A War Ends. There Were No Winners. But Shame The Losers.

When September 11th, 2001 occurred, I had just entered my senior year of high school.  

The decisions we all were about to make felt important.  I was in the angst of deciding between a few different personal pulls.

1) The urge to defend what I felt were the righteous values of America that I had come to believe in.  Innocent lives need to be protected.  Acts of horrific violence should not be excused and should be dealt with in specific investigations and specific corrections.  That the attacks were of such a horrific nature that it deserved the incredible damnation the world over.  It deserved a righteous response.

2) The Government, and particularly the military industrial complex, as well as politicians, would have say over what I did.  When you sign up for the military, you sign up in my view to essentially trust that the politicians and generals will do what is in the best interest of both the men below them, as well as for the ideals they truly believe in. 

You sign up to serve.

After learning the history of Vietnam, the history of Japanese Internment camps, the history of slavery, I didn't truly trust that I myself would not be asked to perform horrors in "service" to my country.

3)  The chance to go to a major university and shed the shackles of high school.  Finally, I thought I would get the opportunity to truly interact with a brand new peer group, find what I truly excel at and love and chase those dreams down.

I felt I had a chance to now truly focus on football at one of the highest levels possible.  Not to mention explore my burgeoning obsession with media, journalism, and politics. 

I would be among the first to decide how they might be able to help their country respond to the terrorist attack.

I chose college.  A choice I made based not only on my desire for classes that I would find stimulating and the pursuit of playing major college football, but it was also based on a lack of confidence in our military and politicians to do the right thing.

Now this twenty year war is over, and with it, one of America's greatest tragedies.

Much will be written about what went wrong, but it must be said that the lion's share of the blame begins with President George W. Bush and the military industrial complex as it existed in the year 2000.

The mantra of "Never Forget" and the fear instilled into Americans in the aftermath was intense.

If terrorists could perform 9/11...what else could they do?  What would they do?

In the end I came to the conclusion that any kind of substantial attack would have to be more through infrastructure and attempting to divide.

I thought given that America possessed the most powerful and sophisticated military technology, the "War" would be over over in a relatively short amount of time.  And in fact, the majority of fighting and major operations seemed to be over before I graduated in the Spring of 2002. 

Now the the rhetoric coming out of the White House was that Iraq was also a harbinger of terror and that country needed to be invaded in the interest of our own security.

At this point, I was beginning to feel skeptical that the reaction and resources were being used to fuel fear.  Of course extremists were bad, but the Islamophobia and racism that also erupted out of 9/11 became the lifeblood of media outlets and culture grifters.  It was gross and disgusting to me from the start.  

The response I was looking for in the wake of 9/11 should have been precise and guided.  Humane and noble.  

 Get Bin-Laden.  

Get the terrorists.  

Get out, and assist with building relationships and infrastructure in the area.

Instead, before I finished my Freshman year at Penn State, we were invading Iraq on what appeared to me, an outspoken young person, to be on an extremely flawed premise.  Allegedly the situation was so dire due to the "Weapons of Mass Destructions" that Saddam Hussein supposedly possessed.  He was going to target the United States and this was all quite imminent.

I had my doubts.

I knew Iraq had been a bad State actor, but I didn't perceive them to be a serious organized threat.  After all, after Desert Storm, it was made more than obvious that whatever military might Iraq had, it would pail in comparison to the might of the United States.

The question was no longer "Do you believe in a war against the terrorists who committed 9/11 and a commitment to helping Afghanistan become become more secure and sustainable?", it became, "Do you believe in a simultaneous war in Iraq and Afghanistan under the guise of a "War on Terror?".

I did not.

But for all that I railed against the War, for every time I spoke up against it, there was little I could do in the face of authority, and indeed, plenty of authority that wanted and believed in the War.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and those that orchestrated the War from the beginning were icons for some on the right, and certainly they were popularized further thanks, in no small part, to their relationship with Fox News.

As loud as I might talk about Foucault's boomerang, or that the propaganda being spun out of Fox News was dangerous, I lacked any authority as a 19 year old sophomore in college.  I was not going to substantially affect the war in any significant way.  Further still, I wasn't even sure I was right yet. 

