John Gardner on the Key to Self-Renewal Across Life and the Art of Making Rather Than Finding Meaning

Mike, the link to the article is behind a paywall and so I couldn't read the article. However, I am wondering what everyone thinks about Biden's continued college loan bailouts to the tune of $167 billion which the Supreme Court (the highest law in our nation) has said he does not have the authority to do.This is a debt that is being passed on to us taxpayers who either haven't gone to college or who have already paid off their student loans. Frankly, I fail to understand why those who are so convinced that Trump consistently acts outside our laws, are not also calling out Biden for this abuse of his position and mocking the SOTUS ruling on this action.

05/23/24 12:27 PM

#13959

I'm sorry mm. that was thoughtless of me. forgot the paywall issue. the story is about israel military killing civilians in the gaza strip.It's just a horrible humanitarian tragedy and I'm surprised the world hasn't pressured against it.

05/23/24 06:44 PM

#13960

Mike I had a response all typed up, but my Guardian Angel must have thought better of my reply because my laptop suddenly lost the tab,so I will just ask that you follow these blue links and then I would also ask that you place yourself as the parent of one of these young innocent girls and honestly think about what an "appropriate" response would be.

All war is hell on earth and history tells us that the innocent suffer greatly. I can tell you that having read much about the Muslim Brotherhood and the radical Islamists, they care nothing for human life. This is why Hamas built their military command centers in the midst of the Palestinian population with tunnels hiding military weapons built beneath hospitals, schools, businesses and civilian residences. They were and are willing to sacrifice every innocent Palestinian to achieve their victory.

05/23/24 08:52 PM

#13961

Left and Right

College Debt Relief? To me it It borders on crimminal. What has Joe to offer all the kids who have worked hard for years to pay off their college debt on their own? Will he reimbusre my 3 kids for thousands of dollars of debts already paid off? But now he gives it away to a fortunate few. Trying to buy an election?

On Hamas - Their current leadership is as ruthless (or stupid) as they come. But they would not have near as much support if Israel haden't provoked the Palestinians by violating their own reason for existance since 1948.

Palestinians are actually human beings, and have lived on the West Bank for thousands of years, but were "geographicaly ommitted" from existence by a young British foreign secretay Winston Churchill after WW1. And further ignored when the1947 agreement to give official birth to the new Israel. Since then, Israel has illegally siezed hundreds of Muslim and Christian vilages with their blatant and illegal "settlemets" on the west bank.

And the Israelis have a pretty filthy history of death and destruction to the Palestinians. Google up the (Zionist) "Stern Gang" and and what they did to Palestinian viillages such as Deir Yassin.

Or google up the Irgun's attack on the King David Hotel in 1946. Ninety one innocent British Military men were murdered by this infamous surprize bombing.

(p.s. in case you are interested enough to look this up, some historians now question the correctness of young Churchill's having drawn these maps as he did. There is ample controversy over his omisssion of a Palestine, and also a seperate Kurdistan. I'm no expert but it seems to me his creation of Jordan was a good idea. He litterally drew up the old "Ottoman Empire" into the present day Middle East.

05/23/24 08:57 PM

#13962

Jim,

I have been meaning to get back to your post about the future.

I hope someday there wiill be a machine that will automatically clip your toe nails.

........without having to bend over!

05/24/24 12:24 PM

#13963

Close to three-fourths of the humanitarian aid transported from a new $320 million floating pier built by the U.S. military off the Gaza coast was stolen on Saturday en route to a U.N. warehouse, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Eleven trucks "were cleaned out by Palestinians" on the journey to the World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah in the central Strip, with only five truckloads making it to the destination.

05/24/24 01:10 PM

#13964

ok be honest. when we were kids and you first heard a sermon about the prodigal son, did you know what the word "prodigal" meant? I drifted off quite a bit during sermons so I all I picked up was that the dude involved was in hot water - I think I guessed that prodigal meant he was either a liar or a perv of some sort - But I didn't want to sound stupid so I didn't ask to be sure.

I forget when I looked up the word and figured it out. But whenever it was I had been a grownup for quite a few years.

I hope this isn't a failing of some sort that I have to burn off in purgatory for a milennia or so.

I will, of course, have bigger fish to fry.

05/24/24 03:19 PM

#13965

Mike,

The passage we all refer to as the "Prodigal Son" is not actually titled as such. It is more correctly refered to as "A man had two sons". And the lesson is really about both sons. One who gains forgiveness by returning and mending his ways, but also the self righteous son who who thought he desrved more than his brother because he stayed in line and stuck to the rules.

