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After the Vigils, Helping Newtown Begin to Heal

December 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

DERBY, CT - From left, sisters Sara, 12, Jessica, 6, and Kaitlyn Gerckens, 10, of Derby (a town about 15 miles from Newtown), gather at the Derby Green during a vigil to remember the lives lost during the tragic shooting at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School. The event was organized by the communities of Ansonia, Derby, Seymour and Shelton. Photo by Josalee Thrift of the Valley Independent Sentinel

Editor’s note: As individuals, as parents, as people who live in quiet suburban communities, we identify with the families of Newtown, Connecticut, as well as all the other places visited by unspeakable tragedy. We ache for these folks, and we wonder what we can do to ease their pain. We say prayers, hold vigils, send tons of flowers and teddy bears, and we give whatever we can, oft times frustrated by our inability to take away that pain, to turn back time, and even to prevent this from happening again somewhere. Today, Doug Sarant, who grew up in Connecticut, tells us about some of these efforts.

In going back and forth with my long time friend, Mark Feltch, in Newtown since the tragedy, it was nice to hear him tell of a positive experience he encountered today.

“It was a humbling experience today at the NYA (Newtown Youth Academy) in terms of the support that my hometown is receiving from people far and wide, Mark said. Eleven MLL (Major League Lacrosse) stars gave Newtown three hours of their time. Meanwhile, UCONN basketball was in the other gym running a clinic and there was a constant stream of buses taking any Newtown kid and family down to the new Chelsea Piers Sports Complex in Stamford (Ct) to play anything and everything down there – for free – everything was free.”

One of the MLL stars that traveled to Newtown was Scotty Rodgers, who played his college lacrosse at Notre Dame. Rodgers came to The Woodlands the summer after his NCAA Division 1 lacrosse tournament MVP selection to be a part of the Woodlands High School lacrosse camp by taking charge of all the goalies. Mark was able to take in Rodgers’ Newtown goalie clinic and commented that Scotty could not have been better with the kids.

Today was a good day for Newtown, Connecticut and it was comforting to see Mark so upbeat. Mark lived in the Houston area up until the mid 90′s and was a strong presence in the area’s lacrosse growth. Since he and his beautiful wife, Ann landed in Newtown, he has been instrumental in the sport’s growth in Connecticut as well.

Mark and Ann have two kids: Libby is 22 and a graduate of Vassar College where she played field hockey and lacrosse. Charlie is 18 and a freshman at Curry College. Libby and Charlie as well as others with deep roots in Newtown worked on a tribute film as part of their ongoing healing process. Libby was the location coordinator and Charlie did voice-overs, along with various other Newtown graduates. [Editor's note: Watch the video]

For the vast majority of us, we can not possibly relate to what the people of Newtown endured on December 14 and will live with for the rest of their lives. What went on today in regards to the activities for the kids of Newtown can only offer a temporary, positive distraction to a heinous, cowardly act.

With good examples like Scotty Rodgers, his MLL brethren, UCONN basketball,  the town of Stamford and law enforcement from all over Connecticut having the people of Newtown’s back, we can follow their lead by keeping the people of Newtown in our prayers when we hit our knees EVERY NIGHT.

Godspeed to the Feltch family and the people of Newtown.

Comments to doug@oakridgenow.com

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Bill O’Reilly: What Happens in Vegas

December 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto

LAS VEGAS — This is a town that looks better at night. Millions of lights pierce the darkness creating a visual that is both energetic and trance-inducing. The multilayered lightshow is dazzling and unique in America.

But when the sun comes up, Las Vegas speaks directly to the recession. Half-completed buildings loom over the landscape like giant steel skeletons. Some developers ran out of money and simply walked away leaving huge, hulking abandoned structures to absorb the desert wind.

But just down Las Vegas Blvd. are the winners: lavish hotels that cater to one’s every need. This is a city that best defines the two Americas and our very competitive capitalistic system. If you want to understand the free marketplace, Las Vegas is an excellent classroom.

Millions of hardworking folks come here to have fun. In order to maximize the entertainment, you have to spend money. Whether you spend it on gambling, live shows or fine dining, it’s up to you. The money flow supports tens of thousands of service workers and, at a much higher level, the movers who run the tourist businesses. If you can’t make a decent living in Vegas, you are in major trouble. Responsible workers are sorely needed.

