Purple Hearts and Those Who Have No Hearts

Like many other normal Americans, I have been outraged at the Obama Administration's decision to not award Purple Hearts to the victims of the Fort Hood Massacre which took place on November 5, 2009 here in Texas.

This despicable and cowardly act was the work of Army Captain,  Nidal Malik Hasan, who supposedly acted as a devotee of  Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam from Virginia who became radicalized by the Muslim terrorists. Because of his efforts to recruit other American citizens for the Muslim terrorists, al-Awlaki was killed by an American drone strike, one of the few things the Obama Administration has done right in this whole sordid affair.

From the beginning, the Obama Administration refused to label Hasan's shooting rampage as an act of terror. Instead the attempted to convince the American Public that it was an act of work place violence. Few Americans bought it.

Apparently, even the Obama Administration itself tried to have it both ways. They were sure enough that it was an act of terror rooted in the recruitment activities of al-Awlaki that they put him on the "kill list" and successfully took him out. But, at the same time they executed al-Awlaki's death warrant, they still insisted to the public that Capt. Hasan was just another man who had gone off the deep end and carried out an act of work place violence. Go figure!

The latest indignity to the 13 killed and the 30 wounded at
Nasan's hand came last week when the Defense Department announced that Purple Hearts would NOT be awarded to the causalities of Nasan's attack because to do so would jeopardize Nasan's right to a fair trial.

You don't say! Killing al-Awlaki didn't jeopardize Nasan's rights, but awarding a few people a little piece of metal and ribbon will?

Another reason offered was that awarding the medals would make the prosecution's burden of proving Nasan's guilt more difficult.

Really? A crime witnessed by hundreds of people, 13 of whom were shot by Nasan and survived and proving him guilty will somehow be difficult? I understand that Attorney General, Eric Holder has been one of the most incompetent Attorneys General in modern history, but any first  year law student could secure Nasan's conviction. The fact is, HE DID IT.  Hist trial is simply his due process, keeping in mind that he disabused 43 of his military colleagues of their rights to due process.

The Obama Administration has been in left field on this case from the beginning. A few months ago, they removed the presiding judge in the case because he insisted that Hasan, a United States Army Captain, follow military protocol and shave for his hearings in the case. If ever there was an act of bias in this case, that was an act of bias against the prosecution and a clear warning to everyone in the prosecution that Hasan was not only protected by his "rights," but also protected by the "Political Correctness Ideals" of Eric Holder's Justice Department and the Obama Administration.

Just once, it would be nice to see the Obama Administration come down on the side of justice and common decency accorded to ordinary American citizens

Americans Murdered by Hasan

who are not terrorists,  not necessarily minorities and not dependent upon the government dole. The Administration made much of its heart felt feelings for the American underclass during the recent election. Its too bad the Administration has no heart at all for the 43 Americans and their families who were so maliciously assaulted by a Muslim terrorist at Fort Hood.

I don't think the Obama Administration has any real idea at all that Christians of various sorts are convicted of crimes in our courts every day. And the conviction of these Christians of crimes against the state or against their fellow citizens does not in any way whatsoever impugn other Christians or Christianity. But obviously, the Administration very definitely feels that to hold one Muslim accountable for his crimes could impugn all Muslims. Thus, they go overboard in their Political Correctness in dealing with Hasan.

To the Courage of Saying - Enough!

I've always been a person who thinks about difficult problems and situations that affect most of us in American society.

As a kid, I watched my grandmother die in her bedroom surrounded by family. I saw her taken aways and then brought back to lie in state in her living room. Her death in 1951 came at a time when that practice was in it waning days; and it was the first, and the last, time I was witness to the practice.

Maybe it was observing this ritual at such a young age that caused me to always think of death as just a part of life. Over the years, I became aware that we Americans treat our pets better than we treat our loved ones when it comes to death and dying.  Not wanting our pets to be in needless pain, we routinely euthanize them when they are no longer able to enjoy a quality life. We treat our family members much differently. We encourage them to hang in there and resist the pain. We tell them they are going to recover when we know they aren't. We tell ourselves it is up to God to decide the date and time of our deaths. Why?

