When does it start?

The Early Years; I am not sure if this is the correct use of the phrase for this book. I wanted to impress upon the reader that the time prior to present is something more than just the past.
I have always been enthralled with history. Now as I count the years between my current age of 52 and the birth of my parents, the distance between us is not so great. Then I begin to count the years between my birth and other significant events. The Korean War in which my father fought just 6 years before my birth is like a shadow looming over my conception. Word War II, 15 years earlier, has come to be somewhat of an introduction to my existence. My father was 16 when it ended. Mother was 13.
When the Viet Nam War ended, I was 12. I sat in front of the television set watching the flag draped caskets of the soldiers coming home. I was mesmerized. I have no idea why. I just remember watching. Sitting in my mother’s rocking chair, squeezing a rubber ball like Bronson squeezed the wax in The Mechanic. I remember Lieutenant Calley. Even at the age of 12 I felt disgust. I was nauseated by what I read and heard in the media. I could barely think, why was this happening. How could our country treat Calley like a criminal? He was at war. The USA was at war. We were at war. Even a 12 year old knew that.
I believe that was the moment I began to doubt my country. When it was easier to hang a member of our military out to dry; a person who was doing a job they were told to do, rather than adress the hierarchy who developed the policy…how could I support hypocrisy? Years later I would learn that we were supposed to hold the individual German troops responsible for killing the Jews and other ethnic groups. I was told that each member of the military has to decide when orders are morally and ethically acceptable. I was being told the military is under no obligation to follow inhumane orders and each soldier has to stand up for what is right. And I wanted to believe this. I even repeated this mantra over the newt 5 years like it was gospel hand to me by the Lord Himself.
Then I realized, what if the troops decided ALL killing was inhumane? What if soldiers around the world all accepted war as being morally and ethically wrong? Of course this reasons that killing can be correct and acceptable at some point. How long would it take for a soldier refusing to carry out an order they deemed morally and ethically wrong to be executed on site and made an example of? At what point will we accept the soldier truly had no choice? Are we to hold the person responsible for carrying out orders in lieu of being put to death? At some point self-preservation has to be an acceptable defense. We have to move farther up the ladder to where the directive originated and ask why they were permitted to issue such a command…

SKYPING WITH THE FAM

Thanks for the guest post by Jo Levy

Ever since we upgraded our internet service provider at clearwirelessinternet.com, I have been a lot more connected with friend and family in Florida. We moved away for my husband’s job only two years ago, but it feels like it has been forever! Of course we stayed in touch through e-mail and telephone convos, but now that our internet speed is quick, we can stay in touch with everyone through Skype. I had no idea what Skype was until my kids showed me one day. They were talking with their cousins that live in Orlando. I was totally in awe that you could see and talk to people that far away in real time. The picture is actually really clear. It is like you are all hanging out together in one place when you are really so far away. I wish that I had known about this when we moved to years ago. I would have gotten an internet speed that was much faster sooner. I feel like I am home when I am really so far away!

Ready to pen – waiting to speak freely

Imagine there’s no difference. Imagine there were no fear. A thought beyond comprehension without fear.
Discrimination does not live without fear, intolerance has no reign without fear, prejudice dies a pointless death. Albeit unnoticed by humanity. Without fear there is no wealth, without fear there is no disparity, without fear there is no status. Could fear be the commonality that drives civilization into a frenzy? Is fear the one underlying element that causes society to demand justice? Looking for the one thread. When it is removed undoes every pre-conceived fallacy. Couldn’t it be fear?
Once that is removed what have we to fear? Is every decision we make simply based on fear of what if we chose an alternative? Worst-case scenario – unacceptable. Fear dictates thinking and influences patterns. Fear over rules sensibility and creates it’s own reality. Fear allows us to be content, find comfort in avoidance and accept status quo.

Fear rules and will never relinquish control freely – until we demand it be executed and ignored – until then we will always be submissive.