I hope you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend. I had about 10 pounds of celebration in a five-pound treat cup with our granddaughter’s graduation and dinner afterwards, my birthday recognition and celebration (being in a totaled car wreck and sent to the ER to remain indefinitely on life support would be one step up), my wife’s birthday celebration and a large graduation party topping the cup.
I had the Indy 500 thrown in the mix. I became more interested in this Memorial Day tradition after I had the opportunity to drive around the track myself. It happened back in the days before you could buy a ride for $500 or so. I got it free when I belonged to the International Edsel Club (yes, Virginia, there really was an Edsel. I owned two). The club held its annual convention in Indianapolis that year and the highlight of the even was having all the Edsels drive around the track. The long parade of cars rolled onto the asphalt and was guided into position behind the starting line by the track personnel who seemed rather amazed to see 92 Edsels ready for the checkered flag. The event made the front page of the Indianapolis newspaper. I don’t believe we ever got our speed past 35 mph, but hey, who wants to have a rollover in their tricked-out fantasy machine?
Not to be outdone by a gaggle of orphan automobiles, Donald Trump is celebrating his birthday in true dictator style by holding a military parade costing us lowly taxpayers around $45 million. All you The Voice readers should think of this as your living expenses go up along with taxes, while education funding decreases, Medicaid gets slashed as well as other programs that help those on the lower rung of the income ladder. Donny thinks we’re all as gullible as his diehard MAGA crowd, that will believe anything he says, when he spouts the parade is actually a tribute to the military. Yes, that’s the same military he said was filled with suckers and losers, vets who suffered and died while President Phony Bone Spurs was dodging the draft and winning bowling trophies.
Every run-of-the-mill dictator needs to have his ego stroked with a big military show of force. When I was in Korea, the grand pooh-bah of the North who held these grandiose events was Kim Il Sung. He planned to celebrate his illustrious birthday with a parade of military might and march it into South Korea. This put us on alert and we shifted all our Eighth Army operations about 50 miles south to prepare for the invasion. Fortunately, president Donny doesn’t know history, or much else for that matter, or he might order his birthday military mass to head south and invade Myrtle Beach.
A sad happening this weekend was the passing of WWII veteran Dick Miller. For years, Dick was a member of our veterans group, the Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club. Dick always had a smile on his face, and when he saw me he’d chuckle because he was a loyal fan of my nonsense here in The Voice. His chuckle was followed by a turn to the guy next to him and he’d relates omething he remembered from my most recent column. At Dick’s 98th birthday party his reaction was the same. He then began introducing me to other friends and family, telling them about my The Voice column. Dick and I were speakers, along with other veterans, at an event held by Congressional representative Lauren Underwood. The only time I’d seen Dick with tears in his eyes was when he was at the mic speaking of his participation in the Battle of Okinawa, the largest and bloodiest battle of the Pacific Theater.
There will be an empty spot in the lives but a warm spot in the hearts of all of us who knew and loved Dick Miller.