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Fallen Hero…Really?

From 1999 to 2005 Lance Armstrong reigned supreme over the cycling world. He was the winner of the longest, greatest, and best known cycling race in the world. The Tour de France was the pinnacle of his career. Now with the decision by the UCI to strip him of his seven tour titles, and ban him for life from cycling, it is a sad day for the sport, and a sad day for American athletes. But that’s all it is.

Lance Armstrong was thought to be one of the greatest athletes this country had ever seen. I’m not sure too many people knew that. He was considered a hero. At least as much as someone who rides a bike can be. He wasn’t a soldier, or political leader, he was just a guy who we thought could ride a bike harder than any human alive. Well…it turns out that wasn’t the case.

That brings up something pretty important. Why was he one of our heroes? Why was a guy who rode a bicycle for a living given any importance at all in our society? We have true heroes who give their lives to our country, and we don’t even know their names. But some yahoo riding a bicycle is known throughout the country. So now we find that he is not the hero we thought he was. We deserve what we got.

More focus really needs placed on the true heroes we work with every day. We have soldiers, doctors, nurses, police officers, and fireman who dedicate their lives to our health and safety. I should point out that my wife is a big fan of fireman, but I’m not entirely sure it has anything to do their heroism. Other than that, however, we don’t see the same focus on these people as we do sports figures. Seriously, why would anyone, actor, TV personality, or sports figure be considered a hero?

I think as a country our perspective is completely wacked. We should be putting our true heroes in the spotlight. The fact that so much news and opinion has been focused on a guy riding a bike is astounding. This is coming from a guy who spends much of his spare time on a bicycle. I love to ride a bike. I think mountain biking is the greatest physical activity ever invented. However, unless I ride my bicycle through a fire, saving children and kittens, I’m nowhere near being a hero.

Lance is just another icon in a long list of icons who have fallen in recent years. I think the news makes too much of it. The fact that these things make it to the headlines just shows how screwed up we are. Each time an icon falls the press launches on them like sharks on a wounded seal. If they spent that much time focusing on real news I’m sure we’d have been in one less war over the last ten years.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t cheer on athletes, or take time out of our lives to watch someone do something at which they excel. In fact, I think it awesome watching people do things they are good at. What I’m saying is that we need to put things in perspective. Sports figures are not heroes. They are entertainment. A hero is much, much more.

Rex

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New Chapter

I have come to a pinnacle in my life. This is ironic since I’m sitting on a pinnacle west of Colorado Springs as I write this thing. And you all know how I love irony! I’m actually finding myself in a position where writing might become my full-time job. I love to write these little articles for you. I have no shortage of irony on which to report, so I’m hoping I can make a go of it. I even have the blessing of my newly acquired significant other. She seems to like my writing. She even seems to like me. However, no one is more confused by that than I. I’m sure she has a mental deficiency, but as long as it’s one that works in my benefit, I’m all for it (Love you honey!).

I’ve spent much of the last 30 years trying to be successful at something. I wasn’t sure what. In fact I didn’t really care. I just wanted to be successful. I had no idea at what I wanted this success manifest itself, I just wanted to be successful. When I was in my teens and early 20s, it was to be a singer or rock star. Nothing became of it, which is most likely for the best. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. I would have been the dullest rock star on the planet. I do like sex though, so maybe that could have been my addiction. I hear it worked for Ted Nugent. The idea of another Nugent running around does frighten me. However, his music does kick ass.

OK…just had to put on Stranglehold to finish this piece. “When a house gets in my way baby, you know I’ll burn it down!” Now that’s rockin!

Now, after I grew out of the rock star fantasy, I moved onto business. That was easy since it really didn’t take much talent to get into working for a business. Lots of people work for businesses. All you have to do is sell your pride, and suppress any desire to point out stupidity. However, after 25 years of trying, I decided that suppressing my natural instinct to criticize stupidity just wasn’t worth the hassle. I really needed to move on. I really needed to do that thing that made me happy. I’ve heard all my life how you should do what you love and the money will come later. However, I really never had the patience to wait for later. Now that it IS later, and I’ve lived half my life I’ve decided that the next half shouldn’t be spent doing anything other than what I love.

I really love writing. It’s how I come to the world. I love how it looks when my pen scrolls across a page. I love how my fingers move over the keys as I type. I love how a stream of conscientiousness can burst onto a page with no other effort than the thoughts in my brain. I love it all! Why I spent any time doing anything else is humiliating. This is what I have been destined to do. I’m sure a rock star would have been fun, but after seeing what it did to Cobain, I’m not sure that would have been the greatest choice.

Writing is perfect for me. I get to say what I want, how I want, and I still get to go to Kroger’s without hiring a body guard. That’s because most of the people I might piss off don’t have the attention span it takes to read a bar napkin. So my anonymity will most likely be safe. Also, when I spoke my mind in business, it usually ended with someone in the bathroom crying. Now I won’t feel the need to pack my desk each time someone gets their BVDs in a bunch.

