Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies

The sight outside the window is a lovely winter scene with a blanket of snow on the ground and on rooftops. Trees are covered in white and after two days of snow the sky is clear—temperature drops to the teens.

Some time ago newscasters wondered why there was such a huge following of the Twilight series,four books written by Stephanie Meyer with the first book making its appearance in 2005. After the fourth book came out and with the announcement of a movie, Alanna encouraged me to read the books,perhaps I should qualify that with "annoyingly." I relented only because the series was done and I wouldn't be left to wonder what would happen next.

The theme that is most prevalent is the message that people who find themselves in circumstances beyond their control can find ways to overcome the weaknesses they are faced with and not give in to the temptations or the natural tendencies of their condition. Simply stated, we can rise above the weaknesses of human nature and difficult conditions. What we learn from the Cullen family is that if there is a desire, or a will, there is a way to overcome and be successful. Each family member had to accept who they had become—a powerful and deadly immortal who, without restraint, could wreak havoc on an unsuspecting populace. With an understanding of who the once were, becoming a vampire was an ugly situation and they each decided not to become a slave to the nature of their kind of immortality. Staying faithful to the goodness they developed as humans, they desired to continue in that development by finding alternatives to satisfy their appetites, and in some instances, to delay satisfaction to protect the innocent.

The magnetism of Edward is that he accepts what he can do to Bella and satisfy his desires, yet he abandons that ability because he loves her and desires that she experience life in all the ways that he cannot. He also desires that she not experience the hardship and loneliness of being a vampire. Edward is the epitome of a gentleman—one who cares for and defends the honor and virtue of women, even to the denial of ones own passions. A characteristic not easily found in many young men or suitors. Edward even encourages Bella to control her desires because if he is tempted beyond his ability to control himself, the result is deadly.

The series is riddled with virtues from a moral compass that is difficult to maintain, yet we find success in a family of people with very dangerous abilities. They use the abilities to help others. They seek to treat humans with the respect and dignity they deserve. We follow the examples of Carlisle and Esme who are without guile. Carlisle is able to be around humans without difficulty because he is so practiced in his control that it has become his nature.

Perhaps the idea of a controlled and unselfish vampire didn't draw a lot of true vampire followers. I thought the idea for the story was brilliant and hope that one will read the books and find all those hidden virtues that may not be so evident to the young reader as it can be for the older one. Moreover, find joy in this family of socially ostracized beings and rejoice in their goodness and know that we can become good people if we so desire.
We can be better than who we are. We have seen such advances made by many in our community, and even in our own families. We can realize our goals by accepting who we are and realize that with a desire to become and the determination to work hard we can be successful.

Dear Family and Friends,

I have asked Pat and Alanna to help me post this letter since they have greater access to family communications than I do.

As an immigrant to the USA who has defended it for 30 years, I want to express my concern about the direction the people in our country are taking. We are losing our liberty and economic opportunity because of corrupt politicians and an ever expanding federal government.

In keeping with good American tradition I will not tell you who to vote for. When I was returning home from CENTRAL COMMAND, the Delta Agent asked me in a very public setting what the military thought of the up-coming election for President. I replied, “Sir, I have served in the military for thirty years under Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and the Bushes. Whoever the President is, whether he be Democrat or Republican, he is the Commander-in-Chief, and we salute smartly!”

The foundation of our liberty and the reason that the USA is considered by people all over the world as “a shining city on a hill,” is our founding documents and the rule of constitutional law and the free-enterprise system it supports. I remember a Saudi officer who visited the USA for an extended period and was amazed that men in power were still subject to the law for their crimes. “This never happens in Saudi Arabia,” he said, “the royal family (and its extended relations) acts however they wish without being brought to justice.” Another Saudi who had never been out of his country and who experienced the internet for the first time at his father’s home in Jeddah said to me, “Mr Kiwi, I have never felt so free!”

Many of us have heritage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We understand that the US Constitution is divinely inspired. We are taught concerning:

D&C 101: 77 … the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles;
78 That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity (i.e. his own future), according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.
79 Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.
80 And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.

This past Memorial Day, while on duty in the CENTRAL COMMAND, Joint Operations Center, I observed that our liberty is still preserved by the shedding of blood. I received a verbal report of the death of one of our most elite troops in one of our most important missions in Afghanistan and I was deeply struck by the sacrifice he and his family made for us.

Exercise your sovereign right to vote! Do not let his sacrifice or my thirty years of service be in vain! We have sovereignty – not the President or Congress! We choose who represents us in making laws and who serves as Commander-in-Chief to preserve our liberties!

