I'm pretty sure the "devil Dogs' can still take a joshing now and then. Hope I'm not wrong!
Maybe I'll sleep at the kid's house tonight.
Maybe I'll sleep at the kid's house tonight.
Ken Burns Vietnam War Documentary on PBS
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A.F. Combat Control Team, also. They are attached to and deploy with all SOFs any time A.F. air assets are used. They are a little known special ops force.
My grandpa (father's father) was from G.I. Generation, he was born in the early 1920s and had to serve in the army of USSR during the WWII, after being shot 7 times he was honorably discharged however he chose to stay and serve as a publisher in the army newspaper. After the war he returned back to his town and continued to work as a publishing director and ran a farm. He was a real gentleman, man of his word and although he was really strict towards his own children, he had always been really kind to his grandchildren. My father had to work in the farm after the school, although they had enough people working for them to do the job. That's how my grandpa raised all of his children and he was still complaining all the time that he wasn't able to teach farming to his kids. Because my father was raised with the same manners, he also became a strict person and a conservative (not the term that you use in the States, but the actual term as Google explains - a person who is averse to change and holds traditional values). He shaves every single morning, never late to any appointment, has very concrete rules, etc. Because he was raised in a very disciplined environment, he didn't want his sons to live the same thing. Now the problem starts here. 'Javan don't do that, Javan you are going to break it, Javan let me help you with what, no Javan you can't do that alone, I will help you, no Javan you are still a kid, no you are not old enough." That's how I've been raised, when I was facing a problem, I always knew that my dad will help me, he was there to solve it for me and that's the problem of the Millennials. That's why they are always late to work and appointments (not me fortunately, I have OCD with time, thanks to my Dad), that's why they never care about real life problems and that's why most of them are inconstant or unstable or liberal (again the actual term - open to new ideas). Everything has been served to them on a silver platter. They didn't ask for a silver platter, but their parents were the ones who offered it and spoiled their own children. When I tell my parents or any other parent that they are the main reason of the failure of the Millennials, they all have only one answer: 'I didn't want my kid to have the difficulties that I had to have'. Sorry but, no pain, no gain. I have a 2 year old son and I am trying not to repeat the same mistakes. He has to do everything by himself and I am only there if he asks for help, I'm always watching his back but he doesn't know that. The bad news is, not everyone does the same and that's how they are damaging their kids. By the way, those who complain about the Millennials, should wait for the Generation Z, you will be amazed I swear. The common belief is Generation Alpha (that comes after Generation Z) will be more prepared for bigger challenges than Generation Z.
Regarding the education, one of our teachers always said: 'American education is mainly based on practice and experiments, on the other hand Eurasian education is mainly based on theories'. At the end, I guess American education system wins, because it is practical and useful in real life, with the help of eastern education however, you can win a nice amount of money in a TV show.
Regarding the education, one of our teachers always said: 'American education is mainly based on practice and experiments, on the other hand Eurasian education is mainly based on theories'. At the end, I guess American education system wins, because it is practical and useful in real life, with the help of eastern education however, you can win a nice amount of money in a TV show.
"They didn't ask for a silver platter, but their parents were the ones who offered it and spoiled their own children."
There's a LOT of truth to that, IMO. One example I see of this has had a gigantic impact on our country. In the past, pre-teens and adolescents did a lot of seasonal agricultural work to earn their spending money, or even to help out their families. Our public school schedules were even designed to accommodate this phenomenon. Add a little prosperity, a little first-generation removal from scrabbling to make a living, and what did we get? "My boy isn't going to pick _______ all summer. He's better than that. He's going to be a big shot _______!" Forgetting, in the meantime, that a whole generation of big shot whatevers actually grew up picking whatever it was that was in season, and it helped them, not hurt them.
How does that impact our country? Well, with our national gift for twisting the facts to fit the narrative, we have "We need illegal labor to do those jobs! Otherwise this country would starve!" Oftimes, we very simply make our own problems. I hope you are right, and that the pendulum will soon swing the other way.
