Purple State, USA

Rethinking... Loyalty

Purple State will be back to it's regular programming this weekend (yes, yes... comments and all ;-)).

In the meantime, be sure to check out Rethinking...! This is where we're going to discuss issues still very much inline with the common sense\Purple State view, but which might lack some of the political angle the majority of Purple State readers prefer.

I told you. You ask, and you shall receive. Enjoy! ;-)

Messy People.

By the time I followed Tiffany* out of the restaurant the middle toe on my right foot was throbbing. I had no idea what had happened. I only knew that it definitely hadn't hurt when I walked in and sat down at the table. On any other day such an inexplicable injury might have caused me greater contemplation, but on this day--at the end of the last series of days--it didn't seem that unusual.

Tiffany and I first corresponded via email in late February. From then until the Friday before meeting, we hadn't communicated. Friday I received an email that had something to do with her current boyfriend. I didn't know him, but an odd series of incredible, twisting coincidences proved our paths were more intertwined than either of us first suspected. At the realization, we decided we should meet in person.

It was an interesting discussion. In fact, I have had several interesting discussions of all different types with many different individuals lately. Here's what I've learned: People are messy.

Tiffany* sat across from what most would have termed a stranger and shared a few of her biggest fears. Some would criticize her for being so vulnerable so soon. But if you look closer, you see she's just a person doing the hard work of trying to find the answers to her questions. 

I have a friend whose divorce after many years of marriage will be final next week. He will tell you that he's "happy" but lost. It might sound like a line until you look closer and realize that he is.

Jake* will tell you all about the job he loves, but that he feels conflicted considering the long hours it demands.

Nikki* will candidly admit that she has unexpected questions about religious beliefs she has held for a lifetime.

Brett* will share with you that he wonders whether he has the strength to continue the grueling fight for more time with his kids.

Sonja* struggles to balance what she wants with the prudence her mind demands.

Messy people indeed. It turns out, however, that I love messy people. They are about the only kind of people worth knowing.

There are individuals and countries content with the status quo; content to sit on their bums each day and let the minutes tick by mindlessly. Messy people want that life until they get it, at which point they realize there's a reason they weren't created as trees.

These people--these wonderful, skeptical, thinking people--are the consequence and the children of freedom. Authoritarian governments do not encourage their minions to ask questions; religious fanatics do not tolerate the curious inquiries of their followers. Our government may not always encourage or like our questions, but it protects our right to ask them. Most of us have been fortunate to grow up taking for granted our right to--as Albert Einstein so eloquently put it--"question everything."

Questions encourage messiness, disorder, at times even chaos, but my belief is that the forefathers understood these moments to be opportunities, necessary catalysts to progress. The first man to ask himself, "What if the boat doesn't fall off the edge of the earth at the horizon?" was the first person to start the world down the path of greater understanding, though he likely appeared to be little more than a suicidal lunatic as he raised his sail for that first journey.

That's why, in the midst of the mess, it's important to be patient with each other; to recognize the difference between those intending malice with their words or actions and those legitimately striving to think and to understand. The latter are the people most likely to take their introspection and move themselves, along with their country, forward. Indeed, they are the only type of people who ever have.

If nothing else, they deserve our respect. They pay a price for their efforts, and we as a society owe them a debt for it. We should give them all the encouragement we can, while also seeking to question and to understand for ourselves.

*names changed for privacy

Whatever You Do.

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but
it is very important that you do it."

-Gandhi

Today we remember those who lost their lives
during the April 19, 1995, terrorist attack in Oklahoma City.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I was recently reminded of some challenging circumstances I faced early in my life. Nothing scandalous--at least not to most--but certainly also not among my proudest moments. I have empathy for the girl who walked the road she did and I believe she has turned that road into something good. 

There are people, though, who want to define us by our failures, our mistakes, our weaknesses. No matter how far beyond them--above them--we eventually lift ourselves, there are people who want to pull us back. They confuse our willingness to admit our mistakes as an admission that we are no better than however those lapses in judgment might paint us. As imperfection isn't an accusation many of us can refute, it can be difficult to see beyond those distorted views.

I have a picture in my mind of this country. A country that is a living, breathing organism. To be precise... A country with over 300 million simultaneous breaths, views, strengths and weaknesses. I can zero in on specific faces of this country--some that make me smile, others that make me angry; some that make me laugh, others that bring a tear to my eye; some I could do without, others I fall to my knees in gratitude for.

