Let’s never forget

Usually on holidays like Memorial Day, when we are supposed to remember our fallen soldiers, sailors and Marines but are out somewhere having fun, I remember Vietnam. I remember friends who lost husbands; I remember searching every page of the Honolulu papers (living in Hawaii then) for every morsel of news good or bad.

My husband deployed with the 25th Infantry Division, under a cloak of secrecy that was about as secret to the military community as the weather, so actions of the unit were a daily mention in the news. During his second tour, I was living here in Columbus, and though there was news, we didn’t have Skype, email, or even phone calls. I did have one phone call that was through a series of ham radio operators — but that was a radio transmission when you knew someone was listening so they could flip the switch. We wrote letters — lots of them.

I remember the lowlife who yelled at a group of wives, “I hope your husband gets killed over there!” The one common event between the two tours was the homecoming. My husband had to literally sneak back into the country, no bands, no cheers at the airport. While others were burning the flag and throwing their medals over the White House fence or running to Canada, we quietly went about our business.

I was in the “Duffel Bag Generation,” and to this day I feel jealous of the way dependents are treated now. Mike retired as a lieutenant colonel, and served another 20 years in Civil Service. His exposure to Agent Orange may have contributed to the cancer that later took his life, far too soon. And I still remember.

Raw deal

Recently we went to once a week trash pickup. This was decided for us. Now if you miss your trash day you end up with two weeks of trash before they will pick up again. A lot of people had to buy more trash cans because of this decision, and our trash fees and taxes haven't lowered at all. Is this crooked? I think so. Where is the extra money going?. And why did we the people of Columbus not have a say so in this matter?

Angry? Believe it

The worst single firestorm of killings in world history occurred in March 1945, 5 months before our nuclear attack on Japan. Still Hirohito persisted. Even the atomic bomb at Hiroshima did not faze him. It was only after our second nuclear mission that he declared surrender.

The MSNBC newscaster Brian Williams, who lied about being under attack in a helicopter, apparently has only foggy headed imaginings about what an attack really is... now this loony is "apologizing" for us in denouncing America's of ending WWII by "angry" nuclear bombings of the Japanese who were dedicated to fighting to the absolute and total death of their own nation under the Emperor.

Yes, America was angry for having to do what was necessary. We were losing hundreds of thousands of our soldiers in that war and were about to lose more... estimated up to one million in Japan if both sides were added. The Japanese had been gifted jet and submarine technology from the Germans … nuclear would not have been far behind.

How close does the world have to get to self- destruction? It certainly does not help that our information comes through lying and foolish people trying to lay guilt on America for surviving.

Yes, America needs to win. We need to declare victory over the idiots in our midst.

Liberal nonsense

On May 27 a letter from California illustrates how left coast liberal nonsense spreads and infects the rest of the nation. Even things that seem benign.

It seems the writer enjoyed a recent visit to Columbus but had an "unpleasant encounter" at an area Wal Mart. He was “appalled." What horrible iniquitous act did Wal Mart perpetrate upon him? They put the items he purchased in plastic bags! He went on to brag about his hometown banning plastic bags and how he takes his own cloth totes shopping. I suppose he forgot them that day.

Apparently he couldn't care less about thousands of jobs in the plastics industry, from the folks who provide raw materials to those who transport the material and employees who manufacture products as well as people in the service industry from IT support to janitorial service. Such plants are in Georgia cities such as Senoia, Columbus, Atlanta and others.

Of course we should recycle the things we use and discard, including plastic bags. In fact, stores such as Wal Mart and Publix have collection points at the stores for that purpose.

The letter reminds me of Hillary Clinton's rant vowing to destroy the coal industry and coal jobs. Perhaps he will visit us again, but hopefully this time he will leave his political correctness playbook at home and bring his little cloth bags.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Let’s never forget."