There's a LOT of truth to that, IMO. One example I see of this has had a gigantic impact on our country. In the past, pre-teens and adolescents did a lot of seasonal agricultural work to earn their spending money, or even to help out their families. Our public school schedules were even designed to accommodate this phenomenon. Add a little prosperity, a little first-generation removal from scrabbling to make a living, and what did we get? "My boy isn't going to pick _______ all summer. He's better than that. He's going to be a big shot _______!" Forgetting, in the meantime, that a whole generation of big shot whatevers actually grew up picking whatever it was that was in season, and it helped them, not hurt them.
How does that impact our country? Well, with our national gift for twisting the facts to fit the narrative, we have "We need illegal labor to do those jobs! Otherwise this country would starve!" Oftimes, we very simply make our own problems. I hope you are right, and that the pendulum will soon swing the other way.
JV and Alde lots of truth in both your statements, my school let us slide the first 2 weeks of school to pick cotton for our people as school opened during the time cotton needed to be harvested. If you needed to help bale hay, you were given homework ahead of time to keep up. When I worked for Exxon we lived North of Baton Rouge in the country, I got my son a workers permit at 13 to drive so he could work at a horse farm. All my children worked, I made good money, they didn't have to work, but work builds Character. Case in point, the boy who worked at 13 in a horse farm, 82nd Airborne, Desert Storm vet, works at Exxon, his next door neighbor a disabled vet, got his check snaffoed by the VA, he bankrolls the man till it gets straightened, cuts his yard. Proud of him, damn right I am. Yes Warren there are a lot of good young people, but the 1% is staggering holding the load for the 99% sliders.
I think it was the fourth episode last night (the Vietnam War documentary). It does refresh my memory on a lot. I'd forgotten that the original Marine arrival at DaNang was an amphibious landing, unopposed. The combat accounts are horrific, as it was. And we're only through 1967. Before the Ho Chi Min trail was fully activated, most of the weapons from the North were coming on junks. My ship was still patrolling for those when I was there in '70, but they'd leave behind grandparents crewing a slow boat, and our shipboard cadres of South Vietnamese would pick up a "passenger" or two for questioning, but no weapons. Our other assignment, up near the Cue Viet River, was to warn off merchant ships that might wander into the DMZ. We had the occasional Soviet trawler for "company." Never had "swim call" off the whale boat because there had been too much trouble with water snakes, and then there were those hammerhead sharks coasting below in the clear water.
The "sliders" are there to be taken advantage of. In a humane way of course, the sliders are who the country is built on. Someone had to lay the ties, dig the ditch, pick the cotton, put left door handles on Cadillacs, etc. I simply can't buy the idea that 99 out of a hundred kids are "sliders."
I look at fast food outlets, grocery stores, and see a lot of kids exhibiting enthusiasm for working and learning. I also see some of them sliding by but, it's not close to 99 out of a hundred. I base this position solely on my observations. I do observe people, when time permits, it was my job for many years.
Not everyone is equipped to be "middle class", fewer attain the "upper class" status. Without a "lower class" there would be fewer people striving to attain.
When on a campus it is easy to find the kids "acting" out as they grab one's attention and appear on the TV more often. I suggest looking around a bit, watching the kids with their laptops, heading for class and ignoring, sometimes and surprisingly well organized, unruliness. He/she is simply not interested in being diverted from the goal.
It's not that there are lazy people or drones, slackers and such, I just think some look for them, remembering the inept more than the than the quiet and capable as the former are sometimes jarring and often memorable for their ineptness.
Out of all my nephews and nieces I can think of only one who might be designated as a slacker. He's a struggling musician, in a world of his own but, he works hard, has a goal (some would say a frivolous goal), and is often dismissed as being out of touch, lazy, etc. He's just different than many of his peers and siblings. The work ethic is there, he simply has an unusual goal he is focused on, which doesn't fit what we "geezers" see as meaningful. I wouldn't be happy in a world without writers, pickers, artists, etc. So, I am pretty much alone in offering support for the lad. The others love him but, tsk tsk and simply shake their heads at his lack of aggression and seemingly useless dreams.
I look at fast food outlets, grocery stores, and see a lot of kids exhibiting enthusiasm for working and learning. I also see some of them sliding by but, it's not close to 99 out of a hundred. I base this position solely on my observations. I do observe people, when time permits, it was my job for many years.
