where'd the money go?

this is the second time this has happened that i can remember.

once before, during the clinton administration, and while i was active duty, it seemed the government had misallocated its funds, and was threatening to not pay the military. that lasted a couple days before they figured it all out and everything proceeded on as normal.

at the time, i did stand up comedy, and made a joke about how they were going to make sure the postal workers got paid because they were known to go off with semiautomatic weapons when stressed, but the government was forgetting we had jets, bombs, and tanks.

there is a similarity between then and now: both of these seeming lacks of money (i say seeming, because congress and the senate are still getting paid--or, not to put to fine a point on it, they are making sure they pay themselves!) occurred when there was a democratic president and a majority of republicans in the house.

one big difference this time around is we are still recovering from one of our worst economic slumps in history. nearly as bad as the great depression.

and they are talking, even more now than i remember then, about making mission-essential military members work without pay.

here's the thing: thing 1) if the military isn't getting paid, what is to keep them doing the job they signed up to do, namely protecting the country (to and including the politicians who repeatedly fuck them in the ass)? what is keeping young guys who haven't seen their families in months in trenches in afghanistan from just tossing down their guns, and leaving for home? thing 2) with the government in an obvious shambles of late, and the country not doing so hot right behind it, and in this age of separatism and right-or-wrong and never any gray area, what is stopping a group of military folks from doing just exactly what i joked about when clinton was president, and effectuating a military coup?

and most importantly, how on earth to rich, fat, corrupt politicians expect to continue getting away with the shit they have for however long, if the military isn't getting paid? that's like telling your personal bodyguard, "i'm sorry, dude, i spent all my extra money on cocaine and whores this week, but you've got a contract with me, so you need to keep people from harming me, all for no pay."

i am already learning korean, i should add mandarin and cantonese to the list.

darth sardonic

and we never forgot...

i need to get something off my chest:

i am watching the majestic (brilliant fucking movie, if you haven't seen it, run out and rent it now. right fucking now. it's jim carey's first completely serious role, and fuck me gently with a chainsaw sideways if he doesn't pull it off in spades. i would liken him to jimmy stewart in this movie. but i digress), and this movie, of course, makes me cry. and shit, who knows? i guess i need it. but while i watch it, i keep thinking about wwii and our current little shindig, and i can't help but wonder what the big difference is.

then it hit me: we are not invested in our current wars (yes, wars. the us is currently fighting in two countries still. we only hear about iraq, but our sons and daughters are still dying in afghanistan as well). oh, i mean, i am invested, i am so fucking invested that sometimes it feels as if someone has pulled my very entrails out of my stomach and gone sifting through them looking for gold. and there are many like me, and i end up talking to them in chats, and here and there around base and post, and i see my own ache and longing and melancholy staring right back at me as if mirrored in their eyes.

but we, the country, we are not invested in the outcome overseas. no one is asking us to cut back on sugar. no one is telling us we have to make our tires last longer cause our boys need the rubber to win the war. no one is asking us to do our part to aid the war effort. no one is telling us to grow a victory garden. no one is asking us to buy war bonds. shit, our very president urged us to go out after 9/11 and go shopping, for fuck's sake! and if companies haven't latched onto this as an opportunity to make a fast buck, then i am one blind and stupid motherfucker that should be clubbed like a baby seal, cause i see so many "support the troops" magnets and bumperstickers, and flags, etc etc etc.

we used to be proud to say our sons were serving. we gave each returning soldier a hero's welcome. then we got jaded, somewhere around the vietnam era. i try to tell every vietnam vet i see thanks. they didn't get the welcome home that the boys from wwii got. but they were doing the same thing, serving their country.

as the troops are doing now.

i remember watching george bush senior on a tv in argentina, overdubbed in castellano, and wondering if some of my friends were on their way to the desert then. i even joined the air force after i came home from south america, and still managed to miss any real action (i hadn't been doing my job long enough to have been included with the small handful of dentists and assistants who went to bosnia to do dental work on the un troops there), i felt like the midnight oil song, forgotten years. i hadn't been asked to sacrifice. none of my friends had died on the field of battle.

that never stopped me from appreciating the ones who have gone on before, regardless of what war, police action, conflict, or offensive they might've been called to.

and now, i am sacrificing, o my droogs and beloved non-existant readers, though for only a couple more days (well, till the next round, where i will do it all again), and i want to send out a reminder to those who maybe don't really think about what's going on "over there": our sons and daughters are still dying. this thing isn't over. it might very well be a long time before we can actually call it "over", before our sons and daughters are no longer dying on desert sands far from home.

and if we might take a moment, maybe just a couple seconds each day, when we turn off our tv's, and our computers, and our ipods, and our video games, and we launch a momentary prayer heavenward that our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives might all return home safe, and sound. that a peaceful end might be found to this conflict.

but most importantly, o my beloveds everywhere, that we vow that we will not forget.

we will not forget.

darth sardonic