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.

Where Wealth Redistribution Lies

You hear the negative tone from the Right repudiating wealth distribution as a socialist corruption of democracy and capitalism.

Here's the question: Are they stupid, blind, or obfuscating?

Let's go with reality instead of philosophy for a second.  The real story of wealth redistribution is the shift of wealth from the lower and middle class to the wealthy over the last 50 years.  When the rich control politics which influences government (which makes the rules about taxes and their distribution, fiscal policy, minimum wage, labor law, etc.), it's just what I'd expect.  They end up getting richer and more powerful on the backs, and from the pockets. of the rest of us.  Wage inequality and the wealth redistribution in this country is out of control (to use technical systems analysis jargon).  If it keeps up, it's a positive feedback loop that will continue to weaken America (against a hypothetical potential of what it could be) until the top-heavy wealth distribution leads to increasing desperation and it tumbles.  Trickle down just didn't really work, did it.

The smartest long-term action for the currently wealthy is to change course and increase the wages of the poor and lower middle class to help more of them reach financial stability because their collective confidence in their situation creates economic stability instead of slaves that will eventually check out (happening more and more when you look at the unemployed, no longer looking for work, which turns them into bigger burdens).

What are the odds, though, of the wealthy (who hold corporate purse strings) voluntarily shrinking the wage gap between the higher and lower wages within their control?  Keep margins the same, but switch the salary scale way to the left of what it is now.  Costco versus Walmart.  Starbucks versus McDonalds.

Police are Human. But Good Humans, please.

Police need to be better (on the average) than the people they're arresting, right?  They should, on the average, be a better behaved than normal folks while on the job, exercising the public trust to enforce the law.  When off the job, they should be like us, but still not criminal.  "Oh, you're doing 75 in a 65?  Yeah, well, no problem."  But if you're going to wear the badge, you can't be committing felonies, stalking people, abusing your families, going off the deep end.  We need emotionally healthy people exercising power over others.

So, if they commit an honest error and maintained their and the perp's dignity, and are like, "My bad,"  we should be like, "No, I got you, man."  But when they are arrogant, scofflaw-ish, thuggish, or negligent, we should be rightfully, "Oh no you didn't!"  On duty, they need to be held to higher standards than the civilians.

How does a police officer act to the suspect who doesn't answer questions?  Well, of course they're not going to like it because it gets in the way of their doing the job.  How should I act to the police officer who does not offer and does not answer when asked why I'm being pulled over or detained?  When I heard the tape today of a black man being pulled over and asking why he was being detained over and over again, only to be met with silence, I can no longer be on the side of this officer.  I WANT to be on the side of the police!  I WANT to believe that the police officer was being a good, honest person like me!  A trustworthy and effective law enforcement program make me feel safe and protected from those who would do me harm.  Anything that puts that into jeopardy makes me want to prepare to take my protection on myself, get a gun, and makes me skittish if I'm ever pulled over for some minor infraction (like jaywalking or taillight).

Partial Water Solution -- Start from basic rights.

From a residential standpoint, can we start by agreeing on a minimal amount each person needs for basic living?  Say, 3 flushes, 5 gallons for shower, 2 gallons for cooking, 5 gallons for cleaning, 5 gallons per week to wash clothes.  Whatever it is, for every man, woman, and child in a household, that should be granted for a flat and affordable, administrative fee (the water itself, free). Say $5 a month?  $10.  For every gallon after that, you pay a higher rate up to double the average usage amount.  When you hit triple, you pay a way higher rate.  Quadruple, way higher. If you want to use 10 times the amount of water a person needs to live a reasonable, basically hygienic life, you need to pay whatever it takes to provide the additional infrastructure (water, energy to move or process it, additional through-put, administer, etc.)

So if you just can't do without your own swimming pool, fine.  But you're going to pay for that luxury.  You want a big yard that sucks water?  You pay more.  You want to provide some of your produce from your garden and fruit from your trees?  Fine, you pay more.  You want to wash your car at home?  Pay for it.

That way, people who are saving absolutely, not compared to some arbitrary "historical usage" or whatever other unit not based on the human right to water, That way, the homeowners are incentivized to conserve or literally pay for the infrastructure to produce more fresh water for luxurious purposes.  And the economically struggling are not gouged.  The conservative minded can spend their money on other luxuries, like travel, solar panels, etc.

Egregious Rush To Judgment

Egregious rush to judgment?

Tell that to the black men killed by police who have immediately judged and killed them on the street.  Are you trying to tell me there wasn't enough evidence to bring the officers up on charges?

Please.  Who are you trying to convince?  "... for something that my simply be negligence?"  Please.  I can't even hear you when you say that.  It fails the reasonable man (person) theory.  You are clearly being political.

Suppression and Its Devastating and Inexorable Effects

When a human experiences a severe trauma while young, it will manifest itself in unpredictable ways, but it will.  PTSD is real and almost always negative, frequently severely debilitating.  There is no ignoring it.  We're still learning how to treat this disorder, but it seems addressing the root cause is critical, as well as managing the symptoms and destructive damaging behaviors.

A country or a people is the same way.  When it has undergone serious trauma, like Slavery and the Civil War which sought to end it, the healing is going to be a long-term endeavor, and not directly dealing with the deep wounds requires taking an unflinching look at the lacerations and inflammation is not enough, just as in a physical injury.  Risk of infection exists with the potential to deeply harm the nation.  I believe inadequate healing is what we are suffering from, and any denial will leave diseased tissue.  It requires a solution that, like a general antibiotic that travels throughout the whole organism, it heals the infection nation-wide.

Maybe someone wants to develop a cancer analogy that works.  But the unrest in and around the country are, in my view, a natural flare up from a function of our inability to truly look at who we are as a nation, what we've done to wrong ourselves, and do what it really takes to return to full "mental" health as a nation.

We are suffering because we have continued to impose suffering on sectors of our population, and the protests are a natural expression of pain.  We know it's there, and it's not going away until we, all of us, bring our full resources to bear.

Travon

I have a hard time with someone aggressively following and approaching someone, armed, inciting a fight, starting to get beat, shooting and killing their target, and then calling self-defense or "stand-your-ground."  That's neither in the spirit of self defense or stand your ground in my opinion.  Zimmerman was clearly the original perpetrator, harassing a person who didn't deserve it.

There's no way he can be justifiably exonerated.  He may not be guilty of pre-mediated murder.  (He may, but I don't know of any such evidence aside from going out armed, looking to get in a tangle.)  But he's guilty of being an asshole, starting a fight, and killing someone as a result of his actions.