12-13-06
Wednesday morning.
My father, who will be 88 next August, treated me to a round of golf yesterday. He owed it to me because of the images that are ingrained in my brain from a book he recently gave me to read.
The book is “Flyboys” by James Bradley, which is the follow up to his best selling “Flag of Our Fathers.” When the movie by Clint Eastwood came out awhile back, I took him to see it and it was the first time in 15 years that he had been to a movie theater.
Our individual military experiences cover the entire range of options.
In 1942 he joined the Marine Corp. In 1969 I dodged the draft…and being a life long Dodger fan I saw no inconsistencies in my behavior. I’m fairly certain he supported my actions but after all the dust settles…he’s still a marine. We’ve talked about his experiences during WW11 but we haven’t spent a ton of time talking about my experiences in Northern California during 1969 to 1975. Once a pardon was granted the subject became moot and no further discussions were necessary. It was time to get a job,
so I went to work for him and we worked together for the next 15 years.
We both feel that we did what was necessary regarding the military. Of course his fraternity is much stronger than mine and could definitely kick our fraternity’s ass. I mean really, how hard would it be for Marines to defeat conscientious objectors in hand to hand combat? It can get kind of ugly when you consider the actual event…..which brings me back to the book “Flyboys” and the information obtained in the first 100 pages, which I started reading Sunday night.
The images, that were burned into my mind (and please note that I’ve only read 133 pages of a 492 page book) from the Japanese “Spirit Warriors” treatment of the Chinese, are not images that one likes to have before falling asleep at night, and since most of my novel reading is done while getting ready to fall asleep, the images enter my mind and just linger there next to past ugly literary moments…like “The Exorcist.” I realize it’s been a while since that book came out, but I was raised a Catholic and it will never go away.
I fell asleep Sunday night totally thinking the Japanese were insane.
I learned the next night that images can be regulated to secondary status when one encounters information that goes far beyond the visual senses. As I was reading page 96 and 97, the following information appeared on the page. “America would cause the deaths of more than 250,000 Filipinos- men, women and children-from the beginning of the hostilities on February 4,1899, to July 4, 1902, when President Roosevelt declared the Philippines pacified.”
On page 101 the following information was the last thing I read before falling asleep.
“President Theodore Roosevelt excused his army’s atrocities in the Philippines and hailed ‘the bravery of American soldiers’ who fought ‘for the triumph of civilization over the black chaos of savagery and barbarism.’ To Roosevelt, the extermination of hundreds of thousands of noncombatant civilians and defenseless POWs in the Philippines represented …the most glorious war in the nation’s history.”
I fell asleep Monday night totally thinking the entire human species was insane.
The next morning( yesterday) I woke up and headed to the golf course to meet my dad. The first thing I said when arriving at the clubhouse was, “ the book you gave me is not a good book to fall asleep to…the images are not peaceful.” He answered, “I know what you mean….but it gets worse.”
I then explained that the images were diffused by the information regarding the 250,000 Filipinos. How could I not know this information? His next statement blew my mind …”.I didn’t know about it either, until I read the book.”
My father is an “avid reader” and over the years I’ve known him to read 2 to 3 books in a week. He has read most things about WW1 and 11, and has watched all of the shows on the Discovery and History channel regarding military actions.
He’s a Marine and he likes that stuff….and he’s 87 and he deserves to like anything he wants. How could he not know about this military action under President Teddy Roosevelt? And keep in mind, we are only talking about 103 years ago.
The Japanese behavior in China in 1937 was appalling and barbaric…but the question I have is…”What if they read about America in the Philippines in 1900?” And since they are geographically positioned fairly close to the Philippines….what if they received first hand information…at the time.?” They would simply study the facts and say….”America has the right way to eliminate enemies….and secure land for themselves.”
Then on top of that information they learn about the genocide of the American Indian and all gloves come off.
Honestly speaking….
