I really didn’t watch any of the ceremonies yesterday. I was kind of focused on writing, paying a bit of attention to the Rittenhouse Trial, etc..
Tulsi Gabbard’s take on it is pretty right-on….
Governments are formed to protect life, liberty, and property. Rittenhose was doing what government should have been doing, and wasn’t doing. Should he have been there? I don’t know. Does it matter that he was defending himself? Absolutely. The police should have been doing what he did. Where were they?
So. Other stuff….
I don’t think I really hit on the biggest parts about yesterday. Absolutely I understand what the military does, and support the individuals doing it. I tried to be like my dad and my great-grandfather. Even then, however, my body was not cooperating with me on it.
Yes, I think about the disaffected Lieutenant Colonel who was running the ROTC detachment at William and Mary who was never going to be promoted, and was making sure only the rich kids from his alma mater were going to get scholarships, etc., but there was something else already going on that I couldn’t really put my finger on.
I wouldn’t know until more than a decade later. Oh well.
Of the seventy-or-so cadets who were at my school, I think one in my group got a scholarship.
I’ve not kept in touch with any of them other than the guy who was my “battle buddy” the first year. He dropped out of college, completely, and enlisted in the Army, went to Warrant Officer school, went to flight school, fought in Iraq, and ended up being medically-retired after being wounded in combat.
I went into TV and radio.
As for the rest of what’s happened with the military, politically, it’s difficult, because I think there’s been remarkable overuse, well, pretty much my entire life.
9/11 happened near the end of my undergrad studies (which took five years, because I was busy doing radio at the same time as I was studying).
I was absolutely in favor of the operation in Afghanistan. I was against Iraq until I heard Tony Blair pitch the UK’s involvement to Parliament.
My initial take ended up being correct. Whatever.
So…prompt. Do you ever feel completely invisible?
A lot of the time.
I’m more than okay with that.
Being on the air in the middle of the night really suited me just about perfectly. Of course I had things I wanted to say, opinions that might have been of some use to other people, but there was something about being
Today, I’m fine working 0700-1500, and it’s about what my body will let me do.
What I’m doing, now, is really coming to the end of the line.
I’m okay with that. I’ll be okay.