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Memorial Day 2009
This used to be a day of solemn remembrances for the men and women who died serving their country.
To many today is nothing more than the end of a three day weekend, a chance to spend an extra day eating too much, getting sunburned at the lake or picnicking with family and friends or simply kicking back and relaxing.
It's a trite old expression - they died so we could have the freedoms we are enjoying on this long weekend.
But it's true.
The worst thing about freedom is there's always someone trying to take it away from you (foreign and domestic). Because of that, there is always a need for those who will go fight.
So on this Memorial Day, I'd like to pay tribute to someone who believed that his mission was to serve in the military to keep his country safe.
My father.
Roy Harold Rhymer grew up in Hancock County Tennessee, 80 miles or so straight north of Knoxville and just south of Bristol. That's about as far back in the Tennessee hill country as you can get. The family farm lay on the Clinch River without indoor plumbing, without electricity.
Right after Pearl Harbor my dad's older brother Clay enlisted in the Marine Corps. Not quite a year later, at the ripe old age of 15 1/2 and still in high school, my father lied about his age and joined the Corps.
After boot camp at Parris Island he shipped out to the Pacific as part of the 3rd Marine Division. Bouganville, Guam, Iwo Jima and Okinawa were among his battles.
After the war my father, since promoted to sergeant and was promptly shipped off to the Middle East, serving in Damascus, Syria and Beruit, Lebanon. That is where he met and married my mother Rosalind.
He got back to the states just in time to go to Korea (right after I was born) with the 1st Marine Division, landing at Inchon and later going through the hell that was the Chosin Reservoir.
Returning to the states, he went to OCS, was commissioned and began his life as a Marine officer.
During the so called post war period, my father's unit was called up during the Cuban Missle Crisis and did tours in Viet Nam.
Despite his lack of formal education, my father read everything. He was a student of military history and foreign affairs. Because of his thirst for education and knowledge that would help him advance, the Corps made sure my father attended every school possible.
His military education and his personal studies allowed him to serve in a variety of posts that today only a college graduate would fill.
My father loved the Corps and loved his country. In his mind, there was no sacrifice too great as long as it meant serving the Corps and his country.
My father was easy to spot in a crowd. Standing six foot seven, he was imposing in his uniform with a chest full of medals. His service jacket contains a number of commendations for his service to the Corps and his country in a variety of capacities.
His proudest acheivement in the Corps however, was that he was one of only a handfull of officers who wore the Good Conduct Medal - awarded only to enlisted men.
After 30 years service, my father retired. Lack of a college degree prevented him from being promoted higher or serving longer, something he wanted more than anything else.
The Marine Corps gave him everything. He returned the favor.
My father died in 1978. He lies at rest in Arlington National Cemetary next to my mother.
Thanks Dad.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sometimes You Find Yourself Being an Ass
That's me....... ass.
Not the Demcratic Party type - or the Republican version.
Just an ass, someone who forget the tenants of common sense, his faith and his beliefs on the ways to treat his fellow man.
My exact actions are best left between me and the other person.
In the process - of which I was strangly out of touch - I managed to hurt someone I care very much about.
Giving a big me culpa won't take back the hurt I caused.
So I urge anyone who reads this to please be a little more aware, spend a little more time thinking about others first.... especially the ones you care about most.
You don't get very many people like that in your life, you need to hang on to them.
Not the Demcratic Party type - or the Republican version.
Just an ass, someone who forget the tenants of common sense, his faith and his beliefs on the ways to treat his fellow man.
My exact actions are best left between me and the other person.
In the process - of which I was strangly out of touch - I managed to hurt someone I care very much about.
Giving a big me culpa won't take back the hurt I caused.
So I urge anyone who reads this to please be a little more aware, spend a little more time thinking about others first.... especially the ones you care about most.
You don't get very many people like that in your life, you need to hang on to them.
Friday, May 8, 2009
A Few Stupid American Tricks
It's tough to know where to begin.
