Dakota Beacon

After agonizing over mind and heart-shattering local issues such as DSU and “Fighting Sioux”, I decided to lift my spirits by reading some of the “happy news from other states, other countries, hoping to share in the wealth of their up-lifting spirit on my weary North Dakota mind. I thank the Bismarck Tribune for their diligent search through all the “news” and selecting and polishing those diamond bits of wisdom in the Tuesday Tribune, April 17, 2012; “Seeking to find and publish the truth, that the people of a great state might have a light by which to guide their destiny.”—{Stella Mann, Tribune Publisher, 1939.} My following selected news items show my appreciation to these who search endlessly for the uplifting “happenings” world-wide that reveal “the truth” giving the reader the “light by which to guide their destiny.”  Thank you. The items are listed in the order of their importance in “creating a guiding light.”

First, a South Dakota prison inmate, convicted of kidnapping, is suing Sanford Hospital, formerly known as Sioux Valley Hospital, for $1,000 because he was “circumcised” without his consent, when he was born 28 years ago.  He claims that this “procedure was unnecessary, unethical, and without medical benefit.”  He also alleges that it “robbed him of his sexual prowess.”  “Cochrun isn’t represented by a lawyer in the lawsuit.”  This is truly a soul-searching, heart-wrenching, pitiful  “destiny.”  But, there is light!  He should immediately get a court-appointed lawyer, increase the $1,000 by $99,000, try to get on a “Meet the Press” TV show {he could ‘tweet’ the Octomom Nadya Suleman for advice; they could ‘twitter’, maybe even pose in the nude, which would reveal each other’s ‘prowess’.}; publish a book in which he proves that this circumcision which robbed him of his “sexual prowess” also closed the doors to high-paying and high-powered jobs in politics, the Military, the C.I.A, the GSA, and who knows what else!  He is also looking for a “foreskin donor.”  Any offers?

The April 2, 2010, GSA Las Vegas  $823,000.00 Party is the next spirit-lifter!   Congressional committee members “from both parties could barely restrain themselves as they SOMETIMES shouted their outrage over the spending.”  Of course, they may have been ticked off BECAUSE they had not been invited, surely no DEMOCRATS would have gone since President Barack Obama had expressly forbidden “FAT-CAT” private companies to host those kinds of parties with company monies.{Maybe this “party” was before Obama forbid them –it may even have been WHY he forbid them , have to ask the “mind-reader!!” But then, considering the specific TAXPAYER expenditures, there is a bight light of honest endeavor: they had hired a “MIND-READER.”  He tried to read the Obama Heath Care Bill, but blanked out!  They then employed “bicycles for team-building exercises”, but the probably, since the mind-reader, getting a collective-team zero from all the minds there, had employed UNICYCLES, which are hard to do teamwork on.  And lastly, following the example of their exalted leader, the TAXPAYERS paid for “trips by GSA employees and their family members to the Las Vegas strip.”  Yes, “… the Las Vegas strip…”-- NOT--  “the  …Las Vagas strip-joint….” That is the bright light concerning these nice, family-oriented, loving, mothers and fathers {no stay-at-home-fathers or mothers} but hard-working, government employees taking, a well-deserved family break, even if it was on TAXPAYER money.

Martha Johnson, the only bright star in this mess of ethical darkness, who resigned over this blot, though it was NOT her fault, saying “that she learned after taking office, that the Western Region, Conference ‘had evolved into a raucous, extravagant, arrogant, self-congratulatory event.”  Of course, these political taxpayer rip -off artists are being punished by being put on administrative leave. They get paid but do NOT come to work.  And they plead the Fifth!

The next ethical and moral bright comet of integrity, is, of course, the 21 members of the President’s Secret Service, and the Commander-in-chief’s military, who were “accused of CAVORTING WITH PROSTITUTES at the hotel”, which Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff, said he regretted, because “it diverted attention FROM Obama’s diplomacy at a Latin American summit”.  When I served, we had a CODE OF CONDUCT card, which we had to carry on our person at all times, and be able to recite it at any time, to anyone in uniform.  It was well understood that the Code was to be lived.  “Cavorting with prostitutes?” CODE OF HONOR?  Also when I served, an enlisted man’s, or a lower-ranked officer’s behavior almost always reflected their level of respect for their “superiors” in rank. This earned ability to command respect has been destroyed by the behavior of “political prima-donnas” in Washington. They lack the honor code demanded of troops with “their boots the ground” in mortal combat.  They, the “political prima donnas” have earned no one’s respect due to their absolute lack of any Code of Conduct when their integrity is on the line in moral combat in the Halls of Congress or in the White House.  The list of wanna-be Commander-in-Chiefs,  “pretenders of honor”,--John Kerry, Jon Edwards, Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart, who are moral jokes to their “followers---is endless! Honorable men, however, who, by their behavior in mortal or moral combat earned the respect of those they led, are respected by their followers. General Dempsey further stated, ‘”We’re embarrassed by what occurred in Columbia, though we’re not sure exactly what it is.”  Too bad they don’t have the “mind-reader” from the Las Vegas party, or the “circumcised” guy from South Dakota.  I’m sure HE would know. You uninvited AARP taxpayers should feel humbled but also happy that the CIA, the GSA, the TOP Military BRASS, do feel really bad about the fact that they got caught.  This, however, does not speak well of their expertise in their field, what ever that field is.  The prostitutes, however, those poor working mothers certainly have the world’s sympathy. Those nasty bullying, anti-women brutes: Secret Service men, probably some SWAT Team members, or even SEALS, cavorting around, threatening these job-seeking “work- at- hotel” mothers.                                                                                                                                                                                  Finally, Defense Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, REGRETS the “$860,000.00 cost to taxpayers for his weekend trips to his California home 27 times.”  When is the last time you heard of an enlisted soldier, during his/her deployment, getting trips home because it’s “important just to get your mind straight and your perspective straight.”  It’s a pity some of this “mind and perspective” straightness, was not reflected in his behavior.  Regrets?  Nathan Hale’s statement: “I REGRET that I have but one life to give for my country” still defines the highest and noblest example of integrity. I’m sure that Nathan Hale felt no regrets for his action.  And he did NOT say, as is taught now, “I regret that I have but one life to ‘Lose” for my country.  See Revelation 2:4, {Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”  They did not “lose” it, which would be an accident: they “chose” to “leave” it , which is a deliberate choice, which among free men and women, is ALWAYS action between Cause and EFFECT, the two  “chancellors of God”, according to Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Self-Reliance, which should be the required reading for every American who plans to vote in 2012, and especially for my friends at AARP. C’est Tout!

April 17,2012