There are people among us and watching us from a distance who want to define this country by its mistakes. It's hard not to let them. We have certainly made our share. Besides specific instances--slavery, WWII internment camps, Abu Ghraib (just to name a few)--we as individuals and as a nation have also been guilty of bigotry, violence and--perhaps most unforgivably--ignorance.

It's important, however, that we remember a single snapshot does not a video make. Likewise, a single moment in time can seldom tell the story or assess the value of any entity's contribution to this world. I have watched our country be the first in line to help countries besieged by natural disasters or invaded by hostile neighbors. I have seen it strive to solve problems so complex other countries won't touch them--then be criticized for not handling it perfectly. I have seen it criticized for action, when no one can guess what inaction would have cost. I have seen our country open its doors for those needing medical treatment, a place of refuge or simply a new home. I have seen our country pull its neglected, abused and homeless children close, striving to set them on a better path. And, for all of this, I have seen it ask very little in return.

No, we can't get every moment right, we can't help everyone, we can't commit all our resources to every cause and every country... but why does that negate the good that has been done? We have cause to be  confident--not arrogant or cocky--, to be proud. We have good reason not to sit silently when confronted by those who judge us only by our mistakes.

As a person and as people who have absolutely no promise of ever being perfect... I can only hope that history will judge us not so much by the times we stumbled as by how we picked ourselves back up; not so much by our mistakes as by our accomplishments; and not so much for how we could have been better as by how we did do better.

I look at this country and I know we are wiser for the journey; stronger for it. That is something we should be very proud of, even as we continue to acknowledge and attempt to right any wrongs we've committed along the way.

The Top Guns

Whether it's an indication of my deep love for this country or merely a side-effect of growing up in the Top Gun age, there are few things I find more exhilarating than our country's arsenal of fighter jets. I admit that my earliest affinity was for the F-series planes, but even the B-2 Spirit (aka the Stealth Bomber) has a special place in my heart. I have a model of it sitting next to a model of the U.S.S. Constitution on my bookshelf... symbols of the military strength that has spanned the centuries and generations of this country.

It's true war isn't always the best answer, but there is a reason our police officers carry guns. Unfortunately, words don't always work. Some people and some situations are just wrong, just evil. Words should always be our weapon of choice, but we have a responsibility to ourselves and our allies--to history itself--to be prepared for those situations where words and reasoning fail. There is no one, after all, who believes even the most articulate or pragmatic of speakers could have persuaded Hitler to embrace a different sociological view.

How many of you are familiar with what a 5th generation fighter jet is?

If you aren't, Wikipedia provides the following definition: "The fifth generation was ushered in by the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor in late 2005. Currently the cutting edge of fighter design, fifth-generation fighters are characterized by being designed from the start to operate in a network-centric combat environment, and to feature extremely low, all-aspect, multi-spectral signatures employing advanced materials and shaping techniques. They have multifunction AESA radars with high-bandwidth, low-probability of intercept (LPI) data transmission capabilities."

To put it simply, they are crazy cool.

They are also costing us a lot of money. By recent estimates, the F-35--the latest fifth generation fighter jet--will come with a 201-million-dollar-per-unit price tag. An estimate that many experts are calling optimistic, given not even 10% of its test flights are complete.

As with most endeavors our government tries to undertake, the F-35 program, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, has been plagued by overly ambitious deadlines, continuously changing requirements and--quite simply--an abundance of human error. It's not only costing us way more than expected, but there doesn't yet seem to be an end in sight. Some analysts project that the per-unit cost on the F-35 could reach as high as 260 million before all is said and done.

Like I said. A lot of money. Money that could be put toward our children's education; money that would make a nice dent in updating our energy infrastructure; money that might cover at least one visit to an ER.

I'm not against funding our military. Far from it. I am also empathetic about the difficulty associated with planning and budgeting for the kind of R&D associated with these planes. Yet there is little evidence that the cost and pressing urgency associated with the JSF program can be justified, particularly in light of the other challenges facing our country. It is important to keep an edge but--given the caliber and effectiveness of our existing fleet--there is little evidence we are competing with anyone but ourselves on this front.

We would scoff if someone barely able to make their mortgage payments brought home a Saleen S7... no matter how cool it looks, no matter how exhilarating the ride. Quite frankly, we would think they had lost their minds. What about when our government does it?