“We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq,” the president assured a public that is increasingly skeptical that he has a plan to end the fighting after the deaths of more than 2,300 U.S. troops.”
ABC News

I was thinking about the eclipse today, and what a wonderful world it really is that we have. Then my mind wandered to the foolishness of man. Why is it, we (we, meaning humankind) seem to have a need for war.

I am so tired of turning on the computer and finding breaking news reports of people dying in war: Soldiers, civilians, accidents, snipers… war casualties. Acceptable casualties is a term I have heard, and I don’t get what’s acceptable about it. I was just a little too young to protest Viet Nam, but I have seen the effects that continue on to this day. I am tired of war and tired of us ruining this world. God did not create us to hate each other. We gotta figure out a way to get along – all of us.

“The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service.”
Albert Einstein

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent.”
Issac Asimov

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I was interviewed for b5media not too long ago, and was asked the question, “If you could change the world in one significant way, what would it be?”

I would have people listen to each other. We all want the same things. Security, safety, good ways to raise our kids, love people all want those things but they are so unattainable because no one listens to each other anymore. Ever caught yourself planning what you are going to say next when you are talking to someone? We all do. We need to not do that and really listen to what another person says and respond to what they said, not what we think they said.
Adelle Tilton 

Apparently I am not the only one interested in listening. Did you know there is an International Listening Association?  I love this site.  They call listening the, “Language of Peace,” and say they are, “…the professional organization whose members are dedicated to learning more about the impact that listening has on all human activity. The International Listening Association promotes the study, development, and teaching of listening and the practice of effective listening skills and techniques.”  They even have a way of giving the gift of listening.

We find efforts for peace and understanding in the most unexpected places, don’t we?

I know I need to improve my listening skills because I catch myself interrupting people from time to time.  I don’t mean to, but it just happens. So I am making a concious effort right now to listen and listen completely.  If you find yourself interrupting people or realizing you are working on your comeback, make that pact with me – let’s listen!

“I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, do not be fooled by what I am saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying.”
Charles C. Finn

“The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.”
Ralph Nichols

“This is a time to give the gift of listening. There are an unknowable but very large number of folks who could really be helped with our listening to them. I know your hearts are all very warm and giving. Please, take time to listen to those around you.”
Richard D. Halley

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“God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.”
^{Chester W. Nimitz}

Nimitz is not an unfamiliar name; most any American can tell you about the aircraft carrier class and the pride of the U.S. Navy in the U.S.S. Nimitz. Admiral Chester Nimitz was the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet during World War II. He was a true military hero, leader, and at times, a philosopher. His quotes show integrity, leadership, honor, and a sense of responsibility to his fellow man and country. I particularly liked his words on personal responsibility and praise of the actions of others.

Today, February 24th, marks the birthday of Chester Nimitz. He was born in 1885 and passed away in 1966. The official site of the U.S. Navy says of Nimitz, “His application, intelligence, and good humor earned him a place in the inner circle of senior officers … Nimitz’s characteristics are ones that officers of any time or era can appreciate and emulate.”

Some Parting Thoughts from Chester Nimitz:

“Three favorite rules of thumb: Is the proposed operation likely to succeed? What might be the consequences of failure? Is it in the realm of practicality in terms of material and supplies?”

“Not one of us who fought in the late war can forget — nor should any citizen be allowed to forget — that the national resource which enabled us to carry the war to the enemy and fight in his territory and not our own was our Merchant Marine. The fighting fleets and Marines of our Navy, the ground forces of our Army, and the aircraft of both would have been helpless to pound the enemy into defeat overseas, had it not been for the steady stream of personnel, equipment and supplies of every character brought into the rear of the combat areas, and often directly into those areas, by the ships of our own Merchant Marine and those of our allies…. It is well to remember that a professional Army and Navy are merely nuclei of the armed forces needed to wage war…. there is a natural tendency to forget the vital relationship which the Merchant Marine bears to our individual and collective welfare, in peace as well as war.”

“The battle of Iwo Jima has been won. Among the Americans who served on Iwo, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

“It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it will not be fought on U.S. soil.”

“I have just taken on a great responsibility. I will do my utmost to meet it.”

Focus on the U.S.S. Nimitz – Online newspaper about the crew of the famous aircraft carrier

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Thinking Outside of the Box:
“A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for,” said William Shedd, a protestant theologian. Evidently he was mistaken, for the ships at Pearl Harbor that morning were anything but safe.

I knew a doctor who was in World War II. He would have been fairly young but I believe he was a physician and not a medic. At any rate, I met him some 30 or 40 years after that Sunday morning in December of 1941. He was obviously still touched by that morning and it was difficult for him to talk about. He was in the Navy and he happened to be stationed at Pearl Harbor. I remember him saying how there were so many men dead and wounded that it was a completely overwhelming scenario. He recalled with emotional strain in his voice, “We had to decide who would live and who would die. I just don’t know how we did that.”

War isn’t something that touches us briefly. We can’t go to a war like we go to a movie, and then leave just to shake the feeling off in the parking lot. War goes into us… seeps into our pores if we witness it. To hear, see, touch, smell… to actually witness a war is a different thing. Perhaps the war movies help us to understand, but what we can never understand is what it did to the people who were actually there.

The above quote? I hear the regret in the Japanese Commanders words. I have also heard that he didn’t really say those words, but then I have heard he wrote them in a diary or a letter. Others say they were there when he said it. Who knows and really who cares? What has been immortalized by these words is important.

And it reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw a thousand years ago. “War is not good for children and other living things.” Simple. Succinct. True.

Some Last Thoughts:
“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.”
Albert Einstein

“Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.”
Winston Churchill

“In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.”
Jose Narosky

“The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed during war.” Chinese Proverb

“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind… War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”
President John F. Kennedy

The Pearl Harbor Memorial Web site provides a great deal of information and gives visitors a chance to donate to the cause of the Memorial. Take a look to learn about what happened December 7, 1941. Take the time. Don’t forget.

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