Monday, Monday (redux)

It’s Monday, and I am not excited enough about anything to write about it. I’m guessing that I’m not alone. Oh, you may have more sense than to blog, but likely as not you have moments when nothing much seems to matter. It’s going to be the Phillies versus the Yankees. Big whup! Hundreds more have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, including American personnel. So what’s new? The Pope is inviting disgruntled Anglicans to become (disgruntled, I guess) Catholics. Historic, yes, but who really cares? My day to day routine is somewhat immune to all these things unless I let myself be interested, and so disinterest encourages itself. It’s alright, though, because tomorrow I’ll probably work myself into a dither about something.

Music Choice, My Old Lady, and Thou

I just now realized much to my surprise how little attention in the health care debate is being given to the distinction between mutual and corporate for-profit insurances. Mary and I both own New York Life insurance policies (that's not a mistake; policyholders own the company) . I don’t think that those who administer New York Life Insurance Company (not to be confused with NYLIAC) are thought of as anything but well compensated for their labors, but any financial growth experienced by the company is returned to policyholders in the form of dividends. Everyone is going to die. Nobody knows when. In a mutual company the risk is pooled so that the insured amount is available at whatever time it is needed. Wisely managed mutual insurance companies succeed by putting money back into the pockets of the owners, the policy holders.

A single payer, universal form of health coverage should provide mutual insurance for every citizen of the United States. (What is to be done with non-citizens will, I think, have to be addressed after every citizen is insured.) This defines the pool from which the risk is covered, and the dividend to citizens will be lower costs for unconditional coverage. This does not interfere with medical practices currently in place and will actually provide additional savings through lowered administrative costs. Our country has paid an inestimably high price for allowing corporations to profitably assume individual constitutional rights. When We the People contribute to the protection of one another, we reclaim our democracy. Our government should collect premiums calculated on the whole national population which will then fund unconditional health coverage for every citizen (this may lend a great new significance to the census figures). We the People demand that our tax dollars stop being paid to corporations!

How Low Must We Go?

I’ve often wondered about bottom point conversion. AA meetings are rife with testimonies of being as low as one could go before realizing the need to never touch another drop. Many Pentecostal movements bear the same testimony of waking up in the gutter to the realization that things must change. The prodigal son of Jesus’ parable is an excellent example. It was on the third day of rioting in Los Angeles that prompted Rodney King to ask the question, “Can we all get along?” The question becomes, must we experience the extreme in order to seek the reasonable, the rational. History seems to answer, yes. Even the Holocaust wasn’t enough to stop the ideological killing of human beings. Even Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren’t sufficient to lay bare the immorality of Mutually Assured Destruction. Even the crucifixion of the Prince of Peace hasn’t deterred eye-for-an-eye retaliation. I wish that I was smart enough to figure out the answer. But even a simpleton like me can figure out where all the killing ultimately leads.

Waxing Wednesday

A rare working lunch prevented me from posting yesterday, but to your a) joy, and/or b) consternation, I’m back at it today. Like everyone, I have good days and bad. Today for some reason is leaning toward the latter. I don’t feel very good, but given the prognosis for CML prior to the Gleevec that has put it into remission, I know that I could feel much, much worse. I draw strength from my family and friends only to lose some of it worrying about current affairs. I really ought to pay less attention to the news, but somewhere along the line I came to believe that that is irresponsible. I learned yesterday that my good friend and mentor, Nate Holt, died. I understand that as I age this is going to become more commonplace, but that still doesn’t assuage the empty feeling. I’m knocking on sixty’s door and wonder what it’s going to be like to pass through it. I truly believe that there is no one on Earth more blessed than I, but that Truth only shines through when selfishness doesn’t block it out. It’s Wednesday, October 21, 2009, and another day of my life is half over.

