Thoughts on War

Sorry, I never promised I'd post regularly, but I did hope I could get myself into the habit...

I've been mulling this one over for awhile. I think I mentioned before that I listen to NPR - Morning Edition on the way to work and All Things Considered on the way home. Since my commute is about 45 minutes, I get a good dose of public radio.

They somewhat regularly do a profile on a soldier or marine who has been killed in Iraq, interviewing their family and friends in a manner that gives you a real feel for who that person was, their hopes and dreams, and just how much has been lost in that one life. How their death affects not only their immediate circle of family and friends, but how it extrapolates out into what they could have been, what they could have done. If only...

That one story puts the war right smack in my face, in a way that the newspaper or evening news broadcasts can't do. I think that as a society we have become somewhat immune to the daily reports of suicide bombers, battles and roadside IEDs. But a simple interview with one soldier's mother, father, wife, husband, child - this has the power to reach out and smack us 'upside the head' to get our attention.

I've been waiting since the beginning of the year when the new session of Congress started, with the Democrats in control, for something to change. Instead, it's more of the same - political games, procedural delays, and nothing is done.

For crying out loud - people are DYING and these men and women whom we elected to serve OUR best interests are continuing to do absolutely nothing. It really does amaze me...

So, here's an idea. I think that every single member of the Senate and the House of Representatives should meet face-to-face with the family of every single member of the Armed Forces that is sent home in a body bag. Let them express their sympathies directly to each mother, and explain to each child why their son/daughter/father/mother had to die. We let our elected officials get off much too easily, without having to take responsibility for continuing to send our sons and daughters into harm's way.

It's ridiculous really - these people work for US! They need to listen to US!

Oh, and just so we're clear on this:

• I am an Air Force veteran.
• I fully support our troops.
• I do not support the war in Iraq.

Mini Rants

I couldn't really come up with a major topic, so decided I'd first give you a little of my history, and then a couple of mini-thoughts.

I grew up in the northeast - New York/New Jersey. We moved around quite a bit - 6 different places through high school. Apparently this didn't faze me too much, because I then went into the Air Force. After four years, I got out of the Air Force and married (yikes, a man even!). He got out of the Air Force a year later, and went to work for IBM (as anybody who knows anybody in that company - stands for "I Been Moved"), and continued moving around the country - San Antonio, Maryland, New York, San Antonio. After 13 years, we got divorced, and I met the love of my life (Sassyfemme). We stayed in San Antonio - my daughter lived there and we kind of figured that's where we would stay forever. Long story short - eventually things changed, and we were able to move back to the Northeast - and are now very happy and contented Connecticut Yankees.

My nickname is Eagle Eye - comes from this natural ability of mine to just kind of 'see' things that are wrong, or catch little mistakes - it probably drives some people crazy, but it definitely helps me in my job - software quality assurance. It kind of bothers me though, because it's not something that I can turn off when I'm not working. Case in point - the other day I started reading a new book that we recently got by Peggy Herring (who is one of our favorite authors, and who we know from our time in San Antonio). I regularly read the little acknowledgements and blurbs about the authors that are included in the book, and immediately I ran into a typo - that just drives me crazy since I know there are editors out there who are supposed to catch these types of things. The typo was in the name of one of her earlier books - "Once More With Feeing" - uh, scuse me - the title was "Once More With Feeling"

I know it's not a big deal, but it bothers me to spend my money for something that is essentially broken - how else is a book broken but to have mistakes in it? I remember one book I read where the author and editor actually changed a character's name in the middle of the story...

So that's me - a little bit anal about some things, but I think pretty easy going most of the time. (Sassy may have a different opinion...)

Mini-Rant:

The President of the United States is unable to say the word "nuclear"

Personally, I find this a little embarrassing; but maybe that's why he is such a proponent of "No Child Left Behind" (so that future presidents won't have the same problem).

Mini-item:

Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, Republican (I don't know much about the man, but I agree with this quote):

"One of the reasons that I'm running for president is because I think that America needs folks who understand what it is to start at the bottom of the ladder and climb their way to the top ... We've got a lot of people who are born on third base and think they've hit a triple."

Jumping in

There's a first for everything - first steps, first day of school, first love... and a first post on a new blog. This is that first post.

I've thought about blogging for awhile, but kept deciding against it because I didn't think 1) that I really had much to say, and 2) that anyone else would be very interested in what I might come up with to say. I finally decided that I really don't much care if anyone is interested (granted, it'd be nice to have some dialog, but not necessary).

I also decided on a general theme, which is one of the other reasons it took so long. This won't be a blog where I tell you how my day went and everything that happened. Rather, I'll post rants, raves, opinions and other random thoughts I have about people and events, mostly reactions to items I hear on the news (I listen to NPR radio every morning and evening on my drive to/from work).

I may not post regularly, depends on what I have to say. I welcome your comments and opinions, whether you agree with me or not. I will not welcome personal attacks or bigotry.

I am apparently a liberal Democrat - never really liked labels, and have thus far refused to join any political party. So you might think that I would choose to write about Nancy Pelosi as the first woman Speaker of the House (Yeah!), or to rant about George Bush for any number of reasons. But actually, this week someone else made it to the top of my radar screen - Senator Chuck Hagel.

I actually told my wife that based on what he has said this week, I could see myself voting for him for president - he impressed me that much. He basically threw out a challenge to every Senator to stand up and be counted for what they stood for - full quote on the NPR website.

So... three cheers for Chuck Hagel - someone with the courage to stand up for what he believes it right, rather than just following along with the party line.