The Reward for a Job Well Done is More Work!

I am beginning to realize why bureaucrats are the way they are.  In my military career I was taught to strive for excellence.  The cost of failure was too great not to.  Now that I am just a paper pushing bureaucrat I have attempted to carry that same ethos to my job.  I rise early, I am in before I am obligated to, I work until after I am obligated to and I seem to do a pretty fair job at the tasks assigned me.  I've never been wed to the 40 hour work week -- it was all about getting the job done.

As I complete my assigned responsibilities I look around and it does not appear I am the atypical employee.  We have people who spend their day surfing the internet, chatting with friends and families on the phone, and making sure they are, at the minimum, in their car when their 40 hours comes to an end.  These people are given jobs, they perform those jobs and then wait for someone to give them another job.

What I have found is when I exceed expectations, my boss congratulates me and puts me on to his next pet project.  I seem to have 60 hours of stuff to cram into my 40 hours.

Funny thing, when I retired from the Air Force I looked forward to a more relaxed life.  My goal was to drive the monorail at Disney World, but they wouldn't answer my requests for an interview.  Right now that monorail looks pretty inviting.  At least I would know what direction I am going in.

Life of a Balloon, Update 2

I am 7 weeks old tomorrow

I have obviously underestimated how long a happy contented helium balloon can last.  Here we are in week 7 and he is still hovering over me.  He moves a little slower but he is still able to keep it up (the positive attitude, what did you think I meant?)

Voices

In the quiet of the day we all hear voices.  They come from our past, our conscience, our parents, or our pastors; they guide us in the decisions of our lives.  Too many push these voices away choosing to listen to others, their friends, the media, or to celebrities who routinely show a less than solid grasp of responsible life.

The voices I speak of should not be confused with the voices of a schizophrenic mind where they dominate his/her world as reality slips away.  My voices are quiet, subtle reminders of what is important and how I govern my life.

Last night there was an interview with Scott Brown, the junior senator from Massachusetts and it appears he is not following the script the political analysts and self-serving pundits have written for him.  He was to storm into Washington and become the hero that saved the Republican Party and led the way for the Tea Party to gain dominance.  He has angered those in his party with his support of some of President Obama’s initiatives, and he has voted for greater control of Wall Street, working with Representative Barney Frank to find compromise.  Not meaning to toot my own horn but I think I called this in Jan 10. Much Ado About Little

Scott Brown is turning out to be the rarest of rare, a politician that does what he says he will, thinks for himself and appears to put the interest of the constituency first.  He is hearing voices, clearly.  Whether I agree with him or not is irrelevant; he is being honest with himself and with others.  I wonder how long he will last before the system corrupts him.

Dealing with Uncertainty

We live in uncertain times.  We are in a protracted war, we have a fragile economy, the nation is divided between two factions, the President is espousing ideas that divide us, and according to some the end of the world is just around the corner.

Sounds terrible, except these same statements could be applied to us in 1865, and about a dozen other years in our nation’s history.  It could also be said about every nation at some time or another.  The one take away for me is life is uncertain.  You do the best you can with what you have, you worry about what you can fix, you strive to support those who need support and you be honest with yourself and others.

A Simple Question

Life is full of simple questions that, unfortunately, generate complex answers.

Three major religions share a common God, why can't they bring people together?

When does human life begin?

What should we use our collective tax dollars for?

Will Boston win the world series?

How Do You Know a C-5 Galaxy Has Landed Gear-Up?

C-5 touching down

We were chatting today about stories from the past and I recalled a time when I was stationed at Mather AFB, Sacramento, California.  Just down interstate 80, towards San Francisco, was Travis AFB.  At Travis they had C-5's and C-141 Starlifters.

One day as we were getting ready for a flight a friend came in and asked if I had heard the news about the C-5 accident.  I hadn't so he went on to tell me about it.  The C-5 is a very big airplane and there had always been this joke.  "How do you know when your C-5 has landed gear up?"  the answer was "It takes mil-power to taxi!" (Mil-power is short for military power and it is roughly equal to full power +)

The night before; a crew was practicing approaches to improve their proficiency in approaches and landings.  They were scheduled for 30 approaches.  Apparently they flew 29 of them just right.  On the last landing of the night, the one that was to end the mission they forgot to put the landing gear down.