The scientist and philosopher mentality in me assumes that often when I speculate, I can be wrong.  While I certainly thought it seemed like Fox News was essentially a propaganda wing for the Republican party; I was reflecting how, likewise, CNN seemed to occupy the same space for the Democratic party.  Maybe I should do more listening than talking until I was older and wiser.

By the end of college in 2006 , I was a bit jaded to this point.  America could easily take out a government, wipe out buildings and use our advanced military to go just about wherever we wanted.  It had felt obvious to me that now that the mission was to occupy both Iraq and Afghanistan indefinitely.  With Bush winning his re-election effort on the strength of the fear of another 9/11, making a contrast to Kerry who he had portrayed as weak on terrorism. 

Yet we still hadn't gotten Bin-Laden, we still seemed to be extremely nervous about terror plots and the ideas of religious zealots and extremists carrying out strikes at home, and there were constant problems with the war efforts.  Botched raids, bad intelligence, horrible waste, and of course, the constant violence that cost thousands of U.S. military lives, hundreds of thousands of fighters from the Taliban, Afghani security forces, and various other militias that would be counted as allies or enemies depending.  

Also the hundreds of thousands of civilian lives that would be impacted as collateral damage both in Afghanistan, and here at home.

At 22, I understood that currently there was a mass failing by the political leadership who seemed to be far more concerned about money and power than they were about the lives of the Americans they sent overseas.  There also was a failure by the military to recognize and control different aspects of their own units that at times resembled undisciplined mercenaries rather than the supposed greatest fighting units on earth.

There was also a failure by our journalistic and media institutions to properly hold to account those in political power.  As I remember watching the cable news around this time, I started to realize how much I struggled with what I felt were, at times, extremely inept responses to pressing questions of the day.  I had long struggled with the presentation of the news on cable networks.  It often felt fake.  Just relatively attractive people reading scripts and sounding vaguely authoritative while doing so.

Then along came Obama.

Obama wasn't supposed to win mind you.  It was supposed to be Clinton.  

His rise through the ranks in the Democratic primary was something to behold, where everyone seemed to be taking note of the potential for change with Obama.

I say with no regret that I voted for Obama, and that he was easily the best president I've seen so far.

However it seems that his decisions to continue the war efforts in Afghanistan rather than finding a safe withdrawal solution will also be part of his legacy.  

He had two terms to do the right thing.  He didn't do it.

He got Bin-Laden in 2011, the mission and occupation should have begun to end then.

Trump inherited a 16 year fiasco,  and at least recognized it and attempted to pull out of a mess that most Americans remain in favor of despite how terribly it's gone so far.
 
I think Trump's deal with the Taliban will be looked at as a way out as quickly as possible.  That he was willing to get a Taliban leader out of prison to strike the deal was telling that he had no interest in doing things through legitimate channels.

However, while the deal was made by Trump, it was ultimately honored to some degree by Biden.

Biden and the military advisors again botched this ending.  Perhaps there was no good ending to ever be had.  But the horrific images of people falling from aircrafts to their deaths due to the sheer panic as the Taliban moves back into the cities is heartbreaking.

So hold them all to account.  Bush.  Obama.  Trump.  Biden.

The world so badly needs the cycle of violence to end.  The eye for an eye mentality has nearly come to full fruition as the whole world is burning and we can only see things through our own myopic lens. 

Instead of focusing on the tragedy of Afghanistan and the brutal fact that so many service men and woman have been constantly lied to for the past twenty years, let us focus on the positive.

America needs help.  It needs the best people in America to once again serve in so many different ways that do not include violence or killing.

Right now, as I type this, the worst disease in over 100 years has come to our shores and killed over 600,000 Americans, more than the combined number of soldiers lost in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam combined.  

Summers in America are experiencing extreme heats, extreme drought, and extreme flooding.  Winters have been bringing pockets of extreme cold as well as increased precipitation.  It has led to deaths all over the country.

The war on terror needs to end, while the war to survive climate change and disease, and finding the ability to live with each other in peace begins.

