From Denny: This story of two men and their families was profiled on Memorial Day. It demonstrates just how much people have to treat healing from severe trauma like it is an extreme sport. It is well worth the watching. If ever you feel you are having a bad day just come back and watch this video. These young men have been dealing with a lot over an extended period of time. It's interesting to hear their doctor talk about their desire to create this new program to help mend these soldiers of horrific wounds.
Experiences like this is one reason I've always opposed war - because I know and have seen the long-term consequences both for the soldiers and their families. Nor have I ever had much patience for the kind of people who recklessly promote needless war - and then don't have the good grace to properly and fully give a 100% to healing the people they sent off to war.
While the Republicans constantly disparage, deride and despise the Democrats as the Mommy Party they have done little for the returning disfigured veterans, writing them off as cannon fodder. As far as I'm concerned it takes far more courage to go to bat for all these soldiers to help them heal than it does to send nameless faces off to war. At least now the country and many volunteers are putting their wallets where they belong: promoting life instead of the taking of it or a depraved indifference as to their quality of life once they return from the battlefield. It's time Americans wake up and appreciate the efforts of people like this.
From Denny: These are a selection from many wonderful poems written with heavy hearts and great sincerity about the reality of how war affects us all. The old men who send young men to war rarely stop long enough - or at all - to consider their haste to anger and action affects the entire nation for generations to come.
The following are not glory poems but rather the perspectives of those involved in war be they one soldier, a POW, a mother, a daughter, a citizen who knew none of them but felt a duty to pray for them constantly, knowing the personal cost war would bring to all. They span several wars from the Civil War to WWII, the Korean War and today's Iraq and Afghanistan War.
These poems came from the comprehensive Memorial Day site where there is much more than poems to view. Please take a look today as you remember those who came before us.
For the link to the Memorial Day Poems post at my poetry blog, The Social Poets, go here.
From Denny: Been on jury duty since Monday and the days are getting longer so not able to post much. Maybe tomorrow will be a shorter day!
Looks like Cheeky Quote Day is sidelined for today. Will a true story of what happened to me today do in its place? I'm up for a second-degree murder case. Probably will sit around all day waiting to be rejected. That's what happened today after 10 hours of jury selection.
I did get to chat up the staff. Talked to a sheriff who the local news station had promised to interview about his time in Iraq but didn't - clearly he needed to talk about it - so as any good blogger with a journalism degree, well, I jumped on the interview, duh! He's with the Army 239th, an MP and just got back from Iraq a few months ago. He proceeded to tell me about what it was like serving over there.
Real sociable guy and it sure surprised me when he started talking but I figured it was good for him to get the stress out. I mean, how many warriors actually tell you how many kills? And worse, how many were Iraqi children, armed with hand grenades and ordered by their parents to come kill Americans? Sad but true tale.
While he acknowledged it was a tough decision to choose self-defense and claimed it didn't bother him, I figured it did upset him and that's why he was telling me all about it. Soldiers from many wars often start talking around me and I hear the most amazing stories of personal trauma.
It isn't always what people tell you as true but rather the fact that they are talking about something so horrific while claiming it doesn't bother them. Of course it bothers them, why else would they need to talk about it? I don't waste time judging, just accept and listen. Talk about a lot to process for them.
***
Now the highlight of today's jury service was going to lunch at a little eatery known as The Roux House. We noticed the local TV news crew outside, went in and there was a big commotion at the back of the restaurant. We peeked in and it turns out a new politician was announcing her candidacy.
Who was it? Turns out it's the porn queen, Stormy Daniels, who was the regular prostitute for years for Louisiana's Senator David Vitter. Yep! The former pro is running against her customer!
I found it amusing. On her way out she stopped to talk to everyone at the few tables and so I took the time to interview her about her candidacy. Turns out ABC News was there too. I asked some very easy questions to give her a chance to prove herself. I'll try to blog tomorrow about the interview. What a hoot! When was the last time you had the opportunity to interview a porn queen AND attend a bizarre event in the weirdest world of Louisiana politics? It was a definite two-fer! :)
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