The intent of this blog is to promote human equality, human progress, human peace and justice, and optimism. To accomplish this, to encourage the discussion of ideas after identifying and discovering problems, and then creating positive solutions for "we the people," in order to provide for the "general welfare" and "domestic tranquility" of America now and its "posterity" into the future. To encourage an emphasis on separation of religion and state for all, no matter if this is for those "of faith" in a Maker / Creator (Deists, God-loving people, Christians, various people of spirituality) and atheists or agnostics.

Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category

Stupidity of White Racist Who Haters of Democrats

Common folk just accepting what things are and sitting on butted to not do or say anything to make things better. Upset the apple cart, but do it without making the good apples rotten. Like lousy Republicans and Fo white racists,  posing falsely as if they are knowledgeable Republicans, are  slandering and smearing good Democrats as if all Democrats are bad. 

Fact. Capitalist competition helps keep prices down. 

President Joe Biden and the Democrats are not responsible for higher prices and inflation. Supply-side Reaganomics with manure ideas about trickle-down money based on principles from the Asian-indian caste system to create a class of “untouchables” … Such principles pushed to create a lousy oligarchic dictatorship consisting of big corporations and their PACs, are responsible.

With this being said, it was Reagan and then the Alito-Scalia lousy justice which created a Mafia-style centralized Machiavellian-style corporate environment which pushes life upon society based only on their ideas of an ancient Roman Empire which was brutal and barbaric and making stupid claims that those at the top have divine rights. They base these divine rights on the worship the money god. 

They put forth money to elect bad people like Republican Molinaro and others who make commercials of lies and slander of good Democrats who don’t take money from corporate PACs. Furthermore, if such Democrats STOLE political signs of their opponents, they would make such loud noises about it. But if Republican Mafia goons take signs of opponents, then, oh, well… too bad, too bad. Such lousy Republicans might stalk their opponents and put cameras near signs and then think their opponents are too wimpy by not doing the same. But. If lousy Repugnicans get caught, they hide it, as did Rick the Prick Scott of Florida did when stealing from Medicare. Or when Rick the Prick claimed there was not enough money to pay for the train system approved by voters, but somehow was able to find money to build additional super highways and stadiums for millionaire players. 

Now back to the lousy lies being told about good people in the Democratic Party, while Reagan and his friends at companies like GE, pushed for the oligarchy dictatorship with supply-side economics. When there was inflation under Reagan, perhaps things were better, but unemployment was worse than now. 

Why might things have been better, so as to make it easier to live with? It was due to the fact that CEOS like Jack if GE pulled in lower salaries and common folk had more liveable wages. Facts are there.

In those years when inflation happened, there were more small businesses to provide the capitalist competition, thus keeping prices lower or the business would fail. More small farmers. More small businesses. Today, large corporations make false claims about how much lower prices are, if products are sold in high volume, but abandoning the service once provided by small businesses at a lower cost. These corporate giants are nothing but snake-oil salespeople.

Biden works to get the economy going, but faces supply-side economics people and thieves of privatization efforts like Rick the Prick, who are merely trying to hide the ones like Reaganomics advocates who are the ones responsible for our problems today. They become offensive, trying to push in the media all things which will tarnish Democrats and smearing good people with dirt. This way, they can continue to fill their coffers, moaning and complaining about “profits”  and getting people upset about a false sense of what capitalism truly is.

Thank you, President Biden, for having the proactive foresight to attempt to build industries such as the semiconductor producers and thus protect America from a potential future threat which might develop if we don’t build them up and stimulate the overall economy. This is called economic stimulus. 

And if someone can only choose to shoot holes in what I say, I truly pity you for being like a Repugnican. White supremacists, to feel better about their lack of confidence, chose to call Democrats, “democrats.” The real stupid ones are such bigots. For they lack so much self-esteem, all they know how to do us point fingers. My Republican mom said, if you din’t have anything good to say about a stupid person, then don’t say anything at all. Interesting. Because of a recent experience and someone claiming negative things, in a false way, about Democrats, I said nothing.  

