Christ In Christmas

Currently, the Tulsa area, a controversy is going on that is tied to a trend that has been going on for several years. Businesses, schools, and other organizations have replaced 'Christmas' with 'holiday' in the names of their December events, and Christians have resisted this by saying that Christ shouldn't be taken out of Christmas. The local flare-up is over the decision of U. S. Senator James Inhofe, a Tulsa resident, to not ride his horse in this year's parade because the organizers changed the name of the event.

Of course, many criticize him, saying he is close-minded, bigoted, and failing to represent all the people of Oklahoma. But they say this about him no matter what he does or says. Unless Inhofe changes into a liberal Democrat (he is one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate), he will never please them. Even then, I believe they would remain suspicious of him, just waiting to pounce on him with venom and vigor if he ever again expresses another conservative or traditional thought.

On the other hand, many have applauded him for taking a stand for Christ.

Me? I'm kind of in the middle on this one.

I am glad when anyone takes a stand for Christ, however I do think that he could have taken his stand in a better manner.

Why make an issue of the parade's name? Does this really matter? In this case, maybe not.

Who decides what the parade is called? Whoever puts in on.

I tried to search online to see who that is, and apparently the parade is put on by its own organization. This organization might be an offshoot of the Jaycees, because they were mentioned in a sponsorship application I found. The parade director said the organization is not a religious one, and the parade is just a community event.

Why should we expect a non-religious organization to name their event with a Christian name, just because they called it a Christmas parade in the past? It's their event, they're not a Christian organization, and they have the right to name it whatever they want.

If the outfit behind the parade was a Christian organization, and they changed the name from 'Christmas' to anything else, then they could be taking Christ out of the event. They could also be trying to cover up the Christian nature of the event, a "bait and switch" approach to presenting the Good News of Jesus. Wouldn't that be a really spiritual method!?

Now, I have to admit I have a different perspective on this "Christ in Christmas" business anyway. You see, I'm not sure that Christmas was about Christ to begin with.

Much has already been written and said about how most Christmas customs have pagan origins, and how Christmas occurs on the same date as ancient pagan festivals (Saturnalia in Rome, Yule in Nordic lands). Did the Church do this to make it easier for pagans to believe in Jesus, or to make it easier for the Church to absorb pagans?

Of course, this doesn't mean that pagan customs can't be "saved." See what I wrote about the gittith in my Christmas Meditation post. My contention is that if Christmas is about Christ, it is so only when we make it that way. This is true for individuals, families, churches, whoever.

If Sen. Inhofe wants Christ in the Tulsa holiday parade, he should ride in the parade carrying a Christian flag, or a banner that says "Jesus Is The Reason For The Season."

A New Type of Primary Election?

Tuesday was primary election day in Oklahoma. That night I looked up the election results online, and also read the comments posted by other readers. Of course, there was the usual back-and-forth about Republican vs. Democrat, liberal vs. conservative views, plus comments on open vs. closed primaries.

On the primaries issue, both sides have a point. In a closed primary, independent voters can only vote on non-partisan offices (judges) and issues (state questions, bond issues, etc.), so a candidate favored by independents could be eliminated and the independents wouldn't have a say in the matter. In an open primary, voters in one party could unfairly strengthen a weak candidate that their own party's candidate can defeat easily.

So, I was thinking, why not a new type of primary? One that allows independents to vote on party candidates, but would not allow voters in one party to vote on the candidates of the other party. I guess you would call it a semi-open primary.

Here's the way it would work:

If you are a member of a party, you get your party's ballot that lists ONLY your party's candidates, candidates for non-partisan offices and non-partisan issues. If you are an independent voter, you get a ballot that lists ALL candidates for all contested offices (including the independent candidates), and non-partisan issues. This will allow independent voters to show their approval of partisan candidates.

Independent candidates must get ten percent (10%) of the vote to continue on to the general election. This will save the cost of added names of candidates that have no real chance of winning or influencing the outcome of an election.

I know this last part will put extra pressure on independent candidates to get out and campaign early, instead of waiting until after the primaries to make a strong effort. But isn't the purpose of a primary election to eliminate candidates? Why not eliminate independent candidates early? I also think it's a fair trade-off for allowing independent voters to vote on partisan candidates.

