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C.L. Harmon

On August 6, 1945 President Harry Truman authorized the atomic bombings of Japan, first Hiroshima and Nagasaki three days later. His intention was to end the war in the Pacific and bring an end to the loss of American servicemen fighting against a determined enemy who refused to accept defeat.
His efforts succeeded at the cost of 230,000 civilians killed or injured by the heat waves that reached several thousand degrees. Time would inevitably take many more lives as a result of radiation exposure before the effects would level off. Past generations have and future generations will continue to judge the moral scope of President Truman’s decisions. But perhaps it is not his choice we should question but rather the choices our children will have to face in the future. The ones in a world that continues to move into a volatile state where weapons of mass destruction, far greater than those used against Japan, are ever more prevalent and still seen as an alternative to bring about peace.

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By C.L. Harmon

There is no easy. Easy is a word to describe what we want, not what is real. In truth, reality is synonymous with difficulty. In other words, life is hard. It matters not what we do. Life is designed in nature to be arduous. Why should anything be easy? What is learned or gained from that which takes no effort, no drive, no discipline? There is no reward in easy. There is no appreciation for what is given that should have been earned. There is no pride in what needs to be accomplished but is not. There is no work ethic in sloth and no lasting reward for what is unjustly taken.

Gardens do not grow simply because you throw seeds in the soil. Children are not raised by simply feeding and clothing them. Of all things in nature which must work for their nourishment and fight to survive, why is it humanity expects easy and does not expect challenges and embrace what value they bring forth?

Even what is created in life to make life easier has strings attached. Typing is easier than writing, but one must first learn to type and then there is the learning the intricacies of what one uses to type. Although it is easier, there is still difficulty. Technology arguably makes life more comfortable, enjoyable, and organized, but even these come at the cost of more stress keeping up with the everchanging advances in order for these advances to be effective. In the end, what makes life easier is the acceptance that everything is a challenge with varying degrees of effort to overcome. And that easy is a word used by those who do not wish to accept life’s challenges.

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C.L. Harmon

When we live without reason we exist without freedom. Chaos captures us when what is on the outside influences us more than what is on the inside.
It seems probable that we are programmed to some degree during our creation. Little adjustments or additions that make some right-handed while others are left or allows for one person to be shy why others seem naturally comfortable around people or an adjustment that even makes some more creative while leaving others with little talent for the arts at all.
Based upon this belief, it would seem likely that other additions or adjustments were made at the same time. Perhaps a conscience or some moral code that is woven within the fiber of our being to help us along as we make our choices in life. When we distance ourselves from that internal set of rules and sense of what is right and begin living without the benefit of those rules, chaos begins to track and then imprison us.
Words that are corrupt, actions that cause turmoil and desires that destroy are done without the benefit of reason and thus bring chaos to peace, captivity to those free. These words and actions limit us thus imprisoning us within their consequences. They lock us into a dark existence away from joy, compassion and, enlightenment. Reason is the fundamental key to understanding each other and each time we use it, we unlock a bit of humanity within ourselves allowing the universe to grow exponentially, expanding our realm in which to experience even more freedom.

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To learn you have faults means you are growing up. To accept your faults and learn from them means you have grown up. To embrace your faults and care nor what others think of them means you have grown old.
~C.L. Harmon

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C.L. Harmon
Prior to December 7, 1941, the American Congress held the position that we should stay out of the European conflict that was soon to be called World War II.
But after that date something changed. Congress did a complete reversal and with the exception of one Congress person’s vote, we were cast into World War II. But have we ever asked ourselves why Congress would change their opinion so drastically? Consider this:
The American people and the American military establishment was not going to sit idly by and allow Congress to do nothing. They were not going to allow American servicemen to be killed without action being taken against it.
As late as one year before the bombing, there was an overwhelming consensus by the American public to stay out of a foreign war. That number would decrease and getting involved would gain strength as the year progressed and England became the only country remaining at the time to not be crushed or being crushed under the Nazi war machine and the Axis powers. But it was never a general sentiment to get involved until Pearl Harbor was bombed. Throughout the 1930s, Congress had even passed a series of neutrality Acts to remain out of foreign affairs and the armed conflict in Europe.
Let us consider what would have happened if Congress would have maintained the belief that neutrality was the best course of action after Pearl Harbor. Let’s suppose they took the position that much of our naval fleet was destroyed and that each person who died that day knew there were risks when they enlisted into the armed forces. As such, perhaps it was better to negotiate with Japan and move forward giving Japan what it wanted as opposed to entering the war. Can we even imagine what the response would have been from the American people?
Enlistment soared as Americans voluntarily left their jobs, careers, homes, and families to seek revenge for Pearl Harbor. People were willingly sacrificing to support a war. There was an overwhelming sense of patriotism that was not going to be squashed. Can we even fathom the response if President Roosevelt and Congress had said no to entering the war? I would venture to say that the protests of the Vietnam War during the 1960s would have seemed like a small-town carnival and unrest would have been rampant. This is not to suggest that Roosevelt and Congress were not in favor of declaring war on Japan. They were. This is simply a reminder that the power is always in the hands of the people. Had the government been opposed to entering the war, the American people were united and would have never stood for such a response when American servicemen had been killed and American soil attacked.
We seem to become complacent and even confused when it comes to the power we the people yield in this country. We become angry as individuals which yields very little power as opposed to becoming united toward the power which angers us. We have lost sight that we are the people and the people are the power, the people are the nation. One person, be it a president or a congressperson, is not solely responsible for the problems we face in this country. This is a collective fault of those we elect to govern and then sell out to the highest bidder and to ourselves who have allowed a nation of free people to become divided instead of united. As long as we are at war with each other, we are all casualties and those entities, countries and individuals who are united against us will continue destroying us.
Consider that most, if not all, Americans fundamentally want the same things: Affordable healthcare, stable economy, the basic essentials, peace and the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. We currently either do not have these desires or the ones we have, have been hindered. Why is it that those we elect to govern cannot provide us with what we want and even reduce what we once had? They do so because our division allows for it. As Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. This was true in 1858 when Lincoln said it and it is still true today. Perhaps it’s time we become one people, one nation again and take back what is ours from those who wish to destroy it. We are only a lost people without unity but with it, we become a nation that is found…and one for all and all for one.

