Visiting Free Ukraine

It’s difficult to write about Ukraine without writing about history, and it’s difficult to write about Ukrainian history and still leave room for anything else. I want to write a travel essay.

My parents were encouraged to visit Ukraine in the 1970s after a friend of theirs did so and suffered only a long interrogation by Soviet agents. The lady happened to run a hotel in New York’s Catskill Mountains, and her interrogators revealed their knowledge even of the price of pierogies at her hotel’s restaurant. (Read more at GoNomad.com)

Something Worth Fighting For

Something Worth Fighting For

A colonel once advised me to never, ever, under any circumstances feel like I’m pulling one over on the Army. We were friends despite his higher rank, and I had been struggling with a form DD 1351-2 to be reimbursed two bucks a day for laundry expenses.

“The Army is very good at treating you the way a juicer treats a lemon,” he went on. “You need to make yourself the juicer, and let the Army be the lemon.” This philosophy was easy to adopt.

It was summer, 2007 and I had just reluctantly returned to uniform after a few years of civilian life for a third combat tour . . . . (Read more at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com)

Yes, I’ve used this title before.

Wow factor

Here is the original article which precipitated my letter:

“Maybe the two cranes towering over First Street SE will get the public to notice the $160 million federal courthouse under construction there.

The eight-story edifice will be faced with stone and then glass that will stretch as wide as a football field from the Cedar River to Second Street SE between Seventh and Eighth avenues SE and look toward downtown.

Brad Thomason, leader of the Ryan Cos. US Inc. building team, and David Sorg, a principal with project architect OPN Architects Inc. of Cedar Rapids, scratch their heads at the lack of interest.

Sorg says people have yet to grasp the magnitude, beauty and importance of the courthouse. When complete and ready to open in fall 2012, the 330,000-square-foot building will stand a little taller than the nearby Great America Building. . . .” (More from gazetteonline.com)

My Response:

Regarding “wow factor.” I can understand the architect’s enthusiasm for what sounds like an immense, complicated project. We should all take pride in our work. Perhaps I can shed some light on the public’s indifference [to which the article alludes].

I know I’m not alone in considering the new $160-million federal courthouse building in Cedar Rapids just another expression of our excessive, obscene, financially bankrupt government, which I’m required to pay for, just like I pay for bank bailouts, stimuli, domestic spying programs and foreign, undeclared wars.

Few people know that one-sixth of America’s labor force is employed directly by government (source) [and this doesn’t even include contractors].

It is the five-sixths of the labor force, the voluntary sector of our economy, that grows food, sells coffee, trims lawns and produces all the goods and services society voluntarily consumes.

Taxes on them pay for the projects, salaries and health care benefits of the government one sixth, including the new federal building’s eventual occupants, all of whom will have better health care than me.

The architect is right. My jaw will drop when I see the finished, arching, stone, glass-covered whatever, but not for the reasons he thinks. I will see only $160 million worth of goods and services that never came into existence because money was taken from the voluntary economy to build yet another gratuitous monument to our rulers in Washington D.C.

(from gazetteonline.com)

I had to cut many corners to make the 250-word limit. My first draft was about 600 words.

Life Lessons

I’m honor to be participating in the NY Time’s homefires blog:

LIFE LESSONS

I’m occasionally asked what I’ve learned from my experiences in the military.

My responses, particularly before my third tour, have always involved leadership, confidence, knowledge of myself and of people in general. This hasn’t changed. I remain grateful.

Sometimes I feel the pressure of expectation to cast myself as a victim of my experiences, but in truth, I think I’ve benefited from them.

The Army, and especially the infantry, gives its junior leaders tremendous responsibility. The rough world of the 82nd Airborne Division was a steep learning curve for me, a freshly minted lieutenant accustomed to the studious habits of Stanford University, of its School of Engineering, no less. I learned an awful lot and, I think, emerged a better person.

More recently, I’ve realized some of my beliefs have formed so slowly and subtly that their learning has been entirely unappreciated. I’ve learned that no matter what, life goes on — it’ll do so with or without any one of us — and I’ve found a measure of respect for selfishness; for people who look out for themselves and their lives yet to come. This is surely cynical.

If there’s redemption in the selfishness, it has to do with loving life, with respecting yourself enough not to end your days prematurely or in futile pursuits. Yes, I said it. Somewhere between my second and third tours, I came to believe that our foreign, undeclared wars flaunted our Constitution and made us less safe — from terrorism, from debt and from tyranny at home. Believing this wasn’t easy, but I couldn’t help it. Without faith in our military endeavors, my long-held notions about duty, heroism and fighting the good fight didn’t survive long.