Republicans Above the Law?

Yes indeed. And this describes Republicans who think they are above the law will slander and smear others, Democrats, particularly, but also those in their own political party who don’t go along with their favorite corporate PACs (I.e., big pharma) and dig up dirt on such people and expand the dirt beyond belief (I.e., making a mountain out of a mole hill). For example. A Republican who supported efforts to regulate pricing of prescriptions suddenly is brought forth with accusations beyond belief and resigns. Fear created by Mafioso style Republicans and people like Tucker Carlson.

Wake Up, America and Speak Out Against Bigotry; Stop being Frightened about STANDING UP FOR ALL HUMAN BEINGS

Tucker Carlson should resign and/or be fired from Fox because he is nothing but a LGBTQ bigot hiding his bigotry behind a smoke screen. Usually people like that are repressed gay and need to have their heads examined for being sicko. Expose people like Lindsay Graham, too, for who he really is. Wake up America and speak out against such nasty vicious people like Tucker Carlson. Wake up America and speak out for ALL human beings, not just for the fascist bigots who use corporate PACs to work to control this nation, as Hitler and the Nazis did in Germany. Wake up America and stop being frightened by these lousy sickos like Tucker Carlson. 🙂

Saboteurs from the Evil Fat Pig Oligarchy of Republicans?

The GD rat vandal on my computer sabotaged all my work on Excel last night, making the formulas unable to recognize numeric digits when a statement like D17<=0. The saboteurs also rid me of all my formats. I have tried putting them back, but it disrupts my work during this day. Does anybody care? Nah! Just put up. How am I supposed to put up with this. If someone wishes I back down and shut my mouth in complaints of the GD bastard vicious Republicans who took over the House of Representatives with lies, slamming of opponents with slander and libel, lies, lies, lies, unwilling to discuss the issues with opponents, then pocketing money from corporate PACs who wish to take away what the common folk have – and boy have the GD Republicans of Florida already done that to me. How many times do I have to put up with the evil king of Republicans who is putting this forth, as was done with Job. GOD DOES NOT PUT US TO THE TEST. It is proven by what happened to Job. It was proven by what happened to Jesus in the dessert before his baptism by John the Baptist. It is the evil greedy, vicious, selfish lovers and worshipers of money who put us to a test, so we back down. I will not back down from such evil vicious worshipers of money – claiming they the divine righteousness reserved only for the GOD / Deity who cares for all his children. I will not back down from the fools who are hypocrites in the common folk then go and vote like a bunch of bull manure artists for Republicans, ruining the gains the common folk have made.

Someone ruined my files this morning. Someone removed the PIN I use to sign into my computer. That was done days ago. Someone ruined my all-in-1 printer settings so I cannot reset them. When I checked with HP, I got treated like I was manure – by people from Asia – India and the Philippines. Treated like I was manure while they were the manure. Those common folk who gave away our rights to freaking lousy Republicans are stupid and unwilling to listen and learn. Instead, the freaking manure idiots are more willing to just look the other way while good people get tarnished with, and vote AGAINST their own needs.

I will not shut up. I want these things fixed in our lives. There are only so many times I am able to keep overcoming obstacles. But these BASTARD SOBs doing this, while using corporate PAC money to put Republicans into Congress while defeating good folk who DON’T TAKE MONEY FROM THE CORPORATE PACs. What a bunch of idiots perhaps I am living with these days.

Fact. My computer has been sabotaged. Perhaps it is someone posing as Microsoft who did the monthly update of my Windows? If so, WHO IS IT? SHOW YOUR LOUSY FREAKING FACE TO THE WORLD AND STOP HIDING YOUR HYPOCRISY AND DEFENSE OF VIOLENCE< MURDER, GUNS – while censoring information about LGBTQ, racial history, and the beauty in this world, whether it be nudity, sex, or porn. With your lousy egomaniac greed and Machiavellian quest for accumulating all the money so as to put down those of us who might see nothing wrong with puritanical anti-prurient ways – and enforce guns and violence on us – dictate to us what YOU want by attempting to destroy good people. Be put in h-e-double-hockey-sticks and never come out – locked there forever. You don’t deserve life, you smiling anti-Christs.

