Sins of the family

I wrote awhile back about a 7 year old, Aiyana Jones who was killed by police in a "no knock" raid on a duplex in Detroit.
To refresh everyone's memory, Aiyana was sleeping on her couch when a Detroit SWAT team threw a "flash-bang" grenade through the front window of her home. Some few seconds afterwards, the "point man" entered the home and fired his weapon which struck and killed this child.
I for one am outraged, and have been keeping an eye on the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press yet their coverage of the investigation has been weak, and overwhelmed by the numerous other murders happening in the city.
I can't understand why all the secrecy, and I further can't understand why it's been almost 2 months and this investigation hasn't been completed with a result. I read one article in June that allegedly placed her father in the vehicle of the perpetrator (who lived in the other half of the duplex) during the drive-by shooting that started all this.
Despite the possibility that her family was either directly or indirectly involved as accessories before or after the fact in the original murder, there was no reason an innocent child had to die.
I'm going to continue to keep an eye on this, and would ask others to question the motives of the Detroit Police in keeping this under wraps.
No child should have to suffer the sins of their family, and professional law enforcement officers should be held accountable for such an obvious abuse of power/force, and what was clearly poor tactical judgement.

Love and fathers.

Today is Father's Day, and Dad is on everyone's mind.

I can't really relate to Mothers and their female offspring, but I can speak a word or two about fathers and sons.

My dad wasn't really a touchy-feely kinda guy. Save for WWII and the GI Bill, I doubt my father would have ever seen the inside of a college classroom. He was raised on a farm deep in the mountains, the second set of offspring from my grandfather's second wife. From what I understand talking with my aunts and uncles, Grandpaw Whitson was a ruthless disciplinarian with little time for shenanigans. Pop loved him, but decided to strike out on his own at an early age.

After leaving home for the Baltimore shipyards, he enlisted in the Army and served in the Field Artillery. Home from occupation duties, he made his way to East Tennessee State University and studied History and Physical Education.

Pop didn't have much of an affectionate way with kids. He kinda thought his lot was to make sure we didn't grow up hoodlums. His place in our family was along the lines of Judge and Jury, with swift justice being the main reason for his existence. If we ever needed soft guidance in matters of the heart or world that was up to mom.

The worst thing you could hear in our home was "Wait til Dad gets home". Those words instilled more fear on my brothers and I than about anything else you could hear. I'm not quite sure "grounding" had even been invented yet, because we usually saw whippings.

Pop wasn't without an occasional soft side. He loved to share his knowledge of cars, carpentry, and lawn care though we usually didn't see that as much more than another set of chores to complete. I will have to say that I couldn't hammer a nail straight or saw a board in half if I hadn't been cajoled into helping him with some of the literally hundreds of home improvement projects he oversaw over the years. Anything I know about car trading and haggling came from watching him shave a hundred bucks from a car salesman, or fifty cents from someone at a yard sale.

Pop was pretty vocal about our various career choices; he didn't care for any of ours. I think he was just wanting us to get a little bit farther than he did. His candidness about how we'd turn out was just as full of truth though we couldn't see it at the time. One brother of mine died penniless and in poor health, the other saw his money dwindle down before he drank himself to death. I'm still a "work in progress" so we'll have to see if I wind up in the poor house.

I never quite understood my father. He spent over 30 years working at a job he hated, while I work at something that will never get me rich, but I enjoy doing.

I spent a good deal of my life at odds with my father. It took the birth of my own son to bring us closer together. Seeing them interact and play on visits warmed my heart to him, and actually got through my thick skull that for all the imperfections our children and parents may have, we love them just the same. It also opened my eyes to fact that as a father, it is realy important to hear "I love you" every once in awhile.

I'm really glad I got to say those words to pop before he passed away.

Yeah Pop, I do love you.

Fitness at 47; He Ain't What He Used To Be.

