SULLIVAN'S SALVOS

May 26, 2022

Sullivan’s Salvos 5/31/22

In this edition:

*Memorial Day

*A Shameful Memorial Day Fact

*Casualties of War

*An End to Our Longest Wars

*Graduations

*Bottle Bill

*Mandates

*Did You Know?

*Memorial Day

Monday, May 30 is Memorial Day. I hope you have a wonderful holiday, and I hope you spend at least a part of it remembering those who have died while serving our Country. Happy Memorial Day to all!

*A Shameful Memorial Day Fact

I really don’t know what to say about this. It is 2022, and this pisses me off: Nine states officially set aside a day to honor those who died fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War: Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia.

“Hey, y’all! Let’s celebrate traitors who attempted to overthrow the US Government because they wanted to keep black people as property!” Can’t we do better?

*Casualties of War

The story below ran in Salvos last year, but still feels relevant today.

I am going to share a little story. I was at a good friend’s business the other day, standing in the parking lot talking, when a guy runs up and says, “Call 911! The guy in the bus stop is barely breathing!” So my buddy and I run over to the bus stop. I get about 3 feet away from the guy and I am shouting, “Hey! Can you hear me? Can you respond?” He didn’t say anything, although his eyes opened momentarily. I agreed with the first man; this guy’s breathing was shallow. So my buddy called 911.

An ambulance arrived so quickly it was amazing; probably one minute, tops. A fire truck followed literally only another minute later, and police arrived within 5 minutes. When this guy (we will call him Peter) heard the ambulance sirens, he got very agitated. He stood up, although he was pretty wobbly. I could tell that he had soiled the shorts he was wearing.

Peter ran up to the Ambulance (it was only a few steps) and started screaming “F You!” at the top of his lungs and slapped the window. The Ambulance crew kept their windows rolled up, and a police officer approached Peter. Peter started screaming, “I am a F_ing veteran! I am a F_ing veteran!” The officer did a great job of deescalating Peter (CIT at work!) and got him to sit in the bus shelter.

I approached the ambulance, and since I didn’t recognize either person, I introduced myself. They told me they see Peter all the time – that is how they know his name. They said he gets hospitalized frequently. Meanwhile, the officer offered to ride in the back of the ambulance with Peter. Peter just sat there, muttering, “I am a f_ing veteran!”

By now, I had spent 15 minutes watching this, and I needed to get to an appointment. So I said goodbye to my friend and left. I don’t know what happened to Peter.

So, the next day, I spoke to Gary Boseneiler, Veteran’s Affairs Director for Johnson County. I mentioned Peter, and asked if Gary knew of him. Gary not only knew of him, but has met with Peter many times. According to Gary, Peter is calm and respectful when he visits Gary’s office. And yes, Peter is a veteran of the US Armed Services.

We talk a lot about how few of our soldiers die in war nowadays. The US has lost 7036 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan over the 20 years of those wars. While 7000 people strikes me as an unthinkable loss of life, that compares quite favorably to the 60,000 lost in 11 years of Viet Nam. But counting deaths does not give us the true cost of war. Unfortunately, all wars seem to lead to many additional casualties.

That is correct. Casualties are NOT just deaths. Casualties include any person who is killed, wounded, imprisoned, or missing as a result of war. And the human costs of our never-ending wars include many broken men and women. People like Peter. People who signed up to serve. He didn’t do this to himself. WE did this to him. WE made him do this. This is OUR fault as a Country. We own this.

As I said, 7035 soldiers have died in our long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the number of veterans who died by suicide in 2018 was 6,435. Our veterans are bringing our wars home.

Let’s get our veterans the help they need. And let’s quit sending American soldiers abroad to come back as casualties of war.

*An End to Our Longest Wars

Obviously, since I wrote that piece last year, President Biden ended the two longest wars in US history. Yes, it was ugly. But *WAR* is ugly! I am extremely glad that President Biden did what too many other Presidents refused to do.

