What is my extraordinary?

We as a species are geared not just for competition and dog eat dog, but also for cooperation and love. That is for the species to survive. The lifeform and genes. It is natural, genetic. With that in mind I easily feel a sense of duty and service. I was religious growing up and also was attracted to the military. It does not seem contradictory to me to include both. Both mean devotion and service. Even self-sacrifice if required. Enough self-survival to survive as an individual, but also for the purpose of preserving things I love. And I easily love my own, a broad spectrum of my own. I am moved by those that show compassion, that turn the other cheek, but if that doesn’t work, then willing to fight.

In a democracy we seem to feel more to fight for. Not just an emperor or geographical domain. But bonds of family, Country, creed, and ideals. It makes it personal and not just blind servitude. I am very proud of my father and other relatives that either sacrificed all or were willing to and it was strong and natural in me. And in this day of jihad I have written a novel of my experiences while in the Peace Corps, another form of service.

I was a Marine, then later also joined in the Peace Corps. My friends and I were in the barrios of the Philippines in the mid-1980s during the last days of Ferdinand Marcos. Poverty like you never saw. And nowhere to go to relieve it. We worked with almost no resources trying to share their life, to understand it, share ours and our backgrounds, and doing whatever we knew to relieve their situation.

In the meantime there was chaos in much of the countryside. I had joined the Marines earlier wanting to go to Vietnam. There was all this talk of the peasants in the rice paddies just trying to survive and wanting to be left alone to live their lives. I was witnessing this in the Philippines, which was also caught in Cold War meanderings, and with a despot in power manipulating their lives for the last twenty years. There was insurrection in places and it was impossible to not see or live past what that meant. And then, from out of nowhere, it climaxed into the most unbelievable peaceful, revolution of love and desire for freedom. It caught everyone by surprise and I will never forget it and am so proud I lived it. The prelude, the revolution itself, and the aftermath.

Only the beautiful Filipino people could have pulled off a revolution like the People’s Power revolution of 1986. It added to my life. Just living in the barrio with these people did, but the revolution was the encore of one of my most extraordinary experiences ever.

I Will Be The One

Following his stint as a Marine during the Vietnam war, James needs something beyond the mundane conformity of his life in Vicksburg, Mississippi. As he enters the Peace Corps, a political reformer named Benigno Aquino is gunned down in the turbulent Philippines, half a world away. James has no idea fate will interweave events for him to witness the overthrow of a dictatorship and the miracle of a bloodless revolution.

Lois has joined the Peace Corps to explore the world outside her staid Ohio upbringing. As a teacher in a remote village she totes her own household water from a distant source, learns to accept locals wandering through her hut at all hours, and even becomes accustomed to gunfire in the jungle night. But when the visit of a suspected spy to her village threatens their lives, she and her friend James must make a decision of lasting import.

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Excerpt

Lois rubbed my hand softly and affectionately as we lay in the dark. “We’re genetically geared to compete, but also to cooperate,” she said as if in a review session. “For survival of the species. Remember that time we rode the jeepney together going to Midsayap? Where I tried to ride the bumper with you?”

“They wouldn’t let you,” I reminisced with her. “You’re a woman. Women tire more easily, but also, women fall off more easily. Or if there’s an accident or ambush, no one wants to see a woman suffer.”

“Exactly,” Lois said. “Survival of the fittest includes gallantry of the strong to protect the weak. Remember what that man said to me to get me to go inside? He tapped me on the shoulder. That’s what they do. They tap on the shoulder and say, I will be the one. I will be the one to take the hardship and danger. That is so beautiful, so touching.” She turned fully on her side as if to look at me, even though we were in total darkness. “When we get married someday, Mississippi, that’s going to be our wedding vow. Before you kiss the bride to seal our marriage, we’re going to face each other, look each other in the eyes, hold both hands, and say to each other—” She placed her hand on my cheek for emphasis. “Let’s say it now. I want to vow it right now. Let’s do it.” “I will be the one,” we said to one another. “Whenever one of us is weak,” she continued, “the other will be there. We will always be there for each other. We will always survive.” We sealed our vow with a kiss.

Bio:

Born in Harlingen, Texas, on October 7, 1948, where I grew up and worked on a cotton farm, I graduated from Harlingen High School in 1966. I attended Texas A&M beginning in Summer 1966. In January 1970 I dropped out to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, where I served as an enlisted man, attaining the rank of Sergeant, with an honorable discharge after three years. I worked as a computer programmer afterwards in Houston and as a civil servant for a US Air Force Base in Frankfurt, Germany. I traveled and worked in Europe for two years, which included flying to Israel in October 1973 to aid the Jewish State in the Yom Kippur War. I was also in Greece in the summer of 1974 when the war between Greece and Turkey erupted over Cyprus. I was stuck on the Greek Island of Ios for part of that war, until I  managed to catch a boat to Athens just in time to watch the Greek military dictatorship fold. I returned to Texas  A&M in the Fall of 1976 to finish my Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and was stuck on the Greek Island of Ios for part of that war, until I  managed to catch a boat to Athens just in time to watch the Greek military dictatorship fold. I returned to Texas  A&M in the Fall of 1976 to finish my Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and returned to Europe afterwards, and then also to Israel, where I lived for almost a year. I later taught English in Taiwan before returning home to get a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics in 1980, which I received in 1982. I joined the US Peace Corps in 1984 and served for three years in the Philippines. In 1987 I began work for the Swiss government as a computer programmer until 1998. I have worked in the IT department of Texas A&M since 1998. I have three children, am presently divorced, and am Jewish.

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