This is terrible to be made to feel helpless by ruining a Microsoft program and my data, what I pay for to Microsoft and expect something better. Nickel and dime us you bastards and you will receive what is coming to you – put in h-e-double-hockey-sticks forever, as with some in-laws I once had – from New Jersey.

Paul and the Crockett Frontier: A Joke in Today’s World

Libertarians are anarchists. Anarchists tried to murder Teddy Roosevelt because he proposed true capitalism of supply and demand by using the government as the third party.

A recent speech by libertarian Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky revealed something. He quoted Davey Crockett in order to validate the stupid ways of libertarians and anarchists. Interesting because I recall a TV series about Davey Crockett in the 1950s. Boys wore coonskin hats to mimic Davey Crockett.

Lyrics of the theme song:

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee,
Greenest state in the land of the free.
Raised in the woods so’s he knew every tree,
Killed him a bear when he was only three.

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/davycrockettlyrics.html

Is this true that Crockett shot a bear at age three? I have no idea.

Continuing, the song goes like this:

Davy, Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier.

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/davycrockettlyrics.html

“King of the Wild Frontier.” Perhaps Crockett was an important part of the Wild Frontier. In the early 19th Century. Libertarians and anarchists are still living in a fantasy world that the “frontier” still exists today. I have news for them. In the 21st Century, most of the Frontier known to people like Davey Crockett is gone. Rand Paul lives in a fantasy world.

First of all, it is appropriate for a young boy living in the wild frontier to shoot a bear. They are dangerous to human beings. But what if Davey Crockett had a NRA-validated automatic weapon to kill the bear? I know hunters today who think such a thing is ridiculous. But people like fantasy-world Rand Paul thinks it’s ok. Joe Biden does not and I support Joe Biden.

Survival of the fittest means human survival in the midst of ferocious animals like bears. It does not mean we act like selfish individuals and shoot other human beings, especially with domestic terrorism. We should not have a stupid Jeb Bush promoted law in Florida called, “stand your ground.” Stand your ground is for cowards.

Then there is the Ukraine with a leader and people who don’t want a vicious man named Putin attacking their people. Rand Paul does not want to support Ukraine monetarily, but sure does not mind when members of Congress pocket money from big corporate PACs so as to remain seated in the U.S. Senate (or House of Representatives).

I think we need to look at the realities of today’s life, not live in the fantasy world with wishful thinking that we can live like Davey Crockett, as Rand Paul suggests. Oh, I see! The word “community of people” is associated with communism,, perhaps to Rand Paul and the libertarians? The libertarians remove our freedom of small business COMMUNITIES with destructive big Monopoly players who get their strength for a centralized supply-side Reaganomics from Reagan’s deregulation / privatization efforts. These vicious ones of business pocket the money they take after removing benefits to employees and we have watched an astronomical high growth of salary to the top stockholders and CEOs of companies, since the days of Reagan. With mergers and acquisitions, they remove small stockholders who are employees of a company. You don’t believe me? I have evidence from my own experiences and books like Eileen Schultz’s Retirement Heist. Plus there is more evidence. This is not just my opinion. It is commentary designed to bring to action those who will make changes and put us back to normal business with small businesses which were once the backbone of this nation.

And Rand Paul and others sure do know how to manipulate things so that the least densely populated states can have more control and can un-do what the more densely populated states have accomplished in the USA. In other words, they are living in their fantasy world about the “wild frontier” as being the main part of this nation. And then, Donald Trump tries to bring down the national park system which helps CONSERVE wildlands in the USA.

