May Mayhem III -- A Memorial Salute

Things are busy and don't afford much time these days.  This weekend is my 11th year wedding anniversary with my lovely bride, and my 37th (-?) birthday.  Wow, how time flies!....  But most importantly, this is Memorial Weekend, when we honor our American brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, grandparents, and great grandparents who have stepped up to serve on all of our behalf in protecting us under the American flag, and who have worked hard to keep the peace and safety in our local communities.  It is their dedication, bravery, service and sacrifice that has allowed this country to become the great country that it is today. 

Of course, as a country, we aren't perfect.  But there is no place I would rather be, and to be able to have the choice to do the business that I enjoy doing with the people I enjoy working for and working with. 

It is unfortunate that there is such a relentless and way too over-dramatized sideshow of commentators always trying to enrage one half of the country or the other.  (If Adolf Hitler, Mao Ze Dong, Jozef Stalin, Pol Pot, or Mussolini were alive in the world today --which I am certainly glad that they are not! -- I am sure that they would shake their heads and laugh in disbelief on how loosely the words Nazism, Communism, Fascism, Socialism, and Dictatorship can be used and diluted of any true meaning these days.  It is astounding what people can get away with saying, and so prominently in the major news outlets, in the face of a republic with a representative democracy, without getting their needed reality check or psychiatric evaluation.) 

But truly, this is a great country full of amazing things, full of amazing people, and full of incredible opportunitues.  We have done many wonderful things with the protection and outreach efforts of our service men and women, and with the secular and non-secular philanthropic endeavors around the world... And I am truly grateful and proud to live in this country!   

I am the good lookin' boyscout on the left.

some old friends working on a paver memorial in 2007.