On Turning Tables

Consider the suicide bomber. Consider the shooter that murders others before killing himself. These are but two examples of how killing mutates when the perpetrator does not desire to hold on to her or his own life. It is the ultimate frustration of capital punishment. If the loss of one’s own life does not serve as a deterrent to murder, then how is killing to be prevented? Ironically, it is this permutation that offers insight into another way of dealing with killers. If someone is out to kill me, and if the most important thing to me is to preserve my own life, then I put myself in a position of having to kill in order not to be killed. But when preserving my own life is no longer the highest priority, the scenario is profoundly transformed. Growing up in Denver afforded me the opportunity to hear the disdain participants in the National Western had for what they called “drugstore cowboys”, those who liked to get all dressed up for the show but hadn’t been within a mile of a cow pie. It is in that vein that I would refer to “drugstore Christians” as those who have never bothered to examine the faith for themselves because they were willing to accept what someone else told them being a Christian is all about. A close examination of the story as it has come to us today cannot help but reveal that the truly remarkable thing about Jesus was his willingness to give his own life rather than retaliate. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 ASV) Those are nice words until one stops to think about what they really say.

Am I More?

Killing is the predatory mechanism that drives evolution through survival of the fittest. The food chain is an easily understood example of this. This is also the great irony, that taking life is necessary to sustain it. Someone more knowledgeable in the subject may well prove me wrong, but I doubt that the cheetah that runs down the gazelle is guilty of malice, but instead is simply trying to survive. The little fish is eaten by a larger fish which is eaten by a larger fish, and so on. This isn’t rocket science, but it is acknowledging the primal urge to live that is supported by killing. Some behaviorists regard humans as nothing more than sophisticated animals. Recent research into the ins and outs of human sex reduces the process to one of evolutionarily selecting a mate on the basis of perceived positive reproductive characteristics. Reproduction; there’s that wanting to live thing again. In a kill or be killed scenario, the gene pool is enhanced by those who successfully eliminate the inferior and the weaker. In this sense, the humans who are alive today are the product of the most successful killers. The killed just didn’t make the cut because they had no progeny. I understand how this is not a very flattering picture of the human condition, but one need look no farther than Nazi Germany to realize its deeply inherent truth. If human existence truly is nothing more than kill or be killed, the ideal will be achieved in the last man standing. But throughout the course of human history runs a thread of something more, the notion that humans have been created “a little lower than the angels.” (Psalm 8:5) This is what I’m going to concentrate on to try to answer for myself the question, If I am created in the image of my Creator, can I really lower myself to the kill or be killed paradigm?

They Killed Themselves!

As someone may have noted from my “above the law” addition to my photos link, a Metro officer is being laid to rest today. I’m sure with the assistance of Metro’s administration the media is hyping this as a hero’s funeral that is drawing brothers and sisters in blue from around the city, state, and nation. I guess that’s just protocol when someone wearing a badge dies in the line of duty, but the pending investigation will (this is an educated guess on my part) reveal that the officer basically killed himself. This is the second “suicide” by a Metro officer since last May. Both were driving recklessly. Neither had been dispatched. Both were traveling at excessively high speeds while purportedly trying to provide assistance to other officers. I suppose I’m being less than sympathetic. When the first officer was buried, I had to argue with Metro officers to gain admission to my own home. After all, this is the entertainment capital of the world and Metro puts on a grand show, blockading thoroughfares for miles to parade the deceased from church to cemetery. I’ve been behind the wheel of a squad car. I know what it’s like to start rolling to provide assistance to, in the case of a county, officers who were literally miles away from my location. I also know that it is extremely difficult to roll a squad car, as in the most recent incident. I could tell by looking at the television pictures of the first incident that the driver had been traveling at an insanely high rate of speed (the subsequent investigation revealed in excess of 100 miles per hour going through an intersection posted for 45 mph. No lights. No siren. Only a hapless civilian that got in the way of a one-ton bullet (fortunately, that driver was not killed). I doubt that law enforcement could find any more sympathetic supporter than me when it’s behaving within the parameters of the law that it is sworn to uphold. But don’t expect me to shed any tears, and not to be offended by the hypocrisy of a supposed hero’s funeral, when the truth is that these men put many lives at risk and suffered the consequence of losing their own.

Get Used To It!

