There are either too many options, or not enough I was thinking as we discovered logistical chain impacts on cell phones as well.

Perhaps (or not) you are old enough to remember the single household phone on the kitchen wall? The one that had a specific ring combination for your household? The one that, if you lived in a rural area, was probably just one of a dozen on a party line. Then there were the bakelite desk phones with their rotary dials. Heavy things that featured prominently in several mysteries as the murder weapon. The kind that also featured in spy novels with a bug planted in the handset.  Then there was the marvelous addition of colors of that desk phone as an alternative to the basic black.

From there the innovations which seemed really impressive at the time advanced to the princess phone (smaller footprint – ouch, just saw the pun in that) with pastel colors. Then we advanced to the cordless handset which might have resulted in fewer accidents but definitely contributed to frequent games of “hunt the phone.” Buttons to push rather than a dial, wow, those improvements kept coming.

We were in Stuttgart from 1981-1984 and moved back to the US to discover the breakup of Ma Bell, the spawning of offspring and the fact that you no longer got your phone from the phone company. Huh? was my response. We had been in Germany with a heavy duty phone complete with a unit recorder so you would know how fast you were racking up charges on your phone. Go buy my own phone? Why?

Ok. Deal.

The next major impetus in phone technology was fostered by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the complete lack of infrastructure in the Former East. Average of three-four phones/town (police, hospital, bar/inn) and a waiting time of years to get in lines and get a phone. The Finnish company Nokia and the US Motorola stepped into the gap. By 1995 even the US military had “mobile” phones even though they were usually referred to as bricks – same as any hand held radio and weighted just about as much. Basis of allocation was one per commander under the European Army Med Command. Since I normally sent my out with whatever ambulance was doing long haul transport (Würzburg -> Landstuhl 3-4 hours) of patients, I rarely saw it. The cracker box radios didn’t reach all that far which isolated crew and patients for an unacceptable length of time. As you might expect, I just ignored the complaints that I wasn’t reachable at someone else’s convenience.

I will skip the intervening years – you lived through them – and  jump a bit more than 25 years to today. Alex’s phone just might have been dropped a few too many times and no longer charges. It has been deemed non-repairable, as it is an iPhone 8. Noah has been on the same phone for about 5 years now and it can’t be updated nor does it hold a charge for more than a couple of hours.

The first phone was easy – the Apple store has lots and lots of options in stock. We found him a reasonable replacement. Yes, I could have saved a few $$ by ordering through AT&T, but I have no desire to extend my contract with them for another 36 months.  Noah’s phone proved to be more challenging. Due to the PC/Linux based engineering software (plus gaming, let us be real here) he wanted to opt into a phone that was integrated into his chosen computer system. Due to chip shortage, his desired phone with a decent amount of memory varied in cost over $500. Purchasing now cost a lot more than being willing to wait 2-3 weeks. He, most intelligently, decided to wait and ordered it for end of year delivery.

It was a day otherwise where I didn’t accomplish much. Maybe 300 stitches into the final release of Tiny Modernist’s Fairy Tale series and two lengths of thread into Mandalorian. I am not bothering with pictures, you wouldn’t notice a difference. I decided that reading was a better use of my time…

since life as most of us in the US (and particularly those of us who were active duty at the time) literally saw our world crash and burn. As a country, somehow we were shocked to be attacked on our home ground. An experience that all too many in the rest of the world had been living with for centuries. Whether those attacks were carried out by pitchfork wielding neighbors, rival tribes, arrogant colony seeking countries, or major military battles. Why the US, with its long standing behavior (which I really think is one of those less pleasant attitudes passed down from the Brits) of assuming it knew best for other countries and governments, thought it was exempt is beyond me.

But now, we are twenty years on. I had friends among those who died at the Pentagon. Others that I know lost family and friends when the Twin Towers were attacked. And a planeload of passengers chose to sacrifice their lives in a Pennsylvania field rather than allow the plane they were on to be used as the fourth bomb. And this doesn’t count the tally of those who risked and lost their lives in NYC to save others; nor does it include all of those living with the aftermath of stress and disease as a result of exposures on that day.

And where are we as a country? Why are we surprised when there is a definite portion of the US (and that portion traditionally contributes significantly in terms of military service, police, and fire fighters) who don’t trust the US government or its leaders. Who want a simple answer. And are absolutely tired of doing anything that even remotely could be considered a sacrifice for the benefit of others.

Many of these individuals feel that they have been at war for 20 years, that (in their religious mind set) that the current pandemic might just be a punishment sent by their deity, and that they are losing their last vestiges of freedom and choice.

I don’t agree. I find the arguments completely spurious. Twenty years on, I want to remember those who died by making sure that there is a world to pass down to the next generation. That those who sacrificed are remembered daily, and that I am willing to make those sacrifices needed to keep others safe. My personal choices affect others. It is the small things. Traffic lights, seat belts, masks, immunizations, standing in a queue. Those small considerations for others that may just mean that there will be forty years on. And not a failure of democracy in the US, a country where it has become too easy for people to put their own desires ahead of the welfare of all of us.

