‘Don’t Look Now, It Ain’t You Or Me’
As a son of a father who had deep beliefs in the teachings of tolerance and peace - I was brought up to love, not hate - to choose negotiation, not retaliation. In addition, I grew up in the late 60’ and 70’s, so I was precociously aware of the political climate as early as 1968 - Walter Cronkite expressed his opinion on network television that our participation in the war was at best a stalemate; there were riots as near as Paterson NJ (3 miles away), protests against the war were ever growing; graphic video was shown on network television almost daily. I was young, yes, but television had popped my ‘Mary Poppins Cherry’ and my ever-developing adolescent brain was forced to make choices. As you might guess, I sided with the ‘peaceniks’, I grew my hair long, went to a couple of rallies and even campaigned door-to-door at the age of 13 for George McGovern.
I was against war, I was against violence, I was for peace and harmony.
At the same time, I held no ill will against our troops in Vietnam, most of them were drafted and had no choice in the matter. I felt that they were pawns in a political war and many of them paid the ultimate price for a 'military exercise' that was at best a draw.
As time when on, the US got involved in other 'exercises' - the first Iraq War, the second Iraq War and its related efforts to forestall the growth of terrorist threats and seek retribution for 9/11. To my mind, these operations were more valid and surgical than the blatant "let's go in and win this war with massive destructive power". In addition, we had economic, political and national security reasons for going in AND most importantly (to my mind) our army was completely volunteer - there was no "Giant Draft Crane of Doom" randomly scooping up 18-year-old men and women to be unwillingly put into service.
Slowly my antipathy toward our military began to subside and as time went on I came to appreciate what our armed forces were doing and doing so well. To paraphrase out of context a quote from “A Few Good Men” - "I wanted them on that wall!!!"
Which leads me to why I'm writing this post:
I WISH TO THANK FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART ALL OF THE MEN AND WOMEN IN OUR ARMED FORCES WHO HAVE PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE IN ORDER TO DEFEND OUR COUNTY. YOUR SACRIFICE IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR PRESERVING OUR DEMOCRACY AND WAY OF LIFE.
I named this post "Don't Look Now, It Ain't You Or Me" which is a song by CCR from the album "Willie And The Poor Boys". The lyrics do not directly reference those who served our country but the sentiment still applies. Perhaps John Fogerty, the writer of this song, could have added a verse - "Who will shield us from coming storm?" Of course the answer to that question is "it ain't you or me" but rather it's the brave, proud veterans that stand up for our country.
Enjoy your Memorial Day.
Cheers!
