Taps

Every veteran knows “'Taps.” It’s the haunting tune we’ve heard from our
bunks at lights out. Traditionally played at funerals, it’s a tune that gives us a
lump in our throats.

But, do you know the story behind the song?

Reportedly, it originated in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army
Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison's Landing in
Virginia . The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of
land.

During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moans of a soldier who lay
severely wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate
soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for
medical attention Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the Captain
reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment.

When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a
Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead. The Captain lit a lantern and
suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he
saw the face of the soldier.

It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the
war broke out. Without telling his father, the boy had enlisted in the
Confederate Army.

The morning after finding his son dead on the battlefield, the heartbroken
father asked permission to give his son a full military burial, despite his enemy
status. His request was only partially granted.

The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a
funeral dirge for his son at the funeral. The request was turned down as the
soldier was a Confederate.

But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one
musician.

The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical
notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth's
uniform.

This wish was granted. The haunting melody, we now know as 'Taps' used at
military funerals was born.

The words are:

Day is done.
Gone the sun.
From the lakes
From the hills.
From the sky.
All is well.
Safely rest.
God is nigh.

Fading light.
Dims the sight.
And a star.
Gems the sky.
Gleaming bright.
From afar.
Drawing nigh.
Falls the night.

Thanks and praise.
For our days.
Neath the sun
Neath the stars.
Neath the sky.
As we go.
This we know.
God is nigh

We have all felt the chills while listening to “Taps” but few the words of the
song until now. Remember next time you hear this tune or find yourself in
trouble: God is nigh.

What a job!

One of the most recent heroes we're helping is a young Army medic with about a dozen pieces of shrapnel in his brain and much of both hands gone. Specialist Kevin H. was driving a humvee in a convoy behind a tank when a rocket fired by an Islamic terrorist intended for the tank blasted through Kevin's vehicle.

Kevin is the kind of guy any father would be proud to have as a son. The last year has been filled with pain and struggle and suffering for Kevin, but he never complains and is positive and upbeat.
His dream is to have his own home near Fort Hood, Texas and to become a teacher. (He was thinking law enforcement as a career but he no longer has a trigger finger.)

We are helping Kevin reach both of those goals. Thanks to his five years of military service, he has plenty of education credit, so that part is already largely taken care of. Right now, we're focused on finding him a home. We're a small charity without the funds to just outright buy a house for Kevin and his almost-fiance, but we're seeking help from other charities. And, hey, if you feel an overpowering urge to make a contribution earmarked for him, don't let reading this blog get in your way!

While our goal is to attract the resrouces necessary to give him a home outright, plan "B" is to find a foreclosure in Copperas Cove, Texas, put up the cash for the down payment, get a loan from a local lender. The median price of a home there is $102,200. We're looking for one we can pick up for around $50,000 to $60,000.

Even with his mangled hands, Kevin could do a lot of the work needed to fix up a place with lots of deferred maintenance. Plus, we think that working with Mary Smith, the president of the local Chamber of Commerce, we ought to be able to find some good Texas volunteers to pitch in. Hopefully, with, say, $20,000 invested in rehab, Kevin can make that $50,000 house worth $110,000 to $120,000. By adding that $50,000 to $60,000 in value to the house, he should be able to borrow $100,000 which would give him a mortgage payment of about $600 a month.

As he will probably get about 90% disability payment from Uncle Sam, this should be very affordable. That $50,000+ equity would give him enough working capital to buy another foreclosure and fix it up and flip it or rent it. Plus pay OurFinest.Org back the down payment so we can use it to help another wounded warrior.

So, that's our worst case plan to get Kevin started on a new life. It's not as good as giving him a house outright, but we think it's a workable plan. Any thoughts?

The very best thing about running OurFinest.Org is the chance to meet heroes like Kevin and their families. Kevin is blessed with a Super Mom, a woman with all the protective drive of a mother bear for her cubs. I sent her an email this morning thanking her for all the help in going after resources that might be available for Kevin and complimented her on her energetic support and got the following response:

"Ahh Mark – that was so very sweet of you to say – yes, indeed, I have a great deal of love and support for our son Kevin, as I do for each of our sons. It’s only natural, don’t you think? Indeed, I am extremely motivated and very supportive of him, and of course only want to make all his dreams become a reality….. I have attempted to maintain clear and accurate contact information since Kevin’s injury on September 30 of ’07 – it’s hard to believe it has been over a year. I am longing for that precious day for him to be totally out of D.C. and on with his life in hopefully Texas – and the Ft. Hood/Copperas Cove area. I want so very much for all his dreams to become a reality. I forwarded Kevin your last email so he too knows how very hard you are working on everything Mark – thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!! "

So do I have a great job or what? While a paycheck does not come with the job -- OurFinest is an all volunteer organization -- the appreciation of people like Kevin and his Mom is worth more than gold.

While I served four years in the U.S. Navy, my military career was undistinguished: just a swabby on an aircraft carrier. I'm no hero but I am so grateful that I get to hang with heroes.

Warrior care!

Christmas on patrol

This morning, I was reflecting on what our wounded warriors need and want. My experience is that most of all they want to know that their sacrifice means something, that their pain and suffering and loss of the life they would have lived if whole and healthy is appreciated. These heroes and their families have a great many needs.

But perhaps most of all, they need to hear from you this Christmas. In the midst of these reflections, I received the following poem from Corporal Jacob Schick, USMC RET.

The Sentry's Christmas

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,

I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.

My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,

My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,

Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,

Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,

Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.

In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,

So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,

But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.

Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the

sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,

And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,

A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,

Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.

Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,

Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,

"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!

Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,

You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,

Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light

Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,

That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,

I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"

Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram

always remembers."

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',

And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,

But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,

The red, white, and blue... an American flag.

I can live through the cold and the being alone,

Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,

I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another,

Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..

Who stand at the front against any and all,

To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,

Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,

"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a

feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,

For being away from your wife and your son."

Then in his eye welled a tear that held no regret,

"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.

To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,

To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,

To know you remember we fought and we bled.

Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,

That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
* * *
Take a moment to pray for those who serve.

A Foundation of Trust

The cornerstone of what we here attempt to build is community. The foundation of any genuine community is trust. We seek to build something that will last for centuries. The pyramids built by the ancient Egyptians remain standing today, because their builders gave them an enduring foundation.

We want to do the same. We are not any better, nor a whole lot worse, than the average person. We are just as prone to error as anyone. So, our only hope of creating an enduring foundation of trust is to operate entirely in the open, completely subject to observation, analysis, criticism.

We intend to build trust by deserving it. This is not to say that we won't make mistakes. All we can guarantee is that we will persevere in trying to get it right. Though we may err, at least we will do our best to be open to correction.

It has been said that the truth in any proposition varies in inverse proportion to its argumentative defense. So, we're going to try to avoid defensiveness. Anything we say or do is open to your -- or anyone else's -- criticism.

While we are totally devoted to warrior care, our ultimate mission transcends even this lofty purpose. As much as we love our wounded warriors, what we would really like to do is to dramatically change the future so as to remove the inevitability of the wars which tear apart the bodies of our best and bravest.

The only force capable of this, in our view, is universal education. Our ultimate goal is to launch the greatest school in all of human history. We envision not just a new and better university, but a new paradigm for education, a superuniversity, a great Temple of Truth served by scholars whose lives are dedicated to the quest for knowledge, wisdom, truth. The purpose of this school is to teach people how to live better lives.

But it is not just learned, reasoned, civil discourse that we seek to advance. We want to create a school that welcomes everyone who wants to learn, that accepts each student as he is and develops a comprehensively individualized curriculum just for that person. As each individual is unique, so will each program of instruction be unique.

In order to dissipate the dark clouds of ignorance which threaten to engulf our planet, we must create the greatest school that ever existed. The bad news is that we are completely incompetent to achieve such an enterprise. The good news is that virtually everything needed to create such a school is already at hand. What we cannot do when few in numbers, we can do together, working together as an army of non-violent but assertive intellectual warriors.

