Life a la Post Fifty

I have been away from my blog for several days, and I have really missed it.  I hope I have not lost any of my five or six readers during the downtime.  In my defense, though, the last few days and weeks have been anything but uneventful, and I have to say that life as we (SO and I) know it has changed to the degree that it is almost unrecognizable.  During this time I did not feel emotionally able to write.  This writer's blahs was compounded by a minor but very painful back injury which made it difficult to sit and type.  Only standing or lying down was bearable for several days.  But I am back in the saddle now, with keyboard primed.

So, what has happened?  As far as SO and I are concerned...A Lot!  But these events are of a personal nature and I will not comment any further here as to the subject matter, but certainly changes have taken place, both negative and positive.  SO and I are definitely in a new phase of life just now.  We are adjusting to the changes and taken them in stride, enjoying one day at a time.  I have to say that life POST FIFTY was certainly not what I thought it would be. 

Taking things "one day at a time" is a sort of new concept for me, because I have always thought in terms of "and they lived happily ever after."  The reality is that we only have NOW.  I sometimes think we have one day at a time, but the truth is that we really do not have the full day guaranteed to us.  For instance, last week while I was working at the local hospital, a man went to the smaller "West Campus" facility that is located in west Midland and has an emergency room.  While this man was in the act of registration, he collapsed in cardiac arrest.  He was transferred to the main hospital but efforts to save him were futile.  In less than two hours, this man's life went from "I have this strange tightness and pain in my chest" to full cardiac arrest and, ultimately, death.  He had gone to work as usual, returned home as usual, ate dinner with his wife as usual, then he began feeling like he had severe indigestion and tightness in his chest.  He did not even live through the balance of the night.  My friends, we are all in this same situation.  No matter what the status of your health, no matter the greatness of your plans, life can be suddenly and most chaotically interrupted.  Sometimes the changes are good, sometimes bad, and sometimes it is difficult to know which.

Events in our lives have brought SO and I to the sudden and dramatic realization that we truly can only live our lives NOW. Sure we can have goals, plans, and dreams, but we can no longer assume that we have "a lifetime" to accomplish these goals or realize these dreams. SO and I find ourselves living one day at a time. Maybe that is the mindset we should have had all along. Who can say? In any case, we now find ourselves living through each day as if it could be our last. We now find ourselves being what I like to call "mindful" and living in this state of "mindfulness." Yes, we are mindful that we only have the now in which we are living, but MINDFUL is more complicated, and more POSITIVE, than just acknowledging we only can be sure of NOW. Mindful also, and more importantly, means that we are aware of the good things we share each day, aware of the blessings we receive from the Creator each day, and aware of the beauty and wonder that we see in the ordinary that goes on around us each day. There is also the element of the unknown, the uncertain, of which we are also mindful. I find that I sometimes have negative feelings or fears about this new life, but I am also mindful that there is much more good, more positiveness, and more beauty than negative in life. This attitude has, in a sense, brought the Phoenix out of the ashes, and the Phoenix is thriving in its new life.

So it is that I return to these pages with a cleared head and a new mindfulness. I appreciate all of you who have read these pages over the past two years. I can't truly express the honor I feel in knowing that some of you are taking a part of your life and giving it to me. That is what you are doing when you read this blog. I feel great happiness and wonder when I see some of the locations where my blog is being read. Yes, there are some things still happening in our lives, some uncertainties to be resolved, issues that I never thought I would face, certainly not AFTER turning fifty. Life as SO and I knew it has ended, but a new life has already begun. Each day is now one full of wonder and mindfulness. That is how it should be for all of us. Wonderful days full of the mindfulness of the blessings we have, time spent with the people we love, and lived as fully as we possibly can. So I encourage you to continue to read my blog when you can, and I urge you to be mindful that you have only NOW guaranteed to you, so please live it to the fullest, as if it were your last day.

