I figured I should update you on the terrible outcome of our recent brush with inclement weather.

When last we left our heroes…they were squarely in the path of and facing the wrath of the transgender storm whose deadname was Agatha almost because Alex before changing it’s mind and becoming Potential Tropical Cyclone 1…a naming convention we don’t recall seeing anytime in recent memory…but whatever. Then after unleashing it’s tremendous wrath (see below) on southern Florida…it exited back out into the Atlantic Ocean proper…finished it’s gender affirming surgery, and became Tropical Storm Alex and is now somewhere north of Bermuda heading out into the North Atlantic where it will summarily die.

You probably read about the tremendous flooding and winds in the state…and Neil’s brother Ron saw a report on CNN that detailed a young lady getting her top ripped off as she was standing up out the sunroof on a car over on the east coast of the state someplace…but not having seen the clip I can’t say whether it was the wind from the storm or the wind from the car moving that caused the wardrobe malfunction.

Yes…there was some rain…we got a couple of inches here but it never rained hard…we’ve seen harder periods of rain…much harder…in LA (lower Alabama) where Neil grew up, Virginia, and even here in Florida when it was just your garden variety reg’lar old rainstorm. And yes…we had some wind but it never even made it to 20 mph as far as we saw. And yes…there was some localized flooding from the rainfall over in the Miami area because it is further south and got more of the center portion of the storm and because they have really lousy storm sewer systems over there and they get localized flooding in just about every rainstorm they have.

However…it really wasn’t that serious…and even the notoriously click chasing Miami Herald has pretty much moved onto other things…they’re talking about the storm that “drenched” Florida this morning…and here’s a picture of the hard hit areas of the city.

Yep…that’s some mighty serious damage there Lou. Surely is.

Not a serious problem folks.

Now…on to the guest post. As most regular readers of just about any blog know…guest posts are posts not written by the usual blogger but by someone who’s either paid him to write one, somebody he invited to write one, or somebody who had some other reason that got the usual blogger to temporarily surrender the keyboard.

As all of you know…it’s me…Gunther the bear…that’s the usual poster here…heck, you can see my picture right up there in the masthead…and ‘sides, anybody can see it’s right  up there ⬆️⬆️ in the url bar…ya know that part that says www and all the rest o’ that internet tubes addressing stuff. That said…I’ve offered the keyboard…temporarily mind ya, let’s not get crazy ‘bout it…to Connie (who’s always declined), my BFF Kara the golden retriever (also with a pic up there in the masthead…she’s the li’l one…and she occasionally blathers on ‘bout vittles and such. Can’t rightly recall that I’ve ever offered Neil the keyboard though…he’s even more blunt than I am but mebbe that’s ‘cuz he worked for a company named Reality Based IT Services back in the day. However…he asked and after a bit o’ thought I had to tell him yes…’cuz the whole financial system in the country is species-ist and simply refuses to accept ursine creatures (or canine creatures either for that matter) as legitimate members of polite society…deeming them financially unreliable and hence unable to obtain either a credit rating or a credit card. And ya can’t have a blog without a provider…and ya can’t have a provider without one of them credit cards…so I have to rely on the specialness of Homo Sapiens (i.e., humans) to handle that part of it for me…which means that I can’t really turn him down.

Ima saving the rest of my social commentary and common sense fer nex’ time…so…take it away Mr. N.

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Howdy folks…Neil here. I don’t really know why this irritates me so much…but it does. Probably because it is just plain wrong and disrespectful. If you don’t want to read what I’ll freely admit is pretty much a rant…then feel free to skip to the next blog post whenever the bear publishes it.

In the good old US of A…we have two (well actually 3 but the third is somewhat lesser in stature) holidays that commemorate, thank, respect, and memorialize folks that have served in our armed forces…both are recognized and observed as federal holidays.

Veterans Day…is and always has been celebrated on November 11 starting in 1919 when he addressed the first anniversary of Armistice Day which was the end of the First World War. He paid tribute to those who died in the conflict. In 1945 a celebration of Armistice Day in Birmingham AL was expanded to include all veterans and 8 years later President Eisenhower signed into law Veterans Day which is specifically designed to honor “military veterans of the armed forces who were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable”. A second day named Armed Forces Day is celebrated in May to honor *currently serving members in the armed forces* and Women Veterans Day is observed in some states in June but is not a federal holiday.

Memorial Day…is observed on the last Monday in May…and is designed specifically and solely for US military personnel who died in service…and US military personnel are defined as those serving in the 6 branches of the military…USA, USN, USAF, USMC, USCG, and the Space Force.

It’s really not hard to understand these two holidays…one is to celebrate and honor Veterans and the other is to celebrate and honor military members who died in the service of their country. It isn’t really hard…it is actually right in the the name.

Now I know that all of the bear’s readers are pretty darned smart people who graduated from at least the third grade and thus can read and understand simple sentences…so my ire isn’t directed at you…nope, not at all. However…maybe by writing this down it will get indexed by internet search engines and maybe…just maybe…people might get beat over the head with the clue stick and learn to properly celebrate these holidays.

