For as long as there has been news, there have been attacks against the media. Attacks on the press are nothing more than attempts to silence the people, to sway opinion away from facts and to minimize open public discourse. It is one thing to say that you disagree with the facts, that you have a different interpretation. It is another thing entirely to discard the truth and replace it with fake news, junk science or blatantly false reasoning. Personal attacks against journalists go even further in debasing a healthy democracy.

Some of you may know, that I have been researching my Grandfather’s involvement in WWI.  He is buried in Long Island National Cemetery, Pinelawn, Suffolk County, New York.  His grave stone indicates he served with the 106^th Infantry Regiment, Company B.  I spent about 2 months now researching and discovered he was part of the 27^th Division, an all New York National Guard Unit that was federalized and shipped off to France.

Through New York Times articles, military documents, websites, and three books written in the 1920s, I have been able to pinpoint, to the date, place and actual time, where my Grandfather was.  Horrendously, he was on the front line, literally, facing the Germans on the Hindenburg Line at 5:30am on 09/29/1918.  Company C was to his left and Company A was to his right.  Company D was spread out behind those three companies.  All part of 1^st Battalion 106.  At 5:30am they did that out-of-the-trenchs and over-the-top craziness and charged the St. Quentin Canal Tunnel in the area of Quennemont Farm, France.  Within minutes most of his 435-member company were gone.  Every single officer in the company was killed.

My middle son, Ryan, said to me, “Soooo, essentially, if he had died we wouldn’t be here.”   Hmmm, I guess he’s right.  So, doing math quickly, being conservative and estimating, let’s say of the 420 who died 300 would have become fathers.  Having 3 kids each (my father’s level) who in turn had 3 kids each (my level) who in turn had 3 kids each (my son’s level).  That comes to 8100 or so people who simply don’t exist.

But Memorial Day is not about those 8100 non-existing people.  It’s not about our right to barbecue; smoke cigars while tinkering in the garage; buying Fords; raising families; having a cabin in the woods; riding a motorcycle; fishing; flying a flag outside our home – it’s about living in peace.  Freely.  It’s about those 435 guys in Company B, 1^st Battalion, 106^th Infantry Regiment, 27^th Division, 53^rd Brigade, II Army of the American Expeditionary Forces who got on a boat called the USS President Lincoln, from Hoboken NJ on Thursday, May 9, 1918, fought Germans in the name of freedom, and left Camp Upton (commonly referred to as Brookhaven National Labs) on the 1:15pm Long Island Rail Road and got off in Brooklyn on the Nostrand Avenue stop as discharged citizens.  Heroes.

It’s about guys like my Dad who served with the National Guard Army Reserve out of the 14^th Regimental Armory in Brooklyn, my Uncle John who served as a Military Police Officer during the Korean War, and my brother, Gerard, who served during the First Gulf War.  And, it’s about all of your family and friends who served to keep us safe.  That’s what Memorial Day is all about.

Let’s remember.

This under appreciated, under paid professional is starting to feel the way cops do. Huge amounts of responsibility for the happiness, safety and welfare of others in the face of contempt and disrespect. Folks, it’s simple – if you’re told to do something JUST FUCKING DO IT. You’re holding up the flight, you’re placing us in peril and these folks don’t get paid enough to take your shit.  If you really think you e got a valid gripe, hire an attorney and sue for your damages. But in the mean time, shut the fuck up and sit down. 

For those of us who get paid every two weeks, twice a year we get a “bonus check”.  That is,  rather than the two checks per month, because the first check arrived between the 1st and the 3rd of the month, if you count out 28 more days you see you get an “extra” check.  And, for me, this month is one of those months!!!!

Alternative facts, lying and outright creating “false news” is becoming a theme of this administration. 

I’ll accept that there was some confusion on Ms Conway’s part as the two bad guys were nicknamed The Bowling Green Terrorists or something like that. But there was no massacre. 

Considering the White House Spokesman is demanding accountabilty and responsibility for reporting facts, there had better be some comment from Ms Conway correcting her error. 

I’m not sure why this question popped into my head this morning as I was walking the dog.  I usually get up between 5:00 and 5:15 and go right out into the morning for Bruno’s 1 mile walk.  It takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how many fun things Bruno finds to smell.

In any event, yesterday morning, as I passed by the end of the bed, I hit my right knee on a bench that rests along the bed’s footer.  It reminded me of a file cabinet I used to have in my bedroom when I lived at my parent’s house.  It was one of those two drawer units you could buy at K-Mart (we didn’t have Office Max back then).  You remember, the one with the lock in the upper right hand corner that you pushed in with your thumb and the key that you would proudly put on your key chain because now you had a place to “secure” all your secret papers.

After a while, that thing would get really packed.  Years of tax returns and their supporting documents, insurance policies, union papers, auto loan books, years of monthly checking account statements and the cancelled checks, etc etc.  And, if you weren’t careful and loaded the bottom draw with as much garbage as in the top drawer, it would tip over when you opened the top drawer.

Now, I have a HUGE file cabinet.  It holds all the stuff above PLUS.  But, it’s not real.  It’s virtual.  In the cloud.  And it holds EVERYTHING: photos, videos, emails, owners manuals pulled off the web, employment packages, bank statements, cell phone records – essentially, anything you can scan / digitize and upload.

As I looked around the house today I realized we don’t have one file cabinet.  We do have two of those smaller, hand carried, file storage tubs.  You know, the ones you can carry out to the kitchen table and then push back up onto the shelf in the back of the closet.  But, those are really for documents that are used on a more or less “daily” (well, monthly) basis.

Here is when we return to my original thought.  Are file cabinets now obsolete and going the way of the compact disc player??

People in Washington are protest marching with a partial anthem that includes, “I disagree with the outcome of the election”.  What???  What is the disagreement?  One side won, the other side lost.  Just because you don’t like the outcome, and just because you say you aren’t going to sit there quietly, doesn’t mean the election results aren’t what they are.  Am I missing something?

Nothing better than cool weather, lots of rain and a sharp lawnmower blade to make your Saturday morning.