I extend my respects to anyone reading these words who is in the armed services, or has family who has served or is serving.
Ariel marched in a Memorial Day parade along with her school band. She played the bells, which–believe it or not–is one of the heaviest instruments to lug. Savvy of “Hitchhiker,” she made sure she knew where her towel was: Slung around her shoulders to serve as a cushion for the bell straps. Several of the kids in her band made snide comments about, until they’d finished marching a couple miles in the heat with their instruments. There they were having sweated through their clothes while Ariel was calmly dabbing away whatever perspiration she’d generated, courtesy of her towel. Suddenly they weren’t so snide anymore.
We then went down to the playground where Caroline ran around like a little nut. After that, we went bowling. Caroline has actually become proficient in Bumper Bowling. She takes a six pound ball, sprints toward the foul line, stops right where she should stop and flings the ball out onto the lane. The major mishap occurred when she raised a very vocal protest over having to return the bowling shoes, which she’d become quite enamored of.
PAD
• 
PAD,
Thank you for sharing your Memorial Day story. I, too, had a good day. My father was Master of Ceremonies at the annual event held in the park in the center of my hometown to honor those who have served and especially those who have fallen.
My twin brother, who enlisted in the Marines after graduating from cllege and is now a Physician’s Assistant, also participated in the event for the first time.
There were actually more people who attended than I expected, and there were many touching moments.
Then we ate some hot dogs and enjoyed the day.
All in all, a beautiful day.
Thank you for pretending you love the U.S. military! If we can convince enough people, we can get the suckers to vote Democratic again!
So, who had 1:48 in the troll pool?
But seriously, PAD, good to hear the fam’s doing well. Also good to hear Ariel’s marching smart. Does an old marching band vet’s heart good. 🙂
-Rex Hondo-
I extend my respects to anyone who was killed by the armed services of any country, or has family who has been killed or is bein killed rigth now.
Thank you for pretending you love the U.S. military! If we can convince enough people, we can get the suckers to vote Democratic again!
Jesus! Were you born with all your chromosomes or did you have to work at being this stupid?
PAD, lovely story. Please ignore those like the poster above who, having little experience with decency, fail to recognize it when they see it.
You tell Ariel from me that she’s one hoopy frood.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006753
An American Soldier
“I want to be remembered for the things I accomplished.”
BY MICHAEL C. CARLSON
Monday, May 30, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
(Editor’s note: Sgt. Carlson, of St. Paul, Minn., was killed on Jan. 24, 2005, when his Bradley fighting vehicle overturned in Mohammed Sacran, Iraq. He was 22. This is adapted from a “credo paper” he wrote in 12th grade, on May 11, 2000.)
I was born in Wisconsin. We lived in a town called Webster, on a road called Lavern Lane. Since then many things have changed, but many more remain the same. We no longer live in the country, we only go to church once or twice a year, and we no longer struggle to make ends meet. Today we live in the city, but we still have a JunkYard, my dad still works 16 hours a day, everyday. Today I am a man not a seven-year-old child. There are still cars everywhere. We own over 90. About 20 of them still run and 12 of those we store in the city. No we don’t have a parking lot. What we do is borrow our neighbors unused stalls for fixing their cars and doing other little things for them.
I admire my Father more than any other person on this planet, not for being a mechanic, not for being a tough guy. I admire my father for his ambition. For 30 years he has gone to work everyday, for 30 years he has come home, gone to the garage and worked 10 more hours. I don’t know how he does it but I do know why. He does it for us. He wants my brother and me to have everything we need and most of what we want. Lots of people say that the best way to learn is by the example of others. Well, then I have one of the best teachers there is on how to be a man, how to treat others, and the work ethic. I mean he is not perfect by any means but is anyone really perfect! I think that he is pretty close.
Sometimes I wonder if my dad ever thought of college. I wonder if he’s happy. I sometimes even feel sorry for him. What I mean by that is that I look at him and see a guy that has spent his entire life working. That is what he does. He works. If my mom never brought up the idea of a vacation he would never think twice. He would work to the day he died. I love hard work, but how do you go to the same dead end job everyday knowing that you will be doing it forever.
