OMG this truly blows

[stellanoir]

So I've this outrageously funny friend who is a very fiesty woman of Italian heritage.

I met her through most unusual means when she worked for child support enforcement years ago, she was enormously supportive, and we became fast friends. Since then she's switched over to the welfare fraud division of DHS.

So I call her several times a year pretending to report myself as fraudulent (though I'm not even on welfare) just to make her laugh and lighten her day as she has to contend with constant BS. She makes house calls on ineligible recipients who's partners are often hiding under the bed or running out of apartments clad only in their underwear. Her job is a trip.

Today I called her pretending to want to file a claim against the head of household at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. She said, "you want to and so does everybody else."

We laughed.

Then we caught up. We hadn't spoken in probably 6 months or so.

She had endured since she was a teen, one of the worst and most grueling marriages of which I'd ever heard. I've heard of some extreme circumstances but this guy was a complete and total wanker. She finally off loaded him a couple years ago. Phew.

Then about a year later she met a gentle giant through her family and I can just tell that this guy is the salt of the earth and she is happier than I've ever heard ber sound. However he is an older guardsman and has just been reactivated to go to Iraq in the not too distant future.

I am mortified. She's got a great attitude nonetheless.

One person I know already lost her only son over there.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1363739

I'll pray my ass off for this guy's safety and support her in every way I can. But this truly sucks and for what ends. . .the further enrichment of a very few at the expense of the health and well being of so many on all sides. . .? It's got to stop.

Of course I've always been a pacifist and don't think anything is ever resolved through violence. When this illegal invasion now is directly impacting the lives of those I love it takes on a very different pallor and it aches like hell.

Just needed to vent.

thanks

[MadHound]

1. I don't know how old the guy you speak of is

However the National Guard is really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel for bodies to send into the fray. Last week Missouri's oldest Guardsman got his ship out papers. The guy is 55, a grandfather. And there have been other cases like that across the country.

Sadly, I think that we're going to have a draft, next year, after the elections. They're simply running out of people to send into the fire.

I hope your friend's sweety stays safe and comes home soon. This kind of BS always sucks.

[stellanoir]

2. he's 43.

I've heard of those much older being deployed as well.

In this case it's disheartening as they're both around that age and finally found true happiness only a year ago. I had been so thrilled for her. Now I just sense that things are getting so much worse over there and the likelihood of him coming back in the condition he is now physically or psychologically is so damned remote.

I hope you're wrong about the inevitability of a draft. I've a 15 year old and that possibility of its reinstatement was what motivated me to obsess over and write innumerable letters about the BBV's from '02 to '04. Talk about a total exercise in futility.

Yikes.

Nothing that's transpired is the will of the majority for sure. It's sickening.

[Squeech]

3. Dude should go AWOL

Hey, it worked for the C-in-C. Sauce for the goose...

[sharp_stick]

4. Unless you've got connections like poppy shrub

you're going to jail for going AWOL. Only connected repukes get that get out of jail free card.

[stellanoir]

5. Yeah

but gentle giants who are self sacrificing salts of the earth don't generally fit that profile. I was biting my tongue so as to not suggest that to her believe me.