SAD TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO

“Sad to say I told you so” would probably be the same words I could say to my brother in-law today. We were driving in his car in upstate New York and there were people lining each side of the road with signs saying “Honk, if you don’t want war”. I said “Aren’t you going to honk?” He said “no, because Sodom Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and we need to keep America safe.” I told him that Iraq had no WMD’s and they are not the ones responsible for what happened on September 11^th and I wanted him to remember that I told him this.  I had seen on television the grainy films that Colin Powell had shown to the United Nations Assembly as supposed proof that we should go into Iraq and get rid of the danger to the United States.

Our grandson in his senior year in high school removed his jacket at dinner where all our children and grand-children were celebrating Christmas Eve. He showed us the Marine T-shirt he was wearing, telling about twenty of us that he had signed-up and would attend boot camp at Parris Island after graduation. He was so happy to tell us and we all cheered for him, but also cried. He told us he would probably be sent to Japan after basic training.

The family also cried when we attended his graduation ceremony on Parris Island.  It was a very moving experience.  There were signs everywhere which said “support our troops”. I told our grandson that although we were against the war, it didn’t mean we did not support our troops. He said he knew that.

War came and he was sent to Iraq. He was stationed in Fallujah where in this different kind of war, he held his cell-phone in the air, so his mother could hear the flak going over his head and listen to the sound of war all around him

Every day, we saw pictures on the front page of our newspapers of Marines in their dress uniforms that were reported killed in action. The majority of them were 18 years of age and they all looked like our grandson and we cried at their loss.

Jeff spent a full year in the combat zone and now would be coming home. We were attending the Florida State Fair with his mother, when she got a call from Jeff saying he was back in the USA. We all hugged and cried.

To date, the estimates of persons killed in the war in Iraq go from 150,000 to over 1.2 million as a result of direct and indirect warfare.

MY VISIT TO THE EYE DOCTOR

 I had my Field Vision Test for Glaucoma. It’s a very intensive examination of my left eye which shows I might have a slight problem. I do take one drop every night at bedtime in just the one eye as well as another drop ten minutes later for an extremely dry eye. I’ve been doing this every night without fail for the past three years. In the morning I use the dry eye drop again, it’s in a bigger bottle.

Here’s how my day went. I got up put a drop in my eye before leaving with my husband for the appointment. Unfortunately, I used the wrong bottle, so I tried to wash it out with water. This was the only time I’d ever done that.

I explained to the technician what I had done, we both laughed but she said it was probably no problem. After the long ten minute tests on both eyes, I then sat in another dark room with about a dozen other people until being called to the room for vision testing and having drops put in my eyes. The technician left me because something wasn’t right on the computer and she had to check it out. She came back and said everything was OK. I was put again in the dark room with other patients until I was called in to see the doctor.

The doctor came in, I thought there was something the matter with him ‘cause he had changed in the six months since I had last seen him. He started looking at all the computer results then mentions his name (Dr. S.) and said he had done my cataract surgery. This was really weird because the person placing me in the room said my regular doctor (Dr. B.) would be in soon. So that’s who I expected.

Dr. S. looks at the computer for a few minutes then says he’ll be right back and left. Another employee came in a few minutes later and asked if I had seen the Doctor, I said yes but he left, she asked where he went. I told her he said something about seeing the computer person. She then asked if it was still cold outside, I told her it was when I arrived, but it may have warmed up in the two hours since I entered the building.

After a long time, the Dr. returned, said “Hello and how was I”, as though he hadn’t seen me five or more minutes before. He started to check me using “the bright light machine” before stopping and deciding the light bulb needed to be changed. He left again to hunt for a new bulb, replaced it and finished my examination. Told me I had a slight problem, but nothing to worry about and come back in six months.

 

 

 

HOW DOES HE DO IT?

I often wonder how George Bush can sleep at night. I read recently that he spends his time painting. Does he ever regret what he has been responsible for?

So many people are dead, so many men and women soldiers as well as civilians tragically wounded as a result of all the lies and half-truths perpetrated by him and Cheney and the rest of their crew. Cheney doesn’t regret any of it and said this week he would do it all over again. That’s rich, don’t you think or maybe I should I say that doing it over again would allow more money to flow into their own pockets.

Now we have another Bush wanting to be president. Bush’s’ one and two had each started two wars.  Jeb wants to be president in the worst way, which says it all. He’s already put his stamp on education in Florida with starting the FCAT and then there’s that policy in Florida to allow more Charter Schools to be opened. The state pays for them, but the owners get the money. Do you know how many of the members of the state legislature own these schools or have a partnership in them?

But to get back to George, you know the guy you’d like to have a beer with? Do you think he sleeps well at night? If he were an honorable man he’d never be able to sleep again.