Taken in 1994, here are my Sister Tessa and Brother BJ with me

It is very interesting to me that as I am get older, being a veteran means more and more to me with each passing year.  Could it be that as I get older I get to see those young men and women whom where small children just a few short years ago take up the cause of service to my country, and my family’s, and friends protection?  Yes, that is part of the picture. Another part is the great sense of joy it is for me to have joined and served this country, my home of the free, and land of the brave.  One of the funny things about this is the change that has happened in my life after becoming a follower of Jesus the Christ, I have truly am thankful that others have laid down their lives for their families, and in turn for me, a friend.  It often gives me Goosebumps to think that someone that I wouldn’t or haven’t known, and didn’t and won’t get the chance to know loved his or her country (and in turn me) so much that they would give away the one most importance thing they have on this earth, their life so that others could have the chance to live free.

Service!  That is was the word veteran means to me.  Service to another for no other reason than to be of service to others. 

When I first joined the U.S. Navy, whenever Veteran’s Day would come around I would think that it wasn’t a big deal.  I was getting paid to be there, the rewards like college funds and seeing the world, and learning a real world skill far out weighted what I saw as the poor pay, bad housing, being away from your family, and the loss of Constitutional Rights among other things.  I believe this is true from most Vets that are not on the front lines of the battle.  But once you go to the sword’s edge you don’t return the same. How could you?  Life means more to that person than those who have never seen it snuffed out.  The trade off of life for simple “stuff” changes your mindset and out look on life for good. 

Service is the heaviest burden of a veteran, what does the service does cost you.  It will always cost you something, free, long deployments away from family and friends, your mind, or even your life.  I am one of the very lucky ones.  I didn’t have to give the greatest gift, that of my life.  In the movie “Saving Private Ryan” there is a scene in that movie that sums up what it mean to be a veteran in my mind.  The plot of the movie was that in the military of WWI and WWII there was a policy that no family should lose all their sons to combat and Pvt. Ryan was the last of his brothers alive in active service.  The scene after the squad has gotten Pvt. Ryan to safety and he is leaving the battlefield in which 6 or 7 of his friends in the squad where killed so that he could go home. In that scene Tom Hank’s character reminds Pvt. Ryan that many people died so that he could go home, and not to waste his life.  That fictional character was commanded to not waste something that was very precious, something that is so precious that others gave up theirs for his.  Man, there goes those Goosebumps again.

So I honor you men and women who give us your precious service!

In this time of trouble with the stock market, jobs, and war.  I have been looking and trying to learn from our country’s past.  I have been looking closely at the 1920’s and 1930’s because I believe that this is the closest example of what we are going through now.  Well anyway I ran across the the Wizard of Oz.

It just amazes me how creative people are.  We often use stories to give warnings and cautions.  Like C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia to tell about Christ and his relationship with man, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to tell about war and the personal price we pay (even for just wars).

That is the case with Franklin Baum’s classic, The Wizard of Oz.  Baum lived at the time of the Populist movement for the free coinage of silver and wrote a book about what was going on around him.  The Populist Party was a small insignificant party around the late 1800’s to early 1900’s that was made up of mostly farmers.

The U.S.’s currency was backed by gold at the time which made it worth more and made it harder for farmers to pay back their debts.  William Jennings Bryan, a Democratic nominee for the presidential election took their platform up and ended up killing the party by using that for his campaign.  Being from Nebraska, he wanted to help out his fellow statesmen, and by proposing to back the currency with silver, that would devalue the money so that it would be easier for them to pay back all of their debts.

Frank Baum saw all of this and ended up writing his story based on the events taking place. Dorothy was based on a well known female Populist leader.  The scarecrow was based on the farmers who were considered too kind for their own good by producing more food than was necessary.  The tin man without the heart represented the bankers and merchants in the east who were lending money to the farmers and who were against helping the farmers even though they needed their food.  The cowardly lion was considered to be William Jennings Bryan who was considered a pacifist because he was against entering World War I in later years and resigned from his government post because of it.  The yellow brick road symbolized the gold standard and the silver shoes (changed to ruby to show up better on the movie screen) were the silver movement.

President McKinley was the Wicked Witch of the West and Grover Cleveland was the Wizard.  And the Emerald City represented the “greenbacks” or dollars that were backed by the gold.  The monkeys were the Philippines (country) or Filipinos (the people).  President McKinley wouldn’t recognize the Philippines as being independent and used them for his own personal gain, a place to restock ships and to land. The monkeys were the witch’s servants.

Some people don’t think that the Wizard of Oz is symbol of this.   But it is fun to just think about.