Always Coming Home discussion
UKL's blog posts
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It's an interesting observation, though my take is that utilitarian rather than snappy uniforms means troops are more likely to be able to do their job/not get killed than if they're all dolled up in buttons and sabres and whatnot.
For an extended look at the meaning of clothing, Gibson's Zero History.
For an extended look at the meaning of clothing, Gibson's Zero History.
Very interesting post, although I suspect she's overthinking it. My guess is the dress uniform has gone the way of the dodo because of the extremely declined physical fitness standards of the forces. The baggy camo hides the fat rolls better.
I keep thinking of the arctic exploration missions that devoted storage space to dress uniforms, heavy tableware, and the like. Generally speaking, this may have been decorous, but was a poor use of portage capacity and for at least one expedition has been identified as a contributor to death and failure of the mission. It's pretty, but faced with other demands, may be a waste of space and, like the 13-button fly, perhaps an impediment rather than an aid in combat.
Miriam, interesting thought, though I must say that my ROTC students are in excellent shape, despite the baggy camos. How they'll look after 15 years as career military I can't predict!
Miriam, interesting thought, though I must say that my ROTC students are in excellent shape, despite the baggy camos. How they'll look after 15 years as career military I can't predict!
I was in good shape in ROTC, too! They made sure of that! But I've seen a lot of chubby, sloppy enlisted people (even young ones) in airports etc. My brother, who was in the Marines, said even they've been having trouble; he worked for a time whipping people into shape before they went overseas.
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The people who are fighting our wars are our soldiers, but in a way they're also distant, like our road crews or our power plant shift workers. We see them perhaps as people doing another job than us, who don't have that much to do with us. Apart from occasional nods on memorial day or whatever, we don't think much about them or about that fact that we're fighting a war. Not like during WW2 when we all seemed to be in a great effort together.
I don't know why that is, but it seems to me to be true from talking to my mom and aunts and uncles who were alive then. I think we definitely need to pay more attention and take more responsibility for the wars we're fighting, and whether they're accomplishing what we hope, and whether the money we're spending on them is well spent.
Also our soldiers other armed forces people need to know that the whole country is behind them, that their great risks and sacrifices are for a reason we all take to heart, reasons that matter to all of us very much. That's the least they can expect from us, I think, in exchange for all they do. To me, that's what the blog post was saying, and the uniforms were simply the immediate observation that got her thinking about those things.
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Not a blog, but an anthology to which UKL contributed. Bet you she didn't choose the cover.
Man, what a load of bollocks that was: over here we have bloody great heaps of expletives! Arse! balls! Bloody Hell! Also some really rude ones...Although I think she's probably right about America.
Oh, I expect you know them all, already - one doesn't hear them in films very often, though. I doubt Brits (I'm not English - patooey) swear very much more or less than Americans, but I think we do manage greater variety, for the most part. You can find people who can't get through a sentence without at least one "fuck" in it here, too, though.
It's just the sound of me spitting...
When I was living in Belgium I wanted to go to the Netherlands to see the Van Gogh Museum. Never did make it. :-(
I had a good time in Belgium but didn't have chance to explore nearly as much as I wanted to.
I know the tourist spots in San Francisco, I just don't like most of them. My Irish boyfriend did have to explain to me about City Lights, but that's because I don't care about the Beat Poets. And I had to explain to him why it wasn't okay to call people "cunt" in the US.
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Always Coming Home
Books mentioned in this topic
Basilisk (other topics)Zero History (other topics)
I thought I would make a thread for discussing her blog posts, old and new. I've enjoyed reading her blog since she started it.
I'm glad she's saying the things that need to be said that nobody every says in our society.
I was on an MLK roll a couple of years ago, and of course his awesomeness comes out far more in the sound of his voice than the words alone. So I bought several CDs of his sermons and talks to listen to. He spoke bravely about the Vietnam war, how it was wrong and we needed to stop it. I don't know, I don't remember (I was a little kid at the time) whether anyone else had publicly spoken about the war then, or if he was the first. I was struck by how brave and true his voice was, and how he simply spoke his heart without worrying about how that might adversely affect his main effort of struggling for civil rights for African-Americans.
And I thought, "where are those brave voices today? Why does nobody speak their mind honestly like this anymore?"
I think UKL is one of those who do.