Brian Gallimore's Blog

from http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com
“TCS holds that all human beings are fallible and can make mistakes. You can feel 100% sure that you are right, when actually, you are mistaken. We think that there is such a thing as truth, and right and wrong, and that through conjecture and criticism, human beings can come to know and understand truths about the world, including moral truths. But what we can never get is authority, or proof, that any particular idea or belief is one of those truths.

“TCS holds that improvement is possible and that the best state to be in is one in which you are solving problems and effecting improvements.”

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At first glance, this makes some sense, but I am wondering if it is practical.

 Monsters and the Weak
 
The Sun beat like a hammer, not a cloud was in the sky.
The mid-day air ran thick with dust, my throat was parched and dry.
With Microphone clutched tight in hand and cameraman in tow,
I ducked beneath a fallen roof, surprised to hear “Stay low.”
 
My eyes blinked several times before in shadow I could see,
The figure stretched across the rubble, steps away from me.
He wore a cloak of burlap strips, all shades of gray and brown,
That hung in tatters till he seemed to melt into the ground.
 
He never turned his head or took his eye from off the scope,
But pointed through the broken wall and down the rocky slope.
“About eight Hundred yards,” he said.
“His whispered words concise,”
beneath the baggy jacket he is wearing a device.
 
A chill ran up my spine despite the swelter of the heat,
“You think he’s going to set if off along the crowded street?”.
The sniper gave a weary sigh and said “I wouldn’t doubt it,
Unless there’s something this old gun and I can do about it.”
 
A thunder clap, a tongue of flame, the still abruptly shattered:
While citizens that walked the street were just as quickly shattered.
Till only one remained, a body crumpled on the ground,
The threat to oh so many ended by a single round.
 
And yet the sniper had no cheer, no hint of any gloat,
Instead he took a logbook out and quietly he wrote.
“Hey I could put you on TV, that shot was quite a story!”
But he surprised me once again- “I got no wish for glory.”
 
“Are you for real?” I asked in awe, “You don’t want fame or credit?”
He looked at me with saddened eyes and said “you just don’t get it.
“You see that shot-up length of wall, the one without a door?
Before a mortar hit it, it was a grocery store.”
 
“But don’t go thinking that to Bomb a store is all that cruel,
The rubble just across the street -it used to be a school.
The little kids played soccer in the field out by the road,”
His head hung low, they never ever thought a car would just explode.
 
” As bad as all this is though, it could be a whole lot worse,”
He swallowed hard, the words came from his mouth just like a curse.
“Today the fight’s on foreign land, on streets that aren’t my own,”
“I’m here today ’cause if I fail , the next fight’s back at home.”
“And I won’t let my Safeway burn, my neighbors dead inside,
Don’t want to get a call from school that says my daughter died;
I pray that not a one of them will know the things I see,
Nor have the work of terrorists etched in their memory.”
 
“So you can keep your trophies and your fleeting bit of fame,
I don’t care if I make the news, or if they speak my name.”
He glanced toward the camera and his brow began to knot,
“if you’re looking for a story, why not give this one a shot.”
 
“Just tell the truth of what you see, without the slant or spin:
That most of us are OK and we’re coming home again.
And why not tell our folks back home about the good we’ve done,
How when they see Americans, the kids come at a run.”
 
You tell ’em what it means to folks here just to speak their mind,
Without the fear that tyranny is just a step behind:
Describe the desert miles they walk in their first chance to vote,
Or ask a soldier if he’s proud, I’m sure you’ll get a quote.”
 
He turned and slid the rifle in a drag bag thickly padded ,
Then looked again with eyes of steel as quietly he added:
“And maybe just remind the few, if ill of us they speak,
That we are all that stands between the monsters and the weak.
 

We had another appointment with the baby doctor today, and had lots of ultrasound pictures taken.  We were excited to see the baby moving and everything looks normal for this young of age.  We were able to determine the sex, and he is a boy.  He is about six inches in length. 

Now we need to come up with a name.

Suggestions?

We had 7 people show up this time.  For some reason, I was having great luck and was able to get many kills without being killed myself.

Check out this article.

I hate cats.

Amber and I went to Albany, TX to see Bart and Heather.  The Lions were having their big homecoming game, so there was plenty to do.  We watched the cheerleaders, band, homecoming court, fire department, etc in the parade before the game.

Saturday morning, we ate a chuck wagon breakfast, shopped at the downtown shops, had a homemade soda at the pharmacy, watched the dunking booth, checked out at the cars at the car show, took pictures of Savannah and Alex with the pumpkins, then we ate some BBQ for lunch.

Albany is in the migration path of the monarch butterfly, they were everywhere in the park downtown

This is what I found when I left work today.

 
I think someone mistook my way-cool roofrack for a breadbasket.

Bryan called me last minute and told me he had two extra tickets to the Texas Tech / Texas A&M game this weekend.  He said a friend of his had a spot to tailgate before the game. 

What an excellent opportunity.  If there is one football game a year that I want to watch, it is this one, plus being fed and having beer on tap, I had to go.

I had visions of tailgating.  I remember cooking hot dogs in the bed of my truck before a game once.  It was fun.  I was not prepared for what I saw at this place!  First of all, it was pretty easy to find, you just had to spot the huge M35 “Deuce and a Half” with the broken longhorns on the grill.

This was a military surplus 6×6 wheel drive supply vehicle with an all-fuel six-cylinder engine and outfitted with the special tailgate beer-keg dispensing system and Aggie propaganda.  (oh yes, that is in fact Shiner Bock on the right)

Chuck and Tim (the “master tailgaters”) also had a special cooking trailer.  In addition to the standard smoker box and large cooking surface, it had stainless steel work surfaces, integrated dual propane burners, rhino-lined storage box, built in ice-cooler, water dispenser, and canopy.  Very nice!

The guys cooked up a heck of a feast.   Brisket, ribs, dove, sausage, stuffed jalapenos, beans, french-fries, and I don’t remember what else.

Oh yea, there was a football game too.  I forgot what it was like to sit in Kyle field with almost 86,000 other people.  Not just any people, they are Aggies.  These people are crazy.  Crazy or not, it was a great game.  I say great not just because Tech won, but because it was exciting.  We were able to catch a pass to make the winning touchdown in the last minute of the game.  It was close. 

After the game, we went back to the M35, where Tim was cooking hamburgers and hotdogs now.  After waiting for the sun to go down, we made the drive back home.