Every now and then someone that had my dad fix their car will stop by and need something, and every time I talk to them they start talking about my dad’s work. They compliment him on paint jobs he did 20 years ago that still look like they are brand new. That reminds me of another trait I have taken from my dad besides my hard work ethic. “If you are going to do a job, do it right the first time, because a job not done well is a job not worth doing,” so the saying goes. I take that personally. If someone has an honest complaint about my workmanship, I will bend over backwards to make it right. If people are going to pay you good money to do something then you had better do a darn good job. That is why I usually work alone, then, if there is a problem I know whom I can blame.
My dad hasn’t taught me everything though, a lot of it I have learned on my own too. I still got a lot to learn still, but I have figured out things like how to deal with people you don’t like or those that don’t like you. I also learned why when cutting a frozen bagel you cut away from yourself, I got the scar to prove it. My dad calls this type of learning “the school of hard knocks.” Some of the knocks are harder than others.
I love sports. I love football, wrestling, weight lifting, skiing and hockey. I love the thrill of competition, the roar of the crowds, the agony on the faces of your opponents as the final seconds tick off the clock. However, I don’t want to do it as a profession. I think it would be fun for a while then it would get boring. I guess the point that I am trying to make is that when I am on my deathbed what am I going to look back on? Will it be 30 years of playing a game that in reality means nothing, or will it be 30 years of fighting crime and protecting the country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
I want my life to account for something more than just a game. In life there are no winners, everyone eventually loses their life. I only have so much time; I can’t waste it with a game. I don’t want those close to me to look at me and tell me that I was good at a game. I want to be good at life; I want to be known as the best of the best at my job. I want people to need me, to count on me. I am never late; I am either on time or early. I want to help people. I want to fight for something, be part of something that is greater than myself. I want to be a soldier or something of that caliber, maybe a cop or a secret service agent.
I want to live forever; the only way that one could possibly achieve it in this day and age is to live on in those you have affected. I want to carve out a niche for myself in the history books. I want to be remembered for the things I accomplished. I sometimes dream of being a soldier in a war. In this war I am helping to liberate people from oppression. In the end there is a big parade and a monument built to immortalize us in stone. Other times I envision being a man you see out of the corner of your eye, dressed in black fatigues, entering a building full of terrorists. After everything is completed I slip out the back only to repeat this the next time l am called. I might not be remembered in that scenario, but I will have helped people.
I guess what I want most of all is to be a part of the real world, not an entertainer. I want to have an essential role in the big picture. I want adventure, challenge, danger, and most of all I don’t want to be behind a counter or desk. Maybe when I am a 100 years old I will slow down and relax. Till then, I have better things to do.
Get that girl her own ball and shoes PAD!
Really get her hooked! She’ll thank you for it.
Wow, appears some can’t even treat a man’s recognition of the deeds and sacrifice of those that serve this country without getting snarky.
Then again, they really just end up displaying their prejudice and ignorance of PAD in their words. Or how you can support the man (and woman) without supporting the mission. To allow myself to get a little snarky, I guess that’s a subtlety that’s lost on those that are in the “it’s us or them” camps.
I bring my own ball to the lanes (my grandfather’s…he was a small Filipino man, so his ball is seriously undersized for me, but the nostalgia attached makes up for it) and I’d probably grab my own shoes if we went with any sense of regularity. Bowling if kind of like golf, without the sunburn and long walk. Oh, and also, when you throw a bad ball, you don’t have to spend 15 minutes trying to locate it in some stand of trees you’re sure were only put there to frustrate you.
I just retired this month from the Army Reserve, after 23 years of total service, including a tour in Kuwait in support of OIF I during 2003-04. This Memorial Day I took some time to ponder coming through the experience unscathed, while other fellow soldiers who weren’t even born when I joined up weren’t as lucky. Actually, I’m still pondering it, and think I will be for quite some time. For those of you reading who have served and/or have loved ones or friends serving now, I know there are multitudes of feelings among you about the worthiness of it all from the perspective we share; but for myself, thoughout all of the ideological agreements and disagreements I’ve had concering campaigns waged throughout my term, I’ve always had pride, not in being a warrior, but in being a defender of this country – that’s why I raised my hand when I took my oath.