What a shame people like me cannot be given a huge amount of time to speak to the U.S. Senate. Instead, we are told to shorten what we write.

Religion into Science?

Dear Editors:

One problem with religion and creationism becoming a science.  Those who do so think they are god with divine rights to shoot anyone who disagrees.  From the time of the Roman Catholics executing Huguenots, Jews, and Cathars, to the 20th Century fascist attitudes of Hitler, Mussolini, and others, we have witnessed such events from those who think they are god. Even the Romans did so, thinking that men were gods.  And the communists?  Thinking that “religion” was atheism and making humans divine because of the belief there is no god. 

In more recent years, what about those who are vigilante mobs, validated by some religious beliefs, thinking they can lynch people of color?  Or what about people who believe they should act like “god” and kill abortion doctors or gay folk, in the name of some god – a god of evil and vicious attitudes. 

Religion and science can coexist.  There are many beliefs, from creationism to intelligent design, and so forth.  No one should force their own belief upon others because we live in a nation with freedom of religion and religious beliefs.  Such freedoms and a secular nation with various religious beliefs has made this nation great. 

Rural Right Wing?

Dear Editors:

While your assessment of a movement by rural folks to the right wing is a good assessment, I have to ask what people are going to do to stop this?Just sit by and let it fly?

People in Tioga County have been controlled by the Republican Party.  They complain and try to put the blame on Democrats.  Why?

One person thought he was being really smooth by calling Democrats “dumocrats.” 

Yet, if one asks people why the blame on Democrats, there is no real reason and one finds out people are finding a strong and pervasive groupthink.  A groupthink which needs to be stopped.

When pessimism strikes about this area being impoverished, I have to ask why? After all, the responsibility lies with the local Republican Party and only fools would reach out to blame others in Albany.  Let me tell you about the complaints many of us had in a Democrat-majority county in Florida about the Republicans in Tallahassee which have controlled that state with one party, like a communist state, for 20 years or more.  Was that all this Republican-turned-Democrat did but to only do the blame game on the Repugnicans in Tallahassee?  No.  We came together at the local level to do what was needed to be done to solve our problems. 

Ask someone why they don’t like Nancy Pelosi and they usually don’t have an answer because they are like a bunch of lemmings being led off a cliff. 

To continue to vote for Republicans and not be able to differentiate right from wrong is horrific.  Slander by Molinaro as he tried to use scare tactics to get people to vote against Josh Riley or else be so scared they don’t go in and vote at all.  I observed that same thing happening in Florida, over and over and over again. 

When people complain and then go and vote Republican, they are mentally ill.  For they don’t get it.  They don’t realize that to do the same thing over and over and over again, expecting different results, is a mental illness. 

For me, I judge the candidates according to telling the truth and not just slandering opponents.  I see this more in the Democratic Party.  In fact, Josh Riley’s commercials merely told of his accomplishments.  Molinaro refused to debate issues with Riley and put commercials forth with slandering of Riley.  But when I see what is being put forth by a lousy leadership in the Republican Party, I cringe and look for something better.  That ain’t the Republican Party with fools who are mentally ill voting for the same thing over and over again.

I was once a Republican.  My family line was Republican, back to the years following the Civil War.  But in Florida, I had the rug pulled out from beneath me, several times, by greedy, snotty, vicious Republicans.  Note I call them Repugnicans.  It was the Democrats who helped give me opportunities to move on.  So when people stupidly put down Pelosi or call Democrats, “dumocrats,” I am insulted.  Why?  Because I have an appreciation for those who helped provide opportunities, not handouts, for me.  In the cases when the rug was pulled out from beneath me, I often thought about how, when times are tough, the tough get going. 

I see too many people in rural America who have no idea as to how to meet the challenges when the rugs get pulled out from beneath them. They don’t know how to be tough  and get going in order to solve our problems by considering the best proven practices. And being tough does not mean a proclamation of being “god” and using a gun or violence.  They just sit with a mindset for “that was how we always have done it.” 

