RETIRED MILITARY CHAPLAINS SPEAK THEIR MINDS

Chaps, I thought the President did well, making the strongest statements
about the killer, justice, etc, in fact being the only one to speak of the
killer. Although they all spoke of the irony and horror of being killed in
a “safe” military environment no one mentioned that it was at the hand of a
fellow soldier. It sounded to me like the Army brass were afraid that they
might slip up and accidently say Muslim or terror/terrorist.

Also, I wondered why the senior chaplain didn’t use other chaplains for a
couple of the chaplain parts. Is it because there is a Muslim or Buddhist
chaplain there, or a fundamentalist chaplain, Dave or Tom, and he didn’t
want to have to deal with “diversity?” Or was afraid one of his chaplains
might mention the name of Jesus? Does anyone know? L Hunt
Chaplain (COL) US Army, Retired

Chaps,
I hope that President Obama’s words came from his own heart, not from
speech writers, and which ever is the case, that he heard himself and felt
something new in the environment in which he uttered those words.

And I prayed and pray that President Obama is forever changed in ways
that will be good for our constitutional government and for us.

Claude

Agree with you, Dave, in fact all of you. What really ticks me off is here we have spent no telling how much of a dollar value could be put on this guy’s edcucation, at least a million, after getting his education, he comes up with all these radical things, ie, fighting other muslims, etc. I personally think it was an act of terroism, the same as if he were a suicide bomber.

What I hate is that we are going to spend years dealing with this guy. His rights, our prejudice against Muslims, etc. It is such a shame that our cop didn’t complete the job. We don’t need to learn this guy’s motive: jidhad, kill the infidels. jda

THE FORT HOOD TRAGEDY

Could hardly believe what I was hearing. It wasn’t comparable to 9-11 but it was shocking in its tragedy. For about 4 hours, I was glued to the TV. An Army psychiatrist kills thirteen and wounds 41. I could hardly believe it. Aren’t psychiatrists in the helping professions? This doesn’t make any sense. Then, of course, we have his name: it isn’t John Smith, it’s Arabic. Immediately, we think terrorism, a suicide bomber, what! A shrink for God’s sake. What is going on? I’m going to wait and see. Crazy in it’s magnitude and sadness in what this senseless shooting has wrought.

I have known lots of Army psychiatrists and most of the time smile when I think about ‘em. I asked one why he bece a shrink. “I hate blood”, he says. Well, those are reasons. I can’t conceive of a psychiatrist in the helping mode doing something like this to innocent soldiers.

And, then there’s the comeraderie of being a soldier. There’s something about “all being in this together.” Us against the world sort of thing. Soldiering these days is a subculture of sorts where few people outside the military have any concept of what it’s like. Those who are in this environment probably feel a false sense of security. No longer.

My seminary professor, Dr. Boyce said to us once, “Sometimes there is a sympathy so great for someone, that there really is nothing to say.” The only thing I know to say, God bless all at Fort Hood and the families of all who’ve died and been wounded.

AFGHANISTAN/VIETNAM

I am plowing through Ted Kennedy’s True Compass. It has proven to be quite the “fine.” I’ve never been much of a fan of any of the Kennedys and I really don’t know why. I think that some of it has  just been personal prejudice with no basis. In the book, one of the things that I zeroed in on immediately: Money is never any option. Want to go overseas, take off. How about a new house in Palm Beach? Sure. See what I mean. Few of us have those privileges but beyond that, True Compass, is fascinating. And, especially now that we are in the throes of dealing with Afghanistan and with the President mulling a decision of whether to send more troops. You could take an overlay of Vietnam and put it on Afghanistan and it is a perfect fit. The difference is that HO’s  overriding desire was nationalism for Vietnam while the Taliban and AlQueta are fanatics. But, Vietnam’s Diem was corrupt as is Karzai, Diem had appointed himself president, lined his own pockets with nepotism as his middle name. He had lost touch with the people. It is an absolute replay of the same song, different verse. Diem’s big thing was fighting communism. We were willing to dole out billions then whereas now it is terrorism.

