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Tuesday, March 24, 2020

What the Big Deal? We're at War!
The Past 3* Generations have
been called to Self Sacrifice!

Social Distancing Remains Most Effective Weapon Against Our Unseen Enemy until Inoculation
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My Grandfather was born in Buffalo in the same year that Epworth Hall was built--1892. He was drafted into the Military Service in 1917 and served in the U.S. Army until the end of World War I. He got no farther than Fort Dix's unmanned typewriter, and as a Bryant & Stratton graduate was well qualified to man-it effectively. That's what was urgently needed, so that's what he responded to.

My Father was born in Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada in 1922. Their farm went bankrupt after his mother's extended stay in the Hospital. So they came to Buffalo where his father got a job at Bethlehem Steel. My father was drafted into the Military Service in 1942 and served in the U.S. Army Air Force in England (World War II), then transferred to General Patton's "3rd Army tank corp." While pushing through France and Germany he was injured on duty in 1944. He was put on the same hospital ship that his older brother served on during the war and was placed in an Army Hospital stateside until 1945.

I, as the Son and Grandson, was born in Buffalo just two months after Jackie Robinson became the 1st African-American to play in U.S. major league baseball (Dodgers). I was drafted and served in the U.S. Army Active status for two years and four years in the Reserves. From 1969-1970, I served in Vietnam with the Combat Engineers as a Chaplain's Assistant. (Then in 1988, I rejoined the U.S. Army, was commissioned a First Lieutenant (Chaplain) and served in the NY Army National Guard for six years from which I retired in 1994. I served in a standby status for possible deployment to the far east before and during the Gulf War.

Do you begin to get the idea? When the nation calls on its people to serve in order to defeat an enemy, I was brought up in the tradition of responding to that call in a positive way. Although we had family in Canada, going to live with them was never really a serious option. Having been brought up in the Evangelical United Brethren Church where there was an annual emphasis during Lent on self-sacrifice or giving something up for the sake of our spiritual health and our greater appreciation of Good Friday and Easter (Resurrection) Sunday.

So when our Governor called on us to sacrifice the comforts of our current life in order to save the lives of other Americans, there was simply no two ways about it: choosing sacrifice was the only way to serve and to save. There's actually no time limit on the subject of saving lives. World War II took four years for Americans joining in to save the world from Fascism. Vietnam took considerably longer, and Afghanistan took even longer than that!

President Trump led us in a sacrifice of two weeks and he got tired of it. He was raised quite differently--looking out only for #1 and living life the way he wants, letting others do the dirty and dangerous work. Now he wants us to give up on public health (give in to the enemy). By so doing, we would be sacrificing other people's lives--a choice which God (or morality) has not given to us.

The government is going about the business of providing paychecks to those who have lost them and those who would be loosing them because of bad health conditions. They are working toward propping up the businesses that provide the jobs, so the worry of the economy is being eased. Even the Dow Jones agrees with me on this. So why are we still talking about sacrificing other people's lives and requiring no personal sacrifice on our part? All they are asking us to do is stay home--can you seriously complain about that? It's almost not a sacrifice at all. Stick it out and be proud you did your part.

* The above headline says: "The Past 3 Generations" but if one counts--as one must do--Iraq and Afghanistan, it comes out to 4 Generations.

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