Dispatch from Dogpatch #22  11 November 2015 

Veterans Day

Throughout this past weekend, many venues celebrated Veterans Day with bands, honor guards, prayers, songs, and the eventual reading of the dead.  

This morning, at my granddaughter's elementary school, I had another opportunity to attend a Veterans day celebration.  Children pledging allegiance, singing patriotic songs, speakers extolling the sacrifice.  It was all standard stuff, yet it still brings a lump up for me.  

I tried to place myself in the 4th grade again.  Nine years old, full of mischief and not overly concerned with this day outside of the fact that Audy Murphy's movie "To Hell and Back" was opening soon.

I'm beating around the bush here and I need to get to the point.  Veterans Day should be celebrated as living veterans day.  Please don't read the list of men who gave all again on this day.  That day is Memorial Day.  Now I realize that Memorial Day is the official kick off for summer, and God forbid we do anything to interfere with Americans right to go on vacation or attend a sale, but traditionally, its significance was to remember the fallen. I would like for Veterans Day to celebrate those who made it.  Those who served, whether in combat or not, and have returned to their civilian lives.  I sat with these guys today in a small school.  Some can still wear the uniform, others, not so much...Bojangles got 'em.  I'm one of them; able to serve 20+ years and retire.  

This day could be so much more.  These guys and gals have a story to tell about their service and afterward.  The public should listen to these men and women and insure that their individual sacrifice is rewarded not with nice ceremonies and speeches, but with the recognition that assistance and health care is needed by many and there are many vets who don't know how to access these benefits. We need to insure that Congress is passing the legislation necessary to compensate and provide for these vets. It is disgusting to watch Congress fail to pass Veterans legislation.  Yet, passing resolutions to send soldiers to war seemingly pass without any trouble.

The speaker today spoke of vets in Vietnam having a tough time coming home.  Some did, some didn't.  He mentioned we should do all we can to make sure these vets return home and rejoin their families and their lives.  Many guys just couldn't transition back and fell victim to homelessness, alcoholism, drug addiction and an uncaring and unsympathetic populous who thought we had "lost the war".  There are times when I feel like I didn't quite make it back and it's scary to me.  In all honesty, no soldier can go through a time in combat and ever return to the way things were.  No combat for me, but as a medic in an evacuation hospital, I saw things I never want my grandchildren to see, ever.  No matter what the cost.

Veterans are unique.  We have skin in the game.  Been there, done that, got not a tee shirt, but scars to prove it....external and internal scars.  Vets are in a position to prevent a war from happening.  That should be a primary purpose.  The major vet organizations are too close with the powers of Congress and more often than not, go along with resolutions that put our sons and daughters in jeopardy.  I would hope these organizations would hold their feet to the fire about our involvement in foreign entanglements. I want no more veterans. Now, that's a thought.

I thought I grew up in a generation that would face down the establishment, change the nature of the world, and bring about genuine peace.  That may be my problem with being a Kennedy democrat, I dream of what could be and ask why not.  It isn't too late for our generation to begin that process, but we have to stop and ask ourselves this - when are we going to start?

Namaste

Dispatch from Dogpatch #21 28 July 2015

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

I suppose it is time for a little generational examination.  I hear all the time from people about the sad state of affairs of our nation.  I hear the rattle of taking our country back and restoring the Constitution.  (On the matter of the Constitution, wasn’t Civics the most dreaded and boring class in high school?  Now, everybody is a Constitutional scholar.). God has been removed from our schools!  (I didn’t know we had that kind of power, and if we did we wouldn’t need God anyway).  Kids have no respect for anything...all they do is take, take, take.  Drugs are everywhere (yep, don’t forget to include alcohol)!  Jeez, I sound just like my parents! This list can go on, but any reasonable person would know there is plenty more wrong, right?

Well, the first thing we need to do is to find somebody to blame….Obama, maybe?  Fair enough, he has been blamed for pretty much everything from the Iraq war to deflating the footballs during the Superbowl; except Benghazi, that one is Hilary’s.

Now, according to our generation, we are the bomb!  We were raised right, got beat for bad behavior, went to church, had jobs in high school, were taught by teachers who would jerk a knot in you, studied hard, went to war...and then them damned hippies showed up and crapped on everything. We started wearing grubby clothes, letting our hair grow, driving VW buses, Cheech and Chong, everybody played a guitar, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Rare Earth, Frank Zappa (a personal favorite), BTO...and then that damned pot showed up and we rolled one up took a toke, a long toke and didn’t give a damn about anything...except, SEX, DRUGS, and ROCK ‘N ROLL!  Peace and Love, Woodstock, Janis, Jimi, Jim Morrison, Steppenwolf, Fillmore East and West, Haight Ashbury, and them damned hippies. We had it figured...we were not going to live like our parents and the “establishment”.  We had better ideas or rather a grand overdose of naivete.

Now, I could speak to my parents generation, but no, I will not.  I just know that my children thought I was lame and retarded just like I did my parents.  The older I got, the smarter my parents turned out to be.

Corporations beat us to that better idea.  As we were burying our buddies from Vietnam, finishing school, marrying and turning into our parents (God forbid), we forgot our idealism.  We had been swept up in capitalism.  It all happened with the credit card (part of my conspiracy theory).  We returned, docilely, to the order of things, instead of creating the order.  Instead of idealism and spiritual living, it turned into money and stuff.  I am guilty of it and sad about it.  It wasn’t the outcome I had hoped for.  Actually, I can’t even remember what the outcome was suppose to be.  I got into debt so fast and worried about how I was to pay for everything, the best I could do was watch Monday Night RAW and hope Hulk Hogan would remain champion.

