Adopt a military unit overseas? What a great idea for Crestwood!
Ladies and Gentlemen, it has come to my attention that Cities around the Nation are "adopting military units" serving in Iraq, and other places. Wouldn't this be a great way to put Crestwood on the map as being a patriotic community?
This is cost effective (free,) and as I see it, a way to bring the community together in a common goal. Those of us who have served overseas know the value of getting a letter, a package, a magazine, or a newspaper from "home". I am sure the troops still see it the same way today, so what say you we hold a pow wow and see if we can get this off the ground. I will be calling the Mayor, C/A, etc. And requesting their support for the project, and if your interested, please do the same.
As usual, please click on the header to be directed to the site that supports this program, view the Cities now participating, and give us your feed back.
thanks for your consideration, and I know I have at least three very good citizens who would be ideal to serve on this committee if we do it.
Tom Ford
No.192
This is cost effective (free,) and as I see it, a way to bring the community together in a common goal. Those of us who have served overseas know the value of getting a letter, a package, a magazine, or a newspaper from "home". I am sure the troops still see it the same way today, so what say you we hold a pow wow and see if we can get this off the ground. I will be calling the Mayor, C/A, etc. And requesting their support for the project, and if your interested, please do the same.
As usual, please click on the header to be directed to the site that supports this program, view the Cities now participating, and give us your feed back.
thanks for your consideration, and I know I have at least three very good citizens who would be ideal to serve on this committee if we do it.
Tom Ford
No.192
posted by Crestwood Independent at 10:34
3 Comments:
I wish!
This is forwarded by our Police chief, great one Mike, thanks.
Tom Ford
> I Wish......
>
> I wish you could know what it is like to search a
> burning bedroom for trapped children at 3 AM, flames
rolling above your head, your palms and knees
> burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your
weight as the kitchen below you burns.
>
> I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 6 in
> the morning as I check her husband of 40 years for a
pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping
> to bring him back, knowing intuitively that it is
too late, but wanting his wife and family to know
everything possible was done to save his life.
>
> I wish you knew the unique smell of burning
> insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the
feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear.
> The sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being
> able to see absolutely nothing in dense smoke,
sensations with which I've become too familiar.
>
> I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a
> fire; "Is this a false alarm or a working fire? How
is the building constructed? What hazards await me?
> Is anyone trapped?" Or to a call for help; "What is
> wrong with the patient? Is it minor or
life-threatening? Is the caller really in distress, or
are they waiting for us with a 2x4 or gun?"
>
> I wish you could be in the emergency room as a
> doctor pronounces dead the beautiful five-year old
girl that I have tried to save during the past 25
> minutes, the girl who will never go on her first
> date or say the words "I love you, Mommy" again.
>
> I wish you could feel the frustration I feel in the
> cab of the fire engine, squad, or ambulance, my arm
tugging again and again at the air horn chain,
> as a driver fails to yield the right-of-way at an
> intersection or in traffic. Yet,when we are needed,
the first comment heard on our arrival will be, "It
> took you forever to get here!"
>
> I wish you could know my thoughts as I help
> extricate a girl of teen-age years from the remains
of her automobile. "What if this was my daughter,
sister, or friend? What is going to be her parents'
reaction when they open the door to find a police
officer with hat in hand?"
>
> I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the
> back door and greet my family, not having the heart
to tell them that I nearly did not come back from
> the last call.
>
> I wish you could know how it feels dispatching
> officers, firefighters, EMT's and paramedics out,
and when we call for them our hearts drop because no
> one answers back, or to hear a bone chilling 911
call of a desperate child or spouse in need of help.
>
> I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally,
> and sometimes physically, abuse us or belittle what
we do, or as they express the attitude of "it
> will never happen to me."
>
> I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and
> mental drain, the missed meals, lost sleep and
forgone social activities, not to mention all the
> tragedy my eyes have seen.
>
> I wish you could know the brotherhood and
> self-satisfaction of helping save a life or preserve
someone's property, of being able to be there in time
of crisis, helping create order from total chaos.
>
> I wish you could understand what it feels like to
> have a little boy tugging at your arm an asking, "Is
Mommy okay?", not even being able to look in his eyes
without tears from your own and not knowing what to
say. Or to have to hold back a long time friend who
watches his buddy having CPR done on him as they take
him away in the back of the Medic Unit, knowing all
along that he did not have his seat belt on.
>
> Unless you have lived this kind of life, you will
> never truly understand or appreciate who I am, we
are, or what our job really means to us...
I wish you could, though.
>
> KEEP SENDING THIS ON. APPRECIATE AND SUPPORT THE
> LOCAL EMS WORKERS, 911 DISPATCHERS, FIREFIGHTERS, &
LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS IN YOUR AREA. ONE DAY
> THEY MIGHT BE SAVING YOUR LIFE, YOUR CHILD'S LIFE,
OR YOUR PROPERTY.
