This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Army Sergeant

May Issue or No Issue? A Veteran’s Path to Getting a Legal Gun in NYC

First, I’d like to give all the credit for this idea to Emily Miller of the Washington Times, for her very well-written series “Emily Gets Her Gun,” [1][2][3][4][5], (for a start), about her attempt, as a law-abiding citizen, to get a permit and a weapon in the nation’s capitol.

Like Emily, with rising violence and crime in the streets, I don’t feel safe. My neighborhood had a serial rapist that the police never caught, and I’ve witnessed three muggings in the last year, all from too far away to help even when I started running to get up. I had to break up a fight between two machete-wielding homeless guys on a train armed with…my words, not the best choice. (For future reference, apparently if you ask “Is there a problem here, gentlemen?” they think you’re a cop.)

I’m an Army veteran with an honorable record. I have numerous firearms qualifications and training. I’ve never been convicted of any crimes. I was arrested once as a juvenile for being in a park past curfew: charges were dismissed. I’ve had a few tickets for speeding, which I paid. I’m a decent shot. I know gun safety. And now, I’d like to obtain a firearm for my home and to carry with me to protect myself and my family.

Only one problem: New York City, and Mayor Bloomberg. Mayor Bloomberg has never been a fan of guns, but in the wake of the Aurora shooting he’s gotten even more nuts.

My goalposts may move, but here are my starters, which certainly don’t seem unreasonable to me:

Would like to acquire (but do not currently possess):
legal permits to have one rifle and one handgun in a NYC residence,
NYC concealed carry permit for a handgun.
rifle: M16 or something similar – it’s what I know.
handgun: 1911, widely acknowledged as the finest gun ever made.

For those who are easily amused, I’m the “token lefty” on this site. I was a precinct captain for Kerry. I have only the barest familiarity with the process of obtaining a gun in this country.

So hold onto your beer and watch this shit.

July 30, 2012
My Myopic View of the National Memorial Day Parade

I understand that a lot of you would have loved to have seen the National Memorial Day parade go down Constitution Ave, and I certainly will try to give you a bit of the experience. But unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I was also marching in said parade with a veterans contingent, so pictures are somewhat limited. I got the ones I thought were the most important.

Why this one? Because this is Bryan Anderson, with his service dog Maya, an Iraq War veteran and triple amputee, representing USA Cares, a nonprofit that works to help out post 9/11 veterans. That’s also Miss America and a handmaiden on the float next to him, which I understand some people may care about. Back to Bryan, however, he’s apparently working on a book, which you can pre-order on Amazon. If you’re thinking of reading a book, you could certainly do a lot worse.

There was also a Kuwait float, thanking Gulf War veterans. You know, the ones that don’t get a lot of credit because of the shortness of their war. Well, here’s some folks who were kind of glad that the US military stomped through the way they did.

Actually, I was quite impressed by the amount of foreign military showing up to thank the American military that died in their countries fighting for them. It’s especially surprising given the amount of people who say that no one ever wanted us there. Somebody’s got to be wrong, and I only have photographic evidence for one position. Just saying.

Also the obligatory adorable kids supporting their military by participating in this parade. Which honestly, I think is incredible. So many schools barely teach about the military at all, and so the kids growing up don’t know anything about names that were household names when I was a kid. But despite all that, they showed up and were relatively cheerful in all the heat.

Most impressive of all was the cheers and applause from the people on both sides of the parade route. Sure, they cheered for the impressive displays, and many of them seemed to just be enjoying the scenery…but when active duty military and veterans came through, the majority of the people cheered with all their heart. I only wish I could have photographed all the “Welcome home” and “Thank you” signs I saw. Or the elderly veterans that dragged themselves out in the blistering heat and still made sure to salute the flag and to support the newer veterans who were there.

I have to say, though, recent vets: we’re looking a little sparse at these things. I know a few veterans groups marched, and so did IAVA, but in only tiny numbers. I know there’s more of you just in the DC area alone. Next year, maybe consider participating. We can’t expect the older generation to carry these things forever.

