A Medal of Honor hero died this week. He was a fighter in one of America’s segregated units during World War II. I often think America forgets that the “Greatest Generation” included men and women of all colors. Modern Americans too often like to gloss the racism of the past and pretend it not only doesn’t exist, but never “really” did affect American life.

But of course, it did. Although Vernon Baker was a WWII hero, it was not until Clinton was President that he was recognized fully with the medal. Nice gesture, but is late really better than never? Because I wonder what a difference it might have made in the lives of all African-Americans in post-war America to have a black man wearing the Medal of Honor walking the streets? Only seven black soldiers were granted this highest honor, and Mr. Baker was the only one alive to receive it.

America likes being a bit late at the gate, it seems. There is a lot of banter about how America is a sleeping giant, but, boy-oh-boy, once we wake up; look out! Right. If that was ever true, America is tossing back Ambiens at present.
The news mentions the passing of Mr. Vernon Baker and everyone says “Oh, what a brave man.”

The news still barely mentions heroes of the current wars, or the soldiers that die every day. I just wonder if it wouldn’t be better for our troops and veterans if someone thought a bit more about them before they are 75 years old, just for a change.

And since awards of the beautiful starry blue ribboned medal in the current wars have been so very stingy, one wonders if politics play a part? Do they hold back the awards to minimize the demands and costs of the war? After all, putting a hero up in clear view means this is some serious WAR, man! Do we still really want to play this one off as if we can do it with one hand tied behind our backs? Because we are losing men, bleeding money, and Humpty Dumpty is in pieces. All the CIA tricks and bigger bombs aren’t putting it back together again.

I just think Vernon Baker, and other Medal of Honor holders like him, would probably appreciate America noticing their brother and sister troops while they are still alive and struggling with the war and its effects.

And in line with the military and the nation being stuck on the “too little, too late” wagon, tomorrow will be “Suicide Saturday” a week earlier than usual.

The memorial has to pay its own bills, mostly from gift shop sales and the like. And the recession since 9-11 has reduced income. And many of the original organizers are sick or dead, and keeping the memorial open is in doubt. Many younger female veterans don’t even know the place exists—a place that documents the resentment and hardship women endured doing their jobs in war and peace. This piece of American history and women’s history is in danger of vanishing due to financial woes.

Who pays for the Viet Nam War Memorial? Who pays for the others in Washington or around the nation? Why is it female veterans are treated like poor relations? Women have a place in history, don’t let the light go out! Because their memorial, unlike some other memorials, is also a reliquary of the history of American women’s military service.

If you are a female veteran, please visit the site and register your service to your country. Please consider becoming a member and donating to save this vital piece of history. Everyone says they support the troops. Here is your chance to support female troops and part of American history.

Hat tip to Alternate Brain. I had heard that a lot of traumatic brain injury victims were getting a load of shit about their symptoms. Many were being dismissed as “Man, you musta been screwed up when you joined and hid it on the physical.”

Now, they are forcing troops to sign a paper saying that instead of giving them medical treatment; and then forcing them OUT of the service with no benefits. How, you ask? They incarcerate troops and pressure doctors to diagnose everything from shattered bones to traumatic brain injury as “previously existent personality disorders”. If that isn’t some grade A horse manure with a side of sheer evil, I don’t know what the hell qualifies. This is how the MILITARY supports the troops?

Go read it and think how to get something explosive up the ass of the REMF who thought this shit up!

Oh, and Lt. Col. Larry Applewhite? You kept a man incarcerated and sleep deprived for over a month till he agreed to sign off on your diagnosis of personality disorder? A pox upon you and all your descendants to the tenth generation!

In front of the main section of parking in the rest stop, a young man stood with a sign.  A man in maybe his 30’s.  His sign said “Disabled Navy Veteran – please help.”  He didn’t approach people, he simply stood.  Cars pulled in to park in front of him.  Cars with yellow ribbons stuck on them with the cheesy over-done “support the troops” message.

And those cars paused, engine running, and then pulled back OUT and moved down the long lot to park further away from the Navy veteran forced into public begging by this nation’s abyssmal record of “supporting” its thrown-away, used and abused troops.

