EXPERIENCES...

Where have we been in this week that seems to have lasted far, far
beyond seven days?... Last Monday was an eternity ago...

For me it has been ceremonies, lesson prep, counseling, schedule
adjustments, doing things that were not scheduled as mine to do but
they had to be done, instructing... and this afternoon... great joy...
pizza and sleep... pizza because I wanted to do something to make me
feel good... and sleep because too many days this week have been far
too early in relation to the times of going to sleep at night... too
many short nights.

At other places in the week I have read heart rending accounts of the
escorts that have brought sons home from the battlefield for burial and
the honors paid to the escort and the one being brought home by those
in the home places of the one being returned, in peace keeping and in
the airline industry.  These accounts do two things to my heart.  First
it makes me proud, almost to bursting, to be an American citizen who is
also a Peace Keeper... and it hurts my spirit so deeply... far too
deeply to describe in words, that our sons and daughters who have
hardly had a chance to live are gone from among us and we will see them
no more in this life... 

This is the hellish cost of war that imparts the deepest wound to my
servant's spirit... We can't stop the process because there is not
enough of us who want to go all out in our fight to win the battle in
which we are engaged... nor enough of us that admit that the cost is
too high the way it is being done and bring our sons and daughters home
from that field of battle if we do not intend to do all that it takes
to win the conflict.

I send the blessings of my Commander-in-Chief and my blessings to you
every day.  There would be no life as we know it today in this nation
and this world without you and all of those Peace Keepers that have
preceded you.

Our troops have the will to win... but there are too few of our troops
engaged in the battle... and there is far too many of the enemy that we
cannot see because this is a different kind of war... and a different
kind of enemy.  It is not a war between military units... it is a war
that involves an enemy that is all too often so well mixed into the
population of the countries in which we are fighting that the enemy is
next to impossible to find and eliminate... unless it comes to
eliminating women and children (because some of the time
the very enemy that is hurting our troops is composed of both women and
children). 

The source of this enemy is evil personified.  We are reaping the crop
of evil that has been sown in the minds of the children as they grew...
now they are the adult insurgents that hate, destroy and sow those
seeds of evil contention in the minds of their current children... and
even hate and destroy the people of their own nation that do not agree
with them in all points of religion... and are committed to eliminating
all people that do not agree with them if they cannot force the people
to think the very same way they think.

That attitude is something that we have the greatest of difficulty
comprehending in this country where all religious beliefs are
tolerated... and even no religious beliefs are also tolerated and
allowed.  Most of our people do not understand the mental programing
techniques that have been used to spawn the power against us in the
world today.  It is not new.  It has been around for a very long
time... but now it seems to be proliferating and expanding beyond
comprehension.  The media sees to it that we receive a constant dose of
their revelations hourly if we will listen... daily if we read...

For as long as this nation has existed we have had a crop of sons and
daughters who were raised up with a different kind of spirit.  They
were raised with the teaching that you... any one of you... and every
one of you can make a difference in the life around you for the better
if you so choose... and over the centuries of our existence the the
seeds planted in fertile minds have borne fruit that has built and
sustained this nation and much of the world even in those times that
looked bleak and tested whether or not this nation and the ideals upon
which it was founded could or would survive. 

These who would make a difference came from every region and from every
walk of life within our citizenry... From poverty in the cities and the
backwoods... from the bayous and the coasts... from the hills,
mountains and the plains... They came and made the difference even when
others in the world would liked to have written us off and been done
with this upstart nation that loves freedom and personal rights so very
dearly that we defend them with our lives and with all that we can
throw into the fray.  Our citizens came to this nation from all over
the world.  We became a huge melting pot... we became Americans... and
our love of life and liberty was extended to so very, very many places
for the benefit of downtrodden and conquered people.  We love life and
liberty and we want to give it to any people that want it... and will
live according to it's dictates and it's principles.  Our young people
and their leaders pay a terrific price to offer this life and liberty
that we have and love so deeply, that we want to give it away to others
who have never had the joy of it.

We have fought wars to keep it... We have fought wars to enjoy it
ourselves when politics would tear us apart from within... We have
fought wars to bring an end to wars and give the gifts of life and
liberty to others.  The current conflict will test our composition and
endurance to see if we will survive yet again and throw enough power
and resources into winning the right to give life and liberty to people
who have never experienced it as we have experienced it. 