What we need to do is to raise the banner and sound the call to arms. Let every honest student and every true scholar step forward. If you love the truth and are willing to follow it wherever it leads, in this you have the only required credentials. You are part, if you wish, of one of the noblest enterprises ever attempted.

If we are successful, we shall change the world. If we fail, we fail knowing that our cause is just and good. We also know that ultimate victory for our cause -- be in eons in the future -- is certain, for the final victory for truth is inevitable. The world of which we dare to dream -- the vision of a peaceful paradise crowned by truth, beauty, and goodness which has inspired dreamers of all ages -- will not appear in our time.

But if we fail to struggle to move humanity towards that goal, it will be that much farther in the future and its attainment will be the achievement of others, not ours. We have faith in the goodness of God and in the ultimate triumph of his plan for humanity. Like other visionaries, we know that we will not reach the promised land. But we see it, and to know that through our efforts it shall be obtained is enough.

I wish it were possible to talk about these things without grandiosity, but I just don't know how. I have to give up my fear of being thought mad. Besides, history suggests that being thought insane is a necessary if insufficient criterion for greatness. Regardless of others' opinion, I know what I know and I shall do what I can do.

On January 1, 2009, we plan to officially launch this community. By now, a smart person like you will have figured out that you will receive an enthusiastic welcome if you want to help.

Victory in Baghdad. Defeat at Home.

While our troops are winning the war against Islamic terror in the Middle
East, we are losing it at home. The enemies of America use our strengths
against us. They take advantage of the openness of our society -- our freedom
of speech and freedom of religion – in their relentless campaign to overthrow
our way of life.

I believe that the greatest threat to civilization today is Islam. While China is,
no doubt, a major threat to the crowning feature of Western life: democracy
based on individual freedom, that country is the home of the one of the
world’s oldest civilizations. Even if America were destroyed in an all out
thermonuclear war with China, civilization itself would survive.

What we need to wake up and face today is the most pressing issues of our
time: the shockingly rapid and rabid advance of Islam’s virulent violence.

In the name of religion, Islam toils and plots to destroy us. Its most extreme
followers are delighted to sacrifice their own life in order to attack the “Great
Satan” as we are known to hundreds of millions of Muslims.

The plain and simple truth is that Islam is not really a religion at all. It is a
political movement which seeks to convert or destroy all who stand in the way
of the worldwide domination by Islamic law. There is no moral equivalency
between faiths that promote peace and love with Islam, which promotes fear,
hatred and terror.

True, not all Muslims are terrorists. But nearly all terrorists are Muslim. We
can differentiate between Islamic extremism and peace-loving Muslims. But
we must honestly acknowledge that even peace-loving Muslims are a very real
part of the problem: they provide the sea in which the terrorist sharks swim.
Overwhelmed by massive immigration, we are simply unable to identify and
bar entry to those who wish to destroy us: We welcomed into our country all
of the 9/11 Saudi Arab terrorists.

The existence of large Muslim communities in our midst made it possible for
Islamic terrorists to live here – even learn to fly jet liners here – and plot
together the fall of the World Trade Center towers. The plain truth is that if
not one mosque stood in America, the twin towers would still be standing.

By twisting the interpretation of the Koran’s inflexible hatred of infidels, some
Muslims manage to live peacefully among us. But an honest reading of the
Koran makes clear Allah’s implacable hatred of all people and things which do
not conform to Islamic dogma.

The aggressive terror movement that is at the heart of Islam quite literally
threatens the very existence of Western Civilization and the freedoms of every
single person on earth.

Europe is already probably lost to Islam. The future belongs only to those
who reproduce and non-Muslim Europeans are not having children. In
France, the #1 most popular name for a boy is Muhammad. Recently,
French law enforcement officials are calling for help, noting that what Islamist
extremists and hoodlums are waging against them in France is an actual
intifada. The Dutch, also overwhelmed with angry immigrants who refuse to
assimilate, is likewise facing an epic clash of cultures. In England, key cities like
London are on the brink of becoming majority Muslim--a frightening
percentage of whom believe that terrorism is a viable, moral option.

Could this happen in America? It is already happening. In fact, the seeds have
already been planted. If you have been unaware or dismissive of this threat to
the existence of our nation, you might want to read America Alone, a book by
Mark Steyn.

This is not a partisan book . It doesn’t matter if you are a "conservative" or a
"liberal," if you love America; if you love your family; if you love
freedom...you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to get informed and get
involved.

This is not a book of racism or bigotry. Steyn does not attack an ethnic group
or, specifically, those who practice the Muslim faith. In fact, he sheds light on
why Islamist extremism is the greatest danger to Muslims in the world today.
(It should be noted that more Muslims and Arabs have been killed and
persecuted and enslaved by Islamofacism than any other force.)

The greatest danger is the one whose existence we refuse to admit. An
unwillingness to look frankly at an ugly and frightening reality makes ome
commentators dismiss the threat. Most Americans do not remember or do not
understand the threat that we faced in World War II. We do not know what it
feels like to experience our way of life in dire jeopardy. As a result, we
discount any talk of menace or serious threats to our way of life. This
dangerous mindset is perhaps the inevitable result of decades of complacency
and relative peace. The doom looming just over the horizon is simply
inconceivable to many. But Pearl Harbor was real. Nazism was real. And so
was 9/11.

For the sake of the world and civilization, America must prevail. It is vital for
all --including moderate Muslims--that America (and all of the virtues for
which it stands) survives.

It is time to speak out boldly against all the self-loathing, America-hating,
traitorous professors and politically correct pundits who blame the USA for
every ill on the planet. The truth is beyond dispute that America has been an
overwhelmingly positive force for good in this world. The survival of America
-- history’s greatest defender of democracy -- is crucial for the survival of
civilization and its preeminent virtue: individual freedom.

We need to face the unpleasant face that war has been declared and is being
waged against us; we ignore it at our own peril. We need to overcome our
fear of being seen as intolerant or racist or xenophobic and speak the truth
courageously. Our troops are risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan; do
we not need to match their courage?

We are at war!

Our nation is at war, fighting for the survival of freedom and democracy, but the vast majority of Americans don’t seem to get it. We are in the fight of our life, battling with an implacable foe who hates everything our country stands for. They hate who we are, what we believe, and they want us dead and every memory of our society destroyed.

The plain and simple truth is that more devastating attacks like the Islamic terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, are a real possibility. In fact, it is probably more accurate to say that future incidents like this are a near certainty.

As you read these words, Islamic terrorists are planning, plotting, and preparing new and more dreadful attacks on our homeland. This is not a paranoid fantasy: this is reality.

But our countrymen seem to want to turn away from this unpleasant reality. They would rather not think about such things. While our troops leave their blood on the sands of the Middle East, we hide our head in the sand. We seem to want to ignore the frightening fact that only the unrelenting guardianship of our troops fighting on foreign shores is what has kept more and worse attacks from happening in our own towns and cities.

A natural consequence of this avoidance behavior is that we have forgotten our fallen heroes, those who paid the price for the security we have enjoyed thus far since 9/11. If the public can’t even keep in mind that our nation is at war, it is unrealistic to expect them to remember the men who fought and bled in that war.

Well, WE remember and we are here to do our best to make them remember as well.

www.ourfinest.org

The homosexual lobby versus national defense

I'm unhappy about the "No dogs or soldiers allowed" signs on our campuses. The most powerful force restricting the ability of our military to recruit the troops we need to fight for freedom and democracy is the homosexual lobby.

If you are a college student or a law school student in America today, you are unlikely to know just how remarkable your peers who serve in the military are. Worse yet, your college administrators deny you the opportunity to decide for yourself whether or not you'd like to join their ranks. The Ivory Tower academic elitists in many of America's most "prestigious" colleges and universities today are waging war against the military and working to keep recruiters off of their campuses.

