So here we are again, another week of political intrigue. The State of California or maybe the Federal Government has come up with another tax. I can’t tell you how much this tax is going to be, but you can be sure that the politicians will be smiling when they tell you.
I’m sure they will deicide how it is going to be levied by some magic wand over the 87,000 new agents that they laughingly hired to teach us a lesson. Although I’m not sure what that lesson is. Of course, if you read the fine print, you can usually see through the fish smell and understand it is another way for the politicians, who are constantly looking for more ways to take your money, to take your lunch money without really letting you know why.
It wasn’t bad enough that our president rolled back the Keystone Pipeline, causing an immediate rise in the cost of fuel for our cars of $2 or $3 a gallon. Then he tried to blame it on the former president. As a matter of fact, this current inhabitant seems to want to blame everything on the former president. There must not be a mirror anywhere in the White House. I know I couldn’t look at myself if I had ruined the lives of so many people under the color of Government.
I sort of took the day off this week. I wanted to write up a few words to a friendly audience. You know, the Conservative branch of our country. I had actually written a few words not about how terrible our president is and what he is doing to our country that we may never recover from. However, I will pass this week.
I have actually been invited to speak at a luncheon, where I’m pretty sure I won’t be heckled or called any names. I’m not sure what will happen, but I know it will be better than listening to the news crush my hopes to leave this world in better shape than I found it. I am very humbled that someone would ask me to attend a luncheon, where I am considered the speaker. I am not in the habit of being treated as though what I say may be interesting. I’m not going to turn down any such invitation.
On another front, I would like to ask a favor of the folks that force their way through my wasted sentences and try to make sense of my fractured musings. If you are a veteran or are related to a veteran, please ask them to get in touch with me. We are suffering the same fate as many paternal organizations. That is the American Legion is looking for members.
A lot of folks, I can only assume, think that there is an abundance of veterans here in the Salinas Valley. While there are probably more than I know, I want you to know these are the volunteers that hold the civilian populace together. Most of the members I have met are older than the general population, yet they perform so many ways to improve the lives of those around us.
The American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary have many programs that help students understand why we volunteer in any armed confrontation, why we stand and salute The Flag, and help students find scholarships to any number of advanced educational programs.
We realize that the youth is the future of our town and country. If you have any questions about the programs or mentoring we provide, slip a note or a question into the mail to: The American Legion, P.O. Box 81, Gonzales, CA. I can almost promise that if you do and you do put in an effort, that plenty of doors will open for you.
Let me tell you the reason I feel this way. In an armed confrontation with a declared enemy, of our country, you are many times involved in a country that is so far away from home that we can imagine and remember what it was like back home. It’s nice to get letters or cookie day as we used to call it. However, the cookies get eaten and everything else you are provided with gets torn or very dirty.
The one thing that you can hold in your hand and remember your loved ones is a rectangle piece of cloth that many think is the most beautiful gathering of Stars and Stripes you will ever see. I have always subscribed to the latter group. I was sent a flag by a California Assemblyman while in Vietnam. My dad asked him to do so and he sent it right away. I slept with that flag. I could look at it and hold it and remember that cute little blonde headed girl that lived just down the block from my house over in Wasco. I wrote her letters and thought of her, but the flag was what I cherished.
You get pretty dirty, tired and lonely when you’re outside the wire as we used to say. Outside the wire meant you were locked and loaded and aware that things could get very difficult very fast. When you stop, and put down your 80-lb rucksack, you still have to pull out any letter you got and answer it. No matter how bright the colors of red white and blue in a setting of nothing but green you still have to answer the letter. So, you wrap the flag around your shoulders as a thumb to the enemy that they have messed with the wrong folks.
Although I hate to admit it, and it only happened to me once, but if a man is hurt, and he has to go back to the rear where better medical aid is more formal, we wrap him in a flag. Maybe it is yours and maybe it is his. It doesn’t matter. He fought for those colors and they will accompany him to home if that is where he ends up. We all fight for those colors and we know why. Maybe I or another member of the Legion can give you a flag. Hold on to it because it was given with love for you.
God Bless America.
