After some time to reflect more on the Auschwitz experience and also time to talk to the others on the trip, I keep coming back to two different quotes. The first is by Edmund Burke and is one of my favorite all time quotes: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." The second is a quote that is engraved right next to the exit of the Holocaust museum in Washington DC, it is attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller and goes like this: "They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up." These two quotes just fit the emotions of today perfectly. We have always had good men throughout history, and we have also always had evil men. The question is which is going to triumph in our time? If you are a Christian you know that in the end the Lord wins and ultimately will defeat evil but that does not mean that evil will not have victories along the way. The facts of history show us many times and places where the forces of evil have triumphed over the forces of good. The mass extermination of the Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and others by Nazi Germany is definitely a time where for a while the forces of evil triumphed.
The two camps at Auschwitz that we visited are a gripping reminder of the fact that there are times when evil triumphs for a period. The first camp at Auschwitz has the sign above the gate that was a cruel joke by the Germans that said basically that "Work brings your Freedom." There were many people who upon arriving at the camp truly did believe that upon entering the camp and working for a while they would receive their freedom. I really wonder how many hours or minutes it took for them to come to the realization that they were not going to become free at this camp. Surrounding the camp was two barbed wire fences separated by a small road. Each of these fences were severely electrified and many folks chose to fling themselves into the fence and be electrocuted rather than face the horrors of the camps on a daily basis.
The deep hatred that was displayed by the Germans towards the Jews and others is overwhelming visible when you visit these two camps. They were both designed for one thing and one thing only, the extermination of human life. The camp at Birkenau is a huge facility and every square inch of that camp was designed to degrade the human life to the point where it was acceptable for those guards to kill the residents of the camp. When you stand in the barracks and you see where these human beings were given 5 seconds at two separate times during the day to do their bodily function, it will blow your mind the inhumane condition that this must have been. When you see these things it makes you wonder why more people were not standing up for these people at the time. I understand that if people had stood up to the Nazi regime they too would find themselves in these camps, but look at the work of folks such as Schindler and his work in the city of Krakow to keep Jews from going to the death camps and you wonder why there weren't more that did the same thing. Dietrich Bonhoeffer sums up silence in the face of evil very succinctly: "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
I had a huge internal struggle while walking around the two camps with one part saying we need to tear this place down because of what it stood for but then there was another part of me that said we need to keep this place as a reminder of the atrocities that occurred. We must keep these places because if we demolish them they can so easily be written out of our history books within a generation. Then today I see a story in the news that there are some schools in the UK that are dropping the teaching of the Holocaust in their history because it might offend Muslims (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-445979/Teachers-drop-Holocaust-avoid-offending-Muslims.html). This makes my heart hurt because it means it is already starting to happen. How can we as humans sit back and allow this to be taken out of history because it might offend someone. Yeah it isnt exactly the brightest time period in the history of the world but if we do not learn from our history then we are doomed to repeat it. We have seen time and time again that when we do not learn from our mistakes in the past that we will make those mistakes again, there are many many examples of this throughout history. Please stand guard so that we NEVER forget the atrocities of the past whether that be the Holocaust, 9/11, the killing fields of Cambodia, or those committed by dictators such as Pol Pot and General Mao. It is our duty to remember and pass on to the next generation so that our children do not repeat our mistakes.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Today we visited Auschwitz. This was one thing we all agreed that we wanted to do when we got over here to Poland on this trip. Having seen pictures and having been to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. I sort of knew the gravity of what we were going to experience, but it was so much more than I had imagined. To actually see the sign over the gate that says "Work makes one free" and to know that many of those that passed through the gates believed that upon entering hit me really hard. These many men, women and children who came to this facility all believed that they were coming here to this camp to start a new life. Walking through the gate you are then in the camp. The fence that surrounds the camp once you are inside is a very intimidating barb wire fence with a narrow road and then another barb wire fence. As if the barb wire was not intimidating enough, during the time the camp was operational the fence was heavily electrified. Many of the prisoners of the camp chose to throw themselves onto the fence and be electrocuted instead of continuing to live in the conditions that they were placed. When I heard this it brought to mind the people who on 9/11 jumped out of the World Trade Center just to escape the horrors of what was happening. We were then taken through several of the different buildings that had been converted to really tell the complete story of the size and scope of the operation that was the "Final Solution." We were shown maps that showed the various feeder camps that then fed people to the Auschwitz complex, we were shown what would happen to the prisoners when they arrived at the camp in the train cars, we were shown the photographs that were taken of the prisoners when they first arrived at the camp, we were shown the belongings that were taken from them, we were shown pictures of the atrocities that were performed there including some pictures of the children that were experimented on by Dr Mengele. All of these things weighed on me so heavily it was almost too much to bear at a couple places along the tour. We were shown the "execution wall" were thousands of men and women were sentenced to death by the Gestapo. The Nazi's even blocked the windows of the window next to the execution wall so that the