THE HONOR OF A SALUTE

Some may recall the way Twatwaffle (Obama) casually, offhandedly returned the razor-sharp salutes of his Marine guards.  That really, REALLY pissed me off.  This is from 2014, in response to that disgrace to the office of Commander in Chief of those young Marines.

The hand salute between soldiers and their officers is a gesture of respect and, at its best, of true honor. Brave men and women have signified their acceptance of orders to go out and die by offering that salute, and the officers who gave those orders have returned it in recognition of the devotion, courage, and pure honor of those who offered it. The military hand salute is not a casual gesture of mindless protocol or dead custom. It is a bond between men who have accepted a role in life that often means soul-killing labor, terrible suffering, isolation, separation from their families, ghastly injury and mutilation, and painful death.

We have all known officers whom we didn’t respect and certainly didn’t like, but we saluted them because they represent an inescapable principle that is at the heart of our service: the principle that some men must command other men to do the unpleasant, the dangerous, the impossible. If we do not salute those particular officers, we salute the honor that is explicit in our own commitment to our code and our brotherhood. We hope that when they returned our salutes, it was with at least this minimal recognition of the fact that we respected their uniform and the authority it represented.

We have all known officers for whom we bore the very highest level of respect, and when we saluted them it was an expression of that respect – a symbol of the bond with them that we have voluntarily assumed for ourselves. We salute in peacetime and rear echelon billets because we know that our purpose is, ultimately, to fight in mortal combat, and that purpose so overwhelms any other circumstance or consideration that it must be remarked upon every day.  Even away from the battlefield, the salute that men and officers exchange is their connection to the principles that allow men to fight. It is their connection to every other soldier and officer who exchanged that salute on the battlefield, and whatever they endured afterward.

There comes a time in the career of every officer in battle when he must say to a man whom he may not know, or whom he may cherish as a son or brother, “Go get killed on that high ground.” Likewise, there comes a time in the career of every soldier when he must accept and execute such an order. The hand salute which they exchange is the ultimate, sublime expression of their mutual commitment to the mission and to each other. As such, it is not a trivial, ritualistic thing, and anyone who treats it as such spits on the graves every man who ever gave it or returned it in the face of death.

Barack Obama trivialized that sacred salute because to him, nothing is sacred but his own ego.

Wess Rodgers – rebsarge.wordpress.com – Albuquerque

LEADERSHIP, CHARACTER, AND POWER

Written in 2014, during Twatwaffle’s (Obama’s) reign.

There has been a great deal of talk about Twatwaffle’s lack of leadership, and while I’m glad to see it is finally getting some notice in the nation, it’s about 9 years too friggin’ late.  I was looking for something else tonight and found a letter I wrote to my team at Intel in the late ’90’s. I thought it was interesting and appropriate for today’s situation.  I don’t recall any specific response from my team, but in the 1^st six months of our association, we blew the freaking doors off every standard of performance set by our management, and were the number-one team in our field in the corporation.

“Almost all men can stand adversity. If you would test a man’s character, give him power.”  ~ Abraham Lincoln

This quotation triggered a memory of a hallway conversation with a member of our team. This person had disagreed with something the team, not I, had decided, and told me, “If I were king, we would do things my way, but you are the king, so I have to do things your way.”

I hope to goodness my leadership of the team was never seriously felt to be dictatorship.

Many people, though, are of the impression that leadership is power. Nothing could be further from the truth. Leadership is influence, not compulsion – motivation, not intimidation. The only authority carried by true leadership is that which is GRANTED by the followers. Sadly, many people in leadership positions don’t understand this, and take the attitude that they’ve arrived. Now that they have been elected, they no longer have to suck up to their constituents. The very concept of “sucking up” indicates a seriously flawed paradigm. Giving genuine service is hardly “sucking up.” 

Leadership is authority granted to the leader by the team.

Authority that is imposed by the self-styled leader is tyranny.

In more of a bumper sticker format, “Leadership is getting people to do things for their own benefit they might not otherwise do.  Manipulation is getting people do things for your benefit they might not otherwise do. Leading others thereby becomes a moral responsibility – sometimes a dreadful one.

[By way of a personal observation, Abraham Lincoln was one of the great masters of manipulation. His knowledge of human nature and his grasp of how to use it were almost supernatural. His counterpart – the other American president at the time – Jefferson Davis – was not blessed with Lincoln’s ability. Davis’ character and ethics dwarfed Lincoln’s, but he could not hold his nation together. In comparing Lincoln to Davis, the critical principle to observe is that people will not follow you just because you are right, and they won’t refuse to follow you just because you are wrong.  In fact, in my opinion, Lincoln’s greatest genius was his ability to make people believe it was to their benefit to engage in a war that murdered over 700,000 of them, and to plant the larvae of the termites of absolute statism in the timbers of The American Republic.]

