Dead People Matter More Than Word Choice

     At the FOX News website they are conducting an opinion poll.  The question is wheher the shooting at Fort Hood was an “act of terror” or a “horrific cime.”

     Wasn’t it both?

     It’s just like the term “hate crime.”  What crime isn’t a hate crime?   There aren’t love crimes are there?

     Meanwhile, some of the victims are dead and others are recovering from wounds.  I would say that they were sufficiently terrified to justify calling the incident an act of terror.  I would also say that I am sufficiently horrified by it to justify calling it a horrific crime.

     How about you?  Do you see some substantial difference between terror and horror?  Do you see an important difference between an act of terror and a crime? 

     What they meant, I suppose, is whether the perpetrator committed the crime as a way to uphold his religious beliefs and to support his co-religionists or whether he was simply an individual killing people fo his own idiosyncratic reasons.  Why can’t they just say it that way?  Well, not exactly that way, but they could say, “Did he do it to uphold his religious beliefs or for some other reason?”

     How would anyone know the answer to that question anyway?  We still have insufficient information to make such a determination, although the reported facts do seem to suggest that he was just on more devout Muslim bent on fighting against the “infidels.”  Shame on FOX for sensationalizing a very sad event.

     Meanwhile, the murdered people are dead.  What we call the incident does not change that fact.  Their families are suffering incredible pain.  Who cares if you call it terror or horror?  Who cares if the man was a jihadist or just a nut?  It doesn’t make his victims either more dead or less dead.

Greatest Americans

     Who are or were the greatest Americans?  To receive such a title, a person should have accomplished something tangible or had a significant influence over other people.  I cannot call a person great simply because that person has some talent or is considered interesting or entertaining.

     Here’s my top-10 list:

1.  Benjamin Franklin

This renaissance man invented, discovered, wrote, printed, and did so many things it could give us normal people an inferiority complex.  He was instrumental in the founding of our country.

2 and 3.  Orville and Wilbur Wright

They got aviation off the ground, and thus got us all off the ground.  Had it not been for them, we would lack huge amounts of the technology that we use and enjoy so much.

4.  Rosa Parks

Her simple act of defiance helped propel the Civil Rights movement.  Not intending to do anything great, she helped transform a nation morally.

5.  Thomas Edison

We still use his ingenious inventions as well as other handy devices on which his inventions are based.

6.  Lucy Stone

She campaigned for equal rights for women and for black Americans.  Influenced others to join or support those causes with her passionate speeches.

7.  Daniel Boone

Tales of his adventures inspired Americans to be rugged and brave.  He became the archtype of American individualism and enterprise.

8.  Roger Williams

Founded a colony based on freedom of religion and inspired, among other people, the First Amendment to the Constitution.  His dealings with Native Americans were far more humane and just than many of his contemporaries’.

9.  Clara Barton

From nursing patients during the Civil War to organizing the American Red Cross, this woman was the quintessential humanitarian.

10.  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Who knows how things would have turned out had such a man not risen at the time that he did?  I believe that he helped America avoid violence at a time when we were ripe for it.  His use of nonviolent resistance helped the cause of Civil Rights immensely.

Honoring Muslim Military Personnel

     Many Muslims have served and currently serve in our military forces with honor and integrity.  I honor them with this post.

      Thanks to all of you for serving our country the way that you do.  Thank you for defending our territory and our rights.  Thank you for taking an oath of loyalty and for keeping that oath.  Thank you for believing in the greatness and the goodness of America enough to risk your lives in her defense. 

     I do not blame you for the terrorist acts committed by some of your fellow Muslims.  I hold the individuals who did those things responsible. 

     I respect your right to believe and practice your religion.  I disagree with it, but I would never want to infringe upon your right to follow it.

     I honor you today, because the horrible event at Fort Hood would make it easy for some people to be against all Muslims, especially Muslims in our armed forces.  I want you to know that I will not take that route.  I want others to know that it is wrong to do so.  I hope that others give you the respect and honor that you deserve.

How Did I Know?