prisoners in that building wouldn't know what was happening outside but I imagine that they knew very well what was happening. After seeing the execution wall we were shown the jail cells that some prisoners were placed in. They ranged from a pretty standard cell, to the inhumane standing cell where 4 people were placed in a very very very small room where they could do nothing but stand. We were also shown the room where the Gestapo decided the fate of thousands of the prisoners. After seeing the cells we were then taken to the outskirts of the camps and shown that within several hundred meters of each other you had the house where the Commandant and his family lived and the crematorium where so many men, women, and children were killed. We were shown the chamber where as many as 2000 people were crammed into and then gassed. Then right on the other side of the wall to the gas chamber is where the furnaces were for the crematorium. That was the end of the first part of the tour. Then it was on to Birkenau. When we arrived at Birkenau you have the famous image of the train tracks leading right up to the gate of the camp. Upon entering the camp the thing that struck me was the sheer size of this one. It was a massive facility, a massive facility whose sole purpose was the torture and killing of people. We were shown the wooden barracks that the prisoners were housed in. We were shown the small wooden beds that they were crammed 5 people to a single bunk. We were shown the facilities where the people were given 5 seconds twice a day to perform bodily functions. We were shown the ramp where the people were offloaded from the train cars and their fate decided. The two choices being instant death in the crematoriums or a slow and agonizing death in the work camp. The last stop on the tour was to see the blown up crematoriums and then the memorial that was built on the location. There really are no words that I can say that can convey the feelings of walking around these two camps and knowing that millions of people were put to death in this place. The facts are overwhelming. There was a huge part of me that was saying we need to destroy this place because of the horrible history of it, but then at the same time the rest of me was saying that we really do need to preserve the place so that it can be a testament to everyone for future generations to the atrocities that man is capable of doing. These places do need to stand as monuments because otherwise they could so easily be written out of the history books. Please never forget and stand guard that we not make the same mistakes again in the future that would allow for this kind of atrocity to happen again.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Festivus Grievances
So Festivus is upon us and it is time for the airing of the grievances for 2009.
Job Hunting: I started out this wonderful year of 2009 by being laid off and having to hunt for a job. Talk about the worst month ever. Sitting at home on unemployment, not really being able to go anywhere or do anything because that would cost money. Trying to find a job. Having a Tech Recruiter take my resume that gave a very accurate portrait of what I have done at each of my previous jobs and adding fabricating more things that I supposedly did was certainly the highlight of that time.
TV Show Cancellations: I know this is a part of the reality of TV but do we really need American Idol season 800 or America's Got Talent season 30? We have some great shows that are truly brilliant that are getting canceled such as Dollhouse. I know Fox gave them a second season and that was a huge stretch for them to do that but I dont think Fox put much marketing effort into the show after Episode 1 of the first season aired. I will say thank you to NBC for not canceling Chuck just yet. Those of us IT guys of the world relate to Chuck and we all feel we could totally be Chuck if we were in the same situation.
TV Shows not available online after episode airs: In this day and age where hard drive space is getting to be ridiculously cheap is there any reason that some networks only put excerpts of popular TV Shows online? TV Networks you do realize that when you have a show that is as popular as say Big Bang Theory and all you put on your own website is a couple 30 seconds clips from the episode that aired last night, that you are driving us to alternative methods to watch your show such as piracy. I would LOVE to watch the show on your website and sit through the advertisements that you get paid to put into the episode but I cant do it because you dont post it on your website. Please post your content online.
The Whole AT&T vs Verizon Map ads: Yeah I get it that these are attack ads and are designed to get you to change your mind but please at least be comparing apples to apples. The original Verizon ads were talking about 3G DATA coverage around the United States, then AT&T comes out with a response ad that talks about being able to make a phone call in all these different places. Those arent the same thing there chuckles. 3G Data and Voice are two completely separate issues. Really we should even be comparing things as it is because a big part of this whole debate, the actual cell phone one uses, is completely different across networks. Sure there is some overlap with phones that have models that are GSM or CDMA but really until the iPhone is on Verizon or the Blackberry Storm and the Droid are on AT&T we need not have this discussion, Thanks.
$10 to upgrade my iPod Touch from 2.0 to 3.0: Really Apple, you already made me pay $10 to upgrade to 2.0 so that I could get applications but now you want to make me pay another $10 to upgrade to something that I cant take advantage of most of its functionality. Now granted I know you have since reduced the price to $5 but still stop nagging me about it every time i plug in my iPod touch.
Retarded Sports Fans: Ok I know when one goes to a sporting event some of this is to be expected. There is ALWAYS going to be a guy or two or 50 that have had way to many beers and are acting, to quote our President, stupidly. But this year I went to a college football game and sat 2 rows behind the bench. Now we were close enough to read names off the back of the jerseys (Unless of course you are trying to do so off the Oregon jerseys where the names are the same color as the jersey but thats a different grievance), but instead of saying names we had to listen to some jackass two people down the aisle from us yell at the Stanford players the entire game and refer to each of the by their number. "Quarterback sneaks number twelve, Quarterback sneaks number twelve, Quarterback sneaks number twelve." That is an exact quote. I am all for showing ones appreciation of your favorite team but please for the love, would you say a name when you can read it off their jerseys. "Quarterback sneaks Luck, Quarterback sneaks Luck, Quarterback sneaks Luck" would have been much more tolerable (Andrew Luck is the Quarterback for Stanford, he wears #12).