Roughly 150,000 people around the world die each day. If anyone out there can calculate the percentage of those killed, I would be grateful. Death, as has been acknowledged in this blog many times, is the inevitable ultimate destiny of all living things. But to die a “natural” death as opposed to being killed is a stark contrast, almost a polarity on the continuum. 42,636 people were killed in U.S. automobile accidents in 2005 (is this really the most current data?) which calculated out to one death every 13 minutes. I’ll grant you that a death by accident is not the same thing as premeditated murder, but it is killing nonetheless when the death wouldn’t have occurred “naturally.” My point is this: we accept killing on so many levels that we are no longer repulsed by it. Indeed, we tend to glorify it. How many killings a year are simulated in books, movies and television? My training sergeant in the law enforcement academy stated simply, “A gun is for one thing, and one thing only, killing.” Even the NRA’s trumped up constitutional freedom for hunters can’t get around that one. I earned an expert rating on the police proficiency range by shooting at human silhouettes, a technique employed to make pulling the trigger on an actual human being easier. The hot topic of the day has been spun as the number of people who are killed each year because they don’t have health insurance? Let’s face it, we are killers. Now the only question is, do we find that acceptable?

In the Event Of Concern

I’m a little short on time today because I couldn’t unlock my computer after lunch. My good friend on the Helpdesk got me up and running. To try to put what he told me into laymen’s terms: we need to weatherproof our computers. Now you can understand why I’m not revealing his identity so that he won’t be plagued with insults from other IT personnel. Actually, weatherproofing the computer was my idea when told that today’s cloudy weather may be increasing the likelihood of static electricity. One small benefit of posting daily might be that upon missing a week or two, someone might come back to 406-02 and see if I’m still alive or not. So, this is actually turning into something of a public service announcement that I’m alive and well and there is currently no need to check on my welfare.

Americans, Arise!

President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today. I am an incredibly proud American right now. The world is telling us something, and true patriots will prove wise and humble enough to listen. The United States of America had the sympathy and good will of the world following 9/11 but watched it criminally squandered by those who did not care. The world applauds our election of Barack Obama as our President and is expressing that by the most prestigious, honored means possible. Now is not the time to give any mind to the naysayers, because the bitter fruit of which they eat makes them incorrigibly negative. We are at the dawn of the Earth community, and we can be proud that we have shown the world our good will by electing the best person to our highest office. “Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.”

***

Killing is a fundamental factor in determining the fittest survivors of a process of natural selection. The ability to kill is far more deterministic of survival than is rational thought. The irony here is that reason is the hallmark of intellectual survival. In some way, these two components of human being are in dynamic tension with one another, leading to a logical conclusion that the ultimate survivor will murder intellectually. Look around.

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Isn't April Fools Day on 04/01? Limbaugh to judge 2010 Miss America Pageant

From Faith in Love Comes Hope

Hope is the product of faith in love. For all the quarrels I conceitedly have with the Apostle Paul, I am definitely not alone in seeing the man’s theological genius expressed in 1 Corinthians 13. 1 John 4:8 proclaims that God is love. Therefore, hope is the product of faith in God. Far be it from me to try to improve upon perfection, but as Paul recites what love is and is not, in today’s world a useful addendum might be that love does not kill. This would be consistent with the Ten Commandments admonition against murder. It’s one thing to say that I believe in God, but it’s something altogether different to find hope from faith in love that does not kill.

I'm A Killer

I don’t consider myself a murderer, but I am a killer. I’m not a vegetarian. I sometimes wear leather. And while these are relatively mild confessions, I cross a significant line each April 15 when I pay my income tax (like the obedient citizen I’ve been raised to be). When you consider that the U.S. Department of Defense budget accounted in fiscal year 2009 for about 21% of the United States federal budgeted expenditures and 27% of estimated tax revenues, I think you begin to get my drift. I financially support the killing of hundreds of thousands of human beings every time I obey the law of the land. This doesn’t even begin to take into account the number of people who starve to death so that I may eat my way into obesity, the unknown thousands who die of disease and poverty so that I may sustain my moderate “middle class” lifestyle in the United States. While intent defines murder, I’m not so sure but what it may be even more insidious to kill without it. I am intrinsically woven into the web of life, and yet I ignorantly and callously enjoy a way of life that is at the expense of the lives of others. We humans flatter ourselves as the apex of creation, and yet our history in relative terms is but a twinkling of an eye. We are such cunning and capable killers that we may simply be forecasting our extinction. Our serious repentance, not just in word but through a conversion which reveres life as sacred, may be our only redemption.

