A Tale Of Three Cultures .... And a Glock

Sheila and I had to run a few errands this afternoon. Our washer and dryer are still out of service from a recent kitchen remodel and we needed a few groceries now that we have a functioning kitchen again. So, we ate lunch at our favorite hole in the wall Mexican place, headed to the laundromat and then to the WalMart Neighborhood Market.

I eat at that particular Mexican place at least twice per week.The crowd is racially diverse but mostly Mexican. Mexican working people to be more precise. While I don't open carry, I don't go to any trouble to conceal my weapon either. It's always there under my shirt or jacket and it probably shows sometimes when I reach for something. On a hot day in this place, I take my jacket off when I'm wearing one and the weapon is out in the open. Nobody seems to notice or care that I armed.

While Sheila was at the laundromat, I ran up the street to the "salon" where I have my hair cut. It's actually kind of a trendy place in an urban sort of way, not really my kind of place in some ways. But, it's close by and I've gotten to know most of the stylists. I wear my weapon when I go in, take my jacket off and get my hair cut. All you can see is the butt of my Glock sticking out of my waistband. Again, nobody seems to notice or care that I armed. After all this is still Oklahoma even on stylish Cherry Street.
Sheila was pretty well all in after the laundry so I did the grocery shopping. All went fine until I arrived in the checkout line. There were a pair of well dressed black women in line in front of me, a forty-ish woman and what appeared to be her teen-aged daughter. They were dressed in matching purple tee shirts.

I smiled at them and began loading my groceries onto the checkout conveyor. I guess my weapon became visible under my jacket as I was reaching across to pull things out of my basket. The teen-aged girl began staring at me in almost horror. I smiled at her again and she just stood there staring. I went about unloading my cart and looked up again and she was still intently staring at me.

It didn't make me uncomfortable, just curious. I like to think that I am pretty good at reading people. She was afraid. I can't know for sure what she was afraid of but I can take some pretty good guesses. In her culture, it is an accepted fact that white policeman shoot young black people for fun. In her culture, it is an accepted fact that white people hate black people just because they are black. In her culture, I guess it is an accepted fact that an armed man is up to no good.


After what seemed like several minutes of staring, I wanted to say, "Honey, you have nothing to fear from me and you are much safer with me here armed than you would be otherwise. This place is a zoo and there have been armed robberies in this very store no more than a six feet from where you are standing. If you have to be afraid of something, fear that not me. I have absolutely nothing against as you as a person because of your race or anything else for that matter and I am not about to pull my weapon out and shoot you for being black in WalMart. But, I would pull my weapon to protect you."


On reflection I decided that, given the unreasoning fear I was seeing in her eyes, that dialogue would only have exacerbated the situation. And that's a pity because it needed to be said.

Useless Arrests and The End Of The Rule of Law

I was snarky on a Facebook friend's timeline today and I want to apologize for that.  But, I also want to explain my statement in a more civil manner.

Many police departments both big and small now simply do not arrest illegal aliens for minor offenses.  Their logic is as follows.  Illegals do not exist in the criminal justice system.  There is no way to track them and hold them accountable.  If you issue them a ticket all they have to do is move down the street and change their name a little bit and their citation falls off the map.

The only way to hold them accountable is to arrest them on the spot and detain them until they can be brought before a judge for trial and sentencing.  The problem with this that the U.S. Justice Department would crucify any police department big or small that incarcerated illegal aliens for not having a valid license plate, running a stop sign or even driving under the influence.  Under this president and this justice department they have to be treated exactly like people with ties to the community that allow them to be held accountable.  The officer is wasting his time and the taxpayer's money by making the citation.  So, they just look the other way.

But, that brings up a second problem.  Why should Juan Gonzales who crossed the border last year and works at the chicken plant get a pass when Billy Bob Hankins whose family has lived in town for five generations can't.  Why should Billy Bob be forced to pay a penalty that cannot be enforced against Juan?  What happens is that the Rule of Law itself suffers.   The cop just looks the other way to be fair.  Minor offense are not prosecuted and eventually quiet little places like Sallisaw and Muldrow begin looking like the barrio neighborhoods of big cities like Tulsa, OKC and Denver where Mexican rules of everything from traffic to commerce apply and the police only step in when the violence gets out of hand.

