Author: Eric Saretsky

Whatever became of R. Lee Ermey ?

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Since 1987 when R. Lee Ermey portrayed the iconic Marine Corps Drill Instructor in Full Metal Jacket, he has been in numerous film and television roles.  And then Hollywood found itself in a situation that rivals the “non-person” erasure of critics of the Soviet system.  Like Charlton Heston before him, John Wayne and other icons who find themselves on the wrong side of revisionist history,  Ermey has no invitations to appear in anything produced in Hollywood.

In publicly disagreeing with then-President Obama in 2010, by expressing the opinion that it was the Administration’s aim and policy to change the United States into a socialist state,  Ermey ran counter to the whole industry.  It was also his association with the NRA, this one-time supposed Liberal ( a Marine Vietnam veteran),  that after a long career, he found himself on Hollywood’s blacklist.   The irony, for those who do not recall it,  in the 1950’s Hollywood actors and producers were being investigated by the House Un-American Activities committee for communist sympathizers within their industry.  The never forgave the Republican party for this. At some point, the campus revolutionaries and anti-war protestors took possession of the cultural institutions, college campuses, bureaucracies and political offices. As both corporate entities and even states have learned during the Obama Presidency,  un-approved views and policies, are subject to commercial asphyxiation and shunning.

From several of the Marines I served with and got to know during my 25 years in the military,  I know that all of them might have different views on politics, leadership and our role in the world,  but have first and foremost been champions of their fellow Marines and the services,    Though I have known and respect certain men and women who pursue a career in Hollywood,  I also know that as a Christian, that environment, so much about image, appearance  and so little based on substance and tolerance -to differing views -would be toxic.

Weekend Garden Warrior

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Saturday was a fine day to relax. Some weekends relaxing mean an early-morning hike with my friends and the dogs. The dogs and I were a little out of sorts yesterday – I think they count the days between weekends knowing that Saturdays are the hiking day. But we had an appointment that morning so the hike was scratched rather than rushing through the park. 

 On other weekends, I try to straighten out my garage, or work on a list of projects, painting, putting up pictures, and sweeping the patio. With dogs, dog hair is everywhere, and in Southern California, dust coats everything so I HAVE to sweep every weekend.  I’ve considered buying a leaf blower to deal with this.   As I look at the bushes and trees, I start thinking I should buy a power trimmer or hire some professionals to get my trees and bushes cleaned up. 

Sometimes I channel wood-working and gardening ambitions to build stuff for the yard.  Last Fall it was a new gate;   the one it replaced was a decayed bit of fencing that I had for several months propped up with rebar, baling wire and metal posts.  For months I’ve kept the old wood in a back corner of the yard for a future project. 

Last weekend I worked in the front yard.     Rock roses, and tea tree, and bark made this area more ‘finished’.   I knew it was pleasing with all the new color when my wife joined me for a late-afternoon iced tea and magazine time on the front patio.


This weekend I built a raised bed frame for vegetables –  a pee-free zone.    I had marked off an area to create a vegetable and herb garden last year,  But it became a playland for the dogs.  I now have to get the soil, mulch and plants potted which is next week’s goal.  My next project – or somewhere on the top five in my list –  a dog run,  will take the place of the chicken wire.  It has nonetheless been effective-   fruit trees, bushes and some succulents have a renewed lease on life now.  But we are getting near that time of year to have friends over, so the wire has to go (soon).


The best part of these projects is the work with power tools, wood and planning and seeing  my ideas take shape.   At other times, with sinks backing up, cable TV losing picture,  or one of the cars develops a glowing idiot lamp, I know it will take more effort to solve.  Those things are not  horribly difficult – I work with troubleshooting electronics all week long – but  are particularly irritating when they occur late on a Sunday afternoon. 

Fortunately, my meter tells me the car trouble is an easy fix.  The sink clog was vanquished by a determine wife with Clorox, hot water and a plunger.   The dogs  are going amok — but not on the plants;   it sounds like coyotes are hunting in the vicinity.  Maybe they are coming to check out my garden.  Perhaps they will eat a few gophers – we have plenty to share with the local predators.   

