@4th of July Parade, Washington D.C.

(Credit Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

Beautiful, Peaceful Picture For Veterans Day

Today, it’s Veterans Day. 

So I just wanted to share this beautiful, peaceful picture.

Let there be no war anymore!  😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Amazing Will

So this is amazing Will. 

He is a veteran who was disabled and is missing a leg. 

But that doesn’t stop him from going to the track with his beautiful son to play ball and do some laps. 

In a few short moments he switches between his regular walking prothesis and the carbon fiber running blades for playing and working out. 

All I could say to Will was how amazing he is. 

And he is amazing Will for what he can do despite any disabilities–he turns his disabilities into abilities!

And he is amazing Will not just because of his name and his service to his country and his devotion to his family, but because of his willpower.

Will is determined to succeed no matter what. 

Not to compare, but I thought to myself what excuse do I have with my titanium hips.

Get the heck around the track for another dozen Andy!

And I did, and I am losing weight and getting back to myself. 

I think the lose of both my completely dear parents the last couple of years was more than traumatic for me. 

But they would want me to heal and to be me again.  

I know they are watching and I want to make them proud. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Thank You To Our Warfighters

I took a photo of this wonderful sign on this construction truck. 

It says:

“To All The Men And Women Of Our Armed Forces

Thank You!

United We Stand.”

Next week on Wednesday is Veterans Day, but feeling gratitude to those who stand and fight for our freedom is not just a one day a year message. 

Let’s always remember that freedom is not free! 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Mindful Treatment Of The Disabled

What great brain at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) came up with the idea to curb access to prosthetics for the disabled?

What is supposedly driving CMS?

It’s a half-wit effort to put a dent in fraud for lower-limb prosthetics –estimated at just $43 million relative to CMS’s annual budget of close to $1 trillion!

Uh, doesn’t CMS have anything better to do then pick on disabled people missing one or more legs?

The profound dumbness of the proposed CMS new rules would limit amputees from possible reimbursement for artificial limbs for example, “if they use assistive devices such as canes or crutches.”

But isn’t that precisely what someone who can’t walk and is missing a limb would use???

Here’s the next doozy…CMS would limit advanced prosthetics “if the device doesn’t enable them to walk with the appearance of a natural gait.”

OMG, this is too much!

People with disabilities who require help need it precisely because they are not “natural” in their mobility functions–that is what we are seeking to help them with. 

You’re going to penalize someone from getting artificial limbs because they still can’t walk completely normal with fake limbs like with real ones?

Moreover, if the Veteran’s Administration adopts these rules, this will also affect our wounded warfighters. 

G-d (and the Secretary of HHS) needs to put some sense back in the minds of the people who, in this case, instead of helping the disabled are misguidedly working against them. 😉

(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)

Amazing Advancements In Prosthetics

Watch this video…

Where a man who lost both arms over 40 years ago is fitted with these amazing dual prosthetics that he is able to control with his mind and muscle movements. 

Made with financing from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA).

John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab shows the possibilities for the future for helping everyone from Wounded Warriors to those disabled from accidents and disease. 

G-d creates and we imitate and together we make an incredible flourishing world. 😉

(Note: My gratitude to Rebecca Blumenthal for sharing this video with me.)

Everything Else Is Anticlimactic

We went to a Veterans Day Concert yesterday, and it was quite moving.

Before the music–60’s and 70’s (and some dancing)–started, there were a number of heartfelt speeches by distinguished veterans of the Vietnam War.

One lady was a nurse in Saigon working 16 hour days tending to the wounded and dying from the battlefield. She joined the army after 8 of her high school friends from her small hometown were killed in the war. The nurse told us how on the flight to Nam, they were told to look to the person on the immediate right and left of you, becuase one of you will not be coming home.

Another speaker was a special forces Army Ranger who was fighting in North Vietnam on very dangerous covert missions. He led many draftees, who he said had only minimal training, yet fought bravely on missions with bullets flying overhead and mortars and rockets pounding their positions. He described one situation where he knelt down to look at a map with one of his troops, and as they were in that psition half a dozen bullets hit into the tree right above their heads–if they had not been crouched down looking at the map, they would’ve both been dead. 

A third speaker was a veteran who had been been hit by a “million dollar shot” from the enemy–one that didn’t kill or cripple him, but that had him sent him to a hospital for 4-6 weeks and then ultimately home from the war zone. He told of his ongoing activities in the veterans community all these years, and even routinely washing the Veteran’s Wall Memorial in Washington D.C. 

