US Attorney General Holder lauds Minneapolis’ youth violence prevention initiative
US Attorney General Holder lauds Minneapolis’ youth violence prevention initiative
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United States Attorney General Eric Holder and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, joined United States Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, on Friday, May 27 to celebrate the positive results of Minneapolis’ comprehensive Youth Violence Prevention initiative. The Blueprint for Action Youth Violence Prevention Conference, co-sponsored by the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Foundation, reviewed the successes of the initiative which began in 2008 and is an ongoing, multi-year collaboration in 22 Minneapolis neighborhoods that treats youth violence as a public-health epidemic that requires a holistic, multi-faceted response.
Attorney General Holder observed that the “great strength” of Minneapolis’ approach is that it recognizes that violence among and directed toward young people is not only a public-safety issue — it’s also a public-health issue. And it demands a public-health response.”
The Youth Violence Prevention initiative began as a response to a spike in violent crime in Minneapolis in 2005-06 that data revealed was driven by violence by and against youth. That comprehensive, collaborative, public-health approach has led to safer youth and a safer community. Since 2006, the number of youth arrested for or suspected in violent crime has dropped 56%. In the same period, the number of incidents involving guns and youth has dropped 58%.
The decrease in youth violence has driven a sharp decline in overall crime rates in Minneapolis. In 2010, citywide violent crime in Minneapolis fell to a 28-year low. In addition, in 2011 so far, violent crime in Minneapolis has fallen 16% more compared to the same period in 2010.
The initiative is guided by the four goals of the initiative’s Blueprint for Action, which are to: 1) connect every youth to a trusted adult; 2) intervene at the first sign that youth are at risk of violence; 3) restore youth who have gone down the wrong path; and 4) unlearn the culture of violence in the community.
Comprehensive efforts inspired by the Blueprint’s goals have not only cut youth violence, they have led to greater numbers of high-quality summer jobs for youth, higher graduation rates in Minneapolis Public Schools and greater numbers of graduates attending college free of charge, among other positive results.
Also participating in the conference were youth, community organizers and organizers, educators, faith leaders, public-health professionals and law-enforcement professionals, among others. The conference was organized as an opportunity for youth, community members and policy makers to assess results and challenges going forward — and above all, to listen to and learn from each other.
Selected results of the Blueprint for Action: Preventing Youth Violence in Minneapolis:
Decrease in youth arrested for or suspected in violent crime, 2006-10: 56%
Decrease in incidents involving guns and youth, 2006-10: 58%
Decrease in firearm-related assault injuries of youth, 2006-10: 36%
Decrease in percent of Minneapolis 9th graders who strongly agree that “illegal gang activity is a problem at this school”: from 42% in 2007 to 28% in 2010
Decrease in homicides of youth, 2006-09: 77%
Decrease in curfew arrests, 2006-10: 57%
Decrease in number of pregnancies per 1,000 youth aged 15-17, 2006-09: 36%
Increase in number of youth annually in STEP-UP and other City of Minneapolis job programs, 2005-10: 44%
Number of youth in STEP-UP and other City of Minneapolis job programs: 13,064 since 2005
Increase in Minneapolis Public Schools high-school graduation rates: from 55% in 2005 to 73% in 2010
Number of Minneapolis Public Schools graduates attending college free of charge under Minneapolis Promise: 1,648
Selection of Youth Violence Prevention tools in Minneapolis:
The Minneapolis Promise, an innovative cluster of coordinated efforts that eliminate barriers to college for Minneapolis students. The Minneapolis Promise provides young people with high-quality summer jobs, privately-funded College and Career Centers in every public high school that help them plan a vision for their future, and financial assistance to attend college.
Streetreach, a partnership between the City and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to directly and personally engage at-risk youth in four neighborhoods who are not otherwise engaged in positive opportunities.
Bike Cops for Kids, which takes Minneapolis police officers who serve in Minneapolis Public Schools during the year and puts them on bikes in eight neighborhoods during the summer to continue build relationships with children and youth, and promote public safety by giving away free bike helmets and bikes.
