This is the first post in an occasional series on learning to how to fly as a Marine.
I am a Marine pilot, and this is the journey I took after I earned my gold bars as a Second Lieutenant of Marines to become a Marine aviator.
Personal Narrative
Random Act of Patriotism
I left work a bit early today to shop for the troops. I have sent care packages to many people over the years since the Iraq War begun. I am approaching one hundred care packages now, most of them going to people I have never met.
As of late people I know have been deployed and I have concentrated my efforts on them.
Today in my grocery basket was two large bags of Jolly Ranchers, a dozen Hersheys bars with almonds, and a container each of Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and onion powder. The sauces and onion powder will be combined with other ingredients to make homemade beef jerky, always a favorite with the troops. The Jolly Ranchers and chocolate bars were going to be sent as is.
The woman behind me in the checkout line said that I was a sweettooth, just like her. I said that the chocolate wasn’t for me. She asked me “then who is it for?” I usually in these cases just say “for a friend”, but today for whatever reason said, truthfully “these bars and Jolly Ranchers are what a friend of mine who is now serving on an aircraft carrier said he wanted. So I am going to pack them up with some homemade beef jerky and send him a care package”. The woman said that I was a great person for doing that and I assured her that the truly great people are the ones on the carrier.
Just before I went to checkout the woman in front of me turned to me and said that she overheard my conversation with the woman behind me and insisted that I have her change – all $6.23 of it. “This is to help you ship that stuff to your buddy. Tell him he is appreciated.” Before I could refuse it she was gone and I was left standing there with $6.23 in my hand, which I really was quite unsure what to do with. The cashier said “Well put it in your wallet! And tell that guy that we are praying for him and love him and are so proud of what he is doing for us”.
What great people. It gets tiring at times being a conservative living in Madison with all of the hatred of the right that goes on here, but today was special…special indeed.
The Tornados of Texas
The hook, the curled trailing edge of thunderstorms that can spiral up to form a tornado, passed right over our house. My son and I stood in our front yard watching lightning lit clouds on the south side of the sky going east while those on the north went west. In the center, a clear tube ran up into the darkness of the sky. It was very quiet and still with only the low rumble of nearly continuous distant thunder. The immense energy of the storm felt palpable, like that part in a sci-fi movie where the giant space ship moves slowly over head.
It’s that time of year.
Trying to Act Professionally
I always try to act professionally at my job – I really do. It is never good to burn your bridges with anyone as you never know where you will end up – or where they will end up. On occasion the bridge must be burned, however. I think that is a normal part of doing business in a competitive marketplace. In other words, you can’t let someone stomp on you forever, or have endless meetings with you with the illusion that they are going to buy goods or services from you.
WWPZD?
Again, from the usual source: with reference to this … TBN is a sewer, Crouch is a parasite, and Stein is upholding the finest tradition of Hollywood celebrities, and I mean that in the worst possible way.
Lots of other people, I hope, will be quoting Jacob Bronowski today, from the “Knowledge or Certainty” episode of The Ascent of Man:
It’s said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That’s false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.
Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: “I beseech you in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken.”
I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died here, to stand here as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.
I’m not finished. I know PZ Myers. I’ve corresponded with him, spoken with him, and been a guest in his house. Nor was I there under false pretenses; he knows exactly what I am. I can think of few contrasts sharper than that between the way atheist liberal blue-state biology professor PZ Myers treated evangelical libertarian red-state corporate slug Jay Manifold and the way PZ is getting treated by these cretins.
It’s about time somebody started a “Christian Fans of PZ Myers” club, complete with WWPZD bracelets.
Did I mention that TBN is a sewer?