The U.S. Supreme Court is now considering a case in which "elite" universities are suing the Pentagon to keep military recruiters off their campuses so they don't "corrupt" the academic environment. Their beef is a federal statute originally passed in 1994 known as the "Solomon Amendment" which provides that federal funding may be withheld from institutions of higher
education that refuse military recruiters the same opportunities afforded to recruiters from other companies.

Thirty-one law schools have joined under the banner of the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, claiming that they are being forced by the Solomon Amendment to "actively support military recruiters" who engage in "discriminatory hiring practices." The target of their protest, they claim, is the Clinton administration's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy toward open
homosexual service in the military. In other words, it is the powerful homosexual lobby who is damaging the ability of our military to recruit the troops we need to defend democracy.

In fact, colleges and universities have been trying to keep military recruiters and ROTC programs off campus for decades. Harvard, the school leading the charge against the Solomon Amendment, banished ROTC in 1969, forcing cadets to walk across town to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the past 36 years. Yale, Stanford, Columbia and Brown are among many other institutions that have shunned ROTC for decades.

Today's military relies on educated individuals joining the ranks as surgeons, JAG lawyers, chaplains and engineers. These vital roles could more easily and efficiently be filled, but for the bitter opposition on campuses by elitist professors, students and administrators.

Ironically, their freedom to protest is defended by the very people they are protesting. And, in so doing, they are spreading ill will toward who defend democracy.

It's more than a shame that the best and bravest of your young people – honorable, decent, caring, compassionate and heroic people -- aren't welcomed on America's college campuses.

I’m ashamed that my own alma mater, Stanford, is so unwelcoming to the self sacrificing heroes who defend the university’s status as a temple of free and open intellectual exploration.

www.ourfinest.org

Can America be Saved?

I'm working on a speech about our nation's future. I'm worried about it. The following is a first draft; it's discovery writing, so I am not totally sure I mean anything quite so confidently as I seem to state.

This is the only way I know how to create. I have to sort of go over the top initially and then review it when passion has subsided. Writing is an emotional event for me. The writing is not so much writing per se as just keeping track of and making a record of my experience as I ponder ideas.

Can America be Saved?


Have we lost our way? Have we forgotten our identity? Do we lack the
courage to be who we truly are?

I fear so. Today, we seem unable or unwilling to defend our borders, to enforce our laws, to protect our currency, to defeat Islamic terror, to teach our children how to read, write and think, to balance our budget or grow our economy. We can’t even take care of our seniors, who – despite years paying into Medicare and Social Security -- are burdened with a retirement system that must collapse within the next ten years.

We are experiencing the loss of our nation. America, by following government leaders who lack vision, is on the verge of tumbling into the ash pit of history. The most daring and successful social experiment in history is on the point of collapse. Like lemmings, we are marching mindlessly to our own doom.

We are standing idly by and allowing the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history to disintegrate. It’s not just the destruction of a nation with the highest standard of living ever achieved – although to the privileged elite who are destroying us that will be the central concern – it’s the death of the only nation in history which has sought not to expand as an
empire but to spread the blessings of freedom throughout the earth. The death of America is not just our loss, it is the world’s loss.

All humanity loses if America falls. The world’s greatest font of freedom is drying up and the flame held aloft by Liberty gutters and dims as darkness, gloom, fear and oppression gather around the failing light.

We are failing not only ourselves and the rest of the world but our children and their children – all posterity shall suffer. A thousand years shall pass before another such nation will rise.

If we allow this tragedy to occur, the United States of America will be a mere footnote in the pages of history, a note about a well meaning but failed enterprise. It was a country with great ideals but which proved incapable of the continuous renewing of devotion to those ideals which is the condition of continued greatness. Historians will reflect on an America that might have
been.

If we allow our country to fail, we are betraying both our future and our past. Think of the sacrifices of the amazing individuals who founded this nation.

Think of the blood spilled, the pain endured, all in vain, because we proved unfit to sustain the blessings passed on to us by our fathers. What a betrayal!

And what explains this vast faltering, this colossal failure? How do we go from the world’s essential superpower to a pale and feckless shadow of former greatness in the space of a single lifetime?

America stumbles and falls because of a failure of courage, a failure of will, a failure of vision. We have chosen leaders incapable of grandeur. In the great parade of human events, the mighty outmarching of destiny, they are organ grinders and clowns, charlatans and fools prancing and posturing while pretending to lead while fomenting the disintegration of the greatest nation in history, the loss of humanity’s last best hope.

Here and there appears a man of truth, but we have been betrayed by our leaders. They are cowards.

They are unwilling or unable to face frankly the frightening reality that the world tomorrow is missing freedom’s great champion. Some speak the truth – in whispers, in private – but above all they want the end to come on someone else’s watch. So, they wheedle and deal and compromise and prevaricate, speak not the full truth nor name honestly the dangers which
threaten our national survival.

One thing is certain: America shall survive only if she deserves to survive. And where is the evidence of our national merit today? What ideals do we yet represent? Is there a reason for our flag to fly proudly? Have we a cause our young men will rush forward to fight and die for?

Can we yet claim to be the land of the free and the home of the brave? I pray it is so, but I fear it is not.

The cost of freedom is the blood of the brave. If we fail to instill in the hearts of our young an unquenchable love for freedom and a deep yearning to live lives of truth, America must die. If we give them nothing worth dying for, they will have nothing to live for.

If we fail to give our youth an understanding of the greatness of our past, America has no future.
If we fail to sustain the nation of laws with which we were blessed by our forebears, then we leave our posterity not a gleaming temple of law but a black pit of chaos and doom.

The choice is ours. Who are we as a people? The ultimate consequence of our future revolves around the question of our identity. Who are we? Do we care enough to be courageous? Shall we betray our birthright? Or shall we rise up and show the world the goodness and might of a united people deserving to bear the name, American. The future of freedom is at our feet. We have but to dare to pick up that bright sword, lift up that shining beacon and show a world that needs us that America is not to die, not today. Not any day while men will lay down their life in the cause of freedom.

So, what do you think?

www.ourfinest.org

Spiritual Fitness

One of my goals is to help develop a sort of spiritual fitness course for our wounded and dispirited warriors. I am thinking of sort of a combination of a 12-step course and an Alpha course, but you don't have to be a drunk or Christian to get something from it.

The author of Man's Search for Meaning , a psychiatrist who survived a Nazi concentration camp, noticed that the people who survived were those who had a clear sense of life's meaning. Those who had no transcendent reason that made their current suffering worthwhile were those who succumbed to the horrors of imprisonment.

I rather imagine that the course will center on a search for meaning. It is an attempt to give support to those who are searching for the meaning in their own life. I also see it providing specific actionable tools and strategies for coping with the central challenges of life. Someone observed that there's nothing like a death sentence to help focus your mind.

The fact is that we're all going to die. Surprise, surprise! Before we do, it makes sense to figure out what we're here. I've been looking at a good book written by a man under a virtual death sentence: a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Here are my notes.

The Last Lecture
By Barry Pausch, Ph.D.

Many professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." They are asked to
consider their death and ruminate on what matters most to them. Audiences
ask themselves the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the
world if we knew it was our last chance? If we were to vanish tomorrow, what
would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was
asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he
had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he
gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was
about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of
others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may
find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of
everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

Randy was known as the best lecturer among computer scientists at the
university, an honor he said was equivalent to being recognized as the tallest of
the Seven Dwarfs.

Asking himself what was unique and special about his life, Pausch realized that
what was special about him were his dreams from childhood.

“All the things I loved were rooted in my childhood dreams. My uniqueness ,
I realized came in the specifics of all the dreams from incredibly meaningful to
decidedly quirky-- that defined my forty six years of life. If you can dream it,
you can do it.: Walt Disney

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how to play them.

Just because you're in the driver's seat doesn't mean you have to drive over
people. Kids more than anything else need to know their parents loved them.
It is important to have specific dreams

He admired Captain Kirk and thought he defined the ideal leader. He later
met William Shatner and thought him "the ultimate example of a man who
knew what he didn't know, was perfectly willing to admit. It and didn't want
to leave until he understood. That's heroic to me. I wish every grad. student
had that attitude.”

