From my patio here in Tucson I see cactus, sand, and orange flowers. I was worried the other day coming across lower Texas and New Mexico that all I would see is brown dirt… and I’m getting used to it. Today we will visit the Sonoran desert. Two days ago we saw the “bone fields” where unused airplanes are preserved in the desert dryness, but I saw rust on those beautiful old planes. Yesterday we went to a presentation of a new memorial that is still in the building/planning stage… The USS Phoenix will be preserved in downtown Phoenix as a memorial to Cold War submariners. The Phoenix was commissioned in 1981 and taken out of service in 1998. She has been cut into parts… and her parts are already rusting. The memorial presenter said: the goal of the memorial is to teach the youth of America about the Cold War when we tried to deter and prevent nuclear war. He said: “we did our job!” submarines patrolled the deep and stayed in hiding. The goal of the submarine secrecy was to keep “the Soviets” from knowing where we were so they wouldn’t “start anything.” A lot happened towards keeping the peace during the Cold War: NATO was founded, the Berlin Air life, the Cuban missile crisis, The Warsaw pact. Our Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps grew. We held off war “with the Soviets.” But can we continue? The submarine parts are rusting from the inside out… Even the dry desert can’t preserve “things” from rusting….
Can we hold off war in a time when nature is rusting our memorials from the inside out? I am one person smiling and talking, praying for peace while war rages in many hearts. Real hate rages as “the right” calls the “left” “evil,” and the right… remains silent to some extent. I put the words in quotes because, to me, the words do not represent reality. Rather the words are labels. I think we are all human beings, children of God. Trying our best in very small ways to preserve peace. May the Peace of the Risen Christ be with us today. God bless us.