Skip to main content

Happy Memorial Day!!

 What do you mean HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY man?!?!?! 

Don’t you know that Memorial Day is when we remember our fallen heroes?

Yes, I know. 

And as someone who has spent decades surrounded by those who have written a check payable to the American People for an amount up to and including their own life . . . Trust me when I say - those who have had that check cashed in full - do not want you moping around on Memorial Day. They want you shooting fireworks. They want you having fun. They want you spending time with friends and family. They want you telling stories about them. Tell how they lived. And if the story is good enough - tell how they died. 

Now - don’t be afraid to shed a tear. Get with some brothers and remember someone who is not hear with us any more. Remember those whose wounds were so deep and dark and hidden that they took their own life as they never really left that battlefield. Watch some parades. Visit a memorial site. Go to the Veterans Cemetery near you and go be with someone remembering a lost loved one. Meet a stranger and share in their grief and be there with them to help lift them up. Remember their loved one with them. Ask them about how their loved one lived  talk about the happy memories. 

There are those who I have seen in their final moments. Bloodied, broken, torn apart, weeping, screaming, scared, . . . I choose not to remember them that way  I remember the pranks we pulled. I remember the stories they told as we sat through the dull moments of combat. I remember time spent together back home. 

So have a happy Memorial Day!! May you celebrate the lives lives of those who sacrificed so much.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peripheral Visionary

It is never a good idea to type when you are angry. If anyone has read my blog before you will see that many things have been cut out of it lately. There were too many toes being stepped on and to many things being referred too. My emails were long and disjointed and easily taken out of context. So to ensure this does not happen again I will dissect everything I write before I put it on this site. If you are offended by what you read please let me know and I will take that off as well. I do not want to offend anyone. So from now on I will not use names to describe anyone. Everyone I talk about will be given pseudonyms. This will anger some of you because you want to know the names, places, dates – but you will have to settle for the taste, smell, and feel. If you want their real names you will just have to wait for the book.
1 comment
Read more

Definition of Terrorism

Terrorism and Extortion are very similar in action but where they differ the most is with intended results. Extortion : Using violence or the threat of violence to create an environment where actions toward the victim lead to the victim giving the perpetrator(s) something of value . Terrorism : Using violence of the threat of violence to create an environment where actions towards the victim lead to society giving the perpetrator(s) something of value . When defining terrorism it is pertinent to first set what parameters the definition is adhered to. If we took a general definition of terrorism and said that it is simply the act of generating fear to elicit the desired response of the issuer then we can say all governments engage in terrorism to control the activities of their populace. Threat of going to jail unless you meet social norms would fit into this definition of terrorism. The same could be said about having a strong military imposing the will of a country upon another co...
1 comment
Read more

The Turkish Neo-Ottoman Response to the War in Iraq

Turkey has a collected interest in the war in Iraq not just stemming from multiple sources not of which the least is Turkish dependence on Iraqi oil to survive, and the desire for Neo-Ottomans to take Northern Iraq for their own. Since Turkey was made a nation after WWI they have had a desire to regain their old Ottoman glory. The Turks have forced the Turkish language on people living within their borders, and have made deals with local countries allowing them to conduct cross-border operations that enabled them to set up military outposts outside of Turkey. During many of my visits to Turkey I have always found humor in how Turks will claim all things good from the Ottoman empire to be Turkish, but whenever the “bad-portions” are brought up those are quickly explained away as being European-Ottoman problems and having nothing to do with Modern Day Turkey. I guess there is a serious desire to have their cake and eat-it-too. Neo-Ottomans are the Turks that feel a desire to regain some ...
Post a Comment
Read more