I have been posting at The Wide Awakes for a few weeks, and I cross posted an old post of mine contrasting leadership styles…Well, it has blossomed into a full blown debate, with some ad hominum attacks, but not many, considering the “sides” represented.

The post is here. If you have anything to add (but read the discussion in the comments section, for it has transmogrified (H/T: Calvin and Hobbes) to a discussion of the current strategy for the Iraq War.

For the record, I don’t think the President has carried out the war as I have. Also for the record, I’m not the President….

I do, however, think there has been an overall strategic emphasis on a “forward defense,” which is quite offensive to some. Amazingly, to those who would call us to withdraw and huddle within our borders, staying quiet, so no one might notice us, are the very same people who refuse to support sealing our borders from illegal immigration.

I find that most interesting…pull out and pull back from an attack by a determined enemy, who makes no bones about wanting to destroy us, and, in criticizing the President, from both sides of the aisle, the comment is often made about how terrorists can slip across our border….

The prevailing mood appears to be that we will grant amnesty to the estimated 12 millions illegal immigrants, and the discussion about securing the border by physical and electronic means is pretty much discouraged.

I would ask: How do we leave a war, yet refuse to secure borders? Somehow the two strategies don’t match up to me. If you aren’t going to go forward to combat a threat, then you need to build a protected area to survive in.

So, I’m rambling, but, the two issues are connected and while some would try to keep them separated in the “grand scheme of things,” they are also the ones who drag out the “the President hasn’t made us safer, because the terrorists are coming across the borders” remark when it suits the purpose to derail the war strategy discussion.

I’m working through the mental hoops on my thoughts (remember: I’m not the President) on the plan to send more troops into Iraq in order to get a handle on the conflict. Between some books I read about a 20 years ago, one that was written about 100 years ago, and another I’m waiting to receive in the mail, I think we are headed on a good track, so long as the message is not the military might is the supreme force to employ.

Recevied via email from one of the Navy Valour-IT Team Members. He is asking the word get passed around the military community to consider signing a new appeal for redress….:

I don’t do self-promotion, and this really isn’t about that. I hope you’ll read this post – and then direct any active duty members that you know to the petition. My goal is to offset the negative effect of the liberals’ Appeal for Redress, which will be widely touted by the media, with this alternate Appeal for Redress, which asks Congress to respect our military.

[email protected] – http://www.antimedia.us/
Dedicated to exposing the media’s many lies

Antimedia’s post has a link for active duty members to sign up, but I’ll put it here.

Pass the word…time to make an appeal to the higher ups.

I discussed the binary nature of people, as made very clear to me while sitting in a crowd of about 15K fans last week.

I got thinking about that more about that last night and think I’ll call the spectators “Zeros” and the people on the field of competition “Ones.”

Anyhow, I’m stretched out on the couch two nights ago, watching the Lightning/Wild game in HD, and during the second intermission, which I’m not intently watching, there’s some discussion of the Wild’s inception, and a quote and a picture were tossed up on the picture tube. I didn’t recognize the person, but I assume it maybe was one of the Wild’s first coaches. The quote was about how he had looked for people who thought the name on the front of the jersey was more important that the name on the back of it….

Yep, echoed by the sentiment of Coach Wooden, when I heard him a few year back on the radio. He turned away great players who thought the team was there to support them and not the other way around. I’d say his track record says he was right to do that.

“A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork.” – John Wooden

Good philosophy, for the coaches, but equally important for the people wearing the jerseys to live up to.

Last month, I was engaged in a serial posting “The Ratchet and the Governor – Tools for Today” and Part III discussed how our model of sports could help us see a manner in which we could fight the war on terror.

I attended another even a few nights back and the next day I realized something I have been around my entire life, yet it didn’t strike me as consciously as it has now, particularly in light of the political divisions, and it is tied in to sports, too.

I have never been one to watch sports much. I have played and competed in several, and even don’t prefer to sit and watch any of those, unless it’s a last resort type situation. You have to watch the Super Bowl, because it’s the Super Bowl, but other than that, I might, while channel surfing (which I don’t watch much TV, either), stop and watch downhill skiing. I think I’m attracted by the speed and adrenaline factor here.

