Agree. Fireworks are expensive indulgences that are at best an irritation. Our dog begins to pant, shake and drool with fear. We will enjoy an early meal with friends and be sure to be home with her. We'll play some music, close the blinds. Comfort her as best we can.
I haven't experienced the horrors that you have. But it occurs to me that if society gave a shit about those who have experienced combat, such events wouldn't occur.
Maybe there is something in the human psyche that just enjoys violence and explosions. Why? Most TV shows are almost required to involve brutality and abuse. I am weary of it. Repulsed.
Hope you find some peace and pleasant companionship tomorrow. There is a lot to celebrate. As messed up as we are, it's still the best country.
Your reference to the human psych - made me wonder - is the draw of violence on TV for eg a means of deconditioning us in a safe home environment to the violence that's all around us.?
Can you imagine the uproar if a town announced - "In respect for all of our combat veterans, the money that would have been spent on fireworks, will be reallocated toward treating disabled veterans which we keep generating?"
The redirection of money spent on "frivolity" to the support of Veterans in general has my vote. But then I would rearrange the finances of many aspects of our society.
Example: tax the owners of sports teams and the networks that broadcast sports - to fund a new comprehensive mental health system. Years ago, we "mainstreamed" mentally ill folks. Now many of them live under bridges or reside in our new mental hospitals - prisons. Without air conditioning. Run by private companies who have no incentive to prevent recidivism.
Yes. We used to warehouse those with mental challenges in asylums, but now we just warehouse them in jails and prisons. They live in a spiraling descent of pointless suffering. It's disgusting.
A serious funding of comprehensive mental healthcare would certainly pay for itself considering crimes, drug abuse, and the widespread "costs" of suicide to people all around the victim. But hundreds of thousands of deaths annually, from the above, are complex problems and our leaders have more important problems to tackle like investigating Hunter Biden's laptop.
I don't comment much on Substack anymore, but I still read many posts by several great authors. I found it better to read comments from folks like you--and you do seem to get around....
Very much to the point, and an extremely important point it is. What may be a light-hearted comment or cute little joke to one person, may be a horrendously traumatic trigger for another. Not to mention loud explosions for fun. None of us know what it's like walking in another's shoes.
I'm reminded of my brother back from Vietnam for about a year when he came out of a grocery store in NJ , just as a fighter jet flew a high-speed pass along the nearby beach. He dropped to the sidewalk, face down, shaking and unable to stop. Many years later, he recounted one of the last times he had heard the sound of a low flying jet - as his friends and fellow marines became a collage on the trees all around him.
Mark, please thank your brother for his service--and I thank you for your understanding and compassion. I have done some ‘unscheduled low-crawling’ myself. Our off-post trailer was right under the final approach to McGuire AFB in NJ, and some of those planes came in VERY low. The C5A giant “screamers” were the worst!
Hi Gus, thanks for your support and certainly for your service. My brother and I used to call each other every month or so. That stopped around 2016. So I kept calling him. He stopped answering my calls, with rare exception, a couple years ago. I've thanked him for his service for many years at least Memorial Day.
The last attempted telephone call a month ago, was a one way shouting match about how much he hated people like me who were "trying to destroy the country". FYI, I did volunteer work with and for disabled vets for 7 years . Then he went on yelling about how I should stop watching anything but Newsmax which he watches many hours per day. He hung up on me after I told him I loved him - I know he's hurting and terrified that he's losing his country - but he might be a little brain-washed.
I will try to engage almost anyone in conversation but I have my limits.
My blog post " I'm Sorry" - recounts my father loading his gun in front of me and doing everything but pull the trigger - after a similar shouting fest, when he found out I'd voted for Obama.
OMG Mark. Me too. I’m the eldest member of the family, and yet I have been cast out and shunned by my younger sister and brother. No shouting or violent threats, but really nasty emails officially throwing me in the dumpster. My sister and her husband are retired senior government officials, well educated, solid MAGA to the core.
All that I wanted to do was ask about how they decided to go in that direction, etc. I promised no judgement, no argument; I sincerely wanted to know. I also wanted to know for myself if there was something that they, as lifelong insiders in DC, knew that was compelling them to choose that path. Some secret gnosis as it were.