Besides, strong independents actually tend to muddy up general elections. Remember Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996? He drew voters away from the Republican candidates those years. Democrats tend to think of Bill Clinton as their party's savior after 12 years of Republicans in the White House, but the truth is that Perot was the deciding factor. The same thing happened in the 2002 Oklahoma governor's race. Brad Henry won that year because independent Gary Richardson drew votes away from Steve Largeant. If an independent candidate is strong enough to get past the primary, then that will alert the parties that they must account for that candidate and not focus on each other. Remember Jesse "The Body" Ventura?

Will this ever become a reality? Probably not, but hey, a blog is where people can put their thoughts out there for others to see and maybe discuss. And, you never know who will read this and start a move to make it happen...

C'mon, sir, jump through this hoop...

I feel as if I have been jumping through hoops since mid-September. I won't go into details , but my mother went into the hospital, then to a nursing home. I had to become her power of attorney so I could manage her affairs.

To get her into the nursing home required getting verification of skilled nursing coverage. Once that coverage ended, I had to get her qualified for Medicaid. That's where most of the hoop-jumping occurred.

Then she got automatically enrolled in Medicare prescription coverage. The company managing the program said I could get a refund for pharmacy bills already paid. I submitted a claim, but it was denied. I can resubmit with extra documentation.

Mom did get approved for Medicaid, but now the nursing home takes most of her income. That means that I am left to pay utility bills and buy groceries that she used to take of. Lately, my income hasn't been as high as it once was, so I have applied for Social Security disability and SSI benefits. I've also been seeking help with some of my own health issues. So, some of these hoops I've been jumping through have been for myself.

I'm not looking for sympathy. I just want my story to serve as a warning to others to not let problems grow too big to handle. Also, I'm wondering, if I have to jump through all these hoops now, how many more will be added when Obamacare takes effect.

Storm Warnings Revisited - Someone Must Have Listened

Almost 2 years ago, I wrote a piece about severe thunderstorm warnings, and how I thought that the public tends to disregard warnings because the warning criteria were too low. The low criteria caused too many warnings issued where the storms did no damage. People came to expect that storms wouldn't do anything serious, and then when a damaging storm did occur, no one expected any damage would happen. If you want to see the entire post, you will find it here:

http://randomcontact.blogspot.com/2008/02/storm-warnings-and-public.html.

Well, someone must have listened. It doesn't matter if they listened to me or to the others out there that have said the same thing, but someone must have listened. Here's an excerpt from an NWS Public Information Statement:

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING CRITERION FOR HAIL CHANGING...

TO: SUBSCRIBERS: NWS PARTNERS...USERS AND EMPLOYEES



Area
SUBJECT: NATIONAL CHANGE IN MINIMUM HAIL SIZE CRITERION



Description

FOR ISSUING SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING /SVR/
AND SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT /SVS/ PRODUCTS
EFFECTIVE JANUARY 5 2010

EFFECTIVE TUESDAY JANUARY 5 2010 AT 0001 COORDINATED UNIVERSAL TIME
/UTC/...601 PM CST JANUARY 4 2010...ALL NWS WEATHER FORECAST OFFICES /WFOS/ WILL OPERATIONALLY CHANGE THE MINIMUM HAIL SIZE CRITERION USED TO ISSUE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING /SVR/ AND SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT /SVS/ PRODUCTS FROM 3/4 INCH /PENNY/ DIAMETER OR LARGER HAIL TO 1 INCH /QUARTER/ DIAMETER OR LARGER HAIL.

NO CHANGE IS BEING MADE TO THE SVR AND SVS PRODUCT WIND CRITERION OF WIND GUSTS EQUAL TO OR IN EXCESS OF 50 KNOTS /58 MPH/.

I will be watching things this spring to see how effective this change will be. Stay tuned for further details.

Winter & Spring Weather

Snow began falling on Kiefer OK this afternoon (29 DEC 09) a little before 5 PM, and it is still coming down. This is on top of what remains from the Christmas Eve Blizzard. Both the current system and the blizzard moved SW to NE. Doesn't that sound familiar?

