Things to be Thankful For.

Today I am sitting in the USO lounge at Philadelphia Int'l Airport. What an under appreciated organization they are. When I was on active duty I don't think they had the outreach they have now. This facility provides the men and woman of the armed forces, as well as their families a place to stretch out, relax, get something to eat and prepare for the next stage of their trip. Thank you USO!

So what brings me to Philly? I came up as a personal obligation to celebrate the life of my Mother's twin sister Bobbetta Jean Stewart. Aunt Bobbie was the last of the Ingraham's (my maternal Grandparents) and with her passing it is inevitable the ties to the surviving Stewart's; Louise, Beth, Cecil, and George will begin to stretch and erode. Her life was filled with trials and tribulations, but through it all she was loving, gentle, and gracious. We will all be poorer for her passing, but I've got to believe she is at rest and in a better place.

This trip also afforded me a wonderful chance to visit my Daughter, Son-in-Law, and Granddaughter. Hannah is now 25 months old and turning into a wonderfully charismatic youngster. Her smile is infectious and she is learning so much each day that its obvious her Mom and Dad are doing the right things. She walks around the house singing the ABC song. Her vocabulary is remarkable, it just takes some concentration to work through the pronunciation. I am sure her progress towards a fully rambunctious child will be filled with many moments I will regret missing, but with the technology we have available, even separated by 1,000 miles, we can be a part of her life. Thank you Hannah for the joy you brought me on this visit.

Finally, as I return home I look forward to seeing my wife of 32 years, and sharing with her the hopes for a bright future. Compared to so many in this country we are secure and comfortable and able to share those blessings with our children and those less fortunate than us.

The Nobel Prize for Peace

The Nobel Prize for Peace, originated from a grant by Alfred Nobel, is the only Nobel Prize not awarded in Stockholm Sweden. Alfred Nobel made that choice as part of the bequeath, and the Norwegians have embraced that duty. If you ever visit Oslo you will be reminded of the distinction on several occasions during your stay.

Today President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. An award for which he was nominated roughly 2 weeks after his entering office. As I look at past winners they run the gamut from the Quakers to the UN Nuclear Energy Commission, from Le Duc Tho to Mother Teresa. I believe there have been two sitting Presidents who've received this award, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Both received theirs for ending wars and moving toward peace. A third president, Jimmy Carter, was awarded the Nobel prize for his decades of efforts toward international peace.

We can only speculate on the discussions held in Oslo leading to this award but it appears the committee is awarding now based on potential. Let us all pray they are correct, and the President fulfills his potential and finds an end to the current terrorist threats and wars.

On the Loss of Civility

As I watch society unfold before me I am struck, no distressed would be a better description, on how we have lost our ability to be civil to one another. Why is this? We have only to look at the almost daily news reports to see example after example of this. “Congressman Joe Wilson calls Obama a 'liar',” “Kanye West Crashes VMA Stage During Taylor Swift's Award Speech,” “In Toronto, Bike-Car Road Rage Escalates,” and the list goes on.

I believe we, as humans, are selfish, aggressive and violent by our nature. What has historically separated us from the other species is our ability to modify our base instincts to conform to the expectations of society. For example, rats are social, they live in ordered society and each is able to determine its place. They don’t seem to build unique cultures and I believe they play out their base instincts in the formation of those societies. We, on the other hand, are social beings, and build our societies for similar base goals, protection and furtherance of our race. We then train our youth to conform to those expectations so that society may evolve. Our history is filled with example after example of this, each eventually leading to a collapse and emergence of a follow-on civilization. Which brings us to today, and the question that is troubling me, what can we do to bring a sense of pride and civility back to our nation, and then the world?

Today it seems unfashionable to talk of cause and effect relationships, but I believe this is the only way to understand and address this decline. Parents of my generation began the process of trying to relate to their children and reinforce positive attitudes and performance in the belief if someone has positive thoughts about themselves they will fit better into society. My generation expanded on this to reinforce the idea that their child could do no wrong, and our children carry this to the next level where everyone must be a winner. I wonder if this could be a base cause for our failure to train the younger generation on the expectation for their role in society and the now prevalent belief they can say and do whatever they feel like and it is okay. The belief that their needs or ideas are more important than anyone else; debate and movement to a common approach is never an option.

