I'm not so civilized as to pretend that my more bloodthirsty human instincts were very satisfied by actually seeing a picture of the dying/dead despot (as I would have liked to have seen Osama Bin Laden). And I have no problem with the way he went out.
As for the "end" of the war, I had the same initial reaction/thoughts as Billy Jones. The next step is to down-scale the military. What are all of those out-of-work soldiers going to do in this economy?
(You'll forgive me if I have no more faith in Obama's "jobs bill" than I had in his notions of healthcare "reform".)
Moving on along . . .
I'm still on break, working on doing (more on that in a future post), but I wanted to share: My well-named friend, Buzz-Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-who-gave-one-million-dollars-to-the-Randolph-Hospital-Center, and his wife, Becky, have a son.
And their son is a Marine. And the Marine just got back from a tour of duty on the front-of-the-front in Afghanistan.
Buzz chronicled the homecoming of his son's unit in e-mails.
The following is one of the many reasons why I love Buzz:
They are a brave bunch, but the bravest one I saw on Tuesday was a small blonde girl, about 25 years old. Her husband of two months, a Marine Sergeant, was the only KIA in the group. She made it a point to come to every return of the various companies of the *****.
That woman has guts.
I've crossed paths with such women . . . working as a Pediatrician in Jacksonville . . . and burying my Aunt in Arlington. These women will break your heart.
My very best to Buzz and Becky. I'm very glad their boy made it home safe.
Totally switching gears, I also love local blogger, Jeff Sykes. Because he writes stuff like this. Because, as an expatriate journalist, he makes you think . . . really think . . . about positions you've held all your life. But here's what really caught my eye:
It was the sudden death of a loved one a short year later that opened the floodgates of compassion that I had never before experienced. It is the knowledge that even the most stoic and religious person arrived at that affect more times than not after experiencing failure and defeat and searching for a place of comfort and rest.
Jeff is taking about the death of his Mother. And I remember the same kind of feeling.
I was worried about Jeff for a long time. I'm not any more. Jeff is a lot stronger for having walked through the fire . . . some of the coals scattered by local bloggers.
Speaking of, several of Blogsboro's most prominent names applauded Jeff's post in the comments - which are now closed. And that made me think too.
In my last post, I commented that, in the wake of the professional and legal ass-kicking dished out (for all of the wrong reasons) by my "hometown" hospital, it had taken a very long time for me to get back to being me - the real me - the me that was actually accepted to medical school . . . a much more "happy-go-lucky, live-and-let-live" sort than I am now.
As most Housecalls' readers know, I discovered blogging in February 2005 . . . quite literally the day after my Father died (like Jeff's Mother, very suddenly and unexpectedly).
With my very soul wounded, raw, bleeding and grieving, I saw hope in the invitation offered by local "journalists", who promised a fair shake, and light and air ("citizen journalism", as they called it) . . . in terms of telling stories that might not have otherwise seen the light of day . . . or were not given a fair shake or good investigative turn the first time around.
They sounded so earnest and sincere. They seemed to want to ramp what-had-passed-for-local-journalism-for-so-long up, and actually BE relevant. They would do the right thing. I felt it in my bones. I thought I might finally be on my way to vindication, real justice, comfort and rest.
But these people, didn't live up to their own hype. And they got REALLY angry when you pointed that out. And/so, my hide, already badly-burned & scarred-down by the afore-mentioned hometown ass-kicking, was blistered and thickened by the insults and barbs of Greensboro's "progressive" do-gooders (much of it fueled by partisanship) - several of whom who reveled in attacking/libeling me.
But somehow they could NEVER ask a SINGLE objective question of the so-called "public servants" I accused of very bad things.
Black and white evidence of "non-profit" hospital executives swearing a false Oath to the Court (and to God) were of no consequence to anyone but me. Everybody lies in Court. Bad faith is to be expected. Get over it. Move on. If you don't, you're "crazy".
One of those "public servants" will be retiring soon . . . taking wheel-barrows full of public money with him . . . all rubber-stamped by a mill-town Board-of-Directors that treats him as some kind of captain-of-industry . . still under the cover of wholesale public ignorance as fostered by my hometown "newspaper" . . . and with no one from the N.C. Secretary of State's office - or even the IRS even batting an eye.
(As a matter of update for curious readers, it's been over a week, but I've yet to hear from Randolph Hospital's public relations queen, April Thornton, on the status of my last public records request for IRS 990's for 2009 and 2010. I expect her boss is trying to get out before anyone can ask any questions about the massive spike in his deferred benefits, beginning in the 2008 fiscal year - a year when the rest of the world went to hell.)
And, over time, my heart hardened. Six years later, comfort and rest remain illusions. And the floodgates remain somewhat jammed.
So Jeff, I'm thinking it's all in where you land.
Regardless, I am glad there are people like you . . . and Buzz . . . out there.