People who walk on paths and are in their own world: There has been multiple occasions this year when riding my bike on the wonderful paths here in Eugene that I have almost ran into someone or had to come to a complete stop because people arent paying attention at all. It doesnt matter if you call out that you are passing them on the left or the right they are oblivious. I had a group of four people one day basically fan out across the entire bike path just as i was getting to them, and I know that at least 1 saw me coming. Then there are the folks that you call out you are passing them on a certain side and the turn and look that way and steer they bike in that direction or end up walking that direction as well. So people for 2010 lets be more aware of our surroundings and you are liable to get run over by someone and it isnt gonna feel good.
These are my grievances for the year. What are yours?
Job Hunting: I started out this wonderful year of 2009 by being laid off and having to hunt for a job. Talk about the worst month ever. Sitting at home on unemployment, not really being able to go anywhere or do anything because that would cost money. Trying to find a job. Having a Tech Recruiter take my resume that gave a very accurate portrait of what I have done at each of my previous jobs and adding fabricating more things that I supposedly did was certainly the highlight of that time.
TV Show Cancellations: I know this is a part of the reality of TV but do we really need American Idol season 800 or America's Got Talent season 30? We have some great shows that are truly brilliant that are getting canceled such as Dollhouse. I know Fox gave them a second season and that was a huge stretch for them to do that but I dont think Fox put much marketing effort into the show after Episode 1 of the first season aired. I will say thank you to NBC for not canceling Chuck just yet. Those of us IT guys of the world relate to Chuck and we all feel we could totally be Chuck if we were in the same situation.
TV Shows not available online after episode airs: In this day and age where hard drive space is getting to be ridiculously cheap is there any reason that some networks only put excerpts of popular TV Shows online? TV Networks you do realize that when you have a show that is as popular as say Big Bang Theory and all you put on your own website is a couple 30 seconds clips from the episode that aired last night, that you are driving us to alternative methods to watch your show such as piracy. I would LOVE to watch the show on your website and sit through the advertisements that you get paid to put into the episode but I cant do it because you dont post it on your website. Please post your content online.
The Whole AT&T vs Verizon Map ads: Yeah I get it that these are attack ads and are designed to get you to change your mind but please at least be comparing apples to apples. The original Verizon ads were talking about 3G DATA coverage around the United States, then AT&T comes out with a response ad that talks about being able to make a phone call in all these different places. Those arent the same thing there chuckles. 3G Data and Voice are two completely separate issues. Really we should even be comparing things as it is because a big part of this whole debate, the actual cell phone one uses, is completely different across networks. Sure there is some overlap with phones that have models that are GSM or CDMA but really until the iPhone is on Verizon or the Blackberry Storm and the Droid are on AT&T we need not have this discussion, Thanks.
$10 to upgrade my iPod Touch from 2.0 to 3.0: Really Apple, you already made me pay $10 to upgrade to 2.0 so that I could get applications but now you want to make me pay another $10 to upgrade to something that I cant take advantage of most of its functionality. Now granted I know you have since reduced the price to $5 but still stop nagging me about it every time i plug in my iPod touch.
Retarded Sports Fans: Ok I know when one goes to a sporting event some of this is to be expected. There is ALWAYS going to be a guy or two or 50 that have had way to many beers and are acting, to quote our President, stupidly. But this year I went to a college football game and sat 2 rows behind the bench. Now we were close enough to read names off the back of the jerseys (Unless of course you are trying to do so off the Oregon jerseys where the names are the same color as the jersey but thats a different grievance), but instead of saying names we had to listen to some jackass two people down the aisle from us yell at the Stanford players the entire game and refer to each of the by their number. "Quarterback sneaks number twelve, Quarterback sneaks number twelve, Quarterback sneaks number twelve." That is an exact quote. I am all for showing ones appreciation of your favorite team but please for the love, would you say a name when you can read it off their jerseys. "Quarterback sneaks Luck, Quarterback sneaks Luck, Quarterback sneaks Luck" would have been much more tolerable (Andrew Luck is the Quarterback for Stanford, he wears #12).
People who walk on paths and are in their own world: There has been multiple occasions this year when riding my bike on the wonderful paths here in Eugene that I have almost ran into someone or had to come to a complete stop because people arent paying attention at all. It doesnt matter if you call out that you are passing them on the left or the right they are oblivious. I had a group of four people one day basically fan out across the entire bike path just as i was getting to them, and I know that at least 1 saw me coming. Then there are the folks that you call out you are passing them on a certain side and the turn and look that way and steer they bike in that direction or end up walking that direction as well. So people for 2010 lets be more aware of our surroundings and you are liable to get run over by someone and it isnt gonna feel good.
