Blog 437 – 10.17.2016

Prior to World War II the U.S. federal department of military affairs was called The War Department. The symbol of the War Department was an American Eagle holding arrows in one set of talons and in the other an olive branch. The eagle’s head was turned to face the arrows. After the war the name of the department was changed to The Department of Defense and the eagle’s head was turned to face the olive branch. Up until the campaign called Iraqi Freedom,which began in 2003 and ended up being longer that the Vietnam War, the United States military had only gone to war after actual provocation. This was our first so called preventative strike and the evidence of actual weapons of mass destruction were never found nor was the link to the 911 attacks ever proved.

In football as in the military it is a truism that the best offense is a good defense. Still many are coming to the belief that a defensive posture actually invites an attack. A closer look at actual history reveals that the Russian placement of nuclear capable missiles in Cuba in 1961 was a direct result of our having placed supposed defensive ballistic missiles in Turkey aimed at Russia.  Some say tensions over those defensive missile placements by both us and the Russians brought us the nearest we have come to nuclear destruction of the third planet, home to billions of our brothers and sisters and countless other creatures of beauty and magnificence.

In nature it is true that some creatures feed on others and we humans feed on them. But only mankind makes war. And turning an eagle’s head or calling a military department by a different name does not change it’s true function. Till we learn that all defensive actions are really acts of war the fighting, death, and destruction will continue. But I believe the great weapon of mass inclusion, Love, when deployed worldwide and aimed in every direction, will decide a better outcome than any war ever did or ever could. And then the Department of War/Defense will forever close. It certainly will free up a lot of cash and resources to do a lot of other more life affirming things. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one.”

I saw a movie preview for a new war movie coming out soon called “Hacksaw Ridge.” The movie is about one young man who wanted to serve his nation but did not want to take lives but rather to save as many as he could. I sat there crying like a baby as he kept praying, “Please let me save one more.” and then got up off his knees and put legs to his prayers. To me that is the best kind of praying when we intend what we want, and then act like our prayers have already been answered. Someone has said, “Pray like it all depended upon God (The Universe) then act like it all depends on you.”

The song says, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” I was a soldier once and spent eleven months in the Republic of South Vietnam. I call it my long hot summer. I will be forever grateful that I never had to shoot at anyone nor was ever shot at. So many did not have that experience during their tour in Vietnam. I wept at the wall in Washington, DC for my brothers ans sister who died and the Vietnamese brothers and sisters who died with them on both sides of that conflict and all the civilian casualties of that terrible war too. All wars are terrible things. I have as another song says, “Laid down my sword and shield down by the riverside. I ain’t gonna study war no more.” The sword is an offensive weapon and the shield a defensive weapon. Some day we will lay them both down. The Indigo Girls sing, “Someday those toughies will be withered up and bent, the father, son, the holy warriors, and the President. Glory days of put up dukes for all the world to see, beaten into submission in the name of the free…We’re in a revolution, I have heard it said. Everyone’s so busy now but do we move ahead. Planets hurling, atoms splitting, and a sweater for your love you sit there knitting.” Rosie Greer, a famous football player of my youth, knitted, would we all could lay down our swords and shields and take up knitting or something more productive and life affirming to do with our hands.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

 David White