Me First

On a dark, crystal clear Colorado night, stars blazing overhead, I strolled along the Highline Canal with my dog –a 6-month old puppy named Buda. In the distance, unbeknownst to me, Buda spotted a small group of people and raced to challenge the “intruders.” What a magnificent act, I thought. His “Me first” charge without regarding his own safety. To freely place himself in harms way; to risk violence and even death to protect me.

With the current world affairs in Iraq and Afghanistan I find myself contemplating that act quite often. I think of the bravery of the men and women in our armed services. Me first! Before you can attack my family, friends, or my country…me first! I think of the Special Forces and Marines especially, for they are the first of their comrades to volunteer to be at the forefront of all the mayhem. Me first! I can’t find the words to express the gratitude I feel for every last one of them. Me first!

Me? I’m an overweight, balding 49-year old. In 1975 I graduated high school. I watched the failure of our politicians during the Vietnam conflict and the carnage associated with it. Even though the chance of me going off to war at that point in time was remote, I watched the draft lotteries with anticipation to see where I would have fallen IF I were a few years older and my number had come up. Looking back, those years seem like a whole other world.

I’ve always been somewhat patriotic but as I’ve matured I find that in the past I didn’t truly realize the grandeur of these patriots. Me First! Not that all patriots are saints; they’re not. Not that all patriots are honest, trustworthy, and brave; they’re not. And it’s not that all patriots are happy to be placed in those situations which require them to act accordingly; they’re not. But they are the ones who ran forward for reasons unexplained, and said me first!

I’ve committed myself from this day forward –whether in War or Peace- to bow deeply before these magnificent individuals, discard any manly pretensions, and cry out when I think of their sacrifices. The sacrifices made in the past, today, and the sacrifices yet to come for this great country. Me first! It will not be forgotten.

Conlin is CEO and founder of E.I.C. Enterprises, Inc. (www.eicenterprises.org), a 501(c)3 non-profit (your donation is tax deductible) organization dedicated to bringing a science and fact-based education to the poor and disadvantaged here and throughout the world. Please check out our site and if you agree, make a donation – we can use the money!

I for one can not imagine joining the armed forces today. One political party in this country is rooting for the enemy and calling for our defeat. Many are calling our military barbarians or worse. The military is denigrated and slandered by the news media. At least one third of the general populace hates the military and all it stands for.
Back when I was young, there was no higher calling than to join the military upon graduation from high school. Now, members of the military is scorned as losers. I remember how the vets were treated back in the 70s and I believe it will happen again to the current crop of brave young men and women.
No, I would not join today and I will counsel my grandkids not to. I will tell them to sign up for the draft and wait until they are drafted.

I for one can not imagine joining the armed forces today. One political party in this country is rooting for the enemy and calling for our defeat. Many are calling our military barbarians or worse. The military is denigrated and slandered by the news media. At least one third of the general populace hates the military and all it stands for. Back when I was young, there was no higher calling than to join the military upon graduation from high school. Now, members of the military is scorned as losers. I remember how the vets were treated back in the 70s and I believe it will happen again to the current crop of brave young men and women. No, I would not join today and I will counsel my grandkids not to. I will tell them to sign up for the draft and wait until they are drafted.

The fact that the Democrats and the MSM don't like the military only steels my resolve to accomplish the mission. They are reprehensible and I won't listen to their opinions except to mock them. There will be no draft.

"I for one can not imagine joining the armed forces today. One political party in this country is rooting for the enemy and calling for our defeat. Many are calling our military barbarians or worse. The military is denigrated and slandered by the news media. At least one third of the general populace hates the military and all it stands for.
Back when I was young, there was no higher calling than to join the military upon graduation from high school. Now, members of the military is scorned as losers. I remember how the vets were treated back in the 70s and I believe it will happen again to the current crop of brave young men and women.
No, I would not join today and I will counsel my grandkids not to. I will tell them to sign up for the draft and wait until they are drafted."

You don't join the United States military to be popular or to get the babes....

You do it IN SPITE of "one political party in this country rooting for the enemy and calling for our defeat"... You do it IN SPITE of it being "denigrated and slandered by the news media" and you do it IN SPITE OF those who "hate the military and all it stands for..."