Also, if you come, I promise to buy you a beer. I know what currency everyone favors.

Further pictures can be found over at Lilyea’s stream here, and thanks go to him for taking photos sent from my cell phone and making them internet-friendly.

May 29, 2012
Memorial Weekend in DC

I have to admit that, like many veterans my age, I’ve spent every Memorial Day in recent memory with veterans and soldiers I’ve served with, or met in the service. We would drink, talk about our friends, talk about soldiers who remain forever soldiers, because they never lived to become a veteran. We might cook food, sure, but for us, it’s never exactly been a holiday.

But this Memorial Day I felt like it wasn’t enough. We lost, and it’s always important to remember those we lost, but I needed to honor those who had gone before, fallen servicemembers I would never know, because they paved the way for me. I know there’s a lot of talk going on about who heroes are, but for me, it’s always been the generations past, who went willingly to ensure that we have never had a war on our own soil since the Civil War. It’s hard for Americans who have never read or travelled or seen what happens to places we fight in to understand how much that means, that our families have lived in relative safety for a hundred years. But for those who have, it means a lot.

When I got there, it was intense, humbling, and incredibly emotional. I think I’ve been somewhat insulated, living where I do, from the enormous groundswell of support and remembrance from the American people, and from veterans who absolutely, at all costs, will remember their brothers and sisters.

Like the Korean War Veterans Association, whose tribute to their brothers at the Korean War Memorial was incredible. They came not for any photo op, or to try for funding or anything like that. They didn’t use the day for anything than its purpose: a remembrance of their fallen brothers. Sixty years since that war was hot, and many of these gentlemen were extremely elderly, facing debilitating heat. Yet still they came, honored their brothers, and left with few words. They didn’t ask for thanks – but if you happen to want to give them some, Director Thomas McHugh happened to give me his name, and might pass it on.

But where I broke was actually the World War II memorial. I hadn’t expected to see many other people there, or signs that people had been there. It was important for me, to honor the dead of this war. Some of them not much older than my daughter, who signed up by lying to their recruiters about their age, they were so eager to be fighting back against the greatest evil this world has ever known.

But of course, Rolling Thunder had already been there – the wreaths of flowers of remembrance. And they weren’t the only ones – flowers and flags had been left by every state – some wreaths from counties near and far, others unmarked. On this day, no one was forgotten.

And on the ground, next to the fountain, lovingly placed, was a small, yellowing hometown newspaper clipping in a sealed ziplock bag, about the death of a servicemember.

I am not ashamed to admit that I cried like a baby, though I couldn’t even tell you precisely why. Call me weak if you want to. But the idea that in the middle of this enormous, commercialized holiday, there were so many keeping the faith – remembering so that it is never, ever forgotten – that meant something to me, even if it is hard to explain. As did their sacrifice. As will, always, their sacrifice.

These are, indeed, hallowed grounds.

May 29, 2012
In the Wreckage of an Almost-Shutdown

Today, a lot of us are taking a slightly ragged breath and relaxing a bit. Last night, around 11PM, a deal was reached that would extend for a week the operations of government as we know it. This is particularly meaningful for all of our servicemembers, many serving in harm’s way, who had already opened up Mypay to reveal a LES with only half the pay anticipated for it. This will allow them to get their midmonth pay.

Let me stress, for those few who might happen to be unaware, that unlike the rest of the government, when the military isn’t getting paid, the military is still working. People don’t stop trying to kill them just because they’re not getting paid. Instead, it’s just another worry on their mind, preventing them from being fully focused on the dangers surrounding them, because they’re too busy wondering if their family will be able to pay the rent or buy groceries.