As they touched down, sparks started to fly from where the aircraft was scraping along the runway.  The tower called out they had appeared to have a wheel fire so they put the engines in idle, and started to apply brakes to stop quickly so the fire trucks could get to them.  It was about that time, as the airplane started to slide off the side of the runway they realized the brakes weren't working (because the wheels were still in the wheel well), and they figured out they had forgotten to lower them.

I don't think either of the pilots flew C-5s again after that little mistake.  But it did finally provide the definitive answer to the age old question. "How do you know you've landed your C-5 with the gear up?  Differential braking has no affect!"

County Government

We often criticize government; it is too impersonal, to wasteful, it over regulates, it under regulates or is self-serving.  These are easy things; the harder choice is to participate.  When we sit back it is easier for the city or the county to push off problems to the state or the federal governments and say to its citizens this is not within my ability.

Last evening I was dragged, kicking and screaming, by my wife to a “storm-water runoff workshop” with the county commissioners.  I listened as the public works superintendent explained his annual operations budget was about $1 million and with federal and state grants he had about $1.5M available to fix identified problems that exceed $50M.  His only option was to be reactive, to fix things as they broke, and not get out ahead of the issues and implement unfunded federal and state mandates, or those projects that could prevent catastrophic property damage during periods of heavy rainfall, like a hurricane.

The commissioners listened as various speakers came to the podium.  One from the northeast part of the county complained about water runoff from a landfill and how it was destroying her community, ruining her health and the health of the children in her community.  She cited toxin levels for chemicals I am sure were not good, and the residual problems from this closed landfill.  Unfortunately by the end it boiled down to personal criticism of specific individuals.

Another, claiming to represent Lewis Farrakhan, used the forum for the traditional self-serving purpose of attacking an all white commission.  A third, representing a neighborhood adjacent to an industrial park made an excellent presentation discussing how the lack of adequate storm-water management was destroying his community, causing catastrophic damage to neighborhood homes, and creating innumerable problems for this low-income community.

I was afforded the opportunity to speak to the commissioners on the impact of uncontrolled runoff in the Northgate community and problems with the Gap Creek water basin. 

We ask a lot of our commissioners, but this is where government really meets the local needs.  If these men cannot, or will not, find ways to address the problem -- who else will?  In talking with them I am convinced some are willing to make the hard choices necessary to move this county forward.   Others appear married to the same population pleasing position of “we can not raise taxes.”  The implication of this is lets try and get someone else to pay for it.  At the end of the day the money, if any is to come, will come from some ones taxes.  If we as a county do not stand up to the requirements of our county why should we expect someone else to?   My question to those commissioners who want to bury their heads, to say it is too hard, to appease those who want to pay no taxes and still have full public service, why seek to govern if you are unwilling to do so?

Clouds

Clouds are remarkable things.  While they are just a natural element, moving water around the earth, showering it on some, drenching others, and snowing on the North this time of year, they are capable of being whimsical or threatening all based on the water to air ratio.

I bet each of us, at least once in our lives, as laid on an open meadow and watched the clouds, and imagined what their shapes could be.  Of course we have the traditional fluffy sheep, the big castles, the airplanes and maybe even a Ferrari or two.  At those times weren't they really just mirrors into our hearts?

Other times the clouds band together to take their revenge on those below.  They gang up and become rogue storms that lash out at the helpless unsuspecting land below them.

Sometimes clouds come down to see what we are doing and they cover our eyes and restrict our vision, as if saying look inside and see what is there.

As Judy Collins sings, "I've looked at clouds from both sides now" and the beauty of a Thunder cloud on top is inspiring in its power.

I guess clouds are a lot like us, or we are a lot like clouds, in a sort of metaphysical way.  I know some who are light and fluffy, others who are dark and threatening and some who just drizzle their lives away.

Have a fluffy cloud day!

Valentines Day

When do you know that Valentine's day has lost that special luster?  When you receive a teeth whitening kit from your wife.  Actually according to my wife my teeth have lost that special luster.

Crossroads

It seems life is always at a crossroad, you would think once we are set on a path it would be clear and straight, but life isn’t like that.  It is filled with hills and valleys, potholes and construction, and there are always intersections where you need to make a choice.  So many of us think we are on some kind of super highway where we’re just passengers in a life driven by someone else.

