 |
What They've Thought
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
What They Thought November 21, 2004 R.A.
Hawkins Click here for columnist bios |
|||||||||||
R.A.
Hawkins The recent uproar in the West and the Mid East over the shooting of a seemingly unarmed and/or injured prisoner as the troops entered a Mosque really is quite ridiculous. These soldiers have been faced with white flags of surrender followed by bullets and people who are dead shooting at them when they walk past. Some of the dead bodies are even loaded with bombs. It may be time to change the embedding concept. My suggestion would be to quit the pooling of video and reporting. It really is time to make the various networks go and get their own reports and video. Maybe they might change a little bit if they weren’t allowed to do anything in the "collective’" sense. Since it has become the job of the media to determine when a soldier should or shouldn’t shoot, it is time for the media to go out on point. That’s right. You go and make sure the guy is unarmed first. You go and flip the body over to make sure he isn’t hiding a bomb under him. But there is a twist here that needs to be considered. The media doesn’t get shot at because they are recognized as tools for the propagandists. It is time for the media to hump their own load and carry an M-16. There should also be a new policy regarding the media over there. If the soldiers don’t get to sleep neither does the media. If they are found catching a little shut-eye, kick them. Let them feel the real pressure before they start judging everyone else. I have noticed as have the insurgents that our media acts a lot like Al-Jazeera. We saw endless reports on Abu Ghraib, but they all knew we couldn’t handle the beheadings so we didn’t see much of that. We also didn’t see the inside of the torture facilities with the bodies piled all over the place. That was too much for us to handle. The argument we get from our media sounds a little too familiar. Our media over here is a little sneakier though. They will show something like this and add a little twist. “Is this the new American policy over in Iraq?” <Wink> Since the Mid-Eastern media knows it is dealing with a reactionary lot with little to do but scream and rant. (And go to psychotherapy like many liberals because Kerry lost.) That bunch just comes right out and makes a claim that it is our policy. I was particularly impressed with one guy that was mentioned in the USA today article regarding this incident. The guy sells sodas as a street vendor and this is what he had to say. “When I saw the video, I wished I had a stronger gun and spray that soldier with 100 bullets in his head.” When I read this, I suspected that at the age of thirty-nine he has peaked in his career. What a genius. But there is a reason he feels this way. Here is what Al-Jazeera had to say regarding the showing of the entire video over and over and…well you get the picture. The same article quoted the spokesman for Al-Jazeera. Strangely, the guy's name described what I would like to do to him provided I had the opportunity and an absence of witnesses. Jihad Ballout said regarding the video of the shooting, “The image itself was newsworthy.” What they don’t think is newsworthy is the beheadings and torturing of relief workers etc. Regarding the reasons why they don’t show that, he said,“Hostages are caught in the crossfire, and we do not want to offend their families by showing their deaths.” He also said, “Soldiers are on the battlefield and part of the story of war.” Well, Jihad Ballout here is another part of the story of war. The side you clearly represent and back, and provide propaganda for, has used innocent women and children as the choice surrounding from which to open fire. They also have no problem with blowing up women and children of their own faith and still claim they are doing it in the name of Allah. I would also like to add a little pointer to our media and the media of the Mid-East. If you only show one side of the story all of the time, you’re the enemy. It really is that simple. I seem to remember three or four of your reporters who were taught that lesson when Baghdad fell. They were beaten and flogged all of the way to Kuwait for the lies that they told during the war. I can hardly wait until the people of the Mid-East wake up and start paying attention to people other than the likes of your media and ours. The real reasons we don’t see the gruesome nature of the enemy is so we will forget what they really are. Maybe your reporters and ours can all get together and we can embed some troops with you and open fire on the insurgents from your midst. It’s no different than what they do. They open fire from the midst of crowds of women and children, too. But I bet that, unlike us, they won’t hold their fire. They’ll mow the whole lot down. Many if you will have had real use to the concept and furthering of freedom for the first time in your lives…as sand bags. R.A. Hawkins Web Site Contact Back to Top |
|||||||||||