I need to savor the moments I get to relax.  Tomorrow,  my work commute comes early And even a little dog-pee won’t make the commute nor my job any easier.

Itching to Explore Again

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Yosemite National Park (2016)

Until 2016, I had never visited Yosemite National Park.   Over the course of several days, my friends and I camped – in tents – during the last warm days of the year. 
 I got my year’s worth of hiking and camping in that week. 
Nevada Falls

In the late Fall of 2015, my wife and I visited New York where my father was born, and both a maternal and a paternal aunt still call home.  We visited the memorial to the victims of September 11, 2001.

new World Trade Center, NYC

New York City (2015)

We walked much of Manhattan, and spent hours with each aunt.
Spent time away from work, email, text messages and stress.    And we only just are ramping up our plans as retirement approaches.

The Bull of Wall Street

Northern Ireland,  United Kingdom (2015)

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Belfast, N. Ireland
Ruins of 11th C. monastery, Northern Ireland

In the summer of 2015, we visited Northern Ireland where my late mother and aunts grew up.  Made acquaintance of their friends and folks I had not seen since childhood.  Fell in love with the people and particularly members of our international church fellowship

Grand Canyon National Park (2014)
Grand Canyon, South Rim trail

In the Spring of 2014, I visited the Grand Canyon for only the third time in my life.  On this occasion I joined several very athletic, enthusiastic and acclimated hikers from my home church hiking down into the canyon to the river and back up the other South Rim trail – during the same day. It was a grueling 14 hours, but I emerged healthy and victorious.

view from the South Rim, Grand Canyon

Where do we go this year?

Government UnHealthcare

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Once again, I feel incumbent on me to urge that every citizen take responsibility to become educated in the affairs of government.  Whether it is the quality of your drinking water, the state of polluted coastal waters after a rainstorm, or the money being spent to upgrade your neighborhood schools and street, we all need to pay more attention.  Assuming one political party or bureaucrat had got your family’s best interest in mind is ignorant misplaced trust. 
I’m thinking today about health care and particularly – with a new crown cemented in – dental health.   My dentist, a great guy and a top professional,  mentions to me that in 2017 his business advisors tell him that the reimbursement rates for treating his military and dependent patients are going to fall below profitability.    He knows that these patients – who don’t have a lot of money anyway – may have to pay more to continue receiving care through his practice.   He knows that lower fees mean the best practitioners may drop patients.  
My dental experience over two decades ago was stellar.  But by the end of my military career,  the universal health care I received was poor,  took a long time to be treated and then was triaged and sent on my way.  By the end,   I paid for private dental and health care through my new employer’s  PPO plan.  It took me a half-century, but I know now that dental health is as, if not more important to one’s well-being. And that’s where, Medicaid, ObamaCare, and probably this new Trump initiative fall down.   Dental care is just not a priority – not to politicians,  not to many of the middle class – otherwise I would have taken better care of my teeth over fifty years – and probably not to those who rely on Government aid.  Research on the web bears this out.    
This is the sort of thing that people need to impress on the bureaucrats and the legislatures.  Multi-gender bathrooms,  naming post offices,  renaming schools with offensive Civil War general names, and changing the responsibility for education to the local and state level have all sorts of emotional attachment.   What about basic values?  Upholding the promises made both to the military veteran and to the less fortunate.  And to the self-employed business owner like the dentist who wants to use his formidable talent to treat patients -until the Government forces him out of business.

What is Your "Why"?

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Leave it to an evangelist to publish positive messages and motivation on his FB feed.