I already talked about the human cost above in the story about Peter. There is no way to calculate the human cost of these wars. But we can talk about the lost money. Those wars cost America over 3 TRILLION dollars – let’s put that into perspective.

$3 trillion would pay the salary of every school teacher in the US for ten years.

$3 trillion would pay for free 0-5 childcare/preschool for every US child for 5 years.

$3 trillion might be enough to provide clean water to everyone on planet Earth.

We have plenty of needs. What if we made a war-style investment in improving health and education, and alleviating poverty?

War is very rarely the correct choice. Now let’s not send American troops into battle without a damn good reason!

*Graduations

Memorial Day Weekend means graduations. Congratulations to all our graduating seniors! Commencement has already taken place at the UI and Kirkwood, and the local high schools are graduating as we speak.

I know that Melissa (and others) accuse me of being overly sentimental when it comes to these types of things. That may be true. But graduation really is a milestone.

Certainly, what graduates do in the future is much more important than what they have done to date. But the fact is, they have accomplished something important. Let’s reflect upon it, and celebrate it! Congrats again to all the graduates!

*Bottle Bill

I shook my head when I heard Republican Legislators in Des Moines talk about the changes they “had” to make to “save” the Bottle Bill.

Bullshit! You didn’t “save” the Bottle Bill – you just killed it! Once Iowa (under Republican Governor Bob Ray) was at the forefront of environmental thinking. The Bottle Bill was a model, copied by at least ten more states.

The GOP “saved” the Bottle Bill in much the same way they “saved” Collective Bargaining under Chapter 20. The Bottle Bill is dead. Republicans killed it.

*Mandates

One more thing about the Republicans in the Iowa Legislature:

Mandates are bad (vaccines) if they protect public health.

Mandates are good (pipelines, ethanol) if they enrich agribusiness.

Basically, mandates for those who disagree with us, freedom for our friends. Ain’t Republican government great?

*DID YOU KNOW? To honor the deceased, soldiers would decorate graves of their fallen comrades with flowers, flags and wreaths. Hence Decoration Day. Although Memorial Day became its official title in the 1880s, the holiday wouldn’t legally become Memorial Day until 1967.

Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-

www.johnsoncountyiowa.gov.

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---Rod

May 19, 2022

A while ago, one of our Pastors read from James 2:17 - “Faith without works is dead.”

What does this mean? It basically warns Christians of the hypocrisy of talking a good game, then failing to act in a Christian manner.

The surrounding passages describe feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, and tending to those who are ill.

So – how will Christians accomplish these works? By tax breaks for billionaires? By tax loopholes for multinational corporations? By cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security? By cutting preschool? By reducing the estate tax?

Look, I do not believe the US government is required to follow Christian doctrine. I think it is clear that the founding fathers intended for a separation of church and state. Our government should not favor any one religion. But if you are going to make the case that we are a Christian nation, at least back it up with deeds!

Jesus speaks about helping the poor, the hungry, the homeless, and those who are ill. This dominates the things we hear from him. It is the most common subject he talks about. He also states many times – very clearly – that too much wealth is a sin.

Christians – faith without works is dead. Knowing that, how do you feel about where our country is headed?

Governor Reynolds put out a flyer that says, “Fact: For nearly 20 years, math and reading scores for Iowa students have been decreasing.”

What she conveniently ignores is that for 12 of those 20 years, Reynolds has been either lieutenant governor or governor. And since 2017, Republicans have controlled both the Iowa House and Senate.

There is no question that inflation has become a problem. We’ve all heard about how the pandemic has led to supply chain issues, etc. The right-wing media is doing all they can to pin this on President Biden.

But here’s the thing: Big corporations are using this as an excuse to gouge the rest of us! Corporations are seeing record profits. CEOs earn more than ever. And these record profits come on the backs of consumers.