All of you asshats who can’t pony up a bit of change and who don’t even have the guts to face this man and at least say “Sorry, strapped and tapped, can’t help…but thank you for serving and sorry for your troubles.” can go fuck yourselves, ok?

And no, do not give me any bullshit about “Well, he probably is lying and not a vet.” or “Well, he’d just use it to drink or drug.”   Because this old Kantian bitch will tell you—it isn’t about what that down and out man would do or why he does it.  It is about what YOU do or do not do; error on the side of generosity and righteousness.  Or, if I see you doing the nothing you do, I may just shove that magnetic yellow ribbon up your ass.

Yesterday, running errands, we stopped to put money in the jar outside the grocery store and took paper poppies in return.  Poppies, red like those that cover the famous fields in Flanders, evoking memories of a war pretty much forgotten by the young.  World War I was a war of trenches, mud, rain, and artillery barrages that buried men alive.  It was the war that they hoped would end all wars.  No such luck.

The names of 148,000 veterans are being read by volunteers this weekend—and it will take ten days to get through that list.  Having stood outdoors with a list of over 5400 names to read, I know what time it takes and what toll on the heart.  Nineteen year olds who will never hold their children; fifty year olds whose grandchildren won’t know them; women whose children have heard their last bedtime story from mom—it all tears holes in the heart.

My monument to the cost of the recent wars will be adorned with flowers and a paper red poppy tomorrow.  And today, I will walk through the beauty of early summer in the Nor’west, thinking of eyes that cannot see it and holding each image in trust for them.  Oh, that we would be wiser and more careful of lives that stand in harm’s way at the order of others!

No, I have nothing enlightened or lyrical to say.  This day breaks my heart and shuts my mouth.

I am still in a Veterans’ Day frame of mind.  War seems the continual state of human condition, there is always a war somewhere, isn’t there?  And at times, twice in the last century, virtually the entire world convulsed at once.  Our date, 11 November, was once called Armistice Day because on the 11th day of the 11th month and at the 11th hour in 1918, the armistice ending World War I was signed.

Another war is ongoing…in Iraq, and one in Afghanistan.  There is fear it could pull in Pakistan as well.  And Israel wants us to make war on Iran for the same panopoly of reasons the war with Iraq began.  I ask you to look back at Viet Nam.  Consider the dead, and consider the living and the way, in shame and anger, the country turned away from those men.  Is that what will happen to the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan?

I’d like to say that my generation….those who saw Viet Nam, women like me who welcomed back those men, will not let that happen.  But the government?  Well, they all wish all the old soldiers would quietly fade away.  Don’t believe me?  See the picture above?  It is from the Spiegel in a photo-journal recalling World War I, the “Great War” that gave us Veterans’ Day.  It notes that the German government, shamed by loss after BOTH wars, didn’t even bother to keep track of the veteran survivors in ANY official capacity.  No public governmental notice was given, last year, when Germany’s last two veterans of the “Great War” died.   It happened there, and it can happen here. (Go Look: http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-37026.html )

Remember.  Remember the dead, but do not forget the living.

I wonder who gives the cops their orders at political gatherings around the country.  The police in Denver were none too tender with various groups in the street, and the police at the GOP convention staged preemptive strikes on people expected to protest.

Recently, at a debate site for Obama and McCain, the police again were very “pro-active” about protesters—this time against uniformed veterans who wanted to present a list of questions to the candidates.  So, today’s post is from a letter of the IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against War).  They are asking for contributions for the legal fund, as they were arrested, and some had injuries from being ridden down by horse-mounted police.

Why does it make me think of Cossacks and pogroms in old Russia?  Maybe the idea of armed men on horses riding against unarmed men on the ground?

From the IVAW:

One hour before the final presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, fourteen members of IVAW marched in formation to Hofstra University to present questions for the candidates concerning the occupation of Iraq and the treatment of returning veterans. IVAW had requested permission from debate moderator Bob Schieffer to ask their questions during the debate but got no response.

