Throughout my life
I've lived in many different places and have quite a variety of
experiences. While my own current set of
morals are not necessarily something that is right for someone else they are
shaped upon the world and experiences in which I live. While I live my life in a certain way I can
see how my life and values may be different if I were born in a different
country in different circumstances. For
me however, there are three sets of protected values that I feel I could not
ever deviate from no matter the situation.
The first of these is caring for my family. I grew up in a household with loving parents
that took care of us raised us to do the same.
My Dad was in the Army when I was younger and often sacrificed time with
us in order to take care of others.
These experiences play a significant role in my first two protected
values. Protecting my family is inherent
in the core of who I am. Because of my
family and my religious beliefs I take the idea of being a husband and father
seriously. I cannot think of anything in
this world that I could be offered that would cause to give up taking care of
them.
The second protected value is
protecting humanity. Protecting humanity
for me is not the same as protecting human lives. There is a difference between the two in my
mind. This is defined on dictionary.com
as, "the quality of being humane; kindness, benevolence." This plays a part in how I've chosen to
support my family. When I was younger I
worked in several different jobs. I
worked in construction, marketing and sales for Nabisco Foods and Kraft
Foods. While I didn't mind the jobs I
had and even enjoyed a lot of what I did I knew I did not want to do that for
the rest of my life. I didn't care
enough about cookies to try my hardest to sell them. After a few years of college and not being
able to decide on what I wanted to do with my life, I eventually decided to
look into the Air Force ROTC program.
While I didn't necessarily have anything specific I wanted to do in the
Air Force I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
Upon commissioning I was made a logistics officer. At first I didn't see the real benefit of how
this was working to help humanity. As I
learned more about my career and experienced more things I realized what we
did. We provide the necessities of life
all around the globe. When people are
hurting and need equipment, food, tools and anything else, we are the people
that get it to them. Taking care of our
own brothers and sisters in the armed forced is a large part of the reason I
love what I do. Taking care of people
all over the world is the reason I love the Air Force. For all the bureaucracy and frustration we
experience, the reality is that we will do what we can to help people around
the world.
My last protected
value is freedom of your own beliefs.
People have the right to believe what they want as long as it's not used
as an excuse to take away someone else's right to believe what they want or
cause harm to that person. I strongly
believe that we should have the right to freedom as long as it doesn't infringe
on another person's freedom. This idea
is something that many of us believe, however, we often will ridicule and
degrade another person's beliefs. I have
no right to degrade someone for being Muslim, Christian, Wiccan, Hindu or any
other religion. We all have belief
systems that share many common ideas. We
tend to focus on the differences because it is easier than focusing on the
similarities. When I was in young I
moved often. I would often live in
places that had very few members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. I would find there were often
misconceptions about our beliefs. When
people would ask me what I believed I would return with the same question. When they would tell me what they believed I
would respond with all the similarities.
We often had a great deal in common.
Because of these similarities and the following respectful discussions
we would usually become great friends.
By allowing each other to enjoy our own beliefs while sharing in the
similarities we could get along and avoid pointless contentions.
I have heard over
and over that while many things in life are temporary your family is not. That is the only thing that will be around at
the end of your life. While I mostly agree
with this I also feel that there are occasions that I need to sacrifice time
spent with my family in order to fulfill my other value of protecting
humanity. We had military leader speak
with us recently. He spoke extensively
about pillars. One pillar was family,
while the other was the air force and the other was ourselves. If we spend too much time on one without
taking care of the other it may weaken and crumble. We need to have balance in our lives. There are times that I have to sacrifice my
own selfish desire to be with my family in order to take care of other
people. I also have to sacrifice my
desire to be with my family in order to take care of my own family. I have spent almost eight months of the last
twelve away from my family. It has been
long and painful but I did it for two reasons.
I knew what I was doing was good for others and the other being, I need
to earn a living to take care of them.
In the end though, there may come a time that I realize that the Air
Force will ask me to sacrifice too much and I will need to leave in order to
continue caring for my family.
I have deeply
religious beliefs that I was brought up with.
It is a part of who I am. One of
my beliefs is that what we do here will carry with us after this life. This helps me make decisions in a few
different ways. The first being to let
the petty things go and take care of the big things. By doing what we can to make someone's day
better we are helping that person to possibly pass that on. These simple acts of kindness can make an
everlasting impression. While I love having
the ability to stay connected on Facebook to friends and family I feel that it
can be a method of dividing us if we let it.
I have a cousin that is vegan.
She takes every chance she gets to inform everyone about her veganism
and why everyone should stop eating meat.
She is often rebuked on Facebook by friends and family for consistently
sharing her ideas. When I see it getting
heated I will sometimes call or text her and ask how she's doing. I don't ever bring up the veganism or her
beliefs on the subject. I just call to
find out how life is and check up on her.
She's about twelve years younger than me and didn't expect me to
care. After one session of talking back
and forth about life she sent me a text thanking me for checking up on her and
staying connected. The last few years
have been tough on her and she was grateful I had stayed in contact. This contact played into two of my
values. Caring for family and the
freedom of beliefs. Her beliefs were not
hurting anyone, although some may have found her vocal nature to be
annoying. Her beliefs are hers and she
is family. My difference in eating
habits will never outweigh those two protected values.
While a care a great
deal for both my immediate and extended family, I can see how some people may
struggle if caring for their family directly conflicts with protecting
humanity. As I watch the news lately I
can't help but reflect on the Dylann Roof massacre. I watch what he did and can't help but wonder
what I would do if my child did something so terrible. While I love my family and especially my
children, how far would that love go in order to protect humanity. If I knew they were going to do significant
harm to someone else how far would I go to stop them. Would I even recognize the warning
signs. Would my love for them cause me
turn a blind eye to their desire to do harm.
My beliefs in freedom, religion and the afterlife dictate the majority
of how I run my life and how I raise my family.
My protected values of caring for my family, protecting humanity and
allowing others to peacefully practice their own beliefs stem from my own religion
and beliefs. When these begin to
contradict each other is when tough decision may need to be made. Could protecting my own family harm another
family? When do I stop sacrificing my
time with my family to help and work to protect others? When does another person's belief system
endanger my own? Do their beliefs,
though nonviolent, entice bigotry and hatred? How far do we allow the darker
side of humanity go before we have to step in and put a stop to it? I believe these are questions that police officers,
fire fighters and other community servants and military members ask themselves
each day.
Before this
assignment I honestly had not ever really thought about protected values. While I feel these are still strong values to
me I can see how there could be circumstances that may cause me to stray from
my original ideas. Though, those
circumstances would have to be incredibly extreme, and I'm not sure exactly
what I would do in those circumstances.
Hopefully I never have to experience it.
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