Oh, how the ranters of Salon.com and other elitist intelligentsia-biased snobs must be foaming at the mouth over the re-election of our President (George W. Bush) of the United States. I always look forward to reading their blasting dogmatic hatred of conservative writers such as myself. These robotic socialistic snoots love to post their hatred-filled sites with derogatory remarks, foul language and hate mongering for those who don’t agree with them. What I really enjoy reading though are their letters of hatred for me and for others who think like I do. Never are there emails over substantive debate, but only over the so-called “lack” of our abilities to live up to their level of knowledge on grammar and punctuation. Aren’t the liberal elitists, those who spent untold millions on anti-Bush rhetoric and sang their little vocal chords out during the joke called“Rock the Vote” (George Soros, Bruce Springsteen etc…) the ones who wanted “style over substance?” The common “hicks” in them thar red states said, “No way!” We the people took a stand against both coasts, and demanded that our voices be heard over all the money spent on microphones and TV ads. We said, "Enough!" to botox, fake tans, plastic surgery, Breck hair, ambulance-chasing lawyers, judges who overstep their constitutional boundaries, and most of all, "NO!" to the entertainers who are spewing forth too much elitist pride. Gee, it would seem most of America must be pretty darn common in their expression of how they view“the land of the free and home of the brave.” Whether we marched forth verbally or by pen, the Ivy League educated liberals just hated us with a passion, and evidently they still do. Isn’t America great? The funny thing is, most of us never claimed we were well educated in writing or speaking. We just do our best to express our opinions. What we lack in style we, like our President George W. Bush, make up for in our honesty, our unwavering stance in our beliefs, and our deep abiding love for our freedoms. This seems to drive the socialist-loving, self-worshipping wolves of supreme intellect into becoming raving lunatic tale-spinners. The intelligentsia crowd can continue to spit the venom of disgust over our inability to be as some of the demagogue entertainers, and over our lack of educational degrees. But this is America, and she was designed to have diverse opinions to be a part of who she is. We must keep in mind, though, that along with her grand design comes America’s ground rules. If we are to hold onto our Republic, we must abide in the structure laid forth, otherwise we cannot survive as a free nation and continue to breathe within our unique structure. Socialism, communism, anarchy and monarchy are not what this country was designed to run on. For those of you who’d rather live under the belief system of the United Nations, a good portion of Europe, or our “friends” to the north in Canada, good-bye. If you love their ideals of running a political system, then by all means bye-bye. Once you’ve decided that their way of doing things is your cup of toxic poison, then by all means leave our free country…because you’re free here to do that. You’ve become so drunk on your own self-absorbed demagoguery that the Kool-Aid you’re sloshin' down truly is full of everything that is anti-free and anti-American. Just try in your new homeland to vocally or verbally dissent, and see how long it will be before you are permanently silenced. Try selling your book or film in the former oppressed country called, Iraq, Madonna. How would your wares of nudity and sexual liaisons—let alone speaking out and having an opinion as a woman—have been received, I wonder? Put forth your best efforts, Mr. Moore, in peddling your films and books of hatred for another country while you live there and grow richer and fatter. Mr. Moore, you’d be hog-tied and placed in a pen faster than you can say, “Here piggy, piggy!” But I’ve got to ask: Why? Why in the world are these far left wing nuts so unhappy with America and her system of beliefs? Why is it every election cycle they spend untold millions to oust a conservative? Why do they lie, cheat and say anything to give a conservative the boot? What is it all of you socialist elitists hate so much about the structure of our great nation? Why do you desire for us to replicate what hasn’t worked in Europe for so long? Socialism and her ways are antiquated. They don’t work. The never have and they never will. America isn’t perfect. She’s run by imperfect beings called humans, although she was designed to run by some of the most brilliant, god-fearing minds that have ever walked God’s green earth. They were scholarly men, whose intelligence quotient blows away all of those who like to espouse “Mensa” mentality. Our Founding Fathers studied and analyzed various great civilizations to see what worked and what didn’t work to come up with our formula for a nation that has been a “grand experiment,” one that has continued to work beautifully for many years now. We have strayed away at times from the successful formula of our Constitution, and we need good, honest and hard- working people to keep her pure and undefiled. Socialistic doctrine is not a part of our Constitution's fabric, nor should it ever be. America the beautiful: She’s full of hope, promise, and some of the best tasting soft drinks available anywhere. Those of us from the “red states” aren’t “stupid;” we just believe in our Constitution, our country and our President George W. Bush. The Kool-Aid of old (aka socialism and her kin) is nothing but toxic waste which needs to be dumped into the sewer. Kerry L. Marsala Web Site Contact Back to Top |
|||||||||||
The
first Sunday in November was unseasonably warm this year. Actually,
let me retract that. This is the first year—and, thus, the first
November—I’m living in southeastern Pennsylvania. For all
I know, every Sunday in November is unseasonably warm around
here. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve seen weirder
things in these parts—like drivers signaling right to go left.
