Couldn't Make This Stuff Up

The troops gathered this morning for the usual riviting dialogue. It seemed a lot or a little different. There appeared to be several interesting people. Possibly, they were from the "Hands Across the Golden Gate Bridge for Justice and Equality." One sitting close to us with a guy, young--she screamed several times. The guy with her says she has "tourrets." We don't buy it but fine, can go with it. Ray and his younger brother Austin come in. Great! We need another table. Alese seats them with a woman who gets upset that nobody ask her if they could sit at her table. We offer to pay for her breakfast. "If money can sound the problem, it's no problem." She is now happy.  Woman is quite a "talker." Ray says he has seen her before. Honestly, she could talk the "ears off a billy goat."' We dialogue. Nobody is following the "talker." Michael comes in. We turn our attention to working on commo skills. Woman is still talking. Another woman in the back booth, behind Henry, can't decide if possibly she is a "Trannie." She's tall. 

We talk to Austin, one of our heroes, Vietvet, helicopter pilot. Lucky to be alive. Once he provided close air support for Ray, a platoon commander, facing sizeable numbers of the NVA (North Vietnam Army). 

The woman asks if we are all Vets. I say yes. Gary says he's not, messing over a good story. Woman still talking. Ray tells us that Ciliope slept all night. Ciliape was expelled from silent meditation for not being silent. Almost walking. Sam tells us about his treatment. Has one more, then test. May be enough. HooAhhhhh. 

Ray and Austin finally give up and depart. Henry and Walt and Michael depart. We have some group hugs. Henry, always interested in our spiritual lives, gives Gary and me, a book, "End of Faith." I asked him if he ever wants to see this book again. He says no. 

Gary and I shoot the breeze a bit. We walk outside.  The possible Trannie comes up to us. She says something like, "great seeing what fun we have." She is tall, runs poetry workshops, is having big shindig; names over several bigwigs we should know. Gary asks her about the head of garbage, etc. She can't remember but he is definitely coming to her show. Wants to know if we would come and sit on the stage and talk about our experiences. I am in the process of escaping. She has on a fading tee with peace signs on it; workout pants. Her husband is a Navy Seal. Before I can escape, Gary "outs" me. "Oh this guy is retired. He's a chaplain." She clomes on as I have to play nice. I say to her something like,  "no chance that these guys will cooperate on anything." She says, "I want to meet and talk. When do you meet?" I am fumbling. Gary says, "Friday is our best day." OMG.  You couldn't make this stuff up.

To me there is always  an "elephant in the room" when I watch interviews, read news magazines, blog, even after watching the debates. When asked, why are you voting for Hillary/Trump? Supporting their candidate is a very personal one and on the surface, one of mainly self interest. How good is this? Democracy in action. I think so which often doesn't make me proud. 

Recently, my wife and I watched an old Richard Gere movie. Terribly unrealistic but it is the movies. He was a lawyer who gets in trouble in China. His Chinese lawyer is arguing with him. He is trying to talk about the American justice system. She is talking about statistically the problems of America. At one point he says something like, "America has its problems. Democracy is messy and we are sometimes violent but in modern times, we are always trying to be better." Whether he said it or not, good statement, especially in light of the fact that the  movie is 20 years old. 

We are in that very messy period now and frankly many of us have s hard time defending our democracy. 

Forgiveness and Reconciliation.

After 9-11, some crazed ignoramous finds a Sikh at his auto service station--he thinks he's a Muslim (wears a turban). Shoots the guy. Goes to jail for like 15 years. The Sikh's brother dedicated himself to peace and reconciliation. At some point he meets up with a female lawyer also dedicated to reconciliation. They call the killer of his brother and present the idea of forgiveness and reconciliation. The guy in jail I am thinking is not the brightest Bub in the room. He stumbled  around for words. Then he said something like. God has forgiven me and I am sorry for what I did. I think that based on the perpetrator's comments and seemingly lack of insight (judgement on my part) This is it and then he says, "here's something I am going to do: when I get to heaven, I am going to find your brother and hug him and asked his forgiveness. I was blown away. 