That simple question is one no one has ever been able to satisfactorily answer for me. In 1969, I watched as my mother was dying of cancer. In a last ditch to save her, the doctors had burned her body with hideously high doses of radiation. At 48 years of age, she looked more like she was 88. She was in horrible pain, and she was ready to die. The hope she had sustained for the past five years was gone, gone for her and gone for those of us who loved her. I hoped and prayed for her death regretting only that my wife was five months pregnant with my mother's first grandchild, a child I knew she would never see or hold in her arms. The mental anguish that brought me was almost unbearable, for she had so looked forward to her first grandchild in the four years I had been married. But my mental anguish paled in comparison to her physical anguish. I knew I was just being selfish.

On the day that men first set foot upon the moon, my mother died. Though I loved her as I loved no one else, I shed not a single tear. The tears had all long since been shed. Her death was cause for thankfulness for a life well lived and for the faith that she was at home in the arms of the Lord and no longer suffering from unendurable pain. Somehow it seemed fitting to me that the death of a woman who had played such a significant role in my short life should be marked with unique triumph for mankind, a walk on the moon.

Fourteen years later, my Dad lay in a hospital bed, racked by pain from cancer. His doctor asked me what I wanted done. I told the doctor I wanted him kept free from pain at any cost. The doctor asked if I knew what I was asking. I told him I knew very well.

He said he respected and agreed with my wishes. He pointed to the room next to my father's and said it held an 87 year old woman terminally ill with cancer, but her family had instructed him to keep her alive at all costs, a demand he saw as offensively selfish though he was ethically bound to carry it out even at the expense of the old woman's pain.

My father was dying of lung cancer. Every time he coughed or moved, a rib would crack or break. The pain was horrific; but as I had instructed, morphine was liberally administered to lessen the pain even though it steadily depressed his respirations. Approximately 30 hours after my instructions to the doctor, my father was dead at age 63. Even though I was a grown man with children of my own, his death was  difficult for me. I guess the death of a good father always is for  his sons because a father's role in the life of his sons is more complex than the roll of their mother. My mother had demonstrated to me over and over than love never died and that forgiveness for any transgression was always hers to give. My father, on the other hand, had concentrated much more on teaching me and my bothers that we lived in a cold and uncaring world that didn't give a damn about us, and it was up to us to become men who could provide for ourselves and our loved ones in spite of anything the world threw at us. It was a hard lesson and I often felt my father didn't love us at all.

By the time he died. I had come to realize he had always loved us just as our mother had; but he had loved us enough to teach us the hard lessons of life vital to our well being. Though I had come to realize this, there had never seemed to be an opportunity to express my understanding of it all to my Dad. There had never seemed to be a time to tell my Dad straight out that I loved him and I knew he loved me. I guess it was the same for him. A child of the Great Depression, he had lived a life I could not imagine. It was only his toughness that let him endure it. There had been no time for and no occasion for very many expressions of tenderness in his life. The tears I shed at his death were for all the things left unsaid between us.

As a young optimist, I always felt by the time I was old and facing death, people would have come to their senses and started treating their loved ones at least as good as they treated their pets. I felt sure that the passing of the baby boomer generation into old age would force the politicians and even the church to recognize that death should be something each of us managed for ourselves without relying on God's often seeming indifference.

Alas, all too often, it has not come to pass. The country and its politics are dominated by fundamental Christians who do their best to see to it that everyone's lives are subject to their interpretation of the mind of God. These religious zealots are sure God abhors suicide. Some of them even call it the unpardonable sin which has no Biblical foundation. These people are always quick to perceive the wrath of God. They almost always place the grace of God under the heel of His wrath.

A few liberal states have enacted self directed suicide statutes, but they are few in number. It is about the only thing I admire about liberal politics. Yet, though it is evolving at a snail's pace, attitudes are continuing to change.

The following excerpts are from a Yahoo News Story on March 25, 2013:

Tomas Young is "ready to go" as he puts it. After nine years of suffering and with his body quickly deteriorating he has decided to end his struggle.

Young, 33, was paralyzed from the chest down by a sniper's bullet in a battle in Sadr City, Iraq on April 4, 2004, less than a week after he got to the country. He had joined the Army just two days after September 11, 2001 and assumed he would be sent to Afghanistan. Now nine years after that battle he is choosing to end his suffering. He is in hospice care and getting ready to die.

