| The Denial Factor Living Truth Through Denial |
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July 25, 2007
Ok, so where to start. Should we begin with the usual diatribe about that idiot America calls the president, or
maybe more on the health care reform, or should we discuss that famous arrest of the black Harvard Professor, of
which was behaving a bit uppity, and of which our great president felt the need to pull the Race Card and belittle
America’s Law enforcement personnel, all in the bold effort to continue the ongoing victimization of America’s
Black populous.
I shall say no to all of these for now, instead I have decided to discuss with all of you a bit of history the world has
recently lost.
Does Harry Patch ring a bell to any of you? For the young I doubt it, he does not ride a skateboard, and for rest of
America I may question they knowing as well, he does not own a Starbucks.
But for England Mr. Patch was by far one of the last living fragments of human history that remained from the First
World War.
An incredible feat to say the least to live to 111 years old, surviving two world wars, outliving his three wives and his
two children.
But according to the story Mr. Patch was a quiet man, withholding much about his experiences until the later years
of his life, 100 to be exact.
Born in southwest England in 1898, Patch was a teenage apprentice plumber when he was called up for military
service in 1916. After training he was sent to the trenches as a machine-gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light
Infantry.
The five-man Lewis gun team had a pact to try not to kill any enemy soldiers but to aim at their legs unless it came
down to killing or being killed, he said.
Patch was part of the third battle of Ypres in Belgium. The offensive began on July 31, 1917, and it rained all but
three days of August. It was not until Nov. 6, 1917, that British and Canadian forces had progressed five miles (eight
kilometers) to capture what was left of the village of Passchendaele. The cost was 325,000 allied casualties and
260,000 Germans.
Patch's war had ended on Sept. 22, when he was seriously wounded by shrapnel, which killed three other members
of his machine gun team.
"My reaction was terrible; it was losing a part of my life," he said.
When he was wounded, Patch said he was told the medics had run out of anesthetic, but he agreed to go ahead with
surgery to remove shrapnel from his stomach.
"Four people caught hold of me, one each leg, one each arm, and the doctor got busy," he recalled. "I'd asked him
how long he'd be and he'd said, 'two minutes,' and in those two minutes I could have damned well killed him."
In another interview Mr. Patch commented about the start of the war and his feelings about it. "I didn't welcome
the war at all, and never felt the need to get myself into khaki and go out there fighting before it was 'all over by
Christmas.' That's what people were saying, that the war wouldn't last long," he said.
Sadly enough one of his most vivid memories of the war was of encountering a comrade whose torso had been ripped
open by shrapnel. "Shoot me," Patch recalled the soldier pleading.
The man died before Patch could draw his revolver.
"I was with him for the last 60 seconds of his life. He gasped one word — 'Mother.' That one word has run through
my brain for 88 years. I will never forget it."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the whole country would mourn "the passing of a great man."
"The noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten. We say today with still greater
force, We Will Remember Them," Brown said.
Queen Elizabeth II said "we will never forget the bravery and enormous sacrifice of his generation." Prince Charles
said "nothing could give me greater pride" than paying tribute to Patch.
"The Great War is a chapter in our history we must never forget, so many sacrifices were made, so many young
lives lost," the prince said.
Britain's Ministry of Defense called Patch the last British military survivor of the 1914-18 war, although British-
born Claude Choules of Australia, 108, is believed to have served in the Royal Navy during the war.
Mr. Obama was not available for comment as he was vacationing in a $20 million dollar hideaway in Martha’s
Vineyard, strategizing feverishly with his aids on how to cripple the economy further, force the American Public into
Socialized Medicine and determine a method of eliminating the elderly at a predetermined age while still making it
look like he has compassion.
After reading the story of Mr. Patch and sitting back watching my 30 and 40 year old adult male neighbors tooling
around the street on their skateboards I began to wonder what stories of consequence will these men have to share
with their children.
I realize any war is an extremely ugly period in human existence, but I am also realizing that many wars were based
off of good vs. evil. Some wars such Vietnam and the Iraq wars, in my opinion are situations we should have never
involved ourselves with, but there may be other wars in the future, like the war over stopping our current, self
centered leader, he too an angry, rich, victim, from stealing freedom from all of us on a daily basis, always in the
name of unity, or helping anyone who knows how to use a race card.
