And we heard from the boy

There was an envelope delivered to my mother yesterday from Fort Benning, GA. Upon opening the envelope we discovered a single page letter, with tiny blood stains, addressed to 'Dear Dad'. We have heard from PVT Ryan and I have a feeling my brother will be getting an envelope with a letter to my mom inside.

But that's ok. As long as we heard from him.

I wrote him and told him if there are any lonely soldiers around who never get any mail to let me know. I have a few people in mind who would love to adopt a soldier. No one should go through Basic Training or Army deployment 'alone'.

I have lost another friend on The Hive and there is a unifying theme here. Apparently, Euroman is outraged at the opposition of a few of our more conservative people have towards his legalize all drugs/anti prohibition stance. He seems to have decided that those who disagree are the personification of evil - and if the rest of us do not hound them into silence, then we are also evil. He equates us with those who did not stand up to the Nazis in the 1920's. We are to be attacked at every turn. He has gone from a man who once presented reasonable arguments to a rude and nasty person.

After what I went through with the ModPol ending our friendship because I did not think his posting a picture of a man in Nazi uniform on FB and claiming it was a member of the opposition was an honorable thing to do, I vowed to never allow myself to be bullied. I have put up with personal attacks by LOM to the point where there are members of my 12 step program that will not go to meetings he attends or speak his name, they are so disgusted by his behavior. My own brother has called me names and told his children lies about my behavior and motivations.

I will always forgive these people - being a Catholic means I MUST forgive them - but I will not allow anyone, no matter who they are, to verbally beat me up. I am done being their punching bag.

I do not send nasty text messages, make mean telephone calls, post nasty replies on blogs, send mean emails to people I do not agree with and I will not allow people to do the same to me.

Here is the weirdest part of this kind of situation - do you want to know who it is who does this kind of stuff every single time, without fail?

Super Liberals.

I have NEVER had someone who refers to themselves as a Conservative attack me personally because I disagree with them. They have never attacked my faith tradition, my size, my facial features, my ethnic origins or the type of music I like.

Now, that's not to say I haven't seen some of the more conservative members of The Hive come out swinging against their attackers. I have...and I do not approve. I do not approve because I am a Catholic and quite frankly sometimes I am jealous....if I do that, I have to apologize and then go to Confession...

I have never, however, had the more conservative members of any forum take aim at me and throw a verbal punch simply because I may question them or disagree with them. It is amazing to me that the group that shouts the loudest about how heartless conservatives are have been, in my opinion, the first to virtually beat their wives if the dinner is burnt.

Oh well.

So, I have two meetings this morning and then I get to go home. Unity Day in Ripon tomorrow and then I get to listen to a fifth step. Then...back to work. I am exhausted as usual but that is kind of the going thing right now. I will be, no doubt, exhausted until the day I get to waltz outta here to the tune of 'Retirement is Lovely' sung by the Lennon Sisters.

huh?

Good night, all...or is it Good morning?