Here’s something I see. True Compass lays out the path of the late Senator Kennedy’s disillusionment of Vietnam while at the same time starting out as a supporter. It is simply amazing and scary and another example of how history repeats itself. The sad thing is that it doesn’t seem to make any difference. We have two major wars going on with no real end in sight. Although we still hear that Iraq is more peaceful, we’re headed toward withdrawal, I remain skeptical. And, a strategy in Afghanistan which at best will mean years more of our involvement and at worst finding ourselves where we did after Vietnam, 58,000 plus American lives and billions of dollars; was it worth it. NO WAY. Maybe a legacy of the late Senator Kennedy’s final word to us in True Compass is that for once we understand the concept of quagmire. Vietnam was a quagmire. Afghanistan is a quagmire.

HEART BREAKING

THE RECESSION IS OVER. Says who?–not the recent Frontline Show on PBS. I know we’ve all seen how difficult some people’s lives are in these economic conditions. However, this program got in depth with how the economy has effected people’s lives and those who think good times are here didn’t talk to these people. Frontline profiled several and the damage to individuals and families in losing a job. One man had worked for a company for 18 years and they gave him ten minutes to clean out his office and leave. HEARTLESS! After being fired, It became a process that many worked like a job, with little or no results: some sending out 200 resumes a week, no response. Then it showed the people losing their homes. The banks were ruthless. One man had borrowed to make up for being behind 3 payments but when he tried to pay, they said no, “You are almost four behind.” They foreclosed.

God bless those folks.

GUANTANOMO

I’ve always thought Guatanomo was stupid for lots of reasons–a bad idea of bringing prisoners of unknown value to Guantonomo. It has proven to be nothing but trouble. One of those Dick Cheney and Don Runsfelt ideas that we are still living with.

This is a novel idea. Has nobody ever surfaced the idea of treating the prisoners really good. Educate and show them the best of America. I know, I know, opposition would be everywhere. [We have got to get away from this idea that we can't do things because of opposition.] And, of course, has nobody thought about the psychological toll on the young military police men and women who guard the prisoners.

A suggestion to the President: take s look at these two locations for moving them: Leavenworth in Kansas. I’m sure somebody has suggested this so why not. And, what about taking back Alcatraz. Great idea. The tourists would have to give it up but they could simply ride around it and the tour guides could tell great stories of previous residents, i. e., Al Capone. Problem solved, plus by refurbishing Alcatraz, it could become part of stimulus package. Create jobs.

We Are All From Some Place Else

OPPOSITION MELTS AWAY. There’s a school in San Francisco that takes kids who speak no English and teaches them. In six months, they are speaking English better than most of us. Pretty inspiring. Reminds me of the great American immigration of Vietnamese who had helped us in that sorry war. Most expected big time opposition in bringing all these Vietnamese into the country. Here came the busses and all these kids started getting off the busses and guess what: OPPOSITION MELTED.

For those who spend lots of time with their bowels all upset over immigration policy, I always think: there for the grace of God go Us. We could have been born in Mexico, Pakistan, anywhere; by fate, luck, whatever we were born in America.The only point here is that, “Way to go San Fran for having this much insight. Some of these kids already speak the language well as they’ve learned it off TV. We are giving them “the American Chance.” Not a bad thing. kt

DEATH ON THE CHEAP

In a recent local editorial, the editor talked about how terrible the death penalty is in California. The gist of the editorial is to advocate that life in prison is better and costs less. Maybe so: I’ve thought about that and concluded that some things are so heinous that nothing short of death is worthwhile. My opinion. Not something like lethal injection but public hanging or a slow death. WHAT IS THAT BAD?

Marcus Wesson killed 9 of his children. He had fathered them with his wife, daughters and nieces. He shot them once in the eye and stacked them up like kindling in the back bedroom. Heinous enough? Unfortunately, he will live on the average of 20 years on death row as platoons of lawyers make a good living for keeping really bad people like this alive through appeal. We need a few editorials urging a reasonable amount of time for these crazies and then it is “bye bye Miss American pie.” Appeals a couple of years max.

EGOMANIAC

Everybody who believes that Joe Wilson was spontaneous in shouting that the President is a liar, please stand up. My belief is that Wilson, an obscure loudmouth politician from South Carolina saw his chance to get some “press” and did it. And, even as we speak, there are enough non thinking types in his district to reelect him or build a statue to him or anything else he wants. They dislike the President that much or opininated as I am, think that Wilson gives a nod to their deep seated prejudices.