This is brought out in a wonderful (and very short) book "Prodigal God" by Tim Keller, a highly regarded Presbyterian pastor and professor who I hear a lot about from my young assistant pastor and very good young freind - and who was a student of Keller years ago. This simple book hit me like a ton of bricks!

Tim Keller had written a number of books, and was most recently a pastor in New York City. He passed away last year.

This video of Tim Keller is quite short - give it a few seconds to start.

05/24/24 03:20 PM

#13966

is anybody else having difficulties with the Font and Size controls on the Forum?

05/24/24 10:26 PM

#13967

^{not at all, dave. I don't know what you're talking about. Not that there's anything new about that.}

^{But I do find that explanation of "the prodigal son" story interesting.}

^{However I am Not all that charmed by the title he mentions as being widely used. It's a little flat.}

^{Perhaps the title should be "The Problematical Sons."}

I'm counting on you to get it changed. See to it. So it shall be written. So it shall be done. You don't have to thank me but you can if you want. I'd like to see a little groveling, actually.

05/25/24 03:10 PM

#13968

You English majors - sheesh!

05/25/24 05:16 PM

#13969

John Jackson

MM, if you read the Reuters article carefully, it says that the incident you mentioned (11 trucks “intercepted” by hungry Palestinians with only five trucks reaching the intended distribution site) happened a week ago on the first day distribution was attempted. According to the article “The U.N. halted transport for two days while it came up with a new route. WFP spokesperson Shaza Moghraby said on Thursday that deliveries resumed on Tuesday with 17 trucks arriving at the warehouse, while on Wednesday there were 27 trucks”. So only a tiny part of the total aid that will be distributed over the next several few months was “intercepted”.

I guess it’s unfortunate that the initial 11 trucks never made it to their intended destination, but people do desperate things when they (and their kids) are starving.

05/25/24 10:30 PM

#13970

John.....there is one and only one group in this war that is bent on causing misery for the people of Gaza....and it is Hamas.

05/25/24 11:14 PM

#13971

It's just....not...that.....simple. What it IS is horrific and inhumane. And it's coming at those poor people from more than one direction. It's an utter holocaust and it's sickening.

(Jerusalem, April 4, 2024) – An Israeli airstrike on a six-story apartment building sheltering hundreds of people in central Gaza on October 31, 2023, is an apparent war crime, Human Rights Watch said today. The attack, which killed at least 106 civilians, including 54 children, is among the deadliest single incidents for civilians since the Israeli government’s bombardment and ground incursion into Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7.

Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target in the vicinity of the building at the time of the Israeli attack, making the strike unlawfully indiscriminate under the laws of war. Israeli authorities have provided no justification for the attack. The Israeli military’s long track record of failing to credibly investigate alleged war crimes underscores the importance of the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s inquiry into serious crimes committed by all parties to the conflict.

“Israel’s unlawful airstrike on an apartment building on October 31 killed at least 106 people, including children playing football, residents charging phones in the ground-floor grocery store, and displaced families seeking safety,” said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “This strike inflicted massive civilian casualties without an apparent military target – one of scores of attacks causing overwhelming carnage, and highlighting the urgency of the ICC probe.”

Between January and March 2024, Human Rights Watch spoke by phone with 16 people about the October 31 attack on the residential Engineers’ Building, and the death of their relatives and others. Human Rights Watch analyzed satellite imagery, 35 photographs, and 45 videos of the attack’s aftermath, as well as other relevant photographs and videos on social media. Human Rights Watch was unable to visit the site because Israeli authorities have blocked virtually all entry into Gaza at its crossings since October 7. Israel has repeatedly denied Human Rights Watch requests to enter Gaza over the last 16 years.

Witnesses said that on October 31, 350 or more people were staying at the Engineers’ Building, just south of the Nuseirat refugee camp. At least 150 were seeking shelter after fleeing their homes elsewhere in Gaza.

Without warning, at about 2:30 p.m., four aerial munitions struck the building within about 10 seconds. The building was completely demolished.

Two brothers said that they rushed out of their nearby homes to look for their two children and their nephew, whom they knew were outside playing football. One of the men said he found his 11-year-old son lying under concrete bars in the rubble: “The back of his head was cracked open, one of his legs seemed barely connected to his body and part of his face was burned, but he seemed to be alive. We freed him in seconds, but he died in the ambulance. We buried him the same day.” All three boys died in the attack.

None of the witnesses interviewed said they had received or heard about any warning from Israeli authorities to evacuate the building before the strike.

