May 28, 2018 

The Fields of Ypres 

 Along the fields in Ypres, graves were dug to house the fallen men, who would never again ache for their brides embrace or return to school after the war was over. They were laying in a foreign land, while poppies grew above them; a symbol of a sweeter part of life amidst the horror of rat infested trenches and rotting feet. The men knew they would probably never leave those trenches on their own accord. The one hope they had was to be picked up and buried, and therefore, avoid the lice invested trenches without any care to who they were or what they had done for their country.

In and around the area of Ypres, from 1914 to 1917, over 100,000 men would perish. Ypres fell victim to some of the first trenches, weapons of mass destruction, shellshock, and chemical warfare.

Seeing the struggling men gasp for air as they lie dying from chlorine gas, left men like Patrick McCoy, a Scottish officer, reflecting, “Death had brought its blessed relief.” Escaping to the trenches, presumably to avoid the chlorine air above, only hastened one’s death, as the chlorine gas actually gravitates toward the ground. The survivors soon were engaged in a light show of artillery fighting that would be dubbed, The Northern Lights. In the sickening onslaught of death, the eerie lights culminated from the bombardment of mortars, bolt action rifles, machine guns, artillery, and canons.

Some were left with a new symptom of modern warfare, called shellshock, or most commonly known today as, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Involuntarily, men who would normally bear the brunt of life courageously, were found in corners, eyes wide, reliving the nightmare of the trenches forevermore. These men found little relief from sympathetic onlookers. Good men, yearning to be rid of this hell hole, only found themselves, after returning home, unable to leave the images and experiences behind. It had all crept into a place deep within their being they could never escape. Hell in the trenches would become their hell, as long as time was their companion. There was no escape, no relief.

The only thing we can do now is remember. We cannot not remember, for if we do, we leave all these men behind in open trenches. It isn’t just that they deserve to be remembered for their sacrifice, but because we are living and have a responsibility to to not repeat these atrocities. If war is a natural state of the world, more so than peace, then shouldn’t we embrace the past for it is; lessons to be learned. To consciously avoid eliminating other human beings may be a good thing, one would think.

How many of us are aware today that chlorine gas was used in World War l or that the poppies we see on Memorial Day are a reminder of McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields?  From May 25-27, 2018, for the first time, America has embedded the National Mall in Washington D.C. with poppies, in honor of the 645,000 American soldiers, who died while serving in the military during World War l and the wars since then.

John McCrae, a Canadian doctor wrote, In Flanders Fields on May 3, 1915, sitting on the back of an ambulance near the battlefront in Ypres. During the second battle of Ypres he lost a friend and witnessed the German chlorine gas massacre. McRae would dub this second battle at Ypres, “17 Days of Hades”, which began on April 22, 1915.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved: and now we lie

In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe

To you, from failing hands, we throw

The torch: be yours to hold it high

If ye break faith with us who die,

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

May 17, 2018

Media's Emotional Pull

Ah, the media. Their modern tactic is to have the reader or viewer engage emotionally. The more shocking, the better. But what if it is a lie being promoted and that lie may be about a person. The attention others pay to the report will be larger if the lie is bigger…leaving us ready to take up our pitchforks and stampede the person’s place of residence. Picture that.  It becomes a story with a plot and numerous climaxes, as long as someone keeps the story alive and feeds the beast with new lies every now and then. And that is what makes news NEWS.

With 1,800 media outlets scrambling to post a plethora of “news” stories each and everyday, we get a sense of what it means to be put under the gun. If you are an editor, reporter, online outlet, or owner of one of those outlets, you must report something! 

Why do we mere mortals think we can trust the media pimps to tell us the truth about anything? The very idea that we do have some trust in the media should scare us. Do we want to be duped? 

I heard a reporter once say that he was first and foremost an entertainer. He wasn’t a reporter first, but an entertainer and wanted the public to understand that he was paid to entertain, not report the truth no matter what, so help him God.  

The truth is, we want to believe something and want desperately to connect with something…anything. We want community and a sense of acceptance. If we can get on board with a story and feel for that victim or hate the supposed bad guy, then we have connection. We have something real. Or so we think.

But what if someone’s reputation is ruined because someone had nothing really to report one day and then heard a guy said something that was construed to mean something awful, so it was reported as facts. The guy now has to explain what the comment really meant because it was totally taken out of context and spit out as something resembling a horrifying truth. 

Are we willing to stop and look at each story with the eyes of a critique, who understands that maybe 10% of the story may be true but 90% is embellished? Ratings are the name of the game and if 10% truths sell, then the rationalization of all those involved will become immune to the other 90%. And eventually, the public becomes immune because of the craving for the fantastical and the human need for connection...any kind of connection.