This leads into sitting in an indoor setting, with maybe 15,000 fans. While there are great things to emulate from the experience, it also (to me) clearly points out our differences. Many there are very knowledgeable about the rules and the play, but, I’d venture wouldn’t dare to put on skates and pads to take up a hockey stick and get slammed into the boards.

So….they are relegated to observing the game. Completing this experience, many, sitting at higher angles, with a completely different, and much uncluttered view of the rink, are wont to yell out the “right way” things should be done. I’d be willing to bet, many of these people have never played hockey, or any sport at a professional level.

In any case, I feel inclined, on this end of the binary scale to place these sorts of people and call them “spectators.”

These “spectators” are the media reporters, demonstrators, politicians, and people on the sidewalks, and all seem to “know” the war is not being fought right, and is, at best, a questionable adventure at best.

The other category are those who have managed to understand there is more to life than sitting on the sidelines and offering uneducated advice. These are the competitors. It’s easy to recognize them. They are wearing a uniforms and are in, near, over, or supporting the War on Terror.

I know, it’s fairly apparent that we are becoming so clearly split into these two categories. I would note, however, the number in each category is markedly out of balance, with the spectators far outnumbering the competitors. This is the point of contention, made more striking by many who have come to believe that “self-esteem” is not just about feeling good about your self, but means you can tell everyone around you how to do things to suit you, so you can feel good. Huge difference in the two issues. One side if self satisfaction, the other is blatant selfishness, of which we have way too much of.

If we can correct the balance, and make it more equitable for getting into the future, it requires more people step up to the plate, and become competitors, which in turn requires a total attitude change and acceptance of a teamwork mentality, and that of the need to sacrifice some personal comfort, so others may also enjoy life. Required, also, is the need to submit to the leadership and wisdom of the coach, knowing they are in that position because of the very reason they have more experience, hand in hand with responsibility as well.

How to do that? Simply put (SU)³.

Teddy Roosevelt had much to say on this topic in at least two speeches, one of which I posted here, the other the one where the oft used quote about it’s the man in the arena trying greatly and failing greatly…..

Ok, I feel better now, having brought out a subconscious pattern into my conscious world view.

Once more, the discussion in comments at Neptunus Lex does not disappoint, it makes one sit back and marvel at the intelligent conversations that occur there.

From a post, “Holiday Update” on 12/26/2006, I quote “Capt J,” in comment #1, who seems to have a grasp on a concept of our society, that I think many comprehend, yet cannot put their finger on it. He does:

# CPT J Says:
December 26th, 2006 at 9:41 am

I sometimes think we are developing into two parallel universes. The first universe is made up of family and friends. Where the world intrudes unwanted upon us, we learn the hard way what it takes to protect our family and friends. Their safety is our feedback loop. This universe is both capable of learning and teachable. It demands action. We act and we learn.

The second universe is an artificial one, created by the Entertainment Industry, with its News wings and Amusement wings. This universe is a broken record. It is incapable of learning and has nothing of value to teach. It ignores the important and trumpets the trivial. It demands passivity, and claims our undivided attention by right. When it deigns to look at all, it burrows into personal pain and then bellows that calls to reporters WERE NOT IMMEDIATELY RETURNED. You’ll see this in every news article, every broadcast. This second universe is a petty little jealous god, resentful of the real One.

The first universe will quietly figure out what it needs to survive, and do it. The second universe will be the last to know.

I’d say, in this season, I’ve stumbled across the words of a wise man…

Trackbacked at:
Thrid World County

Received via email, with originating author unknown, but it sure is well said…

Subject: Spoiled brats?

