Veterans Day

           When did Veterans Day get to be a big deal?  When did it get to be any deal?  Because it certainly was this year.

           I am a veteran (Lt. (jg) USNR), but as my service was during the Vietnam era both my service and the reactions of others to it were measured, or perhaps a better word is conflicted.  In the days when returning veterans were probably spat upon in Oakland the service was something I had done and wanted behind me.

           My sense is that the excesses of those days have engendered a reaction some 40 years later.  People of all stripes seem to be more appreciative of the service of the young men and women who go off to war, and expressions of thanks are now common.

           In our world – each November 11 for many years I have worn my summer work uniform with its gold striped epaulettes to the office where cake is served in the afternoon.  A young associate was a captain in the Marine Corps, so I salute the senior officer and he cuts the cake with his sword.  It is what we do.

           This year I wore my uniform jacket across the street to the pub for lunch, and a waitress said, “Thank you”.  Egads.  At the synagogue on the next day the veterans were asked to rise for recognition and afterwards I got a few “I didn’t know…”s.  My goodness.

           All this from other people has made me have a thought I never had before.  Maybe it really was a big deal.  When other people did whatever they did after college I went away for two years, living on a ship, sent to standby for trouble to the coasts of Haiti and Trinidad.  I was not sent to Vietnam and was never in serious danger, but I went, did what they asked me to do for $348 a month and came home.   Veterans Day has a meaning.

The World Would Be A Better Place

The world would be a better place if I had more money.  

 Or at least such seems to me to be the media message of the moment.  I first noticed it some years ago in the letters to the editor where the executive director of some well-intentioned organization would explain how great is the need for his services and why the government should fund it.  The conflation of public and private interest.  We witness the apotheosis of the drive to privatize the public treasury in the “Occupy” movement.  The “99%” have no demands, but many grievances.  A spokesperson has told the TV camera that they don’t want to have specific requests because someone might disagree with it and cause a split – they want to be all inclusive.  So, there are some who want student loans forgiven, some who want mortgage debt forgiven, some want more health benefits, some who want other people to pay more taxes and not a few who take more traditional views in favor of killing Jews.

           Ask not what you can do for your country.   Ask what your country can do for you.

           Since they stand for everything everyone must find something to like.  I understand the simple concept that the government has been expending vast sums to make rich people richer.  The investment bankers who held the nation hostage in 2008 to be bailed out in the billions used to pay their bonuses have set the standard.  Yesterday the heads of FMNA and FHLMC testified before Congress justifying their $5M and $9M bonuses paid for their agencies to lose billions.  They should be testifying at their parole boards.  The President’s cronies obtained $500 million giveaway loans to Solyndra and congressmen are trading as insiders.  Ask not.  Tell not.

           The “Occupy” folks have taken a big idea and made it small.  I’m sure the government would be happy to buy them off, but the government is broke.