Is anybody really surprised that people who commit a felony to get into the U.S. and live here don't have a lot of respect for the rest of our laws?  The bottom line here is that if law isn't applied equally to everybody pretty soon it won't be applied to anybody.

ARE YOU REALLY A CHRISTIAN?

The Kim Davis matter has caused a fault line in the American Church.  Huge numbers of individuals and organizations who purport to be Christian have taken the position that she should have resigned.  Many of the best minds in the Christian world disagree.  Dr. John McArthur recently declared from his pulpit, "We will not bow" to homosexual bullying.  Dr. Franklin Graham has supported Davis in the strongest terms.  Dr. John Piper released a statement supporting her as did Dr. Robbie George Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton.  Her lawyers are led by former Liberty University Law School Dean Mat Staver. And yet, scores of alleged Christians refuse to see the import of this case.

There is a reason for this.  A lot of these people can't understand Kim Davis's position because they are not really Christians. There is no kinder way to say that.  Recently, Glen Beck, a Mormon, aired a searching dialogue in which he suggested that people who say the right words and lay claim to their fire insurance policy salvation may be deluded, especially when they can look the other way when evil is literally before their eyes.

The Apostle Paul was a lawyer.  Had he not converted to Christianity he was on the fast track to sit on the Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin. He wrote a third of the New Testament.  Paul described salvation this way in Roman 10:9: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

The word translated "confess" is the Greek word "homolegeo."  It is a legal term.  It means to enter into a contract or a covenant.  The word translated "Lord" is the Greek word "kurios."  It is a military or slave term.  It means literally a despot or absolute master.  It could be used for a military commander or a slave owner.  The word translated "heart" is something of a transliteration.  In the Greek culture of the time, the intellect was thought to be seated in the heart while the emotions were seated in the gut.  So, if we read this verse as it would have been understood in the Greek you come up with, "If you publicly enter into a contact or covenant agreeing that Jesus Christ is the absolute master of your life and are intellectually convinced that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved."   

Throughout the centuries that has been a costly agreement for those who actually enter into it.  Paul was beheaded and Peter was crucified by the government of their time.  Thousands of Christians died rather than bow down and sacrifice a spoon of incense declaring that Caeser was their supreme civic lord.  They understood that the agreement that they had entered into with the one true Lord would not allow them to bow the knee to any other.

Bowing has become easy in the 21st Century.  We bow to the Lord of death when we say we don't agree with abortion but won't do anything to stop it.  We bow to the Lord of perversion when we succumb to so called gay rights and gay marriage in order to keep our jobs and positions.  We bow to the Lord of power when we see the offices of government misused and justice perverted and do nothing to stop it.

Kim Davis understood this.  Kim Davis would not bow.  Kim Davis's life shows the fruits of a true salvation covenant with her Lord and Master.  Does yours?    

A Chilling Moment

For days now, a sermon has been building in me, the outline shaping itself in my thoughts. The facts of today's situation are so clear. We are clearly in the days of apostasy spoken of in the Book of Jude. A false Christianity which will not stand fast in the times of trouble is now deceiving many, dividing families, friends and workers. Indeed, it is dividing our nation. This was spoken of long ago:

19 These are the people who ·divide you [cause divisions], people ·whose thoughts are only of this world [who are worldly; or who live by natural instincts/desires], who do not have the Spirit [C living within them and guiding them]. (Jude v. 19 EXB)

The issue at the forefront of this division and apostasy (literally falling away) is the demand for not just tolerance but indeed acceptance and celebration of the acts and lifestyle of homosexuals. While the meaning of the certain passages of the Book of Jude were murky in past generations they are crystal clear now in light of current events:

7"Also remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah [C destroyed by God for their evil; Gen. 19; 2 Pet. 2:6] and the other towns around them. In the same way they were full of sexual sin and people who ·desired sexual relations that God does not allow [pursued sexual perversion; L departed after different flesh]. They suffer the punishment of eternal fire, as an ·example [warning] for all to see.