“'Tenacity is a virtue, but it's not always crucial for everyone to observe how
hard you work at something.”

Before visiting the man who could say yes to his desire to be an Imagineer, he
did 80 hours of homework, talking to his most knowledgeable contacts.

A friend who cared enough to be honest, “put his arm around me and say
"Randy, it's such a shame that people perceive yours being arrogant, because
it's going to limit what you're going to be able to accomplish in life"

Brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The
brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want
something.

When the woman he loved and was courting told him she did not love him,
Randy was supportive, acted as a good friend, showing concern for her. He
sent her a dozen roses and wished her happiness. She finally figured out that
she loved him after all.

In an interview with Amazon.com, he talked about what he had learned as an
adult.

Amazon.com: You talk about the importance--and the possibility!--of following your
childhood dreams, and of keeping that childlike sense of wonder. But are there things
you didn't learn until you were a grownup that helped you do that?

Pausch: That's a great question. I think the most important thing I learned as I
grew older was that you can't get anywhere without help. That means people
have to want to help you, and that begs the question: What kind of person do
other people seem to want to help? That strikes me as a pretty good
operational answer to the existential question: "What kind of person should
you try to be?"

Amazon.com: One of the things that struck me most about your talk was how many
other people you talked about. You made me want to meet them and work with
them--and believe me, I wouldn't make much of a computer scientist. Do you think
the people you've brought together will be your legacy as well?

Pausch: Like any teacher, my students are my biggest professional legacy. I'd
like to think that the people I've crossed paths with have learned something
from me, and I know I learned a great deal from them, for which I am very
grateful. Certainly, I've dedicated a lot of my teaching to helping young folks
realize how they need to be able to work with other people--especially other
people who are very different from themselves.

Amazon.com: And last, the most important question: What's the secret for knocking
down those milk bottles on the midway?

Pausch: “Two-part answer:
1) long arms
2) discretionary income / persistence

Actually, I was never good at the milk bottles. I'm more of a ring toss and
softball-in-milk-can guy, myself. More seriously, though, most people try these
games once, don't win immediately, and then give up. I've won *lots* of
midway stuffed animals, but I don't ever recall winning one on the very first
try. Nor did I expect to. That's why I think midway games are a great
metaphor for life.”

One reviewer said, “It's about paying attention to what you think is important
(when asked how he got tenure early, Pausch replied, "Call me at my office at
10 o'clock on Friday night and I'll tell you") and working hard and listening
really well. It's easy to miss that last part of that in the emotion and the stories
surrounding this book, but Pausch argues that hearing what other people say
about you and your work is crucial to success and happiness. Because this is
what you get: "a feedback loop for life."

www.ourfinest.org

Whoopi: Go back to Africa

When answering a question about what type of judges he will elect, Senator McCain was asked by Whoopi Goldberg on 'The View' if he is elected, will that mean the eventual return of slavery.

What a stupid, insulting, meaningless question! Are we really supposed to believe that one of the richest and most privileged celebrities on the planet is really worried about being enslaved? How does she reconcile the fact of this country lavishing rewards on her with her attitude that this nation is all about holding down black people? You would think she would grateful. If I were her, I would get down on my knees and thank God that my great great great great grandfather had been captured by fellow black Africans and sold to Islamic slave traders and eventually ended up in America. Otherwise, Whoopi would still be living in a mud hut like her relatives who were not lucky enough to make it onto a slave ship and end up in America.

It was white people in Britain and America who did away with slavery. The only place that slavery is found today is among Islamic people of color.

If this is such a terrible country, if poor Whoopi Goldberg feels discriminated against riding around in her Rolls Royce or hanging out at the swimming pool in her Beverly Hills mansion, I am sure she would be more than welcome back home in wonderful Mother Africa. I for one would not miss her one bit.

The Evil We Dare Not Speak

America needs to wake up. Our nation can no longer afford the deceptive luxury of looking away from the unpleasant reality of the current threat.

Even the horrifying spectacle of towers falling in our largest city does not seem to be enough to keep us awake. Our leadership has failed to call forth the best from our citizens. Instead, it’s business as usual while the foundations of our society are being dug away by our enemies.

We are under attack! We stand to lose everything we love!

Unperceived by the vast majority of our countrymen, we face today the greatest danger in our nation’s history.

The source of this danger -- the reason it continues -- is our obliviousness to the threat. We steadfastly refuse to admit our dire jeopardy. An arrogant complacence hides the truth from us. An insidious cancer is devouring our fundamental core.

The present danger which our country faces is greater than that we faced in World War II. There is a very real danger that our country will cease to exist. Europe is already plunging into darkness. If we do not demonstrate the same strong spirit that made us the greatest nation on earth, America too is doomed. The greatest, most daring, and most successful social experiment in the history of the world is on the verge of failing. Democracy for the world trembles in the balance.

The great threat is not so much the implacable foe who considers us the Great Satan. We have always had foes and many times stronger ones who hated us and everything we love, who wanted us dead and every memory of us erased.

Our situation is not unlike that of Rome in its latter days. There were always enemies at the gate. It was not the greater strength of her enemies that doomed Rome but the collapse of her own resolve.

The great threat is that we do not resist this evil. The brave uncompromising leader who fights this threat abroad is vilified and denounced. False peacemakers are prevailing in the marketplace of ideas. Those who seek peace at any price will have it at the cost of their souls.

The one great failure of our president is to continuously sound the battle cry, to inform the American public of the threat and the need for sacrifice. The ship of state is sinking while on deck people are dancing.

When I was a little boy we were at war with Germany and Japan and everyone knew it. We were not afraid to portray our enemies as evil. Today, we are under attack by more subtle and dangerous foes and the threat to our existence is ignored.

We are like a patient who does not go to the doctor because he is afraid he has cancer. Guess what, folks?

We have cancer, a dangerous and debilitating kind. Worse still, we ignore its existence while unseen overlooked it grows in size and virulence.

Our real enemy is ignorance. Most people do not understand the rarity and fragility of our political system. Our great danger arises from our foolish failure to recognize the deadly seriousness of the threat and our refusal to recognize the nature of our enemy. How are we to defeat an enemy when we steadfastly refuse to identify him?

It’s the danger that we dare not name that is the deadliest threat to our existence. The name of that threat is Islam.

It is like an untreated cancer, currently small and insignificant but ultimately deadly to the future of democracy.

There are millions of Muslims who are peace loving, wonderful people. The problem is that there are hundreds of millions of Muslims who want us dead.

I don’t have any problem with Arabs. I only have a problem with Arabs who want to fly our planes into our skyscrapers.

Islam is a greater danger than Communism ever was, because the follower of the Koran is beyond reason. The Communist feared mutually assured destruction. The Islamist welcomes self destruction so long as his death means the murder of multiple Christians or Jews.

I do not hate Muslims. I do hate and fear Islam. In their ignorance, tens of millions of Americans think that Islam is just another religion, something slightly more exotic than Methodism or Mormonism.

It is not a religion at all in the way we think of religion. It is more of a political system, one designed for and devoted to world domination. The purpose of Islam is the elimination of all other religions by guile, deception, or bloody force.

I do not say this in any pejorative way. Any honest reader of the Koran must come to the same conclusion about the nature of Islam. Allah hates us.

If you do not worship Allah, Allah wants you dead and encourages his followers to use any and all means to destroy you. If you don’t believe me, read the Koran!

Of course, Islam is not the only threat to America. But it is the number one threat to Western Civilization.

What has brought about this threat to our way of life is its success. The resurgence of Islam is based on self hatred -- a keen sense of inferiority -- brought about by awareness of the superiority of the west.

