Doughboys 1917-2017

I’m sure by now most of you have seen the pictures of the 18 year olds in 1944 climbing the beaches of Normandy and the 18 year olds today looking for crayons and safe places. I’d like to go back a little farther to 1917.

The 1916 election was won by Woodrow Wilson, thus making him the first Democrat since Andrew Jackson to win two consecutive terms. Wilson’s major platform was “He kept us out of the War.”  That didn’t last long, by April of 1917, the United States had entered the “war to end all wars” under the direction of General John J. Pershing. To raise military manpower for World War I, the Selective Service Act of 1917 was enacted by President Wilson. In the beginning the age of young men was from 21 to 31 however it was later changed to 18 to 45.

Many of these young men became known as 'doughboys, mostly because they were covered in dust and dirt, making it look as if they had been in a flour bin.  

Why am I writing about this now? Well over the last few years and especially the election of 2016 it has become apparent to me that an 18 year old today would not or could not survive in 1916. Please allow me to say I’m not talking about ALL 18 year olds. I do believe that there are however, many more than there should be.

Life in 1916, in general, was very different than life today. I’m not just talking about all of the technological advances, but life itself. First of all, most American’s still attended church regularly.  Very few teens were able to go to high school let alone college, and work was an issue of necessity, but also pride. Young men would work for free in order to learn a trade or find any kind of work that would support a family.

Many were still working on family farms. Farm workers start as soon as they can walk. Their work ethics are impeccable. Cows don’t milk themselves, chickens don’t gather eggs and no animal feeds itself. Farm work doesn’t take a recess or a vacation. Moreover safe places were to protect one from a severe storm or tornado.

Life in 1916 was not about feelings; it was about survival and purpose. There were no government programs to meet ones needs. If one needed help, for a short time, it usually came from family, neighbors or churches. Families with an extra room would take in a boarder to give a cheaper residence to someone and to bring in extra money. No job was beneath anyone.

I remember my Father telling me his mother would bake bread and sell it. His job was to deliver. He also left school at 11 to help support the family and this was much later around 1934. The times weren’t that much different nearly 20 years later.

Moving ahead to my generation in the 1950’s, the end of the baby boomers, I started working as early as I can remember. Not in the usual sense but as an example I had a great aunt and uncle who had a farm. At harvest time all the connected families would go to the farm to help my aunt and uncle. The men and boys would harvest the fields and the women and children would can or ‘put up’ as we would say the produce. Even a 3 year old can learn to shuck corn or snap beans. There was something for everyone to do.

Another time I remember an older neighbor couple needed to clear a field. I was about 5 and my brother 8. Mom and Dad were young and at my age I didn’t realize my folks were being paid I just thought we were helping. My job was to gather twigs and throw onto the fire to keep it going. I’m sure it was nothing but busy work but I was very proud of how many twigs I could find. It kept me busy, out of the way and gave me a sense of pride at the good work I had accomplished. By the time I was 9 or 10 I had learned to iron. I would iron for my aunt and probably made a dollar a basket.  She also paid me to bake her Christmas cookies. I’m sure today my parents would be charged with child labor laws but I though I was doing something great.

So when did things change? I’m not sure but once going to college became as common as going to high school and children were asked how they felt about things, the next thing you know everyone got a participation trophy. What? How do you feel? I am not talking about health, I’m talking about feelings… my feelings are hurt, my boss is mean, the customers were nasty, the company made  me work late… blah, blah, blah… boo hoo.

Moving forward again to today. The 2016 election, all of a sudden, a legitimate election is no longer good enough. He hurts my feelings, he makes me feel bad, my candidate didn’t win, etc. Oh no, what shall we do? My response is ‘get over it’. Move on, the world is not coming to an end. But no, that would be the adult thing to do. Instead let’s whine and complain until I get my way. Really?  College students are given ‘safe spaces’ or ‘comfort dogs’ and even ‘crayons and play doh’ so they can relax and feel better about themselves. Hence the nicknames, cupcakes, snow flakes and may I add doughboy, just a very different doughboy.

This brings me back to the beginning, 1917-2017. The doughboys in ‘the war to end all wars’ was as tough as one can get. There was no whining, crying or looking for a safe space. The only safe space they had was a foxhole! They were tough and mature when they entered the war and even more so when the war was over. No one had heard of arrested development. Scientist J. B. S. Haldane states arrested development as a "major evolutionary trend in human beings" is "greater prolongation of childhood and retardation of maturity." In 1917 there were no excuses for anything, if one was wrong one confessed and accepted the consequences. Over, done, move on.