It fits in that realm of I don't care what people say: atheist, agnostic. Whatever. Heaven is comforting to people. There is something about being able to see their love ones again, to think that something outside of ourselves is a reality; something mysterious and beyond us. For me personally, the power and insight of the unexpected spoken word that might show up from the most unlikely source moved me to tears. 

Shoot and Ask Questions Later

Charlotte. Crazy-these police shootings I think what happens is the cops simple "don't think." They show up at minor stuff with something akin to the "Magnificent Seven." Their authority gets challenged and the next thing you know, somebody is shot. In the Charlotte case, the cop is black. In Tulsa, it is a female. Damn crazy. 

DIVORCE THE F..Ker

Bill Clinton took home 17.6 million as a consultant and honorary Prez of some profiteering ed School, Laureate International. A sham. 

The Washington Post reported. (He has no shame and is an abbatross around Hillary's neck.) 

Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It waste your time and worries the pig. 

Don't try to change the mind of a Trump supporter. They have their minds made up and don't want to be confused with facts.  

EXPLAINING HILLARY

Nobody has appointed me to explain Hillary but am fascinated with the "DEPLORABLES comment.  I get it. By way of example, when I was starting out, I got involved with the "National Speakers Association." I went to classes and listened to hundreds of speeches to hone my skills. The very first thing taught is that when you are speaking, "play to your audience." In her "deplorable" speech, she was doing just that. It is what she thinks but would have been better to use another word. What she did not want to do is give Trump anything which she did. She was, "playing to her audience" and got blinded by the applause. Her audience was warm and accepting. A gay and lesbian crowd--she was playing to them. 

It would have been better to have merely used simple words, i.e., some of Trump's supporters are toxic, David Duke of the Klu Klux Klan, for instance. 

Trump lumps his supporters as the common man. Give me a break! Trump's audience; those who feel victimised, minimum wage jobs, uneducated, no factory path to a better life. These Trump disciples aren't going to admit bad choices. They want to blame their state in life on minority's, women, immigrants,  as these have gone to the head of the line. This is his audience.The difference: he appears to be able to say anything and get away with it. Hillary can't. All of this being said, if it were me, I way say to Trump: F..K YOU VERY MUCH

THE DEPLORABLES

To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables, Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it.

What I have hoped for in Hillary is to be above the "fray." She can't "best" Trump because the truth can't be found hanging out with him. He wouldn't know it if it ran over him. What Hillary doesn't "get" is that the DEPLORABLES don't give a "flying fig" as my dad would say. They will support and vote for Trump, regardless. Remember that statement the MFer made about shooting someone in Manhattan and his supporters would still love him. He gets it. The Deplorables. Any other candidate who lies, cheats, insults could never get away with what Trump does/has. It is a shame in a sense that Hillary can't say to Trump once and for all, "F..K you very much" and be done with it (where the heck is Bill. He knows how to do this stuff) and get on telling us how she is going to fix the country. 

9-11

Who doesn't remember when JFK was assassinated. I was literally "up a tree," a young pastor and was helping one of my older parishioners shake the pecans out of a tree. Another parishioner, who was inside, ran out and shouted, "the President has been shot." I immediately went home. 

Early on the morning of September 11, I was lounging  around our place in Mill Valley, California when my younger daughter called from Tulsa and said, "Dad, turn on the TV?" The odyssey began. Our lives would never be the same again. 

Watching the three memorials recently, I thought: "With these memorials, what really are we really doing?" First of all, I think we are trying to add meaning to a senseless act that through no fault of their own, these brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers--relatives of all sorts, ended up as part of this tragic story. None ever dreamed that this is the way their lives would end. Keeping their memories alive is our task. The job of every American. 

MY LAST WORD ON TRUMP

I I am truly shocked at the educated people I know, some long time friends, that are planning to vote for Trump.  Others in protest say they aren't voting at all. Great, to one I said consider that a vote for Trump. Its so blatant to me he is so full of himself and his arrogant tone, only bashing, and never saying anything to hint that he understands how our Federal Govt works.

