect of, "If I have to stand at The Wall all by myself to keep these bastards from desecrating the memorial marker to our dead, I will, but I know I won't be alone." Sal called to say, "Well Chris I guess if it turns out to be just you and me we'll go down fighting." As you all know, it didn't turn out to be just us. Literally tens of thousands of veterans and troop supporters turned out that bitterly cold St. Patrick's Day in 2007. We stood as one and reversed the 40 year trend of the anti-American forces being the only ones yelling in the streets, and Sal stood within an arms length of me nearly all day.
Since then Sal has been at every event GoE has undertaken from the counters of Code Pink at Walter Reed to the support of the Coast Guard Academy to the defense of the A.E.C. He was never far off my six and told me once, "Don't worry brother. I won't ever let charlie creep up on you. You just worry about what's in front of you. The Ivy's on station." All of you know of my deep respect and unmitigated love for my 'Namies. As much as I love the men and women serving now, the 'Nam vets will always be my Gold Standard for warriors. Sal Lanzetta was the embodiment of the true American spirit and patriotism of the Vietnam veteran. He told me once that he volunteered to serve in Vietnam, "because the country has given me so much. How could I not give back to her?"
When I received the call of his passing, and as I write these words, I find my self getting more than a bit misty eyed. No GoE action will be quite the same without Sal just off my left shoulder and several paces to the rear. I shall miss him terribly, but have to believe he will be greeted on the other side with a hearty WELCOME HOME from our brothers and sisters who have gone before. Second Brigade MC will be riding escort for Sal on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, and we welcome anyone who would like to ride with us. If any of you are in the neighborhood, please stop by and say goodbye to one of our own. I believe his family will appreciate it and know that I will. All the details are below and, as I said back in 2007, if I have to stand alone to wish Sal fare well I will, but I know I won't be alone. Good bye Sal. Thank you for your service, both in Vietnam and after, and, as always, WELCOME HOME. Manchu
Relatives and friends are invited to his Funeral Mass on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 10:30 AM at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 259 Forest Avenue, Ambler, PA 19002. The viewing will be held on Monday evening from 6:30-9 PM and Tuesday from 8:30 – 10 AM at the Emil J. Ciavarelli Family Funeral Home, 951 E. Butler Pike, Ambler. Interment will be in Rose Hill Cemetery, Ambler. Donations in Sal’s name may be made to The ALS Association of Greater Philadelphia Chapter, 321 Norristown Road, Suite 260, Ambler, PA 19002. Condolences may be made at www.ciavarellifuneralhomes.com
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
A Muslim Terrorist Named Nidal Malik Hasan
The murders at Ft Hood have provoked all manner of response from people. Nearly everyone is united in a feeling of horror, but many have been hesitant to call this what it was; an act of terrorism. Merriam-Webster defines terrorism as: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. I have heard all manner of people from our Commander-in-Chief, to senior generals, to media pundits caution us to wait until we have all the facts before we rush to judgment. Well, I for one have enough information. An American Muslim, of Jordanian parents, (no he's not Palestinian, even though he listed himself as such), committed, by definition, an act of terror, while screaming Allah Akbar. That makes him an Islamic terrorist. That he did so while in uniform on an American military reservation only makes it all the more jihadist.
Hasan, the beneficiary of all that is good about the United States decided that his God was more important than his oath to defend the Constitution of his birth country. He cared not that the soldiers he gunned down were unarmed, nor that the United States military has "liberated" tens of millions of Muslims in Bosnia, Kuwait, and yes, Iraq and Afghanistan and provided humanitarian relief to hundreds of thousands more in Somalia, Indonesia and elsewhere. Hasan was apparently following a strict interpretation of the Koran, although I have my doubts that there is any other interpretation. Before anyone reads me the riot act about the Bible's viciousness, know two things, 1) I'm an agnostic at best and 2) when discussing the fire and brimstone passages the Bible details events that have happened, whereas the Koran gives instructions as to how a Muslim should act for all eternity.
I am personally acquainted with an American Marine who is Muslim and currently serving in Afghanistan. A more stellar human being one could not find. He is my personal definition of an American fighting man. He, and many like him in uniform, have gone about the business of war with honor and professionalism. I am not calling for the internment of Muslims or for them to be removed from the ranks of the military. I am saying though, that just like when several ardent white supremacists were dishonorably discharged from the Army for espousing their hatred, so too should have Hasan been similarly treated. Had the culture of the military not been so penetrated by political correctness I am certain 13 of my fellow Americans, murdered at Ft Hood, would still be alive today.
