[RD] To a Flag Covered Coffin

[onejayhawk]

Every nation knows what it means. Someone died in military service to their country. In USA the last Monday in May is the day we pay special tribute to the fallen, particularly those that fell in battle. I have been privileged to travel with an honor casket. It is an occasion I will never forget.

This image was taken at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery several years ago. Though not officially titled, the picture is often referred to as Sentry Duty. I always found it fitting that the national bird would watch over the honored dead.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

This image was taken at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery several years ago. Though not officially titled, the picture is often referred to as Sentry Duty. I always found it fitting that the national bird would watch over the honored dead.

Certainly more fitting than my only sighting of the national bird, in which three of them were squabbling over a dumpster behind a McDonald's.

 

[AlpsStranger]

Yet they apparently don't deserve the sort of political perks and personal prosperity that one earns by, say, having a grandfather that got lucky investing shares in a company.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Yet they apparently don't deserve the sort of political perks and personal prosperity that one earns by, say, having a grandfather that got lucky investing shares in a company.

Fact is that as the son of a veteran and member of the US armed forces the "personal prosperity" that I was entitled to included my pay leaving my family eligible for welfare...as an E4 with three kids. The recent big hurrah over how poorly we treat our military is misleading when it suggests this is a new thing.

 

[Recon Rover]

These scavengers seem to have an affinity for memorials. I captured a picture of one perched observantly on a statue of the Virgin Mary outside a Roman Catholic Church several years ago.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Around here eagles just terrorize the local squirrel population.

 

[onejayhawk]

These scavengers seem to have an affinity for memorials. I captured a picture of one perched observantly on a statue of the Virgin Mary outside a Roman Catholic Church several years ago.

They are not scavengers. One of their problems is that their meat must be very fresh.

Memorials are places with, low human traffic, long sight lines and manicured grass. It makes it easier to spot prey. They also love the tall buildings in major cities. A church spire would be perfect.

J

 

[Commodore]

The recent big hurrah over how poorly we treat our military is misleading when it suggests this is a new thing.

Who is suggesting it is a new thing though? Everything I see written about the issue acknowledges that soldiers and veterans have pretty much always been crapped on by the governments they serve.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Who is suggesting it is a new thing though? Everything I see written about the issue acknowledges that soldiers and veterans have pretty much always been crapped on by the governments they serve.

Only gold star mothers if they are Muslim or Losers that get captured /s
At least its better then the old days when veterans would turn up at General Grants home, homeless broken, sick and beg him for money.

I believe Lincoln once said: "war, war never changes"

 

[Recon Rover]

They are not scavengers. One of their problems is that their meat must be very fresh.

Memorials are places with, low human traffic, long sight lines and manicured grass. It makes it easier to spot prey. They also love the tall buildings in major cities. A church spire would be perfect.

J

My apologies. It was a quote from Benjamin Franklin that had stirred my memory:

“For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

With all this injustice, he is never in good case but like those among men who live by sharping & robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our country.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Unfortunately, Franklin turned out to be wrong. The choice of bird was prescient, and we have become a nation of thuggery.

 

[metalhead]

Who is suggesting it is a new thing though? Everything I see written about the issue acknowledges that soldiers and veterans have pretty much always been crapped on by the governments they serve.

WWII vets didn't get such a bad deal. Those who wanted got to go to college, those who didn't came home to easily available work after de-mobilization ran its course. Got mortgages on the cheap. It was a triumph of veteran care and social engineering all wrapped up in one.

The original 1944 GI Bill was credited with creating the middle class. So we did actually take care of our veterans that one time. I guess it's more of an imperative when you enlist an entire generation of people to fight a war, and have the entire previous generation still angry at the fact that they didn't receive crap for serving in WWI.

 

[onejayhawk]

WWII vets didn't get such a bad deal. Those who wanted got to go to college, those who didn't came home to easily available work after de-mobilization ran its course. Got mortgages on the cheap. It was a triumph of veteran care and social engineering all wrapped up in one.

The original 1944 GI Bill was credited with creating the middle class. So we did actually take care of our veterans that one time. I guess it's more of an imperative when you enlist an entire generation of people to fight a war, and have the entire previous generation still angry at the fact that they didn't receive crap for serving in WWI.

Who credits it? Expand, yes.

The creation of the middle class goes back to the industrial revolution, two to three centuries earlier. Henry Ford has a better claim that the GI bill.

J

 

[Lexicus]

The original 1944 GI Bill was credited with creating the middle class.

It's a lot more than just the GI Bill. A whole raft of policies, many connected with World War II, caused an enormous downward transfer of wealth and that's what created the mass middle class.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Bald eagles are not even true eagles. Do you have not proper golden eagles around there?

 

[PhroX]

The greatest tribute we could give to the fallen would be to stop sending more young men and women to join them.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Unfortunately, Franklin turned out to be wrong. The choice of bird was prescient, and we have become a nation of thuggery.

In fairness, Ben Franklin had a dog in the fight, specifically, he wanted the national bird to be the Turkey.

Obviously a much more delicious choice... but I shudder to think that we might not be able to eat them because of some nationalistic reverence. Can you imaging that? Eating bald eagles, (or some other, less delicious bird) for Thanksgiving? I can't.

 

[metalhead]

It's a lot more than just the GI Bill. A whole raft of policies, many connected with World War II, caused an enormous downward transfer of wealth and that's what created the mass middle class.

8 million people went to college for free as a result of the GI Bill. Millions more also got heavily subsidized, no down payment mortgages out of the deal. It was basically a huge and ongoing government stimulus plan that redistributed wealth to veterans - but so many people coming of age in the 1940s were vets that it operated to jump-start those people's personal economies. Obviously, without the prospect of readily available work in the 25 years after the war ended it wouldn't have done squat, but it certainly contributed greatly to those decades of prosperity.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

In fairness, Ben Franklin had a dog in the fight, specifically, he wanted the national bird to be the Turkey.

Obviously a much more delicious choice... but I shudder to think that we might not be able to eat them because of some nationalistic reverence. Can you imaging that? Eating bald eagles, (or some other, less delicious bird) for Thanksgiving? I can't.

From a practical standpoint the wild turkey Franklin was suggesting is about as far removed from the domesticated turkey you are referring to as it would be possible to get within the same species. I would assume that even if it were the national bird the domesticated version would be considered a 'mere cousin' and still get eaten.

 

[Lexicus]

million people went to college for free as a result of the GI Bill. Millions more also got heavily subsidized, no down payment mortgages out of the deal. It was basically a huge and ongoing government stimulus plan that redistributed wealth to veterans - but so many people coming of age in the 1940s were vets that it operated to jump-start those people's personal economies. Obviously, without the prospect of readily available work in the 25 years after the war ended it wouldn't have done squat, but it certainly contributed greatly to those decades of prosperity.

Sure, it's not that I disagree with this, I just think there were other factors probably more important. After all, a college degree is no guarantee of upward mobility on its own. The most important reason may simply be the brute fact that so much capital was destroyed during the war.