"I just decided that I was tired of seeing my body deteriorate and I want to go before it's too late," Young said in phone interview with ABC News from his home in Kansas City, Mo. "I've been doing this for the past nine years now…and I finally felt helpless every day and a burden to the people who take care of me and that's why I want to go."

Tired of the Pain and Ready to Go

Young and his wife Claudia Cuellar are receiving guests for a few more weeks. During that time, Young will say goodbye to friends and family and then will stop receiving medications, nourishment and water. They don't know how long it could be after that time he will die, but they believe it will be one to three weeks, but it could be as long as six weeks.

They don't consider it suicide, just an end to his suffering.

"I'm not the boy who would always think suicide if maybe something goes wrong," Young said. "I put lots of time into this. I considered the facts that people I know who love me and would prefer that I stick around, and my only hope is that they realize that they're being selfish in wanting me to just stick around and endure the pain."

Young and Cuellar have decided to go public with their story. First, in an article in the Kansas City Starbecause they want to change the perception on death and dying in this country as well as continue to shine a light on the anti-Iraq war activism Young has been focused on since becoming paralyzed. He was the subject of a 2007 documentary "Body of War" produced by Phil Donahue. It showed Young dealing with the excruciating physical effects of his injury including post-traumatic stress, as well as his work against the Iraq war.

Cuellar says since the first story was written about his choice to die last week they have received mixed reactions of people supporting Young's decision as well as people urging him to "hang on" or "fight a little more." She says it's because people can't fathom his daily pain.

"We've had to increase the pain medication over time quite consistently and incrementally so the increase in pain meds will decrease his faculties somewhat so he is becoming forgetful a little bit. He was always very clear before," Cuellar said.

She also must clean "pressure sores" on his buttocks where Cuellar says she can see the "living bone."

"I hope people understand that we are not just deciding to stop feeding because things are kind of difficult," Cuellar said. "It is an insurmountable challenge every day and I don't know how we get through. We get through with each other."

So, how exactly does this happen in the age of modern medicine and to a man who served his country bravely?

Young says it's been a "long process" since he began experiencing "severe abdominal pain in July of 2009" and he hasn't just been struggling with his deteriorating body, but with the health care system, calling the Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital a "factory." He left in October against medical advice.

They said when they first approached Young's doctors with his wish to go into hospice they said due to his young age he wasn't the "typical hospice patient."

"This is what happens when a country sends their sons and daughters to war," Cuellar said. "Broken bodies come back and broken bodies deteriorate over time just like a diseased body and just like an aging body and this is the reality. I'm sorry if it doesn't fit your profile of somebody who is 90 years old and about to die going to hospice."

In order to be accepted in a hospice, Young must be "terminally" ill, which he technically is not. They were able to be accepted when he was ruled to have an "inability to thrive." He now has in-home hospice care from Crossroads Hospice.

"All we want to do is go home," Cuellar said, referring to the time before the ruling was made. "We don't want to be in a hospital, we don't want to be in an ER, we don't want to go into a nursing home…we felt like we were like Frankenstein. They just wanted to keep cutting open, stitching up, going in, another pill and this is a dehumanizing process."

Young says he wants the country to learn from his struggle that "war is the last resort" and in future conflicts the American government should try diplomacy and "if they are still not cooperating they should send in a small group of elite trained forces not 125,000 19-year-old kids whose first cultural experience is eating at the Olive Garden or Taco Bell. "

"I want our government to try every possible outlet with the country before invading it, before going to war," Young said.

Young added that if the United States does go to war then "all boxes must be checked."

"Make sure that the soldiers, marines, and sailors have the best body armor, the best armor around their vehicles," Young said before Cuellar added, "And having a healthcare system that will take of you when they get back. I mean, they just can't be abandoned when they sacrifice for their country."

Young's mother Cathy Smith, whom he says has worked as a "pit bull" on his behalf, is also almost always by his side.

He said "she's come around to the conclusion that it would be far more selfish for her to want me to stay alive and be in pain the rest of my life than just let me go."

**************

I have the greatest admiration for Tomas and Claudia Young. There is no doubt in my mind they are making, not only the right decision for themselves, but also a decision that all of us should be willing to make when the time comes. It is simply the right thing to do.

The fact is, a huge slice of the money each of us will spend in our lives on medical care comes in the last few months and even weeks of our lives when all real hope of quality life is gone. It is futile and selfish spending we cannot afford. In the end, it accomplishes absolutely nothing.

