Dishonoring the Honorable to Regain Our Sanity and Decency

I just heard something I found fascinating. I'm still not sure how I feel ABOUT IT, but I think it bears rumination.

Apologies... but there is so much disturbing news anymore, these times are so unsettling, I need some positive news once in a while. Today for me it's that last night at a local horror film night event at the Historic Roxy Theater in downtown Bremerton, the trailer for my film, "Gumdrop, a short horror" (now in post production), premiered first time anywhere, as well as any of my work anywhere ever before.

And, I got to be on stage for the first time with other filmmakers as...a filmmaker.

MC Poppie on left, I was next to him right after I
took this photo and ran up on stage with other filmmakers.

We also got to see some some great works by others. I liked them all as director Kelly Hughes did a great job curating our viewing. Really like the Laslo Films short and of course, Pat Moriarity's animation of, "The Realm Beyond All Reason". I even won one of Pat's t-shirts, the grand raffle prize of the night! Great evening!

From Pat Moriarity

Now, back to our regularly and more serious, scheduled programming...

Author Allison Stanger and political scientist and the Russell J. Leng '60 Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College and the founding director of Middlebury's Rohatyn Center for International Affairs. said that after WWII Winston Churchill dishonored Air Marshal Harris and the bomber pilots of Dresden since they were responsible for doing it. For following orders. Perhaps even as they should have. It was something they felt they needed to do because the system was broken during the war.

Bombing a civilian only target is disgusting. But Germany was doing it and they needed retaliation.

But after the war recognized that it was dishonorable. So rather than celebrate it and those who did it, he instead dishonored them in order to reak with the poor behavior of the past and rebuild democracy. Which was done. So if you go to Westminster Abby today you will see those fighter pilots, but not those bombers in those four sortes of 13 and 15 February 1945.

It's an interesting consideration. I've always felt we should leave up confederate and racist statutes for instance, and put up information explaining it and that we have grown beyond that kind of backward and destructive thinking. We shouldn't hide our bad past, we shouldn't wipe away the ill deeds of our country.

But this addresses another issue altogether. Should we dishonor our operatives during the post 9/11 wars who tortured people. Should we consider to not honor them for their actions even though we may have needed them to do them? Though one can argue the validity of torture, to be sure.

I raised my own children with a hard lesson I learned myself growing up. That in life one does things because they are right. And sometimes you will break the law to do it. And you will be punished if caught. It is up to you at the time to make up your mind, in full knowledge that you may suffer for doing right.

There are, let's face it, times we must stand and do what is right! Even though it is considered by many, or by the Law, to be wrong. And we will pay the price for it. Or we can hide from it and deal with our own inner voice for the rest of our life. If you have one.

And today, too many seem not to have one.