I really believe each intersection we come to offers wonderful choices, if we have the courage to make and own them once made.  So many people today make poor choices and then find fault with society, their families, their friends or anyone but themselves.  I fear these victims of the road; they will never see the crossroads in front of them.   They will go through life kind of like bumper cars banging around into other lives on the road they travel.

Obviously this analogy is not original with me and I don’t do justice to this idea nearly as well as Tom Cochrane did when he wrote “Life is a Highway,” but his concept is compelling.  It ties nicely into my view that each of our lives is a line whose beginning is known, but the end is not.  We don’t know if it will be a long or a short one, but if we are to live it to its fullest we need to stretch it as straight and as taunt as possible.

As Saint Patrick said:

May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

May the rains fall soft upon your fields,

And, until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Things You Probably Shouldn’t Do While Flying Air Force Airplanes

One upon a time in a far away land a young group of men took off from Karachi, Pakistan headed for Incirlik, Turkey, a distance of about 2300 nautical miles, or about 8 to 9 hours flying time.  We were flying airways, at night, in the part of the world where, at the time, not much was happening. 

As we flew over Iran there were long legs were you couldn’t talk with ground controllers and there was no one else in the air.  About three hours into the flight the aircraft commander decided he was going to take a nap and crawled up into the bunk the C-130 has.  (I’ve looked for a picture of this arrangement, but apparently it isn’t interesting enough for anyone to have posted it.)  The bunk is about two feet from the top of the aircraft and like a sleeper car on a train it offers just enough room to crawl in and sleep, if you can put the noise of the aircraft in the background.  The head of the bunk folds out of the way when not in use, and if you stick some publications in the crack it can be angled up to create a more comfortable arrangement.

This left the copilot in one seat and I climbed into the other since the navigation was on airways and we needed to have both pilot seats occupied.  After about 30 minutes we got a little bored with the steady drone of the aircraft and started looking for something we could do to make the flight a little bit more interesting.  We were flying across Iran at about FL 250 (about 25,000 feet) and thought it might be fun to see how high we could get the C-130E.  We didn’t have a lot of cargo so a quick check of the books indicated we might be able to make FL 330.  For us in the old C-130 that is nose bleed territory.  We talked with Tehran control and they approved our climb.  They did ask us to confirm what type of aircraft we were in but after that we were good to go. 

We pitched the plane up to best climb speed and started on up.  We made FL290 without any problem, and then up to 30.  As we approached FL310 we started to run out of energy and the airspeed started slipping back.  We would level out, regain our speed and try it again.  Finally Tehran started asking if we were going to make 330 or not.  We put them off for a few minutes and finally admitted defeat, pushed up to FL310 so we could say we were there and then got clearance to drop back to FL290.

After a little while it was time to go wake up the aircraft commander so he could relieve the copilot.  I got out of the seat, and went back to wake him up.  Before I did I looked down on my lunch from the Embassy in Karachi and noticed the hard-boiled egg.  All my friends had told me that if you put an egg up to the sextant port you could suck it right out of the airplane.  There is a huge pressure differential between the inside of a pressurized airplane and the thin atmosphere almost six miles up.  The sextant port was about two feet from my sleeping Captains head, and is a small opening where we would hang the sextant for celestial navigation.  It had a lever that opened a sliding trap door so we could extend the periscope portion of the sextant.  So I figured before I woke him I would put the egg overboard.  What none of my friends told me was how loud it would be when you put a silver dollar size hole in the airplane and cabin air rushes out.

As the egg exits the aircraft to the noise of a rapid rush of air (think about the loudest industrial vacuum cleaner you’ve ever heard), the aircraft commander bolts upright in reaction to what sounds like a huge problem.  He slams his head on the ceiling (remember 2 feet from bed to ceiling?) and falls back into the bed.  Ken was normally a pretty quiet and mild mannered guy.  I don’t think he was very happy with me right then, at least the number of profanities he used would suggest he was just a tad upset.

After we get him calmed down, out of the bunk and he finds out we are at 29,000 feet he starts to figure out going to sleep and leaving a couple of lieutenants unsupervised was probably poor judgment on his part.  The rest of the flight was kind of quiet except for an occasional “if you ever” coming out of the AC.

