No Taps for Ty

 Ah, but you who philosophize
disgrace and criticize all fears
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears 
--The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol, 
Bob Dylan 

He died drunk early one mornin' 
Alone in the land he fought to save 
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch 
Was a grave for Ira Hayes 
--Ira Hayes, Johnny Cash 

___________________

Our obituary for 2012 will be in the form of a requiem for a newly dead former Marine, Ty Ziegel.

Writing newspaper obits, one quickly comes to understand that all deaths are the same.  "He worked for ___________; he was a member of __________ church and union; he is survived by ____________."  Were this a standard obituary, that would do, but we are going to remember Ty Ziegel, the profoundly combat disfigured Marine about whom we wrote four years ago.

Ty died 26 Dec 2012, almost eight years to the day after he was wounded while on a routine patrol during his 2nd Iraq tour, when a suicide bomber blew up near his truck. Ziegel underwent 50 operations and a 19-month recovery. 

The grotesquely disfigured Ziegel was feted by the press for his soon-to-be failed marriage to his high school sweetheart; photographer Nina Berman won the World Press Photo competition for portraiture in 2006 for her series on Ziegel.  "Love overcomes all" was the hopeful theme.

Ziegel died after Christmas in Metamora, Illinois, after falling on ice outside of a bar.  Cause of death has not been declared, though one of two small online newspaper notices mentioned the autopsy showed that he had an enlarged heart.  In a perfunctory 12.28.12 news story in a Central Illinois newspaper, his mother and father are quoted:

"He said, 'I look like an alien,' and I said, 'Well, yeah, you kind of do.  You know?' said mom Becky [sic] "But he still had his dimples; he still had that twinkle in his eye."

"It didn't bother him, the grocery list of injuries he had," added his father Jeffrey Ziegel.  It didn't phase him a bit." [sic]

The embedded video link in the story is broken; Tyler Ziegel's Wikipedia page has been taken down.

Ty's spirit probably began its dissolution a few years back, artificially propped up by the unbidden celebrity heaped upon him.  Oprah devoted a program to him and his bride when the fairy tale was the spin; now, almost a week out, no major news service has even noted his ignoble death.

There are those who will say, "He volunteered ... hard cheese, old boy.  Those are the breaks."  Harsh, and perhaps true.  To be sure, we are all here on borrowed time. But Ty was robbed of the vicissitudes of a life in the service of a questionable national goal.

For Ty Ziegel, we could say, proximal cause of death: cerebral hematoma.  Distal cause: Unjust discretionary war. 

Call him drunken Ira Hayes 

He won't answer anymore 

Not the whiskey drinkin'

Indian Nor the Marine that went to war

Evolution

I know we may look pretty strange to you
But we got know how and a golden rule
We're here to see manifest destiny through
Ain't nothing we can't get used to
--Humans from Earth, T Bone Burnett

People don't change.
Only their costumes do
--Gene Moore

We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.
--W.H. Auden
_________________

Ranger will celebrate the advent of the New Year by doing a whirlwind recap of themes, events and interesting miscellania (to us) covered here at RangerAgainstWar. (This is also a six-year anniversary post for RAW):

• We love America, but we do not believe that the U.S. has the answers to all the world's problems. We often have the wrong answers because we ask the wrong questions based upon false assumptions.

• Freedom isn't free! (But not in the War Hawk sense). The wars are not about our freedoms. We already have it, and should be vigilant to protect it rather than eager to erode it; instead, both sides of the political aisle are complicit in the latter project. Freedom is overdrawn and now paying late fees. It is also overstated, leading us into both moral and financial bankruptcy.

• The Warrior State is criminal insanity, as is the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©)

• The elective invasions of nations is aggressive war

• Counterinsurgency (COIN) is based in un-American concepts

• Terrorism is not warfare

• Rights are not rights if they can be ignored, abridged, suspended or otherwise infringed upon

• Civilian police forces are being militarized

• The bank bailouts were the greatest white collar crime perpetrated in this nation's history (Bernie Madoff should be knighted Secretary of Treasury).

• Both mainstream political parties are unresponsive to the will and welfare of The People

• The act of voting has become an ends rather than a means of democratic action

• The Department of Defense (DoD) has become the 4th branch of government

__________________________

Here were some of RAW's predictions:

• We opposed Obama because it was apparent from the get-go that Hope and Change were empty slogans that do not translate into policy; they were sugary pap parading as wholesome food for a hungry republic. Alas, rhetoric is not leadership.

• Obomba is George W. Bush in blackface

• The War on Terror - Overseas Contingency Operations - Operation Iraqi Freedom - Operation Enduring Freedom - Generational Forever War on Terror did not make us safer

• Al-Qaeda lacked the operational assets to commit a follow-on attack. This, rather than our military operations, is why there have been no additional significant attack scenarios. If they had the assets, they would employ them!

• The deaths of our soldiers in the past 10 years is deplorable and despicable as they are lost not for the survival of their nation, in toto

• No terrorist of any significance has ever made it to an open and transparent trial

• The Arab Spring did not develop to the U.S.'s benefit

• The 2012 Presidential race will not address the key issues facing the nation. Instead, we will be treated to more smoke and mirrors

• We The People are less important to our national leaders than are the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq. They get preferential dibs on the disbursement of the federal budget

• Patriotism ≠ godliness
  

Ranger's sorry he is such a negative Nelly Cassandra, but that's just how the last few years have panned out, per the politico-military-financial arenas. Unfortunately, we are not TinyBuddha, and can't offer constructive spins on the destruction we see.

