Watching Tears Of The Sun, starring Bruce Willis, about a SEAL team extracting an American doctor and several patients from potential massacre in Nigeria. Difficult not to think about massive deaths in Rwanda occurring over the past few years with very little being said in main stream press about this tragedy. Then again, there are so many tragedies going on in this world today with little regard being given.
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Does any actor look so natural in a Navy uniform than Tom Skeritt?
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Question to those who have never served and yet advocate war so easily>if killing is so easy, then why does everyone vomit after the first kill?
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Karl Rove personifies those who never learn to do wrong knowlingly. They always seem to have a pious justification for every action compromising principle or morality. He's never served in uniform nor vomited after the first kill.
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There are too many in this nation claiming the mantle of leadership without regard to the oath sworn or the people represented. Values and morality advocated are their own and are made impulsively to fit a given situation. Why>reelection, a sound byte, a better deal or anything to create positive public relations. Is this why my buddy threw himself on a grenade to save us in the Nam?
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Hate is a four letter word signifying dislike, ill will for, loathing or despisement. How is it so many in this great nation came to hate anyone from the Middle East yet espouse their Christianity based upon a messiah of Middle Eastern birth? Would it have been any different if Jesus had been born in Cleveland or Detroit instead of Bethlehem? Probably not since many find a reason to dislike or hate when nothing is apparent; illusion is easier than truth and more convenient than dialogue. What is it about our moral and political leadership that uses hatred so easily as a tool to waltz convince the populace to go down the path without concern for those who feel the emotion or the recipients. Ironic that so many who hate in these leader positions have never participated in the ramifications of such actions nor seem to have compassion for those, i.e. Veterans, who have honored their wishes with courage, valor and sacrifice. If only true believers would believe........
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The common tools of effective propaganda: glittering generalities, assertions, fear, insinuation device>leading question, lying/distortion, insinuation, simplification and card stacking/selective omission. You probably have been a victim at one time or another if their definition is not really known. More on this later.
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Knowledge is power. College educations are costing more while many are increasingly denied the opportunity to achieve one. Illiteracy is a growing problem in this nation with many giving various reasons for the growing statistic. Bottom line is forget the blame, let's provide an education for all regardless.
Where in the World?
* Almost 50% of the high school seniors in Baltimore, Maryland could not locate the United States on a world map.
* 95% of American college freshmen tested could not locate Vietnam on a world map.
* 75% of Americans responding to a nationwide survey could not locate El Salvador on a map.
* 63% of Americans could not name the 2 nations involved in SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks).
Joint Resolution Television station WNEV in Boston surveyed high school seniors in 8 cities in 1987 to see what they knew about the U.S. and the world. This is what they found:
* 39% of Boston seniors could not name the 6 New England States
* 63% of Minneapolis seniors could not name all seven continents
* 25% of Dallas seniors could not identify the country that borders the U.S. on the south
* 58% of Dallas seniors were unable to name Vietnam as the Southeast Asia country from which the U.S. withdrew in 1975.
http://www.rehydrate.org/facts/global_illiteracy.htm
Our nation's literacy rate has not been tabulated since 1979 when the government claimed it was 97%. Various stats have been noted since, but it would be fair to state the 1979 figure is no longer accurate. Seemingly, there is a movement to return to the age of my Grandparents, rest their souls, where making a living was more important than earning an education. My Grandparents, however, the recipients of approximately 3 formal years of education, always emphasized the importance of knowledge based on their Depression Years experiences. They knew the first language our Declaration of Independence was published in-do you? Meanwhile, less Americans can effectively read, write or speak; nativism has replaced study of foreign languages; and masses are more easily led by disinformation.
Bottom line: Ignorance benefits from an impoverished mind; and a mind is too important to waste.
Elwood