8 It is the same with these people [C the false teachers; v. 4]. They are guided by dreams ·and make themselves filthy with sin [and live immoral lives/pollute their bodies; or to defile the flesh]. They ·reject [despise] ·God’s authority [L authority] and ·speak against [insult; slander; blaspheme] ·the angels [celestial beings; L glorious ones; 2 Pet. 2:10–11]. 9 "(Jude v. 7,8 EXB)

Like Jude the brother of Jesus whose icon is a club, I wanted to declare the true salvation that only comes when Jesus Christ is Lord of ALL of your life including the workplace and public square. I wanted to warn of the watered down false salvation that, like a vaccine, inoculates the recipient from the true strain. I wanted to write about the costly grace spoken of by Bonhoeffer which led him to the gallows but saves the soul and warn of the cheap grace he described which leads to destruction of both the body and the soul. But, when I came to write from the scriptures this morning, I had a chilling moment. For the first time in my life I was restrained. When I went to the scriptures for guidance this verse came to me:

20 My people, go into your ·rooms [chambers; inner rooms] and shut your doors behind you. Hide in your rooms for a short time until God’s anger ·is finished [has passed by]. 21 [L For look/T behold] The Lord ·will leave [is coming out of] his place to punish the ·people [inhabitants] of the world for their sins. The earth will ·show [reveal; disclose] ·the blood of the people who have been killed [L its blood]; it will not cover ·the dead [its slain] any longer.(Isa 26:20 EXB)

Judgement is coming. Are you ready?

An Ominous Sign

Last week, as hundreds of armed citizens gathered around armed forces recruiting centers around the country to protect them after a terrorist attack, they were betrayed by the high command of Obama's Department of Defense.  The U.S. DOD ordered that the troops being guarded by civilians treat their civilian guards as "security risks" and to call the police to have them removed.

This order gives a stunning insight into the thinking of the flag rank officers Obama has collected around him.  The fact that they are more afraid of legally armed U.S. citizens than Muslim terrorists should serve as a warning call to every American citizen.  The U.S. military high command has been corrupted and co-opted by the Muslims in places of influence in the Obama administration.

This has been a long time coming.  Soon after his election, Obama began purging the officer corps of anyone who would not slavishly obey his destructive policies concerning the military.  At one point, he actually fired a high ranking military commander in the field who was trying to get aid to U.S. forces under fire in Benghazi.  This type of policy decision has been repeated again and again under this administration.  The lives of the troops matter little to them so long as their carefully nurtured dialogue of deception is not disturbed.  And now, the U.S. high command has become a willing instrument in this deception.

In the months following the Tiananmen Square uprising in China, I had the privilege of interviewing a Chinese couple that managed to escape.  One of their greatest surprises and disappointments was that the Chinese People's Army had actually fired upon their own people.  The People's Army was previously held in high esteem by the Chinese People.  They sincerely believed that it would never do harm to them.  They continued to believe that until People's Army forces opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators and literally crushed hundreds of them under the tracks of their tanks.

We Americans have had our own Tiananmen Square warning but have largely ignored it.  After

Hurricane Katrina, troops of Oklahoma's own 45th Brigade went house to house in New Orleans and seized the legally owned weapons of private citizens in the middle of a civil catastrophe when they were needed most.  That lesson should not lost upon the American people. Soldiers will trust their superiors to give them lawful orders and will obey them when issued. Any time the American people are determined to be a "domestic enemy" those orders must be disobeyed.  If the officer corps of the U.S. military does not have a good understanding of the rights of citizens under the constitution and a life or death, career ending commitment to protecting them against "all enemies foreign and domestic" then they are nothing more than the administration's private political enforcement tool .... literally political thugs in uniform.

