Tuesday, January 30, 2018

WAR

                                                            WAR

In a conversation I had with a Veteran about war in general, we talked about the Civil war and I commented how General Sherman, on his march to the sea had a scorched earth policy. I told him how I had read that he destroyed every house and hamlet, forcing women and children out into the streets with no food and shelter. The enemy was nowhere around them, fast retreating, defeated. He told me that is what you are taught in the military.” If you can’t kill them, then make them wish they never have to deal with you again.”

This same Civil war General is also famous for his Quote. “War is hell.” Apparently it is and apparently he wanted it to be that way for everyone. His partner in command, in that war, was a far more compassionate man. General Grant, who I am sure, saw all of the same carnage brought on his troops by the enemy that Sherman did, told Robert E Lee at the surrender that his men should take their horses and side arms and go home to their families. The war was over. I guess Grant missed the course on scorched earth policy.

This brings me to my question, and keep in mind I wasn’t in the military. Is a scorched earth policy really what our troops are taught? I see instances of the military doing there best to avoid collateral damage all of the time. I understand how the whole battle thing would be easier if you just killed them all and let the lord sort them out, but aren’t we really better then that? It is my own opinion that there are more General Grants in the service today, then General Sherman’s.

This brings up another serious question. If war is hell and I believe most of us do believe that, why do we continue to relive it? There is no end to the movies and miniseries’ on television about wars that we have fought. Video games are built around the premise of shooting and killing people. Kids grow up with toy guns and fake swords. Then we settle down in the family room with a bowl of popcorn and watch movies from the Vietnam War. Then some deranged person takes a gun and shoots up a church and we say. “How does this happen? I just don’t understand.”

All of my life we have pretty much been at war at one time or another. Right now we are fighting in several places in the world. Don’t get me wrong; I do believe a strong military is a necessity in today’s world. But the rational for using it is another story. In all of my years as a fireman, fire prevention was our number one goal. The fire that never happened, because of good preventive decisions, was the epitome of success. Why can’t we see that the conflict that never happened in the world, because cooler heads prevailed, is a success too? Or do our generals feel like the coach who’s football team practices everyday but never gets to play a game. Dwight Eisenhower, a battle hardened general and later our president said,  “Some day the people of this country are going to want peace so bad that their leaders are going to have to get out of the way and let them have it.” You were right about that Ike. It’s just not that time yet. Blessed are the peacemakers.



Thursday, January 25, 2018

SNOWBIRD

                                                         

Ann Murray sang a song about the ‘Snowbird’ many years ago. A different kind of snowbird then I’m talking about today. I’m one of the lucky one’s who goes south in the winter to escape the cold of a Minnesota winter. I want to rephrase that and say I’m one of the ones who has been blessed to be able to go where it’s warm; luck has nothing to do with it. One look at my phone tells me today what the temp is in Crosslake and what it is where I am residing. Today the swing is almost 90 degrees.

There was always a certain amount of pride living up north in the winter for me Pride that we were hearty enough to live and work in that climate. We were survivors and descendants of hearty Scandinavians who had been thumbing their frozen noses at the elements for years. We learned at an early age to walk like a duck on ice and snow, -- sometimes backwards--- because the north wind was blowing and making it even colder. We wore flannel shirts, Carhartt coveralls, Sorrel boots and parkas with fur-trimmed hoods. We learned at an early age it was mittens, not gloves, when it was cold outside We held our thumb to the side of our nose and pointed it away from the wind when we blew. We drilled holes in the ice and sat on a bucket fishing.  We slid on sleds and toboggans, down the big hill by the school and skated at the outdoor rink when the city flooded the hill and the ball field.

As a kid my dad burned wood to heat the house and we didn’t burn wood because it looked pretty and smelled nice, we burned it to stay warm. To those of you that remember those days you can recollect how the temperature in the house ranged from 85 to 60 and words like, “close the damper before you cook us out” or “go out and get some more wood son, the fire is dying out” were uttered over and over again. Come night time the fire did die out and you awoke to see your breath and ran for the kitchen where mom had the range going and was in the process of heating the house up again, albeit one room at a time. You dressed by the stove and ate oatmeal for breakfast-- no pop tarts for us.

Then old age came along, the blood thinned out, the bones got brittle and pride or not it just wasn’t fun anymore. So you went down south for a few weeks and then it was a couple of months and now it’s late fall to early spring. Down here in the desert it still gets chilly at night. But no one talks about wind chill. When you talk about twenty below zero to the natives they just give you a pained look and one man told me they should just put yellow crime tape around the whole state come winter. My grandfather immigrated to Minnesota from Norway and when I asked him why not Florida or Arizona, he told me “this is where the wagon broke down” and shrugged his shoulders. Not sure if it was an explanation or an apology. I told my dad about fighting a large fire one night when it was -30. He told me I was lucky it wasn’t back in the 20’s when he grew up. “-30 was a damn sight colder back then,” he said.


But when all is said and done and the grim reaper comes a calling against my name, I’ll be right back here in the land of rosy cheeks and snotty noses, because I still have some of that Minnesota pride left in me. I just hope its not January.