But still there is destitution on display. Addiction is the primary driver of that, although laziness is featured, as well. Some of the poor in this town simply want to play all the time. And they pay a price for that, as prosperity eludes them.

Some of the have-nots sit on sidewalks hoping for money from passersby. Sometimes, gamblers give the beggars casino chips. Panhandlers say the best time for them is after midnight when the winners emerge from the gambling dens. Redistribution is much easier when you’ve just run the table.

President Obama should spend some time in Vegas. Maybe then he would understand capitalism better. No matter how many handouts the panhandlers get, their circumstances rarely change. The money is mostly used to feed their compulsions.

On the other end, the rich 1 percenters hustling the gambling tables are trying to increase their affluence by taking chances. In the process, they are providing salaries for the hardworking men and women who keep the entertainment establishments running. Bottom line: Both the wealthy and the poor in Vegas are exercising their personal freedoms.

From observing the action in Vegas, Obama might finally realize that it’s freedom of choice that most often dictates who fails and who succeeds in the capitalistic system. In Vegas, no outcomes are guaranteed and no government can level the playing field. Prosperity or lack thereof is all about individual decision-making.

But the president would most likely never admit that, because it goes against his belief that government can impose a form of social justice by forcibly redistributing the wages of the successful.

For Barack Obama, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

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John McCain Ends Up Getting What He Wanted

December 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Photo illustration courtesy of Donkey Hotey / Flickr

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who on Thursday withdrew her name from consideration for Secretary of State, was the assistant secretary of state for Africa when I was working in the Clinton White House. She was vivid and direct — very striking for a diplomat. Even then, she had her fans and her detractors.

I was a fan. At the end of the Clinton presidency, Rice was honored at the White House — along with former National Security Advisor Tony Lake and White House Senior Director for Africa Gayle Smith — for her role in ending the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

This was an especially tragic war — a pointless war of pride between two poor countries that didn’t have one life to spare or a dollar to waste but couldn’t bring themselves to back down without the help of the United States.

Nobody can be more charming than Susan Rice, but that can change depending on conditions. I learned from talking to the other two on the team that Susan was assigned to dealing with “the leader known to be difficult.” She had a glare that could make her the negotiating equal of a head of state at a time of war. She once came out of a meeting, spitting: “That (expletive) questioned my manhood!”

Rice made some 15 trips between the two capitals in the summer of 1998. She and the team were slammed constantly in the papers in both countries — called by one head of state or the other “biased,” “dishonest,” “inexperienced,” “in-over-her-head” — whatever suited the politics of the moment.

She continued to be harshly criticized by both sides until they had a peace agreement. Then at the signing ceremony at Algiers, they thanked Rice and the team for “not giving up on us.”

So Susan Rice has known for a long time what it means to have her character and her competence distorted and attacked to suit someone’s ambitions.

Arizona Senator John McCain, in one of the more curious political tantrums recently thrown in this town, launched a preemptive campaign against Susan Rice for secretary of state, calling her “unqualified” based on public statements she made on Benghazi that tracked, as former CIA director David Petraeus confirmed, the unclassified account provided by the intelligence community.

McCain is one of the most unpredictable men in Washington — capable of displaying the greatest candor and the highest character of anyone in Congress, but capable also of sudden and surprisingly aggressive politics. So how would it serve McCain to take on a not-yet-nominated candidate for secretary of state?

First, it’s a shot at Obama. Obviously, the wounds of a losing a presidential campaign run deep, and seeing Obama win again could not have had pleasant associations for McCain. Going after Rice, who is personally close to the President, is a way to attack Obama on foreign policy, while also daring the president to either push Rice forward into a distracting and polarizing confirmation battle, or let her withdraw, making the president look weak or disloyal.

Second, McCain wants to be a bigger player in foreign policy. He had let it be known that he wanted a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He got what he asked for last Monday, which put him in a position to create hell for Rice in her confirmation hearings. This intensified the stakes for McCain. If Rice became secretary after McCain tried to derail her, McCain might not have had the access and influence he’d like at state.

If, on the other hand, McCain could force Susan Rice to withdraw her name from consideration, the next most likely nominee would be Senate Foreign Relations Chair John Kerry, McCain’s long-time friend and fellow Vietnam vet. McCain’s access and influence at the State Department would rise. It looks like the senator may get what he wants.

