Back to Stupid!

Today's lack of intelligence should no longer surprise me but, for some reason, it does!

How many of you have read in the paper or seen on the news the story about a woman who's just finished buckling her young child into his car seat and turns to climb into the driver's seat only to find herself facing a wild-eyed man intent on car-jacking her vehicle, child and all? Show of hands?

With that in mind, how many of you would willingly leave your child, untended, in a running (supposedly locked) vehicle while you run into the store (or wherever)... just for a minute!? Show of hands?

I reeeeeally hope none of you raised your hand.

This last couple of weeks, I've seen two different women who've left their YOUNG kids, untended, in a running vehicle. That is SO stupid on SO MANY levels!!! Let's start with the obvious one I've already mentioned, car jacking.

Mom goes into the grocery store, reassuring her 5 year old that she'll only be gone a minute (she's parked on the SIDE of the building, by the way, where NO ONE can see the SUV!) and asking him to watch his baby brother. She'll leave the car running so it won't get too hot inside this black painted Suburban (it's 98 in the shade, today) and be riiiiiiight back! But, Mom doesn't count on the long lines inside.... or maybe it's a broken register.... or maybe they're training a new cashier and she's slower than molasses in January.... oooooor, well, you've got the point. Best laid plans and all that.

Now, put yourself in the place of a desperate man, running from the law, who sees a running vehicle (actually, running from the law or not, a car thief is gonna go for the running vehicle). You hurry over only to find the doors locked. No prob! YOU have SKILLS! Not ones Mother Theresa would approve of, to be sure, but you know how to pop that lock in no time flat! But, what's this? Kids? A 5 year old and a baby? Eh, so what? They certainly won't get in the way of you "borrowing" the vehicle. Really, what can they do besides cry? So, while Mom's dealing with unexpected delays inside, you take off with the car - AND kids - outside. Whole operation takes something less than two minutes.

And, my, isn't Mom surprised to find her vehicle and kids gone? Oh! WHAT to DO? Call the police, sure. Now, explain "But, I only left them for a minute, officer! I was coming right back out and the doors were locked!"

Ok, but, that so seldom happens. Really, what are the odds, you say? Well, I'll admit, I don't have the statistics on that, and, yeah, I was left in the car on occasion as a kid, but here's the difference; crime wasn't as bad as it is today and I wasn't five years old! I was a pre-teen or teen! My parents never left me alone in a vehicle when I was a child. Well, not after my Dad turned his back on me as a toddler (when they didn't have seat belt laws). Which brings me to another reason - albeit less scary one - for not leaving your kids alone in a running vehicle. My Dad was parked in a driveway, and had stepped out of the car to talk to someone. He shut the door to keep me in because I was known for running off and getting into things. Apparently, shutting me in the car only kept me from running off, not from getting into things. I figured out in short order how to get that car out of park and into gear. Never did that again! Nossir!

Leaving your kids alone in a car is just *stupid*, folks! Car jackings aside, kids play around with things. Even (maybe especially) with things they're not supposed to. They've watched Mom & Dad drive, they've seen them move that stick from one place to another, they want to try it. True, car companies have made it more difficult to move a car from park into gear by fixing it so you have to have a foot on the brake before it will move, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. A bump at the right - or wrong - angle and it can happen. Are people so lazy (and stupid, don't forget stupid) that they'd really rather risk a child's life than worry about having to unbuckle them from a car seat, hold their hand or carrier, or set up a stroller (depending on age) all because it'll make their "short trip" to the store too long? If that's the case, leave the kid at home with the other parent - or a sitter - while you run your errands. Your childs' life is NOT worth the gamble you're taking!

Opinions

So, today I learned that not everyone's opinion is the same as mine.

O.o* (blink * blink)

Wait!
What?

I tho't everyone felt and thought and believed and behaved the same as me!? How can someone's opinion differ from mine?!

And, to add insult to injury, he was critiquing my writing! (pout) I gather that, even tho' he's a Vet, my poems are "divisive rhetoric" and I need to "tone it down."

Well, this country was founded on the ideology of freedom of speech, so I can't fault him. He has as much right to his opinion as I do to mine. (by the way, he also feels there's too much ideology and we need to move away from it toward more truth....)

Wait.

What?

I was actually quite nice (I'm so proud of me!) and managed to politely point out that ideology and truth don't need to be mutually exclusive. I told him I appreciated he had a different opinion from mine, that this country was founded on the belief we all had the right to have, practise and freely speak about our opinions (no, you may NOT practise your opinion up in my face! thank you!) Civility while expressing our opinions would be nice, but isn't always to be expected. I know, that sounds rather cynical, but that's what sin has done in this world. We all tend to believe everyone's entitled to our opinion. (or, as one t-shirt I saw put it, "If I'd wanted your opinion, I'd have given it to you!")

See, this man, too, is a Vet. I have to respect him for that, alone. And, no, I don't believe every soldier agrees with every last thing he's told to do. I believe our men (and women, I know) all have opinions about every war they were told to fight. Every battle they had to face. I don't expect every one of them agreed with what and how they were told they would do. But, they did it. I respect them for that. And I love them for the fact they stood there and did their best (and still do) to stop the Mad Man.

