Final Words of a Dead Soldier

A soldier and a blogger died yesterday in Iraq. Months ago he prepared for this day by writing his final blog post, to be published only on the event of his death.

Few of us think of such things and even fewer prepare. Hardly anyone (less than 30%) has a Last Will and Testament, and just twice that many (about 60%) have some form of Life [should be called Death] Insurance.

I’ve pointed your attention in the direction of one such forward thinker before. Randy Pausch who is dying of terminal pancreatic cancer and whose eloquence and advice given in his last lecture are certainly worth an hour of your time. Randy is still alive, Major Randy Olmstead is not.

Professor Pausch speaks quite eloquently on how to achieve goals in life, and Major Olmstead speaks passionately about how to achieve goals in death.

His final post is worth a moment of your time and consideration.

There are too many people in the world who believe that they know best how people should live their lives, and many of them are more than willing to use force to impose those beliefs on others. A world without government simply wouldn’t last very long; as soon as it was established, strongmen would immediately spring up to establish their fiefdoms. So there is a need for government to protect the people’s rights. And one of the fundamental tools to do that is an army that can prevent outside agencies from imposing their rules on a society.

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About Christopher

Christopher Landauer is a fifth generation Colorado native and second generation Border Collie enthusiast. Border Collies have been the Landauer family dogs since the 1960s and Christopher got his first one as a toddler. He began his own modest breeding program with the purchase of Dublin and Celeste in 2006 and currently shares his home with their children Mercury and Gemma as well. His interest in genetics began in AP Chemistry and AP Biology and was honed at Stanford University.