Finding Balance

As we grapple with the problems of each day it is easy to forget about yesterday, and tomorrow.  The danger if we do is we may come to a false solution – one that provides an immediate remedy, but leaves a much larger long-term problem.  I think we gain much if we look toward major religions and philosophies, and perhaps add a dash of Ben Franklin for good measure, on how we should govern our lives.

Lets start at the beginning… Don’t eat forbidden fruit.  It can cause a whole lot of problems, starting with realizing you’re naked, getting cavities, pain in child birth and oh yes… lets not forget about original sin.  I think the important lesson here is when God say’s you shouldn’t do it, it is probably good to listen.  Of course in today’s electronic age we really don’t often get those burning bush and deep voices from the clouds moments of yesterday.   The communication is a little subtler and requires some amplification by the soul. 

Confucius said, “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.” Which loosely translates into King James as “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” Luke 6:31.  Which, in turn, roughly translates into modern American as “Dude, me U ok?”  This “Golden Rule” is also found in Buddhism, Bahá’í Faith, the code of Hammurabi, and about 1 in 15 fortune cookies so it has got to be pretty important.  I think it is good advice especially if the other you would do onto is bigger than you.

Yin and Yang, symbolized by a circle with white and black in opposition, is the Chinese understanding of how nature works.  Forces in opposition are the engines that drive nature and suggest the balance that must be maintained.  As the current web dating services would put it “opposites attract” but I don’t think that is nearly as deep as what the Chinese came up with.

So where does this leave us?  As Ben Franklin would say if he was alive today, "One, whiz, with" because a man of his refinement would surely order a Philly Cheesesteak from Pat’s.  But since he’s not alive today he said “All human situations have their inconveniences.  We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.   Which is, I think, where I started!  

Have a great day!

Life of a Balloon, Update

My Balloon is now six weeks old, which must be like 110 in balloon years!  I think I see cataracts forming and it is not as jovial as it once was.  Like me it doesn’t seem to move around as much as before, but it hasn’t asked to float over the bathroom like some balloons I know.

Antelope Island

There is an island in the Great Salt Lake.  I am told Jim Bridger named it Antelope Island after the native wildlife he found when he discovered it in the early 1800’s.  It is reached by driving on a long causeway from just south of Ogden.

One warm and sunny day around 2002 I finished work early in a conference I was attending at Hill Air Force Base.  I decided I would take a ride over to this beautiful spot to see what I could see.  Imagine my surprise as I reached the island and the first thing I see is a monument with an Air Force Special Operations Command Shield and a Ranger Tab on it.  I pulled in to see what it was all about and the memories came flooding back.

In early 1992 I was a mission commander for a small task force charged with providing search and rescue support of US Air Force fighters and cargo aircraft flying from Incirlik Air Base, Turkey into Northern Iraq as part Operation Northern Watch.  I had under my command three MC-130P Combat Shadow aircraft and four MH-60G helicopters, along with combat controllers and PJ’s.  During that time the leader of the helicopter force was Lt Col Roland Peixotto, "Randy" was the DO of the 55^th Special Operations Squadron from Hurlburt Field, FL.  We had a very good working relationship and I came to rely on his opinion and advice.  Randy came from a family of US Army Generals, all from West Point.   He had graduated from West Point and served a number of years with the Army, but had made the decision to transfer to the Air Force when his career would have required him to stop flying and lead ground forces.  After about six weeks I rotated back to my unit and soon after Col Peixotto and his men loaded up on a C-5 and flew back to Hurlburt.

AFSOC was not a very big command and most of us seemed to end up serving or overlapping with each other on assignments.  I expected I would see Randy again.

I think Randy was given command of the 55^th that summer.  The following October, elements of the 1^st Special Operations Wing, including the 55^th SOS, and elements of US Army Special Operations Command, including elements of the 160^th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and 75^th Ranger Regiment were conducting a training mission from Hill AFB into an objective area across the lake.  The weather on the day of the mission was not forecast to be bad but it did have low ceilings, light gusting wind, light rain and no moon illumination.  This led to conditions where their night vision goggles where only marginally effective.  The Air Force MH-60G’s were leading US Army MH-60Ls carrying a small force of Army Rangers into the objective area.  The formation took off from Hill AFB at approximately 9:15PM turning west towards the objective area.  A little less than five minutes later it is believed the pilot flying the lead MH-60G call sign Merit 81, developed vertigo and flew the aircraft into the lake, crashing just north of the causeway and Antelope Island.  Twelve men were killed, and one survived.  Those 12 men are memorialized on the Antelope Island.

