Spam
Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam
Shut up you Vikings… I don’t like spam!
Spam eggs, with spam bacon, and side of spam
The Flying Circus of Monty Python, spiced-ham
Hormel thought it was Shoulder Pork and hAM
Brits, called it Special Processed American Meat
That our father’s generation brought to WW2 to eat
The 1972 Flying Circus skit of Vikings singing
To great annoyance, as endless email bringing
Us to… we still don’t like spam
As junk-email or spiced-ham
Logic and War
Much lately is made about the desire and plans to pull troops out of Afghanistan, and although any troop reduction is objectively good for the troops that go home and their families. It is objectively more dangerous for those that remain. It seems that it would be sensible to re-examine why we are there and if we have accomplished our mission. Eighteen years ago, this month, we were viciously attacked and 2,996 people were killed, over 6000 wounded, and some 1200 or more are dealing with cancer as a result of exposure to toxins released in the attacks. Additionally, another 3500 US and Coalition Forces have been killed and many times this number of injured due to actions in Afghanistan. Tragically, 31,000 or more civilians were also killed in Afghanistan.
Nearly 40,000 people died, because of a war started by Al-Qaeda, which attacked potent symbols of American and Western civilization, including the financial center of New York, vis-a-vis the people that worked in the World Trade Center; the military power symbol and the people in the Pentagon, and the democratic freedoms, represented by the Capitol or the White House (the target of United Flight 93). The passenger heroes of Flight 93 were the first to fight back. The targets clearly represented the Western world financial strength, military strength and political freedoms. The Taliban, gave Al-Qaeda the space and support to launch these attacks, and operated in violent support of their philosophies, and actions. They cheered the ability of Al-Qaeda to extend attacks to the West and America in this dramatic way. This day of 11 September 2001, America and indeed the West’s civilization, freedoms and strength were attacked by a 14th Century philosophy and mindset.
We went to war against the perpetrators of this horror, not as a police action to punish criminals, but ostensibly to disable their ability to bring their war and terrorist actions to our shores. We took away their ability to operate, train, and finance, and pushed them into a defensive existence. More than 120,000 of them have died, and yet they fight on, under a flag of Taliban, or ISIS or remnants of Al-Qaeda, but they fight on.
War is the result of failed diplomacy. It is an extension of power. It is a necessary capability of nations that choose to live in freedom and to protect their national interests. It is horrible but a necessary and logical extension of capability to ensure the existence of our country, our beliefs, and hard-earned freedoms.
I propose that this war was a justified and logical response to the 9-11 attacks. The subsequent sacrifices of American’s, and those of our coalition partners have been tragic, but necessary and logical. Ending our engagement in Afghanistan should happen only when we are certain that the philosophies that survived, and the remnants of terrorist cells have no further room, or fight in them to raise up and attack us again. However attacks continue and even have intensified by the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Afghanistan, in the last few weeks:
Logically we should be there as long as there is a credible threat. Presuming it is impossible to eradicate the threat, our mission should then be to contain this threat in the most efficient means possible. We are negotiating, which is good. But are we successfully ensuring our safety? Seems to me that attacks are ongoing, and there is no intent by our enemy to restrain themselves. Logic suggests to me, as we pull our troops out, we are not ending the war. We are instead giving a victory to the side that continues on the attack. And do you really believe they’ll be content to rule and ruin their own piece of Afghanistan?
I was reading an article in the WSJ:
At the end they ask the following question:
What can U.S. leaders do to overcome today’s internal divisions?
Here is the answer I submitted:
Decisions come from discussion and consideration of options
Discussion of options comes from honest analysis of viewpoints
Viewpoints are only understood if we are open to listen to others
Others means those that see the world problems different than us
Opening to others means we have the strength of character to consider their perspective
The strength of character comes from a deep understanding that the common goals of our peoples, and great nation matter more than ourselves and our tribe
Deep understanding of common goals requires putting humankind and nation ahead of self-interest
Putting the greater good first requires seeking always what is right and good over power and glory
Seeking what is right and good requires knowing right from wrong
Knowing right from wrong means being empathetic and compassionate humans
Which requires understanding there’s a higher purpose in this world.
