Looking Forward, Not Back
Tuesday night I turned off the coverage after Ohio was called for Obama. I just couldn't bring myself to watch it any more – I was too emotionally connected to the outcome. After some thought over night and Wednesday morning, I decided I do not want to be bitter. I do not want to be the same as the "Bush haters" that could not get over the 2000 election and dwelt upon that for both of his terms. As hard as it may be, I think, I hope, that I can rise above that.
I maintain regular email communication with a high school friend of mine. He's a centrist, leans left on social issues but is a fiscal conservative. He and I have many vigorous and stimulating political discussions.
Here's the message as sent to him Wednesday morning:
I've decided I'm going to try (and it will be hard) to not be bitter about the results.
I'm going to strive to measure President Obama (the first time I've put those two words together on my own) by his actions, and not by his past.
- how he arranges his cabinet
- how he works with Congress
- whether or not he "reigns in" the far left segment of his party
- etc
Despite my misgivings, we are a Democracy and he was elected. I think the process was flawed, I think he raised money illegally, and I think that ACORN and other such organizations may have introduced illegal votes intro the process. But the outcome is the outcome.
I went through 8 years of the Clinton administration hating our President. And I don't use that word lightly - I thought he was the Devil incarnate at the time.
Although I may still feel that way about Obama, I refuse to dwell upon it. Let's see what happens.
So, I'm going to remain positive about the future and see what happens.
Teaching via Object Lessons
A friend just sent me a very interesting, and highly entertaining, anecdote about how someone dealt with a line jumper while waiting for a bus. Read about it here:
Dealing with a Queue JumperThat story reminded me of one of my own experiences teaching someone via an object lesson.
My wife and I had driven to Walmart for a quick errand. I was drinking a can of Coke and she only needed one item, so I waited in the car. While finishing the Coke, I noticed two men sitting on a bench near the store entrance, both smoking.
As I watched, one of them flicked his cigarette butt down the sidewalk. Just 3-4 feet away sat a clearly marked container for disposing of cigarettes. I drank my last swallow of Coke and then had a sudden flash of insight. Getting out of the car, carrying my empty can, I started towards the store.
The two men were still sitting on the bench talking. Stepping up on the sidewalk, I crushed the can in my hand and pitched it off to the side. The can skittered along the concrete, making quite a bit of racket. The men looked up at the noise, but I intentionally avoided making eye contact.
Continuing on into the store, I turned right into the film processing area, allowing me to view the men through the store's front window. As I watched, it was obvious they were talking about what had just happened. One of them pointed to the can, both were very animated and the other just shook his head.
I then walked back out the exit, down the sidewalk and picked up my can. Walking towards the two men, I asked, "
Did you notice me toss this can down the sidewalk?" They both nodded, one of them responding, "
Yes, one of the strangest things I've ever seen."
Then I stepped up to the waste receptacle and threw my can away. Turning back to them I said, "
Well, you know there's a cigarette disposal can over there. And just a few minutes ago I thought the same thing when you flicked that butt away. Why is it any different?"
The man looked like I had asked him to calculate Pi to the Nth digit. Muttering, "
I never thought about it that way", he stood up, picked up the butt and disposed of it properly.
Now, did I cause any permanent change in his, or his friend's, behavior? I'll never know. But at least I caused him to stop and think about it. And, perhaps, maybe the object lesson took root.
Labels: Littering
Senate Immigration Bill - A Travesty
The immigration bill passed out of the Senate yesterday violates public trust, is contrary to what a majority of Americans want and contains numerous loopholes. One of my Senators from Kansas - Senator Brownback - voted for this abominal bill, here's the note I sent to him last night:
Senator Brownback - I am OUTRAGED at your vote on the Senate Immigration Bill. You broke ranks with a majority of Republican Senators. You broke ranks with Senators Roberts, Talent and Bond. But more importantly, you broke ranks with - and are losing the faith of - your constituents.
A SIGNIFCANT PLURALITY of citizens do not want the type of reform the Senate passed on Thursday. How is it that you found yourself able to support a bill that a MAJORITY of Republican Senators opposed?