     When the news started coming out about the shooting at Fort Hood I was a bit frustrated.  There were so many false reports at first–from established media.  I think that they really do everyone a disservice when they give out unconfirmed information.  They misreported how many shooters there were, how many victims there were, and the status of the shooter.  First he was on the loose, then he was dead, then he was alive and in the hospital.  At least I think that is how it went.

     One thing that I was sure of was that he was a Muslim.  How did I know?  It wasn’t because I think all crazed gunmen are Muslim; it’s because the media were working overtime NOT to report his name or his religion.  Even after his affiliation with Islam was known, many media outlets were falling all over themselves to come up with other reasons for his rampage–he had been harrassed, he had gotten a poor evaluation, he had been depolyed too many times (he never has been, actually), etc., etc.  The fact that they did not come out and reveal that he was a devout Muslim who did not agree with out actions in Afghanistan and Iraq was the one thing that many news sources could simply not accept or report–right away.

     Come on, people.  We don’t want to jump to conclusions, I agree.  We don’t want to be prejudiced and think badly of all Muslims.  However, when a Muslim is actually involved in a violent crime, it is unhelpful and dishonest to avoid reporting it.  As much as somebody might hope that another violent act was not perpetrated by a Muslim, you can’t change reality by avoiding it.

     I know, I know, I’m a bigot.  If you think so, you did not read carefully.  For all I knew, the shooter might have been a blond-haired, blue-eyed Protestant.  The reason I guessed, correctly, that he wasn’t, was that the media would have just said so.  They might even have called him a right-wing religious fanatic.  Am I wrong?

Fort Hood Massacre

     I don’t want to write much today. I just want to suggest that we pray for the families of the dead at Fort Hood. Let’s also pray for the wounded to recover.

Maine Voters Preserve Marriage

     I had people tell me that same-sex marriage was sure to be officially enacted in Maine with the referendum just voted on.  The legislature had already voted to make it legal, but it had not become activated, pending the results of this referendum.  Like 30 other states, Maine has decided, through the democratic process, to keep marriage as marriage. 

     Believe it or not, I would have accepted Maine’s decision, if it had gone the other way.  I believe in state’s rights, and believe that the people in each state have the right to decide what relationships they recognize or do not recognize and how they define the term marriage.  I would have been sad, but I would have accepted Maine’s right to do it.

     Despite what some people say, it is not about hatred, and it certainly is not about homophobia, whatever that is.  I believe that it is about preserving tradition.  I believe that it is also about delineating and defining things:  marriage is one kind of relationship, but there are other kinds of relationships, too.  I think that it also has to do with keeping an institution that provides the most stability and security–as well as legal protection–for children, by establishing legally who their parents are, thus, who is responsible for them.  It also helps to establish who a person’s heirs are, espeically if one dies intestate.

     Marriage is in a sad state these days.  It makes me wonder, just a little, why some people want to expand it to include their different kind of relationship.  Many people live together and even have children without being married.  Many other people have serial marriages and divorces.  It’s so hard on the kids!  I wish more people would put their needs first.

     I would like to see marriage revived as an important institution and one that is supposed to be permanent and that is supposed to be characterized by fidelity and mutual love and support.  I would also like to see men and women getting married, and–if they choose–having children together–in that order.  All other “family” arrangements are contrary to nature and (I am a Christian, after all) God’s plan.  You can call them anything you want, but it doesn’t change what they are–or what they are not.

     Maybe some of my friends are right.  Maybe marriage should be taken completely out of the public domain.  I’m not convinced yet.  I think it could work, but I think it would create a lot of legal hassles.  I think it would end up causing harm–or at least not preventing harm–to many children. 

     What do you think?

Thanksgiving–Health

     I am very thankful to have relatively good health. I had some health problems in the spring and early–problems severe enough that I feared I would become unable to work.  I saw my whole life turn upside down for several weeks.  I missed several days of work and worked despite feeling terrible on several other days. 

     Thanks to good medical treatment, I am doing quite well now.  I have bad days, but nothing as bad as the days I suffered in April, May and June. 

