Uncle $am Michael Bechtel

 A Soldier's Take On Michael Jackson's Death]

*This is written by a young soldier serving his third tour of duty in ....Iraq..... Thought you might find his take on the Michael Jackson news interesting and he's right. *

*Okay, I need to rant. I was just watching the news, and I caught part of a report on Michael Jackson. As we all know, ....Jackson.... died the other day. He was an entertainer who performed for decades. He made millions, he spent millions, and he did a lot of things that make him a villain to many people. I understand that his death would affect a lot of people, and I respect those people who mourn his death, but that isn't the point of my rant. Why is it that when ONE man dies, the whole of ....America.... loses their minds with grief. When a man dies whose only contribution to the country was to ENTERTAIN people, the American people find the need to flock to a memorial in ....Hollywood...., and even Congress sees the need to hold a "moment of silence" for his passing? Am I missing something here? ONE man dies, and all of a sudden he's a freaking martyr because he entertained us for a few decades?  

What about all those SOLDIERS who have died to give us freedom? All those Soldiers who, knowing that they would be asked to fight in a war, still raised their hands and swore to defend the Constitution and the ....United States of America..... Where is their** moment of silence? Where are the people flocking to their graves or memorials and mourning over them because they made the ultimate sacrifice? Why is it when a Soldier dies, there are more people saying "good riddence," and "thank God for IEDs?" When did this country become so calloused to the sacrifice of GOOD MEN and WOMEN, that they can arbitrarily blow off their deaths, and instead, throw themselves into mourning for a "Pop Icon?"  

I think that if they are going to hold a moment of silence IN CONGRESS for Michael Jackson, they need to hold a moment of silence for every service member killed in ....Iraq.... and ....Afghanistan..... 

They need to PUBLICLY recognize every life that has been lost so that the American people can live their callous little lives in the luxury and freedom that WE, those that are living and those that have gone on, have provided for them. But, wait, that would take too much time, because there have been so many willing to make that sacrifice. After all, we will never make millions of dollars. We will never star in movies, or write hit songs that the world will listen too. We only shed our blood, sweat and tears so that people can enjoy what they have. 

Sorry if I have offended, but I needed to say it. Remember these five words the next time you think of someone who is serving in the military; "So that others may live..."

.... 

Isaac

P.S.-"So that other's may live..." was also the creed of the Air Rescue & Recovery Service during ....Vietnam.... & is still today.

I didn't know there was an orange oscar until recently. Follow him on twitter. www.twitter.com/orangeoscar He's worth it.

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Sometimes I wonder why I even try.  This is very personal and normally I don't like to post stuff like this but tonite, well, let's just say, I have my reasons.

As most of you know, I recently became an aunt to my first niece. It has been years since my brother and sister and their respective spouses really even talked.  Most of the time we just co-exist in the same space and that is really only for family gatherings.  It's not like I haven't tried to mend the burned bridges because I have.  I have changed alot over the years and for the better (at least that's what I've been told).

Well, tonite, before the show where I was ring announcing, I saw that I had missed a call on my cell phone.  Someone left me a message but I didn't check it since I knew it was getting close to show time.  I saw my mom had called me so I quickly called her back.  Little did I know what I was in for.

Apparently the fact that I have pictures of my niece posted in an album on my facebook has caused alot of issues.  Someone saw the pictures, contact my sister in law and then it got back to my mom.  My mom was very frustrated and upset and asked me why I even had them up there.  Hello???  this is my niece!!! don't i have a right to be proud of my family???  Apparently not.

Well, to my so-called siblings and their respective spouses.....Grow up!!! If you have a beef with me, call me.  Don't go running to Mommy and Daddy and complaining.  If you don't have my phone number, then by all means, ask them for it but you should have taken your beef up with me and not involved them!!!!  It just shows what kind of cowards you really are. 

I understand you are concerned about the sick people who would hurt little children.  I'm not as stupid as you might think.  I wouldn't post your address or any other identifing information like that.  You really need to grow up and get a life!!!!

For those of you who are reading this, it's not really that important.  It's just something that happened to me today that I wanted to post in case other people may have the same thing happen to them.

I was out running some errands in Harrisburg.  I stopped at the Dollar store because I wanted to just browse around to see if they had anything good and also because I needed change in order to finish my errand running.  I purchased a couple of toys for my favorite dogs and left the store. 

