Friday, November 11, 2011

Veteran's Day, 2011

Today is Veteran’s Day, when we thank all those people who have fought for our freedoms in the past.

There’s lots of room to talk about how those freedoms are being eroded by politicians, especially with a Congress and State legislators that are as dysfunctional as ours is right now.  That’s irrelevant, though, for purposes of today's topic.

What is relevant is that we’re losing the opportunity to thank many of the men and women who fought to make our nation what it is because they are aging and moving to the next plane of existence.

In February, 2011, the last living WWI veteran, Frank Buckles, died at 110.  That’s a pretty good run, by any measure.

The veterans of WWII, those of the Greatest Generation, are thinning quickly, too.  I really only knew three of these individuals well – Ither D. “Skeet” Malone, Robert Weidenmaier, and Gene Sawyer, all from when I lived in Carnegie, Oklahoma.  Skeet and Bob have moved on to the next plane of existence, and sadly I’ve lost contact with Gene, although I hope he is still alive and well.

Skeet came back with the most visible contribution to that war effort.  He was hit by machine gun straffing across the right side of his chest.  As a result, his right hand and much of his arm was atrophied, a lot like a stroke victim.  He told once that he’d been taken for dead and stacked with the other bodies until someone heard him “gurgle” and shouted that one was still alive.

Other wounds weren't quite as visible but were just as traumatic.

My great uncle Herman (Robert) Honeycutt returned from that war with a drinking problem that dogged him for the rest of his life.  I worry that the wounds of today's veterans, while possibly not quite as visible, are just as traumatic as those with obvious physical manifestations.

There are other veterans who were closer to me – My dad and his brothers David and Jimmy all served in the military during that gap time between Korea and Vietnam.  Uncle Jimmy passed away several years ago, but Dad and Uncle David are still close, having become the patriarchal generation of their family.

Veterans today are sometimes harder to spot.  They frequently lack the grey hair of the more senior veterans and often are true “citizen soldiers”, having served in the Reserves or National Guard.  Their contribution is every bit as real, though, in many cases their physical wounds are far more grievous than those of earlier wars, our weapons having become more deadly and destructive, with the ability to maim horribly as well as to kill.

One of the other things that is harder for some of us today is separating the “appreciation for the soldiers” and “disapproval of the war(s).”  In our increasingly polarized society, it’s easy for that message to get mingled, and indeed I wonder if some people understand that there is a distinction – I can be proud of my nephews, who are in ROTC and moving toward careers in the military, while being adamantly opposed to our country’s participation in military actions which are based in politics with which I disagree.

They’ll still get cookies and care packages, even though I fervently hope that their career trajectory will take them out of those paths quickly.

So today we thank our veterans, and I’ve hung my big flag outside of the house – the one that draped over the casket of my friend Jerry Stanovcak, who was unable to be openly gay when he served in the military in the 1970’s, although anyone who knew Jerry wouldn’t have been fooled for long.

I fly that flag as my way of saying “Thank You” to those who, even if they disagreed with the cause, answer our country’s call to go and do those things that young men – and women – are required to do so that the rest of us can sleep at night.

Because many of us appreciate what you do or did, even if we may disagree with the reasons that it happened.

They must never think that they do not have the gratitude of those of us whom they protect.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

I'm Back!

So it’s been a few days – actually a few weeks – since I wrote anything here. I think I’m ready to start again.

Sometimes when I sit down to write, the words flow out. If the creative muse hits, it’s as if time flies by and when I look up there are sometimes pages and pages written and it’s hours later.

Or just a few minutes. It has something to do with the space-time continuum and I don’t really understand it. I was a liberal arts major.

Anyhow, I stopped writing because I got tired of being so angry all the time. I thought I could stay neutral and scholarly about the proposed Constitutional Amendment, but I find that it hits a bit too close to home.

Even though there’s no intent or desire to get married, I don’t like the idea of someone else taking that option off the table for me.

Then I started hearing about some of the things that are happening in other states and realized that crazy approaching stupid is happening everywhere. All we can do is hunker down and push through as best we can, because things are going to get better eventually.

All we have to do is live long enough to see it happen.

In the meantime, let’s look at the Constitutional Amendment again.