A friend here said his tactic is to use gutter language, sounding brash, and engaging language around a 3rd grade level which most of the lower socio economic people can grab onto, anti everything.

I wish I weren't so concerned but I really am because again its so obvious he is a rich aristocrat type bully, plain and simple. Last night's military forum was a joke. Trump continued to reflect on Obama and Clinton, never giving concrete evidence what his powers as commander and chief can directly do. And then, pointing out General Flynn in the audience, I knew him at Ft Carson, and, from his breast coat pocket takes out a list which he says  are the names of 85 Generals and Admirals supporting him; who are they? Nursing home residents suffering from brain altering conditions.?

I so wish you and I could talk about this shit. You are about the only one with real world war experience not afraid to speak his mind and talk about this shit with me. I am so disgusted with a couple of friends like, childhood friends in Fla, another from here that's moved to Fla and now Dave, I can't bring myself to even want to write them or call and listen to the recording of I DONT TRUST CLINTON line started by the liar speeches from Trump. Yes, at times I feel overwhelmed by all of this. Exaggerating? I don't think so. Has even begun to affect my sleep. Great!

I try and stay busy focusing on things I need to do or even go to plays and movies, but find in an empty space of time, my mind drifts back to this shit. Hate it!

Well, got to stop before I end up writing a novel. Just keep writing me and texting, reinforcing there's at least someone I know with their head NOT up their ass.  

LC, also known as "Wonder Woman"

COL, USA, Ret

COLONEL, Take a deep breath

I have written and talked about the asshole Trump so much that I really am tired of it. All along, I could care less about Trump but have been fascinated with who will vote for him. For one thing, they are mostly the racists, homophobic and recalcitrant types that have hated Obama from the very beginning. What I am really amazed at are those like fellow pastors who have suspended their Christian values in areas like compassion to support Trump. WTF. 

I have read three books that without a doubt have told me who the supporters are, at least those who got him to this place. "White Trash, Hillbilly Elegy," and my favorite which is seven years old, out before Trump, "Deer Hunting With Jesus." 

What I am going to do is tell some friends, "let's suspend conversation till after the election." They are willing to accept a liar, a fraud, someone who won't even release his tax returns, insulted every ethnic group around, knows nothing about running the country and is an egomaniac. This is kind of my statement to them and then done with it. 

To be honest, I don't know why we get so into presidential politics. Any of us who "think," have to know that all this BS that Trump claims he would dcouldn't anyway. I don't particularly like Hillary and think she and Bill have had their chance and there are ethical challenges but as I am sure I have said before, there is no doubt she can run the country. She's competent and has had the experience. I admire her; for one of several reasons, the Repubs have been after her constantly--she has survived and essentially given them the "finger." The Clintons are where they are and I am amazed. 

Frankly I don't know how to deal with or treat my friends who support Trump. I love them all but am hard pressed to know how to stomach such an unthinkable possibility that Trump could be president. F..k. I am personally ashamed that a MFer like this imposter would even be a major candidate for President. 

Truth Is Definitely Stranger Than Fiction

This 70 year old robs a bank. 

 He then sits in the lobby till the police come and arrest him. He says,  "I had rather go to jail than go home to my wife." See what I mean. I heard it on, KCBS, San Francisco

 

Deer Hunting With Jesus

Deer Hunting With Jesus

One of the few books I've read on "class" in America. If we want some changes (which the author says we don't) keeping abreast of the reality of class is paramount. We don't attack the  issue because we don't see it. This book is a "shout out" about "class." If we are not careful, we become part of the problem.  

Although the book is several years old,  even more relevant today. It speaks to the "Trump" phenom--easy to discern that the working class would support Trump who plays to their ignorance. The book isn't about politics, rather where we are in America as relates to class and an entire group of citizens who have been left behind. 

The military is a good example of what the book is trying to get at, at least I think so. We do in fact have a "de facto" draft: they are the children of the working poor who have run out of options. For these youngsters who get in the military and excel, inconceivable possibilities happen that they never would have known are reachable. 

