Yo, Teach! Is This on the Test?

LOVE IS NOT A FEELING BUT A DUTY PERFORMED NOT BECAUSE BUT IN SPITE OF, EMPHASIS ON THE SPITEShow more

Four years in a row, I had the opportunity, privilege and honor to command a basic training company of 250 privates during my annual training in the U.S. Army Reserve, and in each year not only had the opportunity to serve as Officer in Charge and Range Safety Officer on the liive fire fragmentary hand grenade range, but also experience why they say that the army is not just a job but an adventure. When a private has pulled out the safery ring on a fragmentary hand grenade, and accidentally releases the spoon to arm it, you have exactly five seconds to react and three are already gone--no time to pray. To save that privates life, the nearby drill sergeant is not gonna say excuse me or please, when he grabs that knucklehead, pushes him into the safery sump away from the blast area, and lands on top of him. Yet, we always had a going joke that at least never happened while I was in command, that one of those knucklehead privates was gonna have thier delicate sensiibiliteis offended and actually bring a lawsuot against every one of us for handling him roughly when trying to save him from his own stupidity.

I was in the second grade when I actually had a very weird dream, and you know it's a weird dream if it haunts your memory for your entire life and especailly when you find deja vous in a pandemic crisis. I found myself on a crowded beach, which was werid enough because even today I don't have beach dreams, and noticed everybody playing and having fun, while I appeared to be the only one who noticed a huge tidal wave barreling towards the beach. First, I figured I'd be polite and ask a person if they happened to notice the huge wave to no avail. Then I began barking like a drill sergeant giving commands, but to no avail. Finally I had to just grab random people, drag them off the beach to take them to safety, and saved about five or six, runnign back and forth, until finally the rest just perished in the wave. I am now convinced that that dream had some signifcance.

I had a strange path in life that prepared me for an unprecedented pandemic, and, when one has knowledge, at least in the law, he has a duty to act in accordance with that knowledge, and I went to court. According to Pew Research Center, the overwhelming majority of Americans do not trust each other, beyond partisan bickering and racial tension, and what drives that mistrust, intriguingly, is the feeling that we cannot rely on others, and I am willing to say that there is credible evidence that that feeling about reliance is more than a feeling. And the extensive research at Pew Research Center provides some great insight on why you have a pandemic crisis.