Sen. Kirk's Memorial Day email message - returned to sender

I sent back Sen. Mark Kirks Memorial Day message, in which he paid honor to our combat servicemen, with the following message:

Dear Sen. Kirk:

It is important we honor the brave service men and women who have sacrificed so much fighting America's wars. However, how dare you shamelessly pretend to honor them when you've spent your entire Congressional and Senate career calling them to fight in senseless, murderous and bankrupting wars that are destroying our once great country as surely as they have destroyed or damaged the lives of several hundred thousand of the million or more you have egged on fight in needless wars, not to mention the millions of foreigners who have suffered under our endless shock and awe. You think nothing of borrowing 40% of the trillions of dollars these wars are costing us while the nation's manufacturing, infrastructure, educational and health care systems decline before our eyes. You and you friends in the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex get rich and full of yourself pretending to be super patriots. You should all be on the front lines yourselves instead of padding your non-combatant military resumes or pretending you are strengthening our freedom. The only freedom you are strengthening is the freedom to continue your reckless spending on the worst form of human endeavor. In so doing, you guarantee the recruitment of more and more foreigners to resist our wars of conquest, and pile up more and more casualties to falsely honor again next year.

If you really wanted to honor these fallen heroes, resign from the Senate today and spend the rest of your time on earth trying to make amends for you fervent support of these monstrous wars by working in the anti-war movement. I've been working in it since 1963, beginning with opposition to our senseless, murderous and bankrupting Vietnam War. I can assure you, we need more volunteers. Trust me, you will achieve an epiphany and wonder whatever possessed you to be such an ferocious war lover in the first place. And you will finally honor our fallen heroes in the way they deserve.

Respectfully yours,

Walt Zlotow
Illinois resident

GET NATO A COMIC BOOK

The United States acts like the leader of an Action Comics team of Super Heroes (NATO) that rampages around the world slaughtering innocents at will in their obsession to control the world. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia have all felt our death spitting drones, if not boots on the ground. The lists grows like a cancer on our body politic. When a few brave folks speak up in protest, they are marginalized forthwith. Uncle Sam simply sighs and says "It ain't me doing all that damage. We're simply a single member of NATO".


Bunk! NATO is our show from top to bottom and we're paying most of the tab for these bankrupting and murderous ventures. Bringing that story to light was the real focus of protest weekend but it was replaced by our macho police chief with tears in his eyes choking up about his armor suited cops being attacked a teeny tiny fringe group. Meanwhile 24 Chicagoans are drilled with lead in a 24 hour period and neither Police Chief McCarthy, Uncle Sam nor the NATO command lifts a finger to stop this daily senseless carnage. The millions of guns circulated by the gun industry and their illegal sales entrepreneurs is what should really get Police Chief McCarthy's tears flowing. Those folks put a bulls eye on every cop and every law abiding citizen.

Let's get NATO a comic book to bolster their super hero status and then a billion dollar movie scrip. Though he may be a Methuselah, I'd pick war loving Senator John "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb" McCain to star.

Also published in the Daily Herald, June 2, 2012

"SLIPPIN' ON BY ON LSD" - ALLIOTA HAYNES & JEREMIAH, 1971

I've been taking LSD for fifty years but the trip was never as enjoyable as when shared with 25,000 other folks. LSD, of course, refers to Lake Shore Drive, one of the most scenic urban highways in America; and the scene was the annual Bike the Drive fest when LSD is turned over solely to cyclists the Sunday before Memorial Day. At 5:30 AM I steered my trusty 24 speed onto the Drive at Jackson Blvd to an almost hallucinatory view featuring a sea of bicyclists in both directions where only two ton stinkpots usually tred. Never having biked that far in my life, the 30 mile route appeared daunting as I headed south toward Hyde Park where I spent my college and early career years. Circling the Museum of Science and Industry to head back north, this aging pre-baby boomer, born in the waning days of FDR's presidency, was lifted by a biker's high and thousands of fellow cyclists of all ages, sizes and backgrounds, to go the distance. An hour later I hit the northern turnaround at Hollywood for a leisurely jaunt back to the starting line. It was satisfying to realize that we were traveling nearly 750,000 miles without a single carbon emission being expelled to poke holes in our decaying ozone layer.


Afterword, I cured the munchies with breakfast at the post drive festival and communed with my fellow cyclists. Power to the peddlists! Back home in the western suburbs, I'm not the least bit worried about this LSD trip bringing flashbacks. They will be welcome and memorable.