How is it that you supported a bill that the two Senators from Texas did not support? Do you not think they understand, better than you, the implications of illegal immigration upon our society?
As a strong Republican, my only regret is that you are NOT up for reelection until 2010. For I would devote all of my energy into finding and supporting a GOP candidate that would represent our values, that would not give away our culture and our country to Mexico and that would care more about what U.S. citizens wanted than what illegal aliens and the President of Mexico wanted.
Michelle Malkin has two well documented posts regarding this bill:
AMNESTY PASSESMEXICO GETS VETO POWER? "CONSULTATION" REQ'DSenator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) provides an excellent rundown of the flaws in this bill on his official website:
Sen. Jeff Sessions Explains His Opposition to Final Passage of the Senate Immigration BillBut, if none of the the above is convincing enough evidence how bad this bill is, consider Mexican President Fox's response to it:
Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday called the U.S. Senate's landmark vote on immigration policy a "monumental step forward" that marks a historic moment in the relationship between Mexico and the U.S.
"It is a moment that millions of families have been hoping for. This is the moment that millions of people have been working for," he told a joint session of the California Legislature. [ed. note - He's NOT referring to millions of American citizens!]
REF: Mexican president calls Senate immigration bill a 'historic vote'
I look forward to your comments.
In the Blink of an Eye
Yep - it was over nearly that quick. All of the preparation, exasperation and -honestly - trepidation and the retirement ceremony came and went.
I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout - many of my co-workers showed up, I was happy to see them there. We still overplanned on food, taking nearly half of what we made back home with us. Looks like we'll be eating ham and turkey sub sandwiches for lunch and dinner the rest of the week.
The most surreal part of the entire ceremony was listening to CDR Wiseman's remarks about my career. He certainly made it sound much more glamorous than I recalled. On a couple occasions I thought to myself, "Is he talking about me?"
Yesterday I posted about not knowing what direction to go in my speech. Well, I did a little of both. Wasn't even sure what the content would be until I started talking - all I had was an outline. Intro, talk about the past, thank family and friends and then discussed what we were doing next.
Appropriate to the name of my space here, I concluded with the following comment:
I'm thankful to have enlisted under President Reagan, been commissioned under President Bush and now retiring under yet another President Bush.I guess it just can't get much better than that. Thank goodness I didn't have to go through life with John Kerry's name at the bottom of my retirement certicate!
Contemplating Retirement
Wow! Hard to believe it's been a year since I wrote my first (and only) entry on this blog. I guess I just wasn't ready to start writing one yet.
Tomorrow is my retirement ceremony - after close to 21 years in the Navy. As I write this, less than an hour before the rehearsal, I still don't know what I'm going to say tomorrow. Do I look towards the past, citing events gone by, friends of yesteryear and perhaps a humorous anecdote, aka sea story? Or do I speak of the present and future, of goals not yet accomplished and high and lofty aims in the coming years? More than likely, I will choose somewhere in between - speaking fondly of the past and looking forward, even if with some trepidation, to the stability of the future.
My family and I have lived here for four years now - the longest time in one place in over 20 years of frequent moves. Will this be our ultimate destination? or is it just another stop on along the way? It's hard to say right now - we are here for the foreseeable future, 3 to 7 years, until the children are done with high school and college. After that, who knows? Will the roots be too deep to move again? or will we become restless and have the need to move on?
First!
First!
Well isn't that the tradition with forums, threads and blogs? I guess it's not that much of an accomplishment, being first on my own blog, but I had to call it something.
As I created this blog we are deep in the midst of news coverage on the Iraqi "prison abuse" scandal. Meanwhile the news of the horrible execution of Nick Berg has been relegated to brief mentions, if mentioned at all.
Apparently the public is sensing this as well, as there are reports that a significant percentage of viewers/listeners think the abuse case is receiving too much coverage. Only time will tell.
I thought about doing a "Who am I?" post, but I'm going to save that for later. I have not yet decided where I want to fall between "total disclosure" and "complete anonymity", so I'll default to anonymous for now.
