High Hopes

Hope all of our elected officials put their communties and country ahead of their re-elections bids.

Hope to find trout that prefer dry flies to nymphs.

Hope all of our soldiers come home and reunite with their families.

No more wars, no more a saber rattling.  Work harder at peace. 

Find more Vets work.

The Seattle Seahawks make the playoffs next year.

We all want to remember this is the way war’s end.  Gone is the patriotic fervor or the 24 hour news cycle, which dominated the television.   There isn’t the gaggle of embedded reporters that escorted the troops into the war.  The embedded reporters came home quite some time ago. 

The war seems to end silently for America.  The one percent that fought the war slide into their communities.   In places like Ft. Benning, Ga. or Ft. Hood, Tx. they carry the weight with high suicide rates and high divorce rates.  Soldiers and their families seem to go unnoticed.  Valor is ignored, honor slighted and sacrifice lost.

In Afghanistan, on the far side of the planet, a 19 year old kid with a rifle and 70 pound pack stands guard watching the moon come over the Hindu Kush.  Unfortunately, his fate is wrapped up with a group of people who claimed a pizza is a vegetable.

Here comes Santa Claus

This is Santa last year in Bagram Air Base.  He resided in a place called Cherry Beasley where I spent two winters.  We lived in dilapidated shacks called B-Huts and we were the lucky ones.  We weren't in the 100 man tents with no privacy and soldiers living out of their duffel's.  There wasn't a Best Buy, Christmas lights or Christmas Carols there was just the soldier to your left or right wishing you a Merry Christmas.  Christmas came from the heart.

with a whimper

The war in Iraq ended today reported the evening news.  Soldiers are coming home.  Our national character will be measured on how we treat the men and women in uniform in the years to come.  Today, there isn't a ticket tape parade in New York or Washington D.C.  It seems we give a national yawn and turn the channel.