by Henry, ©2024
(Jul. 13, 2024) — “Lucky Man” (4:37)
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to ‘The Pulse of the Nation,’ the place to hear it here first. Roving is, well, somewhere, and he sent us a tape of one of his interviews from somewhere in the USA which we’ll play after this short break.”
“What is Life” (4: 23)
“Roving Reporter here back under the awning across from the railroad depot about to waylay some commuter, but there’s nobody around. The grapevine is that the Big City is just too darn dangerous to risk life and limb so look around; sidewalk’s empty. I guess I’ll wing it until someone walks by. I grew up in this town, went to high school here. I couldn’t wait to get out of it and see the world, which I did. I joined the Navy on my 18th birthday while I was still in high school but didn’t have to show up at the swearing-in ceremony until the end of summer, in September.
“There were a few girls who I liked a lot, but the one I was the most interested in I just saw once, in the hallway. She was going one way and I the other and that was it. I looked for her every day and at every event and thought about her, even when I was jumped in Hong Kong walking back from the embassy to my hotel. I remember those two guys were standing in my way — kind-of — to meet her and so the adrenaline kicked in. There have been three times in my life when I was in an adrenaline rush, and each time life was on the line, two for me and one for another. The other one was when I was lowering a heavy 28-foot extension ladder. While I was taking it down, a woman walked up to me, right in my face, to ask some question about her — I guess it was her dishwasher — and when I could look at it for her.
“The plan was I would let the ladder fall to my left while my right hand would act as the pivot point; the left hand would catch the ladder on its way down. Right. And then she walked right up to me, right where the end of the ladder would go right into her left cheek. I stopped the ladder less than a foot from her head and she didn’t even bat an eye; I kid you not. Completely oblivious of the impending danger. Adrenaline stays with you for a long time, more than two weeks.
“Getting back to that girl, I met her after I was discharged and married her. I had 17 years of PTSD; she cheated so I divorced her. I quit the drinking, the drugs and the cigarettes. Went back to college and then made money and by the time I got my act together, she remarried. Talk about life getting ‘in the way,’ my life is it. A wasted life, an empty life. On my tombstone it will be written, ‘He had a wonderful life but trashed it.’
“The above was my introduction to the subject at hand: PTSD. After I was discharged from the Navy, it took me about a decade to accept that I wasn’t on another planet. Not funny. I knew I was being spied on. And here’s another thing about PTSD: there’s no future. There’s a pretend future but, hey, what’s the point? I’ll be dead by the time I’m 30.
“You want ‘funny?’ I’ll tell you a joke, a real-life joke, a joke on me: waking up alive the day after my 30th birthday is my joke. No, I wasn’t killed in Vietnam. I was offered the Purple Heart but there were others more injured than I was, so I turned it down. Mistake. Purple Heart winners go to the head of the line at the VA. PTSD ruined my life, living without the love of my life. Not easy, not like someone dying. Someone dying isn’t your fault, but divorce is. Live with it, easily said, hard to accept. Oh, look, here comes an unsuspecting victim. Excuse me, ‘Pulse’ here.”
“Oh, I remember you. I used to take the morning Burlington and see you here for years. You were a staple. How’ve you been?”
“Just fine, thank you for asking. Mind telling me what peeves you the most?”
“The media, because they lie like a rug. Can’t trust them. Look at CNN and MSNBC, two losers if I ever saw one. I’ve yet to hear one apology from anyone for the Russian Collusion Hoax, starting with Hillary.”
“And you never will.”
“No, I suppose not. Shame, though, when people are afraid to tell the truth. Bishop Dunkin says if you keep your mouth shut when you know the truth it’s the same as lying.”
“Yes, like the open border isn’t, and don’t believe your lying eyes at the gas pump or the grocery store.”
“I was telling Sadie the other night the exact same thing. Sadie’s my dog, you know.”
“I didn’t know. What do you think about the upcoming election?”
“The Constitution vs. Anarchy, Dems in charge of the Loony Bin. Like what we have in Chicago, pure anarchy. There’s no law because there’s not an ounce of intelligence from the mayor to the chief of police; dummies who hate America. Keep the ‘Sanctuary City’ moniker and watch the city, heck, the whole state sink. The most morally corrupt district attorneys in the United States, or anywhere, for that matter.”
“Yes, Chicago, once a pretty nice city, that is, of course, if you stayed away from the South Side, has become the most desired shooting gallery of the country, and I’m not talking heroin. And you know what? It’s the honest, God-fearing citizens who are being taken to the cleaners. They pay the taxes but get nothing in return except lawlessness.”
“That’s the story of any Dem running a city, town or whistle stop, isn’t it?”
“Open border, crime and inflation, the Big Three.”
“That’s right, so the Dems could offer up anyone to replace Biden and it wouldn’t make a lick of difference, now, would it?”
“Nope, not any. People who live in the Beltway, like Sean Spicer, for instance, ought to get out more, learn what the normal Americans think. It’s not the candidate that the election is about, at least not this one; it’s the Big Three: open borders, crime and inflation. Now if the Dems would close the border, deport all the illegal immigrants, get rid of the sanctuary city nonsense and open the Keystone Pipeline and drill, baby, drill, it would be a different story.”
“Never happen.”
“Even if the Dems resurrected JFK and if he would go along with the Big Three — open border/crime/inflation – Trump would still win. It’s the platform that is on the line, whether or not the Republic survives. Whatever the Dems accuse others are doing, they themselves are doing.”
“They hate Trump more than they love America.”
“They love human trafficking, Fentanyl, inflation and a weak military instead.”
“Idiots.”
“No doubt. What of your divorce?”
“As Alan Colmes would say, ‘not a measured response.’ “
“A mistake?”
“My biggest. If Trump doesn’t win, then it’ll be this country’s biggest mistake. Think North Korea on steroids: Big Tech plus Fascism equals the End of the Constitution; welcome, Totalitarianism. It’ll be the end of humanity, straight back to being cavemen, mark my words. Books burned, free thought banned, women scorned, intellect punished, music banned. Trust me, it’ll be a world of reeducation camps, gulags, arrests without warrants and prison without charges or trial. It’ll be a Kafka experience with the only hope a painless and swift death.”
“The solution?”
“Trump must win, and the Deep State must be obliterated; it’s the only way. The future of the world depends on it. If the United States goes under, and it will if Biden or whoever beats Trump, it’s over.”
“Dire expectations.”
“The truth often is. The stupids will prevail only to find that they shot themselves in the foot, but by then, it’ll be too late.”
“Goodnight.”
“Little Green Apples” (4:00)
Henry