What we do works. Even their attacks on our way of life are done with the products of our superiority. The Muslim world has invented no technology. The Koran projects a false hence ultimately unworkable world view. A small but revealing example: The Koran teaches that the world is flat. When Arabs learn celestial navigation (invariably in English) the instructor is required to acknowledge that while the world is flat for purpose of the course they must
pretend the world is round.

Evil is real. Against it there is no remedy but love or force

Islam is not just another peaceful somewhat exotic religion. It is a system of thought that is fundamentally hostile to our way of life.

It is possible to be a Muslim and a good American. However, the only way to do this is to distort the nature of the teachings of Islam. It requires active self deception and distortion of the teachings of the Koran and Muhammad. Read the Koran honestly and you cannot avoid recognizing that its teachings are fundamentally hostile to the American way of life.

Those who are afraid of the truth don't want to recognize this. They promote the myth that Islam is just another somewhat exotic religion, but basically peaceful. This is a false perception encouraged by cowards. It is a belief system designed to be spread by the sword. Only an honest recognition of this reality offers any hope of the survival of our way of life.

That's how I see it? What about you?

www.ourfinest.org

Homeless not hopeless

Here are scripts for the 60-second and 30-second radio public service announcement that I wrote and recorded this morning. I would love to have some feedback. Are these good, terrible, mediocre? What do you think?

Homelessness is not a condition I especially want to address. It is not that I don't care about people having no roof over their head, although this is not the worst part of homelessness, or so it seems to me.

It would seem to me the most agonizing part of homelessness would not be not having shelter but not being part of a family or other primary group offering love and support. Love is the secret of happiness. People who love and who are loved in return are simply much happier than others.

It would be heart rending to feel that you are alone on this earth, that no one cares about you. So I am not devoid of pity for the homeless.

It's just the magnitude of the problem. If you just think of the veterans, there are around 200,000 of them without their own bed to sleep in each night. I believe that most of them have significant mental problems or are addicted to alcohol or other drugs.

60 second

Here's a thought for when you go to bed tonight. Tonight,
nearly 200,000 veterans have nowhere to lay their head. On
any given night, 200,000 men and women who fought for
their country are homeless. And twice that number are
homeless sometime during the year.

That's approaching a half-million guys who stepped forward
when their country called, now sleeping on the street. This
is unacceptable in a great nation. Right now, there are more
homeless Vietnam veterans on the street than died during
that war. And we are already seeing veterans returning from
the fight against Islamic terror in the homeless population.

Maybe OurFinest.Org cannot end homelessness for those
already on the street. But we CAN prevent others from
becoming homeless, especially our injured troops. To learn
more, go to OurFinest.Org.
****************
30-second

Tonight, nearly 200,000 veterans have nowhere to lay their
head. This is doctor mark for our finest dot org. Twice that
many vets are homeless sometime during the year. Nearly
half-a million guys who served their country called, now
sleeping on the street. There are more homeless Vietnam
veterans than died during that war. And now veterans who
fought Islamic terror are joining the homeless population.
But not if OurFinest.Org can prevent it. To learn more, go
to our finest dot org.

http://www.ourfinest.org

Dark Humor

Judith Newman writes a marvelous article in this month's Readers Digest: "When the tough get going, the touch crack wise.". The mother of an autistic child, she writes in defense of dark humor as a way to cope with that which cannot be dealt with.

Humor can help one endure the unendurable. Every parent of a special needs child must bear a secret pain that can barely be recognized, much less expressed. What parent does not want a whole and healthy child? Yet some 20 million special needs families have mothers and fathers who are required to love and care for a child who cannot meet those high hopes.

How do you handle it? Mrs. Newman says that laughing at the agony is at least part of the answer. "Every day of my life, I thank God for dark humor. I subscribe wholeheartedly to this idea, first put forth by Woody Allen, "Life is full of misery, loneliness and suffering -- and it's all over much too soon." What is it about humans that make us want to laugh when logically, we should cry?

One of the most interesting statements was her idea that dark humor is a form of bravery. Katherine Rich, author of "The Red Devil: to hell with cancer and back" writes a funny and heart-rending book. She says, "The worse things get, the funnier I think they are. That is how I grew up, how I learned to handle things.There is a form of defiance in laughing at pain. It demonstrates that we are NOT totally a helpless victim in a universe in which pain could be -- and often is -- right around the corner.

Richard Reich, Clinton's diminutive labor secretary jokes with audiences "They told me to be short.". His audience is comfortable with his height, because he is comfortable. It's a sophisticated form of consideration, another fascinating insight to me. Who knew that joking about an affliction is a means of being thoughtful?

"A twisted sense of humor I realized recently is the common denominator among the most loving, considerate people I know. Arnie Carn at UNC studies the role of humor in stress, how humor helps us cope. His research shows what we instinctively know,that humor helps limit the painful effects of trauma. Aggressive humor and affiliative humor have no effect on how people perceive stress. Affiliative humor is joking around in general. Two styles do matter: self enhancing and self defeating. People high in self enhancing humor do not see so much stress in their lives. Self defeating humor "When I was little, my parents moved a lot, but I always found them: leads to higher stress. Self enhancing humor, the ability to. Crack wise and see the hunmir in any situation when your world is falling apart, protects us from the effects of stress.

It works at the office as well. People who can laugh at high stress perform better. Funeral directors are funny and mourners often initiate humor. Laughing is the flipside of crying.

New GI Bill

Looks like some good news for injured soldiers and their families. The latest GI Bill gives a big boost in the opportunity for all of today's servicemembers to get their education, according to senior Defense Department officials.

President Bush signed the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2008 on June 30. The new law mirrors the tenets of the original GI Bill, which gave returning World War II veterans the opportunity to go to any school they wanted while receiving a living stipend.

The original GI Bill was said to be one of the most significant social impacts of the 20th century. There is every chance that the new bill is going to have a similar impact, especially good news for wounded soldiers and their families.

The new GI Bill is applies to individuals who served on active duty on or after Sept. 11, 2001, and offers education benefits worth an average of $80,000 - double the value of those in the previous program. It covers the full costs of tuition and books, which are paid directly to the school, and it provides a variable stipend for living expenses.

One of the great new features is that it’s also transferable to family members of career servicemembers. Its only restriction is that payment amounts are limited to the most expensive in-state cost to attend a college or university in the state where veterans attend school.

The variable stipend is based on the Defense Department's basic allowance for housing for an E-5, which averages about $1,200 a month, and $1,000 a year will be paid directly to the servicemember for books and supplies.

Enrollment into the Post-9/11 GI Bill is free. Eligibility for the Montgomery GI Bill is based on service commitment and requires active-duty servicemembers to pay a $1,200 fee over the initial year of their enlistment.

The new bill requires that an individual serve at least 90-days on active duty after Sept. 10, 2001, and if discharged, be separated on honorable terms. Servicemembers discharged due to a service-connected disability are eligible if they served 30 continuous days on active duty. Servicemembers must serve 36 aggregated months to qualify for the full amount of benefits.

Servicemembers are entitled to benefits of the new bill for up to 36 months and have up to 15 years from their last 30 days of continuous service to use their entitlements. But as successful as Defense Department officials anticipate the new bill to be, Clark suggested that new recruits still enroll in the Montgomery GI Bill.

The Montgomery GI Bill gives benefits for higher education as well as vocational training, apprenticeship programs and on-the-job training, he explained. The Post-9/11 GI Bill focuses solely on higher education and can only be used at institutions that offer at least an associate's degree.

All new recruits should think hard before turning down the Montgomery GI Bill, because they will limit their opportunities for additional education without it.

Servicemembers also are "highly encouraged" to use the Defense Department's tuition assistance program while on active duty, because the Post-9/11 GI Bill's full entitlements, such as the living stipend and book allowance, will not be available.

If you use the Post-9/11 GI Bill while on active duty, it will merely cover tuition or the difference of what tuition assistance will pay. Another downside to that is each month you use the new bill, you lose a month of your 36 months of eligibility.

