I don’t remember if it was close to Veterans Day, but it was cool and the leaves lined the streets in West Point, Georgia, waiting for the street sweepers to come along and sweep them up.  As was usual for this 9 year old boy back in 1967, I departed the house for a 15 minute trip down the street to visit one of my friends.

As I got close to his house, I saw the line of cars parked along the street, among them an Army staff car and folks going in and out of the house.

I walked on over to my friend’s house, but he wasn’t there, and turned around and walked home, slowly observing the scene as I walked back by the house that was the center of all the activity.  I wondered why some of the people coming out looked like they had been crying, so when I got home I asked my mom. 

Mom didn’t know, but the next day I found out that one of the young men that grew up in West Point had been killed in the Vietnam War.  I didn’t cry about it, but to this day whenever the leaves fall from the trees and collect in the streets, I think about him.  Though I didn’t know him, I think about his mother and his father, his sisters and brothers, his grandmothers and grandfathers and the effect of his death on them.  I think about the children that didn’t get a chance to be born of this hero, and the happy times that never happened.

I don’t know who you are and how you died, but you made a lifelong impression upon me.  I am thankful for what you did for me, so that I didn’t have to do it.

I do know this.  You are in Heaven now with Jesus, for Matthew 5:9 says “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

Cloud over the White House

Special Report: Benghazi may be the end of this presidency

     Irrespective of the outcome of the November 6 election, the Occupant of the Oval
Office will be embroiled in the September 11 Benghazi murders of the US Ambassador
to Libya and three other Americans. This single event, if prosecuted by the appropriate
authorities, has the sway to end this Administration, render it ineffective, and
 cripple it for the entire four years if it remains in office. If it does not remain
in office, there likely could be ongoing criminal and civil proceedings linking
this presidency to a myriad of charges of cover ups, international intrigue, aiding
terrorist organizations, conspiracy, high crimes and misdemeanors, perhaps even
treason.

     The president said that he takes full responsibility for the events in Benghazi.
He has also said that he is offended by those who would suggest that he or his
administration "would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own."
There is no doubt that this administration, specifically the president, misled
the American people regarding the events of Benghazi. From September 11 through
September 25, the president and his Administration maintained that the attack was
the result of a spontaneous demonstration gone violent in response to an anti-Islam
movie. Consulate emails to the White House 121 minutes after the attack began indicated
a terrorist group claimed credit.

     An October 26 Fox News report said that CIA sources told reporter Jennifer Griffin
that there was far more than a cover up. Griffin reports there were three separate
requests for outside military assistance to help the Ambassador during the attack
radioed to "higher headquarters." Each time, the CIA agents were told to "Stand
Down." Ignoring the orders, Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods went to the Consulate
 to help. They did not find the Ambassador, but helped others. Upon return to the
CIA Annex, they came under heavy fire and continued requests for help were subsequently
denied. Doherty and Woods were killed by a mortar that they had tagged as a target for the airstrike
that never came.

     The Fox report also stated that two surveillance drones sent real time videos of
the attack to the White House situation room, the CIA and the FBI. Larry Bell of
Forbes reports: "Just one hour after the seven-hour-long terrorist attacks upon
the US consulate in Benghazi began, our commander-in-chief, vice president, secretary
of defense and their national security team gathered together in the Oval Office
listening to phone calls from American defenders desperately under siege and watching
real-time video of developments from a drone circling over the site." Former CIA
commander Gary Berntsen told CBS News that "They stood, and they watched, and our
people died."

     In true campaign form, the Administration denied the reports and offered no further
comment other than the incident is under investigation and the people responsible
will be brought to justice. At this point, who can trust the Administration to investigate?
John 3:20 says, "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." There needs to be an independent
body to investigate. The president himself should be brought to justice for misleading
the people and ordering those who could help to stand down. Libya holds intrigue
 with this president. He worked with the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda to overthrow
its government. He refused to report to Congress the extent of operations in Libya.
Now there is this suspicious murder and cover up.

     Ephesians 5:11-16 gives us advice for these times: "And have no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even
to speak of those things which are done in secret. But all things that are reproved
are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore
he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and the Messiah shall
give thee light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
redeeming the time, because the days are evil."  This should be food for thought
as the election approaches.

This blog was contributed by my friend, Bill Wilson.