Even the military could not rescue Lynddie England, remember her? The book touches on her decent into an existence that merely extends what she has known: bad choices. Because of her "class," she never had a chance--ignorant, uneducated, left behind. She was destined to be one of the Abu Ghraib screw-ups. 

The military provides the opportunity to excel, to rise above what they've known. But, let's not for a moment think the military is representative of our culture, cause it ain't. It is the defacto draft; and, the defacto draft, now called, All Volunteer Force, is a far cry from what Mort Friedman and the Secretary of Defense, at the time, Mel Laird,  envisioned. Major F..k up. 

The great cry and hue, "support the troops" at sports events especially, sounds pretty hollow when we realize that it is in fact the kids of the working poor who are fighting and dying in America's ill conceived wars. 

We Will Never Get Over It

Thank you for your comments about PTSD. My deceased spouse, 2 tours in Vietnam in your same unit in101st Airborne. He had what they called Velcro stripes. Only vets know what that is. So sorry about your friend and your friend that passed from cancer. They are never really far away from us are they? Col.C

Thanks for your comments on the website. Our webmaster keeps it up and post my meanderings, of course. 

THANKS

PTSD is strange and I do think that my hero, Al Pachino, in some movie where he played a detective and was a Korean War veteran said something like, "what the hell is this, all these veterans claiming "shell shock" when all vets have to pay the price for going to war." So true. 

For Vietnam vets, it is even harder because of the rejection. I don't think we'll ever get over it really. Not just Vietnam vets but all vets of that era. I just ran into a guy who was a GI in Germany during Vietnam. He said it was great but when he got home, people treated him like s..t. 

BEN HUR

My granddaughter, Lilly, went with me to see "Ben Hur." Way down from the "Charton Heston" version. In the old one, my favorite scene--Jesus is captive and Ben Hur gives him water and Jesus' shadow falls across Ben Hur which is symbolic of the Christian conversion. Ben Hur, for instance, is never the same again. 

There were so many things that the old Ben Hur did better. Anyway, even though Lilly got it and she is only 11; that whole period of history, amazing. The Romans, of course, ruled the land and in the present movie, I couldn't  figure out if the Roman character was either  Pilate or Caesar. Regardless, they, whichever one it was, had a good philosophy about what was happening in Roman/Jewish life. The chariot race was good. 

Disheartening politics

These comments were going to be for a previous blog post but just hit me. F..King politicians like the Clintons in Arkansas, still poorest state or one of them in the country. Haley Barbour in Mississippi. Same thing, scandalous as my mom would say. These politciians don't do s..t for the state. Damn discouraging. You would think they would reach out to the poor, the disenfranchised. They don't. 

Sharon

Today is my good friend, Sharon's birth day. I love to honor those who have meant lots to me and have departed this life for the next. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARON. Thinking of Sharon reminds me of my best bud in Vietnam, John Kerr. A West Pointer, good looking, slim, had that natural look about him. Could have easily posed for a "reup" poster. One of those guys who had it all. When I got to the Unit, (1/501 Infantry Battalion) he had been in country six months, commanding B Company. I met him, seemed like really a nice guy, kind of soft spoken. In those days the Chaplain resided back at the FSB (fire support base), the "Aide Station" or the Brigade area, way away from the fighting. 

I had been at the battalion a couple of weeks and really didn't know what I was suppose to be doing. One day, I am standing around and some soldier walks up and says, "Sir, Captain Kerr wants to speak to you and he hands me what I guess was the hand set for the radio (PRC25). I say, "this is the Chaplain."  Captain Kerr says, "Chaplain, where the fuck are you. My soldiers need to see you. You are not doing shit back at the rear. I will expect to see you before close of business today." Thus began this terrific relationship with the Company B Commander. He commanded respect and absolutely was leadership personified. He said to me one day, "Chaplain you don't know anything about what it means to be in combat but I am going to teach you." So, for the next couple of months I was his shadow. It was unbelievable. We would be in firefights, calling in artillery. Things that you did in Vietnam. We talked. He was like a master tactician, my mentor: "if this happens, we do this." It was a great continual "classroom in combat." One day he tells me, "you need to start carrying a weapon." Why? "Well, my soldiers will try to protect you and they need to be taking of themselves. If you have a weapon, my bet is they won't worry about you." 