Draining work this vaticination, and we wouldn't do it without the sense of community that has developed at this site. We don't Occupy Wall Street nor do we throw tea into the harbor (Palm Bay?), but we have our small niche of the blogosphere and know how to conduct a mobile defense. It would be appropriate to list our friends by name, but they may step forward if they wish to be recognized. To them, thanks for providing flank security.

We -- both Lisa and myself -- devote good effort to keep this forum on track and on-message. Despite our best efforts to inspire spirited yet civil dialog, we have found that many people prefer to shoot the messenger rather than address the message. We have faith that one day, the arrow of The Enlightenment will pierce everyone's consciousness.

Ranger has lost several friends over the last six years; gone, but not forgotten. One early supporter must be recognized -- Lurch (John) of the defunct Main and Central blog. We were overcome with his generosity of praise and direction in the early days.

Lurch was a curmudgeonly gentleman who taught us in the ways of netiquette: "When at someone's blog, you are in his living room; comport yourselves accordingly, and expect the same." He also warned of the imminent attacks upon one with the temerity to use a military title AND and be somewhat liberal. Though John's long been dropped from the morning reports, we will always remember him fondly and hope to see him when the mission's complete we get counted back into the ORP.

Thanks to all for your support, friendship and continued participation. Let's see what we can do in 2012.

Dog Day Afternoon

Time wounds all heels
--Dorothy Parker

Cruelty is an infectious disease
and one must strictly guard oneself against it
--Krishnamurti

The kookaburras,
pressed against the edge of their cage,
asked me to open the door.
Years later I remember how I didn't do it,
how instead I walked away.
They had the brown eyes of soft-hearted dogs.
They didn't want to do anything so extraordinary,
only to fly home to their river.
--The Kookaburras, Mary Oliver

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it
--Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam
____________________

There was a tragedy at a truck stop this Wednesday.

I witnessed it while on my way to watch dogs at a friend's house in the country and seek some solitude. Choosing not to endure the gehenna of my destination's marketplace, the truck stop ten miles out is the only option for petrol.

A family had placed their dog, or a dog, outside of their car. As they made to enter Highway 90, the dog gave chase and fiercely barked and bit at the driver's door, tail high, with intent. What was he thinking? "Are you joshing with me?" "Hey, I'm out here, what's wrong . . . don't you see me?"

It was an average-sized dog of dark golden hue, indiscriminate breed -- a dog, in cared-for condition, agitated and confused as you might have been given his situation. 50 yards ahead was the I-10 exchange; surely this was a bad place to leave a dog.

Who would do such a thing? Were they mad because the dog had conducted some mischief? Did they think this was an opportune moment to divest themselves of their responsibility? Did they imagine a truck stop would be a good place for a dog to find a new home?

Are they the sorts who leave their kid somewhere and drive around the block as a practical joke, to "teach him a lesson"? Will they have fond memories of Christmas season 2011 when they divested themselves of 50 pounds of bother alongside the road somewhere in Florida?

Me, I had been indulging in some Buddhist-New Age fusion about coping before coming upon the scene. Ideas about acceptance and non-attachment were being employed to salve myself, "Resistance causes pain; resistance is futile." But then the dog.

Dogs are nothing if not devoted and singular-minded in this way, much worse than any love-blinded human. The dog could not enjoy my ruminations on how to lessen the stings dealt by one's fellows. His existence was being shattered in real time, and he had no tools to reason with this state of affairs. The owners may have been brutes, but they were his owners. Would they leave and turn back around on Hwy. 90 to pick him up? There aren't many places on Hwy. 90 for U-turns, so that seemed an unlikely prospect.

Leaving the lot, I watched as the people sat at the edge where the parking lot met the road, beeping their horn at the dog, cars going around them -- a scene of chaos. Was this to be the end of a life for this animal? Surely it looked like the end of one life.

My intentions for the next two days were humble ones: To seek a quiet retreat, to enjoy the company of two good dogs. More unhappy surprises involving dogs awaited me upon arrival. It was not a propitious beginning to my self-styled yoga retreat, but it made the need of it that much more pressing. I do not like humans, at times.

It is now New Year's Eve day; my retreat is over. Cruelty, whether intentional or through lack of compassion or simply the indifference of fate, seems a part of the human condition. We talk a lot here about situations that have already occurred, or are spooling out remote from our control. That can leave one feeling like railing out against one's perceived impotence.

While being informed and making critical assessments is a part of being a good citizen, you can do something even better. Resolve to not be indifferent when some being sincerely implores you. If we could really see ourselves in the other, much cruelty would stop. When you sit in the pews, that's a big part of the message.

Could you elevate even the mundane just a half-notch, and imagine that as you pass through your day even the smile you give might be just what someone needed to carry on? How you conduct yourself happens to matter, and you might never know when you have impacted someone else's life.

To all who stop by RangerAgainstWar, we wish you a healthy and prosperous 2012. Thank you for sharing your light with us, and with all who may have benefit of reading your thoughts. May you be kept warm by the light of those who love you, and whom you love.

Cheers.