I did my best to keep pace.  Danced as fast as I could, and pretty much made a mess of things.  Now as the arc of my life bends toward the sunset, so much becomes clearer.  Wisdom is accumulated through experience and trial.  It is not something we buy.  It comes to us quietly, like a cat that crawls up on your lap and purrs.  We know when it is right.  We know what is right.  Yet, we had to learn it ourselves.

Actually, I don’t think there is that much wrong in the world that we cannot fix.

I’m not going to list it all, but suffice it to say, we can find the solutions ourselves.  

We start with the idea we can overcome all these problems, if we just get rid of the “stupid”.  What an unpleasant word.  Now if I start attaching names to the “stupid”, I will lose readers.  Define your own “stupid”. What I want is to expand the readership and allow clear thinking to emerge.  That’s your job.  I work on mine everyday.

I’m covered up in grandchildren now.  I see their innocence and listen to their pure, clean thoughts.  I couldn’t enjoy that as much as a parent...too much going on.  I hope I have some time to get things right with them before they are attacked and swallowed up in the dualism and capitalism we faced.  So few of our generation were able to escape those isms.  

It is easy to be negative and dark.  What is needed is light and the positive word.  I don’t want to be old and a curmudgeon (some would say I am late to both).  That’s okay, too, it give me something to work toward.

Namaste!

Dispatch from Dogpatch #20 15 July 2015

Dispatch from Dogpatch #20     15 July 2015

I have spent the past weeks on the sidelines regarding “the flag”.  I have read with interest and with disdain a great deal of opinion on the matter.  Not one word, not one thought, not one plea has changed my mind.

It has taken years of self development and self awareness to come to my sanity and overcome my teachings on this matter, being born of southern white stock.  What a privilege it was; and I exploited that privilege for many years.  After all, I was taught by my father and his friends that we are special….we are southern, we are white, and we are in control of the “nigra” (that is being kind).  Even our progressive politicians of the time, i.e., Hodges and Sanford, were no doubt throttled to be in the embrace of the Kennedy and Johnson ideas of equality for all, voting for all, education for all.

As a child, blacks were not conspicuous in my culture.  Grass had to be mowed, laundry needed washing and ironing, houses swept, mopped, and dusted, meals prepared, and to some extent children raised.  These folk came early, worked hard, and left for home before Daddy got there.  Everything had the “order” of southern living.  I’m thinking of the movie “The Help”.

Into my teens and with the advent of integrated schools, and the breaking down of racial barriers (like the balcony section in the movie house or the restaurants or bus depots).  All these “Jim Crow” barriers were coming down and white southerners were coming unglued.  Don’t need the entire history here, but suffice it to say that even the Klan came to visit Wilkesboro one time when two blacks were charged with rape.  Quite a spectacle.  Spectacle of southern anachronistic ideology.  The world was moving beyond us (our culture and heritage) to new frontiers, and I had a front row seat.

Then came my Vietnam and I served with all colors and races, and not without tension either.  This was the time of the burning of cities, college campus unrest (Kent State), goddamned hippies, pot, long hair, loud music, LSD, free love, draft dodgers, hard hats, blue collars, draft lotteries, law and order….REVOLUTION!

From 1967 to 1971, I got to travel the world, participate in a war, get immersed in a culture we had corrupted, tended the wounded and dead and within 24 hours of all that plopped home be spit at and cursed for serving my country.  Yep, it had all changed in a year’s time...and I had, too.  Many of us veterans slunk away, tried not to be noticed, tried to start a new life, tried not to bring attention to our disgraced, loser service.  I’m still pissed about it.  

You see, the “coloreds” had been cleaning up our messes for generations, without recognition or compensation.  I think of World War II, when the blacks were relegated to support units, i.e. supply, transportation, ammo dumps, oh yeah and graves registration.  After we white boys marched through some portion of France pillaging and looting, the “support” troops would come clean up the battlefield.  Fun, huh?  Well after the war, the blacks felts like it was time for full partnership...after all they helped save democracy, right?  Hold up there, said the south...I ain’t ready for all that!  You git back to where you wuz and I’ll see to it later.  Well, twenty years later it took President Johnson signing an amendment to make it happen.  With that, the south turned republican and has remained there all my life…I still scratch my head over that.

I guess all this leads me comment on “the flag” business.  What a distraction from what really occurred.  We have too soon forgotten that people were assassinated, in church, for God’s sake!  Where has that story gone?  This kid was fed a line of bullshit about “the flag” and southern heritage and how the whites have been cheated and lied to and our way of life assaulted by the heathen forces.  The kid sat there, twirled his pistol and waved “the flag” before the camera...who knows what he was thinking.  One image I saw spoke volumes...he was burning the stars and stripes.  The kid had no allegiance to anything but a warped sense of destiny to a culture and heritage that we, as a nation, had long ago left.  Nine dead, right?  And the best we can come up with is a pissing contest over a flag.  It ain’t about a flag, it is about white supremacy.  Gee, that wasn’t so hard, it just took a page and a half to get there.

I just know this.  That for many years while in school, I pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America (that’s all 50).  I belong to certain clubs and fraternities that pledge every time we meet.  So, this ain’t an either or, right or wrong, yes or no.  Our grand forefathers, after surrendering, were told to go home, live long and prosper, but before you go, you must pledge allegiance to the United States of America. They did, and were glad to have survived.

That was 150 years ago.  Let’s move on.  We have lots of work to do.  I have grandchildren.  They deserve better.

Namaste