Meanwhile, the good news, and there is some, is that Rice continues at the U.N., where on Wednesday, the day before she withdrew her name from consideration for secretary of state, she faced off with the Chinese ambassador in a closed-door session of the Security Council to discuss responses to North Korea’s ballistic missile launch. Although the missile passed over Okinawa and prompted Japan to put its armed forces on alert, the Chinese ambassador Li Baodong declared that North Korea’s test constituted no threat to regional stability. Rice looked at him and said: “That’s ridiculous.”

That’s the kind of American candor even John McCain would admire.

Photo illustration courtesy of the gifted and talented Donkey Hotey.

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Hanukkah: Celebrating the Triumph of Light Over Darkness

December 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy of Chayim B. Alevsky

Jews throughout the world are celebrating Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, by lighting candles on a unique, eight-branched candelabra, the menorah. Each evening the middle candle from the holder, the shamash, is used to light the flames. The first night one candle is kindled. Thereafter, on each night of Hanukkah one additional candle is lit until all eight candles and the shamash brightly shine.

The holiday symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness that conveys a deep, universally understood meaning regarding the importance of religious freedom.

“Hanukkah is an affirmation that Jewish heritage is precious and is worth preserving,” Rabbi Dov Fischer of the Young Israel of Orange County, Calif. told us. “We have enormous pressures on Jews to hide our identities and just assimilate and be like everybody else. Hanukkah reminds us that a core value is that we never give up that which is unique.”

In the second century BCE, the Syrian-Greek Seleucid Empire conquered Israel. Beginning around 175 BCE, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes took the Seleucid throne, a period of tyranny and repression of traditional Jewish customs and practices began. The temple in Jerusalem was turned over to the worship of Zeus, which inspired a revolt, initially led by the Jewish priest Mattathias and his five sons. By 165 BCE this revolt, led by Mattathias’ son Judah Maccabee, was successful.

Judah ordered the Temple cleansed of Hellenistic statuary and restored service so Jews could freely worship there once again. According to tradition, however, only one small vessel of pure olive oil, just enough to burn for one day, was available for the rededication of the temple and lighting of the menorah. It would take eight days to prepare a new supply. Miraculously this oil burned for the entire eight days.

To commemorate this miracle and their freedom from foreign occupation, Jewish sages declared an eight-day holiday to be celebrated each year. The Hanukkah menorah is intended not to light the house but “to illuminate the house within.” During Hanukkah it is traditional to eat food fried in oil, such as potato pancakes, or latkes, and doughnuts. Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins) are given to children, and sometimes gifts are exchanged. Families often play a game with a four-sided spinning top, or dreidel, whose four letters are an acronym for “a great miracle happened here.”

Religious freedom and the hope that light will always triumph over darkness are significant for people everywhere, and in this world these values are not always safeguarded. This Hanukkah our prayer is that individual rights are fully preserved and protected so that freedom’s flame might burn brightly throughout the world.

Republished courtesy of the Orange County Register

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Are Concerns About Youth Football Injuries Overrated?

December 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy of Jim Danvers / Flickr

Now that youth football is over for the year, I wanted to throw a piece out there about how great youth football is for all youth everywhere. We all watch football at all levels to include pro, college and high school. However, far and away the most exciting game to watch is youth tackle football.

Seeing how this is Texas, in just about every town  youngsters have the opportunity to play tackle football if they desire.

If you have a problem with your kid’s interest in tackle football, I encourage you to go watch a game at the South County Football League’s fields located at the Gullo Park located off Budde/Pruitt road.

If you have young children and are skeptical about putting them in tackle football, watch some games of all age kids.

They start when they are 5 years old and the league goes until they are 13. After that, if they still want to play, they compete at the junior high level.

Is it a physical game? Yes! Is it expensive? Not really. Football registration is actually cheaper than baseball.

After you buy the football equipment, it’s all downhill.

The equipment lasts longer than a year and the kids usually don’t grow out of it in just a  year. Plus, you can always buy used stuff.

I guess the main worry for parents would be injuries.

I’ll try to clear this up using what I have witnessed as a football parent when my son played at the youth level.

It will be completely unbiased because I’m a baseball/lacrosse guy. I will side with baseball and lacrosse whenever the opportunity arises. This column is about football so I won’t go into the many reasons why baseball and lacrosse are the greatest sports on the planet.

