Veterans Day

This day was chosen b/c of the armistice for WWI, one of the most underrated horrible wars of all time, where the tactics didn’t match the technology.  Our doughboys went over the top in fruitless charges into machine gun fire, then retreated into trenches with rot, rats, poison gas, and the constant shelling that led to “shell shock”, the old timey phrase for PTSD.  We honor our vets this day – I saw an ad in my paper from a woman to her dad today.  She said that her father only saw her in a pic her Mom sent in WWII, then he was killed at the Rhine river at the end of the campaign against the dirty Nazis.  Yet, she was not bitter.  She said to her father, “We will see each other in heaven to make up for the lost time.”  Why do we fight other countries?  America is the great experiment.  Although by modern standards, we had slaves, women couldn’t vote, we oppressed Indians – the fact remains that the history of the world is oppression.  We didn’t do everything right or quickly, but we laid a foundation to do everything right.  Before America, no commoner could vote.  No man could purchase private property unless one the elite.  Slavery was worldwide and unfortunately, still is.  Governments dicatated religion.   Monarchs called the shots for our lives from cradle to grave.  Then came America.  Flawed?  Yes.  Yet it remains the beacon of individualism and liberty.  You don’t like our slavery past?  600,000 men fell to defeat it on our own soil.  Do you think we have oppressed countries?  In the USSR, Stalin killed 20 million (maybe more) of his own citizens to impose his dictatorial regime.  Look up Mao Zedong and Pol Pot while you’re at it.  A popular Latin sublingual cialis saying was “Man is a wolf to man.”  Despite this, we live in a country where dreams still live and thrive.  Now you can live and thrive based on your drive, not your choice of church or race or sexual orientation or sex or fill in the blank.  This is greatly due to our veterans.  They didn’t sit around and drink beer, tea, etc. and discuss ideas.  They fought, they died, they sacrificed for the greater good of liberty.  My own father was a forward observer for the 101st Airborne – the man that replaced him in Nam was killed w/n a week of my Dad leaving that pit.  “The only death a democracy can die is by its own hand.” – Thomas Jefferson.  No one will ever overturn this grand experiment except us.  “Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.  We didn’t pass it on to our children in our bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”  – Ronald Reagan.  God bless our vets and God bless America.  (PS – my act is actually funny, not dead serious like this)