A DAY THAT WILL NEVER END…

” Truth has a resonance to it that fills the cracks where falsehoods lie.”  – Rick Destefanis

30 April 1975 is a date that will NEVER end for thousands of us.

Most people under the age of 45, in America, don’t have the slightest clue; concept; realization; idea; and / or knowledge concerning the horrific nature of the split it brought about to this country, and the families of those men and women involved in the events that transpired prior to this date.

The date represents the final day of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.

Today is the fortieth anniversary.

I was up early this morning to read the online newspapers to see what the coverage might be like: what would be said, and by whom; lessons learned; admitted strategies missed; and, would there be any recognition accorded the ones that had served, and raised their right hand.

The New York Times had an op-ed panel discussion. But, for the most part the coverage – overall, throughout the media – was, as it has been for the better part of the last twenty-five years, limited. A war better left forgotten! NO one likes talking about youth being NEVER lived!

Funny, youth does matter…

Books have been, are being, and will continue to be written; reunions held; scholarly conferences held annually (which are a farce for the most part); and, Washington think-tanks bringing together some of the architects of the war (many from Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation, by the way!) to cough, sneeze and attempt to breathe while they wander through their loathsome explanations. Only one word can suffice as a witness to numerous such occasions: Embarrassing…

As a former Marine Corps officer who served in Vietnam from July 1967-September 1968, I can tell you emphatically two things with complete personal conviction: the military strategy for / during was ill-advised, from Day One beginning with Kennedy through Ford (in fact, many historians make the case going back to Truman and Acheson); and, secondly, our elected governmental officials, in Washington, did NOT serve the military men / women well during this era, specifically from March 1965 through April 30, 1975). Nor, since.

On the 30th of April ’75, there was a sign left on the gate to the courtyard of the embassy in Saigon which read, “Turn off the light at the end of the tunnel when you leave.”

The final transmission from the last Marine CH-46 copter, leaving Saigon, was seven words, “All the Americans are out, Repeat out.”

My Third Division Commander, Lieutenant General Raymond Davis, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, from the Korean War, and one of the finest human beings of my lifetime, had a tiny South Vietnamese flag on his office desk at his Georgia home. I would occasionally visit with him during the mid-’90s, and pick his brain about everything.

But, when it came to discussing the Vietnam War, he would always point to that small South Vietnamese flag, and say to me, “There’s nothing worse than unfinished business.”

A THOUGHT-PROVOKING READ

As I have a want to do, during times of strife within our cities, such as now with the unfortunate death of Freddie Gray and the tension(s) throughout the city of Baltimore, people of thought and observation provide us all with an op-ed to read, discuss, ponder, and act on with others of good intent.

This is one such example –

http://reason.com/archives/2015/04/29/pulling-the-rioters-string#.gnulrw:7aNT

PLAY BALL…maybe NOT!

There are NO fannies in the seats!

Just another unintended consequence…

These kinds of restrictions lead to lost jobs, aunts and uncles; and, organizations moving their franchises OUT of cities at some point.

The economic impact only leads to more and more unrest…

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/sports/baseball/orioles-play-in-eerily-empty-stadium-sirens-in-distance.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-at-the-yards-with-my-media-friends-20150429-story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2015/04/29/at-camden-yards-a-sense-of-empty-curiosity-for-orioles-white-sox/

LET’S HOPE WE ALL AREN’T FREDDIE GRAY!

The tragic death of a 25-year old African-American, Freddie Gray, while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Force over this past week has, once again, ignited the country.

And, Mr.Gray’s passing has demonstrated the single biggest issue dividing America today: R-A-C-E.

Once a week, I have early morning breakfast with four members of our metroplex police department. Two of the officers are Black, one is Hispanic and one is White. I had the pleasant occasion to meet ALL four of these officers at an “Improve Your Workplace Spanish” class. I wish the rest of the country could over-hear our conversations. There are NO four better examples of true leadership since my days in the Marine Corps back in the Sixties than my morning meal pals.

For the better part of two and a half years – when we meet – the single biggest issue discussed, over our scrambled eggs, omelettes, bacon, biscuits, sausages, and heavily buttered toast, is R-A-C-E.

