This is Viewpoints for Monday, October 2, 2017

North Korea

With the current escalation of tensions between the U.S. and N. Korea, my military and private contractor experience may provide some prospective. I served in a heavy bomber unit during the Cuban crisis in the early ‘60s, when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro had placed ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) in Cuba pointed at the U.S. One of our finest presidents, John Kennedy, deployed a military blockade of the Cuban Island so nothing got in or out. Eventually these rogue leaders relented and the missiles were returned to Russian under a U.S. military escort. Our bombers were fueled, fully loaded and ready if needed.

These leaders had wives, kids and grand-kids, one may have said “grandpa I do not want to become dust.” Our current President Donald Trump does not have the luxury of imposing a military blockade of N. Korea, but he knows nuclear missiles capable of hitting the U.S. or its allies is unacceptable, especially considering the current unstable N. Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, has his finger on the launch button.

My later experience working in the Missile Division for a major defense contractor has taught me it takes years to develop an ICBM, not to mention a nuclear warhead. N. Korea had a lot for help from someone. Hopefully Kim Jong Un knows the U.S. has Trident submarines somewhere in the ocean each with the capability to make Pyongyang look worse than Hiroshima in 1945.

Anthem dispute

As a white, red-blooded American patriot, it is my duty to speak out against this contempt to our nation. I will be the first to admit that the tedium of playing the anthem repeatedly is disrespectful within itself. Also lowering the flag at half-staff without proper protocol is disrespectful.

Patriotic Americans should draw the line on these lax practices. In fact, maybe it would be wise to rethink the kneeling as a form of protest because in every house of worship, kneeling is the proper stance for showing humbleness before a supreme being.

Disdain or reverence to the anthem should be clarified because when I approach an altar, which posture should I take, “black lives matters” or Christian kneeling before the alter of God?

Will not support

No one enjoyed the challenge of sports or recognized the multiple contributions of health and camaraderie more than I, but the table has been set for every American to choose their convictions and their priorities. There is no fence to straddle or rationale to excuse the dastardly refusal to honor the national colors and the cause which lies beyond.

As a career Navy warrior, with multiple skirmishes behind where thousands of lives were sacrificed for American rights, I take the recent actions of NBA and NFL as a personal affront to the loyal service I rendered. It is obvious that most have no sympathy or allegiance for the extreme price paid by thousands. The true feelings of owners, coaches, and players have surfaced, and the flow makes up a river of no return.

I will defend their rights to the end, but I will also assure you of mine. This humpty- dumpty philosophy that blames Trump, racism or inequity for their actions; simply will not pass muster and neither can it be fixed. I do not have to promote, support, embrace or observe the play-by-play. For there are no winners in a game that has forfeited balance, respect and gratitude for the countless body bags that have been returned to a thankless generation.

Staying in the clubhouse, or locking arms will not suffice. There is no substitute for open patriotism. But know this, there is an event worse than death, and that is to be riddled with shame, when you know the truth.

A substantive right

Substantive rights are basic human rights possessed by people in an ordered society and include rights granted by natural law as well as the substantive law. The easy way to identify a substantive right is anything a person could do before government existed. One of the most basic rights is to grow food to feed yourself. This right existed in the Garden of Eden. The very first human beings had to raise food or parish. Raising food for your own survival is a substantive right.

Houston County has zoning laws that limit our right to raise our own food. They allow you to raise plant matter but not animals. Lochner v. New York, 198 US 45 (1905) was a landmark U.S. labor law case in the U.S. Supreme Court that established substantive rights and natural law.

The 14th Amendment states:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Infringing upon substantive rights is a violation of the 14th Amendment’s “due process” clause according to Lochner v. New York. States may regulate substantive rights if the State has a compelling interest in the right. Houston County claims to have a compelling interest. But the process the courts use to determine violations ask one further question. Is the law “narrowly tailored or necessary” to meet the interest. Houston County’s solution is to ban animals from all residential property claiming that is an agricultural use of residential land. That does not meet the definition of narrowly tailored.

Houston County claims animals smell. Animals only smell when they are not being taken cared for properly. They could pass a noxious odor law. I haul in about 630 cubic feet (10 pickup truck loads) of manure into my yard each year and no one has noticed. They claim animals are loud, but so are children and dogs. They could pass laws limiting noise.

As you can see, Houston County is in violation of everyone’s 14th Amendment’s “due process” rights. I for one am ready to sue Houston County again. Contact the county commissioners and demand your right to feed yourself again.

This story was originally published October 1, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Monday, October 2, 2017."