Their names:

US Army:  Col John T. Keneally, LTC Kenneth W. Staus, Sgts Blain A Mishak and Harvey E Moore, Jr., Specialist Jeremy B. Bird.  All were Rangers

US Air Force:  LtCol Roland E. Peixotto, Jr, Capt Michael L. Nazionale, TSgt Mark Scholl, Sgts Phillip A. Kesler, Steven W. Kelly and Mark G. Lee, and Sr Amn Kerek C. Hughes.  All were Air Commandos

This link is to a geo-caching site that describes what you find at the memorial.  

Memorial on Antelope Island, UT

What Makes Us Individual?

I remember one of my grade school teachers talking about snowflakes.  Each one was unique and individual – of the millions that fell no two were exactly alike.  Although I don’t recall it coming up in the lesson, each of us humans are like snowflakes.  We are individuals, unique from all others.  True, some of us may be flakier than others but still we are unique.  Why is that?

Society attempts to make us the same but it fails.  Education, as a subset to society, teaches us the same stuff, but we each learn our own lessons.  Most parents attempt to treat each child equally but still some children flourish and some flounder under the same parents.   The church teaches a variety of messages and each takes to heart or rejects them as they individually see fit (at least in America).

Here are some individual questions I ask.

Some see the role of government to take wealth from the haves and distribute it to the have not’s, while others see the role of government to foster the creation of wealth for those who prosper.  For those who believe all wealth belongs to the state and it is the states role to distribute that wealth why did the USSR fail?

Some Americans see America as evil, while others see us as a beacon for the rest of the world.  Of all the examples in the world what is a better option for us?

Some see terrorists as great, while others see terrorists as cowards.  Why anyone glorifies an individual who kills innocents is beyond me, but some do.  What is it about a terrorist that makes them great?

Finally, what makes us individuals?

What if? pt 2

What if all the ministers of a church decided it was time to have a war?  Do we get a pass if we just say no?  How do we fight a holy war when most Americans aren’t convinced we are in one?  Can a secular state actually fight and win a holy war?

What do you do when the people you believe should be arguing for peace are actually the ones inflaming the population?  Is there room for common ground and peaceful resolution?

What if one side finds it acceptable to send children to blow themselves up?  Is there a way to stop their inhumanity and still support religious freedom?

I sure wish I knew the answers to these!

About Carts and Horses

Our forefathers learned a long time ago it really works better if we have the horse out in front of the cart.  Horses appear to be a lot better at pulling things than pushing them.

It is apparent from their actions, todays legislators have forgotten that concept.  We spend so much time talking about the cart and what it will do for us; we forget we need a horse.  Lets take health care for example.  I am not advocating for or against the principles of universal health care, government funded health care, private health care or all the options on the table.  But as part of that discussion what we didn’t get from the sponsors and other advocates was any real approach to making it sustainable for the future.  They sold us a very nice cart, but not the horse to pull it.  So here we sit in our cart, as the courts and the politicians continue to argue about who is going to push us along.

Both the Democrats and Republicans are guilty of this foolishness.  For the Republicans their cart of choice is tax cuts.  Everything they want to do is based on tax cuts.  Nowhere do they bring up what the horse is that will make that a sustainable long-term approach.  Ronald Reagan proposed massive tax cuts as a way to pull us from the rampant unemployment and inflation of the Carter years.  It worked, but we forget he also advocated for smaller government.  So with Reagan we got the tax cut cart, but not the smaller government horse that would make it sustainable.  That is why our debt is now blowing through the roof and every couple of years Congress has to authorize a new ceiling.

Maybe we should erect a statue in front of the Capital that shows their approach? 

Life in No Particular Order

In the quiet of a house asleep I can put my mind to rest and let it wander to far off places.  Some I’ve been to, some not, but all are dreams that bring me to an uplifting place.  I think these flights of fantasy are what separate us from the other animals on this sphere, and also from each other.  It is sad to think some go through life, trudging along without dreams, without desires and without hope, or whose life is so burdensome they do not see the joy awaiting them tomorrow.