 

Giant Lessons. A Book Review

I didn't see the younger camper before I swung.  It was purely accidental that I hit him.  A moment of sheer jubilation turning into abject terror.

I had just scored the winning basket in the championship round on a baseline jump shot in the older kids bracket.  My momentum after I had released the shot had carried me closer to the audience of fellow campers, who made up a human wall surrounding the court.

And while I and the older kids made up some of the camp, there were kids quite a few grades behind attending as well.  One of the younger attendees happened to be standing right where my unintentionally jubilant fist would land.

The blow landed not squarely, and not with the full force of say a true punch, but with enough force that it startled me and I didn't know how to react.

My moment of celebration was drowned out the waves of fear that were now crashing around my heart.  

"I'm so sorry!  Are you okay?  I didn't mean to hit you.  I'm so sorry!"

But the damage was still done, and as I saw behind the kids now crumpled glasses, I could see the tears welling up, and the red mark on the side of his face.  All I could feel was remorse and shame.

Of course the camp staff had attended to the younger camper, who ended up being okay, just extremely shaken up and sore.  But the attendees also came over to me to make sure I was okay, as I was still shaken up as I had clearly been the source of the head trauma.

I understood it was an accident.  A moment where I got carried away with the winning of the game. I went to express my joy, and unintentionally hit a younger spectator.  Yet, the fact that I caused that damage sticks with me to this day.  It was a moment where I began to think of myself as a "Giant".

One of the camp staff was a former local college standout named John Amaechi.  To this point, he is still battling to reach his goal of playing in the NBA, but I know he is easily the most accomplished basketball player I have ever met in my young and slightly sheltered life.

"You're doing great here," he said to me as he took me aside.  "You might be the best player in the whole camp this year.  But you're also bigger than most of these kids and a bit more physically advanced.  You're going to need to be a bit more careful going forward, and if you really want to go to the places that I think you want to get to, you are going to need to keep working as hard as you can towards those goals.  You may feel ahead now, but people will catch up, and it will be the people who are disciplined and willing to sacrifice who will succeed."

Since then a lot has happened, but it doesn't make his words and wisdom any less true or less valuable.  In fact, his latest book might be the medicine that society needs to take.

In Psychologist John Amaechi's book, "The Promises of Giants," Amaechi tells his own similar story of being out on the dance floor, letting loose and having some less than glamorous results.

The Promises of Giants gives us a glimpse into the thinking that has helped move Amaechi from a pudgy, comic nerd in his adolescence, to a professional basketball player in his 20's and 30's, to becoming a psychologist, professional consultant, and now, a best selling author.

His story is his own, and he brilliantly tells a tale of accountability, commitment, vulnerability, mental and physical health, and leadership.

After the first listen, I found myself personally reflective and felt a need to to listen to the book again.  I wanted a way to keep reminding myself of the specifics of the promises and to keep holding myself to account.

One of the things I found myself thinking over and over is despite our vast differences, there was still an overlap in how my mind and his seem to work; which is of course, the point.

If you're looking for some inspiration about leadership, or looking for tools that may help guide you on your specific quest to success, The Promises of Giants offers a persuasive argument towards personal accountability and the taking care of one's mental and physical health.

We all can be looked at as Giants.  From our kids, to our parents, to friends and family, each and every one of us plays an incredibly spectacular role to someone else.  Amaechi's book is a positive guide on what we should do about it.

Penn State's X-Men

This story won't be for the jaded.  It's not for the pessimistic doubters or downtrodden skeptics. 

It is not going to be for those that have lost the ability to truly dream.

This is for those that believe that the world is flawed, but there is hope.

It is for the young, and young at heart, who want to build rather than tear down.  It is for those that want a feel good story in an ocean of the everyday cynicism that exists the world over.

This metaphor is going to need to take a little imagination on your part, and a good and thorough job of explaining on mine.  I don't suspect that this will be that easy for everyone who isn't fascinated by the world of comic books and the future of major college athletics in America.  So in the end, don't take this one too seriously.  I just wanted to have some fun with comics and football.

Metaphorical Super Hero

But I do believe the essence of this following argument.

