Hey, today is Veteran's Day. The Real Veteran's Day. Forget the mall and the crapmeisters who want you to think you support the veterans by getting ten percent off a piece of crap you don't really need. Go read this. Read it all, including the links. Then go find a veteran, thank them, and promise them you'll stay on your elected representatives until the disgrace that passed for supporting the troops during the Bush administration is only a bad memory.
Then keep that promise.
Update: Most of the time we think our commentors are crazier than we are, (Hey, they read this blog don't they? Case closed) or maybe they just drink a cheaper vodka. Anyway, every once in a while a comment comes through that restores our faith. We're pulling one of those comments up now to share with you:
Twenty-five years ago, I remember a Vet from Vietnam who came to our door "selling magazines." He also walked with a very bad limp.
We had just moved there. We were waiting for our new checks and I had just spent all the cash I had on hand on gas and groceries. I said : "Please come back."
Well, the next morning, he came back, and once again, I was horrified I had zero to subscribe immediately.(I thought he'd come back later in the P.M. or week!)
I then asked him to come back when my husband would be there in 24 hours (Sat.) and the checks or cash, would be there and we would certainly subscribe to at least two magazines. (where were all the other neighbors?)
Sure enough, that man returned, limping up the driveway, with all his magazine subscriptions. My husband met him halfway down the drive and asked him in for a drink and talk.
He told us a few unbelievable tales and of course, he was emotionally damaged. We ended up subscribing to three and boy, did we feel impotent.
I told my Uncle who had lost his am in WW11 about this fellow and he shook his head. (he was a lawyer) His arm had been blown off by a grenade when he grabbed it off the ground to throw back at "the enemy". He then wrote my son, age 10 at the time, (now also a lawyer) that war was something to avoid at all costs, particularly if you can work out your problems with thought and economics and heart.
So, when I saw Obama ,who obviously feels that intelligence can sometimes over-ride "the bomb", I had to think of this Vet and my Uncle. Too many harmed and at what cost and by the way, does it make a difference?
There can be no more "Ugly Americans" or "Americans" , period, who cannot look into the eyes of those who suffered for them, let alone, who refuse or ignore their pleads for help.
Should wars be absolutely the final case, let us make certain we not only provide the best protective weapons and uniforms and intelligence, but we also take very good care of the returning Vets, be it a brain injury, amputation or PTS.
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Twenty-five years ago, I remember a Vet from Vietnam who came to our door "selling magazines." He also walked with a very bad limp.
We had just moved there. We were waiting for our new checks and I had just spent all the cash I had on hand on gas and groceries. I said : "Please come back."
Well, the next morning, he came back, and once again, I was horrified I had zero to subscribe immediately.(I thought he'd come back later in the P.M. or week!)
I then asked him to come back when my husband would be there in 24 hours (Sat.) and the checks or cash, would be there and we would certainly subscribe to at least two magazines. (where were all the other neighbors?)
Sure enough, that man returned, limping up the driveway, with all his magazine subscriptions. My husband met him halfway down the drive and asked him in for a drink and talk.
He told us a few unbelievable tales and of course, he was emotionally damaged. We ended up subscribing to three and boy, did we feel impotent.
I told my Uncle who had lost his am in WW11 about this fellow and he shook his head. (he was a lawyer) His arm had been blown off by a grenade when he grabbed it off the ground to throw back at "the enemy". He then wrote my son, age 10 at the time, (now also a lawyer) that war was something to avoid at all costs, particularly if you can work out your problems with thought and economics and heart.
So, when I saw Obama ,who obviously feels that intelligence can sometimes over-ride "the bomb", I had to think of this Vet and my Uncle. Too many harmed and at what cost and by the way, does it make a difference?
There can be no more "Ugly Americans" or "Americans" , period, who cannot look into the eyes of those who suffered for them, let alone, who refuse or ignore their pleads for help.
Should wars be absolutely the final case, let us make certain we not only provide the best protective weapons and uniforms and intelligence, but we also take very good care of the returning Vets, be it a brain injury, amputation or PTS.
Obama keeps that light shining. When he placed the wreath by the Veteran Memorial in Chicago, today, he did so with great elegance and understanding. He had Tammy Duckworth with him. She was in Iraq and had both legs amputated because her plane crashed on a mission.
He spoke not of 2001 (like Cheney) and he spoke nothing of politics at all. The moment was far too respected , not to mention sacred .And once again, the Bush administration missed it all.
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