Two Stories; Giving and Taking

This is a story about two stories.  Both are typically American.  Both reflect values.  One story is about values cherished.  The other is about values gone awry.  The stories tell a story; about what is good in America and what is wrong with America.  Each story is about responsibility; accepted and denied. Both stories were on the recent nightly news and were broadcast within minutes of each other.  One story can warm the heart and bring a tear.  The other story is a groin kick that makes you wonder about the double dealing we often think pervades our society.    

Sniping Over the Sniper

There’s been an awful lot of sniping going on surrounding the movie American Sniper, the story of Chris Kyle based on Kyle’s memoir of the same title.  It’s an argument that like damn near every argument in America these days, has no gray area, got nasty from the start and spares neither the movie, its director Clint Eastwood, the Iraq War, the book, nor Chris Kyle himself.  And like arguments in America it managed to go off the rails into wild irrelevance.  A prime example was Michael Moore hauling Jesus into the donnybrook.   I saw the movie the weekend it debuted and shortly afterwards I noticed all the hoo-haw that was hitting the media.  And so I decided to read the book and a fair amount of articles in order to make up my own mind.