Same-same my brother. What was really shocking was the almost instantaneous anger. They morphed into people I had never met before. Could not form a coherent answer to any question and just exploded with a DEFCON 5 level of vitriol and hatred. Who are these people, and what got to them? I had to decide that they don’t know either. It was more stunning than painful, but I had to give them up to boil in their own juices and accept their verdict. PThat was at least 5 years ago. Totally irrational, totally emotional....
Mark, you and I are just two of the thousands of people--maybe hundreds of thousands--who have lost friends and loved ones. Families torn apart. It is no consolation to be sure, but during the last 5years I have come to understand it. I truly hope the indictments will break through the MAGA hold on their minds, but seriously doubt it.
It is going to be a long and painful struggle, but I will not quit. I will not let our country down. And I am honored to be in it with you.
I don't know what to say other than - How frigin' sad. I'm sorry you're in the thick of it also. Divide and conquer has always been an effective strategy for war and the GOP has become convinced that people with different views are the enemy of our country and that we are at war, meaning anything goes. The non-rational though patterns of the most extreme MAGA faction are - off the charts of what we would have considered fathomable ten years ago or say during the late 1930's in Germany.
Your comment, that " I just wanted to understand", took me back to a question I asked my brother. - Please help me understand why Bill Barr, Trumps hand picked and always loyal Atty General and more than a dozen of Trump appointed and loyal attys said TRUMP LOST? He sent me a return text - "We're just going to have to agree to disagree there."
I think one of our best shots at breaking through the "holds on their minds, "is if and when the
entire Florida jury votes to convict him (and co-conspirators) and a substantial portion of MAGA lose their fervor and start sitting out elections.
The last couple lines of your comment are spot on and I'm glad to know there are fine people like yourself all across the US who will keep doing the ever-challenging work of protecting our democracy.
When we blow off tons of expensive fireworks we are celebrating our profits really. If the U.S. worked as hard at diplomacy as it does at war perhaps Russia would have backed off its agression toward Ukraine by now. Every day should dawn with U.S. working hard for peace. Wishful pie-in-the-sky thinking I know. For profit corporate media is no help. For profit war material manufacturing is no help. We have 700+ military bases in 80 or so countries. Why we are camped out in others’ backyards is not a mystery. It’s for profit. Bull that we need all those bases to keep us free here. I believe the blinders must drop when soldiers find themselves in combat. When I was much much younger I went to an anti-war meeting (I think the group was called Beyond War) where a high-ranking military officer (he was in uniform) talked of the importance of working for peace. I was blown away by his compassion. That’s what I remember about his speech--his compassion. He had probably been in combat and knew the score.
Your comment reminds me of President Eisenhauer warning of the dangers of the military industrial complex. It is surely one of the main drivers of our worldwide expansionism.
I’m with you Pen. My poor dog ... I love him, and wish I could assure him that he’s going to be ok ... but he’s still a pet, important to me, but not human. I’ve had a “teary” day, for some reason, idk, but your letter started me up again, at the end of the day, thinking about everything we’ve asked of our veterans and subjected them to and then they come home, have to struggle to find a way to live in society again and at least once a year, every year, they’re forced to experience their worst nightmare all over again. No compassion. There have been many posts in my local Nextdoor ... for as many people who are sympathetic, there are as many, maybe more who do not care. Get over it, seems their refrain. They’ve clearly been privileged enough to not have the experience. I’m very sorry some of our fellow human beings are so unfeeling and cruel. There are loud explosions all around my neighborhood. Tomorrow night will be worse. I’m not feeling much like “celebrating”. Be good to yourself and know many of us suffer with you in our own ways.
Carla, will also be spending tomorrow comforting animal companions. Bad neighborhood for boom-booms. A few of my neighbors buy next-level fireworks in AL and SC where they are legal. So within a four hundred meter radius of my house there are the grocery store booms and the real BOOMS. Doesn't do my ptsd any good! (I was a ground pounder in Vietnam).
I think my cats have it worse than me, so we endure the day together....
