Hang Right Politics

This a hard one for me because I don’t like to talk about myself much.

I’m a once upon a time military wife and once upon a time a Blue Star Mom for the war on terror. My son is no longer in the military so I’m not sure the title still applies. Six years of it was enough for him. From the time he graduated from basic until he got out, conflict somewhere was about all he knew. He was in Kosovo under Clinton, deployed there from Germany, and after a little time stateside was sent to the middle east before the war with Iraq started and was part of the initial invasion (I don’t like that word but that’s what it was) attached to the 3rd Infantry Division. I used to be glued to the TV hoping for a glimpse of him during that time. I didn’t know until one of his short leaves stateside that it couldn’t have happened because where he was, there was no press except a Brit who wasn’t too scared to travel with them. His first tour over there lasted just a few days short of 16 months. Considering some of that time was spent in Kuwait in preparation, it’s not counted as one tour but for him and me, it is.

The reason I tell you this is because it was a turning point for me. I used to be part of the silent majority, voting the right way but not really taking part in the political process. In fact, I hated politics with a passion but that’s another story.

All that changed when the media started talking about how Bush lied and putting down our efforts in Iraq. My memory isn’t what it used to be but I do remember the media airing videos of Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. I also remember how Hussein didn’t deny any of the accusations and if anyone knew whether there were WMDs he would be the one to know, right? All of this caused a lot of anger and with the anger, I found a voice.

In between blogging here and at Hillbilly Politics I run a web hosting and web design service. There are busy seasons with web hosting and design so at times blogging becomes spotty and for that I’ll apologize in advance. During the military years, I spent much of my time being a defacto single parent and a volunteer at such places as the Army Community Services and the American Red Cross. I’ve also been a substitute teacher in DoD schools and spent six months as editor of a small community newspaper while stationed overseas. I taught ESL and citizenship classes at the Army Community Services and was a caseworker/assistant chairman at the American Red Cross. The paper stint was under DSCC in Gelnhausen which is one of the posts that were closed after the Gulf War.

In addition to those things, I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and almost a masters in counseling. 5 quarter hours of internship left before graduation, I decided that counseling wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t see myself sitting in an office telling people what to do every day, all day long.

I suppose, when you put it altogether, I’m a “jack of all trades but master of none.”