I haven’t had the energy to post anything…..been attending some courses for work, getting ready for Festivus, and spending the scant online time I do have, on Twitter……mocking and deriding those who would deign to remove or restrict our Constitutionally protected Rights.
Impressive Moment At Disturbed Concert….
Not a bad day, but ready to leave…..
My last Tuesday away from the homestead (this time around). Played hooky from work, sitting in a local bar & grill with an Evil Twin red ale, waiting on my platter of South African bangers. And not even Noon yet on a pleasant day.
That said, if I can’t share it with my better half, I’m itching to get back to the Zombie Apocalyptic Compound. I have a furry buddy who probably thinks I died (my first deployment since we rescued him).
A Thirty Year Journey…..and Still Traveling
30 years ago today, I started the journey that would define my life. Define what matters.
30 years ago at Fort Benning, GA….I met my best friend. My soulmate, and my true love. She gets me, she’s put up with my shit, and she’s given me two amazing daughters. In short, she’s made my life better than I could have ever imagined it.
Who knew that watching the 1993 MTV Music Awards with a cute little blonde chick, would lead me down the path to where I am today.
The Shinedown song above, was in my workout playlist this morning (separated on this anniversary as we are on so many others….). But the lyrics seem to have been written for us.
I’ll be home in a couple of weeks to hold my little misfit in my arms again.
Inmate #P01135809
FAFO
Yeah, I said it….F*vk the Catholic Church
Sinéad O’Connor appeared on Saturday Night Live on 3 October 1992 and ripped up a photo of the Pope after singing a Bob Marley song. As she did, she stated “fight the real enemy”.
She became the butt of jokes and fodder for late night talk/variety shows. She was ridiculed and slandered.
This occurred a full nine years before John Paul II publicly acknowledged child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
This isn’t about Catholics. This is about the Catholic church. I wouldn’t piss on a Priest if he were on fire. During Pink’s Ohio leg of her tour, she and Brandi Carlile paid tribute to O’Connors early death, and the causes that she stood proudly for.
Honor and Sacrifice
For no particular reason, I remembered SSG Darrel Griffin tonight. I’ve blogged about him years before……but he popped into my mind today. As a Platoon Sergeant in 1/5 IN at Ft. Lewis, WA…….he was one of my best Soldiers….someone who I definitely knew would be an asset to his unit and his nation. Had I stayed in that unit, instead of PCS’ing……I would have been honored to have more time working alongside him. We ended up in Iraq at the same time 9in different units), and I vividly remember meeting our old Battalion XO by chance….who gave me the news that he had been killed by an enemy sniper. Not the first loss I felt, and not the last…but after Jim Doster, one of the hardest.
I’d like to repost the words of a dear friend of Darrel’s, that bring me to my knees every time I read them:
SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2007
In Memorium
“our government officials often talk of the ‘boots on the ground’ in Iraq, most often forgetting that those boots were filled with thinking, living flesh-and-blood Americans”
“War is not just John Wayne giving an eloquent speech before he dies, but young men dying without a word and sent home with what is found of them.”
(SSG. Darrell R. Griffin, Jr.)
The words above are words written by our dear friend. He knew what he was talking about more than most. His feet filled those “boots on the ground” in 2004-2005 with the 1/5 Infantry Battalion Bobcats and again in 2006-2007 with the 2/3 Infantry, both in Iraq. Darrell is the man who stood beside my husband through the toughest of times, who promised me before they left that he would take care of him as best he could and bring him home to me and our little girls. He kept his promise. But then, I knew he would. He was the friend my husband knew he could count on in any situation and his wife is the person that I could call at 3am when the fear of that deployment seemed overwhelming.
Throughout our lives, we meet many “good friends,” friends we love to be with and friends that share many of the important events in our lives. But even more rare are those friends that we connect with at the heart, those who seem to know what our deepest fears and our greatest joys are without ever exchanging a word. This is the type of friendship that we shared with Darrell and Diana. Through each event in our life, we grew closer. We celebrated our husband’s promotions, the birth of our two little girls, the addition of their “little girl,” a whippet named Luna, and we cried on each other’s shoulders during the tough moments of training deployments and a year long Iraq deployment. We laughed together, worried together, shared holidays and many a weekend BBQ together, debated the issues of the world, cried together, were outrageously silly together, supported each other, and gave strength when it was needed. We jokingly refer to each other as our “chosen family,” meaning that while you can never choose your natural family, sometimes you get to choose to add some “adopted” members. Darrell and Diana are definitely part of our family.
When the guys of 1/5 Infantry returned from their year in Iraq, we both received orders. Duane and I PCS’d (Permanent Change of Station) to Eglin AFB in Florida and Darrell and Diana stayed on Ft. Lewis but moved to 3rd Brigade. Unfortunately, 3rd Brigade was preparing to deploy to Iraq. Just 8 months or so after returning from Iraq, Darrell deployed again with 3rd Brigade. Despite our distance, we have remained as close as family. Diana and I can talk for 3-4 hours on the phone without realizing it (much to our husband’s chagrin) and when Darrell was home on R&R for 2 weeks, he and Duane spent hours discussing how to get back to the same duty station and be together again. We have spent the last 8 months of Darrell’s 2nd deployment praying for his safe return to his lovely wife.
Diana and I shared pictures of our kids (hers is the 4 legged kind, and just as sweet!) and talked for hours about worries and joys and future plans. So, when she called me on the evening of March 21st, I assumed it was to dish about the latest and laugh a bit. What she said changed my world. She told me simply, “Darrell’s gone.” I knew what she meant but I somehow thought there must have been a mistake. There was none.