Let's start with political celebrity teen mom Bristol Palin.
Here's a poor unwed teenage high school dropout who was paraded around by her politically ambitious mother during a presidential campaign as an example of a variety of things depending on where the campaign stopped for a speech.
On the one hand, she was lauded as a responsible teen/adult that made the difficult but right decision about her pregnancy (no abortion).
She was also used as an example of what happens when teens don't get real abstinence education (she did so I'm guessing it doesn't always work).
She was slammed as a vocal pro abstinence teen that let a penis get in the way of her (and her VP candidate mother) message of no sex before marriage.
Now, the teen mom is being slammed as being an inappropriate spokesperson for teen abstinence.
Are you kidding? Who better to talk about the realities of teen pregnancy and the need for kids not to have kids than Ms. Palin?
We have former drug addicts, alcoholics and gamblers talking in public about their problem and how people shouldn't make the same mistake as they did. They are often moving testaments to the errors of their ways, descriptions of what really happens and why it's bad.
If Ms. Palin has the guts t stand up and tell the world about the hardships of teen motherhood and that she made a bad decision, we should applaud her for having the guts to expose her mistakes in public. If teens listen and some don't make the same mistake (yes, having a baby out of wedlock as a teen is a mistake) she should be commended, not vilified.
And then there's the hubub about Miss California.
it seems the recently busty, self professed Christian beauty posed for semi nude underwear pictures to make a few bucks and continue her career as a model.
So?
Oh i forgot, she's against gay marriage so anything she does must be awful and condemned from the highest minaret.
Blah, Blah, Blah.
Does anyone see a double standard here? We demand our beauty pageant contestants, movie and TV stars, entertainers and teen idols of the female persuasion be hot, sexy, over exposed
and semi X-rated. We want them to look like alleged male fantasies about women.
Pick up most any men's or women's magazine and they're telling women and girls how to be more sexy, more enticing, be better in bed and the object of desire for all men with a pulse. Not only that, kids get the idea that exploring their sexuality at 12 or 13 is perfectly okay - they get it from TV, movies and music videos.
We even have five and six year old girls in bathing suit competitions.
And then we wonder why good kids like Ms. Palin explore their sexuality and get pregnant.
We can't have it both ways.
Manny, Manny, Manny
You took a drug that does one of two things; helps you get pregnant or masks performance enhancing drugs.
A-Rob did some enhancement drugs too.
So let them.
After all, we all pay top dollar for the 21st Century version of the Roman Circus. We want our gladiators (football, baseball - whatever the sport - college or pro) to give us a good show, to be as big as possible and to inflict as much damage as possible to the opposing side o it the longest home run or whatever the sport demands on the jock's quest for immortality.
If sports fans want the highlight reels to show the violent collisions and abuses of the gladiator's body every week , we need to let them take whatever the drug is that keeps fans' butts in the seats and in front of the TV screen.
Above all, let's stop being hypocritical.
And last but not least, let's have a few words about those denizens of the state Capitol, those paragons of virtue..... The Oklahoma State Legislature.
They are determined, let by legislator/wing nut Charlie Keys, and in violation of Oklahoma's Constitution and the US Constitution, to put a monument to the Ten Commandments in a prominent place at the Capitol.
Now if anyone has watched the shenanigans of the legislature the past, oh I don't know, 50 years or so, they'd know these people talk a good game but many seem to lose their memory of the Ten Commandments as soon as they acheive elected office.
In all seriousness, this is just one more example of a few religious fanatics demanding that everyone cow tow to their particular brand of religion.
It's wrong.
What is it about these self professed Christians that the only way they can feel comfortable with their faith is to demand everyone else be bombarded with the tenants of their religion?
Are they so unsure of their faith that they are determined to make everyone else believe that way? I guess they subscribe to the herd mentality or safety in numbers as opposed to genuine belief in their God. If they truly believed, they wouldn't be threatened by other faiths or demand everyone believes as they do.
