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