Random Thoughts

Dad wanted to go on an outing this afternoon so we put our jackets on and headed to the Jacksonville Veteran's Wall. Neither of us had ever been there before and I got lost a couple of times. The wall sits between the football stadium and the fairgrounds which was full of carnival rides, etc. I had to ask 4 different policemen for directions and make it past a parking lot attendant who thought my 93 year old father in a wheelchair and I were trying to sneak into the fair before finding a place to park. A brisk wind blew but the sun glistened off the polished marble. For a few minutes we were the only ones there. Us and the spirits of hometown men and women. It was quite a moving experience and one I'm glad to have shared with my dad.

Once upon a time there was a girl. She came of age when the moon was in the 7th house and Jupiter aligned with Mars. Instead of wearing flowers in her hair, and protesting the Vietnam War the girl followed all the rules. She married a man who flew helicopters in the Navy and soon had babies. The girl's husband spent the war years flying anti-submarine missions from bases on the East Coast of America. Pilots stationed on the West Coast flew combat missions over SE Asia. SE Asia was a long way from the girl and her family. No one she knew was ever sent into harm’s way. From an early age, the girl knew what it meant to be proud to be an American. She always stood when the flag passed by, and covered her heart during the National Anthem. But she was silent when men came home from an unpopular war, wounded in body and spirit, let down by the people they served. Her eyes were opened one day when she met a man her husband went to school with. The man was in the army. He took of his s...

"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers." José Narosky Today is Veteran's Day. Not the actual, November 11th day, set aside for remembering all the people who have given up life and limb, and maybe soul, for those of us who stay at home. As with a lot of holidays, Veteran's Day has been relegated to a Monday so working people can sleep in late, play golf or finish the weekend chores they weren't able to accomplish in the regular 48 hours set aside for catch up. I hope that the real purpose of the day does not get lost in all that activity. America was birthed in war. It's been said freedom isn't free; a good offense is a good defense, or something like that. No matter how you feel about the war in Iraq -or the President and his fighting machine -you've got to give a lot of credit to the people (men and women, young and old, of every color and religion) doing the dirty work. In my lifetime, there have been other conflicts. All in places too far from my...