The Greatest, or just another Generation?

I grew up knowing that all of my grandfathers and great uncles had done their part to win the war. They were the generation of heroes. Grandpa, on my mother's side, road supply lines for the allies. On my father's side, grandpa was discharged due to physical disabilities. During his discharge exam the doctor told him, "I don't know how you faked it through the first examination!"

Today, our involvement in Iraq, Syria, and whatever else in the Middle East next becomes a ISIS stronghold threatens to become WWIII of our history. If my son is lucky, it will be in the history books by the time he gets to high school, where they'll watch movies about brave Americans trekking the desert in motley crews, battling the evil ISIS troops shouting, "Death to America!" as they fire their weapons. But what will he think of us--the GenX and Millenials--that will be fighting the coming war? 

Will we be the heroes? Will we be the stuff of legend? Or are we going to another in a long line of power seekers, oppressors, thugs. The same way we, in America, view the British of the Revolution, the Japanese of WWII, Saddam Hussein, Stalin, Putin, Hitler, George W Bush and Dick Cheney. 

What will we say of our choice to go back to a land we couldn't liberate the first OR second time?

Quietly Happening, or Shouts Over the Waves

With joy I greeted a message from a good friend. He lives in South Lyon, where I had an article slated for publication. It finally came out in this week's South Lyon Herald, though it has been online at Observer & Eccentric's hometownlife.com. 

This of course is good news to me and the man I wrote about, Chuck Theile. I passed along the news in the morning, and quietly went about my day: mundane shopping at Meijer and jotting notes on a legal pad--the exciting life of freelance.

Like a gradual wave, the news began to pour in from Chuck and online. Searching for my article, I found it three separate times, cataloged under different cities and their respective publications. I found this odd, but thought little of it. Then Chuck sent me a reply. He knew that the article had come out...and it had come out in several papers.

I was overjoyed. That explained the multiple entries on Observer and Eccentric's website.

Then this came in:

"FRONT PAGE OF WAYNE-WESTLAND'S PAPER."

All the while, I wondered whether or not to put a cereal bar in my son's lunch this coming Monday, and dated photos with my fiance from the past four months for our photo-albums. 

News, it seems, comes in waves, and life never stops being strange and funny all at once.

That's all from Elliott at the Kitchen Table, ready for a road trip to see these newspapers with my own eyes.