I think you’re only a hero for as long as your image is useful. . . . (Read more from nytimes.com)

Now that I’m published in the NY Times, am I still allowed to complain about the media?

Not Left vs Right, Power vs Liberty

“These are perilous times to believe in liberty. Because I oppose Obama’s expansion of government (socialized health care), people assume I was for Bush’s expansion of government (wars, domestic spying, suspending habeas corpus for detainees, monitoring domestic travel, etc.).

Such is the world through the lens of left-versus-right glasses. I’ve been lumped together with neo-cons, called a Republican agent, and faced such comments as, ‘Think of [alternative-energy subsidies] this way: It’s a new weapon to use against the Middle East. It’s weapons research. That should satisfy your tiny repubtard mind.’

I’ll note that I voted for neither McCain nor Obama — neither for the old white guy who believes in bank bailouts and expanding foreign, undeclared wars, nor for the young black guy who believes in bank bailouts and expanding foreign, undeclared wars.

In both cases, dissenters were/are portrayed as fringe, radical, unreasonable, and irrelevant. In both cases, the conflict is crammed into a paradigm of left versus right, and, in both cases, it’s an uphill battle for those of us who oppose an expansion of government.” (from DailyIowan.com)

15 tips for Ranger School

A friend of mine shocked the hell out of me recently and told me he was not just going back into the Active Army (from the I.R.R.) but giving ranger school another try. He asked for advice. I thought I’d share it with the world.

Realize, I went through in 2001, so some stuff may have changed. I also went through in the winter.

1. Toward the beginning, they make you dumb all your bags and then stress you out as you repack. When I packed for ranger school, I had one stuff sack full of everything that was smaller than a fist, and I dumped it in a tight pile on the edge of my bigger pile. Made it easier to find things when they called for “chap stick,” or “sewing kit,” or whatever.

2. They allowed us to have neosporin for my class. I used the hell out of neosporin, rubbing it on my knees all the time to prevent skin infections. They also allowed generic lotions which I used on my hands, though they still cracked and bled a little.

3. I did the first part of ranger school twice (on my first attempt, I dislocated my knee). The second time, knowing the schedule made it easier. Knowing that I only had three more times in sawdust pit, two more times, etc, made it easier. So, learn the schedule before you go.

4. I think they tell every class that they are the worst ever, that they’re not going to pass whatever is next. This mind game is part of Ranger school. Focus on the task at hand. One day at a time, one hour at a time, one minute at a time, one task at a time. Don’t worry about tomorrow’s problems until tomorrow.

5. Staying awake is hard. Eating helped me stay awake. I would save something for my guard shift at night, and eat it real slowly.

6. Don’t steal food from the mess hall, dumpsters or anywhere else. It’s not worth the risk.

7. Remember, the RIs continue watching you AFTER your patrol to see if you crash and turn into a shitbag. They’ll fail your patrol if you do. Your body will want to crash.

8. Know the words “roger, Sergeant” and get used to them. There is no arguing/reasoning with an RI.

10. Memorize the Ranger Creed before you go to save yourself a little heart ache.

11. Don’t bulk up with muscle. Muscle takes a lot of calories to sustain itself. I think rucking with 40-60 pounds is a great exercise.

12. A good way to dry socks or wool gloves is with body heat. Tuck the ends into your belt, and dangle the socks or gloves into your crotch.

13. If it’s winter, bring ten pairs of wool gloves.

14. On one hand, you have to want the ranger tab very badly, because ranger school is extremely painful, and you need a lot of drive to get through the pain. I told myself the only way I was leaving without the tap was on a stretcher. Unfortunately, this came true on my first attempt. On the other hand, lots of great guys don’t pass ranger school. There are all kinds of stupid reasons why you might fail. If you don’t, you need to be able to walk away from it with your dignity intact. Some guys attach way too much self-esteem to the Ranger Tab. A patch that says “Ranger” is not what makes you a man.

15. When you’re in charge, *everything* is your responsibility, whether you can control it or not.

Canoeing the Upper Iowa

We canoed the Upper Iowa, and spent most of the first day floating and fishing from the canoe. We’d cast into the dark deep swirls in bends behind rapids.

This was ideal. Where there were no such spots, we cast where little creeks flowed into the Upper Iowa, or behind fallen trees, or into deep spots.

When possible, we cast upstream, and pulled our lures down toward us ahead of the current, so they’d wiggle in the water. I caught the first fish, which was a joke. It was barely double the size of the lure. An ambitious little guy.

In places, the river was wide and no more than eight inches deep all the way across, the surface rippling over the stony bottom. Now and then, the canoe dragged, and we pushed against the bottom with our paddles.
(Read more from gonomad.com)