Known by different names.
Hurricane, Cyclone, Typhoon.
All made up of swirling wind
And a lot of water.
Devastate all in their path.
Leaving no place the same.
Some folk fear them.
Other folk do great deeds.
Neighbor helping neighbor.
Hurricane Maria dealt a hard blow to the United States Virgin Islands first than it hit Puerto Rico with Hurricane 5 winds and a great deal of water.
Those islands still need a lot aid for some of life basic needs.
My grandmother name was Maria, but she was no hurricane.
She taught me that you can't knock other folk to build up your esteem.
As a veteran, I must take an exception to he knew what he sign for, one does not sign on to get killed.
But we all know it might happen.
When one sign an employment in a hazardous job.
One does not sign to get killed.
But that fact is always on your mind.
I will paste this few lines;
When soldiers were part of society, people recognized them as ordinary human beings.
Now, with the emergence of the all-volunteer army, society has transferred the burden of war.
To a small, self-contained caste cut off from the American mainstream.
This distance allows civilians to develop extravagant fantasies about soldiers that feed the militarist impulse.
If we believe our soldiers are superheroes, it makes sense to send them to faraway battlefields.
To solve our perceived problems in the world.
That is why, in this era of seemingly endless war, politicians, and the defense industry.
Even big-time sports compete with each other to promote hero-worship of soldiers and veterans.
This serves the cynical interests of those who, for political or business reasons.
Want to encourage American involvement in foreign wars.
Even worse, it distracts attention away from the scandalous way we treat our veterans.
Cheering for them in public and saluting them in cliche-ridden speeches.
Is a way to disguise the fact that our society callously discards many of them.
Shocking rates of unemployment, mental illness, homelessness, addiction, and suicide.
Among our veterans constitute a national disgrace.
It is far easier, however, to spend a few seconds applauding a smiling soldier.
Than to contemplate a troubled veteran left behind by an uncaring country.
~ Stephen Kinzer December 7, 2014
I don't believe the nation of my birth is an uncaring country.
But we must do better by the 1% that are serving in our military.
Semper Fidelis
Ricardo Jacques
Former Staff Sergeant United States Marine Corps
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