A very respectful, belated Memorial Day to all.
My daughter is 5. I think it is time she becomes familiar with rented shoes and large colorful balls.
garbonzo
>
Get real. Since when do you have to be on the Republican Far-Right to care about the military.
Maybe it’s us who question Mr Bush’s adventure in Iraq who are REALLY concerned about the good
folks serving in the Armed Forces. We want to bring them home don’t we? How about all the times
the Bush administration has screwed over America’s veterans? Cutting their programs, health care, pensions etc.
Face it, It’s a lot of you on the Right that are just pretending to love the military.
I spent this Memorial Day the same way I’ve spent every Memorial Day since 1997: I watched Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory”. Every member of my family involved in a war has been a grunt, as opposed to an officer, and the film has always stricken me as probably the most emotional film that Kubrick ever made. Lots of people refer to this film as being anti-war, whom with I disagree; the film says things about the people, as opposed to the reasons, related to the war. At least it’s not anti-soldier; if anything, it’s very pro-soldier, which is really obvious half-way thru. I recommend it to anyone willing to watch something new to themselves. The cahnces of you crying before the last two minute sof the film are pretty good.
I’d spend my Memorial Day visiting family involved in the military, but I only have one family member still alive who was a a soldier, and he lives 800 miles away, though I get back to see him and cool a good meal for him every time I visit him back in Pennsylvania. He’s my uncle, and he can’t travel very far on account of his debilitating stroke (I’m limited due to a full-time job and limited resources). He taught me how to shoot a handgun and that, in the end, as long as you’re a good man who loves your family, that you’re in God’s favor. I’m Agnostic, and even I find that comforting. Here’s to you, Charlie.
“which she’d become quite enamored of.”
of which she’d become quite enamored!
“Get real. Since when do you have to be on the Republican Far-Right to care about the military.
Maybe it’s us who question Mr Bush’s adventure in Iraq who are REALLY concerned about the good
folks serving in the Armed Forces. We want to bring them home don’t we? How about all the times
the Bush administration has screwed over America’s veterans? Cutting their programs, health care, pensions etc.
Face it, It’s a lot of you on the Right that are just pretending to love the military.”
The way to fight ugliness is not to get ugly in return. Seems to me you fell right into X-Ray’s trap.
But since you bring it up…given all that you say why did the military members overwhelmingly vot for Bush?
Glad you had a holiday, Mr. D. I suppose most of the rest of you did, too, except probably some of you in the retail trade. In TV, there are no such things as holidays. The executives who sign my meager check do take off, but they’re executives – they don’t really WORK in TV.
I celebrated the holiday by battling the computer that connects our satellite dishes, receivers, videotape and digital recorders together. I lost. The computer died. The rest of the week will be me on overtime, trying to keep a goofball system working until the bosses can get a replacement computer.
This, of course, detracted from the true meaning of this holiday; special markdowns on all those gas-hog SUV’s you guys were so in love with before gas prices went skyward.
I know it’s probably futile to even try to say this, but could we maybe have a thread that DOESN’T degenerate into a Rep vs Dem pìššìņg match?
Now now now… the “Wrong” wing does love the military, it let’s them invade and overthrow sovreign nation… it’s just the PEOPLE that make up the military that they don’t give two šhìŧš about…
“This, of course, detracted from the true meaning of this holiday; special markdowns on all those gas-hog SUV’s you guys were so in love with before gas prices went skyward.”
I still love my SUV, gets me through the Michigan winters just fine, haven’t gotten stuck once since I bought mine. It gets us around town and fits our three dogs nicely when they go to vet or anywhere else for that matter, and the nice big metal box protects from the idiots that ignore all common sense in traffic and get so many others killed.
Nice try troll…
“which she’d become quite enamored of.”
of which she’d become quite enamored!
To quote (possibly apocryphally) Winston Churchill, “This is the sort of pedantic nonsense up with which I shall not put!”
Now, let’s be fair. A reasonably sized SUV is permissible for somebody who actually has use for it. The people I have trouble with are yuppie fûçkš who wouldn’t know a dirt road if it jumped up and bit them in the gonads driving Hummers and the like.