So, if servicemembers serve on active duty on or after Aug. 1, 2009, and meet the minimum time-in-service requirement, they will be eligible for the new GI Bill while also maintaining benefits from the Montgomery GI Bill.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill also brings good news for officers and for servicemembers who enlisted under the loan repayment program. Since eligibility for the Post-9/11 GI Bill is based on time already served, more servicemembers will be able to take advantage of its benefits. Officers commissioned through one of the service academies or through ROTC and enlisted servicemembers participating in the loan repayment program don't qualify for the Montgomery GI Bill.

Those servicemembers will be able to qualify if they finish their initial obligatory service. Commissioned officers must complete their initial five-year commitment if they attended a service academy or their four-year agreement if they were commissioned through college ROTC. Servicemembers whose college loans were paid off by the Defense Department as a re-enlistment incentive must finish their initial commitment - whether it is three, four or five years - before they can apply.

Any amount of time an individual served after their obligated service counts for qualifying service under the new GI Bill.

Another facet unique to the Post-9/11 GI Bill is that it's transferable to family
members. The feature gives the defense and service secretaries the authority to offer career servicemembers the opportunity to transfer unused benefits to their family. Though Defense Department officials still are working with the services to hash out eligibility requirements, there are four prerequisites that are subject to adjustment or change.

Currently transferability requirements are:

-- Qualifying service to be eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill;

-- Active duty service in the armed forces on or after Aug. 1, 2009;

-- At least six years of service in the armed forces;

-- Agreement to serve four more years in the armed forces.

Individuals who may not qualify to transfer unused benefits because they leave the service before the new bill's effective date most likely still will qualify for the bill. As long as the separated servicemembers meet the minimum qualifying time served, they can contact their local Veterans Affairs office and apply for the program. While payments are not retroactive, eligibility is.

This new bill will allow our veterans to chase their dreams. It will allow them to go back and experience college like they deserve, much like their grandfathers did in World War II.

More information about the Post-9/11 GI Bill is available at www.ourfinest.org

Veterans missing out on stimulus payments

Thousands of veterans are missing out on thousands of dollars. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says that wounded warriors and disabled veterans have until Oct. 15 to file claims for economic stimulus payments.

The IRS is conducting a campaign to contact those who are eligible, but who have failed to files claims. These include people receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs for disability, pension or survivors� benefits. The agency is sending special letters to those eligible with directions on how to make the claim. These include a sample tax form and a tax form that can be completed and mailed to the IRS. This is the second special mailing to eligible disabled veterans.

As many as one in four disabled veterans and retirees have not yet filed a claim for economic stimulus payments Congress authorized in February.

Disabled veterans who do not normally file a tax return are eligible for the payments, but they will need to file a tax return before Oct. 15 in order to qualify for the stimulus funds. Once the tax return has been filed, the IRS will calculate eligibility and the payment amount. Even though some disabled veterans do not normally file a tax return because their benefits are not taxable, must file a return in order to receive the payments.

The stimulus payments of up to $600 ($1,200 for married couples filing joint returns) have no effect on federal benefits received and are not taxable. In addition, filing a tax return to receive a stimulus payment does not mean that disabled veterans will have to start filing tax returns again.

The IRS will offer face-to-face tax preparation sessions with the help of community groups and at senior housing, VA medical centers and assisted living facilities. There are also 400 local Taxpayer Assistance Centers that will provide tax preparation assistance to disabled veterans. A list for addresses and office hours can be found on the IRS Web site www.irs.gov under �Contact My Local Office.

Off track in Iraq

Most of us Americans just don’t get it about Islam. A substantial number of Americans misperceive attitudes in the Islamic world toward US efforts to fight terrorism and its policies in the Middle East.

We have the idea that the Islamic world should like us and respect our right to defend ourselves. We seem to have a really hard time understanding that Islam is fundamentally opposed to everything we stand for. We want to believe that it is just another peaceful religion, something no more exotic than say Mormonism or Christian Science.

In one major poll of American attitudes, respondents were asked in August-September whether they thought "a majority of people in the Islamic world favor or oppose US-led efforts to fight terrorism." A plurality of 48% incorrectly assumed that a majority of Islamic people favor US led efforts to fight terrorism." Only 46% knew that they do not.

When asked whether respondents thought "a majority of people in the Islamic world think US policies in the Middle East make the region" more or less stable, 35% incorrectly assumed that the majority of people in the Islamic world feel that US policies make the region more stable, while 60% perceived correctly that most Muslims would see American efforts to fight terrorism as a disruptive influence.

The fact is that the vast majority of Muslims worldwide oppose our fighting terrorism.

The Pew Global Attitudes survey asked in seven countries with primarily Muslim populations (Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco, plus the Palestinian Authority): “Which of the following phrases comes closer to your view? I favor the US-led efforts to fight terrorism, or Ioppose the US-led efforts to fight terrorism.”

In six of the eight cases strong majorities-- ranging from 56-85% in summer 2002, and rising to 67-97% in May 2003--said they opposed “US-led efforts to fight terrorism.” In only one case—Kuwait in May 2003– did a majority say they favored US efforts. In the case of Pakistan, a plurality of 45% opposed US efforts in the summer of 2003, rising to 74% in May 2003.

The Pew Global Attitudes survey in May 2003 asked: “Do you think US policies in the Middle East make the region more stable or less stable?” In six of the eight cases, majorities said that US policies in the Middle East make the region less stable. These majorities ranged from 56% in Lebanon to 91% in Jordan. In Pakistan, 43% said US policies make the Middle East less
stable, but another 43% said US policies either “made no difference” (12%) or that they did not know (31%). Only in Kuwait, where American troops fought and died to drive Saddam Hussein out of their country did a 48% plurality say that US policies made the Middle East more stable.

I am troubled about American ignorance about what is really going on in the Middle East. In my view, civilization itself hangs in the balance. The plain truth is that we are at war with Islam.

Islam seeks to destroy everything in the world that is non-Islamic. This is not a pejorative statement, simply an accurate description of the nature of Islam. Anyone who reads the Koran honestly has to admit it. The great danger to our country is not so much Islam -- which has been fundamentally hostile to the ideas and ideals of individual freedom and democracy since its inception -- but that our ignorance and self-deception will prevent us from launching the aggressive self-defense needed to ensure the survival of Western Civilization. Right now, we have tens of thousands of heroic young men and women -- the kind we celebrate at www.ourfinest.org -- fighting for our freedom. But will we always?

That's my view. What do you think?

new radio PSA

Here is the latest radio spot that we will be sending out to raise public awareness of the needs of our wounded warriors. I'd be happy to get any comments/feedback positive or negative.

****************

60-seconds/173 words

Sun Tzu, author of the Art of War said that the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. This is Doctor Mark for Our Finest Dot Org and clearly we have not perfected the art of war, because in the war against Islamic terror, over 4,000 young Americans have died and 40,000 more have been seriously wounded. At Our Finest Dot Org, we honor the heroes who died in battle by caring for the wounded heroes who survived. They get the world’s best medical care at Walter Reed, but once they’re medically discharged, they are virtually abandoned. Their war is over, but their life and their fight has just begun. Their dream is our mission. When our country needed them, they stepped forward. Let’s do the same for them.
To learn what you can do to honor our sacred dead by supporting and caring for the heroic living, visit W W W Our Finest dot org. A public service announcement by our finest dot org and this patriotic station.

**********************
So what do you think?

Another issue I'm wrestling with is about whether or not to be purposefully controversial in order to generate attention. I am pretty much submerging my personal feelings to avoid controversy. If I were as outspoken as I feel about, for example, the true nature of Islam, it would probably bring viewers and readers, but I am not sure that this is either wise or prudent.

A low point

Today, I am at a somewhat low spot in my efforts to propel OurFinest.Org into the #1 position in service to America's wounded warriors.

It's not that I am really discouraged. In fact, I think I am pretty much discouragement proof. That is, I am going to press on so long as I have life and can wiggle a finger.