Thanks Pen. It was surprisingly muted. Maybe the prohibitive cost of fireworks, or maybe the neighbors used most of them over the weekend. Very good day with the ‘boys’ and me mostly in a big old recliner, reading and snoozing and playing intra-species games
I hope your day progresses well and your evening isn’t too LOUD. So far today is calm, but it’s early yet. I’m putting on music and giving Dutch some calming treats in advance. He’s unable to eat when he’s panicking. I will be thinking of our faithful veterans who suffer on this day. The best news I found was the emergence of drone displays! Not only do so many suffer from the noise, but air quality is affected and wildfires are a risk. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fireworks-displays-drone-shows-4th-of-july-celebrations/
Your post today taught me something new. I had never considered what hearing Fourth of July explosions would be like for people who have been in combat. I want to thank you for expanding my thinking. You made me think about how upsetting it must be to hear all the Fourth of July noise for people like yourself. Here's a little Fourth experience I want to share with you: I was quietly watching Netflix on my computer along about dusk and was very startled to hear a loud explosion from next door that made me jump. I immediately knew what I had heard, but an altogether new thought crossed my mind after hearing the noise - how terrifying it would have been for someone who had been in combat and had been in danger of being killed or wounded. I had that thought because of what you shared here. Your post just shifted my thoughts on fireworks in an important direction to help me in my quest to always increase my understanding of other peoples' point of view.
I must be transparent in my admission that I was completely unaware that fireworks added to existing trauma before I became aware of what trauma is. I’m glad I was educated, because it increases my empathy.
Agree. Fireworks are expensive indulgences that are at best an irritation. Our dog begins to pant, shake and drool with fear. We will enjoy an early meal with friends and be sure to be home with her. We'll play some music, close the blinds. Comfort her as best we can.
I haven't experienced the horrors that you have. But it occurs to me that if society gave a shit about those who have experienced combat, such events wouldn't occur.
Maybe there is something in the human psyche that just enjoys violence and explosions. Why? Most TV shows are almost required to involve brutality and abuse. I am weary of it. Repulsed.
Hope you find some peace and pleasant companionship tomorrow. There is a lot to celebrate. As messed up as we are, it's still the best country.
Your reference to the human psych - made me wonder - is the draw of violence on TV for eg a means of deconditioning us in a safe home environment to the violence that's all around us.?
Can you imagine the uproar if a town announced - "In respect for all of our combat veterans, the money that would have been spent on fireworks, will be reallocated toward treating disabled veterans which we keep generating?"
The redirection of money spent on "frivolity" to the support of Veterans in general has my vote. But then I would rearrange the finances of many aspects of our society.
Example: tax the owners of sports teams and the networks that broadcast sports - to fund a new comprehensive mental health system. Years ago, we "mainstreamed" mentally ill folks. Now many of them live under bridges or reside in our new mental hospitals - prisons. Without air conditioning. Run by private companies who have no incentive to prevent recidivism.
BTW, your "new mental hospitals - prisons" comment is spot on.
Yes. We used to warehouse those with mental challenges in asylums, but now we just warehouse them in jails and prisons. They live in a spiraling descent of pointless suffering. It's disgusting.
"Spiraling descent" - captures well, the cost of systemically ignoring serious social or mental health problems.
A serious funding of comprehensive mental healthcare would certainly pay for itself considering crimes, drug abuse, and the widespread "costs" of suicide to people all around the victim. But hundreds of thousands of deaths annually, from the above, are complex problems and our leaders have more important problems to tackle like investigating Hunter Biden's laptop.
Well put Bill.
Thank you!
I don't comment much on Substack anymore, but I still read many posts by several great authors. I found it better to read comments from folks like you--and you do seem to get around....
Thanks Gus. Substack has become my social media. I never tweeted. I left FB. Tictok is for those with the attention spans of a goldfish.
And there are SO many good writers here. I wish I could afford to pay for all of them.
There is a lot about Penfist's journey that really connects with me.
Thank you both for reading, and the comments as well. That people want to hear my thoughts is humbling.
There is a lot to celebrate. There is potential. I'm not sure I agree with the "best" country, but there are certainly worse places to exist.
