A hero speaks; Nancy blunders: Memorial Day in SF

As Memorial Day observances in SF go, this one was stripped down even more than usual: no marching band, no flyover. I opened my program and was surprised to see that NO politicians were listed on the program as speakers. Someone must have shamed them after the program was printed: Nancy Pelosi showed up, as did the Mayor and the Police Chief, who are currently under heavy political fire for taking a sledge hammer to a local reporter's apartment searching for his source in uncovering the real story behind the death of our local Public Defender. (drug overdose, etc.) There were a few other scattered politicians. Nancy spoke: mostly I, I, I and Me, Me, Me, giving herself credit for establishing the Presidio in its current configuration and reiterating the meme that they love in SF, that there was "Never a single shot fired in anger at the Presidio". Then she added, "It was bi-partisan". This latter she meant to refer to the bills to preserve the Presidio, but the odd order of her words was hilarious to me. (Believe me, it was not intended to be humorous...it just was!)

There were many moving speeches (none of those by a politician!) but the keynote was delivered by James Hatch, Special Ops, who was among those who went to rescue Bergdahl. Hatch shattered his femur in the process (others died). He talked about his now-deceased fellow Navy seal whose nickname was "Yankee" because he always wore a Yankee cap or athletic shirt even though he was a Californian. Hatch once asked his comrade why he wore this Yankee paraphernalia and the response was, "I want the enemy to see the vision of New York as they die, to avenge what happened on 9/11". Hatch also attempted to answer the question of what our military dead would want us to do to honor their service. He said he knew that Yankee would want us to live our lives with purpose and to help those in need, although he was more detailed and eloquent in his words. He's just written a book called "Touching the Dragon and Other Techniques for Surviving Life's Wars" and, among his many civilian pursuits, he now works rehabilitating military dogs when they are retired from service.

There was no mention of God. Heaven forbid! I wonder if the absence of the Pledge of Allegiance was due to "under God" in the text. But someone slipped up, because a very good singer, Tiffany Austin, sang "Amazing Grace" albeit to a jazz accompaniment! She also did a good job on the opening National Anthem.

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