It is Memorial Day weekend - time to forget, forgive, and then love and live

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I do not know about you but I really need a break from reality, at least for a weekend.  What better way to change your outlook than by focusing on the sacrifices by so many members of our armed forces, dating back to George Washington and his ragtag Continental Army.

We all know people who have served, or we are beneficiaries of the service by others who gave us freedom, hope, equality and justice.  I suppose if one were realistic, they would say we honor those who sacrificed for others, yet wonder about those who ignore the sacrifices and do things that are not in the public interest.

When I was young I lived to have the opportunity to defend freedom.  My career in both sports and education were preparation for joining the military.  Even as I was playing basketball at the University of Arizona I was immersed in an intensive Reserve Officer Training Program to prepare me for the inevitable service during the Vietnam war.

However, Divine Providence has other ideas for us on occasion so at the moment I volunteered for the draft armed only with exceptional ratings in ROTC, they discovered my body had been permanently damaged from 15 years of intensive sports achievement.

Rather than military service, I was confined to public service and spent much of the next three decades working in government and politics at all levels from local, to state, to national offices.  It was a far cry from my dream but at least a way to make sure we could enjoy the opportunities given to us by our patriotic and dedicated military.

So this weekend, as I do every year, I will honor our fallen heroes.  I will honor those who have not fallen but gave up their lives for us through injury and stress and will never be able to lead a normal life.  I will honor the families of those heroes whose lives were changed forever by wars halfway around the world.

Here is a song I wrote to honor those heroes.  It is performed by my band, Nashville Bound. I hope you take the time to listen to it.  The name of the song is "No One's Left Keeping Score."  Click on the link below to hear it. 

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9481087

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Memorial Day - Honoring

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Memorial Day - Honoring our Heroes

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President Obama - What Experience? Whose agenda? Where is the Leadership?

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The President just can't get break. Everyone in the media has been focused on his detached style of being president and it only seems that even when he tries to act attached he can't get it right. The most recent example was yesterday when he again made a strategic error by being too busy to attend the Memorial Day services at Arlington National Cemetery, sending VP Biden in his place.



He was too busy because he was vacationing in Chicago where reports wee he did almost nothing over Memorial Day weekend except he was going to talk at the Chicago Memorial Day observance. Just when he was preparing to speak the lightning and rain struck with a fury forcing the attendees to race to their buses as the president announced the service was being canceled because of lightning.



His detachment from events Americans hold dear has been obvious since he took office. Perhaps the ultimate insult was when he sent his wife and Joe Biden's wife to throw out the ball at the World Series last year, an honor previously reserved for presidents and most have faithfully attended. The fact it was at Yankees Stadium in the greatest media market of the world made his absence more pronounced.



His fly bys to New Orleans since he took office, allowing 1-2 hours to get caught up with everything going on with Katrina first, more recently the BP oil spill which directly affects four or more states, national tourism and a large chunk of our sea food supply has been repeated three times.



A staged press op is hardly a sign of presidential interest, compassion or empathy for one of the greatest environmental disasters of all time. He was too busy each time to spend more than a couple of hours in the Gulf coast yet twice he jumped back on the plane for multi-million dollar political fund raisers in California. He had a whole bunch of hours available in his busy schedule for those affairs.

It seems the same odd luck undermines the president every time he attempts to take control of the peace process in the Middle East. This weekend, on the eve of the Prime Minister of Israel visiting Obama to once again start the peace process, the Israeli's attacked a convoy of humanitarian aid ships and killed 10 humanitarian workers.



The UN and world were outraged by the action and the trip was canceled. Last time Biden was in Israel and the government announced they were going ahead with building in the contested Arab settlement lands it undermined those efforts to start the peace process.

The frequency with which Israel takes an action contrary to the peace initiatives makes one wonder if they are convinced Obama has no choice but to support whatever Israel does, or they have so little regard for America, the greatest and most consistent defender of Israel in the world, that they think nothing of spitting in the president's eye.



Ironically it seems each of the Israeli blunders came after a visit or phone calls from Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff and former member of the Israeli army, supposedly to encourage Israel to stop destroying the Obama attempts to get the peace talks back on track.



This reoccurring bout with detachment by our professor president will in the end cause him to lose favor with the American people. We didn't hire him to preach to us or apologize to the world but to stand up for America and fight to overcome our problems. As we continue to wait for it to happen Obama continues to slip slide into oblivion in the polls and will drag the entire Democratic leadership and political establishment with him if he can't change.

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