What Matters this Year

A friend once told me that what makes the New Year so great is that its new. In the span of a night, and a lot of bad booze, you can become a new you. It doesn't matter what you said or did the day, hell the year, before. That was then and this is now. You are new and so is the world. I used to believe it.



Sorry Virginia - there isn't a Santa Claus. There are no do overs and the big blue marble still spins at twenty six thousand miles an hour. We cannot stop and we cannot get off. Now, before you roll your eyes and dread the coming storm - its not coming!



We have had a hard few years since my BBG got medevac'd out of Iraq - I've told you all about it but what the hell, the juice has been worth the squeeze.



My wife and I have had adventures that most can never imagine (between you and I, you don't really want to). My daughters know that a woman can do anything - including combat. They know to never surrender, to never give up and that sometimes life hits you with an IED, RPG, or other unpleasant projectile. They know to stand up and be counted. My son knows the Marine Corps Hymn by heart and knows that honor is more than a word.



My children will grow up as Americans. They will know and honor the sacrifices made by those who came before and by those who will surely follow. I pray that don't choose that road but I know the way this works. Soldiers breed soldiers. It is a life of friendship and hardship and it seeps into your bones. It is a part of you.



besides



My oldest daughter wants to fly Hawks like her old man and my son wants to go West Point. Thank god the youngest just wants to be a cheerleader, a vet, and a princess.



Back to my point:



Its been a rough year - OK, four rough years. We are however alive and a little better than we were last year and there are many other young men and women and their families w ho need your help much more than we. This year, I am going to try and tell more of their stories and less of mine.



I hope you'll come back to read them. These young men and women have given so much and despite the thank you's that they hear in airports or the random books and letters that show up on their racks in Iraq and Afghanistan- many of them (many of their families) feel very alone. America's eyes and ears are on a failing economy. They are not on section sixty-one in Arlington. They are not on a friend of mine who can't seem to get his VA claim completed. They are not on the son of a friend who was rushed through the Army Physical Disability Evaluation System (PDES) and discharged with a check for four grand and no benefits.



The New Year is upon us and we're still spinning at twenty-four thousand miles an hour. The market's a mess, jobs are disappearing every day but none of that matters. Young men and women are standing in harms way. They are being blown up by IEDs, RPGs and other shitty things. They are dying.



That matters and this year is for them.



TIA



Earl