Penn State football is the current equivalent of Marvel Comic's "The X-Men" and is in the process of growing and getting much, MUCH better.

Penn State's football program has just gone on a major terror on the recruiting trail.  Finding and identifying some of the best football talent in all of America and convincing them to come to this island of excellence in the middle of Pennsylvania.

It is to the point now that they hold, by any measure, one of the top classes in America.

While I doubt that James Franklin has time to read many comic books these days, I am fascinated by

Fictional Super Heroes

the parallels I see occurring with his football team this particular season, as well as the relaunch of one of the most popular comic book series of all time, the Marvel comics' The X-Men.

The X-Men, yes those Marvel super heroes that were launched in the 60's, made
a comeback in the 90's and early '00's and had been relatively dormant in recent years, have recently been relaunched in the comic universe with "Dawn of X", this time with some ingenious storytelling that allows fans young and old an avenue back into the story.

For many who aren't fans, a large part of the appeal of the X-Men comes from their origin of power being genetic.  Aspects of your being that was the result of random mutation that you never had any control over.  A universally identifiable sense of being different, and being celebrated for those differences. 

The mutants are all offered refuge primarily by professor Charles Xavier, a mutant who has the ability to read and alter thoughts, from a world that mostly misunderstands and fears them, a place where they might pursue who they are, and their respective dreams to the best of their ability.

The X-Men and the idea of outward differences leading to issues of class and mistreatment were inspired by the civil rights movement in the 1960's. They were a reflection of race and LGBTQ+ issues; they were a reflection of America.

In the comics, the original "home" for the mutants is at a school run by Xavier, whose morality and intelligence are often beyond reproach, and a mutant himself (remember he is modeled after MLK Jr to a degree).  However, Xavier often has a perceived Achilles heel in the form of his own ego and naivete towards the nature of some individuals.

Here in reality, Penn State football is led by James Franklin, a coach who is complimented for his professionalism, his ability to be authentic and engaging, and most of all, his ability to win.  However the ride hasn't been perfect, and critics will point to last year as a clear low point.  That for all the positives of the Franklin regime, perhaps there were blind spots hidden behind some of the success.

I find these similarities important.  What are Penn State's current and prospective students other than  gifted youngsters?  No, the students can't shoot lasers, pop claws, or move objects with their minds.  But each student does come with their own unique gifts and attempting to harness the full extent of their capabilities is the expressed goals of both the student and the school.

For Penn State football to become the super power it wants to be, it must attract the best players/students/mutants at a historic rate.

So what exactly does Franklin and his assistants sell to prospective players?

I would imagine he's selling the same thing as the fictional professor.

A place where, finally, they can all be themselves, and that this new place will learn to adapt with them.  That they have a place at the forefront of that change.

I believe Penn State, and the community around Penn State are at a genesis point, where the people that make up State College and the surrounding area is once again ready to showcase its growth and its commitment to excellence and ethics.

While I must confess I have been disappointed in decisions made in some respects, I truly believe in the mission of Penn State and James Franklin in earnest.  

A place where you can come from anywhere, whether it be England, Orlando, Hawaii, California, Ohio, Canada, and you can be welcomed here.

A place that wants its best in-state prospects to stay home and help guide the way for their own peers and be leaders.  To be metaphorical Giants.

In the recent comics, Professor Xavier comes to the conclusion that he must expand beyond the ideas that he previously had about what success means and the best way to get there. 

In an effort to consolidate power for a noble goal, the X-Men begin reaching across aisles that have never been crossed before.  Making for what are at first uneasy, but necessary, alliances.  

It seems to me that Franklin and his staff have reached a similar answer, and so far, have been able to successfully recruit players on the promise that what they are building is more ambitious and has more potential than anywhere else.

That their goals are bigger than just winning championships but also becoming absolute leaders in developing a culture of excellence that will resonate throughout each's own communities. 

Perhaps this analogy is a bit of a reach, perhaps you find it all a bit silly.  But I would not dismiss the appeals Franklin and his staff brings to people from communities looking to build and create the next generation of excellence right here in State College.