And let's not forget, these are the same Christan leaders who get their panties in a wad when Iran or Iraq or some other country declares that it has a state religion, one that bars Christianity. These leaders rant and rave about how these countries should be feared because they are ruled by a faith they don't believe in, much less understand.
But isn't that what these Christians want? They want the US to be a one faith theocracy (their's of course).
The spend a lot of their time trying to force their religion on everyone and condemning other faiths.
They need to spend a bit more time not preaching,but practicing what they preach.
Let's start with political celebrity teen mom Bristol Palin.
Here's a poor unwed teenage high school dropout who was paraded around by her politically ambitious mother during a presidential campaign as an example of a variety of things depending on where the campaign stopped for a speech.
On the one hand, she was lauded as a responsible teen/adult that made the difficult but right decision about her pregnancy (no abortion).
She was also used as an example of what happens when teens don't get real abstinence education (she did so I'm guessing it doesn't always work).
She was slammed as a vocal pro abstinence teen that let a penis get in the way of her (and her VP candidate mother) message of no sex before marriage.
Now, the teen mom is being slammed as being an inappropriate spokesperson for teen abstinence.
Are you kidding? Who better to talk about the realities of teen pregnancy and the need for kids not to have kids than Ms. Palin?
We have former drug addicts, alcoholics and gamblers talking in public about their problem and how people shouldn't make the same mistake as they did. They are often moving testaments to the errors of their ways, descriptions of what really happens and why it's bad.
If Ms. Palin has the guts t stand up and tell the world about the hardships of teen motherhood and that she made a bad decision, we should applaud her for having the guts to expose her mistakes in public. If teens listen and some don't make the same mistake (yes, having a baby out of wedlock as a teen is a mistake) she should be commended, not vilified.
And then there's the hubub about Miss California.
it seems the recently busty, self professed Christian beauty posed for semi nude underwear pictures to make a few bucks and continue her career as a model.
So?
Oh i forgot, she's against gay marriage so anything she does must be awful and condemned from the highest minaret.
Blah, Blah, Blah.
Does anyone see a double standard here? We demand our beauty pageant contestants, movie and TV stars, entertainers and teen idols of the female persuasion be hot, sexy, over exposed
and semi X-rated. We want them to look like alleged male fantasies about women.
Pick up most any men's or women's magazine and they're telling women and girls how to be more sexy, more enticing, be better in bed and the object of desire for all men with a pulse. Not only that, kids get the idea that exploring their sexuality at 12 or 13 is perfectly okay - they get it from TV, movies and music videos.
We even have five and six year old girls in bathing suit competitions.
And then we wonder why good kids like Ms. Palin explore their sexuality and get pregnant.
We can't have it both ways.
Manny, Manny, Manny
You took a drug that does one of two things; helps you get pregnant or masks performance enhancing drugs.
A-Rob did some enhancement drugs too.
So let them.
After all, we all pay top dollar for the 21st Century version of the Roman Circus. We want our gladiators (football, baseball - whatever the sport - college or pro) to give us a good show, to be as big as possible and to inflict as much damage as possible to the opposing side o it the longest home run or whatever the sport demands on the jock's quest for immortality.
If sports fans want the highlight reels to show the violent collisions and abuses of the gladiator's body every week , we need to let them take whatever the drug is that keeps fans' butts in the seats and in front of the TV screen.
Above all, let's stop being hypocritical.
And last but not least, let's have a few words about those denizens of the state Capitol, those paragons of virtue..... The Oklahoma State Legislature.
They are determined, let by legislator/wing nut Charlie Keys, and in violation of Oklahoma's Constitution and the US Constitution, to put a monument to the Ten Commandments in a prominent place at the Capitol.
Now if anyone has watched the shenanigans of the legislature the past, oh I don't know, 50 years or so, they'd know these people talk a good game but many seem to lose their memory of the Ten Commandments as soon as they acheive elected office.
