A Salute to Heroes

One of the many organizations I belong to is the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). I qualify because of the two tours of duty I spent in the Republic of Korea (ROK) - South Korea. Most of my VFW experience is with my local post and it’s been an exhilarating experience being around and associated with the many veterans in this group. BUT there are some unfortunate aspects of being a member of this group in that there has to be a war - or occupation - outside the US in order to qualify to join. Ironically many of the members in the group are WWII veterans followed by Korea and of course Viet Nam. Another sad irony is that as these veterans age and pass away we need the newer veterans from wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan to join and help keep the organization viable. The VFW exists to help veterans and their families and while we’d like nothing more than to see the need for this type of effort to fade away, we know that wars will continue to occur and veterans and their families will continue to be in need.

I’m also a member of the American Legion. So what’s the difference? Well, as stated earlier, the VFW represents veterans of foreign wars but the American Legion is open to all members of the military and of course there are the auxiliaries for the spouses of these veterans.

All these organizations provide much needed services and friendship for the military, our veterans and their families. So, as Memorial Day approaches please take a moment and visit the following links and see what opportunities exist to help and support our military and our veterans. The opportunities range from attending events open to the public that are fund raisers to donating blood at drives designated to helping the VA Hospitals and active duty military personnel.

I can’t think of a better memorial to these folks than to support these organizations not only on Memorial Day but each and every day. So, thank a veteran and their family for their sacrifices that have given us all the freedom we live with each day.

Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) - www.vfw.org
American Legion - www.legion.org
Operation Support Our Troops (OSOT) - www.operation-support-our-troops.org
United Service Organizations (USO) - www.uso.org


See you there.

Why we SHOULD Honor Our Veterans

I'm in the process of helping judge the entries for the Patriot's Pen Essay Contest sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). I'm a member of my local chapter due to my two tours in The Republic of South Korea in the mid 1980's. Here's the link for this contest and while this years contest is closed, this is an annual contest that all middle school students really should enter. The link also provides information on other contests such as the Voice of Democracy for High School students.

http://www.napervfw.org/youthPrograms.html

As you would expect there are some interesting entries given the grade level of the participants but I have to take a moment and mention just how impressed I am with quite a few of the entries and the insight that these young people have as to why we should honor our veterans which is the theme of the contest. I want to say a great big thanks to all the students and teachers who put so much energy and attention into the essays that were submitted.

I recently gave a speech at a local middle school and when I introduced myself I shared with the students that there are many heros in society and my first heros were my teachers starting with kindergarten. I even remember most of their names. The reasons they're my heros are simple. They showed me attention and cared about my future while my parents did not. I've mentioned in previous posts that I grew up rough and tough in L.A. but that's mostly because of the chronic dysfuncitonal family from whence I came. In fact, today my parents - especially my father - would most likely serve jail time for what they did to their children.

So, on this Veterans Day I'd like to take a moment and say a great big thanks to all my teachers and to all the teachers out there who continue to touch a child's life. I believe that teachers have a very tough and challenging job and I don't think it's getting any easier.

So back to our veterans. Well, as I told the middle school class last week, the most important way to honor all veterans is to be an informed citizen and vote. You've also seen my posts about voting and I stand firm on my assertion that voting is the single most important effort any citizen can make to strengthen our democracy. Don't give into complacency and start chanting the mantra that your vote doesn't count. Of course it does! Change your mantra to "My vote counts!" and exercise it freely. If you don't exercise your right to vote then absolutely your vote doesn't count - you've just lived up to your mantra by not voting. Don't know much about the candidates then do your research. Read papers, talk to people, have a discussion along the way and you will know something about the candidates regardless the election. If military personnel - past, present and future - can leave their families to fight for their country then everyone can make the effort to vote.

Why should we honor our veterans? Take a moment and think about that question and explore your answers. But I want you to keep something in mind - politicians start wars, the military doesn't. The decision to go to war is not made by the military, it's made by the politicians who are the only ones that have the power to make the funding and deployment decisions to start a war on any level. By the time the military as a whole becomes involved, whether or not the military SHOULD go is almost a mute point. We had a saying in the military - "Ours is not to question why. Ours is but to do or die." So, honor our veterans, especially future ones by voting for politicians who will make the best decisions when it comes to going to war.

Happy Veterans Day!

There I was

In the army whenever anyone told a story about a past experience related to a tour of duty or past military event we'd like to preface it jokingly with, "There I was." Well, there I was at the VA hospital just as I mentioned in my last blog and since it was my first time I really didn't know what to expect, or so I told myself. Given the fact that it was the Spinal Cord Injury / Disorder Service unit I guess in some ways I expected to see lots of wounded veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who had suffered injuries resulting in loss of the use of some or all of their limbs. While there may have been some of these folks in the unit the ones I encountered were either older and therefore from previous wars/conflicts like WWII or Korea or Viet Nam, and some were there due to diseases that had nothing to do with their service but because they are veterans, there they were.

One such gentleman was in the hospital due to advanced Multiple Sclerosis (MS) symptoms. His name is Chris and turns out he has a wife and children and lives in a burb not too far from where I live. Despite his advanced stage of MS, Chris could talk and talk he did. I have to say that he was one of the most upbeat and happiest people I've ever met. He didn't have the use of his hands or legs, had to take a drink from a tube suspended in the air and he had to raise his head to get his mouth around it, but damn the man was happy. He talked proudly of his service, his family and his life. We shared stories about children and life in general - he's only a few years older than I am.

I went to the Hines VA with the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for the first time and I was so pysched about going there to help others when in fact Chris helped me. I'm going through a particularly unpleasant time in my life with the breakup of my second marriage and the disappointment that such a situation naturally invokes, but talking with Chris I realized that life really can be enjoyed regardless your situaiton. I've actually been fairly upbeat throughout most of this ordeal. I've often said to people that despite my pending divorce I feel very blessed. I'm not in Iraq being shot at and I'm not an unemployed mother with five children to feed. I have a stable job and my daughter is almost finished with her undergraduate studies - and despite the debt from the student loans I've been able to make most of my ends meet. So, there!

I'm ready to send out my first fiction query letter for a novel I just wrote - and rewrote, and rewrote, and did yet more rewritting - and you know what? I think it's pretty damn good. Doesn't mean the publisher will think so but that's okay. I enjoyed writing so much that the journey of writing the book was a reward in and of itself. Now, I won't lie to you. I want to have my novel published as well as the next one and the one after that and so on and so on, but I'm happy with the work I've done so far. At a previous Love is Murder Conference (LoveIsMurder.net) our guest author, David Morrell (http://www.davidmorrell.net/) gave an awe inspiring speech about being a writing and the state of the current publishing industry. His main advice - or at least a key part that I took from his speech - If you are going to spend a year of your life writing something you may as well be happy with it and proud of your efforts whether or not it results in a publishing contract. He's right! Yes, we writers want that publishing contract and we salivate at all the bones publishers and agents throw our way, but in the end our happiness comes from being proud of what we write, not the contract itself.

So, find happiness in everything you do or at least one thing you do and if that doesn't work, go visit a VA Hospital, or any hospital, or shelter, or whatever, to remind yourself just how good things really are in terms of your own humanity and your individual life. We'll save the current economic woes for another blog.

If none of the above work, put on any version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens or It's a Wonderful Life. Talk about therapeutic!

For more information on the Hines Spinal Cord Injury / Disorder Service unit here's the link:

http://www.hines.med.va.gov/pat/sci.htm