There is no doubt this problem is one of the knotty issues of our lives, but it is one we should face head on with courage and a sense of grace. My own cancer is now metastasized  into my spine, spleen, kidneys and bladder. I have outlived my Mom and Dad only because of the significant strides medicine has taken in the last 30 years. Even though my cancer has metastasized, the treatments I take continue to afford me an active lifestyle which, though not like it was before my illness, is satisfying and enjoyable. Unlike my Mom, I lived to see all four of my grandkids. Watching them grow into their own persons is a joy only a grandparent can imagine.

Christmas of 2011 all my children were home for the holidays. I took a few moments to talk with them privately to tell them my wishes concerning my death. As I did for my father, I wish them to do for me. When the quality of my life is over and there is nothing left to bear but pain, I no longer wish to live, and I demand their support in that. They are good kids. Their mother and I raised them well. They understood and they agreed with my decision.

My type of cancer brings a horribly painful death. I don't relish facing it. But knowing that my wife and my family understand and agree with my feelings about it brings me comfort. I am also comforted by the rise of hospice care for the dying in this country. It gives caring families a realistic alternative to futile medical care. Hospice recognizes while the time always comes when medical care is futile and selfish, palliative  care is always the compassionate and logical choice for the dying. Hospice does not see their actions as playing God. They realize fully that here on earth, God's work must truly be our own. The hospice movement helps all within its care to experience the compassionate nature of God.

Thanks Tomas and Claudia Young for your courage, your compassion for each other and your willingness to serve as an example to all of us. May God bless and keep you.

An Open Letter To the Republican Party

I almost never blog about politics, but we are living in perilous times when all that is needed for  the liberties we Americans take for granted to come to an end is for good people who put the good of the country and all its citizens first and foremost to continue to say and do nothing about the extremism that is shackling our Country. And as you will see if you bother to read all the way though this blog piece, I'm not just talking about one political party or the other. There is more than enough blame for all to share.

I have not always been a Republican. As a young man I was a supporter of LBJ, and I actually voted for Bill Clinton; not once, but twice. I don't actually regret either stance. I've come to believe that the old saying, "If you are young and not liberal, then you have no heart; but if you are old and not conservative, then you have no brain," is entirely true. As I aged, I got smarter and more realistic about the world, just as one is supposed to do.

As a moderate Republican who believes neither the Republican Party nor any other arm of the Federal government should be making laws about what goes on in our bedrooms or insist that their religious beliefs should trump mine concerning reproductive rights, I felt Mitt Romney could and should defeat President Obama in last November's national election. I was wrong on the "could" part of that feeling. I remain convinced the country would have been better off had the "should" part of my feeling prevailed.

I'm not fearful for myself over Obama's political goals. I an old man who may well be dead before his second term ends in 2016. I am, however, very fearful for my kids and my grandkids who are going to continue to live in a country that bears almost no resemblance to the country in which I grew up in the 50's and early 60's.

The founding fathers never meant for government to be a guarantor and provider of equality among the people of the United States. Instead,they meant  the government to see to it that everyone  has an equal chance at equality, not in absolute terms, but under the law. Because the right to happiness and its pursuit is inalienable, we as individuals must take full responsibility to work hard at achieving our own happiness. Many people don't realize that. They sit and wait for the government to deliver it wrapped up in a bow.

President Obama and the Democrat Party have perverted the wisdom of the founding fathers and are trying their best to make the Federal Government the enforcer of equality through taking full responsibility for everyone's happiness. If one group has failed to achieve for whatever reason, the Democrats are willing to help through the redistribution of income. In other words those of us who have worked hard all our lives and achieved the American Dream will be required to share our hard earned wealth; and yes, our privileges with those who have never taken advantage of any opportunity or worked hard at anything in their whole lives to achieve their own piece of the American Dream. 

I was astounded, during the Democrat National Convention last summer to hear Official

Delegates say that to a television pollster, "no American Corporation should be allowed to make a profit." How did we get to the point where people who are so utterly stupid can hold an official position in a major party representing the interests of thousands, if not millions of Americans? How could anyone raised and educated in America not understand corporate profits are the backbone of the American economy and these profits accrue not just to big corporations but also to Americans of every race and every economic circumstance? How could we get to a place where the most powerful person in the world is consciously and purposefully turning the country over to the left wing nuts who see the American Dream as one in which America is a mediocre country filled with mediocre people saddled with mediocre lives courtesy of the Federal Government?