Apparently this little contretemps over my writing came about from the essay/monologue, of which I published a copy of in my previous entry here, "A Warriors' Voice". I'm not sure if the essay itself provoked him, my assumption that I was speaking for ALL Warriors (I never would, as I told him, I've never been in the military, so I don't know the military mind... and I did add a disclaimer in my essay that I would never BE so presumptuous) or what, but apparently, somewhere in there (or maybe one of my poems, I'm not sure) I also left out American Indians and what they contributed to our military (not that I ever specified culture... I know a naturalized citizen who joined the Army and fought for his adopted country with great pride!)

Well, as I stated at the start, this country was founded on the belief that we're allowed to think how we want, speak how we want and to freely express ourselves. So, I'll let Mr. Opinion state what he thinks, and I'll try to be respectful of it even if I think he's wrong. (well, it was my work, y'know!)

A Warriors' Voice

Okay, I'm going to be a bit lazy tonight. I do have things I want to say about the SEALs who took out the pirates (GO SEALs!!! ~ Yes, I'm very pro-military!), but I don't have it all the way I want it, yet. I'm working out the wording and the point (when I write, I usually put pen to paper and, literally, go with the flow). So, until then, I am posting this.... well, I guess you'd call it an essay. It's from my writing.com page and it's not meant in any way to speak for a Warrior. It's simply my take on what a Warrior might say, given the opportunity. But, decide for yourselves:

A Warriors' Voice

Look at me.

No, look me in the eyes.

Don’t pretend you don't see or hear me. You had a question. I heard you ask it and because of that I’m the one who gets to answer so don’t stand there and ignore me, don’t avert your eyes and don’t pretend to care when you don’t understand what these crosses really stand for.

Not yet, you don’t.

But you will.

You wanted to know why we chose to join the military. Why we chose to fight. Why we chose to go to a far away country and, I believe your words were, "invade it." That’s what got my attention, what got all our attention.

That one little word.

Invade.

As if we chose to go to war. As if war is our fault. It isn’t. I don’t care which war you’re asking about, none of the wars were our fault. But, there were actions that required an answer. A firm, decisive, line-drawn-in-the-sand answer. The enemy didn’t quite believe that line was real, so he not only stepped over it he tried to obliterate it and anyone near it in the process.

Oh, yes, there’s an enemy and it isn’t me or my fellow Warriors. We’re not the ones who killed women and children in the name of “purification of the human race.” We’re not the ones who strapped bombs to the bodies of our youth and sent them out to kill themselves in the name of some god who hates us because we don’t believe in him.

We’re the ones who kept those killers from these shores.

You watch the news and you see what they want you to but you miss the good things we do.

The toys we hand out.

The medicines we dispense.

The smiles and hugs freely given.

The games played with children who don’t get to play much anymore.

The child cuddled because the Madman shot and killed her entire family and she’s sobbing for a mother she doesn’t understand won’t ever again come to hold her.

That’s what the media doesn’t show you. That’s what we fought and still fight for.

You still don’t get it, do you? Maybe I, we did our jobs a little too well. Because we chose to fight the Madman, we’ve been able to keep him from our shores… well, mostly. You’ve suffered some deprivation, you’ve grieved over lives lost, but you haven’t really suffered.

Not really.

Yes, I get to say that to you. I get to say that because I and my fellow Warriors have suffered. Suffered to keep the Madman away from you. In heat, cold, rain, snow, whether we were sick or well, hurt or whole. It didn’t matter. Wherever he was or is we’ll go there to fight him.

But, it’s not just for you we fight. Sure, we want him to stay far, far away from the homes of our loved ones. Even from those who hate us for the job we chose to do. But, we also fight for the innocents. You’re not the only ones who should be free from senseless death and genocide. You’re not the only ones whose children should feel free to run the streets and scream with laughter instead of fear.

Do you see, now? Do you understand, yet?

We didn’t “invade” anywhere for personal gain but, rather, to liberate those under the oppressive heel of tyranny. The places we’ve gone, the lives that were lost, it was a choice we made. One we knew might mean our deaths.

One that did mean my death.

But, it was a choice that needed to be made. One I would make all over again, even knowing the suffering I’ll go through when I’m shot. Even knowing the emotional pain my family will have to live with, I’d make that choice again.

We all would.

You see, because we made that choice, and even though our families grieved and grieve for us still, they are Free.

They cried when they received word that we’d died in battle.

But they received it in Freedom.

They cried and held each other as they watched our coffins lowered into the ground, the graves marked by these simple white crosses.

But they clung together, and in Freedom.

Our families have not been separated and interred in prison camps or forced into slave labor or killed simply because they didn’t fit the Madman’s imagined “perfect” human because we chose to defend that Line-In-The-Sand against the Madman.

It’s a hard choice. It’s made harder still by those who call us “war criminals” simply because we stand up to the school-yard bully. That’s exactly what he is, too. A bully. He runs and hides when we step up to defend that Line. He won’t face us in honest battle. But, instead of crying out against the Madman, we are denigrated for trying to stop him and protect you. It makes a hard job harder still.