Having said that, I see more kids suffer injuries playing youth baseball than football.

Case in point: While coaching a Little League game eight years ago, no less than four players on the other team went down and had to either leave the game or take extra time before continuing to play.

Luckily, one of the parents was an EMT that proceeded to carry his medical bag on the field after each occurrence.

During my son’s sophomore (7-8 years old) SCFL season, I only saw one player leave a game due to injury and that wasn’t from contact.

There you have it. I took football over baseball in the injury department.

I’m not trying to create a facade here. During games, some kids get hit so hard they stay on the ground and assume something must be wrong, only to find out absolutely nothing is wrong.

Thus, they get up and the next time they get planted, they get up again.

How good is that for a kid? I think it’s great. To learn toughness at an early age just makes parenting that much easier in the long run.

Picture this; the 7-year-old playing in the Sophomore Division gets lit up like a Christmas tree. He proceeds to cry. He gets hit like that again and cries less. Eventually, he realizes that hitting is part of the game and doesn’t cry after getting hit hard.

This is the kind of kid that isn’t yelling for the paramedics after he gets a scratch when he’s 13.

Kids who experience tackle football at an early age become less high-maintenance when they get older. I don’t think any kid is low-maintenance, so less high-maintenance will have to do.

A parent might say, “My boy is too small to play football.” Wrong!

Size doesn’t matter in most things, and definitely not in youth football.

Again, from my personal experience, the smaller kids get hurt less than the bigger kids. Some of whom have to get over a bad case of hypochondria.

That may seem biased because my kid was always the smallest player and every play he got demolished. But, he’d get up and go right back in there and try to contribute.

Believe me, I’m not bragging. Watching this kid play tackle football was a lot like watching MTV’s Jackass go through his masochism routine.

I could mention several other positives about the local tackle football league. But, I wanted to write a quick piece regarding the perceived injury question/problem.

Check out what York junior high school parent, Ben Hall had to say regarding concussion issues. “All of this concussion talk at the pro level has contributed to the paranoia. As long as these kids are getting coached up well, there won’t be a problem. The coaches are knowledgeable in SCFL and teach their players to tackle correctly with your head up and to always keep your head on a swivel so as to be completely alert.”

I think youth tackle football gets a bad rap and  I suggest anyone interested go out and watch some games.

Base your opinion on eyewitness observations, not on opinions of people who can’t back up a claim with facts.

Besides, if your child plays one year and really doesn’t like it, you can sell his gear and he doesn’t have to play the next year. No harm done at all.

However, that one year will probably do the kid a world of good.

Comments to Doug Sarant at doug@oakridgenow.com

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What If This Was Your Last Christmas?

December 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy of Steven Frame / iStockphoto

What if this was your last Christmas? What if this was your last chance at Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, and Christmas dinner? Would you make the effort to go home for the holidays? Would you make time to take the kiddos to drink hot chocolate and look at the lights?

Would you still go to the mall?

That’s what Mary Kate Campbell did, and she and her shiny new husband had a great time.

“The best Christmas I had, we went to the mall and only had $100. He got a pair of Ray Bans, I got a sweater from J. Crew. We could afford these things, and we enjoyed our time together,” she said.

That was a couple years ago. She’s not sure where she’s going to spend Christmas this year. “That actually depends on whether I get into a clinical trial I got kicked out of last week,” she said from the Seattle hospital where she’s got a real bad case of relapsed, refractory Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. “Or I will go home to Virginia and have a nice quiet little Christmas like I did last year,” she said. “It all depends on whether I get this new drug.”

The bone marrow registry had two matches, but the doctors found cancer cells after the operation. When I asked if she’d been given a prognosis, she said, “I should be dead already,” and shortly after that she had to get off the phone to have a tube taken out of her chest. She’s 29 and has been married for a year and a half. But when she gets sad this Christmas, don’t assume you know why.

“Christmas is sadder for me now, and it’s for reasons that I think are not the most predictable because I see wonderful, well-intentioned people who love me and care about me and would do anything that they could do to save me, but they cannot save me,” she said. “I see them buying objects for me and for others to distract themselves from the pain for a little while, the pain that they’re going to lose me.”

And you think your mother is hard to shop for?

