Life Lessons

Papaw’s Life Lessons is a compilation of letters previously submitted for publication by Jack Beavers which he is now assembling into a book for his children and grandchildren.  The following are some excerpts from Papaw’s Life Lessons:

Lesson #34 (Universal Truth)

Published 12/20/1998

There is a universal truth that science describes as The Law of Conservation for Matter and Energy. This truth defines that matter cannot be created or destroyed – but that it can be transformed into energy. Simply stated, matter and energy are interchangeable: they can be transformed into each other, but the total amount of matter plus energy in the universe is a constant. It always has been constant and always will be constant. We, here on earth demonstrate the interchangeable nature of matter and energy, when we produce nuclear power.

After I thought about this universal truth for a time, I came to the realization that my physical body is composed of matter — cosmic matter that has existed since time began and will continue to exist, as either matter or energy, until the end of time. This realization became even more profound when I realized that of all the possible forms the cosmic matter in my body could have taken, it became a living, conscious, intelligent, sentient being — me. I am aware that I exist and such beings appear to be an extremely rare commodity considering the enormous expanse of the universe. I say appear to be because if we humans are the only intelligent life in the universe – the universe truly is “an awful waste of space”.

I’ve also discovered that humans must live a major portion of our lives before we reach the maturity where we can understand our mortality and appreciate how special we really are. That’s usually about the time we reach the “reflecting” point, start to wonder about the meaning of life and realize that our time remaining is getting shorter each day. No one wants to think about dying, including me, and I know I’ll never be ready to breathe my last breath. Even when I know that death is inevitable, I’ll go out kicking and screaming, scratching for every additional second of life I can find. And in that last second, when it’s time for my body’s cosmic matter, to move on to something else, I’ll repeat one last time, the thanks I’ve prayed every day since I turned fifty; “Thank you God, for allowing me to know that I was a part of it.

Lesson #77 (Arm the Peasants)

Published 08/22/2003

One of the best bumper stickers I’ve seen says “Politicians Prefer Unarmed Peasants”. It’s good because it warns us of two slippery-slopes we dare not go down.

The first slope is that history teaches that governments have preferred to rule over people from a position of unopposed power. Our founding fathers had actually lived under such governments and that is why the US Constitution mandates that the people have the right to be armed. An armed population is a formidable deterrent to a government seeking unopposed power.

The second slope is that history teaches that governments have preferred to keep the population illiterate. The less educated the people, the poorer and therefore easier to control through the careful use of government handouts and promises. Historically, knowledge was reserved for the elite – whom the peasants were to serve.

What is scary is that the US political system is earnestly working to achieve exactly what is on that bumper sticker. Today, the biggest issues being debated are gun control and how big should we make the handouts? What do you think our lives would be like if we allow ourselves to be made more dependent on the government – and we lose the deterrence that allows us to protest when they start leading us around by our dependence?

I think “Politicians Prefer Unarmed Peasants” needs to be on every car – it’s the perfect reminder that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Lesson #84 (A Sci-Fi Lesson)

Published 03/20/2004

Growing up I gained a great fondness for the Sci-Fi movies of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. I now realize that my fondness grew out of the fact that, regardless of the threat a movie fantasized, mankind always prevailed. And our victory was always due to a quick reacting government and military that responded to the threat in a decisive manner.

I thought of this recently when I was re-reading an old 1981 Sci-Fi novel, “INVADER” by Albert and David Hill. In the book, once the President (Reed) is presented with the facts that an alien invasion force is headed for earth, he makes the statement; “Mr. Secretary, the first duty of the President of the United States is to protect its citizens from attack. I intend to perform that duty to the best of my ability.” As expected, the President does act, and acts quickly – and his actions result in the earth being saved.

Remarkably, the statement of President Reed in the book is a true statement – the US Constitution says so. The President of the United States has one over-riding duty – to protect the United States and her citizens from attack. Therefore, I vote for a President who focuses on a strong defense and is committed to the use of force to protect me and mine. Like Teddy Roosevelt I want my President to “speak softly but carry a big stick” – and I want him to swing it as often and as hard as necessary.