So moving forward I will make you a promise. I will try to give you my unvarnished opinion on how I view the world. I’m not saying that I will be rude without reason. What’s the fun in that? There really are some people who deserve the benefit of the doubt. However, for the rest of them, I’m on watch. I should have plenty of material for it too. The debates are only a few hours away!

Kisses!

Rex

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Understanding the Universe

I’ve never understood Fundamentalism. To be a fundamentalist, you have to pick a point in your learning and stop.  You can’t go beyond say 4th grade.  It’s at that point when you think, “Wait…OK…we’ve got Adam, and we’ve got Eve.  Where did all those other people come from?”  You begin to think there’s more to what you’re being told, or you become too afraid to ask the obvious questions.  If you decide that there’s more, then you start to question things, and if you’re lucky, become enlightened to a larger, sometimes scarier, yet far more interesting world.  In short, you learn that eating the apple wasn’t such a bad idea after all. 

The problem is that many people go the other way.  If someone tells them it’s just a story, they plug their ears and scream.  Their reaction is to dig their heels in so deep that even the most basic of logical questions will set them on the path of the Spanish inquisition.  “The world is round!  Here are the facts!”  Heresy, burn them at the stake!   No amount of contrary evidence will sway them the other way.  They are so afraid to question their core beliefs as to think a bolt of lightning will come down from above.  
Which brings me to the point of this rant… 
Religions began as a philosophical way for humans to understand the world around them.  It gave us our laws and a basic framework on how to treat others.  It also provided us a foundation for basic hygiene.  However, if you’ve read the Bible, you get the feeling that Moses had OCD.  There are really 613 commandments listed in the book of Moses (we only took 10 for the Bible…or what I like the call the Torah’s cliff notes).  Someone had to break them down to 10 just so the rest of us wouldn’t get discouraged. 
I doubt there is a being standing around just waiting for one of us to screw up so he can strike us down.  I don’t think it’s that simple.  I think there really are more things in this universe far more important than the human race.  At least I hope so.  I doubt any of us has the answers.  In fact, I don’t think any one of us is even close.  Most of us are just afraid.  In the words of reggae musician Peter Tosh “Everyone want go to heaven, but no one want die.”  Rarely a more poignant truth was ever uttered.  The problem is that we have become so attached to this world that we can’t consider anything else.  We think our petty squabbles are so important to us, that they MUST be important to God.   
If God looks down at us at all its most likely how a parent looks at a child:  full of a combination of amazement and amusement, knowing full well that we can’t begin to comprehend the reality of our situation.  We’re so wrapped up in our petty political, social, and religious differences that we can’t see they really don’t matter in the larger scheme of things.  I would imagine that if the books are correct, we are children.  Petulant two year olds, hording our toys, afraid to go to sleep because we think we’re going to miss something.  The problem is we’re not missing anything.  And holding onto our childish ways is no different than a toddler fighting off the inevitable.  Because just like the child, we don’t even come close to having the capacity to truly understand the Universe.    
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What do We Have to Lose?

I have been meaning to write this rant for some time now. I was just thinking about how to get my point across. It’s not that I worry too much about pissing people off. I just want to make sure it’s the right people. Anyway, we heard recently about two soldiers being killed by an Afghan when during his police training he was handed a loaded weapon. After being handed the gun, I guess I’m not surprised that he shot the soldiers who gave it to him. Still, after reading that, I had no choice but to finally write this rant.

I know all the history books make early Americans out to be the bad guys for massacring the Indians. However, what most people forget is that by today’s standards Geronimo, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse were all terrorists. When we hit the shores all was fine, but when we attempted to go beyond these shores the population attacked us…violently. Over the next 500 years we drove them just short of extinction. We killed an entire people to ensure the safety of our own.

I know what you’re thinking. “That’s immoral!” But hear me out. If we want to win in Afghanistan, there is only one way to do it. Kill them all. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. In fact, the only way to ensure our continued safety throughout the world if we’re going to continue occupying other countries is attack every known bastion of fanaticism, and kill it where it lives. We have to be prepared to be as savage and as ruthless as our enemy.

The problem with the United States is that compared to England, Germany, Russia, and France…yes France, we are an adolescent country. While they consider the consequences of their actions we’re acting like a teenage boy who’s so eager to go in, that once he realizes his mistake, he doesn’t know when to pull out. We need to do what is required to prevent terrorism from coming from this back-water hole in the globe. Let’s face it, if the world was man, Afghanistan would be the last four inches of his intestine.

So here’s what I propose. The first thing we need to do is send in the missionaries. We have a host of Mormons just chomping at the bit to convert a race of people. Not only that, have you been to Utah? They’re used to rugged country. The next thing we do is send in the pioneers, and settlers. After that…the land barons. Hell…Haliburton is already there! Then it’s only a matter of time. I know it took more than 500 years the first time, but I’m betting with current technology, and the fact that the Mormons…who are extremely prolific…will already be there, we overtake the population in less than 25 years.