An Officer's Last Watch: Deputy Michael Smith

Last week Deputy Michael Smith tragically lost his life in what has come to be an unfortunately common scenario in West Texas.  Deputy Smith, Upton County Sheriff's Office (Rankin, Texas) was responding to a tank battery fire and was traveling on Texas Hwy 349 toward the reported fire, when an oil field truck of one kind or another crossed the center line and struck the officer's car head-on, killing Deputy Smith.

In the past several months as the oil boom has really mushroomed in West Texas, drivers for the various oil companies have adopted, literally, a "get there NOW or not at all" policy.  The oil companies all have rules stating their employees must drive safely, not exceed the speed limit, etc.  The reality is that the companies expect their employees to travel long distances, complete jobs, then travel long distances to the next job.  Deliveries are expected "on time."  The supervisors do not accept "I was late because I was driving the speed limit" as an excuse when oil, chemicals, machinery parts, and field hands are "late."  Not surprisingly, the oil workers will do whatever it takes to "get there on time." Deputy Smith is the latest in a long line of victims of this de facto oil patch philosophy.  Not only law enforcement officers, but everyone using the highway, are endangered by this uncaring and depravingly negligent policy.

Deputy Smith lost his life in a senseless and needless traffic accident.  The citizens of Upton County were robbed of a dedicated public servant.  And Michael's wife and four children were deprived of a loving husband and father.  I am proud to honor Deputy Michael Smith, Upton County Sheriff's Office, here on the pages of this blog, and I am deeply grateful for his service to the citizens of Upton County and Texas.  My sympathy to his family, and to his fellow officers for their great loss.

Drones Over America: Drones Are Raining Down On US

I recently blogged about President Obama's directive, and Congress's approval of said directive, requiring the FAA to develop a program allowing as many as 30,000 aerial drones to fly in United States airspace.  One of the concerns I expressed in that blog was that drones represent a new and unnecessary hazard in our already overcrowded airspace.  I expressed concern that aerial drones would possibly fall to the ground, endangering anyone in the vicinity, and that drones could crash into private and commercial aircraft.

My concerns were well-placed it seems, although further behind the times than I thought.  One "watchdog" website identifies about ninety Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) crashes since 2007.  Many of these "alleged" crash reports are supported by other sources easily located on the Internet, including online newspaper sources.  Some crash reports are even confirmed by US military reports, although the listed cause of such crashes may or may not be accurate.

The first domestic UAV crash of which I was aware was the crash of a military drone in Maryland.  This drone was a Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk.  Did you, my friends, take some comfort in the belief that drones were small aircraft similar in size to hobby remote-controlled airplanes?  Not this one.  This UAV was nearly fifty feet long (the same size as a tractor-trailer big rig!) with a wingspan of over one hundred feet.  In other words, the drone that crashed in a Maryland swamp on June 11th was the same size as the average American fighter jet!  See this story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-maryland-drone-crash-20120611,0,1085352.story
As you can see from the smoke cloud, this drone does not leave a small "footprint."  Had this drone struck another aircraft, the outcome would have been tragically different.  By the way, dear taxpayer, the cost to you and me for losses incurred in this drone accident is estimated by sources to be from as "little" as $46 million, to as high as $126 million.

As I said, this was the first domestic drone crash of which I was aware, but it is definitely not the FIRST drone crash in the US.  In fact, at least two drones have crashed here in good ol' Texas.  The news of a police drone crash in Montgomery County hit the press in March of 2012, but the accident actually occurred in the Fall of 2011.  Apparently the accident, which was kept "hush hush" as long as possible, happened when the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office SWAT Team was holding a practice session in a rural area several miles outside of Houston.  The drone was being tested both as an aid to the SWAT operation and as a means of documenting the operation. Shortly after the drone was launched, it "lost communication" with the ground crew.  The drone went into a "shut down mode" that was intended to allow the drone to land safely.  Unfortunately, the drone crashed into the SWAT armored vehicle.  No one was injured and the drone sustained little damage. 

