(Book - Letters The Olympian Refused To Print)   

A platoon of soldiers smoking dope before they leave JBLM. One actually goes AWOL to dodge a drug test before being shipped out. Once in Afghanistan they drink liquor received through the mail, smoke hash until the smell won’t go away, kill unarmed civilians for sport, lie about them being armed, cut off body parts for souvenirs and the Army can’t seem to find anything wrong happening here. Or rather they can’t seem to find anyone to blame. And everyone is bending over backwards to pin the deeds on someone or something else. We were all high at the time. It was the Lt.’s fault. It was the Capt.’s fault. The General didn’t know this was going on.
Any real investigation going to show up in this paper? Or will we be spoon-fed whatever pabulum the media guys at JBLM want us to swallow?
I expect the Army brass will want to cover this up as soon as possible because it’s embarrassing. Though why would it be embarrassing to an organization whose mission is to kill people? Will this platoon of soldiers become the next rush of heroes? Will we see a new wave of SUPPORT THE TROOPS stickers? Are we so hyped up on extremism from the politicians and hate-mongers that this is codoned as just another day at the office?
God or Allah, I hope not.

 (228 word count)

He was not a hero by any measure, and this fact no one would dispute. He was a rapist and a killer tormented by hallucinated demons. He believed himself to be the messiah sent from on high, and expected to be recognized soon as the savior. Whatever in the final days led him to target the police vanished with him on a cool night in Seattle. His is the rare case in which it is nearly impossible to imagine even a mother’s love, or a sister’s.

For better than a day this wounded man desperately clutched the body that had committed brutal crimes against his fellow human beings. How had his own life been revalued when the savagery was committed? The physical test he endured in the aftermath of the attack demonstrated without question his irrational will to live. What life could be granted to a man who had committed this treachery? Clearly the disease had spread into every corner of his being.

Listening to the local radio broadcasts on Sunday morning this week informed me of the startling event. Four area police officers had been killed in an ambush style shooting at a coffee shop in Lakewood Washington, south of Tacoma. The area is a tangle of highway off ramps, outdated traffic signals, strip malls and asphalt. There are two major military bases there in the vicinity, and mingled with it all are people, dodging traffic and making a living. Unlike Olympia to the south and Tacoma to the north, the area around Lakewood is not known for its culture. There is a lurking sense of sadness and despair, squandered possibility and dead earth paved over without regard or inspiration. It is one thing to look out over land that has been humanized by inspired, thoughtful and creative people; architecture and community have a way of mitigating the destruction that precede them. But many parts of this country have been humanized in the name of commerce and access, and the people who live there are forced to do so around it. They are expected to live without culture save what appears on their television’s screen, or what they gather from the shelves of the cinder block gas stations on nearly every corner. The officers killed are by all reports dedicated professionals with families and friends who love them. Contrary to the experiences of many, I have almost always been treated with kindness and respect and professionalism by the police officers I have encountered. I learned early in my life that there are simple things one can do to stay on their good side, and I have many times walked away from situations that would have resulted in arrest for others. There is no doubt that my background and behavior have allowed me to relate to authority figures in a way that legitimizes me in their eyes, and protects me from their shallower inclinations.

I received the following via email:

Vigil at State Capitol Steps
Tuesday December 2 from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Mourns Washington State’s Next Execution

A somber vigil on the steps of the State Capitol Building from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Tuesday evening December 2 will mourn Washington State’s next execution – the fifth in 16 years.  The State has been planning to kill Darold Stenson at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla on Wednesday morning December 3.  Last-minute stays of execution are delaying the execution until perhaps 8:00 p.m. Wednesday evening or perhaps until January or later.  In any case, the vigil run from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening December 2.

Regardless of whether the execution is stayed, canceled or rescheduled, the vigil will be held anyway to show opposition to the death penalty overall, not only in this particular case.

“The death penalty perpetuates the cycle of violence,” said Glen Anderson, a member of the sponsoring organization, the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Committee for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.  “Murder is wrong, whether committed by an individual or by the government.  Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

I saw this at the movie theater in Lacey:

Join the National Guard - it's practically like being a race car driver or a rock star.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold it right there!

- Actually, when you join the military, you will be trained to kill human beings.

While there are some similarities with race car driving, the truth is that it's very, very different.