When Professor Gates had his run-in with the Cambridge Police Department, our President informed us all, without anything approximating the facts, in total, that "the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home." I didn't agree with the reasons the Cambridge Police used for arresting Professor Gates, but that does not diminish the notion that the President could not have known all the facts when he made his remarks. Somehow though, he wants the rest of us to refrain from labeling a Muslim terrorist as such, apparently less we offend any more of the followers of the religion of peace.
I am sick and tired of tip-toeing around the sensitivities of the Muslim community. They have rioted over cartoons and they danced in the streets of the West Bank after 9/11, but I cannot call into question their apparent disregard for human life. It is high time that the American Muslim community at least rallies together publicly, and in substantial numbers, to decry the acts of jihadists everywhere. I want to see Muslims in the streets carrying the American flag proudly, as opposed to burning it. Then, I will consider the notion that most Muslims simply want to live their lives peacefully.
American Muslims are not fully to blame for their startlingly sensitive natures, although CAIR and its Islamaphobia campaign are a large part. Media personalities such as MSNBC's Chris Matthews are also to blame. On his 9 November broadcast of Hardball, Matthews said, "See - we have a problem. How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al Qaeda. Is that the point at which you say, ‘This guy is dangerous?' That's not a crime to call up al Qaeda, is it? Is it” If we have truly reached the point where the President of the United States won't immediately respond to a Muslim terrorist attack inside the United States, a TV journalist doesn't know if it's illegal to call al Qaeda, (note to Matthews: It is!) and the Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey Jr. can say, “As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse,” then the country as a whole cannot stand.
A Muslim monster used the uniform of the United States Army to murder 13 soldiers in cold blood and to wound 30 more. Hasan became, by definition a jihadist and a Muslim terrorist. This after his parents had immigrated here to find the American dream and he benefited from our education system. I no longer care what his problems were, or that he had been picked on for his faith. When I was a child we all learned, "sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me." That is still true today and any attempt to make Hasan into a victim is not only disgusting, but beyond rational comprehension.
The one highlight from this entire event is that this Muslim terrorist, who considered women to be so far beneath him that he would not even have his photograph taken with them at functions, was himself brought down by Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 34, a civilian Department of Defense police officer at the base. Even after being wounded by Hasan, Sgt Munley pressed the attack and stopped Hasan's murderous rampage. There are two things to say about that: 1) I hope Hasan recognized that an American woman brought him down, and 2) I only wish she had double-tapped Hasan to the head after dropping him and finished the job. That is better than any Muslim terrorist deserves, and Hasan is nothing more than that.
Hasan, the beneficiary of all that is good about the United States decided that his God was more important than his oath to defend the Constitution of his birth country. He cared not that the soldiers he gunned down were unarmed, nor that the United States military has "liberated" tens of millions of Muslims in Bosnia, Kuwait, and yes, Iraq and Afghanistan and provided humanitarian relief to hundreds of thousands more in Somalia, Indonesia and elsewhere. Hasan was apparently following a strict interpretation of the Koran, although I have my doubts that there is any other interpretation. Before anyone reads me the riot act about the Bible's viciousness, know two things, 1) I'm an agnostic at best and 2) when discussing the fire and brimstone passages the Bible details events that have happened, whereas the Koran gives instructions as to how a Muslim should act for all eternity.
I am personally acquainted with an American Marine who is Muslim and currently serving in Afghanistan. A more stellar human being one could not find. He is my personal definition of an American fighting man. He, and many like him in uniform, have gone about the business of war with honor and professionalism. I am not calling for the internment of Muslims or for them to be removed from the ranks of the military. I am saying though, that just like when several ardent white supremacists were dishonorably discharged from the Army for espousing their hatred, so too should have Hasan been similarly treated. Had the culture of the military not been so penetrated by political correctness I am certain 13 of my fellow Americans, murdered at Ft Hood, would still be alive today.
When Professor Gates had his run-in with the Cambridge Police Department, our President informed us all, without anything approximating the facts, in total, that "the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home." I didn't agree with the reasons the Cambridge Police used for arresting Professor Gates, but that does not diminish the notion that the President could not have known all the facts when he made his remarks. Somehow though, he wants the rest of us to refrain from labeling a Muslim terrorist as such, apparently less we offend any more of the followers of the religion of peace.