Captain Kerr ran a tight ship. He seemed to be on top of everything. I got to know the other commanders and troops but nobody like John. He was always after me to come to his Company. I had to tell him a couple of times, there are other companies. It was like he didn't hear me. "Where are you? When are you coming out?" I loved the guy. A typical example of how he was is that he despised the S3, Operations guy. He calls him up and says something like, "since you never leave your bunker, I want you to give the Chaplain that little Car15 you have." An argument ensued. I really don't know what happened but the next thing I know, the S3 finds me and hands over the weapon. In those days there were at best a few of these--they were a little cut down version of an M16. I loved that weapon and only fired it at the range in the "rear" a few times. But, John was right, it seemed that the attitude of soldiers changed when they didn't feel they had to protect me. I had my own weapon. 

I was going on Rand R, meeting my wife in Hawaii. John came to the FSB to see me off. He said,  "Chaplain, your mission is to bring me a fifth of "Chives Regal." (SCOTCH) You bring me one back or I am going to kick your ass." He laughed big. It was the last time I would see John. He got killed in a kind of freaky way. The headquarters element was walking through a ville when a VC popped up out of a spider hole and killed John and three others. I was devastated. I was so angry at God, the war. My grief overwhelmed me. It was like I had lost a part of myself. I sat in my tent literally for two days. Finally somehow I moved on but  think of my good buddy John, often. I am always sad when I do. I kept the bottle of "Chives" for a long time. 

Sharon and her good friend, Flora, at the Infusion Center. Sharon loved Elvis. 

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY

Paratroopers 'relevant as ever,' leaders say at National Airborne Day celebration. 

National Airborne Day should be celebrating its "founder." General William C.  Lee was in his last military assignment and wanted nothing more than to return to his tobacco farm when he was plucked out of obscurity by American military leaders to develop a paratroop unit that could parachute behind enrmy lines. In somewhat of either a myth or fact, President FDR saw Germans training in airborne operations. He asked his military liaison about any such unit in the American forces. The only person who knew anything about airborne was a Lieutenant Colonel Lee. The rest is history as Lee led the airborne from nothing into fhe very formidable forces of WW||. Lee became the first commander of the Screaming Eagles, the 101st Airborne Division. 

If I had my way, I'd give the President another four years. His first term he had to learn  how to to do it. He did. I haven't always agreed with him especially on foreign policy. I think he has been way to quick to embrace the generals military strategy. But, he is holding his own. The generals always want more troops and have these grand strategies. Our biggest challenges are the Mideast. We don't even know who the players are.  

PROJECTION

Psychological projection is a theory in which a person defends themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others.

One of my all time favorite movies (Looking for Mr. Goodbar) has as one of several themes, projection. Without spoiling the movie, by day the protagonist is a school teacher but at night, something altogether different. My experience has been that when you see someone like this preacher who makes such an outlandish  statement, "Christians who don't vote for Trump will have gay children." I simply want to say, "SO?" But, I have a point to make. And, remember the Sacramento preacher who wanted to blame the  shooting in Orlando as God's punishment for being gay. Using the idea of projection, these TWO BIGOTS ARE PROBABLY GAY. 

PHARISEE

All along, I've had about as much interest in Trump as in "Duck Dynasty". To be honest, I don't think talking Trump or politics is very useful but talking about his following fascinates me. My wife recently  interrupted my contemplation to say, "just when you think you've heard it all, along comes this preacher, Kenneth Copeland, only worth something like $760 mil, who says,  "Christians Who Vote Against Trump Will Be Cursed With Poverty and Gay Children." LOL. THIS f..ker is obviously, crazy like a fox. Google the Pharisee. 

Got to love it. God bless "Merica."