The systems that create the strongest severe springtime thunderstorms usually travel the same direction. What causes this is a trough will set up to the west of the Great Plains, and this makes the jet stream dip to the south around the trough, creating a "valley" or "long wave" in the jet stream pattern. As the jet stream flows from SW to NE, it sets up smaller low pressure centers that move along the jet stream. These "short waves" become the nuclei of severe weather systems.

Reports came out earlier that an El Nino was forming. El Ninos change weather patterns. If an El Nino is responsible for the current pattern, it might persist into and throughout the spring. We could be in for an active severe weather season in 2010.

Critical Communications

This post has been 39 years in the making.

In my sophomore year in high school, I took a half-year speech course, and I flunked it. I flunked because I was shy.

I was never very athletic as a kid, so I tended to read a lot. I guess that contributed to my shyness. But it also meant I tended to get good grades, and I didn't like flunking. So, I retook the course the next year and passed. In my senior year, I took Speech II, a full year course that explored more than the usual speechmaking. We had debates, and tried different things related to speech.

Thus began my development as a communicator.

The next big step came on 23 JUN 74. That's the day I joined an Oklahoma Army National Guard infantry unit. I signed up for communications. For 4 of the next 6 years, I was a 'commo' man.

Started as a field wireman, and ended as a field radio mechanic. Before they sent me to Fort Leonard Wood for basic training and the field wireman's course, I went with my unit to summer camp. There I learned the basics of organizing communications in a front line combat unit.

That knowledge proved helpful in my most significant military experience. It was during my last summer camp during the last two weeks of May, 1980. Earlier that year, Fidel Castro opened up Cuba's prisons and mental institutions and let anyone go that wanted to leave the country. It was an easy way for him to deal with political prisoners, and temporarily relieved him of the burden of caring for hardened criminals and the mentally ill.

Many of those "boat people" wound up at Ft. Chaffee, AR, where my unit usually went for summer camp. We went there, but not to the barracks. Most of the barracks were full of Cubans being processed, so the engineers set up tents for us on a ridge southwest of the main post.

During the second week of summer camp, our unit would go out to the countryside for a 3-day field training exercise. That year, only the rifle, mortar and TOW sections went.

One night during the FTX, I heard the battalion commander call for the company commander on the battalion radio frequency. When the battalion commander couldn't raise him, I got on and asked why he wanted the company commander, and if I could help. The battalion commander said that some Cubans had gotten out of the refugee compound and were trying to reach a highway.

He needed some troops to go help bring them back to the compound.

I said I'd do what I could. I got on the company radio frequency and contacted the captain. I told him that the colonel tried to call him on the battalion frequency, and he needed some troops to help round up some Cubans that had gotten loose from the compound. The captain thanked me for the information and said he'd contact the colonel on his frequency.

Ten or fifteen minutes later, trucks and jeeps full of troops rolled into our encampment, stirring up a lot of dust and noise. The troops unloaded, stowed away their excess gear, loaded back onto the trucks and jeeps and headed out again.

During those years I was in the National Guard, I also got in on the CB craze. This was when CB radios had only 23 channels, and you had to have a license to operate one. My call sign then was KEG9546. I won't say what my handle was, jus that it was an old nickname from when I was much younger and had an embarrassing problem.

After the National Guard, I developed an interest in writing. Except for a few courses required to obtain associate degrees in computer science and mathematics, I am mostly self-taught. I have written a few pieces for a company newsletter and a church bulletin.


I obtained the associate degree in math because of my interest in weather. I wanted to go to Oklahoma University to become a research meteorologist. The math degree at Tulsa Community College most closely matched the course requirements for the OU meteorology degree.

After obtaining that degree, I decided to get involved in storm spotting and ham radio. In January of 1997, I attended a spotter training session sponsored by the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club. There, I learned about the Creek County Emergency Management spotter program, and a book I could study to pass the ham radio license test.

In March, I passed the test at the Green Country Hamfest, held that year at the Tulsa Convention Center, and the FCC issued me the callsign of KC5ZQM.

