It's dark
I don't recognize this place
I don't belong here
I'm afraid
I just want to go home
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Friday, May 25, 2018
The Party
The party is in full swing at my college apartment in Charlottesville. Cigarette smoke, spilled beer, and the sounds of Joan Baez, The Beatles, and Kingston Trio fill the room.
It's loud. Guys are bull shitting about UVa football games, road trips to Sweetbriar, the Paris peach talks, combat missions, final exams, formation flying, Martin Luther King, space shots, basic training, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Presidents Kennedy Johnson and Nixon, movies, cars, cobras, bar girls, R&R, the Freedom Bird, fraternity rush, flares over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Bobby Kennedy,
It's crowded. Rudolph Nunn, my mentor and ROTC instructor is there. So is Mark Chenis who tried to steal my girl at pilot training. No problem, I would have tried to steal his given the chance. Burt Beach's entire tanker crew are tilting back brews in the corner. A couple guys I tutored in first year math are leaning precariously against a wall. Guys I took classes in economics with, a guys I studied Spanish with, and others I went down the road with are enjoying Budweiser in the quart from the local Seven Eleven. A freshman football player from the dorm floor below me in Page Hall is having trouble navigating to the head.
It's loud. It stinks of smoke, spilled beer, and sweat. It's crowded. Good guys, young, warriors. Full of themselves, fearless, full of life. They never could have all been in the same room together, but that never occurrs to me.
The music stops. The room goes quiet. Everybody turns to me. One of them asks me, "Why did we all have to die?" I look back at them all and realize I am the only survivor in the room. I can't answer the question. Not then, not now, not ever.
I wake up. My pillow is soaked. I turn it over. My wife asks me if I'm OK. Yes, I say. It's only a dream. She drifts back to sleep.
It's loud. Guys are bull shitting about UVa football games, road trips to Sweetbriar, the Paris peach talks, combat missions, final exams, formation flying, Martin Luther King, space shots, basic training, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Presidents Kennedy Johnson and Nixon, movies, cars, cobras, bar girls, R&R, the Freedom Bird, fraternity rush, flares over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Bobby Kennedy,
It's crowded. Rudolph Nunn, my mentor and ROTC instructor is there. So is Mark Chenis who tried to steal my girl at pilot training. No problem, I would have tried to steal his given the chance. Burt Beach's entire tanker crew are tilting back brews in the corner. A couple guys I tutored in first year math are leaning precariously against a wall. Guys I took classes in economics with, a guys I studied Spanish with, and others I went down the road with are enjoying Budweiser in the quart from the local Seven Eleven. A freshman football player from the dorm floor below me in Page Hall is having trouble navigating to the head.
It's loud. It stinks of smoke, spilled beer, and sweat. It's crowded. Good guys, young, warriors. Full of themselves, fearless, full of life. They never could have all been in the same room together, but that never occurrs to me.
The music stops. The room goes quiet. Everybody turns to me. One of them asks me, "Why did we all have to die?" I look back at them all and realize I am the only survivor in the room. I can't answer the question. Not then, not now, not ever.
I wake up. My pillow is soaked. I turn it over. My wife asks me if I'm OK. Yes, I say. It's only a dream. She drifts back to sleep.
NFL Kowtows to Trumpers
After 7 years as a Regular Air Force Officer which included sitting on the alert pad ready to fly a one way mission if the klaxon went off, and 250 combat missions refueling fighters and bombers in Vietnam, I'm entitled to my opinion on The NFL's recent ruling.
I love America, I served, and I'm a patriot. But, let's be honest with ourselves. Not all our history is glorious. Our moral compass hasn't always been aligned to true north. Look back and it's all there: Slavery, segregation, genocide, lynchings, germ warfare, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, detention of the Japanese during WW2, war crimes.
Despite past sins, one reason I love America is a sense that we have been evolving to a more perfect society. Driving this process, in large part, is our constitutionally protected right to protest: The " right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress".
By design protest is meant to be uncomfortable. It forces us to confront truths we might just prefer to ignore. It often takes courage to protest, especially for the early movers. You are not often showered with approval. You may be subject to retaliation. It's far easier to go along, hide in the crowd and watch injustice unfold.
It's hard to imagine a more peaceful protest than kneeling during the national anthem. That star athletes choose to use their prestige and reputation to point out injustice is their right and an expression of hope that the nation will notice and consider their consciences.
As a Veteran in no way do I feel that reflects disrespect on our armed forces. It's one of the precious American freedoms we fought for and swore to protect. Cadet Bone Spur either doesn't understand the Constitution, or worse yet, is using the subject to whip up the worst passions of his army of deplorables.
Colin Kaepernick is a hero that has conducted himself as a perfect gentleman. Even if I disagreed with his stand (I don't), I will defend his right to protest.
On the other hand there is the disgraceful example of the NFL, toadying to the White House and the least highly evolved of their fans. They are the cowards in this story. Their weak kneed response is a disgrace and abandons a true American value. Shame on them.
I love America, I served, and I'm a patriot. But, let's be honest with ourselves. Not all our history is glorious. Our moral compass hasn't always been aligned to true north. Look back and it's all there: Slavery, segregation, genocide, lynchings, germ warfare, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, detention of the Japanese during WW2, war crimes.
Despite past sins, one reason I love America is a sense that we have been evolving to a more perfect society. Driving this process, in large part, is our constitutionally protected right to protest: The " right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress".
By design protest is meant to be uncomfortable. It forces us to confront truths we might just prefer to ignore. It often takes courage to protest, especially for the early movers. You are not often showered with approval. You may be subject to retaliation. It's far easier to go along, hide in the crowd and watch injustice unfold.
It's hard to imagine a more peaceful protest than kneeling during the national anthem. That star athletes choose to use their prestige and reputation to point out injustice is their right and an expression of hope that the nation will notice and consider their consciences.
As a Veteran in no way do I feel that reflects disrespect on our armed forces. It's one of the precious American freedoms we fought for and swore to protect. Cadet Bone Spur either doesn't understand the Constitution, or worse yet, is using the subject to whip up the worst passions of his army of deplorables.
Colin Kaepernick is a hero that has conducted himself as a perfect gentleman. Even if I disagreed with his stand (I don't), I will defend his right to protest.
On the other hand there is the disgraceful example of the NFL, toadying to the White House and the least highly evolved of their fans. They are the cowards in this story. Their weak kneed response is a disgrace and abandons a true American value. Shame on them.
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