"Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." That is a quote by Helen Keller. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Helen was a deaf and blind women born in 1880, who became the first deaf and blind person to earn a college degree. Her life story is truly amazing and should be read by everyone, in my opinion.
If anyone has the right to talk about hope, it was Helen. She was born in rural Alabama and at the age of 19 months contracted an illness that left her deaf, mute, and blind. At the age of seven, her parents brought her to the Perkins Institute for the Blind, where she met Anne Sullivan, a visually impaired student who became Helen's teacher. After many months, she had a breakthrough with Helen that helped to change her life forever. If you are interested in the story, you can watch the film "The Miracle Worker" which tells Anne's story about working with Helen. Over time, Helen learned to sign, read braille, and even speak. In her later years, she became a prolific author and an activist for many causes. After learning to speak, she became a prolific lecturer as well. Imagine, through all of that adversity, she kept a sense of hope and optimism. Not only that, she put her education to good use trying to help people with similar disabilities, as well as for political causes she believed in. Note that Helen was a pacifist and opposed Woodrow Wilson's policies in domestically, in Europe and in Latin America.. About Woodrow Wilson she stated: ""Could it be that we don't want to think badly of Woodrow Wilson... We don't want complicated icons. "People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions, and conclusions are not always pleasant."" It is hard for me to imagine being blind and deaf and still being able to learn how to speak and write, let alone doing so as eloquently as Helen did. On top of that, she had the empathy to stand up for and fight for people with similar disabilities. On this day of thanks giving, I find I am thankful for people like Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan who use what God has given them to the best of their abilities. They prove that hope and optimism can go a long way towards helping people. In the end, Helen lived her beliefs and fought for them nonviolently, Isn't that something we can all aspire to?
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"You can find peace amidst the storms that threaten you." That is a quote by Joseph Wirthlin. Here's another one. This is by Thomas Merton. "We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves." Finally, "In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons." That one is from Herodotus. I am not going to spend too much time telling you who those people are. It's not the message I am trying to bring. Instead, this post is all about peace. No matter how much our leaders talk about peace we never seem to achieve it. Why is that? It is because they have no skin in the game, that's why. In the past, leaders used to lead from the front line. They would be right up there with their men leading the charge. Nowadays, the "leaders" stay behind in Washington and instead allow our sons and daughters to die for their causes. And the people go on voting for these people time after time. Since 2001 we have been in a never-ending war. And what have we got for it? A generation of men and women scarred physically and emotionally from their service. Crying mothers and weeping fathers. So as with anything else, we need to look at who benefits from this never-ending war. Surely it is not the soldier. The media makes a big deal of calling all of the soldiers heroes and generally making them feel good for risking their lives. The pay, though, isn't so good. For example, a corporal makes about $23,000 to $28,000. With pay like that, our government certainly isn't paying them like heroes now are they? So who ARE benefiting from our soldiers risks? Well, the corporations that supply weapons for the troops are certainly big beneficiaries! Let's look at the stock price performances of some of the big defense companies and see how they are doing. Well, let's see. It looks like Lockheed Martin shareholders are doing pretty well. They are not risking their lives on the front lines, but the return on holding Lockheed Martin shares are more than five times what you would have gotten by investing in the S&P 500. In my mind, it is certainly in Lockheed's best interest to cheer-lead the troops and keep the U.S. fighting whoever they can convince us is the enemy. Okay, you say, "But that is only one company! Who else?" Well, take a look at almost any defense contractor. They are all making money handover fist and it is in all of their best interests to keep the wars going. Below is the chart of General Dynamics. Their stock has gone up more than three times the return of the S&P 500. So "Corporations are created to make money" Yes, that is true. However, most don't make it by keeping our children at risk. It is not just the corporations making insane amounts of money though. The leaders of the defense companies are also making millions. Below is the annual pay of the CEOs of companies benefiting from the carnage. Do you think with paydays like those any of them want the war to end? Seriously? Lockheed Martin CEO. 2015 pay: $28.5 million General Dynamics CEO, 2015 pay: $20.4 million Honeywell CEO, 2015 pay: $34.5 million Haliburton CEO, 2015 pay: $20.5 million In the end, it is my belief that our politicians are being swayed by large amounts of cash from many different directions. As long as they and their families are not expected to be on the front line, they really don't care if you and yours are put into harm's way.
It is time that we make our "leaders" lead from the front! Not just the president, but our congressmen and senators too. In fact, I think it is time we put limits on war profiteering and possibly have a draft of men and women who have benefited the most from our sixteen year war on a faceless enemy. To have peace, you must be at peace. War...even though it is somewhere else, is not peace. While there is no easy way to hold the peace, I think we can cut down on the amount of the carnage by forcing our leaders to lead from the front. For me, I want my daughters to live in a world of peace. We cannot achieve that dream, if the United States are always at war. It has been about sixteen years folks. When will it be enough? |
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