Hawaii Farm Fair 2005

Flag Burning

The house has just passed a proposed amendment
concerning the desecration of the American Flag. It
Reads:

"The Congress shall have power to prohibit the
physical desecration of the flag of the United
States."

And now the amendment has been sent to the senate for
final approval.

The American Flag has always been a part of my life.
Boy Scouts, High School ROTC, the son of an Army
Officer, The Navy. I remember carrying the American
Flag down the isle of our Sanctuary next to the
Christian Flag during Vacation Bible School as a kid
while everyone was singing “Onward Christian
Soldiers”. I have participated in many color guard
ceremonies where the U.S. Flag is paraded for everyone
to see. I have raised and lowered the flag numerous
time onboard a U.S. Navy Ship. I am heartbroken every
time I see the flag being burned at a demonstration.
However…My feeling has always been that the Flag
stands for freedom and one of our basic freedoms is
Freedom of Speech and Expression. Even though it
pains me to see the flag desecrated (I even get upset
when someone folds it wrong), I don’t think the
constitution should be amended to take away one of our
basic rights as an American.

The message or the messenger?

I was going through some old papers and found a pamphlet that a well intentioned officer made me read at my first command. Elbert Hubbard's A Message to Garcia. It's a short article about initiative and pretty much blind obedience. The officer was quite proud of himself when I asked if I could make a copy of the pamphlet. Little did he know I was not awestruck by the original story, but by the way it had spread around the world.
Elbert Hubbard had written the short article in about an hour or so, basically filling space in a newspaper he helped publish. Pretty soon they were getting requests for copies of that edition and was amazed that his Message to Garcia was the article everyone had requested. The day after he received a request for a thousand copies he received a request from the president of the New York Central Railroad for 500,000 copies. Hubbard then gave them permission to reprint the article themselves in pamphlet form.
A Russian Prince who was the director of Russian Railways read the pamphlet, had it translated in Russian and gave a copy to every Russian Railway employee. From there it spread to Germany, France, even China. It was translated into every major language.
During the Russian Japanese war, every Russian soldier was given a copy of it. The Japanese found the pamphlet on Russian Prisoners, had it translated into Japanese, and gave it to every Japanese government employee, civilian or military.
After you read the article you can see it is not very complex, and in my eyes not very inspiring. What is it that caused this article to have over 40 million copies printed by 1918, a feat that had not been accomplished by any author of that time while they were still alive. Was it the message? The Author of the message? Or key messengers who knew how to deliver the message? (And for the Marshall McLuhan fans we'll totally ignore the idea that the medium is the message.) I find it intrigueing how simple ideas are spread under the right conditions.

Local Culture

As an Army brat I've had my share of pulling up my roots and moving to new places. We were lucky that I was able to go to High School and two years of college in San Antonio. My father retired in San Antonio so in my mind that has always been my home, even though I only lived there for six years. I started thinking about it, and I've lived in Hawaii longer than I have anywhere else. I never thought that enlisting in the Navy would give me the chance to plant my roots in a more permanent place.
The local culture here is different than anywhere back on the "mainland". Even though there are a million people here on Oahu (an island that can easily fit inside Loop 410 back in San Antonio), the local attitude is to take a step back, relax and realize things happen in their own time. Hawaii is a hodgepodge of many different cultures blended into one. A true melting pot.
A few years ago I heard someone saying that it takes about 6 years before the locals start to accept you. Of course you don't walk around with a sign with an arrival date written on it, so it has to be something else. It takes about 6 years to become adjusted to the culture here. Time to unwind I guess. I don't really notice I've changed until I'm hosting guests from the mainland. I don't get frustrated when I'm standing in line and the cashier is "talking story" with the customer. If at a restaurant my food is a little slow, I don't automatically start figuring out how much tip I won't be giving the waitress. Just because someone speaks "pidgin" (a local style of broken English), doesn't mean they are ignorant.
I don't consider myself local, or kama'aina, yet. And I'm told you're not truly local unless you can answer the question "what high school you wen go?", and answer with a local school. However I have always felt welcome here and accepted even though I am haole.
Just an idea of the melting pot here? My children are half haole (my side obviously), and then a mixture of Hawaiian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Irish, and Filipino.

