As I was sitting down at the computer to write up a 4th of July piece, I noted this article which was sent by a friend on one of those e-mail chains. Besides passing it on, I thought it was worthy of posting. It is an article from Dennis McCarthy in the LA Times and regards the passing of Pamela Murphy, the widow of legendary war hero Audie Murphy. Here it is:
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Pamela Murphy, widow of WWII hero and actor, Audie Murphy, died peacefully at her home on April 8, 2010. She was the widow of the most decorated WWII hero and actor, Audie Murphy, and established her own distinctive 35 year career working as a patient liaison at the Sepulveda Veterans Administration hospital, treating every veteran who visited the facility as if they were a VIP.
Pamela Murphy
Any soldier or Marine who came into the hospital got the same special treatment from her. She would walk the hallways with her clipboard in hand making sure her boys got to see the specialist they needed.
If they didn't, watch out. Her boys weren't Medal of Honor recipients or movie stars like Audie, but that didn't matter to Pam. They had served their country. That was good enough for her. She never called a veteran by his first name. It was always "Mister." Respect came with the job.
"Nobody could cut through VA red tape faster than Mrs. Murphy," said veteran Stephen Sherman, speaking for thousands of veterans she befriended over the years. "Many times I watched her march a veteran who had been waiting more than an hour right into the doctor's office. She was even reprimanded a few times, but it didn't matter to Mrs. Murphy. "Only her boys mattered. She was our angel."
Audie Murphy died broke in a plane crash in 1971, squandering millions of dollars on gambling, bad investments, and yes, other women. "Even with the adultery and desertion at the end, he always remained my hero," Pam told me.
She went from a comfortable ranch-style home in Van Nuys where she raised two sons to a small apartment - taking a clerk's job at the nearby VA to support herself and start paying off her faded movie star husband's debts. At first, no one knew who she was. Soon, though, word spread throughthe VA that the nice woman with the clipboard was Audie Murphy's widow. It was like saying General Patton had just walked in the front door. Men with tears in their eyes walked up to her and gave her a hug.
"Thank you," they said, over and over.
The first couple of years, I think the hugs were more for Audie's memory as a war hero. The last 30 years, they were for Pam.
One year I asked her to be the focus of a Veteran's Day column for all the work she had done. Pam just shook her head no.
"Honor them, not me," she said, pointing to a group of veterans down the hallway. "They're the ones who deserve it."
The vets disagreed. Mrs. Murphy deserved the accolades, they said. Incredibly, in 2002, Pam's job was going to be eliminated in budget cuts. She was considered "excess staff." "I don't think helping cut down on veterans' complaints and showing them the respect they deserve, should be considered excess staff," she told me. Neither did the veterans. They went ballistic, holding a rally for her outside the VA gates. Pretty soon, word came down from the top of the VA. Pam Murphy was no longer considered "excess staff."
She remained working full time at the VA until 2007 when she was 87.
"The last time she was here was a couple of years ago for the conference we had for homeless veterans," said Becky James, coordinator of the VA's Veterans History Project. Pam wanted to see if there was anything she could do to help some more of her boys. Pam Murphy was 90 when she died last week. What a lady.
Dennis McCarthy, Los Angeles Times on April 15, 2010 ~
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I grew up less than a mile from that veterans hospital. It is a large expanse and includes a large cemetery. It also includes what is now known as Jackie Robinson Field, used by UCLA as their baseball park. Prior to joining the Army, I played ball there with the Angel Rookies, a semi-pro team operated by local Angels scouts. A few of the older vets who actually lived at the VA would come out to watch the games. These were really old fellows from the World War I era.
I never knew of Pamela Murphy nor that she worked there. I reckon she began working there a few years afterward.
It's always good to read about Americans who love their country. Today is a time to show respect for America. I was going to go to a tea party in San Juan Capistrano, where one of my colleagues is scheduled to speak this afternoon. A scheduling conflict got in the way, however. I will attend a fireworks display locally this evening.