The most critical elements – in the opinion of my four breakfast friends – that contribute to the unintended consequences of R-A-C-E in communities like Baltimore, and Ferguson last year, are: Single mothers; NO true father; lack of getting neighborhoods to register for voting in national, state and local elections; school drop-outs before the age of sixteen; drugs; selling drugs back into their own communities; gang warfare; NO accredited schools or teachers; state and local politicians NOT personally being involved in the communities and working to draw corporations into their communities to train and employ the jobless; local drug rehab / counseling centers; strong church leaders; and, the complete lack of proper training of the necessary social inter-action skills with the individual police departments, as well as the state / federal National Guard units.

And, the palpable real anger that the four of them bring up to me each and every week: the huge number of African-American and Hispanic entertainers and athletes that are multi-millionaires that give limited lip service to reaching out, and giving back to their own communities.

This issue is NOT close to going away! What’s needed is small discussions like the one I’ve described above, and then taking action to help correct issues. KISS! Keep It Simple Stupid!

I’ll close by linking you to a three articles / op-ed special report that demonstrate how truly divergent R-A-C-E  is…

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/opinion/michael-eric-dyson-goodbye-to-freddie-gray-and-goodbye-to-quietly-accepting-injustice.html?ref=opinion&_r=1

http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/police-settlements/

http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/29/the-baltimore-riots-a-case-for-school-ch

OUR INSIDIOUS VETERANS ADMINISTRATION

Lawmakers, once again, were given an earful yesterday about the deplorable conditions in the hospitals of the Veterans Affairs.

A former employee at the Oakland, California VA hospital related a story of how she was assigned to a “special” team in 2012 to go back and start reviewing over 13,000! claims from veterans, dating back as far as the early 1990s that had NEVER, let me repeat that, claims that had NEVER been addressed. While going through the process, this team found that hundreds of these veterans had died before receiving an ounce of treatment of any kind.

Let me make something, as I have previously posted in my blog, explicitly clear – as a former Marine Corps officer – these individuals deserve to burn in Hell! VA administrators and supervisors! I hope I have made that clear to everyone’s comprehension toward reason and logic.

Over 13,000 human beings, who honorably served their country, were NEVER attended to with a modicum of common decency. Men and women who had raised their right hand to take the oath to “honor, protect, and defend the United States of America.”

Witnesses also described the mental abuse of VA workers in VA units within the Philadelphia area. In addition, they pointed to the fact that veterans’ records were habitually being altered, or completely erased from databases within the Philadelphia VA hospital itself.

One of the more obscene stories that witnesses related to the lawmakers was how one of the Philadelphia VA supervisor had compelled his subordinates to pay $30 / each to his wife to have their fortunes read.

Fortune tellers in the Veterans Affairs, aunts and uncles. Wrap your head around that piece of b——t!

From my own personal experiences, in dealing with these cretins, it’s extremely simple (requiring little effort, NO matter what any one may tell you) to send men and women off to war, but to take care of them once they return home; well, that’s an entirely more serious matter. To start with, it requires grown-ups. Dedicated adults!

THE ARMY-McCARTHY HEARINGS

Sixty-one years ago today, April 22, 1954, ABC (a fledgling network at the time) made the decision to broadcast the Army-McCarthy Hearings.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations decided to hold these hearings based a report put together by the Department of the Army charging the junior senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, and his infamous legal aide and counsel, Roy Cohn, had brought continuous pressure of the Army to comply with their threats, and ‘bogus influence,’ to give a former McCarthy aide, G. David Schine, preferential treatment with his military assignment, since the moment that Schine was drafted.

The Army adamantly refused to comply to any, and all, of McCarthy’s intimidation. It was McCarthy’s contention that Schine had been drafted solely for the purpose of spying on McCarthy, and his work since February, 1950, of ridding the government; the military; the State department, and the Pentagon of what he, McCarthy, claimed to be “havens for the Communist party.”

A month or so prior – early March – to these Army-McCarthy Hearings, Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now program had gone after McCarthy, his blatant arrogance, unstable personality, and malicious tactics of a “Red Scare” in every household within the country.

Between April 22, and June 17, 1954, the viewing audience grew, and grew, more and more, on a daily basis to this self-induced tragedy by Joseph Raymond McCarthy. Over 188 hours of these hearings were telecasted to the nation. Unfortunately, less than 40% of the homes had a television in 1954. But, the printed press had a field day with it.