And, just in case – go watch Exhibit 13

There are 19 years separating us from those horrible events. There are voters now who were no t even alive when those planes came down: into the Twin Towers in New York; into the Pentagon; into a field in Pennsylvania.

I do not need to reiterate the stunned, shocked, non-understanding of how this could have happened. Over the next days and weeks, as the toll of the dead mounted and names were attached to those lost, pieces of the puzzle were put together.

But it didn’t change anything for those lost, for the families and friends who were forever changed. It did change everything for all of us. How we viewed each other, how we traveled, how suspicion of anyone from the Mid-East skyrocketed. This change, unfortunately has become permanent. Imbedded so deeply that it is hard to remember how things use to be.

I had colleagues killed at the Pentagon. Individuals with whom I had served just a few short months prior. Sitting at meetings, sharing a coffee. It is now hard to pull faces out of my memory, harder still to think of all the changes that have cascaded through their families in the intervening years.

All I can say today is please, hug those close to you. Make a few phone/skype/zoom/internet calls. Tell them that they are loved, appreciated, though of no matter where they are or their current job.

Sometimes, you just don’t get a chance to say goodbye.

are key underpinnings of the military. Without them, the team doesn’t function. In high risk situations, people can die. And not the enemy, but your own.

This is a rant. Skip it, if for some reason you think a president pardoning someone for posing with a person as a hunting trophy is all right.

In which case, I am afraid you and I don’t have much in common. I thoroughly believe that all of us have a responsibility to leave this world a better place than we found it. That involves creating all people with dignity and respect. You and I may not agree on a lot of things, but I firmly believe you have a right to your opinion. If that opinion makes you my enemy, then I will shoot back if you shoot at me. I spent too many years as a military officer not to defend myself. But still, you are a person acting on your beliefs. Treating your enemy’s corpse with disrespect is not done. Not only is it outside the law of war, it is the act of animal (and most scavengers eat the remains).

I always thought the US was better than that. We prosecuted Mai Lai. We don’t shoot unarmed civilians, in fact we are even starting to hold police officers who do that accountable for their actions. We still have the shame of Gitmo which may well be a blight on our country and history for decades.

When fellow team members turn in a Seal for going beyond the limits, for acting unprofessionally, for posing an enemy corpse as a trophy, we need to respect their request for the military justice system to investigate, act, and disciple if appropriate. That courts martial found reason to reduce the petty office. That should stand; the judgement, like all others of that severity due to rank and years of service will be reviewed as per regulation. It should not be flippantly over turned because “it isn’t fair.”

What that man did was a disgrace to his fellow Seals, the Navy, and all of us in uniform. We have to be able to count on the system. Our allies have to be able to count on us to police our own. Commanders have to have the ability to count on order and disciple in the ranks in order to accomplish any assigned mission and bring everyone home safely.

Seriously, I thought we, the US, were better than that: that someone with power but no military background would do something so awful. An act, trigged by who knows what, that will have far and long reaching consequences.

Think about it at the next election. Is this a person you would trust with your life, your child’s life, your grandchild’s life if they can so blithely do what seems to be politically expedient without any understanding of the long term implications. Or, as one of George’s colleagues said – if this man was the preacher on the pulpit – are his morals those of yours? Would you attend?

My children at home were 8, 10, 12 when the Twin Towers fell, when the Pentagon was plane bombed, when I lost friends and colleagues. The repercussions are still with us today. In the Xenophobia & anti-immigrant policies that are being espoused by a certain group that is scared of losing its grip on what it considers its “rightful superiority.” By people who can say, with a straight face (and believe it) that the words on the Statue of Liberty only apply to those with wealth who are coming from white Europe and were never meant to include any other group.

By those who have never served, as I have, in the military along side individuals from multiple nations, from multiple backgrounds, all united for a common cause. Along side those who feel an obligation to the country which gave them opportunity, not those who take for granted that their background and privilege exempt them from the service shown by the military, the fire fighters, the police. All those who risk their lives on a daily basis.

By those who have a problem recognizing that the majority of whites in the US don’t have ties going back centuries, only decades. Who ignore the fact that Spanish were here hundreds of years before most Northern Europeans. That every last person immigrating from Central and South America can trace ancestry in the Western Hemisphere back thousands of years.

I spent more than a minute of silence and reflection. Noting as I was driving George too and from UCSF, that there were flags not at half-mast. I don’t know the custom overall, but when I think of the lives immediately lost, all those who died that day in rescue attempts whether NYC or Pentagon, those who sacrificed their lives which ended in a field in Pennsylvania, and all those who have died since then as a result of their involvement – it is the least we can do for respect.

Be grateful on a daily basis for those in uniform, be it fire, police, military. They all serve our country, putting their lives on the line on a daily, weekly,  monthly basis. They do it out of honor, responsibility, personal obligation.

You could just thank all of them for their service, in remembrance.