So let’s just say it was t-shirt weather the first Sunday in November
and leave it at that.
Anyway, my wife and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond that afternoon. And before you break into Will-Ferrell-as-Frank-in-"Old School” jokes, let me just tell you, no, we didn’t go to Home Depot to pick out wallpaper and flooring. We did go to Target and Pet Smart, though. And both of them were wonderful. But anyway, as my wife and I walked into Bed, Bath, and Beyond, we were greeted by perhaps the most annoying employee at any store I’ve ever been to. You could tell right off the bat this guy was “holiday help”—the kind of worker they lay off a day after New Year’s. His name was Santa. He was 5-feet-tall, animatronic, and on sale for $70. And he quickly informed us, “It’s the most… wonderful time… of the year,” in tune. Then he shook his booty with all the grace of Lincoln in Disney’s Hall of Presidents. Did I mention this Santa was animatronic? So I looked outside just then—at the bright, shining sun, at the people in t-shirts and cars with open sunroofs. What time of year was he talking about anyway? Spring, maybe? Summer? I wasn’t sure. So I looked back at Santa, then I looked at my wife, and I told her, point blank, “If the next thing he says is it’s starting to look like Christmas, I swear—this guy is a liar.” I meant it. I thought I was fighting the good fight here. If I had sleeves, I would’ve rolled ‘em up. “This guy’ is not a guy,” my wife said. “He’s a decoration.” I looked him over again. Oh, yeah. Animatronic. Case closed. Well, in retrospect, I think I was wrong anyway. If this Santa had sung, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” he wouldn’t’ve been a liar—in fact, he would’ve been right. You see, I’ve grown accustomed to thinking the Christmas season begins the day you wake up and see all your neighbors outside with shovels, trying to find their cars beneath the first snow. But now I realize that’s a very northeastern-elitist view. I tend to forget they celebrate Christmas in places like Florida, where it’s sunny all year, and California, where they don’t believe in snow. So from now on, I’m not going to look for secular symbols—like seasons and weather—to indicate the start of Christmas. No. From now on, I will look for the stuff that really matters: Merchandise. That’s the lesson this Santa guy taught me. Because the way he greeted shoppers—the walls around him decked in holly, a Hanukkah display behind where he stood—it didn’t just look “a lot” like Christmas that day. It looked exactly like Christmas. Only a fool would deny it. Hell, even Pet Smart was in the Christmas spirit. They were advertising photo shoots with Santa (a different Santa… the real one), for your dog. Still, I’m not sure I should blame myself for being confused. Christmas itself is December 25th this year. Christmas itself is December 25th every year (certain sects notwithstanding). This much we know. But there isn’t, however, an “official” start of the Christmas season—that’s the problem. It’s up to interpretation. And companies like Bed, Bath, and Beyond are our interpreters. That’s why this fixed-date holiday seems to come earlier and earlier every year. I mean, it was only a week after Halloween when I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. My floor is still covered in broken dreams and Kit-Kat wrappers. My teeth are more rotted than the pumpkins outside my house. How was I supposed to know it’s the most wonderful time of the year? We’ve basically gotten to the point now where the Twelve Days of Christmas last for two whole months. According to my calculations, that’s five Earth Days for every one Day of Christmas. As soon as we’re done trick-or-treating, bam!, it’s time for yuletide. We don’t even bother with Thanksgiving anymore. At some point or another, we decided to skip it. And why not? Halloween is a two-month “holiday” all its own. Walk into an Eckerd or CVS pharmacy in August, you’ll already see witches and bags of fun size Hershey bars. Thanksgiving has parades, football games, and tryptophan—plenty enough to sustain Black Friday shopping. You want to make the most of Halloween’s momentum? Put it directly towards Christmas. That’s why September 11th isn’t a national holiday yet. It would eat into Halloween profits and ruin the entire plan. After all, folks still remember September 11th. Wait till the new Pearl Harbor can become the new