The Minneapolis Youth Congress, an organization of 55 teens in 8th through 12th grade from neighborhoods across Minneapolis who collaborate with elected officials to create and influence public policies that positively affect local youth.
The Juvenile Supervision Center, a partnership with Hennepin County that provides safe supervision and other needed services to youth who have been picked up for truancy, curfew or other low-level violations that do not require secure detention. The goal of the center is to halt a youth’s progress into the juvenile-justice system and increase connections to school and positive behavior.
Speak Up Minneapolis, an anonymous tip line that allows youth to phone or text reports of potential violence including weapons in schools, parks, libraries or other locations.
A protocol at two Minneapolis hospitals for youth victims of violence that comprehensively evaluates the social, economic, medical, chemical and legal risk factors that the youth faces and makes appropriate referrals for help to community-based agencies.
The North 4 Project, an intensive supportive-employment program for 30 gang-involved youth in four neighborhoods that have been deeply affected by violence and the recession.
B.U.I.L.D and the Gang Prevention Mentoring Project, both designed to strengthen and mentor youth who may be gang-affiliated and help them develop personal strengths, relationships and commitments to education and community.
Community Power Against Violence, a media and mobilization campaign in, with and for communities experiencing youth violence.
A toolkit of youth violence prevention initiatives for youth, families, practitioners and community.
Visit http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/dhfs/yv.asp for complete information on Minneapolis’ youth violence prevention initiative.
May 27, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Real Leadership is a Rare, Precious Commodity
Real Leadership is a Rare, Precious Commodity
May 30, 2011
Real Leadership is a Rare, Precious Commodity
By Robert Gates
(Note: Secretary Gates gave the following commencement address to graduates of the United States Naval Academy on Friday, May 27, 2011.)
Distinguished guests, members of the public, leaders of the Navy - past, present, and future. It is a special honor to join you today for this long-anticipated and well-deserved celebration.
I first want to welcome and thank the family members who are here today. Your support and encouragement have made this day possible for these young men and women. More importantly, you have nourished their spirits and molded their character. You have instilled in them love of country and a willingness to serve. And now you entrust to the nation your most treasured possession.
Thanks also to the sponsor families of midshipmen. Over the past four years, you have opened your homes to these young men and women, providing a good meal or a respite from Academy life. Or a shoulder to lean on. Your guidance and your caring helped make today possible for your mids.
To the class of 2011, congratulations!
As the first order of business, I will exercise my authority as U.S. Secretary of Defense to grant amnesty to all midshipmen whose antics led to minor conduct offenses. As always, Vice Admiral Miller has the final say on what constitutes "minor."
Today's speech represents my final commencement speech as defense secretary, culminating a month of five commencement addresses, the most recent being last Sunday at Notre Dame. From my brief time there I can report to you that the Notre Dame student body is moving through grief to denial to anger over the pounding Navy football delivered to them last October. On a related note, whenever Ricky Dobbs finally throws his hat in the ring for President of the United States, he'll have my endorsement.
I would like to start by thanking each of today's graduates for choosing to serve your country and your fellow citizens. In everything you did here - from studying for exams to training sessions with your upperclassmen - you have grown together as a team. But there has also been something bigger uniting you: your willingness to take on a difficult and dangerous path in the service of others.
I made my first academy commencement address here in Annapolis in May 2007. A short time later you arrived here to begin a remarkable educational experience, an experience that concludes today. All of you made the decision to enter this academy and active military service during the toughest stretch of the Iraq war - you reported here when casualties were at their highest and prospects of success uncertain at best. At the same time, the Taliban were making their comeback in Afghanistan, and history's most notorious terrorist was still at large. As a result of the skill and sacrifice of countless young warriors and patriots - many of them graduates of this institution - I am proud to say that we face a different set of circumstances today: Iraq has a real chance at a peaceful and democratic future; in Afghanistan the Taliban momentum has been halted and reversed; and Osama bin Laden is finally where he belongs.
While many people witness history, those who step forward to serve in a time of crisis have a place in history. As of today, you join the long line of patriots in a noble calling. By your service you will have a chance to leave your mark on history.