I’d like to take a moment to thank those organizations that went above and beyond in order to make sure servicemembers didn’t have to worry about where their family’s next meal would come from: such as the Navy Federal Credit Union, that promised all servicemember’s mid-month checks would be covered by the institution. I’d also like to thank (and this is rare) the VA (or as Brandon Friedman likes to remind everyone, Veterans Affairs) for putting out a Veterans Guide to the Shutdown, to help address the justified concerns many veterans had about whether their disability checks and education benefits would arrive on the 1st.

However, what really needs to be addressed is not so pretty: why did it come so close in the first place? A lot of people in both political parties want to blame the other party. But really, both parties are to blame, and both parties gambled way too much with the lives of people who have already given up a lot to serve their country.

The one bare-minimum standard any governmental body that deals with money has is to pass a budget for the next year. But nobody wanted to pass a budget before the elections, because then they’d have to deal with possible consequences for their votes. And after the elections, when Democrats realized that they were going to be out of power next year, they hurried with pushing through the healthcare reform, instead of worrying about doing their job and passing the budget.

But the Republicans aren’t off the hook yet. Passing a budget was their job, too, and they chose to focus on ideological battles also. They decided to play a game of brinksmanship to show how tough they were for the next budget fight, ignoring the people it was going to impact. They tried to create a temporary bill that supposedly would fund the Pentagon all year, and the rest of government a week, to save the military, but then again added ideological riders on it.
Why do we put up with this? People on both sides, why do we act as though our party protects veterans and servicemembers? I think we need to acknowledge that both sides use us for photo ops and for talking points on the halls of Congress, but when it comes down to it, they don’t really care.

April 9, 2011
Marine Science Fiction Writer Blacklisted for Comments On Islamic Center

Instapundit and Ace of Spades have already talked about this a little bit, but they’re coming at it from the outside. This has been on my radar for a while, but it’s finally gotten to the point where I think it’s absolutely awful and have to say something.

In Defense of Elizabeth Moon

Elizabeth Moon is a pretty extraordinary woman. She made the decision to join the Marine Corps as an officer during the Vietnam War, at a time many men were unwilling to. She is the child of a single parent, and an utterly self-made woman with multiple college degrees. She is also the mother of an autistic child and has done some pretty impressive advocating for disabled children. She writes some great Military Science Fiction books, with strong female characters-because she knows from experience that women can be a lot of pretty amazing things. Moon exemplifies in many ways what I think of as feminism-that any woman can and should have the ability to be whatever she wants to be, from serving her country to being a mother-tigress.

To this end, she was chosen as a Guest of Honor at Wiscon, a feminist science fiction convention. This was an excellent choice-she started writing early on in a field where there were few women writers, and she’s pretty consistently been a supportive voice for them, while declaring that to be a feminist means you believe women are strong.

All was well…until, on her own personal blog, she made a 9/11 post about the proposed Islamic Center in NYC, and overall, about immigrant assimilation in America.
(more…)

October 22, 2010
[Army Sergeant] Partisan Politics Only Screws Veterans

Now, I’ll start off by admitting that my politics may not look like a lot of the commentators on this blog. I’m not going to go into the specifics of how: most of you know. I am an IVAW member, and if you want to see more of my more nakedly political offerings, they’re over at Active Duty Patriot. That’s not what this post is about, though I’m sure it’ll be interpreted that way by those with an axe to grind.

What I’m here to talk about is the way that veterans are constantly being exploited by politicians and over-bureaucratic systems, promised the world when it’s election season or when they want to look good, and then as the nitty gritty grind of the year drags on, people remember that helping veterans is work, and costs money, and not just money but actual commitment. And somehow, almost to a man, they all find better things to do.

A few years back I was almost fangirlishly squealing over Senator Jim Webb’s Post 9/11 GI Bill. I loved it then, and I love it-in concept-now. But I know too many veterans who are having to drop out of school, who are getting evicted, or who are straight up not able to afford an apartment of their own because they haven’t gotten their check. Some still haven’t gotten their check. This is happening in an Obama administration just as much as it was happening in a Bush one, and you older vets will have to tell me if it was happening just as much under a Clinton one. The VA is broken. They’ve got some good people working for it, but the VA is still broken. They’ve been hiring some of their former most outspoken critics, but I haven’t seen substantive changes, and I don’t know that anyone else has either.