47 came and went last Monday along with lots of hugs and kisses from my family and well wishes from my friends.
I've been thinking a lot lately about my health in general. Maybe it's a touch of middle-age crazy, maybe the cancer scare but I reflect on my life 5 years ago and can hardly believe the shape I've let myself slip into.
I never was much of a fitness nut growing up. My father was a coach, so naturally I rebelled by being an indoor kid. I was chunky all through school and the first 3 semesters of college, then got a job as a paramedic and my first boss said "you're on 90 days probation. If I don't see serious effort at weight loss you're outta here." I'd fought for that job, and traded in McDonald's for Lean Cuisine. Started jogging to burn calories and didn't take me the 90 days to slim down about 50 pounds.
It doesn't seem like that long ago I was regularly bicycling to work and taking a 15 mile detour just to get a solid workout in. Getting up at 5:15 so I could be the first person on the StairMaster was a daily occurrence, and I remember walking in again (for the second time that day) 7:30 PM one evening and heard one of the fitness trainers point at me and whisper "hardcore" to one of his colleagues.
I decided to start hiking because I was getting bored doing an entire hour on the climber without any change of scenery. I started with regular trips to Stone Mountain State Park above Elkin, then day trips to mountain trails in the western part of the state. Within 2 years, I'd joined a group and we spent an entire week hiking, including a climb to the top of Long's Peak. The Long's Peak climb started at 1AM, and we hiked through the night to get above the treeline. We summitted at about 11AM and didn't get back to the car before about 4 in the afternoon, then showered and went out for a celebratory beer and steak dinner. I amazed the other guys by being up at 6:30 the next day and taking a 5 mile run before we went into town.
A number of issues conspired to get me off track physically. My brother died in 2003 and I lost a good deal of desire then. My father's death, and then a difficult separation drove the final nails in the coffin of my program.
I kept my Y membership for a couple of years after I quit going. I'd try to start again every couple months or so, but somehow the drive had left me. I remember how embarrassed I was when I stopped by 70 pounds overweight and turned in my card. Likewise, selling my bicycle at a yard sale when we cleaned out our home for sale brought a measure of sadness.
I ate a good meal for my birthday; the last "good" meal I've had since. I've decided I've got one good fitness odyssey left in me. Today marks completion of my 4th day on the Couch-2-5K program on my iPhone. As painful as it is, I step on the scales every morning when I shower and mark it down. Every morsel of food has been measured and logged as to calories, fat grams, and carbohydrates. So far, I'm a walking sore but I find that sleep is coming easier and energy more plentiful. I have found that the recovery time at 47 is significantly more than it was at 40.
As long as the Naprosyn holds out, I'm gonna stick with it.

Graduation: The Morning of Your Life

Graduation morning at Davie County High School. Up at 7 for a 930 start time.
Katie, my girlfriends daughter will walk across the stage about 90 minutes from now.
I expect we'll hear all the usual cliche's about endings and begginings. Having lived with Jeannie these last few weeks leading up I can tell you that these same cliches apply to parents as well.
Contrary to what's in a parents heart, we don't raise our children to be with us forever. We get a precious few years to enjoy them before they make their own way in the world. They start to pull away from us in their teens as they try to find their identity. I think this is Nature's way of weaning us from them; not the other way around.
There is certainly a lot of excitement around us as we wait. You'd be hard pressed to find a single parent not beaming with pride.
My own high school graduation was held at night. I think it's fitting that this one is held in the morning as these young folks are in the "morning" of their lives. One of the best summers of my life was the summer between high school and college. There was just enough adulthood to feel independent and just enough youth to be relatively free of responsibility. As time goes on, this balance will shift and by the time you're my age the weight of responsibility will be quite burdensome.
Katie has a good head on her shoulders. She's had a plan for a couple of years now and will be leaving us for nursing school at the end of August.
We're very proud of her.


Peace until later. Tim

Location:Southwood Dr,Mocksville,United States

Spiritual but not religious...just what does that mean?

I read an interesting article on CNN today.

Many folks on FB list their Religious View as being "spiritual but not religious".

I guess you'd add me to that group, although I say "Christian" on my various profiles. Here's my take on Religion versus spirituality.

First off, I think most Religions are man-made. Groups of folks got together and decided how to worship their deity. Typically, some early leaders who probably were a bit more eloquent in their speech and writings were able to persuade others to follow them in their own interpretations of ancient texts. This continues today, as various denominations actually get together and vote on their particular take on either the Bible, or Koran, or whatever physical record exists of Buddhism, Shintoism, Hinduism or other belief system.

Many times, the persuasiveness of the supposed scholar can lead to perversion of any said text. Fundamental Islamists believe quite differently than the average Muslim. The Catholic Church believes quite differently from most forms of Protestantism. Some groups who embrace Christianity (the KKK for example) focus on mere "sound bites" from the Bible instead of the whole picture. Daivd Koresch, Jim Jones, and Fred Phelps were able to persuade groups of folks that their views held some "special" ordained righteousness.

Throughout history, Kings, Popes, and others have decided what "The Bible" should be. Some books accepted by earlier Christians were kept in while others were kept out.

