Writing Rightly I am driven to write -- partly as a form of self expression, but mostly in defense of values threatened by secular humanists and totalitarian jihadists.   I started writing my "Closure for 2006" piece from a York/Poquoson audience to all of God’s Country. Then, I stopped. It was just too pedestrian and predictable:  Republicans lost... conservatives are doing fine, especially in the South... more work to be done. Yada, yada. Then, I wondered, if what I have to say is so repetitive, maybe it’s worth mentioning why I write -- why I write what I write.   When I was 12 years old I was waiting at a bus stop at Fontenot Army Base, France, to go home from the movies. The wind was blowing snow horizontally in front of the bus head lights in great swirls. I thought how beautiful and interesting that was. I decided I’d like to be able to describe that to other people. How would I say it in written words?   From age 12 to age 51 I wrote for school, a college magazine, work and myself. I wrote notebooks full of scraps of paper, literally whenever a thought, Eric Hoffer-like, revealed itself to me. Eventually, I wrote a novel, which is in its final pre-printing review this week. I wrote too much bad poetry. I imagined in the mid-90s that my pithy statements were like Samuel Johnson’s 18th century, long witty writings, but I couldn't figure out how to package them. Of couse, I’m no Samuel Johnson.   Then, the Islamists attacked on 9-11. I wrote an op ed that captured the essence of what, in my mind, was happening and what was going to happen: "One Front: Two Wars." I sent it as many places as I could find on the Internet. It got some legs, good feedback, and made me consider writing regularly. So, I began composing op-eds.   While I was working on Army "Futures" in my day job, I considered how those futures applied to the U.S. and Virginia. I submitted several of my Virginia-focused ideas to Jim Bacon for publication. I’m a creative, idea guy looking for answers. I was very grateful to join Jim’s team on the e-zine and the blog – which is policy-based, not politically and partisan focused.   Yes, I’m a political partisan offering a perspective on policy solutions to our common ground – the Commonwealth of Virginia. But I’m not carrying water for a team. I’m carrying a flame for ideas. I burn with passion for what I think is right. That is why I get my hands dirty in partisan politics. Many of Virginia’s politicians, of both parties, are described in The Bible and Shakespeare as men who seek power for themselves first and foremost. Our Virginia Cassius may not be so lean, but he has that hungry eye for self-service. Few have new or better ideas.   I write about ideas to inform. Mayhaps to persuade.  Our nation is at a unique place in history. There are metaphors that capture some of the dynamics but not all of the details. With the fall of Soviet communism and its empire in 1991, we were like Rome after the defeat of Carthage. We had defeated the second great, threatening totalitarianism of the 20th Century. We had destroyed its ideas, too, except among Western fools and vicious dictators like Castro and Kim Jung-Il. Washington, D.C., is the New Rome and Virginia will change because of it.   A new totalitarianism, an outgrowth of a historically bloody religion spread by the sword from its outset, struck the U.S. in 1993 at the World Trade Center. In case we didn’t get the point of the sword, the Islamists slashed again with hijacked civilian airplanes on 9-11. Now, Islam, if not the Islamist ideology, is conquering Europe. Invading Muslim immigrants have the will to produce babies, unlike Socialist Human Secularist Europeans, so the Muslims will rule the democracies by default in short decades – unless Christianity revives across Europe. Muslim rule with the Sharia is the union of mosque and state. A new, deeper dark age will cover Europe if the Muslims conquer.   The conflict to hunt down and kill the Islamists is the Long, Long War. I call it WW IV. (The Cold War was WW III). Containing Islam until the Muslims have a Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, and Great Awakenings to bring them – and their ideas – from the 13th Century into the 21st is important. Contending with Islam in the marketplace of ideas with the Good News of Jesus Christ, where there is freedom of speech and religion, is important. Until the ideas lose their currency with people who are willing to kill for them, we will be at War with that totalitarianism. Not a nation-state, but a people who believe in ideas that make them hate us.   An apt metaphor is our Indian Wars from 1608-1890. Two cultures that can’t co-exist in the same place and time. Only one wins.   Such a culture war is precisely what is happening across our country. Two opposing worldviews support two different cultures for one American Civilization and one Nation and one Commonwealth of Virginia. Only one wins. Our KulturKampf may be decided wholly in the marketplace of ideas, with the victory expressed in peaceful elections. Let’s pray so.   Just as the Wahabi strain of Islam started in the 19th Century among the Sunnis and grew to be a monster, so did secular humanism grow from the French Revolution and spread throughout the West. Much to the ire of liberals, I point out that their worldview is actually a modern paganism. They are indirect descendants of Baal and Asheroth who worship the god of the small ‘g’ “self”.   Liberals, with their secular temples in Massachusetts, can trace their political culture of absolutism, arrogance and intolerance back to the religious Puritans. Contrast them to the "Cavaliered" live-and-let-live-now-y’all Christianity of Virginia. No one can fight like our Scot-Irish and Old Dominion Tidewater (intertwined with their black fraternal twin) sub-cultures in Virginia in defense of family, faith or freedom when threatened. But we are lousy about leaving home for too long to push ourselves on other people.   The Liberals can dispute the theology angle, but they should acknowledge that the U.S. consensus culture split in the 1920s and ruptured in the 1960s. A classic example is the War on CHRISTmas in our schools, government, businesses and media. Removing the cross from a building built as a Christian chapel at the College of William and Mary is another hard punctuation to the truth of the conflict.   The new Virginians, legal and illegal immigrants, will take sides in this culture war. The Christians from Latin America and Asia may trend conservative and support the traditional, historical Judeo-Christian world view and culture for our common future. Those who become secular or consider their religion the opponent of the Christians and Jews will support the liberals. Anyone who sees himself as part of group more than an individual will track liberal.   Freedom and opportunity hang in the balance. Both sides think they support the same objectives of more freedom and more opportunity. But at every level of detail below the shining vision of goodness, there are stark opposing differences. There is no moderate middle ground, no bridge, no compromise in the ideas. There is plenty to share in our humanity -- to love dogs, to cheer for the Wahoos or Hokies, or root for the Redskins. But, only one culture can command our Civilization.   Either we have a culture of national exceptionalism – we have a Munificent Destiny -- or we are subjects of the U.N. Either a culture of life from its conception to natural death, or not. Either a culture of shaped by Judeo-Christian thought for family, right and wrong, morality and ethics, or one made up as we go along with situational ethics. Either a culture that has learned from the sins of the past – slavery, segregation and racism -- or one that institutionalizes the racism of "diversity" and multiculturalism. Either a culture that honors history for how it enriches the present, or one that hates history, suppressing the Confederate memories en route to culturally-cleansing the Christian heritage. Either a culture that is capitalist, or one that is socialist. Either a culture that welcomes new Virginians as individuals or one that demands group identity.   I see this fundamental struggle in the ideas in conflict in many, not all, issues. Forgive me for using the short hand of conservative vs. liberal and liberal human secularist vs Judeo-Christian labels so much. This is the forest that defines the trees.   When left and right can come together to fix transportation, clean the Bay and the environment, improve education, create jobs, provide security through illness, old age and economic insecurity, ensure public safety, etc. then all the better for all Virginians. When we can’t, it’s probably because of the conflicting ideas lurking in the issues.   This is a thumbnail of why I write what I write. I can explain the lineage of my ideas, the growth of my ideas through reading, listening, and thinking – and living life. But, I’ve rambled enough. Merry CHRISTmas. Happy Channukah. Happy New Year. May the Year of our Lord, 2007, be blessed for you.   -- December 18, 2006