But, the hero of these hearings was the head counsel for the Army, Joseph Nye Welch, a sixty-three old attorney. At one point, McCarthy accused an aide of Welch’s, Fred Fisher, as having been associated briefly with a left-leaning organization, the National Lawyers Guild, while in college, which proved to be nothing more than a youthful indiscretion.

It was at this juncture of the proceedings that Welch commented,

By December of 1954, McCarthy had been censured by the Senate – 67 to 22 – and his popularity, for what remained, was all but gone.

“Gunner Joe” died of the acute consequences of alcoholism on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48.

VIVRE LIBRE ou MOURIR (“LIVE FREE or DIE”)

“Live Free or Die”

Those were the words uttered by General John Stark – the hero of the Battle of Bennington – during the American Revolutionary War in 1777.

In actuality, General Stark, in 1809, spoke the phrase in a letter of explanation, due to his failing health, on why he would not be able to attend a reunion anniversary commemorating the Battle of Bennington stating, “Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.”

Well, it’s my guess that the good old general would have been proud of the independence shown by his fellow (current day, of course) citizens in Keene, New Hampshire this morning.

The “I’m Ready For Hillary ’16” caravan rolled into this incredibly beautiful little town, and decided to have some of the breakfast pastries at Kristin’s Bistro and Bakery prior to heading off to a small business round table meeting.

It became pretty obvious to the Clinton staffers that their planning had NOT fully vetted the ‘attitudes and temperament’ of many of the natives, or as Grandma Hillary calls them, “America’s every day people.”

Many did NOT want to have pictures close to, or near Grandma H this morning. Watching some of the early video shot by NH news outlets, Kristin’s regular patrons were noticeably rushing out the door to get away from this faux grandmother.

But, the best segments were of the kitchen help literally being subject to employer begging to ‘meet and greet’ Grandma H…shaking their heads in the negative. Sunny-side eggs are a much greater priority! Can’t serve any burnt toast, Mabel.

Since there is NO one more less self-effacing than Grandma H, it was hilarious to watch her expressions; plus, desperately trying to smile and laugh (which she has NEVER done in the course of her life!) at her torturous circumstance at Kristen’s this morning. You could tell exactly what was racing through her mind: Wanting to just scream F-U to every consumer finishing their third chocolate-coated pastry, with crushed walnuts on the top.

Please, plan to pay a visit to the Downtown Kristin’s Bistro and Bakery, 28 Washington Street, Keene, as you drive through our nation’s ninth state (June 1788) during a trip to New England.

They open at 6 am, Monday-Saturday…

TIME’S PRETENTIOUS TWOSOME

I got my April 27 / May 2, 2015 copy of Time a couple of days ago. It is their 100 Most Influential People edition.

Under the section named The Titans appeared two of the planet’s most pretentious individuals that can be found anywhere: Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. Why their selection(s)?

Judges for Time, you really need to do a far better job defining the reasons. In the case of West, Elon Musk gave an inexplicable explanation.

Mommy Kardashian’s presenter was the unsinkable Martha Stewart with “why” Mommy K is so-o-o influential.

Our president, Mr. Obama, back in 2009, defined West as a “jackass.” His NON-classy behavior at music awards were / are nothing short of an industry eye-sore. Brutish is the better adjective! But, influential, NO.

Mommy K is the epitome of a self-serving brand; that brand herself. Has there ever been a human being on the face-of-the-earth who’s taken more selfies of herself, or had her camp-followers, under instructions from Mommy K herself, taking pictures of her, for sources of social media; in all kinds of NON-social poses; and, without any hesitation for the parade of self-aggrandizement to march on, and on, and on.

These two phonies classified as “influential?”

I think NOT…

GRANDMA HILLARY’S NOSE IS GETTING LONGER, and LONGER

Grandmothers, traditionally, are notoriously fibbers. At least in my family.

Remember how you were told how good Cod Liver Oil tasted? That was the one that tipped me off early in the game.

Having said that, neither my paternal nor my maternal grandmother could have ever begun to ‘hold a candle’ in the arena of tall tales with the likes of Grandma Hillary Clinton.