Especially for our loved ones.

You certainly don’t want to hear that someone's told your family you are a "tool of the military industrial complex" or a "warmongering psychopath brute," do you? Yet, so many of you do just that to ours. You upset our parents and spouses who already worry about us. You scare our children into thinking we’re blood-thirsty monsters. We’re fighting to keep you free, too, you know.

Instead of calling us names and deriding our choice to defend your freedom, think about what would happen if we weren’t there.

Think about what would happen if the Madman won because we gave up.

Think about the Freedom you have and then imagine it gone if you didn’t have us to defend it.

Defend it with our blood.

Defend it with our very lives.

Now…

Now…

Now you can cry.

But, don’t cry for us.

We chose this life that we knew might mean death.

No, don’t cry for us.

Cry for those who still don’t understand these crosses.

Cry for those who refuse to see we fight because we love you more than ourselves.

Stoopid Is As Stoopid Does...

Anyone here want to admit to being stupid? Show of hands? Anyone?

Well, I'm certainly not going to shy away from admitting I am, ON OCCASION, stupid. Not an unlearned, ignorant type of stupid. Nor the, WON'T learn type of stupid, either. I mean "stupid" in the mildest form of its definition. As in, "Wow! Didn't see that coming!" It happens to all of us. We get blind-sided from time to time by things, even people, we didn't expect it from. Even the "Okay, I SO screwed that up! I can't believe how stupid I am!" kind of stupidity strikes us all from time to time. Every one of us has moments we'd like to take back and, like a kid in grade school, shout "Do Over!" Or, for those of us from the VCR-era, hit the Rewind/Erase button of life!

But, there are people out there who work off the assumption that everyone else is stupid and they are brilliant. People who con others out of time, money, even property. The really good ones, you never see it coming and don't even know it's happened until it's too late. They're that good. Even when something starts to set off that little "this is not right" alarm in your brain, they can effortlessly charm and/or explain it away in a manner that seems plausible. Well, plausible until after the fact, when we look back on it and wonder why we fell for it in the first place.

My favorite type of con artist is the one you can see coming a mile away. Problem is, they're few and far between. And usually found on the internet in your e-mail. Yes, the ever exciting 'YOU HAVE WON OUR ONLINE LOTTERY PROMO!' e-mail just landed in my box not 30 minutes ago. Oh, there's a couple others I love, too. There's the "I am a bank official at a bank in (insert African nation of choice) and I want to ask you to help me move millions of (so called) unclaimed dollars out of here before the government takes it all away!" Or, perhaps, they got your name by talking to an official at an Embassy party while they were in New York (a doctor I worked for actually got that one in snail-mail). Oh! And what about the man dying in a hospital (the last one was in London, England!) and he wants to send me his millions of Pounds to dispense to various charities so his wicked, shiftless relatives don't get their hands on it! I actually played with this one a bit. I mean, honestly, folks, why would any SANE person offer to send an ABSOLUTE STRANGER money of any type, let alone millions!? I asked Mr. English Citizen why he didn't go to his lawyer and have him, oh, say, write up a will? I'm sure they have wills in England, same as here in America. I'm sure the law states a will has to be complied with in England, same as here in America. The law's funny that way. You're supposed to obey it, y'know?

Anyway, I took leave in my reply to Mr. EC to doubt he was actually in a hospital, never mind a millionaire. I actually got back a picture of some man of vaguely Arabic decent sitting on some sort of bench/stool in a hospital gown, a small table holding a lap top on it and various tubes looking like they were running up his nose and into his arm. He was really quite wired up. I was impressed. For a con, they were working this one hard. Thought they'd found a live one, I guess. I offered to gladly give them my bank information to transfer those millions of Pounds as soon as they could send me that promised percentage, up front, so I'd know they were legitimate because, if they were NOT legitimate, I was going to turn them over to.... well, I think I made up some scary sounding branch of the FBI that I was going to send it to. For some reason, I never heard from Mr. EC again.... O.o* (innocent Bambi-eyes)

**quick aside.... if you ever do decide to play with one of these idiots... which I don't really recommend, it just shows they've reached a legit e-mail, but IF YOU DO!... tell them you want them to route it to a special account you've set up just for this money since, obviously you don't want the government of (insert favorite African nation) finding it, let alone the US government's IRS since they'll just want to tax it. They can just transfer it to The West Bank of The Mississippi under the name Buddy Yu bin Touk. That's another one that gets them to leave you alone (hahahaaaahahahahaha!)
...okay, back to our story in progress**

These sort of internet cons continue because there is a plethora of stupid people .... no, let me re-type that.... STUPID PEOPLE! out there. People who truely believe that someone in a foreign country dug around until they, *gasp*, found them and that person just knows they are writing to an honest and upright person, God bless you! (as if invoking God's name somehow makes the e-mail legit!?!) I'd say "Use some good old common horse sense, folks!" but sense isn't so common anymore, stupid horse-brained masses!