It was a pleasant surprise. A representative of a local American Legion Post here in Central West Virginia called.<\/p>\n
Note please, that I’m an annual member of the Legion, and a life member of the VFW and DAV. BUT I don’t go to meetings. First off… the meetings are at night and my night driving vision is simply not good. Just one of those blue headlights oncoming and I’m blind for 30 seconds or so. And as some here might easily testify, I also ain’t very good with mundane social interactions anyway.<\/p>\n
So out of the blue I get this call. The fellow said that his post had been notified by National that I was a member in good standing but belonged to no local post, just some sort of ephemeral State post, and he’d like to invite me to join with them.<\/p>\n
I described my night vision problem and instead of backing off he started kinda casting around to see if I could get a ride with someone in the area. I was deeply impressed. No one from any other Vet group has expended even that amount of effort.<\/p>\n
My contact and I WILL get together in the spring (he’s traveling, as am I) and we’ll see how this shakes out, BUT I am looking forward to the effort.<\/p>\n
I joined these groups even after being dismissed many years ago by several of them. Nam vets need not apply. But I have always felt they could provide a sort of backstop to prevent our government from leaving us to rot. So when I could – I joined.<\/p>\n
I dunno how this particular exercise will develop, but the mere fact that is has happened is, for me anyway, a sort of bellwether event.<\/p>\n
And kudos to the American Legion for the effort, however it turns out for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"