We were taught to uphold the constitutional law of the land:

D&C 98: 4 And now, verily I say unto you concerning the laws of the land, it is my will that my people should observe to do all things whatsoever I command them.
5 And that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind (this is what inspired me as a young man in New Zealand), and is justifiable before me.
6 Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land;
7 And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.
8 I, the Lord God, make you free, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.
9 Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.
10 Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.

I am impressed with the wording of the preamble to the Constitution that states:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity (descendants), do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Note that the government is to “provide” for the common defense. I have participated in that responsibility now for thirty years. I also note that it is to “… promote the general Welfare …” not “provide” it as we do for the defense! Even Article I. Section 8, which allows Congress to “collect Taxes … to pay the Debts …” uses constrained language when it allows taxes to also “… provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States.” There is not wording that allows Congress to “provide citizens with Welfare.” Where the government is “providing,” is where I see our liberty eroding.

I have watched with dismay over the past thirty years as the opportunities for my children have not equaled mine. Why – because of government “providing” or socialism – a system that New Zealand has been stepping back from (slowly) and that hampers the nations of Europe and Canada. Government involvement in the free market is always a disaster because it is fueled by taxes and has no competition or profit incentive to make it low cost and efficient. There are three services that the government increasingly “provides” where government-induced inefficiency and inflation is destroying our “general Welfare.” They are healthcare, education, and housing. Most of you young folks know exactly what I am talking about –you have seen wages remain low while healthcare, education, and housing costs have gone through the roof and left you out in many cases. You may not appreciate how much government is to blame for this situation.

Healthcare. Social healthcare is that which we have in the US military, New Zealand, England, and Canada. Our family always enjoyed the best the social healthcare provided because I was a pilot – yet we celebrated whenever we got referred off base because the civilian healthcare was far more efficient and professional. If you are familiar with Pat’s recent “heart” problem, you are aware that we left Alaska in March with no diagnosis of her problem after four months of “government-managed” investigation. In October, at MacDill AFB, FL., which has no hospital and all emergency services are provided off-base, Pat’s problem was found by a proficient free-market health system in just one days! It then took seven days for the government to approve the corrective surgery! Eliot’s Spina bifida occulta was not diagnosed until he was ten, simply for not doing a spinal x-ray. His incontinence and developmental delay were not linked to this problem and worked on until I was retired and under Boeing’s healthcare program. The military system is tied to a tax-supplied budget and has no way to expand and improve because of competition or profit. The government cuts back on services to meet the budget, provides the least expensive examinations and medications and if this doesn’t work then you get referred out to the civilian sector. In our government system you have no choice of provider and no recourse to sue for malpractice. If you vote in a single-payer system for the US, you will lose all competition by definition of a “single-payer” system. Canada’s system is collapsing in some provinces because of single-payer and Canadians in medical trouble come to the US to be taken care of … our free enterprise, competition for profit healthcare system is the envy of the world. The government “provided” Medicare and Medicaid programs are killing the system and driving up costs. The fix is not more of the same. There are ways for government to “promote the general (Health)care” for all without “providing” it through taxation and government distribution. My mother got her first colonoscopy at age 80 in New Zealand – what do doctor’s recommend? – age 50! Aunty Lynda’s grandmother in England was denied healthcare because she had Alzheimer’s (she would be dying soon you see …). Our extended family has a lot of negative experience with government healthcare. Can we do a better job of “promoting” healthcare for all – absolutely! Assistance with private health insurance for those who need it and tort reform would be two great steps to take.

Education: Government loans and grants for students has grossly inflated the cost of education and impoverished students! If a student does not finish his education he is in serious trouble. He can’t get the higher paying jobs and is trapped in a low-income job with no ability to repay the loans. There are ways for the government to “promote” education for all while not “providing” it!

Housing: Government programs to fund mortgages for people who could not afford them has inflated the housing market, produced financial trading instruments based on high risk mortgages that have spread across the globe and is now crashing the global economy – thank you US Congress! Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two private/government lending organizations that encouraged government-backed lower standards for lending (sub-prime mortgages), are at the heart of this problem! But Congress was the brains and failed to regulate Fannie and Freddie. You remember when Mr Franklin Raines was fired over accounting fraud and walked away with ninety million dollars over six years.

In late 2004, Fannie Mae was under investigation for its accounting practices. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight released a report on September 20, 2004, alleging widespread accounting errors.