Very much to the point, and an extremely important point it is. What may be a light-hearted comment or cute little joke to one person, may be a horrendously traumatic trigger for another. Not to mention loud explosions for fun. None of us know what it's like walking in another's shoes.
I'm reminded of my brother back from Vietnam for about a year when he came out of a grocery store in NJ , just as a fighter jet flew a high-speed pass along the nearby beach. He dropped to the sidewalk, face down, shaking and unable to stop. Many years later, he recounted one of the last times he had heard the sound of a low flying jet - as his friends and fellow marines became a collage on the trees all around him.
I'm sorry for his trauma.
Thanks Pen -
Mark, please thank your brother for his service--and I thank you for your understanding and compassion. I have done some ‘unscheduled low-crawling’ myself. Our off-post trailer was right under the final approach to McGuire AFB in NJ, and some of those planes came in VERY low. The C5A giant “screamers” were the worst!
Hi Gus, thanks for your support and certainly for your service. My brother and I used to call each other every month or so. That stopped around 2016. So I kept calling him. He stopped answering my calls, with rare exception, a couple years ago. I've thanked him for his service for many years at least Memorial Day.
The last attempted telephone call a month ago, was a one way shouting match about how much he hated people like me who were "trying to destroy the country". FYI, I did volunteer work with and for disabled vets for 7 years . Then he went on yelling about how I should stop watching anything but Newsmax which he watches many hours per day. He hung up on me after I told him I loved him - I know he's hurting and terrified that he's losing his country - but he might be a little brain-washed.
I will try to engage almost anyone in conversation but I have my limits.
My blog post " I'm Sorry" - recounts my father loading his gun in front of me and doing everything but pull the trigger - after a similar shouting fest, when he found out I'd voted for Obama.
OMG Mark. Me too. I’m the eldest member of the family, and yet I have been cast out and shunned by my younger sister and brother. No shouting or violent threats, but really nasty emails officially throwing me in the dumpster. My sister and her husband are retired senior government officials, well educated, solid MAGA to the core.
All that I wanted to do was ask about how they decided to go in that direction, etc. I promised no judgement, no argument; I sincerely wanted to know. I also wanted to know for myself if there was something that they, as lifelong insiders in DC, knew that was compelling them to choose that path. Some secret gnosis as it were.
Same-same my brother. What was really shocking was the almost instantaneous anger. They morphed into people I had never met before. Could not form a coherent answer to any question and just exploded with a DEFCON 5 level of vitriol and hatred. Who are these people, and what got to them? I had to decide that they don’t know either. It was more stunning than painful, but I had to give them up to boil in their own juices and accept their verdict. PThat was at least 5 years ago. Totally irrational, totally emotional....
Mark, you and I are just two of the thousands of people--maybe hundreds of thousands--who have lost friends and loved ones. Families torn apart. It is no consolation to be sure, but during the last 5years I have come to understand it. I truly hope the indictments will break through the MAGA hold on their minds, but seriously doubt it.
It is going to be a long and painful struggle, but I will not quit. I will not let our country down. And I am honored to be in it with you.
I don't know what to say other than - How frigin' sad. I'm sorry you're in the thick of it also. Divide and conquer has always been an effective strategy for war and the GOP has become convinced that people with different views are the enemy of our country and that we are at war, meaning anything goes. The non-rational though patterns of the most extreme MAGA faction are - off the charts of what we would have considered fathomable ten years ago or say during the late 1930's in Germany.
Your comment, that " I just wanted to understand", took me back to a question I asked my brother. - Please help me understand why Bill Barr, Trumps hand picked and always loyal Atty General and more than a dozen of Trump appointed and loyal attys said TRUMP LOST? He sent me a return text - "We're just going to have to agree to disagree there."
I think one of our best shots at breaking through the "holds on their minds, "is if and when the
entire Florida jury votes to convict him (and co-conspirators) and a substantial portion of MAGA lose their fervor and start sitting out elections.
The last couple lines of your comment are spot on and I'm glad to know there are fine people like yourself all across the US who will keep doing the ever-challenging work of protecting our democracy.
