Originally published @ Voice of San Diego: May 31, 2006...
Guest Blogger Keith Taylor is a retired navy officer living in Chula Vista..
A
grunt who long ago voluntarily served in an unpopular war and now gets a new
type of death threat may be worthy of his own statue.
Fifteen years after it was ordered off the mountain,
the cross/memorial on Soledad
still stands, and from the looks of things it’ll be
there until I get old and creaky. Unlike me, that old cross/memorial is
impervious to temporal things. It weathers everything without regard to age,
politics, or law. Always there, ablaze in the sun’s early morning rays, and
defiantly gleaming until the sun finishes its orbit around the world and
disappears into the ocean out there near the edge of the earth, it stands as
defiant as its supporters. Some say the president has even heard about it, but
it’s hard to tell exactly what he has heard of.
And the defenders are defiant -- and loud! Those who don’t like it are told
“just sit down and shut up.” I don’t keep with religious things too much but I
sometimes wonder if that “sit down” thing isn’t one of the Ten Commandments.
But this cross/memorial thing is still important, and considered as such
by people as far away as The Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., and possibly even Washington, D.C.
The problem seems to stem from the shape of the thing. According to Bill
Kellogg, head of the Mount Soledad Memorial Association “It’s in the eye of the
beholder.” Our mayor and many others claim it was never a religious monument
but has always been a memorial to all fallen service people, no matter their
religion.
All that might have been a surprise to the grandmother of Mr. Kellogg. She
prepared a brochure in which she dedicated it to our Lord and Savior for the
ceremony held on Easter, not Memorial Day, in 1954. Is it just a coincidence
that sunrise services have nearly always been held there on Easter Sundays?
Things like that tend to confuse some folks.
No matter. As usual, I have a solution that would solve the problem and satisfy
everybody. We should erect a statue of a San Diego hero, and I have just the guy. This fellow is so big
that even a life-size statue could be viewed from afar.
My hero is a real life giant indeed and he should be recognized and seen as an
inspiration to all. When his country called on him to serve, he didn’t discover
a pilonidal cyst on his rear or say “find me a job in the National Guard in Texas or Alabama where I won’t get shot at.” Not him. He went to the
draft board and volunteered to fight in one of the most unpopular wars (until
2003 at least) in our history. He was in Vietnam from September 1966 to January 1968. This included an
extension he also volunteered for.
And action? He was a grunt and took part in many of the bloodiest battles of
the war. One started with 200 men and only 40 came through unscathed. More than
half were killed. Today he and another highly regarded veteran of that war,
Duncan Hunter, are members of the 173rd Airborne Association. Although both are
very well known you seldom hear their names mentioned together.
My hero isn’t just a war hero either. He has been an exemplary citizen also.
He’s well educated with a bachelor's degree plus two masters. After his stint
in Vietnam he taught English as a second language to Vietnamese
refugees who fled their country.
My hero believes that obeying the law is one of our most important and
patriotic duties. He is active in politics, unafraid to support even unpopular
candidates or causes when most, less resolute folks, just want discomfiting
things to go away.
One case he became involved in has brought him nearly two decades of
unrelenting, vitriol urged on by people in high places in and out of the
government. Still, although slowed down by the long battle, plus failing health
and encroaching old age, he has persisted even in the face of death threats.
Surely such a hero and veteran is worthy of a statue.
His name is Phillip Paulson.
Who on earth could object to that?
FOLLOWUP: Criticism at the Speed of Light
What a heady feeling it is to foist my opinions off on an unsuspecting public!
It fires up my ego so much that sometimes I’m disappointed to learn everybody
doesn’t appreciate my attempts to save the earth from the foibles of its
inhabitants.
Last week I wrote my heretical opinion about the cross on Soledad Voice of San Diego. So many wrote letters in
agreement, I was astounded when neither Mayor Jerry Sanders nor the city’s
chief legal guy, Mike Aguirre, took my advice. Rather than call off further
appeals to save the cross, they vowed to keep pursuing a lost cause. But they
weren’t the only ones who disagreed with me.
An old shipmate, nicknamed “Swish,” lives in a place called South Carolina. He read my piece from across the continent,
possibly because I sent him a link to it. His e-mail started out like many an
argument we’d had over a half century.
“It sucks,” he wrote. Swish always gets right to the point. Then, just
like when we used to argue over a few (or a lot) of beers, he really tore into
me, and I tore right back. We exchanged several heated notes. Then, one or the
other of us realized that a friendship extending all those decades wasn’t worth
destroying over a difference of philosophy, so we made nice and argued about
something non-controversial: the Dixie Chicks.
A few other readers, who knew neither of us, had no reason to be nice and they
let me know it. In this cyberspace world, everybody has a chance to foist his
opinion off on everybody else. Today’s technology provides countless vehicles
to express those opinions.
We still have the giants of information: The Chicago Tribune, The
New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and various wire services.
But even they have embraced the Internet.
And so have the smaller publications. The one you are reading now was in
fact a creation of the Internet. You’ll not find a hard copy of voiceofsandiego.org (or Da Rev's blog) anywhere unless you print it out yourself, something I recommend by the
way.
Then we have blogs of a million varieties. Sunday’s print edition of the
other San Diego daily even carries
a copy of someone’s blog. Such thinking could make your head spin.
But it doesn’t make it spin as much as those credulous urban legends forwarded by folks who refuse to, or can’t, think. One nitwit idea after the other is passed around the world at the speed of light. You have to presume that they figure “if it’s in writing, it’s true.” Many carry the caveat “if you agree forward this to 10 people. If not, delete it.”
As a small “d” democrat, I should love the idea of so
many getting involved. In fact I’d revel in it, if it didn’t bother me that so
much is simply forwarded because it sounds good.
We are certainly in an information age, but when all rules of common sense are
eliminated, it becomes surreal. We need rules and I have made up a few. You may
add your own. Just be nice as always.
Rule One: If you don’t want your ideas challenged, don’t send them to people who think.
Two: Everybody doesn’t have to agree with you. Complete agreement may be necessary during a battle otherwise it’s dangerous. The closest thing to total agreement is found in Saudi Arabia. You want to exchange San Diego for Riyadh?
Three: I have as much right to answer an e-mail as the original poster had to send it to me. I also have the right to send my reply to the same addressees.
Four: “Don’t send me that crap” means little if you’re sending me crap.
Five: I have the absolute right to ignore such admonitions as “If you don’t agree with this, delete it.” Once it lands in my mailbox it’s mine. I’ll do whatever I want with it.
Six: All unsubstantiated claims are subject to question unless it’s something so obvious it cannot be disputed. “God wants you to vote Republican” is not that obvious.
Seven: Your reputation accompanies your e-mail. If you don’t take the time to check it out, I will be glad to do it and embarrass you.
Eight: I’m not religious but I have just as much right to talk about religion as someone who is. If a president thinks God wants him to wage war, I’d like to discuss it with him, or with God.
Nine: The best way to honor the Bill of Rights is to use it. Please remember that the next time you feel like telling someone “sit down and shut up!”
Ten: The wisest thing a person can say is often “I was wrong.” Or it might be “I changed my mind.” I don’t know.
NOT Guest-Blogger Keith Taylor
