Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Young in America
The young American guy goes off to war either because he's proud to be serving his nation or because he needs a job. He learns to follow orders; his is not to question but to obey. The young American woman loves her guy every bit as strongly as he follows his duty, so she will please him just as he will please his country. He's likely to die soon, way too young, and she might get pregnant. So what's the difference? America doesn't give a damn about them, so why should they not just take care of themselves! America is taking care of the rich and could care less about the rest of us, so let America pay if we don't care anymore.
Neither Hero nor Renegade
Stop calling him a hero … or a renegade
Yes, dictionaries define heroic as highly courageous, but the word has become trite when we apply it to everyone from movie stars to the latest kid who scored the winning goal. To make the word meaningful I insist that a hero is one who offers up his own life to save others.
In John McCain I don't see a hero, I see an ordinary guy who did then and does now whatever he can to keep himself alive. A hero sacrifices his life for somebody else. McCain has never done that. In Vietnam he did whatever he could to keep himself alive, including in the end "breaking" and making a false confession in support of the enemy. Many of us were Air Force, Army, and Navy ROTC cadets at the same time he was at Annapolis and we took to heart the same Military Code of Conduct. Don't get me wrong: it took tremendous personal courage to break that code in order to save his own life and I might or might not have done the same. But I'm left wondering how many other POW's did give up their lives rather than break that sacred code. We'll never know, but like the "Unknown Soldier" they would be heroes in my book, unlike John McCain.
More heroic than John McCain:
· The firemen who raced up the stairs of the Twin Towers without thinking twice about it.
· The wives who've lost their husbands in Iraq and Afghanistan and now have to support their children on their own every day in a minimally supportive system in a bad economy.
· Carol McCain, his wife who waited for him, suffered injuries far worse than his, and got dumped by the glorious John McCain.
When McCain flew his (several) aircraft over Vietnam he was a cocky young pilot having the time of his life, but he was no hero. When he got shot down, his reality changed in a flash and he did what he could to stay alive … including saying things that weren't true.
Fast forward to today: Different field, same game.
A renegade? Maybe. He has been cantankerous in the Senate. A poll taken among his fellows in Congress revealed that every one of them had been insulted by McCain. Maybe he has opposed his fellow Republicans a few times. But when you've voted with George Bush over 90% of the time, can you really call yourself a "renegade"? And, if you're a Senator or Congressman, how likely are you to want to work with a guy in trying to solve America's problems when "The Renegade" has just kicked you in the butt (regardless your party) for no good reason?
Fast forward to today: Different field, same game?
Yes, dictionaries define heroic as highly courageous, but the word has become trite when we apply it to everyone from movie stars to the latest kid who scored the winning goal. To make the word meaningful I insist that a hero is one who offers up his own life to save others.
In John McCain I don't see a hero, I see an ordinary guy who did then and does now whatever he can to keep himself alive. A hero sacrifices his life for somebody else. McCain has never done that. In Vietnam he did whatever he could to keep himself alive, including in the end "breaking" and making a false confession in support of the enemy. Many of us were Air Force, Army, and Navy ROTC cadets at the same time he was at Annapolis and we took to heart the same Military Code of Conduct. Don't get me wrong: it took tremendous personal courage to break that code in order to save his own life and I might or might not have done the same. But I'm left wondering how many other POW's did give up their lives rather than break that sacred code. We'll never know, but like the "Unknown Soldier" they would be heroes in my book, unlike John McCain.
More heroic than John McCain:
· The firemen who raced up the stairs of the Twin Towers without thinking twice about it.
· The wives who've lost their husbands in Iraq and Afghanistan and now have to support their children on their own every day in a minimally supportive system in a bad economy.
· Carol McCain, his wife who waited for him, suffered injuries far worse than his, and got dumped by the glorious John McCain.
When McCain flew his (several) aircraft over Vietnam he was a cocky young pilot having the time of his life, but he was no hero. When he got shot down, his reality changed in a flash and he did what he could to stay alive … including saying things that weren't true.
Fast forward to today: Different field, same game.
A renegade? Maybe. He has been cantankerous in the Senate. A poll taken among his fellows in Congress revealed that every one of them had been insulted by McCain. Maybe he has opposed his fellow Republicans a few times. But when you've voted with George Bush over 90% of the time, can you really call yourself a "renegade"? And, if you're a Senator or Congressman, how likely are you to want to work with a guy in trying to solve America's problems when "The Renegade" has just kicked you in the butt (regardless your party) for no good reason?