Another drone crashed into the back yard of a home in El Paso.  The homeowner called police.  Suddenly homeland security was involved, then the US military.  The drone, it turned out, belonged to the Mexican Army.  Why was a Mexican drone, controlled by a Mexican flight crew, flying over El Paso anyway?  But I digress... The drone in question was a smaller UAV, about the size of a remote-controlled hobby airplane.  While this drone probably would not have caused an airplane crash if it had flown over the nearby El Paso International Airport, it could very easily have killed someone had it struck a pedestrian.  With very little fanfare, the drone was later returned to the Mexican government.

This news story appears in the El Paso Times:
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_16886479

Actually, NO, it does not.  When you follow the link you will find that the story is "no longer available."  Coincidence?  It is interesting that many other stories from the same issue ARE available. 

It turns out that the people of Alamogordo, New Mexico are also quite familiar with UAV crashes.  According to information provided by the Public Information Office of the United States Air Force 49th Wing, NINE drones have crashed since September of 2009.  The Air Force communications officer insisted that all the crashes occurred on Holloman Air Force Base property, and that no private property was damaged, and no people were injured.  As the residents of Alamogordo and the surrounding area go about their business, I wonder if they harbor at least some fear that someday a drone might come crashing down on them.  It seems obvious that there are many "bugs" that need to be worked out in the military's drone program before these dangerous machines can be safely unleashed in public air space.  Oops, oh yeah, the drones are ALREADY flying around our public air space.

According to the "drone watch" sources available on the Internet, the US Military has spent as much as $1.6 billion to date on the various drone programs.  I think this figure is very conservative.  If one computes the cost per drone and plugs in the number of drones KNOWN to be in operation, the cost easily outstrips the nearly two billion dollar figure.  But regardless of the outrageous cost of the United States drone initiative, the true cost is seen in the increased possibility of needless but tragic loss of human life should a drone crash into a crowded commercial jet or fall onto a crowded shopping center, and the loss of our freedom from unreasonable surveillance by whomever is operating a given drone.
http://dronewarsuk.wordpress.com/drone-crash-database/
As you can see from the information at this site, the United States is flying drones over several sovereign nations IN ADDITION to the two nations with which we are "at war" at the moment.  Other militaries have lost drones as well. Incidentally, it is quite possible that Al Quaida now has at least one US drone as result of a drone crash.

I hope that you will join me urging our lawmakers to create legislation that is very restrictive concerning both the numbers of drones in use in US air space, and concerning the legal uses of drones. Although I am not for a lot of government control of free commerce, I would like to see very restrictive legislation concerning the use of drones in the private, corporate sectors as well.  Drones, regardless of whether military or civilian in nature, have proven to be dangerous to the public due to the fairly regular frequency with which they crash.  On top of that, computer hackers will inevitably break into drone controller systems, either to "have fun" with the drones, or to commit sinister acts of terror against the public.  There is legitimate reason for very limited use of drones in military missions.  There is also a legitimate use of drones for VERY LIMITED law enforcement purposes, all of which can be accomplished with the use of standard search warrants, or that falls within STRICT limits during emergency situations where a warrant cannot be obtained in time for the situation to be resolved. 

Drones (UAV) are in use over our heads now, keeping an eye on you and me, the People, even though we have done nothing that can be construed as probable cause to search and surveil us.  Our (US Military and CIA) drones are also flying over the sovereign territory of other nations with whom we are not engaged in war.  Our drones are poised to rain down death on at least two continents and over the oceans.  I can only believe it is just a matter of time until we read of United States citizens being killed by US drones right here in the United States.  I can only believe that we as citizens will become subjects of secret monitoring by local police and by federal agencies both without reasonable suspicion and without our knowledge of such surveillance. 

But, it is not completely too late.  I also believe if we constantly and loudly demand of our lawmakers an end to the national drone program, AND an end to the use of drones to violate national air space of nations with whom we are not at war, we can convince Congress to cut the purse strings for these programs.  I certainly hope we can unite and demand an end to the use of UAVs to commit murder against our citizens and against foreign citizens as well.  In the case of the use of drones to eliminate LEGALLY DESIGNATED military targets, I realize that there is, unfortunately, a place for drones so that our servicemen do not face unnecessary danger.  Again though, I believe that drones in these situations should only be used against military targets with whom we are at war.  Drones have a place in military and in law enforcement.  But it is our duty as citizens to demand that drones be used within these two limited functions, and it is our duty to turn out those lawmakers who refuse to protect us from the consequences unlimited and unwarranted use of drones both here and around the world.

