542 US Marine Hellcats: not relativists

Continuing on the theme of bashing relativisn in all its forms comes the greatest influence on my life: my dad. Michael J. O'Brien was first and foremost a Marine. He died when I was 15 and he was 62, mostly from smoking. So if you do, quit. It sucks to lose your Dad. But, he was more of a father for 15 years than most are in a lifetime.

He had the "code" of a Few Good Men fame. Quite frankly he would of thought of the Marines portrayed in that movie as girlie men and personally sought out Jack Nicholson to kick his ass for defaming the Corps through his role in the movie. But my Dad was not a violent man to any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps he saw enough violence during the invasion of Okinawa, one of the bloodiest and longest battles in the history of American military. He was intense with what he believed in. God, Family, Corps. And I think he really only cared about his family. There is nothing else in this world but to take care of your wife and children. Period.

It is hard for us in 2005 to comprehend this philosophy and maybe that is the tragedy of our times. I also knew my Dad understood his shortcomings, his lack of ability to deal with many of his feelings and directly communicated a necessity for me to understand women and treat them much differently than he did. But it still came through the mandate for me to respect, protect and provide for my wife as if my life depended on it. Dad is an absolute. If he thought you might be a relativist, in any sense of the word, you were not welcome in his house. This is not an exaggeration and you can ask my mother to tell the stories about how she would have to tell people (mostly family members of questionable morals) that they we not welcome to come into our home. And if they wanted to push the issue, could talk to my father directly. At 6'5 280 with a size 22 foot and hands that could crush, not just palm a basketball, he was as intimidating physically as he was philosophically.

This from a man who never made more than $40,000 a year in his life and never cared to. He would turn down promotions regularly. As well as even an innocent lunch with a female member of his office, because he was married. At his retirement luncheon, the women all remarked it was the first time they were to lunch with him. And I think he scoffed at the men who could give their lives to corporations that paled pathetically in moral comparison to the US Marine Corps.

At the end of the day he gave me an example of a life without exceptions to the rules he set forth for himself and expected of others. All I want is to know that he is proud of me and I know he would not understand many of the choices I have made along the way. I do know he would be proud of me for my future wife Laura and my new step son Jon. He would agree with how I am attempting to become a parental figure for Jon in a delicate situation. But so long as I do my best for Jon and love his Mom. There is nothing else. At least in my Dad's book and I am not sure anything else matters.

End of Relativism?

Just before Pope Benedict was elected pontiff, he gave an amazing homily. (That's the preaching part of the Catholic mass, right after the gospel reading.) Cardinal Ratzinger spoke about how the greatest threat to humanity was the "dictatorship of relativism."

To me, as a philosophy minor at American University, a catholic, and dealing with a huge public corruption investigation in New Jersey on behalf of a client fighting for reform, relativism is the belief that just about anything is OK. There is no "right" or "absolutes". If you believe something that I do not believe- you are not wrong, nor am I. As Cardinal Ratzinger put it you "are swept along by every wind of teaching".

This movement is just one of the many ways that the American Left has completely screwed up and been truly "believed" out of relevance or any real meaning by the conservative movement. The Red State stand for something Bush and the Blue State stand for everything and nothing all at once Kerry. You can accept and understand another person's viewpoint without agreeing with them. And still respect them, even love them but #1 have your own set of defined beliefs and #2 stick to them.

I'm predicting that over the next 25 years that this Pope's "campaign for truth" (note me not saying crusade against relativism) will have a tremendous ideological impact on the world influencing everything from American politics and consumerism to our most personal beliefs.