Not everyone is equipped to be "middle class", fewer attain the "upper class" status. Without a "lower class" there would be fewer people striving to attain.
When on a campus it is easy to find the kids "acting" out as they grab one's attention and appear on the TV more often. I suggest looking around a bit, watching the kids with their laptops, heading for class and ignoring, sometimes and surprisingly well organized, unruliness. He/she is simply not interested in being diverted from the goal.
It's not that there are lazy people or drones, slackers and such, I just think some look for them, remembering the inept more than the than the quiet and capable as the former are sometimes jarring and often memorable for their ineptness.
Out of all my nephews and nieces I can think of only one who might be designated as a slacker. He's a struggling musician, in a world of his own but, he works hard, has a goal (some would say a frivolous goal), and is often dismissed as being out of touch, lazy, etc. He's just different than many of his peers and siblings. The work ethic is there, he simply has an unusual goal he is focused on, which doesn't fit what we "geezers" see as meaningful. I wouldn't be happy in a world without writers, pickers, artists, etc. So, I am pretty much alone in offering support for the lad. The others love him but, tsk tsk and simply shake their heads at his lack of aggression and seemingly useless dreams.
In terms of development, one of the single best attributes in life is a realistic and intense idea about the kind of work you can and wish to do. Young people without this can drift for years. It helps to know areas where you do not have talent. Some young people adrift have too many options -- mathematical, musical, and writing talent, for example -- so they can't settle on one. My dad was worried about me because I had multiple interests in high school, including writing, shortwave radio, photography, and in a vague way drama. Interestingly, I used each of those in separate ways to earn a living over the years. On the other hand, I've seen the multi-talented bounce around and then use none of their talents professionally, though sometimes they do productive work. A student of my late wife was a talented fiction writer and a promising musician, and she got a degree and did social work. It hacked me off when late-night show hosts endlessly made fun of fast-food workers. Dealing in retail and dealing with people is a good start in many careers. Don't crap on employed people who work hard. For the record, I tended to skip those show "hosts."
Warren, thanks for that. It's a welcome tonic from the typical trite curmudgeonly grumbling.
It actually takes a bit of guts, mixed with a dose of insanity, to follow one's dreams. I've enjoyed a successful career in the arts for 40 years, buying a home, supporting a family, putting my kid through school and setting aside for eventual retirement. Along the way I've enjoyed some remarkable experiences, thanks to the career path that chose me. Like your nephew, I had no support from my family. They were, in the words of my father, horrified. I don't blame them, and I pursued what enthralled me despite the obvious odds.
At UCLA one of my teachers, James Doolin, had a heart to heart with his class. What he said was that the odds were long against making a living in the arts. He estimated that he might teach 10,000 students in the course of his entire teaching career and that if one of them made a nickel at it he would have beaten the odds. The corollary to this is that an artist should never admit the odds.
So to those who have the courage to pursue their dreams I say go for it, but accept the responsibility for the choices that you make. Ignore the whining and/or deprecation of those too timid to try, too imprisoned in the bullshit that they were taught and now believe. And if you're pursuing a career in the arts, never, ever admit to the odds.
On another note, haven't seen the Burns Doc, but will at some point. So no comments regarding it.
I've always rankled at people, parents and others, telling the young that they can do anything they put their mind to. I understand the concept, that you must apply your will to your dreams to get results. As far as it goes, it's an uplifting thought. But at least as important is to discern what your talents and abilities are. People fall into all kinds of miscast roles where they are either not equipped or not really suited to the work. They're appealing to someone else's judgement about job prestige or appropriateness, and not doing the heavy work of figuring out who they are and what they want.
Now I take the opposite tack a wee bit ("Of course you do," some will groan. "Of course you do.")
My philosophy was "sky is the limit." Going for, what some look on as the unattainable, is fulfilling and enlightening in and of itself. It's not the attainment, it's the constant striving that I find fulfilling. Never, ever let someone else define your capabilities! Ever! Don't even waste your time hanging around with people like that or it might rub off on you.