Today is a day to reflect on the good about America and its accomplishments over its history. Were it not for this country and specifically its military, virtually no nation would be living in freedom today. America defeated Nazism, Fascism and stood down Communism in the Cold War. In times of need world-wide, our country has always been there. Yes, we have our dark chapters like slavery, segregation, the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II. Yet, we have learned from those mistakes and tried to form a more just society. The one constant has been democracy.
Yet I also can't help thinking about those in our country who despise virtually everything America stands for; the so-called "peace activists', the far-left, Marxist professors in our universities who are trying to poison the minds of our youth against their own country, the "blame America first" crowd, which says that America is the cause of all the problems in the world today. I think of those Hollywood actors who go down to Venezuela and cavort with the dictator Hugo Chavez. Few of them, however, ever bother to permanently re-locate to other countries because they enjoy the life and opportunies here. Naturally.
I wonder what those folks are doing today.
17 comments:
I was with you until the last paragraph where you took out the right-wing talking points machine gun so you could knock down all of your vague little strawmen.
Vague little straw men?
Did I get 'em all?
Pretty much. It's essentially what I would have written if I was doing a parody of a conservative. It reminds me of my 4th of July post from a couple years ago.
Imagine if we didn't have all those mentioned in your last paragraph. The world would say there is no freedom in the USA, that's what they would say I am sure.
We may not have to like them but they are part of what makes us stand out as a free country where anyone can say and believe anything, even visit a dictator, or badmouth his country abroad.
We know their names and we know what to think of them.
As for me, I might be out of the USA but the USA is in my heart.
Yes Ingrid,the fact that they can say all they want sets us apart as a great country. Nobody has been dragged away and I would never advocate that. But I also have my right od free speech to criticize them.
I went to that SJC Tea Party (my first) and heard Rowley and Star Parker speak. They were both terrific.
Good question you raise: Where do those who believe America is an exploitive, imperialistic agggressor, and that the US military is a nefarious tool of corporate interests go on the Fourth of July? What do they do? Identify some new crises that only a big new Government bureacracy can handle?
That's a beautiful story Gary. But I suggest that the 4th of July is NOT a day to remember our veterans. We have holidays for that purpose, and rightly so. They include Memorial Day and Armistice Day (aka Veterans Day). VJ day and VE day would be more than appropriate also.
July 4 commemorates a political act, not a military one, albeit military action was necessary to proclaim liberty effectively.
We should focus on what it means that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
There are other days for you to exercise you liberty by name-calling everyone who doesn't see things your way.
Some of those who believe our nation has been known to plant great freedom's foot on someone else's rear may consider themselves responsible, as citizens of a republic, to change our nation's sometime imperialistic policies, and restore them to the pristine purity that allowed us to claim we had lit a fire on the altar of liberty for all mankind.
How can one do that by moving someplace else? Remember Drusus Germanicus! (I've been watching an "I Claudius" DVD with my ailing father, a World War II veteran).
"....plant great freedom's foot on someone else's rear... must mean when the Republicans do it and "... lit a fire on the altar of liberty for all mankind." must mean when the Democrats do it.
I wish I know what "imperialistic policies" Jenkins was referring to as we don't conquer territory to keep like the other countries... we leave AND we build up the countries afterward. We don't take the oil or whatever treasure they have after we win a war... We are the most generous nation in history to friend and for alike... and by the way, it is "... endowed by their Creator" with a capital C. That is part of the reason... or used to be until we got a generation who learned history from DVDs.
American imperialism-a term that was repeated so often, people started believing it.
I wish I know what "imperialistic policies" Jenkins was referring to as we don't conquer territory to keep like the other countries
Ummm...are you serious? I live in California. It used to be part of Mexico. Ever been to Hawaii? Ever hear of the Philippine Insurrection? How did Puerto Rico become an American territory?
Have we done this in recent history? Not so much, but you have to admit that much of what we now know as the U.S. was founded upon imperialistic policies.
