This is to update everyone on the recent happenings of Operation Home Run. Congressman Tiahrt of the 4th district of Kansas recently held news conference to announce the establishment of Operation Home Run AMERICA! The articles about this event are in the In The News section.
With Congress getting involved, one would assume the shipping problems would be over. Unfortunately they are not; in fact, they are even bigger now than before. I was hoping that the OHR stuff would be sent over aboard congressional flights to those areas. Well, that was shot down, as congressional flights can not deliver any of the sports equipment as it is against the code of ethics of the Congress.
We were also expecting the Department of Defense to step and authorize shipping the stuff over there now as we were getting everyone behind the movement. Well, even with Congressmen and Senators behind it, we found the red tape that is the military isn't that easy to eliminate, no matter who's backing it. With that avenue the stuff must be logged, described, categorized, value estimated and then donated to the DOD. Then comes the final kicker, then the formerly OHR stuff, now the DOD’s stuff gets shipped to a storage facility to wait for priority authorization. The formerly OHR stuff, now DOD stuff would set, I have been told, for six months or who knows how long. They can not guarantee or even estimate when the stuff would be shipped or even that it would. And after we donate to the DOD, we, OHR, would no longer have any control of anything about the formerly OHR stuff. I'm sorry we made too many promises to too many soldiers and kids to accept those terms.
The answer came back to send the stuff over to individual soldiers who requested it. Sounds remarkably like what we were doing before, doesn't it! Also now that we have so many more equipment donators who donated the stuff to be shown during that press conference and we have been asked to send funds for that stuff to be shipped to either the soldiers or to our location here in Wichita, Kansas. Now before it sounds like I'm blaming Congressman Tiahrt for adding to our load, let me say I admire Congressman Tiahrt for his help. Unless you have butted your head up against that military red tape, no one could ever know how unbelievably stout and sticky it is. As far as the Congressional flights thing, with the way Congress is right now and how everyone on both sides are looking for any misstep by the other side, no matter how noble the act is, it breaks the rules. I thank Congressman Tiahrt for the many new supporters of the movement and I hope to continue to call on Congressman Tiahrt for help.
So now here's the problem. Shipping to those soldiers over there will cost OHR about $2.30 a pound. WE NEED HELP to hit our initial goal of 1500 units (a bat, ball and glove) of adult size and at least 2000 units young size. When you add it the miscellaneous items such as catchers equipment, uniforms, bases and so many other things, the amount grows even larger. Then we are trying to supply individual requests also, like one group wanted a weight bag and boxing gloves, a group of women requested volleyballs and nets, another requested horseshoes. With these OHR's dream grows even larger. The best estimate we can come up with is $250,000 to match our goals and ship it over.
We know that is a huge amount. But we at OHR believe we will do more to change the world with that 1/4 of a million than the millions that creeps through the cracks of government each week. OHR has big dreams but the goals and the needs are there. Here is the backdrop of what we at OHR see today in the world.
The USA is the world's only real super power. With that comes the heavy load of responsibility. Tony Blair told America in one of his speeches while here to visit. "Why is it America's responsibility? Because you are the only ones who can do anything about it." The tightrope our President walks stretches over a treacherous and dangerous landscape. The number of tyrannical dictators hasn't really been reduced by that much in this world we see today. Their greed and selfishness bring horrifying acts against not only their neighbors but also commits these acts against their own people. People in those countries huddle in fear, in places where the words that we take for granted here in America, words like freedom, liberty and justice are just words. Words without feeling, without definitions, words without meaning to those people hiding in fear, just words. Hope and dreams; do we even want to bring up such lofty words describing the future to these people cringing from the sting of the whip, the cracking of the bone, the whistle of the blade that cuts deep. Talk to those who fear their next ten minutes here in this world, talk to them of their future aspirations, their hopes, their dreams. Talk to them of what they wish for their children, the ones who have survived so far. Tell me now we don't have any responsibility. Tell me now it is the responsibility of that august body, the UN. Attend one of that august body's sessions and listen to those fine delegates barter for debating points to score worthless paper victories while the dead and sometimes the living are tossed in mass graves where only the tire prints temporarily mark their resting place.
Do we understand yet why there are people who hate America? Why do they hate us, we didn't do anything to them? Maybe it was our ambivilance to their strife, their life, their death. Maybe it seemed to them that we ignored their existence. Maybe we did. We can no longer ignore them, nor turn our backs to their plight. We can no longer hold out our beautiful sounding words; freedom, liberty, justice, only to snatch them away when political expedience dictates a change of policy. A grab for votes should never cost lives, whether it be American lives or other lives. Mistrust breeds hatred, from hate nothing good can come.
What do we do? As Tony Blair said in that speech, "I believe The United States stands at this place, at this time in history for a reason." I believe that also. We can do some much good right now, I don't think history will let us turn away from the responsibility. If we do not today's world will seem uneventful compared to the future.
What does OHR have to do? Very simply, its part. OHR's first goal is to provide sports equipment so our brave men and women can enjoy a piece of home during their long, lonely off duty hours.
OHR's second goal is to provide the sports equipment to start little league and other youth sports for the children of those areas. We at OHR believe that this is the best export that we can send to these countries. Win their hearts and win their minds. Show them America at its best, a country that does not wish to conquer and enslave others, but wishes to provide the opportunity to make life better and more precious than gold for them and their children. If we can increase the value of their lives and their children’s lives to them it will lessen the numbers the terrorists have to pull from.
OHR has lofty hopes and big dreams, but if we in America can't dream big how can we teach others? Can you help us in this quest to chance the world? OHR has already 31 little league teams in Afghanistan. Are you ready for this? Six of those teams are made up of Afghan girls! Do you realize the place women and girls hold in the previous fanatical regime? Yes, OHR is changing the world.
In partnership with our brave men and women who have brought freedom to the people of Afghanistan, OHR has brought a gift to the Afghan people from the people of The United States of America! If you believe you can, you can, you can change the world! Please step up to the plate and hit a HOME RUN!
Steve Knowles
OHR-Kansas
