Who Was On Watch As the Dark Age Approached? (August, 2004)
By Orson Scott Card

Whenever I hear somebody answer one of my jeremiads with the deeply stupid question, "Well, do you want to go back to the fifties with segregation and McCarthyism and "Father Knows Best" I feel the chill of despair. We seem to have fallen in love with the idea of hating our own past.

But for those who are ignorant of history--i.e., anyone whose education was acquired in an ordinary American high school or university - - let me remind you:

It was in the 1950s that the Marshall Plan set a new standard for treatment of defeated enemies.

It was in the 1950s that the armed forces were integrated and the first court decisions struck down segregation in the schools and began the road toward the integration of all races into the fabric of American society.

It was in the 1950s when television programs actually tried to show inexperienced families how kind and loving parents responded to problems and solved them peacefully.

It was in the 1950s when actively subversive Communists extended their rule over nearly half the population of the world, and America led the way in standing against the further extension of this evil, oppressive, cruelly anticivilized ideology.

It was in the 1950s that the GI Bill opened the doors of the American university to people who a generation before could barely afford to stay out of the workforce long enough to get a high school diploma.

The 1950s were the last decade in which marriage was still believed to be permanent, illegitimate births and abortions were rare, and adults chaperoned children to keep them from having sex before they were ready to deal with the consequences.

No civilization has ever been as successful at bringing freedom, self-government, relative safety, and a chance for happiness to such a large proportion of the human race as the civilization of western democracies under the leadership of the United States of America. And a rational claim can be made for the idea that the 1950s represent the peak from which we have deliberately and unnecessarily fled, heading irrationally downward into darkness.

Read the full article at: http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/040826darkage.html

I am a small and precious child, my dad's been sent to fight.
The only place I'll see his face is in my dreams at night.
He will be gone too many days for my young mind to keep track.
I may be sad, but I am proud.
My daddy's got your back.

I am a caring mother. My son has gone to war.
My mind is filled with worries that I have never known before.
Every day I try to keep my thoughts from turning black.
I may be scared, but I am proud.
My son has got your back.

I am a strong and loving wife, with a husband gone.
There are times I'm terrified in a way most never know.
I bite my lip and force a smile as I have watched my husband leave.
My heart may break, but I am proud.
My husband's got your back.

I'm a soldier's sister; my brother's out at sea.
He's on the way to Iraq today, to fight for you and me.
I pray for him each day and night, and my voice often cracks.
The tears may come, but I am proud.
My brother's got your back

I am a soldier . . . serving proudly, standing tall.
I fight for freedom, yours and mine, by answering this call.
I do my job while knowing the thanks it sometimes lacks.
Say a prayer that I'll come home.
It's me who's got your back.


9 PM. Prayer for U.S. Troops
Given the current state of our world, this is probably a pretty good idea. Hope you'll join with me.

In W.W.II, there was an advisor to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every day at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people and peace.

There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America. If you would like to participate, every evening at 9:00 PM Eastern Time (7pm Mountain time), stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States, its citizens, its men and women in the military, and for peace in the world. If you know anyone else who would like to participate, please pass this along.

May God Bless America.

Have you noticed anything fishy about the inspection teams who have arrived in Iraq? They're all men!

How in the name of the United Nations does anyone expect men to find Saddam's stash? We all know that men have a blind spot when it comes to finding things.

For crying' out loud! Men can't find the dirty Clothes hamper.   Men can't find the jar of jelly until it falls out of the cupboard and splatters on the floor....and these are the people we have sent into Iraq to search for hidden weapons of mass destruction?

I keep wondering why groups of mothers weren't sent in. Mothers can sniff out secrets quicker than a drug dog can find a gram of dope. Mothers can find gin bottles that dads have stashed in the attic beneath the rafters. They can sniff out a diary two rooms and one floor away.

They can tell when the lid of a cookie jar has been disturbed and notice when a quarter inch slice has been shaved off a chocolate cake. A mother can smell alcohol on your breath before you get your key in the front door and can smell cigarette smoke from a block away.

By examining laundry, a mother knows more about their kids than Sherlock Holmes. And if a mother wants an answer to question, she can read an offender's eyes quicker than a homicide detective.

So...considering the value a mother could bring to an inspection team, why are we sending a bunch of men who will rely on electronic equipment to scout out hidden threats?

My mother would walk in with a wooden soup spoon in one hand, grab Saddam by the ear, give it a good twist and snap, "Young man, do you have any weapons of mass destruction?" And if he tried to lie to her, she'd march him down the street to some secret bunker and shove his nose into a nuclear bomb and say, "Uh, huh, and what do you call this, mister?" Whap! Thump! Whap! Whap! Whap! And she'd lay some stripes across his bottom with that soup spoon, then march him home in front of the whole of Baghdad.

He'd not only come clean and apologize for lying about it, he'd mow every lawn in Baghdad for free for the whole dang summer.

Inspectors!   You want the job done?     Call my mother.

When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

He answered by saying that, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."

It became very quiet in that room.


Note: This is a tremendously great and meaningful statement, though, as it turns out, not appropriate in this instance - using the accomplishments, sacrifices, and integrity of an earlier United States of America to justify inappropriate, even criminal behavior later. If Colin Powell had any of the integrity of past Americans, he would have answered the question, although in this case, the U.S. would not have been in Iraq in the first place. Please see video below.