Tuesday, November 11, 2014

November 11 Day 2 back to facebook

Today is the day to honor all our veterans. Let's see- I have about 5 from the American Revolution and then on down in every single last damn armed conflict- winding up with my cousin Dennis back in Desert Storm, then my niece, Robin, in the Pentagon on 9/11, and her husband still in the army in Virginia, and now my cousin Dennis's son - a new army recruit. I have pictures of my birth father with 3 of his brothers in a picture from Pensacola NAS- all in uniform. My Uncle Howard was in Bataan. My Uncle Lowell did Korea. My brother did Viet Nam and got a purple heart and I don't know where that is. Probably washed away in Katrina. I did see it when he got it.

But I sit in my warm house with two kitties and my sweet husband, never having served a DAY in the military all because of the misery and/or commitment of the men in my family. It would never have occurred to them to skip out. To let someone else do it. And now that military service has more respect, and we are thanking our veterans, maybe more young people will be motivated to serve. We don't have a service requirement, but we should. Most guys will tell you that the years from 18-20 are pretty misdirected. For some young ladies, too.  In my generation, that wasn't an option because of the draft. You had to be careful what and how you did things back then.  In WWII, it didn't take a draft to get people to want to stop the end of the world.  Viet Nam was dicey- but one thing it did do was keep the Russians and Chinese busy enough to keep them from dominating the world. Made the Russians broke and allowed Reagan to get the wall taken down. Without the loss of those 50K US citizens, maybe the world really would be different now. Or maybe not. Thanks Lyndon Johnson- you horrible man. Sorry- it's personal. What a terrible man. Who knew veterans day could turn into an anti-Johnson rant from me? Oh well, maybe I am just sick and tired of hearing that jackass lionized despite the fact that he also ruined social security by putting the money into the general funds. So he killed tens of thousands of my generation and ruined retirement for a lot of people who paid their money in. Nice. (<--use your most sarcastic tone right there)

So, we've had wars we had to fight and one HUGE one we didn't. And it doesn't matter why or why not- so many young men and women lost. Mentally or physically. And it will never end because that is what humans do. Sorry. People don't even get along with their parents or neighbors or classmates, etc. They even fail to do so at churches and ashrams and in political parties. So we will always have war. John Lennon was wrong- and he knew it. Too bad people didn't listen to THAT when he said it. (now we are all stuck listening to that stupid song)

So we will add to our sorrow over time. And the best we will always do is to remember them even if it one or two days a year.

I pray for them all- even Thomas Strong, shot on his porch in 1777- thank you all for your valor.

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