Who's heard Little Richard sing "Shake a Hand"?

George... We are all becoming compost... Some more colorful than others.Compost is where we drop our skins off for cleaning.":O}

George, are completely unable to see their excellence?
I see a group of young men who wanted to serve the American people.Who wanted to serve Me and You.

I see the result of their spending a great deal of time and energy Learning a branch of the Martial Arts.
I see a weapons Form. I see the very men upon whom I shall have to rely When, not if, conflict ensues.

I see them dead upon the battle fields of the past and future. I see them coming home changed men.
I see each of them standing there holding open the door to freedom as they receive the all the abuse this world can heap upon them... yet the door remains open.

No one has the right to scorn those whose courage alone has granted us our freedom.

I am a humanist rather than a patriot. But I'd be a fool not to know by who and how I was given that choice.

George your letting your world be described in black and white. All right or all wrong.
This is where you traditionally start citing all the abusive crimes America has used her troops to commit.

I do not wish to deny a single crime or misdeed and there are thousands.
But whose crime was it?
You live by grace in a democracy. You at lest have the opportunity to make your views known. These troops give us that opportunity.

You want a better world? Me too. These troops are our only hope of that happening.
There is real evil in this world and America accounts for her fair share

But what ever order there is to be had in a chaotic world
Whatever peace we can gain for ourselves will be gained and maintained by these good men and women.

This world is not ruled by men like me or you. The rapacious, cruel and evil will take from us everything we let them. These Men and women give us our yes and our no as a nation.

Without them we would be slaves pure and simple.

Your country needs such men and women to exist. We needed them to be born as a nation and we will need them every single day we continue to seek our freedom and the freedom of lesser states always at risk from the powerful.

Do you really see nothing of the hearts of such men?
Here's what you need to be mindful of.
If you need them to they will fight and die for you this very day.

I see some of America's most abused and discarded. I see men who know this, yet still march out and give us their all. I see men willing to put themselves on the line, today it just might be a miss-guided rifle. Tomorrow it just might be my very life tossed in the air with only the prayer one of these one's will be there to catch me.

These our our protectors and we should love them dearly and weep for every set back they suffer.

You want a world that does not need them? So do they!!
But no nation has ever arisen and continued except by martial excellence.

In this world they are our salvation however bloody that success may be.

So yes, it feels like music to me.

No one can pour water into a full cup.
No I did not serve and I have no regrets on that account.

I was the loyal opposition.

I'm still the loyal opposition. But I do not believe that those who served, served an evil empire
I believe as many did that many of those who went did so because they believed that in doing so was to serve their country..

Like it or no America is the only real hope of a better world to come.
The principles we have set forth will prevail or the world dies.

If you want a better world, make a better world. I do everyday.

We are a corrupt country. We have committed all the sins this world will allow.
I speak of we the electorate. Not we the military that protects what others have corrupted..

You have a right to think as you wish. But that right was given you, you did not earn it by service.
You were asked or required to serve, But no special rights are afforded those who served, other than the distinction that when called they went. Many did not return.

It is not nor has it ever been a solders duty to decide the course of the nation, only to serve that course. In a democracy ruled by the electorate responsibility falls to those of voting age.

But you have to make up your mind George.

You can't slight me for not serving, then turn around and blame those who did serve.

If you insist upon a perfect world, you and I must first become perfect.

I cannot assuage your bitterness. Nor can I say you have no reason to be bitter. You served a corrupt country. Your service was abused.

By not by the military. You were abused by the voters.

In this life one must be able to both separate and unite.

One must see clearly if one wishes to assign blame.

I thank you for your service. I hold no one who served as being any more responsible for that war than I am.

The simplest possible truth of our condition here on Earth. We fight or we die. Hitler is never far and must always be apposed.

"I pity the country that has no heroes
I pity the country that needs heroes."

We want someone to blame for the condition of our world
we need look no further than the nearest mirror.

stop blaming others for what we did. If we do not accept that blame We are providing the foundation for the next war.

