My Parents' Perspective

My dad was stationed at Camp Roberts in California at the beginning of World War II. My mom, who had never been more than 50 or 60 miles from Wills Point, Texas, got on a train to San Francisco and married him a few days after arriving. Dad was probably destined for combat in the south Pacific, but a need arose for soldiers with post office experience...and Dad's mom had been a postmistress in west Texas, so he parlayed that into a position with the Army post office in San Francisco.

But there was still the time when he had to say good-bye to Mom and boarded a ship destined for wartime action...only to be inexplicably brought back to port and fortunately, Dad never saw combat. But he did an amazing job of getting mail to the soldiers who did have faraway addresses - we have several letters in our possession that call attention to the proficiency he brought to the operation, and what a vital operation that was.

One thing that has always stuck with me is my parents' description of what wartime was like stateside. About how often San Francisco and other coastal cities had to go dark after sunset and therefore render themselves less of a target for Japanese planes. There was always that fear that if Japan had the nerve to hit Pearl Harbor, they might have the capability of striking the west coast. My parents spoke of just how tenuous they perceived the nation's future was. Japan was certainly a formidable foe and Hitler was unstoppable early on in Europe.

Obviously, my parents had no way of knowing that Allied forces would eventually triumph. For all they knew, the United States might buckle under the stress of fighting what amounted to two wars half a world apart. Life was scary, freedoms were dear, and love of country was the adrenaline that pushed them to make the most of every day they had with each other - and make whatever sacrifices needed to be made for our country.

What hurts me now is the sometimes cavalier attitude that younger generations have toward our hard-won freedoms. I do cut them a lot of slack, however, because unless you have lived through a time when you think the country might fall, there's no way you can appreciate America like Mom and Dad did. They were in their 20's and didn't know if two months later, the war might be lost and the country's freedoms permanently destroyed. I'm sure that uncertainty made their love for each other and their country more intense and more precious. Fear was the adrenaline that drove relationships...and armies.

So I hope this Memorial Day that those who've never paused to grasp how this great country has managed to stay free will be struck by the sacrifices of those who've gone before us. And that they'll resolve to honor and revere the sacrifices made by our veterans, even by those who never fired a bullet at an enemy but made certain a sweetheart's letter was delivered to a homesick guy on the front line.

Why he's so ashamed of us...

So sorry I've been such a slackard...I honestly wanted to write again about my aversion to the junk Hollywood churns out. But the guy America elected as commander-in-chief keeps begging to be reprimanded...if not impeached. So here we go.

He has bowed before the Saudi king and the Japanese emperor and seems to take delight in apologizing for the great heritage of our country. He claims we aren't a Christian nation. His people kowtow to the communist Chinese and apologize profusely for terrible Arizona...the same Chinese who have rap sheet a mile long of REAL dastardly deeds.

Of course, the other day Obama had a love-in with Mexican president Calderon. They acted like long-lost college lovers as they denounced Arizona for doing the unthinkable - enforcing a law already on the books. It was stomach-churning disgusting to the max. Most of America, polls show, stand behind Arizona in trying to do something about the massive problem of illegal immigration. But then, most of America is also against the health-care bill, cap-and-trade, and bailing out corporations. Obama doesn't care.

So why doesn't he care? It's simple. He's not one of us. What little we know of the guy indicates that the big influencers in his life have been loony-birds. And isn't it curious that we know nothing of his grades or papers from his time at Columbia University...and that Fox News cannot find a single classmate who even remembers this charismatic figure? By the way, I'm non-partisan about this. George W. Bush's whereabouts are fuzzy for a couple of years during the Vietnam war...he has never come clean about exactly what was going on in his life during this time. He, also, seems to have been hiding something.

I think Obama doesn't like America or her heritage. He has no connection with our military and thus no concept of the sacrifices that have been made and are being made to keep us free. Nope, it's all about him. His speeches are stunningly bereft of appreciation for America's history and her people. And since he doesn't act or think like typical America, it bothers him none to denigrate his country in front of foreign leaders.

The good news is that he is so out-of-touch that Americans who shunned political participation in the past are now rising up in huge numbers to alter the landscape in Washington. Hopefully, the election of Obama will one day be rendered by historians as an interlude in our glorious history when Americans briefly fell asleep at the wheel.

So puzzling...

Left-wingers just keep getting farther and farther out there. Did you see where NYC mayor Bloomberg initially thought that the perpetrator of the Times Square almost-explosion would probably be "home-grown", "deranged", and somebody who didn't like the health-care bill? This is the typical mindset of liberals these days. They fall all over themselves trying to categorize Tea Party members as violent extremists, but somehow shy away from calling the Ft. Hood murderer a Muslim terrorist. Go figure.

They are also exposing their faulty biases with this Arizona controversy. Rather than accepting the real fact that Arizona is merely making a state law out of a federal law already on the books, the left has decided this is akin to Nazi Germany. Obama himself said that Hispanics who go out to get ice cream now have to worry about being pulled over and intimidated. Please. He either had not read the law or (more likely) wanted to score points with a huge minority voting bloc. Guess he doesn't want to hear about the deleterious effects of illegals on crime rates and drug enforcement.

Up is down. Wrong is right. Christians are scary and Muslims are our friends. Patriotic, peaceful Tea Partiers are evil but terrorists need to be coddled and babied. Hang on America. The wilder and more extreme the left gets, the more folks leave the Democratic party and look for more reasonable candidates.