I don't understand people who are satisfied with who they are, what they knew, what they have. I/we all have limits, physically and mentally. But, those who simply accept those limitations, real or imagined, without pushing them, are shortchanging themselves in my estimation. Those types will never know what they can truly achieve.
I forget what branch of the services used the slogan "Be all you can be!" But they had it right as a philosophy for living.
My philosophy was "sky is the limit." Going for, what some look on as the unattainable, is fulfilling and enlightening in and of itself. It's not the attainment, it's the constant striving that I find fulfilling. Never, ever let someone else define your capabilities! Ever! Don't even waste your time hanging around with people like that or it might rub off on you.
I don't understand people who are satisfied with who they are, what they knew, what they have. I/we all have limits, physically and mentally. But, those who simply accept those limitations, real or imagined, without pushing them, are shortchanging themselves in my estimation. Those types will never know what they can truly achieve.
I forget what branch of the services used the slogan "Be all you can be!" But they had it right as a philosophy for living.
Bingo!
You get to figure that out for yourself through trial and error, success and failure, personal loss and gain. I've never met anyone who was happy pursuing a career that they hated, just because it made a lot of money or held some temporary prestige. Such folks, after they die prematurely, do sometimes leave behind a nice pile of money for others to enjoy. So maybe it's not all bad.
But I'll tell anyone that asks that it's important to like what you do because you're going to spend a lot of time doing it, and if you have a passion for what you do, you are better able to give it your best effort. You'll also be better able to compete with others in competitive fields.
Warren and Jesse, those are really motivational posts however let's not forget about the 3rd World Countries. Not everyone has a luxury of choosing the field they want to work in.
I'm with MSO on this. Years ago when they started telling everyone "you can do anything you put your mind to" it was liberal crap to make everyone feel good and to encourage them to reach for the top. It was an empty promise then and it's an empty promise now. Hell! I wanted to be a guitar or piano player, I love music. I have tried learning to play the guitar but have no talent for it and my hands just don't manipulate the strings they way they should.
Yes, technically, anyone born in this country can become President. But you better have been born into a political family or money before thinking about it. I don't see with a high school education and living on food stamps getting elected anytime soon. Our country has devolved into the very thing some of our forefathers wanted to prevent - a country with a rich, ruling class of elites.
Okay. I'm ranting. I'll stop now.
"You are who you choose to be," was my Granddad's saying. He and my dad never used the word "try." They would just tell me to do it. I never strived to be a jeweler or artist or businessman or father or husband... I just started being those things. Sure, there is learning, but learning on the fly. I don't remember ever longing to be anything in the future tense (except for a brief fantasy about being an astronaut). I just started "being" what I wanted to be.
My daughters are the same. When people would ask them what they wanted to be... I would stop them and say, they will be what they choose to be. My girls know how it works.
How did this thread get so out of whack? Ha ha, I don't have a clue who Ken is, and having lost my natural dad in Vietnam, I am not inclined to watch a movie on it. But, it seems to have gotten interesting.
My daughters are the same. When people would ask them what they wanted to be... I would stop them and say, they will be what they choose to be. My girls know how it works.
How did this thread get so out of whack? Ha ha, I don't have a clue who Ken is, and having lost my natural dad in Vietnam, I am not inclined to watch a movie on it. But, it seems to have gotten interesting.
When I saw the thread title for the first time, I thought a guy named Ken burned a documentary recording on TV. I can guess what kind of jokes he had to hear at school:
-Teacher, we can't stop him, Ken Burns.
MSO and Pappy I totally agree with your views and I am proud to be a deploreable and trite curmudgeon . Warren great respect for your sound views.
jvnshr - Burns is a documentary film maker. Technically he is a very good documentary film maker. But he also lets his political views affect what he produces and lends a certain bias into the finished product. What is surprising is that he undertook creating a Viet Nam documentary that has at times shown the Democratic party - which he supports - in a negative light. I know some Democrats would like to forget that the escalation of the Viet Nam war was during the Kennedy & Johnson administration and that it was a Republican who was in office when it ended. I'm not trying to be political here because Eisenhower - a Republican - could have made an effort to prevent it before it happened.
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