These are my grievances for the year. What are yours?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Commitment & Appreciation
Part 1 of my Veterans Day thoughts:
So a little while ago I was listening to a sermon on Commitment and it got me thinking about our current situations in the world. The main thing that I started thinking about when it comes to commitment is the wars that our troops are currently engaged in around the world. When we first went into both of these wars we were "committed" as a nation. Now what has happened? We are in jeopardy of losing because we lack commitment to the just cause of freedom from oppression. We have a problem with commitment in this country.
If you look at the various wars that we actually have fought battles in since the end of World War 2 (not counting the Cold War since there were no real battles that were fought in that war) the US started out committed to the war and then backed off of that commitment. When we went into Korea we were committed to stop the oppression of the people there. We had generals on the ground that were willing to do whatever it took to rid the country of that oppression but the powers that be in our government had lost that commitment and vision and basically gave up on the war and so we were defeated. Now I know you can say well we didn't lose the war, but if you look at it we lost. You now have two groups of people, those that live in the free South, and those that live in the oppressive North. That would not be the case if we had stayed committed to our just cause of giving those people the freedoms we tend to take for granted in this country.
Next we had the conflict in Vietnam. We once again started with a commitment to the cause of freedom but when things didn't have a quick resolution our commitment faded. Now granted part of that was because the enemy in Vietnam used Art of War tactics to turn the public opinion of the war here in the states to get us away from our commitment. We still however turned away from our commitment to give people the same freedom that we have in this country.
From the end of Vietnam to 9/11 we had some small conflicts in which we participated. Sure we had the first Gulf War. But the most notable of these conflicts was the one in Mogadishu that spawned the famous Black Hawk Down incident. We lost our commitment in that conflict and turned it over to the UN.
Then we get to the events of 9/11. We were attacked that day and all Americans had commitment to the fact that we needed to get those responsible for that attack. That was when we went into Afghanistan with the commitment of ousting the oppressive Taliban and hunting down Al-Queda who was ultimately responsible for the attacks on us that horrific September day in 2001. Well now we are 8 years into that conflict and unless we as an American people and our government remember that commitment to freeing those oppressed by the Taliban and Al-Queda we may once again snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. The POTUS that took us into the conflict in Afghanistan lost his commitment on the issues at hand. The current POTUS seems to be doing the same thing though the verdict is still out about the most recent request from the general in charge of that theater of war.
Next we came to the conflict in Iraq. We went in back in the 90s and we lost our focus and commitment and stopped before the oppression of the people was completely stopped and the oppressive leader removed. Because we did not follow through, the leader of that country continued to oppress his people and avoided following through on the promises that he made to the United States and the UN. Finally we had a President that felt we had given enough chances to the leader of that country. Yes we believed that he had weapons of mass destruction because all his actions pointed to that fact. We went back into Iraq to rid the world of a horrible dictator who had no problems killing his own people and posturing with the world that he would do the same to us if he had the opportunity. We went in and accomplished this part of our commitment. The second part of our commitment is where things didn't go so well and we seem to have lost it. We committed to training the Iraqi people to defend themselves and to establish their own government with democratic elections. We started out fully committed to this and when times got rough and we faced the hardships of the insurgency our leaders and the news media seemed to turn against the mission.
On this November 11th, as we celebrate Veterans Day and celebrate the men and women of our Armed Forces that have gone out and put their lives on the line not only for those of us back here in America but in foreign countries all over the world, let us renew our commitment to stand behind our troops and our leaders. We have made many commitments throughout our 233 year history as a nation. On this Veterans Day 2009 let us all make a commitment to our Veterans that have served in previous conflicts, whether that be Korea, Vietnam, etc, and to those that are currently serving in Operating Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, that we the people of the United States of America stand behind them and thank them for the blank check of service that they wrote to the United States. Thank you.
Part 2 of my Veterans Day thoughts (not as organized as previous part):
I watched a video today of a group of WW2 Veterans that were in Washington DC today visiting the various memorials. It is all part of a program where WW2 Vets are given a free trip to DC to check out their monument. This program is not anything provided by our government but by private citizens looking to give back to those who gave to defend our freedoms. This video made me remember back to the last trip I went on with 8th graders to Washington DC. The day we went to Arlington National Cemetery while watching the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown, there were several older gentlemen that were wheeled up to watch this ceremony of respect and honor. These gentlemen were all veterans and were proudly wearing the hat displaying what war they served in. The kids did not see these gentlemen and not may of the adults did either. After we had finished our walking around Arlington and were on our way over to the Iwo Jima memorial we noticed that the entire group of them were there and getting on their bus. We proceeded to give them a standing ovation as we were approaching them and their bus. We were even able to shake some of their hands and individually thank them for their service to our nation. I am not sure if any of these men had ever been thanked for their service to our country or not but it was a great feeling to do just that. It reminded me of a scene in the movie Jarhead. The movie is not all that great but there is a scene that is rather fitting. When the men are coming back from Iraq and are on a bus and getting cheered and showered with praises, an older gentlemen jumps on the bus. You can see that from the way he is dressed he served in the military previously most likely in Vietnam. When he gets on the bus he just soaks in the praise and adoration that these current troops are receiving from the people. It makes me sad to think that there is a possibility that our men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan may suffer this same fate of not being appreciated and applauded when they come back. Whether or not you agree with the leaders we have in office and what their views are on the current conflicts in which we are engaged, we must never take out our personal feelings of disdain on the brave men and women of our armed forces that swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of this great nation against all enemies. So while it is nice for us to show our appreciation for the men and women of the armed forces on Veterans Day, we need to not just stop on at 12:01 Am on November 12th. These men and women deserve to be shown our appreciation every day of the year. So let us never forget to thank those around us that have served because without them we would be in a living in a far different world. Thank you Veterans. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
So a little while ago I was listening to a sermon on Commitment and it got me thinking about our current situations in the world. The main thing that I started thinking about when it comes to commitment is the wars that our troops are currently engaged in around the world. When we first went into both of these wars we were "committed" as a nation. Now what has happened? We are in jeopardy of losing because we lack commitment to the just cause of freedom from oppression. We have a problem with commitment in this country.
