How to Thank a Serviceman

I've been mulling over my previous blog entry, "Thank You for your Service," & felt like it was missing something.

As someone who has smelt a whole lot of BS in my day (& dealt my fair share), words mean very little to me. Yes, some peoples words are their bond. While others whether they had every intention of doing what they said but simply are not in a position to deliver or never had any intention of doing so in the first place w/ is quite irrelevant. Whatever was promised never materialized.

I've found what a person does speaks louder than what they actually say.

You want to thank a serviceman (from here on out they'll be referred to as a GI..."serviceman" sounds so sterile), mow their lawn.

You want to thank a GI? Give the non-deployed spouse some free time by watching their kid(s) while their spouse is deployed.

You want to thank a GI? Buy them groceries. It should be a national embarrassment that over $31 million worth of food stamps were spent in US military commissaries (as reported by the Military News).

You want to thank a GI? Donate your books to any of the book drive organizations that specifically cater to the military. Operation Paperback is a good one.

You want to thank a GI? Volunteer your time at your nearest VA hospital. If they're anything like the one in Albany, NY, they can ALWAYS use the help.

You want to thank a GI? Hire a returning vet. Nor does it hurt the company usually gets some sort of tax break.

You want to thank a GI? Send them a CARE package. Operation Troop Aid is an organization that does something like that.

You want to thank a GI? Donate the old, crappy cell phone that you don't use anymore. Cell Phones for Soldiers is an organization whose mission is to provide deployed and returning troops cost-free methods to communicate with family while serving in the United States military.

You want to thank a GI? Donate or volunteer to Operation Shower. Their mission is to provide baby showers for military families to ease the burden of deployment.

You want to thank a GI and a photographer? Join the Yellow Ribbon Photographers network. They provide pictures of loved ones for those who are deployed.

You want to thank a GI? Take a look at Operation Holiday Stockings. If you knit, you can make your own stockings. Or if you'd prefer, you can donate money to help w/ the shipping costs as well as paying for the treats that will go inside those stockings.

You want to thank a GI? Write them a hard copy letter. I can personally vouch that getting "snail mail" is still the highlight of their day. It reminds them they're not forgotten.

So there you have it. If you want to thank a GI, get off your butt & do something about it.


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This is Charissa.

She wanted to do a set partially to give something to her Afghanistan-deployed Marine husband but also partially to make a statement of sorts. As a veteran myself, I may have left the Corps but the Corps never completely leaves me. So how could I refuse such a request? =)



Feel free to comment on any part of this if you so desire.

Thank You for Your Service

I often hear "thank you for your service" after someone discovers I'm a veteran. Though I appreciate the sentiment & have learned to smile & keep my trap shut, it makes me uncomfortable.

I'm not a dang hero "just because" I served. All I did was be stupid enough to sign up, meet the physical fitness requirements, survive basic, & just do my job day-in & day-out. I don't regret the path I CHOOSE because it was something that I needed at that point in my life.

But let's for argument's sake say that it does.

What about our medical professionals, law enforcement, the academia? To me, its a lot more heroic in knowing full well what the odds are, go through the thankless, daily slog of trying to build something than it is to destroy ones target. I guess its just not as sexy losing life & limb from ones own people than from a "weird" foreigner.

Its tragic.

When did the military become a proxy for everything that is to be admired & great about America? The amount of time we in America spend promoting & "loving" the military really speaks volumes about how far we've ALLOWED the rest of our civil & private institutions to decay.

Heroes are people who do their job, knowing the odds of whatever it is in succeeding are slim to none, & yet do it anyway. Heroes protect their brothers & sisters at the detriment to themselves. Heroes do what they do because its the "right" thing to do, regardless if its popular or not.

Its easy for people wanting to lay down their lives for their cause or buddie or whatever because they don't have to expend the blood, sweat, & tears in fixing what they think is wrong w/ this world.


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This is a family friend taken years ago. I'd like to think that it still holds up.



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Hoodies Really ARE Menacing

Contrary to what you may think, no, this is not a rant about the recent Trevon Martin case.

I work at a small, family restaurant as my day-job. My job requirements REQUIRE me to periodically make food deliveries in all kinds of weather, sh*** & otherwise.

Recently between 940-945p, I had to make one such delivery. It was dark, it was miserably rainy, & of course it was hard to see the numbers on the actual houses. At one point, I saw someone on her porch smoking a cigarette in the general vicinity of my delivery. So I parked & go out & asked her if she knew where (my house number) was.