Pearl Harbor Day (i.e., wait till a sitting president can be forgiven for forgetting the date it fell on)—then mark your calendar. Honestly, I’m not even sure why we bother with holidays other than Christmas anymore. In fact, I’m not even sure why we bother with the rest of the calendar year. At this point, we might as well eliminate the middle man and start the new Christmas season the day the old Christmas season ends. You know, December 26th. Start your engines. Only 365 shopping days to go. You have to admit, this would have its benefits. First of all, you wouldn’t have to feel like an idiot anymore when you open up your fridge after Christmas and see all that untapped eggnog. Because you know you always do this. You know you always buy too much eggnog (which usually means you buy eggnog—period). It’s not your fault. You tend to forget—what with all that time between Christmases—that December 26th is eggnog’s permanent expiration date. Before Christmas, it seems like such a swell purchase. After Christmas, it tastes like gift wrap. But you wouldn’t have to worry about this if Christmas was perpetually on its way. Eggnog would always be in season. Hooray! Secondly, you’d be able to leave up your Christmas lights all year long. Not that you ever take them down anyway. But you get the drift. Finally, and perhaps less frivolously, an all-year, every-year, forever-and-ever-amen sort of Christmas would allow us to act civil around each other… without feeling corny about it. You know, goodwill towards men. Peace on Earth. “Home Alone 2.” Stuff like that. And when you look at it in that light, this Mega-Christmas thing isn’t so bad. It suddenly seems worth putting up with. A lot of folks would argue the reason the Christmas season keeps getting longer is because so many manufacturers, businesses, networks, etc., stand to make a killing off it. I do believe that’s true (see: Bed, Bath, and Beyond), but it’s incomplete, and it fails to account for why we buy into the extended Christmas they’re selling. The easy answer to that question is, “Because we’re stupid.” I won’t argue with it. We do “celebrate” Halloween for two months. But I’d like to believe it goes deeper than that. I’d like to believe the reason we buy into this extended Christmas season is because we like the way it makes us feel—and more so, because we like the people we become around Christmas. Think about it. Even a perfectly realized socialist society—maintained both by gunpoint and motherly guilt—couldn’t match the spirit of giving that consumes us at Christmas. We give gifts to friends and relatives. We give canned goods to food drives. We even give two you-know-whats about the way other human beings feel. I won’t claim to know what causes this. Maybe it’s force of habit. Maybe it’s conformity. Who knows? It could even be religious duty. (God gave you His Son for Christmas. The least you can do is give somebody something.) The point is, whatever compels you, you give because you want to give—not because you’re forced to. And the fact that you also expect to receive doesn’t detract from it. Every exchange is willful. You can opt-out of holiday grab-bags. In other words, America at Christmas is what America should look like—Norman Rockwell paintings, free markets, and all. No wonder we like it. So, yes, there are times when Christmas resembles a One Day Sale at Macy’s. I’ll even confess I’m part of the problem: I’ve gone to Best Buy at 6:30 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving for three Thanksgivings in a row. And not for the bargains, either. For fun. (Not that I minded the bargains.) I do believe the “true meaning of Christmas” we hear about on TV differs from the true “true meaning.” But I don’t believe crass commercialization is nearly the point of the holiday that cynics make it out to be. If anything, it’s probably the opposite. And if that’s the case, it’s not all bad. Of course, on my way out of Bed, Bath, and Beyond that day, Santa was singing a different tune—this time, a song about figgy pudding. “We won’t leave until we get some,” he insisted. “Please bring it right here.” I suppose that shoots my whole theory to bits. But, hey, he’s animatronic. He knows not what he sings. Jonathan David Morris Web Site Contact Back to Top |
|||||||||||
Government