If you look at the various wars that we actually have fought battles in since the end of World War 2 (not counting the Cold War since there were no real battles that were fought in that war) the US started out committed to the war and then backed off of that commitment. When we went into Korea we were committed to stop the oppression of the people there. We had generals on the ground that were willing to do whatever it took to rid the country of that oppression but the powers that be in our government had lost that commitment and vision and basically gave up on the war and so we were defeated. Now I know you can say well we didn't lose the war, but if you look at it we lost. You now have two groups of people, those that live in the free South, and those that live in the oppressive North. That would not be the case if we had stayed committed to our just cause of giving those people the freedoms we tend to take for granted in this country.
Next we had the conflict in Vietnam. We once again started with a commitment to the cause of freedom but when things didn't have a quick resolution our commitment faded. Now granted part of that was because the enemy in Vietnam used Art of War tactics to turn the public opinion of the war here in the states to get us away from our commitment. We still however turned away from our commitment to give people the same freedom that we have in this country.
From the end of Vietnam to 9/11 we had some small conflicts in which we participated. Sure we had the first Gulf War. But the most notable of these conflicts was the one in Mogadishu that spawned the famous Black Hawk Down incident. We lost our commitment in that conflict and turned it over to the UN.
Then we get to the events of 9/11. We were attacked that day and all Americans had commitment to the fact that we needed to get those responsible for that attack. That was when we went into Afghanistan with the commitment of ousting the oppressive Taliban and hunting down Al-Queda who was ultimately responsible for the attacks on us that horrific September day in 2001. Well now we are 8 years into that conflict and unless we as an American people and our government remember that commitment to freeing those oppressed by the Taliban and Al-Queda we may once again snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. The POTUS that took us into the conflict in Afghanistan lost his commitment on the issues at hand. The current POTUS seems to be doing the same thing though the verdict is still out about the most recent request from the general in charge of that theater of war.
Next we came to the conflict in Iraq. We went in back in the 90s and we lost our focus and commitment and stopped before the oppression of the people was completely stopped and the oppressive leader removed. Because we did not follow through, the leader of that country continued to oppress his people and avoided following through on the promises that he made to the United States and the UN. Finally we had a President that felt we had given enough chances to the leader of that country. Yes we believed that he had weapons of mass destruction because all his actions pointed to that fact. We went back into Iraq to rid the world of a horrible dictator who had no problems killing his own people and posturing with the world that he would do the same to us if he had the opportunity. We went in and accomplished this part of our commitment. The second part of our commitment is where things didn't go so well and we seem to have lost it. We committed to training the Iraqi people to defend themselves and to establish their own government with democratic elections. We started out fully committed to this and when times got rough and we faced the hardships of the insurgency our leaders and the news media seemed to turn against the mission.
On this November 11th, as we celebrate Veterans Day and celebrate the men and women of our Armed Forces that have gone out and put their lives on the line not only for those of us back here in America but in foreign countries all over the world, let us renew our commitment to stand behind our troops and our leaders. We have made many commitments throughout our 233 year history as a nation. On this Veterans Day 2009 let us all make a commitment to our Veterans that have served in previous conflicts, whether that be Korea, Vietnam, etc, and to those that are currently serving in Operating Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, that we the people of the United States of America stand behind them and thank them for the blank check of service that they wrote to the United States. Thank you.