Almost 100 years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered an extraordinary speech called "Citizenship in a Republic." He observed:
"In the long run, [our society's] success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average woman, does his or her duty. . . The average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed." Roosevelt then went on to say: "the average cannot be kept high unless the standard of the leaders is very much higher."
The graduates of this institution are not average citizens - and so you can never be content to be merely "good citizens." You must be great citizens. In everything you do, you must always make sure that you live up to the highest personal and professional standards of duty, service, and honor - the values of the Navy, the values of the U.S. armed forces, the values of the best traditions of our country. Indeed, when you are called to lead, when you are called to stand in defense of your country in faraway lands, you must hold your values and your honor close to your heart.
Forty-six years ago this month I graduated from college also having committed to public service. In the decades since - in the Air Force, at CIA, in the White House, and now at the Pentagon - I served under eight presidents and had the opportunity to observe many other great leaders along the way. From this experience I have learned that real leadership is a rare and precious commodity, and requires qualities that many people might possess piecemeal to varying degrees, but few exhibit in total.
As you start your careers as leaders today, I would like to offer some brief thoughts on those qualities. For starters, great leaders must have vision - the ability to get your eyes off your shoelaces at every level of rank and responsibility, and see beyond the day-to-day tasks and problems. To be able to look beyond tomorrow and discern a world of possibilities and potential. How do you take any outfit to a higher level of excellence? You must see what others do not or cannot, and then be prepared to act on your vision.
An additional quality necessary for leadership is deep conviction. True leadership is a fire in the mind that transforms all who feel its warmth, that transfixes all who see its shining light in the eyes of a man or woman. It is a strength of purpose and belief in a cause that reaches out to others, touches their hearts, and makes them eager to follow.
Self-confidence is still another quality of leadership. Not the chest-thumping, strutting egotism we see and read about all the time. Rather, it is the quiet self-assurance that allows a leader to give others both real responsibility and real credit for success. The ability to stand in the shadow and let others receive attention and accolades. A leader is able to make decisions but then delegate and trust others to make things happen. This doesn't mean turning your back after making a decision and hoping for the best. It does mean trusting in people at the same time you hold them accountable. The bottom line: a self-confident leader doesn't cast such a large shadow that no one else can grow.
A further quality of leadership is courage: not just the physical courage of the seas, of the skies and of the trenches, but moral courage. The courage to chart a new course; the courage to do what is right and not just what is popular; the courage to stand alone; the courage to act; the courage as a military officer to "speak truth to power."
In most academic curricula today, and in most business, government, and military training programs, there is great emphasis on team-building, on working together, on building consensus, on group dynamics. You have learned a lot about that. But, for everyone who would become a leader, the time will inevitably come when you must stand alone. When alone you must say, "This is wrong" or "I disagree with all of you and, because I have the responsibility, this is what we will do." Don't kid yourself - that takes real courage.
Another essential quality of leadership is integrity. Without this, real leadership is not possible. Nowadays, it seems like integrity - or honor or character - is kind of quaint, a curious, old-fashioned notion. We read of too many successful and intelligent people in and out of government who succumb to the easy wrong rather than the hard right - whether from inattention or a sense of entitlement, the notion that rules are not for them. But for a real leader, personal virtues - self-reliance, self control, honor, truthfulness, morality - are absolute. These are the building blocks of character, of integrity - and only on that foundation can real leadership be built.
A final quality of real leadership, I believe, is simply common decency: treating those around you - and, above all, your subordinates - with fairness and respect. An acid test of leadership is how you treat those you outrank, or as President Truman once said, "how you treat those who can't talk back."
Whatever your military specialty might be, use your authority over others for constructive purposes, to help them - to watch out and care for them and their families, to help them improve their skills and advance, to ease their hardships whenever possible. All of this can be done without compromising discipline or mission or authority. Common decency builds respect and, in a democratic society, respect is what prompts people to give their all for a leader, even at great personal sacrifice.
