Vets

I'm celebrating Veteran's Day's Eve by watching American Sniper.  Just so you know, other than the little bit of risk in flying itself, I've never been in real harm's way.  My service happened between the first and second Gulf wars, so other than a very little surveillance in a relatively quiescent Iraq and normal Persian Gulf Ops in the 90s, I never faced live combat.  But watching these cinematic accounts without my filters (Black Hawk Down, Lone Survivor, Saving Private Ryan, et al.), it clarifies a few simple, excruciating truths.

1. We pay dearly for war.  It's our last, worst (and sometimes necessary) option.
2. The families pay. With every soldier, sailor, or airman who suffers loss of limb, life, emotional health, their people suffer just the same.
3. We are all a family, and when you take care of your own family, you're on the front lines of keeping our country strong.  When you take care of others, by whichever vehicle you choose, you're serving a greater good as well.  Thank the good Lord we don't all have to take up arms.  It's intense, damaging, sacrificial and courageous.  But you can do your fair share.  Not by clicking on something, but by actually engaging in real ways.  Get out of your seat, out of your comfort zone, and find your own path to giving in support of the greater good.  Find at least one way to take up your own cause and give until it hurts you enough to feel it, and know it's a small act compared to those who have given it all, or at least the best of themselves in support of the rest of us.

American fighting men live with modest pay (look here), frequently away from their loved ones, and often with severe risk.  We owe it to them to find a way to support them.  Even if you don't directly support a military organization or one of the many nonprofits helping them out, do yourself a huge favor and get some skin in the game.  You will NOT regret it.  Below are a few off the top of my head that deserve a piece of your productivity and some of your family's fortune -- after all, the signatories of The Declaration of Independence, our civic ancestors, made this pledge: "We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." With that sentiment, they created our country and way of life.  As inheritors of this legacy, we at least can afford a portion of our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Here are just a few ways you can participate in a real way to be part of the solution:
Contribute volunteer time or money to the USO, Support Our Troops, AMVETS, Wounded Warrior Project, The American Red Cross - Support our Military Families, or go to Charity Navigator and find a cause that resonates with you and meshes with your lifestyle and values.  And hey, bring your kids along for the ride, or even let them help you pick the beneficiaries of your efforts.  They learn from what you do more than anything else in the beloved world.  Your actions will be their pole stars.

Big Eating, Let's Retire This Abomination Already

Whether it's the 125 ounce steak at Ward's Steakhouse in Milwaukee or Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest, there is no purpose for seeing how much a person can eat.  As we move toward conservation of energy and resources (still, after starting 40 years ago), and as we work to combat obesity in America, and as we would, naturally, want to work toward a more perfect union, could we ditch the glorification of wasteful, unhealthy practices?

I have an idea: instead of encouraging these, let's put our excess energy literally and figuratively not where our mouth is.  There are a hundred possible alternatives -- many of which would give us a deep satisfaction to the cores of our souls.  In direct opposition to throwing away good food, how about helping with any of the anti-hunger initiatives from soup kitchens to food drives to school lunch programs for needy children to helping homeless people find the means to get off the street to mentoring young people on healthy life-affirming habits to donating day old baked goods and unused produce and expired food to those who need it.

In any event, if you would please pick something that serves your soul and your fellow travelers, you'll be be on the winning side of your deathbed reflections.  I know that's not for everybody -- it's easy to convince yourself that you did what you could, but when it comes to seriously facing your mortality and the honest legacy you left to mankind, you'll be giving up the sublime peace that comes from a life well lived.  If you're the religious, afterlife type, then you know there's no escaping the selfishness, Pontius Pilot-esque self delusion you go for when you're meeting your Maker.  If you're the humanistic, secular type, you've got nothing to work for except the to-the-core integrity that frees your conscience of stress.  OK, that's a little touch-feely, but it's also true.

Animals

Milan Kundera is credited with the quote, "Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. "

This, like most things, is one side of the story.  Given the aggregate of the human species from the first worship and awe of the animal-gods of the prehistoric world to the family picking up a dog at the pound, I wonder if the tenderness that shepherds might feel for their flock to the 165 million dog and cat pamperers in America today balances the fundamental debacle in an way.

Every bit of compassion stems from the human heart informed by some deep biological need to succor.  And the general slaughter of our feedstock through economic need (not real need, but economic) and prey of our hunters is a natural outcropping of the human condition, is simply neutral.  There is no universal mandate that we provide one iota of love to the animals we eat or kill for our protection, and yet even so, we sometimes do.  And though the small proportion of intentional torture and mistreatment (dog fighting, domestic violence, etc.) is reprehensible and indefensible, that is not an acceptable practice and is shunned and punished by society.

We've not been good at preserving nature in general, and globally, that could be considered a failure and in that way, we've been careless for a long time (since we've had enough of an impact on the earth the effect the mass extinction of species and the awareness of our capacity to do so).  The tide is turning in most developed countries where conservation can often debar the expansion of our human footprint, and many organizations work to preserve what we have.  But in that regard, we have been slow and resistant to learning.

That more people would agree with (and live by) the respect we want to show animals espoused by Kundera is evidence against the contention that we've failed as a race.

When you look deeper, life is precious.  We've allowed billions of animals to exist that otherwise would not have seen the light of day.  We've let cows suckle at their mother's teats and chickens to lay eggs, even if the conditions aren't subjectively ideal.  We've bred chickens who excel at laying eggs and raised them to do so. Like the slums of Calcutta, is the hard life of its human inhabitants an abomination that should not exist and a debacle?  I agree that the acute disparity between the rich and the destitute is sad, I don't relegate the existence of the destitute to failure.

All in all, I have to disagree.  Because we could do better is not enough to condemn the practice of raising animals and killing them for food to the status of a debacle.