Fast forward to today: Different field, same game?
Law and Religion in America
Too many of us Americans take the Bible and the Law too literally.
The Bible is a story, a wonderful story, the best ever written, but it's symbolic, and the authors never intended it to be taken literally! Jesus was an incredibly good guy, one whom all of us can and should emulate. I don't know whether he was a real person or not, and neither do you. But I don't need to know because I love his story so much that it doesn't matter. Because, as far as I can tell, Jesus was opposed to discrimination and prejudice of any sort, he loved his neighbors as much as himself, he even loved his enemies, and in his final words he even questioned God's support for him. (And so did Mother Theresa) WOW!
So really, how much, in the name of our "Christian" religions, are we Americans living out Jesus' teachings? Hmmm. Can we just humbly admit that we've got a long way to go, and leave it at that?
Likewise, the Law has been written over centuries in the context of its times, and yet we insist on trying to apply gone conditions to present day realities. Look at gun-control as just one example.
What nonsense!
Why do we human beings do this? Because it's easier, that's why. We aren't forced to think. Somehow thinking is too hard. We'd rather blindly follow rules that "somebody smarter than us has figured out".
Come on, America! We ARE the best and the brightest, but for too long now we've been playing dumb and it won't be much longer before China and India and the Europeans and the Brazilians outplay us and we end up losing this game. If you love history, you might recall the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Soviet Union, and all the Chinese dynasties. They were all great in their time, but now they're all dead. Why? Because they failed to keep up with changing realities and new world orders. They became rich and complacent and they mistook military might for real strength. Sound familiar?
America could be different, America could endure through the eons, and America should! But we're playing a totally dumb game.
John McCain and Sarah Palin are silly little people of no substance or character at a time when America is in decline. Neither of them has the intellect or the judgment to lead us to where we need to go. It's time to get real.
Get fit mentally, emotionally, and physically, and let's start competing again in the real world before it's too late. Your TV needs only two or three channels – PBS nightly and College Football Saturday. The rest is distracting and toxic.
The Bible and The Law were written by our forebears in their time. They are both magnificent works that we should continue to honor and that should guide us forever. But neither could possibly have been written to know the world we live in today, so far different from the world of their authors.
America must get real and get in the game.
The Bible is a story, a wonderful story, the best ever written, but it's symbolic, and the authors never intended it to be taken literally! Jesus was an incredibly good guy, one whom all of us can and should emulate. I don't know whether he was a real person or not, and neither do you. But I don't need to know because I love his story so much that it doesn't matter. Because, as far as I can tell, Jesus was opposed to discrimination and prejudice of any sort, he loved his neighbors as much as himself, he even loved his enemies, and in his final words he even questioned God's support for him. (And so did Mother Theresa) WOW!
So really, how much, in the name of our "Christian" religions, are we Americans living out Jesus' teachings? Hmmm. Can we just humbly admit that we've got a long way to go, and leave it at that?
Likewise, the Law has been written over centuries in the context of its times, and yet we insist on trying to apply gone conditions to present day realities. Look at gun-control as just one example.
What nonsense!
Why do we human beings do this? Because it's easier, that's why. We aren't forced to think. Somehow thinking is too hard. We'd rather blindly follow rules that "somebody smarter than us has figured out".
Come on, America! We ARE the best and the brightest, but for too long now we've been playing dumb and it won't be much longer before China and India and the Europeans and the Brazilians outplay us and we end up losing this game. If you love history, you might recall the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Soviet Union, and all the Chinese dynasties. They were all great in their time, but now they're all dead. Why? Because they failed to keep up with changing realities and new world orders. They became rich and complacent and they mistook military might for real strength. Sound familiar?
America could be different, America could endure through the eons, and America should! But we're playing a totally dumb game.
John McCain and Sarah Palin are silly little people of no substance or character at a time when America is in decline. Neither of them has the intellect or the judgment to lead us to where we need to go. It's time to get real.
Get fit mentally, emotionally, and physically, and let's start competing again in the real world before it's too late. Your TV needs only two or three channels – PBS nightly and College Football Saturday. The rest is distracting and toxic.
