Why I Don't "Owe" My Veterans

I am about to rattle a few cages here, especially if you are a disabled veteran, and most especially if you are a veteran receiving public benefits. I understand that you have done your duty, and may whatever power you hold most sacred bless you to the utmost for that.

But I would like you to rethink some things if you think you are "owed" your benefits for what you have done, and I will illustrate the reasons why with the story of my own great-grandfather, Ted.

Ted's parents were German immigrants to the United States of America during the height of the industrial boom, which was the late 1800s to early 1900s. They had a good life, and a little store, and all was fairly alright.

Enter World War One.

Their son was enlisted in the US forces and went overseas to fight. Ted fought his father's ex-countrymen. And he fought well. That didn't stop a bombshell from blowing his foot off while he was in action.

Ted came back to the States, minus a foot. He was directed to a workshop for other WWI veterans that had become "disabled" like him. The workshop taught him how to make paper flowers to sell to the public on the corner so that he could still have an income. Essentially, teaching veterans how to live of the public pity dollars. No different than getting the public assistance pity dollars that most disabled vets live off of today. (Spade a spade, like it or don't.)

You know what he said to that?

SCREW THIS! It was my FOOT that got blown off, not my HEAD!

Ted did not get public assistance (didn't exist yet) or public charity or public pity. He used the gray matter between his ears to make his living after that. He moved westward and got into film. Hollywood was a burgeoning industry at the time, and silent films were the cinematic artform of the day. He directed movies, worked with Harold Lloyd, met his beautiful Irish wife and had a gorgeous daughter to whom he gave a middle name in honor of his best friend, George Herman Ruth, Jr. (otherwise known as Babe Ruth), who became her godfather. My dad (Ted's grandson) still has the silver baseball from his mother's christening engraved with the man's autograph.

Ted helped shape the budding Hollywood, and was at the first Oscars with his wife. I have seen the copy of the picture of it, which my dad has, and he pointed out my great-grandparents to me, smiling brilliantly.

Not once did Ted consider himself "disabled" or think that the citizens of this country "owed" him for his service. He fought and served because it was his DUTY, not a DEBT to be incurred by the people that he was protecting. Such a thing is no better than hiring and compensating a paid bodyguard, really.

He used his wits to keep on going, keep living, and make his mark on the world, without the public dole - or what would have equated to the public dole at the time. Without a foot, mind you.

Please think of the course that my great-grandfather took, before you say or think that you are "owed" something for a DUTY that you damn well knew the ramifications of before you even took up arms.

And if you're wondering where the fortune of my great-grandfather went, and why his great-granddaughter has had to make due and thrive in such a hard life as she has, then allow me to illustrate succinctly what happened for you.

Have you ever seen Rocky V?

Very close to that.

And this was before his daughter was married to my grandfather, by the way. She married a war vet, too, like her mom did. He didn't get anything blown off though, thank heavens.

This post is not meant to disparage our honored war veterans, but to ENCOURAGE and INSPIRE them by putting things in perspective.

In order to restore the constitution that you swore an oath to uphold, protect, and defend, we have to actually adhere to it. As explained in Davy Crockett vs Welfare, there is no Constitutional authority, to use public funds for charity of any kind. http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/ellis1.html

Thank you for your bravery.

“Go Green” and “Life is Hard”

Disclaimer: This is not to the III%, who are worth their salt.

I hate these two phrases more than anything else uttered on the face of the Earth in any language, and no, it's not even for the usual righteously indignant, “can't stand the fluffy-bunnies” reasons, either.

I hate them because every time I hear them or read them, the person saying or writing them never – and I do mean invariably NEVER – has any real idea of what they're even talking about.

I would know.

Let's start with the latter phrase, “life is hard,” shall we?

This is almost always spoken by somebody on food stamps, or some other public assistance, and/or spends roughly $400 a month or more on their groceries, at least. They also still have enough money for gas, buying a few DVDs here and there, or some music off iTunes, new shoes, new clothes, and can go out every so often with friends, maybe even somewhere out of town for vacation. They indulge in things like chocolate, and cream and sugar with their coffee.