Innocent Vs. Not Guilty

I'll preface this post by saying I am not a lawyer or a master of the English language by any means. I'll also go on to say I have not been following the Michael Jackson case that much. But I am annoyed by the T.V. reports and new articles saying he was proven innocent. I don't remember too much from the two business law courses I took in college, but I do remember that a trial does not prove someone is innocent. It just proves they are not guilty. And there is a difference. Not guilty simply means that the prosecution has been unable to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Innocence implies blameless.
Also, the words "innocent until proven guilty" are not in our constitution. It is implied from the Fifth Amendment which states:

"...nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law..."

And believe it or not the concept of innocent until proven guilty was not created in 1776. The idea can be traced to ancient Greece, Rome and it could be argued back to Deuteronomy.

So, Michael Jackson may be innocent, but our courts only found him not guilty.

Sailor Shot...by another Sailor

A Sailor in Pearl Harbor from the USS LAKE ERIE was shot this past Thursday night by another Sailor. Friendly fire? Nope, some sort of altercation.

A sailor from the USS Lake Eerie was shot on the Pearl Harbor Naval Station Thursday Night. The shooting happened at about 6:30 pm. A Pearl Harbor spokesperson says the sailor was standing in a parking lot of bachelor enlisted quarters at the time. He was taken to the Queen's Medical Center where is listed in critical condition. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service took 3 suspects into custody...as well as a weapon. It is investigating the motive for the shooting.

The great thing about the military is that people are recruited from all walks of life. A bad thing about the military is that people are recruited from all walks of life.

My Precious.....

About 2 months ago I went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay for the first time (I know...I've lived on Oahu for over 10 years and just went there. I'm pacing myself and not doing everything at once). The bay is a state wildlife protection area and the snorkeling is the best in the U.S. Before you can swim, you have to watch this 15 min video on water safety and how not to kill the reef. After the short video, you are allowed to make the trek down this really steep road and then venture out to the water. I helped my wife setup our blankets, chairs, and various required beach toys for the kids before gearing up myself to go out in the water (my wife doesn't swim).
I decided to break the first rule we learned in the video and snorkel on my own. I swam maybe two feet before finding wildlife under the water and knew I was going to have a blast that day. It's impossible to describe the abundance of beautiful fish and coral here, you just have to go see it to understand. Why it took me ten years to do this I'll never understand.
Towards the end of my first swim of the day, I saw something shiny out of the left corner of my fogged up goggles. Stopping to investigate I saw something metal partially buried in the sand next to a small piece of coral. The closer I got the more I realized it was a ring. I snatched the ring from its underwater resting place and the first thing that came to my mind was a vision of Gollum's friend from The Lord of the Rings doing the same thing. The whole time I was swimming ashore I kept thinking, my precious, my precious.
I couldn't find a lost and found there at the bay, so I took the ring home. It's a rather plain silver wedding ring made by James Avery. The ring is apparently worth about $40 brand new. After researching how much the ring is worth, I did a quick google on lost wedding bands and Hanauma Bay. Apparently there is a treasure trove of gold, silver, platinum, and diamond rings waiting to be found under the water.
I couldn't find anyone describe the ring I had found, but there seemed to be a similar story for each lost ring. Of course they were all lost while swimming, but each person's story focused on the beauty of Hanauma Bay, the amazing fish they found, not on the actual loss of the ring. The loss was just mentioned in a, oh by the way this happened fashion. The human race just went up a notch in my book. Most people were able to focus on the amazing experiences they had at Hanauma Bay, and not on the fact that they lost a sentimental piece of replaceable jewelry.
I feel guilty now for having this ring for some reason. I might go back to the Bay and return it to the approximate same place I found it....but it's my precious, they can't take away my precious, we earned my precious didn't we?
What do you think I should do with the ring?
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I blog now?

Well here's the start of my blog. Not really sure what I'll be talking about, and I am pretty sure people don't want to read this anyways. It's funny how people will look at a guy keeping a journal and think that's a bit odd, but a guy with a blog is the "in" thing to do.
What to expect here? A little bit of everything I hope, along with some cute pictures of our children Caleb and Noah.
Please feel free to add comments. .