My boy and Halloween

My wife says the story better than I do...

So, to hype my boy up for Halloween my wife and I are telling him made-up, light stories of monsters and the boogie man while we're hanging plastic ghosts on the plants in our front yard. My wife tells him that she's a Werewolf and will turn into one on Halloween - he doesn't show much discern. A little later when she and him are making ghoul garland for the banister to our stairs she tells him that daddy is a Vampire and will turn into one during Halloween and says that "Thank goodness he won't be here so we won't be get bitten by him and turn into a Vampire, too!"...again, he shows no discern. So, after the garland is finished it's time for him to go to bed. He goes upstairs, brushes his teeth and climbs into bed. As 'mommy' is putting him to bed he looks up at her and says in so many words, "So, when I grow up will I be a Werewolf like you or a Vampire like Daddy?".

Little did we know that our joking around now leads my boy to believe that his parents are monsters!

Park51 and the Smoker

After reading all of the controversy behind Park51 I have related this whole situation to that of a smoker. Picture a family in a park having a wonderful day and eating lunch under the sun. A man walks up nearby, sits down and lights up a cigarette down wind from the family...not knowing that the smoke is blowing in their faces. The family asks the gentleman if he can put out his cigarette and the gentleman says politely, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know my smoke was blowing your direction" and the man gets up and moves to a different location because he wants to continue smoking.

I compare this situation to the same situation we're facing at Park51. Manhattan is the park, ground zero is the family eating lunch and the backers to the construction of Park51 are the smokers. The only difference in this scenario is that when the smoker sits down, lights his cigarette and is asked to leave he tells the family he has the right to sit there and there is nothing the family can do about it. Personally, have you ever heard that from someone if you asked them that their smoking bothered you? Probably not.

I'm not concerned of whether it's a right...I'm concerned about the general politeness of human kind within the society of the United States. Our rights and freedoms separate us from the "bad guys", and so does our general politeness and concern for others within our community.

If this kind of thing is happening around the country in regards to building mosques or other Muslim structures I would tend to not agree with this. This incident was centrally focused on New York City and that's where the concern should lie. Additionally, we, as American civilians, should respect each other. One event already occurred and cannot be changed, but the other event can and should be changed. Please, be the polite smoker.

California Judges Ruling - no "Don't ask, don't tell"

I am in complete agreement with Secretary Gates on this issue. The military needs more time to get Soldiers trained before we just jump into this...things like this can't be decided and then acted upon on a whim. This is new ground for the military and an historical event that has never been utilized in our militaries. Personally, it doesn't matter to me whether we have openly gay Soldiers in the military or not. I'm cognoscente to the changes of today and understand certain things will change in my life...this is one of them and my boss, the President, said this is one of the changes. I'm okay with that...but I don't speak for every Soldier out there. I'm an officer and I'm not deployed right now. Here's what I do believe is wrong with this situation.

The "don't ask, don't tell" policy was not created to protect the heterosexuals in the military - let's not forget that. That policy is there strictly to ENSURE THE SAFETY of the homosexual community in the military. My question to beg this California judge would be this: "Have you ever served in a branch of the United States military and, if so, ever deployed to a combat zone where it's a little harder to control the actions of Soldiers who are carrying assault weapons?". I believe this judge is acting blindly without conducting any research before making this activist ruling. To say it's unconstitutional is one thing, to enforce it on the citizens serving in the military without proper education & awareness is putting these citizens at risk.

When this policy is prematurely removed I fear the worst will happen in our military during a crucial time of conflict in countries abroad. Our Soldiers will turn against each other and the focus on fighting will be with each other, not the enemy.