A recent Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president. In essence 2/3s of the citizenry just ain’t happy and want a change. So being the Die Hard American that I am, I starting thinking, ”What are we so unhappy about?” Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter? Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job? Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year? Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state? Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter? I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough. Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all involved. Whether you are rich or poor they treat your wounds and even, if necessary, send a helicopter to take you to the hospital. Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home, you may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of having a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family and your belongings. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes; an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90 percent of teenagers own cell phones and computers. How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world? Maybe that is what has 67 percent of you folks unhappy. Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don’t have and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here. I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled brats safe from terrorist attacks? The commander-in-chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me? Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn’t have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ”general” discharge, an ”other than honorable” discharge or, worst case scenario, a ”dishonorable” discharge after a few days in the brig. So why then the flat out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans? Say what you want but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds it leads and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells. Just ask why they are going to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book and do a TV special about how he didn’t kill his wife. Insane! Stop buying the negative venom you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad. I close with one of my favorite quotes from B.C. Forbes in 1953: ”What have Americans to be thankful for? More than any other people on the earth, we enjoy complete religious freedom, political freedom, social freedom. Our liberties are sacredly safeguarded by the Constitution of the United States, ‘the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.’ Yes, we Americans of today have been bequeathed a noble heritage. Let us pray that we may hand it down unsullied to our children and theirs.” I suggest we sit back and count our blessings for all we have. If we don’t, what we have will be taken away. Then we will have to explain to future generations why we squandered such blessing and abundance. If we are not careful this generation will be known as the ”greediest and most ungrateful generation.” A far cry from the proud Americans of the ”greatest generation” who left us an untarnished legacy. God bless you and have a Merry Christmas every one

Pat Conroy, a gifted writer, son of a Marine pilot, anti-Vietnam War protester has come out with a clear eyed letter on his decisions made in his youth, and how he views such actions now.

It takes some serious guts for a man to look back, his understanding of life tempered by years of experience, and grant that he made a bad decision. Most would prefer to ignore such choices to be forgotten, or try to rationalize them away, but Pat steps up tot he plate and admits he wasn’t so wise when he was young, and what that decision means to him today.

I applaud him for his courage to say this in a web based and media forum. Titled harshly by himself, “An Honest Confession by an American Coward” is worth taking about 5 minutes to read and reflect on his words, and how his college teammate, never questioned his views, yet in telling his story of captivity during the Vietnam War, and as a result of this relationship, cause Pat to look inside himself. Some would see this as the process of “iron sharpening iron.”

When I visited my old teammate Al Kroboth’s house in New Jersey, I spent the first hours quizzing him about his memories of games and practices and the screams of coaches that had echoed in field houses more than 30 years before. Al had been a splendid forward-center for the Citadel; at 6 feet 5 inches and carrying 220 pounds, he played with indefatigable energy and enthusiasm. For most of his senior year, he led the nation in field-goal percentage, with UCLA center Lew Alcindor hot on his trail. Al was a battler and a brawler and a scrapper from the day he first stepped in as a Green Weenie as a sophomore to the day he graduated. After we talked basketball, we came to a subject I dreaded to bring up with Al, but which lay between us and would not lie still.

“Al, you know I was a draft dodger and antiwar demonstrator.”

“That’s what I heard, Conroy,” Al said. “I have nothing against what you did, but I did what I thought was right.”

“Tell me about Vietnam, big Al. Tell me what happened to you,” I said.
[…]
It was that same long night, after listening to Al’s story, that I began to make judgments about how I had conducted myself during the Vietnam War.

In the darkness of the sleeping Kroboth household, lying in the third-floor guest bedroom, I began to assess my role as a citizen in the ’60s, when my country called my name and I shot her the bird. Unlike the stupid boys who wrapped themselves in Viet Cong flags and burned the American one, I knew how to demonstrate against the war without flirting with treason or astonishingly bad taste. I had come directly from the warrior culture of this country and I knew how to act.

But in the 25 years that have passed since South Vietnam fell, I have immersed myself in the study of totalitarianism during the unspeakable century we just left behind. I have questioned survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, talked to Italians who told me tales of the Nazi occupation, French partisans who had counted German tanks in the forests of Normandy, and officers who survived the Bataan Death March. I quiz journalists returning from wars in Bosnia, the Sudan, the Congo, Angola, Indonesia, Guatemala, San Salvador, Chile, Northern Ireland, Algeria.

As I lay sleepless, I realized I’d done all this research to better understand my country. I now revere words like democracy, freedom, the right to vote, and the grandeur of the extraordinary vision of the founding fathers. Do I see America’s flaws? Of course. But I now can honor her basic, incorruptible virtues, the ones that let me walk the streets screaming my ass off that my country had no idea what it was doing in South Vietnam. My country let me scream to my heart’s content – the same country that produced both Al Kroboth and me.