But it is not just the Democrat Party which has idiots and uneducated imbeciles within their ranks. The Republican Party has, over the last few years, all but turned itself over to their own right wing nut cases. In the last few years, we have seen so called Republican candidates for the highest state and national offices who lack any qualification for these offices. All too often these right wing nut jobs espouse ideas and concepts that could only be described as stupid. Many of their political ideas have their root in fundamental religious beliefs which are subscribed to by only a small minority of Americans. Jack Wu of Kansas is a case in point. 

The following is from a February 2010 blog in the Huffington Post.

Jack Wu believes public education is “preparing its students to be liars, crooks, thieves, murderers, and perverts,” which is one of the reasons he's running for a chance to overhaul the system from the inside.

Wu is a Republican candidate for the Kansas Board of Education and an attendee of Fred Phelps' controversial Westboro Baptist Church, a far-right congregation best known for its anti-gay protests and picketing of military funerals. Wu writes that he moved from California to the "evil city of Topeka and this perverse state of Kansas” after "seeing the light of the Westboro Baptist Church.” He also believes evolution is "Satanic lies," which has added particular significance to his upstart candidacy.

Kansas is set to play a pivotal role in creating national education policy as one of 26 states working with the National Research Council to develop science standards for a large portion of the country. Wu's 4th District opponent, Democratic incumbent Carolyn Campbell, supports the teaching of evolution and natural selection, as does the majority of the state's board. But with five seats on the ballot this fall, Kansas' support for commonly accepted scientific principles could hang in the balance.

The Kansas City Star recently interviewed Wu, who explained a bit of his worldview:

“The truth matters more than the opinion of other men and women,” said Wu, clutching his green cloth-bound King James Bible during a recent interview on the grounds of state Capitol about a block away from the Kansas Department of Education’s offices.

“The Bible says if you’re hated by other people for taking a stance that’s not popular, it’s like a sign you’re chosen by God, almost,” added Wu, who describes himself as a reality television fan who works as a self-employed computer programmer and designer of video games.

He's also claimed that Harry Potter promotes witchcraft and likened Christmas trees to pagan idols.

Wu has said he is running for State Board of Education "to throw out the crap that teachers are feeding their students and replace it with healthy good for the soul knowledge from the holy scriptures."

But the nature of his candidacy has largely failed to draw support. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R), who makes a habit of supporting Republican candidates in the state, opted not to back Wu. According to the Lawrence World-Journal, Wu responded by claiming that he was happy not to receive Brownback's blessing.

“The poor governor needs to obey the commandments of God and stop being a vile Catholic,” Wu said, according to the World-Journal, reportedly noting the Catholic Church's problems with child abuse.

Democratic operatives and non-partisan educators say they're taking Wu's candidacy seriously, but the Star reports that he had only received $5 in contributions through July, the most recent reporting period.

***********************

Kansas has never been known as a state in which scientific fact and common sense are always revered over religious ignorance, but I am happy to report that Wu was too much for Kansas. He lost to his Democrat opponent by a wide margin.

I would like to say it is now no secret to anyone that the Republican Party must change if it is to survive, but that cannot be said. Some of the most radical right wing nuts are still contending the Party is suffering not from right wing idiocy, but from its failure to further embrace the right wing agenda.

The strength of America has always been its abundant natural resources, its population which is made up largely of the best and brightest from around the world and its embrace of the political moderate middle. Now, both parties are trying to out do each other in seeing who can most quickly bring America and Americans to the furtherest extremes, both left and right. 

The fact is, an America which embraces either the right wing extremes or the left wing extremes will not long endure. All one has to do is look back at 1930's and 1940's Germany to see what happens when a moderate country comes to be dominated by extremists.

I am still convinced the great majority of Americans are not extremists. A country of extremists would not be embracing the changes now taking place in America regarding the bringing of full civil rights and acceptance to gay men and women. Although many Americans think otherwise, the growing acceptance of gays as deserving of the equality under the law all Americans enjoy is not an extremist position. It is a moderate position.