It is not the President’s fault. Hell, give him a couple more votes in the US Senate and watch what can be done when corporations get held accountable!

But think about it: prices are rising. Who is raising them? That is where you need to focus your anger!

Personally, I am getting a little sick of Iowa Democrats playing pundit. The common thinking is, “She can’t win because she’s black,” or “She can’t win because she’s a woman,” or “They can’t win because of their gender identity.”

Obviously, if you subscribe to this logic, only straight, white, men can ever be the Democratic nominee. And that is plain stupid. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It reminds me of when Bernie Sanders ran for President in 2016. Reporters would ask Bernie if he can win, and he would respond with some version of the following:

“If everyone who is worried about whether we can win would put their energy into getting us elected, we will win.” That is a message that Iowa Democrats need to hear.

Did Abby Finkenaur lose her last campaign? Yes. To another woman. Those same people seem to forget that Mike Franken lost *HIS* last campaign! To a woman! Remember, too, that Finkenauer was not supposed to have a chance to beat Rod Blum.

Look, I am not against straight, white men. It just so happens that I am a straight, white man. I’ll gladly vote for a straight, white man *IF* I believe he is clearly the superior candidate.

But Iowa Democrats need to stop pretending that being a straight, white man automatically makes you a better candidate. It does not!

Early voting has begun! As you go to cast your ballot, I hope you will consider my endorsements for the Statehouse: Tony Currin in HD89, Adam Zabner in HD90; and Janice Weiner in SD45. All 3 candidates are online if you want to learn more.

One of the things Melissa and I bonded over many years ago was a shared love of the Beatles. Interestingly, with so many of us feeling so much despair over the past few years, the Beatles have definitely helped!

Sure, there is the music. That’s a given. Pick the right songs, and they will really cheer you up. But let me suggest a couple additional things:

1. Watch The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+. While this is not as uplifting or fast-moving as my next two suggestions, this gives us all a rare opportunity to see a true genius (Paul McCartney) doing genius things. That piece, for me, was like watching someone touched by God. It made the 10-hour documentary worth it!

2. Watch Carpool Karaoke with James Cordon and Paul McCartney on YouTube. While this came out in the fall of 2018, it made us feel good through the whole pandemic. This is one of the most heartwarming 23 minutes you will ever experience.

3. Watch Yesterday (2019). The idea behind this charming movie is that a struggling young musician wakes up one day, and he is in an alternate universe where the Beatles never existed. He is the only person on Earth who knows the music. It was absolutely delightful!

As the Fab Four themselves might say, “I hope you get by with a little help from your friends!”

I was part of an interesting scenario a couple years ago. I have mentioned it to several people since, including someone just the other day. I tend to get very different responses, so I am curious as to what Salvos readers think.

A couple of summers ago, right after the murder of George Floyd, there were local marches/protests. I attended several. At the second one – I am pretty certain it was the second one, anyway – I was standing near the back before the marching started.

I saw two young white men (I’m guessing they weren’t even 20) dressed head to toe in black, each with several cans of spray paint. I watched as they spray painted on the Biology Building.

I went over to them and asked them to stop. They replied with, “F you!” I said, “You know who you are hurting right now? It is Bruce Teague and Mazahir Salih.” They once again hit me with an “F you!”

I thought about doing more, but decided to leave it at that. Right or wrong? I don’t know. But this is where it gets interesting. I later told my daughter about this, and while we were discussing it, I said, “I wouldn’t have said anything to the two young men if they were black.” She asked me why, and I said they would have had righteous indignation, and it wouldn’t be my place as a white man to correct them. It led to us having a good conversation. She agreed with me.

Over the years, however, I have received a lot of different responses. Some people say I should have called the cops over to the two white boys. Others say the color of their skin shouldn’t matter in deciding how to react. Others feel I handled it correctly.

*DID YOU KNOW? Over 89% of Johnson County residents have some type of broadband internet subscription.