I am a Mormon

Mr. Barnett,

 

            I first became aware of you, listening to a NPR interview in early may of this year. It’s taken me this long to verify that it was indeed you I heard. Your analysis fascinated me. I’ve been reading your blog for a few days now... uneducated as I am... and have run across two things you’ve written that have made me question my initial interest in your perspective.

 

You wrote:

 

 “Gropman seems awfully caught up in the "present reality" of George Bush's administration. So yeah, this White House has pissed off a lot of people around the world, but restoring that reputation doesn't have to take any longer than it did to damage it: it's simply called electing somebody new and different to the White House.”

 

Sir... I bought cowboy boots when George W. Bush was elected and haven’t taken them off since. Ok... well maybe it has something to do with growing up in a small northern Nevada town and serving at Ft. Hood at age 20, but in my mind, President Bush is doing a remarkable job. I shudder to think of an elected Kerry scenario!

 

You also wrote:

“Yes, a good chunk of the Gap (the center North) is defined by predominately Muslim-centric states in Southwest Asia and North Africa, but that only accounts for about 40 (max, 50) percent of the Gap's total population. The rest is largely Christian (Catholics and Protestants, with evangelicals and Mormoms gaining fast), whose version of those religions is likewise far more fundamentalist than their counterparts in the Core.”

I am Mormon myself and try to live my religion as well as I can. It scares me to think a man of your stature knows so little about the belief system I hold so precious. You place the Mormons within your “gap”. If that indeed were true, all my optimism and that of all optimists everywhere would be tested to the extreme. This world would truly be a far uglier place than even the ugliest the media spews at us every day. I can only say that you are wrong... and that you don’t know as much about this “cult” as you might think. Hopefully I just misunderstood what you were really saying.

My  youth in some ways resembled President Bush’s irresponsible youth. I truly believe that people can make real, lasting, and positive change in their lives and I believe that is exactly what our President has done in his. I admire him and unlike the liberal left, find his unwavering optimism and personality refreshing... to say the least. I quote Zell Miller in his recent keynote address because I can’t say it any better:

“I am moved by the respect he shows the First Lady, his unabashed love for his parents and his daughters, and the fact that he is unashamed of his belief that God is not indifferent to America.

 

I can identify with someone who has lived that line in "Amazing Grace," "Was blind, but now I see," and I like the fact that he's the same man on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning.

 

He is not a slick talker but he is a straight shooter and, where I come from, deeds mean a lot more than words.

 

I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home, a God-fearing man with a good heart and a spine of tempered steel.

 

The man I trust to protect my most precious possession: my family.

 

Mr. Barnett, I don’t presume to be remotely near your intellectual echelon, and to have your big picture perspective that goes along with it. I respect and admire... and yes... envy this in you. Like Greg Brown (too-liberal-for-me folk singer from Iowa... go figure... but I do like his music), I am perhaps more down to earth than you, but at the same time, I seem to have been given a gift to understand some of the upper atmosphere as well. The gift to retain what I can grasp and convey it to others... I have not been blessed with. However, I do what I can through emails and poems... content to satisfy only myself if that be the case.... with my uneducated writing and with all the peculiar punctuation that goes along with it.

 

I leave the following for you, hoping that you might find the time to reply to me and address some of the points I’ve made on the merits of this email and the two poems I’ve written recently. I would also ask you to take the time to read the following about another Mormon I’ve just been introduced to... at least on paper I have. I know it’s a little dated, but it’s heartwarming and hopeful in it’s essence.

 

Let me introduce him with the lead paragraph:

 

by Sylvia McMillan Finlayson

I saw my former professor and committee chairman, James B. Mayfield, on Fox News a couple of months ago.  He was being interviewed in Iraq, of all places, and my first thought was, ‘Of course he is the man they would call for this kind of a job.’ What job is that you may ask? The job of teaching a nation democracy.

 

http://www.meridianmagazine.com/exstories/040324iraq.html

http://www.meridianmagazine.com/exstories/040325building.html

 

 

And the poems:

 

Remember Who You Are

       Dan Iroz,  12Jul04 

  

When tears betray

Happiness intense

As diminished laughter

That will not subside…

Joyousness unabashed,

Simple and pure

In heart and mind,

Not affected

Nor embellished,

An open invitation

Readily accepted

In the best of times,

And in the worst.

You may know God

Speaks to your soul

And hears your smallest

Whisper.

 

When tears stream down

A face contrite,

Delivering salve

To real ache

And painful regret,

Freely,  

Without condemnation,

In gentle persuasion

To heights not reached yet

Or perhaps forgotten,

You may know God

Loves you as His child,

Remembers holding you

As He does now,

And kindly reminds

You to remember

Who you are.

 

You may know Him.

 

 

 

JUST DO IT

...Dan Iroz, 15Sep04

Our thoughts are not His!
And our puny perspective we call ours
Will only grow as we go through our days
Truly repentant, meek and contrite
Reaching out to those we've offended,
And asking for their forgiveness...
Excercising our weaknesses into strengths
And limiting our flaws...
Sorry for our sins,
Relentless as we begin each day,
Recommitting ourselves to be better,
Making real change in ourselves,
Intent on serving others
And forgetting ourselves.
Owning up to burdens that only the Lord
Can and will surely help us carry
Remembering that much of adversity
Cannot be layed at any man's doorstep.
And most of the rest of it... well...
Knowing it's not ours at all,
Except to teach us, perhaps
One of the most important lessons
We can learn in this life...
To forgive those who've offended us.
And...
Continue forgiving them
For as long as it takes
Just do it.

 

Dan Iroz

KBA / PCB Design Engineer

NACT Telecommunications

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Provo, UT 84604

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