Why Is Peace So Threatening?

I always thought that homophobes were people who just weren’t comfortable about their sexuality. Why should it bother somebody if someone else is gay? I think its the fear that they themselves are weak.

Tonight while Kelly, Hallie, and I were driving from a dinner at a place in a neighborhood shopping center, some jackass decided to tailgate us nearly all the way back to our house. Having had teenagers do this before, at first I assumed it was just a lousy driver and changed lanes.

Jackass followed the lane change, keeping mere feet from my bumper. A few more lane changes and he was still there.

Kelly suggested we not lead this guy straight to our home, so I headed for the Garner Police Department, where I know a few people. As we waited for a left turn, the guy continued driving, pausing long enough to yell something at us, flip us off, and, unlucky for him, allow us to get his tag number (PTR 7912). We waited until he was well ahead of us before heading home again.

Apparently seeing our Peace is Patriotic sticker infuriated him while he waited behind us at a traffic light. Afterward, Kelly and I were hard-pressed to justify his response. What rational person would behave like that?

Kelly pointed out the obvious – this person wasn’t rational, and it was a good thing she was there to moderate my intense desire to go kick his ass. “Who knows what he may have done,” said Kelly. “I don’t care,” was my reply. “Nobody threatens my family.” The idea of a schmuck getting beat down by an angry peace protester was amusing, but I let it go.

I chalk it up to frenzy that’s been whipped up by the idiot pro-war talk-show hosts, spewing invective against anyone who doesn’t fall in line. Should people start following their lead and begin hurting people, I think those talk show hosts should be removed from behind their microphones and put behind bars.

Who knows where tonight’s incident could have led. I am still pondering that, four hours after it occured. One thing’s for sure, though. It shows just how far the country’s fallen since Perpetual War was declared.

A trip to Raleigh’s Exploris museum had me captivted by the Anne Frank exhibit. Seventy years ago, a German dictator turned the populace against itself by starting a Jewish witchhunt. They said it could never happen there, and it did. I hope America isn’t headed down that same path of bull-headed ignorance.

“We had a great day. We killed a lot of people.”

This article in the New York Times is sickening. Yes, that’s right. The New York Times. Not some no-name foreign rag with an axe to grind.

Some quotes from Either Take a Shot or Take a Chance:

“We dropped a few civilians,” Sergeant Schrumpf said, “but what do you do?”

To illustrate, the sergeant offered a pair of examples from earlier in the week.

“There was one Iraqi soldier, and 25 women and children,” he said, “I didn’t take the shot.”

But more than once, Sergeant Schrumpf said, he faced a different choice: one Iraqi soldier standing among two or three civilians. He recalled one such incident, in which he and other men in his unit opened fire. He recalled watching one of the women standing near the Iraqi soldier go down.

“I’m sorry,” the sergeant said. “But the chick was in the way.”

She wasn’t a “chick,” Sargent Slaughter. She was somebody’s daughter. Or sister. Or wife. Or mother. And now she’s another notch on your scorecard. You killed her without a second thought.

The Iraqis are bastards for taking hostages, don’t get me wrong. But why is there absolutely no remorse in that soldier’s words? What would Patton say? Where is the honor that used to characterize our military?

I fully support our troops protecting themselves, even if I don’t support their being deployed in such an asinine war. It is, after all, the Department of Defense, not Offense. But the total lack of compassion this man shows after just killing an innocent human being is nothing less than appalling.

Skywarn class

Thursday night I attended a Skywarn class put on by the National Weather Service in an effort to get volunteers trained to recognize weather events. My friend Tanner Lovelace joined me, as well as Suzzanne Naylor.

The two hours that the presentation lasted was not enough to go into as many details as I would’ve liked. We did see dozens of spectacular photographs of weather phenomena, as well as diagrams to how strong storms develop. It all was enough to get me hooked, though I still want to attend the class on April 14th at the Fuquay fire department. Since there is no “closing time” for fire departments, we can stay as long as needed to cover the material.

The next time a storm blows through, I may be out chasing it, reporting conditions to the NWS and snapping pictures like crazy. Woohoo!

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