Category Archives: What’s a man?

A Thought Or Two On Killing

War, What's a man?

barbarian: noun…a member of a group of people from a very different country or culture that is considered to be less socially advanced and more violent than your own…Cambridge Dictionary

“Almost Nothing They Can Do” Pete Hegseth, 29th United States Secretary of Defense (now officially retitled Secretary of War, so, I guess 59th Secretary of War ) and former co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend, while claiming that Iran’s defense industrial base is “nearly completely destroyed.”

We went to the New Cuyama Buckhorn Cafe last week. Actually, we went to the Carizzo Plain with Aston and Eileen to see a superbloom, and the Buckhorn, in the next valley over, is the closest interesting place to stay. The superbloom was mostly burned out, as Michele had predicted, but it was still nice to get out. And both the Carizzo Plain and the Cuyama Valley are out there, out there defined as being relatively empty of what we call civilization.

At the New Cuyama Buckhorn Cafe, during cocktails, or maybe post-dinner digestifs, we got into a conversation about hunting with the bartender, who was a goat herder. I’m against hunting. He was passionate, almost spiritual, about it. When I was a kid, like most kids my age and demographic, I had a .22 rifle. I shot squirrels with it, and years later, I went dove hunting with a borrowed 12-gauge shotgun. I didn’t like it. It turns out that I don’t like killing animals. But the bartender not only liked it, but was passionate about hunting.

Well, like killing animals is not the way he put it, and he would probably not agree with the sentiment put that way. Still, either way, or any way, either of us put it, we strongly disagreed. But, one thing we did agree to agree on is that it is morally better to acknowledge the carnage we are doing when we kill an animal up close than just blithely walking into a market and buying a piece of meat, ignoring that our delicious dinner was once a living, breathing animal.

Another story that, I think, is connected to the first story. In early May 2010, Michele and I retraced, in reverse, an historic route used by the Bennett-Arcane party to escape, as they put it, Death Valley in 1849. We were having a hard time getting up and over a slick, steep granite slab, and we got into a conversation with a couple of guys in a Chevy 4×4 who were trying to help us and also trying to get up the drop-off. I wrote about it in a post I made in early May 2010, and I’m just quoting it here.

The driver of the Chevy was a Predator pilot, stationed near Las Vegas. According to the company brochure, the “Predator is a long-endurance, medium-altitude unmanned aircraft system for surveillance and reconnaissance.” However, Predator is also armed with Hellfire missiles, and our new friend, here on for a weekend adventure, spends his work days – in an air-conditioned building near Las Vegas – killing unsuspecting terrorists in Afghanistan. These terrorists are not really terrorists; they are unsophisticated, dirt-poor tribesmen, many with poor weapons and bad eyesight, who pride themselves on their manly warrioriness, and killing them, as Michele said, from a place near Vegas just seems wrong. But he was helping us, so it wasn’t that wrong.

It is a common belief that people in combat experience PTSD, depression, and anxiety because of the constant fear of being wounded or, even, killed. But drone pilots, even those thousands of miles away from danger, like our friend with the Chevy truck and an easy chair in an air-conditioned room, get PTSD at the same rate as soldiers on the front line. I think it is the killing of people, the act of killing our fellow humans, that gives people in combat PTSD.

Israel & The Slaughter of Palestinians

Current Affairs, Family, War, What's a man?

My father, who died just before I turned 28, was a secular Jew. However, he was proud of being Jewish. He never said that we were the chosen people, but I suspect that was more because he didn’t believe in a Chooser than anything else. Still, he thought we were better than the people who looked down on us. We were more compassionate, more inclusive, more accepting, all Jewish virtues he strongly believed in.

In a way, I grew up feeling that my compassion and inclusiveness were a result of being Jewish. In a Of course, I believe everybody should be treated equally; I’m Jewish sort of way. Now, watching Israel slaughter Palestinians in Gaza and constantly terrorizing other Palestinians in the West Bank, that all seems like a lie. To a certain extent, who I believed I was now seems like bullshit. It is more than disheartening.

If there is any consultation, it is that I am not alone in my anger and existential grief. Below is a short (-ish) conversation between two very smart, very compassionate people about Israel, Palestine, and being Jewish during the horror of what is going on. Please give it a try.