My monthly stipend for food is $40 a month. It has been for the past handful of years now, and it's not going to change. My husband, the family cook, plans out meals for the whole month, so that we don't run out. $40 is a good as it gets.

No movies, no music, no new books, no new swag. No new anything that we don't absolutely need.

“Life is hard,” is NOTHING that I want to hear from some other woman in a cute top, blinking at me with mascara on her lashes, with her over-fed brood in nikes and winter coats, stuffing their shopping carts with cheese and chips and cereal, going home in their gassed-up mini-van, to their air-conditioned/centrally heated home where they will watch TV, gripe over something someone said on facebook, and go to bed snug as a bug (and that's only ONE example of the variety of folks with no idea).

DO NOT EVER TELL ME YOUR LIFE IS HARD.

I KNOW what hard life is.

I live and thrive on $40 a month. Chances are, you can't do what I do. If you would like to, I'll see you in Idaho. Otherwise, stop seeking sympathy or pity, I have none to spare in this arena, and it should be very evident as to why.

… And I hate having to pull out the “hard-life” ruler, it's tacky and time-consuming, really. It never makes me feel any better, either.

Next phrase, “Go Green.” The social engineering slogan that is all talk, no walk, targets the WRONG people for environmental culpability, and is at best a flat out joke.

Do people actually think that the true culprits of pollution, the big mega-corporations, are going to be swayed from their profiteering practices by a few bleeding hearts in green t-shirts? If so, please keep them far away from me.

The Greenwashed masses always talk about getting back to nature, saving energy, helping the Earth... but what do they actually DO about it, really?

Getting back to nature typically doesn't happen. People are scared to death of Nature. You mention foraging or hunting and fishing to these folks and you're looked at as though you're some kind of backwards savage. Why do all that stuff, when you can just go buy organic from big natural food brands at big natural foods' stores that are actually owned by even bigger companies that push the artificial-crap-posing-as-food brands that they own right alongside their “good stuff”? Heaven forbid, you might get dirty! Or miss American Idol! Cooking from scratch takes too much time! And skinning and gutting is ICKYYYYYYY!

They continue to drink fluoridated water and put aspartame in their drinks, too, it's so quaint.

Really, though, foraging and hunting = it DOESN'T GET any more “organic” and “all-natural” than this!

But no, it is as I quote from one of my neighbors as he said of some plants in our yard, “Why would you want save them? Those are weeds!” So genuinely flabbergasted was he, that we would spare a bunch of unsightly weeds (the awful horror). My husband then educated him on the fact that it was burdock. Burdock root is also known as “gobo.”

As I recall, he didn't have much to say beyond a few grumbles about that. But back he went to his perfectly manicured, big empty lawn, with it's few ornamentals here and there and not a single “weed” in sight, edible or otherwise. It continues to remain to this day the very envy of golf-course-esque backyard lawns everywhere.

Recycling is good. But those fluorescent bulbs that are supposedly so great are actually manufactured with mercury, and are highly toxic to the earth, not to mention the spectrum they emit has been proven for years now to weaken people who are directly exposed to it for prolonged periods of time, making them lethargic and unfocused. Makes you wonder why they make it mandatory and “code” to have it schools and office buildings, doesn't it? Not only that, if one breaks, it literally requires a haz-mat team to clean up, I exaggerate not, look it up.

Natural light from a window by day, incandescent fixture by night for me, please and thank you, until we can find something that actually IS better.

Ever notice that the go-greeners often tend to spend a lot, as well? Buying expensive organic food, expensive imported “natural fiber” clothes, expensive “hybrid” vehicles, expensive “natural” personal hygiene products (which may or may not actually be as the label-marketing touts), mineral makeup, and on and on.

But here's me, with my all-natural food that I got first-hand with my husband, no processing beyond water and a knife-blade. My face bears no makeup, doesn't need it, except maybe a little lip color for out in public. I sit basking in the view of the autumn sky, bright even with illuminated cloud cover, and I'm in comfortable clothes that I've managed to make last for nearly five years. No money spent, there, no resources wasted, and no pollution.

I don't need to “go green.” I already live as green as it gets, without even trying. So all the folks wailing with their anti-humanity pro-cuddly-animals-and-flowers crap can go re-evaluate themselves and the way that THEY choose to live, thank you.