In all seriousness, this is just one more example of a few religious fanatics demanding that everyone cow tow to their particular brand of religion.
It's wrong.
What is it about these self professed Christians that the only way they can feel comfortable with their faith is to demand everyone else be bombarded with the tenants of their religion?
Are they so unsure of their faith that they are determined to make everyone else believe that way? I guess they subscribe to the herd mentality or safety in numbers as opposed to genuine belief in their God. If they truly believed, they wouldn't be threatened by other faiths or demand everyone believes as they do.
And let's not forget, these are the same Christan leaders who get their panties in a wad when Iran or Iraq or some other country declares that it has a state religion, one that bars Christianity. These leaders rant and rave about how these countries should be feared because they are ruled by a faith they don't believe in, much less understand.
But isn't that what these Christians want? They want the US to be a one faith theocracy (their's of course).
The spend a lot of their time trying to force their religion on everyone and condemning other faiths.
They need to spend a bit more time not preaching,but practicing what they preach.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
What Have Republicans Accomplished in Obama's First 100 Days
Accomplishment #1
They've learned how to say "no" to everything and anything.
Accomplishment #2
They've done nothing except say no
Accomplishment #3
Republicans have announced no programs, plans or legislation
Friday, April 24, 2009
It's time to put President Bush and his administration on trial
Enough is enough.
If any of us willfully broke the law we'd find ourselves wrestled to the ground by some overzealous cop and tossed into the hooscow until we were tried. If conviced, we'd be sent up the river.
Torture, waterboarding specifically, is against US law. It's not a question for debate.
Torture is illegal.
Bush and his Administration approved torture that is expressly forbidden by US law. Thankfully, they left a paper trail as long as the distance from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial outlining and rationalizing their illegal acts.
It's time for them to be held accountable.
It's time for Bus and Company to stand trial.
It's also time for Obama to grow a pair and appont a special prosecutor to handle the investigations and trials.
Until then, America and our claim to be a Christian, moral nation is forever stained.
If any of us willfully broke the law we'd find ourselves wrestled to the ground by some overzealous cop and tossed into the hooscow until we were tried. If conviced, we'd be sent up the river.
Torture, waterboarding specifically, is against US law. It's not a question for debate.
Torture is illegal.
Bush and his Administration approved torture that is expressly forbidden by US law. Thankfully, they left a paper trail as long as the distance from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial outlining and rationalizing their illegal acts.
It's time for them to be held accountable.
It's time for Bus and Company to stand trial.
It's also time for Obama to grow a pair and appont a special prosecutor to handle the investigations and trials.
Until then, America and our claim to be a Christian, moral nation is forever stained.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Torture is wrong unless we do it
“We don't torture people in America and people who say we do simply know nothing about our country.” – President George W. Bush in an Interview with Australian TV - October 18, 2003.
As the recent releases of Bush Administration papers reveal, Bush lied.
Torture is illegal in the United States. Not sometimes, all the time. There are no exceptions to the rule.
One only has to read the convoluted paperwork of the Bush Administration to see the extreme they went to in order to rationalize and justify the crime of torture.
The people involved; Bush, people involved in creating the policy and those who carried out the torture should be prosecuted.
There is no excuse for what we did. It is ethically and morally reprehensible.
It is wrong.
And yet we continue to turn a blind eye, try to pretend it didn’t happen or rationalize it away.
And now the president I had hope for has opened with the German gambit (also called the Nuremburg Defense), the torturers were just following orders and won’t be prosecuted. That’s the same excuse Nazis used to justify torture and extermination camps. The Nuremberg Principles put a quick end that excuse.
Nuremberg Principle IV states:
"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."
The United States military adjusted the Uniform Code of Military Justice after World War II. They included a rule nullifying this defense, essentially stating that American military personnel are allowed to refuse unlawful orders.
“Our enemies didn't adhere to the Geneva Convention. Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us -- every single one of us -- knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.”
