A VETERANS' DAY ESSAY--ONE DAY LATE--BY MARK S.

This was supposed to be a post for Veterans' Day, but I misplaced it and had to ask its author to resend it to me.  I met Mark on the internet years ago when I first started blogging.  I had a food blog, and so did he.  I've come to know Mark as a big hearted bear of a man who is a true liberal.  But what I also admire about him is his love of the outdoors--canoeing, fishing, camping.  He does it all and does it all well.  When you read this piece by him, you'll understand why I admire this man:

"I have a very diverse group of FB friends. Usually, this is fun. Sometimes, it is irritating. Occasionally it is just bizarre. And at times, the conversations can get personal and ugly. These are the conversations that frustrate me the most.



Yesterday, it was stated that only one political party has ever done any good for the people, and it was strongly insinuated that members of the other party were less than patriotic. A dear, close friend of mine who has spent his entire adult life in service to his country was rightfully offended. And even though I was not responsible in any way for those comments, I feel badly about them.


My father was a genuine war hero. His battalion received a Presidential Unit Citation. The 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion spearheaded the counter attack at the Battle of the Bulge, took 7 towns without benefit of artillery or air cover, cut off the retreat of the German Army, and took 80% casualties doing so. All in the dead of one of the worst winters in Belgiun history, while wearing clothing designed for jungle fighting. 13 men froze to death. My dad's frostbite was so severe they almost amputated his feet.


I am extremely proud of his service to this country. I am also very proud that he never considered himself a hero, he just thought he was doing something that needed to be done. He was just an American doing what Americans do. So I want everyone to know I would NEVER negate the value of anyone's service to America. More on my Dad and the other heroes in our neighborhood in a couple of paragraphs.


The conversation started because I lamented the fact that the country has lurched so far to the right and so little resembles the country the "greatest generation" built. Someone made a comment that JFK would have been a Republican today, insinuating the country has actually moved left. That's when the shit hit the fan.


I do lament what my generation has done to the America my hero father and the other heroes in the neighborhood built. A country where working men and women had an equal footing with their employers, could make a good living with a fair wage, and afford to take their kids to the doctor. Where we took fighting poverty seriously. An America where the bottom 70% of wage earners controlled 50% of the nations wealth. In just one generation, we have destroyed that. To my children and grandchildren, I apologize. My generation has failed you miserably.


That we have moved far right from our parent's America (and that Kennedy could never have been a Republican, especially a modern one), is easily demonstrable. Just consider:


Lyndon Johnson, the man who would bring us The Civil Rights Act and The Great Society, was nominated by Kennedy as VP to appease THE CONSERVATIVE wing of his party. Much of the legislation that brought the Civil Rights Act and Great Society programs into being were authored by and shepherded through Congress by the Kennedy considered most moderate at the time, Edward.


Consider that Barry Goldwater, a man thought so radically right wing that he was certain to get our asses blown off the face of the earth, and whom nearly 2/3 of the country voted against in 1964, retired from the senate despising Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, and openly castigating them on moving the Republican Party so far to the right.


Consider that the most prominent moderate Republicans of the 1960's (Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller, John Lindsey, and Jacob Javits) were all politically left of that evil liberal Bill Clinton. And Rockefeller, Lindsey and Javits were politically left of Hillary. Most people don't realize that had Nixon survived Watergate, the first piece of major legislation he planned to introduce was welfare reform, highlighted by a plan to pay every single American a minimum salary equal to the poverty line wage. The plan was written by Nixon consultant and speech writer Dr. Daniel Patrick Moynahan. The same Moynahan who would later become the "arch liberal" Democratic Senator from New York. Nixon's "moderate Republican" sounds a helluva a lot left of Clinton's "liberal" or Obama's "socialist".


I am truly saddened about what America has become. A place where the wealthiest one percent of citizens control over 60% the country's wealth. Where 40 million people do without proper health care. Where the average wage earner's salary has lost over 20% of it's value since the inauguration of Ronald Reagan.


And a place that would tolerate, and even reward someone for wearing a weapon to a Presidential appearance, or spit on Congressmen as they walk into the halls of Congress.


My father was not the only war hero in our neighborhood. Dave M. fought at Iwo Jima and Guadacanal. Cal G. survived the Bataan death march. I am glad none of them lived to see the spectacle that was the 2008 primary. Men wearing weapons openly trying to intimidate the followers of candidates they didn't like. Spitting on legislators while being egged on by candidates. More like the Weimar Republic and Hitler's Brown Shirts than anything that should take place in America. And a damned insult to those of us who lived through the assasinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, and the attempted assasinations of Ford and Reagan. The heroes in my neighborhood would have been more than offended. They would have been angry, and felt insulted and betrayed. Because, in fact, they were.


So yes, this country has lurched right, far to the right. And if you have read some of the rants that have taken place on FB recently, you might conclude dangerously right.


As for my politics, I guess I am liberal by today's standards, but certainly not by the standard of my parent's generation. I would be considered moderate by the standards of the "greatest generation". Somewhat right of those moderate Republicans Rockefeller and Javits, pretty close to Nixon. Bit left of Billary.


And in spite what people assume, JFK is not one of my political heroes. My two political heroes are Teddy Roosevelt and Bobby Kennedy. Because they were tough, principled, and understood the role of government was to protect it's citizens. Not only from outside aggressors, but from the wealthy, powerful, and greedy within who would prey upon the defenseless.


Rambled enough, but now it's off my chest."