Comprehending evil

I have been fortunate to grow up in safety. I do not live in fear for my life. It is always possible to fall victim to a violent crime, but it is not imminent.

Here in the New Orleans area, we recently had a radio celebrity kill his estranged wife in broad daylight. He shot her in the face twice. He waited by her car until she came out of an office building.

I wondered how a person could just walk up to someone and shoot them. No matter how mad I am at someone, I don't want them dead; I just stay away from them. I put them out of my mind.

This man was so angry or something that he had to have her dead. He at the age of 69 threw the rest of his life away in the process. He once loved her, he certainly knew her, yet he was able to somehow wait for her, talk to her, look at her, and squeeze off two bullets in her face.

The evening news in any city parades criminals and their evil deeds before our eyes as we sit safely in our living rooms. Security cameras show their animalistic behavior. It is a lot like wild kingdom watching a predator hone in on a weak member of the herd.

Something is different about someone who can hurt and kill others like this. Something was certainly evil about the individuals who perpetrated the calamity on September 11, 2001.

Some folks have a problem using the word evil to describe the terrorists we are currently at war with. They feel it is judgmental and arrogant to label someone else evil, because from the terrorists’ point of view, they are only fighting for their cause.

Evil is defined as "profoundly immoral and malevolent." The people who had anything to do with 9/11 fit this definition and then some.

When fleas get on my dog, I don't waste my time trying to reason with them. If roaches are in the kitchen, I don't suggest we sit down and talk about how we can get along, and if someone comes to this country and targets civilians just because they are Americans, I think it is clear what must be done.

Someone enlighten me. When has negotiating with terrorists ever amounted to anything? I find it incredible that some responded to the 9/11 attacks by wondering what America did to anger these folks.

Would you respond that way on the street? If someone came up to you on a street corner and punched you in the nose would you say. "Excuse me my good fellow. Tell me what I did to anger you. How can I make this up to you." Hopefully you would defend yourself.

If I have a problem with my neighbor, we would talk about it; and probably over a beer. That is because we are both willing to compromise. We both believe in the rights of the other. We know that if both of us are happy, then that is the best thing for us both.

The terrorists are focused on one thing. Killing westerners. I suppose we could convert to Islam and save our hides, but that is probably the only thing we could do.

So our choices become limited. I wish our enemy were like my neighbor. I wish we could sit down and talk. That is not an option and it is not by our choice it is by the choice of the terrorists.

They are evil. Yet the only ones who are called to task on human rights and the treatment of women is the good old USA. Incredible.

If 9/11 isn't enough proof that terrorists are evil, then a notarized letter from the Devil wouldn't help either.

How can one man take a knife and saw off the head of another man? How can someone walk on to a bus, notice women and children, then blow themselves up? How can you hate so much that you can't love anymore?

I don't know, but folks like that must be killed. They are wild animals among us. They will continue to wreck havoc until their dying breath.

The best way to remember the 3,000 citizens that died on 9/11 and about that many military personnel who have given their lives in the war on terror is to comprehend the kind of evil we are up against and work to kill it.

May the memorials today serve to renew our resolve to wipe out that evil as it exists in people.

Until the next time
John Strain

United States Presidents

OK kids. I know it's Saturday, but it is time to learn about the US Presidents again. Can you name them? Do you know what they accomplished and what they had to deal with during their tenure?

In case you want to freshen up those facts you probably learned a few times in school, visit this link.

Here is a sample of some of the interesting stuff you will learn.

Let's take Grover Cleveland for instance. He was the first Democrat elected after the Civil War. He was also the only president to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later.

Check out this tidbit from the website and tell me if his words and actions sound like a Democrat of today - this is a trick question.

Cleveland vigorously pursued a policy barring special favors to any economic group. Vetoing a bill to appropriate $10,000 to distribute seed grain among drought-stricken farmers in Texas, he wrote: "Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character. . . . " -Source

Pretty amazing. I think he was right then. Obviously his predecessors didn't look at things his way and now we have a sizeable welfare state as a result.

This article gives a good description of entitlement spending.

One thing I like about reading history is it calms me down. I realize that people have dealt with the problems we face today. There have always been bitterly fought issues, but somehow, we as a people overcome.

Usually, we don't get mobilized until our backs are against the wall, but when that happens; look out.

I remember the line the Japanese Commander said in the movie Tora Tora Tora; “I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant.”

I believe there is nothing we cannot conquer when we finally come together. When we are a united people we can move mountains.

Until the next time
John Strain

Fridays

What would we do without Fridays? The weekend is ahead of us and football season will be at full force. The heat has broken and it is beginning to feel a bit fall like.

They say of addiction, that the very best part of it is that moment just before one indulges. Just before the drug is taken, the drink consumed, or the dice rolled is the peak of enjoyment. Maybe that is why Fridays are so nice. The whole weekend is ahead.

I don't like to have things scheduled on my weekends usually. I want them wide open so when I get up on Saturday morning, I can do what I want to do.

The best weekend is when I get some work done, have a nice long run and do something with my friends. Most weekends include all of that.

Bear likes the weekends too. He has his family around him compared to weekdays when he is lying around waiting for us to come home from work.

So TGIF and I hope your weekend is a good one.

Until the next time
John Strain

Cry, bitch, piss, and moan

I have to admit that I do my share of complaining. I sometimes blame entire races, management teams, and governments for what I perceive is the problem. I don't think this is unique to me or to white people who live in the southern United States.