The U.S. Armed Forces, particularly at the command level, have been so politicized under this administration that it may be too late to restore the institution of the flag officer corps as it currently exists.  Under the next administration, it may be time to start over.  That evolution would begin by firing every politicized flag rank officer who had survived under Obama and replacing them with experienced officers who were purged by him.  That evolution would continue by purging the military academies of the corrosive politically correct influences that have seized control of them under this administration and replacing them with officer instructors who are more concerned with teaching future leaders how to win wars than implementing gay and feminist theory into the military culture.

The leadership of the U.S. Armed Forces have lost their way and are in danger of becoming a threat to the people they serve.  Historically, the U.S. Armed Forces have been apolitical, serving administrations of differing political identity equally.  However, like so much in American culture, Obama has fundamentally transformed that and turned the U.S. Armed Forces into another political branch just like that found in Banana Republics and third world hell holes.  And because of that, the next administration is going to have to let the careers of those flag officers who allowed this to happen on their watch die by the same political sword that they lived and were promoted by in the current administration.

An Apology to Nathan Bedford Forrest

Soon, the bodies of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife are likely to be disinterred from their resting place of over a hundred years.  Nobody knows where they will rest after that since Confederate blood apparently taints the soil wherever it lies in the minds of the screaming mob that is erasing American culture as quickly as they can convince spineless politicians to appease them.

I owe the General an apology for two reasons.  The first is corporate.  Forrest and his wife deserve to left in peace and we as a people are responsible for allowing the political leadership of our nation to accrue to forces with no understanding of or respect for traditional American culture.

The second reason is more personal.  For decades, I believed the stories that Nathan Bedford Forrest ordered the execution of a group of negro soldiers at the battle of Ft. Pillow.  I use the term negro to be historically accurate since that is the way they are described in the contemporary accounts and that word is not a perjorative, just a descriptor of their race the same as caucasian or oriental.

After the dust up about where the good General and his wife's bones would reside, I decided to read the original accounts of the Battle of Ft. Pillow and the subsequent investigation.  They tell a far different story than the history books relate.

The Battle of Ft. Pillow was particularly fierce.  The Union garrison at Ft. Pillow was manned largely by turncoat southerners and negro troops both of whom feared retribution from the southern troops they were opposing.  When the bumbling Union commander's situation was hopeless he was offered the opportunity to surrender and refused.  The Union garrison decided to fight to the death under the rule of no quarter.  And that is exactly what happened. The situation was investigated by none other than President Abraham Lincoln.  General Forrest and his officers were cleared. 

Later historians concluded Secretary of War Stanton had been successful in his aims with publicizing the battle. Stanton’s thirst for power was legendary in Washington and President Andrew Johnson would later fire him for similar type tactics, which led to Stanton virtually organizing the Presidential impeachment trial of President Johnson in Congress.

"What happened at Fort Pillow was no different than what happened at a dozen other battles under Union generals," said military historian Dr. Brian Wills, "Some soldiers in that kind of environment are going to get ‘out of hand’ and the military record is replete with prosecutions of such men. Gen. Forrest was a strict disciplinarian and consistently prosecuted men in his command for such actions as those alleged at Fort Pillow. Why that particular battle drew national attention has more to do with a Presidential campaign that was going badly for Lincoln and a Secretary of War wanting to hold onto power. Gen. Sherman later acknowledged that what happened at Fort Pillow was one of those unfortunate consequences of war and Forrest could not be personally held responsible for it." (Tennessee History Online - http://www.tennesseehistory.com/class/Pillow.htm)

Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brave and brilliant commander who delivered multiple stunning defeats to the often numerically superior Union forces.  He was a hard charging, hard fighting, hard living man to be feared.  But, I am now convinced that he was not a murderer at the Battle of Ft. Pillow.  His activities after the war are are still in question but given what I have learned from actually reading the first hand accounts instead of accepting the popular version of events, I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt until I learn otherwise from reliable evidence.

History is written by the winners and in history books written by the winners the truth is often displaced by the politically expedient.

Link to first hand accounts of the Battle of Ft. Pillow

A more likely version of The Battle of Ft. Pillow

Turncoats ....

