[GBBob]

Originally Posted by my miss storm cat

"Look at that bum."

My son said it with a passing indifference as he got out of the car and walked toward the video store, not realizing that i was having one of those moments... a moment of hyprocrisy.

Sure, I've thought that. I think we all have. I'm not so high and mighty here.

The thing is I knew something my son was too young to realize... that a lot of these 'bums" are the children who went to, were forced to go to or volunteered for, Viet Nam.

I dropped a dollar in his makeshift basket and he looked up at me from his termorary home on the ground. His face was old but his eyes were young and I tried to imagine him, in that three-second interaction, as a young man. Tucked in his coat in this 80 degree weather was a puppy.

I'm no one to judge who should and should not have a pet... it was the love, the tenderness that struck me.

Even those we fear or want to step away from, those "bums" who may or may not make us a little uncomfortable... they search for love too.

Loving thoughts and prayers today for the families of those who paid the ultimate price, to those who served because it was honorable and their duty, to those who were forced to go to places they feared, to those who did not return, and to those who did but who came back broken in some way... mising limbs or having witnessed unspeakable acts, those whose lives were forever changed and who became outcasts. The heroes, the forgotten, the still-missing in action.

So many of them were children. It doesn't matter if it was World War I or the Gulf War. So many who were 18 and hadn't yet experienced things that most of us have and do without so much as a second thought.

Even though this day has become synonymous with sales at the mall I think most of us understand that that's not what it's about at all.

Thank you for serving. Whether or not we agree(d) with the policies or the war(s) we appreciate all of you and your families.

well said G