The contingent of veterans in dress uniforms and combat uniforms attempted to enter the building where the debate was to be held in order to ask their questions but were turned back by police. The ten IVAW members at the front of the formation were immediately arrested, and others were pushed back into the crowd by police on horseback. Several members were injured, including former Army Sergeant Nick Morgan who suffered a broken cheekbone when he was trampled by police horses before being arrested.

(And the questions)    1.  The invasion and occupation of Iraq is illegal based on criteria in our own Constitution, as well as international law and the Geneva Conventions.  Sen. Obama, is it not the right of service members to refuse deployment and participation in the occupation of Iraq?  As President, will you support the rights of service men and women who refuse participation in this criminal war?

2. Sen. McCain, we currently have thousands of veterans returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them with severe injuries.  The rate of suicide attempts among veterans is at the shocking rate of up to 1,000 per month.  Sen. McCain, you have consistently voted against an increase in VA funding and other legislation that would take care of veterans.  As President, will you be prepared to fully fund and staff the VA system and how will you address your poor voting record on veteran’s issues?

I like asking McCain why he has sold out the veterans of every war.  I think the first question defies military custom.  Illegal war or not, soldiers do not get to pick and choose.  Voters, alas, SHOULD have more to do with that…to guard the precious lives OF the military members.  Wake up, voters!

America isn’t really looking much like James T. Kirk or even Indy Jones, though. I worry about the “tails” in that toss…that side of the coin seems terribly weighted to me:

~ The Democrats are tearing themselves to bits. And that is bad enough of itself, but the WAY they do it bothers me even more. Clinton’s past, we are told by her supporters, is just that—in the past. So, her work for Walmart and the union busting law firm don’t mean she doesn’t love the common working stiffs of America. But Obama’s past, well, now here is some good smearing, not only is he panned for being black and accused of being a secret Muslim (wtf is this, the American freaking Inquisition??), but he is called an elite sort who doesn’t care about the common man? Wow, how does anyone DO that, hit both sides of it?  This is what kills me, you are sexist if you bring up Clinton’s past; but you are not racist if you bring up a largely fabricated past and glue it to Obama?  This is a big weight heading for tails, folks. If you can build in a nice secretive, never shows its face racism, accuse the guy of lack of experience; and likewise claim a woman who worked against the interests of the very voters she wants most never did so and not get called on bullshit….well, hey, war is peace, dudes.

~Another tails weight I see is that it HAS come down to whether it is about racism or sexism. Wouldn’t it be nice if all candidates were unmarked boxes on the political shelf, with their IMPORTANT “ingredients” truthfully listed—stuff like voting records, job resume, maybe a polygraph on where they stand on this, that, and the other? Of course, all that “stuff” is available if one looks deeper than media sound-bites. Americans seem sadly unready for the rigors of researching out the truth—even in the age of the internet when it is so much easier to do.

~Another tail thing is Americans make lousy existentialists. What do I mean by that? We like to jolly ourselves along in completely unrealistic ways; the GOP talks about trickle down economics and a lot of very poor folks believe it. Come on, everyone, ANYbody knows that the only thing that reliably rolls downhill is more shit, different day. The GOP sells the “American Dream” but they don’t mention that only about 5% of the population can afford the price. WAKE UP, stop believing the folks that tell you it will all work out. Nothing works out without blood, sweat, and tears. Stop protecting yourselves from the real horrors facing America with statements like “Well, whoever wins in November won’t get much done, so it doesn’t matter who it is; the candidate in 2012 is the one to watch!” How long do you really think economic disaster can be deferred? Get real!

~We like fish too well. This is logic 101, folks. An awful lot of Americans, when faced with a problem will accept anything as the cause of the problem. So when the economy is doing lousy because corporations have shipped jobs overseas, and the government is pumping every tax dime into a war that really only benefits big companies and undertakers, there are lots of asshats out there saying that isn’t really the problem. No, it is those pesky immigrants…legal and un! THEY are taking your jobs, by gawd. Really? You worked in a restaurant kitchen for minimum wage or below and now you are out of work? This is a red herring dragged across the trail of American rhetoric, and because it stinks and is ripe with hidden racism, too many folks follow this trail instead of watching where the money goes.