Politics by it’s very nature is contencious. I wish we had the British system where they yell and clap and are downright disrespectful to their head of state. We don’t but there’s something about it that is laughable and you get the impression in watching them that they are laughing at themselves.

Slapping Joe Wilson around will only give him more notariety and thats what an egomaniac wants. If the people reelect him, they deserve each other. In the big picture, this is nothing more than a distraction. Joe , in saying he was not apologizing again used that much touted and grossly overused phrase, “the American people.” What “American people” is he talking about? Nobody I know.

Since I am a Southerner and went to school at Furman University, pride of all the South, I get it a little more than most, maybe. My suspicion is that most South Carolilians are embarrassed by Joe Wilson. Southerners are a little or lot schsphenic about who we are and that is saying it mildly. On the one hand, we want the old South; Genteel, respectful, the way it was: what I ‘m hearing over and over, “my America.” Guess what! The old “America” that we’ve thought we’ve known is gone. The landscape has change, voting patterns are less ridgit, white America is quickly becoming a minority.

My old school, Furman, in fact is trying to make sense of of bigotry. They had George W as a graduation speaker, and it brought out the protesters big time to include many faculty members. There were vitriolic letters to the local paper, the school, etc. They appointed a commitee to figure out how to agree to disagree. From what if looks like, they failed.

The Joe Wilsons will always be among us. To them, self interest always overshadows what is right. Our democracy, in my opinion, is changing right before our eyes. Whether we can wrestle it from those like Joe Wilson is a big question. For those Americans who care, we have got to give it all we’ve got. God bless us.

BIKING FOR THE TROOPS

Shawn Stongly of San Francisco is biking 5,968 miles for every soldier killed in Afganistan and Iraq. He is biking up and down at Chrissy Field on the Presidio in San Francisco. Such a great attitude, “It’s a Volunteer Army. They don’t know if they will survive their shift. I don’t know if I could sign up for a job like that.”

To me, it is fascinating that this guy is doing it on the Presidio and for the troops. Chrissy Field is part of the Presidio and when it was an active duty military post, for those who didn’t know, it was considered a plush assignment. Nothing could have been further from the truth. San Francisco, since the sixties, has always been a hotbed for anti-military posturing. During the Vietnam war, this translated into some pretty miserable times for the military. A somewhat anecdotal story made the rounds over and over. It seems this former Lieutenant was crossing the street in Berkeley, headed to class. He had lost his right arm in Nam. This guy asked him what happened. He mentioned Vietnam. The retort: serves you right. Did this happen as well as the many “spitting” incidents. I don’t know but probably or at least close.

And, to be honest, it didn’t change much after Vietnam. The community of San Francisco never appreciated the fact that they had a public park they could romp in. And, in a more idealistic sense, there was a presence of the military. From time to time, the San Francisco community would be reminded of the fact that they housed soldiers in their midst. And, when the Presideo and Letterman Army Medical Center closed, (Letterman was a 250 bed teaching hospital and had become a pioneer facility in treating those who were HIV Positive) this presense “left” the community and San Francisco is the worst for it.

To the National Park Service’s credit, as they inherited the Presidio, they have done a good job but it’s not the military.

All military from the Bay Area has disappeared. So, for someone recognizing the troops on the Presideo, no small thing. I’m sending one of the charities some bucks and checking out the website. (bikingforthetroops.org) HooAhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!’

The president Talks

And, we might add, he does it well. What is all the furor of him speaking to school kids. Presidents have always done it. This President, I think, is trying to borrow a page from Bill Cosby: talk to kids who are on the margins, potential dropouts, minority kids with the idea that your hope is education. “I’ve done it, so can you.”

This is a theme that we ought to
“get,” especially those of us who have grown up with parents who would say things like, “Get your education. Stay in school. It can’t be taken away from you.” My Mom and Dad constantly played that theme. Who would not want to hear those words from our president? I will tell you who: bigots and closed minded Fox News types who have a theme of “don’t confuse me with facts, I have my mind made up.” What I hope is that their numbers are fewer than they appear. With 24 hour cable news and various outlets, they shout and listen to their “sisters under the skin” fellow shouters who build on people’s prejudices. I HOPE AND PRAY THEY ARE FEW.