Posted on 02/25/2007 8:33:03 AM PST by ContraryMary
DEAR ABBY: Our 17-year-old twin son and daughter met with military recruiters who came to their school and made the military sound exciting and glamorous. They are now saying that after they graduate next year, they want to join the military instead of going to college. They have even put up military posters in their rooms that they received from the recruiters.
My husband and I are horrified. We cannot stand the thought of them going off to war, and do not believe that war is the answer to the world's problems. It will be a year, and hopefully the novelty of the idea will wear off by then. However, I don't want to take a chance. How can I counter the idea? -- CLEVELAND MOM
DEAR CLEVELAND MOM: Before your children commit themselves to the idea that the military is all foreign travel, shiny medals and glory, they should see firsthand that there is a more serious side. Contact your nearest veterans hospital and inquire about you and your children paying some visits and volunteering to help wounded vets. It may be a sobering experience, but it should open their eyes in no time flat.
Well, if the objective is to fully explore the military as a career option, then it would ALSO be useful to visit an American Legion post filled with proud veterans who realize what they fought for in previous wars. It would be valuable to talk to retired and active military who have made an impact in society. In my area we have some Viet Namese veteran soldiers who march in our Veteran's day parade, perhaps it would be useful to learn what freedom means to them in contrast to how their compatriots live in Viet Nam today.
Its all good advice, too bad Dear Abbey couldn't think of anything but wounded veterans.
Not in those days. Homeport was Whidbey Island and the squadron deployed with their FAW aboard whichever carrier was going out. I guess things changed.
Well, here's a chance to test his knowledge of VAQ trivia. In the early days, Grumman built an automated test station called the Digital Test Station. When I first got into AIMD working on the DTS, we could run 35 different ARA's. Later, they made another modification that allowed control boxes to be run as well. It was a nifty machine that stood about 6 feet tall, 3 feet deep and about 10 feet wide.
To keep it at top performance, we had a Grumman Tech Rep on site to keep the DTS operating. We had to laugh, though, at some Calibration tech at Cubi who wanted to zero out over 100 interacting pots to calibrate the machine. We politely, but firmly told him that if he tried, we would feed him to the machine before he ever put a screwdriver on the first pot. He got the hint, LOL!!!
I haven't thought much of the family since the old Abby's sister, Ann Landers, went after the Pope.
If people consider all of the feuding in that family (Ann's and Abby's daughters also have rival columns and have tangled in the past), they might consider other sources of advice.
But the Navy had different ideas and sent him to New Jersey to do recruiting duty. That was in 1986. And here we still are in NJ. Go figure.
I still remember Whidbey fondly. We rented a small two-bedroom A-frame in Clinton(?) at the southern end of the island. We used to throw great theme parties for the guys he worked with. Deception Pass was breathtakingly beautiful. And there was this restaurant in Coupeville, Michael's, that I would match against any four-star restaurant in Manhattan.
You're getting beyond me, here. I've pinged hubby, aka Comrade Bork.
[...And most of all, thank God for this shining city on a
hill, which allows you to freely make a fool of yourself...]
Thank you for sending that.
When your son returns from Normandy and then complete
his art project, I hope you will share it with the rest of us.
He may have to search, but remind him to speak with survivors.
He will find that they are grateful to America for helping
to liberate Europe from the Nazi's.
Thank you to your family for your service.
-Jo-
[..."The Japanese Plane that hit my ship did it on purpose"...]
If only the world could see it so clearly.
Sure, let someone else's children fight to keep your sorry butts safe & free. If the moron needs to write to 'Dear Abby' for advice that should tell us all we need to know about her parenting skills. Maybe her children are smarter than she is and want to do what they think is right.
I just realized I split an infinitive. Now she'll just assume I'm ignorant... ;>)
I just realized I split an infinitive. Now she'll just assume I'm ignorant... ;>)
Jeanne Phillips began assisting her mother with the column at the age of 14, when she needed to earn an allowance. She has written the majority of the column since the early 1990s, even though her mother did not publicly acknowledge her as co-writer of the column until 2000. Jeanne took the column over completely in 2002 when her mother had to retire due to Alzheimer's disease.
Her mother was widely considered liberal and Jeanne Phillips is considered by some to be even more liberal than her mother was. Some conservatives strongly criticize some of her advice. For example, Concerned Women for America once criticized her for "spreading false information about homosexuality". She has also been criticized by pro-life activists for giving advice in support of abortion rights.
awards include: The Generations of Choice Award from Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles
Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips was an identical twin; her sister, Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer, wrote the Ann Landers column until her death from multiple myeloma in 2002, at age 83.
November 8, 2002, Jeanne told a mother to support her daughters involvement in pornography.
Pauline Abigail Van Buren Phillips, Jeanne Phillips mother and the founder of the Dear Abby column once received a letter from a reader concerned that a gay couple had moved into their neighborhood, and wanted her advice on what they could do to improve the quality of the neighborhood. You could move, Abigail famously replied.
Don't worry. Split infinitive or no...,
unlike Abbey..., your words mean something.
To make a fool of yourself freely? Nah.
To make yourself freely a fool? Nah.
To make a fool freely yourself? Nah.
To make freely yourself a fool? Nah.
To make freely a fool yourself? Nah
You got it right the first time.
I hate to say this, but this is typical.
I have a relative by marriage, a big weightlifter, tough-guy type.
When he heard his son wanted to join the Coast Guard, he went off on a tangent about how "my kid won't fight in this phoney war."
But, let a 9/11 occur in his neighborhood, and he'd be screaming real loud for "somebody else's" son to protect his self-centered ass.
BTW, he is so stupid he can tell you who won the latest American Idol, but has no idea the Coast Guard is not in Iraq fighting on the streets.
First off, this is not Dear Abby, it's her daughter. She's as far left-wing radical as it gets, and she shames her mom every time she writes this crap.
First off, who cares what "Dear Abby's" real name is.
You don't know how much I appreciate that exercise. :)
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