The only way we will win in Afghanistan, Iraq, or even the West Bank is to enlist in a war on humanity the likes of which no one has seen since the 1940s. Unless we’re prepared to do that, then we really need to re-think our current strategy. Well that…and we will have to sacrifice every single value we have ever held dear.

The problem with war is it’s immoral. It’s worse than murder, rape, or theft. But that’s only because it combines all those and a whole host of other deadly sins. Also, once we start on the road to remove fanaticism, we become fanatics ourselves. When we turn politics into religion, we become Hitler. We will have to become so horrific a group that one day someone 200 years from now will erect a statue of Osama bin Laden to honor his efforts. Think I’m kidding? Imagine what someone from 1870 would think if they saw a statue erected to honor Geronimo.

What do we have to lose?

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What a Tool is Man?

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about what people think are their Constitutional rights.  The Constitution seems to have taken on all the adoration, popularity, and God-like status of the Bible.  While this seems like a good thing, the problem is that along with the adoration of both documents people unfortunately have equal understanding.  And by that…I mean very little.

One of the first things I learned in college was to read.  I don’t mean read as in “See Spot run.”  I mean read for understanding.  In reality after six years of undergrad, and graduate school, the class I learned the most in was a first year English course.  The professor had a passion for reading for understanding.  While that seems like something obvious, it doesn’t seem to be a reality in practice. 

Most people read things at face value.  They don’t bother trying to understand the background, experiences, religion, education, social values, race, gender, or agenda behind the author of what they are reading.  Even with what you’re reading now, make no mistake, I have an agenda.  I also have experiences which drive my ideas and attitudes about what I write.  Right now, part of my agenda is to obviously educate my reader, but I also have other agendas as well.  In fact, I even have agendas of which I myself am not aware.  In short, it is very difficult to hide who you are in what you write.  Unfortunately, however, it’s easy to ignore my values for your own.

Most people bring so much of their own prejudices and practices to what they read that they fail to understand the message that is being presented.  You have to take an active part in reading to truly appreciate the exercise.  While there is a time and place to bring yourself to a text when you read it, sometimes you’re better off understanding your author so you have a better idea of why he writes, or believes the things he’s presenting.  I think that’s something that is lost today.  We have a total lack of appreciation for the ideas of others.  For someone to disagree with you does not make them stupid.  It just makes them different.  Differences are not a sin.  At least I never read that in the Bible. 

Another thing to keep in mind when reading something is context.  Context is extremely important.  In this case I mean an understanding of the environment in which something was written.  What were, or are, the political, social, economic, and philosophical standards of the day?  Who is my author?  Are they traitors who just committed treason by separating from their legal government?  Or are they brave, and thoughtful heroes who just won a war against an oppressive King?  Are they a Jewish carpenter who decided, with 12 close friends, to start a political movement?  Or are they a group of people who, over thousands of years, wrote about the people and experiences of a lost time in history?  These are very important things to consider when you read.   Do these things take away from what you’re reading, or add to them?  I guess that all depends on your own political, religious, social, and economic views. 

We recently had a horrible shooting here in Colorado.  Twelve people died, and 59 were injured almost instantly at the hands of a madman.  Our founding fathers never saw this as an issue.  They never wrote the Constitution thinking that someday, a jackass would walk into a movie theater and fire a weapon at families, and children.  They could not possibly have imagined any scenario in the 18th century which would have required laws to prevent such an act.  Does that mean we shouldn’t have them?  Of course not.  But it does mean that quoting something written by a man in 1785 as political gospel, is probably not the best argument for your case.

Which brings up why I think that using a book, written 2000 years ago, by people who thought the world was flat, and stars were angels, probably isn’t the best source for supporting your views.  Does that mean I do not hold said text to be important, or even sacred?  No it does not.  There are many good lessons to be learned.  However, you have to read them in the context in which they were written.  To adopt all their values as our own would mean returning to a time when most people died prior to age 20.  The idea of cutting into the body to heal rather than kill would be so completely foreign to them that their reaction would most likely be your execution. 

Our founding fathers were brilliant and thoughtful men.  They were also slave owners, and traitors to their government.  To deny the later, is to diminish the former.  We are all damaged.  Yet just like with writing, to truly love and understand each other, we have to accept everything about ourselves.  Also, I understand the argument that God is infallible, and as such, the Bible being the word of God is equally infallible.  However, we are only as good as the tools we use.  And the Bible was written by man, not by God.  Therefore, much the same way as hammering a nail with a screwdriver when you need a hammer won’t build you a house, God used man as his instrument for writing, when he needed a lightning bolt to send us a message.  Remember…you are only as good as the tools you use.

And man is definitely a tool.