An Open Letter to John McCain

Senator McCain:

You have won the primary election in Arizona and you will be the Republican candidate from Arizona for the US Senate.

Your tried and proven tactic of moving radically away from left-center and toward the right in an election year, combined with an unusually negative ad campaign against JD Hayworth, was successful.

I want you to know that, just as I promised in February, I joined the Republican Party so that I could easily vote in the primary against you and for JD. I voted for JD because I believe he is more of a true constitutionalist than you are. I believe he is more dedicated to preserving the personal liberties that the founders called "Natural rights".

I encourage you to be true to your recent tack to the "right" and to recommit yourself and submit your personal agenda to the preservation and restoration of the liberties our country was born to protect.

Please, Sir, do not sell us out. Do not return to your "maverick" and unpredictable ways. Please, Sir, stay true to the Constitution and to "we, the people".

Respectfully,

John N. Ellis

Memories Of A Powerful Lesson...

I was just 18 years old. I'd skated through high school, studying only when it was measured and recorded. I was sharp enough to be able to sit in class, listen to the lecture and discussion, and glean enough good answers to pass tests with As or Bs.

And now I was in US Army Basic Training, surrounded by young men who struggled with remembering that the right hand and right foot are on the same side of the body. Some of them had never brushed their teeth or taken a shower in their lives. It was winter in Missouri, and the longer it took them to catch on to simple tasks like putting the fuze into a land mine ("righty tighty, lefty loosy") or disassembling an assault rifle, the more miserably cold I was - and the less patient I felt.

You see, I was one of the smartest people in the company. And for all I knew, I was probably one of the smartest people in the Army, if some of my drill instructors were a representative sample.

We'd spent the morning on the rifle range, firing at green plastic silhouettes holding painted AK-47s, the infantry weapon of choice of our enemy - Ivan the Communist. Now, it was time to march back to base for lunch. But before we left, true to form, our drill instructors decided it was time for a little physical training, just to whet the appetite.

PT, as we called it, was torturous. The drill instructors seemed to derive some sick pleasure from seeing us sweating, muscles shaking, faces and bodies covered with dirt, grass and twigs. And so they marched us into a large clear field. We placed our steel helmets and our rifles atop our rucksacks. Then we marched off into an extended formation for an hour of sheer agony.

It was a warm day, relatively speaking, and I knew it was only going to get hotter as soon as the PT Pain Train hit us. So I took my gloves off and tossed them under my helmet.

Marching out to the field I heard Staff Sergeant Mathis call me, "Ellis! Come on over here!" His tone was kind and disarming. "What's wrong with your hands?" he asked with concern.

"Nothing, Sergeant", I replied.

"Look at your hands and then look at the rest of the company. What do you notice?"

I gave him a blank look.

"Where are your gloves?" Still kind and concerned.

"Under my helmet, Sergeant. I knew it was going to get hot." I reasoned with him.

"Why don't you go get them." A statement, and I trotted off to retrieve my gloves. I'd gone about 5 yards when "YOU'D BETTER RUN!" boomed after me and I sprinted there and back.

"Ellis, have you ever done the 'Locomotion'?" Sergeant Mathis asked.

"No, Sergeant," was my watery reply.

Sergeant Mathis then demonstrated a method of walking in which hands are clasped behind the head and, neck and back straight and erect, the victim walks - or runs - touching knees to elbows. He ordered me to run around the extended formation, a circuit of about 100 yards, 3 times and report to him behind the formation of my peers.

I was out of breath when I finished the assignment, but my anguish was not sufficient for Sergeant Mathis. For the next 15 minutes he proceeded to "grass drill" me, running me through a rapidly changing series of push-ups, sit-ups, and running in place. By the time he yelled "Stop!" I had been reduced to tears.

As I sobbed, down in my 3-point stance, Sergeant Mathis quietly asked, "Ellis, do you know why I did that?"

"N-n-no, Sergeant-t", came my reply.