.EVERYBODY SHOULD BE ASHAMED. And every day should be spent trying to rectify the behavior patterns over the last 400 years….by the victors of… colonial terrorism. And terrorism, that I might add, which was usually justified by some religious doctrine, which in turn resulted in large increases in some organizations bank account.
Rectifying the behavior patterns is simply done by trying to help the disenfranchised THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, AND MAKING SURE NO ONE GOES HUNGRY OR DOESN’T GET PROPER MEDICAL ATTENTION….kind of a penance.
Malaria kills millions of people every year and Bill Gates has given over 700 million dollars to help with this problem. 700 million dollars is 300 million dollars less than The United States of America spends to try and create a new IRAQ….EVERY WEEK!
ONE BILLION DOLLARS A WEEK!
THE EXPENSES FROM TWO FREAKIN WEEKS OF WAR COULD PROBABLY END MALARIA THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
400 BILLION DOLLARS IS THE LATEST ESTIMATE ON THE WAR IN IRAQ.
EVERYBODY
SHOULD
BE
ASHAMED.
And I’m not just talking about America…..I’m talking about anybody who can’t seem to figure out how to achieve improvements, to their situation, without the use of violence.
Oh yeah…weren’t we talking about golf?
My dad proceeded to take me out on the course and whoop my ass….again. He shot his age and I shot an 89. And he has this thing he does on about the 14th hole, when he’s losing, where he declares that he’s just too tired and he’s not even sure if he can finish. That information goes into my compassion compartment and suddenly I can’t hit the ball, and he’s paring everything. Yesterday I was four shots ahead on 14 and there was a 6 shot swing on the last four holes…..right after the infamous….”oh, I’ve lost it…got nothing today…don’t think I can even finish,” speech.
Must be some Marine Corps tactic that I’m unaware of…which makes sense since I’m unaware of ANY Marine Corps tactic.
Semper Fi, Peace/Love and thanks for the whooping. I look forward to our next round, but I’m going to wear ear plugs when we get to the last four holes.
Michael Timothy McAlevey
Wednesday morning.
My father, who will be 88 next August, treated me to a round of golf yesterday. He owed it to me because of the images that are ingrained in my brain from a book he recently gave me to read.
The book is “Flyboys” by James Bradley, which is the follow up to his best selling “Flag of Our Fathers.” When the movie by Clint Eastwood came out awhile back, I took him to see it and it was the first time in 15 years that he had been to a movie theater.
Our individual military experiences cover the entire range of options.
In 1942 he joined the Marine Corp. In 1969 I dodged the draft…and being a life long Dodger fan I saw no inconsistencies in my behavior. I’m fairly certain he supported my actions but after all the dust settles…he’s still a marine. We’ve talked about his experiences during WW11 but we haven’t spent a ton of time talking about my experiences in Northern California during 1969 to 1975. Once a pardon was granted the subject became moot and no further discussions were necessary. It was time to get a job,
so I went to work for him and we worked together for the next 15 years.
We both feel that we did what was necessary regarding the military. Of course his fraternity is much stronger than mine and could definitely kick our fraternity’s ass. I mean really, how hard would it be for Marines to defeat conscientious objectors in hand to hand combat? It can get kind of ugly when you consider the actual event…..which brings me back to the book “Flyboys” and the information obtained in the first 100 pages, which I started reading Sunday night.
The images, that were burned into my mind (and please note that I’ve only read 133 pages of a 492 page book) from the Japanese “Spirit Warriors” treatment of the Chinese, are not images that one likes to have before falling asleep at night, and since most of my novel reading is done while getting ready to fall asleep, the images enter my mind and just linger there next to past ugly literary moments…like “The Exorcist.” I realize it’s been a while since that book came out, but I was raised a Catholic and it will never go away.
I fell asleep Sunday night totally thinking the Japanese were insane.
I learned the next night that images can be regulated to secondary status when one encounters information that goes far beyond the visual senses. As I was reading page 96 and 97, the following information appeared on the page. “America would cause the deaths of more than 250,000 Filipinos- men, women and children-from the beginning of the hostilities on February 4,1899, to July 4, 1902, when President Roosevelt declared the Philippines pacified.”
