May 27th, 2016

Happy Memorial Day:
May 30th, 2016:

He did not understand the war --
He understood the blistering injustice of it; the stroke-like fear in the faraway sight of the raped as they blamed him for not being there; the accusing eyes of the children that leered from atop distended bellies even as they starved; the seeping lines of grief lacerated into the faces of fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives who had lost all they loved; the tortured and the maimed becoming in part or in whole separate from who they once were; and the Dali-draped carcasses of the dead…

​The evil of the war bored into his heart, twisted with agony until he learned to ignore it --
Until he could ignore it no longer.   - from The Invisible War aka The Forgotten War, a short story, by Kevin O'Kendley
   
He’d seen a lot of death in his life but it hadn’t inured him to the pain of it, the tragedy, the loss, the suffering.  On the contrary, it had a cumulative effect; on darker days this effect swamped him in a Tsunami of emotion: after all the smaller waves passed a big one threatened.  He would watch it nearing shore with a rising dread…  - from Chandler's Bar, a novel, by Kevin O'Kendley

Please give to: The Paralyzed Veterans of America/ VA Palo Alto Health Care System/
3801 Miranda Avenue/ Palo Alto, California, 94304/ 650-858-3936
And: The Wounded Warrior Project/ National Processing Center/ P.O. Box 75840/ Topeka, Kansas, 66675/ 877-832-6997

added 7/28:   HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONOR.  I LOVE YOU.

May 26th, 2016

John F. Kennedy was born on 5/29/1917:

“… Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
      “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty…” 
“… So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.  Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. 
       “Let us both side explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.”
“… And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”  - John F. Kennedy   Excerpts: Inaugural Address: delivered 20, January 1961/ americanrhetoric.com


Please give to the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital (at Maine Medical Center)/ 22 Bramhall Street/ Portland, Maine 04101/ 207-662-0111