I just found these by accident; the son of the late blues legend Lonnie Brooks. I met Ronnie and his brother Wayne some years ago at Buddy Guy's Legends, my favorite blues club in Chicago, and enjoyed a beer or three. Some of the most down-to-earth performers ever. [George, check out the bass player, lolz]:

What a good way to wake up in the morning...I suspect I might like going to sleep to them as well! Thank you TR!
I remember when my friend first really became the performer that he had practiced so hard to become.

It literately sent chills up my spine. I was astonished to see him step into the music and never go home no more.So I understand what a connection to a performer can do for the audience. Just really glad you had those beers and were able to touch what no one can hold.":O}

Reading your response it seems to me that your real complaint is not that we do not have a democracy, it more that we are unworthy of our democracy.

You should bring into remembrance the awful shit the Greeks got up to with the first democracy.
Before democracy we had kings tyrants and warlords.
One man or woman rule.

A democracy seeds power to the people.

Warlords and their like have one great advantage They are single minded in their actions.
No need to gain any ones approval,

"Before you start bitching remember...I have and army."

If we look at the kings in history, you got maybe 1 in 6 decent rulers. When they were bad they were often terrifying in their mass cruelty.

So I for one prefer a democracy. But remember those kings and what not?
They weren't really kings. They were just people who came into power that unbalanced most of them.

In democracy we spread a curve. We rarely elect any so depraved as Trump.
But even should we get a good president he/she will have limited power to correct abuses.

But you want a good democracy. And we Shall have one just as soon as we become good and selfless people.

Trump is only slightly worse than those who elected him.
For a democracy to succeed is infinity harder than for a King to get what he/she wants.

It requires and Educated population that vote not their self interest but the Good of the nation.
We need sacrificial men and women. People that can see beyond their own needs to the needs of the most needy.

That a democracy is corrupt does not mean it is not a democracy.
It just means the people are unworthy of Democracy. As unworthy as the Kings that came before.

How should that surprise us. Kingship shows us what people are when they come into power.
I have always sympathize with the Ideal of "power to the people"

But I also plainly see the power is of the people, we just don't like what MOST people do with that power.They elect men like trump, usually no where near as obvious as Trump, but just as self centered.

If you insist our democracy is invalid because of it's corruption you open the door to Kings and worse, to Trump.

So now give us the solution we need. Do you want a king o a better populous?
Kings are easy they are a dime a dozen. An educated populous that Harbors only good will...

...Will be humanities greatest achievement It will be the work of the ages..

It will be extraordinary hard going. We will fall thousand times before we learn compassion.

The Greek democracy lasted 50 years and was forever gone and forgotten...Until the French Revolution two thousand years later..

This tells us what" That democracy is no easy thing!!!

But humanity took the bet! Humanity decided to believe that under a democracy humans would be better people than we were under tyranny .

But is there any proof of that?

How about these things, what do they tel us.
Democracy, freed the slave that so disfigured the face of America.
Democracy gave women the vote.

Which is to say the once men had the vote ultimately Men wanted women to have the vote.
Once men no longer had to serve a King, men decide they did not want any man indentured.

Once we had Education for White men only. now we at lest preach, (and preaching always precedes action.) universal education.

For thousands of years we were ruled over. Now we pick and choose our rulers\ and limit their power.

George we are in Democracy's baby days.

Tyranny lasted thousands of years and rarely achieved anything for the masses.

All well and good to see our failings, but our failings pale in comparison to the abolition of slavery.
To the social elevation of woman to stand beside men in the polling booth.

New beginnings are never easy. Kings raise Armies to gain a throne.

Democracy requires that the masses unite. Requires us to agree to disagree and then take a vote that will bind the deserters to that vote. Democracy inherently disappoints. But provides a way for us to go on as a people.

If you give up on democracy, it seems to me you must offer us something better.

Simple truth is we don't have anything nearly as good, let alone better.

So let us feed this awkward child, educate him/her and lavish that education upon them.

Now please stop throwing the toys our of the pram. This democracy of ours needs you. ":O}