I would be remiss, more so than usual, without a tremendous “Thank you” and big hug to all those who came out to Yellow Bird Books in Aurora this past Saturday to hear Sara Knigge and me make our presentations in honor of Veterans Day, based on our veteran-authored books. Sara’s dad, Bill Christiansen, had put together a memoir, “My Story: Experiences of a LRRP/Ranger in Vietnam 1968-1969.” It was published earlier this year with Sara’s help. (See https://thevoice.us/saluting-veterans-day-aurora-bookstore-hosts-author-vets) Sadly, Bill passed away not long after he was able to see his book in print, so Sara made the presentation. My spiel was based on my novel,” The Militarized Zone: What Did You Do in the Army, Grandpa?”, and covered what I experienced at Eighth Army Headquarters G-1 in Seoul, Korea mainly during my last year, coincidentally, in the Army. The turnout was great and Yellow Bird Books owner Karen Nicholas did a wonderful job hosting us. She and husband Karl added extra chairs when the overflow crowd stretched into the aisles (No, I’m not exaggerating crowd size like Donald Trump did on his Inauguration Day). Even my sometimes The Voice sparring partner, Bill “Bela” Suhayda, showed up with a Wayne’s World shirt. In spite of the slings and arrows and occasional road apples launched at each other, Bela and I have more that joins us rather than separates us, namely, wanting the best for our families and the good ol’ USA.
Speaking of the best for our country, eight Democrats caved in to Republican demands, voting to end the shutdown and get SNAP benefits rolling out to the 42 million people who desperately rely on them. As to independent (go Bernie!) me and my personal self, this is sort of a mixed bag. The upside is that those 42 million will be able to stay alive until the downside hits, which is the possible double and triple healthcare costs they’ll be required to pay. When these people can’t pay the exorbitant fees, they’ll be forced to choose between feeding their families and keeping their physical bodies protected. Food over healthcare will be the choice and may cost them their lives anyway.
This whole situation reminds me of an old spy movie. You know, where the arch villain wants to dominate or do something else nasty to the world, but needs the secret codes to the Armageddon machine that the hero has in his briefcase. The villain grabs the hero’s girlfriend and puts a gun to her head, threatening to blow her head off if he doesn’t hand over the codes. The hero finally gives in and the villain shoots the girlfriend anyway and escapes to enact his evil plans of world domination. In this case, Trump and his congressional toadies are the villains holding a gun to the head of SNAP recipients, threatening to pull the trigger if the Democrats don’t give in to their demands. By doing so, the Dems realize it will immediately save SNAP, but cause suffering down the road. The Democrats give in to save SNAP recipients, but villain Trump and the MAGA toadies shoot the recipients anyway, then run off to enact their evil plan of allowing healthcare costs to balloon out of control with no negotiations for a new plan in sight.
All this takes place as Trump, that is Emperor Nero, fiddles and hosts two outrageous Mar-a-Lago parties, gives away $40 billion to Argentina, and dumps approximately $300 million on an over-the-top gaudy ballroom to entertain his rich friends while America burns. What’s wrong with this picture? Americans held hostage without food or paychecks while the money they should be getting is going to Argentina to help a Trump crony with the money coming from the taxes paid by the 42 million who had their benefits reinstated and the rest who now have regular paychecks again?
I guess I don’t have the required volume of drugs or alcohol in my system as yet to understand this series of events. Maybe applying for an Argentinean citizenship would help. It couldn’t hurt.
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