Part 2 of my Veterans Day thoughts (not as organized as previous part):
I watched a video today of a group of WW2 Veterans that were in Washington DC today visiting the various memorials. It is all part of a program where WW2 Vets are given a free trip to DC to check out their monument. This program is not anything provided by our government but by private citizens looking to give back to those who gave to defend our freedoms. This video made me remember back to the last trip I went on with 8th graders to Washington DC. The day we went to Arlington National Cemetery while watching the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown, there were several older gentlemen that were wheeled up to watch this ceremony of respect and honor. These gentlemen were all veterans and were proudly wearing the hat displaying what war they served in. The kids did not see these gentlemen and not may of the adults did either. After we had finished our walking around Arlington and were on our way over to the Iwo Jima memorial we noticed that the entire group of them were there and getting on their bus. We proceeded to give them a standing ovation as we were approaching them and their bus. We were even able to shake some of their hands and individually thank them for their service to our nation. I am not sure if any of these men had ever been thanked for their service to our country or not but it was a great feeling to do just that. It reminded me of a scene in the movie Jarhead. The movie is not all that great but there is a scene that is rather fitting. When the men are coming back from Iraq and are on a bus and getting cheered and showered with praises, an older gentlemen jumps on the bus. You can see that from the way he is dressed he served in the military previously most likely in Vietnam. When he gets on the bus he just soaks in the praise and adoration that these current troops are receiving from the people. It makes me sad to think that there is a possibility that our men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan may suffer this same fate of not being appreciated and applauded when they come back. Whether or not you agree with the leaders we have in office and what their views are on the current conflicts in which we are engaged, we must never take out our personal feelings of disdain on the brave men and women of our armed forces that swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of this great nation against all enemies. So while it is nice for us to show our appreciation for the men and women of the armed forces on Veterans Day, we need to not just stop on at 12:01 Am on November 12th. These men and women deserve to be shown our appreciation every day of the year. So let us never forget to thank those around us that have served because without them we would be in a living in a far different world. Thank you Veterans. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
Friday, September 11, 2009
8 Years Ago Today
Where were you eight years ago? Do you remember where you were when you first heard the news? What was your first thought? Is it really possible that America got attacked?
Eight years ago I was in my dorm room at college. I woke up like every morning for my 8 am and stumbled out of bed down to the bathroom. As I got closer to the bathroom I realized the TV was on in my RA's room and it was rather loud and his door was open. I heard the words on the TV but they didnt really sink in yet until after I was coming out of the bathroom and walked down to Jason's door to see what was going on. It was then I saw on the TV the now infamous images of the city of New York on that fateful morning. As soon as I saw that I rushed down to my room and turned on the tv, woke up my roomate (he wasnt too happy about it from what I remember as he didnt have class until later), and continued to get ready for my day while watching the events in New York. It didnt take long for it to finally really sink in what exactly was going on. Our nation had been attacked. Someone, somewhere in this world, had orchestrated a massive coordinated attack to destroy American lives.
Why? Why would someone want to attack our nation? These and so many more thoughts were swirling through my foggy brain early in the morning. It was a lot for the morning brain fog and it really didnt get resolved until later in my mind. There are still some things that I question to this day about that fateful morning. The lives of so many folks were snuffed out that day. We lost almost 3000 American lives. The one thing that still to this day shows me the true heart of the American people is the fact that while people were fleeing the building because of the unthinkable horrors that were taking place on those upper floors, New York's finest were going against that flow of people and rushing into those unthinkable horrors in hope that they could save as many people as possible. Also in the Pentagon in the devastation there we had folks forming a human chain clinging on to whatever they could of the person in front of them because they knew if they worked together they could get more folks out of that rubble.
I try to do a September 11th post every year but I dont always get one up. This year however is different. I have volunteered to participate in something called Project 2996. What is Project 2996 you ask? Project 2996 is a project that is designed to bring some 3000 bloggers together and each person take one victim of those horrific events 8 years ago and post a memorial for the person you are assigned. I was given the name of Nickie L Lindo.
Nickie L Lindo worked in the North Tower. This was the first tower struck that morning. At 8:46 AM that morning the terrorist turned American Airlines Flight 11 into a missile packed with enough jet fuel for flight 11 to fly across the United States. From what information I was able to track down about Nickie, she was a financial analyst. This means she was on those upper floors of Tower 1. I am not sure which floor exactly she was on but that really matters, whatever happened on those upper floors that day had to be just about the closest thing on earth to hell. All the evidence that you need of that fact is that many people chose to jump from the 94th floor and above to sure death so that they could escape that hell. Nickie was 31 years old. She left behind a husband and 2 children. She was taken away from her friends and her family by men who do not value human life.
I plea for all of us today to take some time and remember where you were that day when we came under attack. I plea for us to remember that tragedy and how on September 12th it did not matter if you were Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Black, White, Yellow, or Red, we were all Americans again and that bonded us together. For a brief while after that horrific tragedy we all stopped getting frustrated with the person that cut us off in traffic, we gladly let them in, we stopped getting frustrated with that person on the cell phone in front of you in lines, for that brief amount of time we were shocked into remembering the things that are more important to us. Please as we now are 8 years down the road from that horrific day, let us get back to that great time. Hug your friends, hug your family, call your mom, pray for our country, pray for our leaders. Nickie Lindo, I didnt know you but as we remember you and the rest of those snuffed out by barbarism that day, I will say a prayer for your family.
