Sunday, August 19, 2018


Found this on Facebook this Sunday morning, Aug 19, 2018. Interesting points made. My reply is below.
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Written by Ted Nugent
Take a little trip to Valley Forge in January. Hold a musket ball in your Fingers and imagine it piercing your flesh and breaking a bone or two. There won't be a doctor or trainer to assist you until after the battle, so Just wait your turn. Take your cleats and socks off to get a real Experience.
Then, take a knee on the beach in Normandy where man after American man Stormed the beach, even as the one in front of him was shot to pieces, the Very sea stained with American blood. The only blockers most had were the
Dead bodies in front of them, riddled with bullets from enemy fire.
Take a knee in the sweat soaked jungles of Vietnam. From Khe Sanh to Saigon, anywhere will do. Americans died in all those jungles. There was no Playbook that told them what was next, but they knew what flag they Represented. When they came home, they were protested as well, and spit on For reasons only cowards know.
Take another knee in the blood drenched sands of Fallujah in 110 degree Heat. Wear your Kevlar helmet and battle dress. Your number won't be Printed on it unless your number is up! You'll need to stay hydrated but There won't be anyone to squirt Gatorade into your mouth. You're on your Own.
There are a lot of places to take a knee where Americans have given their Lives all over the world. When you use the banner under which they fought As a source for your displeasure, you dishonor the memories of those who
Bled for the very freedoms you have. That's what the red stripes mean. It Represents the blood of those who spilled a sea of it defending your Liberty.
While you're on your knee, pray for those that came before you, not on a Manicured lawn striped and printed with numbers to announce every inch of Ground taken, but on nameless hills and bloodied beaches and sweltering
Forests and bitter cold mountains, every inch marked by an American life Lost serving that flag you protest.
No cheerleaders, no announcers, no coaches, no fans, just American men and Women, delivering the real fight against those who chose to harm us, Blazing a path so you would have the right to "take a knee." You haven't Any inkling of what it took to get you where you are, but your "protest" is
Duly noted. Not only is it disgraceful to a nation of real heroes, it Serves the purpose of pointing to your ingratitude for those who chose to Defend you under that banner that will still wave long after your jersey is Retired.
If you really feel the need to take a knee, come with me to church on Sunday and we'll both kneel before Almighty God. We'll thank Him for Preserving this country for as long as He has. We'll beg forgiveness for our Ingratitude for all He has provided us. We'll appeal to Him for Understanding and wisdom. We'll pray for liberty and justice for all,
Because He is the one who provides those things. But there will be no Protest. There will only be gratitude for His provision and a plea for His Continued grace and mercy on the land of the free and the home of the Brave.
It goes like this, GOD BLESS AMERICA.
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Mr. Nugent makes some valid points. But, America is more than soldiers sent to die in foreign lands for corporate profits. Because that is what has been on-going since the end of WW. II.
Congress last declared war on Dec 8, 1941. Since then, we have invaded: Korea, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, not a single country of which ever did anything to us. We invaded some of those countries because their leaders no longer served our broad interests: think Noriega, Hussein, Bin Laden, and others. We currently have troops stationed on the six inhabitable continents. Why/ What African country ever has bothered us? Where's the threat? Better yet, where 's the media, besides being a complacent tool of power, afraid to speak out.
Our WH leader wants to militarize space, and he's not the first. We left a plaque in 1969 that says that we came in peace for all mankind. It would be nice if we lived up to that, remembered that, educated our students about that. I strongly believe that what mostly black NFL players and others are protesting, rightfully, is the treatment of Americans here at home. They are aware of the Tuskeegee (sp) Airman of WW II, of the valiant service of black soldiers and sailors during WW II, reduced to servant positions and segregated units. Their relatives returned to the country they defended only to be told to get off the sidewalk when a white person walked past, to never look a white person in the eye, to drink from segrgated fountains, to stay out of the city pool, to eat in the back of the restaurant by entering through a separate door, and to go home by sitting in the back of the bus. They protest over the failure of their govt, our govt, to protect their basic human rights during the Civil Rights protests of the 50s and 60s, when our govt sent no troops while blacks were beaten, hosed, dog-savaged, bombed, threatened, in direct violation of our 14th Amendment. 
They kneel and protest against the failure of half a dozen Congress-passed Civil Rights Bills since the 1870s, none of which were put into full effect. They kneel and raise fists in defiance of a system that to this day in 2018, keeps them from enjoying their pursuit of Happiness like the rest of us. They pay higher loan interest rates, get turned down for more mortgages, are told some areas of town aren't for them, have no nationally known banks and grocery stories and retail and industry that comes to their neighborhoods, get the tail end of city services, live on the last streets to be cleared after snow storms and Mother Nature's wrath.
They are tired of gentrification, of having interstate hwys built through their neighborhoods, being told over and over and over again, no, and, wait. Their schools are worst-funded, in worst shape, and no hope is in sight, since property-tax system remains in place, and how much tax can one raise from impoverished people and their property? Mr. Nugent is entitled to his white-bread opinion, but he left out the actual history of our country and our govt, always white-dominated, always corporate-driven. We have so much to change in America. We should start by stop re-electing the same people to office. America exists for all. Well, it's supposed to.
Manage

Sunday, August 12, 2018

My reply to Mr George Will's Aug 12 column on Wanting Peace by Preparing for War:

Imagine, instead, if the Big Three had not made plans to rule the post-WW II world, but instead supported the concept of ALL European and Asian nations being part of such plans.

Imagine Eisenhower's administration NOT ignoring the post-Russia death of Stalin period, during which time Kruschev and company were not interested in a Cold War. The Cold War existed for the precise purpose of helping the military-industrial-political complex take power in America, Constitution be damned. And that is exactly what has happened.

There is a large alphabet of govt. agencies, some we know about, some we
 doubt, that exist to keep Americans in their place, and keep up the facade that the Pursuit of Happiness is alive and well, that individual freedoms for ALL people should exist. They in fact exist to insure govt and corporate control of all facets of our lives. Ever ask yourself why your life hasn't improved, while at the same time corporate CEOs rake in millions in salaries, stock, and golden parachutes, all the while fixing nothing, changing nothing, hiding their profits off-shore, refusing to invest in USA infrastructure, hiding behind armies of tax and other lawyers?

Mr. Will picked a certain point in his perception of history and pontificated from there. It didn't have to be this way, and it shouldn't be this way. Genocide, poverty, hungry children, racial strife, disasters, crumbling infrastructure, horrible economy, lack of hope, and that's just in what used to be America.

Only Congress can declare war. They last did so on Dec 8, 1941. Since then, we've invaded:
Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Grenada, Panama, Cambodia, Laos, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan. We went after foreign leaders we didn't like in Latin America and Middle Europe, many of whom we removed from office after having funded them until they were no longer needed by us. Not so much as a peep out of Congress, who funded all of this anyway. We filled up our national and local cemeteries with our youth under mis-guided patriotism.

Mr. Will's commentary is one-sided and absent severe facts. But, this is what newspapers are supposed to do, help citizens think critically about those they put, and keep, in power.