- Senator John McCain
Someone needs to show this quote to President Obama. It might remind him what our country is all about.
President Obama's decision in not prosecuting Americans who tortured detainees is reprehensible. Torture is illegal - these people broke the law - there is no excuse for torture. Letting the perpetrators get away with it sends a sickening message to the world.
The canard that they "were only following orders' is the excuse we wouldn't let the Germans and Japanese use after WW II. Why are Americans the only ones who get to use this excuse?
Shame on America for practicing torture and then not abiding by the laws we created in our country and helped create for international law to prevent torture.
What message does Obama’s decision send to the world? We are opposed to torture unless we do it, then its okay. What would the US do if our citizens were tortured like the detainees of Guantanamo or Abu Grahib or the secret little prisons around the world were we tortured people?
You can bet America would be up in arms if any of our citizens were tortured with the same techniques we have been using for the past six or seven years. We wouldn’t stand for it.
Why are we now?
All those who participated in torture and those who ordered it should be held accountable for their actions - and that means a trial. America needs to be the example of how laws should be followed.
We need to send a message loud and clear to the rest of the world. We are the beacon of liberty and freedom. We are a country of laws and we will follow them. Torture is never, never, never appropriate.
“The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.”
- President Ronald Reagan, May 20th 1988
Shame on Bush and his Administration for believing torture is appropriate.
Shame on Obama and his Administration for sweeping these crimes under the rug.
As the recent releases of Bush Administration papers reveal, Bush lied.
Torture is illegal in the United States. Not sometimes, all the time. There are no exceptions to the rule.
One only has to read the convoluted paperwork of the Bush Administration to see the extreme they went to in order to rationalize and justify the crime of torture.
The people involved; Bush, people involved in creating the policy and those who carried out the torture should be prosecuted.
There is no excuse for what we did. It is ethically and morally reprehensible.
It is wrong.
And yet we continue to turn a blind eye, try to pretend it didn’t happen or rationalize it away.
And now the president I had hope for has opened with the German gambit (also called the Nuremburg Defense), the torturers were just following orders and won’t be prosecuted. That’s the same excuse Nazis used to justify torture and extermination camps. The Nuremberg Principles put a quick end that excuse.
Nuremberg Principle IV states:
"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."
The United States military adjusted the Uniform Code of Military Justice after World War II. They included a rule nullifying this defense, essentially stating that American military personnel are allowed to refuse unlawful orders.
“Our enemies didn't adhere to the Geneva Convention. Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us -- every single one of us -- knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.”
- Senator John McCain
Someone needs to show this quote to President Obama. It might remind him what our country is all about.
President Obama's decision in not prosecuting Americans who tortured detainees is reprehensible. Torture is illegal - these people broke the law - there is no excuse for torture. Letting the perpetrators get away with it sends a sickening message to the world.
The canard that they "were only following orders' is the excuse we wouldn't let the Germans and Japanese use after WW II. Why are Americans the only ones who get to use this excuse?
Shame on America for practicing torture and then not abiding by the laws we created in our country and helped create for international law to prevent torture.
What message does Obama’s decision send to the world? We are opposed to torture unless we do it, then its okay. What would the US do if our citizens were tortured like the detainees of Guantanamo or Abu Grahib or the secret little prisons around the world were we tortured people?
You can bet America would be up in arms if any of our citizens were tortured with the same techniques we have been using for the past six or seven years. We wouldn’t stand for it.
Why are we now?
All those who participated in torture and those who ordered it should be held accountable for their actions - and that means a trial. America needs to be the example of how laws should be followed.
We need to send a message loud and clear to the rest of the world. We are the beacon of liberty and freedom. We are a country of laws and we will follow them. Torture is never, never, never appropriate.
“The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.”
- President Ronald Reagan, May 20th 1988
Shame on Bush and his Administration for believing torture is appropriate.
Shame on Obama and his Administration for sweeping these crimes under the rug.
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