-Rex Hondo-
Sigh. Could we, you know, have kept this one thread civil. PAD’s story was so beautiful.
Sorry. I saw the letters SUV and the cold fury of the bleak Cimmerian north descended upon me.
I’ll probably be better behaved after some long awaited sack time.
-Rex Hondo-
Thank you all, again, for pretending you love the U.S. military! I repeat: If we can convince enough people, we can get the suckers to vote Democratic again!
Suckers — not like the chickenhawks who didn’t even serve in the first place, you mean?
Chickenhawks — you mean Bill Clinton, who “loathes” the U.S. military?
Bill Clinton respected the military enough to not take a monthlong vacation after receiving a memo titled Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.
Taking a monthlong vacation after serving 7 months — can you believe that šhìŧ?
Wow, I didn’t know not taking a vacation meant that you do not loathe the military anymore. My mistake!
P.S. Members of our military voted for Bush by HUGE margins. But then again, they’re all stupid, right? You know better.
“Chickenhawks — you mean Bill Clinton, who “loathes” the U.S. military?”
You must not know the meaning of the word. Clinton and others, while I don’t agree with their actions, objected to a war on the grounds of the politics in it and, in public, said so and protested it. I can respect that to some degree. The myth that Clinton dodged the draft is 95% hotair by the by.
Chickenhawks are people who got out of service by having daddy or daddy’s friends getting them in the gaurd ahead of others, getting strings pulled to get out of service on very shakey medical grounds or ducked service in some other way and then, years later, proclaim themselves as pro military, pro war and start crap like the stuff they ran/hid from that the military has to deal with.
Look at the strongest supporters on the R side of the game of the war in Iraq. Now look at how many of those healthy, happy, war loving guys were of age to serve in Nam but seemed to find other things to do or reasons to not serve.
Chickenhawks were too gutless to do what they want others to do now. And they have the nerve to run their mouths and accuse others of having a lack of courage, honor and patriatism for being aqainst a fools crusade.
Nice try. But the FACT is this: Clinton put in writing, and I quote, that he “loathes the military, but wants to preserve his political viability.”
You claim, “The myth that Clinton dodged the draft is 95% hotair by the by.” Really? Well by the by, he went to Oxford for just that purpose, and this is common knowledge. A fact! Better than screaming someone SUCKS over and over, as some five-year-olds here like to do.
As for the rest of your post, I repeat: Members of our military voted for Bush by HUGE margins. But then again, they’re all stupid, right? You know better.
…
Uh, yeah. Maybe if Michael Schiavo had asked Osama bin Laden to pull the feeding tube from his wife, Bush wouldn’t have cut short his vacation to sign any laws preserving her life.
Well, with recruitment embarrassingly low, they’re all getting out or going AWOL, so they can’t be particularly stupid.
Dude, if it’s so smart to enlist now, why don’t you do it?
“Well, with recruitment embarrassingly low, they’re all getting out or going AWOL, so they can’t be particularly stupid.”
I think you are letting this guy draw you into a trap–it is NOT a fact that soldiers are “all” going AWOL or getting out. It is true that recruitment is doing poorly. Two different things entirely.
I have also read that while enlistment is down re-enlistment is doing well and according to some, re-enlistment is actually better among those serving overseas (I seem to recall that Ntaional Guard re-enlistment was the only one not performing well).
I have also read that while enlistment is down re-enlistment is doing well and according to some, re-enlistment is actually better among those serving overseas
Well, you have to wonder whether it’s willful or threatened, as was the case down in Colorado Springs, where there were reports of soldiers being told “reenlist or we’ll ship you to Iraq now”.
Dear “masters” of changing the subject,
THE MILITARY VOTED FOR BUSH!
This is a fact. It wouldn’t matter if the ENTIRE military deserted, and failed to recruit a single person ever again. It would still be a fact.
Hard to explan for Bush-bashers, but still a fact.
“Well, you have to wonder whether it’s willful or threatened, as was the case down in Colorado Springs, where there were reports of soldiers being told “reenlist or we’ll ship you to Iraq now”.