Aside from the bravery and fortitude of all these veterans, what was fascinating was how, as the veterans reflected, EVERYTHING else in their lives was anticlimactic after fighting in the war. The nurse for example read us a poem about the ladies in hell (referring to the nurses caring for the wounded) and how they never talked about the patients in Nam because it was too painful, and when they returned home, they had the classic symptoms of PTSD including the hellish nightmares of being back there. 

Indeed, these veterans went through hell, and it seems that it was the defining moment in (many if not most of) their lives, and they are reliving it in one way or another every moment of every day. 

Frankly, I don’t know how they did it being dropped on the other side of the world with, as the special forces Vet explained, maps that only told you in very general terms wherer you even where, and carrying supplies for at least 3 days at a time of C-rations, water, ammo, and more–and with the enemy all around you (“there were no enemy lines in this war; if you stepped out of your units area, it was almost all ‘unfriendly.'”). One Vet said that if you were a 2nd Lt., like she was, your average lifespan over there was 20 minutes. 

The big question before we go to war and put our troops in harms way is what are we fighting for and is it absolutely necessary. For the troops being sent to the battlezone, everything else is just anticlimactic–they have been to hell. 

(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)

For The Love Of America

Tomorrow is Veterans Day and we remember and honor the sacrifices of so many in securing our freedom and democracy.

Yet, recent events seem to indicate that we are straying from our principles and values as a nation.

• November 6, 2014: Aside from trying to cut what many are calling a “bad deal” with Iran over their dangerous nuclear WMD program, there are now “private letters” being written to partner with arch enemy Iran against ISIS.

• November 8-9, 2014: Just 2-3 days later, we once again see the tyrannical and genocidal intentions of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei calling for the annihilation of one of our closest allies, the State of Israel. 

Hmm…Israel is designated the U.S.’s “Major Strategic Parter,” while Iran is a designated State Sponsor of Terrorism.

Short memories? Iran took more than 60 American Hostages for 444 days in the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979 and they have an ongoing “Horrific Human-Rights Record.” 

Was all the sacrifice just for naught–for the love of America, what are we doing?

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

“Chickenshit”?

Wow, what type of politician calls the Prime Minister of Israel, our “Major Strategic Partner,” with an “unshakable bond,” a “Chickensh*t”?

Yes, it’s in the Washington Examiner today. 

Forget about being completely rude and disrespectful–how utterly impolitic!

Sinking to new political lows globally with our friends and allies–while the ratings sink (and sink) to new lows for these politicians. 

Imagine, Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu defends his nation by putting real boots on the ground in Hamas-run Gaza for the 50-days of fighting rocket barrages and terror tunnels, and builds apartments in Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel–Sorry, that is not Chickensh*t.

While domestically, we have been seen as in full global retreat abandoning our bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, carpet bombing from the air in Syria and not punishing chemical weapons use (remember the “red line“), leaving key portions of Ukraine in the hands of Russia, seeking to forge WMD-losing deals with the devils in Iran, and watching the situation deteriorate as we “Pivot East” to Asia, and as we all know, much more. 

– Finanically–we can’t balance a budget,

– Ebola Epidemic–we can’t put together a sensible quarantine policy (while the States fill the void)

– Imigration–we can’t muster a realistic bill

– Veterans–the scandal of not caring for our veterans is still scathing.

And the list goes on, virtually without end. 

Horrible name-calling and snubbing leaders on the world stage, let alone of our best allies and friends, is not only politically immature, but morally disgraceful–but psychological projection is a very real possibility.

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Walk Like A Chicken

So I’ve been reading about the use of virtual technology for the military veterans as a way to help the healing process of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

But this was something different yesterday in downtown D.C….

Using virtual reality to “See Life Through A Chicken’s Eyes”–complements of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). 

So I go up and ask the attendant what this is all about. 

She says, “You can take the virtual reality tour and walk around a field as a chicken!”

She goes on, “Only we’re having some trouble with the technology, so can you come back in 20 minutes?”

Uh, okay, but 2 things:

1. Yes, I do believe in ethical treatment for everyone (including animals), and no one should suffer where we can (and should) prevent it. 

2. I did just have some chicken (only Kosher, of course!) to eat just last week (and it was pretty good), and while I am curious to see the virutal reality, I can’t make it back here in 20 minutes, but thank you!

Lesson: Treat all life compassionately, but I don’t have to walk around as a chicken to see that! 😉