Now before I get slammed about my broad brush, I’m not claiming that ALL young people are like this, I just suggest that many are. In fact I have the utmost respect for the military, especially now that we are an entirely volunteer service. However it’s not just young people, look at what the left is doing to try to delegitimize the President elect. What happened to the game is over there is a winner and a loser, the teams shake hands better luck next time.

So as we turn from 2016 to 2017 it will be interesting to see what happens at the Presidential Inauguration.  Which Doughboy will we see, 1917 or 2017? Only time will tell. Speaking of Doughboys, I suddenly have an urge for some cinnamon rolls.

The Tytler Cycle of History

Originally Published December 5, 2010 

Let’s start right from the beginning and say that Alexander Tytler (or Tyler) may or may not have written this around 1787. Tytler was a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh and said this about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2000 years prior:

A little internet search will offer many people claiming credit for this. I’ve included a few articles with different information. At this point I think the concept is as or more important than the author.

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith:

2. From spiritual faith to great courage:

3. From courage to liberty:

4. From liberty to abundance:

5. From abundance to selfishness:

6. From selfishness to complacency: a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

7. From complacency to apathy: absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement

8. From apathy to dependence:

9. From dependence back into bondage "

I believe that the message is more important than who actually said it. So I’m just going to stick with Tytler.

There are several good articles about this and one that I found very helpful was by John Eberhard  http://commonsensegovernment.com/article-03-14-09.html  He breaks the American cycle down like this:

 

“From bondage to spiritual faith               (1760 to 1769)

• King George III becomes King of England
• Currency Act, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, Townsend Act passed by Parliament
• Sons of Liberty formed by John Adams, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, among others.

“From spiritual faith to great courage     (1770 to 1783)

• Boston massacre
• Parliament passes the Tea Act
• Boston Tea Party
• The First Continental Congress
• Revolutionary War rages for six years
• British surrender at Yorktown 

“From courage to liberty                            (1784 to 1865)

• Constitutional Convention
• George Washington elected President
• Bill of Rights passed
• Abraham Lincoln elected President
• Confederate states secede from the Union
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Civil War rages for four years
• Union is restored
• 13th Amendment abolishes slavery

“From liberty to abundance                                   (1866 to 1969)

• First Trans-Continental Railroad
• Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone
• Industrial Revolution
• Airplane invented December 17, 1903
• Neil Armstrong walks on the moon July 20, 1969

“From abundance to complacency                      (1970 to 1989)

• Roe vs Wade
• President Nixon resigns in disgrace
• Oil embargo
• Ronald Reagan elected President
• Fall of the Soviet Union

“From complacency to apathy                  (1990 to 2000)

• Gulf War
• Bill Clinton elected President
• Gridlock between Congress & President leads to budget surpluses
• President Clinton acquitted in impeachment trial

“From apathy to dependence                    (2001 to 2007)

• Nasdaq stock bubble bursts
• 9/11 attack
• Department of Homeland security created
• Hurricane Katrina 

“From dependence back into bondage   (2008 to ????)

• Housing prices collapse
• Financial firms collapse
• Government bailouts  
• Federal Reserve lowers rates to below 1%”

This is an abbreviated version of Mr. Eberhard’s theory you can go to his site to read the entire article.

If you’re interested in the controversy of who actually came up with this cycle a good article can be found by Loren Collins titled “The Truth About Tytler” at http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html

The most important part to remember is we can still turn things around. People are starting to wake up and pay attention. The election of 2010 sent a huge message to Washington that once again “We the People” are watching. Combine that with another Spiritual Awakening and all things are possible. I choose to live in the possible.

Clinton and Trump and Lies Oh My

Well, well, well, wasn’t Friday an interesting day. First we have the just “found” audio tape from eleven years ago about Donald Trump and his potty misogynist mouth, and the just “found” transcript from Hillary Clinton’s speeches to the Wall Street giants.

What to think, what to think?? I’ve been thinking about this very seriously and the one thought I continue to think is this:

John (NIV) 8:2-9 “At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus,

“Teacher, this woman was caught in the act adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

This is in no way to say that I approve of either of these actions, it is however to say that if my life had been taped from birth, I’m sure, in fact I know I’ve done things that I don’t want to share with the world. I had a life before Christ and a life after Christ.  To quote an old Gospel song, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.”

I feel as if I’m seeing and hearing a lot of self-righteous people jumping on one band wagon or the other.

As an example Paul Ryan, claims to be a Christian man and instead of trying to help Trump through a crisis, he’s throwing him under the bus. I would say the same thing about Jason Chaffetz and Mark Kirk. Are they really this offended or is this the excuse they have been looking for to get rid of him, which they have been trying to doing since the beginning.