Here's my take. We are all gifted with an inherent sense of what is right and what is wrong. It's called a conscience. It is up to us to seek a personal relationship with a higher power as we define it (mine is Jesus Christ) through prayer. Without that constant contact through prayer, we will stray from the spiritual path we should follow.

I believe it is good to seek fellowship with others to keep us strong spiritually. I also believe most of all that it is that personal relationship that guides us through the day-to-day trials we face.

I think when seeking fellowship with others, it is equally important to keep both an open mind on spiritual matters, yet also a discerning eye and praying for individual guidance. Christ himself said in the end times there would be many false prophets.

Let me get this straight. You want the WHITE HOUSE to stop the Gulf oil leak?

More and more people are calling on the White House to "take charge" of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The expectation seems to be that the full power of the government can swoop in and use some type of unknown high-tech military procedure or equipment that can bring a halt to the flow of oil under unbelievable pressure. It's as if we believe that there exists Star Trek technology that could bring an immediate relief.

Trust me; there is no "conspiracy" among BP to keep valuable oil gushing into the Gulf. Not only are they losing product, but with each landfall of oil their civil liability increases as well as the public's goodwill. If the CEO of BP could swim down and plug the well with his thumb, he'd do it.

Whatever "help" the US government could be in minimizing this ecological fiasco ended when they issued the permit to allow drilling there.

As much as we'd like to believe otherwise, the people best equipped to cap this well are BP employees and contractors.

BP doesn't get many points for their PR spin using low-ball figures of oil flow. People are reluctant to trust them, and rightfully so.

I tender this for your consideration. Who but ocean floor drillers have any experience at all working at a depth of nearly a mile below the surface? Few US Naval submarines are capable of even diving to this depth. There may be a handful of oceanographers in the Navy who have experience, but probably none who would have any idea of the engineering required to fix this. A multidisciplinary team consisting of engineers, oceanographers, and geologists will be needed to attack this spill.

There should be government oversight if for no other reason than to keep a fire lit under BP and act as liaison among the variety of industry players that may be involved in plugging the leak as well as shoreline cleanup. The feds will invariably be involved to make sure there is proper compensation to States affected by this disaster and certainly in the years of hearings to set policy to prevent such an event from re-occurring.

These federal responsibilities are a far-cry from what I believe most of America expects.

Other than debriefing this scenario, coordinating cleanup, assisting in civil liability recovery,and possibly future regulation I just don't see that the US Government can do much about this.

My thoughts on Memorial Day

If you don't know it's Memorial Day weekend by now, You are oblivious to the multiple FB postings, TV schedule (back to back war movies), American flags flying, and last but not least the surge in traffic along with the requisite surge in speed traps and license checks.

One of my Facebook friends made a good point on his post. He pointed out that theologically he had a hard time with secular national holidays and that he was also against war in general. He further pointed out that his views don't diminish the fact that this particular holiday is in memorium to all the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country. I guess that's where I fall also.

War is one of the most prevalent subjects in the Bible. Make no mistake about it, God had the Israelites kick some major tail. One of my Bible mentors is of the opinion that a lot of stuff people like to spout out about the Bible (eye for an eye, God destroying cities for sin) was at a time when Man was a relatively young and immature creature. Then came the Messianic Covenant whereby our salvation is dependent upon accepting Christ as our savior. In his opinion, all previous bets are off with the "New Covenant". Jesus brought a message of peace, tolerance, pacifism. He simplified the 10 commandments into loving God above everything else, and your neighbor as much as you do yourself. I myself can find little justification in war as a first solution to any diplomatic problem.

I'm not ready to make a blanket statement that all war is wrong. I do believe that it's less than God's perfect plan for us as humanity and also that revenge falls under the same category. I will state that war is inherently evil due to the collateral damage that occurs to civilians and soldiers called to fight.

Now to the heart of the matter. Wars are waged by government officials; presidents, dictators, kings, and prime ministers who are supported by advisors, parliaments and congresses. Individual soldiers who are called to defend their countries are in my opinion heroes despite whatever misguided policies place them in harm's way.

My father was a soldier in World War II. I saw the effects his combat service had on him; the sleepless nights, nightmares decades later, the tears when he'd watch a war film. He and many others from this war and all later shared a common bond of seeing things no human should have to see. They also experienced the fear that every soldier must go through during battle, and summoned the courage to overcome it and do their duty.

If you choose to celebrate this weekend, have a good time and stay safe. We all deserve a 3 day weekend to spend more time with the ones we love.

However, if you will take a few minutes to stop the celebration and think about those who were sent to defend this Nation and never got to come home.

Memorial Day should be observed; not celebrated.