CALL IT GREED
There really is no other name for it. A guy like Richard Clarke writes a tell all about his experiences and recollections from drinking at the government trough, i.e. the former anti-terrorist czar badmouths his former boss and his administration. His publisher, owned by CBS, brings Clark's book out just at the time when it can have the greatest possibility of sales. IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. It hits the bestseller lists.
Oh, just a coincidence. The large book publishers will publish anything that will sell-they want a celebrity or political antagonist with name recognition to go on the talk shows, pitching the books to our celebrity-crazed culture, or in this case, the crazed political junkies. Do these folks honestly think we've just fallen off the turnip truck?
Clarke's publisher has followed the success formula to a "T". He's the controversial subject who can go on all the talk shows and before Congress touting his great truths on a subject that pains all Americans: GREED.
Recently, the pariah of great virtue, tongue in cheek here, Daniel Ellsberg, who stole the Pentagon Papers (duly lofted upon the shoulders of the Vietnam protesters) applauds what those like Clark are doing. They are heroes to him. Ellsberg sees Clarke as part of a trend-government snitches who have gone public with books or interviews on what they consider the government's miscues. GREED.
Think of these three: Clarke, former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill, whose book was based on classified documents; and Hans Blix, the former U. N. chief weapons inspector in Iraq. They all wrote books-do we see them giving their proceeds to charity? GREED. All three are basically disgruntled ex-employees.
Well, they are greedy is what they are. I liken it in a way to a recent movie, I saw, Ned Kelly. Kelly, an Irishman in Australia, is accused of attacking a hated British policeman. He couldn't have because at the time he's keeping company with a woman of the gentry. He asks her to give him an alibi and she says, I can't, my husband would take my children, I would be ruined. Ned Kelly looks longingly at her and says, "I understand" and he rides off. Now, tell me, would Clarke or Ellsberg or any of the "tell all" greed crowd just ride off. I don't think so.
I was musing to my wife that I could not understand how people didn't have any loyalty and even brought up the yoyo who is now claiming to have been the other man of JFK Jr's wife, Carolyn.. My wife smiled at me with one word. MONEY. I think so! Money! It is all about money.
Guys like Ellsberg and Clarke and others can paint it anyway they want. Maybe it is about some truth or their perception of it, but it smacks at dishonor to me and is mostly about greed.
Kelly Thomas, Vietnam class of 67-68
 A POLITICAL SNAPSHOT
I will have to be honest, I don't take the politics stuff all that serious and view myself as such a "midget" in the great scheme of things. I am a Democrat because my Dad would turn over in his grave if I were to join the Republican party, the party of Lincoln. He was an old southern type, named me after Jefferson Davis. He was not one of these civil war reenactment types who was always fighting the Civil War or as they call it, the war between the states or the "hardcore" types, northern aggression. My Dad could not abide the idea of being associated with the Republican carpetbaggers as he called them.
I kind of like George W. personally but think he has surrounded himself with a bunch of idiots. I don't like Kerry and not because of all the hate stuff rolling around the internet, but have a hard time with the idea that he trashed GIs while they were still in Vietnam and was only there a short time-in the Navy of all things and got all these medals; but, it isn't just that-just have to wait and see and will probably vote for him.
The Republicans are mean-spirited and although I am a social liberal, still often take their positions because they are my roots. But, think heavy duty issues like abortion have to be decided by those affected and gay marriage, please: we need more love in the world, not less, however it comes. I do hate men kissing I must admit. God bless you and God bless America. Jake Collier, Vietnam, class of 69
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Man has created some lovely dwellings
some soul-stirring literature.
He has done much
to alleviate physical pain.
But he has not
created a substitute for a sunset,
a grove of pines,
the music of the winds,
the dank smell of the deep forest,
or the shy beauty of a wildflower.
Harvey Broome, Naturalist
DOZER DRIVER
I wonder about the dozer driver
I mean, I just killed them
lobbed hundred pound artillery shells
fifty caliber machine gun, M-16 bursts
concussion hand grenades
but then, that was in response to AK forty-sevens
we . . . had a right
fought them all day and night
he . . . came on later, dozed up the hole
and without a prayer that I know . . .
pushed . . . a pile of gray fractured limbs and punctured rags
some grandmother's hope
into that empty hole
covered them with red dirt
and clanked the dozer treads over and over
until the ground was level
Bill Blackley
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