Rapid Response

The Green Thing

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana .

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.

We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

God's Wife
IT WILL KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once
Talked about a contest he was asked to judge.
The purpose of the
Contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was:

1. A four-year-old child, whose next door
neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his
wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old
Gentleman's' yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his mother asked him what he had
said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, 'Nothing, I just
Helped him cry.'

*********************************************

2. Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were
discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture
had a different hair color than the other members. One of her
students suggested that he was adopted.
A little girl said, 'I know all about
Adoption, I was adopted..'

'What does it mean to be adopted?', asked
another child.

'It means', said the girl, 'that you grew
in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy!'

************************ *********************

3. On my way home one day, I stopped to
watch a Little League base ball game that was being played in a
park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-
base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was
'We're behind 14 to nothing,' he answered
With a smile.

'Really,' I said. 'I have to say you
don't look very discouraged.'

'Discouraged?', the boy asked with a
Puzzled look on his face...

'Why should we be discouraged? We haven't
Been up to bat yet.'

*********************** **********************

4. Whenever I'm disappointed with my spot
in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scott .

Jamie was trying out for a part in the
school play. His mother told me that he'd set his heart on being
in it, though she feared he would not be chosen..

On the day the parts were awarded, I went
with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her,
eyes shining with pride and excitement.. 'Guess what, Mom,' he
shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to
me....'I've been chosen to clap and cheer.'

*********************************************

5. An eye witness account from New York
City , on a cold day in December,
some years ago: A little boy,
about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the
roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering
With cold.

A lady approached the young boy and said,
'My, but you're in such deep thought staring in that window!'

'I was asking God to give me a pair of
shoes,'was the boy's reply.

The lady took him by the hand, went into
the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks
for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water
and a towel. He quickly brought them to her.

She took the little fellow to the back
part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed
his little feet , and dried them with the towel.

By this time, the clerk had returned with
the socks.. Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him
a pair of shoes..

She tied up the remaining pairs of socks
and gave them to him.. She patted him on the head and said, 'No
doubt, you will be more comfortable now..'

As she turned to go, the astonished kid
caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears
in his eyes, asked her.
'Are you God's wife?'

HEALTH CARE REFORM: ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING.

"ObamaCare", as enacted last year, is a Christmas Tree of wants, without dealing with true needs for health care reform. And it is supposedly "paid for" through gimmicks and slights of hand. What follows is a list of true needs for reform, from a practicing physician of 54 years experience...and counting.
Are you ready for this?

Some Afghan vets say reality much different than the spin

Published 07/03/2011 12:00 AM

Updated 06/30/2011 05:40 PM

Clarksville, Tenn.- Pfc. Rob Nunez was gulping Miller Lite from a plastic cup when the subject of President Barack Obama's plan for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan came up: 10,000 troops were being pulled out this year, said a friend at a roadside bar on the fringes of the Fort Campbell Army base. The rest of the 33,000 "surge" troops would leave in 2012.

Nunez swallowed his beer and let out a stream of profanity before landing on a sentence that he repeats a lot these days. "It's worthless, and it's never going to end."

He had just returned from one of the war's most terrifying corners to a base that has shouldered much of the U.S. troop surge. In the past 18 months, more than 20,000 Fort Campbell soldiers have cycled through Afghanistan; 131 have been killed.

Nunez, 21, who spent about a year in Konar province near the Pakistani border, cared little that the commander in chief had declared that the "tide of war is receding." He and his friends, some of the country's youngest war veterans, have little interest in military policy anymore. Not after Konar.

The last mission is what did it. Nunez's regiment fought for days in early April to win control of a remote valley called Barawala Kalay. Six U.S. soldiers died, and Nunez still can't figure out why he wasn't one of them. Bullets came from nowhere, hitting everything but his flesh.

"It was like fighting ghosts," he said.

When Obama outlined the beginning of the end of America's longest war - a phased withdrawal, a handoff to Afghan security forces, negotiations with the Taliban - television screens lit up at the base. In the strip of towns orbiting Fort Campbell, the 100,000-acre base straddling the Kentucky-Tennessee border, reactions came quickly. The withdrawal was too slow, or too fast, or right on the money, depending on the soldier.

Nunez, and many of the men he fought with in Konar, had no interest in joining that debate. When Obama stood in the White House's East Room, they played video games, watched the College World Series or slept. Nunez, a broad-shouldered, square-jawed soldier from Southern California, went to the gym.

He had joined the Army in 2008, ready to see what war was like after talking to friends who had returned from Iraq. But when he enlisted, resources began shifting. Fort Campbell found itself at the crossroads of two wars, and not much later, Nunez found himself in Konar.

When Obama announced that he was adding 30,000 troops to the effort in Afghanistan - the surge ended up deploying 33,000 - U.S. commanders chose not to send any of them to Konar, a remote and violent area. Instead, commanders focused on pacifying larger population centers in the south.

But as insurgents flourished in valleys near Pakistan, brigades from Fort Campbell's 101st Airborne Division, which saw its first combat during the invasion of Normandy in World War II, fought some of the Afghanistan war's bloodiest battles along the hostile eastern spine, in places they never planned to hold.

Days after Nunez's regiment fought in the battle for Barawala Kalay, U.S. troops emptied out of the valley. The mission was to disrupt a Taliban haven, not to maintain a presence there. Nunez's tour was up. He flew back to Fort Campbell puzzling over the strategy.

Now, nearly 3 months later, when he hears the word "withdrawal," Nunez thinks of Barawala Kalay - what he came to see as a painful fight of uncertain value, hastily planned and quietly abandoned.