Lesson #60 (Media Propaganda)

Published 07/03/2004

History records that the greatest weapon in the arsenal of Nazi Germany was Joseph Goebbels, the Chief Nazi propagandist. Through Goebbels’s use of propaganda (“The systematic propagation of a given doctrine or of allegations reflecting its views and interests” – The American Heritage Dictionary), the Nazi party was able to lie its way into power and become the greatest threat to freedom that the world had ever known. And the movement started with the vision of a dysfunctional mind, who bragged that “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a great lie than a small one.” – Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.

Informed Americans have realized for some time that like Nazi Germany’s news media, the mainstream U.S. news media no longer report facts. Instead they prefer to broadcast personal opinions, emotions, and ideologies, a.k.a. propaganda, as though they were the facts. Codify the news any way you like, if you view it objectively you will discover it is unbalanced and biased to emotionally drive public opinion toward the opinion of the media. As such, in today’s America, a biased mainstream media, not Terrorism, maybe the greatest threat to a free America.

America – we need to wake up and realize that politics is perception and that a biased media promotes perception. We need to learn to filter all mainstream news through H.L. Mencken’s 1920 paradigm, e.g.”The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed – and hence clamorous to be led to safety – by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” We must stop believing everything we read and hear just because it comes from a charismatic source, and we need to get angry when commentators and editors think we need for them to “translate” for us what a speaker just said!

And foremost we need to understand that while the First Amendment guarantees us free speech, it does not guarantee that what we read and hear will be the truth!

Lesson #66 (Sock’em)

Published 11/21/2001

The attacks on September 11, 2001 have generated some very serious discussions regarding airport, airplane and air-passenger safety. And there are as many opinions as there are participants in the discussions. Regardless, with all the talk, very little has been said concerning the rights of air passengers to protect themselves. In fact, most of the decisions and actions have resulted in just the opposite – the total disarming of airline passengers, down to and including confiscating their tweezers.

With these governmental restrictions in mind, I’ve decided to offer what I call the “Airline Passenger Self-Defense Kit”. The kit contains no items currently prohibited by the airlines – yet with only a minimum of preparation, any passenger can be a formidable opponent of a knife-wielding attacker.

The Kit

1. One heavy woolen sock
2. $20 in quarters.
3. Your seat/floatation cushion.

Directions

1. Place the quarters in the toe of the sock.
2. Place the floatation cushion straps over the non-dominant arm (left) and use the cushion as a shield to ward off the attacker.
3. With dominant arm (right), swing the quarter-laden sock hard and strike the attacker upside the head.

In time, the government may actually decide to strip airline passengers of their socks, quarters, and seat cushions – but until then, I offer motivated passengers the means to legally and effectively protect themselves and others from terrorists and/or hijackers.

Lesson #83 (Profile of a Conservative)

Published 10/04/2003

I will only follow someone whom I respect.
I respect only those who share my values.
My values include Truth, Honor, Integrity, Self-Reliance, and Self-Responsibility.
My loves are Family, Liberty, America and her Patriots.

I was born in Texas.
I grew up on a small cotton farm in the dusty Panhandle.
I roamed freely over the pastures, creek beds, and fields.
I learned patience from fishing, and discipline from hunting. .

I played football in high school.
I worked my way through college.
I married, raised children, sacrificed, and grew older.
My heroes include Alvin York, Roy Rogers, Audie Murphy, John Wayne, my Mother, and my Father.

Many would consider me a success.
Some would believe I owe them something.
I owe only God and my heroes.
They inspired and motivated me to be what I am.

Jack T. Beavers is an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Consultant with a BS in Chemical Engineering (BSChE), a Professional Engineering (PE) license, a Certification in Business Management (CBM), and a Certification as an Internal Control Specialist (CICS). He has previously held a Certification as an ISO-9000 Internal Auditor – and his work history includes Enterprise Risk Assessment responsibilities as a Manager of Internal Audit. Please email your comments to forum@ajustsociety.org.

The CJS Forum seeks to promote an open exchange of ideas about the relationship between faith, culture, law and public policy. While all the articles are original and written especially for the CJS Forum, they do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center for a Just Society.

Picture above from Flickr user SamuelJohn.de licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License