The Bible and The Law were written by our forebears in their time. They are both magnificent works that we should continue to honor and that should guide us forever. But neither could possibly have been written to know the world we live in today, so far different from the world of their authors.
America must get real and get in the game.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Hey, Football Moms
Hey, Dads too
It's early September and your little guy is out there playing football on Friday night or Saturday morning or Monday afternoon. And you're worried to bits.
You got into this fix for one of three reasons:
· You grew up with football and you know it's the greatest sport there is and you want your son to gain all the advantages of being a player. But still you're worried that your little guy is gonna get hurt.
· Your husband insists that HIS kid is going to play football. But the little guy is YOUR son too and you're scared to death he's gonna get hurt.
· Your little guy has pestered you so hard about playing football that you finally tried to put your misgivings aside and you relented. But you're not happy.
If you're not worried about your kid playing football, you're not reading this article. So if you got this far, you're WORRIED.
I'm going to do my best to provide you an ounce of ease. I don't expect that I'll ever convert you from being a worrier ... and I wouldn't want to. I'm proud to be a worrier, too, just like you, and I think worriers have insight that most other folks just merrily skip right over.
But I do hope that in my writings ahead I can ease your concerns just enough.
My writing will be based on my own personal journey with my and my wife's kid playing football. It will touch on inspiration, education, motivation. Strengths and weaknesses, and as Troy Aikman proposed, getting real with yourself.
Football demands everything you've got – physically, mentally, and emotionally. There is no other game like it.
The bottom line is that if your little kid is privileged enough to be playing football, he's gonna gain most everything he needs to succeed in his life.
My mission will be to get you to understand that.
Hoping to converse with you,
James
P.S. My kid, as a sophomore, was the backup QB on his State Championship team in one of the four major football states. He went on to graduate as Valedictorian of his high school class and from there he went on to lead his college football team. For a parent and for a kid ... it doesn't get any better than that.
It's early September and your little guy is out there playing football on Friday night or Saturday morning or Monday afternoon. And you're worried to bits.
You got into this fix for one of three reasons:
· You grew up with football and you know it's the greatest sport there is and you want your son to gain all the advantages of being a player. But still you're worried that your little guy is gonna get hurt.
· Your husband insists that HIS kid is going to play football. But the little guy is YOUR son too and you're scared to death he's gonna get hurt.
· Your little guy has pestered you so hard about playing football that you finally tried to put your misgivings aside and you relented. But you're not happy.
If you're not worried about your kid playing football, you're not reading this article. So if you got this far, you're WORRIED.
I'm going to do my best to provide you an ounce of ease. I don't expect that I'll ever convert you from being a worrier ... and I wouldn't want to. I'm proud to be a worrier, too, just like you, and I think worriers have insight that most other folks just merrily skip right over.
But I do hope that in my writings ahead I can ease your concerns just enough.
My writing will be based on my own personal journey with my and my wife's kid playing football. It will touch on inspiration, education, motivation. Strengths and weaknesses, and as Troy Aikman proposed, getting real with yourself.
Football demands everything you've got – physically, mentally, and emotionally. There is no other game like it.
The bottom line is that if your little kid is privileged enough to be playing football, he's gonna gain most everything he needs to succeed in his life.
My mission will be to get you to understand that.
Hoping to converse with you,
James
P.S. My kid, as a sophomore, was the backup QB on his State Championship team in one of the four major football states. He went on to graduate as Valedictorian of his high school class and from there he went on to lead his college football team. For a parent and for a kid ... it doesn't get any better than that.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Obama Must Display Our Outrage
Obama and Biden must (and they both can) raise the level of passion in their voices. The apex of Barack's acceptance speech was when he finally got mad and welcomed the challenge of debating McCain; you could see it in his eyes as well. Not overly aggressive, just strong and true and confident.
Obama and Biden have the intelligence, insight, and better judgement to refute every position (and non-position) McCain and Palin put forth. McCain and Palin individually and together present a range of weaknesses and now's our chance to shut them down.
Prepare every position thoroughly.
Better thinking expressed with conviction! Don't hold back!
Obama and Biden have the intelligence, insight, and better judgement to refute every position (and non-position) McCain and Palin put forth. McCain and Palin individually and together present a range of weaknesses and now's our chance to shut them down.
Prepare every position thoroughly.
Better thinking expressed with conviction! Don't hold back!
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