I am sick and tired of tip-toeing around the sensitivities of the Muslim community. They have rioted over cartoons and they danced in the streets of the West Bank after 9/11, but I cannot call into question their apparent disregard for human life. It is high time that the American Muslim community at least rallies together publicly, and in substantial numbers, to decry the acts of jihadists everywhere. I want to see Muslims in the streets carrying the American flag proudly, as opposed to burning it. Then, I will consider the notion that most Muslims simply want to live their lives peacefully.
American Muslims are not fully to blame for their startlingly sensitive natures, although CAIR and its Islamaphobia campaign are a large part. Media personalities such as MSNBC's Chris Matthews are also to blame. On his 9 November broadcast of Hardball, Matthews said, "See - we have a problem. How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al Qaeda. Is that the point at which you say, ‘This guy is dangerous?' That's not a crime to call up al Qaeda, is it? Is it” If we have truly reached the point where the President of the United States won't immediately respond to a Muslim terrorist attack inside the United States, a TV journalist doesn't know if it's illegal to call al Qaeda, (note to Matthews: It is!) and the Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey Jr. can say, “As horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse,” then the country as a whole cannot stand.
A Muslim monster used the uniform of the United States Army to murder 13 soldiers in cold blood and to wound 30 more. Hasan became, by definition a jihadist and a Muslim terrorist. This after his parents had immigrated here to find the American dream and he benefited from our education system. I no longer care what his problems were, or that he had been picked on for his faith. When I was a child we all learned, "sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me." That is still true today and any attempt to make Hasan into a victim is not only disgusting, but beyond rational comprehension.
The one highlight from this entire event is that this Muslim terrorist, who considered women to be so far beneath him that he would not even have his photograph taken with them at functions, was himself brought down by Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 34, a civilian Department of Defense police officer at the base. Even after being wounded by Hasan, Sgt Munley pressed the attack and stopped Hasan's murderous rampage. There are two things to say about that: 1) I hope Hasan recognized that an American woman brought him down, and 2) I only wish she had double-tapped Hasan to the head after dropping him and finished the job. That is better than any Muslim terrorist deserves, and Hasan is nothing more than that.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
A Hollywood Good Guy Makes Good
Back in February I had the high honor to meet an Iraq vet who lost a
leg while serving with the 1/25 Marines in Al Anbar Province. Neither
he nor the triple amputee who accompanied him to a Fischer House
Benefit as the guests of Second Brigade and Viet Nam Vets MC exhibited
anything other than the warrior spirit. In fact, they insisted that
the first drink of the evening had to be drunk from their prosthetic
legs. Now that was a sight to see.
Several months later, that same vet approached me for an assist. He
has been fighting with the V.A. over medical bills related to his
wounds. Bills were mounting. I put him in touch with Al Gambone, an
attorney I’ve mentioned on this site to get that problem in check.
Unfortunately, he was also behind on his mortgage through no fault of
his own. I tried various avenues to come up with cash to prevent the
foreclosure, to no avail. This morning I was listening to Dennis
Miller’s radio show and he mentioned his participation with USA Cares
as a spokesman and proponent (http://www.usacares.org/). Figuring I
had nothing left to lose, I ponied up the $18.00 to join the DMZ,
Miller’s premium subscription package, so I could email him
personally.
In my email, I explained about our wounded Marine and the trials he
has been forced to withstand since returning home. I explained how we
had found an attorney, but had to prevent this Hero from losing his
home. I simply asked him to put me into contact with someone from USA
Cares and let me plead the case. If this fails I said, “We’ll have to
start selling blood,” because there’s no way I’m letting one of my
heroes lose his home, especially with a new baby on the way.
Anyway, within an hour, the retired Sgt Major who started USA Cares
called me personally. He took down our Marine’s phone number and
promised to help. The Sgt Major also insisted that in the future GoE
and USA Cares would collaborate to reach and assist more of our
heroes. Dennis Miller, who was on the air at the time, had read my
email, contacted the Sgt Major and my phone rang. While all this was
happening, Miller’s show never missed a beat. In this day and age
when we have come to expect Hollywood celebrities to kick us when
we’re down, Dennis Miller took up the colors and charged into the
fray.
I urge you to recognize both Miller and USA Cares for this wonderful
act. Our Marine’s house was set to go into foreclosure on 12 August.
Thanks to two very good men that will not happen. God bless you both
gentlemen and know that our veteran’s community owes you one for the
solid you did one of our own. That debt is payable upon demand, just
yell out. Thanks, you guys. Manchu.
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