MEMORIAL DAY MUSINGS

On the front page of today's New York Times was a picture of the American military cemetery in Manila in the Philippines, which brought back a flood of memories for me.

My middle brother, Alfred, is buried in that cemetery. He was killed on the island of Leyte in the Philippines on January 8, 1945 at age twenty-one. There is an old army cliche that says you don't worry about the bullet with your name on it but the one that says to whom it may concern---and that is exactly how Alfred died.

He had been in on the invasion of the Philippines in November of 1944, serving as a T/4 (the equivalent of a corporal) on an LST, the landing crafts that turn into a form of tank. While on Leyte, he contacted jungle rot in his arm, a form of infectious fungus common in the tropics. He had been in the hospital near Ormac on Leyte and had been unable to participate in the battle for the town of Ormac because of this infection. On January 7, he was released from the hospital and able to rejoin his outfit, where every soldier wants to be with his buddies. He was assigned to guard duty in a bivouac area and, although the battle was over, there were Japanese stragglers in the nearby hills. One such group fired a mortar shell, and Alfred was the only one killed. That certainly qualifies as "to whom it may concern".

The family decided the best decision was to leave him buried with his comrades and not go through the ordeal of bringing his body back for burial at home. in 1968 my father had planned a trip to Manila in order to view his grave, but ill health prevented him doing so. In 1977, on a business trip to the Orient, I decided,prior to returning home, to stop in Manila and see Alfred's grave.

Manila was under martial law at that time and was a scary place with police and soldiers roaming the streets with machine guns strapped to their backs. A series of Communist insurrections had caused this state of emergency. I hired a taxi to take me to the U.S. Military Cemetery (which is American land and maintained in every foreign country where our troops are buried). At the cemetery I was directed to the guardhouse where a complete record of all names and locations is kept. Within a few minutes I had walked to and found my brother's grave. I thought after thirty-two years, I could handle this emotional moment, but I sat on the ground near his grave and wept. I thank God I made that trip. If you have ever seen such cemeteries, you know how beautiful and well-maintained they are. I knew the family had made the right choice in leaving Alfred with his fallen comrades-in-arms.

One of the few good things that has come out of the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is that more people seem more appreciative of the sacrifices our military has undergone and are lauding the veterans of those conflicts. I think we have a collective guilty conscience about the way we treated veterans after Vietnam. God knows, I was against that war---but you don't spit on and scorn the men who served. Take it out on the politicians, not the poor souls who fought their wars.

I'm one of those oldies now who can still vividly remember World War II. I just missed it,as the war ended in August of 1945, and I turned eighteen in November of that year. With Alfred's death and Henry (my eldest brother) shot down but surviving, it was a vivid and traumatic experience for my family and many others. In my lifetime I have been around for too many conflicts.

Take time to remember those who served and those we lost and, if inclined, say a prayer. I have.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS...

You can finish this old truism: Who needs enemies?

I am referring to our staunch and loyal allies, the Pakistanis, with whom we have the classic love/hate relationship; that is, they love to take our money in the form of billions in foreign aid and then hate us by providing safe havens for our enemies, the Taliban, regularly burning the American flag and giving vigorous anti-American speeches.

Not that everything we've done is beyond reproach. If I were a native and had lost family to an American drone, I might burn a flag or spout anti-American sentiments. I am referring to the Pakistani government. They were furious when we invaded their space to take out Osama bin Laden, decrying the violation of national sovereignty, carefully avoiding the fact that he had been living in their territory for several years under their noses, probably with the tacit knowledge of the Paki Intelligence Service---a real embarrassment. They are the classic split personality: one side wanting our aid and nominally supporting our goals, the other side hating every moment of it and doing whatever possible to thwart our efforts.

Now the latest slap in our face: the sentencing of the doctor who aided us in the effort to nail bin Laden for "high treason". Treason is when you hurt your country by a damaging act; how does ending the career of international public enemy number one qualify as treason? I'll make a prediction: diplomatic pressure and negotiations on our part will ultimately free or greatly reduce the sentence of the doctor. Much oratory will follow concerning sovereign rights and national respect to save face and show independence. Until then, it is a travesty of justice and a demonstration of the paranoia at their highest levels.

Of course, we must tread carefully diplomatically. After all, they are a nuclear nation, and our worst nightmare is having nuclear capability in the hands of a radical element in Pakistan.

In the meantime they do try one's soul.

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

For the first time in my long life (excluding when I was three and had tonsils removed), I have had my body invaded by surgery. I really have been extremely lucky. Yesterday, at an outpatient hospital in Naples, Florida, a plastic surgeon removed a melanoma from my left upper arm. They put me in modified "lala land" in the twilight zone where I was semi-conscious but felt nothing (except a few staples going in toward the end).