At lunch I was looking online at social media, and blogs of people I follow.  One topic that captured my attention was that of failure and success, in that a person succeeds in not giving up after setbacks.  The world we live in is at odds at every turn it seems.    In a world that is wracked with suffering –  there are as many if not more – moments touched by God.  Look closely – a mother gives birth to quadruplets, it is national puppies day, a child rescues another from the clutches of a would-be kidnapper, and an elderly veteran wins the lottery ( the last may be more of a curse than a windfall but remains to be seen).    When the world knocks you down, and against the odds, you determine to stand back up and fight; a fight you will win if you know “your why”.

A Clear windshield is a $350 lesson in physics

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I got a brand new windshield on Wednesday for my nearly-new 2014 Chevy Cruze.  Mind you, in the two years I  drove a  now 11 year-old car,  I never so much as chipped the windshield of the dented, faded-paint Ford while driving  it almost 45,000 miles.  In  42 years as a licensed driver, I have been fairly responsible (or just fortunate?).  A few cracked windshields and perhaps four major accidents in a million driving miles.  You see,  most of the time I drive paranoid – looking for the individual trying to kill me that day. In the picture here, my last car – I bought new and drove 150,000 miles –  over 7 years still  in excellent shape under the hood and body.  Then a gent in a GMC hit me at a stoplight going 50 plus MPH.   And that was how I came to drive the old Ford.

One Thursday evening two weeks ago,  I was almost home from work.  After a heavy rain all day, I was driving the Chevy on the freeway when a loud crack convinced me I had been shot at.   Road debris kicked up by a truck ahead of me (about a hundred feet) must have been responsible for shattering the windshield.  Driving with a cracked windshield taught me to look forward to my appointment. (How many cars get glass work? I may be in the wrong business!)

This morning I am looking up calculations for the safe-driving distance behind vehicles at various highway speeds.   I was too close by half the distance.  Safe is not what I think it is, rather it is what PHYSICS says it is.

And until I get complacent again,  I will be a safer driver.

Extending a helping hand to veterans

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“The Chief will know what to do”  

Last week, I saw a news article about a WWII veteran here in California that was losing his home of forty years.  I had to help.  Today I started compiling a list of resources that may not be known to older veterans or their families.  Friends and relatives with long-ago wartime service,  recently in difficult circumstances have told me about programs that helped them. A resource list is provided here.  

Reader:  Please let me know of other help you may have received or suggestions to improve this list.   

You Cannot Feel a Pumice Stone via SnapChat

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After 57 years,  I have collected a lot of random stuff,  Over the years it has been easier not to go through the storage bins  in the garage.  My wife and I make Spring Cleaning “dates” when the settled dust is thick on lids.

It is probably easier to catalog my collection:

Childhood

  • program from my elementary school musical singing days
  • picture  – collared shirt, bowl haircut
  • blue “participation” ribbons (california!)
  • clay rabbit I made at  4 years old
  • a letter from my Grampa (“man”) to me before he died in 1966

High School

  • transcript copies:   two years in Cape Cod, MA ;  two years in Tucson, AZ
  • picture of me in a Revolutionary War uniform  (We got to carry and shoot black powder muskets!)
  • A few polished stones and pumice (rock collection)
  • Stamp collection of USA and foreign stamps
  • pocket knives

Navy (first time)

  • bootcamp yearbook
  • pictures of friends from the technical school at Great Lakes and Pensacola

1980s

  • college pictures with two groups of friends
  • sample of toilet paper, sugar, and wrapping paper from a college Soviet Union trip
  • ticket stub  from the Los Angeles PINK FLOYD concert (the Wall)
  • A scuba mask from scuba diving days

Navy (second time)

  • pictures in my cracker jacks re-enlisting at the new Navy Memorial (Plankowner)
  • certificates, several framed of ceremonies (Shellback, Golden Shellback, Panama Canal)
  • trinkets, cigarette lighters, jewelry and perfume bottles from Egypt, Japan, Greece, France and every point in between

Married life and family (2001 -)

  • youngest son’s baseball items from Little League All-Star selection
  • more random, but expensive,  trinkets – “ART”
  • travel mementos , mugs, coins, crafts

Action speaks louder than words

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It is the age of the “Like”, Emoticon,  and “re-post” and “Share”.   In the time of “Social” media,  the human race – or at least a portion of it – is so inundated with information there is little time to process it.   Given our busy lives, there is little time to physically interact with each other.  To remain sane,  we decide to filter out what is not beneficial or relevant to our situation.    I decided that I would remain interested in veterans’ issues,  dogs, cats and animal stories, and keeping up with old friends and extended family.

