Friday Night

Survived the first week back to school and that routine. Son was able to change the two classes like he wanted to - he moved into Pre AP Chemistry from regular class and into AP Psychology while dropping Art. So, he's cooking now.

I went to the dermotologist for the first time in my life this morning. I have been blessed with a really good complexion all of my life, even through the teen years. Genetics. My two sisters are the same. Well, here I am in the truly lovely menopause years now and wierd things happen to your facial skin. Now I am being treated for rosacea. Taking both pill and topical treatment. Dietary changes to prevent flare ups. I have to go back in two weeks so the demotologist can tell me if it is clearing up quickly enough to avoid steroid treatment. Yeah, good times.

Hubby left this afternoon for an assignment out in the Gulf of Mexico. He called when he was stopped in Vinton, just 6 miles into the state of Louisiana. He was picking up his usual supply of beef jerky for the drive across the state. He is a creature of habit, if he finds a place with something he likes, he'll make it his routine. The man appreciates a good beef jerky. He bought a food dehydrator several years back to make his own.

Only one week away from the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Ray Naguin, the mayor of New Orleans attended the Association of Black Journalists convention and blames racism and red tape for the woes of Katrina. He is the mayor of the city so is he the racist? Is the corrupt government of the state of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans that downright encouraged dependency on "government" by the poorer citizens racist? Is the huge national government that begged the mayor to call for mandatory evacuation racist? Was the trial run drill called Hurricane Pam that the city employees performed just a matter of months before Katrina and proved the city and it's plan would not survive a major hurricane event racist? The U.S. taxpayer has provided billions of dollars now for the re-building of New Orleans. Not much progress bang for those bucks.

How about the Mississippi coast and the Alabama coast? How about the western Louisiana coast and Texas coast that are still devastated from Hurricane Rita? I don't see them screaming names to place blame. I see them working one day at a time to bring their areas back. Hey, there's a thought. Hurricane Rita victims have been completely ignored.

I watched a show on the WE network tonight that was very moving. It is called "Vietnam Nurses" and hosted by Dana Delaney of the old series "China Beach" fame. It was the story of 8 women who "battled to save the wounded and comfort the dying" as nurses in the Vietnam war. All signed up for service thinking they would be sent to other places like Germany or California or Hawaii and they ended up assigned to Vietnam. Officially it was the country's policy that women were not to be in harm's way but that wasn't the reality. Their stories brought me to tears. They are truly unsung heroes. The show ended by showing the monument dedicated to the nurses who served in Vietnam in DC. It was dedicated, finally, on November 2, 1993. It took over 10 years of effort to get approval and the monument erected. That's a real shame. As one nurse said, if caring for 350,000 wounded soldiers and the deaths of 59,000 is not worthy of a monument on the mall in DC, then what is?

The nurses echoed stories like the combat soldiers told about the reaction to them once they came home from the war. All of them wanted the war to end quickly, of course, but they didn't understand why the anti war people would think it justified to take out their attitudes on them. I never understood it either. I was in high school and college as the war was winding down and was as anti war as the next person but I never understood blaming the soldier for the war then, either.

I have always held the U.S. military in high regard. We owe everything to them. I didn't understand how people could vote a man like Bill Clinton into the presidency after he used tools like letters to his state's politicans voicing his disgust and contempt, his words, for the military as his way of getting a deferment from the draft. Or where was the outrage, outside of the military personnel assigned there, to the Clintons, mostly Hillary, using the uniformed military at the White House as butlers at their dinners? Using uniformed military as butlers for the Arkansas grifters.

I am encouraged that the returning soldiers from our current wars are being treated with much more respect and thanks now. My Vietnam veteran husband appreciates it, too.