December 19, 2018
“2018, A Look Back”
Well, we find ourselves at the conclusion of another
year. It is the season of Yule for us pagans, the season of Christmas for
Christians, Hanukkah for the Jewish, and rampant commercialism for the entire
Earth.
The year has given us many things but taken so many
more. Wildfires have devastated massive areas of North America, hurricanes laid
waste to islands, and still, to this day; twenty-two veterans commit suicide
per day.
Our nation is prospering, and for one more year we
enjoy the bounties of food, warm or cool homes, and smartphones that can do
anything but cook your Christmas turkey for you. Time has changed us, socially evolved
us, and lead us down a path that we will never return from. We have become slaves
to a master that does not care if you are black or white, old or young, or a refugee
seeking asylum. Your master is money, and the goal of every person to possess
more of it.
Family values have been replaced with commercialism,
morbid greed, and the sickness of having a better car than Bob and Karen next
door. Our nation is divided between two political parties; one thinking one is
greater than the other, and one believing that “God” is on their side, and the
other is “the devil.”
For disabled veterans, it’s just another 365 for us.
We have done anything we can this year to make it… and watched as the insanity
of politics has placed us on the back burner one more time. We’re not ignorant,
we know that’s a myth; it will happen again and again. We are that one percent
that people have forgotten. We cry as we watch the statistics; 22 veterans a
day still commit suicide, and for math’s sake; that’s a staggering 8,030 a year
folks.
Something’s really wrong with that. So when you see
a veteran who is not so excited about Hanukkah or Christmas, make sure you
realize that life is a day to day struggle for him or her, and that holidays
are just another day.
Jim
Culp
SFC,
AR
Retired
