I had another one of those doctor visits this morning. The receptionist wrote out a note telling me my next appointment would be on Wednesday November 11 at 11 am. "Wow" I said. "That's the same day, time and month World War I, the war to end all wars, saw the armistice signed".
The lady taking appointments didn't know what I was talking about but she said her 93 year-old dad probably did since he was in the second big war.
As I started to leave the office nature called so I went into the men's room. While standing at the urinal I began thinking about war. For some reason my mind works best when I'm looking down at the urinal. Don't ask me why. It's a 'man thing'.
A couple of thoughts came to me. WWI ended in 1918. That seems like a thousand years ago. It was in the real olden days. Planes were introduced to warfare in The Big War as were massive cannon and machine guns. Even so, they were in their infancy.
Regardless, the end of this conflict took place only twenty-eight years before I left the warmth of my mother's womb and officially became a human being. Twenty-eight years isn't very much time to my way of thinking. Furthermore, I was born one year after the end of WWII. Even at the age of ten we kids couldn't comprehend the time frame.
In the 1960's my age group was subjected to the 'Hippie Movement". I think they started in an area called Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. Once a weird city always a weird city. It was also the beginning of the drug culture. We were subjected to phrases such as, "If it feels good then do it" and "tune in turn on and drop out". Everyone has most likely heard of the hallucinatory drug LSD. It became popular because of some dude name Dr. Timothy Leary. Once again, I don't know much about him nor do I care to because when these 'freaks' were doing their thing I was shooting hoops or throwing the baseball around.
What I do know is one of their rallying cries was, "make love not war". That sounds good to our youth. Who in their right mind wouldn't want to have a go-round with Shania Twain as opposed to crawling into a foxhole in Zambia? I suspect, also, the 'make love' thingy is because they do most of the fighting hence most of the dying.
Also, if you think about it, war is and has been a necessary evil in our nation. After WWI came number II. Then four years later the Korean War. We first started sending troops into Southeast Asia in the mid-1950's. It wasn't until the mid-1970's that we crucified the South Vietnamese and left them to die.
The list of U.S. participation in global conflicts is seemingly endless: Cambodia, El Salvador, Cuba, Africa, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and a soup bowl full of conflicts in between.
The reason(s) for these has to do with exactly who and what we are(before Obama); a recognized world superpower. Our people have openly and without reservation come to the aid of those around the world suffering at the hands of oppression.
The point of this story is as long as the United States is around we are always going to be sending our sons and possibly daughters into harms way. As a matter of fact we should all get used to this occurring once a decade at the least.
This is what happens when there are civilized and uncivilized folks populating the earth. If you don't believe me try and get ahold of Cain and Able and see what they have to say on the subject.
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