I'm a bit sore today but still able to type. They gave me some really potent pain pills, but I'm pleased to say I have not taken one but only had a couple of Tylenols. The doctor felt sure he got it all but will send tissue to pathology to make sure.

I was pleased and gratified to find that caring doctors and nurses still exist, and I was really impressed by the care I got in my few hours in this outpatient surgical center. Every nurse, anethesiologist and surgeon were warm and solicitous. Maybe I was lucky, but I came away impressed.

I go to the surgeon tomorrow to check the incision and redress the arm. I've had a lot of phone calls from friends and family---and, best if all, I had a lot of prayers said for me. I expect to be full of piss and vinegar and sassy as ever.

On Sunday I am singing in church for Memorial Day "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", backed by ten men singing the chorus. All of you, pray I don't croak like a frog!

THE INALIENABLE RIGHT TO EDUCATE

HAMILTON COLLEGE

Tuition and Fees 2012-13

Tuition $43,610

Room $ 6160

Board $ 5110

Student Activity Fee $440

Total $55,620

Estimated Costs:

Books/Supplies $1300

Miscellaneous Personal Expense up to $1000

Travel Allocation up to $1500

I read an article in the Times today about Ohio State and efforts by President Gordon Gee to begin to get a handle on expenses.

Like many, I have been concerned for some time about the escalating cost of colleges and the heavy burdens of debt imposed on students, who graduate and frequently are saddled with this load of debt for many years as they start their careers. It is an unfair burden they must shoulder by trying to better their lot through education.

It’s bad enough for mega-universities like Ohio State. The “Big Three” in the Ivy League (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) have huge endowments but are still raising tuitions.

Then you have the small private universities like my alma mater, Hamilton College in Clinton NY, who for its size is well-endowed. But look at the above chart---it’s shocking. A four-year education, if you pay full fare, is over $222,000, not counting books/supplies, personal expense and travel. Hamilton is far from alone with these ballooning costs.

I think many colleges and universities have been guilty over the last twenty years of academic smugness and complacency; i.e., our standards are so high and our reputation so formidable that we don’t have to worry. Then, before they know it, costs escalate and tuitions are raised to new heights. I believe a review of costs and some hardnosed budgetary evaluations are long overdue. Each department head should be responsible for his or her bailiwick and should be required to propose a leaner meaner budget. I don’t want to rob any school of academic excellence, but you can’t convince me that some fat has not accumulated around the midriffs of most schools.

Many courses are being offered online by a variety of colleges. Surely the internet with its incredible power to reach millions of people could be a way to promulgate knowledge at a reasonable price. It is an incredible tool with ever increasing potential.

Education is the greatest benefit and asset we can give the young. Must we burden them with years of expense for something that should be a birthright? Come on, colleges and universities, put on your thinking caps, get creative and see what your brilliance can come up with to aid your students.

Education certainly, to my mind, qualifies as an inalienable right.

MEOW AND MORE FOR ME

J.P. Morgan/Chase, the largest American bank, got slapped around, deservedly, these last few days after the derivative scandal of a billion in losses (actually 2 but offset by some other gain) from their greedy London trader, aka London Whale or Valdemort.

To his credit---not that he had much choice---Jamie Dimon, the CEO of Morgan/Chase, admitted they screwed up. He also refuses to stop fighting against the application of the so-called Volker Rule to forbid banks from such speculation with their own money, part of the Dodd-Frank banking act. The government is wrong to try to control banks., says Dimon., and should allow them free rein.

I call it the Fat Cat Syndrome, and it is rife among the rich and powerful. If you are loaded with money, you don’t want anything or anyone to kill the proverbial golden goose. The fact that the primary objective originally of banks was to be a safe haven for people’s money is totally irrelevant to the high rollers of today. They want to stress the opportunity to maximize profits in investments, in playing with their depositors’ money and even betting against their clients when you can make a buck by selling short. The moral issues of short sales against their customers just don’t seem to register.

They develop arrogance, an absolute certitude in their decision-making powers and their own infallibility. Occasionally, not often enough, they get their teeth kicked in but then revert back to their own sense of worth and self-justification. I suppose you would crumble into little bits if you admitted you could be wrong..

This kind of arrogance is tough on those who play by the rules. It would appear that the Jamie Dimons of the world only like those rules that they invent. Greed is greed by any other name…

Unfortunately, it is not confined to bankers but a whole colony of fat cats of different stripes and configurations.

THE JOYS OF AGEING

Ever have days when you feel you are a total mess? Well, I'm there, right now.