Schools: This week hordes of teachers will descend upon Western New York for the New York State United Teachers annual convention. Rochester, the "Flower City" will be their rendezvous, and they will celebrate the coming of spring with bouquets in hand. Their cheers will be for their favorite champions of government schools, both Bill And Hill. Both will attend, with the model for public decency receiving the Albert Shanker Award for Distinguished Service. The Klinton's along with their confederates in public education will bring flowers for the gathering. The occasion befits Lilies, since the gathering confers the air of a wake, not the triumph of learning. But that is exactly the error in this assessment! The success of the John Dewey devotees have created their fiefdom. They have set the curriculum, defined the subjects and have shaped the values. Their students have been "Socialized" in the best tradition of the Jungvolk. The retreat from classical education has become complete. In its place, the relativism of multiculturalism has become the standard. Mathematics can now be about the process, and not the result. Behavior is no longer judged to be right or wrong, but only if it is appropriate or not. Reading no longer is about your history, but only the listings on MTV. And writing is an art that has been lost to the three point jump shot. But you say that it is not the fault of the teachers for this cultural decline? It is not their failing that test scores have made the great descent into mediocrity! Oh, no? Just examine the record. For all the ballyhoo about the dedication of the profession, just what do you have in the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association? Simply put, a UNION. The so-called standards of a profession are consistently betrayed for the benefits of a brotherhood that continually threatens to strike, at the expense "OF the children". A profession competes in the marketplace for business. The NEA members are overpaid government employees who would be shown the door if true parents had an effective choice in educating their children. No wonder the NYSUT love their Klintons. Protected monopolies is the only creation of bureaucratic liberal government. Certification is an euphemism for brained washed fidelity screening. Loyalty to an education system whose goal is to produce docile dependent illiterates is the test that all government teachers must pass before they are given the keys to the classroom. And we are told that this is a profession that deserves respect? Respect is gained when it is earned. When reform becomes the prime mover and replaces retirement benefits and vacation schedulers, the NEA will start to crawl out of the hole where it now resides. Education and learning is a fundamental pursuit. The survival of a society is dependent upon the transfer of its culture to the next generation. When that role is abdicated, by the very government that we parents entrust with the tutelage of our most precious children, it becomes intolerable. But when that deception is by design, it becomes treasonous. The advocacy in teaching a deviant culture is the principal outcome of current American education. Its success is evident all round us today. Logic and training in the process of thinking is virtually absent. Feelings and emotions reign. Each opinion is equal to the next, and no singular ideal is held to aspire and labor to achieve. And into this crowd of educated pedagogues, the first prodigious philanderer is acclaimed. How fitting . . . The road back to sanity starts in reclaiming our culture. Educational institutions must be liberated from the tyranny they impose upon our children. The return to instruction in values, discipline in standards and chronicles of our heritage is the first step back. Compulsory indoctrination that teaches social relativism "enlightenment" must end. The funeral for this era is long overdue. The Lilies need to be sent. Bring forth the Roses, let a new dawn shine! It seems that Mark Twain was right and it still applies: "Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned."
|
|||||||||||
©2004 by their respective authors. Reprinted by permission. |
|||||||||||
|
news | constitution | bill of rights | our view | your view | their view awards to win | awards we've won | resources | goodie shoppe our mission | about us | contact us | privacy policy | site map | home This page last updated on Sunday, November 28, 2004 6:48 PM Optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer |
|||||||||||
|
site content ©2002-2004 site design by |
|||||||||||