It is in our relationships and getting to know each other’s life and stories, not in shouting down of one another, that we all grow. Many could take a lesson from the hard won wisdom of Pat Conroy.

H/T: Chapomatic

It started getting really clear when I woke at 0452 EDT today for some unknown reason…..

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to jump into a “debate” (in quation marks for when one of the debators anchors a post in concrete labeled “Bush is Menatlly Ill” it is a difficult time indeed to have substantive dicussions), begun by a Milblogger and Army Recruiter, who made a post regarding the defeatist attitude on parade and mentioned a few bloggers by name.

I went to one of the sites and read her response, posted on her blog, and then proceeded to enter into the discussion.

The response, which helped me to understand her thinking more completely began to coagulate last night, but when my eyes popped open, it really became clear how she frames her argument. I’ll most likely speak to that here in the next few days.

It also happens to tie into much of what has been bouncing around in my thoughts the last few weeks, with the election results, the claims of mandates, the total lack of understanding of how you don’t elect congressment to run the nation, the Iraq Study Group report and the players who have come out on both sides (while the ISG really kinda did the normal political thing and mealy mouthed the whole issue of Iraq (yet was very clear about hating Israel)) of the debate; The thoughts of how another “Greatest Generation” is in the crucible right now, and to not lose hope, for these are the leaders of tomorrow; World population statistics; Wolrd history, both ot the Islamic culture/faith and also some of the analysis by Paul Kennedy in The Rise and Fall of Great Powers” from the late 80’s; Dr. Spock, Timothy Leary, the rise of gangs on our streets, which have now migrated world wide; The War Against Drugs; The “Mob” and the now prolific “Russian Mafia;” Chaos theory and Complexity and a whole lotta other stuff. More ganglia twitching, and how much of it seems to come together, or at least help explain the human condition.

I’ll also be posting at The Wide Awakes, along with ohters who write for that group blog (see blogroll on the sidebar). I’ll begin this afternoon with a few “retreads” of older work, but some of my prior work seems to be puzzle pieces in the “knowldege soup” brewing on this end.

In the meantime, I believe there is a snow globe that needs shaking to show the true beauty of winter….

Found in the comments section over at Little Green Footballs of the post Servicemen Respond to Democratic Slurs, which, chasing that link is a good read in itself. But…here’s a great add on:

YOU WORRY ME!

By American Airlines Pilot – Captain John Maniscalco

I’ve been trying to say this since 9-11 but you worry me. I wish you didn’t. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don’t blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me. I notice you because I can’t help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don’t fully understand their grievances and hate but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children’s mothers.

The Palestinians Celebrated, The Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. So I notice you now. I don’t want to be worried. I don’t want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I
must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 15th, 1791, the Bill of Rights was adopted. Not a well known anniversary in all my years, but certainly and particularly in these times, an important moment to remember what it took to get those first 10 amendents ratified by the feldgling nation. Think about it and then compare the concern over how long it is taking to get democratic ideas to take root in the middle east.

1776 to 1781: 5 years just to get our Constitution
1781 to 1789: 8 years to propose these modifications to the original document to proclaim many important concepts we hold dear 215 years later.

1789 to 1791: 2 years to get 10 of the 13 states to ratify 10 of the originally proposed 12 amendments.

So…my new math says that was 15 years of struggle to get there.

The history says a foundation of the Bill of Rights was the Magna Carta, written in 1225. Consider that as part of the timeline and then consider exercising some patience while more of the world finds out how great freedom and democratic principles are for them.

In the mean time, Happy Bill of Rights Day and, readers and bloggers alike, let’s really enjoy our freedom of speech!

Update 12/16/2006: Consider this addition by RTO Trainer:

Hey, tack on three more years to develop a national defense capable of defending the nation. You can front load another year to 19 April 1775, to the start of the war. 19 years from start to legitimate and secure.
And two rebellions, an attmpted military coup, disaffected soldiers running Congress out of town, and an indigenous insurgency along the way to boot.

But then again, they didn’t have Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground to deal with either…:)