Tuesday, May 29, 2007

The Reason behind the Season

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and that just with the rest of our holidays, we all remembered the reason behind it.

I've mentioned this before, but as the daughter of a Vietnam Vet, I hold a high, holy place for those who willing to sacrifice anything for our country, even when we have misguided leaders leading the way.

One of the first pieces I ever wrote was a tribute to our veterans, inspired by Veterans Day, my father, and a proud family history of serving our country. Often regarded as one of the best posts here on LLP, stop by and read For Our Veterans.

Some of you may be readers of the country's largest national liberal/progressive blog, Daily Kos. In addition to my duties here, at Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and Michigan Liberal, I also volunteer at Daily Kos as a 'Rescue Ranger', and no, it doesn't involve a chipmunk costume. I'm assigned a couple time slots each week where I pour through all of the posts, or diaries, and select some of the best written ones, where they are then highlighted at the end of the day in Diary Rescue. Since there are thousands of diaries written each day, it takes a volunteer force of about 50 of us from all over the country literally working day and night on this.

Yesterday happened to be one of my regular shifts, it was great to see how many average Americans express their joy, sorrow, anger, and frustration all through the written word. I was particularly pleased to be able to rescue A Soldier's Thoughts on Memorial Day by MichLib's own recently returned veteran from Iraq, djtyg.

DJ's even younger than I am, and he's already been to Gitmo, Iraq and Afghanistan, and carries some painful scars. We're grateful to have him back, but now as a Reservist, he's facing too many uphill battles for a job, funding for education, and proper health and career services. I keep him in mind constantly when doing what I can to speak up on better treatment of the military.

There were several other posts that really touched me, and I wanted to share them with you, as they were written to be read, and I hope that you'll also pass them along.
Namaste

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