"I did that because you need to understand that you are part of this unit, and part of this Army. You may be smarter than some, and you may catch on quicker than others, but you are not better than any other member of this team."

That experience in humiliation was intensely focusing. I learned a lesson that should have come from Sunday School, or from my parents. In all honesty, it probably had come from those places, but, as the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

I was ready. The teacher appeared. And my life, the way I see and treat others from all walks of life and all levels of society, was changed forever. I suddenly and deeply understood that we are all pilgrims and we are all strangers and we all have things to give and things to learrn. I was not a higher quality human being because I had better hygiene practices. I was not a better person because I was a brighter student.

All of us have an obligation to use the gifts God has given us to improve the world we live in. All of us have an obligation to treat each other well.

As a post script, three soldiers in the rear of the formation, closest to the site of my destruction, looked and laughed as I was being torn down one piece at a time. Their behavior didn't escape Sergeant Mathis' attention and, when he'd sent me back into formation he called the three gigglers out.

What I'd just gone through suddenly looked like a warm-up!

The post script taught me that there can be compassion in discipline, and that there is justice in the world.

Thoughts On My Own Self-Betrayal...

In my personal culture quick conformity and prompt obedience have always been valued traits. My father was a mechanical engineer and my mother was an English teacher, so structure and order and rules and laws were always paramount. Form followed function and whimsy was almost never acceptable.


Even in play, we were taught the principles of "success". One of my mother's favorite games was "Scrabble". If you want a more rule-bound game, I don't know if you will find it. Points are clearly defined, words are perfectly spelled, and placement on the board is governed by a rigid grid.

My father is a terrible speller who did not enjoy "Scrabble", but who, when he did play, liked rule-bound games as well. "Hide-and-Seek" became an exercise in reducing noise and movement, avoiding silhouettes and shadow casting, precise movement and patient waiting.

Creativity was not forbidden. It was simply never a consideration.

In religious practice, I had two examples, as well. My father was almost obsessively committed to the physical rituals of the church. He was determined to attend every meeting and to fill each assignment as if it were the only thing he had to do.

My mother was never moved by the faith, but she doggedly followed the culture, attending women's meetings, teaching Sunday School when asked, and trying to keep up with expectations. She always had a smiling face and a cheerful answer when anyone asked about anything. Even when it wasn't true.

Discipline was strict and physical from both of my parents, and its enforcement was far from capricious. In fact, it seemed to me that every chance to correct behavior was taken. Failure to comply with a firm set of rules resulted in pain.

So, when I graduated high school and enlisted in the Army, following direction and obeying rules was the least of my concerns. I did that almost automatically.

My level of compliance was convenient. It required almost no thought and did not allow for introspection. In retrospect I can see that self-betrayal was the price of that convenience.

The first time I am aware of betraying myself in favor of compliance, I was a junior in high school. My ambition then was to be an architect and to design homes and mixed-use spaces. Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California had a fine architecture program and ran a summer architecture experience for young people like me. I was excited to attend and to launch my education and begin my career.

On the first day of the three-week work shop we were given an assignment to design a living space much like a condominium. I was completely engaged until the instructor told us that we should not consider whether or not our design was buildable, but only think about the form of the thing. Alarm bells went off inside my head. The engineer-father scoffed at the notion; the grammarian-mother couldn't even consider the possibilities of working outside the world of the expected.

And in that moment, even before I realized it, I betrayed myself. I submitted my dreams to the authority of my parents. I decided that architecture was not for me.

I don't say that submission to authority is always wrong. In fact, sometimes it is exactly the thing to do. I do say, however, that questioning authority with the purpose of understanding; and questioning self for the same ends, is not only good, but right for each of us to do.

Since that moment - and probably long before - self-betrayal has been a way of life for me. I did not want to let others (read: parents, peers, teachers, employers, spouse, etc.) down, and I never learned to consider myself. Only recently have I begun questioning the institutions that have been most sacrosanct in my life - my work, my country, my religion and my family.