     For those who do not know or do not remember, I have atypical migraine.  Rather than getting the classic migraine headache, I get vertigo, nausea, tinnitus, and loss of hearing.  I sometimes get other migraine symptoms, including the throbbing headache, but each episode varies.  I have had these symptoms off and on for fifteen years without knowing what was wrong and without getting a correct diagnosis.

     Now I know how to prevent the attacks, and have had pretty good success in doing so.  I also am blessed to have found a drug that aborts the attacks if they become full blown.

     I have not missed a day of work so far this autumn.  For that I am very thankful.

Thanksgiving–Friends

     There is so much to be thankful for, it is hard to know where to begin.  Of all my blessings, friends are among the best.  I work to cultivate a few close friendships and it pays off.  It’s really hard to know where the giving ends and the taking begins, since every act of giving is also a blessing and every act of receiving blesses the giver.  I like that about friendship.  It’s not a 50-50 relationship; rather it is 100-100.  One friend gives 100%, and the other friend gives back 100%.

     The pastor of my church in America just lost his brother to cancer.  I was able to “talk” with him via instant messaging, and I was glad for the opportunity.  My pastor was one of my biggest supporters during my sister’s illness and death.  I wanted so much to be able to give back a little of what he gave to me during that time.

     I told him, “I wish that I could somehow do for you what you did for me at that time.”

     He answered, “You have been doing so.  Your friendship is very important to me.  I feel closer to you than to my own brothers.”

     Here I was, trying to bestow a blessing on somebody whom I care about and to whom I feel very grateful, and he was bestowing an even bigger blessing on me.  To know that I am important to somebody, to know that somebody considers me closer than a brother, evokes the best feeling in the world.

     I think that it is about significance.  The best way to develop a sense of significance in this world is to be somebody’s friend.  What else really matters in the grad scheme of life?

     If you do not have such a friendship, I recommend that you cultivate one.  It takes work, but the work seems like nothing in comparison to the rewards you get from it.  In fact, as I tried to illustrate, the work somehow ends up part of the reward.

Take It

     As a Christian I am not “supposed” to use earthy or suggestive language, but here goes.  At the moment I feel that our Congress is treating us like a man committing a certain crime against a woman.  I feel like we are being told to shut up and take it.

     The Democrats and Republicans are hashing out deals and deciding what reforms they will make to the health insurance industry.  However, they do not seem to be listening.  They seem to be doing to us whatever they wish.

     What happened to the transparency we were promised by Democrats?  What happened to Barack Obama’s specific promise that deliberations over health “care” reform would take place on C-SPAN?  Weren’t we supposed to have legislation posted on the Internet so that we would have time to consider it and tell our representatives what we think?  In fact, I think we should amend the Constitution to rename the House of Representatives the House of Elite Rulers.  They cannot represent us, if they do not listen to us.

     There were town hall meetings a few months ago.  Many of our elected legislators listened, but they did not like what they heard.

     Now they are safely ensconced behind closed doors to hash out plans for overhauling a large segment of our economy and a large and important part of our welfare.  Shame on them, whether they have an R or a D after their name.

Those Greedy Insurance Companies

     Have you seen the report about the actual profits made by health  insurance companies?  To hear some people talk, those evil companies are the greediest of all.

     The reality is that the health insurance industry is near the bottom in terms of profits.  In the Fortune 500 list of 53 industries, they rank 35th.  So unless you approve of the government’s taking over 34 other major U. S. industries, it is just plain wrong to use the profit margin of the health insurance industry as an excuse for taking them over.  (Unless you want to bail them out the way the government bailed out some of the banks.)

     There are other reasons to dislike insurance companies–the high cost of premiums, the hassles, the occasional failure to pay up.  But painting them as greedy monsters just doesn’t cut it.  And the mainstream media would do the public a great service by exposing this lie.

     But, you might argue, the Congress is not planning to take over the health care industry.  They are just planning to give a public option.  It would be absolutely stupid to think that given a cheap public option, the private companies will not be driven out of business.