Good Day
Ok, so where to start. Should we begin with the usual diatribe about that idiot America calls the president, or
maybe more on the health care reform, or should we discuss that famous arrest of the black Harvard Professor, of
which was behaving a bit uppity, and of which our great president felt the need to pull the Race Card and belittle
America’s Law enforcement personnel, all in the bold effort to continue the ongoing victimization of America’s
Black populous.
I shall say no to all of these for now, instead I have decided to discuss with all of you a bit of history the world has
recently lost.
Does Harry Patch ring a bell to any of you? For the young I doubt it, he does not ride a skateboard, and for rest of
America I may question they knowing as well, he does not own a Starbucks.
But for England Mr. Patch was by far one of the last living fragments of human history that remained from the First
World War.
An incredible feat to say the least to live to 111 years old, surviving two world wars, outliving his three wives and his
two children.
But according to the story Mr. Patch was a quiet man, withholding much about his experiences until the later years
of his life, 100 to be exact.
Born in southwest England in 1898, Patch was a teenage apprentice plumber when he was called up for military
service in 1916. After training he was sent to the trenches as a machine-gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light
Infantry.
The five-man Lewis gun team had a pact to try not to kill any enemy soldiers but to aim at their legs unless it came
down to killing or being killed, he said.
Patch was part of the third battle of Ypres in Belgium. The offensive began on July 31, 1917, and it rained all but
three days of August. It was not until Nov. 6, 1917, that British and Canadian forces had progressed five miles (eight
kilometers) to capture what was left of the village of Passchendaele. The cost was 325,000 allied casualties and
260,000 Germans.
Patch's war had ended on Sept. 22, when he was seriously wounded by shrapnel, which killed three other members
of his machine gun team.
"My reaction was terrible; it was losing a part of my life," he said.
When he was wounded, Patch said he was told the medics had run out of anesthetic, but he agreed to go ahead with
surgery to remove shrapnel from his stomach.
"Four people caught hold of me, one each leg, one each arm, and the doctor got busy," he recalled. "I'd asked him
how long he'd be and he'd said, 'two minutes,' and in those two minutes I could have damned well killed him."
In another interview Mr. Patch commented about the start of the war and his feelings about it. "I didn't welcome
the war at all, and never felt the need to get myself into khaki and go out there fighting before it was 'all over by
Christmas.' That's what people were saying, that the war wouldn't last long," he said.
Sadly enough one of his most vivid memories of the war was of encountering a comrade whose torso had been ripped
open by shrapnel. "Shoot me," Patch recalled the soldier pleading.
The man died before Patch could draw his revolver.
"I was with him for the last 60 seconds of his life. He gasped one word — 'Mother.' That one word has run through
my brain for 88 years. I will never forget it."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the whole country would mourn "the passing of a great man."
"The noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten. We say today with still greater
force, We Will Remember Them," Brown said.
Queen Elizabeth II said "we will never forget the bravery and enormous sacrifice of his generation." Prince Charles
said "nothing could give me greater pride" than paying tribute to Patch.
"The Great War is a chapter in our history we must never forget, so many sacrifices were made, so many young
lives lost," the prince said.
Britain's Ministry of Defense called Patch the last British military survivor of the 1914-18 war, although British-
born Claude Choules of Australia, 108, is believed to have served in the Royal Navy during the war.
Mr. Obama was not available for comment as he was vacationing in a $20 million dollar hideaway in Martha’s
Vineyard, strategizing feverishly with his aids on how to cripple the economy further, force the American Public into
Socialized Medicine and determine a method of eliminating the elderly at a predetermined age while still making it
look like he has compassion.
After reading the story of Mr. Patch and sitting back watching my 30 and 40 year old adult male neighbors tooling
around the street on their skateboards I began to wonder what stories of consequence will these men have to share
with their children.
I realize any war is an extremely ugly period in human existence, but I am also realizing that many wars were based
off of good vs. evil. Some wars such Vietnam and the Iraq wars, in my opinion are situations we should have never
involved ourselves with, but there may be other wars in the future, like the war over stopping our current, self
centered leader, he too an angry, rich, victim, from stealing freedom from all of us on a daily basis, always in the
name of unity, or helping anyone who knows how to use a race card.
Good Day
| Daves Commentary |
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Alexandria Marie M, 8, while on vacation touring America, with her first camera. |