I hope you will keep these thoughts with you as you advance in your careers. Above all, remember that the true measure of leadership is not how you react in times of peace or times without peril. The true measure of leadership is how you react when the wind leaves your sails, when the tide turns against you.
Just to get accepted to the Naval Academy, most of you have probably succeeded - in many cases brilliantly - at pretty much everything you've done - in the classroom, on the playing field, or in other activities. I know this institution has challenged you in new ways. But from here on out it just gets harder. The risk of failure or setbacks will only grow as your responsibilities grow, and with them the consequences of your decisions.
So know this. At some point along your path, you will surely encounter failure or disappointment of one kind or another. Nearly all of us have. If at those times you hold true to your standards, then you will always succeed, if only in knowing you stayed true and honorable. In the final analysis, what really matters are not the failures and disappointments themselves, but how you respond. About 40 years ago, a young ensign ran his gasoline tanker into a buoy, fouling the propeller in the process - typically a career killer. I work with that same naval officer every day. He is now the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen.
To be able to respond to setbacks with perseverance and determination should apply as well to the military institutions you lead. I will never forget the night of April 24th, 1980. I was executive assistant to the CIA director at the time, and was in the White House during the secret mission to rescue American hostages in Iran. I had been in on the planning from the beginning and, while the operation was clearly risky, I honestly believed it would work. It did not. Soon, images of burnt helicopters and the charred remains of U.S. servicemen splashed around the world. It was truly a low ebb for our nation and for a military that was still recovering from Vietnam.
But then the special operations community, and the U.S. military as a whole, pulled itself together, reformed the way it was trained and organized, took on the corrosive service parochialism that had hobbled our military institutionally and operationally.
And so, just under a month ago, I once again spent a nerve-wracking afternoon in the White House as a risky special operations mission was underway. When word of a downed helicopter came back my heart sank, remembering that awful night thirty years ago. But this time, of course, there was a very different result:
• A mass murderer was brought to a fitting end;
• A world in awe of America's military prowess;
• A country relieved that justice was done and, frankly, that their government could do something hard and do it right; and
• A powerful blow struck on behalf of democratic civilization against its most lethal and determined enemies.
I want each of you to take that lesson of adaptability, of responding to setbacks by improving yourself and your institution, and that example of success, with you as you go forward into the Navy and the Marine Corps you will someday lead.
The qualities of leadership I have described this morning do not suddenly emerge fully developed overnight or as a revelation after you have assumed important responsibilities. These qualities have their roots in the small decisions you have made here at the Academy and will make early in your career and must be strengthened all along the way to allow you to resist the temptation of self before service.
As I mentioned earlier, this is my last address to America's service academies, my last opportunity to engage the future leaders of our military as your defense secretary. As I look out upon you this morning, I am reminded of what so struck and moved me when I went from being a university president to U.S. Secretary of Defense in a time of war. At Texas A&M I would walk the campus, and I would see thousands of students aged 18-25, typically wearing t-shirts and shorts and backpacks. The day after I became Secretary of Defense, in December 2006, I made my first visit to the war theater. And there I encountered other young men and women also 18 to 25. Except they were wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles, putting their lives at risk for all Americans. And I knew that some of them would not make it home whole, and that some would not make it home at all.
I knew then that soon all those in harm's way would be there because I sent them. Ever since, I have come to work every day, with a sense of personal responsibility for each and every young American in uniform - as if you were my own sons and daughters. My only prayer is that you serve with honor and come home safely. I personally thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service. Serving and leading you has been the greatest honor of my life,
May you have fair winds and following seas. Congratulations.
Robert M. Gates is U.S. Secretary of Defense.
May 30, 2011
Real Leadership is a Rare, Precious Commodity
By Robert Gates
(Note: Secretary Gates gave the following commencement address to graduates of the United States Naval Academy on Friday, May 27, 2011.)
Distinguished guests, members of the public, leaders of the Navy - past, present, and future. It is a special honor to join you today for this long-anticipated and well-deserved celebration.
I first want to welcome and thank the family members who are here today. Your support and encouragement have made this day possible for these young men and women. More importantly, you have nourished their spirits and molded their character. You have instilled in them love of country and a willingness to serve. And now you entrust to the nation your most treasured possession.