So, the Confederate battle flag is coming down in South Carolina. It can no longer even fly over the cemeteries where Confederate dead are buried or over the battlefields where they fought and died. Even the United States Congress has gotten involved, cravenly kowtowing to the politically correct mob mentality that is forcing white guilt upon our society with threats of mob violence. We are told that we must be ashamed of our ancestors.

I do have a civil war veteran ancestor that I am ashamed of. He was a Yankee. I wouldn't be ashamed of him if he, a southerner by birth, had fought for the north for reasons of conscience. But he didn't. I have verified this family story from more than one source now and every time I hear it I am sickened.

It would seem that this shameful ancestor of mine realized that he was going to have to declare a side in the war. He sat down and talked it over with his wife. They concluded that the north was going to win, that things would go bad for southerners when they lost and that financial gain would be realized by those who had chosen the winning side.

So, my detested ancestor left his home and traveled to northern occupied territory where he enlisted in the Union army.  He was not a front line soldier like my Confederate ancestors. He was assigned to a military government unit that policed captured southern cities. He literally forced Yankee rule upon his own people at the point of a gun. 

I could never understand why this branch of my family was proud of this man or why they would repeat the story of his self serving decision. He was always presented by that branch of the family as a smart businessman who knew how to pick a winner.

There is no shame attached to fighting for a losing cause if you fought with honor.  Most Confederate soldiers owned no slaves nor wanted any.  They fought because their homeland had been invaded.  They fought to protect their homes and families.  They fought out of a sense of community and brotherhood. They fought valiantly and died bravely.  There is no reason to be ashamed of these men.

But, there is a reason to be ashamed of people like my detested ancestor and those like him today who are ready to throw heritage and honor under the bus to momentarily appease a screaming mob intent upon destroying the entire American culture.  I have nothing but disgust for these people.  

Heroin In Our Neighborhood

We've endured a lot in this neighborhood.  Prostitution, theft, vandalism, murders, child sex offenders, the mentally ill and of course, meth.  But, last week brought us a new danger .... heroin.

Around lunch time a few days ago, Sheila noticed a fire engine parked in front of a neighbor's house.  Within moments, EMSA followed.  The lady of the house came out in tears and stood in our front lawn as events proceeded.

They had found their young adult daughter slumped over a pile of laundry.  Her face was blue, she wasn't breathing and there was a syringe nearby.  After they got the girl breathing again, a quick search revealed a small quantity of black tar heroin, syringes, a spoon and a lighter. Pure heroin is usually adulterate or "cut" in drug terms to reduce its deadly strength and increase profits.  In this case, the drug appeared to be almost completely pure and showed no sign of the grainy or playdoh texture consistent with being cut with lactose or baby formula.  It is a good bet that this girl was dealing close to the source and either didn't know what she had or somebody wanted her dead because the heroin she shot into her vein was obviously extremely powerful.

The police took forever to respond and didn't make a report or an arrest when they finally did arrive since they didn't see the drugs in the young woman's possession.  The timing of their arrival also conveniently assured there would be no bothersome paperwork or court appearances over one nearly OD'd hype.  In law enforcement eyes, it was just another throw away case involving a throw away person not worth the time and attention of the system.

Black tar heroin is produced in Mexico and Latin America and is distributed by the drug cartels. These are the same people who line overpasses with severed heads and kill cops that cannot be bribed on both sides of the border. Black tar heroin is a terrible drug that is almost instantly addictive and usually ends in the death of the user either by overdose, complications such as necrotizing conditions of the skin and underlying tissue, organ failure or needle transmissible diseases such as HIV and hepatitis.  Heroin is the death knell for a drug user, the end of the pharmaceutical line that often begins with marijuana and moves on through pills and meth.  Heroin is the last stop and heroin addicts are truly the living dead.

But, heroin is also the death knell for a neighborhood.  Where you find heroin you find heroin

dealers.  Somewhere in our neighborhood, some of the most dangerous people on earth are making very good money selling slow death in little plastic bags.  And, they are the type of people who will kill anyone that gets in their way.