The one thing I can say about the Democrats is that they circle the wagons and help on another. Hillary’s actions have been a continuing bad run for over 30 years and still continues today.

According to some well know Pastors Donald Trump has renewed his faith. Has he, I certainly have know way of knowing and it’s not my place to judge. He didn’t make this comment eleven days ago; he said it eleven years ago.

Was it wrong? Yep, was it crude? Yep, was it misogynistic? Yep. Although I don’t approve of what Trump said, I agree more with him and his plans than I do with Hillary. One main reason, life; Hillary is for late term abortion and Trump is not. God always chooses life, as do I.

I’m not as concerned about words as I am about actions. Personally, I’ve had enough of both Clinton’s actions. So now I will continue to pray that Trump has changed and that he too will say “I’m just a sinner saved by grace!”

Flying Carpet or Falling Rug?

Just when you think your flying carpet is ready for a smooth ride, your carpet turns into a rug that someone is pulling out from under you.

This has been a very strange weekend. I learned yesterday at church that the young Marlins’ Pitcher Jose’ Fernandez had been killed in a boating accident. The boat he was in hit the jetty that reaches the entrance of Government Cut in the Port of Miami.  I’m very familiar with that area; I’ve been through the Cut several times but never at 3:00 am. As soon as I heard where he was I knew exactly what happened.

When my brother and I were in high school, we had three friends that were killed in a car accident. They were three young guys in a hot-rod going about 100 miles an hour when they ran head-on into a Mack truck. Needless to say they were killed instantly.

 I was drawn right back to that moment when I heard about Jose’ Fernandez.Three young guys out in a hot-rod boat and ran head-on into a rock jetty.  I believe this was a case, like our friends, that these guys were doing what young guys do, it’s sad and unfortunate but not that uncommon for guys and speed.

At the same time I heard that Arnold Palmer died. He had always been one of my dad’s favorites. With no disrespect to Jose’ Fernandez or Arnold Palmer, this also took me back to a time when I was pretty young maybe 9 or 10. We lived in the country and my dad was going to get gas in his car. Living where we did, anytime someone got into a car we begged to go along for the ride. Dad pulled into the gas station and pumped the gas, he then went inside to pay and I stayed in the car listening to the radio. Well I heard something on the radio that really upset me. I could hardly wait for my dad to come out so I could tell him the awful news I’d heard.

After what seemed like forever dad came out and I said “Dad, Dad, Arnold Palmer died!!” My dad looked at me like I had three heads and said “What do you mean?” With eyes the size of saucers I said “I just heard on the radio that he died, they said he dropped dead suddenly!” My dad paused for a moment and then seemed to have an epiphany. He asked me again, “what exactly did they say?” I repeated “they said he dropped dead suddenly!” Finally dad asked me “did they by any chance say ‘he dropped in sudden death’?” “I guess” said I, “he died in sudden death.”  At this point my dad started laughing hysterically, and if you know my dad that in and of it self is a rarity. At this point I was very confused. He then explained to me that in the game of golf when you go into extra holes, whoever loses is said to have ‘dropped in sudden death!’ When Michael got up on Sunday and I told him about Arnold Palmer he kinda chuckled and said “You have to tell your dad again that Arnold Palmer died?” “Yes”, only this time sadly it was true.  

To continue with the bizarreness of the day Sunday September 25^th is my daughter’s godson Cole's birthday. He would have been 18.  The reason I say would have,because two years ago he was 16, about 37 hours later on Saturday 27^th  he and two of his buddies were out night fishing and as they were making their way home on their bicycles, Cole was hit and killed by a drunk driver at about 1:00 am.

2014 was a really bad year for us. I had four knee surgeries and that was in reality the least of it. My mom had two very serious accidents and Mike and I lost 7 people that were close to us. The last one was Cole. In fact I had my 3^rd knee surgery just three days before Cole died. The others we lost were all older (not old) and had various health issues. But when Cole was killed, that really knocked the wind out of me. Cole's mother and my daughter have been friends since they were kids. Her family lives about 2 hours away so I haven’t seen them much in the past few years, but she still feels like one of mine. It was also the first time my grand-kids have gone through a loss like this. It was just wrong on so many levels. The only thing good is Cole was a believer and loved the Lord so we know we’ll all be together again.

As September 25 approached I thought about what I wanted to write about Cole. Little did I know that the day was going to turn into such a day of sadness, pain and memories? So I’ve decided to explain my feelings about Jose’ Fernandez and Arnold Palmer by republishing what I wrote to Cole’s family on September 28, 2014.

The World is Upside Down.

For Cole

Gerri Milosevich

September 28, 2014

We awaken every morning expecting the earth and the sun and the moon to be where it has always been, and then one day it happens, the world is upside down. 

