Two authors using better words than I could

[captainsblog]

Two papers, 3,000 miles apart. Two people I am privileged to know personally. For the most part, one sore subject: one attacking it with dignity, the other with humor.

First, an essay published in this morning's Rochester paper about that much-used but little-understood catch-phrase, "Support the Troops." And who would know better than one of them? The author, a much-decorated veteran of most of our recent tussles and still a staff chaplain to our local Army Reservists, is a former pastor of Williamsville United Methodist Church. His wife is the District Superintendent of the entire Buffalo region of Methodist congregations, and she just met with our confirmation kids the other night.   Here are his words, originally spoken at a Society of Friends meeting in Rochester over the summer:



Often the phrase "Support Our Troops" is heard but without any particular content or substance. In recent years, it has signaled support for the so-called war on terrorism in general and the invasion of Iraq in particular.

However, as a citizen-soldier, here is what "Support Our Troops" means to me:

* I expect people who support me, as a soldier, to be informed about the nuances of the policy or policies I as a soldier serve to implement. I expect people to be educated about military requirements, the strategy and tactics required, the needs of the armed services, the costs and consequences of the decisions and policies that send our military into conflict.

I expect people to know about the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Sunni, Shia and Kurds in Iraq. I expect them to have a sense of the history of the region, its peoples, cultures, politics and religion. I expect them to have a deep appreciation for ambiguity and complexity, so as to resist the temptation to accept a sound byte as explanation.

* I expect people to let each soldier have his or her own story. Some have come home from Iraq devastated by terrible experiences; some have had tremendously positive experiences. I do not expect to be told what to believe or how I should interpret my experiences. I do expect appreciation for the fact that service in a combat zone involves sights, sounds and smells that stay in the mind forever.

* I expect people who support me, as a soldier, to work hard to ensure that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has the resources to provide a safe place for veterans to seek medical, intellectual, spiritual or emotional healing. Please do not ask me to come home and deal with my experiences on my own.

* I expect people who support me as a soldier to be there with kindness and consideration for soldiers' families. Offer encouragement but also do not deny a family member their worry or anxiety.

When I was in Desert Storm, my daughter, 6 years old at the time, made a tent in her bedroom and slept on the floor until I returned home months later. She was filled with anxiety, but one teacher, a former soldier, saw her through it. Offer respite to spouses and give children considerate attention.

* I expect people, especially public servants, who would support me as a soldier, to resist the temptation to use me to further their own political agenda.

* I expect people who support me as a soldier to say "thank you" for what I did and not because they see me as someone who shares their politics, religion, ideology, or a belief that the ends justify the means.

* Finally, I expect people who support me as a soldier to be as passionate about the complexities of peace-making as our nation sometimes seems to be about the complexities of military strategies and tactics. I expect people to learn about negotiation and reconciliation and dispute resolution and to expect their government to do the same, so that war is the last resort of a free, hopeful and confident people.



----

Then, this morning, my old co-worker from Syracuse emailed me this piece, which was in this morning's LA Times. Hart's the "author," if you will, of
Pieces of Intelligence, a poetry book comprised entirely of actual quotes from Donald Rumsfeld press conferences. You might think that he's in mourning today, feeling much like famed JFK impersonator Vaughn Meader was the morning after losing his muse in 1963. Nope: Hart has risen to the occassion with this retrospective, written and placed in a great metropolitan newspaper barely 24 hours after Bush announced the man's resignation:



IT'S BEEN A dark week for satire.

Within 48 hours, two of the world's great punch-line generators — Kevin Federline, alias "Mr. Britney Spears," and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — abruptly punched out.

Not since Oct. 10, 1973 — when Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned just hours after Elvis and Priscilla Presley unplugged their marriage — has topical humor received such a body blow.

Rumsfeld is the bigger loss. It's hard to imagine his prospective replacement, former CIA chief Robert Gates, ever drifting off in a future Iraq news conference to wax on about the days before air conditioning. It's more likely that Britney's next catch will be as dopey as her last. But the truth is, punch lines just don't grow on trees.

Of course, ex-dentists and off-season lawn-care experts will spend the next 30 years warring over Rumsfeld's rightful Wikipedia entry. Some will say he was to Iraq what former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was to Vietnam. But that won't give him enough credit.

Rumsfeld deserves to be remembered not only as McNamara but as his cultural confrere Merle Haggard, who wrote and sang "Okie From Muskogee." For three troubled years of war, Rumsfeld served as America's go-to guy for colorful, unrepentant sound bites. Every war needs one.

Rumsfeld was the Zen master of Pentagon briefings, capable of levitating the media and TV audiences to another plane of thought. He did this with an improvisational ease that few performers — except game-show hosts — ever achieve.

Asked a question, he'd wince, close his eyes, sigh and then strangle the air in front of him, as if it held the Al Qaeda brass he never did catch. Then he'd sift through selected experiences from his epic 74 years and sculpt an answer. His words were best fathomed after being parsed with a return key and italic type.

For example, consider this self-revelation, spoken May 16, 2001, in an interview with the New York Times:

It's amazing.

Once in a while,

I'm standing here, doing

something.

And I think,

"What in the world am I

doing here?"

It's a big surprise.

In the last few weeks, Rumsfeld found himself doing exactly what he'd always vowed never to do: hawking for a political campaign. Maybe it was the beginning of the end. Speaking with a fawning radio talk-show host from Cincinnati, Rumsfeld managed to utter one meager, yet prophetic, haiku:

There have always been

People who have been wanting

To toss in the towel.

He was talking about Iraq, of course. But one can't help but think he was looking in the mirror at the time.

Four years ago, the GOP boasted an all-star lineup of comics who killed: John Ashcroft turning red over the bare boobs of the Justice Department's Spirit of Justice statue; Paul O'Neill running off on tour with Bono; Tom Ridge announcing a new terror color.

Satire's Black Tuesday not only retired Rumsfeld, it nixed the next generation of GOP stars: Mark Foley and his instant messages, that congressman in Pennsylvania who denied choking his mistress, and Sen. George Allen, the man who cried macaca — all gone.

Dick Cheney might yet shoot another hunting partner, but "Saturday Night Live" won't be the same. The GOP comedy machine is running out of gas.

Of course, satire will survive. Shortly after Agnew's resignation in 1973, Gerald Ford arrived in the West Wing. These days, the Democrats are stepping up, with John Kerry's blown jokes and "The New Adventures of Old Hillary" looming on the 2008 horizon.

But who will ponder the world's "known knowns" and "unknown unknowns?" And who will be capable of writing his own epitaph, as Rumsfeld did Feb. 8, 2003, in a Munich, Germany, news briefing:

How does it end?

It ends.

That's all.

Comments

[luckycee.livejournal.com]

Both very enjoyable to read.

Pssst...delete your last tag.

[miss-katelynne.livejournal.com]

I agree. These were both wonderful reads. Thanks for sharing them!

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

I am in complete agreement with "Support our Soldiers" piece. I'v never asked anyone to support the war, just the fact that my husband was called to a duty and he performed it. As for the GOP Satire maching, yep, the end is near, but Kerry and Hillary are waiting in the wings, and the show will go on.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

The end of his bizarre news conferences are the only reason I will miss Rummy.

Did you know that his poetry had been set to music? Google it, it's true.