Heroes Real Heroes

Like many people, I was shocked to hear, this weekend, about the murder of Chris Kyle.  He was doing what he has spent most of his adult life doing - helping someone in need.  I'm not going to recap his murder or any of his life story.  Here's a link that will tell you many of the details of his remarkable life.  I'm reading his book, American Sniper.  Some reviewers on Amazon are disappointed in the book because Kyle doesn't detail his kills in Iraq, doesn't tell the distance, what kind of weapon he used, how he adjusted for wind, etc.  Other reviewers have political or moral issues with the war and criticize the book on that basis.   Still others claim that Kyle wrote for a paycheck and/or the glory (actually the proceeds from the book go to  help returning veterans adjust to life after war, what Kyle was doing when he was murdered).  What I found interesting in the book was his views and motivation.  He truly was a patriot.  He was at war to protect and defend his country.  In fact one of the major conflicts he mentions in the book is that his wife did not agree with his priorities.  He lists them as 1. God  2. Country  3. Family   Obviously his wife and many others would find fault with numbers 2 and 3.   One passage that really caught my attention today was his criticism of the Iraqi soldiers he was trying to train.  He said they were worthless.  They had  very little motivation outside their family or possibly their village or tribe.  Country meant absolutely nothing to them.  Then he speculates on the reason for this.

I realize that a lot of the problem has to do with their screwed-up culture in Iraq.  These people had been under a dictatorship for all their lives.  Iraq as a country meant nothing to them, or at least nothing good.  Most were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein, very happy to be free people, but they didn't understand what that really meant-the other things that come with being free.  The government wasn't going to be running their lives anymore, but it also wasn't going to be giving them food or anything else.  It was a shock.

That should be a wake-up to all of us.  We seem to be moving toward a dictatorship, by choice!  We should know that government won't be able to give us everything, healthcare, security - both personal and national, 100% safe food, transportation, cell phones, etc.,  without at the same time running the rest of our lives.  Gerald Ford is not known as a deep thinker, but even he got this basic fact.  He said, "any government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything you have."

Read American Sniper and also Marcus Latrell's Lone Survivor.  We all need to know the sacrifices these men are making for us.  We need to see through their eyes what we are so casually throwing away.

                  

Patriots

I've always enjoyed American history.  I never have been able to get interested in world history too much.  I guess I just don't have the imagination to be able to identify with Charlemagne, the Russian czars, or King Louis I-XXXIV, or whatever.  But I love American history.  I am currently reading A Patriot's History of the United States. Unlike a lot of history books, it is very readable. And very informative.  Just a trivia note, I learned today where Cajun originated.  At the beginning of King George's War in 1755, a group of colonists took it upon themselves to take Acadia (Nova Scotia) from the French settlers.  At the end of the war, the British gave much of the conquered territories back to the French, but kept Acadia.  They were concerned about having French loyalists in their Nova Scotia, so they deported them.  A group of the deportees relocated in current Louisiana and were called Cajuns, a slurred version of Acadians.  That also explains the presence of their French influenced dialect.  Impress your friends at the bar with that little bit of trivia.  

One side note, I am reading this book on the Kindle Reader for PC.  It seems that as I am getting older more mature, those evil publishers are printing books with smaller type.  With the free Kindle Reader,I can download Kindle books to my laptop and read them in a slightly larger font.  I can also read in a poorly lit room (i.e. any room in our built in the 40's house).  Another advantage is that the Kindle version is generally cheaper than the hardback and I get it within seconds of ordering it.  There are also a lot of free books available for the Kindle.  The only downside is the fact that they aren't books.  As a former bookstore owner, I really like the smell, feel, and look of a book.  So I will probably end up buying hard copies of this one and a couple of others I have read on the Kindle.