We didn’t expect it, this is not the way it is supposed to be, we’ve planned and dreamed and even had conversations with ourselves as to what will happen in the next, 20, 30 40 maybe even 50 years, but today; the world is upside down.

It’s always the same, we are a nice family, we have a great son, this isn’t supposed to happen to nice people like us, but today it did, and the world is upside down.

God how could this happen? We believe in you and your son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit you are supposed to protect me and mine but you didn’t and today the world is upside down.

In spite of this, it isn’t God’s will, He didn’t take him, but He is there to meet our beloved son with pure love, the pure love that casts out all fear.

Though what we can’t see from here is a single tear rolling down God’s cheek as He weeps for us and gathers’ angels around us:

Friends who drop everything to come and meet our needs, loved ones to hold us as we cry, young people who cry, and laugh and remind us how special he was even though today the world, is upside down.

This isn’t God’s doing, he didn’t need another angel, this is earth fighting good and evil. We read in John 10:10 that the enemy comes to kill, to steal and to destroy, and today, the enemy killed our loved one, stole our hearts and destroyed the joy of all who loved a young man who is now singing WITH the angels. And because of THAT, because of the evil one, the world is upside down.

Lord, will the world ever turn upright? Will life ever become normal again… probably not? 

Yet in Jeremiah 31:13 it says, “I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.”

And with God’s mercy and grace and unimaginable love, and the inconceivable power in the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we will learn to love, and laugh and to walk through a world that today… is upside down.  

9/11 Our Day That Lives in Infamy

9/11 started with me being frozen in time. I was born in the 1950’s so I was not around for the attack on Pearl Harbor. In spite of this I was old enough and close enough to hear the stories about it. My dad, like most dad’s had been in the war. He was a Navy man. Most of the dad’s I knew didn’t talk much about the war, they just wanted to get over it and move on. My cousin Dennis was only 4 months older than me and had been born on December 7^th, Pearl Harbor Day. Because of this it was something that we as a family talked about every year.

A close friend had met and married a beautiful Hawaiian woman during the war and brought her into our family. They rented a room from my grandmother and grew up with us as family. I didn’t realize until much later that the reason they lived with my grandmother was because the woman was very dark skinned and no one else would rent to them thinking she was black. I was probably a teen before I understood that they were not really our family. But to this day as far as we are all concerned, they are.

We all have our memories of September 11^th : as Franklin Roosevelt said in 1941, “a date which will live in infamy.”  On the evening of September 10^th we had a big party for our daughter Randee and her husband Keith. They were visiting from New Jersey and had wanted to see all of their friends. Randee needed to get back to NJ the next morning because of work, Keith was staying through the weekend because he had a gig on Saturday.

The next morning I got up early to say goodbye to my daughter and Keith dropped Randee off at FLL around 6 am for her flight and then he came home. By the time he got home, the first plane had hit the first Tower and then the second. All we knew was that Randee was on a plane to NYC and she was 6 months pregnant with our first grandchild.

Planes were being hijacked out of the air and at that time we didn’t know how many and to where, but they were all cross country flights, as was Randee's. To add even more anxiety, it had been announced that the hijackers lived in Coral Springs, Florida. After several hours went by, all four planes had crashed and both towers had fallen, we finally heard from her and she was fine.

For us the day ended well. Randee’s plane landed in Jacksonville and she was bused back to FLL. After an incredibly long day, we could finally breathe a sigh of relief. As with most Americans we just took one day at a time and finally got back to our new normal.

Three years passed and Randee was pregnant with our first granddaughter. She was due in the middle of September and as the date approached I looked at her and said “this baby is coming on September 11^th!”  She scoffed at me and turned away; at around 10:00 pm on September 10^th I got a call from Randee saying she was on her way to the hospital. By this time she was living back in Florida. We all rushed to the hospital and a few hours later on September 11, 2004, Miss Alexis Grace entered our world and it’s never been the same since. A day that was so awful had become a day to celebrate.  Jeremiah 31:13 “I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.”

For us September 11^th is truly bitter sweet. God had taken a day of horror and turned it into a day of joy. So today, September 11^th, 2016, we are going to visit our beautiful grand-daughter and celebrate her 12^th birthday. I thank God for our joy but I still mourn for all those who were not as fortunate as we were.

We now have four incredible grand-children and they are all smart, funny, and talented as well as without any bias the most beautiful grand-children ever. Not one of the children was born before September 11, 2001. They will never know the fear and anxiety of that day, at least not the way we who experienced it can still feel. This is to them what Pearl Harbor was to me; a date on a calendar, a day they are told "will live in infamy". I pray they and we never have to go through this again, I just wish I could be sure.