Memorial Day 2006

Flashback to Saturday, 21 July 2001. I'd taken delivery of a new car earlier in the month. Partially as a reason to exercise it, I drove down to the DFW National Cemetery.

Although my father spent 30 years in the US Navy, I never had the inclination to join the military, and dad never asked me about it; he died during my second year in college. He didn't talk much about his World War II experiences, other than a brief story about a multi-ship convoy in the Pacific where only his ship and one other survived. I once wrote to the Navy department, asking for a copy of his military records, but they never replied.

I knew the DFW cemetery opened in 2000, and I wanted to look around. I thought I spotted a mountain lion from a distance, but couldn't be sure. There was a sign warning that "(t)his cemetery is being maintained in as natural state as possible [sic] and is inhabited by various wildlife such as lizards; snakes; birds; coyote; deer; fox; skunks; opossums; spiders; bobcat; wild dogs and scorpions". I spent a few hours there, taking photos and otherwise taking it all in.

The next day, I see that I went to the "DFW Founders Plaza" to watch the planes take off and land. I took quite a few photos that day, not knowing that such behavior, two months later, might seem highly suspect in a changed-forever country. Don't bother going back to my thoughts in those days; I didn't start this blog until July 2003.

This morning, I nosed through part of my photo collection (partly as a way to recall when I went to the DFW National Cemetery). I decided to give Adobe's "PhotoShop Album Starter Edition" a whirl with my (eeek!) 11,930 photographs. I'm guessing that they'll offer me all sorts of (paid) upgrades and options, eventually. For now, it's enough that I make a serious stab at organizing them all; if only I had that much time.

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Unrelated thoughts:

#1

I wonder ... what happened to the rest of the bribe? Louisiana Congressman William J. Jefferson allegedly (yeah, right) took $100,000 outside a suburban Washington hotel, but The Feds only found $90,000 in his freezer. Did he stop at Exxon on the way home to fill up his SUV?

Aside: after listening to AirAmerica skewer this moron, I flipped over to one of the 3R stations (Radical Right Radio) and listened to them say that .. because Jefferson is a Democrat (and a black one at that) .. the "Liberal Left Lunatics" were ignoring the whole thing. Ah, the 3R-Media have learned Karl Rove's lesson well: Lie. Repeat the Lie Until Everyone Believes It. Ignore (or, better yet - belittle) Anyone Who Disagrees.

#2

I wonder ... if the phrase "Haditha Massacre" will be this generation's equivalent to "My Lai Massacre"? Unlikely, since the scale of the atrocity is (apparently) so different. In Vietnam, between 347 and 504 people were slaughtered by US soldiers. In Iraq, it appears that "only" 24 civilians were slaughtered by US soldiers. Time will tell.

#3

I wonder ... if Simone and Marvin remembered Jill-Bob, who I picked up at DFW yesterday, following her three week, 4500 mile* RV trip from Minneapolis to Anchorage. Better her than me!

* Yahoo! Maps says the distance between Minneapolis and Anchorage is only 3206 miles (80 hours). I reckon they were moseyin' and lollygaggin'.