Remembering Ed Dieden

Camping, Nevada, Religion, What's a man?

Last week, Michele and I went to a Life Celebration for our friend Ed Dieden. It was eye-opening, almost shocking, how much he gave to the world. He was a former Marine officer who had been badly wounded in Vietnam, which left him with a lifelong crab-like gait and a desire to help other people. I’ve read variations of Once a Marine, Always a Marine everywhere, and, in Ed’s case, it came out in his volunteer work. To quote from A Celebration of the Life of Ed Dieden, Ed was a mentor to addicts and incarcerated men. He was a Stephen Minister. He volunteered with the Alisha Ann Burn Foundation…and the list goes on, and on, ending with Him helping establish the first Vetreans Court in Alameda County. One item towards the bottom of the list was that he volunteered at Stand Down, weekend retreats for service members, veterans, and their families, where I had the good fortune to join him.

That’s not where I met Ed, however. I first met Ed Dieden in 2006, or 7, while I was developing a moderate-income infill project in Union City. I was looking for somebody to handle the construction side of it, and my banker, Bob Mazza, who, it turned out, was our banker, introduced us. It was a perfect fit.

The Union City project was my last before I retired, and I think it was Ed’s last project, as well. We were both left with a time hole to fill and quickly bonded over politics, photography, especially photos of graffiti, and wilderness camping, which was just driving out into the desert to see where we ended up. Once, we went to Los Vegas for a Marine Reunion, stopping three times to camp on the way there and twice on the way back (I was along only for the drive, not the Reunion part).

We met once a week for lunch or to take photographs, meeting in the middle until Ed moved from Oakland to Benicia. He had Parkinson’s disease, and it became increasingly harder for him to drive. We saw each other less frequently and then not at all. Like an old soldier—no offense meant—Ed just faded from my life.

Ed Dieden was the kind of guy who always brought out the best in people. After a day or a weekend with him, I always felt better about myself. He was a true Mensch. He was all that a man should be. I’ll greatly miss Ed; I hope he is resting in Peace with the God he so loved.

Lewis Hamilton Wins Fifth Championship

What's a man?

Lewis Hamilton won the Formula One Drivers’ Championship title a couple of weeks ago. It is his fifth Championship, a feat that is matched only by the great Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s and Michael Schumacher in the late 1990s and early oughts. For the last couple of weeks, I’ve tried to write a post about it but I’ve been stalled for reasons that I’m having trouble explaining, so before it becomes old news, here is a video of Lewis on The Daily Show. Enjoy.

Mathew Brady’s picture of General U. S. Grant and the new American Hero

Americana, War, What's a man?

This is a very much modified copy of a post I made in 2009. I am reposting it now because, 150 years ago, the Army of The Potomac was in the middle of what is now known as The Overland Campaign. Grant  and Lee had battled to a draw in The Wilderness on May 5th through the 7th, 1864. This is where the Army of The Potomac learned that Grant was a different kind of general and they were going to become a different kind of Army.

Up until now, the Army of The Potomac would move south, fight the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, and win lose or draw – sadly, it was often lose – retreat to rebuild and re-provision for the next battle. This time, when Grant pulled his troops out of the battle-line, it was not to retreat, but to move further south to attack again at Spotsylvania Court House (May 8–21), then again and again. This was total war. Grant had said I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer, and he meant it.

Grant had come to do a job and he did it. The picture below shows just that.

This is a new kind of portrait and Grant was a new kind of general. The picture was probably taken during the Overland Campaign just after the battle of Cold Harbor. Grant is not the patrician hero, Grant, like Lincoln, was a mid-westerner. A common man. In this picture, he is tired, his eyes are sad, his boots are muddy. This is probably Matthew Bradley’s most famous photo. Not only because of it’s informality, but because it is so penetrating. I have read that a good portrait is an artifact of a relationship. This is a portrait of a real man, the dynamic new kind of American from the West.

Grant was the new American hero. The quiet man just doing his job. John Wayne. Gary Cooper in High Noon.  No braggadocio flourishes, just quietly getting the job done.