Also, if the rumors are true about the video, you might not want to watch it. I'm not sure I would watch it, and I've seen a lot over my years. I once witnessed a Panamanian policeman shoot and kill a thief who had stolen a watch and was running away. Just pulled out his pistol and shot him right there on the street...in the back. Once you see things, you realize you don' to see OTHER things like that.
Trust me you told me enough that I will not even try to find it to watch it. I can't watch the TV commercials for the ASPCA where the animals are left in the cold.
Wow I never witnessed anything like you saw and hope never to.
Yes, brutality in the Third World (or even Second World) is a norm. I was stationed in the Canal Zone back when it was under US control, so I saw a lot of grinding poverty, how cheap human life was down there, and became even more grateful to have been born an American.
I was present for several major riots that were staged to try to take over the Canal Zone back then, large mobs, shots fired, etc., but they never made it past the Marine and Army guards at the barrier between Panama and the Canal Zone. Many arrests were made during those riots while the Panamanian Police (they had no army, so it was just the Guardia Nacional who ran things) stood by and did nothing but watch. Anyone making it over the chain link barriers were arrested and detained, but eventually released back to Panama.
I've traveled all over Central and South America, and eventually realized that it just wasn't a safe place for a gringo like me, so I've never been back.
Wow what you have seen. I respect people in the service. Thank you for your service. It is funny how you speak about South America and if you watch HGTV International they are moving from here to there. They make it seem so glamours.
I know there is treacherous evil out there. I am grateful that I have not seen or experienced any of it.
It is a fight that has been going on since Lucifer's fall from Heaven. There is nothing new under the sun; good and evil have always been in a pitched battle, it's just that we in the West have mostly been barricaded from the realities of the world through our prosperity, law and order, our Constitution, and military.
I'm reminded of an old saying attributed to George Orwell: "People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." That's why I joined the USMC back when I did, I was quite willing to do violence on people who threatened our way of life... not because I hated those in front of me, but because I loved the people who were behind me...at home.
But in the intervening years I have come to realize a lot of things I didn't know back then. How our government today is not the "force for good" that people today think it is.
Ah, but this is all for conversation at a later time. Today I live above the fray and live life to the fullest, grateful for having had an interesting life and for experiences that most people will never know...even the bad things I've witnessed have served me in life. It makes me hold America more dear and makes me more determined to see our Republic restored in my lifetime.
These are things I have never spoken of to the people (friends and real estate agents) I've told you about. They really know very little about what makes me tick, what makes me get up in the morning, and what animates my hopes for America. To them I'm just the "grey man"....invisible for the most part, but deep inside a radical in the mold of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.
Also, if the rumors are true about the video, you might not want to watch it. I'm not sure I would watch it, and I've seen a lot over my years. I once witnessed a Panamanian policeman shoot and kill a thief who had stolen a watch and was running away. Just pulled out his pistol and shot him right there on the street...in the back. Once you see things, you realize you don' to see OTHER things like that.
Trust me you told me enough that I will not even try to find it to watch it. I can't watch the TV commercials for the ASPCA where the animals are left in the cold.
Wow I never witnessed anything like you saw and hope never to.
Yes, brutality in the Third World (or even Second World) is a norm. I was stationed in the Canal Zone back when it was under US control, so I saw a lot of grinding poverty, how cheap human life was down there, and became even more grateful to have been born an American.
I was present for several major riots that were staged to try to take over the Canal Zone back then, large mobs, shots fired, etc., but they never made it past the Marine and Army guards at the barrier between Panama and the Canal Zone. Many arrests were made during those riots while the Panamanian Police (they had no army, so it was just the Guardia Nacional who ran things) stood by and did nothing but watch. Anyone making it over the chain link barriers were arrested and detained, but eventually released back to Panama.
I've traveled all over Central and South America, and eventually realized that it just wasn't a safe place for a gringo like me, so I've never been back.
Wow what you have seen. I respect people in the service. Thank you for your service. It is funny how you speak about South America and if you watch HGTV International they are moving from here to there. They make it seem so glamours.
I know there is treacherous evil out there. I am grateful that I have not seen or experienced any of it.
Someday God will rid this horrendous evil.
It is a fight that has been going on since Lucifer's fall from Heaven. There is nothing new under the sun; good and evil have always been in a pitched battle, it's just that we in the West have mostly been barricaded from the realities of the world through our prosperity, law and order, our Constitution, and military.
I'm reminded of an old saying attributed to George Orwell: "People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." That's why I joined the USMC back when I did, I was quite willing to do violence on people who threatened our way of life... not because I hated those in front of me, but because I loved the people who were behind me...at home.
But in the intervening years I have come to realize a lot of things I didn't know back then. How our government today is not the "force for good" that people today think it is.
Ah, but this is all for conversation at a later time. Today I live above the fray and live life to the fullest, grateful for having had an interesting life and for experiences that most people will never know...even the bad things I've witnessed have served me in life. It makes me hold America more dear and makes me more determined to see our Republic restored in my lifetime.
These are things I have never spoken of to the people (friends and real estate agents) I've told you about. They really know very little about what makes me tick, what makes me get up in the morning, and what animates my hopes for America. To them I'm just the "grey man"....invisible for the most part, but deep inside a radical in the mold of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.