Thanks also to the sponsor families of midshipmen. Over the past four years, you have opened your homes to these young men and women, providing a good meal or a respite from Academy life. Or a shoulder to lean on. Your guidance and your caring helped make today possible for your mids.
To the class of 2011, congratulations!
As the first order of business, I will exercise my authority as U.S. Secretary of Defense to grant amnesty to all midshipmen whose antics led to minor conduct offenses. As always, Vice Admiral Miller has the final say on what constitutes "minor."
Today's speech represents my final commencement speech as defense secretary, culminating a month of five commencement addresses, the most recent being last Sunday at Notre Dame. From my brief time there I can report to you that the Notre Dame student body is moving through grief to denial to anger over the pounding Navy football delivered to them last October. On a related note, whenever Ricky Dobbs finally throws his hat in the ring for President of the United States, he'll have my endorsement.
I would like to start by thanking each of today's graduates for choosing to serve your country and your fellow citizens. In everything you did here - from studying for exams to training sessions with your upperclassmen - you have grown together as a team. But there has also been something bigger uniting you: your willingness to take on a difficult and dangerous path in the service of others.
I made my first academy commencement address here in Annapolis in May 2007. A short time later you arrived here to begin a remarkable educational experience, an experience that concludes today. All of you made the decision to enter this academy and active military service during the toughest stretch of the Iraq war - you reported here when casualties were at their highest and prospects of success uncertain at best. At the same time, the Taliban were making their comeback in Afghanistan, and history's most notorious terrorist was still at large. As a result of the skill and sacrifice of countless young warriors and patriots - many of them graduates of this institution - I am proud to say that we face a different set of circumstances today: Iraq has a real chance at a peaceful and democratic future; in Afghanistan the Taliban momentum has been halted and reversed; and Osama bin Laden is finally where he belongs.
While many people witness history, those who step forward to serve in a time of crisis have a place in history. As of today, you join the long line of patriots in a noble calling. By your service you will have a chance to leave your mark on history.
Almost 100 years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered an extraordinary speech called "Citizenship in a Republic." He observed:
"In the long run, [our society's] success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average woman, does his or her duty. . . The average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed." Roosevelt then went on to say: "the average cannot be kept high unless the standard of the leaders is very much higher."
The graduates of this institution are not average citizens - and so you can never be content to be merely "good citizens." You must be great citizens. In everything you do, you must always make sure that you live up to the highest personal and professional standards of duty, service, and honor - the values of the Navy, the values of the U.S. armed forces, the values of the best traditions of our country. Indeed, when you are called to lead, when you are called to stand in defense of your country in faraway lands, you must hold your values and your honor close to your heart.
Forty-six years ago this month I graduated from college also having committed to public service. In the decades since - in the Air Force, at CIA, in the White House, and now at the Pentagon - I served under eight presidents and had the opportunity to observe many other great leaders along the way. From this experience I have learned that real leadership is a rare and precious commodity, and requires qualities that many people might possess piecemeal to varying degrees, but few exhibit in total.
As you start your careers as leaders today, I would like to offer some brief thoughts on those qualities. For starters, great leaders must have vision - the ability to get your eyes off your shoelaces at every level of rank and responsibility, and see beyond the day-to-day tasks and problems. To be able to look beyond tomorrow and discern a world of possibilities and potential. How do you take any outfit to a higher level of excellence? You must see what others do not or cannot, and then be prepared to act on your vision.
An additional quality necessary for leadership is deep conviction. True leadership is a fire in the mind that transforms all who feel its warmth, that transfixes all who see its shining light in the eyes of a man or woman. It is a strength of purpose and belief in a cause that reaches out to others, touches their hearts, and makes them eager to follow.
