Vets Day

I had the opportunity to cover two different Veteran's Day events here in San Bernardino and Bloomington. A few people come out to see what ceremonies are going on, probably many others just see them in the next days newspaper. I understand that no living WWI vets were living on this Armistice's Day, the last two, one German and one French, both died earlier this year. And the WWII vets number are fading fast. The living history and their stories are important to the people who follow them because those who fail to understand where we came from are in danger of going back and repeating the mistakes of the past. One vet said in his speech that he did not want to see the Unites States of China. I of course agree. But I an not totally sure what he meant. Was it a fear-based message of an impending attack or a tie to the economy and its woes? At another event it came to me (when I was handed a pin of the American Flag that was "made in China") that we need to stop selling ourselves and our jobs to the global economy and start thinking about sustainability. Not isolation. We are making our own bed by finding the cheapest way of doing or making something as being the American way. Well that thinking is going to be the Chinese way soon if we don't look up.