Part 2, One Nation

Continuing: When we got to the Arlington Cemetery and on board the tour bus, I was expecting the tour guide to point out salient facts about the cemetery, and maybe some history of thmore famous military personnel that were buried there such as Audie Murphy, Medal of Honor winner and Hollywood celebrity, or General of the Army George Marshall, or maybe even a Private who had done some heroic feat. But instead, the first words out of the Guides mouth were to look to the right and you will see the headstone of Medger Evers, the civil rights worker killed in Mississippi. To my knowledge, he never served in the military. I don't doubt that he deserves to be recognized as a brave, upright individual who gave is life for an ideal, but he doesn't deserve to be buried in Arlington. He went on as some point in the tour to point out the tomb to the first Black Supreme Court Justice. He never mentioned one Military man during the tour. I walked about and found one of my hero's monument, General Chappie James, who incidentally is the first Black Air Force General Officer.
I think that this tour set the tone for the rest of my time in D. C. I see Washington through, addmittedly, darkend glasses, dimly. It seems to me that the divisions in this country are the strongest in what is supposed to be the heart of our country. Black vs white, liberal vs conservative, yadda, yadda, yadda. And the divide is getting worse, not better... More later.

One Nation, Under?

My lovely wife and I, along with our granddaughter, spent the past week in Alexandria, Va. visiting our eldest daughter and family. We had a lovely time exploring the usual sight in D.C. even with a solid week of rain. There were some special places I wanted to visit, Arlington Cemetery, the Vietnam memorial and the Smithsonian being primary on my list. We did see all those things and a good many other sights. Rode the Metro all over, and Bella got a kick out of that. Only had one dismaying incident, and that was on the way back to the house after touring the Aviation museum when one really scraggly individual got on the Metro almost wearing a baggy pair of exercise pants that were hanging so far down the dude's business was almost exposed. And he stopped dead in front of Carmen and I and just stood there jabbering to himself. As his pants slipped lower and lower, I got madder and madder and was just about to leap up and snatch his pants way past a wedgie! But just before I leaped, the next station came up and he exited the door. I had not noticed it, but C said he was wearing 3 different hospital bracelets. One of them had to be from the nut house.
Back to D.C. - You may think that I am racist, or overly sensitive when I relate the following, and I may be. I have had mixed emotions about what I am about to reveal, and I would like you, my 2 esteemed readers and editors to comment on this. I was really looking forward to visiting Arlington, both as a student of history, and as a career military man. The tradition of our military's handling of those who gave their all to this country is a very special, hallowed tradition. When we freed the French from the Nazi occupation and took the land, all we asked for in return was enough land to bury our dead. At the end of the Civil war, both the North and the South buried their dead in the same field. We have since that time buried the lowest private to the highest ranking generals, men to cowered in foxholes in fear at Normandy and Medal of honor winners who reached down into places they did not know they had and found courage to do the impossible.
Now, we have also buried Presidents who served in the Military, and there are Wives of heroes buried at Arlington, and that's a good thing, because they also served. I will continue this post in another post, Part 2