Since becoming a ham, I have reported on storms for both Creek County Emergency Management and the National Weather Service office in Tulsa. I have participated in dozens of public service events such as bike rides and foot races. When hams provide communications support these events, they have an opportunity to practice for emergency or disaster communications.

I have not only participate in these events as a communicator, I have organized the communications support when I was Activities Chair for the Tulsa Repeater Organization. In that capacity, I helped to recruit and organize the response by hams in the Tulsa area to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. I also wrote the article about it that appeared in the March issue of QST magazine, the official publication of the national ham radio organization, the American Radio Relay League.

From my experience in military, civil emergency management, and ham radio communications, I have come up with a concept I call Critical Communications. Critical Communications is when communications is essential to the management of a critical situation such as combat, a disaster, or in an emergency.

The most important thing to remember in Critical Communications is the communicator's job. The communicator's job is to make sure the right information reaches the right person or place at the right time by the best means. That sounds simple, but it bears a closer look. I will break it down phrase by phrase.

"To make sure." This is the responsibility of both the sending and receiving stations. Both must maintain contact until until they are sure a correct copy of the information has been transferred.


"The right information" is clear, complete, and concise. "Clear" means the information is not vague, accurate, and true. It does not present speculation as facts. "Complete" means that you leave nothing out. "Concise" means that you do not include unnecessary details.


"The right person" is the person who needs the information to make a decision, or the person who needs to act on the information. Sometimes you can't directly send the information to the right person, so you have to get it to the right place, where someone there can pass on the information to the right person.

"The right time" is when the right person can still act on it.


"The best means" are the methods or channels for passing the information that allow you to best fulfill all the other aspects of this job. I have heard some comment that two-way voice radio is not an efficient use of bandspace. But sometimes it is the best means. It requires no dialing, encoding or writing down anything before you begin. You key up and you talk. You only have to wait for the receiving station to answer before you start passing information. However, if you have a large amount of information, or if the information is of a sensitive nature, you should use another means.

I could elaborate more on each point, and maybe I will, but this is enough for now.

Pecuniary Interest, Ham Radio & Public Safety Workers

The current hot button issue in ham radio involves pecuniary interest, public safety employees, and training drills. FCC regulations state that ham radio operators cannot operate if they have a pecuniary interest in doing so. That means hams can't get paid for transmitting.

From time to time, public safety agencies will hold drills where their employees who are hams will use ham radio as part of the drill. The FCC has determined that that is against the regulations, and they will start enforcing the regulations.

The conflict is that volunteers are not constrained by this regulation, and so hams are free to drill and train as much as they want or they can under the ARES banner. Other regulations restrict RACES training activities to one hour each week. If employees cannot train using ham radio frequencies, equipment and procedures, they will have difficulty integrating ham radio into a real emergency or disaster situation. Time and time again, for close to 90 years now, ham radio has gotten the message through in many situations when normal public safety communication channels would not work. It would be a shame to have a resource available, and not be able to use it because of some regulation.

For those interested in this issue, I would like to offer a couple of thoughts to consider.

The FCC has stated that in the regulations and in its positions on this issue, that ham radio is not primarily an emergency communications service. Amateur radio exists to to promote interest in the science and art of radio communications, and to provide a pool of trained and knowledgeable operators in case of a national need. Yet, when the telephones go out, the police repeaters get blown up or blown away, and power lines go down and deprive working radios and phones the juice they need to run, who shows up and gets people talking again? Hams.

Now consider this: A ham routinely takes a handheld transceiver with him to the office every day. He is the engineering chairman for a particular repeater, and he monitors that repeater so he will know if the repeater has developed a problem, or if someone is misusing it. One day, during his break, he hears someone come on the repeater and ask for directions. No one else answers, so the ham at the office responds. Unless he has clocked out for his lunch break, that ham is getting paid while operating. Is he in violation of the regs? No, for he is not being paid FOR operating.
Along that line, what about truck drivers who are hams, and they use ham radio to get directions while on the job? One could argue that the job description of a truck driver does not say anything about radio operations, so even if they use ham radio to get information to they need to complete their assignment, and they are paid WHILE operating, they are not paid TO operate the radio.