Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Veterans Day 2003 will need to be in the hearts of all Americans. I am a Vietnam veteran and always honored veterans and stood up for what they sacrificed for. Now here we are again, a country at war. Again we watch the TV and see our men and woman in harm's way. On TV we watch what were once innocent young faces turn hardened and aged from battle. The tears flow and the anger starts. Again we're a nation asking many questions while our young die.
As in Vietnam, and other wars, the new generation of soldiers is asked to do too much without a break. Those on the front lines will do without and get hardly any sleep or rest. We won't rotate them as we should because there aren't enough trained for actual combat. They are the select and often neglected few.
I hope those in charge don't tie their hands as they did ours in Vietnam. We all said there wouldn't be another Vietnam because there were lessons learned. We said we want no more Walls built, but we've lost one too many already. My heart goes out to the families of those we have lost in this new war as it did to those we lost in Vietnam. Let us as a nation embrace them and honor what their sons and daughters have given their lives for.
We as a nation are starting to split on our involvement in Iraq. But there's one thing we can't be split on. That's backing our service people who are being sent over there. They are doing their job the best they can and they're giving up a lot to do it. As a veteran, I proudly salute each and every one. This time when they get home, you can bet this vet will say, "Thanks and welcome home." I won't need another war and to wait 30 years to tell them.
Veterans Day is set aside to honor all members of our armed forces, living and dead. I'm an Army veteran myself, and I was proud to serve my country, and salute all those who have and are now serving in Iraq and elsewhere.
Exemplary heroism must especially be remembered. The heroes are men and women who faced the peril of threatening adversaries as our soldiers are now doing in Iraq. Their death-defying determination and presence of mind will, in the long run, help to preserve our wise human-rights-centered republic.
Americans must not let our country become corroded and disunited; the acid of disorganization and the neglect of national interests could doom America, as it did Rome. This will never happen as long as our national people-power of honorable, integrity-minded citizenry stays united and concerned.
As you go about your activities this Veterans Day, you may have an opportunity to participate in one of the many patriotic observances conducted by the military or a veterans' organization. And in all likelihood, at some time during the ceremony, a bugler will play a short 24-note bugle call that you probably have heard many times in the past.
Just 24 notes, only four notes on a scale, but the sound of taps will, for many, evoke emotions that send shivers through the body and may bring a tear to the eye.
It was in July 1862. Union losses had been staggering, and the troops were homesick and frightened. Sensing the mood of his men, Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield called for his bugler, whistled some notes from a long-forgotten bugle call and had the bugler play it to signal "lights out" in hopes of calming his nervous troops. The call quickly became popular and was soon widely used to signal the close of day and the safety of the night.
These softly plaintive notes later seemed appropriate to bid farewell to departed comrades. While it once signalled time to close tent flaps, it now signals the time to close a veteran's life.
The playing of taps is an honor reserved for all military members and veterans who have served faithfully and have gone on to their final rest. So, if at some time during this Veterans Day you have occasion to hear those 24 notes, let it bring to your mind the memory of a departed veteran, and perhaps say a little silent prayer. May they rest in peace.
With Veterans Day upon us, I wonder just who will celebrate it. If you work in a government office or if you work at a bank, you will have the day off. Otherwise, it is work as usual for all veterans unless they are by chance retired. The only real celebration otherwise will be whatever the veterans themselves create, such as a parade, or a memorial at a cemetery for the fallen.
Before I retired, the company for which I worked, would always tell employees they could take Martin Luther King Jr. Day off and it would not be counted against their absentee record. That was never the case for Veterans Day. Have we forgotten our vets? Sadly, for the most part I think we have.
Compare that to Anzac Day, (Australia's version of Veterans Day) which is April 25. Anzac stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corp. It is the day they celebrate and honor their veterans from wars past. People there will get up at 4 a.m. to be sure they get a spot along the parade route. Hundreds of thousands participate. This past April in Perth, more than 40,000 people attended the dawn service, and an estimated crowd of 240,000 was at the parade. Sydney reported on the news that 150,000 attended the dawn service, and more than 1-million showed up for the parade.