On page 101 the following information was the last thing I read before falling asleep.
“President Theodore Roosevelt excused his army’s atrocities in the Philippines and hailed ‘the bravery of American soldiers’ who fought ‘for the triumph of civilization over the black chaos of savagery and barbarism.’ To Roosevelt, the extermination of hundreds of thousands of noncombatant civilians and defenseless POWs in the Philippines represented …the most glorious war in the nation’s history.”
I fell asleep Monday night totally thinking the entire human species was insane.
The next morning( yesterday) I woke up and headed to the golf course to meet my dad. The first thing I said when arriving at the clubhouse was, “ the book you gave me is not a good book to fall asleep to…the images are not peaceful.” He answered, “I know what you mean….but it gets worse.”
I then explained that the images were diffused by the information regarding the 250,000 Filipinos. How could I not know this information? His next statement blew my mind …”.I didn’t know about it either, until I read the book.”
My father is an “avid reader” and over the years I’ve known him to read 2 to 3 books in a week. He has read most things about WW1 and 11, and has watched all of the shows on the Discovery and History channel regarding military actions.
He’s a Marine and he likes that stuff….and he’s 87 and he deserves to like anything he wants. How could he not know about this military action under President Teddy Roosevelt? And keep in mind, we are only talking about 103 years ago.
The Japanese behavior in China in 1937 was appalling and barbaric…but the question I have is…”What if they read about America in the Philippines in 1900?” And since they are geographically positioned fairly close to the Philippines….what if they received first hand information…at the time.?” They would simply study the facts and say….”America has the right way to eliminate enemies….and secure land for themselves.”
Then on top of that information they learn about the genocide of the American Indian and all gloves come off.
Honestly speaking….
.EVERYBODY SHOULD BE ASHAMED. And every day should be spent trying to rectify the behavior patterns over the last 400 years….by the victors of… colonial terrorism. And terrorism, that I might add, which was usually justified by some religious doctrine, which in turn resulted in large increases in some organizations bank account.
Rectifying the behavior patterns is simply done by trying to help the disenfranchised THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, AND MAKING SURE NO ONE GOES HUNGRY OR DOESN’T GET PROPER MEDICAL ATTENTION….kind of a penance.
Malaria kills millions of people every year and Bill Gates has given over 700 million dollars to help with this problem. 700 million dollars is 300 million dollars less than The United States of America spends to try and create a new IRAQ….EVERY WEEK!
ONE BILLION DOLLARS A WEEK!
THE EXPENSES FROM TWO FREAKIN WEEKS OF WAR COULD PROBABLY END MALARIA THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
400 BILLION DOLLARS IS THE LATEST ESTIMATE ON THE WAR IN IRAQ.
EVERYBODY
SHOULD
BE
ASHAMED.
And I’m not just talking about America…..I’m talking about anybody who can’t seem to figure out how to achieve improvements, to their situation, without the use of violence.
Oh yeah…weren’t we talking about golf?
My dad proceeded to take me out on the course and whoop my ass….again. He shot his age and I shot an 89. And he has this thing he does on about the 14th hole, when he’s losing, where he declares that he’s just too tired and he’s not even sure if he can finish. That information goes into my compassion compartment and suddenly I can’t hit the ball, and he’s paring everything. Yesterday I was four shots ahead on 14 and there was a 6 shot swing on the last four holes…..right after the infamous….”oh, I’ve lost it…got nothing today…don’t think I can even finish,” speech.
Must be some Marine Corps tactic that I’m unaware of…which makes sense since I’m unaware of ANY Marine Corps tactic.
Semper Fi, Peace/Love and thanks for the whooping. I look forward to our next round, but I’m going to wear ear plugs when we get to the last four holes.
Michael Timothy McAlevey
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1 comment:
i like how you wrote this one..weaving it in with the golf...nice.
laura.
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