From her hospital room, Campbell watches endless commercials for Black Friday, door busters, and 24-hour sales, all screaming at us to buy things that will be forgotten by the New Year. If she had her way—and just this once, maybe she should—we’d handle Christmas more purposefully.

“Buy something you can afford that speaks to you about the person you’re buying it for. Surround yourself with people who don’t expect you to buy them things,” she said. “Every Christmas, we present the people we love with a glut of objects. We don’t necessarily present them with our love, we present them with objects.”

Life doesn’t have to be so fraught to give Christmas urgency. My cousin George Stanford, a singer-songwriter based in LA, just recorded a song called “Christmas For Two”. The video—it’s up on YouTube—features his lovely and pregnant wife, Nikole, as they prepare for their last Christmas before the baby comes. It is unspeakably adorable.

“Next year, there’ll be three, around our Christmas tree. You and I have just begun to write our legacy/Our gift will be here soon, a little me, a little you, so let’s celebrate our last Christmas for two,” sings George.

For better or worse, we don’t know who is going to be around the Christmas tree next year. So I’ll put it to you again: If you knew that everything would change next year, how would you spend Christmas? Would you judge Christmas on how high the pile of presents under the tree is? Would you worry that everything looked just so? Would you put a plastic toy on a plastic card because Suzy had to open the same number of wrapped boxes as Johnny?

What would you do?

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Remembering Pearl Harbor: A Date That Will Live in Infamy

December 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is shown in this Dec. 7, 1941 file photo. The USS Arizona is pictured in flames after being hit. Radio announcer Roger Krupp didn't hesitate to interrupt his Sunday programming, Dec. 7, 1941, to read The Associated Press news flash to listeners of WTCN-AM in Minneapolis. Now officials at Sotheby's auction house say he may, in fact, have been the first announcer to hit the air with news of the attack that drew the United States into World WarII. Media experts and World War II historians are skeptical of the claim, but Sotheby's expects to fetch $3,000 to $5,000 for the tattered teletype in an auction scheduled to take place Monday in New York. (U.S. Navy, File)

Why is it important that we remember the attack on Pearl Harbor, a painful piece of U.S. and military history that to new generations of Americans seems far in the past — even overwhelmed by the more recent Day of Infamy II, the attacks of 9/11?

There are thousands of reasons the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, will be forever a touchstone for our nation and the foundation for America’s evolving role in the world for the next several decades.

The numbers alone tell the compelling story of that morning in what was then a lonesome U.S. naval outpost in Hawaii, a string of island that would become a state less than 20 years later. It came under attack without warning from Japan, as Hitler was commanding a marauding German force across Europe. Horrifying events in Europe were well known in America, a nation at that time battling exceptional economic distress and in no mood to go to war.

And then came Pearl Harbor, which launched our nation into war with Japan. Later, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S., which sealed our entry into World War II.

Life would be forever different as a result. Consider:

—2,388 Americans died in the air attack and 1,178 Americans were wounded

—21 American ships were sunk or damaged

—323 American aircraft were destroyed or damaged

—1,177 Americans involved in the attack were serving on the USS Arizona

—Only 333 servicemen serving on the USS Arizona survived the attack

While it’s heartening to note that an average of 4,000 people tour the site of the Pearl Harbor attack each day and 1.5 million visit the USS Arizona memorial annually, according to the National Park Service, it still seems the attack strays further from our national consciousness. It’s become something present generations are only aware of via movies and TV. The escalating demise of the “Greatest Generation” is putting this critical event in U.S. history evermore into the rear-view mirror of modern society. The gathering of Pearl Harbor survivors grows smaller.

Today, as people converge in Honolulu or other sites to mark the anniversary of what has become known as Pearl Harbor Day, it is instructive to remember the impact and legacy of this epic event. Author Peter Dowswell, in his 2003 book “Pearl Harbor,” writes that for 60 years Pearl Harbor lived up to President Franklin Roosevelt‘s description as “a date that will live in infamy.”

“It has been invoked to remind Americans about the consequences of treachery by foreign powers and complacency in government. The United States’ foreign policy has been based on the thinking ‘No more Pearl Harbors’ ever since,” he wrote.

In a larger sense, though, the attack on Pearl Harbor sealed America’s fate to be a global leader during World War II and beyond — a role this nation still plays.