The General Accounting Office; or Pakistan Is Not Our Ally

The Congressional General Accounting Office (GAO) published a report yesterday outlining one more area of governmental waste.  Over the years the GAO has proven to be a credible agency, one of the few agencies of any branch of the federal government that has done so.  This agency was created in 1921 by the Federal Budget and Accounting Act of that year.  Since that time, the GAO has provided unabashed reports of federal spending, including reports detailing outrageous governmental waste. 

The GAO's report from yesterday outlines yet another monumental waste of taxpayer money, and how the United States government, in the form of either our President or the Armed Forces, is doing nothing to stop this waste.  In fact (and AS USUAL) the government is actually compounding the waste, already several million dollars strong, by more millions of dollars.  Even though the waste has been noted, and could be easily corrected, it is instead being increased at least two fold, and counting.

In 2009, the US military GAVE our "ally" Pakistan 55 Improvised Explosive Device (IED) jamming devices.  Fifty-five more were included as part of the gift.  The second group of fifty-five IED jamming devices remain here in the United States.  Why?  Because the first fifty-five are currently stored in Pakistani warehouses, where they have been since received there in 2009.  Incidentally, the United States (read TAXPAYERS) is paying the storage fees that have accrued since 2009.  According to the GAO, the Pakistani government has REFUSED TO USE THIS EQUIPMENT because it came from the United States.  That refusal is even more steadfast since the Son of Laden was killed there last year, and because the United States military continues to violate Pakistani airspace at will to carryout unilateral military missions, including the drone attacks that continue to claim innocent lives as well as those of the militants.

The Pakistani government is of course free to do what it wants with American aid.  It is not surprising that Pakistan does not want to use American aid, as they are only nominally our "ally," as has always been the case.  So it is not outrageous that Pakistan does not want our supplies and aid.  The OUTRAGEOUS thing is that the US government is still contemplating shipping the other fifty-five units to Pakistan.  Even more outrageous, the US government intends to spend some $86 million dollars MORE to send more IED jammers and mine-clearing vehicles to Pakistan.  Remember, the Pakistanis have not used the first $23 million dollars worth of aid from 2009.  Why on earth are we sending MORE UNWANTED AID to that nation?!

It is a great insult to the American people, to American soldiers (who are making poverty wages), and to the Pakistanis as well that this aid is still in the works.  First, the American taxpayers are already being bilked at the rate of billions a year, with all the bailouts and such.  The American soldiers are being cheated out of pay raises and other benefits because the military budget is being wasted on this project. Finally, the Pakistanis do not want our aid and are rightfully upset over the continued violation of both their airspace and their sovereign territory.

Why does not our President, Commander-In-Chief Obama, put the nix on this aid package?  Why do not the executive level military commanders put an end to this farce?  The only people benefiting from this deal are the manufacturers of these machines.  They will continue to pour out this stuff and the military (with OUR TAXES) will continue to pay rather premium prices for the hardware. If it has not happened already, there is also the great possibility that Pakistani authorities, not wanting to use the machinery themselves, will begin selling it to the highest bidder.  I would not be totally surprised to learn someday that our military PAID Pakistan to "buy back" this hardware. Would you?

I praise the GAO for providing this report in spite of the fact that GAO employees could not have won any friends with its publication.  I hope that our Congress will have the character and fortitude to stand up to the military machine and stop any further aid to Pakistan.  The Pakistanis have not proven to be trustworthy allies, nor do they WANT to be considered US allies by the Muslim world, for obvious reasons.  That is their choice. The ludicrous thing is to try to force this aid down their collective throat.  They do not want the aid, are not using it, and may sell it to forces unfriendly to the United States.  I call on the US government to do the right thing by the American people, our fighting men and women, and the government and people of Pakistan, and stop wasting any more equipment or taxpayer money where it is not wanted.  This is not a very hard decision...wouldn't you agree?