We have a lot of new people in the neighborhood.  Some of them are Mexicans.  Many if not most are here illegally.  Most are nice people.  But, without an immigration policy to find out who is actually entering the country, the very social problems the nice folks  fled in Mexico will follow them here and it won't be long before our cities are as dangerous and corrupt as theirs.

The Hooker

On my way to lunch, I noticed a hooker working the corner of Admiral and Sheridan.  She wasn't the typical Admiral hooker.  She was well dressed and well groomed.  The hookers that work Admiral Boulevard and Eleventh Street can usually be read like an open book. Addiction, mental illness or just a really tough, often abusive, home life are usually evident at a glance.  This gal had none of that.  She appeared far too normal to be hooking.

She attracted attention from a distance because she appeared to be nude.  But then on closer examination, she still attracted attention because she was actually a pretty good looking middle aged woman.  She wore a light tan, snug fitting, lightly patterned, silk sheath dress that started about halfway down her cleavage leaving her arms and shoulders bare and ended about halfway between her knees and her derriere showing off some pretty fair legs.  A pair of 50's style, open toed, mid heel slide sandals completed her outfit. That's all she wore apparently because the dress was tight enough and sheer enough that anything underneath would have shown.  She wore her dark frosted blonde hair in a stylish short cut and her makeup was good. Her figure was far from girlish but her curves were in all of the right places.

As I drove through the stoplight, I wondered what in the world drove that woman to that street corner on a weekday afternoon.  It's dangerous.  That corner is frequented by Mexicans looking for company.  The girls are frequently beaten and abused.  This woman, even if she decided to sell herself, could have easily worked a high class bar or one of the hotels in a better neighborhood. Older Johns sometimes look for or even prefer someone closer to their own age.

Maybe she was literally a desperate housewife, turning tricks to bring extra money into the house. Maybe she was stranded in one the local hotels and needed to make traveling money.  Maybe she had experienced a bad run of luck at one of the casinos.  Maybe she was into kinky sex.  Who knows?

There are as many stories on a city street as there are people but I'll bet her story would have been an interesting one.

Into the PC Mist With the Confederate Dead

On a quiet hillside in Eastern Oklahoma, in an ancient graveyard that is no longer open to the public, a strikingly white, marble, military tombstone stands out. It reads “Edward Kumpe, born June 1843 Co. A, 6 Ark. Infantry, CSA.” His name also appears on another more public memorial in Little Rock, Arkansas which reads:

To the Memory of the Capital Guards
Company A
Sixth Arkansas Infantry Cleburne's Division 1861 - 1865"
When his Division defended, no odds could break its lines, when it attacked, no numbers resisted it's onslaught."
General William J. Hardee

Edward Kumpe was my great grandfather. He was a Confederate soldier. I refuse to be ashamed of that fact. My great grandfather served his state and his neighbors honorably during a difficult time in American history. It would be serious mistake to assume that he was a racist because he served under the Stars and Bars. After he was captured and released, he voluntarily moved to the Indian Territory and became a full citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He married a Cherokee woman.

The modern assumption that all Confederates were racist is not historically accurate. While there is no doubt that some perhaps many Confederates were racist, the best and brightest minds of the CSA saw slavery in a different light. For example, in 1856, Robert E. Lee wrote to a friend: “There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race.” The deeply devout Stonewall Jackson committed civil disobedience before the South seceded by teaching blacks to read and write and by establishing regular Sunday Schools for blacks in Virginia near VMI where he was a professor. The “Stonewall of the West,” Arkansas General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, shortly before his tragic death proposed “that in order to reinforce the Confederate armies slavery would have to be abolished in a “reasonable time” and blacks be recruited for military service on the promise of their freedom.”

Many Confederates were Christian gentlemen in a culture that suffered from a terrible social problem with no good solutions. It takes incredible historical naivete’ to believe that the Civil War was fought over slavery. It was fought over markets and raw materials. Then, as now, blacks were simply pawns in a much larger game motivated by the political self interest of others.