> WHEN YOU SEE THEM COMING WITH LIGHTS FLASHING,
MOVE OUT OF THE WAY QUICKLY, AND
SAY A PRAYER FOR THEM.
This is a perfect chance to "adopt" a brand new unit, what say you?
http://www.showmenews.com/2006/Aug/20060804News026.asp
A CASE FOR AMERICA'S INVOLVEMENT IN IRAQ
The term "self government" best describes our
national purpose in Iraq. America has bestowed on the
24 million people of Iraq
the right to govern themselves. All people,
collectively, have a moral and social right to govern
themselves made inevitable by human frailty,
articulated by
Lord Acton. "Power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely." If so, there need be a
mechanism for changing power once the corruption has
become apparent or the holder of power dies. One can
argue that the bestowing of a right of self government
in Iraq could have been been done with
greater efficiency or at lower cost, though I have yet
to hear or read a persuasive case for such a claim,
though loud ones have been made. The criticisms
of America's involvement fall short of clarity and
specifics.
Is war inherently evil and therefore not justified?
This is the pacifist view and probably the most
defensible, yet rarely articulated, of all the anti
war
criticisms. It is a view held by very few critics of
this war. If you were able to subtract the anti war
activists, who hate our president more than they hate
war,
(hating war being a much more saintly position), there
would be few of them left. One can infer the level of
war hatred, as opposed to Bush hatred, by
comparing the number of anti war protesters in the
Bosnia/Kosovo action with the Iraq War, and also by
the rhetoric of anti war protesters, who tend to
attack Bush much more than the evil of war. In any
event, we are a Republic and the duly elected
representatives made the decision to rescue Iraq, and
those who would have decided otherwise are bound by
implied social contract, in the view of the writer,
to support that action until the next election
provides an opportunity to reverse it, should that be
the will of the people.
Do we have a right to impose democracy on Iraq? We
did not impose democracy on the people of Iraq. We
bestowed on them a right to select their
own form of government by popular consent. They are,
or certainly will be in the near future, free to
install a dictator, theocracy, republic or democracy
at
their pleasure. Like free people everywhere, they have
wisely and predictably elected to keep the ultimate
power in the their own collective hands.
Does Arab culture lend itself to self government? It
is certainly true that there is a degree of sectarian
violence in Iraq, not common in the west. One
might argue that this is a direct result of the
history of tribal/sectarian rule which has left the
populace with a tradition of relying on
tribal/sectarian leaders
for protection. That notwithstanding, when the
voting took place they opted for a unity government,
unifying all sects together.
Why is it taking so long? There is an old country
adage that suggests "when someone notices a job well
done, they don't ask how long did it take. They
ask who did it." Not many school children know how
long our Revolutionary War lasted. Most well know the
people who led us into our present form of
government - Washington, Jefferson, Madison. Even so,
women in this country did not receive the right to
vote for more than 100 years later. In Iraq,
women have the right to vote from the beginning.
History will long remember who bestowed the right of
self government on the people of Iraq, after they
have forgotten how long it to took to accomplish it.
Was the cost of freeing Iraq too high? The chaos and
terror of war is a terrible price to pay, and we
forever owe a debt to those willing to submit
themselves to it. It is a debt poorly honored by media
who publish names of the honored dead, but trash the
mission for which they offered the final
sacrifice. But, the right to govern ourselves does
have a price, one that is painful to measure. One way
of doing so is compare the anguished price we
have paid in the past against the freedom we assured
in the past. We shed the blood of 4435 people from
1775-93 to gain self government for the then
4,000,000 Americans in the Revolutionary War. We
sacrificed 364,511 UNION soldiers to keep the 31
million citizens of our country under one government
in our Civil War. In the first World War we sent
116,516 young men and women to their deaths to
preserve the right of 40 million French citizens to
govern
themselves. In the Korean War we offered up the lives
of 36,574 Americans, not counting Allies, to preserve
the right of 20 million South Koreans to govern
themselves. Unless we are ready to say that all those
people gave their lives for too small a cause, we
ought not marginalize the sacrifice of the 2500
Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for the
freedom of the 24 million people of Iraq. (Source of
military deaths: CRS Report for Congress, Order
Code RL32492, American War and Military Operations
Casualties)
Why didn't we send more troops? This is a common
criticism of the Bush administration. One question
needs to be confronted by those who hold that
view. "Would you, if Commander in Chief, send more
troops than the Commanding General in the theater
wished to have? If so, where would you send
them and for what specific purpose?" I can hear the
voices now, claiming that our President and Defense
Secretary kept those generals from asking for the
help they wanted. If so, that is a most cynical view
of a professional soldier who has committed his life
to duty, honor and country, and also a hopelessly
short sighted view, since books have and will be
written on the subject.
For myself, I would be most honored to send my
children and grandchildren to serve this nation's
interests, under any administration. May we always
be saddled with the world's immigrants, seeking of a
better life, pushing for entry through our borders,
while our free press wrings their hands over our
lack of popularity. May it always be thus.
K. W. Catmull
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