In spite of President Obama's current control of the levers of power in the Democrat Party, I am not concerned for the long term about the Democrats. Obama is the most extreme President ever to hold the office of the President of the United States. And the fact is, he was elected not because of his extreme ideas, but in spite of them. Once he has served his second term and is barred from holding the office again by the U.S. Constitution, the Democrat Party will return to a much more moderate stance.

I am not so optimistic about the Republican Party. Too many of those in powerful positions in the Party seem quite content to continue or even step up their embrace of extreme positions. If that is indeed the case, the Party is doomed.

To survive and be a viable Party again, the Republican Party must embrace its moderate center. It must stop seeing itself as the advocate for the Christian right wingers. It must embrace, as America has always ultimately embraced, its immigrants, even those who are illegal though generally law abiding people willing to work hard. It must figure out a way to educate Americans to the value of Capitalism once again and bring all Americans back to a common embrace of the power of Capitalism to benefit people of all economic conditions. It must bring people back to the view that America is a land in which a mix of hard work and education will bring enormous benefits which far outstrip those that can be bestowed upon them by a government which would rather hand them a margin of success that would make them and every one else in the country comfortably mediocre. 

I believe in  American Exceptionalism, not in American Mediocrity. For those who are not politically and morally blinded, American Exceptionalism cannot be denied. American Exceptionalism does not mean America is without faults or problems. It does not mean we don't have the need to reform areas of our public and private character. What it does mean is, it was American Exceptionalism that allowed a band of rag tag Americans to defeat a far superior professional British army in the Revolutionary War. It was American Exceptionalism that made America the defender and savior of democracy in World War II. 

It was American Exceptionalism that allowed Americans to be not only the first; but also, the only men to ever walk on the moon thus far. And to embrace American Exceptionalism is not to deny the exceptional people that can be found in the other countries of the world. Our exceptionalism springs from our willingness to embrace and give opportunity to immigrants from around the world.

All one has to do is consider people like Steve Jobs and Apple, Inc. Steve jobs was of Syrian ancestry. Is there anyone who believes Jobs would have changed all of mankind with the iPhone, the Mac, and the iPad had he been raised in and remained in Syria? Jobs touched the life of every American and a huge percentage of the rest of the world population because of the reality of American Exceptionalism which allowed him the freedom and the opportunity to pursue his dreams in a way no other country could or would.

I believe in the benefits of hard work and the self-striving for a better life while protected from strife and assault by a powerful central government. The Republican Party has traditionally seen the Federal government in that role - the keeper of peace and the provider of equal opportunity. Unfortunately, the Party has come to see itself more as the defender of the rich at the expense of the poor. It has come to see itself as the promoter and defender of right wing Christian values which are not the values of the majority of Americans. It has come to see itself as the defender of low tax rates which prevent the government from keeping up with the demands of inflationary forces as well as the legitimate demands of an ever increasing growth in population which depends on government's legitimate role in keeping the peace and providing and maintaining an infrastructure that supports American ingenuity. It has become the Party which is more interested in creating rules and laws to benefit the richest among us while ignoring the need for rules and laws to help the poorest among us have the chance to build their own wealth and achieve their own dreams.

I married at age 18 and started out with nothing much more than the clothes on my back and the will to make a better life for myself and my family. I was not only able to do that, but to do it to an extent I never envisioned. I'm not sure my young grandchildren are going to have that kind of chance when they become young adults.

It's high time both Parties, and in particular the Republican Party, get back to playing the role they have historically played in the lives of Americans. Most black Americans have no idea it was the Republican Party which brought the Civil Rights victories in the mid and late 1960's over the most obstructive tactics of the Democrats who stood in school doors to prevent integration and used force to beat up blacks who tried to be served at lunch counters. Most black Americans have no idea it was the Republican Party which moved heaven and earth to bring the Emancipation Proclamation into reality against Democrat resistance. Republicans have stood still and let the Democrat Party steal for themselves its most significant accomplishments. All that must change or America itself is imperiled.

I believe there are good men and women in both parties who are earnestly willing to work in bipartisan ways for the good of the country over their own self interest. The problem is that these men and women are and have been over the last decade or so, willing to let the extremists in both parties speak for them,  immobilize them and disempower them. It's time that changes. 

Is Anybody Out There?

I've posted a couple of blogs now. According to the stats I get back from Blogspot there is some activity on the blog, but I'm not sure if it is human activity or just web crawlers.

If you are reading my blog, I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment.

