I like Gary Trudeau. I think his Doonesbury hits home in many ways. I rarely agree with his left of center views, but his observations are often a great source of insight and reflection for me. This Sunday's strip may be the most pertinent for me ever. The character of BD, surrounded by well meaning loved ones stands for all the service members of our all volunteer armed forces. His statement of "most people are completely baffled why anyone would serve" is a concise summary of our present society's attitude. Ponder on this a bit.
Why we serve is a frequent headline for many internal armed forces publications. Most times the member only scratches the surface of this issue. Bill Whittle of ejecte!eject!eject! wrote a nice piece about this topic called Tribes.
Check it out.
PS - All my regular readers, both of you, congrats to Captain Jack for making the leap across the pond and taking on the challenge of a colonial educating the mother country's youth!
11 comments:
! :) LOL...Tears...
Sign at a large military HQ:
(and I am sure at almost every other) The United States is not at war. The United State (insert service here) is at war. The United States is at the mall!
BZ Deux
S/F
Mud Shark
Sensuous: use a feather.
Kinky: use the whole bird.
Perverted: Pluck and chill the bird first.
Yes, I can see the CO of an INF BATT calling back for some advice and being told everyone's too busy watching TV to talk...
What? Oh...sorry, didn't here the phone. Celebrity Big Brother is on....
Anyway, thanks for the props. It seems I am going to need all the support I can get. From what I hear, these kids are monsters...and I have hard enough time understanding the East Anglian Accent as it it! I may post on the blog about all this, but frankly,it has lost its allure....
Try to keep a diary in electronic form. That way the transition to blog - or bestselling nonfiction - will be easy!
Just think, the book practically writes itself!!!
Pish Posh, who cares about a war or Gonzalez resigning? Luke Wilson has SLASHED HIS WRISTS over Kate Hudson!!!!!!!And Camilla is not going to the 10th Anniversary of Diana's Death memorial service! And Gosh! Look at the boobs on the page 3 girl!
We're sorry - but the number you have reached is not in service at this time. If you feel you have reached this recording in error - please check the number and try again. Eight four nine.
Hey? Where the hell is my avatar?
Irony arrives in the following post...his is the role I had volunteered for, but was told "pilots only".
Remember, lad, there are reasons for everything. A course of events occurred for me, though however unpleasant they may have been at the time,which have brought me to the shores of East Anglia. If you were not meant to have the post, you were not meant to have the post.
In response to something you said in the latest post, I do feel that there is a discrepancy ("yellow elephants") in those who are gung-ho supporters of the war and those who have actually volunteered (or whose children have volunteered) to serve in the conflict that they feel so passionately about-a conflict being led and orchestrated by two men who chose not to (and indeed, pulled every string they could to avoid it) serve on the front during Vietnam. In the short lived series THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES, Jane Wyman told a young Indie oh his way off to WWI "Deeds, not words". Unlike you, there are many who support this war who are words, not deeds.
Semper Fi, my brother, and know that your deeds are being performed where they need to be-because you have the cajones to back them up.
Now, please explain to me why I can buy a jar of Chicken Tonight at Marks and Spencer on the Colchester High Street for less then $3.00and it is almost $10.00 in the "british foods"" section at Harris Teeter, when less then ten years ago I could have gotten it for three bucks at my local Kroger or Publix....is it the same reason they can't perform a credit check on me here, even thought they are using Experian?
Wow. So many questions!! As to the Chicken Tonight - I suspect it's pure profiteering. Loading that stuff on a container and shipping it to the states is horribly expensive. Versus simply trucking it in from Leighton-Buzzard.
As to the credit check, all I can say is British electronics. Made hilarously laughable by the Jaguar and episodes from the Beatles movie Help!.
With regard to the service question - be careful, children are not chattel. We have a volunteer service. As much as I would like my sons to have the experience of service it will be up to them as citizens to decide their fate.
We in service most often do so in order to protect our children from such a fate - not the reverse. This argument is rhetorically reprehensible.
I can not speak for Mr. Cheney's service. However, the President served in an air guard wing at a time when we were all expecting the balloon to go up sooner or later. Not everyone in service (then or now) makes it into the heat of the battle.
I would prefer that those in government are comprised of more than a paltry few who have served - regardless of affiliation. That lack of familiarity can breed dangerous contempt!
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