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BY C.L. Harmon

I grew up in a world where a tip was earned not expected. I was raised in a world where one helped another just to see them lifted up, not for a ‘you owe me’. I remember a world where working was the natural way and not a time when it’s taught that natural is to expect what is not earned. I experienced a world where God was feared and terrorists were mocked as weak, a time before airports were civil liberties violations with a paycheck. I remember a world when respect was first taught and then earned through morality and courage. It was never given freely as its worth was valued too high for a handout. I witnessed a world where integrity was in a handshake and a word before courtrooms became playgrounds where adults settle disputes like children. I knew a world where men fought over differences and then learned to live together in spite of them; a world where owning a gun meant you knew when not to use it. I once knew a world where people loved more than they hated, a world where common sense came with every lesson be it at school or home.

I remember a world where a happy meal was a family at the dinner table and conversation was the most important ingredient on that table. I knew a world where punishment was important because it built character because we knew a sting lasts less than a prison sentence.

I once knew a world…

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C.L. Harmon

The further we delve into the madness of panic, the more distant sanity travels from us. We have always resided in an uncertain world where chaos sweeps behind us in a frenzied rush. We have always lived with fear, but until recently, we have never let that fear become the beacon in which we gravitate. We are setting a precedent where fear rules us even into ruin. We are choosing to survive in chains rather than live free in the few steps separating us from the chaos.

There is no escaping the fact that we will become swept up in the forces of havoc from time to time. But as it has always been, the cost of life is the realization of death, the reward of life is the opportunity to experience it. When fear becomes our light, we are traveling down a dark path. If we do not create new and reasonable light to combat the surrounding darkness which attempts to consume us, we are lost regardless of what direction we choose.

Illuminating the darkness which engulfs us during the seasons where the havoc has caught up with us, is as simple as believing that even a small flame of reason drowns out the dimmest surroundings. It is also the acceptance that chaos has an appetite and will consume what it needs until is satisfied. It is further understanding that madness cares not for our choices to serve fear or to battle it. It simply obeys its nature. We must always remember that the choices made in fear today will be the circumstances that we live with tomorrow.

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C.L. Harmon

Sometimes we lose our way and we don’t necessarily want to find our way back even though moving forward frightens us to our core. I believe this is something that we all experience at one point or another in our lives. Even the thought of going back to something familiar and comfortable leaves us with a feeling of uncertainty and possibly dread. Perhaps these moments in which we are idle are telling us that boundaries exist within us that must be overcome. These boundaries are not however placed to keep us in place, but to be conquered.

Questioning what we have been taught, seeking evidence contrary to what is popular and venturing into uncharted territory forces boundaries to disappear. Change occurs because boundaries are breached, not because they are left intact. What is often most difficult to destroy are the boundaries we ourselves construct. Traditionally we think of others’ boundaries keeping us out when, in actuality, it’s ours keeping us in.

Some of the most formidable of these boundaries are our choices to believe without questioning, accept without complete understanding. It seems somehow easier to remain unenlightened in ignorance behind a boundary than to forge into new territory with a new concept all our own. What we fear, what we believe remains only partial truths until we have the courage and fortitude to eradicate all the boundaries within us and discover what can be known beyond.

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I haven’t written much lately but did have a moment of inspiration for the following little poem. I hope you enjoy.

Blood is Spilt, wounds become scars with secrets that are kept and then revealed. And the minutes tick by. We sin, sacrifice saints, live, die and hurt as those minutes tick into hours.

Tears fall for those lost and hatred abounds for those who trespass against us. We breathe until we are extinguished and we are buried in cold earth no longer witness to the seasons and the sun. And without us, our children watch as the hours become years and our trespasses become their prejudices.

Evil rides upon the high winds blowing through our hearts, within our souls. We struggle to hold our ground as the leaves are ripped from the trees and the branches strain to hold on the roots which give them life.

And yet we sway in the breezes of compassion and forgiveness. We become fragile in strength and weak in our resolve. And as the years become decades, we dwindle away into the dust from which we were created.

And in time we will have experienced this journey called life. We will know what it is to cry, sigh, and die within the centuries that have allowed us the moments we used to take steps from the birth to burial when at last time waves to us all a lasting goodbye.

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