Thanks Gus
When we blow off tons of expensive fireworks we are celebrating our profits really. If the U.S. worked as hard at diplomacy as it does at war perhaps Russia would have backed off its agression toward Ukraine by now. Every day should dawn with U.S. working hard for peace. Wishful pie-in-the-sky thinking I know. For profit corporate media is no help. For profit war material manufacturing is no help. We have 700+ military bases in 80 or so countries. Why we are camped out in others’ backyards is not a mystery. It’s for profit. Bull that we need all those bases to keep us free here. I believe the blinders must drop when soldiers find themselves in combat. When I was much much younger I went to an anti-war meeting (I think the group was called Beyond War) where a high-ranking military officer (he was in uniform) talked of the importance of working for peace. I was blown away by his compassion. That’s what I remember about his speech--his compassion. He had probably been in combat and knew the score.
Your comment reminds me of President Eisenhauer warning of the dangers of the military industrial complex. It is surely one of the main drivers of our worldwide expansionism.
I’m with you Pen. My poor dog ... I love him, and wish I could assure him that he’s going to be ok ... but he’s still a pet, important to me, but not human. I’ve had a “teary” day, for some reason, idk, but your letter started me up again, at the end of the day, thinking about everything we’ve asked of our veterans and subjected them to and then they come home, have to struggle to find a way to live in society again and at least once a year, every year, they’re forced to experience their worst nightmare all over again. No compassion. There have been many posts in my local Nextdoor ... for as many people who are sympathetic, there are as many, maybe more who do not care. Get over it, seems their refrain. They’ve clearly been privileged enough to not have the experience. I’m very sorry some of our fellow human beings are so unfeeling and cruel. There are loud explosions all around my neighborhood. Tomorrow night will be worse. I’m not feeling much like “celebrating”. Be good to yourself and know many of us suffer with you in our own ways.
Thank you for your compassion.
Carla, will also be spending tomorrow comforting animal companions. Bad neighborhood for boom-booms. A few of my neighbors buy next-level fireworks in AL and SC where they are legal. So within a four hundred meter radius of my house there are the grocery store booms and the real BOOMS. Doesn't do my ptsd any good! (I was a ground pounder in Vietnam).
I think my cats have it worse than me, so we endure the day together....
I hope you managed to keep your animal companions reassured during the boom-booms, Gus.
Thanks Pen. It was surprisingly muted. Maybe the prohibitive cost of fireworks, or maybe the neighbors used most of them over the weekend. Very good day with the ‘boys’ and me mostly in a big old recliner, reading and snoozing and playing intra-species games
I hope your day progresses well and your evening isn’t too LOUD. So far today is calm, but it’s early yet. I’m putting on music and giving Dutch some calming treats in advance. He’s unable to eat when he’s panicking. I will be thinking of our faithful veterans who suffer on this day. The best news I found was the emergence of drone displays! Not only do so many suffer from the noise, but air quality is affected and wildfires are a risk. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fireworks-displays-drone-shows-4th-of-july-celebrations/
Your post today taught me something new. I had never considered what hearing Fourth of July explosions would be like for people who have been in combat. I want to thank you for expanding my thinking. You made me think about how upsetting it must be to hear all the Fourth of July noise for people like yourself. Here's a little Fourth experience I want to share with you: I was quietly watching Netflix on my computer along about dusk and was very startled to hear a loud explosion from next door that made me jump. I immediately knew what I had heard, but an altogether new thought crossed my mind after hearing the noise - how terrifying it would have been for someone who had been in combat and had been in danger of being killed or wounded. I had that thought because of what you shared here. Your post just shifted my thoughts on fireworks in an important direction to help me in my quest to always increase my understanding of other peoples' point of view.
I must be transparent in my admission that I was completely unaware that fireworks added to existing trauma before I became aware of what trauma is. I’m glad I was educated, because it increases my empathy.
Hooah brother.
I understand.
It’s tiresome to be on fire watch with my garden hose available for the first roof to catch fire. Especially living in America’s mullet - Florida.
Perhaps this cool alternative will catch on. A constructive use of drones (see link).
☯️🇺🇸☮️
https://youtu.be/GQUfbJTAGnw