I fear that in the next few months and years the last vestiges of Southern culture will be consigned to the dark, bottomless pool of political correctness and the noble flag that so many of my wife and I’s ancestors served under will be remembered solely for its association with the modern criminal scum who have defiled it. Our nation will be far worse for it.

The McKinney Police Officer and Life In The Hood

Thursday, as I was finishing up at the range, I noticed three folks who did not possess the normal physical characteristics of the usual patrons. (You can't say fit the profile anymore, that's politically incorrect.)  The usual patrons there are normally law enforcement types of various stripes, military and former military and serious sport shooters.  People from the streets of that neighborhood don't usually come in more than once, not because they are treated badly, but rather because they are not comfortable with the obvious law enforcement presence.  This day, there was only one clerk and he was engaged at the counter, trying to help a mid twenties man with his pants half way down his ass showing way too much dirty boxer short to all onlookers. Two other "youths" were wandering around the gun cases. It looked like a set up for a smash and grab robbery.

I turned around for a second and when I turned back a youth in his early twenties, wearing banger clothes and a red baseball cap, had an AR-15 pointed in my direction with the laser sight activated. My first thought was that there was a robbery in progress. No adult in their right mind waves a gun around like that.  In the split second before I went for my weapon, I saw the display base attached to the AR-15 in his hands. The idiot had picked up a non functioning display unit from the counter and was waving it around like a "gangsta."

When I approached home after a lunch meeting the day before, a tall black teenager was walking right up the double yellow line of the street in front of my house. As my car approached, he did not move and gave me a stare that dared me do anything about it.  In my neighborhood, if you see somebody walking toward you in the middle of the street if you're not thinking "carjacking" you are terminally naive.

As I backed into my driveway, watching the young man amble away down the middle of street, my mind went back to a spring afternoon a few years ago.  I heard a commotion in my driveway and looked out to see a Tulsa Police Officer trying to subdue a black teenager.  The young man being arrested was suddenly being "assisted" by two of his associates.  The situation turned nasty quick. Within moments, a crowd of about thirty black teenagers formed a ring around the officer and the subjects, a typical ghetto "violent crowd escalation" in criminal justice jargon.  Just as I was stepping out the door with my sawed off twelve gauge to aid the officer, a pair of campus police officers from the high school across the street waded into the fray and helped the officer take the subject and get away safely.

A few weeks before that, there had been another series of incidents.  A gang of about thirty or more black girls had taken to crossing the street from the nearby high school and passing their lunch hour in my neighbor's front yard. Some of them even lounged on the front porch.  They were loud, aggressive and left a mess every day.  They threatened the homeowners young wife who tried to make them leave.  Eventually, that situation was handled by campus police but we lost a good neighbor.  His young stay at home wife had apparently had enough and they soon moved out.

Two of our dearest friends are getting ready to sell their lovely home of many years.  It is a beautiful home that they have worked hard on over the years.  And, it is in what was until recently thought to be a very good neighborhood.  They shouldn't have to move again at their age.  Unfortunately, a nearby apartment complex apparently went to Section 8 public housing and others nearby apparently followed suit.  Now, our friends frequently have to run a gauntlet of defiant, rude apartment denizens who just stand in the middle of the street not allowing others to pass without risking a confrontation. And, they are wandering away from their own common areas and even the parks to meander through the nearby single family residential neighborhoods, often congregating in the streets and always spreading concern wherever they go.  Our friends have simply had enough and are leaving the city altogether.

If the people complaining about the McKinney police officer were forced to live in my neighborhood for a few weeks they would have applauded the officer who tried to control the situation. If they ever had to work a shift as a cop trying to control a mob, they would have bought the officer a beer.

Life in the hood is different and different rules apply.  Unfortunately, the hood is now going mobile and invading "nice" places like private pools in McKinney, Texas and naive people from "good neighborhoods" who are not accustomed to seeing force applied to protect them may just have to get used to it if they are going to have any kind of quality of life in their neighborhood.

What Does A Veteran Look Like?

I recently watched a good hearted little movie called "Last Ounce of Courage."  It had a strong and relevant message.  But, it was also over done in places and frankly a little annoying to veterans in some ways.

