A Failure of Communication

Communications, Logistics, Food, Science, Religion and Relevance

“What we have here is a failure to communicate."

The movie “Cool Hand Luke” was among those that depicted the thinking and philosophies of that time of my life.?As I grew older, there were other instructions from life, (life intervenes), other moviemakers, philosophers, scientists and authors and other challenges, as well.

Religion and Science

The most persistent of these challenges was that of the supposed conflict between religion, culture and science. The great challenge for religious education today is relating the Bible, the Good News to today’s daily occurrences, when so many know so little about religion. science and culture.

For example, Putin’s blockade of the Black Sea is easily relatable to the New Testament story of the rich man who had such a bountiful harvest, that he dreamed of building larger barns so as to store the expected harvest and additionally enrich himself. Fool, God calls him, and tells him that his life would be required of him that very night. The moral of the story? You can’t take the U-Haul with you to heaven and if you try, you’re going to have a hard time of it. Heaven, you see, is about sharing...here on Earth.?

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others.” - Nelson Mandela.

Back to the black Sea

President Zelensky estimates that 70 tons of grain will be stored in silos in the ports of Odesa and others on Ukraine’s Black Sea. This assumes that ships will be allowed to leave port and transit the Sea and thereby reach the food-deprived of the Mideast and Africa.

Infuriated by a Ukrainian drone strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol, Putin retaliated with artillery and missile attacks on Mykolaiv:

WSJ:

Putin’s efforts to grab Ukraine’s grain and sunflower oil trade have been outdone by the valor of Ukraine’s troops and its citizenry.?

Putin should realize, in his renewed bid for the success of communism, that those possessed of uncommon valor as a common virtue, will not allow the multi-century rise of democracy to be undone by his spurious regime and its pronouncements.?

A Culture of Valor

America and Ukraine share a culture of valor. The U.S. Marines, the U.S. Army paratroopers. special forces and Ukrainian Cossacks:

share a culture of uncommon valor as a common virtue.?As Peter Drucker wrote and with regard to Putin's vanity, culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue?

U.S. Marine Reconnaissance Foundation: "Staff Sergeant Timothy S. Williams sprinted 60 meters under fire through open terrain to [care for his team leader after enemy fire shattered the subject team leader’s femur] and sent him tumbling into a canal full of water. SSgt Williams scooped him up, stabilized his leg, then carried the Marine 3 football fields to a medevac chopper. He then took charge of a combined U.S. and Afghani team who executed an attack over two miles of mountainous terrain toward friendly forces, killing Taliban the entire way. For his courage,?[SSgt. Williams] was awarded the Silver Star.”

The success of the turning movement executed by the U.S. Marines at Inchon, inspired General Douglas MacArthur to declare that for those troops, “Uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

Continued?