A casual viewing of the nightly news features people of all walks of life blaming some group for their woes. Finger pointing is at an all time high.

Look at the current conflicts:

In New Orleans there are several groups and no shortage of individuals who are blaming many of the Katrina woes on racism. Translation - white people victimizing blacks.

Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for all things real and imagined. The rhetoric has gone beyond common sense and the ridiculous.

On the world stage, terrorists and governments are blaming the West and calling for their demise in the name of god. (I use the word god with a small "g" to show my own bias. I don't think God is behind their hate.)

As long as the bitching, pissing, and moaning is on a group level, the subject or the problem will never be solved.

Why?

Because the blamers have made themselves victims. Some go way out of their way to prove they are victims. All wasted energy that would have been better spent on a solution.

It is all wasted energy. If you are a victim, then you have rendered yourself impotent. Let me say that again. If you are a victim, then YOU HAVE RENDERED YOURSELF IMPOTENT.

A victim assumes the position that they have been wronged and things cannot be right until someone (those to blame) fix it. This is what victims may think of as justice.

So a victim has a certain condition in their head that must occur before they can go on with their life and be happy. Sadly, these folks will never be fulfilled, because they are waiting for something that is equivalent to catching a unicorn. Their quest is a myth and an impossibility.

I do not like formulas that depend on someone else doing something or some condition happening before I can be happy. I like to control that myself.

Therefore, I have to let go of things. The conditions outside may not be within my control, but the way I think about them is in my control.

Being wronged or victimized is a human condition. No race, religion, political viewpoint, or nationality has the franchise on victimhood. I have been a victim. I have experienced prejudice and so have you. I have also felt pain and experienced the emotions of pride, joy, and love. These things I have experienced because I am human.

If one were to obtain their information from the media, they would conclude that racism is something whites do to blacks. However, blacks are racists too, because they are human. Anyone who lives in the south knows this fact is true. The light skinned blacks known as (bright) look down on the darker skinned blacks.

Anytime we refer to blacks, whites, Jews, Arabs, Democrats, Republicans, men, women, young people, Americans, Europeans, and environmentalists, we are generalizing. All Americans are not the same. All whites are not the same. All blacks are not the same. Still we have folks on television throwing around general terms and making definitive statements like they were reading from the Bible.

Let me just talk about racism and blacks for a moment. Some would say that because I am a white man living in the south, I cannot understand the covert racism that blacks face. Because of my white privilege I cannot see what they are going through. Their experience is so unique, only they can understand it.

Therefore, I am taken out of the game and my observations and comments are not credible. Any argument I postulate is met with, "You don't know what you are talking about being a white southern man. You haven't lived their lives. How dare you even try to say anything to this subject."

Of course, this is all bullshit.

Walter Williams an economic professor at George Mason University hosted the Rush Limbaugh show a couple of weeks ago and he was talking with Juan Williams. The two men discussed some of the problems in the black community. You can listen to their conversation here.

Juan Williams has written a book entitled: Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- and What We Can Do About It.

Anyway, in the course of the conversation, Walter Williams referred to a column he had written about poverty. In the column, he cited four things a person could do to avoid poverty. First, get a high school education, second, get a job, third, don't have any children until you are married, and fourth, when you get married; stay married.

Of those who meet these four conditions, only 8% of whites fall below the poverty line and only 11% of blacks fall below the poverty line.

So don't take my word for it - a white man living in the south; take it from two black men who have chosen to live with different values than the victims have chosen.

I think it is ironic that I am called a racist because I am trying to group whites and blacks into the same category - human. All whites don't have a free ride and all blacks are not held down. Those who succeed - white and black - have decided to shed the victim role and take control of their lives.

I can't tell you how many people have come to me for counseling. They come with some magical hope that I can tell them something to make their problems go away. I see the realization slowly come to their face when I tell them they have to work their way out of it.

Drug addicts and alcoholics have to stop drinking and using. They have to stop hanging with their old crowd and find other places to go and other things to do.

Folks who have chosen divorce have a whole new world of problems with which to deal. Parenting becomes more difficult, holidays are a challenge, and most everything else has to be retooled.

Some folks are depressed because they have been irresponsible. Maybe they are 25 and haven't gone to school. Life is going nowhere for them. When I tell them they need to do something like go to school; it isn't the kind of thing they want to hear.

Salvation is in the work and effort we produce. We need work like we need air. We need challenge like we need our hearts to beat. Hardship is just part of a day's work and part of the human experience.

We cannot completely understand each other, but we can try. We can meet on our common ground and build from there. But if you are going to bitch, piss, and moan - get lost. I don't have the time or energy to waste on a lost cause.

I will extend a hand to an outstretched hand, but I won't chase you down and carry you to the promised land if you are intent on headed the other direction – I will respect your choice.

Life happens. A lot of it isn't what we want. If we choose to cry it won't make any difference in the long run. If we learn to move on it will make a huge difference.

Like Andy said in the movie Shawshank Redemption; "Either get busy living or get busy dying."

Until the next time
John Strain

Tupelo Photos

Here are some photos from our trip to Tupelo. I will describe the trip later.

Tupelo Photos

No BearCam today. The poor dog is still at the vet. We'll pick him up this afternoon.

Until the next time
John Strain