On Anzac Day there is nothing open before noon when the march finishes. Even after that, most department and grocery stores do not open. No vet pays for anything disposable, such as restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, parking, public transportation, theaters, or any other amusement venues. Everything is laid out for them, and Australia feels they deserve it.
This past Anzac Day, Australia had some visiting firefighters from New York there for a little R and R. When one of them tried to pay for his dinner he was asked if he was a vet. He replied that he was. Then you do not pay, he was told. He was amazed, and said thank you. With a tear in his eye he said it was the first time he was ever thanked for being a vet, and it took a foreign country to do it.
Re: An education ideal to cozy up to, Nov. 4.
Nicholas Kristof has a great idea that has to do with the efficacy of smaller schools to the academic achievement of students. The importance of attention from teachers who are familiar with each and every student cannot be underestimated. In a large school, that attention is more difficult to give. Attention by just being noticed is more valuable than any other in a young person's life.
Ask a young person today from a large school if he or she has had a teacher notice in any way that he or she exists, and don't be surprised if the answer is "no." Kids used to have conversations about teachers and complain or compliment them, but with so many in a class, there is little time for teachers or students to individualize the students.
If charter schools can remedy this situation and affect positively the lives of their students, they are to be desired and should continue to operate as they no doubt will. Their success may come from the personal attention they can give each and every student.
The money saved from the building of large schools and the busing of pupils, could easily fund neighborhood small schools. Parents would be happier with this arrangement for many reasons; children would be safer and even crime might be reduced. Also smaller-school authorities would know their student body well.
Smaller schools are a goal worth reaching for.
Re: An education ideal to cozy up to.
One need not be an education expert to realize that having "smaller classrooms" and not "smaller schools" is a more realistic step in the education of children today. Unfortunately this step alone may be too large for those who administrate the changes in most educational systems.
Nevertheless, the majority of the voters in the state of Florida have recognized this particular step is one in the right direction.
Your recent report on the status of education brought forth the usual flurry of letters from concerned readers who were shocked and outraged that only 69 per cent of students graduate from high school in four years.
This seems to be another indicator that many of us do not face the facts. Those concerned readers will continue to be shocked and outraged as long as they refuse to accept the obvious reality that half our students are below average; and yes, at least 31 percent are in the bottom third as to academic aptitude and potential. Those realities do impact on results. We cannot have reasonable expectations about education if we think we live in Lake Wobegon.
Re: Robotic Rx, Nov. 2.
As a pharmacist, I read this story with great interest. I have always been proud of the advances my profession has continually made to satisfy the health care needs of the American public. Historically, due in large part to our accessibility, the pharmacist is very often the first health care professional a patient sees when a problem arises. This is a critical role that should not be taken for granted, and whose importance in the overall health care system cannot be overemphasized.
Further development of technology in health care is unavoidable. While I applaud and support the idea that use of a robot will, as Bayfront pharmacy manager Jeff Lannigan puts it, "allow the pharmacist to do more of the clinical work," as someone with more than 25 years experience I cannot help but wonder if the reality will indeed be something else. According to Susan Winckler, a vice president of the American Pharmacists Association, "Automation won't replace pharmacists." Really? These are interesting statements. Interesting, but extremely doubtful.
According to Lannigan, this machine can do in 31/2 hours what it takes his staff 24 hours to accomplish. Is there anyone working today in health care who is naive enough not to think that at some point those whose concern is only the bottom line will use this as a way to employ fewer pharmacists and in so doing further weaken the public's access to health care?
Without a doubt technology has its place in medicine as a tool to be used by educated professionals to treat patients. It should not be used to replace or undermine the duties of any members of the heath care team without a thorough examination of the detrimental consequences to public health.
I look forward to the followup article in 2010 when Bayfront's lease on this contraption is up and the number of pharmacists employed at that time can be compared to those employed in 2003.
Letters for publication should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. They can be sent by fax to 727 893-8675 or by e-mail to letters@sptimes.com (no attachments, please).
They should be brief and must include the writer's name, address and phone number. Please include a handwritten signature when possible.
Letters may be edited for clarity, taste and length.