Republished from the New Bern Sun Journal

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Bill O’Reilly: Teenage Werewolves

December 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Michael Landon in "I was a Teenage Werewolf", 1957

Back in the 1950s, “Little Joe Cartwright” starred in a movie called “I Was a Teenage Werewolf.” That’s right, after seeing a full moon, Michael Landon ran around a public high school foaming at the mouth and pretty much out of control. Since there was little difference between his behavior and that of the normal students, he got away with it for two semesters.

As I watched the film, I remember thinking that it was going to be tough for Landon to get into college with that on his resume. But then the 1960s happened, so that was that.

This brings me to the present. My life these days is largely confronting political and social madness on television and then going home to deal with teenage drama from an almost-14-year-old girl. I vaguely remember being 14, because I was ensconced in a Catholic high school that gave out homework assignments like they were M&M’s. Believe me, I had plenty of angst. But nobody paid much attention to it.

Like today, many teenagers back then brooded full time. Check out James Dean, an outstandingly cloudy guy. But now teens have two things that embolden their disenchantment: the Internet and permissive parents.

Earlier this week, I was encouraging my urchins to speed it up because the bus was coming.

“I can’t go faster ’cause you’re staring at me,” the teen wailed.

“I’m not staring at you. I just came into the room.”

“But I can see you!”

You get the idea. My daughter also did not want to wear anything that covered her legs — even though it was 39 degrees outside. She wanted to wear shorts. At that point, I started wishing she’d turn into a werewolf. At least the fur would keep her warm.

But it is the Internet that is truly changing the teenage dynamic in America.

It used to be that teenagers would hang out together and swap stories of woe. I remember seeing Billy Joel and his crew at stores on Levittown Parkway. They were just slouching around the same as my guys were. Just being with other teenagers was comforting, but we actually had to leave our houses to do that. Now, teens can gang-brood from their rooms on the Net.

Because nearly every awful occurrence is highlighted on various Facebook pages, teenagers now find it easier to justify their own craziness. “How can you criticize me for getting a C when Shelley got all F’s and crashed her dad’s car?” That kind of thing.

Nothing is private anymore. Teenagers are subjected to (and some participate in) incredibly destructive behavior online.

And parents have few options. Even if you ban home computers, handheld devices are all over the place. You’d have to put a full-time bodyguard on the child in order to provide complete protection.

In the end, all parents can do is try their best to impose a sense of responsibility on their kids. But don’t expect any appreciation, and be watchful at all times. Kids today are growing up at warp speed; the machines march them into adulthood way before they’re ready.

Even with fangs, Landon had it easier.

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Isn’t It Time We Americans Got to Know Each Other?

December 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Air Force personel watch as the caskets of six fallen soldiers are loaded onto a waiting hearse at Dover Air Force Base Delaware July 8, 2009. All fallen service members are transferred directly from theater to the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operation Center at Dover Air Force Base Delaware. (DoD photo by Benjamin Faske)

The late Tom Pettit, who covered American politics so well for NBC News from John Kennedy in 1960 to Bill Clinton in 1992, was missed even more during this year’s uninspiring presidential campaign. My personal favorite Tom Pettit professional moment was when he was interviewing Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz, who served in the Cabinets of both Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

Secretary Butz, an unrelenting critic of the food stamps program then under his department, unloaded on the “greedy” exploiters of food stamps he and his people were chasing down. Pettit asked Butz if he knew anyone who had used food stamps. Butz spoke about how he was no stranger to supermarkets, that he accompanied his wife on the grocery shopping and that he had personally seen people at the checkout counter paying with food stamps.

Pettit pressed Butz: Did the secretary know anyone — personally — who depended upon food stamps to feed her children? After an extended silence, the obviously displeased agriculture secretary answered the question, “No.” The only thing that followed was the close: “Tom Pettit, NBC News, Washington.”

This anecdote reminds me why the military draft between 1940 and 1973 educated so many of us about what it meant to be an American and, more importantly, tells me why in the second decade of the 21st century the United States desperately needs every 18-year-old American to give two years of national service, military or civilian, to their country.

First, a personal note: At Parris Island, S.C., in Marine Corps boot camp, for the first time in my life I slept in the same quarters with African-Americans and took orders, as a matter of course, from African-Americans. In that boot camp platoon, there were six college graduates, four young men who, given the option by juvenile courts, had chosen to enlist rather than have the judge impose a sentence and one of us, who proved to be both a gentle giant and a superb rifleman, who had never gone beyond the eighth grade.