Darrell, the man who never left my house without telling me how precious my children are and what a wonderful mother I am, is gone.
Darrell, the man who never was in my presence without mentioning how beautiful his wife of 12 years was, is gone.
Darrell, the man who called me from Iraq when he could have called his wife, just to reassure me that my husband was fine after a close call, is gone.
Darrell, the man who rushed to the site of a battle when he heard that my husband’s platoon was involved, who rushed to be at his friend’s side without thought for his own safety, is gone.
Darrell, the man who told me that he would bring my husband home, that he wouldn’t let my two little girls be without their Daddy, is gone.
Darrell, the man who sat on my back porch, drinking wine and discussing the issues of the world with my husband, or who did crazy, silly things with my husband that left Diana and I rolling our eyes in amusement, is gone.
Darrell, the huge body-builder of a man, who held my babies with a gentleness and reverance I have yet to see again, is gone.
Darrell, the man who could talk for hours about how in love he was with his wife, who still paused from speaking to watch her walk across the room as only newlyweds do, is gone.
Most days, it is a little much for me to comprehend.
In the month since he gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country, many people have memorialized him. Soldiers, chaplains, reporters, family, and friends have spoken about his dedication and commitment to soldiering, his intense study of the world around him and the book he was in the process of writing. All of the things they have said, at memorials in Ft. Lewis, Germany, Iraq, and his native California, are true portrayals of the man he was.
Me, I am just his friend’s wife. I know he was an incredible soldier and philosopher but I remember him most as the man who stood by my husband, who shared dinners with my family, who rejoiced in the birth of my children, who loved his dog Luna like a child, and who loved his wife Diana as if they were newlyweds.
In my mind, these things made him great. And they make him irreplaceable.
If ever their were a man, a Soldier….a Brother….to emulate, and honor……It’s Darrel Griffin.
Happy Treason Day!
I jest of course. My lovely bride was born in merry Olde England (USAF brat), so we like to have fun with it. The best however, is when I’ve served along side (at the time) Her Majesty’s Armed Forces when Independence Day rolls around……which really should be celebrated on July 2nd….but whatever.
But what struck me on this day is that American Citizens expend a great deal of bluster, money, time and energy on this holiday, with it’s fireworks, barbecues and beer……yet most can’t paraphrase anything from the Declaration beyond “We the People…..” much less the Constitution. Who remembers Tom Paine’s Common Sense these days? We don’t even have Schoolhouse Rock to fall back on anymore.
They also seem to not realize that while onerous…..the British Empire was less burdensome and restrictive then, than our own government today, populated with Politicians that they voted for. By orders of magnitude.
I consider myself a Patriot (I’ve certainly earned that Right)…but to the ideals of what this Republic were founded on……not what it’s become. I’m not “proud” to be an American….that was an accident of birth. I’m proud of these United States when it acts honorably, and ashamed when it doesn’t. I know of one group of farmers, lawyers, doctors and merchants 247 years ago…..that would weep at where we find ourselves today. I consider any group of Americans to be generally better off today than yesterday…..but I consider the nation as a whole, to be far worse off. Divisiveness is no stranger to this land nor it’s political bodies, but the divisiveness we see today has only one example salient from our past, and I see that example being replicated in my lifetime, with far worse consequences.
I’ll keep my soapbox out of arms reach…..but my opinion that we, as a society……are far weaker due to drive-by, disposable consumerism and instant gratification……to be our eventual downfall….still stands. I wish it were not the case.
Fear and Idiocy
So, SCOTUS passed down a ruling the other day…..regarding a Colorado website designer who was somehow able to march a ‘case’ up to the highest court……ruling that she (nor others) didn’t have to design wedding websites for same-sex marriage ceremonies, if it went against their core beliefs.
Now……on it’s face, I have the minority position that any Citizens labor should be in accordance with their firmly held beliefs. The State does not have a Right (IMO) to direct where and when my labor is applied to goods or services.*
Yet, the plaintiff in this case never even had a prospective customer triggering this complaint. In fact, the designer in question named an individual in the brief……who has come out to media (no pun intended) stating that not only did he NOT ever request her services, but that he in fact, was happily married, to a woman. This woman was seemingly so afraid the “the Gays!!!!!” might desire her services, that she constructed a fallacy, and with the “Alliance Defending Freedom” (quotes are purposeful) got it in front of a pliable SCOTUS.
That the highest court in the land would not only hear – and – rule on a hypothetical, is a travesty of justice, and should be roundly mocked. Apparently, Democrats are planning to introduce a Bill to mandate term limits for SCOTUS Justices. I previously held the position that this was a bad idea, that Justices should be able to analyze and rule on cases unencumbered by political ramifications. I’m not so sure now.
*Given the ruling in this case and others…….it stands to reason that any business (who doesn’t care about profit) should be able to deny their labor to whomever they wish…..this would of course, include the religious. Who are we kidding…..this is primarily alleged Christians.
******BTW, posting is light lately, and in the future, as I’m currently in what used to be known as the “Far East”. At least it isn’t the Middle East for a change……
Duck Vader
A 3D printer Darth Vader duck, made by my eldest princesses boyfriend, for my birthday (along with some whiskey).
I consider this to be his approved application to be worthy of my daughter and join the family.
Libertas and Latte 