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Dedicated to the men and women of our armed forces:

Our world is often a vacuum… and it is equally often not filled by good, fair or equal. This is why the circumstances that allow bad things and evil men to fill their roles also define the heroes who would stop them. Leadership, even in its truest form, can be a lofty place from which to point and cast the sword, yet nothing else can guide the blade. It can leave us with tears in our eyes or a lump in our throat because the odds are as real as the dangers in the hardest things we must do and do for others. That is why our convictions tell us and the world who we are and that our call, whether to duty or to hope, is the reason why we persevere and the reason why we fight; both for that which we have that which we wish to keep. This is why people go, why people rise –not simply because they are told to do so but because they must.

-Jonathan E. Keys (son of retired, Air Force General Ronald E. Keys)

From where you are
By J. Keys

He caught her eyes peering at him above the gloss black rim of her computer screen as he was deep in his own world of thoughts and questions. It was a stare somewhere between recognition, surprise and want. If it were possible to escape that look it wouldn’t matter… who would want to?

He had seen her here many times before. They had spoken and even knew each others names. But for some reason this instance was oddly shaped, connected somehow and more powerful than before. She had this face that was… it was difficult to pin the particular word, but you couldn’t miss it –ever. In a sea of a thousand people you wouldn’t just be able to find her… you simply wouldn’t see anyone else but her. The thought alone was enough to make him smile.

Her situation always seemed like that feeling you get when you sigh in that way and moment when you become resigned to the cliché’ “it is what it is”. She wasn’t trapped but she wasn’t free, either. He guessed that circumstances can make for some high walls in this life, it would seem. Not that anything was impossible or given up… just more like the harsh wisdom of observing someone else’s fight, knowing that it is certainly and indeed, righteously, not yours. Nevertheless that didn’t take away the potential or the possibilities that almost oozed out of her every move, desire and word… and it never took away from those eyes or that stare.

Going forward, sometimes, about the best you can do is hit a challenge head on and hold on tight. There are no nice parts, it’s just hard.  Its important, though, not to give up; on your options, the total realm of possibilities and the things that matter more than the circumstances. Its easy to declare war… it may even be necessary to fight one… but I’ve never been a part of one that wasn’t a mess or that didn’t have casualties. The former you can usually cleanup, the latter you just lose.  -J. Keys

Her Gravity
By J. Keys

There she is, laying on the ground, tragically drowning in half an inch of water filled with false hopes, anger and despair as she forces her lips against the surface as hard as she can trying to consume every last drop. Pity… if she would just turn over she could breath and see the sky.

She reaches out and tries to hold on to so many things that don’t do the same back. She wants and tries and then falls down and doesn’t understand why; doesn’t understand that saying goodbye is as much a part of the deal as getting back up and trying harder or simply trying again. She wants to know why and claims that life is just unfair, quoting words and philosophy that are either incredibly cliché or incredibly wrong. The irony is that she gets it… she doesn’t want to pay the price to have it all.

Her potential was once grand and perhaps it still could be if she would realize that her freedom from gravity has nothing to do with the weight on her shoulders or a perceived need to escape it… but that is has everything to do with pushing back on those who stop her and pushing up on that which keeps her down, away from the sky, tragically drowning in only half an inch of water.

Why people think cops are assholes…
Posted: Friday, April 24, 2009 at 12:51am
By J. Keys

I don’t deal with the police very often. I’ve found rare occasion for needing their services or protection. That isn’t to say that I don’t respect police or dislike them; I just don’t end up in scenarios with them involved. A cop’s job isn’t easy and I don’t discount the danger they face; I’d rather have police than not have police.

However I hear a lot of stories about how certain cops have really bad attitudes, particularly in situations that don’t really call for an aggressive attitude. I hear this complaint A LOT about Cobb County police officers and up until tonight I didn’t really have an evidence of my own to support a similar claim.

I was having a little trouble with my car tonight and to try and replicate and/or figure out what the problem was I decided to drive it up and down the hill that runs alongside the complex I live in. Upon reaching the crest of that hill I saw lights of all kinds beaming around; fire trucks and police cars. A fire had taken place at the apartment complex next to mine. I turned around, as the road was obviously blocked, and went on my way. Later this evening I came back to the same road to attempt the same test and some emergency vehicles were still there (this is near midnight).

Up ahead was a fire truck on the right side of the road but the left lane appeared clear. A cop stood in the road and flagged me down. I rolled down my window and asked, politely, if I could pass the fire truck ahead. He responded with this:

“No you may not drive over those fire hoses, you need to make a u-turn and turn around”

Oh really, jackass? You mean the fire hoses that I couldn’t see because of the rain, mist and strobing lights? Or the fire hoses I couldn’t see because one of my headlights was out? Prick.