We were mostly Catholics from the North or Baptists from the South. But we also included four Jewish Marines and even a couple of, to the manor born, Episcopalians. After the longest 13 weeks of our lives, we all came to know that while our ancestors may have come to America at different times and in different ships, now we were all in the same boat — and that each of us was an American.

The draft — when three out of four male college-graduates as well as high-school graduates served — guaranteed that Americans of all classes, all social strata and all areas of the country would shoulder the responsibility of defending their nation. And that in doing so they would rub shoulders with and — while sharing bunks, a weekend pass and, sometimes, even foxholes — get to know, and to depend upon, other Americans very different from themselves.

Which brings us back to a variation of Tom Pettit’s great question of Earl Butz: Do you, Mr. Commentator, or do you, Madame Senator, PERSONALLY know anyone whom your arguments or your votes have sent into combat? Have you attended the funeral of anyone whom you PERSONALLY knew who was killed in Iraq or Afghanistan?

A “Support Our Troops” decal on your SUV or a flag pin in your lapel does not qualify. The American Establishment — political, economic, academic and journalistic — has next to no personal stake in men and women who risk their life and limbs to defend the United States. Our military is increasingly integrated by race and increasingly segregated by class.

Tragically, most Americans today only know people exactly like themselves. Universal national service would introduce Americans to each other and to what it means to be a citizen.

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Chuck Norris: Embrace a Thankful and Giving Heart

November 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy of Cindi Albright

This holiday season, while we enjoy delicious food and visiting family and friends, let’s take a moment to give thanks for our many blessings.

It’s easy to get lost in all the bad news today — whether it be unfavorable election results, financial troubles, a struggling economy, an overreaching federal government, crisis in the Middle East or personal struggles. Our growing list of problems often seems overwhelming and endless.

It’s easy to give thanks when everything is going our way. But what about the difficult times?

The Bible, in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, commands us, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

I noticed a poll this week indicating a full 45 percent of Americans would rather skip Christmas because they say it’s stressful and a strain on their finances.

But this season is not about braving crowded store aisles, crabby shoppers and maddening traffic jams so we can spend money on stuff our friends and family don’t actually need.

Before you rush to empty your pocketbook and cram the hottest toys under the tree, let’s examine our hearts this season and count our blessings.

Thankfulness brings joy and contentment; it changes your outlook and attitude.

There’s real power in a thankful heart.

Even when we are tapped out financially and emotionally, we should consider the truly meaningful blessings in our lives. My wife, Gena, and I thank God for our families, friends and neighbors, and for the joy of this season that we celebrate in His name.

In all the world’s darkness, we can be thankful for God’s great love and that He sent his Son so that all of us may have eternal life. That wonderful gift is available to everyone — regardless of our hardships and individual circumstances.

As President Ronald Reagan declared in his 1981 Thanksgiving proclamation, “Let us recommit ourselves to that devotion to God and family that has played such an important role in making this a great Nation, and which will be needed as a source of strength if we are to remain a great people.”

We thank God we are fortunate enough to have been born in the greatest country on Earth, in a land of abundance, prosperity and hope. We are grateful for our nation’s foundation on freedom, justice, democracy and the rule of law. We also pray that America’s leaders will look to God for guidance.

We’re thankful for the First Amendment, which guarantees our rights to express ourselves, petition our government and worship God freely. (I might add, we’re also thankful for our Second Amendment rights.)

We are grateful for all the sacrifices of our nation’s veterans and courageous men and women serving in the U.S. military, who continue to secure our liberty and keep our nation safe.

We thank God we live in a land of opportunity, where each of us is free to develop our individual talents and embrace our entrepreneurial spirit.

We’re grateful for our good health, our jobs, warm clothing, protective shelter and nourishing food. We’re thankful that we’re fortunate enough to have these things, so we’re able to show compassion and care for those among us who don’t.

We thank God for helping us practice humility, patience, kindness and forgiveness.

Most importantly — especially in these troubling times — we’re thankful that God is always in control.

Let’s not get caught up in the material trappings of the holidays and forget to give thanks just because Thanksgiving Day is behind us. This Christmas season, I challenge you to greet every day with a thankful and giving heart.

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