Sweet, Sweet Revenge

So, how are we to deal with the killers among us? The primal urge is to take an eye for an eye, to retaliate by killing back. This is a common sense approach. It underlies everything from personal revenge to world war. It explains the common twisting of the Golden Rule into “do unto others before they do it to you.” Cinema and television have profited greatly by glorifying the supposed justice of revenge. Tex Sample, one of my favorite teachers, said that all one has to do to understand the antichrist is to watch a Western. The “good guy” is the one who kills the “bad guy”. When we are being violated, assaulted, or confronted is when we are least likely to ask, “What would Jesus do?” That’s a question developed by latter day Christians to spark interest in fund drives and charitable activities, but is rarely—if ever—asked when we are under attack. A killer has no reverence for life. This is why they are able to kill. To retaliate in kind, even if in defense, places us in the same category. I describe it as the primal urge because it is what comes most naturally to us, bred by millions of years of killing. If we find nothing wrong with killing, then let us proceed with gusto. It is only when we allow the glimmer of enlightenment to illuminate our souls that we may ask in all earnestness, “What did Jesus do?” The answer won’t be much to our liking.

There Are Killers Among Us

I returned to work today after a delightful weekend with Mom, Kim, Rebecca and Kevin. Much of the time was spent around the table just talking. It occurred to me that this may, as much as anything, explain why none of us have ever killed someone else. Kevin and I represent two generations that were not called upon to serve in the military, a decided advantage for those who choose not to kill. Three generations of women who have never killed anybody was probably not all that unusual, until one stops to think of what an exception to the global reality they all are. One of the things that Mom and I talked about was how the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible replaces the word “kill” in the Ten Commandments with “murder”. That was about as controversial as anything got about the release of the NRSV in a society that sprouts new translations or paraphrases with regularity. It was an important distinction, however, between killing plants to make food and the premeditated, intentional murder of another human. We have become so jaded in this respect that I’m sure it doesn’t matter much to the majority. Just as all of the “commandments” have morphed into “suggestions”, whether it be a prohibition against killing or murdering it still includes the conditional asterisk which spells out the times when it is acceptable, appropriate, and therefore not a violation. Semantics aside, killing is immoral.

A New Direction

With a heavy heart, I open with a portion of my journal entry for September 25:

First, we must accept that they will kill us. They have no inhibitions about killing. They have perfected weapons for killing. If they perceive that we are a threat, they will kill us. Who are they? They are those who kill.

As I draw within a quarter calendar of my sixtieth year, I am sobered by the somber realization that what it finally comes down to is this: there are human beings quite capable and willing to kill other human beings. Stanley Kubrick captured this pivotal moment in his film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, when one tribe discovered that it was possible to kill members of another tribe. The triumphant weapon is thrown into the air and dissolves into the 21st century.

I like to think of myself as a gray person, not prone to absolute black and white. I discover, however, that such relativism doesn’t agree with the distinction between those who can kill and those who cannot. The greatest mental argument within me when entering law enforcement was the understanding that I would carry a gun and might be called upon to use it. I rationalized that if it was in defense of an innocent, not including myself, I could pull the trigger. I have related before that upon three occasions during my six year tenure I found myself in situations where using deadly force would have been justified. I thank God (and I’m not saying that to be cute) that a higher power prevailed and I never had to discharge my weapon.

The history of humankind is replete with killing in all its various forms. Sometimes it has been regarded as necessary and justified. Other times it has registered as an evil and unforgiveable atrocity. But taking another life is killing, pure and simple. To those regular readers who don’t feel they have the desire or the stomach to proceed, I apologize. But as our human propensity to kill continually grows to apocalyptic proportions, I find that it is time to address the issue with candor. Kill or be killed. That is the question.