Eight years ago I was in my dorm room at college. I woke up like every morning for my 8 am and stumbled out of bed down to the bathroom. As I got closer to the bathroom I realized the TV was on in my RA's room and it was rather loud and his door was open. I heard the words on the TV but they didnt really sink in yet until after I was coming out of the bathroom and walked down to Jason's door to see what was going on. It was then I saw on the TV the now infamous images of the city of New York on that fateful morning. As soon as I saw that I rushed down to my room and turned on the tv, woke up my roomate (he wasnt too happy about it from what I remember as he didnt have class until later), and continued to get ready for my day while watching the events in New York. It didnt take long for it to finally really sink in what exactly was going on. Our nation had been attacked. Someone, somewhere in this world, had orchestrated a massive coordinated attack to destroy American lives.
Why? Why would someone want to attack our nation? These and so many more thoughts were swirling through my foggy brain early in the morning. It was a lot for the morning brain fog and it really didnt get resolved until later in my mind. There are still some things that I question to this day about that fateful morning. The lives of so many folks were snuffed out that day. We lost almost 3000 American lives. The one thing that still to this day shows me the true heart of the American people is the fact that while people were fleeing the building because of the unthinkable horrors that were taking place on those upper floors, New York's finest were going against that flow of people and rushing into those unthinkable horrors in hope that they could save as many people as possible. Also in the Pentagon in the devastation there we had folks forming a human chain clinging on to whatever they could of the person in front of them because they knew if they worked together they could get more folks out of that rubble.
I try to do a September 11th post every year but I dont always get one up. This year however is different. I have volunteered to participate in something called Project 2996. What is Project 2996 you ask? Project 2996 is a project that is designed to bring some 3000 bloggers together and each person take one victim of those horrific events 8 years ago and post a memorial for the person you are assigned. I was given the name of Nickie L Lindo.
Nickie L Lindo worked in the North Tower. This was the first tower struck that morning. At 8:46 AM that morning the terrorist turned American Airlines Flight 11 into a missile packed with enough jet fuel for flight 11 to fly across the United States. From what information I was able to track down about Nickie, she was a financial analyst. This means she was on those upper floors of Tower 1. I am not sure which floor exactly she was on but that really matters, whatever happened on those upper floors that day had to be just about the closest thing on earth to hell. All the evidence that you need of that fact is that many people chose to jump from the 94th floor and above to sure death so that they could escape that hell. Nickie was 31 years old. She left behind a husband and 2 children. She was taken away from her friends and her family by men who do not value human life.
I plea for all of us today to take some time and remember where you were that day when we came under attack. I plea for us to remember that tragedy and how on September 12th it did not matter if you were Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Black, White, Yellow, or Red, we were all Americans again and that bonded us together. For a brief while after that horrific tragedy we all stopped getting frustrated with the person that cut us off in traffic, we gladly let them in, we stopped getting frustrated with that person on the cell phone in front of you in lines, for that brief amount of time we were shocked into remembering the things that are more important to us. Please as we now are 8 years down the road from that horrific day, let us get back to that great time. Hug your friends, hug your family, call your mom, pray for our country, pray for our leaders. Nickie Lindo, I didnt know you but as we remember you and the rest of those snuffed out by barbarism that day, I will say a prayer for your family.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Best Fathers Day Ever.
Why was it the best Fathers Day Ever? Well that story begins almost 9 months ago on a Sunday evening when I am over at my friend Dean's house playing some board games and watching movies. I get a phone call from my mom and she tells me that my dad has just been taken to the ER. At first it didnt appear to be anything super serious. It wasnt until later that we found it was rather serious and he ended up having quadruple bypass surgery. He had about 99% blockage in some of the arteries they bypassed and the fourth was over 50% blocked. I came so very very close to losing my dad that day. I am thankful for the men and women at the various hospitals in Vallejo and Oakland that allowed me to still have a dad today. So fastforward to Father's Day 2009. My mom and I decided that for Father's Day we were going to get tickets for the NASCAR race that is at the Infineon Raceway. The raceway is about 30 minutes from my parents place so it was perfect. So yesterday my dad and I drove out to the raceway. First thing we did was have access to Pit Lane. We got to walk up and down the Pit Lane taking pictures at each of the pit boxes. It was really cool to see. After we did that for just short of 2 hours we had tickets to a Q&A session with driver Kevin Harvick. It was only about 15-20 minutes long but it was so much fun. I was actually able to ask Kevin a question and I got probably the longest answer out of all of them (Mine was a much better question than other folks ask in my opinion). After that was over we got the opportunity to be right in front of the stage for driver introductions. This meant that we got to be out on the track in front of the main grandstands and the start finish line. That was such a fun experience to be right there in front of the stage hanging out with my dad watching our favorite drivers come out. After that was over it was time for the race. There is absolutely nothing like the roar of those engines. When you watch NASCAR on TV the sound even when they do the "Crank it UP" doesnt even compare to being there. To give you an idea of the level of the roar of the engines, after they fired up their engines there was a flyover of a Coast Guard C-130 (rather low) and you could not hear the sound of his engines over the roar of the cars. So the race starts and it was a lot of fun. There were some awesome wrecks and some great comptetive racing. After the race was over my dad and I got to go out on the track (again) and walk the track. That is something that about 8 months ago it didnt look like would be happening anytime soon. The track is almost 2 miles and there is a climb that rises some 160 ft at a rather big angle. My dad made it around the track like a champ. I am so proud of him. I took lots of pictures of him walking around the track. It was such a wonderful time spending the day with my dad enjoying watching one of our favorite sports in person. It truly was the best Father's Day Ever.