Thanks.

When Men are Animals

I guess there are certain women who would say that men are always animals; but women who would say such a thing have probably never been accused of being ladies. Still, with the general hardening of our society over the last couple of decades, men have often not fared so well.

Recently my wife and I traveled to Japan for a special occasion. As I expected, every Japanese man at the ceremony was dressed in a suit and tie. There was not a pair of jeans in the place much less a pair of cargo shorts and flip flops. Neither were there any children under the age of 15. Japanese society still benefits from a sense of collective pride and the good sense to know there are places where young children simply don't belong, and adults should be properly dressed, things American society abandoned long ago.

Yet, I'm happy to say that men in American society, while less than gentlemen all too often, are far from the bottom of the barrel when it comes to behavior and values. The world has been shocked not once but three times in recent weeks by widely  reported gang rapes of young women in India. And these gang rapes did not take place in some back alley in a squalid Indian slum area. The first one took place on a bus and even the bus driver was reported to have joined some five other men in committing the crime.

The woman and a male friend, who have not been identified, were traveling on a bus in New Delhi after watching a film on the evening of Dec. 16 when they were attacked by six men who raped her. The men also beat the couple and inserted an iron rod into the woman's body, resulting in severe organ damage. Both were then stripped and thrown off the bus, according to police. The young lady later died in a hospital in a Singapore hospitle in spite of all out medical efforts to save her, so savage was the rape.

The incident was not an isolated one. A few days later in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab state, seven men joined in another rape of another young woman whose only provocation had been to climb onto a city bus at night. The bus driver, evidently willing to take advantage of the fact that she and another man were the last riders in the bus, ran right past her stop. They took her to an undisclosed address where they were joined by five other men who raped her all through the night.

Finally, just this weekend, the third widely reported attack took place in central India. The woman was camping near a forest in India's Datia district with her husband when a group of men beat the husband and raped her. As many as five to seven men joined in the attack. The victims were also robbed of money and valuables. It is a shame that a country which has produced some of the most revered world heritage sites as well as some of the world's best known advocates of peace, has such a barbaric view concerning its women.

The Taj Mahal is perhaps the worlds most elaborate and beautiful memorial to one man's love of his wife. Yet, in modern India the number of reported rapes in -- a country where a cultural stigma keeps many victims from reporting the crime -- has increased drastically, from 2,487 in 1971 to 24,206 in 2011, according to official figures. As in many third world countries, blame for the rapes is often laid on the victim of the attacks. The general feeling, at least among men, seems to be that a woman should not be out at night. The gulf between these two facts is unfathomable.

Of course, India is far from being the only third world country whose female citizens are subject to life long abuse, cruelly treated as property by their father's and husbands or even murdered or sold into slavery as young girls because girls have no value in the culture.

In some third world countries, women are treated as objects and are life-long second or third class citizens as a matter of religious laws. They are told what they must wear, how the must act, where they can go and where they cannot go. Those who rebel are often murdered by their own fathers or brothers because they have brought "shame" to their families.

And of course, we are not immune to the problem of rape here in the United States of America either. Our Armed Forces are constantly dealing with alleged rapes of female soldiers by their male counterparts. College campuses are awash in incidents in which male students have refused to take "No" for an answer. How can such a thing still happen in a country in which women are seen to be equal under the law.

In America, rape has recently decreased about 4% according to the FBI along with all violent crime. But still, almost 100,000 rapes are reported every year. One difference between rapes in the U.S and rapes in India, only 25% of rapes in the U.S. are committed by men who are strangers to the women they rape. Obviously American men have not been trained well enough that a woman "always" has the right to say, "No." Neither have they been taught that buying a woman a few drinks and dinner does not entitle one to sexual favors.

I know that rape is, in the real sense, not a sexual crime but rather a crime based in the perceived or real difference in power between the raper and the raped. But even with that said, I have never really understood rape. How can a man force himself on an unwilling woman? It doesn't make sense to me. As a young man, my wife seldom said, "No." And, I have to admit that when she did say, "No," it usually made me mad. But anger never evolved into my taking her by force. Quite the contrary, my ego tended to go the opposite way. If she didn't want it, then, by God, I didn't want her either.