On December 18, 2006, U.S. regulators filed 101 civil charges against chief executive Franklin Raines; chief financial officer J. Timothy Howard; and the former controller Leanne G. Spencer. The three are accused of manipulating Fannie Mae earnings to maximize their bonuses. The lawsuit sought to recoup more than $115 million in bonus payments, collectively accrued by the trio from 1998–2004, and about $100 million in penalties for their involvement in the accounting scandal. Wikipedia: Fannie Mae

The warning voice was made by the Federal Chairman, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Executive Branch of government, but Congress refused to act in 2004 and 2005. Why? Because Fannie and Freddie were donating to their campaigns! One Senator who received significant monies from them is now running for President. Now your money and mine is being thrown to the fat cats to try and save the economy to the tune of over 1 trillion tax dollars! Hold on to your wallet and do not expect to become economically free any time soon! The rate of government expansion is frightening – whenever it expands, taxes must expand!

Let me quote from a letter I sent to my representatives:

To the US Administration, Congress, Federal Reserve and fellow Citizens,

God have mercy on us, we have elected foxes to guard the hen house! Now we look to them to save us from their crimes – unlikely! I want accountability! I want the foxes shot!

I had faith in God, but I also put my confidence in the US Government when I emigrated from New Zealand. The US Constitution of liberty inspired me to participate in and defend the USA. I served 23 years in the US Air Force and then gained first hand experience with radical Islam when I worked five years in Saudi Arabia. After being retired almost seven years, I returned voluntarily to active military service immediately following 9-11.

Thirty years of military service taught me that my confidence in the US Government is based on a foundation of our votes. When we do not hold our representatives accountable for their corruption – continually re-electing corrupt representatives – we are in trouble. When we are recipients of their graft our vote is corrupted and our liberty is lost.

Government programs do not have to yield a profit to stay in operation – therefore it is easy for those programs to be inefficient and wasteful with great negative consequences to those they are tasked to serve. For example we failed the nation before 9-11 – the North American Air Defense Command was still postured for the Cold War even though we knew about the asymmetric threat. Free market efficiencies are absent from government run programs and to the extent that government gets into business, those business sectors suffer. We are seeing this in government influenced home-buying and healthcare programs.

From the dot com crash to now I have watched with dismay as my four sons and daughter have struggled to provide for themselves and their families in an environment where pay has declined relative to the inflated cost of government influenced housing, education and health care. As I have sought to assist them I have become impoverished. Fortunately we all wisely stayed away from the government sponsored no-money-down-no-interest-for-10-years home-buying programs. Over the past few years the cost of housing has inflated to the point that the bulk of American workers cannot afford a home. That meant that the prices had to come down and will continue to come down until supply matches affordable demand.

If the artificial inflation of these government-influenced markets and their impending crash was evident to me - a citizen with little education in economics - where were my representatives? These foxes have been taking eggs for themselves, their special interests and their constituents, while also sacrificing some of the hens to their greed.

While this economic crisis of our own doing is threatening its full impact, I must wait until Nov 4 to make a change in Washington. For now let those in Washington who are true representatives of the people stand up, identify the foxes, and throw them out of their influential positions! Let honest men and women in government rise up and save us from the foxes that have enriched themselves at our expense.

I need to keep my faith in God and look for men and women who share with me a fear of God’s judgment of the wicked. I want men and women in congress who fear the judgment that God will surely impose on them and the nation they lead if they continue to steal the eggs and sacrifice the chickens.

Neil Holland

The level of corruption is astounding. I see it on both sides of the aisle – Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank in the current housing scandal, Ted Stevens of my home state who was just convicted today, and to my great embarrassment as a fighter pilot – Randy “Duke” Cunningham – Vietnam War Ace – who took 2.4 million dollars in bribes from defense contractors and is now in prison!

To those of you who are now coming of voting age I apologize for my generation’s greed – allowing our representatives to corrupt themselves and then vote us money from the general tax revenues. Taking from others and giving to ourselves. Instead of “promoting the general Welfare” we have been stealing it through tax confiscation and “providing” it through the non-competitive corrupt-enterprise system of the federal government.

Vote – for God’s sake vote! Throw corrupt politicians out and send to government those who will get government out of our lives and “promote the general Welfare” rather than “provide” it. The current tax system supports this corruption – promote the Fair Tax! It taxes consumption – taking a government share at the time of purchase. If you spend more, you pay more tax; if you spend less, you pay less tax. Support term limits. Oppose “earmarks” that bring the gravy home at other’s tax expense, and replace special interest influence on your representatives with your interest in our “general Welfare!” Read your constitution and save it – our liberty is at stake!

Neil “Kiwi” Holland
28 Oct 2008