Monday, April 20, 2009
10 years ago today...
The course of history was changed 10 years ago today. On this day in 1999 two misguided youths changed the course of United States history and arguably World history. This is the day that two teenagers walked into Columbine High School and slaughtered students and even a teacher. This single event shocked all of us around the United States and brought us into a new era. This new era (one that I am sure we all wish we could get out of), is the era of school violence involving guns and bombs. Since that fateful April day in Littleton, Colorado there have been 100+ incidents at schools around this nation and even around the world involving gun violence, whether that be students shooting other students or students being taken hostage by other students with guns. WOW!
What is the cause of this sudden outburst of these events? Is it society? Is it video games? Is it the schools? Is it the parents? The answer is yes. Each one of those things has in some way contributed to these horrific events. Society has become more tolerant of violence over the years. The video game industry makes millions and millions of dollars a year on violent video games. Schools dont always pay attention to warning signs exhibited by some of those trouble students. Parents are passing the buck of raising and training their children in the way they should go off onto the schools because they are too busy pursuing their career.
Do I think that if Columbine had not happened that we wouldnt have had these 100+ other events since then? No, because someone else would have done this type of thing and then the others would follow. Violent video games got a horrible slant because these first two that carried out this atrocity liked to play them. The problem wasnt the video game, the problem was that these two were unable to grasp the difference between the fake world of video games and reality of reality. In video games such as Halo and Call of Duty (two games I play) you can shoot someone multiple times and they can keep firing right back at you and if you dont shoot them again their shields regenerate and their health regenerates. That is a huge disconnect from reality. In real life people dont have shields and their health doesnt regenerate unless they make it to the hospital in time and get medical attention for their wounds. Now I know these two that carried out the Columbine shooting knew what they were doing, they were out for the sole purpose of killing folks.
What can we do? What should we do? How can we change this in the future?
The first thing we can do is never forget those students that were killed that day in Colorado. We should daily pray for their families, because even though it has been 10 years, parents should never have to bury their children. These people have been impacted to their core and that is not something that is easily let go of. No matter how hard we try to change/prevent these things from happening in the future, there will always be some folks that chose to use violence as a means of solving their disputes. Does this mean we should not even try? Of course not. We as Americans need to take charge here and work to educate those growing up now that violence in schools is not the answer. I am not a parent but someday I hope to have that blessing, I will most certainly do my best to educate my children in what is right and wrong and not rely on someone else to teach my kids those things.
So as we remember today that fateful day 10 years ago lets never forget Cassie Bernall, Steve Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly Flemming, Matt Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend, Kyle Velasquez, and Coach Dave Sanders. Let us all say a prayer today for their families and for our nation.
What is the cause of this sudden outburst of these events? Is it society? Is it video games? Is it the schools? Is it the parents? The answer is yes. Each one of those things has in some way contributed to these horrific events. Society has become more tolerant of violence over the years. The video game industry makes millions and millions of dollars a year on violent video games. Schools dont always pay attention to warning signs exhibited by some of those trouble students. Parents are passing the buck of raising and training their children in the way they should go off onto the schools because they are too busy pursuing their career.
Do I think that if Columbine had not happened that we wouldnt have had these 100+ other events since then? No, because someone else would have done this type of thing and then the others would follow. Violent video games got a horrible slant because these first two that carried out this atrocity liked to play them. The problem wasnt the video game, the problem was that these two were unable to grasp the difference between the fake world of video games and reality of reality. In video games such as Halo and Call of Duty (two games I play) you can shoot someone multiple times and they can keep firing right back at you and if you dont shoot them again their shields regenerate and their health regenerates. That is a huge disconnect from reality. In real life people dont have shields and their health doesnt regenerate unless they make it to the hospital in time and get medical attention for their wounds. Now I know these two that carried out the Columbine shooting knew what they were doing, they were out for the sole purpose of killing folks.
What can we do? What should we do? How can we change this in the future?
The first thing we can do is never forget those students that were killed that day in Colorado. We should daily pray for their families, because even though it has been 10 years, parents should never have to bury their children. These people have been impacted to their core and that is not something that is easily let go of. No matter how hard we try to change/prevent these things from happening in the future, there will always be some folks that chose to use violence as a means of solving their disputes. Does this mean we should not even try? Of course not. We as Americans need to take charge here and work to educate those growing up now that violence in schools is not the answer. I am not a parent but someday I hope to have that blessing, I will most certainly do my best to educate my children in what is right and wrong and not rely on someone else to teach my kids those things.
So as we remember today that fateful day 10 years ago lets never forget Cassie Bernall, Steve Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly Flemming, Matt Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend, Kyle Velasquez, and Coach Dave Sanders. Let us all say a prayer today for their families and for our nation.
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