The problem is right now, there’s a severe recession going on. How severe? Severe enough that I know more than a couple vets personally, my generation of vets, still in their twenties or early thirties, who are functionally homeless, couch-surfing across the USA because they don’t have a better option. There are veterans out in the streets right now-veterans who often have no ability to make it through the severe, complicated, time-consuming process that is applying for benefits. Severe enough that veterans are coming out of the woodwork to apply for their VA benefits and disability benefits for the first time in years. Veterans who know the VA is broken, who know they’re going to be engaging in a fight that will potentially take years. But they don’t have a better option.

60 minutes recently did a piece on the VA issues, which, while it won points from me for using the phrase ‘Delay, Deny, and Hope You Die’ in national newsmedia, honestly turned into more of a light exfoliation than the gritty expose the VA actually deserves.

For a million veterans to be waiting for their VA benefits is wrong, wrong, wrong. The fact that it can be glossed over by anyone is just straight jacked up. And this is where the partisan shit comes in-because it is just as wrong under an Obama administration as it was under a Bush administration, but there are a lot less of certain people willing to talk about it. Just as under a Bush administration, there were a lot less of a different kind of certain people willing to talk about the problem.

We have to stop that. If we’re ever going to get anything accomplished, if these guys aren’t going to be languishing for years while the VA fantasizes about getting its shit together, we need to be united in these issues. Forget who’s in charge, forget who may gain or lose in political capital, stand united. Because let’s face it-much as everyone may hate to talk aloud about it, we have a lot in common. We as veterans have a lot in common. We as politicized veterans who aren’t going to take things lying down have even more in common. Whatever else we may want, whatever else our personal issues may happen to be, whether they come with an elephant or a donkey or a little Ron Paul sticker, we all served, and we all want to have our brothers-in-arms treated as well as they deserve for that service. Most of us have been in the military so long that we have an inborn distaste of taking care of ourselves: well, think of it as taking care of your buddy while your buddy takes care of you.

We need to take on the VA-the whole bloated mess of it. Yes, Democrats, you too, even in an Obama administration. Yes, Republicans, even if they take back the Senate or the House. We need to take on the entrenched incompetence and apathy.

People talk a lot about the old GI Bill, back in WWII. What they forget to remember is that those benefits didn’t come from nowhere. Those benefits came, in large part, because of what happened to the last veterans, the veterans of World War I. And those veterans had to march on Washington to get better treatment. Not as part of a protest march, some three hour shindig where everybody enjoys feeling good about themselves, and then goes home with their demands unmet and their needs unsatisfied. No, those veterans set up a camp and refused to leave until they got what they needed. Check out some history of the Bonus Army-it’s a fascinating read. And they weren’t divided by politics. They were of no political brand or creed. They united and said-hey, we’re starving here. We were promised these things and they didn’t materialize. There’s a Depression, and we really need the country we served to honor their promise to take care of us. Real issues faced by real veterans at the time-not pie-in-the-sky stuff. And what’s the important thing-they succeeded.

We could learn a lot from those folks.

“No, thank you, we don’t want food, sir; but couldn’t you take an’ write
A sort of ‘to be continued’ and ‘see next page’ o’ the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an’ couldn’t you tell ’em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now.”

-Rudyard Kipling, Last of the Light Brigade

I know that this doesn’t apply to all veterans. I know many veterans are making it, are successfully weathering out this economic downturn. But the thing is, there are a lot who aren’t. I’m not trying to make it sound like everyone is out on the streets. But there are a lot who are, and a lot who aren’t making it. And the more we fight with each other about what the concept of taking on the problem would mean to various political parties, the more the problem doesn’t get fixed.

January 6, 2010