~ We progressive/liberal sorts are too good hearted. Yes, this is a tails leaning factor right now. In fear that the Democrats are eating their own, we fear McCain will win. So, some of us tell ourselves he will be “reasonable.” You know, even I, back in 2000 said of George Bush, “Well, maybe he will rise to the task at hand—I mean, my Gods, they can’t let him fail, can they?” Boy oh boyoboy—what that a statement of pure shit. And yes, it rapidly rolled down hill!  Stop giving the fuckers the benefit of the doubt!!

I could go on all day. But can’t bore everyone to death; so are there any signs the beautiful American coin might come up heads? Some. And let me say, even if it does, it doesn’t mean things are rosy, ok? It just means we get another chance to pull our spoiled heads out of our own asses!

+ People are sick of the war. A very paltry number still think our “freedom” is what it is about. So the GOP has its own little splitsville brewing as some of their tried and true members look to Libertarian candidates.

+ Even though a lot of our Congress critters vote in ways generally guaranteed to fill their financial portfolios, some are waking up to realize that money might not be enough if the house of cards falls down. And a few of them might be afraid to live abroad after the crash—after all, we aren’t real popular overseas just now. So, this would be a good time to tell them exactly how you feel, and to my mind, with as many expletives UNdeleted as possible. (Example: Senator Venal-ass? Yes, I just am calling to remind you that you are supposed to be working for ME, you fucktard, NOT for Exxon-Mobil. So goddamn you, find out why even Mexico has cheaper gasoline, and BEFORE the cost of heating this dump I live in puts me on the street!)

+McCain keeps talking how good a veteran he is, what a brave POW he was. But he votes nastily for other vets, and some of them are catching on and being quite noisy about it. The Webb GI Bill PASSED (break out the GOOD beer!), and now Bush and McCain are all on about how the volunteers shouldn’t get it because they haven’t been …what…..drafted? Like WWII troops often were? Because they haven’t stayed military serfs in substandard quarters for enough years?  The GOP is not really the party of that supports the military, they just play that party on television. And badly. They are the party of the contractors, undertakers, and oilmen. And there are more and more veterans catching on to this fact.
+I see some signs that ordinary day to day Americans might be getting the clue that the Religious Right is not necessarily right about many things—they may have screwed the pooch and shown their nasty controlling, lets show those Spanish Papist bastards how to do a REAL Inquisition hand a bit too plainly. This is the only place where Americans being spoiled into thinking they CAN TOO always have their way might prove beneficial—cause the Religious Right absolutely wants it done THEIR way or not at all. Them losing some political power can only be a good thing.

+Nobody likes being scared all the time. The constant fear-mongering is losing its grip. It is like the health alerts we get, where after a while EVERYdamnedTHING you put in your mouth causes cancer (grapefruit, for Gods’sake??!): you finally decide to say “Fuck it” and eat like a normal person instead of obsessing. So, finally, Americans are getting sick of looking over their shoulders for “terr’ists” all the time, and they will be tired soon of the restrictions on their civil rights. (I am a bit afraid this heads-weight might be counter balanced by the government having gotten so accustomed to having their way that it could take a while to roll back the power to squash. But I am supposed to be positive here, right?)

+ And last, but I hope not least, Americans really CAN be tough and reasonable at the same time. If this war really WAS like WWII, as Bush keeps falsely telling us, we could cut a lot of shit out of our lives to focus on what really counts. We could stop living like spoiled brats and focus on security of home and job harder. And when things get bad enough, as I fear they will, then we will have to do this. We won a Revolution, against all odds. We need a new internal revolution in thinking now, and I am sure we are capable of it, although we are less well educated (over all) than our Founding Fathers and a bit too certain of our country’s place on the world stage. This IS the existential crisis of America at the end of her period of hegemony. We WILL find a new place of balance and survival in the world because we must. But it won’t be comfortable and we may not like much of it.

Brace yourselves, that coin is spinning. It is up to all of us to see which side gets the most weight.

Now, I will be putting my money where my mouth promised and matching the donation….payday approaches.

Edit: Marla is matched.  By the way…the first two contributions last month : one was my husband’s and the second anonymous was me.  So, come on folks….come beat me at my own money tossing mania!