Well, today is that day, so I suppose it only makes sense to talk a little bit about veterans and the American armed forces.  It's really surreal to think that when Mike gets back from his deployment, he'll officially be a veteran of a foreign war, lumped into a group with my nearly 67 year old father.  These two men in my life in quite the same way fought/ are fighting in rather pointless wars.  Now before you lose your cool over what I will go on to say, just hear me out and read to the end.  What starts with a bold statement ends with respect.

America seems to have a long history of provocation, media glossing, history book rewriting, rash actions, and just plain blatant venturism.  Under the guise of noble intentions like "stopping crimes against humanity," "overthrowing evil dictatorships," "stopping terrorism," and even "bringing peace to the middle east," this country has bullied its way into foreign lands and stamped on seeds of change that might bring one nation hope while setting the U.S. at a disadvantage.  It continuously thrusts its nose into other people's wars and acts surprised and innocent when there is retaliation.

Pearl Harbor was a tragedy, but it was a provoked tragedy, brought on by our fuel blockade on Japan.  They had two choices: use the last of their fuel to launch an attack against the overwhelming naval forces blocking their resources or use the last of their fuel to launch an attack against the nearest and most strategic part of the U.S. they could find, Pearl Harbor.

Fidel Castro is made out to be an evil villain, but he was just a revolutionary that wanted a better life for his people.  Sound familiar?  Also, for all of you with a Che poster on your wall that respect him for any of many reasons, I hope you realize he was Castro's close ally, practically his second in command, during the revolution.  You may be wondering why we get so many refugees from Cuba if Castro is so grand and all the little farmers cheer when they receive his grain to plant, and that is because of America's vicious embargo on the entire country that prevents any of America's allies from trading with Cuba.  While a handful of smaller countries honor and respect the effort port forth by this country, particularly in the tumultuous areas of Africa where the people want to be free of opression, it is not enough to keep a starving, crumbling economy alive.  The embargo is a terrible crime against what might have been a steady emerging nation, and yet so many young people aren't even properly aware of it.

The U.S. is the last super power (excluding emerging China), and it is a dying breed, the last of its kind.  It's scary to be the one and only elephant in a world full of mice: on one hand, we have the unfettered power of near global and economic domination, on the other we have the fear of sinking into quiet existence while other countries shoot to the top.  To be less than number one is not a feeling we're used to, and we must push like a blood-soaked minuteman to the top of a corpse mountain and plant our flag.

I'm hoping this latest presidency will bring about the promised change; so far, we've seen results, but with unreal amounts of resistance to real, true change.  America is a culture with a weak tolerance for change, so each citizen becomes each unruly crowd, like a swarm of locusts, wings brushing, dissent brewing, until finally, we bite off our swarm-mate's head to spite the perceived danger.  Why?  Who could really say outside of quoting a little of this and that from the media.  It's a frenzy that stops change, plain an simple, the brushing of the wings, the seeds of dissent.  And yet somehow, we're moving forward, slowly but surely, like a turtle tied to a rock, pushing through yet more rocks, nosing along and doing his best for the sake of his little life.  I have high hopes for our future and high hopes for the end to this cycle.

However, as we stand now, we're still struggling out of it.  Our armed forces are continually shipped overseas to occupy other countries, while as far as I know, no foreign country retains a military base or collection of military force on our own soil.  Sure, we have embassies, but we don't have forces of thousands of any foreigner occupying us.

 There are just so, so many reasons to disagree with where the leadership of this nation has taken us, with where the fear of our own citizenry has taken us, but there is one thing that I know that most people can agree on, even without supporting war or the handling of our armed forces or politicians, and that's respect for the troops, the people that comprise the phalanx that, on order from above, moves solemnly into danger.  While they are taught to view themselves as separate from civilian life, there isn't really a true separation.  They are tied to all of us, they are part of our families, part of our lives; they are people with a job, a very dangerous job, that they must do.  Like us, they must obey their boss, who obeys his boss, who obeys his boss, right to the top, right to the root of pointless wars.  Offering them our respect is not offering the war our respect, it is respecting the sacrifice they've made to move forward in life, to do what most people would naturally shun in order to protect the values as dictated from above, whatever they may be this season.

While I know many people plunge into the Army, Navy, or National Guard for various reasons, some being school, some being tradition, and some being just plain confusion about where life will take them, I know that no matter what the reason was for them entering this service, it puts a concrete permanence in these people, a career, a purpose, and a drive.  I've learned so much from having Mike in my life, and one of the things I've learned is to respect the Army is a relevant career choice.  While it is something I would never pick for myself or many of the people I know, it fits some people, and these have my deepest, most sincere gratitude and respect for making their personal form of sacrifice to do what must be done.

I will never think of Mike based on the war he fought in, because he's a person and someone I love.  I ask you all to do the same: recognize the effort of your loved ones as veterans, but honor them for being more than just veterans, honor them for being that important person in your life as well, for earning your admiration and respect through both service to their country and just being who they are, the person you love.