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.
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 12:36 PM
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