And why is a DVD necessarily a bad way to learn about history? Sure, it's probably better to read a book, but how does the form of the message change the content?
"Have we done this in recent history? Not so much, but you have to admit that much of what we now know as the U.S. was founded upon imperialistic policies."
I'll take that 'not so much in recent history' as a positive step toward acknowledging that the US is not like other imperialist countries in last 100 years or so. Usually America haters weave the Mexican land and Puerto Rico in with the fact that we also had slavery, dropped the atomic bomb, and interred our Japanese citizens.
But now if you ask any high schooler today what they know about what the US did in the Second World War, they will say we dropped the atomic bomb and interred the Japanese. Typically that's all they know about it. They don't know what and why we went to war much less can they name a single battle, general, or war hero. Check me out on this.
The form doesn't change the content necessarily but I don't believe that DVDs have the intellectual heft that books have. They may be easier to digest but part of the educational process is to learn how to read and understand what's written on a page.
I also think that practically every country in the world lives on land that had some other people or ethnic group living there before. I got that from reading lots of books, I don't think there is a DVD on it.
But now if you ask any high schooler today what they know about what the US did in the Second World War, they will say we dropped the atomic bomb and interred the Japanese. Typically that's all they know about it. They don't know what and why we went to war much less can they name a single battle, general, or war hero. Check me out on this.
I work at a high school. Unfortunately, many kids don't care about history one way or another. Those who are interested though do not really match your description.
As for DVDs versus books, I think we're not really in disagreement. DVDs can be a good supplement, but books are always better.
That there was imperialism at times in American foreign policy if a well known fact. Lance gave a few examples. Democrats, Whigs, and Republicans all took their turns at it. If we have not involved ourselves in restoring an unpopular monarch to the throne of Iran, in the face of an elected prime minister who wanted a better price from the company that later became BP for the nation's oil reserves, the Ayatollahs might never have had an opening to seize political power. We'd be so much better off.
One doesn't have to bash America as uniquely evil to face up to the bad and the ugly along with the good. Yes, lots of empires have done far worse, and stayed far longer, with more blatantly exploitive intentions. But we are supposed to think that we are much better than they are, so it is right that we hold ourselves to a higher standard.
Siarlys,
I acknowledged our errors, but some folks concentrate on nothing else. To them, the entire American history is one long dark chapter.
Lance,
What's your best guess? Out of 100 high schoolers graduating now who you say would meet my crieria, how many could name 2 battles, 2 generals, and 2 heroes? My guess the percentage is pathetc.
Out of the same 100, if you asked them one thing they know about WWII what percentage would say we dropped the aromic bomb or we incarcerated the Japanese. I'd say the answer would be appaling. My guess is that at least half of them don't know who faught in the War or can guess when It happened within 50 years. My guess is the answer would be appalling.
Aside from knowing what happened in the world and how things are as they are, history is pretty important. My last assumtion is that they are just as uneducated in other subjects with the exception of speed texting.
Miggie, I've generally observed that the most obsessively knee-jerk "patriots" are precisely the ones who graduated high school without being able to name two battles and explain which war they were fought in. Present company is of course excepted -- all generalizations are invalid, including this one. But what I said is the way to bet.
A parallel: the loudest cheers at 4th of July parades during our nation's first fifty years were produced by those who:
a) had been tories, but were not actually forced to leave, and,
b) had sat out the war, making money off of both sides.
It took a real patriot to recall that Benedict Arnold was a big help the first few years of the Revolutionary War, and played a significant (although sometimes exaggerated) role in winning the Battle of Saratoga.
Miggie, I think that a lot of your conclusions are based on your personal gut feelings. I could counter with my gut feelings, but that's not really proving anything one way or another.
I can tell you though that the teachers definitely cover this material - far beyond the stuff that makes the U.S. look bad. The problem is apathy. Too many of these kids will learn stuff just for the test, and then they will wipe their minds of it because they don't care about it. And why don't they care about it? Their parents probably don't either.
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