📣Spreading the word for this incredible cause – the 13th Annual #Boston Wounded Vet Bike Run: They Fought, We Ride! 🇺🇸
🗣️This event raises vital funds to support wounded service members who have sacrificed so much for our country. 100% of donations directly benefit these heroes, either through the event's programs or charities they choose.
How You Can Help:
📲Spread the word on social media!
👉🏽Donate: Even a small contribution can make a difference! 🔗https://theyfoughtweride.com/honorees
Are you a US #veteran , or any US voter who wants to support a return to responsible politics in this country? Do you think the GOP push to not count absentee ballots that arrive after election day (including thousands of overseas military ballots) is awful? Go check out Veterans for Responsible Leadership (VFRL). I don’t plug organizations often, but this one is supporting middle ground candidates that we desperately need.
Today's review! Damage Controlled by Miski Harris, Don't Ask, Don't Tell book 3:
"Teddy Washington, aka Phoenix, has entered a nationally televised drag queen contest... Gregory Grayson is a vet who returned home with a traumatic brain injury... amazing. Five stars."
Today in Labor History January 15, 1976: A judge sentenced Sara Jane Moore to life in prison. She had attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in front of the St. Francis Hotel, in San Francisco. It was the second failed attempt on Ford that year. Oliver Sipple, a gay marine veteran happened to be standing nearby and thwarted her second shot. Sipple was out of the closet and fairly well-known in the San Francisco gay scene. He was also friends with Harvey Milk, who outed Sipple to journalist Herb Caen. Milk’s rationale: "For once we can show that gays do heroic things, not just all that caca about molesting children and hanging out in bathrooms." However, Sipple who was still in the closet with respect to his family, was devastated. His mother disowned him. Family members refused to speak to him. The president refused to invite him to the White House or offer him a medal or commendation. Sipple sued the San Francisco Chronicle for invasion of privacy. But the courts ruled against him. His mental and physical health deteriorated after this. He started drinking heavily and was found dead in his apartment in 1989, at the age of 47.
Today started out crappy. Storms last night, went to bed sick and woke up worse. But this morning I got the best news. A #veteran I’ve been helping in my job finally got the specially-adapted vehicle he needed to be more independent. His paperwork had gotten hung up, errors made, etc, so this had been dragging on with no end in sight. I was finally able to get with the right person to fix it. It’s gonna be a good day! #tgif#joinin
I wanted to share a YouTube short I made after a recent trip to Boston, MA. As a #veteran and a huge fan of Fallout 4, it was always my dream to walk the freedom trail, unfortunately my new found disability has made it difficult for me to walk even short distances. It took me two days but I did the entire trail! Despite the difficulty, I am glad I persevered.
Waking the Freedom Trail: Perusing one of my dreams despite my disability - #boston#disabilitypride
Another good song, and the beach at Tor Bay Provincial Park.
If you blink, you'd miss this amazing place. No one else here but the birds. @TheSauce #PipingPlovers#Plover#Birds
Not every beach is sandy @TheSauce , but I've seen 100s of them in NS, dozens along the longest highway (#7) in #Halifax. (You'd need a guide.) #TourismNS will never mention these places, or I wouldn't go there.
In NOVA SCOTIA, we don't eat lobster daily. #WAYCTV ◄
NONE OF THESE PLACES have #Transit, #Gasoline, #Cellular, #Television, #Stores, #Banks, Public #Phones, #Tourist Info, #Seniors Care, #Veteran Support, Healthcare & more. More City folks have seen Cuba, than the end of #HRM FORGOTTEN
I'm a creative at heart. I work in podcasting, but don't podcast much. Also, a hobbyist photographer, Coffee aficionado, Tech enthusiast and avid [news] reader. Been on the #fediverse in some form since 2016.
Also, fun fact. I was a soldier once (and even young). Feels like a different life at this point. 15-year retired #Army combat #veteran. #OIF#OEF#OND
Today, 11 Nov, we remember those who served, those who fought, and those who died in service, for their country. #RememberThem
I come from a long line of military members, I'll stand in the cold, at the local cenotaph in the village, beginning after 10:30 am.
It might snow, it looks like it?
How many rescue/recovery missions, how many traumatic events? Lost shipmates, lost drilling rig (Ocean Ranger), SwissAir.
I don't refer to myself as a #veteran on #RemembranceDay, while technically, I served the longest. I was involved in all those events and more, but I didn't fight in a war.
Today, I like to remember those who fought in a war, all who died, and all who are presently serving.
Charles Norman Shay is believed to be the last living #NativeAmerican who stormed the beaches of #Normandy according to the Maine Department of Transportation.
Underserved, Veteran Farmers and Ranchers of the United States can get $27.6 Million in support through the 2501 USDA program. To promote farms, ranches,
Michael Barclay shared his story on #Australian television after the incident that saw him rejected because his #mataora reportedly breached the establishment’s own rules.
Lyft driver last night decided to tell me his life story. The guy was more than a bit unhinged, so I just let him talk.
Veteran, tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Starts talking about his domestic violence towards his ex-wife and children, laughing about how he had only jokingly threatened to break his children's legs, and when he stabbed his wife in the arm with a wire, it wasn't really a stabbing.
"I told the judge, if I had wanted to stab her, she'd be dead."
Complains in great detail about all the money she took from him, his prison time for the assault, and describes with glee hiding his assets in his vintage car. "New chrome, new hood, new tires - bitch wasn't gonna see that money!"
Continues on about how his new girl came from Iraq and knows what a war zone is like. Brags that he'll send her back if she doesn't marry him. Turns out he's never seen her in person, but has sent her over $7k through some online hookup site that charges per message. Goes off on how he helped her move from Canada to Chicago (we're in California), and complains about how each time he sends her money to come out west, she never shows up.
"I've bought the tux, the wedding dress - it's all ready to go - it's that or Iraq."
Note that all of this was punctuated with constant bouts of chuckling and provided completely unprompted - I said maybe three words the entire trip.
Why do I relate this story? First, it was watching bad karma in action, both the fuck around and find out phases wrapped up in a tidy taxi ride.
But I found myself wondering what he was like as a child... he was clearly struggling in the smarts department, but he had a natural friendliness that belied the horrible shit coming out of his mouth. It got me thinking to what this guy might have been like had the army not put a gun in his hand and sent him overseas to kill. He was in his forties, but his mind was that of a violent teenager - almost as if it had been frozen at the point in time when he was deployed.
I speak about this because I've seen the same pattern in other vets I've known, including some I went to high school with (1st Gulf War vets). Something gets permanently broken in them, keeping them in a state of constant angry adolescence that takes childish glee in abuse, cruelty and savagery as a way to normalize their experience.
And then they come home, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake as they try to integrate to a peacetime existence, unable to grow up, Peter Pan with a gun in hand.
I wish someone had made this clear to my friends who joined up. There's more than one of them who's too dangerous to be a friend to now.
Underserved, Veteran farmers & Ranchers of United States To get $27.6 Million support! - Agriculture Review (agriculturereview.com)
Underserved, Veteran Farmers and Ranchers of the United States can get $27.6 Million in support through the 2501 USDA program. To promote farms, ranches,