Presidential Warmongers and Whoremongers

It is oft said, "Good men don't start fights or run from them." Plenty of Americans exemplify such cowboy virtue in their personal lives, but American presidents are now establishing a tradition of abandoning such wisdom for the reprehensible extremes of bullying or cowardice. George Bush was barely engaged in a crucial defining struggle in Afghanistan, when he felt compelled to turn his attention to opening a 2nd front in Iraq, for reasons that were (at best) poorly defined. Barack Obama felt compelled to publically announce an arbitrary date for an Afghan withdrawl (what men who care about victory call retreat). This made both pacifist supporters and Taliban enemies feel much better.

Primal Wilderness Rambling From Tough Times

Few would have guessed I was a reflective person when I was young. I grew up in a trailer without running water in the Colorado mountains. School was the antithesis to what I considered freedom. When I willfully paid no attention in class, I found myself accused of Attention Deficit Disorder. Later, I spent time in a juvenile detention center and dropped out of high school. By fifteen, I was on my own.

Strangely, this path led to personal reflection. I soon learned that life is a challenge not to be taken lightly. I became a firefighter, then transitioned into being a paramedic after I broke my back. My injury, as well as my career in emergency medicine, reinforced and refined what I had learned early on. There is much fragility in life and in a breath, it’s over. Being a paramedic taught me the value of every breath and inspired me to see the world.