I went to the dermatologist here in Florida last week, which can frequently be a traumatic experience, especially if you had a red-headed mother with fair skin like I did, plus the fact I had some red tones in my hair before it turned grey, and I have light skin. Some years ago I had to coat my forehead with a potent liquid called 5FU which turns you lobster red as it burns off the "AKs", those precancerous bits. The result was my forehead was SAAB (soft as a baby's ass). Since then I have had various moles excised, a couple of which were squalmus cells, the second degree beyond basal cells and not so dangerous as melanomas. You pay for the sins of your youth in your old age. Plus, you have to be sun-wary living in Florida.

Now my most recent visit has turned up a squalmus cell on my nose, necessitating next week MOHS surgery where they scrape a bit off, analyze it in pathology and then keep taking more slices until they get it all. I got lucky last time: they did it in one swipe. I guess my nose is long enough I can spare a bit.

But the nasty kicker is I have a melanoma on my left shoulder and a smaller one just below they are not sure about. Melanomas you don't screw around with. I am going to a plastic surgeon, at the advice of my dermatologist, for a consultation next week which will be followed by surgery where he will dig deep to get it all. I'm in an early stage, thank God, so they should be able to remove it.

So, I'm sitting here with red inflamed skin on my left and right temples, the top of my head where hair is thin and my hands and forearms. I do not qualify as an octogenerian sex symbol, I assure you!

But, hey, something good also happened this week: I had cataract surgery five years ago, and my right eye had developed what they call a secondary cataract, a thin film over the cornea that slightly dulls your vision. On Wednesday my opthamologist zapped my right eye with a laser for thirty seconds, and, voila, my vision immediately became crystal clear! Even the crossword puzzle numbers are clear now.

An old friend had a petitpoint cushion that sums it up: SCREW THE GOLDEN YEARS!

AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

R.I.P. (at least, politically), Richard Lugar, former Mayor of Indianapolis and six-time Senator from Indiana. The eighty-year old Lugar stayed around one term too long, perhaps, but he was one of the wise voices of moderation and a real whiz on foreign policy---and we ain't got too many of those left. It sounds like he has been replaced by another candidate favored heavily by the Tea Party, so that means no more of that filthy word, taxes.

Back in the seventies Lugar was even considered a possible Presidential candidate because of his brains, savvy and foreign affairs acumen. But he had one drawback: he was boring, boring, boring as a speaker. He reminded me of another Presidential candidate in the eighties and nineties that I loved with the same problem, a sleep-inducing speaking manner: Bill Bradley,the Senator from N.J., former Rhodes Scholar, Princeton All-American and part of that dynastic Knicks team of the early seventies. Sometimes it is hard to get the complete package all wrapped up in one man. Brains and integrity aren't always a sure thing in politics---but it's a helluva good start!

In any case, another measured voice of reason with the brains to go with it is lost to the senate. They are dropping like flies, these moderates: if they don't get beaten, they retire, having lost the stomach for the protracted ugliness going on in that hallowed chamber.

It's a bloody shame.

AND THE BAND PLAYED ON

Politics as usual has evolved into same old, same old: the Democrats dither and the Republicans rant. It looks like we're in for six more months of nothing being done by congress to face up to cure the economic ills that have beset us since 2008 (or earlier)until the election is over---and then, I'm not convinced, that it will get any better, as polarized as the two parties are.

A new book is out by two respected Congessional scholars, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, the title of which says it all: "It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism". That title is so long, it gives away the whole thesis of the book--but I still think I'll read it. Both Mann and Ornstein are seasoned thoughtful observers of the political spectrum and much respected in political circles. Ornstein spoke at a forum here on our island a few years ago; unfortunately, I did not hear him, but those who did were impressed.

This is not the first time in our history that political impasses have occurred, but this one is turning into an epic confrontation whose worldwide implications cannot be ignored. You saw, for example, what happened to our national credit rating last summer when Congress stalled on increasing the debt limit---and we got zapped, downgraded on our bond ratings, not to mention the bemusement of the world viewing this spectacle of entrenched obstinancy in the premier world power.

It is pure bloodymindedness, this stubborness of the Republican Party. Now you have to PLEDGE, for God's sake, that you will NEVER increase taxes. How stupid can you get? How can you rationally in this uncertain world make such a hollow promise? It has become an era of inflammatory soundbites, concrete positions and increased vituperation. Not to mention, stupid.

That filthy word, compromise (almost the politcal "n" word to the neo-cons) is being drummed out of the political dictionary, along with civility, rationality, respect and all the other words connoting discourse between opposing views.

I think I'll just fix myself a nice Scotch and Soda.