While I was talking to her, some guy in a car starts bitching at me about the rudeness of shining a flashlight in peoples face. I questioned why he thought that, there was only one person out before he spoke up (the cigarette lady), & informed him I was making a delivery & needed to find the house. He kept bitching at me so I simply choose to ignore him & continued talking w/ the lady on the porch.

Holy sh**! The guy freaked the eff out. He gets out of the car (much to the protestations of [presumably] his wife) demanding that I apologize, all the while getting in my face. I outright refused because I had NOTHING to apologize for. He then continues lecturing me about the virtues on not shining a flashlight in peoples faces, all the while pointing his finger against my chest (assault?).

At one point, he demands I get off his property & leave the area. I have no clue if I was but made sure I was standing on the sidewalk & pointed that fact out to him. He demands I leave the (bleepin') area & demands to know my name & where I worked. Like hell, I'm telling this pedestrian road-rager my name & place of employment. For all I know, he could fire-bomb my workplace in anger & then I'm out of a job. When I refused, he got mad & slapped my hand, sending my flashlight flying to the ground. By sheer instinct, I gave him a nice, hard shove.

As soon as I did that, I'm like "Oh, sh**! Just my luck, this guy will blow a gasket & I'll end up in the hospital." I ran to get my flashlight that's still on the ground, bolted back to the car, to get the food I'm supposed to deliver, the ticket that accompanies it, & jetted over to the opposite side of the street in a seemingly fruitless attempt to find my missing house.

The lady whom I'm supposed to deliver the food to, eventually flagged me down & we were kinda talking about it because they could hear most of the exchange w/ the guy from across the street. It was that loud.

Anyway, I tell my "war" story to the guys back at the restaurant. They got a big kick out of it because its just one of those absurd things.

If only it ended there...

When I get home, I come to find out that the household was visited by the cops. They were asking all sorts of questions, "Did I have any friends in (that) neighborhood?" "Does he drive a (insert the make & model of the car)?" "Do you know what he was doing over there?" This is all the while the family dog's barking up a storm.

At some point, the cops figured out I was over in that end of town because I was making a food delivery. (Well ya, that's what I told the pedestrian road-rager a couple different times!)

While I'm telling the cops my side of the story afterwards, they were like "Well, that's funny. He didn't tell us about (the finger-pointing & the hand slap)." In my head, I'm like "You think he'd admit that he assaulted a complete stranger?" The cop continues & tells me that the guy was concerned because there'd been a string of incidents in that neighborhood (he didn't elaborate) & he saw a guy in a hoodie, shining a flashlight (nevermind where the flashlight was actually shining), & he overreacted. Like that was a newsflash.

So there you have it, my own personal experience how simply wearing a hooded sweatshirt DOES INDEED cause a person to becomes 100x more menacing.

(rolls eyes)


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This is Kira.



Feel free to comment on any part of this if you so desire.

Gold and Police Cars

I noticed something that raised my eyebrows.

My local paper on 11 April reported about a case where the Warren County Sheriff's office (along w/ the Feds) seized over $2 million as part of a illegal drug plea deal. The article is below:

http://poststar.com/news/local/million-in-gold-bars-unearthed-in-queensbury-as-part-of/article_86388450-8414-11e1-ab40-001a4bcf887a.html

Not even 48 hours later, that same daily is reporting how that same sheriff's department is reporting a "crisis" over a lack of available patrol cars. That article is below:

http://poststar.com/news/local/lack-of-available-sheriff-s-cars-called-a-crisis/article_7c4c0cfc-85a7-11e1-b2a0-0019bb2963f4.html

I find it funny (or maybe sad) how the Sheriff's department is just now reporting they're in desperate need of more patrol vehicles at the EXACT moment, they're expecting to receive a financial windfall.

Ok, maybe that doesn't surprise me.

Yet in an era of enhanced concern over public expenditures, I'm outraged that the department (& the board that approves such expenditures) is willing to go spend that money before they even receive it.


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This is Burgandy, a helluva muralist in her own right. The Art Studio major in me is VERY jealous that she's able to have her craft pay her bills. But at the same time, I know that isn't for me. I jokingly attribute that to my the ornery Marine in me & my inability to blow smoke up people's rear when they solicit my opinion. =)

At the time this was shot, I had zero clue how this would turn out. The extreme lights & the extreme darks forced me to completely wing it. I'm pleased w/ how it all turned out.