Feelings are not reality, so it does not matter really that I feel a little down. Everything just seems to take longer than I think it should, and so many things seem to take me away from what I want to spend my time and energy on.

Right now, I am typing this on the trunk of an old Lincoln parked in front of the used tire store where they are putting 3 tires on my truck. I just spent a few hours riding the bus and picking up the truck and have yet to get its windshield wipers reploaced so that I can get it registered. This seems a long way from doing what I want to be doing.

But there is an every-dayness to life that cannot be avoided. Someone said that life is what happens to you while you're getting ready to live your life. What really matters to me is that I do what I believe I am supposed to be doing. For now that is dealing with a truck I don't really want or need so that it won't get hauled away by the state.

On some very real level, I hate government. I really resent having to jump through senseless hoops because some special interest groups have managed to capture the government power to compel me to have a certain depth of tread on the tires of my vehicle or replace the windshield wipers. We have precious little time on this earth as it is without being forced to fritter it away in
meaningless ways. I am perfectly capable of wasting my own time without the government's help. I even have a city employee dedicated to making sure that the grass on my lawn does not exceed a certain height.

I wonder what the Founding Fathers would have thought about a government so intrusive into our lives. What is the threat to public disorder from my lawn looking shaggy?

I have to admit that sometimes I can understand all too well what goes on with the nut cases who go berserk and drive tanks over cars and through houses.

Our Constitution has been called a conspiracy against government. I wish it were a more successful conspiracy. It seems to me that the fundamental right is the right to be left alone, to simply live one’s life. That right is honored more in the breech than the fact today.

Yet, as Tony Soprano often wonders aloud, “What are you going to do?” This is still the greatest country on earth. I am proud that I served in America’s military. I am proud my son did as well.

And right now I am especially proud of a chance to serve those who were wounded in defense of freedom. I am proud to carry their shield.

A bright spot today is that a new volunteer, Diana Ringer, has done something that I've wanted done for weeks and weeks: link this blog to the OurFinest.Org website. Who knows, some day someone might actually read this and respond.

Business Plan

I want to use this blog for planning, to help capture in black and white nice digitized text what I'm thinking and planning for OurFinest.Org. Eventually, I take on faith, others will notice what I'm doing and want to help and this record will help them figure out what I am doing right and wrong and how I can do it better I guess you're not leading if no one is following, but I'm not too worried about that right now.

I know what I am doing is the right thing, so I am going to do it, and those who want to help will just have to catch up. Doesn't sound like a very good model of leadership, but I understand that the motto of the U.S. Infantry is "Follow me." Or maybe it's that you lead from in front. Either way, I am riding point.

My supreme priority is to help the wounded warrior. I am not nearly so charitable as I would like myself to be.

I have not nearly so much patience as I should with people who lie down before life's struggles. I want to help people, but I am mostly interested in helping those who want to help themselves.
The wounded warrior is someone who was walking into danger when he was struck down.

That's hardly someone lying down because life struck them a hard blow. When they were injured, they were part of an elite fighting force.

Suddenly, in an instant they were torn apart, their entire future altered radically.

I have no idea how I would handle losing arms or legs. I hope I never find out. The way I HOPE I would handle it is dealing with it as it is. I hope that I would not collapse into a black hole of self pity. But no guarantees here.

No getting around it; it would be awful. Suddenly, you're a cripple and disfigured. Here are you fighting for your country -- doing one of the noblest things possible -- and then you are someone people stare at in the mall, someone who is no longer totally independent, but someone who needs the help of others. To some, you are an object of pity.

It's got to be one of the toughest things in life to deal with. It is a total upheaval in your life. A hard part of it, it seems to me, is that you are suddenly without the entire social support network your buddies provided. You are thrown into the company of a bunch of other injured soldiers.

Then there's the pain.

A lot of guys have to be asking themselves, "Why me?" If there is a loving God in charge of my life, how and why did he let this happen to me?

What I've finally figured out is that a better question is "Why not me?" Why should I be immune from the suffering that is a part of every life? We are here on earth for a reason, and part of that reason is to figure out why we are here.

A profound injury seems to me to be a crucial point in life. The meaning and impact of the trauma depends to a large degree on the attitude of the person.

The one thing we are in charge of in our life is our attitude. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can control our philosophical attitude towards what happens to us.

No one choose to be devastated by a horrendous injury. But every warrior in the war against terror is a volunteer. He knew that he was choosing a dangerous path with death and dismemberment a real prospect. He did not choose this fate, but he chose a way of life that presented the very real chance of such a fate.

He wasn't walking along a country lane back home when he got his legs blown off. He was
fighting a war for his country. He has every right to cry for the loss of his legs or eyes or arms. But that loss was a known risk which he chose. He chose the way of the warrior, and he cannot cry for that.

So, I believe that the stricken warrior has no right to blame God. In war, it is inevitable that some die and that some are terribly injured. Those who died have no problems to worry about. Those who survived profound injury do have a problem. Their main problem is to determine their attitude towards their injuries. This decision will determine the rest of their life and its meaning.

visiting wounded warriors

I'm excited. Just got off the telephone with Sergeant Brian Pierce at Walter Reed Medical Center. He is the hospital's guy who arranges visits to wounded warriors. My first opportunity to visit with them is at 11 a.m. August 18th.

I'm pleased that OurFinest.Org gets "official visit" status. They have reserved a parking spot for me at the army hospital and an ambassador will meet me and get me oriented and introduced.

I want to thank God for giving me this opportunity to serve those who have sacrificed so much for our country. I am very grateful for the chance to perhaps make a difference in the lives of young people who deserve the best.

It's odd how much I appreciate the chance to serve military veterans who have been injured. I have never been very generous to official charities. In fact, I've probably not been very generous at all. I have walked by many begging evidently homeless people. I confess to exchanging harsh words with a young male begging on the street in downtown Washington who said something rude when I didn't give him any money. He looked perfectly strong and healthy to me and jumped up ready to fight when I suggested that he "go get a job."

But when it comes to injured troops and helping veterans who went in harm's way for their nation, it's a different thing. These are guys I KNOW need help and deserve not just charity but a helping hand.

I'm also excited about the TV commercial that Jim Draper and Ruthy Stapleton and I are putting together. It is really neat that technology has advanced to the point that from our home computers we can collaborate to produce a low cost and effective TV commercial. We are going to be able to distribute the 30-second PSA (public service announcement) to the top 200 stations in the country.

We are also writing and distributing 30-second radio spots to send to the nation's 10,000 radio stations.

The idea is to make people aware that our wounded heroes need help, that once they are discharged from the Walter Reed Medical Center, they are almost entirely on their own. The 30 second PSAs will invite people to visit our website (www.OurFinest.Org) where they will learn more about the need and what they can do to help. I hope their interaction with the community I am seeking to organize there will make them want to communicate with these veterans.

Other things I am working on: writing grant proposals and thinking how to recruit thousands of people to each help get one of these wounded veterans a job. While physically handicapped, these wounded warriors have wonderful qualities of character that make them great employees and -- I believe -- terrific candidates as entrepreneurs as well.

reaching out

I'm excited about the progress we're making in getting broadcast coverage of our message. I've found and ordered an excellent microphone for under $100 that I can plug into my computer's USB and record broadcast quality radio spots plus podcasts. We are making progress in building a database of contact information for sending Public Service Announcements (PSA's).

The goal is to duplicate the effect of a multi-million dollar national broadcasting campaign reaching tens of millions of Americans, attracting them to our website (www.ourfinest.org), getting them to volunteer and donate.

I'm also pretty pleased about how our first TV spot is shaping up. It looks like Getty Images is going to give us a deep discount on the standard footage I am using for the spot.

If this works as I hope, we will have an excellent outreach program without having to spend a lot of money raising money. I want all the cash donated to go directly to the veterans.

I'm also pleased at progress in building a super board of directors. Dr. Herb London, President of the Hudson Institute, has agreed to serve and we are wooing Secretary James Nicholason, former Ambassador to the Vatican and head of the Veterans Administration.

