Copy of letter to Editor 12/23 BIT

Well anony, here is the letter so that YOU can state your answers to my liking or not. It would be nice though if you were to leave a name other than anonymous so that we can all differentiate you from all the other mice(mouses)?
Messer’s Spier and Wood et al,

What? Only two weeks to prepare? That is not enough time! It takes me that long to rub and massage a few disparate thoughts, and or ideas into some sort of a cogent reply. So I guess I am going to have to pass for now.

“Another blowhard”? Moi? A “blowhard” by definition is a “braggart”. I don’t think it exactly fits or falls in line with the content of your diatribe as I wasn’t bragging about anything. Was that intended to grievously lacerate my psyche? If so it only partially succeeded, as I have found no blood leaking from any mysteriously appearing cuts etc. After examining my psyche more in depth, I had a revelation and I became exultant as I realized I had been raised high beyond mere mortal men, raised to the heights required to join two of the most exalted in the business! As your sentence was constructed, it appeared to include you as the writer, and Herr Spier by inference, as one of this elite club also. If you are thinking of giving up your position, then I would gladly suffer to have you confer the mantle and title of Blowhard of Block Island on me! I will endeavor to do my utmost to uphold, and yea, to even supercede the exceedingly high standards of the office that you have set for yourselves!

I don’t think you can, with any sort of reality in mind, consign me to the trash bin where all the right wing whacko’s reside. Just how far Mr. Delay has journeyed in that direction I have no inkling and further, I have no inclination to find out. I know for a fact that deep in my withered and shriveled little heart and mind, that I do not adhere to, nor subscribe to their espoused line of craziness. I’ve never burned a cross, and I am not a John Bircher. If you accuse me of that because I believe in continued freedom for all of our citizens, safety from attacks by any and all enemies of our way of life, and backing our military to the HILT in any endeavor in which they are legally engaged, Iraq for instance, and it is a legal operation as virtually all the members of the House and Senate voted “FOR” the action. Albeit many of them are now experiencing severe memory loss as regards their vote. And if that accusation includes defending and upholding the Constitution of the U.S. as IT WAS WRITTEN? Then yes, I plead guilty to being some small distance to the right of center in my leanings.

Two last things. One: It is a damned good thing the “Bushie” government is not upholding the letter and spirit of the law concerning acts of sedition during a war, as that word was perceived and applied during WWII, or there would be a wholesale decimation of the population on the left side of the aisle in Washington. Two: Mr. Wood, we all know the high esteem in which you hold yourself as regards being the Scrivener, Arbiter, Guardian, and Protector of the English language here on old Block Island. In that vein, I hope you won’t skewer me too thoroughly and publicly for my poor sentence structure, syntax, spelling errors, and punctuation. After all, what more could you expect of a graduate of only twelve years of school starting and ending here on the Island along with Mr. Gaffett. We really do know how low on the ladder of erudition we are held by some folks of your ilk with a lot of letters after their names. Oh yeah, I just LOVE starting a sentence with prepositions and conjunctions and ending them with exclamation marks! WFB would be sorely tried.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you Sir’s, and to all my other detractors as well. Have a wonderful holiday and, ah, get well soon!!!!

As Ever, Everett R Littlefield

My Five Little Christmas Treasures!

 
Verna and I wish for ALL of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a happy New Year! Trite though the exclamation may be, it is from the heart and meant sincerely. Those five faces in the picture above, are what the season is all about as far as I am concerned! Peace to All, and to all, Goodnight! 

A Beautiful Girl From BI

 
 

Iraq and The USA,circa 1863

I was watching the movie called, "The Blue and The Gray" a few days ago and it finally came to the part where Lincoln began to give his Gettysburg Address. As it began, I wasn't paying too much attention, but then he came too the end of the second paragraph, and then the third paragraph, both copied below. Read it closely and imagine it applying to Iraq. Lincoln was dedicating a cemetary. []are my additions. ()are used to delete his words.

"For those who here gave their lives [so] that (the)[this] nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground [called Iraq]. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought so nobly advanced. It is for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God shall have a new birth of freedom; and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
So with this post I am sure to have pissed off a lot of people for daring to equate our Civil War with a country where we are trying to avoid one from beginning. Read it again sentence by sentence and I can't believe that anyone could be "put out" by it. It is striking to me that seven score and two years ago, what someone said applies EXACTLY to what is going on today. TIFN

A Christmas Poem for ALL

The following was sent too me as an Email, and I thought it was so good it should be shared with a larger audience. Please enjoy it!


The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I
gazed round the room
and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, My daughter
beside me, angelic
in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a
winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, Completed
the magic that was
Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep, Secure
and surrounded by
love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem, So I
slumbered, perhaps I
started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, But I
opened my eyes when
it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of
footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear, And I
crept to the door
just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night, A
lone figure stood,
his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old, Perhaps a
Marine, huddled
here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled, Standing
watch over me, and
my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear, "Come in
this moment, it's
freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at
home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, Away from
the cold and the
snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he
said "Its really all right, I'm out here by choice.
I'm here every
night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line, That
separates you from
the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me, I'm proud to
stand here like my
fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December," Then
he sighed, "That's
a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam', And
now it is my turn
and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while, But my
wife sends me
pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag, The
red, white, and
blue... an American flag.
"I can live through the cold and the being alone, Away
from my family,
my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a
foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another, Or lay down
my life with my
sister and brother.
Who stand at the front against any and all, To ensure
for all time that
this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright, Your
family is waiting
and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I
asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done, For
being away from
your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret, "Just
tell us you love
us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own
watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead, To
know you remember we
fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust, That
we mattered to you
as you mattered to us.

If that didn't make you leak a tear or two, you have a harder heart than I do!