Human Rights Watch confirmed the identities of 106 people killed through interviews with relatives of some of the victims, including 34 women, 18 men, and 54 children. The total number of dead is most likely higher. Airwars, a nongovernmental organization that investigates civilian harm in conflict zones, identified in open-source materials 112 names of people killed, including 96 identified by both organizations, as well as 19 other people not by name but through their relationship to other victims in their family.

Human Rights Watch interviewed two people involved in the recovery of bodies from the rubble of the building, who said that on the afternoon of the attack they worked together with others and helped recover about 60 bodies, and that over the next four days, they together recovered about 80 more bodies. A third person said that he helped recover bodies from the rubble for 12 days after the attack. It is possible that other bodies remain under the rubble.

The Israeli authorities have not publicly provided any information about the attack, including the intended target and any precautions to minimize harm to civilians. They have also not responded to a March 13 Human Rights Watch letter summarizing the findings and requesting specific information.

The laws of war prohibit attacks that target civilians and civilian objects, that do not discriminate between civilians and combatants, or that are expected to cause harm to civilians or civilian objects that is disproportionate to any anticipated military advantage. Indiscriminate attacks include attacks that are not directed at a specific military target or use a method or means of combat whose effects cannot be limited as required. Warring parties must take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians, including by providing effective advance warnings of attacks unless circumstances do not permit, and by sparing civilians under their control from the effects of attacks. Serious violations of the laws of war committed by individuals with criminal intent – that is, deliberately or recklessly – are war crimes.

The absence of a military objective would render the attack on the Engineers’ Building unlawfully deliberate or indiscriminate, Human Rights Watch said. The fact that the building was hit four times strongly suggests that the munitions were intended to hit the building and that the strike was not the result of a malfunction or misdirection. Even the presence of a valid military target would raise issues about the attack being disproportionate, given the visible and expected presence of large numbers of civilians in and around the building.

The strike is one of hundreds of attacks that the Israeli military has carried out in Gaza that have killed or injured Palestinian civilians since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7 that resulted in the killing of more than 1,100 people and resulted in about 240 others taken hostage. Airwars has credibly reported that 195 likely attacks by the Israeli military killed from 1 to 9 civilians, 107 attacks killed between 10 and 59, and 4 killed between 60 and 139. As of April 1, Airwars had also collected preliminary information about civilian casualties in another 3,358 attacks most likely involving Israeli airstrikes.

These attacks underscore the devastating harm to civilians and the increased likelihood of unlawful attacks when explosive weapons with wide-area effects are used in densely populated areas. All governments should support the November 2022 Political Declaration that seeks to curb the use of such weapons in populated cities and towns.

05/26/24 09:22 AM

#13972

John Jackson

Totally agree, Mike - it's not that simple. Hamas is as depraved a group as there is, but what they did doesn't give Israel license to bomb Gazan cities into oblivion, kill 30,000 civilians, and starve the rest. Overreaction only deepens Palestinian resentment of Israel and harms, not helps, Israel's long term security.

And Netanyahu wants the war to go on forever, because after it's over, his ultra right wing coalition will be booted out and he'll go to jail on corruption charges.

05/26/24 11:54 AM

#13973

John, Mike.........what does the term "from the river to the sea" mean?

05/26/24 12:24 PM

#13974

MM: Why do I get the feeling this is just a coy argumentative strategy on your part?

The multi-generational hatefulness embodied by that slogan is obvious. Nobody's saying it isn't.

05/26/24 12:48 PM

#13975

Whoa. I've seen extended metaphors before but yikes, this one is a doozie:

John Gardner on the Key to Self-Renewal Across Life and the Art of Making Rather Than Finding Meaning

A person is not a potted plant of predetermined personality but a garden abloom with the consequences of chance and choice that have made them who they are, resting upon an immense seed vault of dormant potentialities. At any given moment, any seed can sprout — whether by conscious cultivation or the tectonic tilling of some great upheaval or the composting of old habits and patterns of behavior that fertilize a new way of being. Nothing saves us from the tragedy of ossifying more surely than a devotion to regularly turning over the soil of personhood so that new expressions of the soul can come abloom.

In the final years of his long life, former U.S. Secretary of Heath, Education, and Welfare John Gardner (October 8, 1912–February 16, 2002) expanded upon his masterwork on self-renewal in the posthumously published Living, Leading, and the American Dream (public library), examining the deepest questions and commitments of how we become — and go on becoming — ourselves as our lives unfold, transient and tender with longing for meaning.