Yesterday,  I read a story that seized my attention.  A 92 year old, World War II B-17 pilot was losing his home of 42 years in an apartment building to eviction.    Apparently the new owner of the building was evicting everyone to do some remodeling and raise rents; this one tenant had been on a fixed rent through a few landlords and for many years because of his veteran status and long tenancy. It  seemed very unreasonable to me.  My grandfather had escaped conscription in the Soviet army during WWI, my other grandfather had been in Civil Defense in his native Ireland during WWII.  Teachers, mentors and friends had been in France, Italy and Germany as soldiers in WWII.  And I knew that one of the most dangerous occupations in that war was aircrew in B-17s.

I made a comment on the featured story on Facebook that something like GoFundMe should be started for this veteran, and this landlord should be pressured via social media.  At present, over 250 reactions from Facebook users indicated that this was well received.  I decided to ACT on my comment in the interim, by seeking information and reaching out via email. In a time when everything is potentially suspect, I did not want to start something that would prove to be either an old story or an urban legend.

And so I emailed the reporter whose story was picked up and repeated by social media.   And subsequently, I received an email from the family members of the B-17 pilot.   The gentleman was fiercely independent, but had accommodations with both of his children as a standing invitation.  This newsworthy story was prompted by them to inform others of the shabby treatment of veterans. Apparently, the city government was woefully unconcerned and had provided no help.  Bureaucracy is never motivated unless it is to promote themselves or increase their budgets.

After consulting other veterans advocacy experts, I provided the family members with some contacts and information available to support veterans.    And they were adamant that donations were not solicited but only the collective outrage focused into action for our nation’s population of under-served veterans.    That is the true sense of community,   Supporting those who served to defend us.  No politics, No discussion of the morality of war,  Simply for citizens to give back to the men and women who put their lives in harms way – or were willing to put themselves in harm’s’ way.

Compassion for the Terminally Angry

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A lunchtime browse of social media reveals the latest shocking Trendy “news”. Apparently, Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr., a rapper in his late Forties, is obliging CNN with something to report that is worthy of headlines.  “Snoop Dogg” so the story goes performed a mock assassination  of President Trump in a music video.  But there are problems with this story.  First, it is being reported on social media and CNN, which are both more prone to fiction these days.  Second,  “Snoop Dogg” is hardly more than a footnote in the encyclopedia of work that black Americans have contributed to culture and the world at large.  Louis Armstrong, BB King, Stanley Turentine, and  Jimi Hendrix are just a few who have a world audience.  As this is Black History Month in the U.S.,  I learned more about the astronauts, inventors, and scientists without whose work, industry and the world would be poorer.

And then you have an angry man.  Twenty-five years ago, his music and associations were very polarizing in expressing the rage of black youth.  But not all black youth.   Fifteen years ago, my mentors in the Navy who taught me how to excel, how to strive for and achieve success as a Chief Petty Officer and then a Senior Chief Petty Officer were two of the finest human beings I have ever had the pleasure of knowing,  Master Chief Cryptologists Banks and Logan.   

I attend my church with men and women of all colors, races, and origins.  And among our fellowship are some of the men who have made an indelible stamp on my Christian Discipleship.  So when this angry – but extremely wealthy ‘gangsta’  –  man panders his drug use, anti-social attitude and downright criminal (I think any reference to assassination of a President however veiled  is a felony) behavior as freedom of expression,  I can only have pity on him.   There is a Judge that will ultimately decide his fate.   I hope for his soul that he can be salvaged while he still is breathing.