Protect The Spirit

Hi, Elizabeth,

I'll resume with my normal greeting soon enough, but right now it doesn't seem appropriate to start with Happy Late Night. I mean, I don't know, maybe it is appropriate, and maybe it should always be appropriate, but because we are all kind of in shock right now, and numb, I'll forgo it this time, though of course I always wish you happiness.

I only saw a single post from you today (and this business of having no news ticker is getting old, really screwing things up), and it was via your friend Sarah. "I hate humans". Was that from a Miyazaki? Anyhow, I can certainly understand the sentiment at the moment, if not in the literal sense, then certainly as a means to express the outrage felt.

I don't know exactly how you are feeling, meaning specifically, but all I will say in the long term sense, is to never let the horrors of the world damage your spirit.

You have a beautiful spirit, and the world needs beautiful spirits. Beautiful spirits exhibit the positive energy and good feeling the world relies on to keep turning, so to speak.

All it takes is a quick look at Facebook to see all of the opinions and emotions vented on all sides of the argument over what happened yesterday, to realise that some of us who are strong and stable must remain that way always.

I know you know all of this.

I often think of my parents' generation, and how they lived through the nightmare of World War Two, when thousands were killed on a daily basis, and on top of that was the Holocaust. It's a wonder the human race survived, but it did. 50 million people were killed in the four years of WW2. Think of that number in that short period of time. I myself was born into the Vietnam era, a twelve year war in which 52,000 guys died, and over a million Vietnamese. In America there was long term civil unrest.

The amount of people being killed was greater than today. And somehow we, as a Human Race, made it through.

Still, I totally understand the frustration and horror over current events. For one thing, and maybe most importantly, the violence is spilling over into the civilian sector. Terrorists - whom I, if President, would go after with a vengeance - now use tactics which are cruel, cowardly and ruthless. These acts are carried out, as yesterday, by young guys who have been brainwashed since they were kids, probably, and though they are indeed monsters, they don't even have the capacity or intelligence to comprehend what they are doing.

They are monsters, but there are greater monsters above them, middlemen in their own countries, and financiers in the first world, who wish to cause chaos and who also must be routed out.

To stop terrorism is a complex problem, but not so complex that it cannot be figured out and solved.

Part of why I think think the violence hits home emotionally nowdays, in such a strong manner, is because - in the computer age - the news of violence spreads rapidly, worldwide, in minutes really. And we are programmed by politics to "take sides".

And to be sure - the killers - young guys with double digit IQs and inflamed emotions - have taken a side. They hate, period, anyone they consider an "other". Now, it is also certain that in many cases, a person from the Middle East has lost someone close to them through warfare. What American military men and politicians call "collateral damage" is in reality dead or injured civilians, including babies. When we bomb in those countries, innocent people often get hurt. Not as often as the far left activists might have you believe - our military is not Pure Evil - but it does happen because that is the nature of war.

We shouldn't be in those countries in the first place. We are only there so that the oil industry can keep it's hold over the energy standard for as long as it can, until oil is phased out as an energy source. There may be other reasons we are there as well, but those have to do with esoteric historical subjects dealing with the history of mankind.

I am probably rambling off topic, as usual, but that is because I can think much faster than I can type, and I don't have a lot of patience when I am writing. I always wanna just talk, because I can express so many more ideas more cohesively, and in doing so I can make my point more clearly.

Suffice it to say for now, that it is important to never lose heart. Always remember that there are reasons for all of these rotten things that happen, and if the reasons can be understood - and not distorted by "taking sides" or vented through negative emotion - then we have a better chance at getting to the root of these problems.

Some think violence and war will always be with us, that it is part of human nature. I disagree, even though it is true that war has been part of the human condition throughout recorded history. But I disagree because I can feel that one day it won't be this way.

I know that day is not today, and I know that in the meantime we need immediate solutions which will not fix the problem. One of those immediate solutions is to go after terrorists with everything we've got. And that right there is an emotional response on my part. As I've said previously, if they'd take a 55 year old guy in the Army, I'd volunteer to go after ISIS or the Taliban myself.

But my spiritual side also speaks to me, and tells me that we humans will make it through this terrible period of violence, too. Just as we have survived World Wars. The key is for those of us who are strong in Positive Spirit never to give in to mass emotion without analysis. Instead we must protect, and project, that Spirit.

That's all I know for tonight. I love you and will see you in the morning, before church.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)