Most veterans do not wear biker style vests festooned with patches and pins. They would be embarrassed to.  They did their job and now it's over.  They have moved on and don't need to wear parts of the uniform or symbols of their former service to prove anything to themselves or anyone else.

Nor do they wear tee-shirts with the name of their branch of service printed across their chest. Those are reserved for the kids still serving.  

They do not wave the flag gratuitously but display it proudly at proper times and places.They do not use the American flag as a dust cover for their Harley, a decoration in their den or a beach towel to soak up sun tan lotion. They respect it far too much for that and still follow the training they received in how to display, store and dispose of the flag with all of the dignity it deserves.

They do not salute out of uniform.  The salute is a military greeting of respect between warriors that is only exercised when in uniform.  Even active duty service members do not salute out of uniform.  They were trained to come to attention and put their hand or their hat over their hearts and they still follow that training out of respect for their brothers still in uniform.

So, what do these silent veterans look like? Father Dennis E. O'Brian, Chaplain U.S.M.C. said it better that I ever could:

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can't tell a vet just by looking.

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

 

Finally, A Unifying Theory of the Mysterious WalMart Closures .....

I just got back from the Walmart Neighborhood Market near our home. The long time employee cashier that checked me out was having a rough day.  She told me that since the Walmart at Admiral and Lewis had closed the character of their store had changed.  This got my attention since we were talking about my neighborhood.

She said that the last two weeks since the Admiral store closed had been difficult, observing that today was better than some days in that she had only been yelled at (translate that cussed out) by a customer once.  She continued that it could have been worse, recounting that last week, for the first time in the ten years that store had been open, one of their employees had been assaulted right there in the store.  The only ray of hope she could offer in that area was that next week two armed guards would be posted in the cashier areas near the door.

I asked her why the Admiral store had closed.  She was a fount of information.  First, it would seem that the 20 year lease on that store was up and profits were down, way down, almost non-existent. She alleged that the likely cause of the lack of profits was massive theft by both customers and employees hinting that at an ingrained culture of theft and dishonesty had developed in the store. Interestingly, she also said that there had been a waiting lessee for the store property, none other than the U.S. Department of Defense.

I don't know how much credibility to give all of this but I did find one unifying thread.  The online reviews of some of the stores closed used words like "ghetto" and "loud, obnoxious customers" and "dirty" and of course, "poor customer service and "long lines and no cashiers."  Those terms pretty well describe our experience with the Admiral store here in Tulsa.  There was regularly crime both in the store and in the parking lot.  The other customers were often at best annoying, sometimes scary and at worst threatening.  The store was always dirty and the employees for the most part left a lot to be desired.  My wife and I had taken to driving right past it on the expressway and traveling nearly fifteen miles to a store in the suburbs where the aisles were clean and the customers were better behaved.


But, there is one more theory that makes a whole lot of sense.  Nobody doubts that we are in for a long hot summer in black and mixed race neighborhoods, probably the worst since 1968. It could be worse than 1968 given the current explosive state of race relations in the U.S. under Barack Hussein Obama.

The pictures of rioters assaulting and looting the QuikTrip in Ferguson, Missouri are most likely burned into the consciousness of every senior executive in the U.S.  And, it that weren't enough, last nights video of a Baltimore CVS burning, surrounded by riot police could be the last nail in the coffin of many, many marginally profitable retail outlets in dangerous neighborhoods.

If I had a money losing store where there was the distinct possibility that it would be looted and burned this summer, I would close it too, not only to prevent the financial loss but also to protect my employees.  It would be a tough decision but it is better for all concerned that the store be closed and the employees lose their jobs rather than to risk being caught in a vicious race riot, particularly for those employees whose race is "wrong" for that neighborhood.

And that is probably the real reason that Walmart closed five stores.  It is entirely possible that other national chains may follow as well. And unfortunately, when that happens, the character of the nearby neighborhoods and retail community will changed for the worse, just like our nearby Walmart Neighborhood Market.