I'm not naive. I know that men are not the only gender that uses power for self advantage. Women have long since figured out how to use accusations of rare as their own powerful weapon in countries like the United States where even a false accusation of rape against an innocent man can destroy his life. The reality is that women should see that kind of thing as the rape of a guy's reputation, for that is surely what it is.

As for men who rape, I'm sure they must get off on it. They couldn't perform the act if they didn't. I guess it makes them feel like big powerful men to force themselves violently into the body of a woman. It's too bad they have no understanding of the fact that it doesn't make them viral or powerful at all, and those who imagine that the woman they are raping really likes it have to be the dumbest shits around. The fact is, a man who forces himself upon a woman is a weak and sniveling coward. No matter how strong he may be, there is nothing beyond his cock and his balls that has anything to do with true manhood. Not only is he mentally and emotionally unbalanced, he is a pathetic and small human being trying to make up for his inadequacies by proving that he can have a woman. In his warped state, he has no idea that he is only proving himself a coward and a bully as well as a perverted human being.

The world simply has to start doing a better job of raising its sons, for sons turn into brothers and husbands and husbands turn into fathers. It is time that all fathers valued their daughters as they value their sons.

I am one of those lucky guys who has both a son and a daughter. I love both of them beyond description. Both are grown with sons and daughters of their own, and both are successful adults. My son has lived in a foreign country all his adult life and has raised his daughters there. In that culture, women are rarely physically abused, and certainly not abused while the government turns a blind eye. But yet, neither are women considered equal to men. 

My son's task has been to teach his daughters to live astraddle of both his world (America) and the world of their mother (Japan). I think he as done a good job, but only time will tell how they fare as adults. The truth is, I worry about my granddaughters both here in the United States and in Japan. When men are animals, they are dangerous to be around.

There are times when men must be animals. Our safety, even our lives depend on the brut force of men even in the modern world. We need to teach our boys that being boys is an ok thing, but being a gentleman is also a necessity of life.

TC

A Chinese Blessing?

I have no idea if it is true or not; but I've heard it said that an old Chinese blessing wishes for one, "to live in interesting times."

If such a wish is truly a blessing then all 7,102,000,000 people who alive in the world at this minute in time have been and are truly blessed.

I have been a blogger for many years. My blogs have not shaken the world; but then again, they've been more successful than many, and less successful than others in terms of readership, in that they attract about 50,000 views a month. Of course I'd like to attract millions of viewers as the viral blogs do, but 50,000 a month is respectable I suppose.

An Amazing View

The problem with my older blogs is that I started them to provide insight into a particular interest group; and within that interest group, they have served their purpose well. However, over the past year or so I have felt myself constrained by having to blog about things that pertain only to one interest group. We truly do live in interesting times. I find myself wanting to comment on many current events and interests that have nothing do do with the interest group I have blogged about for years. Therefore, I have created this new blog to throw off those constraints and use the freedom to blog on my contemplations of current knotty issues I find both interesting and controversial.

At the same time, I'm fearful that in this wide open format, attracting even 50,000 viewers a month may be quite impossible. Some of you will stumble upon this blog and find it interesting. More of you will stumble upon it and quickly forget it. My hope is that those of you who find it interesting will tell your friends about it and that through word of mouth, so to speak, the blog will pick up some viewers.

When I write, I often write with a passion that makes those who read my work think I am not open to views other than my own. Nothing could be further from the truth. I blog to spur comments. I blog to challenge my readers to think about the knotty issues of our time.  I learn from those who agree with me as well as those who do not. I hope, through my efforts, to help others to learn as well. I won't always be right in my views, but I hope to always be challenging.

The fact is, I very much agree with Charles Darwin, himself a controversial figure both in life and in death, who once said, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

(Charles Darwin, Introduction to The Descent of Man, 1871)

In this blog, I will simply be writing about my knotty contemplations as of the time I write. As I hear the views and contemplations of others and as my life continues to unfold, my view may or may not change. My pledge to readers is, I will always blog about the truth as I see it in all my human frailty modified by a higher than average IQ, a college education and a questioning intellect that has driven me for the better part of seven decades.

Welcome to my Knotty Contemplations of the world around us and all the human issues that are a part of it. As I have the time, I'll fill out my profile and reveal more about myself. In the mean time, if anyone is finding this first blog post of my new blog, I'd be ecstatic to hear from you. Please leave a comment. 

You may also email me at knottycontemplations@gmail.com

W