My father: Career naval officer. Fought in WWII and Korea. Wanted to win in Vietnam with whatever weapons were needed. Honest and decent and dedicated to his country, not money.
My uncle Ike: Died in WWII “over China”. His bed in his room, kept as it was, in my grandparents farm house, draped with an American flag.
The vets coming home from Vietnam and Afghanistan. Wounded in so many ways. Treated badly in so many ways.
WWI was a war for markets. WWII very different. Recommend The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa – historical fiction about the life of Sir Roger Casement.
Trump’s disrespecting John McCain and the military and his choice of admirals and generals loyal to him, not the Constitution. Fuck the mad bad King.
You cannot have civilization without 911 and you need competent and dedicated people answering the call. I have nothing but respect for those who serve, but contempt for many of the politicians and ‘experts’ who send them to places where it is impossible to tell the difference between those who live there and the enemy.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti: WWII experiences and finding a tea cup held by an incinerated hand and fighting against wars with Insurgent Art for the rest of his long life.
Speak Out
And a vast paranoia sweeps across the land
And America turns the attack on its Twin Towers
Into the beginning of the Third World War
The war with the Third World
And the terrorists in Washington
Are shipping out the young men
To the killing fields again
And no one speaks
And they are rousting out
All the ones with turbans
And they are flushing out
All the strange immigrants
And they are shipping all the young men
To the killing fields again
And no one speaks
And when they come to round up
All the great writers and poets and painters
The National Endowment of the Arts of Complacency
Will not speak
While all the young men
Will be killing all the young men
In the killing fields again
So now is the time for you to speak
All you lovers of liberty
All you lovers of the pursuit of happiness
All you lovers and sleepers
Deep in your private dream
Now is the time for you to speak
O silent majority
Before they come for you.
-Ferlinghetti.
(from We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon, edited by Kamal Boullata and Kathy Engel (Interlink Books, 2007)
Naming of Parts
Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
Today we have naming of parts. Japonica.
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And today we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For today we have naming of parts.
-Henry Reid
In 1944, Glenn Miller, Conductor or the U.S. Air Force Band recorded six programs of music to be broadcast over the American Broadcast Station in Europe. “ Music for the Wehrmach” much of it Miller’s standards translated and sung in German was recorded in the Abbey Road Studios in London. The band was described as “A true symbol of America where everyone has the same rights. It is equal regardless of race, color or religion.”