Prick. You’re a prick, sir. That was a prick response and it was COMPLETELY unnecessary. You’re a fucking prick and you don’t deserve to be a cop because of it. You’re JOB is to protect and to serve and all you did was act like a prick when all you had to do was say, “No sir, we’re still in the process of putting out a fire. If you wouldn’t mind, please make a u-turn and find an alternate route.” I wasn’t giving you any attitude or acting like a dumbass. That tells me that you’re probably, by all accounts, a prick right down to your bones.

So, I got news for all the cops out there who act like this and moreover who feel it’s their right to; engage some common sense and some fucking manners and you won’t have so many people remarking you as douchebags or as bullies. If you think it’s cool or effective to make the law abiding citizens fear you then you don’t deserve to dig ditches in the dirt let alone wear a uniform or badge of any kind. On top of that you SHAME every other badge and uniform that elevates the epitome of a police officer when you act in the aforementioned manner –in the military that’s called “conduct unbecoming” and if you’re lucky it will only get you fired.

Mark my words now. I carry a camera, pen and paper just about anywhere I go and I’m gettin your numbers from here on out. This is MY town too and I’m not putting up with pricks masquerading as cops. We elect your bosses and we pay your salaries –we deserve a little class thrown in for good measure. And there ARE good cops out there who AREN’T like this… wherever you are and whomever you are, you’re appreciated (tell your buddies to lighten up when you get the chance).

That is all. -JK

Re: The New President
Posted: Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 4:56pm

All,

Ok, it’s WAY past time for a grain a salt on the public Obama-stroking

I think everybody needs to curb their enthusiasm just a little bit. He won, he’s got his chance to make any number of things happen (or fail to happen). I grant him that opportunity. But I hear a lot of people talking about how much they like this man’s words or what they perceive as his character as if they are some kind of guarantee –they are not. And I would warn them that such things are dangerous without a clear demand and understanding of results and reproach applied to any leader, anywhere.

Greatly charismatic individuals have a tool at their disposal that can just easily become a weapon, granted that they are allowed to wield it in the face of such grandeur and adulation. I don’t believe I need to cite the obvious, historical examples… We, the people, are the keepers of the power and it’s our responsibility to cross-examine and question our leaders as much as it is to support them. I fear that within a certain level of desperation OR enthusiasm this can be easily forgotten. If that occurs we will lose our way and will subsequently allow someone else define it for us.

For anyone to say they are “proud to be American again” should be ashamed (though that phrase seems oddly void of context in its reference). It is America that provides the platform for all of us to live in a democratic republic in which we have the power to choose and vote our leaders into office vs. them taking it as the please. I haven’t liked many of our leaders but I haven’t once been afraid or felt disgraced to be an American.

This country, our freedoms and struggle to make them work, like no other nation in the world, does not belong to the President, the Office of the President or the governments we institutionalize as operating agents –it belongs to us. We must always know this, want this and believe this.

I wish Mr. Obama the best and I look forward to the possibilities that he and his administration bring to our, current, dire situation as well as our bright future. However he is no more perfect than anyone else and he will not always be right. Now that doesn’t propose him as a failure anymore than people’s relief that he’s not “W” or John McCain makes him the answer to every prayer they ever had… but it does give cause for a reality check. Don’t forget to give that a chance, either.

V/R
J. Keys

“Forgetting” With the best intentions we treat this word and its concept like an eraser. I wonder if we ever do, forget that is, but either way the underlying truth is that a mark made is like a thing known –the impression shapes not only us but our world as well. In this regard, all actions and their outcomes are unavoidably indelible.

Regret is a silly thing but it does mitigate both our ridiculous pursuit of perfection as much our altruistic pursuit of spiritual harmony. Curious, but mysteriously appropriate, how this blade in our canon of life-weapons seems to cut so much deeper than the others –as it serves our doubts and provides swath against them too.

Though I believe in second chances there are no do-overs; “next time” is referred to as such for a reason. Additionally, “next time” is never plays out the same as the first time. As for control? You have control over your choices about in as much as making them (though not much more). But as the Sunscreen song says they’re also “half-chance, so are everybody else’s.”

Perfect
By J.Keys

It really is too bad
When you look but do not see
You pick one simple thing
And wrongly make it me

I suppose that is the way
Of fallen-natured man
A fault-first view avoids reflection
More than blindness can

Accusations stand self-conscious
With mask and stain so cruel
With this, your way, be on your way
Instead…? try everybody’s fool…

One Thousand and One
By J. Keys

There’s something about her that always surprises him.  Sometimes it’s that perfume she wears… you don’t catch her but she catches you, ever so faintly, as you turn your head to look and, well, there she is and there’s your smile. But other times it’s the most obvious thing, right in front of you, and you don’t even realize it until she smiles, looks up and waves. Such are so many diamonds in this rough.