Self-confidence is still another quality of leadership. Not the chest-thumping, strutting egotism we see and read about all the time. Rather, it is the quiet self-assurance that allows a leader to give others both real responsibility and real credit for success. The ability to stand in the shadow and let others receive attention and accolades. A leader is able to make decisions but then delegate and trust others to make things happen. This doesn't mean turning your back after making a decision and hoping for the best. It does mean trusting in people at the same time you hold them accountable. The bottom line: a self-confident leader doesn't cast such a large shadow that no one else can grow.
A further quality of leadership is courage: not just the physical courage of the seas, of the skies and of the trenches, but moral courage. The courage to chart a new course; the courage to do what is right and not just what is popular; the courage to stand alone; the courage to act; the courage as a military officer to "speak truth to power."
In most academic curricula today, and in most business, government, and military training programs, there is great emphasis on team-building, on working together, on building consensus, on group dynamics. You have learned a lot about that. But, for everyone who would become a leader, the time will inevitably come when you must stand alone. When alone you must say, "This is wrong" or "I disagree with all of you and, because I have the responsibility, this is what we will do." Don't kid yourself - that takes real courage.
Another essential quality of leadership is integrity. Without this, real leadership is not possible. Nowadays, it seems like integrity - or honor or character - is kind of quaint, a curious, old-fashioned notion. We read of too many successful and intelligent people in and out of government who succumb to the easy wrong rather than the hard right - whether from inattention or a sense of entitlement, the notion that rules are not for them. But for a real leader, personal virtues - self-reliance, self control, honor, truthfulness, morality - are absolute. These are the building blocks of character, of integrity - and only on that foundation can real leadership be built.
A final quality of real leadership, I believe, is simply common decency: treating those around you - and, above all, your subordinates - with fairness and respect. An acid test of leadership is how you treat those you outrank, or as President Truman once said, "how you treat those who can't talk back."
Whatever your military specialty might be, use your authority over others for constructive purposes, to help them - to watch out and care for them and their families, to help them improve their skills and advance, to ease their hardships whenever possible. All of this can be done without compromising discipline or mission or authority. Common decency builds respect and, in a democratic society, respect is what prompts people to give their all for a leader, even at great personal sacrifice.
I hope you will keep these thoughts with you as you advance in your careers. Above all, remember that the true measure of leadership is not how you react in times of peace or times without peril. The true measure of leadership is how you react when the wind leaves your sails, when the tide turns against you.
Just to get accepted to the Naval Academy, most of you have probably succeeded - in many cases brilliantly - at pretty much everything you've done - in the classroom, on the playing field, or in other activities. I know this institution has challenged you in new ways. But from here on out it just gets harder. The risk of failure or setbacks will only grow as your responsibilities grow, and with them the consequences of your decisions.
So know this. At some point along your path, you will surely encounter failure or disappointment of one kind or another. Nearly all of us have. If at those times you hold true to your standards, then you will always succeed, if only in knowing you stayed true and honorable. In the final analysis, what really matters are not the failures and disappointments themselves, but how you respond. About 40 years ago, a young ensign ran his gasoline tanker into a buoy, fouling the propeller in the process - typically a career killer. I work with that same naval officer every day. He is now the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen.
To be able to respond to setbacks with perseverance and determination should apply as well to the military institutions you lead. I will never forget the night of April 24th, 1980. I was executive assistant to the CIA director at the time, and was in the White House during the secret mission to rescue American hostages in Iran. I had been in on the planning from the beginning and, while the operation was clearly risky, I honestly believed it would work. It did not. Soon, images of burnt helicopters and the charred remains of U.S. servicemen splashed around the world. It was truly a low ebb for our nation and for a military that was still recovering from Vietnam.
But then the special operations community, and the U.S. military as a whole, pulled itself together, reformed the way it was trained and organized, took on the corrosive service parochialism that had hobbled our military institutionally and operationally.
And so, just under a month ago, I once again spent a nerve-wracking afternoon in the White House as a risky special operations mission was underway. When word of a downed helicopter came back my heart sank, remembering that awful night thirty years ago. But this time, of course, there was a very different result:
• A mass murderer was brought to a fitting end;
• A world in awe of America's military prowess;
• A country relieved that justice was done and, frankly, that their government could do something hard and do it right; and
• A powerful blow struck on behalf of democratic civilization against its most lethal and determined enemies.
