The last month has been...interesting for our family. We have moved and I have transitioned from the military to the private sector. There are many things to look at and comment upon. In this post I will address the transitioning of a soldier/airman/seaman/marine/coastie.
When young men leave the military, they need to find a veteran's organization quickly. There are several, including the VFW and American Legion. These organizations are priceless for the young man leaving service. The camaraderie available is necessary for a successful transition.
Tonight I joined the Legion. I met several elderly veterans. They are a testament to the long term vision necessary for a culture to succeed long term. I met octogenarians that lived through four elections of FDR. I met veterans that were spit upon after Vietnam. These men are the heart of our culture. George Washington was a redcoat.
Culture is determined by those that lead independent of the political environment. There is only so much that military men will abide. When they are done...they become George Washington. These are the men that a country must not ignore. These are the men that resist violence because they have seen it too close. These men hate the use of violence to implement political solutions. These men understand what the tip of the spear looks like when political discussion has ceased. It is bloody and nothing will make sense. That is why they resist escalation of rhetoric. Yet they know exactly how to use violence and how to separate emotion from execution of orders.
George Washington was a traitor to England, yet he was a saint to the new world. Identify the difference and you understand the importance of culture.
I don't know if it's true, but I heard a quote attributed to Margaret Thatcher that was something like, "The American forefathers were the most forward thinking, intelligent, Englishmen that ever lived."* When I heard that I thought to myself, "Oh that's right. Washington was English." That moment I realized that everything I had learned in school (Washington was American) was pretty much wrong, or at least predicated on a view my mind had never taken before. It was something that has always stuck with me.
ReplyDelete(*A quick Google search on Thatcher quotes doesn't find it.)
These are the men that...
ReplyDeleteThese are also the men that understand when the enemy is getting close to the line of no turning back and when in the course of human events that line has been crossed.
Which is why I believe the Obummer admin is trying to marginalize and strip vets of their constitutional rights.
RE The Thatcher quote. I don't know if she said it or not but I believe the statement is true. The colonists would have remained loyal to the Crown had the parliament in London recognized that they held the same Royal Charter establishing legislatures as the English Parliament. The colonists were seeking their legitimate rights as Englishmen as enshrined in Magna Carta, not a new Monarch. Had the tax and spend bureaucrats in the House of Commons left them alone, we would still be loyal to the crown and members of the common wealth. The concepts that made America great, adherence to the Christian faith and morality,limited executive power, unalienable individual rights, representative bicameral legislature etc are all English inventions.
Red,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on making PFC again (Private Freaking Citizen).
I'm happy to be a PFC again. It is true that vets know where the line is and that the taxers are oblivious to that line. GW was an Englishman. It was the dominant culture of the new worlders. It still exists. The waiting game is always on for retired vets and active military. Disrespect them long enough and TPTB will pay for that disrespect.
ReplyDeleteIt's an historical fact. It's why GW made his appeal to the new Congress after the Revolutionary War to treat the vets well. He understood history well.
The GI Bills, both the Montgomery and Post-9/11, are a reflection of this and the Bonus Army. When MacArthur put down the Bonus Marchers with the Army, it made a lot of ill will. Then you have guys coming home after being trained to fight people like the Germans and Japanese, or the Taliban and Al Queda, and they do not want a repeat. Better to keep them in school and get use of them, than throw them to the curb and earn their ire.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, RLB. I have just gone through this myself, and I am looking forward to the future. Good luck, and God bless.
The Shadowed Knight