August 24, 2015

The Insanity Increases: College Administrators/Government Rip Off Society (yet again)

by, LaDawn Wilson

I truly believe before we keep going forward with the way things are moving forward, we as citizens in this country, need to put a plug in the way America looks at education, the way we pay for education, and the attitude we have concerning education. 

The costs have sky rocketed, with administration increasing their salaries sometimes to the tune of $887,244, which was given to an administrator at a public university. (Huffman, 2015). Retired professor Kofas from the University of Illinois reminds us that it just won’t be US citizens paying for spiked college costs. We are seeing the same trend in the works globally. Kofas has it right when he says, “Higher education is in fact a mirror of society, a mirror of what it is today and where it is headed. Political and business elites should be very concerned with what they see in that mirror, sacrificing higher education for short-term profits, and sociopolitical conformity.” (Kofas, 2015).

This scenario reeks of the worst in humanity: Utilitarian usage of human lives so that an entity’s profit margin increases, governmental power and money increases, and an increase in a prideful unethical university/governmental staff. These types decrease the likelihood of seeing the dignity of the human person, as well as, any thought toward the common good.  These types balk at anything being spoken of in terms of “natural law” because they don’t want to be responsible for others, let alone their own actions. These types do not want to pursue what makes something “permanent” or what leads to true conservation because they live by faddish impulsive experimental sentiments. These immature adults are creeping into every part of our texts, administration, governmental bodies, and news outlets. They have no idea what a real education is, yet they are in charge of the whole system!!!

Emotional intelligence in our government and academia needs some attention. Who would want a government to get so heavily involved in the education of their children that they are the keepers of the children’s future? How can that possibly make sense for a free society? Do we want our future generations laden with debt they may never be able to pay back?

Emotional intelligence used in this situation might beg for less administrators, humble simple administrators, less frills on campus, and a mindset that an education is about the whole person, not just their wallets. This acceptance by appointed officials in the executive office that tout that education is this or that way just makes us frogs simmering in the big brother pot.

It makes sense for people to be sensical. MOOC’s will probably one day be accredited. Families with high school kids in dual credit classed will use these MOOCs and understand the stupidity of using a system that puts them and their children in debt, does not offer the classes that would actually be useful on the job, and frees them from a system regulated by bureaucrats.

Some are thinking of raising the Pell Grant limit, which in the beginning, sounds like a good idea. (Wheeler, 2015). But that raises another question: Who pays for the pell grant system? The tax payer. So even if families, who cannot afford the costs of spiked college tuition get access to pell grant monies, they will pay for it in their taxes. The twist there is very sly indeed.

A university has the ability to oftentimes bring about an atmosphere that sparks minds from their slumber, enlivens new ideas, sees the beauty in what truly works and creates new avenues for forging through what does not work (St Johns College for one, but overpriced). That is what a university should be facilitating in minds. Minds at work at a university should be minds contemplating higher truths. There is nothing true and good about our college debt system today and it weighs heavily on families who do not qualify for grants, which they end up paying anyway (ugh!). The smart families are the ones refusing to take on college debt. They should be given special medals. Moms are taking on one or two part time jobs, while dad works more hours and their child works on campus.  All for what? A job? How many philosophy, sociology, or theology classes (that have honorable professors) did that child take in that four-year span? When I say TS Eliot, who knows who that even is today? And does that even matter? It very well should but we are letting the truths of humanity slip into an abyss.

The sociopolitical conformity Kofas speaks of is real and it pulls the true, good, and beautiful into extinction and replaces it with an existential revisionist mindset of serving the state. It eliminates the idea that the individual must aim for something higher than himself and certainly much higher than the state! We are inundated with texts trying to red mark the basic truth of America: that it was founded on the idea that men should rise to virtuous principles, that a civic class is just as important as an English class, and that we are to trust God and live a life that serves the common good. It is “unpopular” to mention God outside of where your bottom sits on a pew and this truth in business and social events has landed us smack dab in our own sinking mess. We are seeing the fruits of our educational system: Hooking up, sexting, honoring demonic statues, rioting in the streets, millions of sites of porn on the internet, addictions (alcohol, eating, porn), suicide, murder (of the infant and elderly), gang killings, disrespect for the elderly, and the list goes on and on. This is not normal!!! This is not sane!!!! Yet, what do we do? Raise the cost of education, rally around more mundane revisionist classes, pay administrators exuberant amounts of money, push texts instead of real books (some of course are fine—science, business), build conglomerate sports stadiums, build posh dorms, and hire chefs.  Is that supposed to lead the student to the true, the good, and the beautiful? I think not. Shame on the government for taking over the student loan systems. Shame on universities and colleges for making a mockery of what a real education is and shame for letting the price of a dumbed down education be out of reach unless large amounts of debt are taken on by the student. Shame!

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/college-spending-comes-under-scrutiny-082115.html

http://www.countercurrents.org/kofas200815.htm

http://thehill.com/regulation/251445-senate-bill-would-