A tad chilly walking the dogs this morning. I must be getting older, don't like the cold that much anymore
Have a great day friends, enjoy the U.S. Thanksgiving tomorrow, and those driving please be very careful.
Posted by Thom Mackesy (Member # 264) on :
Gmornin all Happy friday Be safe
Posted by 35TH ED/ed (Member # 1709) on :
Good Morn' all Get to see the Lions loose again tomorrow. Have a great 1 & fantastic holiday:cool:
Posted by Rhode Island Red (Member # 220) on :
Good morning
warning ... stupid question ... you have been warned..
I never met "Gino" but why is everything his fault... what started it??? Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on :
Good morning. First post from work. Really can't post much from here but I had to pass this on for our friends with family in the military. This is from my friend who has a son in the Marines and not sure where he is right now.
My Heart on the Line
By Frank Schaeffer Before my son became a Marine, I never thought much about who was defending me. Now when I read of the war on terrorism or the coming conflict in Iraq, it cuts to my heart. When I see a picture of a member of our military who has been killed, I read his or her name very carefully. Sometimes I cry.
In 1999, when the barrel-chested Marine recruiter showed up in dress blues and bedazzled my son John, I did not stand in the way. John was headstrong, and he seemed to understand these stern, clean men with straight backs and flawless uniforms. I did not. I live on the Volvo-driving, higher education-worshiping North Shore of Boston. I write novels for a living. I have never served in the military.
It had been hard enough sending my two older children off to Georgetown and New York University. John's enlisting was unexpected, so deeply unsettling. I did not relish the prospect of answering the question "So where is John going to college?" from the parents who were itching to tell me all about how their son or daughter was going to Harvard. At the private high school John attended, no other students were going into the military.
"But aren't the Marines terribly Southern?" asked one perplexed mother while standing next to me at the brunch following graduation. "What a waste, he was such a good student," said another parent. One parent (a professor at a nearby and rather famous university) spoke up at a school meeting and suggested that the school should "carefully evaluate what went wrong."
When John graduated from three months of boot camp on Parris Island, 3,000 parents and friends were on the parade deck stands. We parents and our Marines not only were of many races but also were representative of many economic classes. Many were poor. Some arrived crammed in the backs of pickups, others by bus. John told me that a lot of parents could not afford the trip.
We in the audience were white and Native American. We were Hispanic, Arab and African American and Asian. We were former Marines wearing the scars of battle, or at least baseball caps emblazoned with battles' names. We were Southern whites from Nashville and skinheads from New Jersey, black kids from Cleveland wearing ghetto rags and white ex-cons with ham-hock forearms defaced by jailhouse tattoos. We would not have been mistaken for the educated and well-heeled parents gathered on the lawns of John's private school a half-year before.
After graduation one new Marine told John, "Before I was a Marine, if I had ever seen you on my block I would've probably killed you just because you were standing there." This was a serious statement from one of John's good friends, an African American ex-gang member from Detroit who, as John said, "would die for me now, just like I'd die for him."
My son has connected me to my country in a way that I was too selfish and insular to experience before. I feel closer to the waitress at our local diner than to some of my oldest friends. She has two sons in the Corps. They are facing the same dangers as my boy. When the guy who fixes my car asks me how John is doing, I know he means it. His younger brother is in the Navy.
Why were I and the other parents at my son's private school so surprised by his choice? During World War II, the sons and daughters of the most powerful and educated families did their bit. If the immorality of the Vietnam War was the only reason those lucky enough to go to college dodged the draft, why did we not encourage our children to volunteer for military service once that war was done?
Have we wealthy and educated Americans all become pacifists? Is the world a safe place? Or have we just gotten used to having somebody else defend us? What is the future of our democracy when the sons and daughters of the janitors at our elite universities are far more likely to be put in harm's way than are any of the students whose dorms their parents clean?
I feel shame because it took my son's joining the Marine Corps to make me take notice of who is defending me. I feel hope because perhaps my son is part of a future "greatest generation." As the storm clouds of war gather, at least I know that I can look the men and women in uniform in the eye. My son is one of them. He is the best I have to offer. He is my heart.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His latest book, co-written with his son, Marine Cpl. John Schaeffer, is "Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps." He will answer questions about this article in a Live Online discussion at 1 p.m. today at www.washingtonpost.com. Posted by M3EATER (Member # 1731) on :
Happy F-alse F-day to ya all...
Howdy dan & RIR (since I have met you guys...).
Snow day here (eh, Dan). Got the Chicken in (hour drive from up north) on bald 285/40-17s.
It's Gino's fault 'cause he didn't have any fresh Cheesecake for that pink cow......
Nice article Dan. I'm a little bias, but I think everyone should have the opportunity to be in the (peace-time) military for at least a year. The training and friendships last a lifetime.
[ 27. November 2002, 07:59 AM: Message edited by: JohnS ]
Posted by 2002Z4CSS (Member # 1393) on :
Good morning! Posted by Sizzle (Member # 503) on :
Good morning.
Posted by Steve da Wrench (Member # 1301) on :
Good morning everyone!!
Have a safe and happy holiday(for those of you who have one!)
Dan, a very moving and touching article. Very well written. It makes you stop and think. Thanks.
Posted by Sideshow (Member # 1231) on :
Morning all! Posted by poSSum (Member # 119) on :
Good Morning!
Y'all have agreat day, eh Posted by HTWLSS (Member # 117) on :
Howdy
Posted by OBSSD (Member # 1258) on :
Howdy all. Short day today...leaving work at 2:00 to go pick up the rental car then Aimee and I have a 5 hour drive to my folk's place (wish her luck...she'll be meeting the whole famn damily).
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend (except those friends up North...y'all enjoy your normal weekend).
Posted by NATESS (Member # 982) on :
good morning everyone. have a safe holiday tomorrow.
Posted by Hawkeye (Member # 88) on :
Dan,
Very moving piece indeed. Gave me the shivers reading that and thinking. I often wonder where my kids will end up - I know Ben has mentioned Air Force a few times - you never know!
Thank you for sharing that with us.
Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on :
quote:Originally posted by JohnS: G'morning!
Nice article Dan. I'm a little bias, but I think everyone should have the opportunity to be in the (peace-time) military for at least a year. The training and friendships last a lifetime.
You guys have a military?
My friend is very worried about her son. I have a daughter in the National Guard who could get called up and could go at any time, so I worry too. It is very real and very close to home for us. I was born in between all the wars so I never had to serve, but I was seriously thinking about trying to get in at one point, but Grace won that argument. I feel as though I haven't paid a dues that I should. I am verrrrryyyy thankful for all those that do and have served.
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