It is possible.
Remembering Grandma
And how I felt when she nibbled my ear so light
As the buzz of day flowed to the calm of night
She knew how to collect wild fruit, to hold, not eat
Gather to her bosom and make something, better… something sweet
For she had a life, a world I would never really know
But she made me later wonder, if it was natural to show
Love and compassion for something wild and untamed
For a potential that was uncertain and unnamed
And the feeling I had of calming and love
Makes me wonder if she’s smiling from above
To know she still makes me feel this way
When I remember her and that special day
The Climb
A friend just starting training
To climb Denali next summer
That’s twenty thousand feet plus
So much work to get there
He says, he can sleep when he’s dead
I’m thinking,
This is when you stop drinking
And eating chocolate…
But thriving to find one’s mountain top is who we are
Adventure, experience, challenging ourselves
And still making time for a couple of good scotches
I say we should have all that we can
Do all that we can
Be all that we can
Find for ourselves the mountains we want to climb
No matter how low mine might be
But stop to enjoy the meadows of summer flowers along the way
Enjoy the mysteries of the imagination
Of art, of prose, science and history along the way
As we apply our energies toward enjoying God’s gift of life
And along the way, give some help to others on their own climb
In life!
Relentlessness
Cold, water drips from glass, pooling on the table
Questioning humidity asks if we are really able
To breath shallow, and watch others in pain
Holding our judgment and critical disdain
To give time for grieving and sorrow
But do something about tomorrow
Watching the water pool, as a summer of tears
Covering the table, as we wait a helpless two more years
Drip, drip, relentless, insane
Pooling fear, foreboding, ripping pain
Seeping into the wood, destroying who we are
Tearing at the fibers, leaving a permanent scar
Asking what is our answer to all this hate
Or did we discover that it’s already too late?
A View for Two
Not facing the bus stop
Or playground purpose
Needed rest for grand-pop
But near majestic mountain view
Or meadow green and sweet
And beside the ocean blue
The chosen location and place
Given to ensure contemplation
Given to ensure lovers embrace
The idea of future, of hope
Of royal enthrone of two
Of every problem, we can cope
With assist of this wonderful view
And for the foresight of one
Who saw the potential and knew
That this was just the place
For a bench made for two
Daydreaming
Doing nothing is exhausting
Doing everything is exhilarating
And exhausting
So why not do everything?
Daydreaming is easy
Thinking is tiring work
For a focused mind
That would rather daydream
Saying everything is easy
While saying little
In a meaningful way
Is a life’s worth
… for a daydreamer
Feelings
I read a poem today
It was not thoughts
It was feelings
Expressed in so many ways
All mashed together
I expected it to be more purposeful
Expecting these feelings were building blocks
To thoughts or a message
Of some object, of someone,
Even as motivation toward an objective
But no,
The feelings were unto themselves
A thing for the author to own
And maybe even to cherish
Maybe hoping the reader would too
But I had to ask, were they purposeful
If expressed, but do not motivate?
Maybe they are just there
Sitting there, wanting to say something
Trying to get a reaction
However, if no one else is around
What does any feeling mean?
As the proverbial tree falling in the forest
Does the feeling make a sound if no one hears it?
Maybe the poem just made me think
And that was enough
The Poem I Read, Is called Desire [even in the time of the tyrant] by Leah Umansky .. reading “about” the poem was interesting too.
https://poets.org/poem/desire-even-time-tyrant
Underwater Gorilla
A talking gorilla in an underwater school
With boy and girl guppies!
I forgot how incongruent cartoons could be
As I say “underwater gorillas don’t work for me”
The reply from little man is
“Like me sleeping in a nest”
Means its ok to imagine, and pretend
The deck is a ship and the grass is the water
There are positive messages in the toons
Talking buses, sleuthing cats
But not many Wiley E. Coyotes
To teach us teamwork is dreamwork
And transformer dogs with tools save the day
Without a boulder landing on poor Wiley
So, steer the boat safely if you can
Directing from captain’s chair
As the crew fights off invading pirates and watch for underwater gorillas!