the Cowsills - the Rain,the Park & Other Things (edited from 2 performan...

Focus on the Small Things, Usually They Matter More in the Long Run

 My Dad and I were direct opposites in some ways. He was so caught up in the 'now' that he did not really think about the future, or 'later.' He was a hard-working man, it's not a knock on him, but he had his way of seeing the world and I had mine. And my problem was I was living in the future with a lot of daydreaming about 'when I grow up.' 

    I think if he and I had met somewhere in the middle it might have made a lot of sense, for both of us. Well, Dad and I are not the only ones who ever allowed our perspectives to be skewed. The future has to be something planned for and it should be considered. Yet, that has to be weighed against what needs our attention right now, even today. 

    Balance is necessary in our lives so we can get the most out of everything. Balance is a great thing to live by. 

Family Should Be First

 Whether someone has the breaks going their way or going against them, the first priority in anyone's life should be family. Just saying it doesn't make it so. Family first needs to be a priority from the time someone wakes up until the time they go to sleep. The way some families are today, between busy lifestyles (when there isn't a pandemic) and hand-held devices, is there the same amount of quality time in families today as there was before the internet? I'm going with 'no.' I guarantee that people will not long remember losing a phone in comparison with losing touch with a family member. 

Spring Cleaning Coming Early

 So, the wife and I are starting our Spring Cleaning. already. It makes us think of Spring and warmth. Spring Cleaning is also a tradition, and the best part about it is that such cleaning stops people from being hoarders. Boo hoarders. 

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Social Security is necessary for Americans

 

It is difficult these days, where people are not expecting to retire anymore. But, that is the most important thing to protect for Americans. If there is not some expectation of retirement with dignity then what is the purpose to anyone waking up and working for 35-plus years? Without retirement, the vast majority of Americans will become serfs begging at the tables of the rich for scraps. And, no one wants that. 

    U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew the right thing to protect all the people, all the time was to create a Social Security Administration with the expressed mission of aiding those who are permanently disabled and those who have become elderly. The alternative to the SSA is...unthinkable. If there is no Social Security then the top ten percent will not only act like they own the rest of us: they will. 

Respect and courtesy doesn't cost a thing

It doesn't harm anyone to be nice or undrestanding. So many Americans these days are angry about politics that it is astounding. But, what is politics other than a distasteful function of government? We should all have lives, which are full and include people we love. Our communities should be just that, and not just a group of individuals who happen to reside in close proximity. No one can turn another's heart. Still, giving a shout out to decency and respect will never be a message that fails to be valuable. 

The 2nd AD (Forward) Monument Committee is seeking help to build marker

The 2nd Armored Division (Forward) Monument Project is extending its message to our comrades who served in USAREUR, NATO, Ft. Hood and to family and friends. Our mission is a simple one: The 2AD(F) Monument Project is seeking to build a stone monument at Fort Hood, Texas, the last place where the 2nd Armored Division (Main) used to be housed and where it was inactivated from U.S. military service during 1993. 

There are some people who may ask why the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) should erect a stone memorial at Fort Hood, Texas. 

   A lifetime ago, the men and women of the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) held the line as part of the Northern Army Group in Northern Germany, complementing a larger British and allied force stationed in the area..The division forward was the northernmost maneuver brigade for the U.S. Forces operating in the Federal Republic of Germany (1978-1993). 

   Later, after its Cold War service was completed with the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the division forward would join the larger military effort during the Persian Gulf War, when it participated in offensive operations against dictator Saddam Hussein’s military forces. 

   Sadly, for many 2AD(F) soldiers and veterans, the colors of the 2nd Armored Division, both forward and main, were folded shortly after its return from Southwest Asia with its deactivation during the early 1990s. 

   The 2nd Armored Division (Forward) was one of those units that made its living performing critical missions far away from home, just like so many other units. And, whatever the division forward did, it never once let down our nation in the face of hostile foreign powers in the Cold War or that same nation during America’s first shooting war with Iraq.

   No service, the kind of which the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) performed, is without terrible losses. Whether it was in the Federal Republic of Germany during regular training or on the battlefields of Southwest Asia, some of our friends died, or became disabled. Like many units, the 2nd Armored Division lost soldiers in war and peace, and still others live with combat or line-of-duty disabilities that have changed their lives forever. Added to this are the lives of 2nd Armored Division (Forward) soldiers lost to suicide over decades. .

   As much as any unit in the U.S. inventory in the military, the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) family served this nation as much as any other during difficult times. 

   Many of its veterans believe, with good reason, that the efforts of so many, who labored so hard for so long that the contributions of these soldiers must not be forgotten, or become some minor footnote to the legacy of the 2nd Armored Division (Main). Accordingly, a committee of veterans was formed in 2020 and its singular mission came to be the creation of a simple, stone monument on Fort Hood, Texas, where the 2nd Armored Division (Main) was last active.