One day she’ll show up in something black and short… smiling, laughing and saying hello with that grin, raspy voice and blue eyes. Others she’ll be sitting in the corner, alone wearing a hood and sweats –not trying to hide, but just to take it easy. Either way you wonder just who the hell it is that just changed the colors of the landscape until it hits you that it’s her –again.

Sometimes she’s just hot, so hot you’re almost afraid to get near her. Other times she’s sharp but you’re more than willing to get cut just so you can be close. And then some days she’s as soft and comfortable as a down, feather comforter that wraps from head to toe on the coldest, hardest night. All of it’s more pleasant than surprising… but you can’t ever catch her, she catches you.

A random philosophy on systematic culture and how it breaks…
By J.Keys

I can’t say I disagree with him on the “lead them to water” philosophy except to say that the prepared mind is always favored on the field of battle and that this very idea saves more time, money and churn when all of your troops share the same kind of concerns at a fundamental level (vs. corralling groups like cows or any one group claiming exemption for any reason; like claiming they are simply more important than another member for no, actual, founded reason).

A sense of urgency doesn’t require a dose of ignorance for the purity of necessary action to take place; nor does a lack of common sense absolve someone from the aforementioned need to know what the fundamentals of the objective are or that a sense of urgency is required both to keep from dying as much as it is to grow stronger. That is to say that what someone doesn’t know is not their worst enemy –it’s what they don’t know that they don’t know that will bring them down, first. Any measure of unwillingness to face that only makes matters intrinsically worse.

This is the essence behind the truth that being industriously knowledgeable absolutely makes you more efficient which means better decisions, less downtime, a sharper competitive edge which leads to more growth and more money. Keep or allow people to remain in the dark? Then you get just the opposite and an unbalanced weight on some part of your brigade that, eventually, won’t be able to keep up because, if for no other reason, it was decided that being systematic about all angles of approach was just too hard for everyone to grasp or maintain.”

This way
By J. Keys

Does he bleed? No one knows… You can hear the wind and wonder but there are always so many things in between. The rain falls and trickles as it strikes leaves, dirt and metal structures. But he descends, steps aside and steps in and in between; the noises, the movements and the fear of what hides in and among them all. He’s dark… but he’s not what you think. His nature is his camouflage but it is never the other way around. Such is the way of a blade and its swath…cutting, sweeping; both unforgiving, both unforgiven… both him. Nevertheless, in all of these ways and for all of these reasons, he bleeds… but no one knows.

Once
By J. Keys
(written to and inspired by the song “From Where You Are” by Lifehouse)

You can never tell where it will come from, that one thought or memory that suddenly appears beside you in the passenger seat. He rounded the corner, fast, on his way as the cool and warm air rushed through the half-open, front windows. The sky was clear and the sun was high. He wondered what was missing as he furrowed his brow beneath the daylight and panned a view from left to right. The tint on his gun-metal gray wrap-arounds slowly darkened as his head then turned toward the solution.

The sky welcomed itself in as the sliding glass roof moved back. The warmth and glow made him smile and breath in deeply, but also sigh in exhale. He downshifted into another turn while on his way. The engine revved high and the turbo spun and spooled a soothing whisper as it pulled the car forward while throwing him back into his seat like so many hopes and regrets often do. Where he was going began to matter less against where he never had a chance to go.

And there’s the rub. He once thought that it was his way of seeing things, how far he saw them ahead, that separated him from so many; opportunities, possibilities, people. But it wasn’t that at all, really. The truth representing that gap was simply how far behind everything was in his wake as he looked over his shoulder, waiting and wishing that it all could have meant and been so much more. With that last thought and sigh he cleared the final turn away from the boulevard, engaging the ramp and straight away at full throttle… and a yet again empty passenger seat.

Around the corner
By J. Keys

He saw her just as she turned the corner, her presence imparted like the experience of dropping to a soft and wanted surface or a bed longing for one to come home; the impact instant and perfect and amazing all at once as a smile born of bliss and righteousness follows immediately after. She always seemed to have that effect despite the day or the circumstances.

His salutation was slightly broken and elongated, desynchronized by his partially open mouth and even more open stare. She always looked stunning, so “put together” but it never seemed to matter what she actually wore… she had this way about her that made whatever that was look good instead of the other way around. Nevertheless he continued his previous conversation, though with far less concentration than before –something, among many things, she was easily capable of breaking.

It was always that way with her; passing by or over the shoulder. So many times brief but delightful in every moment and every step. Her look followed her eyes, cutting, both stranded and by design while both bravery and fear boiled just beneath her surface contained by the best of all intentions and the truest of all hopes. Maybe he just had too much time on his hands… but that’s where he waited and where he always saw her. Beyond the mind and circumstances, watching, just as she turned the corner.