Info source: http://news.yahoo.com/millions-dollars-u-gear-combat-ieds-wasted-pakistan-152538169--abc-news-topstories.html

June 6 - A Special Day of Remembrance

Ever since I was a young boy and I learned about the brave soldiers who took part in the D-Day invasion at Normandy, I have taken time, whether publicly or in private, to honor the memory of those men, both those who fought the battle and won, and those who lost their lives in the bloody waters and sands of Normandy Beach.  I have marvelled at the bravery of those soldiers as they faced that withering and deadly gunfire from the Nazi gun emplacements in the cliffs overlooking the coast.  There was no place to hide, and our men did not hide or shirk their duties, but took the several beaches on the Normandy coast at such a terrible cost.  I also wondered if I myself would have had the courage to carry out my mission if I had been on the beach that day in 1944.  Our elders were indeed brave, and indeed worthy to be called the Greatest Generation.

In1986 D-Day, June 6, took on a whole new meaning.  On that day, my spouse gave birth to our second child, Bryan Seth.  Our young son was born several weeks early, and suffered from severe respiratory problems associated with premature birth.  I have to admit that on this particular day I did not properly honor our war heroes as I was very involved in our own tragic situation.  My son Bryan fought bravely, and fought nearly as long as our soldiers did in that battle of long ago on the shores of Normandy.  And like so many of those brave men, he died on June 6.  We will never forget our Little Angel, but we know he is in the hands of the Good Shepherd at this very moment.  It is a great honor to remember our son on the same day as we remember all those soldiers, the heroes of the Normandy Invasion of World War II.  It is also a great comfort to know that Bryan is in the arms of the same Good Shepherd that received the souls of our fallen soldiers that terrible day in 1944.

Booker T Washington Appeared At Prairie View Normal Institute, June 4, 1897

In what must have been a most memorable and exciting day in Prairie View in the summer of 1897, Professor Booker T Washington, then president of the famous Tuskegee Institute (now University), delivered the commencement address to the first graduating class.  That first class at Prairie View consisted of eight Black men.

I doubt if Prof. Washington was deterred by the small number of students that day.  He was was not only a dreamer, but a maker of dreams.  Washington started his adult life as a freed slave.  He envisioned himself obtaining a college education and working for the advancement of the Black people who had recently been freed after the War Between The States.  Prof. Washington also envisioned a time when Black people could receive an equal education in facilities equal to those afforded White students across the nation. But he was a practical man.  Knowing that "equality" would still be a long time in coming, Booker T Washington began his crusade for Black education immediately, not waiting for that day in the hazy future.

I thought it was truly remarkable that this great man would make the long trek to Texas, especially since he had just delivered a commencement address in one of the northern states.  Additionally, Washington must have wondered what sort of treatment he could expect as he made his way through Texas to Prairie View, just outside of Hempstead.  No doubt he knew that he would be speaking to a very small graduating class.  Equally doubtless, Washington knew his words would be printed in newspapers across the nation.  He was not one to miss such an opportunity, no matter the hardships and hazards.

I had hoped to read his address and present some of his words in this blog; however, at this point I have not located transcripts or summaries of his commencement message.  According to media of the day, many dignitaries, both White and Black, as well as many citizens, including freedmen, attended the commencement that day in 1897.  Booker T Washington made his speech and returned to Alabama, but whatever he said must have been inspirational, as Prairie View A& M, as it is now called, continued to grow.  It is a thriving part of the Texas A & M University System, and is a land-grant funded institution.  Prairie View A & M is now a popular destination for Black students, and for a diverse group of other students as well.

I hope to locate Professor Washington's address and blog it here for you in the near future.  Texas history is rich and unique, and it was made even more so by Professor Washington's visit to Prairie View Normal and Industrial Institute over a hundred years ago.

God Bless Texas!