As I got in to the van, a black guy came over and asked me if I had a plastic gas container in the vehicle.  He told me his name and that he worked for UPS driving the big brown trucks and that he and his wife had been stranded in the parking lot for an hour waiting for some way to get some gas.  I apologized and told him that I didn't have what he was looking for.  He then asked me for exactly $6.80 so he could purchase some gas.  I told him that the only money I had on me wasn't mine and that I really didn't have any extra on me.  He started to creep me out at this point.  I felt bad that I couldn't help him but I honestly didn't have the extra money to spare.  He said ok and then moved on to two people who were sitting outside the Dollar Store waiting on the bus.  As I started to drive away, I had the passenger side window down and I heard the one lady waiting for the bus say to this guy, "take your cigarette and i'll call you later."   

I don't like to think that this guy was being dishonest but well, just be careful if you're out and about.  It's pretty bad when even the average person can't even go shopping.

Several years ago a close friend of mine showed me a very important thing that would be beneficial in my life.  This person taught me about consistency and how being consistent is probably one of the most important things I could ever have.

Recently there have been some people in my life that do not apparently realize how confusing things are when they aren’t consistent with me. 

Don’t tell me that you refuse to go someplace for particular reasons and then turn around and then say you’d love to go to the exact same place you have been telling me you refuse to go. 

Don’t tell me you’re trying to be my best friend and then act like I don’t even exist unless it’s something you want.  I have feelings too, you know.

Don’t tell me that you’ll be there if I ever need to talk and then turn around and let me find out that you really weren’t happy when I called because I interrupted your schedule.  I don’t reach out to my friends that often anymore.  I’ve learned that talking about things that are bothering me is a bad thing.  I’ve gotten to the point where I’d rather just not talk about them and anymore I usually type my feelings out in a word document and then hit the DELETE key.  But if I do call and try to reach out, I must be really frustrated about it. 

If nothing else, I try to be upfront and honest with everyone.  I expect the same from everyone in return.  The only problem with that is because I have trust issues, yes, more than likely I will probably doubt you at least to some degree until I really get to know you.  There is an old saying “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me for letting it happen again.”

I have enough going on my life right now that I don’t have time for silly games.  I hate myself even more when I start to have these nasty feelings of doubt about people that I consider to be important to me and that have proven their trustworthiness.  I’m trying to do everything right and turn myself into someone that I can be proud of.  Someone that, years down the road, I can look at myself in the mirror and say “Damn, Girl, you have been through some very tough times but you know that you stuck it out and now look at you!!!” 

Yes, I’ll admit that I’m struggling with a lot of things right now.  I have to really stand on my own for the first time in my life and it’s not easy.  Ok, so I’ve been living alone for the last several years but it’s somewhat easier now then what it was back then.  I went from struggling to make a rent payment each month and having no cable TV to watch to at least being able to afford satellite dish.  Ok, so I don’t have propane with which to cook, but you know, since it’s really just me in the house anyway, my electric skillet, microwave, slow cooker, and my borrowed two-burner hot plate do just fine for me.   So what that I’m driving a company vehicle.  I’m trying my best to keep the maintenance up on it.  The one time I was looking into seeing if I could make some type of arrangements to buy a vehicle that I could call my own and that would not cost me a lot of money to run because gasoline was around $4 a gallon at that time, someone went and let it leak that I was buying another vehicle.  There was nothing definite in the plans at that point.  It was just an idea that I was tossing around.  Had I been able to make some definite plans, then yes, I should have been the one to inform the appropriate people and would have done so once the other plans were in place. 

I have siblings that don’t really even talk to me anymore because they are still living in the past.  I’ve made mistakes!!!  I’m only human!!!  But at least I can hold my head up and say that I’m proud of the changes that I’ve made so far in my life but I know I’m not done yet. 

I’m still afraid that one day I will wake up and realize that it’s been all a dream.  I’m not very much of a risk taker.  I can’t afford to gamble on things because I don’t have a lot to lose.

So now that I’ve said my piece, I don’t want or need any comments.  If you wanna talk privately about it, you know how to reach me and I’ll be happy to discuss it further.  This is one time I’ve typed my feelings out and didn’t press the DELETE key because I will look back at some point in the future, re-read this blog and think about what was currently going on in my life that prompted me to write it. 

I’m sorry if I offended anyone by posting this but just remember that you didn’t have to read it and you could have stopped reading it any time you wanted to.

Thank you and have a nice day!!!