05/26/24 12:58 PM

#13976

https://youtu.be/KXcQ892cKso?si=cqr4LTTC138LDSdu

Mike, I posed the question because the slogan undeniably proves that Hamas, who is responsible for this latest conflict, has no interest in any two-state solution. They have consistently made it crysal clear that their stated goal has only one end......the elimination of all Jews from Israel. Period. You cannot peacefully negotiate with those who seek the death of you and your loved ones.

l asked you in an earlier post to view two articles showing what the Hamas terrorists did to the Jews on October 7th, and further asked a reasonable question....if your daughter (or son) had been brutally attacked in this way, what would be your appropriate response. You never answered that question.

I will add these two video clips from 8-9 years ago detailing how Palestinian children are groomed at an early age to hate all Jews. These children in the videos are now young adults, how is it not reasonable to deduce that they are now incapable of accepting coexistence with any Jewish person?

https://youtu.be/j3hOrRMARZo?si=vfuLzs-PbmzrvYZY

05/26/24 05:25 PM

#13977

Good grief. I'm no cheerleader for Hamas. You needn't have provided me with the information about how savage they are. That goes without saying.

In any exchange we've had about this I have simply emphasized the complexity of the situation.

Whether or not you meant to, you have made remarks that sounded dismissive of Palestinians in general.

That was a red flag to me. Somehow you consistently equate my saying that it's a complex situation -- with suffering innocents on both sides -- with being a big fan of Hamas and their murderous ways. I don't know whether to call that naivete or dirty pool on your part.

Not that our conversation is likely to have any effect on this ongoing tragedy but my instinct is ordinarily one of sympathy and hope for victims on either side of a terrible situation such as this one, as opposed to clucking away at how evil the evil ones are. It's the usual, cyclical story of hateful people: in the end they are their own worst enemies.

As for Palestinian children being raised to hate Jews, it's dangerous to oversimplify, as you can see if you read this story:

https://forward.com/israel/170451/palestinian-textbooks-dont-vilify-jews-new-study-r/

My sympathies tend to gravitate towards the innocents that suffer in these situations. This, from today's paperL

Israel says the strike targeted a Hamas compound.

An Israeli airstrike on a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza, killed at least 45 people on Sunday night and wounded 249, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday. The Israeli military said the strike was aimed at a Hamas compound.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it was looking into reports that “several civilians in the area were harmed” by the airstrike and a subsequent fire. A follow-up statement said the strike had killed two Hamas leaders. A legal official with the military said Monday that the strike was under review.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that its ambulance crews had taken a “large” number of victims to the Tal as Sultan clinic and field hospitals in Rafah, where few functioning hospitals remain, and that “numerous” people had been trapped in fires at the site of the strikes.

The Red Crescent said the strike hit the Tal as Sultan area of Rafah, within what the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone, where it had told Palestinian civilians to go for shelter ahead of its ground offensive in Rafah. But two Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the strike was not inside a humanitarian zone.

Israel’s assault on Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, has come under intense scrutiny, particularly after the International Court of Justice on Friday ordered Israel to “immediately” halt the military offensive there. Though the court has few effective means of enforcing its order, it puts more pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rein in its attacks in Gaza and reduce civilian casualties.

Bilal al-Sapti, 30, a construction worker in Rafah, said that shrapnel from the strike tore up the tent where he was staying with his wife and two children, but that his family was uninjured.

“What kind of a tent will protect us from missiles and shrapnel?” he said.

Mr. al-Sapti said that at the scene of the strike he saw charred bodies and people screaming as firefighters tried to put out the flames. “The fire was very strong and was all over the camp,” he said. “There was darkness and no electricity.”

Doctors Without Borders said more than 15 dead people and dozens of wounded in the Rafah strike were brought to a trauma stabilization center that it supports in Tal as Sultan.

Dr. James Smith, a British emergency specialist in Rafah who has been working at that center, said the attack had killed displaced people who were “seeking some degree of sanctuary and shelter in tarpaulin tents.”

Speaking from a house a few miles away from the trauma center, a distance that he said had become too dangerous to cross, Dr. Smith said footage shared by his colleagues at the trauma center of injuries from the strike and the fire were “truly some of the worst that I have seen.”

Though the United Nations estimates that more than 800,000 people fled Rafah in a matter of weeks after the Israeli military announced its offensive, the area remains densely populated, Dr. Smith said.

“These are very, very tightly packed tents,” he said. “And a fire like this could spread over a huge distance with catastrophic consequences in a very, very short space of time.”

The attack was “one of the most horrific things that I have seen or heard of in all of the weeks that I’ve been working in Gaza,” he added.

Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the Israeli military’s top legal official, said on Monday that the airstrike was under review. She said the military police had opened around 70 criminal investigations into potential misconduct during the war.