Now I’m a veteran as you all know…and mighty darned proud of my service. I also appreciate…but don’t demand…the thanks for your service comments I get at various time…but to be honest I didn’t serve in the military for the thanks I might get one day. I did it because it was a pretty good paycheck, because I got a lot more responsibility than most of my contemporaries did much earlier in my adult life, and because driving submarines out in waters alone, alone, outnumbered, and surrounded by potential enemies was pretty much the best job I ever had. Hard at times…extremely boring at times…and being away from my family pretty much sucked at times…but the exciting things we did and the contributions we made to the nation’s security made it worth while.

And I’m happy to be both able to come home to my family at the end of my career in the Navy…and I’m really happy that I came home alive and not to a patch of hallowed ground in Arlington National Cemetery…but those men and women as well as those in other cemeteries…are the real heroes…not me.

Memorial Day is to honor the memory of those “honored dead” as Lincoln said…who gave “the last full measure of devotion”…in other words those who did not return home alive and who gave their lives for both our way of life as well as freedom around the world in other countries.

So…a couple things about the celebrations last week really irked me.

First was the DA out in the other LA on the left coast…George Gascon…who tweeted

“When I was 18 years old, I joined the United States Army,” Gascon tweeted. “I’d like to wish everyone a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend as we reflect on and remember those who have served our country.”

He was called out by one of the PRC’s congressman…Mike Garcia (an actual combat veteran)…who said

“Are you a ghost? If not, you have the wrong holiday @GeorgeGascon. Veterans Day is in November. This weekend we honor those who didn’t make it home. It’s not hard. Neither is recognizing the difference between felonies and misdemeanors”

Now admittedly Mr. Garcia should probably not have brought Mr. Gascon’s failed policies as DA into the discussion…but he was completely right. I checked…and Mr. Gascon is the same age as I am so while he is an immigrant born in Cuba he came to the US at age 13 and hence should have had Civics class in high school and I’m pretty sure that I learned the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day in high school…but maybe out in the PRC they didn’t bother with trivia like that.

Then later in the week…we watched the National Memorial Day Concert…which is sponsored by the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Inc. and the United States Army in conjunction with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Looking at the Alger Association…it was founded to “honor the achievements of outstanding Americans who have succeeded in spite of adversity and to emphasize the importance of higher education.” and primarily provides need based scholarships. Now there is nothing wrong with the association or their purpose…but I’m not sure why they’re the sponsor of something called the National Memorial Day Concert…but in any even being in the education business one would think that they would understand the distinct differences between Veterans Day and Memorial Day…and the idea that the latter is designed to honor far more important people…and that they would understand the definition of “members of the armed forces”.

Ditto for the United States Army…and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley.

How is it possibly right to take a day specifically designed to honor men and women who gave their very lives in defense of this country, freedom, and democratic principles and water it down by putting every other politically correct group or class into the ceremonies.

Yes…those honored dead were mentioned briefly…but the vast majority of the concert and it’s “honorees” were just politically correct let’s see how many buzzwords we can get into the program. Medal of Honor winners were honored…but only living ones. Veterans were honored…but only living ones. General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell was honored since he died last year and since he had attended 30something editions of the National Memorial Day Concert. Woman soldiers were honored…but once again only living ones.

Now before anybody gets their undergarments all in a twist because I talked about any of those groups or people in a disrespectful manner…I am not.

Medal of Honor winners…those are some extremely brave men and women and deserve our thanks and respect.

Veterans…ditto.

General Powell…again ditto and I actually met him one day during operation Desert Shield…he was running one day alongside the Potomac River south of the Pentagon…I passed him going the other way, turned around and asked if he was who I thought he was, and had a nice chat with him for a minute or so.

Women veterans…again ditto.

Every other group that I didn’t put in above…ditto and ditto.

Each and every one of those other groups or people are completely deserving of being honored and respected…and they were all veterans and thus certainly worthy of that title and of being honored…on VETERANS Day…not on MEMORIAL Day.

Each and every one of those people and groups are heroes but honestly…they are only lower case heroes…although the Medal of Honor winners are a slight cut above and should be Heroes. However…those people who are supposed to be honored on Memorial Day are

HEROES

Yep…flashing lights, upper case, and every other way possible to single out their unique contributions…they DIED for what they believed in. The rest of us…we served but we came home to our families and loved ones. All the families and loved ones of those HEROES…well they got Taps on a bugle, a folded flag, and the thanks of a grateful nation. All gave some…but some gave all…and it really, really, really irritates me that we dilute the sacrifices they made by tossing in various and sundry other politically correct things. The concert is fine…but a concert is supposed to be a concert and that implies music and perhaps some singing as well…but mostly what we got was syrupy speeches about this or that special group who deserved our praise and then the syrupy speech givers went over and hugged the living members of whatever group they were blathering on about. We saw precious little talk devoted to the people who are actually supposed to be honored on Memorial Day. If it had been me in charge…there would have been a huge screen playing a video of a drone flying over Arlington Cemetery showing the row upon row of honored dead with a flag on each and every tombstone interspersed with video of the slow march of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Music would have been solemn and distinguished and absent a short…very short speech from say the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs…or actually the President himself would really be the best person since he is the Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces in the Constitution about the true meaning of the day…but the speech would be severely limited in both topic and length…and then no other speeches would be allowed.

Again…I have not a darned thing against any of the aforementioned groups or people…it is a simple matter that Memorial Day is…not…their…day…to…be…honored.

Sorry to have babbled on about this…but the lack of respect for the day, what it means, and who it’s supposed to be about it really irritates me. Idiots…all of ‘em.

Until next time…but it will be the bear then.