Friday, November 25, 2005

Thanksgiving 2005

Turkey day is over. Black Friday is upon us. We shall celebrate by not shopping. Biggest news of the day is that son David arrived and started to do some maintenance on the family computers. The wireless router that had been gathering dust for some months now comunicates with the laptop so we have two internet capable machines in the house. He promises a few other smoother bells and whistles before he leaves.

Other thoughts. Ted Koppel retired. In his closing statement he asked the same question I have been asking for some time. Why is it that the only people who are expected to sacrifice in the war against terrorism are our troops and their families? I can still dimly remember the ration books, tin can crushing, and the quarter a week war bond stamp books of WWII. If this is a war and it does affect each of us, why not some kind of surcharge to help pay for a bit of it now? There are few belts in this country that could not survive one small notch of tightening. One wonders if those ubiquitous "Supprt Our Troops" banners would be so common if the cost of displaying one was a couple of hundred bucks directly to the US Treasury. The sad fact is that too many citizens would prefer to battle fellow consumers for the latest photo phone at Wal Mart and complain about high gas prices than pay now for their president's commitments-- whether right or wrong.

After all isn't that what grandchildren are for?
We all might want to remember that shoes only pinch when we walk in them ourselves.

1 comment:

David said...

A local poet exclaimed shortly after GW kicked off this deathly fiasco, "How can there be a war on terror, when the real terror is war?"

We (Americans) are all paying for this war, mostly in shame.

American pain is nothing compared to what the Iraqi civilians have suffered in the name of big $ and political gain.

Sadly, many are covering their shame with patriotism, which as Samuel Johnson has said, is "the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Shop till ya drop.

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