   People today have forgotten today what the Cold War was: A time and an era when peoples throughout the world were convinced that America and its Allies from the West were going to square off with the former Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies in what could be this planet’s final war. The division forward served alongside many units during its tenure in the FRG and in the Persian Gulf. Our committee is asking our brothers and sisters to consider supporting this cause by purchasing the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) limited edition unit coin. All proceeds from these purchases will go to support the creation of the monument. 

For more information, or to contribute or purchase unit coins, please go to https://2adfwd.org/ and order your very own at $25 per coin.

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Sports is sometimes the only thing people can talk about sanely

 Not everyone likes sports. But, in this controversial world of pandemic, political unrest, long-standing wars and failing economies, it is at least something that people can talk about without sparking anger. There is something to be said for just making conversation. 

    My parents were both on the older side when they had me. They were Depression Era kids who survived and thrived after World War II. I came along in the mid-1960s and there was a built-in age gap the size of the Grand Canyon between them and I. This was especially true where it involved my Pops and me. 

    Yet, no matter how bad it got between my father and myself, we could always have a game of catch and talk baseball. Pops was a New York Giants fan and, more specifically, a Willie Mays fan. I was a Mets fan but Pops and I would watch the Yankees too (if it was the only thing on). The Giants had long ago left the 'city that never sleeps,' but he would talk about the Giants like he had just come from a game. 

    To be sure, the best talks he and I had, lifetime, invovled baseball. The most positive time we spent together was him taking to my Little League games or in front of the television. He used to get a kick out of how I would shout at the screen sometimes. "You let me know when they can hear you," he'd laugh. 

    Sometimes, men can be especially closed off where communication is involved. Sports is a way to get some people talking, opening the way for more meaningful discussion. When some segments of the population politicized 'sports,' they cut off a major avenue that some people have to communicate with others. 

    So...how about them Mets?

    

The Only Constant is Change

Everything is so uptight these days. I grew up in the 1970s and was a young man in the 1980s and it was so much more chill than today. Maybe people were busier because they actually had to go someplace to be at a job. Jobs weren't scarce either and people could still live the American Dream of having a high school diploma, finding a job and working one's way up to being an executive in that company. 

    Back then, people had actual friends they saw in real life, as opposed to seeming them on video chat. A big group of people would get together and go to conerts for fun. And, they were fun. Of course, pick-up basketball, football and even baseball games were common. People liked to get out and do something to exercise. Now, exercise is curving to a place where people work out individually at home watching a television screen. I'm not knocking it, but it's not my thing. 

    Despite all of the changes that are going on with the culture today, the thing that does not change is that it is still awesome to wake up another day, have a nice family and a home I really love. In the end, the only constant is change, I guess.

    -- JP

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The 2nd Armored Division (Forward) Monument Project

By Jim Purcell

There are some people who may ask why the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) should erect a stone memorial at Fort Hood, Texas. Yet, ask any of the former officers, NCOs and soldiers of the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) and they can tell you right away.

   A lifetime ago, the men and women of the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) held the line in the Northern Army Group in Northern Germany, as part of a larger British and allied force stationed in the area..The division forward was the northernmost maneuver brigade for U.S. Forces operating in the Federal Republic of Germany. 

A familiar sight at the main gate of Lucius D. Clay Kaserne in Garlstedt, FRG

   People today have forgotten today what the Cold War was: A time and an era when peoples throughout the world were convinced that America and its Allies from the West were going to square off with the former Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies in what could be this planet’s final war. 

   Later, after its Cold War service was completed with the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the division forward would join the larger military effort during the Persian Gulf War, when it participated in offensive operations against dictator Saddam Hussein’s military forces. 

   Sadly, for many 2AD(F) soldiers and veterans, the colors of the 2nd Armored Division, both forward and main, were folded shortly after its return from Southwest Asia with its deactivation during the early 1990s. 

   The 2nd Armored Division (Forward) was one of those units that made its living performing critical missions far away from home. And, whatever the division forward did, it never once let down our nation in the face of hostile foreign powers in the Cold War or that same nation during America’s first shooting war with Iraq.

   No service, the kind of which 2nd Armored Division (Forward) performed, is without terrible losses. Whether it was in the Federal Republic of Germany during regular training or on the battlefields of Southwest Asia, some of our friends died, or became disabled.

   As much as any unit in the U.S. inventory in the military, the 2nd Armored Division (Forward) family served this nation as much as any other during difficult times. 

   Many of its veterans believe, with good reason, that the efforts of so many, who labored so hard for so long that the contributions of these soldiers must not be forgotten, or become some minor footnote to the legacy of the 2nd Armored Division (Main). Accordingly, a committee of veterans was formed in 2020 and its singular mission came to be the creation of a simple, stone monument on Fort Hood, Texas, where the 2nd Armored Division (Main) was last active.

(Jim Purcell was the Intelligence Sergeant for S-2, 4/41st Infantry at Lucius D. Clay Kaserne, in Garlstedt, FRG, and at Fort Hood, Texas)