This Monday was Veterans Day, prompting this intriguing piece, which examines flaws in the public’s perception of veterans and in veteran’s perception of themselves.
Meanwhile, this article addresses the continuing saga of new federal food safety rules and how they hurt small farms. Speaking of small farms, a non-profit called Schoolyard Farms is apparently looking to stock school cafeterias with produce grown on school property.
Lastly, this piece argues that modern political woes may stem from the loss of writing ability.
My father served in the European Theater of war during WWII, early on in England, then across France and finally into western Germany. He served, fighting and killing, after his national guard unit had been “federalized” in 1940, that service lasting until late 1945.
He saw the war as a lost five years of his life. He loathed the killing and the dying. He had no animosity toward the German whom he had to fight and who had to fight him. War was for him attempting to survive with his buddies, mutually trying to get through the ordeal together. He often told me that in the thick of the terror of combat the difference between a “hero” and a “coward” was the direction in which he ran when his fear got the best of him. He also noted that war, particularly a given battle, had its own rhythm compelling a soldier forward as an unseen force. In a lull in fighting, perhaps like the silent moments between notes in a musical composition, he came across a young German solider, dying, who reminded him of his brother, three years older than my father, who had died of acute appendicitis. In that silent moment, ever so brief, he touched the young enemy as he died and then rushed on where more young enemies would kill and be killed.
He did not like veterans organizations and avoided all veterans benefits coming to him. His view was that he was a citizen. He did his duty. He was owed nothing.
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