Because all of those p**sies are still Americans, and need protecting and defending... THAT is why we are the greatest military on the face of the earth...

Our story starts in 1904, in the peaceful, sleepy country of Switzerland, in fact, in it's capital, Bern. Thanks to the invention of the Swiss Bank, Switzerland had achieved a level of comfort and wealth by this year most other nations could only dream of. This led, as it has in other wealthy, comfortable societies, to a fascination, if not an obsession with health and long life. So, unsurprisingly, at about this time, a veritable plethora of health drinks came into existence, one being a fortified barley powdered egg malted-milk beverage product called Ovo-Maltine, invented by one George Wander.

After this initial success, George's son Albert decided to take Ovo-Maltine international. Unable to find sufficient faceless proleterian workforce willing to manufacture his invention to his satisfaction in his own country, Wander was forced to look abroad, where he found just such a resource in those European peoples without the benefits of Swiss Banks. These included the Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Polish, and Czechs. It also included the hardworking and somewhat gullible Britons. And thus, an Ovo-Maltine manufactory was opened in Hertfordshire in 1909. Unfortunately the hard-working Britons couldn't spell, not even their ministry clerks, and so the name was accidentally changed to Ovaltine.

Everything seemed to be going well, but then, with the coming of the GREAT WAR, the fascination with health was replaced by a fascination with living until tomorrow. Sales went south, and times were hard for Herr Wander. It was then he hit upon the brilliant strategem that has worked so well for so many products over the years (Laxatives, raisins, peanuts, insects, etc) namely...add Chocolate! Ovaltine then became a fortified barley powdered egg chocolate malted-milk beverage product. This, along with a picture of a wholesome English country maid with a basket of eggs, and British children ate it up! Especially the ones in the British Army.

This stood the company in good stead with just about everyone (except those anarchistic chocolate-haters) until the dark days leading to World War II. In this dark time of evil secret societies, the good and wholesome children of Europe needed a good and honorable secret society to belong to, to ready them for combat against the totalitarian menace of national socialism. And thus, in 1935, the League of Ovaltineys was formed. By 1939, there were five million members, who probably went on to do some great deeds for peace and freedom or something or the sort.

During the 50's, as with the rest of the world, nothing much seemed to change for Ovaltine, at least not on the surface. However, beneath its seemingly calm exterior lay a boiling cauldron of disillusionment, rebellion, and racial tension. Not really. Actually what lay beneath was a bunch of recipe changes designed to catch the attention of new consumers and shorten the bottom line. By the mid 70s, science had progressed to the point where it discovered Ovaltine wasn't actually that good for you, and so came into existence Ovaltine Lite, for the TRULY health-conscious (as opposed to the rest of us who are generally satsified with just faking it).

Ovaltine was not immune to the flurry of corporate take-overs in the 80s, and is now under the Novartis umbrella, huddling from the acid rain along with Gerber Baby Foods and a dozen other ground-up nutri-foods. In more recent years, the word Ovaltine (along with just about every other made-up word) has been appropriated by computer geeks to mean something completely other than its original meaning. In this case, it's the epithet for an "Overhead Profiler for Single-Address-Space Parallel Programs" Recently Novartis has come up with a loudly trumpeted cure for Leukemia (yay), and announced plans to shut down the old Ovaltine plant in Herfordshire (sigh).

Several boys were hiking in the woods when they came to a stream. One boy, John, hollered "Me first, me first!" and ran through it.

Then they came to a large oak tree, with low hanging branches. One boy suggested that they climb the tree. John, of course, exclaimed, "Me first, me first!"

After climbing the tree they wandered deeper into the woods where they discovered a little house and a woman gardening in the yard. She was really a witch.

She invited them in for lunch and asked, "Who would care for a sandwich." John again, said, "Me first, me first!"

The witch shrieked with laughter, tore off her disguise and said to John, "I am a Sand Witch and you can be the first to care for my hideous nails and then you can be first to care for my knotted hair."

At this, the other boys tore out the door hollering, "Watch out! Me first!"

____________________________________ Sorry. It had nothing to do with the article.

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