Life and liberty is so precious once you have experienced it,  the
price of war to preserve it for ourselves and the right to offer it to
others that might want it bring us to the willingness to fight wars to
give others the opportunity... but since the middle of the last century
we have not been willing, as a nation, to fully commit all that it
takes to get the job done.  The troops on the water, in the air, on the
ground, in the hospitals are fully committed... but there are not
enough of them in the fray... so the casualty cost is too high in
relation to the results being gained.  We are doing tremendous things
for the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq but we do not get the news of
the great strides in progress for theor lives and infrastructure from
the media.  Here at home we are fed the continuous fare of the losses,
the casualties and the costs.

Even in the homeland we are paying high costs for the keeping of the
peace and the restoring of the peace.  Baltimore has had three Peace
Keepers shot within ten days.  Peace Keepers are attacked and wounded
daily here at home.  We seldom hear of all of the attacks because there
are so many of them.  Over 50,000 physical assaults are perpetrated
upon our law enforcement officers in this nation every year... That's
about 140 to 150 physical assaults every day... and about 150 killed
every year in the line of duty.

The costs mount up when we look at the human costs involved in keeping
the peace in the homeland and in the world. 

Where do we get such committed people who will take the risks and do
the duties of being Peace Keepers in both the military and law
enforcement?...  They are our sons and daughters... somewhere along the
way of their lives they have received and dwelt upon the value of life
and liberty... They committed their lives to keeping life and
liberty... and seeing to the continued power that life and liberty
imparts to those who experience it... and live in the enjoyment that
these gifts impart to those who have the opportunity to experience
them... and cling to the gifts of life and liberty as they cling to
life itself.

Each human heart would like to experience the right to decide the
course of living for itself... to take advantage of those unique ideas
and thoughts that come to each one... In this time of life during
the youth and teen years, especially in this country, it is often
called rebellion... the powerful desire to do things a different
way... In Peace Keepers it is channeled to build on those ideas and thoughts
and impart a better way of life to both one's own life and to others
lives for the common good.  That was the theme of the foundation of
these United States of America... but it was purchased, not with just
an idea and some little effort, but with the bodies and blood of those
who would sacrifice to see it accomplished for the benefit of all...
even if those making the sacrifice did not see the finished product for
themselves but laid their lives down in sacrifice to obtain the dream
for others.

Every Peace Keeper who has ever been in the line... those of our
past... those who have paid the ultimate price of total sacrifice of
life and limb... those who have served, survived and retired... those
currently serving... and those preparing to serve... are the sum total
cost of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness... the sum total of
the cost of peace and safety in these United States of American and in
every hamlet, community, town, city and state that comprises this
nation and it's people.  We have all of what we have... and are as
individuals... and as a nation... because of the Peace Keepers who
dared to step out to dedicate their lives to securing and maintaining
all of it for all of us.  Everything else in this nation is built upon
the accomplishments of the Peace Keepers.

Peace Keepers... I see and know the cost.  I see and know your pain to
the fullest extent that I can experience pain for and with another
person.  I see your sacrifices.  I see you... and in you I see our
future... for you all, individually and collectively, are our future. 
THANK YOU!... TODAY AND FOREVER, THANK YOU!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanza... and a peaceful,
enjoyable time for all of you who read this message.  If you celebrate
any of these holiday events we share joy with you.  If you celebrate
none of these we would like to extend and share our joy with you.

"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!"  Be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take
the very best care possible for you as you provide peace and safety for
others.  Especially see to the strength and nourishment of your
spirit.  You need for it to be strong in order for you to have the best
and be the best that you can possibly be for yourself and for others.

Call or write if I any be of any service to you.

As it has always been... So it still is...


"VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST...
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST...
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN."  Sun tzu

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT...
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)...
BE SUCCESSFUL... BE SAFE...
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process. 
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for... and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief), Jesus Christ the Son
(the Eternal Captain of my life) and the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live... with Him and for you I serve...
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not...
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers, 
VIRGINIA STATE POLICE ALUMNI,
RETIRED Police Officer, Certified Police Instructor,
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
=================================================
Copyright: CHAPLAIN CORNER (DRS) 2006. All rights reserved.
May not be duplicated without permission, except to be forwarded
with copyright and all source information for any quotation intact.
 
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