Friday, December 10, 2010

Have

Used to be during the ‘great depression’ of the last century, 1929 to 1941 there was an expression that went, “The haves and have-nots”, referencing people’s financial situations of the times. If you still had some money you were of course the haves and no money of course the have-nots.
A plain and simple explanation of how it was going during those horrendous notorious years.
People at the time and till this day truly believe that if it wasn’t for us getting finally involved in the Second World War, it had actually begun in the 1930’s and until Pearl Harbor was bombed we did not physically go ‘over there’ to fight, many believe it was what had helped to get us out of the depression.
Men went to war while women held down the home front by taking many of the jobs that men used to do, ah the days of ‘Rosie the Riveter’.
Movies portrayed the war as romantic and exciting and people volunteered left and right to partake in getting rid of the enemy!
Sadly, at the time little of the actual horrors I think were told of all the murders of innocent people, death chambers and prisoner of war camps that were really just more death camps, yes millions were killed for no reason accept for HATRED! Yes, there were news reels, but not so graphic until after the war was actually over, I believe.

So that war was not glamorous, no war is.
My brother fought, actually he was a medic in the Air Force during the Korean War where he was injured and spent the remainder of his years in and out of Veterans Hospitals.
Viet Nam was just as horrific and I was against that war for many reasons, one was my brother’s horrendous experiences, and my visits as a child to those VA hospitals that he was in, which made me realize even without outer scars inner scars are just as devastating, but also from the friends we were losing while we were still in high school and later on in college.
Even our younger son was six years in the Navy, but…
I will, to this and everyday support our military, but I would much prefer for them to never have to fight. They are someone’s fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, nieces and nephews as well siblings…all loved by someone who respects and hates the ambivalence of the war processes and what it does to all involved.
Sadly reports of friendly fire and innocent people not warriors die all of the time, not to mention all the suicides that come from having to deal with the war itself.
So again, I repeat war is not glamorous and I want any movie makers not to portray it that way and recently in the last thirty or so years the truth has been shown more than not.

Oh, why did I go off on the war tangent when I was discussing our depression?
Well, we are at war now and this time it did not do its magic trick… oh what trick is that, you boldly ask?
Put us Americans back to work.
Notice the other problem, without a draft like we had years ago many are not volunteering except the ones already in and so they go back again and again causing exhaustion and many of the above mentioned problems.
Good men and women pushed to the limits of what they got.
We love them all for what they do … they do this for all of US!
I only wish there was a resolve to help them more than just sending gifts and cards and the like, all good and needed, but you know what I mean…someway to relieve them of what they must endure…physical and emotional support too!

Sadly as I mentioned above this long war of ours, nine years plus so far, has not proven to help with providing jobs on the home front, but that isn’t why we are there; we all know it is to stop our enemies, the Taliban and the extremists that killed all of our loved ones on 9/11 and threaten us daily from all over the world.; good logical reasoning. But horrifically more than the three thousand who died on 9/11/01 have died fighting in this war, how ironic war is. We chose to fight due to many of our people being killed and then we killed more of theirs and ours and still do daily….in the process… now you know why I am at odds with the concept.
Yes, I do believe that there are bad people who must be stopped and righteous people who need to do it. I am just saying that it seems by now in this twenty-first century you would think we would have come up with a better way to solve these devastating dilemmas? It confuses my sensibilities as a human being on this planet.
Militaries are an absolute necessity I truly believe but I only wish they could be there to protect not to do what they have to be trained to do.
I know it’s my dumb idealism running rampant again!
I also think it’s because of the time of the year when family means so much to us all…
And when a war is going on there are separations of loved ones from one another and that makes me want to cry for all of them!
My only solace is to know that they are there because they chose to be, and that their families’ support and love them wholeheartedly and call and tweet and computer Skype them to tell them that; which is soooo twenty-first century! LOL!
In spite of my ambivalence of this practice to make the world a better place for our freedoms I would like all the people serving around the world or even here on our home shores now during these holidays to know how much WE/ME all appreciate what they do daily!
And in my own strange way this is a love letter to all of you!

In closing I suppose in our own ways we are all, ‘haves’ because it is more than money we have its love of all mankind, huh?

And so once again I will ask you politely to count all those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go?

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go? :   My eyesight is going again... in case you missed it... Netanyahu snaps back against growing...