In flight I see the rush of the cloud tops as we climb from the gray of a California winter into the bright sunlit spaces above the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The clouds are an ocean of white below, filling the valleys and covering the towns, but as they wash against the mountains they seem like waves of the ocean.  Each time I did this during my four winters in Sacramento the world was made new for me, my purpose in life understood and a hope to see the light of tomorrow renewed.

Walking through the Christmas kinder-fest in Vienna during a cold snowy Thanksgiving weekend reminds me of the common heritage I share with the Europeans.  I see in them the same joys of children, the spirit of the Christmas season I have and I marvel at a beautiful city their ancestors’ created, and they and we have repaired from the damages of the second Great War.  The city is alive with humanity, each in their own world, yet each connected to one another in this one.

Mile after mile the road travels in an endless straight line.  The interstate is still young and its path has not yet fully matured.  Occasionally I am detoured off to the roads of yesterday where I drive through the towns that will soon be isolated and alone because the interstate has taken their life.  The country is flat as far as the eye can see.  Corn and wheat by the peck, by the bushel, by the train car full is growing to feed the nation and the world.  I think as I drive, leaving home to start my adult life, about how far this nation has come in just the 70 years since the century was new.  At the turn of the century the majority of our nation worked the land, following livestock pulling simple machines, just as their fathers and grandfathers had done.  On this day I see huge combines doing the work of 10 men, cutting the corn, separating cob from stalk and wheat from chaff, preparing it for its future role as feed for us or our cattle.

Filling my car with gas in an isolated gas station on the great salt flats I say hi to the other driver, coming from the opposite direction.  We exchange pleasantries, about the day, the wonder of Utah and where we are from and where we are going.  Normal conversation that reveals an amazing truth, we are both from the same county in New York – the one I am leaving and she returning to.  This is a small world.  Through my life I will find this truth revealed often.

Resting on a West Virginia mountaintop, watching the clouds form, I wonder why God does not answer me.  Why must I answer my own questions in the tears of youth?  Why has he abandoned me in this life?  Slowly, in the quiet of the mountains he is revealed and my questions are answered.  Not in the way I want but in the way he is.  The beauty of nature, the strength he provides, the light of the peace he offers.  I come to find his strength and he is there to share it.  I find for me the strength of his word is in each of us, perhaps it is louder in a collective, but God looks to us as individuals not as collectives.

Space, the vast reaches beyond the sky.  I watch as man sets foot on the Moon and imagine what it must be like.  The scientists, engineers, technicians and the astronauts (and cosmonauts) all show us a way to the future.  Will we be able to continue that journey or will we lose our way?  The answer to that is yet to be determined, but I am worried we will stop looking up and begin to trudge along day to day, without desire and without hope.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Riot!

Egypt is in the middle of a civil uprising.  Our television news teams are tripping over each other to cover this momentous event.  There are huge implications to US national interest and foreign policy.  The specialist’s the various channels are finding to comment on those implications are now wearing thin on what ground breaking insight they can provide and networks are counting on the front line reporters to give us a sense of the chaos.

Last night on CNN their ace reporter Anderson Cooper was hunkered down in a dimly lit living room commenting on getting beaten by the crowd while he attempted to film.  He then went to a feed from another reporter who was also hidden away but still in the square, and they exchanged comments on the gunshots they each heard.

Tonight Christine Amanpour, on ABC, was interviewing Hosni Mubarak and reporting back to Diane Sawyer about what was going on in the Mubarak household.  It was important in this interview to make sure the audience knew that CA was accosted too, and while not taking the round house left of AC she was pushed and shoved in a most uncivil manner.  Maybe it’s just me but it sure seemed like Ms. Sawyer was holding back with the tough questions like “Did Mr. Mubarak see Anderson Cooper last night, and wasn’t it courageous of him to send his colleague down to the square?”

I hope for all the men and women struggling to gain a responsive government they are able to make the changes they want with the minimum amount of bloodshed.   It should be a good civics lesson for us.  We must always recognize and protect our rights for peaceful civil protest, even by minority opinions, and the dangers of deifying or demonizing individuals who are charged with serving us the people.