What began as a scary proposition - this questionning - one that was completely foreign and virtually forbidden, has become a painful and pleasurable, exhilerating and confusing, dark and enlightening journey. I have found more faith and less blindness, more love and less fear, than I ever imagined in the world.

I am determined to learn how to help my children avoid the self-betrayal and faithless following that has taken me so long to even recognize.

And I am still waiting to find the self that I began betraying before I knew I was doing it.

Caveat Emptor...

Buyer, beware!

The recent decision in California of a single judge to negate the voice of the majority of the state's voting population - and a large majority, at that - should ring alarm bells inside the head of every person who hears of it!

What? you say.  Even those homosexuals who are longing to enter into the "holy order of matrimony" should worry?

Absolutely.  And Joe Biden said it best in a speech on the floor of the US Senate years ago, when Republicans controlled both houses of congress.  He warned that, while the Republicans were in the majority then, they would not be always and they should watch what they do and how they do it.

You see, today it was a "progressive" judge whose personal bias informed his decision to invalidate due process and constitutionality.  It was a big "win" for progressive people and for those who are sympathetic to the cause of homosexual marriage.

But tomorrow it may be a "conservative" judge, a "biggoted" judge, or a "Christian" judge on the bench.  And the issue may be the environment or immigration or some other cause that fires the imagination and stirs the secular-progressive heart.  He - it will certainly be a late-middle-aged white man - may decide that he has seen enough of those Jesus-haters who, like ancient pagans, worship Mother Earth and make a daily sacrifice to her of the prosperous life and hard work of Americans. 

And just as easily, that judge might rule that to restrict commerce and to confiscate the wealth of hard workers is a flagrant violation of the Constitutional principles on which this great - if flawed - nation was founded.  He may feel that reducing the standard of living in America to the equivalent of that of Cambodia is wrong.  He may strike down environmental laws.

The fact that our children have learned the religion of Earth for three generations will be irrelevant.  The fact that most of the people in America believe in the sanctity of Earth will be ignored.  Even if the people vote to make a law or to amend the Constitution to define goodness toward Earth, they will be powerless to protect Her.

Always, always, always remember that a sword will cut both ways. 

Much along the line of a popular anti-gun talking point that claims you should not carry a gun for self-defense because you are more likely to have it taken from you and used against you than you are to stop an attack, secular-progressives and ultra-traditionalists alike should be very concerned with this ruling.

Jobs Bill Passes Senate...

Yesterday, the US Senate voted to approve a House bill appropriating $26,000,000,000 (billion) to fund state and municipal employment for 1 year.  Note that this bill is not intended to add any jobs to the economy.  It is designed ONLY to preserve state and municipal jobs that are already filled!  NO ONE WILL COME OFF UNEMPLOYMENT because of this spending.

What in the world are senators and representatives doing pooling personal and corporate tax money collected at a federal level and redistributing it to state and municipal workers? 

It seems that this is a problem for the 10th and 14th Amendments to resolve.  Shouldn't the US Supreme Court strike this act down? 

In Iowa the president of the AFSME (government employees union) has declared that this bill is essential because the families of government workers cannot afford to lose jobs right now.  That statement raises some questions in my mind.

First, when is a good time for a worker to lose his or her job?  And what makes this union president think that now is a good time for me and my family to pay for someone else to keep their job?

Second, why is this not funded by an increase in taxes so that this year every American pays an extra $80 in income tax this year?  Just add a line to the Form 1040, 1040 A and 1040 EZ that assesses each person on the tax return - including dependents - $80 to pay for a 1-year support fund for state and municipal employees.

Third, why is it alright for all Americans who earn enough money to pay income taxes to pay for someone else's livelihood for generations in the form of interminable debt payments?

And then we could fund the stimulus packages the same way.  Each trillion dollar unit would be directly assessed at a rate of $3,000 per person per year.  So, we don't incur anymore debt, right?

I'll bet we wouldn't see anymore stimulus, too!  My family alone would be on the hook for more than $20,000 per trillion.  I'd fight that.