Tuesday, September 2, 2008
A Few More McCain Hammerings | Is The Way A True War Hero Behaves? Is This The Way Our nation Should Behave?
Posted by ed. dickau at 7:13 PM
A Few More McCain Hammerings Is The Way A True War Hero Behaves?I find the constant reference to John McCain as a “War Hero” to be deeply troubling, both in fact and as a matter of the content of his character.
I do not dismiss or denigrate his service to this nation but the constant play upon his POW status just chills me like finger nails scraped on a chalk board.
There have been so many Americans who have earned the title, honor of “War Hero” and few could list them beyond the count of fingers on one hand….they are “unknowns” to most Americans.
There have been so many Americans who have earned the title, honor of “War Hero” and few could list them beyond the count of fingers on one hand….they are “unknowns” to most Americans.
The service men and women of my father’s World War II generation carried, for the most part, their experiences as a private and silent matter; they were not for display and seldom shared except among their comrades at arms. I knew relatively nothing of my father’s experience, though I often, as I grew older wondered at the burden that my German Father must have borne taking up arms against those he once knew as countrymen.
That entire matter took on new meaning, new questions upon his death when my brothers ushered me out into the homestead garage where they had uncovered, secreted, his military papers, medals and other memorabilia of a Sniper. I no longer had any question about his concern with my own prowess with a firearm; the answer was clear.
How many Congressional Medals of Honor are there yet to be uncovered in attics and garages; how many unsung heroes are there?
There is something so self-serving in the way McCain wears his service record, something that does not shine but weighs heavily upon me as corrosion and tarnish. It is source of sorrow enough that our Vietnam Veterans were never accorded due honor for faithful service to their oaths when a nation turned so violently against that war that anyone associated with it was an enemy. Such is the hate, the injustice that can rise in revolt and the path to revolution.
The opponents of that war demanded our men walk away from the enterprise as a matter of principle. I suggest that is as easily done as a call to the American people to rise in revolution.
In the McCain matter my feelings are shared by his peers, his contemporaries lending a degree of validation and vindication to my feelings many would take issue with out of blind patriotism.
Take this New Ad
And listen to Dr. Phillip Butler who knew McCain as a fellow POW.
And I think It Should Be…
We have a terrible history when it comes to this matter of war heroes, (let alone wars, genocidal actions, betrayal and hypocrisy. There is much in our history that we cannot be proud of, and rather than be forgotten it should serve as a constant reminder that there is much yet to be done in this “Great American Experiment”.
As this post is centered on the words “war hero” I am going to take this opportunity to deal an episode of disgraceful tragic proportions, and a heritage of great sorrow, in the first part; “War hero” Ira Hayes and at the second level our genocidal march against the first Americans of this nation.
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land
Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin' water stopped
Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered A
nd forgot the white man's greed
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again
And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Ira Hayes returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored;
Everybody shook his hand
But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no home, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Then Ira started drinkin' hard;
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it like you'd throw a dog a bone!
He died drunk early one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes
CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died
Johnny Cash Drums a Native American Tribute
Johnny Cash The Talking Leaves
Jonny Cash, AS Long as the Grass Shall Grow
Apache Tears Johnny Cash Native American
Johnny Cash Vanishing Race
Johnny Cash - Custer
General George Custer 7th US Cavalry ~ Song "Comanche"
There Is Much To Recall Much To Consider In The Lyrics Of These Ballads And Videos.
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