That mindset does not work, so get tough and find something else.  Being reactionaries means just let the chips fall where they may, rather than being proactive for the future. 

Examples of local people who were more proactive are two very fine gentlemen:  George F. Johnson and Thomas J. Watson. These two plus many others, too.

A white racist bigot said to me, in opposition to what I write to light fires to get people moving to move forward, said to me:  “get a grip.”  I have a “grip.” That “grip” is on standing firm in my humanity convictions (i.e., human justice, human equality, human communities, etc.) and finding the best practices, not ideology, to solve our problems.    

My writing is more important than a letter to the editor and restricted to a certain length.  My writing falls in the op-ed or commentary “My Turn” category.  My writings have been curtailed since Trump took over the Republican – no REPUGNICAN – Party.  An example of fascism in America for which voters should be turning away from such turmoil and differentiate right from wrong.

Hidden Agendas and Who From the Puritanical Fascist Crowd Has and Maintains Them like Watergate Burglars?

I think people should be concerned enough to do something. It comes from hidden snipers online who are smart enough to re-set settings and change programming codes in my Microsoft 365 software.

The latest in Microsoft? One time rows of a worksheet can be sorted. Another time, the SAME PROCESS cannot be done and the “sort” capability grayed out. Why?

Apparently, Americans do not give a damn about their fellow human beings. After spreading the word about how there were other “networks” on my line and I could see them, rather than help me solve the problem, the number of outside and “hidden” networks increased. So, to be like Watergate burglars and push further, hoping I would not stand up for my humanistic convictions as to how we respect one another, walk in integrity, and have dignity for one another, it is humorous to just push more. Same with Democratic Party campaign signs being stolen by Repugnicans. Complain and they turn it up a notch, while everyone sits by, saying, “too bad, too bad” and SHUT UP.

Frederick Douglass did not shut up. Harriet Tubman did not shut up. Abraham Lincoln did not shut up. My 5tth cousin five times removed, Ezra Cornell, did not shut up. Teddy Roosevelt did not shut up, even to condemn his father TR, Sr., for not serving in the civil war. FDR did not shut up. MLK, Jr., did not shut up. JFK and RFK did not shut up. John Lewis did not shut up. Alcee Hastings did not shut up. Thurgood Marshall did not shut up. Nancy Pelosi did not shut up. Etc., etc., etc.

All of these examples are of people who stuck to their their humanistic convictions about human justice, human equality, and respect for fellow human beings. Many such people stuck to their convictions against supply-side economics, whether white supremacist fat pig slave owners in Dixie or fat pig sweat shop owners in the North or fat pig robber barons such as those which exist today who refuse to pay their fair share of taxes and work to destroy things which are good for the common folk.

The ones today consist of the fat pigs in big pharma, fat pigs of big oil, fat pigs of big health insurance companies, the fat pigs of lawyers who block the establishment of healthcare for all while they line their pockets by proclaiming their opposition to big fat pig insurance, the fat pigs of local news and information newspapers who deliberately line their pockets by reducing local content and laying off good librarians and investigative reporters, fat pigs of technology, energy, hospitals and clinics with their organizations formed from M&A into centralized organizations which destroy small business and public entities which created a greater sense of taking America for the greatness it had, not the greatness of vicious and bullying white supremacists and bigoted pigs… More….

This all produces centralized supply-side economics on the model of communist Cuba and communist China and communist North Korea. It’s also on the model of the former Soviet Union which still exists today, with Putin.

In this process of elimination of the market demand-side consumers, these fat pigs DEMAND of the consumers and tell consumers what makes them happy. While stupid consumers on the market DEMAND-side swallow this drivel and vote for fascist vicious Repugnicans who don’t know how to address the issues and smear their opponents with slander and lies, so they can get to Congress and be on the take of the big fat pigs of big pharma, big oil, big health conglomerates, etc.

Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper is still printed and available in stores, while the good newspapers like local ones and the New York Times (etc.) are NOT available to inform the common folk who take an interest in life. Meanwhile, Murdoch has been quoted as having a desire to “destroy local news and information” by destroying local ownership of local media.

This all has to stop by people not just talking about “moral convictions.” That is too ambiguous. Talk about standing firm for convictions tailored to human equality, human justice, human dignity, human respect, and human integrity for walking with one another in the human race. Talk about providing opportunities for fellow human beings, not just handouts. We the people, not we the big fat pigs of big corporations as represented by Alito and the bastards of the SCOTUS who FORCED Citizens United down our throats like big fat dictators telling us what it takes to be happy.

To challenge me in what I am saying here, i get crap of “get a life” or “get a grip” upon me, as if I am not happy with the blessings I have. People put these wonderful quotes on Facebook. The quotes are beautiful. But do they get to those who need an attitude adjustment among the common folk? If they did, we would have seen different results in this past election with people intelligent enough to differentiate right from wrong when Repugnicans smear the images of good people and are not able to address the issues because they fear being revealed for their hidden agenda from pocketing money from the big fat pigs of supply-side economics and their monopolizing corporations which destroy local business, healthcare for all, public education for all. We the people. How many times do I have to say this? Not for the least common denominator of “we the people.” We the people means to address ALL people the best that can be done. Small businesses, not monopolized big centrally controlled corporations, as has been proven, has been the best way for America to achieve this.

Even former General and President Ike Eisenhower warned us not to let the military-industrial complex develop. We did anyway as we allowed centralized big corporations of all kinds to develop. Likely, this was more than Ike could probably have imagined.

Hillary says “it takes a village.” That is correct. This notion challenges the notions that about how it only takes white supremacists, big fat pigs and others to make a nation great. And the big fat pigs don’t like Hillary for saying that. Well may they be damned and go to h-e-double-hockey-sticks with their stupidity backed up by those with puritanical mindsets based on traditionalism only.

Or, perhaps we need to take baseball bats to the knees of such lousy people (he says in a facetious manner).

You know the ones who get all wrapped up in proclaiming that rules necessary to wipe out prurient interests while we have big fat pigs, lords over media, handing weapons, violence, blood, guts, and gore into our eyes within the media, more frequently than nudity, sex, or other “prurient” interests. And when nudity is portrayed, we see fig leaves in the form of blurred images, in programs like Naked and Afraid, while we are SUBJECTED TO and have it THRUST IN OUR FACES very violent scenes with people getting knifed or gunned down, whether real or fictional programs.

With all of this, let me return to my original comments about what is on my mind. Changes to settings and programmed apps by vicious, terrible people hidden by wired and wireless communications. That is what this message is about. So go get a grip and make things worse, rather than work to improve all of what I outline here. I get a grip. My grip is on sticking to my humanist convictions of “we the people” as being more important than what is imposed on us by big fat pigs who have slaves of punishment serving them, whether hidden online or removing political signs out of fear that Democrats might be elected, not to address issues which are of concern to we the people and human beings overall. And such dolts who do what I describe here and never being able to take notice of how to differentiate between right and wrong when it comes to a civilized human society with an inclination towards survival of the fittest of the entire human race in our dominion over non-humans such as animals, insects, etc. We are all human beings, so let’s work to help one another and not take an interest in crap like rules of puritanical and prudish ways. Rules about how humans can get along with one another and coexist – these are the reasons for what I describe.

What’s on My Mind This Morning? Bigots and Hackers

What’s on your mind? I am asked this question by Facebook. I just experienced interference on my modem connection from outside this home. “Oh, no, that never happens,” according to Spectrum. “Oh, no, that never happens,” according to Best Buy. “Oh, no, that never happens,” according to Verizon.

So, Spectrum gives me a new modem and a new router. Guess what? It still happens, even with a new one. No guards in place to protect my privacy from bigots who, with “smiling faces,” are cowards working as snipers on the Internet.