“Naturally, in a war of such scope and intensity, complex incidents also occur,” General Tomer-Yerushalmi said in a speech to the Israeli Bar Association. “Some of the incidents, like last night’s incident in Rafah, are very serious.” She added that the military “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians during the war.”

Reporting was contributed by Patrick Kingsley, Johnatan Reiss, Iyad Abuheweila and Aaron Boxerman.

— Anushka Patil

05/27/24 02:11 PM

#13978

ihttps://www.memri.org/reports/children-hamas-tv-kids-show-criminal-jews-are-plotting-replace-al-aqsa-mosque-their-false

Mike, I did read the article to which you linked. I prefer to rely on Memri TV to provide detailed accounts of the Middle East. If you don't believe the story the videos tell, then you will never understand the depth to which the Jewish people in Israel fear the genocidal intent of Hamas and the Palestinan people who voted for them. When evidence is given as to the visceral hatred of those who have repeatedly stated that they will never be satisfied to coexist with you and that they only seek your annihilation, then you must do whatever it takes protect your loved ones. I have stated as best as I can that the fact remains that Hamas is the driver of the atrocities in this war which they began. They are the ones prolonging the suffering of their own people.

https://www.memri.org/tv/young-brother-nephew-father-gaza-militant-baraa-al-zard-pledge-fight-martyrdom-liberate-palestine

05/27/24 03:15 PM

#13979

John Schaeufele

WSJ Opinion: Joe Biden’s 2024 Election Bribes | Watch (msn.com)

05/27/24 05:40 PM

#13980

"One Way Ticket Day"

I think I posted a story here (maybe a year or two ago) about a tragic loss that occured one day while flying our mission inside Cambodia. It was easy to recall the date, May 10th, my mother's birthday.

On that day, the helicopter flying the C&C ship ("Command and Control" - directing the mission) threw it's main rotor blade and dropped like a rock from 1,500 feet. All four crew members were killed - a Major that we deeply respected, both door gunners, and a newer Captain (Co-pilot) named Eddie Molino. It was the story about him badgering me before takeoff untill I agreed (after having drawn straws, and loosing) to switch cockpits with him so he cold fly with Major Smith (our CO) that day.

I have thought about this many times and wondered if I coud locate his family. I've never been sure if I shoud contact them. And if I did, how much of the details would I share with them.

There is an organization known as the "Vietnam Helicopter PIlots Association". They have a directory of members - about 20,000 of the 40,000 of us whe flew there - some from all four branches of the servide - but by far the majority of us were Army. I became a lifetime meber of teh VHPA a few years back.

They publish a quarterly magazine and hold large reunions once a year in different parts of the country. Five years ago, they held the reunion in Reno, Nevada. Though I have never been to one of these large reunions, (I've done two smaller ones).

I read the magazine about the events and noticed that Captain Eddie Molino's family were honored at a special dinner as a "Gold Star" family who live near the reunion. This jolted me into action, searching for the phone numbers of those family members listed in the VHPA news pubication. I could not find even one number still in service.

Our classmate Sheila McCarthy lives near Reno, and even sent me a photo of the previous governor of Nevada, meeting with one of Eddie's sisters at a Nevada veterans statue dedication..

Eddie was either full or half blooded Paiute-Shoshone Native Americans from nearby Fallon, Nevada, east of Reno. I even tried to call the office of the tribal headquarters in Fallon, but it was the height of the COVID epidemic and their offices were closed. What a disapointment!

Fast forward 5 years - about a month ago I get the latest VHPA newsletter and the next reunion (last week) was to be in Reno again. I decided to try and call the VHPA office and see if the Molino family would be there. They said yes and gave me a way to get a message to the family at the reunion.

So last week I get a strange phone call from a lady asking me if I was the David Mitchell who flew a helicopter out of Vinh Long in Vietnam. I thought it was something else at first - (I am also looking for another guy) - but quckly realized that it was not.

I said yes and she quickly puts a guy on the phone who was one of Eddie's brothers. He gets on, and puts the phone on speaker phone as he has severel brothers and sisters in the room.

We had quite an emotional conversation. I shared a few details about that day but not that one critical part of the story. Not sure if I ever will. They told me they wished I had sent the message through the VHPA sooner - they said they would have paid for my airline ticket to the reunion.

I have have no photos of Eddie (other than a publsihed photo of his Green Beret gaduation), but I emailed them a few photos around Vinh Long airfield and we have done some texting to the one another. I promised to stay in touch..

05/27/24 10:16 PM

#13981