An interesting idea..

During my first semester here at the Academy I took an American History class taught by a liberal officer, a Lieutenant. We didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but nevertheless he is a very smart man with some very valid points. One day he gave us an idea that has stuck with me for a while, and which I've been thinking a lot about here recently. He told us that with all economical issues that our country is facing right now, that he had started to think about the socialistic movement that we seem to be involved in. At the time there were all sorts of crazy rumors floating around, and President Obama had only recently been elected. The following is his idea, paraphrased (since I don't remember the exact working over a year later).

"The funny thing about wealthy people is that usually there is some substance in their personality and mindset. For example, I [LT McSorley] believe that even if America were to somehow collect the entirety of money from the citizens, total it, and redistribute it to each citizen - giving an equal amount of money and capital to each man woman and child - that in only a few years it would be back to what it was. The same wealthy people would be wealthy again, and those that were poor beforehand would be poor again. It's an interesting idea, but one I truly believe. I think that those who are destitute and don't have much money normally would get their share and waste most of it. I don't think they'd put it to good use, whereas those who are more wealthy would take better care of it because they are more conscientious with their spending. Obviously, a few years is too short of a time for the moguls to amass the empires that they had before the redistribution, but they would definitely be leaders in the total wealth realm of things. "

Again, this is just an idea that was presented by one of my history teachers. But I found it interesting. As those who know me would tell you, I'm not all that consumed by a burning desire to make the big bucks - heck I joined the military! I prefer to pursue a life of personal and spiritual reward, as opposed to monetary reward. However, in terms of the socialistic movement going on in our country, I think this idea deserves some thought. Socialism just doesn't work, history shows that, and this is one of the many theories that also supports that.

Don't worry, I think I'm done with political posts for a while.

-Storm

Sammy Davis

This past weekend my service academy participated in the JSACWC competition, a combat weapons teams competition for all the service academies. It was probably the most enjoyable competition I've been in in years, I really had a blast. There were 8 stages of combined rifle (m16), pistol (baretta m9) and shotgun courses. The best part of the competition, however, was Sammy Davis. If you have never heard of Sammy Davis, he is the medal of honor recipient who's story was used in creating Forest Gump. Sammy Davis was in attendance at the competition, and I had the opportunity to shake his hand a few times, talk with him some, and take pictures with him (of course). What an amazing guy, I am truly honored to have gotten to meet him and hear his story. Here's a link to the wikipedia page dedicated to him, although it doesn't do him justice: Sammy Davis

All in all, the competition went great. We didn't place very high compared to our competitors, but then again we are severely underfunded compared to them. We're sporting standard issue M16s (except for the team members who bought their own guns and equipment) whereas Army were firing customized M4s with $1000 ACOG sights. No comparison there, really. Regardless, I was really just going for the experience, and in that regard I measure the competition to be a huge success. And as an added bonus, we all got prizes. For me it was a new pair of Oakley shooting glasses, a one-point sling for my rifle (which I had been looking to buy), a gun cleaning kit, and various other prizes. One person on our team got a new rifle, Aimoint sights, and a super nice ACOG setup that he can put on his competition rifle. Pretty amazing stuff. I can't wait until next year!

-Storm

Weirdos...

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine the other day, and as far as validity goes, I can't really attest to how much truth there is in his argument, but I decided to share it anyway since I found it rather intriguing. So it went something like this

Him: I have a question for you.

Me: Alright, shoot.

Him: What makes weirdos so...weird?

Me: Well I guess the fact that their behavior is abnormal when compared to the general population... why?

Him: I was thinking, and it really doesn't make sense. How many weirdos, for lack of a better word, do you know?

Me: (laughing) I know plenty. I was homeschooled, and now I go to a military academy.

Him: Exactly. If we deem a person weird because their behavior is abnormal compared to the general population, yet we know tons of people who's behavior is weird, is it really weird? Think about it. Almost ever social group you know has at least one person who everyone thinks is "weird". I would challenge you to name even one social group that you know of without one. In fact, the only place I could think of that might never have a social group is a fictitious television show, and even then, most shows have at least one weirdo in them. Take The Office, for example. There's Dwight Schrute, who is the token weirdo, but almost everyone has their own perks that make then appear quite weird. The only half-way normal ones are Pam and Jim, for a grand total of 2 normal people out of the 10+ office staff. So are the weird ones really normal?

Me: ...

Me: So are you telling me that those of us whom I consider to be normal are actually the weird ones?

Him: Well, not necessarily, but maybe there really isn't such a thing as weirdos.

So this got me thinking. Now, in my book, there still is and always will be weird people. There's no getting around that. But the conversation did make me think twice about how I treat other people, and if nothing else perhaps it challenged me to not be quite so judgmental when forming opinions about other people. Food for thought...

-Storm