Letters to the Editor
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By the way, I meant to say...
Battle of the Bulge--WOW. When I was stationed in Germany the battalion's officers took a "professional development" trip up to the battlegrounds and got a foxhole-by-foxhole description of how it all went down, by a historian who had obviously spent quality time talking to the veterans of that battle. Amazing. You know what I like about the Battle of the Bulge story? The fact that it was the lower enlisteds who saved the day. D-Day is all about Eisenhower, and the preparation, and the big plans that involved knowingly tossing out several thousand soldiers as cannon fodder. But Battle of the Bulge is about a complete breakdown in Allied intelligence that resulted in a bunch of rear echelon soldiers who never expected to see combat suddenly having the Krauts 20 feet in front of them, and having to figure out what to do next. Did your dad ever talk about his experiences? If he's still around, you really should consider videotaping him for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
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Obama, revealed
Read this Sunday's New York Times article about Obama's time in the Senate. Also talks about Hillary and what she (or any Senator with a record ) is up against. Obama comes across as incredibly calculating and opportunistic. Nothing wrong with that, but he's a blank slate, BY DESIGN.
My husband, an Obama fan, refuses to read comment sections of election articles because he finds the "Hillary Haters" to be "cyberbullies", "misogynists" and "stomach turning". He refuses to believe they are truly Obama supporters because they are so divisive, negative and polarizing.
I voted for Hillary because I thought she was the better candidate. Period. But the vitriol spewed about her has compelled me to take a more feminist stance regarding my choice than I originally expected to have, given my first two choices were Richardson and Edwards (both dropped out before our primary here in California).
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Two Things
I'd like to read your article on Sgt Maj MacKinney (in the context of feminism, I was thinking of Professor Cynthia, and it took me awhile to get my ideas straightened out). I thought it was a fascinating example of unit cohesion operating in favor of race, as opposed to gender and, although not precisely thrilled by the whole situation and some of the comments I heard, I was profoundly impressed by how thoroughly racial integration has permeated the armed forces. I gather the Marines call African-Americans -dark- green. I'm not telling ANYTHING to the Marines.
No, sorry. Dad died in 1970. He was good to his enlisted people and protected his scrounger. He never talked, except to get depressed every Christmas. I think, in some ways, coming home, coming almost all the way back, marrying and having a daughter he could bring up sheltered (it annoyed him when I refused to be coddled, and what he thought of my participation in the anti-war movement...oh dear...), was his victory, and I had to respect it.
But later on, I checked out his unit from a mug he had. His general never said "nuts." That was publishable, however. And Dad had a lifelong respect for Patton. He didn't talk. But from things that he said and did, I know he never forgot.
Ironically, he volunteered for overseas duty when he was at Ft. Benning and his Colonel refused to have Jewish officers. Dad pulled himself to about 5'5" of attention and, with "Sir" larding every word, requested overseas duty, SUH. The Colonel was a bigot. My father was my first and best hero. One of my Dad's best friends, born in Germany, was in OSS. Both worked behind enemy lines. Both refused to wear anything but H (for Hebrew, the custom at the time, on their dogtags).
Wait. The only story I know, and he had to tell my eldest male cousin, dammit. Apparently, Dad made friends with the Russians. GOOD friends. They were driving a Jeep behind enemy lines one night, lights blazing, drunk out of their minds, singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the top of their lungs. And Dad's voice was so awful that when he sang, the dogs in the neighborhood would howl in sympathy. He was a very, very, very bad captain, and I hope he had one hell of a hangover. He earned it.
Ultimately, he went home on the QUEEN MARY. I was out there once for the Nebula awards and checked out every inch of officers' country, sniffling disgracefully. This is apparently not unusual.
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You're right, they're both slick
...but he's better at it than she is. She has all the pieces that he does, but he puts them together better because he has a more natural talent for politics. That doesn't mean he's not a politician. Anyone thinks he's a hero riding in on horseback is going to be every bit as disappointed as we all were in Bill Clinton. Remember '92? That was all about "Oh, boy, the Baby Boomers, the 60s generation has finally come of age, this is going to be paradigm-shifting." He was supposed to be the New Third Way. And what happened? He completely gutted the welfare system, sold out the gay community six ways to Sunday, the floor dropped out from under progressive politics and thought in America AND the Democrats lost Congress. In fact, anyone who even thinks today that JFK was a hero riding in on horseback is not bearing in mind that we have no idea what his presidency would have looked like and what things he might have mucked up had he lived long enough. I don't think Obama is the Second Coming, I just think he's a fresh face with a lot of really good ideas and a JFK, Bill-Clinton-level political talent and charisma.
And why do you think he ran for President this year instead of spending another term in the Senate? We went through this over Kerry in 2004: no good can come of spending too much time in the Senate. At least we're up against another Senator with an even longer track record. Whatever happened to our strong Democratic governors? (Well, I guess we lost Mark Warner--boy, THAT would have made for an interesting race). I still have my eye on Sebelius and Napolitano.