Feel free & comment away on any part of this if y'all so desire.

Tiny Court System in NYS

After an acquiantance of mine was bitched out in open court because she dared to file a routine appeal, I feel obligated to recall attention to the ongoing problems w/n the small court system here in New York state.

To put in simplistic terms, those presiding (judges) have no requirement to actually have a law degree. Nor is there a requirement for them to know what they're doing. Nor is there a requirement in (at least pretending) to be impartial. Nor is there any real oversight pertaining to how such proceedings are held or conducted.

I would go further but the New York Times did an investigative series & their findings were considerably more detailed. Therefore I'm providing its link below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/nyregion/25courts.html?pagewanted=all


The paper also examined how previous attempts (going as far back as 1926) have all failed for different reasons. That article can be read here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/nyregion/27courts.html?pagewanted=all

This is an issue that effects ALL North Country residents.

Do you really want to be that battered wife (or brother of that wife) & have the judge tell that person, "Every woman needs a good pounding every now and then." Or does it inspire confidence in the system when a judge proclaims, "I just follow my own common sense & the hell with the law."

I think not.


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This is Shiloh, basking in a patch of late afternoon patch of light.



Feel free & comment away on any part of this if you so desire.

Post-Obamacare Motivation

This week the US Supreme Court listened to oral arguments surrounding "Obamacare." Let's assume for argument's sake that it completely strikes it down as being unconstitutional.

What other policy points does the GOP have?

"Obamacare"'s defeat has been a huge fundraising source & rallying point for them. Its dominated the public discussion so much (especially during the primaries) that it makes me wonder if they have any other policy points they want changed.

What are they gonna do talk about contraception for the next seven months?

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This here is Stashi, doing her quirky thing.



Feel free to comment away on this if you so choose.

Wasn't There a Better Way

In late January, the Komen Foundation (one of the biggest nonprofits promoting Breast Cancer Awareness) took the controversial step of publicly revoking its donational support to Planned Parenthood, the reason being PP is an abortion provider & Komen doesn't support abortions. Because the uproar was fueled by member outrage on social media, Komen not only quickly backtracked but their Vice President, Mollie Williams (who is perceived to have led the anti-abortion charge) quickly resigned.

I also stumbled upon this GMA interview of former Victoria Secrets model Kylie Bisutti. (Link is below):

http://gma.yahoo.com/video/fashionbeauty-26594250/lingerie-model-discusses-shocking-exit-off-runway-28244133.html

She entered the public conscience when she won an open competition held by the company, beating out over 10,000 prospective models. She's making news now because she's giving up Victoria Secrets gig & aiming for something more wholesome.

The question I'm asking is, couldn't there have been a better way?

Why am I bringing up these two seperate incidents? Allow me to digress.

Realizing the extent of the public outrage, Komen quickly reversed their descion. They could have acheived their objections in distancing themselves from an abortion provider by quietly withdrawing their donations. But instead, they had to make a splash & make it public thus insuring outrage but also making it a POLITICAL statement.

What did they get out of it? They're still paying PP for cancer screening (money which would not have gone to abortions because of the terms of those donations). But in the process, they lose their credibility. The Foundation can't claim to be the preeminent nonprofit interested in only promoting breast cancer awareness if they contract their elligibility pool. Nor was their founder's performance in explaining their rationale whe she appeared on Andrea Mitchell's program (the interview link is below)

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/02/10303379-andrea-mitchell-interviews-susan-g-komens-nancy-brinker

As for Kylie Bisutti, I'm still scratching my head. If a person changes their mind, that's their business. But her justification that "(her) body is only for her husband" left me wincing. What is this like 1955? Don't even get me started that she's also doing it to "honor God". She certainly had no quams about showing off her body when she beat out her competitors (even going so far as saying "I want this, and I'll do what it takes to get it."). Nor did she have quams taking such gigs when it accompanied a big fat modeling contract. She could have easily shifted to more wholesome stuff & no one would have cared. But by making a big splash, it didn't become about her or her husband or her religious beliefs. It became about her ego. Last time I checked the Bible, hubris was a pretty big sin.


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This is one of my muses (its not a term I use lightly).

She earned that name by how she found me. Back during my undergrad, I posted a series of flyers "Seeking a Muse" citing the various benefits. "Eternal glory" was one of the perks. I did it more as a lark than anything else. Anyway, she found & responded to the flyer & we worked together MANY times before she transferred.



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