Er…what I said was that re-enlistment for soldiers already overseas was better than that of those NOT overseas. So…it would seem your scenario is unlikely.
Yes, everyone poor who voted for Bush voted against their own self-interest — like, say, a prostitute that knifes a guy for trying to stop her pimp from beating her. So what’s your point?
So Bush voters “voted against their own self-interest”
did they?
Oops .. the truth slipped out there.
You think soldiers are stupid, and think you know better than they do what is good for them.
Proves my point quite nicely.
Hey. The soldiers who voted for Shrub may not be stupid. They may be simply emotionally traumatized.
“Emotionally traumatized.”
Oh yes. Definately!
Do ANYTHING but admit they voted for the candidate of their choice because they WANTED to.
Go ahead, make up some more lies! Please! It’s fun shooting you liberals down, and catching you in outrageous lies.
I never called anyone stupid. Like I mentioned here, there’s no defense against your relentless, anonymous agenda, and you appear to be getting off on dominance. You have an appetite for human blood — confusing your need for dominance with strength — and you really need to get help.
I said the military voted for Bush, which they did.
Somehow, to you, this means I “have an appetite for human blood.”
What a drama queen!
Newsflash: Making a factual statement is rather unlike drinking human blood.
“As for the rest of your post, I repeat: Members of our military voted for Bush by HUGE margins. But then again, they’re all stupid, right? You know better.”
Ummmm. The rest of my post had nothing to do with how anybody voted. You keep claiming others change the subject yet you can’t seem to grasp the simple subject of a post. I’ll use smaller words with you from here on out.
You said something that made it clear that you did not know what the term “chickenhawk” meant. I explained, in as simple a way as I could, what one was. Somehow, you understood that to be about how people voted. I’m not sure how you got that as the words “vote”, “voted” or “voters did not show up in my post at all. Now, I don’t know if you just palin don’t read all that well or you just can’t understand what it is that you’re reading. Either way, if you respond with, “As for the rest of your post…..” you should at least try to respond with something about the rest of the post. It makes you look a lot less stupid that way.
“But the FACT is this: Clinton put in writing, and I quote, that he “loathes the military, but wants to preserve his political viability.””
Care to source that?
No, you saying the military voted for Bush was incidental to your appetite for human blood.
Is it JUST me, or has most of this thread missed the point? And it seems to me that, in my experience, the ones who keep lording their triumph over other people are the most unsure that they deserved it.
Memorial Day is for remembering the ones who’ve served in the ultimate capacity, a time to come together as a whole nation and say we remember you.
Not say nanny nanny poo poo, Our Guy won!
(Are we ALL listening, X-ray?)
Yes, I’m listening. Wow! You’ve completely turned me around with your blazing logic and potty insults. From now on, I will vote Democratic! It’s so much easier than thinking! I’ll just repeat over and over the central Democratic idea: BUSH SUCKS.
“Clinton put in writing, and I quote, that he “loathes the military, but wants to preserve his political viability.”
SOURCE: On Dec. 3, 1969, Bill Clinton wrote to Col. Eugene Holmes, director of the University of Arkansas ROTC program. In that infamous letter, Clinton stated that he “loathed” the military, but “wanted to preserve [his] political viability.”
Clinton’s letter and its outrageous comments are common knowledge. Google it if you don’t believe me!
I said the military voted for Bush, which they did. Somehow, to you, this means I “have an appetite for human blood.”
Well, it makes you wonder.
Here you have a group of people who, in some extreme cases, have stated how they can’t wait to “kill ragheads” (a quote I’ve personally seen by one member of the military on the internet post-9/11).
They’ve presumably disregarded the commands of superiors (since none of those fûçkš have been court martialed) and lead to events such as Abu Ghraib.
You have a member of the Bush Administration (Rumsfeld) who has called Iraqi civilians “collateral”, an Attorney General in Gonzales who has called the Geneva Conventions “quaint”, and an Administration as a whole who were going to do whatever it took to bomb the hëll out of Iraq.
Sounds like somebody was out for blood.
Yeah, they’re definately out for blood.
Why can’t they learn to fight wars NICELY!?!?!?!