Two times and my scanning was “cancelled” because the printer is on the wifi. My connection was also “cancelled.” When signing back in, I noticed another wifi account which is not mine. TC8715DB2.

Is this from the neighborhood or someone with “remote access” at a far distance? I know, from working with IT in an organization, that “remote access” allows people to spy on employees. Why would this not exist for bigots who get a thrill out of being in opposition to one who is firm in his convictions about endorsing humanity, human peace and justice, and human equality? Is law enforcement going to tell me it only exists with IT in an organization? Oh, well. Perhaps that is the answer? But no one apparently is firm in convictions about humanity, human peace and justice, and human equality? Silly me.

So. I call them bigots. They call me a fag? Speaking the truth about bigots is not like derogatory remarks and slander (such as that of Molinaro) against good people. Get a grip.

Tale of My Father’s Service in the Pacific During World War II

My father died in 2018 at age 92. He lived a good life.

During his last months, my father shared stories with me about his service for his country and putting his life on the line for our America. Recently, I saw a 1943 Newark Valley yearbook. My dad was a junior in high school. In his class photo, there was my dad, sitting next to his best friend in high school, Joe Bates. Not a surprise that my dad and Joe would be next to each other in that photo. But i had never seen that yearbook before.

My dad told me about how he and Joe Bates were both drafted into the U.S. Army after graduating high school in 1944. He told about how Joe was sent to Europe and my dad was sent to the Philippines.

While in the Philippines, my dad came down with a terrible sickness. I never bothered to ask him what the sickness was. I can only speculate, perhaps, that it was malaria. At any rate, my dad was confined to a hospital which I believe was located near Clark Air Base (about 40 miles from Manila).

While secluded in a hospital, his battalion boarded a naval ship to be transported to Japan. My dad recovered before the ship arrived in Japan. He was on his own to find his way to Japan. By means of two different U.S. Army Air Corps planes, he found his way to Japan. First to Okinawa. Second from Okinawa to Japan. He was supposed to hide on the planes. The pilots could have been disciplined for taking a passenger.

My dad tells about arriving in southern Japan before his fellow soldiers arrived. He arrived there for two reasons. (1) A typhoon in the Pacific delayed the ship getting to Japan. (2) The harbor for which the ship was to arrive still had mines and those mines had to be cleared.

My dad arrived at the headquarters of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, located at a Tokyo hotel. He was then transported to the southern area of Japan where his battalion was about to arrive. He was reunited with his battalion.

Part of my dad’s story was about being in the barracks with the other soldiers. They found Japanese helmets and other implements the soldiers wanted as souvenirs. They took them and put them with the bunks in the barracks. Word went around that there was to be an inspection. Most of the men simply threw the implements they had outside. My dad and several others did not remove implements, so they were caught with them. My dad had to serve in some sort of KP duty, as punishment.

My dad also told about being in a convoy heading to northern Japan and the city of Sapporo. My dad never told me about the following. According to William Manchester’s biography of Douglas MacArthur (American Caesar), MacArthur, as Supreme Commander over Japan, had sent troops to northern Japan. Was my dad’s battalion part of that mission? Further research is necessary.

The reason MacArthur sent troops to that area was due to the threat of the Soviet Union, across the waters from that area, invading Japan. As the Soviets did to divide Europe (and later helped in dividing Korea and Vietnam), there were expectations the Soviets might do the same in Japan. MacArthur was proactive in taking on the challenge, should it happen. It never happened, as we know. Perhaps that saved my dad’s life?

In 1972, fifty years ago, we welcomed a Japanese Rotary exchange student into our home. She was from Sapporo. It was interesting that year, because the Winter Olympics were in Sapporo. The young girl was sad that she was away from her hometown during those games. We were all able to watch the events on American television.

It was wonderful that my dad shared those events with me. I think about his activities each year on Veterans Day. Today being Veterans Day, I thought I would share these events. Now. If I could only find the tape recording I made of my father telling this story! Somewhere in my house that tapes still exists!