Deep Thoughts

You know it is times like this that get you thinking. . . . With the passing of my Father in law yesterday it brought back lots of memories of when my dad passed about two and a half years ago.

As I think about these two men, both did some amazing things. . . .

I’ll start with my Dad – He was a Sea Bee in the Navy in 59-60, a doctor on an Ice Breaker and part of Deep Freeze Five where they went to re-supply the bases in the Antarctic. While there his ship made history with the depth of penetration into one of the ice shelf’s, I forget which one off the top of my head. He then went on to work on an old Liberty Ship that was converted into a listing ship. While there he was part of the first broadcast from land to a ship using the Moon as the reflector/satellite to bounce the signal off of.

He came home, got married and started his own practice. He developed a bit of a drinking problem but he beat it. He then went on to develop the program for the state of Maine to help other Doctors that had problems with drugs to get help and get straight. He then set up a similar program in New Hampshire and helped fix the one in Massachusetts when it got all messed up.

My father in law was a WWII vet, and not just anyone but one of the bomber crews on a B-26. His crew only made a few missions before getting so badly shot up that only he and one other survived it so I am told. He was grounded due to injury and after healing up went back to war this time as a mechanic fixing the aircraft for the rest of the war. He married a British woman and came home.

He went to work for the DOD as a Quality Inspector and had other odd jobs including working for the US Mail in order to make ends meet as they raised a family of four kids. He was a hunter and an avid fisherman, the outdoorsman my dad wasn’t.

Now I look back at all they have done and I can see why we call the previous generation the Greatest Generation. I would extend that to include my Dads generation too as he did not fight in WWII which is who they usually mean. . . .

These folks did all sorts of things, nothing seemed to stop them. Whatever they needed to do for the country or their family they did. They worked long hours, paid the bills and raised a family.

I am not sure we are living up to this. . . . I regret not having served in the military but that is not the only thing they did. We seem to have taken this country that they built and we are slowly destroying it with political correctness and liberal/hippy ideas. When my dad was nearing the end we use to talk a lot. He seemed glad that he was not going to have to be around for what was to come. He did not understand why the country was going so far left. He had warned against the care HMOs would give years before they got popular and it came to pass. . . He knew the insurance folks would take over medicine and the care and choices would be taken away from the doctors and put in the hands of the accountants at the insurance company. . . . He feared universal health care as he said that would make the mess we have now look great by comparison. . .

I hope we can bring things back and be worthy of inheriting the country these men and many like them built and protected for us. This country is going too far to the left and heading for socialism even though we know it doesn’t work. Obama is a huge step toward big brother government and the destruction of personal freedom in this country in the name of the great state – and politically correctness. . . .

We need to shift things back to the middle, ideally a tad bit right of the middle. We need to go back to a country of freedom loving people that will take responsibility for their freedom. We need to get back to a nation of riflemen as they say. Folks that know how to use guns and don’t fear them. Folks that will take back their streets, neighborhoods, and cities from the evil that lives there now dealing in drugs, crime and dead ends. We need to look at people like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson for what they are, hate mongers that make a living off of dividing us and keeping folks down and dependent on government hand outs.

And then I ask myself what have I done? So far not too much. I wonder what I will be able to say for my self at the end of the day when I meet my ancestors . . . Will I be able to claim anything as my achievement? What will I be doing with my time here to make a difference. . . . I think my generation has a lot of work ahead of us. . . .