As society embraces the idea that everyone can do, or say, whatever they feel like I am concerned with our ability to resolve the real problems that confront us as a society. With that inability to resolve conflict there is only one inevitable outcome. As uncivil behavior is spread, and more widely tolerated, what will be the next societal norm to be cast aside?

To my congressman, Jeff Miller, who rationalizes Congressman Wilson’s outburst, as emotions stirred by the health care debate, shame on you. I would hope, no I would expect, that Congressman control their emotions and do the nations business. What happened to the expectations of respect for your colleagues?

To rapper Jay-Z and all who rationalize Mr. West’s outburst as emotions to be understood and overlooked… shame on you. I don't expect you to condemn him, but you don't need to rationalize it away either. Perhaps this is one point where silence is a virtue?

August has come & gone. It has been a momentous month for us. On August 31st my son's wife gave birth to our second grandchild, and on September 4th our first grandchild turned two. It is hard to believe I now have two grandchildren.
On the way home from church today there was an interesting observation which, I think, summarizes the "whatever I think" picture of today's society. My wife observed that the nation was more divided today than anytime in our past, and it must be a direct result of the Roe v Wade decision that limits the states ability to prevent abortions. I would suspect that most of our society may think the same way. My only comment to this -- it seemed to me the issue of slavery or states rights, and the resultant civil war was probably more divisive since we've not yet seen a state attempt to seperate.

How to Create a Problem

In my job I find the hardest part is to deal with decision making based on opinion, emotion, or spur of the moment ideas. This is the way the US government works. Every senior leader, regardless of whether he/she is a General or a Civilian makes multi-million dollar decisions based on nothing more substantial than a set of briefing slides. Then, regardless of whether the decision is good, bad or indifferent, their successor will want to review and probably change that decision. This leads to tremendous waste, and serves as a model of what the Obama administration believes is the way to run things.

In flying we had a saying. There was nothing more useless than altitude above you, runway behind you, and airspeed you don't have; for the Federal government it would be last years budget. Your money wasted last year should have no impact on the decisions we make this year.

Government HeaLth Insurance

As I sit listening to President Obama discuss health care reform I can certainly see his point that sick people shouldn't have to pay too much to get better. In a perfect world, all medical professionals should be friendly, good-looking, competent and fix sick people for free. Here's what is bothering me about this latest thrust for greater government control over how our existence should be managed.


I know of no endeavor the federal government has ever attempted where efficiency, accurate cost accounting, and effective management have been central to the success of the effort. We have acquisition professionals who believe that we should pay $100,000,000.00 for a fighter, that it is reasonable to spend $50,000 for each hour we fly that fighter, and since it isn't their money no cost is unreasonable. A government bureau once established, will do whatever it needs to further its own existence. Everything else becomes secondary.


Let's take, for example, Homeland Security. Once established, exactly what have they done to educate us, or tighten our defenses? Maybe it is just it is all so secret! TSA, a part of Home Land Security certainly has dramatically improved our air transportation experience with the security color code systems and all the gate checks.... Wouldn't it be a little better if we didn't have the same heightened state of alert for the last 7 years?

Medicaid is probably as close an example of what we can expect from government-run health insurance. Isn't this the same organization that is routinely found to have paid fraudulent claims costing American taxpayers millions and millions of dollars. Apparently, government bureaucrats are quite gullible.

It would be my hope we can find a way to provide a safety net to Americans without health insurance, but if we socialize medicine I expect we will see so many abuses of the system our overall ability to provide the finest medical care in the world will disappear.

Excuses

I've been thinking lately about how we deal with failure, misfortune, and unexpected outcomes. I have come to believe it is a fully human reaction to rationalize these events are always beyond our control and there was nothing we could do to alter the outcome. Or is it?

Why is it so hard for us to admit to ourselves, or to others, we've made a mistake, we've forgotten something, or we didn't accomplish what we've set set out to do? Is it to protect our psyche, our reputation, or is there another motivation?

In my current job I find dealing with this is perhaps the hardest communication issue I have. If nothing is ever our fault then how can we affect change? How can we learn from our mistakes or not make the same mistakes over and over?

Wouldn't it be neat if we could teach our children to be responsible, to try their best, to recognize their mistakes, to find alternative approaches and move past the self pity that comes so naturally to our generation?