Wess Rodgers – rebsarge.wordpress.com – Albuquerque

PRINCIPLES OF MONEY

I wrote these for someone I love very, very much, and thought there might be other people out there whom I would love if I knew them. So here you go.  Share at will.  [WAR]

I know how hard you are working at making it work, and the pride that gives me almost moves me to tears sometimes.  So here are a few things to think about.  Some of them might sound a little church-y, but I promise, they are universal.

1.  Taking advice doesn’t compromise your independence, as long as you and you alone decide which advice to take.

2.  Put luxuries ‘way down at the bottom of your priority list.  “Take care of the cojones, and the frijoles will take care of themselves.”  (Robert Heinlein)

 3.  Pay cash or do without.  I have incurred some debt, and it’s a terrible burden.  Most  of the things I went into debt for were probably worth it, but some were just flat stupid.

 4.  Always consider opportunity cost.  A buck spent on gas is a buck you can’t spend on rent or food.

 5.   One level of abstraction up:  An hour spent earning that buck you spent on gas is an hour you can’t spend playing with the kids.  It’s an hour you’ll never have again as long as you live.  What will you trade it for, and what MIGHT you have traded it for?

 6.  Don’t do what I’ve done and beat the crap out of yourself for wrong decisions.  Do your best and go on.  You’ve said you have avoided this, and I’m glad.  Just watch out for it.

 7.  Remember that the money of other people also represents the hours of their lives, and respect it accordingly.  When someone pays you wages, you should think, “This person values my work as much as they value the hours of their lives spent earning this money.”  BTW, that’s something the looters will never understand.

 8.  Money is a tool, like a hammer.  You can use it to build or destroy, but either way, you must bend it to your will and make it do what you want it to do.  Only you swing your hammer. 

9.  If you sow a thought, you will reap an action.  If you sow an action, you will reap a habit. If you sow a habit, you will reap a character.  If you sow a character, you will reap a destiny.

 10.   Never mistake a decision that is truly difficult for one that is merely unpleasant.

 Imagine the greatest earthly love you can possibly imagine.  Now triple it.  I love you more.

Your Wess

Wess Rodgers – rebsarge.wordpress.com – Albuquerque

THE SHEEPDOG’S TORMENT

The sheep are doing their damndest  [word chosen deliberately for its deeper meaning] to pull the teeth from the sheepdog – to break his jaw – to bind him on a short chain in some place where they can go about their lives without having to look at the one who has offered his life for them and their lambs. But the sheepdog sees, and his soul shrieks in frustration. His heart breaks and withers, for he knows the wolf now need have no fear.

The one who wielded the pliers sneers at the sheepdog, and asks in all the self-righteous arrogance bred by ignorance of the nature of the wolf, “Don’t you believe God will protect us?”

And the sheepdog, unable to form the words with his mangled muzzle, answers silently, “Of course I do. That’s why He sent me.”

And the wolf chuckles.

(Wess Rodgers, 2023)

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REST AND RECUPERATION

With gentle hands and sweetest words

My warlike soul is led to peace –

The finer workings of the mind, no clash of swords,

Bid the rifle my battered hands release.

Relieved from watch, my mind in solitary musing

Strolls the peaceful fields of Hamlet’s godlike meditation,

So different – thank God! – from musketry’s riotous bruising,

Drawing joy from this communal contemplation.

Yet ever does my mind patrol the borders of this place,

For the duty written deep upon my heart

Binds me always faithful to this doom I face,

That when evil comes, I may stand and do my part.

(Wess Rodgers, 2015)

Wess Rodgers – rebsarge.wordpress.com – Albuquerque

9/11 – AN APOLOGY TO OUR CHILDREN

I grieve for my brothers and sisters who have gone willingly into the horrid abyss of war. No matter the perversity or perfidy of politicians, these went straightway into the line of battle.  I grieve for those who fell, defenseless and blameless, that others might pound their breasts and bray their bloody, insane hubris to the stars.

I grieve for my nation, led astray by madmen who are worse, by their deceit and treachery, than those who openly, hatefully wasted so many lives.

I grieve for my children who will never know the happy, innocent, brawling America in which I grew up – an America which my generation and I squandered.

Partly, we were complacent, willing to let matters run their course, and how ’bout them Whatevers?  Mostly, though – and I do not mean to excuse or pardon – we simply could not believe that our countrymen could be so flagrantly evil, or that such naked evil could stroll down our streets, sneering at all we once held to be virtuous.

We and our fathers of the so-called greatest generation have plugged the seeds of slavery and cultural putrefaction for our children.

My Dear Ones, I’m sorry.

Wess Rodgers – rebsarge.wordpress.com – Albuquerque