Iraq: won or lost?

“The war is lost.”

Hmmm, not a very encouraging thing to say in the middle of a war. Sounds defeatist. Sounds hopeless. Sounds un-American.

Let’s then try the other option in our wonderfully American black and white world view.

“The war is won!”

Hmmm, like “Mission Accomplished,” that sounds . . . hopeful.

If we won, then the bad guys would give up and throw down their weapons and acquiesce to our troops.

If we won, the people would be glad we are there.

If we won, we could bring home our troops just like a winning football team after a road victory.

If we won, we could have a ticker-tape parade.

If we won, there would be peace on the ground and the folks there would start cleaning up and rebuilding.

If we won, everyone in the world would be either awed or afraid of us.

Somehow, I don’t think we will ever have that kind of “win” in Iraq.

No one thinks our enemies will throw down their arms. No one thinks we are wanted by the majority of Iraqis after the way we destroyed their aging infrastructure and failed to put enough resources into rebuilding it . . . unless one thinks Halliburton’s healthier bottom line was worth the half trillion dollars we’ve spent so far. No one thinks we can pretend we won and pull our troops out and have a ticker-tape parade. In fact, it appears that since we are the target of Al Quaeda and of the insurgency, our absence could lead to more peace so the folks there can clean up and start rebuilding once they‘ve resolved their civil war which we can‘t stop. What does the world think of us now?

In good old American black and white thinking, if we haven’t won and can’t win, then what’s left?

Bret Favre & the draft

Cliff Christl, recently retired sports writer for the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, was always commenting on the pundits who seemed to know more than the coaches and administrations of the NFL teams.

In the flurry of punditry during and after the first round of the NFL draft yesterday, several figured Bret threw his shoe at the TV when the Pack chose a defensive lineman and was "getting a message" from team bosses.

One of the reasons that Bret's numbers were down last year was that he was kept on the sidelines because the defense couldn't stop the other team.

Championships are won by the teams with the best defense.

The other complaint about choices made is that none of the drafted players is a"star." Christl was of the opinion that you need three or more top players at their respective positions to be a Super Bowl contender.

Sometimes the "star" can shine because the others in the trenches are good enough to carry their own weight. When you're short-handed defensive line gets the man needed for a rotation that lets the others rest during the game, when your safeties are actually in the right place, when your wide receivers are on the field long enough to get into a rhythm with the QB, when one more effective wideout opens the field for the tight end, suddenly the "star" can emerge (or re-emerge as may be the case for Bubba Franks if Koren Robinson or Randy Moss play well for the Packers).

Barring serious injuries, I think the Green and Gold will contend next year and Bret knows it.

VT Tragedy

I’ve been stewing about what would have happened if someone had a gun the day Cho came shooting. The fantasy is that Cho would have been shot dead and the nightmare would have come to an earlier end.

Here in Florida, we now have a law that allows people to carry guns hidden on their person or in their cars. A story circulating when the bill first passed was that a gun owner shot a carjacker in the middle of the heist.

I wonder if our former governor carries a gun. I wonder if his brother, the President, carries a gun when he’s in Florida.

Funny thing, I haven’t heard another news story about self-protection like the carjacker faced nor have I heard statistics showing carjacking is down.

It seems to me that with so many hidden guns around, road rage could easily turn into a gun range. Not everyone is as sophisticated in preparing to murder as Cho was. We have a lot of folks who are ready to shoot off their mouths and their guns on a moment’s notice!

From what the FBI and psychologists say who’ve studied murderers like Cho, they study the tactics of other mass murderers and try to improve upon them. There is an element of COMPETITION involved in their motivation.

What would most likely happen in a future situation is that the murderer would take into account the possibility of a gun-toting student or teacher and come prepared. In the same way he or she could pick up clips with dozens of bullets in them, s/he could buy body armor, just as a bank robber did in California a couple years ago, or could plan to go out in a different kind of “blaze of glory.”

Oh my! How could I have become so political about this?

On homosexuality

The United Methodist Church holds an "ecumenical council" every four years called General Conference. What makes it special is that any individual may petition them to change our book of church law which we call The Book of Discipline. We are also allowed to present resolutions on any subject which could become a working policy eventually.

Below is one such resolution. It seeks to establish a paradigm with which our church may put to rest the divisive arguments over homosexuality. In another blog, I will discuss the chances of resolution within our denomination. Hopefully, some person among the upper eschelons of our hierarchy will see this and will make it his/her own and someday it will be spoken by said person and our Church will move forward.

In the meantime, I prepared this resolution so that it would be offered to our denominational state meeting in mid June. If it passes there, maybe that will give it a little more support at General Conference in 2008. If it does not pass, then I will be glad to have some others reading and thinking about my resolution and I'll forward it myself to General Conference. - I love our current system for presenting petitions and resolutions!

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Resolution to the 2008 General Conference
Re: Homosexuality
Financial implications: None

Resolution:
Be it resolved that the General Conference of the United Methodist Church affirm that homosexuality is on a continuum of sexuality with heterosexuality and therefore be seen in the natural God-made way for human life;

Be it further resolved that the General Conference also affirm that some people anywhere along that continuum of sexual behavior may stray into behaviors that are not true for them as individuals and therefore need help and patience to find their own true sexual nature,

And be it further resolved that, rather than be against one kind of natural sexuality as opposed to another kind, we focus on challenging those behaviors that are untrue to that individual, or are exploitative, violent, or otherwise cause harm to any other individuals.

Rationale:
Whereas the debate in the church over homosexuality derives primarily from use of Scripture to support a personal preference or a prejudice on both “sides“ of the debate;

Whereas human knowledge and experience shows that all of us have elements of the heterosexual and homosexual, more or less, in our own natures;

Whereas medicine has identified genetic and hormonal differences that are a part of the natural course of human birthing, and not therefore different from the nature of being red-haired or left handed;

Therefore I present the resolution as a means of ending the partisan scuffling over whether all homosexuals are natural or an abomination to God. As Jesus said of eunuchs (see Matthew 19:12), some are God-made and some are man-made. So it is with all of us! And only the harmful treatment of ourselves and each other needs to be addressed.

Respectfully submitted:

Rev. Jerry Eckert, retired clergy member, WI AC

What a blog world!

I wondered what my first post would be after I withdrew a longish thing on the Duke lacrosse players because I couldn't get the formatting right.

Tonight I was scrolling through www.crooksandliars.com as I try to do daily and came across some very well laid-out and carefully researched work by Cliff Schechter and a guy named Steve (SteveAudio) who also have blogspot sites like I now have.

I am not in their league!

If by chance you come upon this message in a bottle cast upon the waters of the blogosphere, I urge you to add the above to your "favorites" even if you never return here.

I read the local paper, watch the news on the local CBS affiliate, check in with PBS and Jim Lehrer, and of course, never miss THE DAILY SHOW or THE COLBERT REPORT.

You might consider checking in with all of them as well. It is hard to keep up with all the news. There are so many outlets.

There are so many more people doing so many more things as our population grows and each faction increases in size and wealth and ability to communicate its point of view.

The proliferation of babble (Babel?), jargon, and talk has numbed us to the point where we forget our faith, our Constitution, and sometimes our family and friends. We have only so much attention span and only so much energy to apply to the rush of words . . . my own included.

Even so, I will try, as I have something to say, to give you something to think about.