Other things I'm working on: getting together a grant proposal team, deeply enhancing the website so that it supports a dynamic online community. Lots to do and I am finding it enormously rewarding though I am impatient for vast results!

Next week, I'll make a call to the chaplain at Walter Reed Medical Center and find out the best way to visit these guys.

Alabama Eagle Soars

The first radio station to agree to air Public Service Announcements (PSA's) for OurFinest.Org is Eagle 102.3 FM broadcasting from both La Grange, Georgia and Roanoke, Alabama.

Thus begins our mass media broadcasting venture aiming at reaching hundreds of millions of Americans by creating gripping radio and TV spots and sending them to the nation's 10,000
radio stations. The goal is to duplicate the impact of a multi-million dollar radio and TV broadcasting campaign.

Today, I went to www.newslink.com where they list all the nation's radio stations by state and by format. I began with the first state in the alphabet: Alabama. By the time I had emailed the first four talk stations, I heard from Eagle 102.3 suggesting that I send them spots in mp3 format.

Here's an example of the 30-second spots we are going to produce.

"If you are the kind of American who feels a thrill of pride when Old Glory parades by, imagine how it feels to stand amongst young warriors who cannot yet stand on their artificial legs but straighten their battered bodies and raise an arm in a crisp military salute, some of those salutes missing a hand. Hello. This is Doctor Mark and it is my privilege and honor to lead OurFinest Dot Org, a nonprofit devoted to serving those who survived battlefield wounds. Their dream is our mission. We help them rebuild shattered lives. If you would like to express your pride and appreciation to these wounded warriors, please visit W W W Our Finest Dot Org."

I want to express publicly my appreciation to Nate at Eagle 102.3 for being the first to step forward to help our fallen and forgotten heroes get the support they deserve.

Eagle 102.3	Eagle 102.3
	P.O. Box 1429	P.O. Box 710
	LaGrange, GA 30241	Roanoke, AL 36274

They bled for you

I have always been totally tongue-tied when it comes to asking for money. I suppose it comes from generalizing from how I feel when I get panhandled.

I don't know if it's because I'm basically selfish or suffer from some other character flaw, but I tend to feel antagonized when people shove a hand palm up into my face. Who are they to presume to demand that I give them some of my money?

Knowing the resentment that I feel when tin cups get rattled at me, I have been extremely reluctant to ask others to sacrifice some of their wealth.

Until now.

Now, I regard myself as a hyperactive money vacuum cleaner frantically sucking up any and all donations and -- regardless of my unworthy stinginess in the past -- without a trace of guilt. If someone is offended, as I have been in the past, I can honestly say that I don't care.

The difference is that I totally believe in what I want to do with this money:

1) help wounded warriors build a great new life, and
2) found a wonderful new charitable business that creates revenue that can be used to help wounded warriors, and
3)simultaneously marshal resources to be used to establish history's greatest school.

I'm out to save western civilization and in the process help wounded warriors.

I have a very clear vision of a new paradigm for education and a fairly clear idea about how to go about this.

The first step is to help wounded warriors. This is where all of my time and energy is going to go now. In the process, I am going to build relationships with two wonderful kinds of people. First, the warriors themselves. What a privilege to be able to associate with men like this!

Second, the people who are willing to reach into their own pockets and hearts and help these injured troops. To me, they are second in merit only to those in the first category.

Out of these relationships is going to arise a community of pragmatic idealists, people who yearn for a better world and who are determined to do something to bring it about. These are the people who are going to save civilization by transforming education.

One of the great ironies of human progress is that things get better because people organize to make them better. But then the organization gets pulled away from its central mission by the ineluctable tendency to serve its own selfish interests. And then they function as the enemy of the very progress they exist to create. Thus, the major barrier to genuine educational reform is the educational bureaucracy itself. The past becomes the enemy of the future.

So when I talk about creating the greatest schools in all of history, I am not talking about something that is going to take place within the existing educational system. Someone once said that education is too important to leave to educators.

Definitely true.

Civilization is going to be saved by ordinary people without fancy degrees and letters after their name. It will be saved by a combination of common sense and extraordinary technology.

To return to my main point, the extraordinary community of ordinary people that is coming together to help wounded warriors, once solidly established, will provide a platform that can be used to create a national, then international, chain of self supporting learning centers which will ultimately provide a world class college education to everyone who wants to earn it.

The school will employ best practices from the fields of knowledge management, state of the art computer and communicatiosn technology, and innovation-fostering ideas and ideals from the best of modern management science and leadership training.

This is going to happen. It is going to happen, because it has to happen. America is in dreadful trouble and the most troubling part of this danger is that so few people realize how dire is the jeopardy in which we find ourselves.

But all of that is down stream. Right now, I just want some of your money! Help me help the brave and beautiful young people who fought and bled for our freedom. No matter what you think or believe about the wisdom of the war itself, tens of thousands of worthy young men need your help.

I humbly beg you to go to www.ourfinest.org and make a donation. Maybe God won't strike you dead if you fail to donate at least $100, but it pays to be on the safe side. If you cannot afford $100, how about $20?

Thanks for reading our blog. Please post a comment, whether positive or negative. And come back, I promise not to try to shove my hand in your pocket every time!

Best,
md

recruiting talent

I'm about to head out to New York City to meet with Herb London, president of the Hudson Institute. A great man and the most distinguished academician that I know, he has implied that he is receptive to the idea of heading the board of directors of OurFinest.Org.

My goal is to get his name on an agreement today. This would be a great enhancement of our credibility. It would also mean a real boost in my confidence, knowing that he would lead the team that would scrutinize my proposed plan of operation. I have an endless supply of innovative ideas about how to promote the effort to help our injured soldiers and ultimately expand our efforts so as to provide a dirt cheap top flight college education to all who hunger for knowledge.

But these ideas are not all necessarily practical. I have more courage than sense, but I'm sensible enough to appreciate the value of some prudent, conservative thinkers on the team.

Helping our heroes

This blog is about wounded warriors: young men whose bodies and lives have been shattered by war.

They get incredible medical care, the world's finest. Thanks to modern medicine, 90% of those wounded in war survive. That's the good news.

The bad news is, of course, that they survive with devastating injuries: missing hands and arms and legs, dreadful disfiguring burns, life-disrupting brain trauma.

The even worse news is that while the dedicated people at Walter Reed and other U.S. government medical centers give these wounded troops wonderful medical care, that's all they do. Once they are discharged from the hospital, they are virtually abandoned.

They are left largely on their own to try to build a new life. Their bodies are torn apart, their minds and spirits bruised and battered.

Yesterday, they were strong, healthy members of a fighting force. Today, they are cripples, racked by pain, doubt, and fear.

They face their greatest battle today, one whose challenge surpasses that of the battlefield. The same courage that sustained them in battle can sustain them.

And so can we.

I am one of a group of ordinary Americans who are not going to let these fallen heroes struggle on their own. We are organized as Our Finest.Org, a non-profit tax-exempt corporation whose sole mission is to help our wounded warriors rise up and build a great new life.

Here you will find their inspiring stories and get a behind the scenes view of our efforts to help them.

Once discharged, these heroes are forgotten. But not by us.

We believe that the American public -- once they understand the real facts -- will not allow those who sacrificed their healthy bodies for the cause of freedom to struggle alone.

They stood up for us. We shall stand behind them.

Our non-profit operates with complete transparency.

Unfortunately, there are some bloodsucking veterans organizations out there which solicit money and spend little of it to actually help our fallen soldiers. We intend to provide perfect accountability and share openly with anyone interested just what we're doing and why and how. So in addition to updates from the battlefield, you will find here stories about our efforts to help.

And you are encouraged to share your viewpoint. We exist to serve the wounded warrior and will be responsible to the American public for our stewardship.

Have a look at our website: www.ourfinest.org

Mark Draper, Ph.D.
CEO