I want each of you to take that lesson of adaptability, of responding to setbacks by improving yourself and your institution, and that example of success, with you as you go forward into the Navy and the Marine Corps you will someday lead.
The qualities of leadership I have described this morning do not suddenly emerge fully developed overnight or as a revelation after you have assumed important responsibilities. These qualities have their roots in the small decisions you have made here at the Academy and will make early in your career and must be strengthened all along the way to allow you to resist the temptation of self before service.
As I mentioned earlier, this is my last address to America's service academies, my last opportunity to engage the future leaders of our military as your defense secretary. As I look out upon you this morning, I am reminded of what so struck and moved me when I went from being a university president to U.S. Secretary of Defense in a time of war. At Texas A&M I would walk the campus, and I would see thousands of students aged 18-25, typically wearing t-shirts and shorts and backpacks. The day after I became Secretary of Defense, in December 2006, I made my first visit to the war theater. And there I encountered other young men and women also 18 to 25. Except they were wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles, putting their lives at risk for all Americans. And I knew that some of them would not make it home whole, and that some would not make it home at all.
I knew then that soon all those in harm's way would be there because I sent them. Ever since, I have come to work every day, with a sense of personal responsibility for each and every young American in uniform - as if you were my own sons and daughters. My only prayer is that you serve with honor and come home safely. I personally thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service. Serving and leading you has been the greatest honor of my life,
May you have fair winds and following seas. Congratulations.
Robert M. Gates is U.S. Secretary of Defense.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Last day of my first week of Residency: now the fun begins...
I am sitting here at the end of my first week of residency feeling overwhelmed. As trepidation runs through me; I am constantly fighting not to capitulate to the notion that I will fail. It seems to me the challenge of fulfilling our calling is realizing that doing so will take all the strength we have to bow our will to God and to allow Him to accomplish His plans through us. It is so interesting how my life has gone. It is as though I was always hurt, weak, overwhelmed or almost hopeless right before I was tested and elevated. I can honestly say I have never preformed flawlessly through any test I have went through, but the Lord has delivered me through them all. For me to obtain a PHD would be a monumental act by the sovereign hand of God. I realize that everything good that I have done was because God decided to work through me. I can not take any credit whatsoever for what I have done in this body. Thank you Lord for using a broken vessel like me!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
transformation
“All true imitation is a transformation that does not simply present again something that is already there. It is a kind of transformed reality in which the transformation points back to what has been transformed in and through it. It is a transformed reality because it brings before us intensified possibilities never seen before.”
- Gadamer (1986, 64)
- Gadamer (1986, 64)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
If you are thinking of becoming a Christian
If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all….One reason why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself."
– C. S. Lewis
– C. S. Lewis
Monday, May 9, 2011
First Day of PHD program at Regent University School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship
Well this my first day in my PhD program. The first feeling you get in this program is fear. You are constantly told how challenging this program is. But, the great thing about being at a Christian University is that you are told "if God called you here, you will finish." So far the key word I have heard is "time management or capacity." Everyone here has the aptitude to be here, but does everyone here have the time. Right now the statics show that only 50% of the people who start the program actually finish it. Lord Help me. My hope is that this program will make me a better pastor, a better teacher, and a better believer. This is kind of how I live my life..."strive to be great, and live your life to make others great--for the Glory of God. With all that is going on in my life, it will be God and His grace alone that enables me to get through it...
Friday, May 6, 2011
The Greatest Speech ever...
Abraham Lincoln
Second Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1865
Weeks of wet weather preceding Lincoln's second inauguration had caused Pennsylvania Avenue to become a sea of mud and standing water. Thousands of spectators stood in thick mud at the Capitol grounds to hear the President. As he stood on the East Portico to take the executive oath, the completed Capitol dome over the President's head was a physical reminder of the resolve of his Administration throughout the years of civil war. Chief Justice Salmon Chase administered the oath of office. In little more than a month, the President would be assassinated.
Fellow-Countrymen:
AT this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 1
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. 2
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 3
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
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