He and his friends keep their posed photos from a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates crumpled in glove compartments and stuffed in desk drawers. When al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed, their celebration was muted. They were unfazed when Obama came to Fort Campbell in May to congratulate the troops on a job well done.

"We hear pep talks all the time," Nunez said. "Doesn't make the fight any easier."

More than 10,000 Fort Campbell soldiers have returned to the base in recent months, repopulating an entire city with veterans of Afghan provinces and valleys whose names they still can't pronounce.

Drawing on their personal experience, and little else, some have come to vastly different conclusions about Obama's announced withdrawal.

"We could win this thing if we flooded the country. Instead, we're pulling out. Afghans want to know if we can provide them security. We're basically telling them that we can't," said Sgt. Jimmy Schumacher, 29, who fought in the Wotapur district of Konar.

"The whole time I didn't know why we were there. And now we're leaving, after I've been shot in the leg," said Pfc. Stephen Palu, who was also in Konar. He has since recovered from his leg wound.

About 7,000 Fort Campbell soldiers are still in Afghanistan, and more trickle back to base each month.

Local stores and restaurants, some nearly driven out of business during the surge, are starting to fill up again. Family Readiness Groups of military spouses are waiting for husbands and wives to move back into neat subdivisions. Many know that the pace of withdrawal means that thousands will return to Afghanistan before the combat mission ends in 2014.

When the war is discussed here, it's often among men who call themselves grunts, who discreetly, or not so discreetly, criticize high-ranking officers and policymakers.

Officers chide these soldiers for talking too much, for letting their narrow experiences inform opinions about the war's prospects.

"I was the same way when I was an infantry guy in Iraq. You grow out of it," said Warrant Officer Jeremy Meyer, a medical evacuation pilot, who spent Saturday afternoon playing darts with a group of officers at the American Legion.

Nunez and his friends spend much of their time at O'Connor's Irish Pub & Grill, where volleyball games and beanbag tosses are punctuated by harrowing stories about a war some have left forever and some expect to see again.

Nunez has two months left in the Army. As it has for many others, the war has shaken his marriage and haunts him in quiet moments.

Through it all, Nunez is trying to adjust to life as an observer of military engagements rather than a participant. He says he'll try to dismiss big announcements and shifts in policy messages "from guys who have no idea what it looks like over there."

But on the night he heard about Obama's withdrawal, he tried his best to reconcile the Afghanistan of the president's speech with the hills and valleys he grew to know.

"There's this gap between what I hear now and what I saw. And it feels like it's growing every day."

July 4 is a favorite holiday in America: the "Birth of a Nation". But, while the "rockets' red glare" and the "bombs bursting in air" still resonate, a couple of ideas come to mind.

First, July 4, 1776 was not really the nation's birthday. It was the nation's conception. There followed years of "labor" between that time and the War of 1812. Only after that war was successfully ended was the nation really "born", having nearly died in childbirth.

Secondly, "independence" had a really hard time of it for some large segments of our population for nearly two centuries. The freeing of slaves comes immediately to mind, something that did not really occur until the Civil Rights Acts of 1964. But something else fits into this category: the rise...and now the fall...of the Union movement. Consider the past, and then the present of that movement.

My Grandfather watched as his friends died in WW I...

My Father watched as his friends died in WW II and Korea ...

I watched as my friends died in Vietnam ...

None of them died for the Mexican Flag...

Everyone died for the U.S. flag...

In Texas , a student raised a Mexican flag on a school flag pole; another student took it down.

Guess who was expelled...

the kid who took it down.

Kids in high school in California were sent home this year on Cinco de Mayo because they wore T-shirts with theAmerican flag printed on them.

Enough is enough.

The below e-mail message needs to be viewed by every American;
and every American needs to stand up for America .

We've bent over to appease the America-haters long enough...

I'm taking a stand...

I'm standing up because the hundreds of thousands who died fighting in wars for this country, and for the U.S. flag can't stand up...

And shame on anyone who tries to make this a racist message...

Let me make this perfectly clear!

THIS IS MY COUNTRY!

And, because I make This statement

DOES NOT

Mean I'm against immigration!!!

YOU ARE WELCOME HERE, IN MY COUNTRY!

Welcome!

To come through legally:

1. Get a sponsor!

2. Get a place to lay your head!

3. Get a job!

4. Live By OUR Rules!

5. Pay YOUR Taxes!

And

6. Learn the LANGUAGE like immigrants

have in the past!!!

AND

7. Please don't demand that we hand over our lifetime
savings of Social Security Funds to you.

If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone,
Then YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM!

When will AMERICANS STOP giving away THEIR RIGHTS???

We've gone so far the other way...
bent over backwards not to offend anyone...

But it seems no one cares about the

AMERICAN CITIZEN

that's being offended!

WAKE UP America !!!

P.U.S.H.

PRAY
UNTIL
SOMETHING
HAPPENS!!!

LET'S ENGAGE IN "NATION-BUILDING"...OUR OWN NATION, THAT IS.

Recently, President Obama turned the above phrase in a new and very appropriate direction. Of course, what we heard and read about as the "Change" he was promoting in the election of 2008 has turned out to be KoolAid, imbibed by the young who don't know very much about this country...and by their parents and grandparents who should have known better.

After the last two years, we should all know better. But, instead of listing the many areas of national life in which our country is failing, let me move directly from the History and Physical Examination to the Diagnosis and Treatment. The Diagnosis is a Federal Government which no longer functions and which can no longer treat itself. The Treatment is a Federal Constitutional Convention to develop several new Amendments to our Constitution.

A radical idea, you say? In reply, I offer three current references: