Reflections: Memories of an American

By Robert L Pollock

This is the autobiography of an American that, when the time came, went to war for America then spent many years as a police officer and detective to do his small part to help protect as many fellow Americans as he could. At times, it was very hard, indeed, to see friends fall in combat for the USAF or in the line of duty on LAPD, but that goes with the territory, and he lived to tell the story. He believes he is a better person for having spent his life in public service. He would not want t

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781684092659

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Reflections

Memories of an American

Robert Pollock

Copyright © 2016 Robert Pollock

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2016

ISBN 978-1-68409-264-2 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-68409-265-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

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For me, the twentieth century ended on December 31, 1999—not the last day of the year 2000, like some will argue. The day was rainy, the sky a lead gray. The rain was soft, and the temperature was in the middle fifty-degree range.

As I write this narrative, I am fifty-two years old, soon to be fifty-three. I am a grandfather. My grandson Steven, who was seventeen months old at the time, was with me, just the two of us and the last day of not only the twentieth century but the end also of the second millennium. It was appropriate for the last day to be rainy; it was as if the century was weeping as it ended, going sadly into that eternal mist we call the past.

Steven would look out at the rain and point then look back at me in wonder and smile; he smiled so much that day. When I put him down for his daily nap, I looked at his beautiful sleeping face and thanked God for not only him but also for my children, wife, and all those people that I have shared brief times with in my life. All of them together make the tapestry of my life; as I watched the gentle breathing motion of Steven’s small chest, I began to reflect on my past and his possible future. I can only tell the story of my personal time on this earth and make educated statements about the time before my existence. I can also make only educated guesses as to the future and what may lie in store for Steven’s generation and the generations that are to come. My immediate family—father, mother, two brothers, and one sister—are all alive and, as far as I know, in good health. Again, I must thank God for my good fortune because there are so many people that have lost some or all those they hold most dear.

I am a member of the baby boom generation. I was born on July 11, 1947. World War II had just ended, and all the soldiers that had survived the horrible fighting during the war were eager to go on about the business of living life in America to its fullest. They were home from the war like their fathers before them, who had come home from World War I. It was into this postwar era that I made my entrance onto the road of life; this was an exciting time to be alive. America was finally at peace around the world, and no American soldiers were in harm’s way—although the threat of further conflict was still possible. But for a short while, the world was at peace, and amazing new technologies were being introduced to the public. Television along with radio and the telephone made communications more accessible. Humanity was at long last able to see, hear, and talk to the each other even if the communicators were a long distance apart. We were exposed to other cultures right in our own front rooms via the television. Science was growing by leaps and bounds. About as fast as the public was getting used to one technological innovation, another one would suddenly be introduced—things, like, the transistor radio. This radio was battery operated and could be taken anywhere. A person could stay in touch with what was happening in the world even if that person was in the forest alone or on a boat out on the ocean.

Communications were still mostly one way at that time, though, with the person receiving information but not able to send information, unless a phone or a telegram office was near.

Air travel was also becoming commonplace. The general public was able in the 1950s to fly to far away destinations at fairly reasonable prices. Most of these technologies had been available prior to 1950 but were only used by a select few, those who could afford the huge prices of such technologies. The second half of the twentieth century was in high gear and accelerating fast. At the turn of the twentieth century—the year 1900—the industrial revolution was in full swing; and while industrialization was making life easier for humanity, it was also causing a change in the religious lives of some. Some began to think that the concept of God was no longer valid and so therefore set about trying to take God out of the picture.

This was taken to the extreme by communism; the roots of such thought were in Russia where the church was outlawed and religious thought suppressed. Godless thought was spreading rapidly, and by the 1950s, almost half the world was controlled by the communists, so even as America was at peace in the ’fifties, the rest of the world was freefalling toward chaos. The cold war between East and West was underway. The rest of the twentieth century was to be dictated by the cold war being waged by the free world and the communists. This was the fire that fueled the amazing technological advances made by the human race in the second half of the twentieth century. As the cold war proceeded, advances were being made in technology by both sides. The Western free world would make a breakthrough, and the communists felt obligated to match the West’s technology, mainly by stealing it through espionage. The space age was actually brought into being specifically because of the cold war and its demand for bigger, better weapons.

Nuclear weapons, which had in fact brought an end to World War II, were too terrible and large in explosive yield to allow for standard use in military deployment. A different-type delivery system would need to be developed; enter the missiles. These were the things nightmares were made of. I can attest to that since during the age of duck and cover—the ’fifties and ’sixties—I myself had numerous nightmares of nuclear war. I would dream of huge orange fireballs that filled the entire sky, hot winds that set the whole world on fire, and I woke up several times crying in panic as a child thinking the world was ending, only to discover thankfully that it was all a dream but a dream which could become all too real very quickly. These dreams didn’t actually begin for me until I was in junior high school, old enough to suddenly grasp the seriousness of the situation the world was in because of human nature and nuclear weapons—like water and oil, they should not be mixed. The combination of such horrible weapons and humanity’s apparent bloodlust make for a most deadly combination. The possible end of the world and everything living upon it could have actually happened, and almost did, in the early 1960s—when the Russians decided to put short-range nuclear missiles on the island nation of Cuba. President Kennedy gave them a final ultimatum to take the missiles back to Russia or face an all-out nuclear attack by the United States. The Russians, I guess, decided that Kennedy meant business and very quickly removed those missiles. Patriotism in America was very strong during the ’fifties and early ’sixties. Americans were the most prolific producers of goods and services the world had ever seen; we were all justly proud of the fact that Americans could do just about anything we set our minds to. Large American corporations were manufacturing all manner of items to sell in the domestic and foreign markets. America was on a roll; we were the leaders of the free world. Americans knew we were in the right and the communists were wrong.

Americans were convinced that because we and our allies were believers in a Creator God, we were the forces of good and the communists—who were atheists—well, they were the forces of evil.

I grew up as a follower of the Christian faith, and I still think that the Christians are right (most probably), but life has dealt a few blows to my religious beliefs. You see, I have been around the world many times in my life. I discovered that there are other points of view when it comes to religion. My beautiful wife of thirty-one years (and counting) is and always has been a Buddhist. Her entire family is of that faith, and they are wonderful people who would share anything they have. They do not look down on me for my Christian beliefs, and I cannot think less of them for their belief in the Buddhist faith. I respect their right to believe anything they chose when it comes to God. I have seen many other people who are of other faiths—Muslim, Hindu, Jewish. There are others but I think you get the picture. The point is that all of the world’s nations and cultures have their own ideas and traditions when it comes to God. Each of them has the right to determine their own faith, even if that choice is no faith in God at all. Conflict occurs when organized religious groups or governments impose their ideas of right and wrong on everyone.

This has been the curse of humanity throughout the ages. When we as humans try to impose our will and sense of right or wrong on each other, to force our beliefs and culture on others, we get into trouble. We also get into trouble when we look down on those people that do not conform to our ways. We see them as not as important as we are in God’s eyes and less important to the world. The idea that one’s own faith is the only true faith and must be imposed at all costs on the rest of the world so their souls can be saved has caused more deaths during recorded history than anything else—including lust for power, empire building, or just plain greed. Religion is good if it is not forcefully imposed and if one can come to terms with their place in the world and their relationship with God. I have a strong belief in God but do not speak of it very much even to my family. Rarely do I bring the subject up—not because I have no faith, but because I think a person’s faith is so very personal that we each must make our own choice about God. If I were to demand that my family take my faith as their own, it would not be right. This is not to say that we cannot teach or lead our children when they are small in the ways that we believe. It gives them a basis from which to make a decision later in life, about how they themselves confront the question of God.

I sent my children to a Christian school. I hoped that the exposure to the Christian faith would assist them in coming to terms with their own final ideas about God. My children have never asked me really what, if anything, I believe when it comes to God. I suppose that they must think that I am atheist since I seldom talk much about God. They also know that I have a very scientific mind and am convinced that evolution is not theory but fact. This may not seem to make sense to the reader because I just got through saying that I also strongly believe in God.

I think that evolution is God’s way of creating different life forms on his beautiful world.

I think God gave us all a brain for a good reason. He gave us the ability to reason things out. He gave us the brains to figure out how he created life in the universe. We are figuring things out faster now than anytime in recorded history. God’s revelation to humanity is becoming so incredible that even as I write this narrative, things are being discovered that will contribute to humanity’s knowledge. God is good to us and has always allowed us to go our own way even when it seemed he probably should not have. I find no conflict between science and religion; on the contrary, I think each one more strongly verifies the other. Science can be empirically followed one step at a time. Scientific method (experimentation) to prove or disprove theories, if followed with an open mind, is the very way in which we are able to continue to rise in wisdom.

There are those that seem to think that once a fact has been proven, well then, there is nothing else that need be done. Each fact is just one stepping-stone to another fact; we build on each small bit of information. Civilization has grown over time into a global enterprise. The advancements in computers will, in short order (already has actually), create a global economy—which in turn will mix cultures and religions together such as never before in human history. This mixing of humanity will bring strife and chaos probably for some time to come; it is going to take time for humanity to come to grips with this.

In the decade of the 1990s, a phrase was coined by the then-president of the United States, George H. W. Bush: the New World Order. This was the words he used during the coalition building days just prior to the execution of Operation Desert Storm.

In Christian tradition, as revealed in the book of Revelation in the Bible, a one-world government means we are living in the end-times, that these are the last days before the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ. Well, only time will tell. As for myself, I refuse to worry about such things because I know that no matter what happens, I will have no control over such an event. I can only have faith that God will do with my soul whatever he thinks my actions on his earth deserves. As we enter the twenty-first century, I am very optimistic about humanity’s future. I think that as long as there is a human will to survive and seek the adventures of discovery, then we can and will make our way into a bright, wonderful future. Obstacles