Grandma Hillary simply can NOT restrain herself. And, it’s been that way for the better part of 25 years since Grandma H was the First Lady of Arkansas, with the Man from Hope, Slick Willie.

Just think about it for a second.

Remember, how she and Slick Willie were so impoverished during their time as the First Family of Arkansas, when the truth of matter was, thanks to the Wall Street Journal, Grandma H had made a fortune in the hog and cattle futures. During this same time period, there was the Rose Law Firm scandal, regarding work performed against hours billed.

Or, remember when Grandma H claimed, back in 1996, that she had landed, on a trip to Bosnia, under intense sniper fire, when cable and network video proved otherwise. Sounds almost like something that Bill O’Reilly or Brian Williams would do. Grandma H beat them to it!

And, who can forget the story of how she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, first man to climb Everest in 1953, when Grandma H’s date of birth was 1947 – six years before Everest – when Sir Edmund was raising bees.

Who among us can NOT remember Grandma H’s epic television interview with Diane Sawyer last June, when Grandma H told Sawyer that when she and Slick Willie left the White House in 2000, they were “dead broke.” NO one leaves the White House, Grandma H, broke!

On and on…

Well, this past Wednesday, Grandma H may have really out-done herself in Iowa. No, I’m NOT talking about parking her van in a Handicap spot. ALL our elected officials do that. You don’t really think they care about the ‘little people,’ do you? Come on, dispel any such thought. No, no, what I’m referring to is, Grandma H making claims that ALL her grandparents had been immigrants. OOOOops!

The media jumped all over this remark, and found, over the last 24 hours. that just her father’s father had come to America, from the UK. The rest of her clan were born in the good old US of A.

So, you can see why Grandma Hillary’s nose keeps getting longer, and longer, these days. She has a long history of being a compulsive liar.

Bad, bad, bad Grandma…

DEFINITIVE SIGNS of the APOCALYPSE

Over some fifty years ago, while in undergraduate school, under the “strict adherence” of the Dominicans and their Thomistic syllabus (Thank God!), I had the option of selecting one elective each semester, during my sophomore and junior years. Once a senior, I elected to increase my load, due to the pursuit of a double major – Economics and English – where I could select two electives. With apologies to Kurt Cobain, that was Nirvana for me.

My options were such things as: The History of America’s Financial System; The Security Exchange Commission; Hamilton and the Banking System of America; History of the Supreme Court; Literature During the American Civil War; Writings of the Founding Fathers; Will The Jesuits Continue to Ruin The Church? (just kidding; well, maybe NOT), and / or Aquinas and Summa Theologica. Just to list a few of my options when man still lived in a cave.

My first of seven grandchildren (number eight is on the way, hurrah!) is a month from completing her first year in college. Talk about something that rings of old age, and its recognition, have your first grandchild starting college, and completing her freshmen year(why don’t we called it freshwomen as well?). Holy Mackerel! As the late great Ronny Carter, my boss when I worked for him during summers, trapping lobsters in college, was fond of saying, as we would head out to sea at 4:30 in the morning, ” Holy mackerel, it couldn’t get any better.” I still love saying, ‘holy mackerel.’

Thankfully, my granddaughter is attending a college with its priorities, structure, educational head, and mission compass on straight.

However, signs of the nearing apocalypse are within sight of the neighborhood. Closer than one might expect!

I just finished the morning online edition of the LA Times, and my head is rotating like a stand-in for Linda Blair. One of the articles that caught my eye this morning had to do with the Variety of College Electives on campuses across the country. WARNING: Do NOT continue reading any further without having eaten some “organic sustenance” for strength.

Ready?

Here is just a small sampling of the closing-in of Mankind’s Apocalypse:

* UNIVERSITY of WISCONSIN – “Elvish, Language of the Lord of the Rings”

* OBERLIN COLLEGE – “How to Win a Beauty Contest”

* REED COLLEGE – “Underwater Basket Weaving”

* CORNELL UNIVERSITY – “Gossip”   (my guess, it’s taught by the Kardashians)

* APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY – “What If Harry Potter is Real?”

* UCAL/BERKELEY – “Simpsons and Philosophy”

* RUTGERS UNIVERSITY – “Politicizing Beyonce”

Aristotle may be right, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”